Betrayal (4 page)

“Emma's not afraid of anything,” Bennett said.

I took a deep breath, hoping he was right.

I smiled at one of the ghosts, but he ignored me while the other opened the door. After that, I expected a throne room or something, but Bennett led me into a small chamber, decorated like a library where you'd find Sherlock Holmes solving the case. It was all cherrywood, leather-bound books, and red and gold Oriental rugs with a fire blazing in the ornately carved fireplace.

Three men sat on leather couches, taking in the heat of the fire. They stood as we entered, and the oldest, an Asian man wearing wire-rim glasses, his long gray hair in a ponytail, stepped forward.

“Emma Vaile,” he said, subjecting me to an unsmiling inspection. “You are not as impressive as I'd imagined.”

“You must be Yoshiro,” I said, with a fake smile. “I thought you'd be taller.”

Beside him, the dark-haired younger man coughed, smothering a laugh, then introduced himself as Gabriel. He had a Spanish accent, and the sort of smoldering spark of one of those ugly European guys who's somehow incredibly attractive.

“A pleasure to meet you, Emma,” he said. For the record, “Emma” sounded really pretty with a Spanish accent.

“Welcome to the Knell,” the third man said, a middle-aged black man dressed in intellectual chic. “My name is William. I remember your mother and father fondly.”

“Thanks. It's kind of hard to imagine them here.”

Yoshiro cleared his throat. “Sit.”

I almost said something snotty about barking and rolling over, but Bennett nudged me toward one of the couches. Everyone sat except Yoshiro, who paced for a minute, then turned suddenly and considered me.

“Except for your youth, your likeness to the tapestry is exact.”

“And my hairstyle.” She looked like me dressed up for a Renaissance fair. “It doesn't mean anything. It's genetics. Probably happens all the time, except other people don't have medieval tapestries lying around.”

“Yoshiro believes it's more than that,” Gabriel said.

“Your powers are unprecedented,” William said. “And your resemblance to at least two dead ghostkeepers is also unprecedented. That's not a coincidence.”

“Maybe not. But I'm not the first Emma, I'm not that medieval lady. I'm just a—” I looked at Yoshiro. “An unimpressive girl who doesn't want to battle ghosts and kill wraiths. There're only three things I want. To find my family. Dispel Neos. And to—” I stopped suddenly, and didn't know where to look.

“Yes?” Yoshiro said. “The third thing?”

“To be with me,” Bennett said.

Yoshiro made a disgruntled sound. “You are too close.” He waved his hands between us. “This is dangerous.”

“We're okay,” I said. “Thanks for the concern.”

“
You
are okay,” Yoshiro said. “But you are not the one in danger. You have a strange way of showing Bennett your regard, by undermining his ability.”

This time, my snappy retort dissolved into flushing with embarrassment, and I squirmed a few inches away from Bennett.

Like a hero, Bennett changed the subject. “What have you learned about Neos?”

Yoshiro crossed to the fire and watched the flames, leaving William to answer. “He's something new, something nobody's faced before. Stronger than any of us—except perhaps you, Emma. And except for the Knell, when we all act together.”

“What about my parents and brother?”

“They're obsessed with Neos—with stopping him,” Gabriel said. “They warned us this might happen. But it's like they've dropped off the face of the earth.”

“They knew he'd come back as a ghost?” I don't know why I was surprised. I suppose they must have figured out it was Neos who attacked me as a child. And Aunt Rachel had filled in some of the missing pieces.

“They are not your concern,” Yoshiro said, turning. “Not now. You must focus on Neos. He is gathering strength in the Beyond, summoning wraiths and other, even more unwholesome spirits, forcing them to join his crusade.”

“Crusade against who?” Bennett asked. “Emma?”

“She's half of it,” William said. “The other half is the Knell. That's why we're taking security even more seriously. Yoshiro hasn't left his archives in weeks, and Gabriel and I don't leave the building anymore.”

“So what're we going to do?” I asked.

“We're bringing the veteran teams home,” Gabriel said. “And forming new ones.”

