He turned away and looked out the window. We sat in silence for a few minutes before he spoke again. "There has never been a healer turned death dealer. At least, I've never heard of any." He looked back at me. "I knew that you had some magic of your own—that you could heal—but I never imagined what your natural abilities combined with the power you got from the rituals might create." He let go of my hand.

"You think I can raise the dead?" If I can raise them, does that mean I can destroy them?

"The people in my family I could ask are at the retreat." He shook his head slowly back and forth. "I should never have tried to teach you. Maybe when I did the rituals, I messed them up. Maybe I did something wrong."

He looked so distraught that I put my hand on his shoulder. "You didn't mess up—I survived, didn't I?"

"You did." He leaned forward until his face was inches from mine. His dark eyes were staring at me with smoldering intensity. "And for that, I'm very thankful." He leaned back and his fingers reached out and caressed my cheek. "But..." He left the thought hanging.

Suddenly I could read what he was thinking on his face. "But what if you turned me into some kind of monster?" I moved back away from him.

"That's not what I was going to say." His voice was soft.

"And what if you did?" I demanded. I looked down at my hands. "I did it, didn't I? I touched the body, and Wanda somehow jumped into it."

"You're not a monster," he said, pulling me into his arms. "You're brave and strong and, I think, pretty wonderful."

I pulled back and looked into his eyes. He looked directly at me and gave me a reassuring smile. "We'll get through this together."

I wanted so desperately to believe him. The desire to drive away from this place, and to keep driving, putting all this madness behind us was so strong for a moment it sucked my breath away. I forced myself to focus on Luke. My hand reached out and took his, our fingers intertwined. He was right, whatever happened next, we would handle it together.

I took another deep breath and closed my eyes, I went through the whole wild scene in the morgue again, trying to make sense of it. One question kept coming back to me—if Wanda jumped into the dead man, what jumped into the woman? She screamed like a banshee.

I opened my eyes and said, "Tell me more about banshees."

"The spirits we bind for banshees are spirits who have been around a long time. People who were murdered, died tragically, or died suddenly. Their spirits are unable to come to terms with their deaths. They can't move to the other side. After years of roaming the in between, they go a bit mad."

"You only bind spirits of the dead who have been around for a long time?" I asked.

He nodded. "It would be wrong to take someone who just died. They need a chance to come to terms with their death. They need a chance to move into the light and over to the other side."

"If my mother, if she stays like she is—" My voice choked up.

He pulled me into his arms. "She won't stay like that. She'll eventually get over her grief. One day she'll find her way to the light. I'm sure of it."

How could he be so sure? He told me that many spirits he came across never found the light. My mother was out there now, wandering the in between, mourning the loss of her family. I would avenge my family's deaths. Hopefully my mother would then be able to move on. If that didn't give her enough peace to cross over, I'd try to find her, communicate with her, maybe I could help her find the light.

We held each other in silence for a while.

When he finally pulled away, he said in a quiet voice, "We need to go back to Pagan's place."

I didn't bother to hide my shock. "But you said they trashed it."

Luke turned the car back on. "They did, but the books I need to try and figure out what's going on are at Pagan's. They didn't destroy everything. They ripped pages out of some books and smashed anything breakable."

"But it's not safe. They found us there before."

"I still don't know how they did that, but we have to risk it. I have to see if I can figure out what you did in the morgue."

"And those things we left?" I asked.

Luke's expression turned grim. "We can't go back there. Not until we know what we're dealing with. If we go back now, they'll string us up without asking any questions. My magic is pretty strong, but no one can fend off a mob."

"What about Darla?" I demanded.

"We will go after her, but we need to figure out how to focus your magic. How to make sure that when we face them, you have power you can use. There are two days until the dark moon. I know she's still alive, I can feel it. If they haven't harmed her yet, they won't. Not until the dark moon."

"Freddy said he'd help us." Three of us against who knows how many.

"I won't go back on my promise. I said Freddy could come, and he can."

"So we go after Darla in two days—the day of the dark moon?"

