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“Then what?”
“He’ll go wherever he’s meant to.”
“I wish we could talk to him, ask him why he did this.”
Adam thought they had the why covered, but a bit more of the how would be nice.
“I might have a way, but let’s go to the hospital first.”
21
“Will it hurt?” Emily asked as they returned to the living room.
She’d lent Adam a reusable grocery bag, the kind you saw since Denver had stopped offering plastic bags in grocery stores. It had been a pain, at first. Adam kept forgetting them then having to buy more until they had a bag full of bags in the coat closet. Now Vic just kept them in the car and Adam had a few folded in his backpack in case he hit the store on the way home from work or school. The soul jars clinked gently as he moved carefully down the stairs. He didn’t want to drop or accidentally open them, not until the spirits were closer to their bodies.
Dautre smiled. “Not in the least.”
“Okay then.”
The light changed. The air changed, and they stood in the waiting area at Mercy.
“Oh,” Emily said.
“That’s Dautre, smooth as glass.”
The elf looked both perplexed and pleased with Adam’s compliment.
Bobby met them in the ward. Jodi was still at work. She’d have liked to be there, but Adam was unwilling to put this off. The last thing they needed was another death or another banshee attack.
“What do we do?” Emily asked as Adam took jars from the bag and passed them around.
“We open them.”
Adam unscrewed the lid of the one he held, and the soul within darted down the hall like an iridescent honeybee. It passed through the wall. He grabbed another and they followed his lead, filling the air with bright, fluttering souls for a brief instant, until the only one left was Cole’s. Bobby hurried down the hall to check on the other empties.
He popped out of one of the rooms and waved at them in a come-see gesture.
Tristan was awake, blinking brown eyes and asking the nurse sleepy questions.
“Thank you,” Bobby said. “I think they’re going to be all right.”
“I wish we could have stopped Cole,” Emily said.
Adam ran the math on the jars. Cole had prepped twelve. His work at the concert had caught six souls. The rest had been interrupted by Adam and Vic. That didn’t account for the banshees at the market. There had to be more jars somewhere else, and likely in someone else’s control.
“Why him?” Emily asked, breaking into Adam’s thoughts. “Why did he grow a banshee when they didn’t?”
“I don’t know,” Adam admitted.
“We’re still waiting on the autopsy,” Bobby said. “I’ll let you know if we find anything.”
“I’d appreciate that.”
Adam turned to Emily and Dautre.
“I think we’re good here,” Adam said.
“I will take you home,” Dautre told Emily.
