Chapter 624: Ghostly Return
My body thudded hard against the floor as I pushed sideways, pajama bottoms slipping over the sheets. Alison's ghostly form impacted the wall behind my pillow before she spun with a snarl, diving for me.
Fear spiked, adrenaline gushing rivers through my system as I shoved myself back, bare feet scrabbling against the carpet as my vampire roared in fury and threw herself into control of my body.
Everything turned white, glowing, as the essence of the undead extended my hands, a solid shield of spirit energy forming between me and the descending echo. Alison struck it with a cry of pain, bouncing back to hover, crouched on the edge of my bed like a cat waiting to pounce while I scrambled to my feet, vampire spirit magic still firmly between us.
She bared her teeth again, snarling, and I understood.
"You were going to feed on me." I breathed the truth into the cold air, my room chilled by her presence and by the weight of the spirit magic my vampire used to hold her back.
"How do you know I haven't already?" The Alison who never should have been cackled her insanity, head tilting sideways, white hair spilling over her shoulders as her once blue eyes glowed with eerie light. "You sleep so pretty."
No, my vampire sent, firm and fierce as my disgust and fear rose. I would know if she had.
I'd take that bit of reassurance, thanks. Cling to it like a lifeline as I shook and tried to gather my thoughts.
We have to capture her. My vampire wasn't just talking to me now as my demon and Shaylee both listened intently. She can't be allowed to escape again now that she's shown herself.
I'd thought her passed over, hoped that was the case. Knew I deluded myself thinking so. She took enough of the vampire essence the two times she attacked me, she was becoming something else. Something not quite ghost, not quite vampire. But from the way she licked her lips, stepped down from the bed and slowly circled me, a predator looking for an opening, I knew the blood she'd tasted gave her a hunger for more.
I should have destroyed her long ago. This was my fault. And my vampire was right. I had to do something about it.
The black blossom of my sorcery opened, humming, begging to feed. And while I knew it was probably the safest way, I couldn't bring myself to do that to Alison.
She didn't have the same compunctions. "This is your fault," she snarled. "All of it. If you hadn't come to Wilding Springs, I'd still be alive, still be whole."
Not really fair. "You killed yourself." I felt my vampire reach for her, slow and insidious, the touch of my other powers backing her up. I didn't know what she had planned, but I trusted her to act while I kept Alison occupied.
Not Al. No. Think of her as an echo, Syd.
Make it easier to kill her.
"You did this to me." Alison slapped her chest with both hands, the glow of her stolen spirit magic flaring. "I was popular. Rich. I had everything. And then you had to go and ruin it, didn't you?"
"You were my friend." She shuddered as my vampire's magic reached her, jerked away.
"I wasn't," she snapped. "You really think someone like me would be friends with someone like you?" Her laughter cackled through my room as someone pounded on my door. I sealed it shut with magic, not wanting Alison to escape, and definitely not wanting Shenka in here with me.
Not until the echo was gone.
"You did something to me," Alison said, whining voice falling into sadness. "That day in the bathroom, when you challenged me. You changed me, used your magic on me."
I did no such thing.
Did I?
My mind flashed back years, to being bullied, to standing up against Alison in the bathroom at school, telling her how sorry I felt for her while her supporters abandoned her and I won.
I won, damn it. And I didn't use magic.
Doubt whispered. I wasn't in full control back then. Magic leaked out all over the place all the time, especially when I was under stress. But I couldn't have used power on her, would have known it.
Did I?
"Thanks to that day," she spat at me while Shenka's voice was joined by Charlotte's, by Sassy's on the other side of the door, "I was broken. Different. I fought it, I wanted to be me." She squeezed her hands against her chest. "I wanted to go back, but I couldn't. And knowing I wasn't me, that I became some alternate Alison you wanted me to be, drove me crazy." She laughed, high-pitched and hysterical even as she lunged, bouncing from my shield again. "You did this, Syd. You. I died because I couldn't live with what you made me."
Holy. No. No, it couldn't be true, I loved Al, she loved me. We were best-
She's distracting you, my vampire growled. And, through you, us. She's lying. Using your weakness against you. You know it. Now focus.
I opened my mouth to deny her, to tell Alison she was wrong, had to be wrong, when a calm lassitude washed over me. She smiled, looking more like herself than ever, one hand extended.
