The Phantom Queen: A Whisper Hollow Novel, Book 3 Page 13

  I swallowed hard. Now I was responsible for his good health, so to speak? “I’ll do my very best,” I said, trying not to sound doubtful.

  “Trecht can scout around for you. When he was alive, he was a necromancer himself. He retains some of the magic he had back in the day. So he can try to counter your killer’s magic.”

  A thought occurred to me. “Tell me, why would a necromancer want to gather the souls of the Unliving? Surely it would be more advantageous to him if he had control over their bodies as well? Why would he steal their souls out of their…husks?”

  Veronica seemed to be possessed of an infinite patience tonight, because she returned to her throne and motioned for the four of us to sit down. Trecht stood to the side of her throne, saying nothing.

  “A necromancer can gain extra strength by drawing on the powers of the dead. He can store them up like a battery, if he possesses a speaking skull. The skull has to be from the body of one of his enemies’ children. He has to kill the child, and then put the skull through a series of rites for one full year. Once it’s prepared, he can store the energy from the souls of the Unliving in it, and he can draw on that energy to increase whatever powers he wants to.”

  I was glad I was sitting down. “But…what about the souls of those teens? They were still there. They hadn’t gone over the Veil yet—well, Nancy did—but they weren’t missing in action.”

  “The souls that feed a necromancer must be from those who have made the transformation from spirit into the Unliving. It’s my guess that his mania to kill also drives him to collect souls from the Unliving to help him succeed when he hunts his living victims.” Veronica shook her head. “He’s a dangerous, unhinged man, and for the sake of both the living and the Unliving, he must be stopped.”

  I tried to process what she had told me. So this necromancer was stealing energy from the Unliving in order to fuel his abilities to hunt his victims. I remembered what Rosemary had said about his eyes—that he seemed magnetic. If he had managed to learn some form of magic to influence others, then he could magnify it by using the souls of the Unliving. He was a perfect storm of death and destruction.

  I glanced over at Trecht. “So, you’ll help me find this man?”

  He gave me a tight-lipped nod.

  I suddenly realized this was the deadly alliance that the Crow Man had warned me about. I searched my conscience. “What do you ask in return?”

  Veronica paused, then slowly smiled. “All I ask is that you agree to a pact that my court will not be disrupted. The Pest House is home for many of my people and we want it preserved. I know you think it should be destroyed, but you will do all in your power to preserve it.”

  She had to have spies out in the graveyard to know what I thought about the Pest House. And while I thought it should be torn down, it had stood there for over a century. Why not leave it awhile longer?

  “Very well. I’ll do what I can to preserve the Pest House in exchange for your—and Trecht’s—help. The gods know, we don’t have much to go on right now.” I turned to face Veronica. “I promise I’ll do what I can to preserve the Pest House. You’re right about the killer. Both our worlds stand in danger with this lunatic running around.”

  “I have talked to other Queens through the grapevine that runs between the dead, from graveyard to graveyard. The murderer is known around the land. He’s no novice, and he always leaves a city before he’s caught. So if you do not catch him, then he’ll move on after a while, primed to kill yet more young women, and this will continue as long as he does.”

  “Do they have any clue of a name or something that could give us any more information?” Peggin spoke up. “I’m good with computers. If there’s anything to go on, I might be able to trace his other kills.”

  Veronica turned toward her. “Interesting. No wonder you’re Kerris’s best friend. You have spirit and a bravery that becomes you.”

  “Um…thank you,” Peggin said, blushing.

  “As to your question, the only piece of information that might help is several times, they referred to him as the Soul Collector, for all the good that might do.” Veronica turned back to me. “Keep in close communication. Trecht can return to me every morning with a report on what happened during the night.”

  Great. Not only was I stuck with one of the Unliving dogging my heels, but he was going to report back to Veronica on what I had accomplished. Though I was grateful for the help—it occurred to me that Trecht could sneak into areas I couldn’t hope to—I didn’t like feeling watched.

