Dark Time (6 page)

In fact, Geist had been the one to greet him when he found himself in this place after his body died.
 

"So, did he give you an idea of why you were here? Like this?" We were sitting on the floor, against a black wall not far from where we'd been standing. We still had stage lights on us. Apparently they were a new addition. Kind of like having an eye watching us. And for all I knew it might be. Inanna's eye in the sky. I was leaned up against him and he had an arm around me. I didn't know if the physical sensation was real, but it was enough for me. I'd wanted to be held for weeks…anything to pull me back from that black brink of depression I'd slipped into.
 

"He was kinda vague. I knew I'd died. I knew Gabriel had been the one to snap Inanna's connection that kept me sane. She used an Eidolon, didn't she?"

"Yeah. But we don't have to worry about those anymore. Or at least all but one. The destruction stone is still out there. I think." I looked over and up at him. He was still a beautiful man, even in spirit. "What else?"

"He said Inanna managed to grab me after my soul released."
 

"So…you're really a soul, a ghost, and not a memory or something?"

He shrugged. "Zoë, I don't know. I'm not a part of this. It's all so new to me. I loved being a part of it…for a while. But somehow I knew…"
 

"Knew what?"
 

"That it wasn't going to be forever. That…Inanna had other things in mind. It wasn't something she said, just a feeling I couldn't shake."

"Was that why you were always brooding?"

He smiled at me. "Yeah."
 

Manuel returned, with Rhonda's address in hand. Well color me shocked. They really had been keeping an eye on her, even though she was no longer in possession of power. The two left Jason's apartment within an hour.
 

* * *

Okay…here's the funny part. Rhonda lived in a house three blocks from mom's old shop in Little Five Points. Originally she'd lived at the Society House, just like the rest of the crazies. But after losing her power she'd disappeared. And all her things with her. At the time I'd been more concerned with Dags and finding out what he remembered.

And hoping he'd remember me.
 

Well, we all know how that turned out.
 

I spotted the white, windowless van the moment Manuel parked the car. I mean…it looked like what I'd call a kidnap van, but the license plate was a dead give away to those of us who knew the Society's symbol, which they had emblazoned in the center of the tag number.
 

We sat in the car a few minutes, watching the van. Manuel looked at me in the passenger's seat. "You think they're watching us?"
 

"Hang here a minute and I'll let you know."
 

I wasn't sure what Inanna had in mind, but I was pretty sure she didn't want the Society watching her…me…breaking into Rhonda's house. We stepped out of the car and went OOB as Manuel leaned over the front seat and shut the door. Daniel held on to me as we watched the van come closer and then passed through the van's metal.
 

It looked like a Scooby van on the inside. Dark with every available wall space covered in electronics. Monitors and what looked like sound equipment lined one wall with two people I didn't recognize sitting in chairs with headphones on.
 

I knew what she was going to do. I would have done the same thing.
 

In a single sweeping motion, Inanna moved my incorporeal body
through
the equipment. She walked through it on both sides, then out of the van and back in again, disrupting every magnetic field in the area. Once back in the van Daniel and I saw the equipment spark and power down. I'd learned a long time ago that when I was OOB I could mess up anything electronic. Joe said me passing through or nearby was like shooting off an EMP.
 

Electro Magnetic Pulse.
 

Once the two technicians were busy avoiding getting shocked and head and shoulders into their machines to get them working again, Inanna shifted her focus on the house and glided back across the street to the front door—

And stopped.

I felt it the second she felt it. A subtle but palpable…

Wrong
.
 

"What…what
is
that?" Daniel whispered.
 

"You can sense it?"
 

"Yeah…but I don't recognize it." He swallowed. "But I get the feeling Inanna does."
 

I didn't get that feeling, but I hadn't been connected to the First Born as long as he had. What I got was a slight rise in heart rate and hesitation. She reached out to touch the door, paused, and then pushed through the wood.
 

Inanna gasped and went corporeal. I don't think she meant too, but I sensed it when she lost control of my power. And in that second…I had my grasp on it. But the moment was too fast, too fleeting, and was gone.
 

But it'd been there. I'd had a second of control.
 

It wasn't much, but it was a start. And it showed me that taking control again was possible. If I could repeat what ever it was she felt at that moment and make it last longer…maybe I could kick her in here?
 

Then I took a look at what was before us.
 

And
I
gasped.
 

The house was in shambles. I was pretty sure, given Rhonda's need for order and organization, she didn't leave it this way. I could also sense that same
wrong
feeling, only it was stronger in here. The only way I could describe it was…you know when you get out of the shower and your finger nails are soft…and then you bend it backward?
 

That's
what I was feeling. Only…it was lasting. And it was making the hairs on the back of my neck stand on end.
 

My chest started hurting and Inanna moved to the nearest wall to brace us against it.
 

You're much weaker than I thought.
 

I smirked. "Noticed, huh? Can't keep my heart working and keep control?"

I can keep control as long as I want.
 

I moved away from Daniel and faced the view to the outside world. "Why?"
 

Eshe appeared in front of me, but it was a ghostly image of her first host.
Because it has to be this way. Your body is the perfect vessel to stop what's being done to the world. To stop her from ever returning.
 

