Something Deadly This Way Comes

Chapter Nine

“No!” I exclaimed, my grip on my amulet becoming tighter as Josh straightened, concern pinching his brow. “I could hear her before!” Barely, though, and I hadn’t seen her at all. “And I can see the time lines!” I added, bringing them up in my thoughts.

But panic iced through me, and I stared at Barnabas. All I could see in my mindscape was a hazy glow, like the imprint a bright light might leave on your retina. “It’s almost not there!” I yelped. “They cut me off. The seraphs cut me off. No wonder I couldn’t reach either of you earlier. Try to talk to me, Barnabas. Talk to me!”

Barnabas gave me a pained look. “I’ve tried. Been trying. Madison, I don’t think you’ve been cut off.”

“Then my aura has shifted.” I was babbling, but I couldn’t help it. Josh had risen, but I was frantic, and I wouldn’t let him touch me when he tried to put a hand on my shoulder.

“We can see that, and compensate,” Nakita said. She was standing next to Barnabas. I think it was the first time they had ever made a united front.

Demus flopped back against the grass and stared up at the stars, completely uncaring. “Like a light reaper can hear a dark timekeeper,” he scoffed.

“They can,” Josh said belligerently.

“And I’m not light,” Barnabas added, his angry tone shocking me out of my own fear. I stared at him, and his gaze dropped as if he was ashamed. “Not anymore.”

My lips parted, making my fear hesitate. He had admitted it. Barnabas had let go of the last of himself. His eyes were on my amulet, and I took my hands off it, letting it dangle freely. “If they haven’t cut me off, then I broke it when I took my body,” I said. “Damn it, how long do you think before it fixes itself?”

Nakita was waving her hand in front of her face, backing up. “I will!” she was saying to Grace, probably, since I didn’t think Nakita was psychotic. “Just shut up a moment, okay?” Exhaling, she turned to me. “Grace says that your amulet is fine.”

I looked at Josh, almost wishing I’d never taken my body back, and he dropped his eyes. It wasn’t his fault. I made the choice. “Then they cut me off—” I started.

“No,” Nakita insisted. “Madison, will you just listen? They didn’t cut you off, and you didn’t break it by claiming your body. But you’re alive now, and that’s a problem.”

My swirling thoughts slowed. “Why is that a problem?” I asked.

Barnabas, though, was nodding his head. “Remember when you first flashed forward into Ace’s future and it was too much for you?” he said, and I took Josh’s hand, giving it a quick squeeze at the memory of stars so beautiful they almost broke me. “You were dead,” he said. “Halfway to the divine. Ron had to adjust your amulet for you? It’s still toned down, and now that you’re alive, you’re not making a strong enough connection.”

“Oh, ma-a-a-an,” I groaned, dropping back to slump against a tall tombstone. Muffled. Everything was muffled. “You think?” I asked, my voice quavering. If that was all it was, it could be fixed. Not by me, though. Ron had fixed it the last time.

“You should have waited and gotten your body back after we saved Tammy,” Barnabas said.

I gave Barnabas a dark look, relieved that it wasn’t anything that the seraphs did to curtail me. Grace had said something about how my decision to claim my body messed up both fate and chance. I’d just have to deal with it. How am I going to deal with it?

“So we look for her on foot,” Josh said, seeming as relieved as I was. “What’s the big deal? We have enough people. We should hit the bus depots and all-night places first. There isn’t much open. How hard can it be?”

“You’d be surprised,” Demus said to the stars. “Finding someone on foot isn’t as easy as it sounds.”

Nakita nudged him with the toe of her white boot. “Saving a mark isn’t easy, reaper. It’s hard work. Get used to it.”

Scowling, he swung at her foot, and she danced back, laughing at him, enjoying herself.

Barnabas was frowning—as usual. “Finding her visually will take too long. Even if we split up. This would be a lot easier if you hadn’t changed her resonance,” he grumbled.

“Maybe you can ask the seraphs to fix your amulet,” Josh said, sitting back down on his broken grave marker.

“Yeah, like they would do that now?” Demus said with a harsh laugh. “Madison, they are so mad at you.”

“Ron maybe?” Nakita offered, looking like she had swallowed something nasty, and I shook my head.

“He doesn’t know we’re here,” Barnabas said. “I think we should keep it that way.”

He probably suspected we were here, but I wasn’t going to bring it up. Not being able to see the time line was going to be a problem. I knew what Tammy’s resonance looked like now, but I couldn’t show anyone if the time line was a blurred mess to me. I didn’t think reapers could backtrack by themselves into the past to see where her aura shifted unless I was there to guide them. It would take a timekeeper for that. Or perhaps . . . one studying to be a timekeeper?

Elated, I yanked my borrowed pants back up. “Paul,” I said firmly, and everyone stared.

“Paul?” Nakita echoed, disbelief in the slant of her eyes.

