Faustine (25 page)

 Cassandra interrupted the silence.  “You’ll need Edith’s permission if you’re wanting to handle Robert yourself. She is the witch sovereign in New York,” she reminded me.

Yeah. Protocol.

I
returned to New York with Ryker, once he picked me up after having dropped Alexandra off. We took the
Wanderer Express
while Mom flew back the regular way with Dorian, who decided that he could leave London for a while, now that the killings had stopped. We had enough demons in our employment to look after things for a couple of days in London. We were needed in Manhattan.

Ryker brought me home directly into my kitchen. I was famished! I brought him up to date between chews.

“Wow! I was only gone for a short while! That’s quite a story. So, Taylor and Fitch have siblings! Wow.”

“Now, tell me what’s going on with Taylor,” I asked. “Is she okay?”

“Define okay,” he snickered. “She is furious! She can’t stand being in Robert’s body. Alexandra had the hardest time with her in the bathroom earlier. Taylor was totally freaking. She’s freaking to the point where she’s unable to tap into Robert. Anyhow, I left Alexandra trying a number of relaxation techniques on her. So hopefully, she’s calmed down. Are you ready to go over?”

“Yeah. Let’s not say anything about the twins, not yet, anyway. It’ll just upset Taylor more, and that’s the last thing we need.”

“She’s bound to find out for herself when she taps into Robert, anyway,” Ryker pointed out.

“True.... I guess we’ll let her find out in her own time. I’m not telling her!”

“Don’t blame you. Let’s go,” he said, and put his hands on my shoulders. We took off again. The weightless feeling of wandering was becoming second nature to me. Once we arrived outside Alexandra’s apartment, we rang the bell. Fitch rolled his eyes at us as he ushered us into the living room.

Alexandra and
Robert
were sitting on the couch holding hands, their eyes closed.
Robert
was wearing a red dress and had a generous amount of make-up on. Ryker and I erupted in snorts and giggles, with Fitch joining us. We clutched our stomachs, laughing for ages; I felt like I was going to be sick.

When I finally looked up, I was confronted by glares from Alexandra and
Robert
. I nearly started giggling again. I bit down hard on my lips to stop myself. Fitch and Ryker both left and went into the kitchen. I could hear them laughing in there.

“Come and sit down, Faustine,” Alexandra said, beckoning me over.

I walked over to the couch opposite the one they were sitting on and plunked myself down. Unfortunately, my eyes focused on
Robert’s
unshaven legs, and I let out a snort.

“It’s not funny!”
Robert
said.

“I’m sorry, Taylor,” I apologized, promising myself not to look at those legs again.

“I am sick of this!”
Robert
exclaimed. “Let’s get on and do whatever we have to, so I can get out of here!”

“Sure. What’s with the dress, though?” I couldn’t help but ask.

“Mom!”
Robert
cried.

Alexandra sighed. “Faustine, Taylor is having issues wearing pants with the.... well, you know what I mean. She finds it disturbing and uncomfortable. It’s a bit better with the dress on, but not much.”

“And the make-up?” I queried.

“Force of habit,” Alexandra explained.

“Well, we can’t have her going over to Katerina’s looking like this!”

“I know! And I’m right here. Hello!”
Robert
interrupted. “I’ll get into those stupid pants when I have to; in the meantime, I’m wearing this. So d-e-a-l.”

“Okay, Taylor. Thanks. You’re being awesome.”

Robert
nodded his head.

“I guess our first task is to release Neave,” Alexandra said.

“Yes. Let’s go over to Neave’s apartment.”

“We don’t have to. Taylor should be able to break the spell from here; Neave’s apartment is close enough.”

Good idea. It would save us the embarrassment of walking
Robert
to Neave’s apartment in a dress.

“Faustine, I’m going to need you to remain silent. No snickering or snorting. Or go to the kitchen and stay there with the boys,” Alexandra suggested.

“I promise to be quiet. You won’t even know I’m here.”

“Taylor, you need to meditate with me now, absorb into Robert’s spirit and find the spell that he cast on Neave. Then, I need you to break it. Will you try that for me?” Alexandra asked.

Robert
nodded, closing his eyes and taking Alexandra’s hand. His labored breathing relaxed into deep, even breaths, his jaw slacking as he entered a deep trance. He sat like that for ages, his eyes occasionally flickering in a disturbing fashion, made even weirder by the false eyelashes bobbing up and down and coming loose in the corners. Finally, he started chanting. As he chanted, a smile spread across his face, which then turned into a grimace. I wished that I was in there with Taylor seeing what was going on. Then,
Robert
opened his eyes.

“Call Neave,”
he
said.

I nodded and called her.

“Neave?”

“Hey! Wassup?”

“Try your door.” I waited.

 “The shield is lifted!” she exclaimed. “Awesome. Who did that? Mom?”

“No. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do. Come over to Alexandra’s place.”

“Okay!”

“So, what happened, Taylor?” I asked excited, turning off my cell. “You freed Neave!”

“I did, didn’t I? Flaming awesome!”
Robert
replied. In that moment, I could see Collette and Silvia in
him
. The resemblance was striking.

Fitch and Ryker decided to join us and were death-glared into
no giggling
by Alexandra.

“What was it like, Taylor?”

“Really weird. I
became
dad. I couldn’t feel myself anymore; my thoughts disappeared into the background. It was sort of scary. I wasn’t sure if I could get them back. I was scared that
he
would take control of
m
e.”

