That must mean Necromance is here.
A large, scaly hand solidified around hers on the sword handle. She could feel the demon’s presence behind and around her. Solid. She could touch it.
Crap.
With immense strength, Necromance swatted her away.
She tumbled through the air.
Though there was nothing to touch here, she ended up on the ground and had to focus on her anchor atoms to keep from sinking down into the soil.
Her head whirled, her vision fogged. She could only see the dead dimension in her peripheral vision, and she couldn’t find the demon.
“Kayla, roll left. Now.” The familiar tone of Jason Pike’s commanding voice spurred her to action. She rolled, and sighted the descending blade as it sliced through the air next to her. How could she attack? How could she even defend herself from something she couldn’t see?
She turned her head in time to see the demon’s hand aglow with energy. Then it threw a shimmering, blood-red orb at her. She jumped, but not in time.
The energy bolt sent a tingle throughout her. Like her whole body had fallen asleep, and not in the dreamy-time way. Creepy, crawly, yuck.
But her vision cleared, and Necromance appeared in front of her.
“And now you’re trapped here, with the ghosts.” Necromance sneered as it swung the sword back and forth. “Soon, you’ll be joining them.”
Kayla tried to phase back to reality, but her anchor atoms no longer responded. They were here, on this side. Nothing linked her with the real world.
The world around her was shadowed, transparent, a non-substantial illusion overlaying this dimension. She floated, even while appearing to stand on the ground. Nothing here was real. Nothing but her, the demon, and that sword.
~ ~ ~
Joel’s had his next punch ready to throw when the demon suddenly shrank and became Amber once again. His mother instructed him, time and time again as a boy, never to hit a girl. “Sorry, Mom.”
The sword leapt from Amber’s hand as she tumbled to the ground.
He’d pulled back on the power to make it more a push than a punch, still it felt much better than it should have. Time for another appointment with his shrink.
The sword still danced in the air, with a life of its own. Was that Kayla controlling it from the other side? And where was she? Her form had always remained visible when she phased. He couldn’t see her anywhere.
Chris pulled Amber to her feet and secured her, but the woman appeared powerless.
“Take her inside and lock her up in one of the basement cells.” Joel ground his teeth as he surveyed the bodies and wreckage on the lawn. Xi Force lost some good men today. The world might not know their names or much about the job Pike’s Rangers did, but these men had been a solid part of the team. They’d be missed.
He leapt forward to grasp the sword. This thing needed to be buried in the deepest vault, or thrown into a volcano. If the demon was back on the other side, it needed to stay there.
But the sword had a life of its own, continuing to swing through the air. Joel couldn’t get it under control.
Kayla was strong, but not this strong.
It had to be the demon controlling it from the other side.
~ ~ ~
Necromance swung the sword back and forth as it advanced toward Kayla.
She flailed her arms and kicked her feet. This was like swimming, but she wasn’t going anywhere.
“Use your mind. Will yourself to move.” Olivia hovered at her side.
Kayla envisioned herself moving backward, floating away from the advancing demon. And she moved.
“You still won’t escape me. You have nowhere to go. And your death here will give me the power I need to return to the other side. Victory will still be mine.” The demon continued to advance.
What could she do?
She envisioned the movement, planting her foot, swinging her other leg. A roundhouse kick toward the demon’s arm.
Joel hung on to the sword handle in the other dimension. She didn’t worry about kicking him. Her foot would go through him. He wasn’t really here.
Trying to bring the sword to bear on her, Necromance struggled with Joel swinging back and forth.
When Kayla’s foot connected with the demon’s arm, Necromance lost its grip and the sword flew into the air. Affected by the gravity of the other dimension, it fell to the ground, Joel still clinging to its handle.
But Necromance sneered. “I don’t need the sword to kill you.”
Its fisted hands began to glow with energy. Beams shot out.
Kayla visualized a back flip to the right, and managed to avoid being hit. As she landed, her hand brushed the holster at her side. Her POS had come with her. It was real here.
She pulled and fired, striking the demon in the chest.
Necromance went slack, hovering motionless in the air. Down for now, but probably not for good.
Kayla needed to get back to the other side. But how? Her body didn’t respond when she tried to phase.
Through the mistiness of this dimension, she could just make out the ghostly form of Joel, picking the sword up. “Kayla?”
His voice, so muffled, held a ring of concern.
How the hell was she going to get back to him?
“Nice shot, Kayla.” Jason Pike’s voice came from behind her.
She willed herself around.
He stood, a transparent specter, in front of a dozen of his rangers. Rory, Ian, Cramer, and so many others she knew.
“No.” That blast. So many of Pike’s Rangers fighting in the area.
She couldn’t hold back the tears.
Jason smiled and shook his head. “We just wanted to say goodbye before we move on.”
Some of the men behind him waved and disappeared. She couldn’t see the light, but knew from Joel’s description what it must look like to them.
