“You know,” she said, stepping forward and waving the scalpel in the air, “you don't look all that tough now.”
He patted his chest again and smirked. “Try me.”
Wendy darted forward, into his grasping arms. He hugged her, pinning her elbows against his chest, and laughed close to her ear, his breath like a gust of icy wind against her cheek. “Pitiful! What sort of attack was that for the—”
Then the Walker broke off. “Oh. Oh no.”
His arms drooped, releasing her, and the Walker stepped back. The front of his robe had been sliced neatly open with the scalpel; the chain at his throat had been severed with the scissors.
Smirking at the distressed Walker, Wendy rubbed her thumb along the chain in her palm. It was warm and wet to the touch; like a string of hot, clammy flesh curled in her hand. The scissors and scalpel both tinked as they clattered to the tile at her feet.
“You healed with this,” she said, plucking the golden chain up by one end and dangling it in front of him. “You obviously don't even care that I saw you healing, so what I'm wondering is this…do all of the new Walkers have—” she broke off. “Oh come on! Honestly?!”
The Walker, stripped of his trinket, was falling to dust. His skin peeled away, drying like a mummy in front of her, cracking along the eyes and corners of his mouth, and then poof, sifting down in a cloud of grit and sand. With him went the terrible, fierce joy Wendy felt at having beaten him, despite enduring his dry tongue between her lips, his erection against her knee, and the painful, pinning pressure of his shins and hands.
Just like that, only a little poof, and all of it was gone. All of him was gone.
“You have got to be kidding me,” Wendy complained, waving a hand in front of her face to fan away the Walker dust. “Not that I'm sad your pervert ass is gone but…ew! Gross!”
“Wendy!” she heard faintly, from far away. “WENDY!”
She thought of calling to them—it was Piotr and Eddie yelling, she could tell, even from here—but that pile of dust was still settling, and the hot, wet curl of chain in her palm throbbed like a heartbeat against her skin.
“The Reapers take care of their servants, huh?” Wendy muttered, lifting up the chain and examining it. The golden links were etched with unfamiliar letters from some sort of spiky alphabet, and interspersed with Celtic knots like the tattoos all the Reapers sported. Uneasily, Wendy ran her thumb along the necklace; she'd seen this chain before, she just knew it, but she couldn't place where exactly. Troubled, she searched her memories. Nothing.
“Elise,” Wendy whispered, tightening her grip on the chain until the throb slowed, until the heat faded. The voices calling for her were very near now; Lily and Elle had joined the worried chorus.
“Elise,” Wendy said the name like a curse, glaring at the pile of dust as the ice around her melted in thin streams. “Elise. Elise.”
Fingering the Walker's mysterious healing chain, Wendy found her friends near the parking garage elevator. Thankfully, no one appeared to be terribly hurt—Piotr was dripping with either essence or sweat and sporting a rapidly swelling black eye. Lily and Elle were both pale and weary, sagging against the sides of solid cars nearby. Eddie had a scrape on his chin and another high on one cheekbone. Jon and Chel were nowhere in sight.
“Get him?” Eddie asked as Wendy approached.
“Sort of,” Wendy hedged. “Where're the twins?”
“Chel had to use the pot,” Eddie said, gingerly prodding the scrape on his cheek. “But after the ambush she didn't want to go alone. Jon went with her; they're going to swing by your room and make sure you're okay—well, that your body's okay—before we head home.”
“Oh, good.” Wendy sighed, fingers tightening involuntarily on the necklace in her grip. She thought about handing the chain to Eddie, but was worried about the implications of the action—the chain might carry some cost to use. Why else would a Walker be the one to carry it instead of a loyal Reaper?
“The Walker who chased me down was sort of mouthy. I was going to go check up on me, too.”
Piotr straightened, prodding the swelling around his eye experimentally, and asked, “Mouthy? What did this Walker say?”
“Nothing much.” Wendy rested one hand on the trunk of the sedan and hoisted herself onto the back of the car, tucking her left leg beneath her. “But I know who sent this group after us.”
“Let me guess. Reapers?” Elle asked, eyeing Wendy impertinently. Her voice was dripping with sarcasm; it wasn't really a question. “It's Reapers, isn't it? Do I win the kewpie doll?”
