Geist (2 page)

My mom had agreed to help them take care of him. 

And Rhonda...Rhonda loved Dags. She would do anything for him. And anything to keep him. Whether or not she agreed to this, I didn't know. 

What I did discover during my excursions out of the throne was that Azrael, Joe, Daniel and Jason plotted to rescue Dags. 

(I wanted to find out more,) but that old familiar fatigue gave way to dimming vision. I lost control of my astral self after several days—and painfully snapped back into my physical body again.

This really sucked ass. 

-1-

The Ordinary Man

"You've weakened." 

It was a voice I hadn't heard before. I could hear it
through
the egg as well as in my head.  

He stood outside the murkiness of my new home. It was Ordinary Guy. He was dressed in a gray suit that had a slight sheen to it. I looked closer at his face. Still unremarkable. 

"Weakened?" I wasn't really sure what it was I floating in—it wasn't liquid and it wasn't smoke, but it made me buoyant and it was damned cloudy. "Is that a bad thing?"

"Yes."

Good. 

I turned and closed my eyes again. I had hoped he would go away—then I could rest some more and travel back into the Physical. I hoped the next time to find out what Daniel and the rest were going to do about Dags. 

"It worked." It wasn't a statement of triumph, but of fact. 

Gah
...he was still
there
. I sighed. "What worked?" He was baiting me and I knew it. But I was also tired and bored and worried and just a bit more than angry. 

Yah know? 

"She was able to correct the
Grimoire
." 

!!!

I spun round and faced him again. I knew the Ethereals were searching for the missing pages of the
Grimoire
that held Dags together. Those mixed up pages had been responsible for his current condition as a vegetable.  Daniel, Azrael, Joe—they all wanted Rhonda to get back in there and put the pieces back together. Undo whatever it was Maureen had done when she'd removed the book by Sophia's command and removed the rest of the spell that could destroy Revenants. 

I'd learned most of that before I snapped back here. But I had no idea how much time passed between then and now. I put my hands on the glass and watched him. I didn't want to think this ordinary guy knew what I was doing, or plotting, or even what I was hoping. "It worked? He's whole again?" 

Ordinary Guy didn't make any physical movement. No shrug of the shoulders. No pacing. He just stood there. 

It was creepy. 

"In a manner of speaking." 

I didn't like the sound of that. "What do you mean?" 

"I am afraid that is all the information I have. He is walking and talking and thinking again. And his Familiars are recovering as well." 

Yay!

So— "Why are you telling me?" 

"So that you are kept informed. You are the Potential Phantasm.  As such, it is my duty to keep you appraised of the happenings within the planes, just as the Seraphim is kept informed. It is your right as one of the three governing bodies." 

Well kick my ass. This was news to me. "Three governing bodies? You—you mean you're
supposed
to tell me what's happening?" 

"Yes. You are consigned to this existence and cannot venture out into the other planes until you have fully resonated with the Throne. Therefore, you must be given the information." 

Huh.. "By you—an Ethereal?" 

"I am not entirely of Ethereal essence. Nor am I made entirely of Abysmal." 

Well, well, well...today was just getting...weirder. 

"You're telling me you aren't a Virtue?" 

"No, Potential."

"Then what are you?" 

He tilted his head to the side. That was the first time I'd seen him give any type of physical movement—except for walking. I half expected him to say he was a daemon, or a boggart or spectre, shade, symbiont, fetch—or all of the above. What I didn't count on was his answer—which I didn't understand at all. 

"I am Geist." 

-2-

Personal Spy

Geist.

That was a new one for me. 

I shook my head slowly. "What the hell is that?" 

He actually frowned, which sort of put all my oogy alarms in up-flag mode. I mean, imagine being at Macy's and looking at a mannequin and it suddenly just...frowned. I shivered. "I am the Ghost." 

"The ghost of who exactly?"

"Of all."

Well this was getting me nowhere. I rubbed at my eyes out of frustration. My hair floated out around me most of the time like a creepy octopus. I reached out and moved it back from my face. "So, let's try a different tactic here. What is a Geist?" 

