The Sunlight Slayings by Kevin Emerson Page B

shorter than Emalie, though it was floating above her head now.
    Emalie just stood there, seeming completely oblivious.
    â€œIs it going to attack her?” asked Dean.
    â€œNo, it’s protecting her,” said Oliver. “I— I don’t know how she’s controlling it, or how she hired it, or—” Oliver shook his head, bewildered. This was more dark power. Not only wielding the Scourge but working with a wraith. How was it possible?
    â€œIs it a ghost or something?” asked Dean.
    â€œYeah, the spirit of a dead person, trapped in this world, sometimes from a curse, sometimes from its own suffering. It’s—they’re always different.”
    â€œI’ve never seen one before.”
    â€œThey’re only fully visible in the Underworld and the borderlands. That’s why Emalie’s had that shadow around her. The wraith has been helping her move around, hiding her scent.” Oliver felt like a fool for not having figured that out earlier. But how could he have guessed that Emalie would be dealing with a wraith?
    â€œAre they powerful?”
    â€œYeah, but unstable.”
    Dean peered across the way. “What’s she doing now?”
    Oliver watched as the Merchynt looked down at Emalie. The wraith fluttered behind her, and Oliver saw the Merchynt’s wrinkled face checking with the wraith now and again as Emalie spoke. The Merchynt’s cloak fluttered, and now a wiry hand appeared and placed a tiny silver flask on the counter. Emalie took the flask. As she stuffed it in her pocket, the Merchynt stuck out its hand for payment, but the wraith hissed. The Merchynt nodded.
    Emalie stepped away from the counter. Oliver glanced about and saw leering eyes falling on her from all directions. Shadowed figures clambered about to get a hungry view of her movements as she matter-of-factly began climbing up the ladders. Creatures turned and regarded her, but the wraith coiled protectively, hissing and clawing, warding off any wayward arms that couldn’t resist reaching for Emalie.
    â€œWhat now?” Dean asked.
    Oliver watched her go. He had no idea. They wouldn’t stand a chance against a wraith, not down here, anyway. “We have to wait at least until she’s back on the surface.”
    Just as they started up the ladder, reality blacked out once more. When it returned, up and down had shifted again: The wall, which had originally been the floor, had now become the ceiling. The ladder they’d been hanging on to was lying flat beneath them. Oliver and Dean scrambled to stand on top of it. Again, the air horn sounded, and the machinery rumbled. The shops, ladders, and gutters rearranged themselves so that now the Yomi looked like it had been built hanging from a ceiling. The shops were side to side again, with their roofs touching the rock ceiling that had once been the floor. The ladders had become flat catwalks beside the shops, with just enough room to walk without scraping your head. Below the ladders, the scaffolding stretched down into unknowable darkness.
    As the hiss of petroleum signaled the relighting of the gutters, Oliver scanned the rearranged world. Emalie was lost from sight. They headed back toward the entrance, but could only move so fast on the bamboo ladders, wary of falling into the abyss.
    â€œWe’re going to need something to get the wraith out of the way while we talk to her,” Dean mused seriously.
    â€œMmm,” Oliver said, deep in thought. Talking to her, that’s funny , he thought darkly. She’s made a contract with a wraith. A human usually has to sign away their soul or their body or something to get a spirit to work for them . That’s how bad she wants revenge on me . Oliver had to wonder if Emalie could even be talked to anymore.
    â€œSo now what?” Dean asked as they passed back through the dead detector.
    â€œDésirée’s,” Oliver said, turning down the third floor.