Christmas Ghosts - Fiction River (17 page)

“Rebecca. Malmain.”

The Malmain family is famous for producing hunters and enforcers. Tough as nails and rock solid integrity. I narrowed my eyes as I studied her ghost. She’d been coming into better focus as we talked. The Malmains were famously tall and blond and scary good looking as well as just plain scary, but Rebecca seemed smaller and darker than most of her family. I pulled on my jeans, wishing I’d met her when she was alive.

The winds can be very cutting through the skyscraper canyons of New York City so I wore several layers. No time to shave so I probably looked homeless, but no matter. I headed out. “Where to, my ghostly friend?”

“Not far. First, to Fifth Avenue.”
The wind was blasting when I stepped out of the hotel onto the sidewalk. A bundled up fellow from somewhere in the Middle East was presiding over a brazier and selling hot chestnuts. Since I hadn’t eaten all day, I bought a bagful and ate as I quickly walked the two blocks to Fifth Avenue.

This close to Christmas, the streets were jammed with shoppers and stores dazzled with their displays as familiar carols laced through the clamor of people and traffic. In spite of the busyness, there was a general good-natured air. I blinked at the sight of rhinestone leopards climbing the walls of a famous jeweler. “Now where?”

“Turn…right. Be…careful. Danger.”

I frowned as I obeyed. “Danger from whoever attacked you and the children?”

“Yesss.”
There was a silence and I sensed she was trying to organize her thoughts.
“Not…human.”

My frown deepened. “Some kind of energy being?”

“Demon.”

I swore under my breath. Negative energy beings were rare but dangerous. They were often behind mysterious, inexplicable crimes. No one knows where they come from. Maybe the pits of hell, or outer space, or an alternative dimension. The Guardian hunters who occasionally had to deal with such creatures just say demons. “I can fix physical injuries, but damned if I know how to handle a demon.”

“I’ll protect you.”

“But you’re dead,” I blurted out, then wondered if it was rude to point that out.

“Won’t…go to Light…till children safe!”

Rebecca Malmain was one hell of a woman. Or she had been.

I continued fighting my way through the crowds, giving barely a glance to the gigantic Christmas tree at Rockefeller Center. I almost got run over by a man staggering under a huge box, and I tripped over a little boy who should have been home in bed. Unhurt, he stuck his tongue out at me as I apologized and moved on.

“Left.”

I obeyed, heading east toward Grand Central Station. The crowds thinned out some, which was a relief. But with less distraction from shoppers, I began sensing images from Rebecca’s mind. A huge-eyed little blond girl, her hand held by an older black girl. Identical boy twins, maybe about eight. A dark-skinned girl with straight, shining black hair, and a redheaded boy who looked Irish. All of them frightened and huddled together. I wasn’t sure if this was real time, as they were now, or as Rebecca saw them when they were taken.

I was passing the mouth of a narrow alley when
something
blasted me into the alley and against a wall. It was a black, sucking hole of vicious energy. The demon? So
that’s
what one was like!

As I fell, stunned, against the cold brick, the glowing light of Rebecca’s ghost came between me and the demon. Dear God, it was going to suck her away to whatever hell had produced it!

Instinctively I threw up my right hand so that I connected with Rebecca’s energy. I felt the rush as my power joined to hers and she flared larger and brighter. Her fierceness was dazzling, and the demon retreated, then vanished like a popped bubble.

I sagged against the building that made one side of the alley and had just enough sense and power to produce a don’t-see spell. Any passersby on the street a few yards away would not be inclined to look in my direction.

What the hell had I gotten myself into? Rebecca was so dim I could barely see her. Weakly she asked,
“Are you all right, Simon?”

She was like a delicate scarf of warm light wrapped around me. “I’m rattled but okay. I can hear you much more clearly now. Because we shared energy?”

“Yesss.”
Her words were almost a sigh. “
But most of my power…gone. If the demon returns, I won’t be able to stop it.”

Tired though I was, I had more strength than she did. “Let me send you some power.” I visualized magical energy channeling from me to her. I couldn’t spare a lot just now, but it was enough to brighten her glow. I asked, “Can you tell me what happened with the children?”

“A small specialty toy store near here. Antique and rare European toys, expensive. Some magical. They have a Santa. I saw him possessed by demon. Led half a dozen children away and into tunnel below store.”

This just got better and better. “Does it connect with the subway system?”

“Not sure.
”
She flickered like a candle about to burn out. “
Move quickly! The Light is pulling at me harder and harder. Don’t know…how long I can stay here.
”

“Rebecca, hold on!” I said sharply. “I need to know where those children are! Once you give me a location you can go with my blessing.”

“
Do…my best.
” Her attenuated energy was saturated with pain and determination. “
Find my body…then can tell you how to find children.”

I speeded up, cutting between shoppers ruthlessly. Rebecca had fallen silent and I was following the barest thread of her energy.
Dammit, don’t leave, Rebecca!

The thread led me into a side street. There were several small and surely very pricey shops. Oriental curios. Antique snuffboxes and smoking accessories. Toys
.
I halted in front of the shop, which was on the corner of the side street and a narrow alley. “Devilish Delights” was carved on the wooden sign above the door, and the shop window was filled with the most extraordinary toys I’d ever seen.

Clockwork mechanisms that belonged in the Metropolitan Museum sat next to exquisitely crafted antique dolls. Sets of toy soldiers wearing ancient uniforms clustered around a rocking horse with an evil eye and a frayed tail. And yes, many of the toys had a glow of magic. No wonder this shop had attracted a demon. I couldn’t see anyone inside, and the door was locked when I tried the knob.

“Right. Down the alley.”

