Affairs of the Dead

by A. J. Locke

  “I don’t want you to be,” he said, face serious. “Not for me. I want to work for you. I want to earn you. I don’t want to try and take you, and I don’t want you to give yourself to me.”

  What he was saying was so vastly different from what Andrew had said to me that I almost couldn’t believe he meant it.

  “Then I’ll play as hard to get as I can,” I said mischievously. “Make you jump through hoops of fire and walk across deserts without water.”

  “And I’ll do it,” he said.

  “And I’ll make sure it was worth your while,” I said, smiling.

  The smile he gave me in return made me shiver with anticipation and almost say to hell with the slow route and maul him right here in my bed. But Micah was offering me something no man had ever offered me before—the desire to connect with me before connecting with my body, and I couldn’t pass that up. I was afraid that I would mess it up because it wasn’t what I was used to. I mean, this actually required effort. But as I looked into Micah’s eyes, I knew that, for him, I was willing to try.

  Chapter Eighteen

  Ethan was still on my couch in the morning, and he was able to bring himself into a full sitting position even though his eyes still looked haunted. Yesterday wouldn’t be so easily erased for him, myself, or Micah, but we had to start moving forward because things could only get better once we found Trevor and got Larry out of Ethan’s body. The fact that Larry wanted to destroy Ethan troubled me, so I was going to keep Ethan close until this was over.

  After breakfast, during which Ethan munched on toast, Micah left to go home so he could shower and change his clothes. My ribs still ached dully. I’d been able to ignore my injuries because my mind had been preoccupied, but now I had time to pay attention and I downed some painkillers in the hope that they would bring me some relief. I fed and walked Luna, and once Micah returned, the three of us headed to the office.

  The first thing we did was head to the eighth floor to see Ilyse, who looked relieved to see us and was curious about Ethan. He hovered by the door while Micah and I sat.

  “Micah told me everything,” she said. “I can’t believe Andrew is dead.”

  I could imagine the somber mood we’d find on the tenth floor; Andrew’s death was a major blow to us. Despite our convoluted relationship, he had been a good boss.

  “Yeah,” I said, still trying to fight past my shock at the whole thing. “But the killer is still out there. Did Micah tell you who’s in Ethan’s body and who put him there?”

  “Larry and Trevor,” Ilyse said grimly. “Do you have any idea where they are?”

  “No,” I said. “I knew where Trevor’s shop was in the Underground, and we went to look for him there, but he cleared out. We think we may know how to find him though.” I told her about the apartment I’d gone to with Larry and about Vicious the ghost cat. I also told her about what I had done to Luna yesterday. Ilyse looked understandably shocked when I finished.

  “I can prepare the rune you’d need to use so that when you have Trevor’s energy, you can work the spell for yourself,” Ilyse said. “I need some time though. Can you give me an hour?”

  “Okay.” I stood, then Micah grabbed my hand.

  “The Rot,” he said.

  Oh yeah, that. I sat back down, and Micah got up so Ilyse could sit next to me.

  “I’ll take Ethan up to the suite and wait for you there,” Micah said. “Since there’s a killer out there who wears his face, it would be good to explain to everyone exactly what we’re dealing with.”

  “Okay, but if there are questions about why he seems less ghostlike than most ghosts, just say it has to do with how he became a ghost.”

  “Give me some credit, Selene,” Micah said. Ethan looked unsure but went with Micah. Ilyse then pulled out an orange rune stone that was streaked with white.

  “I’m going to scan you first to see if the Rot has progressed,” Ilyse said.

  I nodded, and she started moving the stone all over my body with her eyes closed, whispering rapidly under her breath. I was more nervous than I had ever been during one of these sessions. I had never really worried about getting the Rot before, despite the many times I had channeled my own energy into ghosts. Now though, knowing I already had it and being bound to Ethan would only make it worse, I was more concerned for my well-being than I could remember. After a few moments, Ilyse opened her eyes, and the look on her face only deepened my concern.

