Revenant (16 page)

Though . . . he had
touched
one.

Mine.

Oh hell, I wish someone would fucking make up a guidebook or a sourcebook on this freak’n game and let me read it!

Jason and Nick went into the botanica as I went to the refrigerator and grabbed a pint of Starbucks Java Chip. I’d wanted to go take a long bath and sort through this, but apparently Mom, Rhonda, and Joe had different plans.

I put Tim’s rock back where it belonged, and he appeared near the fireplace. He looked thoughtful, and I didn’t disturb him. He’d talk to me when he was ready. He’d witnessed it all.

Mom had tea ready, and we all sat in the botanica. I was in my papasan and refused to touch that tea. I wanted my stomach intact, and the Java Chip was improving my mood epically.

Rhonda was in the kitchen on her cell phone. Jason and Nick hugged each other near the door. Nick waved at me, went to Nona and gave her a kiss on the cheek as well as a hug, and then left the house. A few minutes later, I heard a car start up outside.

I looked over at Jason. “You two have a spat?”

He shook his head. But it was Mom who answered. “He wants Nick as far away from here as possible. After what happened to Mialani”—she looked at the Revenant with a sad expression—“I don’t blame him. Nick’s too precious to lose.”

“It would . . .” Jason fixed his gaze on me. “It would destroy me.”

Mom settled in her high-backed chair as Joe plopped down on the couch. Jason moved to stand by the fireplace, an imposing if not handsome picture.

“Okay, I’ve left a message,” Rhonda said as she came into the room. “But he hasn’t been answering my calls right away.”

Rhonda pointed at Jason. “You get Nick out of here?”

Jason nodded.

“Good. That’s one less person we have to worry about.”

“So,” Mom began. “My daughter.”

“When were you going to tell us about this new ability you seem to have? You can go Wraith without going OOB?”

I smiled at her. “Actually, I wanted to surprise you.”

“Consider us surprised,” Rhonda said as she moved to sit on the couch beside Joe. “Care to regale us with the tales of you sans OOB, now that we have a moment to listen?”

I looked at her. “Sorry.”

“So when did this happen?”

I looked at Mom. “Shortly after Cooper was killed. I wanted to go to the morgue and make sure he was really gone—and not trapped—”

“Why—had you seen him?”

“No. I just wanted to make sure, okay? And when I tried to go OOB”—I shrugged—“poof. I did it in body.”

“Interesting,” Jason said. “And the Archer? I’m sure everyone would like to hear about your apparent relationship with the betrayer.”

“TC?” Mom looked at me with wide eyes. “Zoë—”

“Look”—I held out my hands—“TC has been helping me learn how to use my power as a Wraith, okay? He’s done nothing wrong here.”

“You
trust
him?” Rhonda said.

“Hell no,” I lied. Because in a really fucked-up way, I did trust him. And I had no idea why. Though now that I understood his existence a bit more, things were starting to fall into place. “But he’s taught me a lot about flying, about fighting, and about sensing Abysmal creatures. And he’s basically healed me twice.”

“Well, that’s because you’re almost like a host to him,” Rhonda said, “if I’m understanding all of this right. But he’s only doing it because you give him power.”

Well, we kinda knew that anyway so—

I felt my eyes widen as that point drove itself home. I looked at Joe and Rhonda, who were both looking at me the same way. We all realized that Lex and even Aether had said that by fusing with a human soul, they’d diminished themselves. But by touching me, TC had grown stronger.

When I put this to Jason, he frowned at me as if I were six. “You already know the answer to that. Because you were an Irin. Not just a normal human.”

“But Jason,” Rhonda prodded. “If TC became that much more powerful simply by touching Zoë—and he is a First Born—then why hasn’t he ever tried to fuse with her? What kind of creature would that create?”

Uhm . . . yikes?

I looked at Joe. He was staring at me. And I wasn’t sure I liked the look in his eyes.
What?

Nothing,
he said back to me.
I’m just thinking.

