Everyone turned to look at me. I avoided meeting Spider"s gaze. "I have agreed to Spider"s request for me to remove any ent.i.ties in the house. I will honor that agreement."
A wave of yellow rolled through the front door, the high-pitched eek-eek causing everyone to turn and stare as a herd of six imps-dirty, smelling to high heaven, and clearly near exhaustion-limped over to me. The group leader stopped in front of me, hiccupped, and, with a dramatic flair that would have done a diva proud, staggered two steps before fainting onto my foot.
I cleared my throat and carefully pushed the unconscious imp to the side.
"I"ll throw in imp removal for no extra charge."
"G.o.ddess above. Can it be? Meredith, do you see?"
"Yes," he said, a nonplussed look on his face as he watched the other five imps hug my ankle before collapsing. "They look like little yellow rodents."
"With six arms! Merciful heaven, they have six arms! Do you know what they are?"
"Imps," I answered, sighing as I gathered up the mostly comatose creatures. "Very determined ones at that. I have no idea how they found me, but they should be confined or they"ll be in our way."
Adam didn"t look any too pleased. "You brought imps with you to my house?"
"No. I moved these guys to a farm. They refuse to leave me. Somehow, I"m imprinted on them as their mother." I gestured with one of the limp imps.
"Try as I might, I just can"t seem to get rid of the little b.u.g.g.e.rs."
"I"ll get a box," Adam said, heading for a nearby closet.
"Will you please stick to the matter at hand and stop waving those nasty little yellow rats around!" Spider moved into my field of vision, his dark eyes narrowed with suspicion. "You told me you"d clean the house."
"And I intend to."
"Karma, honey, don"t do it! You have a higher authority to answer to!" my father shouted.
Spider shot him a look of loathing before turning back to me. "You said you"d exterminate the spirits."
"I said I would remove them from the house, and I will do so. Thank you, Adam. Do you have a cord I can tie the box shut with? They"ll get out otherwise."
"There"s some in the drawer." He nodded toward a sideboard.
I cut off a long piece of cord and wrapped it carefully around the box after making sure there were enough gaps in the cardboard to allow airflow. The last thing I needed was for the imps to add to my troubles.
"You can"t send the spirits away," Savannah pleaded, coining forward to take my hands after I had deposited the imps underneath the sideboard.
"You just can"t! They belong here."
"It is awfully mean, Karma," Pixie said with a look around the room.
"This house is pretty cool."
"Pixie-"
"Obsidian Angel!"
"Seen and not heard," I told her. She harrumphed and threw herself down onto the sofa.
"That"s right, listen to the nice blond lady," my father said, nodding. "She knows what she"s talking about."
Savannah turned to her husband. "Meredith, tell her that she can"t do it.
This house is a gold mine of spirits! It would be a tragedy to lose them simply because that man wants them gone!"
"You"re not going to clean the house?" Spider asked me, his eyes glittering dangerously.
I thought carefully about what I was going to say. It was tricky dealing with Spider at any time- doubly so when he was in a mood. "The spirits will be removed."
"Relocated," my dad said, sighing in relief as he slumped onto a nearby armchair. "She means to relocate them rather than exterminate them. I live in fear she"ll do otherwise, but thank the G.o.ds she has finally figured out what is right."
"I had a feeling you would try something like this," Spider said, reaching into his jacket pocket.
For one brief, horrifying moment, I thought he was going to pull out a gun and shoot me.
What he did was much, much worse. The object he held in his hand was small, made of black plastic, bearing a gauge on the top. It looked like a slim-line version of an electronic tape measure or stud finder. But as he pressed a couple of b.u.t.tons on it, pain exploded in my head, sending me to my knees.
"Karma? What is it?" my father asked, hurrying to me. Red agony washed over me, so great it almost blinded me, driving every thought from my head but ceaseless, unending anguish.
Next to Spider, a figure appeared, writhing in pain. I didn"t know how Spider was able to summon Sergei, but I could see Sergei was suffering as much as-if not more than-I was.
"Stop it," I tried to shriek at my husband, but all that came out of my mouth was a howl. "Make him stop it."
Adam took a step forward as Spider pointed the little black torture device at Sergei.
"Meredith!" Savannah gasped. "Look! Ghosts! Honest-to-G.o.ddess ghosts!
Where"s my camera?"
"Let"s see if this really works as advertised," Spider drawled, pressing a b.u.t.ton. Sergei"s being exploded into a million pieces, his scream of torment hanging on the air long seconds after he had been destroyed.
The silence that followed was filled with horror. I was so stunned I forgot the pain for a moment to try to grasp the fact that Spider had destroyed Sergei right before my eyes.
"Excellent work," Spider said, turning to Meredith. "You were right about it being extremely efficient. We won"t need Karma at all to clean any ghosts we don"t want. Your little device will take care of that problem once and for all."
I lunged at Spider, intending to do G.o.d knows what to him, but my legs refused to cooperate. I stumbled over my father, arms and legs tangling with his. Pixie tried to help me up.
Savannah yelled at Meredith, hitting him with a beaded bag while accusing him of ruining everything.
"Bunch of noise over nothing," Spider grunted, turning the machine on my father. "Let"s just see if the polter setting works; then I can clean whatever else is hiding in the house."
"No!" I shrieked, trying to kick my feet free so I could crawl over to Spider and stop him before he destroyed anyone else.
"There will be no more!" Adam"s voice was so loud it literally rattled the window. A couple of apports, shiny white pebbles that were warm to the touch, dropped from the ceiling.
"What on earth-" Savannah gasped, picking up one of the pebbles.
