Conduit (3 page)

“Lev!”

He whirled to find Jimmie sprinting
through the door, face pale, expression drawn.  Shaken, Lev focused on the
guard, unsure.  In the end, Jimmie came to him, simplifying the choice.

“Where’s Lizzie?”  Jimmie popped his
gum, the only thing he could do since he’d quit smoking. Again.

“She’s in the back with the doctor. 
They wouldn’t let me in.”  Lev shook his head.  “I have to do something. I
can’t just wait.” The cop regarded them impassively.

Jimmie set his hand on Lev’s
shoulder.  “I’m her father.  Can I go back with her?”

The cop shook his head.  “I’m sorry,
but no.  She wasn’t breathing when she went back.  I’m sure that whenever they
have her stabilized, they’ll come get you.”  The cop peered at the women
manning the computers, working with other patients.  “They’ll call you up for
paperwork, anyway.”

Lev fidgeted, his body fraught with
tension. His breathing was erratic, and he couldn’t focus.  Jimmie must’ve sensed
it because, once the guard had gone, he leaned close.

“Let it be. There’s nothing you can
do.”

Lev immediately bucked up.  “This is
Lizzie we’re talking about!” he seethed, eyeing the cop balefully—the cop who’d
suddenly lost all interest.  Then again, that probably had something to do with
the fact that another cop was now escorting a prisoner in—a prisoner who was
screaming something about a violation of his rights. Still, how could the cop
just dismiss them—dismiss Lizzie—so damned easily—so damned quickly?

“I know this is Lizzie,” Jimmie
agreed, “and if you think this isn’t killing me, you’re wrong.  But Lev, you’re
not an angel anymore.  You’re human just like me, and there’s nothing either of
us can do to save her, even though we want to.”

They both stared at the prisoner, who
was obviously high and who clearly hadn’t showered in a week and who probably
hadn’t combed through his hair in much longer.

“So what, you want to just stand
here?” 

“No, but sometimes we don’t get
choices.  You, above all, ought to know that.”

Lev started to argue when a sudden
movement in the doorway caught his attention.  Both he and Jimmie saw it—saw
him, Evan, his wings scarcely visible as he strode through the entrance, weaving
through a crowd who seemed not to see him at all.

Evan offered both a solemn nod. The
timing couldn’t have been worse.  Unless Evan came to act in an angelic
capacity.  Lev froze, horrified at such a thought.  “This can’t be.”  He stepped
forward, ignoring the way his father motioned for him to stop, but Jimmie
grabbed his arm, held him back.

“Let’s hear what he has to say.”

“No!” Lev snapped.  Everyone stared,
forcing Lev to lower his voice.  “You know what he’s going to do, right—unless we
stop him.”

“What do you mean?”

“When I stopped being a sojourner,
someone had to take my place.  It seems Evan has come for Elizabeth.”  He
closed his eyes. 

Jimmie flinched, struggling to
regroup. His expression went suddenly blank, as though he couldn’t figure out
how to handle his conflicted emotions. “He’s also a healer, a guardian angel,
and an enemy to those who destroy what is good.  You have to remember that.  We
don’t know that he’s here for her. Maybe Celia sent him.”

“We don’t know he’s not, either.” 
Lev folded his arms across his chest, his body stiff.  He watched Evan
disappear through the door as though it weren’t there, an angel trick Lev had
often performed by rote, one now denied him.

 “Evan is still your father…sort of. 
Part of you used to believe in him and believe that regardless of what he did, whatever
it was, it was for the best, and that he would do anything to help you.” 
Jimmie squared his shoulders.  “You have to trust him.”

“No.”  Lev headed for the door. 

 “This time you don’t have a choice. 
We’re in the same boat, you and me, so let’s sit over here until we know something.”

Lev gritted his teeth.  For just a
moment as Jimmie stared into his hard expression, he thought perhaps Lev might
ignore him, but Lev finally just sank into the first chair he found.

“Family of Elizabeth Moon?”  One of
the women behind the computer stood and regarded the crowd expectantly.  Evan motioned
for Lev to stay put and then strode up that direction.

“I’m Lizzie’s father.”

“Could you fill this out and give us
your insurance card to scan, please?” the woman asked, careful to avoid his
gaze.  Part of Jimmie wanted to think it had to do with Lizzie’s condition, but
the realistic part of him knew that wasn’t likely.  It would be more rational
to think that the nurse would just feel that same way about any of the
patients.  She might have to work in an ER, but that didn’t make her immune to
the sadness which came through the doorway into this place, and a
seventeen-year-old girl who stopped breathing was definitely sad. 

Jimmie struggled to fill out the
form.  Granted, it wouldn’t have been nearly so bad were he not worried Lev would
do something rash.  Lev had been doing a lot of rash things lately, but this
was the first real opportunity for getting into serious trouble, what with that
cop standing nearby, his gaze often wandering toward Lev.

