Part 8 (1/2)
Everyone turned to look at me. I avoided meeting Spider's gaze. ”I have agreed to Spider's request for me to remove any ent.i.ties in the house. I will honor that agreement.”
A wave of yellow rolled through the front door, the high-pitched eek-eek causing everyone to turn and stare as a herd of six imps-dirty, smelling to high heaven, and clearly near exhaustion-limped over to me. The group leader stopped in front of me, hiccupped, and, with a dramatic flair that would have done a diva proud, staggered two steps before fainting onto my foot.
I cleared my throat and carefully pushed the unconscious imp to the side.
”I'll throw in imp removal for no extra charge.”
”G.o.ddess above. Can it be? Meredith, do you see?”
”Yes,” he said, a nonplussed look on his face as he watched the other five imps hug my ankle before collapsing. ”They look like little yellow rodents.”
”With six arms! Merciful heaven, they have six arms! Do you know what they are?”
”Imps,” I answered, sighing as I gathered up the mostly comatose creatures. ”Very determined ones at that. I have no idea how they found me, but they should be confined or they'll be in our way.”
Adam didn't look any too pleased. ”You brought imps with you to my house?”
”No. I moved these guys to a farm. They refuse to leave me. Somehow, I'm imprinted on them as their mother.” I gestured with one of the limp imps.
”Try as I might, I just can't seem to get rid of the little b.u.g.g.e.rs.”
”I'll get a box,” Adam said, heading for a nearby closet.
”Will you please stick to the matter at hand and stop waving those nasty little yellow rats around!” Spider moved into my field of vision, his dark eyes narrowed with suspicion. ”You told me you'd clean the house.”
”And I intend to.”
”Karma, honey, don't do it! You have a higher authority to answer to!” my father shouted.
Spider shot him a look of loathing before turning back to me. ”You said you'd exterminate the spirits.”
”I said I would remove them from the house, and I will do so. Thank you, Adam. Do you have a cord I can tie the box shut with? They'll get out otherwise.”
”There's some in the drawer.” He nodded toward a sideboard.
I cut off a long piece of cord and wrapped it carefully around the box after making sure there were enough gaps in the cardboard to allow airflow. The last thing I needed was for the imps to add to my troubles.
”You can't send the spirits away,” Savannah pleaded, coining forward to take my hands after I had deposited the imps underneath the sideboard.
”You just can't! They belong here.”
”It is awfully mean, Karma,” Pixie said with a look around the room.
”This house is pretty cool.”
”Pixie-”
”Obsidian Angel!”
”Seen and not heard,” I told her. She harrumphed and threw herself down onto the sofa.
”That's right, listen to the nice blond lady,” my father said, nodding. ”She knows what she's talking about.”
Savannah turned to her husband. ”Meredith, tell her that she can't do it.
This house is a gold mine of spirits! It would be a tragedy to lose them simply because that man wants them gone!”
”You're not going to clean the house?” Spider asked me, his eyes glittering dangerously.
I thought carefully about what I was going to say. It was tricky dealing with Spider at any time- doubly so when he was in a mood. ”The spirits will be removed.”
”Relocated,” my dad said, sighing in relief as he slumped onto a nearby armchair. ”She means to relocate them rather than exterminate them. I live in fear she'll do otherwise, but thank the G.o.ds she has finally figured out what is right.”
”I had a feeling you would try something like this,” Spider said, reaching into his jacket pocket.
For one brief, horrifying moment, I thought he was going to pull out a gun and shoot me.
What he did was much, much worse. The object he held in his hand was small, made of black plastic, bearing a gauge on the top. It looked like a slim-line version of an electronic tape measure or stud finder. But as he pressed a couple of b.u.t.tons on it, pain exploded in my head, sending me to my knees.
”Karma? What is it?” my father asked, hurrying to me. Red agony washed over me, so great it almost blinded me, driving every thought from my head but ceaseless, unending anguish.
Next to Spider, a figure appeared, writhing in pain. I didn't know how Spider was able to summon Sergei, but I could see Sergei was suffering as much as-if not more than-I was.
”Stop it,” I tried to shriek at my husband, but all that came out of my mouth was a howl. ”Make him stop it.”
Adam took a step forward as Spider pointed the little black torture device at Sergei.
”Meredith!” Savannah gasped. ”Look! Ghosts! Honest-to-G.o.ddess ghosts!
Where's my camera?”
”Let's see if this really works as advertised,” Spider drawled, pressing a b.u.t.ton. Sergei's being exploded into a million pieces, his scream of torment hanging on the air long seconds after he had been destroyed.
The silence that followed was filled with horror. I was so stunned I forgot the pain for a moment to try to grasp the fact that Spider had destroyed Sergei right before my eyes.
”Excellent work,” Spider said, turning to Meredith. ”You were right about it being extremely efficient. We won't need Karma at all to clean any ghosts we don't want. Your little device will take care of that problem once and for all.”
I lunged at Spider, intending to do G.o.d knows what to him, but my legs refused to cooperate. I stumbled over my father, arms and legs tangling with his. Pixie tried to help me up.
Savannah yelled at Meredith, hitting him with a beaded bag while accusing him of ruining everything.
”Bunch of noise over nothing,” Spider grunted, turning the machine on my father. ”Let's just see if the polter setting works; then I can clean whatever else is hiding in the house.”
”No!” I shrieked, trying to kick my feet free so I could crawl over to Spider and stop him before he destroyed anyone else.
”There will be no more!” Adam's voice was so loud it literally rattled the window. A couple of apports, s.h.i.+ny white pebbles that were warm to the touch, dropped from the ceiling.