Free Soul Cage by Phaedra Weldon Page B

was no way he was going to try and trap her soul
inside of it. Since that was the artifact's only function
then…
    He straightened up.
Weren't First Borns, in a sense, disembodied souls?
    Oh no… no it can't be that
easy.
    Unless…
    "Joe? You look somewhat
surprised."
    No…that wasn't possible,
was it? I mean, had she taken it to use it specifically for that
reason? Or did she have it and it was just a convenient way
to…
    "Joe?"
    "TC," he turned and
grabbed the Phantasm's jacket sleeve. "I know where Morgan
is."
     
    •••
     
    It took over an hour to
get back to the Society House. Nona was in the infirmary with Dags
so Joe went straight to Security with Azrael popping in out around
him. Once at the records desk, he called up the camera footage from
the archive room where Manuel was found. Originally the footage
didn't give them any answers, but Joe hoped it was because they
were looking at the wrong thing.
    Azrael popped in and stood
by the door, facing Joe.
    Fast forwarding through he
stopped when he saw Manuel walk from the archive room into the
storage room. The angle of the camera was designed to show maximum
archive area, to show the computers. But there was a small sliver
of the storage room visible in the upper left hand corner. He
zeroed in on that corner and refreshed several times. He sharpened
and cleaned up the noise.
    "Joe—"
    "I see it." And there it
was. It was only a half image since the other half was hidden by
the storage room door.
    The stone
dragon.
    He stood and headed down
to the archives and storage room. Of course, it wasn't where he'd
seen it.
    "Did you really expect it
was still here?" Azrael said.
    "Not helping, Phanty," Joe
closed his eyes and this time he wanted to find the stone dragon.
The need was there. The desire and then suddenly, he had an image.
"Its in her closet."
    "Are you sure?"
    He opened his eyes and
looked at Azrael. "Trust me. I lived with her for a while. I know
how disorganized her closet is. There's only one
problem."
    "Getting into her closet
without her knowing?"
    "Yeeeeah." Joe moved past
him back into the archive room. "The only way I'm going to get in
there without her knowing is shield myself. But I can't get past
the Boggarts on the door without Nona's help and then there's
Rhonda's own wards inside."
    Azrael said, "You could
give her what she wants—if only for a few minutes."
    "You mean
Dags?"
    "Yeah. I think if she sees
him and is near him it'll be enough of a distraction you can run in
and grab the dragon."
    "True," and it would work.
But they'd have to make sure she couldn't hurt Dags. "There just
one problem."
    "What's that?"
    He ran a hand through his
hair. "Nona's never going to let Rhonda spend time alone with Dags
right now." Joe refocused on the Phantasm. "It's going to be harder
to convince Nona to let Rhonda out of that room and near Dags then
getting the dragon itself. And once I do get the dragon," he
shrugged. "How do you get a First Born's soul out?"

 
     
    -10-
     
    Jason stepped into Dags'
room and motioned to get Nona's attention. He had a job to do,
something Mephistopheles wasn't relishing. Which was why he'd left
the task to his Revenant.
    The infirmary was housed
three floors underground in the most secure area of the new Society
House. Taking up the lowest floor, the infirmary was also part of
the tunnel system connected to the garage that would allow a secret
escape in case a patient or a prominent member of the Society
needed to depart in secret. The farthest end of the main hall ended
at a steel door that was on a twenty four seven watch from the
Security station, monitored by motion sensors and a card-key. Only
a few had that card. And even fewer knew the pass code.
    Beyond that door were
seven vehicles of various makes and models, each available for what
ever purpose was necessary at the time.
    Dags was sequestered into
the room closest to the door, along with Manuel. There had been no
change in Manuel's condition—something