The Ravaging in Between (The Reanimation Files Book 3) (11 page)

“Would being temporarily dead really do that to me?”

“No, something further would have had to happen, but since you were dead, I can’t imagine what.”

“Well, that’s encouraging.”

“Have any other strange things been happening?”

“Sometimes I get this odd feeling. I can’t really describe it, but it feels like something is pulling at me…something from inside me. I know that sounds crazy, but like I said, I can’t really explain it.”

Tielle put on her thinking face again and was quiet for a while. “I think maybe something happened to you those two minutes you were dead. None of these things happened before you died, so your death seems to be the common denominator.”

“But I’ve heard about people dying, then being revived. It’s not really that uncommon, yet I’ve never heard about anyone who then gained the ability to resist being killed.”

“First time for everything,” Tielle offered.

I gave her a look. “That’s real helpful.”

“I know it isn’t, but I will need more time with this information. Actually, now that I think about it, there may be something I can do. I’m not sure it will yield any answers, but it might.” As she spoke, she opened a drawer in her desk and brought out a rectangular box. When she opened it, I saw several runes.

“Fancy li’l case for your runes there,” I commented. “I usually throw mine into my handbag. In a pouch, of course.”

“These aren’t runes I have cause to use very often, but they are on the rare side so I keep them close.”

“And how are they going to help me? I don’t have a great track record with people using runes on me. Yourself included.”

Tielle shifted uncomfortably at my comment, but I wasn’t going to act like the path behind us was rosy. I wasn’t bitching her out; it just was what it was.

Tielle cleared her throat as she rifled through her runes. “I’m going to scan you to see if there is anything different.”

“You’re going to use a scanning rune on me? Those aren’t rare and I don’t think you’re going to detect ghost energy on me.”

“It’s a different sort of scanning rune.” She picked up a rune that was irregular shaped and completely clear, as though it was made of glass. It was streaked with blue and gray.

I wasn’t familiar with that rune. I’d been coming across a lot of new runes lately. It was eye-opening to realize that I didn’t know as much as I thought I knew about the paranormal world.

“The rune will scan your entire metaphysical being, and I will be able to sense if something is off. As I said before, whatever is happening to you is very likely due to something that happened when you died, when for two minutes your ghost was on the other side.”

“So you’re going to scan my ghost to see if there’s anything different about it?”

“Yes, exactly.”

I let out a breath. “All right, sounds simple enough.”

“That is, if you trust me to do it.” Tielle gave me a level gaze as she held the rune in her hand.

“I trust you,” I said. “I’d like to think we’re past the point where you would do something that could potentially kill me. Especially since I recently had a self-inflicted brush with death. Even you have to have a heart in there somewhere.”

Her lips twitched in the barest of smiles as she stood up. “Very well. You’ll need to lie down.”

I lay on the floor and Tielle came and knelt by my side. “Just relax. It won’t hurt.”

I was tempted to say “like the last time?” but remained quiet. I took a deep breath and relaxed as Tielle held the rune an inch or so over my midsection. I could tell when she activated the rune because it started to glow and I could feel its magic creep over me.

It was cool, like the wind at the beginning of fall, and covered my entire body before seeping inside as though my pores just sucked it in. A small gasp escaped me but it wasn’t out of pain. The rune’s power was an unusual sensation. It felt like it was brushing all my organs and sinking even deeper to a place that was beyond what physically made up the inside of my body.

Tielle was very still and quiet. Her eyes were closed, but her lips moved rapidly although I could not decipher what she was saying. Dead witches had their own language when it came to their rune work. It felt like a long time passed and I was starting to get antsy. Was it good or bad that Tielle’s exploration took so long?

Suddenly Tielle’s eyes flew wide open, she gasped, and drew her hand back. She looked shocked, more so than when I had told her I’d gotten stabbed in the chest and didn’t die.

She stared at me with her mouth slightly open. I rose up on my elbows. It was disconcerting to see this amount of emotion from Tielle. It did not bode well.