"I am Geist." 

"And you are who?"

"Whom?"

"
Dickhead
—" I shouted, slamming my hand against the egg's surface. "What the fuck
are
you?!" 

"What would you like me to be?" 

If I coulda, I would have wished a howitzer into existence and used it to blow his creepy mannequin head off. Sighing again, I turned my back on him. "Look...just go. If you're going to stand there and make me more miserable than I already am—"

"That is not my purpose, Potential. I am distressed that you are unhappy; and that I could be the cause of it. I was able to give the former Phantasm much joy—" 

Oh? I spun around and pulled my hair back. "You—you knew the last Phantasm." 

"Yes Potential." 

I arched an eyebrow. "Are you calling me Potential? Like as a name?" 

"As I said, you are the
potential
candidate for Phantasm, but you have not fully developed yet." 

"Ah. Right. Just call me Zoë, then." 

"That would be inappropriate." 

Poop on a stick. "What did you call her? The one before me?" 

"She asked me to call her mistress." 

Yick.  But it was better than Potential. "Okay, well do you want to call me that?"

"Yes mistress." 

Better. But it had a cheesy Bond villain feel to it. Like...where was my white cat? "Better just call me Zoë." 

"Yes mis—Zoë." 

"And your name is Geist." 

"It is what I am." 

"Sounds German. What did you do for Sophia?" 

He took in a deep breath before he answered. "I kept her informed of what the Revenants were doing—set up contacts and surveillance within the Physical plane as well as the Mental and Astral planes—though very little ever happens on those planes. I also told her what the Ethereals were doing, when and where, and what places in the Physical they had contact with the beings that inhabit those areas. I shared reports—" 

"Whoa," I held up a hand. "You report to someone else too? Like someone other than me?"

"I am Geist. I am the Ghost. I exist in all planes, and in all realms. I give equal information to both aspects of the universe. As I said earlier, you are part of the three governing entities." 

Uh oh. "You mean you tell the Seraphim the same thing you tell me?" 

"Yes." 

"So...anything I do, you tell it?" 

"No. The Seraphim has never directly asked me to keep an eye on you. Nor has the Seraphim ever asked me what it was you are doing." 

"What about Sophia? Did it ask about her?" 

"Yes."

So that's how the Ethereals knew what Sophia was doing in reguards to the Revenant deaths. Because of this Geist thing. "So—you take orders from either of us?"

"Yes." 

"Does one command supplant the other?" 

He frowned. "I would suspect the first command would always override the second." 

"Geist—" I wasn't sure this was going to work, but I was starting to understand why Sophia started thinking the way she did. "I'm giving you an order right now—you are not to tell the Seraphim—or anything else within the Ethereal plane—what it is I am doing, or will be doing.
Ever
. Understand." 

"Yes Zoë." 

I blinked. And then I blinked again. Did—was it that easy? "So you're really not going to spy on me and report back to the Seraphim?" 

"Not unless you tell me I should." His expression relaxed. "You do not seem to understand the purpose of the Geist."

"Not one damn bit," I watched him for a few minutes. "What else did you help Sophia do?" 

"I taught her how to ease her loneliness. I showed her how to be powerful." 

I liked the sound of the being powerful part. "You did. Would you show me something if I asked you to? And answer my questions?" 

"Yes Zoë." 

Test time! "Did you know I could move out of body while in this egg?" 

"Yes, Zoë." 

"Is the reason why I keep snapping back into my body
because
I'm actually astrally traveling back into the Physical Plane from the Abysmal?" 

"Yes. Your physical body cannot replenish itself without the soul—your ghost, so to speak. To extend the periods of time you remain in the Physical, you would need to find a suitable host." 

Host? I licked my lips. "What does that mean?" 

To my surprise, the Geist put his arms behind him and moved back and forth in front of the egg. His actions reminded me a bit of Joe. He always did that when he was working on a case. 

And just like that—the Geist resembled Joe. Only it was the Joe I'd first met in the morgue when it looked as if I'd died. God...how long ago was that? Last November? 

