by J. Stone
“And?” PJ asked.
“I want you to use her power. I want you to show me who another vespari killed.”
“What?” he asked, sitting upright.
Wynonna mimicked him, kneeling on her knees. “You can tell me if someone is responsible for the death of another vespari. Tell me if someone is a corrupt cultist. Tell me if someone is responsible for my master’s banishment and the real murderer.”
“I’m not getting involved with any of that,” he told her, standing up and moving away from the bed.
Again, Wynonna mirrored him. “But you’re the one who told me to do this.”
Shaking his head, PJ said, “Not like this. There’s a reason I live like this. I didn’t ask to be an occultist. I was born into it, but I’ve made the decision to forgo it and everything that comes with it.”
“It’s just this one thing,” she said, walking toward him. “I’ll never ask you to do anything like this again.”
“No,” he told her, holding his hands up to stop her.
“If you don’t do this, I’ll never find the truth. Cory will forever be marked a murderer. The killer will get away with it, as well as the murder of a friend. He’ll be able to accomplish whatever dark and twisted goals he has. No one will stop him. No one even knows enough to stop him. You’re all I have.”
“If I do this, your vespari brothers will likely have me killed before you can learn a single thing.”
“I’ll protect you.”
PJ just shook his head. “I’m sorry. No, I can’t.”
In that moment, whatever fondness she might have felt toward him didn’t matter. Her anger boiled over and took control of her. “You’re a fucking coward!” she yelled. “I thought I could rely on you, but you’re the same as everyone else!” Wynonna turned, feeling the heat in her brow and started down the alley.
“Wynonna!” PJ called after her. “Wait!”
“Fuck you!” she shouted back. “Stay here and cower for all I care.”
Wynonna didn’t linger any further in that alleyway, driven forward by her anger. She hated that part of her. It led her to do stupid and compulsive things, it drove people she cared about away, and it made everything harder on her and others than it needed to be. A few minutes after leaving that alley, she knew how badly she’d just screwed that up. She wanted to return to PJ and apologize to him, but whether it was pride or embarrassment, she couldn’t stand to go back like that.
So, rather than do what she knew she needed to, Wynonna returned to the hotel room, where she still had a few days before they cleared her out of there. Entering the room, she found a fresh bottle of wine. She tossed off her hat, flung the duster over a chair, and took off her gun belt. Grabbing the bottle of wine, uncorking it, and kicking off her boots, Wynonna took a swig before jumping on the bed and leaning against the backboard. Trying to forget everything that was happening, she just sat there in that bed and drank herself stupid.
***
A knock on the door finally managed to get her out of that bed, and she made her way to the door to see who it was. When she opened it, Wynonna found PJ standing there in the hallway. She stood there a moment, staring at him, wishing she could apologize or say something - anything - nice.
Instead, her prickly demeanor overcame her and she asked, “What do you want?” before turning away from the door, shambling back toward the bed, and taking another swig from her bottle of wine.
Behind her, he came in and took his newsboy cap off, holding it in his hands in front of him. “I hoped you had some time to calm down,” he told her, shutting the door.
Falling back on the bed and spilling some of the wine on the bed sheets, she offered a fake smile. “I’m plenty calm.” Another swig of the wine. “So, what do you want?” Again, she wished she could’ve said something better.
“You overreacted,” PJ told her.
Wynonna glared at him, whatever sense remained quickly fading. “Is that fucking right?”
“Yes, it is, but… you were right too.”
Of everything he could’ve said, she wasn’t expecting that. “What?” she asked, boggling her head side to side.
“I was afraid. I still am.” He approached the bed, standing just beside her. “I walked away from a very different life than what I have now.” Looking around at the room, he added, “It was a lot like this place, actually.”
Wynonna frowned at him. “Why would you leave all this?”
“Magic. Occultism. Near everyone in my family is capable of it, but they’ve only done increasingly terrible things with it. When we came here from Amazawa, we had nothing. Now, they live in a mansion with things nicer and more expensive than what’s in this room.” He looked down and shook his head. “The things they did to get there.”
“Quite the rise,” she said before taking another swig.
PJ leaned forward and took the bottle from her. She let him. He set it down on the nightstand and crawled onto the bed beside her. “I was afraid that using my magic would put me at risk of becoming like them.”
Wynonna tried to comfort him - tell him he wasn’t the same as them, offer a kind smile, put her hand to his cheek. The best she could manage was to not say anything inflammatory.
“I know that what you’re trying to do is important,” PJ continued, taking her hand. “I know that it’s especially important to you. If you think I can help, I think I’m willing to try.”
She looked down to his hand, clasped around hers, and then up into his eyes. “Really?”
PJ nodded.
“If we succeed, we might help save the whole vespari order.”
He shook his head. “I’m not doing this for them or anyone else. This is for you.”
“Even after I was…” She trailed off.
PJ smiled at her. “Finish it,” he prodded her in a low, gruff voice.
She sighed and forced herself. “Even after I was an ass to you?” she grumbled.
“Yeah, but don’t make a habit of exploding on me.”
Wynonna raised his hand up to her lips and kissed it. “I’m… well, I’m…”
He rolled his eyes. “Finish it.”
