The Returned (27 page)

“God help me,” Caitlin said to herself. “Or forgive me.”

She stared into the flames of the girl's eyes and pulled the trigger over and over until she felt the slide lock open.

Next thing she knew, Anna screamed and backhanded her. She tumbled back, landing hard on the floor. Stars flashed in her vision when her head smacked against the concrete, and her senses went fuzzy. But through the increasing haze, she heard the sound of metal hitting the ground, like a small bell ringing, and Anna howling.

E
dward watched in horror as Caitlin rushed the girl. He thought he shouted to stop, but he wasn't sure.

Anna turned her gaze toward Caitlin, and a dozen coils of flame lashed out.

There were flashes as Seven's white braches of light met and blocked Anna's attacks, but only just.

Edward's weariness vanished, and he drew his will together. “
Curo!
” he said over and over, sending blasts of kinetic force at Anna. The dark purple tendrils were knocked wild, and one of Edward's shots even hit Anna's shoulder, putting her off balance.

Caitlin lifted a pistol—it had to be Siobhan's—pointed it at Anna, and fired, over and over.

Then Anna screamed and struck Caitlin so hard that she was lifted from the ground and knocked several feet back.

Terror swallowed his heart as Caitlin landed, hard, her head bouncing once before her eyes fluttered closed.

Time froze, and Edward thought back to his fight with the Hellspawned. He'd thought for sure he'd died, and he almost had. No, not Caitlin. There was no way he was letting her go!

A tinging sound, oddly resonant, brought his attention back to Anna, and rage surged through him. The girl gripped her right hand as she screamed in pain, and the amulet it once held now bounced on the concrete at her feet. The fire that was pouring from the girl's eyes drew back, almost vanishing entirely before she dropped to her knees, reaching for the talisman.

“
Peidio!
” Edward roared and sent a wave of magic out with his will, entangling the girl and freezing her in place, her fingers inches away from the amulet.

W
raith flinched at the sound of rapidly fired gunshots echoing loudly in the room and causing her ears to ring.

Anna bellowed something and struck Caitlin across the face, sending her tumbling like a rag doll. Wraith wove an equation to soften the landing, but before she could piece it together, Caitlin hit the ground.

Wraith watched the quantum information around Caitlin waver and shift as she slipped into unconsciousness. A familiar anger filled her as she turned to Anna with every intention of ripping her into nothingness. That's when she saw the amulet bounce on the floor. As it did, she could see the dark magic roiling out of it draw back from Anna. It still held the girl, but barely.

Anna dropped to her knees, reaching desperately for the talisman with her good hand. The other bore a long burn across the wrist, a nasty-looking blister already visible.

“
Peidio!
” Edward said.

Wraith saw his magic wrap around Anna like some kind of force field, the amulet just out of reach.

“Bang!” Wraith said and sent a blast of force at it. The amulet went flying across the building, tinkling lightly as it bounced and vanished into the detritus.

Seven began his prayers again, and Wraith saw the oddly beautiful equations of his magic reach out. The color and purity of the light that filled the symbols reminded her of the last time she'd seen her parents, in that crossroads place where Shadow, SK, and Fritz had said their good-byes. It was the same as the light they vanished into. The formulations were . . . well,
exquisite
was the only word she could think of, but it was terribly inaccurate.

Each thread of magic split into a hundred tiny filaments and wove into Anna's quantum information. With the precision of a master surgeon—or rather a hundred thousand master surgeons, all working in concert—they excised the symbols and dark magic formulae.

Anna cried out in pain but still couldn't move. Edward's magic held her tight.

From a dark corner, Wraith saw wispy lines of magic begin to spread out, reaching slowly for the screaming girl. And no one but her seemed to notice.

She wove together an equation, trying to replicate the magic Seven was using. The tendrils of dark magic lashed out at Wraith's, but she gritted her teeth and pushed forward with everything she had left, little though it was.

Her rage vanished, replaced with an almost alien emotion: serenity. She found the talisman and threaded her own magic through its quantum information. A silent prayer went through her head, and then she tore the amulet from existence.

