Fragile Spirits

  I placed my hand on her shoulder. “Don’t do anything until we assess the situation.”

  Alden’s limp form slumped in a chair across from Maddi’s equally empty body. Cinda cowered in a corner behind a claw-footed table.

  Race sat on top of Lenzi’s chest in the middle of the floor, glaring at Cinda. He was so pale, his freckles stood out in stark contrast. “Call it in now, Cinda!” he shouted. “Medics, backup, Charles. We need help!”

  “Can’t,” she muttered. “N-no phone.”

  Lenzi’s body jerked hard enough to almost dislodge Race. “God almighty, Cinda. Come get my phone from my back pocket and call for help,” Race commanded. “Or she will die.” He repositioned himself on top of Lenzi again. “Maddi, make her do it.”

  Cinda covered her ears and chanted, “No,” over and over again. Maddi was obviously soul-sharing with her, which meant Alden’s soul was in Lenzi’s body.

  Vivienne charged to the middle of the room and grabbed Race’s phone from his jeans pocket. As she pulled it out, Lenzi’s body levitated, lifting Race with it, then shot to vertical, dumping Race on the floor. Right as he hit the ground, Lenzi screamed and her body went limp and dropped to the wood floor with a thud. The blood all over the room appeared to be coming from a wound on the side of Lenzi’s head and a gash on her palm. As Race dove to throw himself over her, Lenzi’s body launched a good six feet into the air, catapulting across the room as if she had been thrown like a football. Her back slammed into the bookcase before dropping to the floor in a cascade of books.

  “Protect the Vessel, Paul,” Race shouted. “Now!”

  Vivienne nodded, and I sat on the floor, then ripped my soul out of my body and poured it into hers. Smith’s laughter filled Vivienne’s head. “An audience. I’m so glad you joined us.”

  Cinda whimpered from her corner.

  “Hit number one on speed dial and tell Charles we’re under attack and need medical backup,” Race said, pulling books off of Lenzi and taking her into his arms. Vivienne called immediately and calmly relayed the information to Charles, who had answered on the first ring.

  An invisible force jerked Lenzi from Race’s arms and flung her across the room, where she crashed sidelong into a display case that held Asian figurines. Glass and porcelain rained down on Lenzi’s body. She made no sound, and her eyes were closed. Her transmissions, though weak, were still present, so she was still alive. Another slam from Smith, and that might not be the case.

  Vivienne dashed across the room, but Race held up a hand and stopped her from getting close to Lenzi. “Stay out of it so you don’t get hurt.” Race staggered to where Lenzi lay, arms outstretched as though he planned to catch her if she launched again. Her body convulsed in several distinct pulses, and she moaned. “Keep him out, Alden. Hang in there, Lenzi!” Race shouted.

  “Give up, Speaker 102, and the pain will end.” Smith’s voice sounded like it was everywhere. “Haven’t you grown weary of this? I have. Leave by choice, and your Protector will be safe.”

  If she leaves voluntarily, she won’t recycle, I explained to Vivienne. Her soul has to be in the body when it dies.

  “Fight, Lenzi!” Vivienne shouted.

  As if invisible hands had grabbed Vivienne by the shoulders, her body slammed against the paneling behind her.

  “It’s not your turn yet, little Speaker. Be patient and enjoy,” Smith said.

  Vivienne’s fear skyrocketed, but her body remained relaxed. “How much fun can it be to pick on a helpless, unconscious girl?” she said. “Why don’t you leave her alone and talk to me?”

  “You’re right. She’s tiresome. You, on the other hand, are not. I knew you couldn’t resist a good show and would join us. Now for the finale.”

  The force that had pinned Vivienne to the wall released her. Then Race fell to his knees as if he’d been hit from behind just before Lenzi’s body arced across the room and smashed headfirst into the enormous television with a sickening crack of bones. The television toppled from the stand and shattered into pieces around Lenzi’s broken body when it hit the floor.

  “No!” Race cried, crawling to her. He reached as though to pick her up, but let his arms fall limply to his sides.

  Smith’s laughter was as horrifying as the scene itself. “I’ll tell your fortune at the place where I died, little Speaker. Don’t make me wait.” His voice faded to almost nothing on the last few words.

