Tangible by Jody Wallace

Author:Jody Wallace [Wallace, Jody]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Speculative Fiction, (¯`'•.¸//(*_*)\\¸.•'´¯)
ISBN: 9781619215962
Publisher: Samhain
Published: 2013-05-28T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Six

“No.” Zeke’s sword flew up, the tip halting an inch before Rhys’s throat. “It’s not her.”

“Like it wasn’t her last time?” Rhys asked, but he wasn’t watching Zeke. He was watching Maggie, his gaze mistrustful.

“It’s not the same.” Zeke had been careful. He hadn’t pushed himself or Maggie, and his shield—defective as it was—hadn’t failed. “There’s another explanation.”

Rhys shifted his attention to Zeke. “You should have let me mentor her. I’m not perforated. She couldn’t have gotten past me and manifested a swarm. We wouldn’t have to take her out.”

“What do you mean, take me out?” Maggie asked. “I cooperated. I did everything Zeke said.”

Rhys looked ready to take Maggie out now, so Zeke didn’t let his sword waver. “If Lillian couldn’t connect with her, neither could you. You’re not a curator.”

“This has to happen, Zeke.” Something deep in the house clattered. Rhys glanced over his shoulder and back. “She’s dangerous. We can’t let her continue to manifest, or it could be the last screw up any of us make. Sean’s already out of commission.”

Rhys moved to slip his walkie into its holster, but it was too close to his gun for Zeke’s liking.

“Don’t think so, buddy.” Zeke prodded him with the sword and Rhys kept his hand in the air. He understood Rhys’s suspicions but they couldn’t be right. Zeke had been there, in Maggie’s dreamsphere. She’d been baffled by everything, barely able to master basic lessons, and terrified of the wraiths.

If she were like Karen, she could have faked her naïveté.

He didn’t want to distrust her, but movement flickered in the corner of his vision. Maggie, while he and Rhys argued, had gotten her hands on a gun.

She pointed it, the muzzle steady. “I’m not a psychopath.”

Zeke shifted sideways so he could keep his sword on Rhys and his eye on Maggie. Her hair bushed around her head and her skin was pale as milk. Freckles stood out on her nose and cheeks like paint specks. The bandage on her neck had disappeared, and the wound trickled blood onto her flowered satin PJs. Her eyes were practically all pupil.

“No offense,” he told her, “but you look a little psycho right now.”

“What is it you intend to do, kill me?” she asked Rhys.

“Neutralize you,” he said, “and the threat you represent. One way or another. That’s our job.”

Rhys didn’t explain how they’d neutralize her, but she’d read the paperwork word for word, asking a thousand questions. Zeke had thought she’d never sign.

She jabbed the gun in Rhys’s direction. “You’re not neutralizing me.”

“We could petition a curator to handle you, but trust me when I say you don’t want that,” Rhys warned her. “We’ll at least deal with you humanely.”

If she were like Karen, she hadn’t planned this very well.

Karen had been meticulous. Deadly meticulous. She’d taken her sweet time lulling them into a false sense of security. Maggie, on the other hand, hadn’t even been an alucinator for twenty-four hours.

“Why don’t you put the gun down, Maggie?” Zeke asked.

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