As he returned the paperwork, a
triage nurse stepped out from behind the door, a chart in hand.

“Family of Elizabeth Moon?”  She searched
the sea of people.

“Here,” Jimmie said.  In his
peripheral vision, he saw Lev striding over, worry etching furrows in his
forehead. 

The nurse skimmed the chart.  “At
present, we have her breathing.  She seems stable, but we aren’t sure what’s
going on.  We’re running some tests.”

“Can we see her?”  The rigid posture
of Jimmie’s shoulders eased slightly.  He peered at Lev and found the expression
still stunned; he waited for something else to come out of the nurse’s mouth. 
Did he really believe Evan would have done anything to hurt Lizzie?  That would
be ridiculous.

“Yes, I can take you back; however,”
she said, waiting for them both to look her in the eye, “if she stops breathing
again, you’ll have to leave.  Do you understand?”

“Yes.”  Jimmie glanced worriedly at
Lev, aware that he wasn’t even looking at the nurse.  His attention was already
on the door, and Jimmie couldn’t blame him.

“Follow me.”  The nurse swiped her ID
card and then pushed open the door. They followed her down the corridor.

In passing, Jimmie saw the prisoner
who had been brought in, heard her yelling at the cops long before he saw her,
restrained as she was in the bed.  They kept moving, and ultimately the nurse
stopped before one of the exam rooms.

“She is still unconscious.  Were you with
her when this started?”

“No,” Lev said. “Just me.” His body was
tense, poised to shove past.

“What happened?”  The nurse purposely
didn’t open the door and waited for him to answer.

“It was like she had a seizure,” he half-whispered,
raking his fingers through his hair.  “She began shaking, lost consciousness,
and then stopped breathing.  I did CPR to keep her alive.”  He closed his eyes,
reliving the memory and then shuddered.  Although Jimmie hadn’t been there to
see the seizure, he, too, probably would have been scarred by what he’d seen.

“Can we go in?” Lev asked, his
breathing a little erratic.

“Of course.”  The nurse entered, and Lev
and Jimmie followed, struck by all the monitors attached to her.  She seemed so
small and lost, her face pale in contrast to the light green sheets.

The nurse made a point to scribble a
few notes on Lizzie’s chart and then set it in a plastic holder on the wall
before going back to the door.

“The doctor will be in here in a
little while to speak with you once he deals with the screaming patient down
the hall.”

As if on cue, the woman yelled again,
louder this time, something about suing cops.  “I’m sorry.  We’re trying to
deal with that as quickly as possible.  That kind of disruption is hardly good
for any of the patients.”  The nurse gave them an apologetic smile and then
disappeared.

“I don’t understand,” Lev murmured. 
“She was fine earlier; this came out of nowhere.”

“Not exactly nowhere.”  The voice
came from behind, and both whirled to find Evan standing there, looking disturbingly
human.

 “You saw this coming,” Jimmie asked,
sitting in the chair beside Lizzie, “and did nothing?”  He took her hand,
wanting to be closer to her.

“No,” Evan said, stepping over to
read her chart.  He scanned it for a few seconds before putting it back.  “All
the pieces have been there, but until now I never put them together.  And now,
this—this is just starting.”

Chapter Three

“What are you talking about?” Lev
demanded, pacing.  No matter where he moved, he glared at Evan as though
somehow his father had betrayed him, which made no sense.  Then again, a lot of
Lev’s behaviors lately hadn’t made much sense.  He’d reverted completely to
emotions to get through everything instead of logic.

“Elizabeth is being targeted,” Evan
replied calmly.  “That’s why Celia sent for me.  And it’s about to get
infinitely worse.”

Both Lev and Jimmie glared at him,
Jimmie’s mouth dropping in shock and Lev’s frown deepening sharply.

“That doesn’t make any sense.”  Lev
thought back to sitting on the couch with Elizabeth as they sat and watched a
movie—the same way they’d done many times before, no hints that something bad
was heading their way.  “I was there when things went down, Evan.  It seemed like
a seizure, something completely medical in nature.”

“Of course, that’s what you would
see.”  Evan ambled up beside Lev and looked down at Elizabeth, making sure she
was sleeping as comfortably as she could.  He watched the monitors for more
assurance.

“Meaning?” Lev growled, folding his
arms across his chest as he glared at his father.

“You’re human now, Lev.  It’s part of
the trade-off.  You stopped sensing any supernatural beings the day you ‘died’
as an angel.”

Lev’s shoulders sank, and a flush
colored his cheeks.  He clenched his jaw, bucking up for a physical blow.

“It’s not my fault.”

“I never said it was,” Evan gave him
a pointed stare.  “I told you it was a trade-off, and you know it.” 