She scrunched her face up and then sighed again. “I’m… sorry. Okay? I’m sorry. I don’t do well with apologies.”
“Clearly,” he said.
Wynonna shook her head and then crawled off the side of the bed. “So, what now?”
“Now,” he said, following her. “Now, you let me see that round. It’ll give me an idea of what it is I can do with this soul eater of yours.”
Wynonna snuck a hand into her pocket and pulled out the round in question. “Here,” she said, holding the circular silver out to him.
PJ took it, examining the metal closely and rubbing his finger over its surface.
“So?” Wynonna asked, unable to wait more than a few seconds.
He cut his eyes up at her and then dropped them once more to the metal. “So… what exactly are you wanting me to do?”
“The soul eater cast a curse on my master. He called it a Corrosive Brand.”
PJ nodded. “I’m vaguely familiar with it.”
“Well, through it and the vespari tattoos, the soul eater sucked out every monster he ever killed. When I… I inherited the monsters that the soul eater hadn’t taken. I was hoping you could tap into her power and show me whether one of the vespari elders killed a friend of mine.”
“That will prove your master’s innocence?”
“Well, maybe. If this elder was also the one that killed my master’s master.”
“Sounds complicated.”
“It’s not too bad,” she said with a shrug.
“Alright, but your master was accused of a murder, right?”
Wynonna nodded. “Yeah, but he didn’t do it.”
“But, why not go to the source?” PJ asked.
“What do you mean by that?”
“If you inherited your master’s kills and if he really did murder someone, wouldn’t his victim be among
st the others.”
“Uh, yeah, I suppose. What are you suggesting?”
“You might not like it, but I think we should try it out on you first.”
“To make sure that Cory didn’t kill his master?”
“Right.”
Wynonna shrugged. “Well, we can certainly test it out, but not finding his master doesn’t mean anything. Assuming Cory was guilty - which I know he wasn’t - the soul eater could’ve taken his master’s energy before I inherited what was left.”
PJ nodded. “I understand, but it’ll at least give us a place to start before you commit potential suicide by bringing an occultist into the vespari tower.”
“Fair enough,” she replied with a smile.
“Besides, it wouldn’t be a bad idea to make sure that I can even do this,” PJ told her, looking down at the silver round in his palm. “I haven’t done anything quite like this before, so a little practice couldn’t hurt.”
“Okay, then go ahead and try it out on me first. See if you can use her to expose my kills.”
Even though it was his idea, he still visibly winced at it. “And you’re sure you want to do this? I don’t want to hurt you by accident.”
“As long as you’re sure the soul eater won’t get out, I’m good with it.”
“She’s secure,” he replied. “But even under the best circumstances, this isn’t going to be a pleasant experience.”
Wynonna shook her fingers at her side, popped her neck left, and then right. “I’m okay. Let’s give it a shot.”
“Alright,” PJ said, looking around the room. “Why don’t you stand over here?” he suggested, pointing to the foot of the bed. “That way you’ll fall on something soft if this all goes… awry.”
“Loving the confidence,” she replied, moving into position.
“Yeah, I know. I think you’ll be okay. Just… just don’t move too much.”
“Mm,” Wynonna muttered. “Anything else?”
“Guess we’ll find out,” PJ replied with a shrug. “Here goes nothing.”
***
Raising the silver round up in his palm, PJ clenched his hand into a fist, and a gold color sparkled from the cracks between his fingers. Wynonna caught a strange scent that smelled like the filth and offal of the beldams’ cave back in the desert. The image of that place, of where she plunged a blade into Corrigan’s heart, flashed in her mind.
The gold energy then shot forward, embracing and surrounding Wynonna. A strange sensation filled her, like a cool, thick liquid wrapping around her. She didn’t know whether she even could move, but since PJ had warned her not to, she restrained herself from attempting such an action. Before anything else could happen though, the occultist jerked his hand back, and the spell instantly faded, causing the gold energy to drift away like smoke through cracks in wooden slats.
Both PJ and Wynonna dropped to the floor catching themselves on their hands and knees and breathing deeply. After a minute or so, Wynonna leaned back and pushed herself up using the bed. PJ still kneeled, so she moved forward to help him up. He grabbed her hand with his free one and stood, breathing heavily.
“She is a complete bitch,” he said after an exasperated breath.
“Huh?” Wynonna asked, caught off guard by the comment. “Who?”
“Petronila.”
“Oh. Yeah. You saw her?”
He tapped his temple. “She was in here. Telling me things. Taunting me. Demanding I release her. That sort of thing.”
“Yeah, she does that. If I told you about some of the nightmares she gave me, you’d really see what she’s like.”
“I got a pretty good glimpse just now,” he said.
“She the reason it didn’t work?”
PJ shook his head. “No. I think I was going about it wrong. Petronila was just a bonus. If you want, we can try it again.”
Wynonna nodded. “Yeah, let’s go again.”
