Greenwitch’s magic. She’d been an exceptional witch, and since Antares had no magic of his own she had bequeathed him a collection of magical objects to help him. I’d noticed the cupboard in the cave in the Forbidden Lands where I’d killed Antares, but once the mountain came down on the cavern I’d assumed nothing could survive.

Somehow Amarantha had ferreted out Antares’ goodies. Before, she’d just been an annoying ghost. A closetful of magic suddenly made her a lot more dangerous. That meant I would have to find her stash and destroy it before she could do any more damage to me and mine.

Amarantha smiled like she knew what I was thinking. “You will never discover it, Agent. You will be forever looking over your shoulder for me.”

She rose up, her tinkling-bell laugh just as irritating in death as it had been in life. She threw her arms wide. “But first, a gift for you.”

The vampires came slithering over the fence from the alley, dozens of them. Behind them clambered humans with blank eyes, and I realized that Amarantha had somehow ensnared these humans with other ghosts, just as she had possessed Nathaniel. It was a crafty move, since she knew that I wouldn’t deliberately harm a bunch of innocents. And because it severely limited my brand of blast-and-burn magic.

“I guess we know who was working with Therion,” I muttered, drawing my sword. Nathaniel and I moved so that we were back-to-back. “Don’t hurt the humans. They’re not responsible for what they do.”

The vampires surrounded us, snarling. They descended on us, and so commenced the hacking and the slashing.

The vampires were hopelessly outmatched. I’m not sure why they bothered, really. The hardest part for me was making sure that I didn’t accidentally behead any humans in the close quarters.

“Why are we bothering to engage them?” Nathaniel said as he sent a blast of nightfire directly into the chest of nearby vamp. “There is no need. We could fly away.”

“Yeah, but then the vampires would eat the neighbors,” I said. “And I think they just got home after the last vampire crisis.”

The vampires were dispatched fairly quickly. The humans were another problem. They surrounded us with their blank and staring eyes, their hands outstretched.

“This is a lot like being in a George Romero movie,” I said. “Except that I don’t have a shotgun.”

We both lifted off from the ground at the same time, floating above the yard. The possessed humans milled around for a minute, confused.

“Now, where did that bitch Amarantha go?” I said.

“Here,” J.B.’s voice said behind me.

18

AMARANTHA GLARED AT ME THROUGH J.B.’S EYES. SHE pointed her finger at me and shot a blast of red light at me. I dodged it narrowly and pointed my sword at her.

“Let him go,” I said. “Hasn’t he suffered enough abuse at your hands?”

“You won’t hurt this body,” Amarantha said confidently. It was disturbing to hear her speaking with J.B.’s voice. “I can do whatever I like with you and you cannot defend yourself.”

She blasted at me again. I was lucky her aim was crappy, because otherwise that blast would have hit me square in the chest.

“We have to get her out of J.B.,” I said to Nathaniel.

“Yes,” he said. “But we have another problem.”

He pointed toward the east. A vanguard of Agents was flying toward us, led by Bryson, and carrying weapons. Apparently Bryson just wasn’t scared enough by my little performance on the bridge a few days before.

“Oh, you’ve got to be kidding me,” I said, exasperated. Amarantha tried knocking me out of the sky again, and I avoided it once more. “Sokolov really has a lot of time on his hands.”

“I will take care of the Agents,” Nathaniel said.

“Don’t kill them,” I warned.

“Bryson would kill you in an instant,” Nathaniel said.

“Don’t kill them,” I said. “They’re following orders.”

I turned my attention on Amarantha. I was pretty sure I could get her out of J.B.’s body if I could just get ahold of her. But she was right. I wouldn’t willingly hurt him, so I couldn’t just blast her out.

I flew toward her, building up speed. Her eyes widened. I don’t think she expected me to charge her.

But she acted exactly as I hoped she would. She ran. Amarantha had never been one to stand and fight on her own. She hid behind monsters, behind underlings, behind protocol and politics. She had never engaged me in battle, although legend had it that she led an army once. If so, there was nothing left of that woman when I met her. Amarantha was not a warrior.

J.B.’s wings carried her over the rooftops, away from the sounds of battle and gunfire that were now coming from the air above my yard. I hoped that Nathaniel would be all right. I hoped that he would not have to kill any of the Agents and thus give Sokolov yet another excuse to come for me.

She headed toward the lake. The surface of the water churned, mysterious and dark, and I felt the presence of Alerian once more.

I sped up, grabbing J.B.’s ankle. Amarantha tried to shake me off, to blast me in the face with her magic. I turned J.B.’s body upside down and shook it, and several tokens fell from his pockets to the beach below.

“No!” she shrieked. I knew then that she couldn’t access J.B.’s own magic inside his body. She needed Greenwitch’s charms to perform a spell. I lowered to the sand, dropping J.B. somewhat unceremoniously.