“Reapers,” Wendy confirmed, choosing to ignore Elle's sarcastic tone and unspoken challenge. Wendy's hand dipped into her pocket. Getting to the bottom of whatever Elise had planned was more important than quarrelling with Elle, no matter how on-edge and guilty the flapper made her feel.
“Your family is beginning to make itself quite tedious,” Lily said, pushing off from the rusty Chevy she was leaning against and striding toward the elevator doors.
“Whoah,” Eddie cried, hurrying after her. He grabbed her wrist, stalling her. “Lily, hold up! Where are you going?”
“To check on the Lightbringer's body, of course,” Lily said, raising an eyebrow at Eddie's question and, very gently, pulling her wrist free of his grip. “If the Reapers have chosen to make this an all-out war then we must make sure that Wendy's shell is protected.”
“Jon and Chel—”
“Do not know what to look for,” Lily reminded him. “They are new to the Never, babes in the woods. Believe me, I have thought much on this. The Reaper Jane was still in the hospital only a few short minutes ago. It would be child's play to hide from Wendy's siblings and, once they have left, to slit Wendy's throat.”
“Hey!” Wendy protested, cupping her palms protectively around her neck. “Listening over here!”
“Oh, like we haven't all thought of a dozen ways to do you in already, Lightbringer,” Elle snorted. “My personal favorite is throwing you off the Top of the Mark. I always imagine you'd make a lovely splat.”
“Elle,” Piotr sighed. “That is enough.”
“Geeze, Elle, thanks,” Wendy replied dryly.
“No problem, Lightbringer. Just doin' my part,” Elle said cheerfully as Lily, shaking her head, turned heel and hurried back into the hospital, Eddie at her side.
Wendy yawned. Perhaps it was some lingering effect of her illness, but she felt so tired all of a sudden.
“Here,” Piotr said, as Eddie vanished through the far wall. He pulled her close as they settled in the backseat. “Rest on my shoulder.”
“I don't think I should…” Wendy muttered but it was impossible to keep her eyes open. Would it really be so bad to lean against him and rest for once? To let Piotr take the burden for a bit?
“Shhh, Wendy,” Piotr murmured, stroking her hair. “You've run yourself ragged for days. Sleep now. Take a break. I will watch over you.”
Wendy nodded and allowed her body to sink into the curve of his arm, to let her muscles relax until all the tension had drained away.
She yawned again…
closed her eyes…
and drifted into dreams.
Her last thought was: Elise.
When she opened her eyes again, Wendy was alone on a playground, a vast soccer field stretching out to her left and a rusting, abandoned swing set to her right. Behind her a tall, Rubenesque fountain spat water into a rippling pool so deep Wendy couldn't make out the bottom. The splashing filled the air with warm mist and a burbling hush—not silence exactly, but the waiting of a world about to erupt into discord.
Wendy began to walk, looking left and right for another soul. She knew this was a dreamscape—the entire place just had the taste of a not-quite dream—and Wendy whoever lay in wait for her, she wanted to find them quickly. The ground beneath her feet rumbled.
“Hello?” Wendy called. “Hello?”
“I was wondering if you'd have the nerve to show up here,”
Jane called. She stepped out from behind the fountain, naked as a twisted, tattooed Venus save for an ornate golden chain that hung to her collarbone. Her voice, snatched by the wind, sounded tinny and harsh. Wendy had to strain to hear it over the bubbling fountain.
“What do you want?” Wendy demanded. “Haven't you done enough damage for a lifetime in the last few days? Do you really need to do more? Is it a compulsion with you, or what?”
“You are so combative,” Jane sneered, striding closer. Her hands were bare but Wendy warily backed away. You could be hurt in dreamscapes if you weren't on your guard, and after the past few days Wendy wasn't willing to trust Jane any farther than she could throw her. “Always being all…quippy.”
“Right, like you're up for Miss Congeniality,” Wendy replied snidely, trying to keep her eyes at collarbone level and above. “What do you want, Jane? We last talked, what—three, maybe four hours ago, and I don't think much has changed between then and now. Or are you just here to rub salt in the whole ‘Wendy's dying’ wound?”
