Geist (23 page)

"The Bulwark."  

Well that just sort of tore it for me right there. I really needed to get my hands on more of the Society's stuff and read about what this Bulwark was because it seemed like that was the defining time of a lot of things. 

"You were locked out." 

"Yes." 

"You were made to be nothing more than a means to an end—doing what the Phantasm or the Seraphim wanted." 

"Yes."

"So—the truth is—there isn't a need for the Thrones." 

"No. And yes. Before they were created, there a need. Now that they are here, this is no need."

I sighed. Oh God. What the hell did that mean? 

Mom smiled. "I'll assume that's the best answer you can give me. You mentioned a locum. In my great-uncle's notes there are directions on how to create a locum." 

"Yes."

A who what now? 

Mom actually smiled. "Is the locum necessary as things are now?" 

The Geist paused and I felt a slight pull, as if it was tugging on its own link back to the Outer Planes. Then,
"Because the Thrones have been tied to the workings of the universal clockwork, they cannot be destroyed without damaging the universe's mechanisms." 

No one spoke. They were all probably as baffled as I was. 

"So there is a need to have some kind of ghost, or soul, within the Thrones. Both of them." 

"Yes." 

"So..." Joe spoke up and then cleared his throat. "It just needs a passenger? It can be a wind-up or blow-up doll, as long as the car thinks it's got a living driver." 

Tel snickered and I thought I heard Alice give a chuckle. Dags was smiling. 

"The Throne must believe there is a perfect locum. The facsimile would have to be beyond reproach." 

"Meaning you can't just make a Fetch and stick it in there," mom said. 

"Precisely." 

"I'm not sure I understand," Jason said. "You're talking about making a fake person?"

"Well it's not just that," Nick said from the couch. "What about the ramifications? Yeah, if you can stick this fake in the passenger's seat and pull Zoë out—that's all fine and good. But what happens if the fake doesn't work? You can't really expect a blow-up doll to drive a car," and he looked at Joe with that last bit. 

Now I remembered why I liked Nick so much. 

"He is correct. The outcome would be no different than it is now. The borders are closed because the Wraith has not resonated with the Throne. When the two Thrones are not in sync the gates are closed. If she were to resonate, then she could open them." 

"And if she did resonate," Jason said. "Getting her physically out of there would be impossible." 

"Correct." 

"Wait a minute," Joe said. "All this is crazy talk anyway. Geist just pretty much nailed the problem. We can't even think about how to get her out when we can't even get
in
to worry about it." '

"He's right," Mom said. "First let's decide how to get Daniel back and in one piece. We can't lose any more Revenants." 

"So what's been offered?" Umayma said. 

Joe leaned against the wall. "First off—to bring everybody in on the same page—Zach's found Daniel. But it's not a pretty picture." 

My heart dropped to my feet. 

"What do you mean?" Umayma stepped forward.

"Zach said the Ethereals—specifically a Virtue and its Powers—has tortured him. They're asking him about the Geist and the
Grimoire
. Daniel's lucky because he doesn't know much and because he has Inanna there to take away a lot of the pain." 

"But Inanna will still feel that pain," Umayma said. "They will pay for this." 

"He's heavily guarded but we've been in there before. I'm pretty sure we can get in and get him out, once we get the
Grimoire
activated. I know Dags can teleport in and out of places when he has access to the book."

"Places I've been," Dags said. "Not just anywhere."  

"There's another problem." Mom said as she looked at Alberta. 

Uh-oh. 

"Adiran's people contacted us as well as Nona. They've offered a cease fire between their power groups in this plane, specifically the CCE, if we agree to hand over the
Grimoire
."

"Of course he would want that. He gets the Guardian, he gets both the
Grimoire
and the Geist. We want Daniel," Umayma said.

Alberta nodded. "This is what the Society wants and we have agreed to it. They requested that Rhonda comply with their vote." 

Joe frowned at her. "As a representative of the Society you don't sound very happy about the whole thing." 

