Ghost Of A Chance Part 25

"It's ... er ..." Pixie stopped, looking nonplussed. "I'll get back to you on that."

"I hardly knew Spider. I had no conceivable reason to want him dead, but even if I had, I couldn't have killed him. I was with people the whole time."

"Not the whole time," my father said, pausing for a moment to strike a dramatic pose. "Dischordia went upstairs for a few minutes, which is when she saw Karma. And I had to use the downstairs John. Adam was off smooching up his girlfriend, which means, my dear, you were alone for a short time."

"Oh!" Savannah gasped, outraged. "How cruel of you to imply that I used the one or two minutes I was alone to creep downstairs and kill someone! Even if I wanted to, I couldn't! Unlike your daughter, I am not a violent person."

"Hey, now," I protested. "That is thirty-odd years in the past."

"Just playing devil's advocate," my father told Savannah before resuming his parade around the room.

I smiled and forgave the lesser of his sins.

"Well, in this case, it's not necessary. I did not have the time, know-how, or desire to kill Spider."

My eyes narrowed at her. I could feel the sudden interest in the air as both my father and Adam picked up on the lie Savannah had just told. "What was that? You said you didn't have the time to murder him?"

"Of course not. I was only alone for a few minutes." The look she shot me was scathing, but I didn't get a sense that she was lying.

"Then you meant you didn't have a motive to murder him?" my father asked, stopping in front of her.

"I just said that, didn't I?"

I glanced at Adam. He nodded slightly. For some reason, Savannah was lying about not having the ability to kill Spider. Why on earth would she hide that fact when it was the least d.a.m.ning?

"But you could have killed him, if you'd really wanted to," Adam said slowly, taking a step toward her.

Her eyes widened slightly, as if she scented danger. "No, of course not!"

Lie.

"We don't even know what killed him!"

"True, but that doesn't mean you couldn't have killed him, either by poison or some other method that wouldn't leave obvious marks on the body,"

I said, leaning forward toward her. The faint buzzing noise that ebbed and flowed rose briefly.

One hand fidgeted with the amulet bag; the other crumpled her skirt. "I didn't kill him. I've told you that over and over again. And since you have no proof to the contrary, I will thank you to just move the h.e.l.l on!"

I narrowed my gaze on the amulet bag, which hung from a silken cord.

"What sort of an amulet do you carry?"

"What on earth does that have to do with anything?"

"I like amulets. What one do you use?"

She shot an indignant look at Adam. "This really is going well over the line of what's reasonable, and into persecution. I am not guilty of the murder, and no matter how much-"

"Would you answer Karma's question, please?" Adam interrupted.

"I ... You people...G.o.ddess! Very well, since you're all clearly bent on finding me guilty of something..." She opened the bag and took out a pretty purple heart-shaped stone. "It's an amethyst. A very old one, charged by a local Wiccan. Are you happy now?"

Her tone still spoke of a lie.

"It's very pretty. May I?" I held out my hand.

"If you think I won't remember this treatment when this whole thing is over, you're quite wrong," she answered, sharing a glare with Adam, my father, and me as she dropped the amethyst onto my outstretched palm.

The second the stone hit my hand, I felt as if I were holding on to a live wire. It was so strong a sensation, it knocked me backward off the couch. I yelped, getting to my knees to examine my hand before turning my attention to Savannah. "Good G.o.d, what was that?"

"Honey, are you all right?" Adam squatted next to the fallen stone, reaching out as if to pick it up.

"No!" I yelled at the same time that Tony and Jules demanded that Adam leave it be.

"You don't know where it's been," Jules added.

"That is the most insulting thing I've ever heard!" Savannah declared.

"You haven't been here long yet," Tony told her.

"What is it?" Adam asked me, ignoring the byplay behind him.

I shook my head and allowed my father and Pixie to help me to my feet.

My arm still tingled from the sensation of the stone. "I don't know, but whatever it is, it's very powerful."

We all turned to look at Savannah.

"What is the amulet you carry?" Adam asked.

"I told you! It's an amethyst, charged by a Wiccan."

"Charged with what?"

"Hope. Strength. Clarity of mind. Nothing negative, I a.s.sure you."

I pursed my lips, eyeing her, and rubbed my palm. She wasn't lying, but the stone contained a ma.s.sive amount of something.

"Karma?"

I couldn't answer Adam's unasked question. I shook my head. "I don't know. It didn't seem evil. It was just very, very strong..." An idea occurred to me, something I felt like whacking myself on the head about. "What else do you have in the amulet bag?"

"Oh, this is too much!" she snapped, leaping off the couch and backing away, her hands held out before her. "I have been as tolerant as I know how due to the circ.u.mstances. I have answered your endless and very personal questions. I have tried time and time again to contact Spider in order to find the killer. I have given and given and given, and not said a single word about the abuse that's been heaped upon my head."

"She's good," Tony said sotto voce to Jules. "I particularly like the little throb in her voice."

"Must have taken her weeks to get it just right."