He pulled the car back on the road. "I'm not waiting that long. Tomorrow night we go. I know that doesn't give us any time to check out the layout of the hotel, but I know the place. I've been there once before." He looked over at me for a brief moment, before turning his attention back to the road. "I figure we can go up and see if we can get her out. If it's too heavily guarded or not safe enough, we'll regroup and try the next night. But if we wait until the night of the dark moon..."

I finished his sentence. "It might be too late."

"These lunatics are making human sacrifices. Whatever they've planned, whatever spell they're trying to power—it's old. I found some references in Pagan's books to the type of rituals they might be trying to perform when I was studying the spells for the last ritual." His voice turned angry. "Whatever spell they're planning has to be something truly dark and powerful. Something that hasn't been seen in a hundred years. If they succeed, I don't know if even the eldest in my guild could fight the type of magic they might raise."

"We save your sister and then what?" I whispered.

"We wait until my guild comes back and take on the whole pack of bad guys."

"But other people are being held there. Sarah showed me in my dream. If we rescue your sister, what's stopping them from sacrificing the others?"

Luke's hands tightened on the steering wheel. "There's no way the three of us can save a whole group of people. If we get lucky, we sneak in and get Darla out without anyone finding us."

When I didn't say anything, his voice turned persuasive, "We go back when we have reinforcements. We make a stand against Macaven's men with my guild. We take these guys out and stop them from ever doing this again."

"But your guild won't be back for another week." We had no idea what Macaven and his men were planning. If we didn't know what spell they were trying to power, how would we stop them? If Luke's guild came back, would they keep me out of the fight? How could I be sure they would make my family's murderers pay? "What if they release this terrible spell before your family gets back?"

"Colina, we can't stop these men on our own. We need to see what they're doing, get as much information as we can, and then regroup so we can figure out how to go about stopping them." His voice was calm, he was trying to reason with me. "I swear to you, when my family is back in town, we will go back and save everyone."

"Save everyone who's still alive, you mean?" I was mad. Anger flowed through my veins. Why didn't he understand? "If they're responsible for all the deaths—if they've been posing as Redeemers—then they've already killed five people. Six including Sarah. How many more will die in a week? And why are they doing it? Why would they kill these people under the guise of being Redeemers?"

"To keep the guilds from realizing what they're doing. They had to hide the human sacrifices, had to keep the fact that they're doing forbidden magic from the others. If the guilds had found out, they would have put a stop to it before now." He turned and gave me a measured look. "There are only three of us. What do you think we can do?"

"Fight. Save everyone."

His anger was back, but this time it was directed at me. "You're being unrealistic. I have power, but Freddy isn't mage-born."

"And I'm without any real power." I could apparently create zombie like creatures, but could I do anything that might help us?

"You do have the power to bind banshees now." He lifted his hand before I could interrupt. "I can show you how. It's powerful magic."

"You want me to make slaves out of lost spirits?"

He raised his voice. "I told you before, you're a death dealer now. Binding banshees is part of the magic we wield."

I crossed my arms in front of my chest.

"You don't have a choice!" He slammed his hand down on the steering wheel. "I don't know what you expect me to do. We have a slim chance of getting Darla out—an extremely slim chance, but I'm willing to take that chance to save my sister. You, of all people, should understand."

I did. I'd have done anything to save my family. I'd have given my own life trying to protect them, but I couldn't stop thinking of those innocent people being held against their will, waiting to be slaughtered by Macaven.

I knew Luke was focused on getting his sister to safety, but my goals were not his. There was no saving my family—I could only avenge their deaths. The men who killed them needed to pay for what they'd done. I wanted them to rot in hell.

I suddenly felt exhausted. I'd survived the rituals, apparently raised the dead, and now had to learn to create banshees so I could storm a hotel against an army. The chances of surviving this ordeal were less than slim.

I looked out the window in silence for the rest of the drive.

We finally pulled into Pagan's driveway and Luke turned off the engine.

I turned to him and demanded, "When do we start the binding banshees lessons?"

"We need to get some food in us and then get a few hours' sleep." He glanced over at me. "Colina, you've been strong through this whole thing. This won't be bad, I promise. It's not as bad as you think."

He really believed I could do this. I knew he was counting on me. He said binding banshees wouldn't be that bad.

Goddess, I prayed he was right.