Damn him, he was going to let this happen!
The noise from inside the hotel increased, and a sharp bang made everyone, save Mackie, jump. That was when the Tulpa finally opened his eyes. His brows furrowed as he found me, no doubt unnaturally white and wideeyed, and he finally turned to stare Mackie fully in the face.
There was no other way to describe what Mackie did next. Still believing the Tulpa was my protector, his head snapped so far forward it was as if he possessed an extra row of vertebrae. His beef jerky skin stretched over his neck and he hissed.
The guests around him gasped. The Tulpa stood, rising like a plank, free of his chair, and more horrified gasps sounded as the two faced each other across half an Olympic-sized pool.
Warren remained where he was, content to let the Tulpa and Mackie take one another out.
Suzanne’s restless movement let me know it was time. I pulled out my gun as she turned toward the ruckus. Poor Suzanne, I thought, aiming at Mackie. She just wasn’t meant to have the wedding of her dreams.
Someone screamed. Mackie tested the Tulpa, whose eyes were still locked on him, by taking another step toward me. The Tulpa responded by baring a mouth full of fangs, which only made Mackie yank out his soul blade, eliciting real screams.
Suzanne growled in frustration and yanked at her voluminous gold skirts.
“That’s it!” To my utter surprise she reached behind her, pulled a sawed-off shotgun from a Velcro holster hidden somehow at her back, and aimed the barrel down the aisle. “You guys are fucking up my wedding!”
And she shot Mackie straight through the chest.
The crowd exploded into action, everyone running for the single set of doors like rats escaping a maze. Everyone, that was, but those who knew what was going on. Or, I thought, ears and mind buzzing, those suddenly finding out. I blinked as guests fell into the pool, swimming toward the other side to avoid the corpse now sprawled on the center aisle. I saw Warren straighten from the corner of my eye, but my gaze winged back to the Tulpa as the screams escalated.
“Hello, boys.” Suzanne reached behind her without looking, and again I was surprised when she pulled out the saber I’d planted, the one I thought no one knew about. I replaced my gun at the small of my back as she handed me the shotgun, though kept my eyes on her. Everyone did. A smile like flint glittered on her goldpainted face. “Miss me?”
Warren and the Tulpa both froze, and their shocked expressions spoke volumes.
Warren found his voice first. “Zoe?”
“Fucking Zoe…” the Tulpa’s voice rasped.
“Suzanne?” I shook my head. I seemed to be having the hardest time coming around to this. I shook it again.
The Tulpa’s gaze rocketed my way.
Pivoting, we both turned our weapons on him, suddenly back-to-back on the floating dais.
“Get behind me or get out,” she told me, her voice so wooden it didn’t sound familiar at all. Warmth rose in my belly, an anger only there when my mother tried to tell me what to do. It felt foreign, strange, upsetting…and fucking good.
“Kinda bossy for a mortal, aren’t you?” I said, resighting on Mackie as he tried to push into a sitting position.
“Must be the boobies.” And we fired at the same time. I plugged Mackie through his chest again twice. She pulled the trigger on the saber’s sidearm, sight steady on the Tulpa.
The unmistakable sound of gunfire and Mackie’s grace less cannonball into the middle of the pool caused further panic, though the Tulpa caught the bullet in his hand. Zoe had actually aimed a bit high, not wanting to strike any of the still-fleeing guests. Meanwhile, Warren still had yet to move.
The Tulpa began levitating. “Put the weapon down, or I’ll kill every mortal here.”
Zoe hesitated, then slowly lowered the saber to the floor. While there, she reached beneath the mounds of gold tulle and pulled out a paranormal bazooka.
I looked down at my puny shotgun. “I see you saved the best for yourself.”
“Always hold a little bit back, Joanna,” she said, jerking back on a loading lever. “I did.”
Which, I guessed, was how she could touch the conduits now.
The Tulpa wasn’t interested in chitchat. He floated even higher, edging over the pool surface. “I’m warning-”
“Fuck yourself,
He stilled, floating but frozen. “Everybody underwater,” he said coolly. “And stay there.”
The chaos instantly calmed. Those already in the pool simply sunk to the bottom, those near the seats or platform-and there were still at least three hundred-slipped over the sides like a school of brightly colored, well- mannered fish. Silence descended, and when Arun made to follow the priest into the water, Zoe pulled him back with one arm, never taking her eyes from the Tulpa.
Warren finally found his voice, running forward, but was helpless to stop the mass drowning. “No!”
The Tulpa ignored him completely. “Give yourself over to me,” he said, floating closer. “Or I’ll kill your groom too. No prince, no happily ever after.”
I licked my lips, and though the Tulpa spared me a glance, I was all but forgotten. It was Zoe he wanted; Zoe he’d always wanted. He hated her more than he loved life. More, even, than he loved death.
Zoe yanked Arun in front of us both.
“What are you doing?” I asked, confused, but the Tulpa whipped his arm around so fast the bullet Zoe had shot returned our way with twice the speed, and Arun’s chest exploded like a Catherine Wheel on the Fourth of July.
Cringing, and covered in a thick layer of gelatinous goop, I shivered at the icy substance, wiped at my face, and looked over to find Zoe also masked in the see-through substance. She shook her head as she looked down.
“Shit. I was almost done too.”
“A doppelganger?” I asked in disbelief. “You were making another one?”
She shrugged one shoulder. “It gets easier with practice, but no. I picked this one up off an old shaman in Bali. The transfer from his mind to mine laid me up for weeks, but it was worth it.” She stared at the ooze, now edging into the pool, that had nearly been a life-form. “Well, almost worth it.”
“Y-You were going to marry a tulpa?” Warren asked, just as shocked. All three of us turned his way. He sounded like a prejudiced nineteenth-century southerner.
Apparently Zoe thought so too. “Why it’s every girl’s dream, Warren. Who wouldn’t want a man they could control?”
I couldn’t help it. I snorted.
The Tulpa growled, floating closer, nearly to the center aisleway now. Bodies upon bodies were trapped beneath it, faces pressed against the transparent bottom like a macabre windowpane. “Why would someone just give you their doppelganger?”
It was a good question. I kept my weapon on him, though my arms were shaking, and looked at Zoe.
She smiled. “I asked nicely.”
“You mean you fucked him.”
“Oh my gawd. Different note, but still the same fucking song.” Zoe didn’t sound one bit afraid of him, and he sagged so greatly with her words that his toes hit the water. “I told his creator what I wanted him for. I’m not the only one who thinks you need to die.”
“The weak,” spat the Tulpa.
“The Light,” said Warren.
“The righteous,” Zoe said, arrowing a hard look at Warren, correcting them both. “I’m not Light anymore, and haven’t been for a long time. I’m an independent, though independent even from the rogues. I like it that way.”
“How can you say that?” Warren was at the edge of the pool, as dumbfounded as I’d ever seen him. “You dishonor your family by disavowing us.”
“What would you know about honor? You’ve treated my daughter like shit, you bastard. So don’t talk to me
