by A. J. Locke
“Yes, I did encounter ghosts here who were with me on the other side,” Kyo said, frowning. “And no one out there knows how this happened?”
“Nope. What do you remember?”
“I was wandering the In Between, as per usual, then all of a sudden this…vortex I guess is the best word…opened up and I was sucked through. Before I knew it, I was back on this side surrounded by buildings, bright lights, and people who couldn’t see me. It was jarring to say the least.”
“I can imagine. And there’s no telling how many ghosts ended up back here and how many people they will hurt.”
“Why do you say that? I certainly haven’t hurt anyone.”
“The crossover ghosts that we are aware of have all tried to carry out the revenge that was denied to them when they initially died and their ghost rose.” I eyed Kyo.
“What? Wondering why I didn’t follow suit? Well you see, I died about three centuries ago, so if I had anyone to carry out revenge on, I’m on the wrong side to do so.”
“Makes sense,” I said. “It’s interesting to note that all of the crossover ghosts were ones who were sent to the Afterlife via a necromancer circle. Were you?”
“Indeed I was.”
“How come?” I really hoped it wasn’t because of some sinister unfinished business.
“Because that’s the way it was done back then,” he said. “Don’t you know your history? Ghost agencies were slowly emerging in my day as more awareness of the risks of necromancer circles started to come to light. But the practice was still the preferred method of getting ghosts off this plane of existence. As a matter of fact, they used to do bulk circles and ship off several ghosts at once. There wasn’t much in the way of settling their affairs beforehand.”
“I do remember learning about all those things. I just didn’t need that information once I became a working necromancer, so it wasn’t in my active memory.”
“Just be glad you weren’t a working necromancer in my day. You probably would not have lived a very long life.”
“Yeah, I would have been killed doing a circle. Or by tuberculosis, or consumption, as they said in your time.”
“Very true.”
“But anyway, the fact that you were all sent to the Afterlife through a necromancer circle has to hold some significance.”
“The significance is that all of the ghosts are from the In Between,” Kyo said. “I didn’t get to fully educate you on the In Between when you were there, but here is what I learned after being there for three hundred years. One, it is a holding place. Every person who dies has their ghost end up in the In Between at first. If they have unfinished business, they rise back to the living world. If they don’t have unfinished business they head on over to paradise. If, like in your case, they were able to be revived, then they go back to their bodies. And as you already saw, it’s also where all ghost monsters end up.”
“I see,” I said, thinking this over. “So I guess if a ghost’s unfinished business can’t be done, they get the circle and end up back in the In Between. And if they can be helped, they go to the real Afterlife.”
“Yup,” Kyo replied. “I’ve seen all those scenarios happen countless times. Ghosts whose unfinished business isn’t settled cannot move on to the true Afterlife. They remain stuck in the In Between. I wasn’t sure which scenario applied to you, but I knew at some point you’d blip out one way or another.”
“I didn’t remember being in the In Between when I woke up,” I said. “And I don’t think I regained consciousness when I was revived.”
“You got the best case scenario anyway,” Kyo said. “Back to life instead of back to the Afterlife.”
“I’m not complaining,” I said. “But back to the crossover ghosts—you all came from the same place. Something specific happened to target the In Between and allow you to cross back.”
“Yeah, that weird vortex thing I told you about.”
“Now the question is how did that happen? But the more important issue is getting the crossover ghosts off the streets because prolonged exposure to them has been causing people to fall ill and eventually explode.”
“Explode?” Kyo repeated, eyes wide.
“Yeah. Any idea what might cause that?”
“Remember what I told you when we were on the other side? Ghosts have the ability to morph, change, acquire new powers, and grow stronger. Ghost energy is exponentially stronger on the other side than it is here because that is a world made for ghosts. We are a lot stronger than the ghosts you deal with here.”
“Strong enough to affect non-paras, damn. What’s happening to those people is like an accelerated Rot.” A shudder passed through me. “I saw one of the victims after she exploded. I don’t want that to happen to anyone else.”
Kyo gave a low whistle. “That doesn’t sound like a fun way to go. But wait…” He suddenly looked alarmed. “Is it a good idea for you to be hanging around me then?”
“If I was going to fall sick I would have even before being around you. I think I have my missing piece to thank for the resistance.”
“Ah, I see. Lucky you.”
“Lucky indeed. I’ve already dealt with the Rot, and I do not want to go back down that road again. But I do want to help the people who are afflicted.”
“What’s the remedy?”
“The people who are helping them are not a hundred percent sure. Nothing they’ve tried is pulling the ghost energy out of them permanently. We just found out that the victim’s bodies contain a variety of ghost energies because their attackers have been going around finding ghosts on the streets and absorbing them. They think a reanimator might be able to help, but it’s not a very strong theory. But in any case, there are no reanimators to come by except for me, and I don’t have my reanimation power anymore.”
“Then how, pray tell, are you still alive?”
“I lived because Renton hadn’t been in possession of all of my power. Some of it was stored elsewhere, and I only just figured out where.”
Kyo looked at me expectantly but I hesitated. I didn’t really know Kyo and he certainly was a powerful ghost, not to mention mysterious.
