Revenant (10 page)

And he was gone.

I lay back on the cold, dirty tiled floor, staring up at the bright lights above me. That smell—what was that smell? Jason was suddenly hovering over me, his left eye bruised below his cheek. He grabbed my arm and helped me sit up and away quickly as something spattered beside where I’d been.

He pulled me in his arms—hands like ice against my again-human skin. His chest was hard like a wooden board and cold beneath his thin shirt. I wasn’t uncomfortable against him—but was more enjoying a feeling of safety as I stared at the muddy black goo dripping from the table.

We both stood, with Jason still holding on to me as I turned and gasped. Mialani’s body was no longer on that table. Instead, there was a melting pile of viscous, black—well—it looked like something you’d scoop up from the bottom of the Chattahoochie River.

“What—”

“Without the soul,” Jason was saying as he led me away from it, “there’s nothing to prevent time from reclaiming what it rightfully possesses.”

And then it hit me—
that
was Mialani. Or what happens to a body after being denied the process of decay for a hundred or so years. I put my hands over my face and coughed. Jason moved behind me and steered me out of the room, past the tables of bodies, and out through the lobby door into the night.

The cold air was like a pleasant slap in the face—and I’d much rather smell the pine-scented air of Georgia than the odor of putrid flesh. I coughed a few times as we moved to the curb, and a huge black Cadillac pulled up next to us. Jason moved to my right and opened the door, gesturing for me to get in.

“Where—”

“Back to Nona’s,” he said with a smile, and he put a hand on my arm.

We need to talk,
came Mephistopheles’ voice again in my mind.
And I can’t think of a better way to get there but in style.

I grinned despite my stomach doing flip-flops. I did not feel good. And I’d never been inside a limousine in my life. Crawling in, I fell into the soft leather seats as Jason piled in behind me. As I looked for the seat belt, I noticed a red mark on my host’s shirt. My eyes grew wide as the black glass between the front and back opened, and another familiar face peeked through.

“Nick!” I heard myself say.

He grinned at me and winked before taking a look at Jason. Two seconds, and the smile faded. “Jason?”

“I’m good.” Jason waved at him. “Just get us over to Nona’s. And call ahead—” He winced as he moved enough for me to get my seat belt fastened. “I’m gonna need a little of Kitten’s magic.”

Nick nodded and turned around, pulling the limo forward and out of the morgue parking lot.

Once we were clear, I turned a sideways look at Jason. He looked a little paler than usual—and Jason normally had a complexion similar to my own. He leaned his head back, pressing his hand to his chest.

“What did TC do?” I heard myself ask. I couldn’t remember what had actually happened once that bastard had charged back in. My attention had been snagged by Mephistopheles’ voice and Mialani’s screams.

“He stabbed me through the heart,” Jason said in a soft voice.

There were a billion questions running through my head at that moment; why did TC attack like that? Why was he so against me setting Mialani free? Why did the Phantasm want the Revenants dead? What was this first war? There was a Phantasm before this one? How long had Jason been a vampire? Was he one back in August when he visited Rhonda?

Did Jason understand the spell and magic used on Mialani? How had he known to come?

But the first question that came out of my mouth wasn’t any of these. No . . . I was so typical.

“Jason—who’s Kitten?”

He opened his eyes and grinned at me. “You don’t know?”

“Don’t know what?”

“About Kitten?”

I blanched. “Oh—Rhonda? You call Rhonda Kitten?” I couldn’t imagine anyone calling Rhonda Kitten—and living.

“No.” He shook his head and lifted it, looking at me very serious. “Zoë—Kitten was my pet name for Nona.”

Pause.

“When we were lovers.”

I’VE
always felt there would be a limit to the ew factor in my life.

And to be honest, I thought I’d already reached it. And I think I rationalized that the instant had been so traumatic I’d core-dumped it from my memory.

So I wasn’t prepared for that.

Wasn’t eeeeeeeeven going to acknowledge it. No. I sat in that limo in complete silence, all the way back to Mom’s. Yeah . . . I had my mouth open. But still.

