Shadow Rising (25 page)

As I entered the kitchen, it was eerily quiet. I looked around, but there was only silence. I’d never gotten up when somebody wasn’t cooking something or eating something or arguing in the kitchen.

Worried, I headed into the living room, looking for signs that somebody might be around. The living room was quiet, too. Where the hell were my sisters? The guys? Iris? Maggie and Hanna?

A peek into the parlor showed it was empty, too.

“What the fuck?” I dashed upstairs, poking my head into Delilah’s room. Nothing. As I slowly descended to the second floor, a sound from Camille’s study caught my attention. I quickly opened the door. No one was around, but the Whispering Mirror was making noises.

I sat down in front of it and spoke the password. The mirror shimmered and—in place of the reflection of the empty room, since I couldn’t see myself in mirrors—Trenyth’s image appeared.

“Who’s there? Menolly, is that you?” He squinted, staring at his mirror.

I nodded. “Yes, it’s me. I’m sorry, the entire house seems to be empty and I have no clue where everybody went. I was just headed downstairs to look for them. What’s up?”

He cleared his throat. “Quall and the others are headed by caravan to Rhellah. They arrived in Ceredream just in time to sign on for a caravan. They should arrive in Rhellah in a few weeks. I thought I’d just update you on matters.”

I studied his expression. Since nobody else was around to shut me up, I decided to ask a few of the more indelicate questions I’d been mulling over. “Tell me the truth. Can we trust Quall? I know what you said in conference, but, seriously, we need to know.”

Trenyth looked over his shoulder, then turned back to the mirror. “Don’t trust him if you’re alone with him. He’s cruel, and he’s vindictive, and he takes delight in the pain of others. But truly, he
is
on our side. He’s out for his father’s blood, and he’s got the best reason in the world to back up Queen Asteria—he owes her his life and she made sure he knew that from the beginning. That’s all I can say for now.”

I nodded. “We’ve got problems over here. We’re not sure if they’re all tied together or not.” But before I could tell him about what had gone down, he darted another look over his shoulder.

“I’m being summoned. Her Majesty needs me. I’ll talk to you soon, Menolly.” And with that, the Whispering Mirror went dark.

I stared at the mirror, seeing only Camille’s study reflected behind me. Might as well go figure out where everybody was hiding. I dashed downstairs and did another run through of the house, but nobody was there.

Seriously worried, I headed out onto the porch and into the driveway. Most of the cars were there, and I could hear some commotion out back. I raced around the house, readying myself for a fight, but stopped when I saw the trailer parked in the back yard. Iris and Bruce’s temporary home had arrived!

Smoky, Trillian, and Vanzir were hooking up wires and whatnot, and the door was open. I paused next to Vanzir, who squatted beside the trailer, installing what looked like a jury-rigged Internet cable.

“You guys might have left a note for me so I wouldn’t freak out, thinking you’d all been captured or something equally hideous.”

“Eh, we knew you’d figure it out pretty soon.” He set down the wrench he was holding and stood, arching his back. “You get back okay from the Dream-Time?”

“Yeah. I was going to ask…so you
were
there? And Chase? How is he, and why isn’t anybody there with him? What’s going on? I expected a note, asking me to rush down to the FH-CSI. In fact, when I didn’t find one, I was beginning to think maybe it really was just a dream.”

He shook his head. “No, unfortunately. As for why no note, Camille asked me to send you down to HQ when you woke up. She’s down there right now, with Delilah, Shade, and Morio. The rest of us are helping Iris get her trailer ready.”

“Where’s Maggie?” I looked around. “I can imagine how much help she’s being.”

“Hanna took her for a walk in her stroller. That woman thinks everybody should live on fresh air and exercise.” He grinned, though. Hanna had managed to win over everybody in the house.

“Alone?” I glanced around. “What about—”

“No, don’t worry. Roz is with her, and one of the elfin guards.” He gave me a reassuring nod, which, coming from Vanzir, wasn’t all that reassuring.

“I’ll head out for the station, then.” I turned to go, then, stopping, looked over my shoulder. “Say, are Roz and Hanna…”

“Have they hooked up?” Vanzir snickered. “I’m surprised it took you so long to ask. Let me put it this way, they’ve become friends…with benefits. I doubt if Hanna wants to involve herself emotionally with an incubus, and Rozurial knows better than to break her heart.”