Or rather she tried.

The dark force inside the artifact fought back against her, tightening itself in resistance to her magic. She gritted her teeth and forced more power into her efforts, but now it was like trying to puncture tank armor with a plastic fork.

Wraith saw tendrils of magic lift the amulet from the ground, and like some nightmarish spider it began skittering back toward Anna.

“Bang!” Wraith shouted again, sending another blast of force, but the spidery thing batted it away with a leg-like coil of magic.

Her heart pounded and her mind reeled as she struggled to find another option. The solution came to her in a flash of inspiration, and she allowed herself a small smile. The only problem was that she'd never tried it without centering the spell on herself.

Frantically she began drawing together the familiar entropic equation, but she centered it instead on the rapidly approaching spider-amulet. She had to power the spell, but she couldn't do it from the outside. How then? She gritted her teeth and wrapped the formulation around the tendrils of dark energy. Maybe she could use this things own power against it.

A cold and sick feeling started to spread through her as she felt the twisted magic reach out to her, using her own magic as a conduit.

I can give you power, child
, a chill voice whispered in her head.
I can give you vengeance against all those who wronged you. Let the anger and hatred feed your power! Join me, and together we can rule all!

Great
, she thought to herself as she wove the formulation tighter around the sithy-spider-amulet-thing.
It thinks it's Emperor Palpatine and I'm Luke Skywalker
.

“I'll never join you!” Wraith shouted as she completed the equation. It was strange seeing the whirlwind from the outside.

The amulet in response reached out with its tendrils, trying to hold on to this point in space as reality spun around it.

Then Wraith felt herself being pulled toward it.

Panic seized her, and she took a step back, but she couldn't get traction; her feet were just sliding along the dirty floor.

“Shit,” she muttered to herself as she inched closer to the outer edge of the entropic whirlwind. “Help—!”

A feeling of warmth surrounded her, peace and calm like she'd never known. The threads of dark magic that had reached into her were cut by filaments of brilliant white.

The amulet vanished, and the whirlwind collapsed.

The darkness evaporated from the room, and from Anna.

Everyone stumbled back . . . well, everyone except Seven.

Edward's holding spell collapsed, and he rushed to Caitlin.

Anna fell to the ground, the only movement her chest rising and falling in ragged breaths.

Wraith went to her knees, a wave of exhaustion hitting her like a tsunami. But she let herself smile. She'd won, with help, and hopefully her calculations were correct. If they were, they would never see that talisman again.

“I think I'm just going to pass out for a minute or two,” Wraith said between heavy breaths as she fell back onto her ass. “Hold my calls.”

“Two, check the girl,” One said.

Two grabbed a bag and ran to Anna.

Wraith had to respect his leaving his own man, still writhing in pain, to check on Anna.

Seven let out a long sigh. “Thank you, merciful Father,” he said and crossed himself.

Wraith gave the priest an appreciative nod, to which he replied in kind.

Two applied some ointment to Anna's burn and wrapped it in a bandage, setting an amulet between the rolls of gauze. Edward was carefully examining Caitlin, and that's when Wraith saw Siobhan.

She scrambled over to the Fian and saw a large section of ceiling lying across her. The angle of her arm made Wraith's stomach twist.

“That bad, eh?” Siobhan asked in a hoarse voice.

Wraith smiled and felt tears roll down her cheeks. “Walk it off, you wimp.”

Siobhan chuckled, then winced.

“Sorry,” Wraith said.

“I feel useless as a chocolate teapot,” Siobhan said. “Tell me we won at least?”

Wraith looked back over the carnage. “I think so. Kind of hard to tell.”

“I'm just going to lie down here for a bit,” Siobhan said.

“Wuss,” Wraith said and sat down heavily.

“Aye, that's me,” Siobhan said and smiled.

“She's fine,” Two said as he finished up with Anna. “Second-degree burn. It's going to leave a scar but nothing more serious than that.”

“I'll have someone keep an eye on her till it heals,” Wraith said.

“The fae?” One asked.