Her? I held out my hands. I wanted to choke her…but I didn't think that was really possible. "Her…who? What's being done? Why won't you fill me in on what the fuck you're doing? I mean…did you use Daniel to get to me? Was that it? Was bonding with me your ultimate goal?"
 

It was a few seconds before she answered.
Yes…and no.
 

I wasn't sure she was truthful or not. "Bullshit."
 

I loved Daniel. I love him even more now.
 

"Then why is here? Why is he in here with me? Why hasn't he moved on?"

Because I needed him to stay with me…to keep you company.
 

None of this was making sense and I was getting very…
very
pissed off. "Tell me who
she
is."
 

Not now. We don't have much time. I'm afraid we're too late for the witch.
She's
already been here.
Eshe looked sad.
Your friend is lost.
And then she vanished.
 

I held out my arms and jumped up and down like a five year old. "What the hell are you talking about?" I shouted at the top of my lungs.
 

Nothing.
 

Instead we were moving again and Daniel and I were treated to more of the same throughout Rhonda's house. Furniture tossed, torn apart, ripped open. Glass littered the floor. The bathroom mirror had been smashed and huge chunks of glass filled the sink. There was also something brown smeared over the walls, the floor, and in the bathtub.
 

"Is that blood?" Daniel moved behind me.
 

"Yeah…I think it is." I swallowed. "Was Rhonda attacked? Is she dead?" Now I was afraid of what we might find in the bedroom. I grabbed Daniel's hands and held him close to me.
 

Rhonda's bedroom was…

Normal. Nothing inside of it had been disturbed. Her bed was made and covered in a thin layer of dust, a lot like Joe's apartment had been. Inanna looked around the room, opening drawers, two closets. Nothing. Her clothes still hung in the closet, her shoes in neat rows in the floor…
 

A wooden cabinet in the corner remained untouched. Inanna opened the single door and stood back. Inside were old books, with titles like
Witchcraft Today
and
An ABC of Witchcraft Past Present and Future
. There were bottles of things with hand written labels on the top shelf. Two knifes, one black handled and one white handled. There were cords of white, green and red, and a small box filled with silver jewelry, some of it I recognized.
 

On the lowest shelf was a long wooden box. Inanna grabbed it and opened it. Purple velvet lined the inside, but nothing else. The box was empty.
 

"Is that it? Or was there where this wand was supposed to be?" I really didn't expect an answer.
 

"Yes." Inanna said out loud. "It was here. I can feel the vibration of the rowan wood."
 

Ah…so she could hear me when she wanted too. "Can you tell where it went? You think Rhonda was attacked for that wand? When you said she was lost…did you mean someone killed her for it?"
 

Eshe appeared again.
She doesn't have the wand.
 

"Who?"

Charybdis.

Daniel stirred behind me. "Isn't that in a song?"
 

I waved him for to stop talking. "Are we talking about another First Born?"
 

Yes and no. She is…the daughter of a monster.

I chewed on my lower lip. "Abysmal? Ethereal?"
 

Feral.
 

Feral? Did that mean this one was wild and untamed? The evidence in Rhonda's house would say so. "So…you think this Charybdis doesn't have the wand. But she came after Rhonda for it?"
 

I don't know.
 

Great. "Inanna…you have got to tell me what it is you're doing. What's going on?"
 

Instead of an answer Eshe vanished and Inanna put the box on the bed. She held out her hand and snapped her fingers. The box ignited in a blue flame.
 

What the—

Within the flame a face formed. A tall, thin woman with a no-nonsense haircut. She looked oddly familiar. But I couldn't remember what context I'd seen her in.
 

"That's…that's Vanessa Stephens," Daniel said. "Robert Stephens's widow."
 

My jaw dropped. "The new Society head?"
 

"Yeah. And it looks like she's got the wand."
 

What the hell
for
?
 

8

Manuel did not want to go to the head of the Society's house. In fact, he made pretty good arguments about going back to the Society House itself, telling Nona what was happening, and then approaching Ms. Stephens with a writ or a warrant or something.
 

But Inanna wasn't one for patience and instead told him to drive her there (or he thought I wanted it, not Inanna) or she was going there by herself. Manuel, bless his heart, wasn't going to leave me alone or let me act without some kind of backup. No matter what the majority of the Revenants thought of the Wraith, Manuel believed in me.
 

It bruised what was left of my heart knowing it wasn't me, that he was being betrayed, lied to by his own—or rather her own since the First Born was Morgan—sister.
 

"I just don't see why he doesn't question this, you know?" I was pacing, very much aware I was doing it dressed in nothing but a hospital gown. In fact I'd been in a hospital gown the whole time and hadn't even noticed…till I caught that backside draft.
 

"Maybe because she's acting exactly the way you would?"

I stopped in mid pace and glared at Daniel, who was leaning up against a dark wall. "No she isn't."
 

"Yeah, she is." He chuckled. "Zoë, how many times have you gone off, half cocked, with no idea of the danger you were putting yourself in, just because you had a hunch or a lead?"
 

I didn't answer.
 

He was right.
 

And that just…pissed me off more.
 

I'd told him about the weakness I'd sensed, about that brief second of control. But we both agreed there might not be another moment. I was pretty sure the realization this Charybdis chick was what caused the first one. So what could made a second break?