“While I suppose that's an option, in actuality I'm here on official business.”
“Official business?” Wendy snorted. “What was all the crap from before, then? Unofficial business?”
“Do you care to hear me out or do you wish to maintain your petulant child act? I can wait.”
Wendy raised an eyebrow. Jane had the same swagger and verve as normal, her snide expression was spot-on, but the way she was speaking…it didn't fit with the sassy, fast-talking Jane that Wendy had grown to both like and loathe.
Something about this entire scenario felt…wrong.
“After everything you two have put me through? I ought to tell you to go to hell.”
“Perhaps.”
Wendy crossed her arms over her chest. ”Fine. I'm listening. Go.”
Jane's hands fluttered to her midsection. “Your friend Edward. His cord has been…altered, correct?”
Snorting, Wendy straightened. “You should know. The Reapers were the ones who ‘altered’ it.”
“It was a necessary action,” Jane growled. Her hand darted up to her face, fingers prodding the classy gold stud in her earlobe. “He was collateral.”
The precise, nearly prissy way Jane rolled the earring tipped Wendy off; she rolled her eyes and bared her teeth briefly, glad to have figured out why the situation grated on her so. “Cut the act, Elise. You wear Jane's skin like a bad sweater. At least when you were pretending to be Emma you could almost pull it off. You're far too…wordy to be Jane.”
“My erudition betrays me?” Jane asked, raising an eyebrow and smirking. Then she sighed in relief and shook her entire body. The Jane-flesh fell away in a shower of silver glittery dust, leaving Elise—thankfully fully clothed—behind. “So be it.”
“So I get that you wanted to be Jane to catch me off guard, but why prance around naked?” Wendy asked, grimacing. “Cuz that's all shades of kinda gross, old lady.”
“I chose Jane because you seem to have a stronger rapport with her than you did with Emma,” Elise said stiffly, smoothing her hair. “You were entering the dreamscape too quickly for me to improvise an ensemble and it would not be out of character for my granddaughter to…test…your sensibilities with nudity. She would find it amusing.”
“Hilarious. Word to the wise, the next time you want to dress up like Skanky Smurf,” Wendy said, grinning, and tapped her earlobe. “Jane sports flashy, long earrings, the kind you can grab and yank out in a throwdown. Not discreet gold studs. And she always stinks of grape bubble gum, even in dreamscapes.”
“Noted,” Elise said dryly. She cleared her throat. “So, what shall it be, Winifred? Will you treat with me? After all, the potential payout is so very enticing. Edward's soul, freed, just like that. Is it such a great trouble to spare me a little time?”
“You just sent a truly nasty Walker after me,” Wendy pointed out flatly. “I'm thinking a big, fat ‘hell no, you crazy bitch’ is in order here.”
Elise raised one eyebrow. “I assure you, I did not.”
“Sure you did!” Wendy retorted with false joviality. “I can't believe I'm describing him like this, but a hottie with a flashy necklace? Big ol' burn right in the middle of his otherwise perfect forehead? Kinda overly-grabby? Sorry, but he's gone now. So sad, too bad, he shouldn't have been making with the hands.”
“No.” Elise shook her head. “While there is an…associate of our family fitting that description who is serving penance, Winifred, I assure you, I did not ‘send’ anyone after you.” There was something about the firmness in her expression that made Wendy, uneasily, believe her. “Not yet, at least.”
“Elise,” Wendy said, watching Elise's face closely, “what is going on? Seriously. No lies. No hedging. What's the deal?”
The older woman's thin lips pinched together, the edge of her teeth just barely visible against the pale pink of her lower lip. “Am I so transparent?”
Wendy ignored the question in favor of asking her own. “If you didn't send the Walker, who did?”
Elise swallowed and Wendy took quiet joy in seeing her squirm. “It is…possible…that Jane did.” She straightened, glaring at Wendy, every inch of her radiating regal disdain. “We do not allow rogue Reapers in our ranks, Winifred. A fact you are well aware of, I am sure.”
“Let's see here,” Wendy drawled, “last I checked, both my grandma and my aunt were killed for not toeing the family line. I'm kinda aware of the penalties. Is Jane?”
