Dark Time by Phaedra M. Weldon

1

    "What are you doing?"  
    I didn't want to answer him. I also didn't want him to see me like this. I didn't want anyone to see me…like this .  
    But…he wasn't going to leave me alone. In fact, the bastard had shown up everywhere, all over the world. But no matter how many times we ignored him, or abandoned him, he kept coming back.  
    Ignoring us or abandoning us wasn't TC's way.
    And, true to form, the well-dressed Phantasm knelt beside the body I was currently feeding on. Didn't matter how harrowed, horrible, or downright nasty I looked as I fed from the neck of a dying man…TC didn't draw away. He didn't…he wouldn't…leave me.  
    He gently placed his hand on mine, the one clutching the patient's shoulder. I felt the touch, though from a distance. I wasn't in control of my body. In fact…I couldn't remember the last time I'd been in charge of it.  
    Inanna held the reigns. She was the First Born that kept Daniel sane, because I drove him in sane. But now she was bonded to me.  
    Daniel was dead now.  
    And Dags…
    "Don't interfere, Azrael," Inanna said with her voice, and mine. I did notice the tone was punctuated with juicy, slurping noises. Inanna had been a neat and fussy eater once. But not lately. "She's given up. I must drink in order to maintain control."  
    "You mean to maintain your hold." TC's melodic timber had changed since I last heard it. He sounded…patient. And that was not a word I associated with the old bastard. Well not really old. I honestly had no idea how old he was. Or how old Inanna was. Though on those rare occasions after she'd fed and she let her guard down, it was possible to look into her.  
    I did it.  
    Once.  
    And I wasn't doing it again.  
    "Go. Away." Inanna's anger shifted inside. I got out of the way. If he really wanted to make her mad and face the Wraith ala First Born—fine by me. I just didn't give a shit anymore.  
    "No. If you want to fight me, Inanna, you'll have to bring out Zoë's Abysmic essence to do it. But…" he shrugged. "I'm pretty sure you don't have that kind of control right now."  
    Inanna paused in her meal and turned my head to look at him. I felt blood sliding down my chin. "What do you want?"
    "What I've been wanting for two months. I want to talk to Zoë."
    "No."  
    "Why not? Are you afraid if I do speak to her she'll want her body back? That she'll want control again? You like having control, don't you Inanna?" He leaned in close. "You enjoy pulling the strings."  
    She lashed out at him, my hand shifting to the old ashen skinned, clawed standby I'd grown to hate. The Wraith part of me. The Abysmal tainted side.  
    TC disappeared. He'd done that slight of hand every time he goaded Inanna. How many times was it now? How many places? He'd shown up the first time we went to see that guard—the one I'd torn the arm off. Guilt, combined with the sting of rejection, had guided me to him. Inanna insisted it was impossible for me to give him back his arm. I couldn't regrow flesh. But I knew I could manipulate flesh. Though…I seriously didn't know how I'd known it.  
    I'd worked on instinct, along with the need, no the desire , to pull from me the most broken, abused part of myself.  
    My heart.  
    And when I was done, the man had a new arm.  
    And I…was a little less broken.  
    Only a little.  
    "If you're going to fuck with me, then stand still so I can kill you." Inanna's voice growled inside of my own. She was up off the patient now, and looking around the hospital room. "Leave me alone, brother!"  
    "You know I can't do that." TC reappeared behind her and grabbed her left arm and twisted up behind her back. My back. It hurt. I could feel it. But I didn't…
    It just wasn't my problem anymore. You know?  
    Inanna struggled but she had one glaring weakness her brother didn't. He was still a First Born. And she…was now a Revenant. A conjoined creature consisting of a powerful spirit and manipulated flesh.  
    And me.