The Voodoo Killings (32 page)

I tried getting my hands loose next, but my fingers were so cold I could only fumble. No way I could slide my set compact out of my back pocket.

A small wave struck me, shooting water into my face.

“Nate?” I yelled. No answer.

“Anyone?” Maybe someone on the docks might hear me.

A grating laugh drifted towards me, as if through a hollow tin can.

The poltergeist…

I scanned the water around me for my sheet of metal and china marker. I spotted them tied to my backpack, which was hung on a rusty nail. Just out of reach, but where I’d be sure to see them.

“Goddamnit, I hate poltergeists.”

The irritating laugh stopped. “I’d be more careful of what I said, Miss Kincaid, considering your position….” The mist and fog coalesced in front of me and Anna Bell appeared. She floated closer to me, until the cold emanating off her chilled me even more. Anna Bell’s features were clear and crisp. She must have spent a lot of time looking at herself in the mirror.

As she stared at me, her eyes deepened from a bright blue to a pure glossy black.

Yup. Definitely knew the effect an appearance could have…

“I’d heard someone was looking into the murders,” she said. “Heard chatter about it from some girls I used to know. Had to investigate for myself.” She smiled, showing rows of sharpened teeth, like a shark’s. “But I have to say, the apprentice of the great Maximillian Odu does not impress.”

“Why don’t you give me my marker and sheet metal and we’ll see how much I impress you?”

She actually sighed. “I haven’t tied someone to the pier in years. Used to get ten dollars a body.” She came closer and ran a finger down the side of my face, leaving a trail of ice.

“No one pays ten dollars for bodies anymore, Anna.”

She gave me another slow smile. “Who said I ever cared about money?” The ropes tightened around me, and I gasped.

“So how’s Lee doing these days? Still got all those scars?”

I closed my eyes. Why the hell hadn’t I listened to Nate?

“Now Miss Strange, why don’t you tell me what you think you know about these murders.”

There is a method to dealing with a ghost you know is going to hit you regardless of what you say. “Go to hell.”

Anna Bell flashed me a smile that would have been vicious even without the teeth. “Why don’t you tell me about mine and we’ll go from there?”

I rolled my eyes. “So if I tell you everything you want to know, you’ll let me go? You seriously expect a practitioner to fall for that? I’m not an idiot, Anna Bell. You’re a poltergeist. You guys lie, cheat and steal.
If
I told you everything, you’d still torture and kill me for kicks. Where’s the incentive?” I gave her the most nonchalant shrug I could muster.

Her features rippled with shock and outrage.

I took the chance and slowly, carefully tapped the Otherside, hoping she wouldn’t notice. Since my ears were already ringing and my head ached, I barely noticed the nausea.

Anna was clearly used to the screaming-in-fear variety of victim. Unsettled, she rasped, “If you don’t tell me what I want to know, I’ll definitely torture and kill you. If you do, I might let you go. Some chance is better than no chance.”

I just laughed. “I’m much better off not telling you. At least then I won’t look like an idiot before I drown.”

I’m not sure what pissed her off more, that I was calling her bluff or laughing at her, but she hissed, “Remember what I said about never selling a body with marks? It was more of a guideline.” Her hand shot out, morphing into a fog-like ribbon that wrapped around my neck, freezing the skin where it touched me. Great, another ghost who liked strangling people.

Every inch of me wanted to panic, but I forced myself to look into her black eyes. Another few minutes siphoning Otherside was all I needed….

I sucked in a breath. “You know what, Anna Bell?” I forced out. “I dare you to knock me out right now, before the tide comes in, so the only thing you’ll be able to do is sit there and watch—”

“Be quiet, I’m trying to think,” Anna screamed, losing her tentative grasp on her temper. She’d probably never dealt with a victim who talked back. Well, this could be a learning experience.

Her hand tightened and I almost lost my hold on the Otherside. “What kind of amateur poltergeist are you?” I challenged. My throat seized from the cold and I coughed. “Don’t tell me you’ve never dealt with a practitioner before.”

“I said
shut
up—”

Coughing relentlessly now from the ice in my throat, I managed to say, “Shut up? Seriously? Come on, I expect a little more—”

“
Shut
up!” she screeched. The two-by-four shot out of the water and into the air then slammed into my leg. Sharp pain shot up my thigh, and I screamed. There’d been a nail on the end of it and she’d driven it into my leg.

