Out of Body

gleaming old wood floors.

Gray felt Nat enter the house behind him and signaled for him to stay put. For himself, Gray allowed Marley to get farther ahead. He could reach her fast enough, but he didn’t want to risk intruding into whatever she was involved with in that other world of hers. Instinct warned him of the danger he could cause by breaking her concentration.

He wished he could hear her speaking to him in his mind as he had before and narrowed his eyes, willing her to talk to him.

Nothing.

Soft and muddled, a familiar sound came to him, a sound with a beat at its center, a cadence. He stood still and waited, straining to hear any discernable words that might separate themselves from the whispery jabber.

Marley entered a hallway leading toward the front of the house and Gray went after her. He glanced back at Nat and shook his head once. Nat raised his hands to indicate he would wait where he was.

“Dangerous, very dangerous.” The words snapped clearly from the otherwise meaningless vibrations. Many sibilant voices seemed to argue, and he felt he was supposed to be included. “This one is a neophyte. Whatever happened to him as a child stunted his paranormal development.”

A slow, heavy beat started in Gray’s head. He knew they were talking about him. What he didn’t know was how much truth there was in the suggestion they made that he had started life as a paranormal talent, but that his progress had been arrested.

Or perhaps he did know and chose not to look too closely at a past no human should have endured— particularly as a child.

“He’s all we’ve got if the Embran attacks her.” There was a bustling quality about the voices, a determination to press ahead with whatever they decided was best.

He had never heard them use the word Embran before.

“He could separate Marley’s consciousness from her body forever.”

“Or give her a chance to return just when all seems lost. He has power if he can learn to use it.”

He wanted to yell for someone to teach him—quickly.

“You follow her,” a voice said sharply. This time a different voice and a familiar one.

“It is not my way to interfere directly. That is not in our rules. But this Embran threatens her life. He threatens many lives.”

Gray felt shadows move. A man, tall, with long, graying hair but a young and vibrant face materialized, but without substance. His image was clear for a moment, then foggy. His dark clothing was from another era and Gray wasn’t sure when it might have been.

“Who is the Embran?” he asked. “Or what?”

“If you need to know, you will know. You, Gray. You follow Marley. Be there. Do nothing unless you’re told. The Embran wants Marley, but we don’t know his intentions for tonight. When the time comes you will have to make sure her body is kept warm. Stay back.”

Another whisperer broke in irritably. “Remember he can only see what happens on his own aware side. What goes on beyond the veil will be invisible to him.”

“Hush,” the man told this one and muttering gradually faded away.

“You, Gray. Pay attention. I don’t think the Embran is aware of you. Your powers are not developed enough, but neither are you the weak stuff of his chosen prey. And you are not a Millet, which is to your advantage.” He gave a humorless laugh. “But one day I believe you will have to fight him—unless you choose to abandon Marley—and you will have only your instincts to follow. Be ready.”

Silence rushed in where the voice had been. The shadow form was gone, and Gray felt like shouting for the man to come back. “I’ll never leave her,” he said.

Ahead of him, Marley turned right, into a room illuminated by a few bulbs in an old chandelier. She walked to the center of the room where the only furniture was one pale couch.

Gray hung back, tucked himself just out of sight, but made sure he could get to her rapidly. He heard music. Lightly and from a distance. The tune was familiar, but old and remembered from another place. Gray didn’t know what it was or anything about it except it made the hair on the back of his neck prickle.

He dug finger and thumb into the corners of his eyes and concentrated.

Chapter 36

Marley didn’t feel alone.

Screens made of thin wood with green, watered silk stretched over them hung from ceiling tracks and fitted into corresponding grooves in the floor. And familiar music played gently, coming from overhead.

This place felt warm and soft, enticing. She closed her eyes tightly and opened them again. A simple dark blue chair looked inviting and she sat down.

Instantly, pressure on the top of her head and her shoulders stiffened every muscle. Her back hurt. She tried to get up, but her legs wouldn’t hold her weight.

The screens rattled.

“Comfortable, are we?” a grating voice from the other side of the screens asked.

Marley drew back in the chair.

“You’re not comfortable? What a pity.”

The laugh that followed sent a pain through her head.

“I don’t believe you know me and I intend to make sure you never do. You are an interloper and I think I know why. Soon I shall be certain. Through interference from my enemies, you have strayed to a place that holds only danger for you. But we can make this so very simple. Who sent you?”

She couldn’t make her mouth work.

“Who sent you?” he repeated louder. “How did you know where to come when I first marked you? How did you find me in the warehouse? You will never succeed in destroying me or others like me.”

“I don’t know,” she got out. “I don’t know anything about you.”

“You have intruded where you have no business being. You couldn’t have done that without a guide. Who is your guide and what did they tell you?”

“Nothing.”

A great, growling noise sent a shudder through Marley.

Without warning, a spotlight shone on the screens. Behind them, starkly silhouetted, she saw a standing figure, arms spread wide, a loose robe hanging. Wide sleeves fell from the shoulders. But it was all a dark shape without features.

“I can crush you,” he said. “There is no way out for you unless I say so. I won’t allow you to leave until you answer all my questions. Where is my chinoiserie house?”

Marley felt icy cold. “What?” She had no idea what she should or shouldn’t say, or how long she would have control over her mind. She felt the power of the other one.

“My chinoiserie house. You’ve got it, haven’t you? Who gave it to you? What did they tell you about it and about me?”

Belle had told Marley to guard the house, to make sure no one took it from her, and to follow where it led her. And to stop the killing. But the woman had not told her how she was supposed to accomplish all this.

With the help of the Ushers, she had followed where the house seemed to want her to go, but apart from Shirley Cooper, who was already dead and had never appeared to Marley, there was no proof of other deaths connected to any of this.

Women were missing. More of them now. And she had heard Nat and Gray speculate about a connection to the string of women who had disappeared some years ago. She locked her knees to control the shaking.