She returned the frown. "I'm not. Their behavior in this is appalling. Mr. McConnell and Mr. Frasier have been valuable assets to the Society. To treat them like this, like property? I'm ashamed. Master Domas' intention when he started this Society was for study and research, not for interfering and power mongering." She huffed at bit more but didn't say anything. 

Okay I liked her too. 

Mom sighed and I saw her shoulders sag. That wasn't a good sign. "I'm open to ideas, people. I love my daughter," and she looked at me. "But they cannot have Dags and we all remember the condition we found Jason in. We have to get Daniel." 

All eyes moved to the handsome, brooding vampire in the corner. I remembered all too well what had happened to Jason. The blood; the look of near death in his eyes. I couldn't even think about that happening to Daniel. 

"I would suggest going after Zoë before rescuing Inanna." 

Everyone looked at Rhonda—well, at the Geist. 

"Why? Zoë's life isn't in immediate danger, but Daniel's is. And in order to retrieve Zoë we risk the Guardian." Nick said. 

"I understand your caution, Nickolas Shay, but I would disagree. If you choose to retrieve Inanna and her human, you will need the help of the Familiars—particularly Zoë's help—in doing so. But the Guardian would need to be in close proximity for the Familiars to manifest—just as was necessary today. Previously, they were not looking for the Guardian as urgently as they are now. Now they have two prizes, and if the Familiars manifest, they know the Guardian is nearby, and vulnerable." 

Well... I didn't know about anybody else but it made sense to me. 

Nick nodded, and I admired the fact that he did not look as if he felt slighted or chastised. Instead he pursed his lips and leaned forward. "If we could right the
Grimoire
, return the page and retrieve Zoë before we offered the trade, we would be in a much better bargaining position." 

"If the page was restored and the Wraith freed—rescuing Inanna would be simpler." 

"Well that's great and all," Tel said. "But we can't even open a door into the Abysmal to do that. Remember—the borders are closed." 

Joe moved away from the wall and approached Rhonda/Geist. He put his hands on his hips. "What are you not telling us?" 

Geist/Rhonda focused on him.
"There is a way to break a hole into the Abysmal, but you would have a very small window of opportunity before the Abysmal Creatures there noticed your presence and hunted you down." 

TC stood up. "I ain't afraid of them. Let me do it." 

Geist/Rhonda pivoted to look at TC
. "Not only Abysmal, but the dogs of the Ethereal. There are spies within the Abysmal who work for the Virtues. And there are Powers there as well." 

"I think the success of this rests on who of us can actually move into the Abysmal plane," mom said. "Azrael is a given, and should be given preference as leader. Zoë can as well."

"And myself. In the Abysmal I can manifest into a separate form to guide you." 

"So," Jason rubbed at his chin. "How do we make this hole?" 

"The house in Between is the thinnest border because of Sophia's influence. It might be possible to punch a hole into the Abysmal Plane there—for maybe an hour—and retrieve just the page? Then quickly insert it into its rightful place?" 

"Whoa—" I held up my free hand. The other one was tucked into Dags' hand and I was not letting go. "What about me? How are you going to get the page and not me? And if I hand over the page won't that sever this connection?" And I held up our joined hands. 

"Yes...it might."
Geist/Rhonda paused and looked around for a second before he looked back at me.
"You must all understand—if either of the Thrones is empty for a period of time beyond an hour, revival will occur." 

Wait! I snapped my fingers. "That's what my dad was so afraid of. He said that. What does that mean, revival?" 

"Revival is reviving the Thrones back to their original functions."

Everyone looked at each other. 

"But what does that
mean
?" I asked again.

"It means the Thrones will reset," Tel said. He looked a little pale. "It'll go back to its default settings." 

"Yes. The thrones were meant as a gatekeeper for managing the back and forth of traffic in regards to the Planar children." 

Dead. Silence. 

Not that I knew why or anything. 

Mom stepped forward. "You mean...if the Abysmal Throne reset itself, then it would call the First Borns back home?" 

Geist/Rhonda nodded.
"Their hosts would terminate. The First Borns would be restored to their full potential. This would have a cascade effect on the Ethereal Throne as well. It would reject the locum within itself, and call all the Cherubim home. And we—"
Geist/Rhonda paused.
"We would once again return to our original self. We would lose this persona." 

