Vicki Pettersson - Cheat the Grave

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, babe. ”

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 doppelgänger?” 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 doppelgänger?”

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 about who has failed to live up to their word.”

Warren jolted as if slapped. “Zoe-”

“After I entrusted you with her care, no less. If I’d known, I’d have schooled her myself. She wouldn’t be here now. The identity we secured for her would still be a secret from it. ”

The Tulpa dipped farther, and he had to fight, arms pinwheeling himself back into the air from his calf-high immersion. There was still no sign of Mackie.

“Why didn’t you?” I asked hurriedly, because I didn’t know if I’d get a chance again. The Tulpa might kill her once fully recovered. Or me. Or she could, so easily, just disappear again. “School me yourself, I mean.”

“Because the agents of Light have conduits, a troop, and a sanctuary.” Zoe spoke so quickly I knew she’d prepared this defense long ago. The speed also told me she shared my concerns. “But I contributed in my own way. I haven’t stopped fighting since the day you were attacked. I haven’t rested in years, not for a moment. I gave all my power, my family, and then stayed away. All I have left is this mortal life.”

The Tulpa floated higher, looming at us from a forty-five degree angle. My arms shook almost uncontrollably as I forced my weapons to follow. “I can help relieve you of that,” he said.

Zoe followed him too. “You’ll have to if you want to get to her.”

“Gladly,” he said, and lunged.

“No!” Warren threw himself at Zoe, deflecting the Tulpa’s blow…but not stopping it. Zoe flew backward like she’d been spat from his fist, without even getting off a shot. That was for the best-struck with a conduit, the Tulpa would only grow stronger. Her head hit the pillar behind us with a force that left her sprawling awkwardly on the floor. I raced for her while a battle I couldn’t see raged behind me.

Zoe was flattened. I checked for a pulse and found one-fucking strong too-so moved her head to my lap, lifted her bazooka again, and vowed to blast anything that even hinted at coming our way. Was it too much to hope that Warren and the Tulpa would destroy each other? That they’d rip each other to shreds in the effort to get to the woman who had betrayed and left them both?

Of course it was.

Even at his weakest the Tulpa was more powerful than a single agent. The other agents of Light were probably on their way, drawn by the turmoil and the rising scent of battle, but so were the Shadows. I had precious few minutes to get Zoe out of there. I caught a rare glimpse of the fight going on over the water as the Tulpa rammed Warren into the platform. The impact must have momentarily severed his spine because all his limbs flew wide, like a starfish, and when the Tulpa kicked him over the side, he sank with a numb expression of horror and deep sorrow.

Then the Tulpa charged me so fast the sound was sonic. A flash of light, the impact of two powerful beings imprinting on the air, and I raggedly exhaled. Skamar had arrived. Finally. Their growls and blows were a sandblasting, and sent me scrabbling backward, pulling Zoe behind the giant floral arrangement.

“Mom?” I supported her back and neck as she struggled into an upright position and tried to untangle her legs from her dress.

“I’m okay, I’m okay.” She put a hand to her head as if trying to hold it on.

“Can you stand?” Because I couldn’t carry her. Frustration at my mortal frailty rose from me in a low-pitched growl.

As if to underline that, Warren-dripping but healed-was suddenly at my side. “I’ll take it from here,” he said, reaching for her.

“No!” both Zoe and I yelled, automatically pulling into one another, voices and limbs locking us together.