Anna Bell laughed, and her face relaxed as if she were taking the first sip of wine at the end of a long day. Her icy hands slipped from my throat and I gasped in air.

“Now
that
’s more like it,” she said.

I shut my eyes and tuned her out. Must not drop globe, Kincaid, must not drop globe. I held on through the pain.

Satiated for the moment, Anna floated down until her face was inches from mine, the cold rolling off her. I braced myself for another assault. But she didn’t attack. Either she couldn’t feel me pulling a globe with the barrier this thin or she was too busy drinking in my pain. There was a serene look on her face I didn’t like. When an entity as violent and psychopathic as a poltergeist is at peace, I’m far from it.

“You have no idea what you’re looking for, do you, Miss Kincaid?” she said in honeyed tones.

The water was at my chest now. If I didn’t pass out from the pain of the nail in my leg, I’d drown soon enough.

Anna’s nose twitched and she sniffed the air around us. Had she noticed what I was doing? I tried to distract her. “What is it to you if
I am looking for a serial killer? Hell, it’s the one who took you out. I’d have figured you’d want a piece of him yourself.”

Anna let loose a high-pitched laugh. “Oh no, Miss Kincaid, the others were victims, not me. I helped pick them.” She floated so close I could see her eyes burning black. Her lip curled. “But not me. I was to be made a
god
.”

So Anna Bell had been a volunteer.

“You lured those girls, didn’t you? You were an accomplice.” I kept my voice as steady as I could. “No offence, Anna, but you got shafted on the deal. Did you know your boss was a ghoul from the start, or did you only figure that out after?” A wave splashed my face, and I sputtered. The water was up to my collarbones now.

“Be careful what you say, Miss Kincaid. My master is someone much greater than you or me.” Her smile spread. “He doesn’t take kindly to people taking an interest in his business. Ask Lee Ling. He thought the merchant’s wife did a lovely job of cutting up her pretty face and taking the eyes. Served the Chinaman right for poking his nose into the murders. Lucky for him, my friend didn’t want to work with men. Only me.”

“That’s not a friend, Anna Bell, that’s a pimp.” I spit out a mouthful of salt water as another wave hit my face. “You’re awfully slow on the uptake.”

Another laugh, but there was no missing the vicious tone. “You’re funny. Most of my victims weren’t very funny. They tend to sleep through it. Or scream. I preferred the screaming.”

“It’s a real fucking shame I don’t have a piece of chalk.” I was almost there. I just had to keep her talking for…

“Why Thursdays?” I said.

She stared at me, frowning.

“All the murders were on Thursday. Why?”

The light went on and Anna laughed. “Because Thursday was my night off from Madame Louise’s.”

I shut my eyes. Of all the stupid patterns for me to have fixated on…

Anna stroked a ghost fingernail across my cheek so cold it burned.
“How about this, Miss Strange. You start screaming and I’ll tell you all about my friend. That way we both get what we want.”

A wave broke over my head. Whether I had enough Otherside or not, I had to try now.

“Fuck off, Anna,” I said, staring into the black pits that passed for her eyes, and I threw every last bit of Otherside I’d siphoned straight at her.

She froze mid-air. She knew something was amiss, but with the barrier so thin, she was unable to see the golden cage of Otherside coalescing around her. Recognizing her as one of its own, the Otherside dust began to twine itself into a free-form net, the endgame being a collapse back beyond the barrier, dragging Anna with it.

The water was at my neck now. I had to wait for the Otherside surrounding Anna to collapse and I’d be home free….

She reached out a tentative hand, snatching it back as a spark of Otherside flared at her touch. Anna screamed, her face contorted in rage. “You’ll wish you hadn’t done this,” she threatened, and raked her fingernails down the length of her cage. Small tears opened in their wake. Ignoring the sparks of Otherside eating at her flesh, she raised her hand to rip at her cage again. The entire time, her eyes were fixated on me, her target.

I didn’t think, I just tapped the Otherside and siphoned as much as I could, throwing it at the cage. The tears began to seal, but not fast enough as Anna raged and tore.