The wisp of energy led me to a shabby metal door. I guessed that it was right behind the toy store. Warily I tried the knob, and was relieved when it opened under my hand. My medical skill set doesn’t include picking locks.

I stepped into a shabby little storeroom with a door opposite the one I’d used. “Devilish Delights” was painted on it in faded red letters. I put my hand on the shop door’s knob, then yanked back as a blast of magic scorched my fingertips. Not really scorched—when I looked at my hand, there was no physical damage. But that was one nasty piece of magic laid on that door.

The room was piled with boxes that radiated low-grade magic. More toys, I guessed. A metal staircase wound downward from the far right corner. A dim globe of mage light clung to the wall above the steps. It must have been created by Rebecca before she headed down. Like her, the light was flickering out.

I touched the globe to brighten it, then hesitated. If I followed the trail down, would I end up like Rebecca? Quite apart from preferring to stay alive for several more decades, I wouldn’t be able to help those kids if I was dead.

But I needed to learn the location before Rebecca was gone. I did have a couple of magical defenses, so I mentally prepared in case one was needed and headed down and down and
down
.

The stairwell was old and neglected. Some kind of access portal from the old days when the subways were being built, maybe. As I moved beyond the range of the mage light above, I created another and carried it. At the bottom, I found a crumpled female body lying on her side.

Rebecca.

The faintest thread of light connected the ghost to her. I usually think of hunters as large and athletic, but she was petite and curvaceous. Her dark hair showed a glint of red in the mage light. She was dressed all in black like a junior ninja, her face a pale oval against her hoodie and her features slack with death. But in my mind I heard, “
Hello…Simon. Here…just in time.”

“Hello, Rebecca.” I knelt beside her on the grungy concrete floor and laid a hand on her forehead in benediction. And caught my breath as I saw that the gossamer strand of vital energy was still connected to her solar plexus.

Scarcely believing, I turned my wrist so that the crystal watch face was directly in front of her mouth. The faintest of mists clouded the polished surface. “You’re actually still alive.”

“
Close enough to dead that there’s no practical difference
,” she thought with black humor. “
Paralyzed. Can’t move…can barely breathe. As soon as I tell you how to find the children, I’ll let go. So…tired….
”

“Don’t be in such a hurry! Wait till I’ve examined you.” Very gently, I placed my fingertips on both sides of her head, brushing aside her silky auburn hair. “I’m one of the rare healers who can work with nerves.”

“Thought…that was…almost impossible?”

“True.” I began scanning her mind magically. “Even the best Guardian neurologist on Earth—that would be me—can only heal damaged nerves some of the time. But let’s just take a look.”

I narrowed my focus to study Rebecca, and found that the nerves of her brain were burning. The closest thing I’d seen to this was some damned fool golfer who’d been struck by lightning on a course because he wouldn’t go inside during a thunderstorm. In his case, the damage was done in an instant.

Rebecca still burned. Or maybe it was more accurate to say she was being toasted since the damage was still developing as nerves were slowly consumed by an unearthly magical fire that glowed violet red. No wonder she’d been in such agony. I wasn’t sure this was something I could fix. It might be kinder to learn how to find the children, then stop her heart to end her agony. Sometimes death that was the only healing possible.

But that was a last resort. First Rebecca deserved my best attempts to heal.

Where to start? The optic nerves were very dark. When they became charred black, it would be too late. I began with them, pouring white light along the neural pathways. First I extinguished the unholy burning. After the searing red faded away, I added healing magic, building up the neural fibers until they were fully restored.

Rebecca didn’t move her head, but she blinked as her eyes focused on me. “
Simon? With that mane of curly blond hair, you look like a mad scientist.”

“I’ve heard that before,” I said absently. “Let’s see if I can figure out a way to fix your whole nervous system quickly.”

“Probably a good thing you are a mad scientist,
” she said with a breath of amusement.

Next step, the insanely complex neural network of the brain that defined Rebecca Malmain. This time the healing went faster as I got the knack, but I needed to be faster yet or many of the nerves would be dead before I reached them.

I’ve never attempted to restore a complete nervous system, but I’d never seen one with this kind of damage. I closed my eyes and concentrated so hard that everything but the nerves and body beneath my hand vanished as I poured the full power of my consciousness and healing magic into her neural network.

Going inside her nerves felt deeply strange, like ricocheting through a disco light show. But where my consciousness moved, the nerves healed, changing from dark to light to radiant life as the magic swept through.

The process became easier and soon I was tearing through her nervous system like a Formula One racer. Heart, lungs, brain, other internal organs, finally limbs, fingers, toes. She was a magnificent physical specimen, as fit as an Olympic athlete. Not surprising since she was a Guardian hunter.

I’m not sure how long the restoration took—not as long as it felt like. I finished my repair job and collapsed on my back on the filthy concrete floor, limp as overcooked pasta and gasping for breath. I’d never done such a healing in my life, and I devoutly hoped I never would again.

Moving raggedly, she pushed herself to a sitting position and stretched like a cat. Her “ghost” had fully aligned with her body. She was whole again. With awareness in her face, she was also beautiful, radiating intelligence, focus, and humor.

“Dear God, thank you!” she breathed as she looked at her hands, turning them back and forth. “I had no idea such healing was possible.”

I forced myself to sit up. “Neither did I. If I survive tonight, I’ll have to write an article for the
Journal of Guardian Healing.”
As an afterthought, I said, “I didn’t know you would have a British accent.”

“Not surprising since I’m British. Accents don’t come through in mind talk.” She opened her backpack and pulled out a handful of granola bars. “Here, you look close to burnout.” She tore open a wrapper and put the bar in my hand.