Geist (6 page)

"So what does that mean?" Dags asked. 

"Yeah," I looked at Alice. "What are you getting at?" 

That's when I noticed Alice was more excited than worried. She looked up. "Dags—look at your left palm." 

We both looked up at the screen, through Dags' eyes. He held up his left hand and turned it over. The tattoo was visible and glowing a soft—black. Rhonda moved forward and pulled his hand backward so she could see what he was looking at. 

"Dags, your palm is healed. But it's never been that color before has it? I mean it's...black." 

"Alice says it's because of Zoë." 

Rhonda's eyes widened. You know...surprising her never gets old. 

Alice looked at me. "That's your presence in here. And if I understand the mechanics of how the planes work, of how Darren's existence is possible, then you should be able to—" 

I didn't need the lesson, or the explanation. I'd seen Dags at work—seen Maureen and Alice manifest themselves in the physical world. And if there was any possibility that I had this power now—after four months of nothing—I was sure as shit gonna try.

"Wait!" Alice cried out. 

But there was no stopping me. I concentrated on that hand, on the symbols that glowed black, the concentric circles that turned in opposing directions. The glow intensified and brightened. Dags held his hand out and pointed the palm upward. 

I have to admit—it wasn't as easy as I thought it'd be. But it wasn't difficult either. It was more like—

Birth. 

Not that I remember being born. But there was a long tunnel with a light at the end of it as the theater behind Dags' eyes vanished. I sped toward that light as fast as I could. There was no wind, nothing but the increasing size of the light as I—

"My Goddess—" 

That was Rhonda's voice. And I heard it. I mean...I
heard
it next to me. Not from a distance. Not in a dream. But with my own ears. 

Light flooded behind my eye-lids—I didn't realize I'd closed them. I blinked a few times and looked around me. 

I was in the Physical Plane again and standing in front of Jason, Rhonda and—

Dags. 

He was even more beautiful than I remembered. His hair had grown a little more from the shorter cut after Rodriguez had chopped it off. It fell around his eyes, over his ears. His beautiful gray eyes were wide as he returned my stare. Some of those silky locks hugged his perfect neck and I was sure I saw a bit of shadow along his jawline. My gaze traveled down to his bare chest, just visible between the open folds of his button down shirt. 

I took in his waist, his hips, his thighs, and his bare feet. I saw the black light glowing in his left palm and looked back up to his face. 

And I wanted him more than I'd wanted anyone else in the world. 

He sniffed and I saw tears brim over his red-rimmed eyes. "Zoë..." he said. 

We were in each other's arms, clutching each other as tight as we could. I buried my face in his neck, sought out his warmth and his smell, and realized...I found neither. I couldn't
feel
him. I knew I was holding him. I knew I was in his arms and he was in mine. But...I couldn't
feel
his hair against my cheek, or his chest pressed against my own. 

"I'm afraid that's what it's like,"
Alice said in my mind.
"To be a Familiar, Zoë." 

I was more than disappointed. He pulled me back and put his hands to the sides of my face. My hair was down and moved over his elbows, over my arms. We looked into each other's eyes and I felt my own tears burn painfully behind my lids. 

"I love you," he said softly. 

And then our lips met, hard at first. I tried to feel him. I
wanted
to feel him. I
needed
to. But there was no physical sensation. It didn't stop me from kissing him as hard and as deeply as I could. I put my own hands on his face when I pulled away, and saw his lips were swollen with my need. 

I really, really, really wanted this man. 

Jason cleared his throat. 

I'd forgotten they were there. 

"Zoë—" Rhonda said. 

I pulled him into my embrace again and turned to look at her. 

She didn't look as happy as I thought she would. She looked put out. And a little...embarrassed? "I'm sorry, Rhonda. It's just that—" and I squeezed Dags to me. "It's been so long and—"

"No that's not it—it's just—"

"What?" 

"Can you put some clothes on?" 

-8-

My Wild Heart

That was embarrassing. 

Well, not really. After everything I'd been through becoming corporeal in the Physical Plane completely naked seemed like nothing. Jason didn't seem to mind. 

Now that made me blush. 