“Well, are you going to share?” he prodded.
“Have you ever heard of binding runes?” I don’t know why, but somehow I felt as though I could trust him.
“Binding runes,” he repeated, a slow smile curling his lips. “Magnificently dangerous, or dangerously magnificent. Yes, I know of them. You’re saying your reanimation power is inside a binding rune?”
“About a dozen of them, actually. I used to store my reanimation power in them to avoid the periodic checks the Paranormal Sector did to ferret out reanimators, since modern society is all about stripping them.”
“In my day they just killed reanimators.”
“I know. Anyway, if you know anything about binding runes, you know that they remain active once energy is channeled into them. Even if that energy is removed, a piece always remains. Such is the case with all the binding runes I’ve used over the years. Some of my reanimation power always remained inside them. And that’s why I didn’t die permanently.”
“Amazing.”
“Yeah, except I don’t know how to get my residual power back and I am none too eager to try messing with binding runes on my own.”
“I wish I could offer some help, but I’m afraid I am not that knowledgeable about binding runes.”
“It’s fine.” I yawned, and a wave of tiredness came over me. It wasn’t that late, but after the day I had I felt as though I could fall into another month-long coma.
“I’m done driving myself crazy over all this for the night. I’m going to bed. Are you gonna stick around?”
Kyo settled back onto the couch and picked up the remote, giving it a bewildered look. “Guess you’ll find out in the morning,” he said, smiling.
Whatever. All I cared about was my bed right now. With Luna in my arms, I headed off to find some momentary relief from the massive head
ache that was my life.
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
Turned out sleep was no escape because all I dreamed about was people becoming overstuffed with ghost energy and bursting into flames while their loved ones watched and screamed. And when I wasn’t dreaming about that, I dreamed about being attacked by a horde of ghosts and ending up stabbed to death by multiple blades.
I woke up feeling unsettled and far from well rested. Last night was the third time I’d been attacked out of the blue in a short period of time. It had shaken me more than I wanted to admit, and I couldn’t help but wonder when it might happen again.
I sat up and tried to pull myself together so I could go on and face the day. Which was going to be a hard one, because today was when Ilyse was going to fade. I’d made sure to keep track of when it was going to happen. Tears welled in my eyes, but I blinked them back. I couldn’t start the day with a breakdown. I needed my strength to get through this.
But the attack last night kept gnawing at me as I went through my morning routine, with Luna prancing around my feet until I fed her. Kyo was gone, but I wasn’t surprised. I figured he’d appear again at some point. His depleted energy rune lay on the couch.
Last night’s attack was different, not only because it was three ghosts instead of one, but because for the first time I had gotten an indication that they were working for someone. Ghost thugs for hire. I wondered how whoever hired them paid them for their services. If I could figure out who sent them after me, I could knock their teeth out and get on with my life.
I should have scanned myself for ghost energy last night. I had grappled with them closely so something could have been left behind on me, but I had been so rattled and preoccupied by the conversation with Kyo that I hadn’t remembered to do it. There’d be nothing left to try and absorb with a rune now.
Wait. I paused with my spoonful of cereal halfway to my mouth. The female ghost had said her name. Well, most of it. If I used the partial name and searched the database of registered ghosts, maybe I would be able to trace her.
I forgot about the rest of my breakfast, which said a lot about how invested I was in tracking my attackers and their puppet master down, and booted up my laptop. After I accessed the database, I typed in “Vivienne Cha.” I had a feeling “Cha” was short for something like “Chambers,” but I waited to see what the database pulled up.
Moments later, I was scrolling through a list of Viviennes, whose last name started with “Cha.” Fortunately, the database kept pictures with the ghost’s files, and it wasn’t long before I recognized the ghost who’d been part of my trio of attackers. Vivienne Chano. The smiling woman I was staring at didn’t look like someone who would jump a stranger in a park and stab her.
Now to see if finding her in the database could point me in a useful direction. I checked to see which ghost agency she was listed with. That could prove helpful with sniffing her out.
“Oh my God.”
Shock—then anger—surged through me when I found the information I was looking for.
The ghost agency she was assigned to was Affairs of the Dead.
* * *
I was in my car with a furiously tight grip on the steering wheel as I drove into the city, heading for Affairs of the Dead.
I couldn’t believe that it had taken me this long to figure out that my number one suspect in these attacks should have been Jacob McNabb. With everything else that had been going on, I had damn near forgotten about my meeting with him, but now it replayed in my mind in all its uncomfortable glory.
Jacob didn’t like me; that was a blatantly obvious statement. He blamed me for the way Andrew had met his demise, twice, and as a result, for the bad shape his father’s once flourishing business was in. I had seen it in his eyes; he wanted revenge. And what better revenge could there be than trying to kill me?
Obviously he wouldn’t want any blood on his hands, and if he used hired thugs who were alive, it could end very badly for him if things came to light. That’s why he used ghosts. They could do the job, then he could send them to the Afterlife and there would be no one to question about my death.