“Just like the old days,” Rachel said, with a glint in her eyes.

“I'll need Bennett on my team,” I said. “And Natalie.”

William and Yoshiro exchanged a dubious look. Gabriel simply looked on in a gorgeous Spanish manner.

Rachel nodded, though. “Emma's not one of our soldiers. She needs to be close to those she loves.” She came and sat beside me. Her proximity unsettled me for some reason, though I was relieved someone was on my side.

“You know that's not wise,” Yoshiro told her. “You of all people know that personal feelings undermine a group.”

“I won't do it without them,” I said.

Everyone looked to Yoshiro, and as he debated, I squirmed in my seat. But it wasn't because I was worried about his answer; something didn't feel right. My skin tingled, in a bad way.

I frowned at Bennett. “Do you feel that?”

He shook his head. “What's wrong?”

“There's a ghost nearby. It's—” My spine felt hot and itchy. “Not a ghost, a wraith.”

“
Imposible
,” Gabriel said in Spanish. “Wraiths cannot enter the Knell.”

Bennett stood and started drawing his power into his fists, a swirl of light glowing through the flesh and bone. “If Emma says there's a wraith, there's a wraith.”

“This building is a powerful nexus,” William said. “She's probably feeling the—”

“Rachel!” I said, my eyes widening.

She was quiet and attentive, next to me. Scratching furiously at one of her forearms. Bloody scrapes appeared down her skin.

She twitched a smile. “Skin infection. Poison ivy.”

But it wasn't a rash. I could see an oily swirl superimposed over her. It shifted and shimmered, then vanished into the lines on her arm like filthy water into a drain. My breath caught, and I pushed my awareness beyond my body, letting my power ripple across the room. Until I found it: a tight knot of fear and pain and insatiable hunger.

“Emma?” Bennett said, his hands glowing with power. “Emma! Where is it?”

“It—it's my aunt,” I gasped. “Rachel. There's a wraith inside her.”

“There's no way,” Gabriel said. “Wraiths can't possess people—and this building is completely shielded. You couldn't detect a ghast here if you were standing at the front gate, much less summon wraiths.”

“And Rachel's the most powerful communicator we have,” William said. “She would've known if—”

“Hit her,” I told Bennett.

“Stop!” Yoshiro shouted.

“She knows,” Rachel screeched. “She
knows
!” Her tone verged on insanity.

Bennett narrowed his eyes, and spears of light flew from his fists and slammed into Rachel's chest. Her back arched and she shrieked, an ungodly howl. Her eyes turned milky and sunk into their sockets, while her skin paled to a dead white and cracked like a mud puddle in a heat wave. Deep, jagged fissures formed, as an inky blackness seeped from inside her.

Bennett snarled and poured more energy at Rachel, and she writhed and twisted as she pointed one dead-white arm at Yoshiro, her mouth open in a soundless scream. William and Gabriel sprang to their feet, but my attention was still focused on other ghostly disturbances in the building around us.

Then Rachel made a horrible choking noise, and the insectlike bone of a wraith sprang from her arm and plunged into Yoshiro's chest.

Lightning crackled around Gabriel. In a blaze of power, he compelled her to freeze, the bony wraith-arm still sunk in Yoshiro's chest. “Don't dispel her,” he told Bennett. “Or she'll take Yoshiro with her. William, phone the doctor. If I let her go, he'll bleed out. Quickly!”

They froze there in a horrible tableau, with Rachel's wraith-arm impaling Yoshiro's chest, like a poster for a horror film. But with sound: the pained, panting breaths coming from Yoshiro and the squeals of rage from the wraith inside Rachel.

Time seemed to slow, the world closing in until there was nothing but us, locked together in this terrible room, listening to death approach with every gasping breath.

Then I felt them, a burning itch on my skin—more wraiths.

“They're coming,” I said. “More of them.”

Gabriel didn't move, his power completely focused on the wraith inside Rachel, but the rest of us prepared to meet the new attack. I faced the fireplace, while William crossed toward the door. Bennett stood beside the couch, a lucent spear from his right hand still weakening Rachel, while his left fist sparked with light.

