The Black Tide (Outcast 3)

And be careful, they both intoned solemnly, their mental tones an almost exact replica of mine. It was a solemnity that didn’t last, because they quickly giggled at their own cheekiness.

I grinned and became shadow. Though the quarry itself was heavily shadowed, there were multiple beams of light cutting through the night at its base—some of them belonged to the automated loaders endlessly shifting the rubble from the pile to the trucks, while others belonged to the vehicles that sped each load away to whatever location had been programmed into them.

I rose up the quarry’s face and paused again at the top, trying to get my bearings. After a moment, I spotted several broken fingers of metal reaching skyward and realized they were the remnants of Fairhaven’s curtain wall.

It didn’t take me long to reach them. The entrance to the vampire’s den was easy enough to spot—the fierce glow of the UV lights Jonas’s people had set up not only lit the den’s entrance and the sky, but provided an umbrella of light for a good portion of the nearby forest and the hillside above it.

I eventually reached the intersection. Once again I paused, but the night was still and there was no indication that anyone was nearby. Not that I really expected much movement, but given Dream appeared to be at least one step ahead of us right now, I wasn’t about to take a chance.

I moved on, and the burn of dark energy began to caress my particles. I dropped down to ground level and shifted back to human form. The foul caress of that energy instantly got worse, and my skin jumped and twitched in response. I swept my gaze across the immediate area and soon found the gelatinous patch that was the rift’s protective barrier.

I dug Branna’s black brick out of my pocket and gripped it tightly as I walked into the barrier. This time, there was little in the way of resistance. The shadow still had a high viscosity, but it slid around me rather than pushing against me. In very quick order, I was through the barrier and striding toward the rift’s oily blackness. The whips of lightning quickly latched on to my arms and legs and dragged me forward, but once again there was little in the way of pain. The journey through the rift was similarly free, and I was deposited on the other side in the same condition in which I’d entered. Exhaustion might still pound through every fiber, but its cause wasn’t due to anything the rift had done. The brick, it seemed, really did help.

I walked past Branna’s body and then hesitated. While I wanted nothing more than to see him rot in this place, it didn’t make tactical sense to leave him here. The vampires might have told Dream I’d entered their den, but Penny hadn’t confirmed it. There was a chance—a very, very slight chance, given she seemed to have no awareness of all the times I’d used the rifts—that with both the brick and the rifts being born out of her magic, she’d be aware when one was used to go through the other. It was also very slightly possible that she’d think Branna had used the brick to chase me into the rift, and that he’d come back out after I’d gone into the den itself. But for that to remain a viable possibility, I couldn’t leave his body here.

I swore, walked back, and awkwardly hauled him over my shoulders. My legs immediately buckled under his weight. I forced them to lock until I was steady and then, with one hand bracing his body to stop him from slipping, and the other gripping the black brick, I went through the gelatinous barrier.

Once on the other side, I paused again. Where in the hell was I going to dump him?

We can take care of that, if you wish, someone said from behind me.

I jumped sideways, stumbled over a rock, and dumped Branna’s body onto the ground in an effort to keep balance. Then I grabbed a gun with my free hand and swung around. There was no one behind me.

No one but ghosts.

Sorry to have startled you, the tall, wispy figure in front of me continued. I didn’t mean to.

His low tones were rich and pleasant, and recognition stirred. It was Blaine, the man who appeared to be in charge of Carleen’s ghosts.

But why could I hear him so clearly?

I might have an innate ability to hear the whisperings of the dead, but Carleen had been a human city, and that had always put the dead here beyond both my seeker and communication skills. Lures might have escaped most of the DNA interventions and restrictions that had been placed on our soldier brethren, but our creators had certainly ensured we could not read their very human thoughts. Every other time I’d communicated with these ghosts, I’d done so through a link with Cat. Her DNA was almost pure tabby, and that meant she was not only a great tracker but highly tuned to all things supernatural. These ghosts had always been little more than wisps and energy to me, but for her, they were fully fleshed beings.

But maybe this sudden clarity was once again a result of the rift Jonas and I had been caught in—maybe the alterations that allowed me to communicate directly with my own ghosts were now allowing me to hear these ones.

Whatever the reason, it was something of a blessing. Communicating through Cat was not only unwieldy but also very dangerous—for me rather than her, given the drain such a deep link put on my life force.

“How did you know I’d be able to hear you, given Cat’s not here?” I asked.

He shrugged, and it was only then that I realized he was no longer a mere wisp of energy, but gradually attaining a full—if still ghostly—form.

There is something different about the energy you’re emitting, he replied. It’s more like that of your little ghost, so I thought it worthwhile to try. You looked as if you needed help.

“And I very much do.” I hesitated, watching as more ghosts drifted closer. The anger I’d sensed in them every other time I’d come into Carleen remained, but a thick thread of fear and horror now ran through it. “What’s happened?”

The witch met with the wraiths, he said. Here, on our soil.

I swore. I’d been hoping that Samuel Cohen—the cloaked figure I’d been tracking before the wraiths had chased me back through the graveyard outside these walls—had been the only one of the three capable of communicating with the Others. But I guess that was always a forlorn hope given their shared DNA. “How long ago was this?”

Three days ago.

So not long after I’d killed Cohen and all but destroyed their Winter Halo operation. “Did you hear what they said?”

We dared not get too close to the witch, because she has acted against us in the past, he replied. But we know they plan to wage war against Central, and every other human habitation. That cannot be allowed to happen, no matter what the cost to us. The wraiths, and the witch, must be stopped.

I frowned. “I know the witch can banish you from this place, but what threat are the wraiths?”

Of themselves they are not. It