I could feel Jason grow silent beside me. Even the Symbiont inside him was quiet. I think Nick was a little nervous and turned on the radio. I concentrated on Anastasia’s “Everything Burns” and tried to puzzle this one out.

Nick expertly pulled the limo into the back of Mom’s shop. All the lights were on inside, and the moment we parked, the back door opened. Mom, Rhonda, Joe, Lex, and Jemmy came piling out of the door. Rhonda was the first one to Jason’s side of the limo, bending down and inside—with Mom right behind her.

And I watched my mom—really watched her face as she looked at Jason. And I saw—

I jumped at the familiar voice in my head. I turned to see that Joe had opened my door and was leaning in, looking very worried. I grinned at him and took his outstretched hand. “I’m fine,” I said, as he helped me out of the limo.

And nearly fell flat on my face as my knees buckled beneath me. I suddenly did not feel so good. Aches, nausea, and a driving headache. Joe scooped me up in his arms—probably the only man I knew who could besides Jason—and carried me inside the house as I struggled to maintain my dignity and not throw up all over him.

We moved through the kitchen and into the botanica, and Joe sat me in my papasan chair. He removed my shoes and quickly covered me with a blanket before shoving a thermometer between my teeth before I could say a word.

Jason, Nick, Mom, Rhonda, and Lex bustled in next, with Jason helped along by Nick. My eyes widened as I saw the growing red spot on the front of his shirt. It was also evident that Jason, his eyes closed and his head lolling to one side, wasn’t moving anymore.

Nick put him on the couch to my right and immediately unfastened his shirt, exposing a well-developed six-packed chest covered in dark blood. Rhonda moved in quickly, kneeling in front of him with a jar of something—foul-smelling. Eh . . . whatever that was, it reminded me of sewage. And it was turning my already-nauseated stomach over further as the thermometer beeped and Joe snatched it out. I hadn’t realized he was still kneeling beside me.

I looked over at him. I sort of knew my temperature was elevated. I had a headache. I was sore, achy. Flu symptoms. But—I also somehow knew it was in some way related to my freeing Mialani. Had to be. Which also made me stop and pause. Didn’t—hadn’t I in the past felt, like . . . euphoric after releasing a soul? Wasn’t there always a surge in power and the onset of Mr. Tingles?

Yes . . .

Or at least those were my memories. So I wondered why I felt as weak and frail as a newborn kitten? Why Mialani’s soul was somehow different?

Rhonda stood suddenly, her left hand a bloody, gooey mess as Mom moved in and knelt—not an easy feat for a woman with her breast size—and held her hands out over Jason’s body.

What was she—

Jason is in shock,
Mephistopheles’ voice said softly to me.

“I thought you said you were healing him,” I said aloud. Nick looked over at me, and I could feel Joe’s eyes on me as well.

Rhonda turned and frowned. “I haven’t said anything like that.”

I waved at her. “Not you.” I pointed at Jason. “Him . . . or I mean Mephistopheles.”

Lex’s eyes widened, as did Nick’s.

“You can hear him?” Lex snapped.

I gave her a half-snark look. “Yeah. And he said he was helping Jason earlier, but now he’s in shock.”

I am. My blood, my bond with him, is what is keeping him from leaving this body. But it is at its base a human body. And not quite old enough to regenerate easily.
He paused.
He needs . . . I need . . .

I sort of knew in my head what Mephistopheles didn’t want to say as I watched my mom’s hands glow a soft blue. Her eyes were closed as she moved those hands over his chest, never touching him.

“He needs blood,” I said.

Lex hissed.

But Mom held up one of those hands, commanding silence. “Yes. Mephistopheles, can you take control?”

And then, abruptly, there was a shift in Jason’s body—not something physical because I realized I was seeing this on a different plane—as the skin took on a soft glow. And then, to my horror, Jason sat up, his eyes closed, and my mother continued to hold out her right arm.