“I’m not sure what would happen,” Jason said. “But I’m not positive I want to find out. Zoë.” He looked at me.

I pulled my gaze from Joe and peered suspiciously at Jason. “Uh-huh.”

“Has Archer at any time actually tried to join with you?”

I pursed my lips. “Define join.”

“I’m not talking about sex, Zoë.”

Well, that silenced the room.
Tadah. Thank ye, I’ll be here all week.

Mom sighed. “Honestly, she gets that from her father.”

Oh,
now
you talk about him, Miss Former Burlesque Dancer.
“Honestly, Jason, he’s never broached the subject. It seems whatever it was he wanted, he took from me that second encounter, when it looked like I’d died.” I’d had no memory of what’d happened for those hours prior to waking up in that drawer/box in the morgue. Not immediately.

But over time, and with a bit of prodding from Mr. Trench Coat himself—things had become crystal clear. We’d had sex. And a lot of it. And I had enjoyed the hell out of it. Which really pissed me off.

But in hindsight, if he’d ever taken anything from me except my voice, I never knew it.

“Can you call him here?” Jason asked.

“In my house?” Mom thundered. I was sure Mom was less than eager to see him, seeing as he’d yanked her out of that man-made, man-parts puppet that Bertram and Charolette had stuffed her into. TC had never apologized for that. In fact, he felt no remorse. Especially after possessing her body to communicate with me.

That was gross.

I’d never told Mom about that. Didn’t plan on it either. I was sure the woman would insist on some Indian voodoo ritual inner-body cleansing, and I just wasn’t in the mood to eat dates and flax-seed.
God, I need to get my own place again.

I looked at Jason. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. But I can ask him.”

“You really think he’ll be truthful?” Rhonda asked.

“No,” Jason and I said in unison.

“Jinx!” I shouted at him.

He grinned but kept quiet.

I liked him.

“I will ask him, though.” My stomach growled at that moment, and I put my hand on my middle and set the empty ice-cream container on the hearth beside me. Mom had cakes and cookies, but I wanted real food. I hadn’t really eaten much of anything since I woke up. “I want a pizza.”

“A pizza?” Rhonda said. “Sounds really good.”

“We could head down to Savage,” Jason said. “They’re open till ten thirty.”

I grinned. A vampire who loves pizza. “With garlic.”

He matched my smile. “Always.”

Well, that blew that myth right out of the water.

Walking around the corner onto Moreland to get to Savage was kinda fun. Just the four of us. Mom insisted she had work to do and was on the phone with the Geriatric Scooby Gang when we left. Tim bowed out when I grabbed his rock, and it made me wonder if he had to come when I took the rock or was it just simply like an express train to wherever I was.

We got a bench table in the front. I ordered pepperoni, Rhonda and Joe got a sausage, and Jason ordered a white-cheese pizza. A couple of Cokes and we were seated and talking. Sometimes it was just good to get out of the shop and away from Mom’s potions and herbs.

Not to mention those wacky wards she had up that tended to twist my stomach sometimes.

Joe sat back in his chair, turned sideways with his Coke. He’d gotten really quiet inside my head, and that was spooky. I wanted to know what he was thinking, but that would be me overshadowing him, which means he’d fight me, which means I’d have to go OOB—

Oh . . . so many questions. And for the first time since this whole ride began, I was interested. Really interested.

Jason spoke up as he sipped his Coke. It was interesting watching him do this. It was like each sip was ecstasy. “We have four bodies. Two were human, one a ghoul, one was a Revenant. All of them had a form of this ritual applied to them. But we know it wasn’t the right ritual or the full ritual because the First Born wasn’t obliterated.”

“The big question is who is doing this?”

“Well, I’d say first off it’s the Phantasm,” Jason said. “I’ve been on the phone with three of the others discussing the possibility. And since all the deaths are centered here in Atlanta, we’ve come to the conclusion that it centers around the Wraith.”

Hrm. Hadn’t considered that myself. But it was odd that all these killings were here in the South, when I was sure the Revenants were all over the world. But, to think it was because of me?

