Ghost Shadow (Moon Shadow Series Book 4) (12 page)

Energy was never overabundant, but I wasn’t starved. His hesitation was either an excuse or he couldn’t focus. “Troy, do you still have the grass you showed me before?”

He shook his head. “Sorry. I’m tapped out.” He drifted closer and would have reached for the tree, but with me standing right in front of it, he couldn’t. He floated aimlessly as if he wasn’t sure how to solve the problem.

“Can I see your hands?”

Too tired to care or resist, he pulled his hands from his pockets. Even this close to the tree, his fingers didn’t properly form.

“You need your ring back, Troy.”

His face blurred worse than before. “Have to go through.”

“The tree is closing. You can’t continue on this way.”

Instead of denying or agreeing, he drifted sideways and then reached for the smooth surface. His arm leaked into the tree. I started to help him, but touch was bad enough during ordinary circumstances. What if whatever marked him was contagious?

I looked at Spook, but the dog just whined. “I’ll go with him, Spook. Get the rest of the crew. Send a scout. See if you can find Amy. We’re going to have to steal the ring back.”

Spook yipped in agreement. The animals scattered. I slipped inside, next to Troy. The way In Between worked, a ghost could sit and partially regenerate, but it was akin to lying down and hoping you didn’t die.

There was energy here, bits and pieces, but even that would take time to absorb. We floated to the left, where the tunnel was located. More tree roots had grown, filling the entire trail. We didn’t make it far before Troy sat down. He pushed his arms forward into narrower parts of the tunnel. “Sometimes the ley line leaks. Can’t touch it directly, but the little leaks are pure magic.”

I had felt the heat from the ley line. A direct hit would be akin to a lightning strike. The magic might be feeding the tree and the roots here, but digging around hoping to find a trickle seemed like a quick way to burn your candle to the ground.

“Why does Amy wear your ring?”

“It doesn’t hurt anything.”

“It’s linked to you!” I wasn’t smart enough to figure out how all the pieces were related. “Did the ring keep this portal open?”

He shook his head. “No. After I made my peace dirt-side, the fairies spun magic so that the portal would close. It was leaking too much magic dirt-side.”

“But why do you need more energy than you needed before?” Somehow that ring was crucial. Without it, he was missing an essential piece of himself. With the kind of energy available from the tree, he shouldn’t require replenishing so quickly, not unless something or someone was draining him.

I thought of how snapping my sleeve at the hellhound had hurt it. That ring was tied to Troy and this tree. This tree was energy. The ring was part of his energy. “I think maybe Amy is using your ring to steal your energy. You come here and harvest more, but it is absorbed into that ring. Amy figured that out and uses it to draw energy from you.”

“I am pretty sure I was tired before I gave it to her.” He frowned in confusion. “My energy is just gone. She’s not some kind of ghoul. She’s human. You’ve seen her!”

I couldn’t argue that. “Maybe being a human ghost doesn’t stop her from drinking like a ghoul.” She had always clung to Troy. Maybe it wasn’t just because she liked him.

“Did she ask you for the ring?”

His face was formed enough now that I could read the expression in his eyes, and it was too much like feverish addiction. “Just a few sparks, and I’ll be myself again!” He leaned towards me as if I were the energy line here.

Talk like that was worse than scary. “You don’t feed off friends, Troy.”

“I don’t mean that! I wouldn’t take—” He stopped then and rubbed a half hand where his hair would be. “The last roadkill. I could barely escort it through the tunnel. I think I killed it.”

“Isn’t roadkill already dead?”

He nodded. “But there’s always residual energy. I brought it into the tunnel, but the fairies are closing the tunnel with a new tree. We were in the tunnel, and I guided it like I always do.” His voice fell to a croaking whisper. “I was so hungry.”

It would be too obvious if I scooted away from him. I raised my hands, wishing for a rock, a staff...I slid my jacket sleeve loose. It was already torn off anyway.

He stared at me, his eyes larger and brighter than they should have been, but holding no malice. The crazed look was replaced by wariness. “I offered you energy, and you never complained. Why is sharing with Amy any different?”

“You gave me bits of life force from dirt-side! I never took any of
your
essence.” He knew the difference. He’d been one of the ones to explain it to me when I first arrived. “Did you give her the ring or did she take it?”