“Sorry, Dr. Armstrong. I hope you find your way back.” Rory waved and faded. “Sure hope they surf on the other side.”
Soon only Jason remained. “Don’t cry for me. The light is more than I could have hoped for. I wasn’t always the man you know. Did some shit in my day.”
“Don’t go. Stay here. If I can find my way out maybe Heather can . . .”
He began to fade. “Can’t resist the light. It calls. Take care—”
And he was gone.
A group of ghosts she didn’t recognize stood together, eyes wide, around the fallen demon. Were these Amber’s forces that died in the battle?
Necromance shook its head. Its eyes opened, glowing red and staring straight at Kayla. “You will pay for what you did to me.”
Hadn’t she already paid enough?
She pulled her POS from its holster. “Back off, bastard.”
Then a voice, cold as the grave, resounded like a stage whisper in an empty auditorium. “You don’t have the sword.”
The demon’s head did a three-sixty, spinning around completely on its neck. “Where is it?”
A quaver—fear?—overlaid its tone.
The sword was nowhere to be seen. Someone in the real world must have taken it while Necromance lay unconscious. And wherever the blade was on the other side, it also was here.
Did the demon need to keep contact with the sword on this side?
“You don’t have the sword. You must come home.”
A chill crept up Kayla’s spine as a black cloud formed around the demon. Dark tendrils, like the arms of an octopus, extended from the cloud, wrapping themselves around Necromance.
“Noooo.” Its shout reverberated in Kayla’s ears. The arms dragged Necromance into the swirling cloud, consuming him completely.
Was Necromance truly gone?
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The arms of the cloud continued to writhe, reaching toward the other ghosts. “Mine.”
Kayla put her hands over her ears to muffle the screams and denials of the ghosts of Amber’s men, as one by one they were dragged to their fate. Then the cloud diminished until, with a pop, it disappeared.
~ ~ ~
Where was Kayla?
Joel’s heart fisted. The losses had been staggering.
Jason Pike and over a dozen of his men died in the battle. They’d also lost Mindy and Jake from building maintenance, and Fergie from accounting, who were just in the wrong place at the wrong time when the tank shells hit the building.
Dozens of others were injured. A number of them on their way to local hospitals. Calling this a disaster was putting it mildly.
But worst of all, for Joel, was not being able to find any trace of Kayla. Bodies had been retrieved and identified from the battlefield and around the building. Everyone else had been accounted for. And Joel remembered seeing Kayla after the explosion, helping to fight Necromance. She’d phased and was holding on to the sword.
Then she’d just vanished all together. He’d thought he’d just lost track of her in the commotion, but after the battle there’d been no trace of her anywhere.
What had happened on the other side?
Amber and any of her surviving troops were now on their way to a secure facility. Well, as secured as possible. She’d escaped once. At least she was now separated from that damn sword, which they locked behind bars downstairs.
Someone discovered Port, locked in a closet in Heather’s office. That had probably been Kayla’s doing, Joel guessed. He so needed to talk to her, and hold her in his arms once again. She had to be okay.
Plans were being made to transfer Port to a windowless cell at a different secure facility north of Megopolis. In the meantime, he was kept bound, blindfolded, and under constant guard in one of the basement cells.
Carlos was in critical condition and in surgery, so he had no way of contacting Olivia, at least for now. Had the ghost girl even been here? Could she help locate Kayla?
So damned many questions.
Aaron put a hand on his shoulder. “You need to get some rest.”
He sighed. “How the hell can I?”
Aaron shrugged and shook his head. “At least lay down for a bit. There’s nothing you can do right now anyway.”
And that was the hardest part. Doing nothing.
~ ~ ~
In the two days she’d been stuck in Purgatory or whatever damn dimension this was, Kayla tried everything she could think of to phase back to the real world. Willing her body back across, floating through every type of substance and material she could find, even taking off her holster belt and letting it go, in hopes it would be drawn back into the material world.
She dropped it right in front of Joel, hoping he would see it as a sign. He never blinked. And the gun just floated in the air in front of her. Evidentially, gravity wasn’t a thing here. The sword only dropped to the ground because it existed over there as well.
Luckily the belt stayed solid. She grabbed it and put it back on. It would be the only protection she had if Necromance or some other demon found her.
But did that even matter? She just existed here, with nothing solid around her. Nothing to touch, taste, feel. She wasn’t really living.
She’d worried she would starve to death at first, but she hadn’t even gotten hungry or thirsty. Still, she had an empty feeling in the pit of her stomach, but that felt more like hopelessness than hunger.
How was she ever to get back?
Floating behind Joel, watching him, became her only pastime, even though it hurt so much. Darkness rimmed his eyes, emphasizing the exhaustion so plainly displayed on his handsome face. She could see him, hear him, God, even smell him. But she couldn’t touch him.
And she so desperately wanted to be in his arms. Comforting him, getting comfort from him. Having him tell her everything was okay.
