Dark Siren (29 page)

“Helena,” Isaac said, “Are you alright?”

“Of course I’m not alright!” she screamed. “My mirror is destroyed, this entire exhibit is in shambles, and I’m soaked through.”

“
Your
mirror?” Isaac said, but Alice hadn’t heard him.

She marched up to Helena, squared up to her, and said “Really? You just watched all kinds of messed up shit go down and this is your concern? Just what did you see?”

Helena suddenly spun around, snatched Alice’s camera, and in one blindingly quick move bashed Alice across the face with it. Alice’s head spun, her body followed, and she hit the ground hard. Helena smiled a wicked smile, then turned toward the nearest wall, wound back her arm, and hurled the camera into it.

Trapper smashed into a hundred black pieces of plastic, which went clattering in all directions. Alice’s heart wrenched as if someone had reached into her chest and squeezed. She wanted to cry, wanted to scream, but couldn’t do either. The pain was too great. It wasn’t until she heard the song in the back of her mind that she understood what had just happened.

“Such a crude instrument,” Helena said. “I had expected more elegance from someone who had stolen my gift.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

The Duel

Isaac drew his right arm across his chest, and the magic bangle on his wrist began to glow like blue fire. His lips were pressed together into a thin line, his heart was pounding so hard it was difficult to concentrate, and his hands were so tightly clenched his knuckles were turning white. Alice had gone down hard after she had been hit, and she wasn’t moving.

“Get away from her,” he said with venom in his voice.

Helena cocked her head and circled around the amphitheater display with her hands by her side, palms open and facing Isaac. He could see lines of shadow appearing on her hands and arms, as if she were being tattooed in real time by an invisible machine.

“Isaac Moreau,” she said, “I know you.”

“Do you?”

“Oh yes. You’ve been inside this woman. She knows you, and now I do also. I also know your power, and I’m not impressed.”

Helena continued to circle around Isaac, and he took the opportunity to get closer to Alice. She was lying on her back groaning and writhing, but alive. “I’m not going to let you hurt her,” he said.

“I don’t think you’re in a position to—”

Helena suddenly doubled over and groaned. Isaac knew he had to seize the initiative and lunge, but he hesitated. Nyx had somehow possessed Helena, and he didn’t want to hurt the innocent human shell just to hurt Nyx. Instead, he watched her from a few feet away, prepared, but inert. His magic bangle burned bright blue, and behind him, standing tall above his left shoulder, the Good Doctor stood as silent as a statue.

He couldn’t make sense of what he was seeing; Helena was in pain, and she had dropped to one knee, but why? She looked up at Isaac and he drew back a step. The corners of her mouth were starting to blacken and thin veins of ink were spreading out and toward her cheeks.
She can’t hold it,
he thought,
the possession isn’t perfect.

“Helena,” Isaac said, “If you are in there, if you can hear me, I need you to fight her.”

“She’s gone,” Helena said as she righted her body. “Don’t you understand that I’ve already consumed her soul? It’s mine, just like this vessel.”

Helena’s right hand flew up and whips of inky black darkness came darting out of her fingertips. Isaac brought his magic bangle up in defense, visualizing a shield of blue light appearing before him to absorb the attack. The tendrils of shadow struck the shield with a series of cracks, and white sparks flew in all directions, showering the dimly lit room with flickering light.

Isaac then pushed his right hand out and sent a wave of pure magic at her. The wall of near solid energy struck Helena in the chest with a loud thump, lifted her off her feet, and sent her flying, arms pinwheeling, across the room. She fell on her back and slid across the marble floor, coming to a halt in the center of a square of moonlight falling in from one of the outward-facing windows.

Helena pushed herself up with her arms, groaning from the effort. She coughed a glob of blood out and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “Pathetic,” she said to the floor, “This body is
pathetic
.”

“Then give it up,” Isaac said as he approached, “You can’t win here. The body is resisting. You made a mistake in taking her, and now it’s over.”

“You really think it’s over, Isaac Moreau?” Helena asked, standing upright on shaky legs.

“I do.”

“Then you’re even more arrogant than I thought. This isn’t over; this is only the beginning.”

Isaac was too slow to intercept Helena’s magic with his own—if such a thing was even possible. In a split second she had managed to turn on the spot and launch herself toward a barred window high up on the wall. Isaac brought his hands up and imagined an invisible barrier appearing at the threshold of the window, but her body turned into a cloud of shadow as it touched the bars and slipped through them before his magic could take effect.

Just like that, Helena—Nyx—was gone.

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

The Magistrate

Isaac turned in a slow circle, observing the devastation of the Greek exhibit. It caused a part of him to weep. Nothing was more important than what had just happened with Nyx, with Alice, and with the escaped spirits. However, this exhibit had taken a very long time to put together, and the irreplaceable artifacts which now lay strewn about the floor had taken even longer to acquire and restore. Thousands of hours had gone into the building of this shrine to history, and Nyx, a figure from history herself, had torn it all down.

His heart broke, but then he heard Alice moan, and he rushed toward her. He was around the amphitheater display and by her side in the space of a couple of seconds. Her cheek was a deep shade of violet and already starting to swell; a steady trickle of blood was pouring from the split skin, but her eyes were open and alert.

He slid an arm under her neck, placed another on her good cheek, and pulled her close. He had to fight hard to hold back the well of emotion rushing up inside of him. Seeing her like this was more than he had been prepared to deal with. Ghosts, magic, and crazy bitches he could deal with, but this was something else entirely.

“Alice, can you hear me?” Isaac asked. He was holding her neck up with one hand while he speed-dialed Dustin’s number with the other. Somehow, the water hadn’t damaged his phone.