  “You’ve become more tainted,” Ilyse said. “I can sense that your metaphysical body is more infected than before.”

  “Well, that’s basically the news I expected to hear,” I said.

  “Selene, this is serious,” she said. “The Rot will progress the longer you’re bound to Ethan. I can keep drawing the ghost energy out of you, every day if necessary, but it won’t be enough. The Rot will continue to spread.”

  “I know it’s serious,” I said. “But what are my options here? Can I become unbound from Ethan in a way that doesn’t involve me dying?”

  “I don’t know,” she said. “I haven’t found out enough about the ghost binding to know if it can be undone in a safe way, but I’ll keep looking. In the meantime, I want you to come to me at least every other day. Promise me that you will, Selene.”

  “I will,” I said. “I’ll even put it on my calendar.”

  She pulled out her absorbing runes and got to work drawing the ghost energy off me. When she was done and opened her eyes, her expression was troubled.

  “If you’re not careful, you’ll fall sick before you know it,” she said.

  “I understand, trust me,” I said. “But life-threatening Rot aside, there’s something I wanted to ask you about.” I reached into my purse and pulled out the binding stone I had taken from Trevor. “This is what I used to bind my reanimation magic so I wouldn’t be found out. It’s also what’s binding me to Ethan, but I don’t know much more about it other than the obvious; it likes to bind things. Do you know anything?”

  She took the stone from me and turned it over in her hand a few times. “This is a very powerful rune stone.” She looked at me. “It’s also illegal.”

  “You don’t say,” I said, flashing her a smile she didn’t return. I sighed. “I know it’s illegal, but it was either break the law or get myself found out as a reanimator. Or I could have escaped like Trevor and set up a nice Underground shop reanimating people’s pets. None of those options appealed to me.”

  “I know,” she said. “Your grandmother didn’t want to tell me too much about how she stayed under the radar, but I knew it involved powerful runes. But rune stones like this one can do a lot of good or a lot of bad depending on whose hands they fall into. Binding can mean a lot of things. You could bind a necromancer or dead witch and seal them off from their own power, or you could do what you inadvertently did and bind a ghost to you to gain stronger power.”

  “Do you think it could help with this Larry-Trevor thing?” I asked.

  She was quiet for a while as she thought, still turning the stone over in her hand. “This rune’s power lies mainly in destruction,” she said. “Which means it can be used as a weapon.”

  “I like the sound of that,” I said. “Kind of. Care to elaborate?”

  She gave me a level gaze as though considering if she should tell me what she knew.

  “It’s all in an effort to stop the body-stealing killer out there, Ilyse,” I said. “The one I’ve come face to face with twice and have been unable to stop. If this rune can help, please tell me. I promise I’m not going to use it to try and take over the world or anything.”

  That earned me a quick smile. “This stone alone has the power to bind ghosts to the afterlife,” she said. “Meaning that you can expel a ghost without needing a necromancer circle.”

  My eyes widened. “That sounds like a hell of an easier way of doing things,” I said. “Why aren’t these rune stones mainstream then? Why have necromancers literally been killing themselves all these y
ears with those damn circles?”

  “Because of the destruction this stone can cause,” Ilyse said. “They can expel the ghost easily, yes, but it comes with a high risk of collateral damage that could do worse than a necromancer circle. It’s a very volatile rune, which is why it’s illegal and hard to find.”

  “I see,” I said, slumping back in my seat. “But it can be used to blast a ghost into the afterlife.”

  “Yes, but it can be used against any ghost.”

  “Yeah, I get that. That’s great.”

  “No, it’s not,” she said. “Because the ghost doesn’t have to already be a ghost.”

  I frowned, not understanding at first, then my eyes widened. “You mean you could shove out someone’s soul as they’re walking down the street and blast it into the afterlife?”

  Ilyse nodded solemnly. “Perhaps now you understand why these runes aren’t used.”

  “Now I’m wondering why they were even created,” I said, shaking my head.