"I'm sorry," she said. "Of course it's not true. I need you, Syd. Can we be besties again?"
I wanted that, more than anything. Tears welled in my eyes, spilled over my cheeks, a happy feeling of needing her overwhelming me. And, as she drifted closer, I felt my hold on the shield slip, heard my vampire crying out to me, felt her bite me deep inside. Jerked from the pain, lunged just in time as Alison, her coercion attempt failed, dove on top of me, carrying me to the floor.
Memories of fangs in my throat, of Batsheva Moromond, being drained, fleeing into the veil, left for dead in a mummy state, trapped in the dark... I shuddered, slamming all of the power I had into Alison.
She held on, my magic slipping through her, parts of her wavering and insubstantial, though her claws cut the skin of my arms where she held me. Again I lashed at her, maji power slicing, but she just laughed at me, body reforming, teeth descending.
"That all you got, Hayle?" She whispered against my skin as I realized in panic my magic wouldn't work against her. "My turn."
I felt the air of the room shift just as the first prickle of her teeth touched my flesh, the black, blooming flower beneath me gaping wide in a surge of welcome as someone triggered sorcery just past Alison's ghostly shoulder.
She shrieked, pulled away from me, spinning to hiss at Demetrius Strong who lunged through a circle of black, arm extended, crystal aimed at her, a grim smile on his scarred face.
I reached for her with my own sorcery even as Alison howled her fury and vanished.
Gasping, clutching at my neck, though she hadn't drawn blood, I dropped the shielding around my door, allowing the desperate people on the other side to finally enter. Stupid, I should have allowed them through when I realized I'd lost.
And I'd better believe I'd be hearing just that from the three furious faces glaring at me.
They didn't get to dive into chastisement, not while Demetrius trembled, coming to help me to my feet, clutching at my hand.
"They own her," he whispered, the former leader of the Chosen of the Light now my only ally with a connection to the bad guys.
Wait a second. What had he-Oh no.
No.
"The Brotherhood?" I was having trouble breathing.
He bobbed a nod, bright blue eyes wide and shining. "They captured her," he said. "Tortured her. For information. For things she knows about you." He shivered. "About all of you."
I swallowed hard as the next level of guilt settled around me like a weight. "She's almost real." Not quite. I looked down at the welts on my arms where her claws nearly broke the skin. "My magic went right through her."
Some kind of hybrid, my vampire sighed. I feared this would happen.
"You must destroy her." Demetrius's shivering didn't quit, sending vibrations through me thanks to his grip on my hand. "Abomination."
"How did she get in?" Shenka's voice sounded calm, though she looked pale, her dark skin gray with worry. "This place is tighter than a bullfrog's back end."
Demetrius shrugged. "Sorcery," he said.
"They sent her." Had to be the Brotherhood. "But why now? Why tonight?" Distraction?
Again he shrugged. "They need something from you," he said. "Tasty treat, that Sydlynn Hayle." His big eyes rolled around as he slipped further from coherence and deeper into his damaged mind.
"Demetrius." I pulled my hand free, gripping his arms, shaking him ever so slightly. His gaze refocused as I spoke. "Can she become real? All the way?"
A soft whine escaped him, Charlotte twisting her head and wincing as her wolf senses went on overload.
"Mustn't," he said. "No balance."
Hang on. "Alison is part of the balance?" How was that possible?
"She's an unknown." He snapped into lucidity as though he'd never lost it. "A wild card. While you and Ameline are necessary, there is a part of Alison connected to you, to sorcery, to the maji through blood magic. The Brotherhood want it to happen. Consider it important. Which means we must oppose it." He flinched, shook like a rag doll, collapsed against me. "But, more immediate, she is a weapon," he whispered. "If she becomes real, she will be a tool against the vampires, unkillable because, unlike them, she's already been dead. Not just undead." He looked up, grinned like it was funny as I lost him to insanity again. Giggled. "Now isn't that special, jiggity jig?"
Another lost soul come full circle. I had to go after Alison.
Demetrius seemed to have another idea. He held up his crystal, jabbed it at me. "I'll catch her, just you wait." He dodged back from me, grinning like he'd lost another pair of marbles from his dwindling collection. "Been tracking her, haven't I? Be right back, don't you know." The air around him shimmered before going black, oozing around to envelop him before he waved and vanished.
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