“So what exactly is targeting her?”
Jimmie interrupted, trying to keep Lev from flying off the handle.

“They're what we call
dybbuks
.”

Lev gave a hard laugh.  “You’re
reaching.  There aren’t any
dybbuks
here.  You would have sensed them
before now.”

Evan shook his head.  “Yes, there
are.  A handful of them attacked Celia and Griffin as they headed to the
house.  One of them almost got inside Griffin, and you know what that would
have meant.”

Lev took a few steps back, reeling
like something had struck him.  His face was ashen, his mouth hanging open in
disbelief.  A group of
dybbuks
hinted at something far worse to come.

Jimmie was about to ask another
question when the door swung open and Evan vanished.  Jimmie quickly stood and joined
Lev. 

The doctor, a woman in her late
thirties, entered and offered her hand to Jimmie.  “Hello. I’m Dr. Ronson.”

“I’m Lizzie’s guardian, Jimmie Abram,
and this is a family friend, Lev Walker.”  They shook, and Ronson grabbed the
chart to take a peek as she
nodded to them both,
acknowledging the greeting.

So what’s going on?” Lev asked,
unable to keep his curiosity in check.  He shoved his hands deep into his jeans
pockets just to keep them busy.

“We think you’re right, Mr. Walker. 
She’s had at least one seizure.  What we are trying to do now is figure out
what is causing them and how serious they are.”  She looked at Lizzie.  “Does
she have any history of seizures?”

“No,” Jimmie said.  “I’ve cared for
Lizzie since she was a child and she’s never had any seizures at all that I’m
aware of.  This is new.”  He frowned and tried to reconcile this information
with what Evan had said, knowing the truth was somewhere in the middle of
everything.

“All right.  If that’s the case,
she’s probably going to be here a while so we can try to figure out what’s
causing this sudden health concern.  When the tests come back, we will
hopefully get some answers.”

Jimmie nodded, wondering if they’d
find something, considering that all of this might have been caused by
something not of this world.

“How long do you think she’ll have to
stay?” Lev asked, gazing at her worriedly.  A sheen of sweat covered her face,
and her lips seemed dry, dehydrated.

“I don’t know for sure. It’s probably
going to take a few days to go through what we need, and once we get the
results back, we can figure out where to go from there. I’ll have the nurse
work on her paperwork to check her into the hospital.  There’s no point in
typing up an ER exam room when we know the tests are going to take longer than
today.  Are there any more questions I can answer for you?”

While Lev stared blankly at Lizzie,
Evan appeared in the corner of the room, and while he could see his father, he
doubted anyone else could.  Lev shook his head.  “No.”  His voice sounded
small, rather like he felt just then.

“The nurse will be in shortly with
paperwork to move her upstairs.  Be patient, and we’ll find the answers.”

With those words, the doctor headed
out into the hallway. 

“Regardless of how long she remains
in the hospital, they won’t find a way to explain the seizures because they
cannot be explained by illness,” Evan said softly, his eyes meeting Lev’s. 

“What are
dybbuks
?” Jimmie asked,
glancing between Lev and Evan, waiting for one of them to clarify.

“They are souls who have either
refused a sojourn or have fallen through the cracks because of a sojourn which
went wrong.”

Confused, Jimmie staggered backward a
step.  “Aren’t all souls forced to sojourn one way or another?”  He folded his
arms across his chest, trying to calm down.

“In theory, yes, but sometimes things
happen…things even the best sojourners have no control over.”  Evan leaned over
and touched Lizzie’s face, and he frowned.  “Some souls just refuse to leave.  Most
of the time, sojourners can force the journey, but every once in a while the
souls realize that they have a choice.  Ultimately, the power is with the soul. 
They can continue to stay in the human realm without a body, but it comes at
the cost of their sanity.”

“They’re ghosts?”  Jimmie’s tone
rose.

“For all intents and purposes, yes.” 
Satisfied that Lizzie was as calm as could be, he stepped back.

“What do they want with her?” Jimmie
asked, glancing at the clock.  Its loud ticking distracted him.  He wondered if
other patients minded it because surely every room in the hospital had one.

“
Dybbuks
are parasites,” Lev
snapped, glaring at Evan sharply. “They try to take over any host body they
think will support them.”

“But why Lizzie, and why now?” 
Jimmie glanced from Lev to Evan, hoping one of them had some answer.

Evan paced the room, and Jimmie was
wondering if the angel was hiding something important, something that he needed
to know to save Lizzie.

“Well?” Lev prompted.  “You seem to
think this was done by
dybbuks
.  So tell us one reason the spirits of
the dead would focus on Lizzie.  There’s nothing special about her.”