"It"s an apport," my dad explained to her as I staggered to my feet, one arm around Pixie both for support and to protect her. "In times of stress, we tend to manifest them. It"s a little embarra.s.sing, actually. You shouldn"t make a big deal about it."
"By my authority as an officer of the watch of the Akashic League, I seal this house!" Adam bellowed. A little tingle ran down my back, like a faint electrical shock.
"Are you still here?" Spider asked, giving Adam an obnoxious glance.
"You"ve overstayed your welcome, Dirgesinger. Get the h.e.l.l out of my house, and off my property."
"No one is leaving," Adam said, his breath coming hard.
"Honey?" My father and Pixie helped me to a chair. Every inch of my body felt like it had been pounded with a sledgehammer. "Are you all right?"
I watched, praying Adam had the power he appeared to have, as Spider aimed the little machine at us.
The machine clicked. Dad turned to glare at Spider. I slumped back in the chair, thanking every deity I could think of.
"What the h.e.l.l? It isn"t working!" Spider said, his voice filled with accusation. He clicked the b.u.t.ton a couple more times, but nothing happened.
"I put it on the poltergeist setting. Why isn"t this working?"
"I don"t know. It was working before," Meredith said, taking the machine and popping the back off to look at the guts. "It looks fine. Maybe you weren"t using it right."
"Adam has sealed the house," I said, digging my knuckles into my temples.
"Nothing that filthy polter can do is any concern of mine," Spider said as he looked over Meredith"s shoulder.
"It should be. He has more power than you can imagine." I used two of my father"s arms and one of Pixie"s as leverage, rather shakily getting to my feet.
Adam stood silent in the middle of the room, his eyes bright but distrustful.
Meredith half turned toward his wife but, at a glare from her, prodded the machine in his hand. "There was a wire loose, I think," he said, snapping the cover onto the back of it. "Give it a try now."
"Over my dead body!"
I"ll say this for my father: he"s fast. As used to his polter quickness as I am, even I couldn"t see him move. One moment he was behind me; the next he was across the room, having s.n.a.t.c.hed up the small black machine en route. He threw it down and slammed his boot into the plastic, grinding it into the throw rug before any of us had the time to do more than blink.
Spider lunged at my father as soon as he realized what Dad had done.
Meredith swore. Savannah wrung her hands and moaned about everything going wrong. Pixie looked thoughtful. I yelled and threw myself forward, but for once, my intervention wasn"t necessary. Adam plucked Spider off my father, separating the two men with an ominous growl. "There will be no fighting in my house!"
"It"s not your house," Spider snapped (somewhat predictably, I thought), jerking himself out of Adam"s hold. He straightened his shirt and tie with exaggerated, hostile motions.
Adam crossed his arms and looked immovable.
"You"ll pay for that, Matthew," Spider warned as my father hustled over to stand at my side.
"It will be worth any price to ensure my ethereal brothers and sisters are free from your evil plans," Dad retorted.
"I have a spare one at home," Meredith told Spider as the former headed for the front door. "I"ll go get it."
My father smiled. Adam smiled. Pixie"s brow smoothed. Meredith looked confused when he tried to open the door but couldn"t get it to budge. "Who locked this d.a.m.ned door?"
"It"s not locked," Spider said, going over to lend a hand. The doork.n.o.b turned freely, but the door itself wouldn"t open. "It"s stuck. Wood must be swollen or something. The whole place needs to be torn down."
Although the pain was receding gradually, my head throbbed with every beat of my heart. I needed to lie down. Badly. The sooner Spider understood the situation, the sooner I could beg Adam for the use of a dark, quiet room.
With an almost inhuman effort, I managed to get to a chair before collapsing.
"You"re wasting your time trying to get the door open. The house is sealed.
Nothing can get in or out. Not so much as a mosquito will be able to pa.s.s through the seal for twelve hours, or more if Adam renews the seal before it is released. In other words, soon-to-be-ex-husband"-my lips curled as the irony of the situation struck me fully-"we"re trapped here. All of us. Together."
"I think I"m going to be sick," Savannah said, sinking bonelessly into the nearest chair.
I knew just how she felt.
7.
"This is a lot more interesting than anything my last foster family ever did." Pixie squatted next to me, her frown back in place as she looked at the spot on the rug where Sergei had writhed in agony before being destroyed.
"Although I have to say, your husband is a d.i.c.kwad."
"All that and so much more," I agreed. I leaned toward her to add in a soft voice, "I don"t want you to be alone with Spider, OK?"
Her dark eyes examined me for a moment.
"He"s not safe to be around by yourself," I said, sick at the thought of her being soiled by Spider"s filth. "Just promise me you won"t go off with him anywhere."
"Normally I don"t take orders, but this time..." Her gaze flickered over to Spider before dropping. "He"s really evil, isn"t he?"
"Yes, I believe he is. If I"m not around, stay with Adam or my father, all right?"
She nodded.
I heaved myself from the chair. "I hate to be a party p.o.o.per, but my head is killing me, and I need to lie down in a dark room for a few minutes. Adam, would you mind if I borrowed a bedroom?"
"Upstairs, second door on the left," he said, his eyes a dangerous icy blue.
"Take your shoes off before you lay down. My grandmother made the quilt on the bed."
"I"ll help you up the stairs, darling," Spider said, his voice filled with threat despite the endearment. He grabbed my elbow and half pushed me up the stairs. "There are a few things I"d like to say to you."
"I have a fair number of items to discuss with you, too," I muttered under my breath. I didn"t particularly care if anyone knew that Spider and I were arguing, but there were some things I would rather not say in front of witnesses.