Page 109 of The Phantom's Vice

She nods, dragging her eyes to mine, their golden depths devoid of emotion. “Ding dong, the queen is dead. Ding dong, the bell doth toll. Ding dong. Ding dong. Ding dong…” She looks off to the side, seeming to see something that’s not there. “And why should I help her? Such is the natural order of things.”

“Who… who are you talking to?” I whisper, looking around wildly for a sign of another person.

The young girl just shakes her head, the glassy sheen in her eyes clearing as she brings those golden orbs onto my face. “They want me to help you.”

“Who?” I demand, clutching Ghost tighter to me. “Who wants you to help me? Whoareyou?”

“Ding dong. Ding dong. I must work quickly,” she murmurs, reaching into her pocket. “Where the blood flows, life goes. To stop the stream, we must dam the river.”

“What the fuck does that mean?” I screech, past the point of caring if I look like a crazy person. The man I love is dying in my arms, and this creepy kid is talking nonsense, conversing with ghosts. “What are youtalkingabout?”

The girl sucks her teeth like my questions areirritating her, lowering a small syringe-like device toward Ghost’s wound. My hand shoots out to her arm to stop her, and I’m surprised at the coolness of her skin.

“The blood is leaving. I must work quickly,”she murmurs, looking confused as to why I stopped her. “He will die?—”

“I know that!” I snap, taking a deep breath before starting again. “I know that… but what are you doing to him? How do I know that stuff isn’t going to kill him?”

“Silly woman.”She sighs, ripping her arm from my grip and proceeding toward the wound. “It will stop the bleeding. For a time.” Kain remains surprisingly silent as she presses the handle of the syringe, and a milky-silver substance pours from the tip into the wound. Within seconds, the bleeding stops, and the girl sits back with a haughty expression.

“I told you.”

I shake my head, unable to take my eyes from the ashen skin on Ghost’s face. “Can you… could you help me get him out of here?”

When she doesn’t answer, I raise my head, but the girl is gone.What the…

“Brett! Kain!”

Orion’s footsteps race down the hall toward us,and a few moments later, he’s crouched by Ghost’s head. “Is he…?”

“He… I don’t think so,” I whisper. “ He… he doesn’t have much time left, though.”

“Fuck!” He rakes his hands through his hair, looking distraught until he realizes the blood has stopped seeping through Ghost’s wound. “Did you find something to help?”

Kain and I exchange glances, our eyes asking the question our mouths won’t.Should we tell him about the girl?For some reason, I don’t think we should. Something in my gut is stopping me—something telling me that keeping her a secret is very, very important.

“I found… I found some kind of syringe thing in his pocket,” I lie. “It stopped the bleeding, but it won’t last for long.”

Orion nods. “Let’s get him out of here—come on,” Orion orders, hauling Ghost’s arms up and over his shoulders like a backpack. Being taller than the teenager, Ghost’s lower half drags across the ground as he stands, but it’s the best we can do right now.

Orion takes the lead with Ghost on his back, Rupert pacing back and forth nervously, occasionally offering a lick of sympathy to Ghost’s limp form. Meanwhile, I stand at Kain’s side, helping hold himup as much as I can as we slowly traverse the myriad of corridors and stairs.

“Once we get out of here, we’ll take him to my house,” Kain says, wheezing heavily. “Lillith is a gifted surgeon—well, surgeon in training. She can help him.”

My stomach turns at thein trainingpart, but I try not to think about it as we finally emerge through the secret back hatch and out into the alley. My lungs expand as I take in the stale night air, and I can’t help but look up at the night sky, wishing for stars. Wishing for something extraordinary to happen—to show me that those things stillcan.

“Come on,” Orion whispers, wheezing slightly as he leads us toward Ghost’s truck. We make him as comfortable as we can in the back seat, and then I help Kain into the passenger side while Orion starts the engine. I squish myself between the floor and the seats in the back, if only to be closer to Ghost. And also, so I can check his breathing every few seconds.

The truck jerks into motion, and I clutch Ghost’s gloved hand as we speed away from the gold-hued building. Carefully, I remove the leather from his hands, trailing my fingertips over each dip and crest of the mutilated flesh. He’s cold—colder than he usuallyis. And it sends a shock of despair straight to the marrow of my bones.

Suddenly, a massive blast breaks out in the distance, and I whip my head with such force that I crick my neck. Thick black clouds of smoke billow from the flame-filled building as the ground quakes with the aftermath of the explosion. Glass shatters, careening down to the pavement below in a violent flurry of debris as the stone begins to crack and crumble from the heat of the flames. Faint screams pierce the air, followed by the wail of fire trucks as the rest of the city reacts to the terrible eruption.

And there, on the sidewalk in front of the flaming building, is the girl.

Her frail body sways eerily as she looks up at the flames with the smallest of smiles, those two white tiger cubs are cleaning themselves carelessly at her feet. As if sensing my stare, her head whips toward our disappearing car, and her smile drops. Turning fully, she raises a translucent hand, her skin glowing red with the flames at her back—like a terrifying omen.

But when Iblink, she’s gone.

I sit in the living room of Kain and Lillith’s apartment, twisting my fingers nervously as I watch the clock. It’s been three hours since Lillith whisked him into her private operating room—something Kain had installed so she could treat the Hellfyre members' injuries discreetly—and I can’t shake the dread sitting like a stone in my gut.

---