It is good to see you again, Zoë. 

"You too Mephistopheles," I managed to stammer out loud while my mind yelled at Alice to tell me how to make clothes. 

Alice—the old bat—was laughing at me. "Just
think
of clothing. It should come to you." 

Riiiight
. I did as she suggested. But I didn't want the standard black with fanged bunny slippers for once. I wanted—

Girl clothes. 

Abruptly, a red mist covered me and created a cream and gold sundress. It was one I'd had my eye on back when I was working a real day job. It was strapless and pillowed my boobs just perfect. It hugged my waist in all the right places and then flared out to my knees. White sandals with straps up to my mid-calves followed behind. My hair was instantly braided and out of my way. 

"You look..." Dags' grin was infectious. "Beautiful." 

"You clean up nice, Zoë," Jason said. He was standing behind Rhonda closer to an old tube television perched on top of a dresser.  A quick look around the room confirmed that I'd been right. This was a hotel room. 

My gaze rested on Rhonda. She wasn't embarrassed anymore. In fact—I wasn't sure what emotion was on that face. 

Relief? 

But the kind of relief that also heralded sadness? I noticed her gaze sliding over to Dags a few times. But he was looking at me. 

That's what you get for calling my man baby. I was still a bit put out by that. I mean...she knew how we felt about each other. Right? 

"Can Alice still manifest?" 

As if to answer that question, she showed up to my left, between Rhonda and I. "Yes. Apparently—as you can tell—Zoë's managed to take Maureen's place for now." 

"How?" Rhonda put her hands on her hips. "And is that such a good idea? I mean—having Maureen in Zoë's body?"

"The how," I said and reached inside my sundress. I pulled out the folded page. "Is here." 

Jason's eyes widened. And Rhonda's jaw dropped. "You have the last page!" 

"I do. And don't ask me how I got it. I discovered it was in my hand somehow." 

Dags gave me a squeeze. We still had arms around each other. And he seemed to be the same height. Had he grown? Or was I shorter as a Familiar? "You don't know how you got it?"

"No," I shook my head. Wow...no one knew how nice this was. How...liberating it was. To be free. "But I can't just put this page in the book." 

"No," Alice said. "It's only a projection. The real page is in the Throne with her."

"Throne?" Dags said. 

"It's a long story," I said and kissed his cheek. My heart sank again when I realized not even that small act gave me any sensations. My heart felt, but this body didn't. "Let's just say that's where my body is." 

"Inside the Abysmal Plane," Rhonda said. 

I nodded. "I've sort of been watching you guys when I could—I mean I knew something awful had happened to Dags," and I held him tighter to me. "But I couldn't touch the Physical until now." 

"How did you know to use the page?" Rhonda asked. 

I hesitated. I wasn't sure I liked her tone. Or was that my imagination? "Oh that was an accident. I've had this page for a while but didn't know I could do this till—" I smiled. "Now?" 

"How do we know it's really you?" 

"Rhonda!" Jason hissed. 

Dags' right hand balled into a fist. "Rhonda, that's just rude. You know we've been working for months to bring Zoë back—but we didn't know where she was. And you treat her like this?" 

"Didn't know where I was?" I gave him a frown, all thoughts of Rhonda-the-Interrogator gone. "Did he never tell you?" 

"Did who tell us what?" 

"TC? He was there when my father tricked me into the Throne;which is really this big egg that sits on a stage in a really old theater—" 

"Wait a minute," Jason held up his hand. "You mean Azrael has known all this time where you were?" 

"Well yeah," I looked at each of them and wasn't happy about their face. "You...you didn't know?"

"No." Alice said. "He never let on that he knew where you were. All he's said, repeatedly, is that you were inaccessible until we put the page back." 

"Well if she's physically in the Abysmal she
is
inaccessible," Jason said. "Think about it. Neither Rhonda, Joe nor myself can go physically into that plane. Daniel might. He's still young enough." 

"Or Dags?" 

Jason shook his head. "I don't know about Dags." 

"Oh no," Dags put up a hand. "I am not doing that again. I've been through there. Almost died." 

"That's twice," Rhonda said. "That you've almost died. The first time, Zoë saved you." 