  Vivienne held her breath, then let it out slowly. “He’s gone,” she said. “I don’t feel him at all anymore.” She ran to Race’s side and fell to her knees next to Lenzi.

  Race shook his head. “Don’t touch her. If her back or neck is broken, moving her could paralyze or kill her.”

  Cinda howled in pain, and Maddi’s body gasped to life across the room from the chair. “You’re supposed to warn me so I can touch your body so it doesn’t hurt like that!” Cinda shouted.

  “Oh, gee. I totally forgot,” Maddi said. “Maybe I would have remembered if you had done something other than hide in the corner while Smith threw Lenzi around like a toy.”

  A pulse of sorrow shot from Lenzi. She’s alive, I told Vivienne from inside her body.

  “There she is.” Maddi said, feeling the transmission too. She grabbed Alden around the waist and dragged him toward Lenzi. Vivienne jumped up and helped. Maddi put Alden’s hand on Lenzi’s chest. “Come on out if you can, Alden,” she whispered.

  “Get Paul to his body, Vivienne,” Race said. “We’re going to need him.”

  Lenzi groaned, and Alden’s body animated.

  Headlights flickered through the front windows as cars pulled into the driveway. Hurry! I said.

  Vivienne crouched in front of my lifeless body, which was leaning against the entry room wall, and placed her hands on my shoulders. The second my soul was in place, I bolted up the stairs, changed into jeans, and put on my shoes. By the time I made it back downstairs, the medics had put a neck brace on Lenzi and were sliding a backboard under her. She groaned in pain, teeth gritted. “Wait,” she whispered. “Alden . . .”

  Alden kneeled by her head.

  “Find Smith.” Lenzi’s voice quavered with the obviously painful effort to speak. Her eyes found me. “Paul. You can do this. End this. You and Vivienne.” The sorrow and regret pouring from her into me made me dizzy. “All of you. For me, okay?”

  Alden covered his face and choked back a sob.

  I nodded, feeling like I’d just been tasked with something way beyond my reach.

  Race sent Cinda and Vivienne to get coats and supplies together. Maddi retreated to the corner of the room and pulled out her phone.

  “Go with them, Alden,” Lenzi murmured as the medics lifted her on the backboard.

  “I’m staying with you.”

  She shook her head, then whimpered when the motion caused pain. “No. I need you to do this for me. Go for me. Get rid of Smith. If I don’t make it, I’ll see you in the next cycle—but get rid of him first.” A tear mixed with the blood on the side of her face. “I love you forever, Alden.”

  Trembling, he reached for her, then dropped his hands helplessly by his sides as the medics moved toward the door. “No. Not now. Not when . . . We finally got it right. Not now.” He ran along beside her as the medics hurried her out the front door into a black Suburban that was one of the IC’s undercover ambulances. “What if he comes back for her?” He ran to Race. “I can’t just let her go like this. I need to be with her this time.”

  Race took him by the shoulders and shook him hard. “Pull it together. There’s a Protector among the medics if Smith comes back. There always is. Go say what you need to say, and let’s get rid of this demon once and for all. We can’t do this without you. He needs to be dispatched whether Lenzi lives or dies, or this will never stop happening. You don’t want to do this again in the next lifetime.” He gave him another ha
rd shake. “Go . . . go say good-bye.”

  Alden sprinted to the back of the Suburban and climbed in.

  Maddi joined us on the sidewalk. “Charles is on his way from Dallas, but he’s still a few hours out.”

  “Do you know where Smith took his last breath?” I asked Race and Maddi.

  Race shook his head. “Alden will know. It’ll be in Galveston, though. That’s Smith’s home turf, so that’s where he died.” He glanced over at the ambulance and looked at his watch.

  “Any idea what the fortune thing means?” Maddi asked.

  I had a horrible suspicion that I did, but I hoped I was wrong. “I might. I want to talk to Alden first.”

  Cinda and Vivienne joined us with several coats and blankets.

  Race took the blankets from Cinda. “Is your medical kit stocked and in your car, Paul?”

  “Yeah.”

  “I’ll take Alden and Cinda,” Race said. “You take Vivienne and Maddi. That way we’ve two Protectors for each Speaker.”