“Who’s Paul?” Josh whispered.

Demus had sat back up to better laugh at me. “You mean the rising light timekeeper?” he snorted, and Josh’s expression darkened. Yeah, he remembered him now.

“Paul isn’t skilled enough to tweak your amulet,” was Barnabas’s opinion, but I was waving at them to listen.

“Yeah, I know. But he can help us find Tammy. He can look at the time line back to where I changed her aura. He can show both of you.” I glanced at Demus. “The three of you, I mean. And once you have that. Ba-da-bing! We have her.”

Demus was eyeing me in disbelief. “Uh, we’re talking Ron’s grub, right?”

Grub? I thought. How insulting is that?

Nakita had crossed her arms in front of her, looking immovable. “This is not a good idea. Even for you, Madison.” Josh, too, had turned away and was scuffing the turf with the toe of his boot. He wasn’t jealous, was he? I wondered, feeling a flash of delight.

“Why not?” I asked, not caring that everyone thought it was a bad idea. When had I ever had an idea they thought was good? “Paul helped us before. We never could have saved Ace if it wasn’t for his help.”

The words were out of my mouth before I had a chance to think about them, but it was true. Dark and light working together had done it.

“Oh, come on!” I almost moaned as Nakita rolled her eyes. “You got any better ideas?”

Barnabas gave up with a long exhale. “If she wants to try it, why not?” he said, and Nakita’s lips parted in surprise.

“Great,” Demus said as he stood and stretched. “You go talk to the rising light timekeeper, and I’ll go check in with the seraphs.”

Barnabas spun, his long coat unfurling. His hand was on his amulet, and his threat was obvious. “You show even one feather to leave, and I’ll cut your wings off. You’re Madison’s reaper, and you’ll do as she says, so help me God!”

“Gee, thanks, Barnabas,” I said to try to lighten things up, and Demus slumped. Apparently Barnabas’s swordsmanship was legendary.

“I guess I’m in, then,” the dark reaper said.

I smiled at that. Demus wasn’t really a bad guy. Just focused on old methods. Nakita had been, too, and she had been far more militant in voicing her opinion. Still smiling, I held out my hand to Nakita. “Can I have my phone?” I asked sweetly, and Demus made an odd, strangled sound.

“Sweet seraph nubs, she’s going to phone him?” the reaper gasped, and Josh sighed, falling back to stand against a tall pillar with his arms over his middle. He was starting to look cold. I knew I was. And he’s jealous!

I smiled my thanks as Nakita handed me my little pink phone, the battery charged and five bars showing. Magic, technology . . . it was pretty much the same thing to me. The important thing was that we were going to do this together. I couldn’t do it alone. I didn’t think it was even possible to do alone. It was going to take all of us. Light and dark.

“She has his number?” Demus asked in disbelief as I went through my phone book and hit ice.

“When did you get his number?” Josh asked, his voice clipped.

“Last month,” I said, listening to it ring. “I got it from Shoe, and thought it would be a good idea.” Josh was still staring at me, and I made a questioning face. “What’s the big deal here? I’m a timekeeper, he’s trying to be one. I’ve got him as my emergency number in case, I don’t know . . . I get put in jail for starting a fire or something.”

Josh turned away, and faintly, almost at the edges of my hearing, I thought I heard Grace huff and say that she was all the protection I’d ever need.

“Am I the only one who sees a problem in this?” Demus was saying. “Nakita, she’s betraying everything the seraphs believe in. Everything we believe in.”

“Shut up and watch,” Nakita shot back at him, but I could tell she was worried.

The phone was still ringing, and I fidgeted with it to my ear, wondering if the warmth I felt on my face was from Grace.

“’Ello?” a tired voice came on, and my tension doubled.

“Paul, it’s Madison,” I said, and Paul said nothing. “Dark timekeeper?” I prompted, then felt a flush of worry. Maybe I’d gotten the number wrong. “Crap, is this Paul?”

“Oh! Hi, Mark,” Paul said, and I froze until I realized he wasn’t alone. “Sorry, I fell asleep on the couch watching a movie. Sure. Hold on and I’ll get it. It’s in my lab book. You’ve got all weekend to do it. Couldn’t you have called tomorrow?”

Demus was leaning against a rock again, his disgust obvious. “He doesn’t even know who you are.”

“Relax,” Barnabas said, leaning close to whisper it. “He’s with Ron is all. That’s the problem with you dark reapers. You don’t know how to lie properly.”

Demus’s expression became irate, but I thought it was funny.

There was a smattering of background noise, the sound of a door closing, and then Paul’s hushed voice saying, “Are you insane? Why are you calling me?”

“Why did you tell me I could if you didn’t want me to?” I asked him.

“It was in case of an emergency!” Paul said, then hesitated. “What did you do?”