It was true, though I hadn't known it at the time. Alice's husband, Allard Bonville, had used a spell to physically drag Dags through the Abysmal Plane. The physical effect nearly killed him. But apparently I'd been juiced on Abysmic souls so when his heart stopped, I'd zapped him back again. And I turned him into a Guardian.

"And the second time I saved you." 

I pursed my lips and frowned at Rhonda. Was she
trying
to make herself sound important? Yes, yes, we know you slipped the book in him and made him all weird like me. But get over it. 

There was one of those  awkward silence moments right before the lock to the hotel room turned. 

Jason moved behind the door and became little more than shadows. Dags pulled me down between the two beds in the room. Alice vanished, back into Dags I assumed. Rhonda reached behind her and I saw the glint of a knife. 

Wow...these guys weren't fooling around. Had things back here gotten that bad? 

The door opened and a voice said, "Noblesse..." 

Rhonda answered with, "Oblige." 

What the hell was that—some super-duper secret password? 

Joe stepped inside carrying two bags of groceries. Behind him was Azrael and behind him—

My heart skipped and I held my breath.

Daniel. 

-9-

OOB

All three of them stopped when they saw me. I guess that's to be expected. I hadn't seen any of them in months. 

Joe—Joe looked the same as always. The same spiky hair, same long face and quirky expression. A smile that was more of a smirk. Though this time his expression showed shock, relief, and elation. 

He dropped both bags and ran to me as I stood up next to Dags. Joe's arms came around my shoulders and I wanted to cry out because I couldn't feel them. There was nothing. It was as if my entire body was dead. He bent over me and then picked me up. My feet dangled over the floor and I laughed. 

Joe laughed. 

"Hey...you can put her down now," Dags said, and I thought I heard just an edge to his voice. 

"Is it really you?" Joe said as he set me down and then held me out at arm's length. His gaze moved down to my sandaled feet and he gave me a sharp frown. "Maybe not—you're wearing a dress." 

"It's her," TC said. "Or it's part of her. She's corporeal. But it's not her body." 

Joe glanced back at the First Born and then back to me. "You're OOB?" 

I nodded, but my gaze moved to TC. He moved behind Joe's back and into a small kitchenette next to a bathroom, just visible past a tall door. He set his own armful of groceries down and pulled out a bag of grapes. After popping a few into his mouth, he leaned against the door. "This is a surprise."

"So is finding out you didn't tell them where I am." 

Jason stepped from the shadows as Rhonda stepped in closer. 

TC shrugged. "There was nothing anybody could do to get you out. All the pages have to be replaced before we have any hope of finding a way to open the Throne. Then there's the getting out alive part."

"He's right," Daniel said as he stepped forward. "Let's not start bickering." 

That's when he looked directly at me. 

I was lost in memories of Daniel—fantasies I'd had of him since the first day I'd seen him in Hirokumi's office. Tall, lean, blue-eyed, brown hair. So soft spoken. I'd been fascinated when he'd questioned the Japanese businessman whose employee had been murdered the night before in the office. Daniel had been the first one to believe there had been a link between that murder and Reverend Rollins. 

He'd been a homicide detective, and Joe's partner at one time-and my boyfriend. But our romance had been a rocky one—TC had nearly killed him by pushing him off a roof. Next he was overshadowed by me and suffered a cold. Then he was possessed by a Horror and murdered people. It'd been that knowledge that drove him insane. He'd blamed everything on me and tried to kill me—only his Captain, Ken Cooper had taken the bullet. And died. 

Daniel had been committed to a facility and later escaped, bonded with a First Born to become a Revenant, and came back to me. 

Only...

So many things had changed inside of me. The stress of knowing the Horror that'd hurt him so bad had been created by me forced me to pull away from him. The Horror had driven him to a breaking point. I looked at him and felt guilt. Still. 

I loved him...but he was also, for all intents and purposes, a vampire now. 

The bonding with Inanna was what cured Daniel's madness. He still knew he'd killed all those people, but she'd managed to dull that pain and bring him back to himself. He was Daniel Frasier once more—but he was also something else.