  A chill went through me at the fact that I had used these stones so many times without knowing everything they could do. I could have blown myself away in the process.

  “Okay, you’ve successfully conveyed the depths of the dangers of this stone,” I said. “Although this and all the other ones I’ve used are defunct.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “I can only ever use them to bind my reanimation power once,” I explained. “So over the years, I’ve accumulated quite a few binding stones. They seem to become dormant after one use.”

  Ilyse’s eyes widened. “Selene, they don’t become dormant after you bind your power; they become more powerful.”

  I frowned. “How’s that now?”

  “When you channel your reanimation power into the stone, the stone becomes active and it remains active even when you take your power back.”

  My eyes widened. “Then why can’t I use it to bind my reanimation power again?”

  “Because once it’s activated, it becomes something more than just a binding rune,” Ilyse said. “It evolves. I told you the rune is like a weapon. Binding is only the smallest part of what it can do.”

  “So I basically have a bunch of powerful rune weapons hidden under my floorboard?”

  Ilyse nodded. “Be careful with these runes, Selene. If you’re caught with one, it would be a problem. Many? I can’t begin to fathom.”

  I exhaled loudly. “You sure you don’t want to take them off my hands?”

  “It would be even worse for me to be found with them,” Ilyse said, shaking her head. “So all I can do is warn you.” She gave me back the stone even though I didn’t really want to take it.

  I stared at it for a few moments, cautious about its power, but knowing that if push came to shove, I had an ace up my sleeve. And despite how dangerous it was, it was my only ace. When I looked at Ilyse, I knew she had already guessed that I was thinking of using it on Larry despite the risks.

  The plus side to the destructive rune was that I could blast Larry away without having to set up a necromancer circle, which wasn’t a quick process. But I wasn’t going to be my usual unthinking, incautious self about this. If I didn’t have to use the stone, then I wouldn’t.

  “Thanks, Ilyse,” I said, giving her a tight hug. I then headed up to the tenth floor, ready to face the fallout over Andrew’s death.

  * * *

  Around midday, Micah, Ethan, and I headed to the Bronx with two rune stones that Ilyse had given us. The black one would be used to pick up traces of Trevor’s energy from Vicious, and the green one would be used to track Larry. I really hoped the ghost cat would be there.

  Ilyse said all we had to do once we’d absorbed Trevor’s energy from Vicious was put the two stones near each other. Apparently they would work off each other, and the green stone would lead us to Ethan’s body. This had to work, because if the ghost cat wasn’t there, we had no other way of finding something that carried Trevor’s energy.

  When I had gone up to the tenth floor, everyone was in a stupor over the news of Andrew’s death. Even though Micah kept his stance that, as lead on the investigation, he couldn’t talk about everything, he introduced ghost Ethan and told them that a reanimator had put Larry into Ethan’s body. There were, of course, questions about how that had even been done, but Micah said once the investigation was over, everything would come out.

  When we reached the apartment building in the Bronx, I answered Micah’s question about how we were going to get in by giving Beth’s bell three short rings, the same as Larry had done, and again had to wait a while before Beth cracked open the door and peered out. Her eyes widened when she recognized me, but she looked less afraid than she had when she’d seen Larry.

  “Beth, do you remember me? I’m Selene Vanream. I was here last week with the ghost of Larry Bianchi.”

  She cringed at the mention of Larry’s name but nodded.

  “We’re here on an official investigation, and I need the key to Larry’s apartment,” I said.

  She looked past me to my entourage, and when her gaze landed on Ethan, she suddenly shrieked and tried to close the door, but Micah quickly put his hand out and kept it open.

  “He’s dangerous!” Beth wailed.

  I looked from her to Ethan, who stood a few feet behind me with his eyes slightly widened.

  “You’ve seen him before?” I asked her. Larry had shown up here while he was in Ethan’s body?

  “He beat my husband up in the lobby!” Beth said. She had given up trying to close the door since Micah was a lot stronger than she was. “He put him in a coma for three days. He’s still in the hospital!”

