Moon Shimmers(6)

“What the hell? Now he’s not corporeal?”

My phone rang as I jogged over to where Menolly had fallen. She was up and chasing him again. I stopped, leaning over to breathe, and glanced at Caller ID. Delilah. I punched the TALK button and tried to keep from panting into the phone.

“Yeah? Talk fast.”

Delilah snorted. “With as many workouts as your husbands give you, I’m surprised you aren’t a champion sprinter. Anyway, I found reference on the GoGargoyle search engine to a particular spirit that seems to be endemic to Earthside. Apparently, some trolls and ogres who stayed behind near the Snohomish area began to fade over the years and they’ve wandered around to the Seattle area. They aren’t true spirits, but faded shells of the creatures they once were. They’ve become a form of wight, though they aren’t necessarily evil by nature anymore. Some dimwit dubbed them ‘vrolls’—vapor and troll mixed—and it stuck. So we’re facing a vroll. Apparently, they’ve lost their sense to hunt, and they’re more like a wild animal who doesn’t understand what’s happened. Poor things are just afraid, from what the reports say.”

“What’s he looking for? How can we stop them?”

“Vrolls are looking for one thing: shelter and a place to hide, where they eventually will fade away into nothing. But when they’re riled or forcibly shoved out of their hiding spots, they turn violent. Then the only thing you can do is either find a new place for the creature to slumber, or put it out of its misery. There’s no reasoning with them. What’s left is pure instinct and drive for self-preservation.” She paused, then added, “It’s really kind of sad, isn’t it?”

I bit my lip. Sad was the word, all right. But even though the vroll was a sorry creature, we couldn’t let it attack a wedding. Especially a wedding being thrown by one of Seattle’s most vocal hate-mongers.

“How do we destroy it?”

Delilah let out a sigh. “You have to drain it of its life force. Menolly can’t. There’s no blood there to drain. But magick will work. We need Vanzir.”

Vanzir could drain energy. The demon had, at one time, been forcibly bound to us, but he proved his mettle and now was a good friend as well as an ally. He was a dream-chaser demon and he had the ability to feed off both the dreams and life force of others.

“Can you call him? We’re at the park and I’m trying to catch up to Menolly and the vroll.”

“I already did. He’s on the way. Smoky’s bringing him through the Ionyc Sea. He’s stopping here to pick me up first. We’ll be there within a couple of minutes. Oh, by the way, apparently vrolls are attracted to sparkly things.” She hung up.

I shoved my phone in my pocket—thank gods for skirts with pockets. Smoky—my dragon-shifter husband—could travel through the currents of energy that separated the Ionyc Lands and kept them from colliding. The non-corporeal dimensions—the etheric, astral, and spirit realms—all formed the Ionyc Lands, and to get to them, one had to either have the ability to shift over or to travel through the great sea of energy.

The dusk was fading. We had only a few moments before it was full-on night, and it would be harder than ever to see our goal. I shaded my eyes with my hands, trying to scan ahead to see where Menolly and the vroll were. The moon was rising, though nowhere near its zenith, but its light was enough to show me the silhouettes ahead. The park was only a few hundred yards beyond. Even from here, I could hear people shouting and laughing.

Fuck. We had to keep the creature out of their path until Vanzir got here. I sent a piercing whistle through the air. Menolly would recognize it. Sure enough, a few seconds and she appeared in a blur.

“What?”

I held up my phone. “Delilah called. Vanzir is on the way. He’s the one who can stop the vroll—it’s not really a spirit, but a faded troll. The only way to stop it is to drain its life force. The creature’s running scared and there’s no way to reason with it. He’s looking for a new place to hide, but if he can’t find it, in his panic he’ll just cause mayhem and havoc all over the place. We have to keep his attention until Vanzir and Smoky get here.”

“He didn’t blink an eye when I tried to smack him one. I went through him like water through a funnel. Something appears to be drawing him to the crowd. He can’t eat them, can he?” Menolly glanced around, then waved to our right. “If he’s looking for a place to hide, maybe the tunnel?”

I glanced over. There was a rounded archway in the wall that supported the street above, leading through to another wooded area. “Good thinking. We need to draw his attention over there somehow. If we can get him behind the wall, then maybe he’ll feel safer and calm down.” Then I had an idea. “Get him to look over toward me.” I took off for the wall.