"Oh!" she shrieked, grabbing a small ceramic statue of a dog and throwing it at the ghosts. Since they were in ephemeral mode, it went straight through them and bounced off the chair cus.h.i.+on to land harmlessly on the carpet. "You horribly rude spirits! If I was Karma, I'd banish you so quickly your ectoplasm would spin!"

She'd been backing up as she'd spoken. Adam and Dad and I looked at one another.

"Grab her?" Dad asked.

"Grab her," Adam answered, and before Savannah could do more than turn around to race out of the room, the two men had her, Adam reaching for the amulet bag hanging around her neck.

"No!" she screamed at the same time that he touched it. His yell joined hers as he was knocked backward, the amulet bag flying out of his hand onto the floor a few feet away. The blow knocked a small white object out of the bag, but that wasn't what caught the attention of everyone in the room.

"What the ... what is she?" Pixie asked, rubbing her arms as she backed away.

The air tingled with power.

"She's a Guardian," I answered. "One of the most powerful people in the Otherworld, someone who thinks nothing of dealing with demons and demon lords."

Savannah raised her head slowly, her face not giving away anything, but her eyes-oh, how her eyes glittered with fury.

21.

"OK, I'm going to sound totally noob here, but what exactly is a Guardian? It sounds familiar, but...meh."

Pixie's whisper was soft enough that only I could hear it. I answered her in a similar volume, not wanting to have to explain to everyone why it was that she didn't know. "Guardians are basically glorified demon wranglers. They usually guard portals to Abaddon, and are responsible for taking care of any problems with beings of a dark nature-the latter having their origins in Abaddon."

"Abaddon being h.e.l.l, right?"

"It's what the mortal world thinks of as h.e.l.l, although it's not technically the same."

"So if Guardians are the good guys, why are all of you looking at Savannah like she's got herpes or something?"

That was a good question. I glanced over at where my father and Adam stood together, identical expressions of astonishment on their respective faces.

Beyond them, Meredith leaned drunkenly against the wall, his eyes mirroring the surprise that everyone else seemed to feel. Evidently the fact that his wife was a Guardian came as news to him, too.

"What exactly is that machine?" Adam asked, nudging the small white square with the toe of his shoe.

"None of your business!" Savannah s.n.a.t.c.hed it up and tucked it back into the silk and velvet amulet bag. The instant she touched it, the electricity that filled the air ebbed away to nothing. Or almost nothing. By leaning forward, I could catch the faintest buzz, almost imperceptible.

"Well, at least I'm not going crazy," I said with no little relief.

"Eh?" my father asked.

"You can't hear the noise?" I asked him.

"What noise?"

I turned to Adam. "How about you?"

"From Savannah's machine?" He shook his head. "It's silent."

"Why am I the only one who can hear it?" I asked Savannah.

She shrugged. "You're a TAE. Your perception differs from the others'. I'll have to adjust it in the future so as to take that into account."

"So, that machine of hers has some sort of a masking effect?" Dad asked.

"It's a dampener, yes," she answered with a toss of her head, glaring at Adam. "And it doesn't mean I killed that wretched man, if that's what you're about to suggest."

"You're a Guardian. You have incredible power at your disposal," he replied.

"Against demons and their ilk, yes. But apparently it's escaped your notice that Spider wasn't a demon, and I have little to no power over mortals."

That wasn't strictly true, but I wasn't about to argue the finer points with her.

"You lied to us, in word and in deed, by hiding the fact that you're a Guardian. You certainly can't deny that you did that to Meredith," I said, waving at the ward-bound man.

His eyes bugged out in agreement.

She looked at him, her head tipped to one side. "No, I don't deny it, although I think it's a tremendous improvement."

"I second that," my dad said.

"Why?" Adam asked, taking a step forward. "Why did you hide the truth from us? Why wouldn't you want us to know you're a Guardian? Why pretend that you're ignorant of the Otherworld?"

Her lips tightened, one hand absently stroking the amulet bag.

"I knew she was evil from the start," Pixie said, curling back up on the window seat. "No one who looks that much like a hippie can be anything but evil."

"You'll get a bonus point for your insight later. Right now, I'd like to know just what it is Savannah wants."

"What she wants?" my dad asked as I walked in front of Savannah, peering deeply into her eyes. She met my gaze without wavering, a hint of smug obstinacy visible in her eyes.

"Yes. No one goes through the trouble it must have taken to have her husband create a dampening machine-"

Her eyes flicked over to my shoulder for a second.

"-to create a dampening machine herself without having a very good reason," I corrected myself. A flash of startled surprise was visible, then her face resumed its normal placid mien. "You created those machines, didn't you? The monstrosity that killed Sergei and this one. That's what Meredith meant about you and your machines."

Adam stepped forward. "And that's why you shut him up, so he couldn't tell us about your ulterior motive."

"That little ignoramus doesn't know anything about my reason for being here," she snapped.

"And that would be ... ?" Dad asked.