“That’s where you’re wrong, and you
know it,” Evan argued, stepping in front of his son.  “It’s like saying there’s
nothing special about you since you’ve been changed from an angel to a human.  Supernatural
events always leave marks—always—and the dead sometimes use those as landmarks
for guidance.”

“But Lizzie was never an angel,”
Jimmie argued.

Suddenly, Lizzie’s eyes flew open,
and she moaned as her body convulsed.

“Evan!” Jimmie yelled, reaching out
as Lizzie’s body shook so hard he was glad of the rails.  Suddenly the monitors
attached to her went wild.  Her heart rate spiked.

“I’m coming.”  In a flash, Evan
leaned over Lizzie and put his hands to her chest.  Light flared from them
until Lizzie’s body stopped jerking and she fell back to a sort of silent peace
as two nurses rushed in.
Once more, Evan had disappeared.

As one nurse checked Lizzie’s vitals,
the other focused on the suddenly calm readings on the monitors, bewildering
both of them.

“What just happened?” the nurse
looking at the monitors asked.  “I know I saw the monitors go crazy, but none
of it’s here.”

Her partner checked Lizzie’s pulse
and blood pressure.  “You’re right.  I know what the monitors said, but she’s
resting peacefully.”  They exchanged glances.  “I don’t understand.”

The first nurse looked at Lev and
Jimmie.  “Did you see anything?”

Under the nurse’s scrutiny, Jimmie shook
his head first.  “No, she seemed to be quietly sleeping.  Beyond that I didn’t
notice anything.”

“Did you?”  She desperately stared at
Lev, seeking some kind of confirmation.

“No, nothing.”  Lev spoke quietly,
calmly, something that seemed out of character for him these days.

“She seems fine,” the second nurse
said.  “Maybe we are both just too tired and short-handed.”

“Maybe,” the other nurse agreed,
picking up Lizzie’s chart and looking over it, trying to glean anything she
might have missed before now.

The two women glanced at Lev and
Jimmie one last time before slipping out, closing the door behind them.  As
soon as the door shut, Evan reappeared.

 “What just happened?”  Jimmie
demanded, leaning over Lizzie again.
            “The
dybbuks
keep coming, trying to claim her as a host for
their spirits, and when there are too many at one time, her body cannot handle
it.  I’m driving them away, but they keep coming back, which means I have to
stay with her at least until Celia can come and relieve me.  If I leave her
unattended,
dybbuks
will kill her in their desperate fury to claim her,
and a hospital is a breeding ground for their kind.  We need to get her out of
here as quickly as possible.”

“So what do we do now?”  Lev clenched
and unclenched his fists, obviously angry at his inability to handle anything
himself.  The last thing he wanted to have to do was rely on Evan.  Once, he’d
been an angel, and he’d been able to protect Lizzie.  Now he was human and just
as vulnerable as she was, which meant for all intents and purposes, he was
useless.

“Go home,” Evan suggested.  “I’ll
stay here with Lizzie, and by the time she’s finally cleared for release, we
will have devised a game plan.  Perhaps I can figure out something that will
tell us why the
dybbuks
are targeting her now.  It’s more than
coincidence.”  That much I’m sure of.”

Jimmie sat in the chair beside the
bed.  “I’m not just going to leave Lizzie.  What if she needs me?”  Jimmie
glared at him.

“And what can you do against the
supernatural?”

“But what if it’s not just Lizzie?”
Lev argued.  “You said that
dybbuks
had attacked both Celia and
Griffin.  If it were all about Lizzie, why would they do that?”

“Because they sense her on all of
you.”  Evan settled his hands on his hips.  “Yes, you all could be in danger,
but Celia is there with you, and once Lizzie is at home where we are not
divided, I can find other angels to help us—angels who are more familiar with
dealing with spirits resistant to having their souls sojourned.”

“I can’t—”

Evan quickly cut Lev off.  “I know
you don’t want to leave her, but there’s nothing you can do.  I can protect
her, and I will do whatever I need to.  You have my word.”  He nodded at
Lizzie’s guardian respectfully. 

“I suppose you think I should just go,”
Lev seethed, “Seeing as how I’m uselessly human just like him.”

Evan strode over and set his hand on
his son’s shoulder.  “You’re not useless, Lev.  You’ve never been useless. 
It’s just, right now, there’s nothing you can do.”

“Fine.  Whatever.”  He watched
Lizzie, a flicker of pain crossing his face.  “But if anything happens to her,
I will never forgive you.”

He didn’t wait for his father’s
response.  Instead, he strode to the door and slipped out.  Jimmie watched Lev
walk out, and for a moment, he considered changing his mind.  Then he saw Evan
amble to the window, his back to him.  He set his arms on the sill and let his
wings show, the austere brilliance lighting the whole room.  In that moment,
Jimmie realized that while he might love Lizzie more than life itself, there
was only one entity who could protect the little girl he’d raised—Evan.