They didn't come from outside. They came from inside Rachel's cracked skin, oozing through the torn flesh in an unearthly black mist.

I'd seen wraiths before, but it wasn't something you got used to. They condensed from the filthy mist into skin hanging like tattered clothing from insectoid skeletons, ectoplasm dripping from their gaping mouths.

William was an amazing communicator. His mental command boomed out,
There is nothing for you here. Leave us! If you stay, we will dispel you.

His tone held such power and conviction that it almost stopped
me
. But there was no communicating with wraiths; they were too consumed with hunger to listen. They screeched their desires:
Feed, feed, eat the flesh, suck the blood …

William used arcane phrases and a tone of complete command, but the chorus of bloodlust drowned out his words. He crumpled to the floor as a wraith flung itself onto him, bony claws slashing his neck.

I gathered my dispelling energy and twisted it around the wraith attacking William. Like wringing water from a dishcloth, I torqued the wraith until nothing was left but a spray of sticky black blood. William pressed his palm to the wound on his neck and crawled to the old-fashioned phone on the desk, as I spun toward the others.

Gabriel remained frozen in place, straining with the effort of compelling the wraith inside Rachel, keeping it from finishing off Yoshiro. Bennett stood at Gabriel's side, protecting him from the other two wraiths. Light crackled and burst around Bennett as he pierced one but was unable to dispel it completely, while the other attacked Gabriel.

They were losing. I concentrated on dispelling the wraith attacking Bennett, adding my own power to his. The wraith slithered away from him and staggered toward me, claws slashing. Drool from its gaping mouth splashed at my feet like acid, and I waited as it lurched forward. I waited until my palm was an inch from its ribcage, then I unraveled it into smoke.

Gabriel yelled for help, and Bennett spun and saw the wraith at Gabriel's throat. He launched a glowing nimbus of light directly into it.

Too late. Gabriel staggered under the wraith's attack and lost control of the wraith inside Rachel. It pulled its bony arm from Yoshiro's chest. An arc of blood spurted across the room as Yoshiro collapsed to the floor. As Bennett burned his way through the wraith still attacking Gabriel, the one inside Rachel leaped at Bennett from behind.

Its bony arm swung in a lethal arc toward Bennett's unprotected neck, and a wave of blackness rose around me, an almost overwhelming flare of fear, rage, and urgency. From some dark chamber of my heart, I unleashed more force than ever before, a single blast directly into Rachel's chest.

The blast shot through her and exploded against the opposite wall. She stopped dead and her insectlike limb morphed back into a regular arm, as she swayed on her feet.

I caught Rachel as she fell, the wraith leeching from her body. Her skin faded from the unnatural white to a deathly pallor, and her eyes, still sunken, glinted with tears.

She clutched at me. “Forgive me; I couldn't stop him.”

“Shhh, you're going to be okay.”

“No. You need—,” she gasped, “a weapon. To focus your power. It's your only hope. Emma, you need …” Her voice faltered.

“Rachel,” I said. “Don't go. We just met. I need you—”

“I'm sorry,” she whispered. “For everything. You need to end this, Emma. Neos fears you. He sent a siren. To cripple you. She will …”

And Rachel died.

4

The Knell doctor arrived within minutes. She checked Yoshiro, but we all knew he was dead. When the wraith-arm had jerked out of his chest, blood had spouted across the room. I'd never get that sight out of my mind.

The doctor treated William's wound, disinfecting and stitching it, then tended Gabriel's and Bennett's cuts and bruises. She looked me over and tsked at my chattering teeth and jittery hands, and the blood splatter on my sweater. She offered a Valium for the shock, but I shook my head.

I'd lost Yoshiro, the only person who knew how to defeat Neos. And I'd lost my newfound aunt in the most gruesome way possible. It's called parricide, the killing of a close relative. Probably not on the SATs, but branded in my mind. I didn't want to dull the pain; I wanted to feel it.

