Spell Bound - Kelley Armstrong [45]
“Help . . . ,” Maura whispered.
He looked from her to me, then back.
“You heard that,” I said. “Right?”
He grunted and moved up beside her. Then he leaned down and laid a hand on her shoulder.
“Maura?” he said. “Can you hear me?”
“Help . . .”
The word came out on a hiss of breath through barely parted lips. Those lips hadn’t moved. No part of her had moved. I walked to the other side of the bed.
“Maura?” I said.
“Savannah . . . ,” she whispered.
My chin jerked up. I stared at Adam.
“Did you hear—?” I began.
He nodded. “I don’t think that’s Maura.” He motioned for me to close the door, then leaned over the comatose woman. “Gary? It’s Adam Vasic. I’m here with Savannah Levine.”
Gary Schmidt? How would he—?
I answered my question before I could ask it. Schmidt was a necromancer. If he’d been here, he’d be able to communicate with his wife’s soul—Jaime had done it with comatose patients. But what if he was on the other side? Could he speak through his wife’s body?
“Savannah . . .”
“I’m here,” I said, hurrying back to my spot. “Is this Gary Schmidt?”
“Yes . . .”
Question answered. More than one. Still, I asked, “Are you . . . Did you pass over?”
“Dead.” The word came harsh. “Yes.”
“How—?” I began.
“Don’t know. Not important.”
He didn’t know how he died. Not unusual for ghosts, especially the newly dead. Communicating this way was obviously a struggle and he wasn’t going to waste it on that.
“Leah,” he whispered.
“She’s dead,” I said. “Again. We sent her back to hell and she won’t get out this time.”
Silence. While it felt good giving him that message, I’m not sure how much it mattered to him. He was still dead. His wife was still in a coma.
“Do you know how she got out?” I asked. “Did she tell you anything? Was she working with any—?”
“Stop.” An intake of breath, as if he was struggling to stay on the line. “Will talk. Wait.”
A moment’s rest, then he said, “Leah freed because connection.” His words came in spurts. “With you. Knows you. Might persuade you.”
The voice stopped, and I waited as long as I could before asking, “Persuade me to do what?”
“Help. Wanted your help. Leah’s, too. Package deal. She reneged.”
So someone decided Leah had sway over me because we’d known each other. This someone also decided she might be useful, meaning it would be doubly worthwhile to free her from her hell dimension. She’d played along, cozying up to me in Jesse’s body, with the ultimate goal of ignoring her mission and instead using me to stay out of hell for good.
“Who freed her?” I asked.
“Don’t know. Powerful forces. Not human. Demonic. Celestial.”
“Celestial?”
“Angel.”
“Demonic and celestial,” I said. “An angel and a demon working together?”
He didn’t know. I got the feeling he was as confused as we were. Leah obviously hadn’t told him the grand scheme.
“Tell me everything she said,” I pressed. “Give me all the pieces and we’ll put them together.”
“That’s all. She was freed. Powerful forces. You’re a target. Powerful ally. Tool.”
What would happen when those powerful forces discovered that their powerful tool had lost her powerful juice?
A thought flitted through my brain, half-formed, and I tried to grab it, but it disappeared before I could.
“There must be more,” Adam said. “Leah tormented you for weeks.”
“And she loves to talk,” I said.
He said, “That’s all,” but it took him a moment, and that pause suggested he was holding out.
“Did she tell you anything more about who released her?” Adam asked.
“No.”
“Did she name any specific demons?”
“No.”
“Did she tell you why they wanted Savannah?”
“No.”
“Did she tell you what her rescuer’s overall plan is?”
A pause. Then, “No.”
“She hinted at it, though. What they were up to.”
Silence.
“What did she say?”
“Not important. What matters is Savannah. She’s in danger.”
“I’m always in danger,” I said. “These people want me to help them carry out some grand scheme. What is it?”
“Don’t know. Just . . .”
We waited, but he didn’t go on.
“You don’t know the whole plan,” Adam said. “That’s fine. We’ll take whatever we can get. Just tell