I strained to pull more Otherside through…and the cold realization hit me. If I planned on surviving, I needed even more Otherside. A lot more.

Going against every instinct, I dropped my globe and let pure, unfiltered Otherside flood my skull. For a moment I thought my heart had stopped, and fire coursed through my blood and brain. I probably screamed.

But I managed to throw all of it at Anna.

“No!” she screeched as the cage collapsed around her, dragging her back across the barrier in a flash of gold.

I felt like I was on fire. My throat was dry and my vision blurred. There was too much coming through, but then it stopped. I took a deep breath and opened my eyes. I was alive…and there was sea water up to the bottom of my chin.

I fumbled at the ropes again. I don’t know if it was luck or the adrenalin, but this time I found the edge of the first knot, though I had trouble feeling its strands.

My fingers slipped. I swore and tried to find the knot again. Come on, Kincaid, you beat a poltergeist and now you’re going to drown in water shallow enough to stand in?

“Nate?” I screamed on the off chance he was listening. When there was no answer, I screamed again, hoping someone on the pier above might hear me. I took a gulp of air and submerged my face, trying to get a better grip on the rope. No use. All I could hear was my heart beating, begging me to get out.

More sea water made its way into my mouth.

Cold Otherside brushed my face.

“Nate, am I ever glad to see you,” I said as a ghostly grey form coalesced beside me.

It wasn’t Nate. It was Gideon, sitting cross-legged above the water. He smiled at me. “It strikes me that you’re in a bit of a fix.”

“I’m kind of busy here, ghost. What do you want?”

“Interesting way to banish a poltergeist,” Gideon continued. “But after sending Anna back, how exactly did you intend to untie yourself?”

I glared at him. “I delivered your message to Max.” The knot slipped through my fingers again. I swore.

“It’s a tough knot to untie, not to mention the hypothermia setting in.” He glanced around the pier. “I suppose you could scream some more. Someone might hear you and care. If you hadn’t overdone the Otherside when you banished Anna, your attempt to call your ghost might have worked better.”

“Spit it out,” I growled.

“I appear to be the single being on this beach who can help you.”

Another small wave hit me and I swallowed salt water. “What do you want to untie me?”

His smile widened.

“I’m about to drown here.”

He shrugged, still smiling.

Water lapped to my lips. I tilted my head up.

“I do believe you’ve lost your window to scream for help,” Gideon said. “Not unless you want to fill your lungs with water. Are you going to hear my offer or not?”

I nodded. What felt like ice-cold breath hit my face as Gideon leaned closer to me.

“You don’t even have to accept,” he whispered. “I’ll still untie you. All you have to do is agree to listen. That’s
all
.”

I nodded again.

Gideon grabbed me by the front of my jacket and lifted me as high out of the water as the ropes allowed. I took a deep breath.

“My deal is this: I’ll teach you how to see Otherside
without
linking through the barrier. No more nausea, no more Otherside hangovers, no sweats. In return, all you need to do is run the odd errand for me.”

“What kind of errand?”

“The odd message, picking up the odd payment. Nothing that would contradict your laws above ground or underground.”

I noted he didn’t say his errands wouldn’t contradict my morals.

“Besides,” he added, “I’m sick and tired of watching you stumble through any and every situation tapping the Otherside. It borders on obscene. I’m amazed you’re still standing.”

I took another deep breath as Gideon waited for my answer. I can’t say I wasn’t tempted. But frankly, drowning right now would be better than being indebted to a monster. I shook my head. “No deal. Now let me go.”

I expected rage. Gideon only shrugged. “Well, I can’t say I’m not disappointed, but a deal is a deal.”

The ropes loosened. I tried to stand, but my legs were too cold and numb to feel the bottom. I slipped under the water.

Gideon grabbed the front of my jacket and hauled me back up so I could breathe. “One thing you’ll learn about me, Kincaid, is that I
never
break my word.”

He towed me by the collar of my jacket—none too gently, I might add—out of the water and onto the beach.

When he let go, I rolled onto my stomach and heaved up the sea water I’d swallowed.

Gideon’s voice floated to me. “I remember the living being a lot harder to kill. You’re all right?”

I nodded.

“Good. Let me know when you’ve changed your mind about my offer, and try not to put yourself in a position to get killed again.”