  “Cinda can’t go,” Maddi said.

  “Why not?” Cinda asked, face flushing.

  “Because you’re a liability.”

  “I am not! Charles said—”

  Maddi cut her off. “You totally choked in there. You’re not ready. Your powers haven’t developed fully yet. I can hardly feel your transmissions.”

  Cinda shook her head. “I know what to expect now. I’d never experienced a Malevolent before, and I was scared. I can help. I just know it. I’m coming with you.”

  “No way.” Maddi folded her arms over her chest. “Being scared is part of the job, and you froze.”

  Cinda’s eyes filled with tears, and her shoulders slumped.

  Maddi’s tone softened a bit. “Besides, you haven’t been soul branded. If you die, you die. That’s it. Kaput. No reincarnation, no Race, no nothing.”

  “You guys aren’t my bosses. I’m supposed to stick with you.”

  “Maddi’s right,” Race said. “The lack of a soul brand is a kill-deal.” He shook his head. “Sorry, sugar.”

  Cinda glared and then stomped toward the house, muttering under her breath.

  The Suburban pulled away with Lenzi inside, leaving Alden behind in the driveway looking totally lost. I thought for a minute he was going to run after it.

  When Alden joined us, it appeared that all the life had left him. He looked like he did when his soul was absent, only he was moving. He ran a hand through his blond hair and opened his mouth as if he were going to say something, then he just shook his head.

  “Okay. So, we’re all here. Let’s load up,” Race said. “Are you up to driving, Junior? Your car is biggest.”

  “Sure.”

  “I can’t do this,” Alden said. Then he strode off toward his car, and Maddi ran after him. She caught up and wrapped her arms around him. He buried his face in her short blond hair and clung to her as if his life depended on it.

  “She’ll convince him to come,” Race said. “He just needs a little time to get it together.”

  “Is Lenzi going to die?” Vivienne asked.

  Race shrugged. “It’s hard to tell. I heard her skull crack. There’s also certainly some internal abdominal damage and lots of broken bones—her neck even, maybe. If she lives, it’ll be a miracle.”

  “Miracles happen,” Vivienne said. “I’ve seen them myself. I’m holding out hope for a miracle. In the meantime, let’s do what Lenzi asked us to do and get rid of Smith.”

  TWENTY-ONE

  Alden was no more than a shell sitting in the front passenger seat of my car. Maddi had helped him wash Lenzi’s blood off, and I’d loaned him a new shirt, but his legs were too long to fit my pants, and we didn’t have time to go by his house, so he still wore his bloodstained jeans.

  I opened the garage door and started the motor. “Where did Smith die exactly?” I asked Alden.

  “Galveston.” Even his voice was hollow.

  I put the car in reverse and backed down the driveway. “Where specifically in Galveston?”

  “Old City Cemetery.” His voice cracked.

  Race reached up from the backseat and patted his shoulder. “Easy, buddy.”

  I turned onto the road leading to downtown.

  “This isn’t the way to Galveston,” Maddi said from the backseat.

  “I know.” I turned into Vivienne’s neighborhood. “I need to check out a hunch.” A hunch I hoped was wrong.

  In the rearview mirror, I saw Vivienne stiffen. I felt her anxiety spike as well. “Oh, God. You think Smith’s remark about reading our fortune has to do with me or Grandma, don’t you?”

  I pulled onto her street. “I’m ruling it out.”

  “Grandma reads fortunes.” She unbuckled her seat belt before I pulled up in front of her house. “He’d better not hurt her!” Before I came to a complete stop, Vivienne was out of the car and sprinting up the sidewalk.

  Maddi, Race, and I didn’t need to go in to confirm my hunch was correct. Vivienne’s anguish from inside the house hit us like a shock wave.

  Race cussed under his breath and pulled out his phone. “I’ll call the IC to come get her.”

  “No, wait,” I said. “Let’s see exactly what we’re dealing with. I don’t think he killed her. Not yet. I imagine he’ll use her to bait us. I bet she’s alive and unharmed.”