But it wasn’t.
She floated behind, following him up the elevator and into his apartment.
Joel sighed as he pulled his uniform top up and off. The play of those toned muscles of his back drew her gaze like a magnet.
He then pulled off his boots and threw himself onto his bed. A tear crystallized in the corner of his eye and slid down his face, “Kayla, where are you?”
“I’m right here,” she answered, but she knew he wouldn’t hear.
“Wow, he’s ripped.” Olivia’s quip caused her to jump. She turned to see the ghost girl staring over her shoulder.
That’s the problem with ghosts. They could so easily sneak up on her. Not that any of them did . . . except Olivia.
“Hi, Olivia.” She tamped down the irritation that rose. No one should be ogling Joel but her.
Still, she started to understand Olivia’s propensity to invade people’s privacy. When all you can do is look . . . you look.
Maybe that was all Kayla had left now.
And maybe she should stop. She had to face facts. She was stuck here. She couldn’t get back to the other side. Someday Joel would get over her and move on. He’d find someone else. Someone living. He was too great a guy not to.
She didn’t want him to be alone. Any woman would be lucky to have him.
But seeing Joel with someone else would crush her. She loved him so much. She’d need to go away. Find somewhere else to be.
At least she had Olivia to talk to. “How’s your brother doing?”
Olivia snorted. “He’s still unconscious, and he’s in pretty bad shape. I’m not sure if I should be happy or sad. It’s not that I want him to die, but this whole non-existence thing is getting old. He thinks the reason I’m stuck here is because we’re twins. I can’t move on until he does, so maybe if he did die, I could go into the light.”
Then Kayla would really be alone.
A tear trickled down Olivia’s cheek. Ghosts could cry?
“No. I don’t want my brother to die. I want him to live, find love, do all the things I never got a chance to do.”
Kayla would have hugged if she could have touched her. “He’s going to be all right. The best doctors in the world are taking care of him.”
Heather arranged the specialists and the care herself.
“I’m just . . . scared. For him. He’s all I’ve got left.” She wrung her hands.
Olivia needed a distraction, something to occupy her time until Carlos recovered.
“Want to go to a movie?”
Pursing her lips, Olivia shook her head. “Don’t think I could concentrate.”
Kayla sighed. “Strip club?”
Olivia’s eyes brightened. “Hey, that’s a good idea. That’s an amazing idea.” Then she cocked her head as a sly smile spread across her face. “We just need to make one little stop first.”
Chapter 28
“Are you sure about this?” Kayla’s hand hovered over the sword hilt.
Securely locked behind bars in the basement of the Xi Force Headquarters building, the Muramasa sword lay on a table in the middle of one of the lock-up cells.
Olivia shrugged. “I’m not sure of anything, but what’s the harm?”
Kayla gripped the sword. To anyone watching on the other side it would appear that the sword levitated on its own and floated right between the bars of the cell.
But there was no one to see.
Night time meant fewer guards made their rounds. She slipped the sword upstairs without anyone the wiser. The locked doors weren’t much of a deterrent either as she easily took the sword out one of the shattered windows on the first floor where the plywood covering hadn’t quite matched up with the opening.
Once outside, she followed Olivia down the street
, keeping as much to the shadows as possible. But there was no one about anyway. After the battle, the building and area around it had been cordoned off to keep the public away.
Even once they got past the taped off area they encountered few people. Clouds obscured the moon overhead, keeping the night dark, and she easily kept the sword in the shadows, at least at first.
But streetlights became more common and they encountered more people as they approached their destination.
It was almost midnight, but Mason’s was still hopping, and it took a while to maneuver the sword around the building to the back entrance. Then they waited for the door to open.
“The dishwashers usually come out here for a cigarette break whenever they can sneak away,” Olivia assured her.
Sure enough, less than a half hour later, the door opened. As the two aproned dishwashers lit up cigarettes, Kayla slid the sword through the closing door into the night club.
She kept the sword low to the floor and flat against the wall as they worked their way around the big stage in the center of the public area. The place was jammed with women, and she didn’t want to accidentally cut someone. All eyes remained on the gyrating men on stage, so nobody noticed.
“Hey.” Olivia suddenly called her to a stop. “What are the chances you could slip up behind that guy and use the sword to cut through the strap of his G-string?” Mischief played over her features as she added, “I’m asking for a friend.”
Sure.
“About a zero percent chance I’m even going to try.” Oh hell, throw the poor kid a bone. “At least unless this plan of yours doesn’t work.”
Olivia giggled. “Now I’m not sure I want it to.”
~ ~ ~
Two-thirty in the morning and Joel found Aaron in the control center at one of the computers.
Aaron motioned him over. “I couldn’t sleep either. Figured you’d be down soon. Here, look at this.”
The computer screen filled with a placid, forested scene with a snow-capped mountain towering over evergreen trees.
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