“That ring isn’t me. It’s not life force.”

I nodded emphatically. “It’s part of you. Let me see your hands.”

He held them out again, not even having the energy to be impatient with me.

He had replenished enough that most of his fingers formed. Where his ring finger would have been, there was a darker stub than his other fingers, but nothing more, definitely no ring. I stared at that spot for a long time. “There’s a mark where your ring belongs. Cinderspark said you had a mark, but not a demon mark. Amy took that ring and left her mark, tying your energy to her or the ring. By giving it to her, you entered some kind of agreement.”

“But it’s just a ring. It doesn’t matter, and I can’t remember. I gave it to her to help her. She calls it a promise ring.”

I stared at my sleeve. It had come over with me. It was cotton. It retained enough energy to let me fight hellhounds, especially if I soaked it with leaking essence. “Your real ring, the one that belongs dirt-side is here.”

His head swirled, he turned it so fast. “You saw it? I can’t reach that spot anymore. The last trip to dirt-side I...tried digging. But the roots are everywhere now. I can’t slide through them anymore.”

“Troy, we have to retrieve your ring somehow.”

He held up his hand. Two of his fingers formed completely right down to fingernails, but he was pale and shaky shimmers all over. The tree roots still fed him, but Cinderspark was right. Something about his essence was wrong, damaged. Where his ring should have been, there was only a dark band. “I don’t think the ring will fix it,” he said.

“It can’t make it any worse. We have to try.”

He shook his head in denial or despair.

I left him to soak up whatever energy the tree was willing to share.

Spook was waiting for me outside the tree, a ball of hyper puppy, spinning and jumping eagerly. His whole body shouted, “At last!”

The tree roots should have energized me, but I was coated with dread. Spook was a dog. He wouldn’t be able to slide the ring off Amy’s finger. I was the only one with opposable thumbs.

Spook woofed and growled. Two ’coons swirled into position. One took point with Spook, the other lined up next to me. I heard a piercing challenge from above and nearly lost my jacket sleeve before I realized it was a hawk. His gray down feathers stuck out at funny angles as though he hadn’t yet fully recovered his ghost shape and was still partially smashed from being hit by a car.

Spook barked once, and we headed out. If only I had died with the knife that had been used in the attack against me, I’d happily cut her hand off and run away. I needed a weapon, maybe a ghost Uzi or at the very least a stout club. The thought made my hands clench, craving a baton that I could twirl as a weapon while keeping my distance. Maybe we should have bribed a ghoul or an imp. Would the mermaids help if I fed them fish?

This rescue attempt was a horrible idea. I was going to end up as fodder for some hideous not-demon. Well, I was already dead, right?

There were bad portals In Between, veils that led places no one wanted to go. I scanned for them and the creatures they housed as Spook loped around boulders, trotted across murky fog-filled patches and led us deeper into gloom. Maybe I stayed near the dirt-side edge more than I realized because the path Spook chose was fog with no boundaries. The gray was thick and full of obstacles; misshapen tree limbs coated with black moss and craggy outcrops that we either climbed or drifted around.

Ah. It wasn’t that we were so deep inside In Between. The dense fog and rocks were because we were nearing the lake. Or maybe it was the River Styx like Martin speculated, but I’d always envisioned the river as narrower and flowing. There were waves lapping along most of the visible shoreline, but they were directed at the rocky beach, not flowing like a river.

Nearly obscured by the fog in the distance, a half mountain butted against the water. Larger waves broke heavily against the sheer rock face.

Spook stopped, turned his head my way, but made no sound. When he crept forward again, he did so cautiously, crouching low and putting one stealthy paw down at a time. It was actually harder to make noise In Between than be quiet. I barely had feet. When you’re puffing yourself or drifting, feet don’t matter much. But Spook was a dog. He wasn’t changing his instincts just because he was dead. I followed his example, tucking myself small and advancing furtively.

When we rounded the side of the rock, Amy came into view. She knelt, staring into the water. Her hands splayed out in front of her body, forming a sort of circle as though she were holding something flat, but her hands were empty. The water swelled around the sides of her knees, while under her hands the water was strangely still.