  “When did this attack happen?” I asked.

  “Last week,” she said, her voice laced with fear. “Couple of days after you were here with Larry.”

  “Beth, did your husband know Larry?”

  Beth nodded, which was the answer I expected.

  “What kind of relationship did they have?”

  Beth hesitated.

  “I’m not here to find out about you or your husband’s shady dealings, trust me. I have other reasons for asking.”

  “My husband worked for Larry,” Beth said. “Helped monitor his storehouses and…and helped him move his money around.”

  “And did that relationship go sour at any point?” I asked. Again, Beth hesitated, but she finally nodded.

  “My husband stole money from him,” she said softly. “It was to help pay for heart surgery that my mother needed, but when Larry found out, it…it wasn’t good.”

  “Well, that explains the beat down your husband got,” I muttered. “Look, Beth, this guy behind me isn’t the same guy who attacked your husband. That was actually Larry, in this young man’s body. He’s a ghost.” I looked at Ethan. “Think you can do something ghostlike to prove it, or are you feeling too solid?”

  “I’ll try,” Ethan muttered. He knocked his hand a few times against the stair railing, and after about the eighth time, his hand went through it. Beth gasped.

  “There are reasons why that took a few tries,” I told Beth. “But he is a ghost, and Larry is the one in his body.” I jerked my thumb at Ethan. “Before I showed up here with Larry’s ghost, did anyone ask for the key to his apartment? Did he ask?”

  “No one asked for the key,” Beth said. “I don’t know where he went after he attacked my husband. If the neighbors hadn’t shown up…I’m sure he would have killed him.”

  “Can you please give me the key to the apartment? It’s all in the pursuit of tracking down Larry. He’s killed several people while wearing this guy’s face.”

  “Okay…,” Beth said. She opened the door and let us in, and we followed her up to her second-floor apartment. We waited at her door while she went to get the key, and when she came back out, she handed it to me.

  “Beth, did you know Larry’s wife?”

  “I’m her cousin,” Beth said. Now that I really looked at her, I did notice a familiarity in her features with
Leslie’s and Annette’s. “We always thought Larry’s ghost was hanging around to punish her for cheating on him, and…he did.” Tears filled her eyes. “Poor Leslie.”

  “We’re going to stop him, I promise,” I said.

  She nodded and shut the door. Micah, Ethan, and I headed up to the sixth floor, where I unlocked the door to the apartment.

  “Okay, you’ll want to look for a ghost cat,” I said as we fanned out. “If you have a hard time remembering that, it’s a ghost that’s a cat, and it might respond to the name Vicious.”

  Micah rolled his eyes and headed farther into the living room. Ethan checked the kitchen, and I headed to the bedroom. Out of curiosity, I opened the closet with the boxes Larry hadn’t wanted me to touch, and I wasn’t surprised when I saw they weren’t there. I was beginning to think getting access to this apartment had really been about getting some of Trevor’s belongings to him. I bet Larry had done it while I was buying cleaning supplies. Cleaning the apartment had been a ruse.

  The three of us searched the apartment thoroughly, but it wasn’t long before we convened in the living room with the same conclusion; Vicious wasn’t here.

  “So what do we do?” Ethan asked.

  “I’m open to suggestions,” I muttered as I led the way out of the apartment. I knew all along that the chances of the ghost cat being here were slim. Even without Larry actively shooing it out, it could have just walked through a wall and slinked off somewhere else, but now that we were at a definite dead end, it was all I could do not to scream.

  I decided to keep the key, since there was no reason to leave it, but as we walked down the stairs past the second floor, a boy came out of Beth’s apartment with a bag of garbage, and movement through the open door caught my eye. My eyes widened when I saw Vicious padding through Beth’s apartment.

  I pointed it out to Micah and Ethan, who were just as surprised, and pleased, as I was. When the boy came back from chucking the garbage down the trash chute, I asked him to get Beth. He looked at me warily but darted inside and called loudly for his mother.