Alice blinked erratically, groaned again, and tried to steady her neck. She was in pain, a lot of it, and there was nothing Isaac could do for her.

“Dustin,” he said into his phone, “Come up here at once,” and he hung up.

“My camera…” Alice said, her eyes welling with tears. “Is it gone?”

Isaac scanned around for the camera and found only a single part of it. The frame was still intact, but it may as well have been a shell discarded by some crustacean. The machinery, the lens, even the trigger, had all been split from the main body. Where they were, Isaac didn’t know. There was too much debris for him to be able to tell.

“I’m sorry,” Isaac said, “But it’s gone.”

Alice nodded, and the effort of nodding caused her to curse. “Fuck that hurts,” Alice said.

“You’re alright, Alice. Everything is going to be fine.”

“She’s out and my camera is in pieces… everything won’t be fine.”

“We don’t need to think about that right now. All we need to focus on is you getting better.”

Dustin came spilling in through the staff-entrance door. He was surprisingly quiet considering his size, and didn’t tire as easily as one might have thought.

“Listen to me,” Isaac said to Alice, “You know Nyx better than any of us do. Do you know where she’s gone? What she plans to do?”

“No,” Alice said, “But I know what she can’t do; she can’t stay in that body for long.”

“What do you mean?”

“She can’t survive outside of the Reflection without a body, and she can’t just take
any
body. Not permanently. Her vessels need to be prepared, like I was. Otherwise, they won’t last.”

“How do you know Helena wasn’t prepared?”

“She may have been a bitch, but she was totally human, and Nyx hadn’t fed her a soul.”

“And Emily? Didn’t the Reflection change her? Didn’t Nyx change her?”

“The Reflection doesn’t change a human on its own. Emily’s soul was pure when she stepped out of that mirror, just like Helena’s. I was the only one Nyx could have inhabited safely.”

“But she couldn’t take you.”

“Couldn’t, or chose not to? She wants to make me suffer, Isaac.”

“No. I don’t believe she would choose what’s in the bush over what’s in the hand. If she could have inhabited you, she would have. I think Nyx was expecting to be able to possess you. Something must have stopped her.”

“Boss,” Dustin said, in his deep, hoarse voice, butting in when he thought the conversation had come to a lull. “It’s the Magistrate. They’re outside.”

“Shit,” Isaac said. “Already?”

“Looks like it. They’re waiting.”

“And Emily and Nate? Did you get them out?”

“Just like you asked. I took them through the hidden door.”

Isaac nodded. He had been hoping for another couple of minutes with Alice, to help get her out of the museum safely and quietly, but the Magistrate’s Legionnaires were already here. They would wait outside, Isaac knew, but they wouldn’t wait for long. Eventually they would come in, and they would want to know what the bloody hell had happened here. But Isaac didn’t want to put Alice in their crosshairs. He wanted her gone before they arrived. Under no circumstances was the Magistrate allowed to know of Alice’s involvement in this.

“Let’s get you up,” Isaac said, and slowly, delicately, he lifted her neck, her back, and let her use him for support. Alice groaned from the pain of moving. Her back wasn’t broken as she had thought, but between the cut on her arm, the damage to her ribs, and the fractured cheek, Alice was in no state to walk anywhere on her own. Dustin, big man that he was, came up to Alice and slid an arm around her waist to help her stand. Isaac let her go.

“She never wanted Emily,” Alice said, in a voice that suggested the effort of standing had knocked the wind right out of her. “Emily was only a way to get to me, a way to bring me here. She knew I would come.”

“Why did she bring you here?” Isaac asked.

“Because she needed me to open the mirror. I stole a piece of her power, and without it she wouldn’t have been able to come out. She knew I would come to help Emily, and I did. I fell right into it.”

“You didn’t know. Emily had been taken. You did the right thing.”

“I know I did, but now Nyx is out. I need to find her.”

“What you need to do is leave with Dustin,” Isaac said, “He’s going to take you somewhere safe.”

“Leave? No way, I’m not going anywhere.” Alice struggled, but she may as well have been a mouse struggling against a bear. Dustin’s grip was firm. She wasn’t going anywhere. “Isaac, you can’t just kick me aside. You need my help.”

“I do, and I won’t be able to get your help if the mages waiting outside get to you.”

“Why not? I’ve been hired by mages before. They know me and what I can do.”

“Yes, but this is different, Alice. You aren’t protected by our laws. I am. In any case, they know about your
condition
as much as I did prior to today. If they knew what I did, they would want to do more than just ask you questions. You need to just trust me and go with Dustin. Right now.”

“I don’t like this,” Alice said.

“I’m afraid you’re in no position to refuse. You’re injured, your camera is broken, and you’re more useful to me if the Magistrate doesn’t know you’ve been here. I won’t tell them.”

Dustin started to move, and Alice went with him. Isaac followed for a few steps but then he
felt
something, like a ping, and decided to stop and look around his feet. There, surrounded by bits of broken marble, was the Greek Xiphos sword. He bent over, picked it up by the hilt, and felt a chill run through his body.
Magic
, he thought, and he remembered what Alice had said about Nyx’s mere touch being able to change the nature of an inanimate object.

He handed the blade to Dustin and said “Take this. Nyx touched it. For all we know, we have a way to track her with it.”

Dustin nodded, and Isaac gazed into Alice’s eyes one more time before turning away.

“Wait,” she said, and she groped for Isaac’s hand. He took it, but then she hesitated, like someone who goes to open a door and thinks better of it at the last second.

But Isaac was a gentleman, and it was in his nature to open doors. He kissed her on the forehead and smiled. “Everything’s going to be alright,” he said. “I’ll be with you soon. In the meantime, go with Dustin, get showered, and dry up. I’ll send someone to help with your injuries.”