Spook halted abruptly, his tail straight out, nose and eyes locked on the target. There was no sign of the other animals, but a flickering shadow near my feet might have been the hawk overhead. It might have been nothing more than floating gray mist, too.

I crept forward. Grabbing the ring with her bent forward like that was probably impossible, but if I pushed her in the water, maybe I could snatch it off her hand while she was floundering.

When I was nearly upon her, she spoke, “What do you mean she’s gone? She didn’t die. I’d know!”

The murmured reply was mostly lost in the lapping of the waves. “...another hospital...not my fault...”

“We can’t keep starting over,” Amy shouted. “I have to get out of here! We need that girl!”

“Who is that behind you?”

I didn’t realize in time that Amy was talking through an open portal, and the person on the other side could see me.

Amy whirled.

I kicked out hoping to stun her, but a flash of released energy from the portal pushed her sideways as the portal snapped closed. My kick missed. I slapped my jacket sleeve across her face, blinding her with a small blast of energy.

Her legs swirled, pushing her upright. At least her hands were closer to me now; they were wrapped around my neck. The edge of my jacket collar buffered me from one of her hands, but her other hand might as well have been full of vampire fangs.

Dizziness and a sudden weakness overwhelmed me.

Her grip was incredibly strong. The emotion transferred with her touch seared with a hatred worse than the rancid breath of the hellhounds.

A raccoon darted forward and attached itself to her ankle. She released me with one hand, but instead of backhanding the raccoon, she laughed. “The more the merrier, vermin.”

She grabbed it by the neck and to my horror, she absorbed it. Just like that, all that was left was the barest of sucking sounds.

I dragged myself away from her, realizing her touch had weakened me considerably. My jacket collar had completely dissolved. She hadn’t been attempting to choke me; she’d been absorbing me. My neck didn’t hurt, but it felt as though a gaping hole existed where my neck had once been.

Spook barked in the background, smarter than the ’coon. He dove in and out, daring her to come and get him. With her back against the water, he couldn’t maneuver around behind her. Neither could the fat squirrel that landed on her head. It bounced off immediately rather than risk being sucked into nothingness.

“Filth,” she screamed, her swipe barely missing it.

I lunged for the ring again, but she was fast, smacking me with her fist. She knew the trick to throwing her energy around. Maybe if I’d been willing to absorb her energy like she was attempting to steal mine it would have been a fair fight, but I wanted nothing of her essence other than the ring.

Another squirrel leaped, but fell short. It scampered up her back, claws out, digging in. She was ready for it. There was a small pop, and the critter was gone, absorbed right through her back.

“Shit.” If she touched me again, I was toast.

She advanced; I danced back. I slapped at her again with my jacket sleeve, fast. Even still, she nearly grabbed it away. The flash of energy when the sleeve snapped must have hurt her, but she forced her hand right around the spark. Her lips peeled back against the pain as she drank it in.

“Give me the ring.” It was almost a whisper from behind me.

One eye roved to locate the source. “Troy!” Boy, was I was glad to see him.

He stood not six feet away. “I come back for it every time I replenish my energy, don’t I? And you manage to talk me out of it.”

“Troy, darling, call off your beasts. We’ve been happy together!”

Her claim would have been more believable if her hand wasn’t glowing with stolen power and her face contorted with the pain of absorbing it all at once.

“They aren’t beasts,” Troy said. “They are what they were born to be. My time was up here. I made my peace and was ready to move on until you talked me out of it.” He sighed. “The ring calls me back to you every time. I didn’t realize it until Shadow pointed it out. It keeps me here. I can’t leave until I get it back. I can’t rest.”

“Okay. Sure. You can have it.” She held out her hand. “We can share it.”

“Uh, Troy...” If I tried for the ring, she’d pull her hand back. If Troy touched it or her, she’d start absorbing his energy. He’d either collapse entirely or end up so drained, we’d be lucky to make it back to the tree. The cycle would start all over.

Troy’s eyes focused on the ring. His face went slack as he reached out. Thankfully, he was too far away. I scooted in front of the ring, blocking his view. He immediately shifted to keep the goal in sight. Mindless, he drifted forward. Spook shot right through him, whining, barking, begging.