Free Walking Shadows by Phaedra Weldon Page B

Loki? Dagda?"  
    "No. This Revenant wasn't around when all the shit happened. You don't know this one—in fact I'm not sure where in the list my dad popped this one out."  
    I made a face. "That sounded awful."  
    "Well it's not like we were all born the usual physical way." He grinned. "Which seems kinda disappointing."  
    "I thought there were a limited number of you. Like only fifteen or so left?"  
    "Oh. Shit. Where did you get that number? Did you read Inanna's journal at all?"  
    "I read what you did. Before it got all sucked up inside of—" and that's where I lost it again. I couldn't even say his name. Instead I closed my mouth and looked straight ahead. I didn't trust myself to speak.  
    TC had been there when I'd learned what Rhonda had done, and that Dags didn't love me anymore. Hell, Dags didn't even know me. And to my surprise, TC—the old shit—had been very…nice to me. Maybe being a super-grand muckity muck was good for him. Shoulda happened sooner.  
    "There are more than fifteen, but less than fifty. We only give such a small number because we don't know where the rest are. We can only count those of us who stayed in touch. Those of us who kept close ties."  
    I nodded. "So who was it…and what happened. You think it was a this same Dominion making zombies?"  
    "The First Born's name was Zivena. Her Revenant host was Strauss. And as for what happened…" he was looking at me. "Yes I do. But this time, instead of just taking the human soul in the body, the attacker also drained her blood."  
    "Meaning…he knew he was taking on a Revenant."  
    "And that's what bothers me. I need to know who he is and if he's killing randomly, or targeting Revenants while taking out a few daemons and symbionts as collateral damage."  

    •••

    Apparently there were five witnesses to this weirdness. Two were human with no idea what they'd seen. The other two were Symbionts—the old-fashioned kind—inhabiting humans. Why? I didn't know. Didn't care. Wasn't my bit.  
    Whoever this guy was, he was tall, slim, and had white hair. I wondered if he was older, but TC said the descriptions all said he looked like a young man. He had pale golden eyes and a stoic expression.  
    "So," we were inside my apartment in front of the fireplace. TC built me a fire. I had one of those gas fireplaces. Fake fire. Not a lot of heat but it looked nice. I'd been in this a week and still didn't know how to light it up myself. Otherwise Joe did it.    
    Debris from the movie party I had last night still decorated most any flat surface. I didn't feel like cleaning up. Dags had showed up without Rhonda. I hadn't thought that would be too big of a problem—until I got the call this morning to let me know Daniel wouldn't be back in town until Christmas Day.  
    But he did email me and let me know he'd make reservations and had tickets purchased for Friday. Rhonda might have postponed our good time, but she wasn't going to cancel it.  
    If she did that I'd kill her myself.  
    I sat on my new papasan (I left my old one at mom's). He stood by the fire. "This guy strolled into the club, walked directly up to Strauss and bit him. Like a Revenant would."  
    "And no one stopped him?"  
    "Everyone claimed the same thing—they couldn't move. It was as if their physical bodies were grounded to the spot. This guy drained every drop of blood from Strauss. When he left and they could all move, one of the Symbionts saw the First Born struggling to keep the body alive. But once bonded—" he rubbed a hand over his bald head. "A First Born can't exist without a body."  
    "TC, what exactly happens to a First Born without a body? I know what I saw and felt with Lex and her host, and I have it in my head that it's a terrible way for a Revenant to die. Can't they just go back to the Abysmal Plane?"  
    "Well—once a First Born bonds with a human, it can't physically return to the Abysmal Plane unless it were to return to its essence."