“Someone,” Wraith said. Her anger was still there, but now it was mixed with grudging respect. Plus she was too tired to be pissed off.

Two tended to Six, using some thick blue gel on his face. His was a nasty burn, but as soon as the stuff was applied, he relaxed. Must have had some serious painkillers in it, she thought. Caitlin's eyes fluttered open just before Two got to her. He said something in what was probably Latin, and a sheet of magic settled over Caitlin.

“No concussion,” Two said. “You'll probably have a headache for a while but nothing lasting.”

“I'll keep an eye on her,” Edward said. “Thank you.”

Two nodded and went over to check on Siobhan.

“Thank you as well,” Edward said to One and Seven.

The two nodded back.

“Can you help me get this off her?” Two asked Wraith.

She didn't have much left, but it was easy enough to pull together an equation to lever the debris off Siobhan.

“Slowly,” Two said.

When the Fian was clear, Wraith shoved the debris aside.

Two did the same magic on Siobhan. “Broken radius and ulna,” he said. “It's a clean break though, so it should heal okay. Looks like two cracked ribs but no internal bleeding.” He pulled a green clump out of his bag and held it to Siobhan's mouth. “Eat this.”

“It looks like shite,” Siobhan said and turned away. “Smells like it too.”

“Then the taste won't surprise,” Two said. “But I promise it'll help with the pain.”

Siobhan took the clump into her mouth and chewed. From the look on her face, Wraith figured the description of the taste was accurate. After a moment, Two set her arm, and Siobhan didn't even flinch. Of course, she probably wouldn't have even without the clump. When it was done, he wrapped her arm in a splint.

“I assume you'll get her to the same someone as the girl?” Two asked Wraith.

“Right away,” she said and nodded.

“Be careful moving them both,” he said.

“Thank you,” Wraith said and held out her hand.

Two smiled and took it. “You're welcome.”

“Is it gone?” One asked.

Wraith looked over and saw him and Seven examining Anna.

“Yes, sir,” Seven said.

“Good work, Padre,” One said and patted Seven's shoulder.

Wraith helped Siobhan get to her feet, no small feat as the woman weighed a freaking ton. She steadied herself using Wraith's shoulder, and they walked over to Edward and Caitlin.

“You okay?” Wraith asked.

Caitlin nodded. “I was lucky. It could've been a lot worse.”

“Nicely done,” Siobhan said.

“Yeah, it was,” Edward agreed. “That was brilliant using the barrel to burn her hand and make her drop the amulet.”

“I couldn't shoot her,” Caitlin said. “Even knowing what would happen if it didn't work, I couldn't do it.”

Edward held her close and kissed her softly.

“You wouldn't happen to know where the artifact is, would you?” One asked Wraith in a low tone.

She turned to him and nodded. “If my math is right, it's somewhere near Mercury's orbit and tumbling toward the sun.”

One eyed her for a moment. “You're serious.”

Wraith nodded. “I tried to destroy it but couldn't, so getting rid of it was the only option.” She gave him a hard look. “No way was I letting that thing become the subject of experiments and study.”

One looked briefly conflicted, then nodded. “I guess our agreement is fulfilled, then.”

Wraith glanced at Anna, still unconscious. “You're not taking her.”

“The threat has been neutralized. There's no need for me to. That was our deal.”

“And they get no blowback from this,” Wraith said, nodding at Edward, Caitlin, and Siobhan.

One looked at each of them then back to Wraith. “I can't let something like this slide again,” he said. “You came into our base of operations, hacked into our system, and took sensitive materials. On top of that, all of you interfered with an investigation.”

“Which is why this was resolved so quickly,” Edward said.

“And that is the only reason I'm agreeing to her request,” One said, nodding at Wraith. “Don't push me again. I won't be so lenient in the future. I can't be.”

“What about the police?” Caitlin asked.

Everyone looked at her.

“We made a hell of a lot of noise here,” she said, “between the gunfire, the lights, and the minor earthquakes.”

“Don't worry about that,” a low voice said from the door.

Wraith turned and stared at the bear of a man, flanked by four others, standing in the doorway.