Geist was wearing Joe's red plaid shirt, tight jeans, and spiky hair—but no smirk. His face remained expressionless. 

He stopped and looked down at himself. "This is a much better appearance for you I believe. Yes? " 

"Why did you?—how did you?—" 

"I am not sure. My original appearance—what you referred to as Ordinary Guy—has been the only one I have ever known. I can only assume that I have changed forms to accommodate your direct request." 

This was nuts. And I had no 'effing idea what it was I was doing. "So...can you change forms again?" 

He paused, and abruptly he was the Ordinary Guy. "Apparently so." 

"Go back to Joe. That was easier." 

He did. And then he frowned again. "But there is a different physical shape that brings to mind more authority in your memories—" 

Abruptly he was Captain Ken Cooper—Daniel's boss—the one that had jumped out in front of Daniel's gun when he'd tried to kill me. 

The one that died instead of me. 

-3-

Back To The Physical

Geist immediately became Joe again. He pressed his hands against the outside of the egg. "Please, Zoë. I am terribly sorry. I was only looking for the perfect form—" 

"Don't
ever
look inside my mind again!" I screamed at him. "Got that?"

He nodded and stepped back, his head bowed "I am...so very sorry. It is just that...this is the first time I have been released from my previous form. This feels..." 

I watched him—not sure about him. Or it. "What's wrong?" 

"I—I am not sure, Zoë. I am sure I will sort it out momentarily. And whatever it is I am experiencing will not interfere with my ability to serve you." 

"So you..." I moved to the egg's barrier again. "Let's get back to the host thing..." 

"Yes. I was speaking of Hosts," he said and started pacing again. His strange way of acting was really starting to freak me out. But seeing as I was physically trapped inside of a glass-like egg inside of the Abysmal plane—who was I to judge freaky? 

"Yes, back to hosts," I did want him to get back to that. It
was
just easier to look at Joe and talk to him though. But I wanted the
real
Joe.

And I wanted the
real
Dags. 

"There—" Geist said and stopped. "That image you just gave me." 

"I told you not to look at my mind." 

"I did not. You broadcast quite well. I would suggest if you do not want to alert the whole of the universe to your whims and internal dialogue,
to tone it down
some." 

I got the feeling that that was the first time this thing had ever said
tone it down
. "Oh-kay. Point taken. But I was thinking of Dags. What's he got to do with hosts?" 

"My previous Mistress was able to find physical beings with weak barriers against her intrusion. She would force her ghost upon them and thus draw from their essence in order to walk within the physical plane."

Wow. She did that? "So the bodies I used to see her in, in the physical world—like the guy in the hood and the clown with the weenie mouth—" A while back during one of my many hospital visits the Phantasm had shown up in my room as a clown with a wiener for a mouth. It was not an image I liked remembering. 

"Those were not bodies. Those were projections of herself once she became powerful enough to no longer need the host." 

"Can I get that strong?"

"Only if you fully embrace your role and become the Phantasm. At present, you must rely on hosts. Such an ability should come easily to you because you are by nature Irin, and by design, Wraith."

"By design?"

"You were born in nature as a keeper of the borders, but it was by someone else's hand that you became a harbinger, Zoë. You became the Wraith when the balance of Ethereal and Physical was mingled with the Abysmal." 

Oh. I had never had my existence explained to me like that before. 

Geist continued. "By taking a host, it puts less of a strain on your physical body while it is tapped into the Abysmal." 

"Tapped into?" I said as I started to look around the murky green confines of the egg. It was at once both limiting and limitless. In front of me was this Geist in Joe's form. But if I looked behind me into the darkness of the egg, I could see the universe unfold for me. Vast. Limitless. And damn scary. "So am I, like, fueling things here? Like a battery? Am I plugged into the Abysmal, or is the Abysmal plugged into me?" 

"Yes and no." He answered, pursing his lips. "Both of the opposing planes—Abysmal and Ethereal—contain thrones such as this one. They are opposing points of power. Polarity. The planes do not feed from you, you receive from them."