Dark Time

DARK TIME

Phaedra Weldon

Copyright © 2013 by Phaedra Weldon
All rights reserved.

Published by Caldwell Press

www.caldwellpress.com

Cover Design Copyright © 2013 Design by Trap Door

Cover Image Copyright ©
Branislav Ostojic

 
| Dreamstime

This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. All rights reserved. This is a work of fiction. All characters and events portrayed in this book are fictional, and any resemblance to real people or incidents is purely fictional. This book, or parts thereof, may not be reproduced in any form without permission.
 

Note from the Author…

Hello Zoë Readers!
 

I am excited to be back on track in the Zoë Universe once again. Not only with Zoë, but with two new series running concurrent with Zoë's storyline.
 

Dags McConnell is back with a new series of his own. The first two books are available in electronic and print formats.
Dance By Midnight
and
Minutes To Midnight
. These books take place after
Dominion
and
Chimera
.
 

The new character being added to the Zoë Universe is Samantha Hawthorne. A witch and child of the God Mother. Her debut is told in the novella,
The
Eldritch Files: Chimera
. Chronologically this novella takes place between
Dominion
and
Dance By Midnight
. Her first full length novel,
The Eldritch Files: Mysterious Times
, will be available in October, before the release of
Seraphim
.
 

I hope you enjoy Dark Time, and be looking for 2 more novellas before Seraphim.
 

1

"What are you doing?"
 

I didn't want to answer him. I also didn't want him to see me like this. I didn't want
anyone
to see me…like
this
.
 

But…he wasn't going to leave me alone. In fact, the bastard had shown up everywhere, all over the world. But no matter how many times we ignored him, or abandoned him, he kept coming back.
 

Ignoring
us
or abandoning
us
wasn't TC's way.

And, true to form, the well-dressed Phantasm knelt beside the body I was currently feeding on. Didn't matter how harrowed, horrible, or downright nasty I looked as I fed from the neck of a dying man…TC didn't draw away. He didn't…he wouldn't…leave me.
 

He gently placed his hand on mine, the one clutching the patient's shoulder. I felt the touch, though from a distance. I wasn't in control of my body. In fact…I couldn't remember the last time I'd been in charge of it.
 

Inanna held the reigns. She was the First Born that kept Daniel sane, because I drove him
in
sane. But now she was bonded to me.
 

Daniel was dead now.
 

And Dags…

"Don't interfere, Azrael," Inanna said with her voice, and mine. I did notice the tone was punctuated with juicy, slurping noises. Inanna had been a neat and fussy eater once. But not lately. "She's given up. I must drink in order to maintain control."
 

"You mean to maintain your hold." TC's melodic timber had changed since I last heard it. He sounded…patient. And that was not a word I associated with the old bastard. Well not really old. I honestly had no idea how
old
he was. Or how
old
Inanna was. Though on those rare occasions after she'd fed and she let her guard down, it was possible to look into her.
 

I did it.
 

Once.
 

And I wasn't doing it again.
 

"Go. Away." Inanna's anger shifted inside. I got out of the way. If he really wanted to make her mad and face the Wraith ala First Born—fine by me. I just didn't give a shit anymore.
 

"No. If you want to fight me, Inanna, you'll have to bring out Zoë's Abysmic essence to do it. But…" he shrugged. "I'm pretty sure you don't have that kind of control right now."
 

Inanna paused in her meal and turned my head to look at him. I felt blood sliding down my chin. "What do you want?"

"What I've been wanting for two months. I want to talk to Zoë."

"No."
 

"Why not? Are you afraid if I do speak to her she'll want her body back? That she'll want control again? You like having control, don't you Inanna?" He leaned in close. "You
enjoy
pulling the strings."
 

She lashed out at him, my hand shifting to the old ashen skinned, clawed standby I'd grown to hate. The Wraith part of me. The Abysmal tainted side.
 

TC disappeared. He'd done that slight of hand every time he goaded Inanna. How many times was it now? How many places? He'd shown up the first time we went to see that guard—the one I'd torn the arm off. Guilt, combined with the sting of rejection, had guided me to him. Inanna insisted it was impossible for me to give him back his arm. I couldn't regrow flesh. But I knew I could manipulate flesh. Though…I seriously didn't know how I'd known it.
 

I'd worked on instinct, along with the need, no the
desire
, to pull from me the most broken, abused part of myself.
 

My heart.
 

And when I was done, the man had a new arm.
 

And I…was a little less broken.
 

Only a little.
 

"If you're going to fuck with me, then stand still so I can kill you." Inanna's voice growled inside of my own. She was up off the patient now, and looking around the hospital room. "Leave me alone, brother!"
 

"You know I can't do that." TC reappeared behind her and grabbed her left arm and twisted up behind her back.
My
back. It hurt. I could feel it. But I didn't…

It just wasn't my problem anymore. You know?
 

Inanna struggled but she had one glaring weakness her brother didn't. He was still a First Born. And she…was now a Revenant. A conjoined creature consisting of a powerful spirit and manipulated flesh.
 

And me.
 

Just…me.
 

TC was stronger. Hell, he was joined to the Abysmal Throne. He was
the
Phantasm. "I want to talk to Zoë. It's important."
 

"No…"
 

"It's about Joe."
 

"No—"
 

Joe? Halloran? I hated to admit that I hadn't kept up with Joe. I hadn't talked to mom. I hadn't kept up with anyone.
 

