we’ve discovered.” Then Jackson took a breath and said to Leo, “This is going to take a little bit of explanation.”
expression on his face Ahnvilihly* * *
“Holy shit” was Leo’s response after a long minute of sitting in stunned silence. “You know, normally I would have called you insane for a story like that and rung up the crazy police to come get you,” he said, his resignation evident in his tone. “But the truth is, after what I’ve just seen and experienced, I’m a believer.” The last part came out of him in a bitter tone.
“I’m sorry, Leo,” Marissa heard Jackson say softly. “Leo, I’m so goddamn sorry I put you in the middle of this. I think they were trying to get information on me; kidnapping you with the hope I’d beat the bushes frantically in a search for you and give myself away. I should have warned you. I should have confided in you.”
“Listen, hotshot, before you start beating yourself up, I don’t think that’s why they came after me. I can tell you with a huge amount of certainty that this was revenge motivated. The South African prick who dragged me out of there told me as much.” His mouth went tight around the edges. “And as much as I would love his head on a plate … it sounds like a better tactical advantage to keep him alive … for now anyway. No, I’m far more interested in dealing with that little fuck who holds the real Andy a prisoner in his own body.”
“There’s no way of changing it … the only way to get rid of Chatha is to kill the innocent kid,” Jackson said gravely. And he raised a quick hand to silence Marissa with a finger on her lips. “I don’t like it any more than you do, but there’s no way of destroying one without destroying the other. The most we could do is …” He hesitated, and she could see how distasteful this was for him. “We could catch him and force-feed him a modern psychotropic drug. It’s one of the only ways a Blending can be prevented and the only way it can be reversed. Modern mental health meds act like a trap, numbing the Bodywalker inside from being able to access the host’s mind and body. It’s like a paralysis. We can see and hear everything, but can’t so much as move a muscle.”
“That sounds horrible,” she said, disgust over the whole situation climbing up from her belly and into her throat. She swallowed when the urge to throw up swam over her. “But it also sounds like the perfect prison for Chatha. If we can retrieve Andy, keep him here under our control, he could return himself to normal.”
“Only, he’s been trapped all this time … seeing and hearing, a witness to heinous acts and crimes. It could be there’s nothing left of the original’s psyche after all of that,” Jackson said.
“Well, it’s at least something to try,” she snapped at him, reaching a level of frustration that couldn’t be contained. “God! Why can’t you people just stay in that Ether of yours and just leave us alone!”
She watched Jackson’s entire demeanor change, his jaw clenching as he obviously bit back a sharp retort. Instead he took a breath in slowly to calm himself a little. “Some of us would,” he said tightly. “But that existence, that never-ending numbness, can drive a soul mad. We may be incorporeal, but still have all our human urges. To live, to laugh, to love. What right do you have to say we don’t deserve that? We should stay in purgatory indefinitely? Do you know what that to make me feel …H better’s like? Do you know what it’s like to love someone with everything that you are and be this close to them and unable to fucking touch them? No. Clearly you don’t. You don’t know a damn thing about it because you’re so afraid of losing your precious damn self-control that it’s completely starved you of any goddamn empathy.” He turned to Leo while she stood there with her mouth open in shock. “Sorry, Leo. I’ll come back later.”
He brushed past her and left the room, slamming the door in his wake and making her wince.
“Oh man, has he got it bad,” Leo drawled, moving to lean back against the headboard. She could tell he was wearing out. She knew she should let him rest, but that remark compelled