Jason’s eyes opened. I gasped. They were milky white, much like Archer’s. Shadows gouged out the hollows of his face, making him look darker.

Malevolent.

He reached out with his hands and took Mom’s arm.

Okay—so I’m not always up with what’s going on in front me. I’m more like the movie watcher with her popcorn and soda being dragged along with the audience for what comes next.

Same then. Too late, I realized what was about to happen.

“No!” I shouted, and tried to hop off the papasan so I could pull my mom away from him.

But Joe was holding me, his arms wrapped around my shoulders.

Jason leaned in to my mother’s wrist, staring at it. I expected fangs to either materialize or slide down from beneath his lips. In amazed horror, I saw her skin split so much like a seam giving way under tremendous pressure—and blood come rushing out. He brought her arm up to his mouth and began to suckle that wound as Mom gasped and leaned her head forward.

Every bad vampire movie I’d ever seen in my short life sprang to the forefront of my thoughts. I yelled out at him to stop and pushed at Joe. Rhonda was beside me, as was Jemmy, as Joe pushed me back into the papasan and tried to shush me in my mind. I gave him a mental smack as I clawed at him to get to my mom.

Too late I felt the shift, triggered by my need to get to my mom. I’d fought to bring her back, had teetered on the edge of despair when TC took her, and I was not about to let her die in front of me just to feed some damn vampire.

I could see my hands moving from human to Wraith. From flesh to dark shadow. I heard Rhonda gasp as Jemmy cursed softly under her breath. I felt their hands fall away as I stood—

—and faced down Lex. I saw
her
then—Lex’s Symbiont, Yamato—an image of power superimposed over Lex’s visage. She was as tall as me—and powerful. I could see and feel the vibration of her surrounding me and the room.

STOP!
came Mephistopheles’ voice in my mind.

I winced.

She winced as well.

I moved to the side to see that Jason was no longer feeding from my mother’s wrist. Instead, he was sitting up on his own, Mom’s head in his lap, and he was stroking her hair. Nick hovered over the two of them, one hand on Mom’s neck, the other tilting a watch where he could see it. He looked at me, his eyes widening for an instant, and nodded.

I stared at Jason as he stared at me. Abruptly, the whiteness left his eyes, as did the shadows in his face. His eyelids fluttered as he fell back, Nick catching him and easing him down. Jemmy moved in to rouse Mom, the two of them moving away.

It was then I realized I stood in front of the papasan transformed into a Wraith.

The new Wraith.

Rhonda was staring at me with a mixture of horror and fascination. She pointed. “You—”

Lex sighed. All trace of her Symbiont gone, tucked safely inside. “The Wraith has finally emerged, I see. Mephistopheles told me what you did.” She bowed deep and with a great deal of composure. “I am in your debt,” she said upon rising. “Mialani meant the world to me, and I’m happier knowing she is now free and not forced to endure eternity inside of a rotting corpse.” She pursed her lips. “If you will excuse me—I need time.”

And she was gone.

No smoke. No moving out the door with a dramatic slam.

Just . . . gone.

Much like TC loved to do.

Rhonda, Jemmy, and Joe were still staring at me, giving me a wide berth.

Finally, Jemmy cleared her throat. “You—you think you can tone that down a bit, girl? You’re sick. Longer you stay like that, the longer it’ll take your body to recover.”

I looked at her, seeing her for the first time with these new eyes. Jemmy’s aura was so much like my mom’s. A mixture of orange, yellow, purple, and indigo. So much transition. But—at her core—something else burned bright. A vague light I’d never seen before flickered, then disappeared, like a candle being snuffed out.

Tim and Steve appeared behind them. Steve looked indifferent—but Tim’s face reflected to me what I must look like to them. I sighed, took a deep breath, and shifted again.

Instantly, I was falling back, my knees completely useless, and Joe was there, taking me into his arms. It was hard to focus as the shadows I’d seen only seconds before filled the edges of my vision.

“She’s going out,” Jemmy said, as I felt Joe move with me. “Get her upstairs. Gonna need to let her sweat out the fever.”