“What just happened?” So’la asked Law.
“We got schooled.”
“We’re going to be at her beck and call for a while, aren’t we?” A pause. “How long?”
“Until she lets us off the hook or decides to grant us mercy,” Law said.
“She gives mercy?”
“There’s a first time for everything.”
“It isn’t fair that you get to speed your forgiveness in bed,” So’la complained. “If she just gave me the chance, I could drive her out of her mind with pleasure, and she would forgive me anything.” Another pause. “I could do the same for you.”
Mal choked back her laugh, wishing she could see Law’s face at So’la’s salacious offer. His casual tone combined with his relentlessly determined response floored her.
“True. It’s not fair. I’m the luckiest man alive, and if she wants a man-slave at her beck and call for a week or a month or a century or twelve, I’m going to make sure she doesn’t want to look anywhere but at me. And I’m going to take advantage of every opportunity I have, fair or not, to make that happen.”
Talk like that could make a girl go weak in the knees. The growl in his voice promised things that gave her shivers. On the other hand, the thing she’d just noticed was also giving her shivers, these having more to do with terror.
All the virdanas and their guards who’d been watching the music from the sidelines were gone. Not dead, not sleeping, not waking up. They were gone.
But where? And more important, what were they up to and how long did Mal, Law, and So’la have to stop them before it was too late?
Chapter Fifteen
Mal’sfirst reaction was to marshal the ghosts.
“Guys? Are you up to scouting for me?”
They had loosened their wrapping of her once she’d done the nuclear explosion thing, and now they separated and turned visible. They were all in technicolor and glowed. It was like they’d been hit with gamma rays or been bitten by a radioactive spider or however it works in comic books. Mal had never seen them glow before.
“Why are you all glowing like you just fell into a lake of toxic waste?”
Tag shook his head. He actually looked almost healthy, despite the fact that he’d died sick and half-starved after being forced into prostitution. He’d died in Mal’s arms then joined her merry band of ghosts. “That spell you cast was like sticking my hand in an electrical socket.”
“Funny, your hair isn’t standing on end,” Mal said then told herself to get with the program. “Are you saying that it was the good kind of sticking your hand in an electrical socket or the bad kind?”
“There’s a good kind?” Law asked.
“The good kind,” Tag affirmed.
“Looks like it,” So’la said to Law. “Maybe you should try it out.”
“I’ll take their word for it.”
“We absorbed a lot of energy,” Edna said. “What do you want us to find?”
“Actually, it’s who,” Mal said. “A bunch of virdanas and their bodyguards seem to have vanished. We need to find them. Fast.”
“You got it,” Tag said and vanished.
The others popped out of sight just as something occurred to Mal. “Wait!”
For a second she didn’t think anyone heard her, but then Edna reappeared. “Is there something else?”
“I think we’ll need Elliot.”
She tipped her head slightly as if that didn’t quite register, but then nodded and vanished again.