We left the room as the doctor began performing an autopsy on Rachel. She didn't want to move the body, as she'd never autopsied the corpse of a possessed person before. We crossed the hall into a sitting room, where we all sat in stunned silence.

“Wraiths can't possess people,” Gabriel finally muttered.

“They can now,” Bennett said. “And they can march right into the Knell and kill our leader.”

Nobody said anything for a while. Then I said, in a small voice, “What do we do?”

“Stick to the plan,” William said. “Build the teams. Start training together and …” His voice trailed off.

“And what? Does anyone else know how to beat Neos?”

William didn't answer—his defeated expression spoke loudly enough.

“That's why Neos killed Yoshiro,” Gabriel told me. “You and he are the only ones who scared Neos. But Yoshiro was careful; he'd been staying out of sight—until today, to meet you.”

Bennett nodded. “So Neos put a wraith in Rachel, and waited for his chance. He killed two of the top four people in the Knell, inside our own stronghold. We need to protect Emma.”

“She's no threat to him,” Gabriel protested, “not without Yoshiro's guidance.”

“You want to bet her life on that?” Bennett said, his jaw clenched. “Because the Knell's done so well with predictions lately. You didn't even know Rachel was possessed.”

“It's not that simple,” William said. “We can't commit ourselves to Emma before we know what we're facing. Maybe that's what Neos wants us to do.”

He and Bennett argued for a few minutes, until I interrupted. “What is wrong with you people? I've been doing this for like twenty minutes—you're the ones with the massive headquarters in New York and a thousand years of practice. I thought you knew what you were doing. That's why I came.”

William rubbed his eyes. “This is something new, Emma. Your appearance, Neos's bond to you, these wraiths and possessions. Yoshiro would still be alive if …”

“If I hadn't come?”

The doctor knocked and stepped inside before William could answer. Her preliminary autopsy of Rachel revealed that she would've died within the hour, even if we hadn't dispelled the wraith inside her. The doctor shook her head. “But that's all speculative. I've never seen someone possessed. Her organs are a mess, as if the wraith grew to fill the cavity of her body—not just a spectral force, but a physical one.”

So, technically, I hadn't killed her. But the act was the same, the murderous rage I'd felt when I wanted to protect Bennett, and didn't care who I'd hurt. A burning anger that came too easily—and felt too good.

I wondered how long she'd been alive with that thing inside her, using her like a puppet while choking her to death from within. And what about her last words to me? Saying that I needed a weapon—and warning me about a threat, a siren that Neos would send to cripple me? What was that? Could I even trust her dying words?

I thought about her eyes as she died, the pain and the truth shining in them. At the end, that was her. The real Rachel, my long-lost aunt. Lost again, now.

Bennett and I left after that. There was nothing more to say. Downstairs, we passed the room that held the tapestry, and I couldn't help looking one last time. Was I really the reincarnation of some ghostkeeping legend? The woman's face looked stronger than the one I saw in the mirror; she looked like someone who'd seen terrible things. She looked like someone who'd
done
terrible things. I didn't want to be her, and I definitely didn't want to become her.

And yet, what happened tonight felt like only the beginning. There would be more blood, more pain, more deaths. Things would never be the same again. Why me? Just because I was descended from the person woven into this tapestry? Did my whole life boil down to ancestry? My parents, who'd lied to me. My brother, who'd disappeared. The previous incarnations of me, who'd fought and died.

I looked from the woman's face to the ghosts surrounding her. She looked strong and fierce, but she didn't look happy.

As we descended the imposing front steps of the Knell, I asked Bennett, “Have you ever seen that, a wraith breaking out of a ghostkeeper's body?” I tried to erase the image of Rachel plunging her wraith-arm into Yoshiro's chest, and failed.

“No, that was a first.”

“Before she died, Rachel said I needed a weapon.”

He turned toward me and assessed the damage—the exhaustion in my eyes, the bloodstains on my clothes, my hands balled into fists. “What you need is a good night's sleep. I booked us a hotel. I knew you wouldn't want to stay here.”