She backed up to the bed once more, as PJ took several more deep breaths and then raised his fist clenched around the silver round into the air again. The same gold energy crackled forward from between his fingers, but this time, when the energy exploded toward her, it didn’t encase her quite like it had before. No, this time, it seeped into her, penetrating her chest and making the tattoos there sizzle on her skin. The sensation wasn’t painful, but it almost felt like it should have been from the sound. Even a smell of burning flesh rose up to her nostrils, but she knew it wasn’t quite real.
Then, she felt a tug. Wynonna felt like the energy had formed into a hand while inside her chest and gripped around something. The hand began to pull out from her, and then, in a flash, a foreign figure appeared with PJ and Wynonna in that room.
One of the two nagas she’d killed appeared there with them. Her semitransparent figure looked just the same, except there was a golden shimmer that accompanied her, almost like an outline around her. She swam through the room like it was water, and the naga scratched her four hands at both PJ and Wynonna. The naga’s attacks affected neither of them, which only further enraged her, causing her to shriek in silence before them.
The hand inside her clutched around something again. This time, it didn’t take PJ as long to remove it, and the second of the naga twins joined them in that room. The two serpents had a moment to reunite, and they approached each other, hoping to embrace. The nature of the spell didn’t allow for this though, and their hands passed right through one another.
Next came the gargoyle that Wynonna had killed shortly after entering Alexandria. It reacted the same as the naga sisters, trying to attack only to realize it no longer had any power. Then, the occultist pulled out the large desert wasp she’d killed in exchange for her ticket to Alexandria in the first place. PJ was progressing backward through everything she had killed in chronological order. She knew what would come next, but she was terrified of it.
Her mind flashed back to the cave, and as the hand clutched inside her, she saw Corrigan’s face before her. Aside from the golden shimmer, he looked just the same as he remembered her. The sad eyes, the grizzled expression, the stubble. He even still had his duster and cowboy hat from before she took them. He looked at her, examining her, and after a moment, he smiled. He nodded at her and then moved to her side, in what she felt was an act of support.
Stifling a tear that wanted desperately to slide down her cheek, Wynonna tried to think about the task at hand. To focus on it. Expecting to see Estrild, the only beldam she’d killed, next followed by the Gentleman and all his ghouls, she instead felt a twist. Rather than digging through her own kills, the spell shifted its focus to Corrigan’s.
The two beldams that he’d been responsible for finishing appeared next, Alviva and Mabilia, in that order. Not wishing to give them any more attention than she already had, Wynonna focused on what else PJ could find.
Several ghouls were next from their fight with the Gentleman, but Wynonna knew the revenant was her kill, so she wouldn’t have to deal with him yet. Then there seemed to be a pause. A gap in time. The beldams and Petronila had stolen so much from him that Wynonna had no idea what would come next. PJ contorted his face and tilted his head to the side, as if searching for something.
After a few minutes, another creature appeared. This one, she was entirely unfamiliar with. A lycanthrope, by the look of it. Where she got the improved sense of smell, she assumed. Next, after another pause, came a nosferatu, explaining her regeneration. PJ also found a strigoi, a more bat-like vampire, and even a dhampyr, what Corrigan had explained to be the result of a nosferatu and human mating. Either her master had killed an awful lot of vampires in his time, or the beldams just didn’t have much of a taste for them. Regardless, he’d left her with a great deal of regeneration.
Dropping his hand and hanging his head in exhaustion, PJ ended the spell’s effect. All the monsters as well as Corrigan faded from that room, and the two of them were left alone there. He shook his head while taking a moment to breathe and collect himself.
> “I couldn’t find any vespari in there other than your master,” he told her.
Wynonna stepped forward, grabbed PJ and helped him to a seat, seeing just how much the spell had taken from him. “It’s okay,” she said. “I didn’t expect we would.”
He looked up at her and nodded. “But I think it’ll be easier next time. I think I figured out how to aim it a little better.”
“That’s good, cause I don’t think anyone else we do this to is going to be so willing or patient as I was.”
He chuckled a bit.
“What?”
“Did you really just describe yourself as patient?”
“Shut up,” she said lightly slapping his shoulder.
He just smiled in response for a minute before continuing, “Give me a minute to rest. I think I’ll be good after that.”
Wynonna returned the smile, then leaned forward and kissed his cheek. “We’re going to get him. I know it.”
***
When PJ had recovered from harnessing Petronila’s power, he and Wynonna set out for the Black Tea Tower. She had one clear target in mind - Ambrose Dowd. No one else matched up with what Rohan had told her, and no one else benefitted from Kaelan’s death. He had to be the one responsible, and with PJ’s help, she was going to prove it. The first step would be to get him alone and away from any other vespari who might try to stop them. For that, she would need Spencer’s help.
After waiting outside the tower for a few minutes, the pair found an opportunity to enter without obstruction. From there, they moved straight into the library as quickly as possible, where they found Spencer seated at a table, combing through scraps of paper. As soon as he heard the door close behind them, he jerked around with wide eyes. Seeing it was her, he relaxed in his seat.
“Wynonna,” he said, standing up. “I was worried about you.”
“I’m fine,” she replied. “Did you find anything else out about Azus?”
The librarian looked over at PJ, ignoring the question.
Wynonna sighed. “Spencer, PJ. PJ, Spencer. He’s going to help us, but first… Azus. What did you find?”