Inanna fought him physically but I didn't care. My curiosity was still there. You know that thing of mine that got me into all this bullshit in the first place back in that office in Atlanta? The first night I saw the other Phantasm kill William Tanaka in cold blood and then…
eat
him?
 

Yeah, we're all part of the same dysfunctional family.
 

With a sigh I slipped out. It was easy enough—I used to do it all the time. That was back when I had to go out of body (OOB) to see the Astral plane and become a Wraith. Or
the
Wraith.
 

I seriously didn't know if there were anymore like me.
 

Usually when my astral self slipped her mortal coil, I looked pretty grisly. Ashen skin, claws, evil black bunny slippers, wings, and Doc Oc hair. But not this time. I noticed this time…

I looked like me. The swirl of ash that usually covered my skin in all the right places, making my appearance totally PG to fourteen year old boys, became swirls of white mist. It looked like angel hair. Well, like that stuff my mom used to use in crafts. That white, spun glass stuff she told me not to touch because it would get into my skin and make me itch. I never did go back and check to see if it really was spun glass, or she was just josh'n me so I'd keep my sticky fingers out of her stuff.
 

Now my hair looked like that and I wondered if it would make me itchy.

TC noticed me as well, and eased the now sleeping me, the part Inanna inhabited, to the floor. It was quite a contrast.
Her
me in darks and
me
me in…

Damn…I looked like the toping to a Dragon Con wedding cake!
 

"That's…new…" TC said as he did a slow walk around me. He wasn't leering like he usually did. He looked…surprised and concerned. "I mean you OOBing and Inanna fainting…and you looking like vanilla meringue."
 

I think I liked the leering better. "Screw you. And yeah…it's like…right
now
new. This is the first time I've tried to OOB since I…" I had to stop and think.
 

"Since you remade that man's arm."

I looked at him. "You know that was me?"
 

"Everyone does. Your mom had it biopsied, Luv. Your DNA is all over it. In fact, before she left, Dr. Mulhally identified the flesh as being from your heart."
 

"Left? The doc left?"
 

"More like…vanished."
 

I didn't know what to say. Lucy Mulhally had been vital to the Society of Ishmael's medical facility. She was their expert in all things Abysmal and Ethereal and how it affected humans. Like me. And Dags.
 

Damn him.
 

"Where…how did she vanish?"

"How does anyone vanish?" He smirked and looked more like my TC. My Trench Coat. "Nona suspects it was against her will, from the condition of her apartment. But the Society's best psychics haven't come up with a clear vision of what happened. They're looking for her."
 

Oh. That's good.
 

I opened my mouth then closed it. Then, "You said you needed to talk to me about Joe."

"Yes. He's vanished too."
 

Joe? I took a step closer toward him and for the first time felt slightly…repelled. It wasn't like a smell or a feeling, but more like a slight pressure. The only thing I could compare it to was when I was kid and moved magnets around and sometimes they pushed each other away and sometimes they attracted. This was the pushing away feeling.
 

From the look on his face, I knew he'd sensed it as well. "What was that?"
 

TC's brows rose on his forehead. "It's the polar repulsion between the Abysmal and the Ethereal. Apparently in that form…" he pointed at me. "You're more Ethereal."
 

"I am not Ethereal!" I was not happy about that. I hated the Ethereal Plane and all the jackasses in it.
 

I used to hate my father because he was Ethereal…and because he'd done a whole bunch of mean things to me. But now…now he just confused the hell out of me. I couldn't remember when it was I talked to him.
 

"Zoë? What's wrong?"
 

"I don't know. I'm just forgetting things."
 

"Because you've been trying to forget, haven't you? That's why you gave up and let Inanna have
her
way."
 

"
Her
way?" I laughed. "What's that? I don't know what
her
way is. I just know…" My heart raced in my chest. For the first time in an astral state, I could feel my heart as it pounded. I could feel the air from the room's air conditioner as it touched my face and moved my hair from my cheek. I was…corporeal…
outside
of my body.
 

He was suddenly beside me, his arms around me. And he was warm.
 

Oh my God…he was
warm
! And he smelled right as well as wrong. He was familiar to me. The touch of an old lover, forever a part of me. I buried my face into his chest as his arms enfolded me. My Vin Diesel.
 

My Trench Coat.
 

"What happened, Zoë. Tell me what happened. Why did you just leave like that? Don't you know what you've put your mother through?"
 

His voice vibrated in his chest against my cheek and I sobbed. Oh damn did I sob. And I knew if I didn't say something fast, the last few days, weeks, or how ever long I'd abandoned life would come crashing down into one hell of an ugly cry. "He…he told me hated me, TC. He told me I was a monster and that he couldn't deal with a monster. That…he never wanted to see me again."
 

TC didn't say anything. He didn't have too. I could feel him tense against me. "Then he's best forgotten. For now. I need you to help me find Joe."
 

"I'm alone…" I was blubbering against him. Whatever planar bullshit had worked to repel me before was gone and I was doing my full on pity party into his nice expensive suit.
 

"No you're not alone. You will always have me. You have Nona. And you will have Joe—but we need to find him."
 

I pulled away from him and looked up into his eyes. They were white once…like the eyes of the dead. But now they were almost human looking. "Wh-wha about…J-J-Jason?" Man I hated those kinds of cries that took my breath away.