"That would suck," TC said. "Ass." 

Mom turned to face everyone. "Now we understand why the Seraphim doesn't want the Throne to remain empty for any period of time. He'd get booted as well."

"Well we can't let that happen either," Joe said. "I mean, not just Jason, but Tel, Umayma, Daniel, all the hosts would die." 

"The Ghouls would also terminate. Their bodies would return to their true age." 

Jason moved to stand beside Nick. "So now we get to the heart of it. The Seraphim wants to seal the border to the Physical Plane but has to have a Locum in the Thrones because without one—" 

"He obliterates himself," Umayma shook her head. "Ah...for the simpler days." 

Joe held his hands out palms down, fingers spread wide. "So it's decided. Geist will punch a hole, we slip in a locum when Zoë's pulled out. Put the page back in, Dags gets his full power back and we rescue Daniel. Sound like a plan?" 

"What about the whole not having anyone in the driver's seat?" Jason asked. "This thing's got to be believable."

"And willing." 

Everyone looked back at the Rhonda/Geist. 

"He's right," TC said, speaking for the first time. "You can't force someone into the Throne. It doesn't react that way." 

"And you know this—how?" 

TC glared at his brother. "Because I remember it, asshole. I was there when Sophia took over."

"I thought you didn't remember anything," Nick spoke up. 

TC looked around the room and again I noticed the dark circles under his eyes. He took a lot of his power in the Physical plane from me—physically. With my body being used by the Throne—where was he actually pulling strength from? He'd barely spoken to me or anyone since I'd been back. 

Hell...he didn't even look at me. 

"Zoë wasn't forced into the Throne—she was coerced. Her father lied to her—told her she had to release Sophia." He wore his shades, which hid his milky white eyes. And I realized what was wrong with him. To me—and maybe this was just my personal feelings—but it was like he'd diminished in some way. 

He was half of himself. 

Nona moved around Rhonda/Geist to him and put her hands on his shoulders. "I thank you, Azrael. I feel I can trust you...finally. So," she turned and faced everyone. "What do we tell the Society's board?" 

Alberta laughed and made her way to the bar. "We tell them to go fuck themselves. Go get Zoë. I need a Scotch." 

-38-

Between

Between was a town that sat
between
Loganville and Monroe, Georgia. It really wasn't much of anything...just a rest stop between the two towns. But in that tiny town was a building the previous Phantasm had built that rested inside the space between the Physical and other planes. It worked like a train station, or had, before the borders were closed. 

It was also the place Sophia had ordered Maureen to drag Revenants and perform variations of the obliteration spell on them. And where Maureen had opened Dags up and taken pages from the
Grimoire
—finished the spell Inanna wrote in the beginning—and nearly killed Jason and Mephistopheles. 

This is where I entered the Abysmal plane, released Sophia, and became the instrument my dad had always wanted me to be. 

Needless to say I wasn't a fan of this place. I understood this was the easiest place to "break" into the Outer Planes. 

But it all still smelled fishy to me. 

As for Dags. He wasn't any happier about this than I was. Actually—Alice and I could pretty much tell he was scared out of his wits. 

I remained inside the little Mind Theater with Alice as Dags rode in the van with Jason and Nick. Nona sat in the seat beside him. Rhonda had elected to ride with Umayma, Tel and Joe. I was pacing in front of the screen. I wasn't convinced this was going to solve anything—and for all I knew the Virtues had already carved symbols into Daniel's flesh and bled him dry. 

I will not let that happen. 

"How can you really stop them?" I didn't bother thinking my answers anymore.  

I will do my best. 

I could have left it at that, but... "Geist—when I'm back to my normal life as just a Wraith—will I still be able to hear you?" 

There was a long enough pause that it unnerved me. And then,
I do not know. I can map out many things—project the outcomes of dozens of scenarios—but only if I can control the variables.
Geez he really did sound like a computer.
But in this—there are matters I cannot control.