“Thanks. Just curiosity.” As I headed back to the house, I felt unaccountably glad that Roz and Hanna had managed to find some sort of companionship together. Hanna needed someone to remind her she wasn’t just a servant, and Roz…well…Roz just needed women who enjoyed his
company, since there was no way he could have the one woman who seemed to have touched his heart since Zeus had turned him.

I reached the FH-CSI in record time, breaking every speed limit in the city. But luckily, no cops were on duty and traffic was light. As soon as I entered the waiting room, I caught sight of Delilah, Shade, Morio, and Camille. Delilah rose, letting out a little cry and reaching for me. I hugged her tight.

“What’s going on? How’s Chase? I got the news from Vanzir. Did he tell you I was there last night?” I took a seat next to Camille and leaned back. We didn’t look to be going anywhere soon.

“Chase is…holding his own but he’s still in a coma.” Delilah pressed her lips together and stared at her feet.

“What happened? The last thing I remember is that Vanzir was feeding off some spirit that was trying to siphon away Chase’s life force.” Hesitating, I glanced over at Morio.

“It’s all right, you can talk about it. I know what the hungry ghosts can do, trust me. You know I understand that. But these aren’t the same thing. They’re…worse, I think.” He sucked in a deep breath and let it out slowly.

“They’re definitely nothing to mess with. What I saw on the Dream-Time last night was like a monster in its natural form. If that was its natural form.” I explained to them what had happened. “So what did Sharah say about Chase? Or is she too close to the situation to take care of him?”

Delilah frowned. “Mallen won’t let her tend to him. For one thing, with her pregnancy, she’s far too vulnerable should something go wrong. And if something happens to Chase, she’s too involved and it might hurt the baby. Mallen’s been keeping her busy tending to minor bumps and bruises from some of the Fae coming through here.”

“Have you been in to see him?” I wasn’t good with bedside visits, but Chase was our friend and I didn’t like just sitting around.

“Mallen hasn’t let us go in yet. He’s…” Delilah broke off as Mallen entered the room. Elfin, he looked young, but
probably was older than any of us except for the dragons. Mallen was well into his prime. He’d managed to settle into working with Sharah. He was making a home for himself Earthside.

“You can see him now. I haven’t let Sharah go back yet. I was hoping, if you can sense anything…I’m at a loss for what’s happening.” He worried his lip, then added, “His body is fine—he’s fit and healthy. But the seizures did take a toll on him, although I think he can recover. As far as the coma…that’s our problem.”

We stood and followed him. Sharah was in one of the rooms we passed, attending to a young Fae woman, who looked like she was ill. She glanced up at us and nodded, but said nothing as we passed.

Chase was tucked away in a private room near the end of the hallway.

I’d been through far too much to find hospitals depressing, but when we saw him, lying there, his eyes closed as his chest rose and fell with his steady, even breath, I felt cold and alone and angry. Chase hadn’t asked for what had happened to him, and here he was, a pawn in a desperate game. Or maybe it was random chance. But I was getting sick of random chance. The universe had one hell of a nasty sense of humor.

“Oh, Chase…” Delilah slowly moved to his left side and took one hand, while Camille took the other. It felt wrong for Sharah not to be here, but I understood Mallen’s reasoning. We had to protect her, at least until we knew what we were dealing with. I glanced over at Shade. “Is there any way you can figure out what happened to him?”

Shade motioned for my sisters to move out of his way. He stood by Chase’s head and motioned to me. “Turn off the lights, please. I need shadow in which to work.”

Making sure all I was turning off were lights, I flipped the switch. The room dimmed, with only the blinking of the machines monitoring his blood pressure and heart rate to light our way.

Shade placed both hands on the detective’s head and closed his eyes. It was hard to see what was going on, but a
light began to flow between his fingers—pale violet, the color of the Netherworld, the color of death magic, the color of shades and shadows and ghosts.

I moved a step closer to Delilah, and she reached out for me. I took her hand and felt the trembling fear flow off her. Morio and Camille had joined hands and were watching intently. We stood, silent, waiting, as Shade began to fade into the thin layer of smoke that began to rise around him. It was as if his body were breaking apart into minuscule dots.