It was cold and calculated, and a chill went through me, although it didn’t cool my anger. People were so quick to jump to murder these days to fulfill their personal agendas. It was sickening. Taking someone’s life should never be that easy, yet I’d been surrounded by people who had few, if any, qualms about it. I know I had killed someone, but the decision had been the hardest one I ever had to make and I had done so to stop one such killer who had no qualms about murder.
Well, the jig was up. I was going to confront Jacob and let him know that he had failed.
I got to Affairs, parked, and strode into the building. As I was riding the elevator, I realized that the police station should have been my first stop so I’d be doing this confrontation with the right kind of backup. I had been so overwhelmed by my anger that I’d just shot straight over here. After narrowly escaping death, the fact that I had been almost killed three times in so short a period pissed me off to no end. It didn’t matter that this missing soul thing prevented me from suffering the true effects of those attacks. They still hurt, and it was ridiculous that I should have to be dealing with someone trying to kill me right now. Talk about the last thing a girl ever needed.
The elevator doors opened and I strode into the office. It was empty save for Amy, who was fumbling with papers at her desk and looked surprised to see me storm in. Like when I’d seen her before, she looked unpolished, and this new boho style she was rocking was not working for her. She still looked exhausted. I couldn’t imagine what could be keeping her so sleep-deprived here, when it was clear there was not a lot of ghost work going on.
But I didn’t have time to overanalyze Amy. “Is Jacob in?” I asked, without bothering to say hello. I almost slammed my fist down on her desk for emphasis, but refrained from being too much of an angry stereotype.
“Uh yeah, he’s in his office, I’ll tell him you’re—”
“No need, I’ll announce myself.”
I walked away as she was reaching for the phone, and headed to Jacob’s office. I slammed open the door and walked in. Jacob looked up from his computer, startled at the sudden interruption. When he saw me, his expression changed into the cold mask he had greeted me with before. His eyes narrowed, but he made no move to get up or speak as I stood there.
I guessed I’d start the conversation.
“Vivienne Chano,” I said. Jacob’s eyes widened slightly, but he still said nothing. “You sent her and two others to kill me, and before that you sent some hulking ghost thug after me at the memorial event, and before that, another thug while I was in the Underground. You hate me and blame me for everything that’s wrong in your life, I get it, but are you fucking serious? Sending ghosts to kill me? I can’t even think of a horrible enough word to call you.”
Jacob was silent for a while longer. His piercing eyes seemed as though they’d drill a hole right through me. Then he stood up, buttoned his jacket, and moved to the front of his desk. He perched on the edge and clasped his hands in front of him.
“There’s a lot to be said about the audacity you have, storming in here and flinging attempted murder accusations at me,” he finally said. If one’s voice could be a tangible entity, his would be cold, cold, venom.
“Are you denying it then?”
I know I had just flown off the handle once I matched Vivienne’s name to Affairs and concluded that Jacob had been behind the attacks, but there wasn’t anyone else it could be unless some unknown asshole suddenly had it out for me.
“Don’t get me wrong, Ms. Vanream, I wish nothing but pain on your life the way you inflicted it on mine, but yes, I am denying my hand in these events you speak of. Why would I try to kill you at an event meant to honor my brother and other victims whose blood is on your hands?”
I was speechless for a moment. He was denying the attacks? He could be lying to cover his tracks of course, but what if h
e wasn’t? Now that I thought about it, it wouldn’t have made much sense for Jacob to turn the memorial into a bloodbath.
A smile that had nothing to do with humor curled Jacob’s lips. “Not quite the showdown you were expecting? I’m surprised you didn’t bring a task force with you. What exactly were you planning to do?”
So I hadn’t thought it through past an angry confrontation where I hurled a lot of expletives. Planning ahead was never my strong suit.
Jacob released a sigh like he pitied me, and shook his head. “Sorry to disappoint you, but my hands are perfectly clean in this very troubling matter of attempts being made on your precious life. I don’t have any aspirations to be anything like you, you see.”
My eyes narrowed, but I didn’t respond to the dig. There would be no reasoning with Jacob, especially when the things he held against me were technically true. It wouldn’t matter to him that nothing that had gone down with Andrew had been intentional. Andrew had made his own choices in regaining a body without knowing that there were specific ways it needed to be maintained and consequences for his soul if it was not.
“This must be so embarrassing for you,” Jacob continued. “But I will allow you the grace of leaving with what little dignity you may have left.” He made a shooing gesture with his hand and my face burned with heat. I had half a mind to leap over and slap that smug smile off his face, but I refrained. This office had had enough encounters with violence. I turned to leave.
“Oh, Ms. Vanream, one more thing.”
I slowly turned back around, really wishing he would just let me go. He was moving back behind his desk and unbuttoned his jacket as he sat down.
“The name Vivienne Chano does ring a bell,” he said. “I remember her from the archived files. If you had been thorough in whatever research you did, you would have realized that she died, and was sent to the Afterlife through a necromancer circle about twenty-five years ago, long before my or my brother’s time here. So you might want to think things through a bit more before you go accusing someone else of sending a ghost who no longer exists in this world of attacking you.”