“Why do you think that?” Rhonda said. “I’m more inclined to believe it has to do with Archer.”

Jason nodded. “The two Revenants I spoke with had letters delivered to them, telling them the spell had been discovered here, in Atlanta, and they had a chance to destroy it once and for all.”

Me, Joe, and Rhonda, we all looked at him as if he’d grown a third eyeball. “You are kidding me,” Rhonda said. “Have you called all of them? All the remaining Revenants?”

He nodded. “I have, and three have responded. The others are talking to each other.” Jason had a frown on his face as he focused on the pizza joint’s front door. I was aware a couple had come in and were arm in arm. I leaned forward. “And?”

Jason looked at me. “And I don’t think it’s got anything to do with Archer, or you, but something else entirely.”

“Care to share?” Rhonda said. “Because I’m at a loss on this one. I’ve never heard of this spell, Zoë here can OOB without actually OOBing, we’ve got a dead ghoul and a dead Revenant—the oldest of the First Borns at that. And now you tell us that all of you received letters to come here? To find this spell? Where were you supposed to look?”

Jason narrowed his eyes. “Well, to begin with, Aether wasn’t the oldest of the First Borns. He was the oldest Revenant. And where do you find a spell but in a book?”

“A book?” I frowned. Well, that made sense since Archer had said that spells had a catch and had to be written down. So they were looking for a book. “Where is this book?”

Jason pursed his lips as he looked at each of us. “In the weirdest place I never would have thought of.” He turned in his chair and pointed to the couple. “In him.”

We all looked past Jason to the couple settling into chairs at a table near the counter. She had fire red hair and a bright smile as her date kissed her ear. And he—

“Is that—” Rhonda said in a low voice.

I nodded. Yes, it was.

It was Dags.

I
held up my hand for the table to be quiet though I didn’t take my gaze from the two of them.

The redhead was beautiful, with a very petite figure, a good inch or two shorter than Dags, and wore a soft light green summer top that revealed well-toned arms and an ample breast size.

Since when did he go for the boob-enhanced type? I glanced down at my own. They weren’t overtly large, or enhanced, but they were nice. He seemed to like them before.

And Dags—he looked
happy
. He wore some sort of shirt that I couldn’t focus on and a pair of jeans. His hair looked the same—shorter than when we’d first met and just a bit grown out. He looked like Dags. They sat with their backs to us, and I was more concerned over where the redhead was putting her hands.

It took me a moment to realize that was Joe’s voice and not my own conscience. I turned back around and glared at him. “I am not staring.”

“Yes, you are,” Jason said. He had a very lazy, quizzical look on his face. “You know that boy? He’s carrying a very subtle but dangerous power around him.”

“You can sense it?” Rhonda said.

“Any Abysmal creature for miles can sense it. He should learn to cap it.” The Revenant sat forward. “I take it this is the Guardian?”

I sensed she nodded. I wasn’t looking. My attention was too focused on Dags paying attention to the redhead. Didn’t he notice us sitting over here? Couldn’t he like, sense me?

Even a little?

And why was it bothering me?

I wonder if he’s actually
sitting
with his last job,
came Joe’s thought.
Maybe she’s the reason he’s been kinda incommunicado?

You shut the fuck up!
Oh. Wow. I did not mean to respond that emphatically.

Yay! I finally got to use that word!

I glanced at Joe. He didn’t have happy face on. He had grumpy face waiting in the wings. And he was still looking at me funny.

“Well”—Rhonda stood up—“I’m his boss, and I’m having a word with him.”

Joe yanked her back down by her jeans. She turned and glared at him, and by golly, he glared right back.
Booyah.

“I need to go to the bathroom,” I said, as our pizzas arrived. I stood and moved around the pizza dude and went quickly by their table, keeping my back to them as I went to the bathroom. Of course I really didn’t need to go—but it gave me a great vantage point to watch them. From there I could see Dags’s face. Watch his expressions. Feel my heart thunder in my chest when he reached out and touched her arm.