  The inside of the house was littered with broken lamps, overturned chairs, and shattered glass strewn on the floor. I found Vivienne in the kitchen leaning over the table catching her breath, clutching the edges of the linoleum tabletop so hard her knuckles were white. The kitchen looked untouched except for an empty knife block turned on its side on the counter. There was an uneaten plate of food and a full glass of tea on the table in front of Vivienne. She reached out and pushed some brightly colored pills by the glass around with her finger.

  “Not her,” she whispered. “She’s all I’ve got left.”

  “He’s using her to bait us, Vivienne.” I put my hand over hers. “Let’s go get her back.”

  She met my eyes and nodded.

  Maddi and Race were putting furniture to rights when we entered the living room. “She put up a good fight,” Race remarked.

  “Of course she did,” Vivienne said. “Grandma Tibby is tough.”

  Maddi moved a chair and the cat hissed and scurried into the back of the house.

  “We need to go now,” I said. “I have no idea how he’s getting to Galveston in Tibby’s body, but none of the options are good.”

  Vivienne was pretty shaken, so I had Race drive so that I could sit next to her in the back. I sat in the middle between Maddi and Vivienne, who folded up against me in a ball. Maddi stared stoically out the window.

  I knew that Smith was luring us to Galveston because Malevolents were strongest where they had died. It took way too much energy to fight us in Houston. Ordinarily, we would never take him on in his most advantageous venue, but he’d made sure we would by taking a hostage.

  “He’s really strong this time,” Race remarked. “And he’s different. Usually, he’s sneaky.”

  “I thought he was as good as gone when he possessed Mueller,” I said.

  “It’s all been an act.” Vivienne sat up straight next to me. “He’s playing us. He has been all along. I’ve felt him a couple of times. He’s been watching us and waiting.” A shudder ran through her. “He has Grandma.” A tear slipped down her cheek, and she curled against me.

  “We need another Speaker. She’ll never pull it off,” Maddi said as if Vivienne were not present.

  “Stop it,” Race said.

  “You feel it too, Race. She’s a mess.”

  “She’s all we’ve got!” he snapped.

  Vivienne sat up. “Who? Me?” Her anger surged. “I won’t pull it off?” For a moment, I thought she was goin
g to lunge for Maddi, but to my relief, she sat back and crossed her arms over her chest. “He’s got my grandma. He’s as good as gone.”

  Alden shuddered and then moaned as if his very soul had died. He crumpled over with his head in his hands.

  “You okay, buddy?” Race asked.

  For the longest time, he said nothing. He just rocked forward and back. Finally, just above a whisper he said, “She’s gone.” He took a long, shaky breath. “The soul bond just broke. I can’t feel her anymore.” He fisted his hair and continued to rock.

  No one said anything. There was nothing to say that would help. My heart broke for him. I couldn’t even imagine what he was going through or how much it hurt. And then it hit me. Vivienne was right. Pity didn’t diminish a person in someone else’s eyes. I felt sorry for Alden. Horribly, fantastically sorry, but it didn’t make me admire him any less.

  We rode the rest of the way to Galveston in silence until we hit the causeway bridge to the island. The lights from the Texas City refineries reflected in the water across the dark bay.

  “I need you to tell me what you guys know about this demon in order to beat him,” Vivienne said.

  Race reached over and rubbed Alden’s shoulder. “Hey. We need you to help us out here.”

  Alden didn’t move.

  “Alden. Get it together, man. We’re almost at the cemetery. We need you. Lenzi needs you to make good on this so she doesn’t have to go through this again in the next cycle. Pull it together now.”

  Alden lifted his head and ran his hands through his hair.

  “It’s important,” Race said. “Do it for all the times he killed Rose. Do it for Lenzi. Tell us everything you know about Smith.”

  Alden stared straight ahead and spoke in a monotone, as if numb. “He was a crook who went by the name Nicaragua Smith, but I know that wasn’t his real name. In 1862, he set me up for a crime I didn’t commit, so Rose seduced him and got the evidence that freed me and convicted him. He had fallen in love with her and took it very personally. Enough to kill her in every lifetime, as soon as he could find her.”

  He glanced over his shoulder at Vivienne, and when he spoke, he sounded like he’d pulled himself out of his trance. “That’s why your aunt died. He was looking for Rose and trying to get her attention, but she hadn’t emerged for the cycle yet.”