Dark Needs at Night’s Edge (Immortals After Dark #5)(43)
Author: Kresley Cole

"Well, now that we’re in discussions," Néomi began, "I have to ask – is there any way to make me corporeal for a lifetime? Maybe I have enough money for a full resurrection?"

Mari and Nïx shared a look. "I don’t touch those. But what you’re asking for isn’t a resurrection. Your spirit’s here and available. No need to suck it back to this plane. What you need is an embodying, which is highly dangerous in itself. And there are about a dozen different conditions that would have to be met. But even if everything were ideal, I’m just not skilled enough to try it. Not yet."

"You’ve never attempted it?"

"On a human? Not outside a simulator." After a hesitation, she admitted, "I did recently attempt it on my ghost cat."

"And?"

"And, did you ever see Pet Sematary?"

Néomi shook her head.

"No? Well, my Tigger came back wrong!" she cried, biting her knuckle.

Nïx rose to sit beside Mari, patting her back. "There, there, favorite Wiccan-type person."

Mari dabbed at her eyes, muttering, "Got some, uh, dust in my eye."

To Néomi, the Valkyrie said, "Mari’s got oodles of power, but this would be a skill level of" – she frowned – "what level?"

"A fiver," Mari answered, regaining her composure. "Out of five."

"Why not practice on me?" Néomi said, making her tone bright. "I’m game."

Nïx shook her head. "For Mari to do a five, she’d have to commune with the mirror to unleash her full power. It’s likely she would get entranced in her own reflection, unable to break away from it. Possibly forever."

Mari nodded. "But I’m going to face my reflection in fifty years, when I’m stronger and more skilled. We’ve already got it marked on the calendar. If you can wait that long, I’ll put you at the top of the list, for a nominal, onetime fee – "

"No. Merci, but no." Fifty more years of loneliness and sliver moons? Her death relived another six hundred times?

Or possibly a year of life. There wasn’t even a question of which she’d choose.

Chapter 15

"I’m sorry, Néomi. If I tried to embody you now, I’d probably get enthralled and you’d come back worse than dead. I know you’re thinking that there’s nothing worse than dead – "

"No. I don’t think that." Néomi had just spent a lifetime worse than dead. She understood the concept, and why it’d be wise to avoid it.

"There’s one other option as well," Nïx said. "In the Lore, there are Phantoms, a ghostlike species of immortals who can incarnate at will, like shape-shifters between life and death. If you can exist long enough in this plane as a ghost, you’d gradually regrow a physical form, accumulating strength to become like them. You’d be able to leave your spirit anchor, and still retain all your telekinetic abilities."

"How long?" This sounded perfect! "How long do I have to exist to grow a body?"

Nix snapped her fingers. "A mere four or five centuries. It’ll be over before you know it."

"Oh." The breezy way Nïx said that made Néomi wonder how old the Valkyrie could possibly be. "That’s kind of out for me, too. I relive my death every month. I couldn’t stand the fifty years option, much less five hundred."

"Ah, the perpetual ghostly reenactment." Nïx nodded in commiseration. "Your spirit anchor would probably get burned or torn down before then anyway."

"Is there anyone else who can do the embodying?"

Nïx quirked a brow. "No one you’d want to tangle with. There are a handful of sorcerers who can do this, but they’ll make outrageous demands – like your firstborn or something equally unfun."

Mari said, "Listen, Néomi, you don’t have any reason to trust our advice on this, but I can provide a list of referrals who would be happy – "

"No, I trust you. How soon could you do the target practice body?" Néomi asked.

Mari seemed surprised that she was still interested. "Uh, tonight. But really, this whole thing is probably not something you’d want to consider. I mean, how bad could it be here?"

Pinning Mari’s gaze with her own, Néomi said, "I’m trapped in an interminable hell that I can’t even kill myself to escape. I perceive nothing, not until the one night a month when I have a knife plunged into my heart then twisted in my chest."

"Okey-dokey, then, sounds like we’ll be doing the spell!" Mari pulled out papers and forms from her briefcase. "So, about that payment."

Néomi waved her hand over her shoulder at the jewelry armoire behind her, and a felt-lined drawer full of jewels opened. Another four practiced waves had the safe open. "Do your worst."

With a discerning air, Mari picked out a few diamonds and certificates and placed them in an inner compartment in her bag. Nïx wouldn’t even glance at the intense glittering, instead exploring the studio. She continually cast puzzled glances at Néomi.

"Well?" Mari asked, spreading out contracts on the coffee table. "Are you reading anything on Néomi here?"

"I get nothing on her," Nïx said.

"Is that good or bad?" Néomi asked.

Nïx narrowed her eyes. "It’s rare."

Mari offered a pen to Néomi. "Can I get you to sign here and here? Just an X will do." Néomi used telekinesis to craft a sloppy X. "Okay, and here. Nïx, would you witness?"

Nïx scrawled her signature, Nïx the Ever-Knowing, Proto-Valkyrie & Soothsayer Without Equal.

"Do I need to do anything to get ready?" Néomi asked.

"Why the urgency? I usually make clients wait forty-eight hours to mull their decision when the magick is irrevocable."

"I really like the Lore and want to see more of it. And there’s this gathering tonight – "

"Ah, the Liv der Lanking, the Life of Lanking. A raucous party. We call it the Liver Spanking. Nïx here planned it."

Nïx nodded sunnily. "It’s B.Y.O.S. Bring Your Own Sacrifice."

"Now, why do my spider senses tell me that Conrad Wroth might be there?" Mari asked.

"What? Will he, indeed?" Néomi said in a breezy tone.

Nïx added, "Naturally, you’ll want him to see you flirt with other males and regret his words."

Néomi was uncertain what she planned to do if she saw him there. Part of her was dying to know if she could blood him. Part of her wanted to see if he’d held steady after three nights away. And yes, another part of her wanted to show Conrad that she wasn’t pathetic, languishing away in her haunted manor.