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“You can see him now. I haven’t let Sharah go back yet. I was hoping, if you can sense anything…I’m at a loss for what’s happening.” He worried his lip, then added, “His body is fine—he’s fit and healthy. But the seizures did take a toll on him, although I think he can recover. As far as the coma…that’s our problem.”
We stood and followed him. Sharah was in one of the rooms we passed, attending to a young Fae woman, who looked like she was ill. She glanced up at us and nodded, but said nothing as we passed.
Chase was tucked away in a private room near the end of the hallway.
I’d been through far too much to find hospitals depressing, but when we saw him, lying there, his eyes closed as his chest rose and fell with his steady, even breath, I felt cold and alone and angry. Chase hadn’t asked for what had happened to him, and here he was, a pawn in a desperate game. Or maybe it was random chance. But I was getting sick of random chance. The universe had one hell of a nasty sense of humor.
“Oh, Chase…” Delilah slowly moved to his left side and took one hand, while Camille took the other. It felt wrong for Sharah not to be here, but I understood Mallen’s reasoning. We had to protect her, at least until we knew what we were dealing with. I glanced over at Shade. “Is there any way you can figure out what happened to him?”
Shade motioned for my sisters to move out of his way. He stood by Chase’s head and motioned to me. “Turn off the lights, please. I need shadow in which to work.”
Making sure all I was turning off were lights, I flipped the switch. The room dimmed, with only the blinking of the machines monitoring his blood pressure and heart rate to light our way. starting to run out of ideas, and the creature was growing more aggressive, when another voice rang out—one I recognized.
“Menolly!” Vanzir raced through the mist, toward me. He looked intact, however—solid in a way neither Chase nor I were. He had leaped onto the Dream-Time in body, not an easy feat. But, for a dream-chaser demon, easy enough, I supposed.
“Vanzir—help me! Chase is in trouble.” I dodged again, trying to cover Chase’s ass, but the jellyfish landed all its tentacles on me and sent me reeling. No more little shocks, but one long, intense racking pain.
As it sailed past me toward Chase, Vanzir launched himself, landing in its path. He held out his hands and tendrils appeared. They were wormlike, neon ribbons that filtered out from his palms, eerie and alive and writhing.
“Your powers—you’ve got your powers back!” I watched, mesmerized as the tendrils sank into the body of the jellyfish and began to feed on its energy. The thing shifted then, no longer a jellyfish but the vague shape of a human, though far more nebulous. No features showed, only gaping sockets where there would be eyes. But it was hungry, and it wanted Chase.
“You betcha, babe. Only I’m in control now—I no longer have the need to feed. But oh, it feels so good.” He closed his eyes, cackling as he siphoned the energy off the creature. It began to shrivel and fade, and then was gone.
Vanzir turned to me. “Surprised to see you out here, babe.”
“How did you know what was happening?”
“We were down at HQ, discussing a few things about last night. I went along to get out of the house, and I also wanted to drop in on Carter. He called for us to come over—he told us about your visit last night.” He eyed me up and down. “Don’t ever think about fucking with him, girl. He could tear you to bits and probably would. It may not show, but he likes it rough.”
“He actually talked to you about that part of our conversation?”
“Demons stick together.”
“Well, trust me, the possibility didn’t cross my mind.” I stared at him. “Get on with it. What’s going on with Chase?”
“Anyway, we got a call from Sharah that something was going on and we headed over there. By the time we got there, Chase was unconscious. We could tell he was being drained. Somehow, he must have thrust his spirit over here to the Dream-Time. He’s getting damned good at that. But I could sense something had latched onto him and was sucking away his energy. So I came over to see if the leech was on this side of the veil. Apparently it wasn’t, but whatever that thing was, it was ready to feed, too.” He paused. “What are you doing here?”
“I don’t know, to be honest. Sometimes I find myself on the Dream-Time when I’m sleeping. I think, maybe, I came here because Chase needed me. Maybe he called me out here somehow. What the hell was that thing?” I looked at the wispy remains of the jellyfish creature, which was now a mere shadow, floating on the breeze.
“It sure as hell isn’t something you’d find on a Nova special, regardless of what it looks like. It must be some sort of spirit.” He paused. “It’s not a Karsetii demon, but there was a similar feel.”
I shook my head. This felt all too familiar. “Hungry ghosts?”
“Maybe…or maybe an offshoot of them. And ten to one, whatever it is, it’s out and about thanks to Gulakah. By the way, I heard about your adventures in spookland last night. Delightful.” He sighed. “Well, I’d better hop off the Dream-Time and see how Chase is doing. By the way, this—my powers returning? Very recent. The Triple Threat had something to do with it, though I’m not sure exactly what. But we’ll talk about that later. Bye, wench. Sleep well.”
Before I could stop him, he plastered a kiss on my nose, then winked and vanished, along with Chase. I stood there, staring at them as they faded, wishing I could wake up, too. As I meandered around the boulders, I wondered—had Chase really managed to call me out? I’d been able to keep that freak show tentacle monster from sucking his life force out until Vanzir had been able to get here.
And if Chase had summoned me, what the hell was he evolving into? Even the little bit of elf in him couldn’t account for some of the changes going on. But then again, humans had their own type of magic, and we knew next to nothing about the rest of Chase’s family.
As I stared up into the misty skies of the Dream-Time, I felt myself fading. The next thing I knew, it was sunset, and time to rise. I slipped from beneath my covers and once again, dressed to face the endless night.
Chapter 12
As I entered the kitchen, it was eerily quiet. I looked around, but there was only silence. I’d never gotten up when somebody wasn’t cooking something or eating something or arguing in the kitchen.
Worried, I headed into the living room, looking for signs that somebody might be around. The living room was quiet, too. Where the hell were my sisters? The guys? Iris? Maggie and Hanna?
A peek into the parlor showed it was empty, too.