Alexandra took her hand. “Taylor, he can’t do that. He can’t control you. You must remember that, so you don’t freak out. A demon can’t be possessed. You are always in control of your demon part, small as it is. That is why you are perfect for this.”

Robert
nodded. “Dad’s head is full of spells, so it took me a while to find Neave’s. Once I found it, it was easy.”

“Did you read any of his other thoughts?” I asked. “Do you know what he’s done with my dad?”

“No, it was exhausting enough to find Neave.”

I nodded. “Let’s plan phase two.”

“We’re going to need Edith back for that; she’ll be here this evening,” Alexandra said.

“What’s the plan?” Ryker asked.

“Who exactly are
you
?” Alexandra asked him suspiciously. “I know that you are a Sigma-W, but how are you connected with all this?”

“Faustine’s hookup,” Fitch volunteered.

I cringed. He was not! But it would stop any further questions from Alexandra.

“We can trust Ryker,” is all I said and moved on. “The plan, Ryker? The aim of the plan is to free Kismet and the others trapped at Pauline’s. Since Katerina herself cast that shield spell–we assume–we need to get her to break it. So as we discussed before, we need Taylor to take control of Katerina, and then break that spell. Therefore, the first part of the plan will be to enable Taylor to possess Katerina’s body.”

“Anything to get out of this one!” Taylor groaned. “At least it’ll be a female body!”

“Taylor, we need more information from Robert before we can approach Katerina. I think it would be best for you integrate with him until you get close enough to Katerina, then, you can switch bodies,” Alexandra explained.

“It will mean that you’ll lose me for a while, Mom. We won’t be able to communicate. I will still be within him, steering him into a meeting with Katerina.”

Alexandra nodded.

“Mom, I’m frightened. I’ll be on my own, with the two of them. What if Dad goes nuts when I leave his body and he realizes what I’ve done? What if he tries to kill me?”

“Ryker and I will be with you the entire time,” I comforted her.

“No. You can’t. Katerina won’t relax in front of you! It’s got to be just me in Dad’s body for this to work.”

“Taylor, it’s okay. I can make myself invisible again,” Ryker said. “And cloak Faustine.”

“You see? We’ll be there to take care of Robert when you leave his body,” I said satisfied.

“What are you going to do with him?” she asked.

Hmm. “Not sure. That’s one of the things we need to talk about,” I conceded.

“Well, I don’t want you to kill him,” Taylor said firmly.

“Even if he tries to kill you?” I asked.

She didn’t answer, but looked over at her mom.

“This is the reason I felt we ought to have Edith involved. It would be best to able to restrain Robert somehow, once Taylor has left his body,” Alexandra said.

“I could do that; I’m pretty strong,” I volunteered.

“I don’t mean that kind of restraint. Remember that Robert is a warlock; he can counter most physical restraints. What we need is a shield, a strong shield to hold him until we are ready to decide what to do with him.”

“And that’s why we need Edith,” I agreed. “She’s powerful enough to create that kind of shield.”

“Yes, that’s right. We do, however, need to think of a way to get Edith close enough to the action to be able to use her powers.”

All eyes were on Ryker. Could he pull off cloaking Edith’s visibility as well?

He looked uncertain, his brows furrowed. “I don’t know, guys. I’ve only ever wandered with one other person at a time. It takes up most of my energy. This would, however, be a very short distance, and there’s no time or dimension travel involved....”

“Faustine doesn’t
need
to go,” Fitch countered.

I shot him the death glare. Maybe not, but I wanted to. I had to make sure that things went according to plan. I would be the strongest being there, and invaluable should anything go wrong and we had to resort to sheer force. Katerina was half demon after all; there was no telling how this would play out. I might have to take her out. “I need to go. I may be the only real weapon against Katerina should something go wrong.”

Fitch didn’t look convinced. If Ryker couldn’t take me, I’d have to find another way. I turned to him. “Ryk?”

He shrugged. “I’ll try.”

“What happens if his
try
doesn’t work, and you’re all revealed?” Fitch muttered.

“All hell will break loose,” Taylor said. “I can’t have that.”

“Wait! No need for all this worry. We don’t need to be in the same room with you. We just have to be able to hear you. We could do that from an adjacent room in Katerina’s house. Then, if there’s an issue with visibility, we’ll just hide until we are needed. Okay?” I suggested.

Taylor nodded. “Okay. I’m going to integrate with Dad now and try to arrange to meet Katerina at eight over at her place. So, I’ll see you there with Edith. I’ll let you know if there’s a change of plan.”

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “And make sure to change outfits! Katerina is sure to know something is up if you arrive in that hideous getup!” I laughed, looking at
Robert
still wearing the bright red dress.

R
yker and I decided to stroll over to Central Park and hang out while we waited for evening to arrive. We didn’t speak as we walked over to Loeb Boathouse and ordered a couple of Diet Cokes. We sat watching the boats as they moved on the calm water of the lake.

“Do you want to row?” Ryker suddenly asked.

“Yeah, why not? Let’s!”

We walked over to the rental dock and stepped into a rickety rowboat. I smiled at Ryker as I dipped my oar into the water. This was just what I needed, meaningless preoccupation; the fresh breeze blowing on my face was a bonus. As we synchronized our strokes, hitting the water at the same time and using the same amount of force to propel the boat forward, I submerged myself totally into the activity, rhythmically moving my arms in circles. We laughed as we clumsily tried to turn the boat. We got into a rhythm very fast, able to anticipate each other’s moves. I felt even closer to Ryker than before. After a couple of hours, we returned the boat. We were both exhausted, but relaxed. We had managed to forget our troubles for the afternoon.