Beam me up, Scotty.
The thought appeared unbidden, and I would have laughed if we hadn’t been facing a crisis. Delilah gasped and clutched my hand tightly. The smoke that Shade had vanished into was infiltrating Chase’s body, filtering in through his nose.

“Shade’s going in search of Chase’s consciousness,” Camille whispered.

She looked up, silver scarring the violet of her eyes. Morio’s eyes were also gleaming. Shade’s magic was affecting them, bringing them in tune with what he was doing. Delilah began to waver, and her hand fell away from mine. One moment she was there, and the next, a large, sleek, black panther with a jeweled collar stood beside me. Quickly padding over to the bed, she rose up, front feet planted on the bottom of the sheets. I stepped forward, ready to grab her back if needed, but she just watched.

Camille and Morio began to whisper a soft chant, so soft I could barely hear it. Mallen stood back, watching and waiting. I forced myself to relax.

As I watched, a slow shimmer of silver light appeared from their breaths, flowing over Chase like a wave, rolling out to cover him fully, to settle in swirling clouds around and over his body.

After a moment, a faint voice cried out from the mist.

“I’m lost…help me…”

It was Chase, and he sounded frightened and alone. Delilah, still in panther form, leaned closer, surrounded by the swirling mist as well. Instinct made me step forward, take hold of her collar, and gently pull her away.

“You can’t help right now, Kitten. Let them work. Let Morio and Camille and Shade do what they can.” I knelt by her and wrapped my arms around the big fuzzy neck and crooned in her ear. She seemed anxious—hell, I
knew
she was anxious—but she listened to me and lay down. I patted her back, stroking her fur and scratching her between the ears. I knew better than just about anyone what Delilah liked when she was in cat form, and it wasn’t all that much different when she shifted into her panther form.

She rumbled a broken purr, then licked me on the face. I wiped the slobber off and kissed her on the nose. “It will be all right. We’ll find him. Just give them time and space.”

With a slight hiccup, she rested her head on her paws and waited. I turned back to the others. Morio and Camille were now by Chase’s side, their hands pressed on his heart and his forehead. Shade was still nowhere in sight.

“It’s waiting for me, I can’t get past it…” Again, the faint sound of Chase’s voice, echoing through the room, but it did not come from his lips.

I glanced around. Where the hell was he and how come we were hearing him? And what was the
it
he was talking about? Vanzir and I had munched the creepshow that was after him last night.

But…but…it wasn’t the thing that had
hurt
him. What I’d seen—and Vanzir had destroyed—was after him over on the Dream-Time, but it hadn’t touched him yet. I’d seen to that. No, something else actually got to him. And whatever that
something
was, it still had hold of him.

And then, I saw it—a motion, a whisper of something being forced out of Chase’s nose. He began to breathe hard, and I motioned for Delilah to stay where she was as I took a closer look. Whatever it was, it was wispy and wraithlike, and I knew it wasn’t Shade.

Camille and Morio turned their attention to it. They
reached out, their hands joined, and plunged them into the heart of the creature. An unearthly shriek filled the air and the spirit vanished. A moment later, Chase let out a loud gasp and smoke poured from his mouth. It flowed over to the side of the bed and out of the dim shadow, Shade stepped forth.

Chase coughed, harshly, and then moaned. Mallen rushed over to him and checked his pulse and heart, then smoothed his hair back as Chase’s eyes fluttered open.

“Where…where…” His voice was ragged and hoarse.

“Quiet, Chase. Rest. You’re safe now.” Mallen injected something into his arm, and Chase fell back into a peaceful, deep sleep. Mallen looked up at me. “I’ve given him a sedative. He’ll sleep for a couple of hours and then wake. The drug is mild and short-acting.”

Shade looked pensive. His gaze fluttered up to meet mine, and he shook his head. “Not good. Delilah, we have need of you, my pet.”

Delilah began to shimmer, shifting back into her normal form. As she stood and stretched, eyes wide, Chase murmured in his sleep, but he was calmer and seemed to be resting peacefully.

“What the fuck was the thing that came out of him? And what on earth were you doing?” She gazed at him. “Is this part of your Stradolan nature?”