“What?” I demanded. “What did you find?”

“It’s not about what I found,” Tielle said. “It’s about what I
didn’t
find.”

“What the hell does that mean?”

“Your ghost, Selene. Soul, spirit, whatever you want to call it. Part of it…is missing.”

CHAPTER NINE

Now it was my turn for my mouth to fall open in shock. I sat up and faced Tielle, staring at the rune in her hand, then back to her face.

“Kindly explain what the hell you mean by part of my soul is missing.”

Tielle shook her head. “I’ve never heard of such a thing. A part of your soul is gone, there is just dead space where it should be. I have a strong feeling it got left behind on the other side when you were revived.”

I frowned. Hard. “Gone. Part of my soul is gone. Left behind in the Afterlife. So what does that mean, like if my ghost was to hop out of my body it’d be missing a leg or something?”

“I’m not sure how to explain how it would look. Just trust me when I say that your soul is not all there.”

I sat back against Tielle’s desk, feeling confused and more than a little afraid. “What does it mean that part of my soul is gone? What’s going to happen to me?”

“It means that you should not be alive, to be frank,” she replied. “You cannot survive with your soul missing pieces. That you are alive and even woke up from a coma is something I cannot explain, but am amazed by. Also, I’m pretty sure it explains why that knife didn’t drop you. This is also something I am not sure I can explain with a hundred percent clarity, but if part of your ghost is on the other side, linking you to the world of the dead, it could explain your resistance to serious injury. Something along the lines of
you can’t kill what’s already dead
.”

“But I’m not dead.”

“But you were, and part of you still is.” Tielle stood up, and offered me her hand. Normally I’d refuse it, but I felt sort of boneless at the moment. She helped me up and I sat down on the chair again. Tielle returned the rune to its box, and then sat down behind her desk.

“This isn’t going to sound like the most intelligent question, but do you remember anything from when you were dead?”

I frowned and racked my brain for any memory associated with being on the other side. So far my memories consisted of the showdown on the bridge right up until I pulled the trigger, and opening my eyes in the hospital and seeing Micah. But I had to admit that there had been something tugging at the back of my mind, like I was trying to remember something that I couldn’t.

When I had caught sight of that ghost staring at me in the Underground, the tug had become stronger. I had the strangest feeling that I knew him, but not from anywhere in my lifetime. My brain scans at the hospital had cleared me from any memory loss. So was that a hallucination of someone I encountered while I was dead? Would it even be possible for me to remember being on the other side? I had recently learned that pretty much anything was possible, but this still seemed very far outside the realm of possibilities.

“No memory is coming to me, but I have been having a strange feeling like my brain wants me to remember something I can’t access. Maybe it has to do with when I was dead. Would I really be able to remember that?”

“There hasn’t been anything like this on record so I can’t say for sure. That’s why I asked,” Tielle said. “The answer would have to come from you. Either you’ll remember something, or you won’t.”

“You’re banking on me remembering because it could explain what the hell happened to part of my soul, right?”

“Yes. Pieces of someone’s soul don’t just go missing. Something must have happened to you while you were on the other side.”

“This is overwhelming.” I shook my head. “I should be used to things like this happening to me by now, yet I am surprised every time.”

“Your problems do tend to end up on the very unique side.”

“Yeah, all the one-of-a-kind, unheard-of things happen to Selene. I’m a lucky girl.” I stood up. “I guess I’ll go home and let this all sink in. I appreciate the help.”

“You should talk it over with Micah,” Tielle said. “He may not know more than I do, but it could help you stay calm about it.”

“Ah, Micah. I knew there was one more thing I wanted to talk to you about. He told me you suggested that he come work here.”

“Micah is very adept with rune work, and I know he learned a lot from his uncle. Renton was one of our top rune scientists, and it benefits us to still have his knowledge around in some way or another. There is good that can come from rune experimentation.”