“Jane knows cost of betrayal far better than you do!” snapped Elise, the line of her body blurring with taut, furious energy. Wendy watched fascinated as Elise, taking a deep breath, forced herself to solidify in the dreamscape, smoothing the jagged edges of her body through force of will alone. “She, unlike you, earned her Light. She drank from the Good Cup. She memorized the—”
“She crossed her heart and pinky swore, yada-yada-yada,” Wendy interrupted, sneering. “I don't know if you remember this, Elise, but I'm stuck in the hospital right now. I'm burning up—I'm dying—because of you and Jane and your little games. I don't give a rat's ass about any of this. Tell me why I should care that you've maybe got an AWOL Reaper. Tell me why this matters.”
“Because she is after you?” Elise asked. The pulse in the hollow of her throat was pounding so hard Wendy could easily make it out. “Because she holds a great hatred of naturals and all you stand for?”
“Um…nope. Not good enough.” Wendy crossed her arms over her chest and casually scuffed the earth at her feet. “Why don't you tell me what these ‘plans’ are that I'm distracting you all from and maybe, just maybe, I might give a crap about your problems.”
Elise's lips clamped together. Her entire body stiffened with disapproval. At last, Wendy thought, doing a mental jig, after all this time and all you've put me through, at last I'm finally getting under your skin.
“I have my…suspicions that Jane has been…in contact with the Lady Walker,” Elise replied sharply, each word clipped and terse. “As for the necessity of leaving you in the hospital's care—”
“Ahem. You mean trying to kill me?” Wendy pointed out dryly.
Elise's hands spasmed into fists. Wendy enjoyed watching her forcibly uncurl her fingers. “Binding you! Nothing more!”
Keeping her tone purposefully bored and drawling, Wendy waved her hand lazily and said, “Binding me so my Light burns me alive from the inside out. But, please, do go on.”
“As I told you before, Winifred, if you do as I say, if you follow the tenets of our family, then I will not allow the binding to kill you,” Elise said, voice flat. She tapped a short rhythm on her thigh with her fingers. “You do not comprehend how dangerous the Lady Walker is! You haven't a clue what she's doing!”
“I've been face to face with the Lady Walker before, remember?” Wendy said, keeping her voice perfectly even and reveling in Elise's twitching response. “Nothing happened.”
“Nothing happened then. The time was not right. Now it
is! I assure you, Winifred, as soon as the Lady Walker has been dealt with you have my word that I will free you. Both of you! I will free your Light from its bindings. I will unwind the weave we have wrapped around Edward's soul. You will be…” Elise grimaced but forced herself to go on, “temporarily welcomed into the fold and given a chance to prove yourself.”
“Prove myself?” Wendy snapped, dropping the calm act. She'd had enough of this; Wendy began eyeing their surroundings more closely, looking for a familiar, rectangular outline. “How? And why should I, Elise? Or don't you remember that you asked me to hunt down the Lady Walker? Two days ago!”
“Again, that was then! Before I knew…” Elise clenched her fists together and, grasping her necklace firmly, forced a tight smile. “Winifred, we have gotten off on the wrong foot. I have been…I am still treating you as if you have the training the other girls have. That is my mistake. You do not know the reasons why we do the things we do. For this you have my apologies.”
“I don't want your apologies, Elise,” Wendy replied dryly. “I want to know what's going on.”
“Do not approach the Lady Walker, Winifred. Your body is, thankfully, safe in the hospital. Please, return to your body. Stay there. I shall send Reapers to guard you.”
Wendy pretended to consider this option for a moment. “You know what, Elise? If your idea of ‘keeping me safe’ is to stay in the hospital then I think I'm probably safer out of the hospital, thank you very much.”
Elise faltered. “Winifred, I do not understand. Why—”
Wendy found herself shouting but she couldn't control the surge of anger that left her screaming at Elise at top volume. “You don't understand? You don't understand?! Jane was just in the hospital not half an hour ago ‘talking’ to the staff, Elise!” Wendy made sarcastic quotation marks with her hands, waving them roughly in Elise's face so that the older woman was forced, glaring, to step back or be struck.
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