  “That works,” was all I said. “Is that everything?”

  “Yes, for tonight. I’m assigning extra guards to their duties, but if I lose many more, I’ll have to open the Veil and summon back new recruits. You understand this, correct?” She wasn’t asking for permission.

  “Yes, I understand. We’ll do everything we can. We don’t want him preying on any more kids, either.” I waited but she didn’t seem inclined to say anything else. “All right, if that’s everything, we’ll take our leave.”

  “Until we meet again, spirit shaman,” Veronica said.

  As we stood, the twins reappeared. We fell in behind them, with Trecht bringing up the rear.

  I paused, turning back to him. “Do you need to ride in the car with us?” I was praying he’d decline. The last thing I wanted was for one of the Unliving to be hanging around in my CRV.

  But he shook his head. “No, I will meet you at your house. I know where it is.”

  “One thing, Trecht. Please stay outside until I get there. I don’t want my cats spooked.” Or me, I thought. Or anybody spying on Bryan and me when we made love.

  “Very well,” he said, and that was the last word anyone spoke until the twins had led us out of the cavern, back through the clearing to the edge of the Pest House Cemetery. By then, Trecht had vanished, and the four of us made our way to my car, still silent. Nobody said a word until we were away from the cemetery, on the way home.

  “What the hell am I going to do with him?” I finally said once we had cleared the cemetery gates. “I don’t want one of the Unliving hanging around my house.”

  “I’m afraid you don’t have much of a choice,” Bryan said. “Given the circumstances, I think it would be unwise to decline Veronica’s help.” He glanced at me, his expression more serious than I’d seen in a long time. “You did right to call a meeting of the Crescent Moon Society. Sophia will have a hard enough time tracking down a serial killer who’s gone unchecked this time, but given he’s a necromancer, I think it would be near impossible for her to track him down without help.”

  “Are there any…well…Aragorn types in the Society?” Peggin spoke up.

  “What do you mean?”

  “You know, trackers. Rangers, so to speak. Anybody with magical abilities in that arena?” She leaned forward, her hands on the back of my seat. “This town is rife with magical people. There has to be someone who specializes in that sort of practice, wouldn’t you think?”

  “Peggin’s right. That’s a good idea. Also, I might be able to help. Jokney likes to run loose and he’s always trying to get out to tramp around the woods,” Deev said.

  Jokney was a steampunk-clockwork dog Deev had sculpted, and like many of his creations, the creature had come to life. Very much like a dog, Jokney was also curious, and while he might be a magical creation, he understood what Deev said, even if he didn’t always obey.

  “Can you send him out on his own safely?” I asked, swinging into the driveway.

  “I can, yes. I do worry about him getting into trouble, but given what we’re facing, I think the risk is worth it.” Deev opened the door and hurried around to open Peggin’s side before she could get out. Bryan and I slid out of the car into the snow. The flakes were rapidly piling up, but it was getting so cold that I expected them to stop at some point.

  “Let’s get inside and—” I froze. There was a figure standing to the side of the front door, in the shadows. “Who’s there?”
I called as we approached the house.

  “Trecht,” came the reply, as the general stepped out from the shadows. “What do you want me to do tonight?”

  I suddenly realized that he really was there to take orders, even though he didn’t seem happy about it. “Hold on a moment. Let’s go inside before we all freeze to death.” I paused, feeling awkward. “I mean, before we…”

  “I know what you mean. I’m dead, not stupid. I take no offense.” Trecht eyed me with an odd light in his eyes that set me uneasy.

  As I opened the door and we entered the house, I couldn’t help but think about the story of the scorpion and the frog.

  According to the Russian fable, a scorpion asked a frog to carry him across a pond on his back. The frog asked him, “But won’t you sting me and send me to my death?” And the scorpion said, “If I do sting you, we will sink and both die. Why would I do that?” So the frog agreed. Halfway across the pond, the scorpion stung the frog. As they started to sink, the frog asked, “Why would you do that? We’re both going to die.” And the scorpion replied, “I couldn’t help it. It’s my nature.”