“I would have thought that you of all people would be clamoring to shut the program down. It could not have been a good look when the public realized that you all had no idea who Renton really was and what he was capable of doing.”

“No,” Tielle said. “And damage control is still ongoing. Our image is forever tarnished, that much I have to accept, but what I don’t have to accept is defeat. I could have let the program crumble, yes, but I think it has proved to be too beneficial to do away with altogether. Renton was just one individual within the department. He was a top scientist, yes, but he was not the only one. I do not think it wise to shut down and render these people jobless over the actions of one rogue. Not all of Alchemy’s accomplishments stemmed from Renton. The government and the Paranormal Sector have recognized this and were willing to back us following a complete restructure, which includes more rigorous screening of the people that work for us.”

“I see.” What she said made a lot of sense. I was only looking at it from my perspective and the one individual who directly affected me, so it was hard to be objective on the topic. I guess I’d need to see Alchemy do something spectacularly good in order to even attempt accepting it.

“I know you don’t like this…”

“No. I don’t like Micah still being involved with Alchemy, I feel it will haunt him more than heal him. As it still haunts me. He did mention though, that part of working for you was so that the Paranormal Sector could keep their thumb on him.”

“Yes, that is part of it. Micah on his own—while I am not saying he would do anything like what Renton did—would be too much of a wild card for the Sector’s comfort.”

“I get it. But I still don’t like it. It just keeps things muddled when I’d like them to be a whole lot clearer.”

“I’m sorry,” Tielle said. “I hope eventually you will come to have a different opinion.”

“I guess time will tell.” I headed for the door. “Let me know if you come across anything that would shine some light on this missing soul thing.”

“I will.” Tielle walked me to the door and briefly laid her hand on my shoulder, which was a step up from a handshake, I guess. We said good-bye and I made my way out of the building.

Ilyse she was not, but she was the only wise, powerful dead witch I had access to, so I’d just have to hope she could help me.

CHAPTER TEN

Now that I had made a full recovery, Micah was back to work full-time. Even though he had just started working with the RDD, they had allowed him to have enough time to sit with me while I was comatose, and be with me the first few weeks after waking up. Now I would be seeing less of him.

Part of me was OK with that, since things were so conflicted with us. A little space wouldn’t hurt. I did not tell him what happened in the Underground, or about my visit to Tielle and what had been concluded from it. I just felt reserved about pouring all my problems out and letting him try to comfort or help me.

So since Micah wasn’t around the next day, I spent the entire morning and early afternoon looking for Ethan. I was tempted to put up fliers, but figured “missing ghost” fliers would garner more joke calls than serious ones.

Once again, my search was a bust. When I got home I fed Luna, then flopped onto the couch to watch TV, hoping it would distract me from feeling down in the dumps over Ethan. It didn’t. I felt restless, and lounging around the house wasn’t going to help.

I needed to clear my head.

My stomach growled.

And eat.

I made myself a turkey sandwich, then changed into some workout clothes: a long sleeved compression shirt and long, active-wear bottoms. I threw on a fleece pullover, since it was cold out. After a quick stretch, I put a sweater and doggy shoes on Luna, then leashed her up and headed out. She was all too happy to go for a run with me. I was into staying fit, maybe slightly less than I was into eating takeout every night, but hadn’t had much time to pay attention to my gym membership. But now that I had to build my strength back, I’d have to find time to fit some exercise in. Eventually I’d make it back to the gym.

I found myself running the way I used to go when Ethan and I took Luna for a walk. I felt a pang of sadness. If losing the ghost of my friend hurt this much, I couldn’t imagine how much it would hurt to lose a living person I loved. I stopped running as I realized that there was someone who knew exactly how that felt.

Micah. For those two minutes that I had died.

I shook my head and started to run again. My chest felt tight, but not from anything the running was doing to me. As hard as it was to come to a place of forgiveness with Micah, it was equally hard for him. I wasn’t at all sure that I could forgive him had I been on the other side of those two minutes.