We walked through the front gates to the street. Ghosts and ghostkeepers alike watched as we strode through the ancient lane, back to civilization. Word must've gotten out about the attack; they scowled and whispered as we passed.

“They think it's my fault,” I said to Bennett.

“Ignore them,” he said. “They don't know anything about you.”

We took a cab to the hotel, and I fell asleep on the way, my face pressed against the sticky black vinyl. Must've been the aftermath of all that energy I'd exploded into Rachel. Or just the emotional exhaustion of the day.

I blinked blearily when Bennett gently woke me and escorted me into the lobby of an intimate and chic hotel that my mother would've loved. I suddenly yearned for her. She'd never been the comforting sort, but she was at least good for a cuddle when things got this low.

Which was more than I could say for Bennett—we couldn't even hug. Still, when he sat me in a chair while he checked in, I couldn't help wondering if he'd reserved one room or two. And though I knew we shouldn't touch, when he came back with two keycards, my heart sank.

We found my room first, and Bennett waited at the door.

“Will you come in?” I asked. “I don't want to be alone.”

“Only for a minute,” he said as we went inside. “You need to sleep.”

I nodded, relieved that he wasn't deserting me. “Do you mind if I jump in the shower? I need to get out of these clothes and … scrub the wraiths off my skin.”

“Yeah, I know what you mean. Go ahead.”

The bathroom was large, considering the size of the room, with elegant fittings and warm beige tile. There were fluffy white towels and lush bath products, and the whole place felt about a thousand miles from the Knell.

After the shower, I slipped into the gray silk robe I'd packed and applied a little lip gloss—and heard the door to the room close. Had Bennett grown tired of waiting for me? I poked my head out and found him sitting on the chair in a fresh navy T-shirt and jeans, his own hair wet.

“I showered, too,” he said. “My room's the next one over. I tried to be quick.”

I crossed the floor and stood in front of him. “The first time we met, did you know who I was?”

“You were Max's little sister.” He glanced away. “Don't you have pajamas? Something high-necked and flannel?”

“You know what I mean, Bennett. Did you recognize me? Know that I looked like Thatcher's Emma and the one in the tapestry?”

“When I met you, you looked like a geeky little girl in braces.”

“I didn't wear braces!”

“No, but you looked like you did.”

I narrowed my eyes. “You're trying to change the subject.”

He took a steadying breath. “Yes, I recognized you. The lady in the tapestry is legendary, Emma. And you not only share her ancestry, but her name.”

I didn't want to ask my next question, but I had to know. “Did the Knell tell you to pretend to be in love with me, so I'd do what they wanted? Is this all a lie?”

“No.” He took my hands. “Emma, ever since I met you, I knew I shouldn't care for you. But I did—even then. I couldn't help how I felt. The last thing the Knell wants is for us to be in love. They think I've betrayed them. But I'm sorry, there are powers stronger than ghostkeeping.”

I felt my heart loosen as I stared at our interlocked hands. “I just want to touch you.”

“Me, too,” he said, his voice rough.

I was suddenly aware of my nakedness under my robe. “Couldn't we … just once?”

He brought my hands to his lips. “You don't know what you're asking.”

“I want to be with you. I want to be who we really are, a girl and a boy who fell in love. For one night, can't we pretend there are no wraiths and no deaths? I want to be a normal girl, who's not worried about anything except if her boyfriend is going to kiss her everywhere she wants to be kissed.”

He exhaled, and his warm breath caressed my fingers—then he pulled me into his lap. I felt his hands, rough and strong on my skin. He kissed my neck and my ear and whispered, “Yes.”

I touched him, wanting to hold onto every inch of him, forever.

“Just once.” He brushed his lips across my eyelids. “I love you.”

And I closed my eyes, overcome by a wave of love and desire and the aching need to be everything for him.

He lifted me into his arms and said, “Where else do you want to be kissed?”

Later, as we lay entwined, he said, “It's not that I don't want to.” He ran a fingertip across my brow. “It's just that once won't be enough.”

I looked into his bright blue eyes and cuddled closer. “This is perfect.”