  I turned to Trecht. “I know this is an odd question, but…if I let you in, can you enter my house unasked after that?”

  “You mean, am I a vampire?” he said, laughing. But the laughter didn’t soothe me, it just set me on edge. “I am not. I’m one of the Unliving. And I could enter your house unasked any time I chose, unless you set up strong wards. But I am forsworn to treat you and your friends with respect and with honor. I shall not harm you, nor shall I enter without an invitation. I can ring your doorbell if need be.”

  That would have to do for now. I motioned for him to join us in the living room. “Do you mind if I turn on the lights?”

  “As long as they aren’t UV or sunlight, I’m fine. I can’t walk about in the daytime, not as I am, but daylight is long gone and the morning still far away.”

  Trecht waited until we sat down before sitting on the sofa. Daphne, who came meandering into the room, spotted him. She growled, puffing up to twice her size, then turned and raced back into the kitchen.

  I let out a frustrated sigh. I hated it when people scared my cats, but there wasn’t much I could do in this case. “All right. So I guess…you might want to start by searching the thickets near Snowstar Avenue East. See if you can find any evidence of our necromancer–killer. Do you know where that is?”

  Trecht shook his head. “Not by name.”

  “Can you read a map?” Bryan asked. When the spirit general nodded, he pulled out his phone and brought up the Maps app. He motioned for Trecht to come closer and then showed him where we were, and where we were talking about. “Can you get there from here?”

  Trecht examined the map, then nodded. “Yes. I know where you’re talking about. I will go and search the woods there thoroughly and then report back to you before sunrise. I’ll be back on the stroke of five.”

  “I guess I’ll be up, then.” I paused. “If you find anything, come back sooner and…well, hell…just come in the house to let us know. If there’s a chance of catching this guy, we have to take it.” I wished I could just send him to Sophia, but that wasn’t an option. Sophia had a child, and I wasn’t about to set one of the Unliving loose in a house that he hadn’t sworn an allegiance with. “Go then, and I hope you’re able to find him.”

  He walked toward the door and then, growing transparent, slipped out through it. While the Unliving could be corporeal, they could also take solid form. That was one of the scary things about them. When he was gone, I groaned and leaned back against the sofa.

  “This isn’t my idea of fun. I suppose I’d better call Sophia and tell her what we learned, and about Trecht, just in case anybody reports him.”

  I headed into the kitchen, thinking that right now, pie sounded like the most wonderful food in the world. Too bad I didn’t have any. But I pulled out the ice cream as I put in a call to Sophia, hoping she would answer right away. On the third ring, she picked up.

  “Hey, this is Kerris. I know it’s late, but I have some information for you. I talked to Veronica.” I told her about the necromancer and how he had been across different states, and what his agenda was. “You’re not going to catch him on your own. Veronica assigned me a general from her…I guess you’d call it her army. He’s going to go hunting through the thicket near Snowstar Avenue.”

  There was a pause, then Sophia said, “I know it sounds horrible, but a little part of me wishes he would just move on. I don’t want to deal with a serial killer, Kerris. I don’t want this town to lose any more children. Three teens in a week are three too many.” She sounded tired. “I’ll take any help I can get. Frank can fill me in on what happens at your meeting tomorrow night that might affect the case.”

  “Good. We need to work closely on this.” It was my turn to pause. I finally said, “I can’t help but wonder if Cú Chulainn’s Hounds have anything to do with this, although the Crow Man told me no. But what if they get wind of this? Will they be on our side, or would they try to work with the killer to further their own agenda? What if they teamed up with him to target families who belong to the CMS?”

  “Don’t even think it,” she said, almost whispering. “Don’t borrow trouble.”

  “I don’t want to, but we have to acknowledge that they’re a bunch of power-mad lunatics, led by a woman who killed one of her own daughters and cursed the other. They may not realize it, but Magda controls them now.”