I would have taken offense, but I had kind of screwed up. “Um, I found my body. And now my amulet doesn’t work right.”

“Congratulations?” he said, making it into a question.

“See?” Nakita said, leaning forward so she could hear. “Even the grub knows it was a mistake.”

“It wasn’t a mistake!” I said, but I was starting to think that it was. Giving her a dark look, I turned back to the phone, my eyes on Josh’s. He looked mad, or maybe worried. “Paul, I need your help,” I said. Jeez, I hope he hadn’t heard the grub comment.

He sighed. I heard it even though he was probably several hundred miles away in an Arizona desert. “Are you trying to change someone’s fate again?” he asked. “Madison, it was luck the last time. Fate is fate. That’s why they call it that.”

“I thought you believed in choice?” I mocked him, then caught my anger, swallowing it. Paul didn’t say anything, and my worry crept back. “Paul?”

“For God’s sake,” he said, voice hushed. “Do you know what Ron will do to me if he finds out I helped you?”

My hand holding the phone to my ear trembled. “Her name is Tammy,” I said. “Her soul was going to start to die after her brother died in a fire. I talked to her, and her fate changed so they both died, so I talked to them again, and something shifted so that they survived. She listened, Paul, and I reminded her of the good stuff. She wants to change, but she’s not out of it yet. She’s still in danger of letting her soul die. I need to find her. Talk to her again. I know I can fix this.”

Demus was peering at me in question. His eyes met mine and held. “This is a big mistake,” he said, his voice utterly devoid of the devil-may-care attitude he had shown so far.

“She still isn’t making the choice to live,” I said to Paul, but talking to both of them. “But I think she can. I changed her resonance to hide her from the reapers and I can’t find her because my amulet . . .” I took a breath. “Paul, my amulet is tuned to a dead person, not one halfway to heaven.” Or hell. “I can’t find her. Please, just help me find her, and then you can go back to your movie or whatever you were doing. Five minutes, tops.”

“You changed her resonance?” Paul asked, a hint of jealousy in his voice.

“Yes,” I said, feeling a stirring of pride. My eyes flicked to Josh again. He still wasn’t looking at me, and I felt a ping of anger. Save me from the touchy male ego. “Help me find Tammy, and I’ll tell you how I did it.”

“You can’t teach the rising light timekeeper!” Demus exclaimed, and Barnabas shoved him over.

“I can’t see the time lines,” I admitted, starting to get nervous. “Paul, we have to find her before the light reaper does and puts a guardian angel on her.”

Again he sighed. “Or I could sit here and do nothing, and Tammy’s life is saved by a guardian angel,” Paul finally said.

“A guardian angel doesn’t save anything,” I said in frustration, working to keep the irritation from my voice because I was trying to gain his help. “It just means that her life goes on. No meaning, Paul. No grace. She may as well be a painting on the wall. I’m not going to ask the seraphs for help. Grace says they’re ticked at me, and I think it’s because I’m proving them wrong and they don’t like it.”

It felt good to say it, and my face warmed even as I turned from the reapers watching me with varying degrees of hope and disbelief. Paul was silent again, but there was nothing more I could say, and I waited, fidgeting.

“Where are you?” he said flatly, and I took a huge breath of air, thrilled to my toes. Demus softly swore, and Barnabas and Nakita exchanged a high five. Josh smiled softly, and I warmed. “Puerto Rico?” he guessed. “Ron just sent someone out there.”

“Baxter, California,” I said, feeling like this might work even though he hadn’t said yes yet. “I’m not sure where that is exactly. Somewhere south? It’s hot and muggy.”

Paul made a soft mmmm of sound. “I think I know where that is. Let me get my shoes. Ron was griping about one of the reapers not checking back in.”

“Arariel,” I said, and Paul made a grunt of acknowledgment.

“Yes, that’s her. Hold on. I gotta tell Ron I’m going to bed.”

Hold on? I wondered, but the phone made a high-pitched squeal. Yelping, I dropped it, scrambling to catch it and missing. “Sorry,” I said after I picked it up and gingerly put it back to my ear. “Paul? Paul, you there?”

But Paul wasn’t there anymore, and I spun at a bright light that lit the graveyard. Ten feet away, a vertical line split the darkness, widening until a black shadow grew at its center. It was Paul, closing his phone as he stepped from one part of the world to the other as easily as crossing into another room. His smile widened as his unlaced dress shoes found the dew-wet grass and the bright line behind him closed in on itself and vanished.

Nodding respectfully to Barnabas and Nakita, he let his gaze linger on Demus, who was eyeing him with mistrust, then blinked in surprise when Josh pushed himself up from the pillar, obviously the odd man out, not being a reaper.

“Hi, Madison,” Paul said lightly as he tucked his dress shirt back in his Dockers, fully aware that I was as impressed as all hell. “Who are we saving tonight?”