  “Do you think they’d turn on her if they realized she was actually using them instead of the other way around?” Sophia sounded almost hopeful.

  I thought about it for a moment. “You know, that may not be a bad idea.”

  “Idea? What do you mean?”

  “Never mind, but you just planted a seed. I’ll let you know if Trecht finds anything on his rounds tonight. He won’t be out and about during the day, obviously. The Unliving don’t do sunlight well. Let me give you his description, in case you run across him. I’m not sure how much he makes himself visible to anybody else.” I ran down what he looked like and got off the phone, still musing over what she had mentioned. The thought of instigating a civil war among the Hounds and Magda was too promising not to entertain. The question, though, was how to proceed.

  Tired and wanting to push away thoughts of killers and murder and blood, I returned to the living room, carrying the ice cream, bowls and a scoop, a bag of chips, and a bag of cookies. Maybe it was time to go on the offense with the Hounds. After all, we couldn’t win if we didn’t try.

  Chapter Thirteen

  At a little before five a.m., I was up and dressed and desperately craving caffeine. I shook Bryan’s shoulder and he grunted, rolling out of bed with his eyes closed. He yelped as he stubbed his toe on the nightstand.

  “Come on, lover, get your ass in the bathroom. I’ll be in the kitchen, firing up the espresso machine.” I was just as tired as he was, but I had no intention of letting Trecht catch me in bed, so I shuffled down the hall, stopping when I came to Gabby who was stretched across the floor from one side of the hallway to the other. Maine Coons were long, muscular cats with a ton of fur. “Get out of the way, meatloaf.”

  She blinked at me, let out a squeak, and grudgingly padded into the kitchen in front of me, making a beeline for the food dish. As I flipped on the espresso machine, the doorbell rang. Cripes, he was right on time, that was for sure.

  I headed for the front door, opening it to see Trecht there, against the dark backdrop of the early morning. “Come in, but don’t start talking. I need my coffee first.”

  “I’ve never had coffee. I died long before it hit my world.” Trecht looked around at the kitchen, wincing at the overhead light.

  “Does the light bother you? I can turn on the range light and turn off the overhead.” It occurred to me that, before I had my coffee, I was far less intimidated by the spirit. I was too tired to be nervous.

  He shook his head. “No, it’s all right. Ma
ke your drink and then we’ll talk about what I found last night.” He walked over to the table and leaned against the wall.

  As I was pulling four shots for my latte, I glanced over at the ghost. The Unliving were a very specialized category of spirit, and most had come back by their own sheer will. I wondered what had brought Trecht back, and my lack of caffeine made me less than diplomatic.

  “You’ve been with Veronica a thousand years? Did you return because of her, or for another reason?” I poured two shots of espresso into my cup, then pulled two more.

  Trecht eyed me silently for a moment, then said, “Yes. I came back to stand by her side. She stood by my side during life.”

  I paused, glancing at him. He had all the regality of Veronica. At that moment, it dawned on me just who he was. “You were her prince. You were her lover. The one she left her post for.”

  With a laugh, Trecht inclined his head. “You are observant. Veronica became my queen. She was my consort, and we ruled with the sword, and with the magic of the dead. She betrayed her goddess for me, she betrayed her people for me. I beheaded her husband while she watched, laughing. And we rampaged across the countryside, taking everything we desired and leaving a trail of destruction behind us.”

  I caught a sudden glimpse of the cruelty the pair had wielded and the sheer savageness of their behavior hit home. I shivered, but quickly forced myself to stand steady. I had no intention on allowing him to know that he frightened me.

  That Trecht had been her lover only underscored the power they had held. He had joined her in death, even as they had been together in life, and they still ruled together.

  “You might wonder why she chose me to help you,” he said, breaking the silence. “In life, I was a warrior, and I was a necromancer. I understand the force you are going up against, and I’m the best suited to help you fight it.”

  “Why do you want to even bother?” I asked once I got my voice under control.