Read Online Something Strange and Deadly by Susan Dennard - Free Book Online Page B

from the pool and benches and approached the first of the collapsed Dead.
    â€œHold your nose,” Daniel said. “And you probably don’t wanna look down.”
    I gritted my teeth and kept my chin raised high. Like Jie, I didn’t—couldn’t—avoid stepping on the corpses. My ankles and heels rolled and sank as we progressed forward.
    Daniel tipped his head around Joseph to peer at me. “What are you doin’ here, Miss Fitt? We told you to stay in the lab.”
    My heel poked through skin with a rip and a thud. I pressed my lips firmly together and forced my eyes to remain up and forward. “I couldn’t stay,” I said.
    Joseph cleared his throat. “There was a spirit.”
    â€œYes.” I glanced at him, my eyes wide. “How did you know?”
    â€œI could feel the cold.”
    â€œYou could?” I asked. “How? You weren’t near.”
    â€œWhen I stand in water, I can connect more easily to spiritual energy.”
    â€œT-to what?”
    Daniel answered. “It’s like electricity. Everything that’s—” He broke off and flinched. His foot was tangled in a corpse’s dress. He shook his leg free, wrinkled his nose, and then continued. “Everything that’s alive has spiritual energy. You call it soul.”
    We reached the giant Corliss engine, and though the air still stank of putrid flesh, the ground was clean. Joseph paused our slow trudge forward and straightened. “I can go alone now, thank you.”
    Daniel wiped his brow. “Like I was sayin’, souls are made of electricity.”
    His words clicked with something Elijah had taught me. “Water’s a conductor,” I said slowly. “Is that how it works?”
    â€œRight.” Daniel flicked his eyes toward me, and I thought I saw a glint of respect. “So when Joseph stands in it, he can connect to the spiritual energy.”
    â€œAnd so,” I pressed, “when he was in the water, he could control the bodies?”
    â€œNot control,” Joseph said, “but affect . You might have noticed a difference in the corpses’ speed when I stepped from the water. My ability to affect the corpses weakened when I left the water, so their speed and coordination improved.”
    Daniel nodded. “We’re lucky the Hydraulic Annex has such a big pool. We’re even luckier the corpses followed us there.”
    â€œ Wi . It makes me think we were the target of the attack.”
    â€œI don’t know if that’s good or bad.” Daniel glanced toward the annex. “I should go back and get the machine.”
    â€œWhat is that thing?” I asked. “It made sparks.”
    â€œIt’s called an influence machine. It makes static electricity from spinning the glass wheels. And when Joseph touches the spark, he uses it to blast all that corrupt soul back into the spirit realm. Kinda like a cue ball smashing apart all the other billiard balls.”
    â€œOh,” I said, not entirely sure I understood.
    â€œBut that machine wasn’t easy to make, and it can sell for a pretty penny. So I ought to retrieve it. Jie can help me carry it to the lab.”
    Joseph bowed his head, granting permission, and then he turned to me. He tugged at his dripping vest—as if his messy appearance was somehow the fault of his own poor taste.
    â€œShall we?” He gestured toward the lab, and we resumed our march through Machinery Hall. “You see, Miss Fitt, I could feel the spirit while I stood in the water—it is quite strong.” He swallowed and fidgeted with his cuffs. “What was most worrisome was that it knew my range—how far I can reach to affect soul—and it hovered just outside.”
    I sucked in a breath, and the hairs on my neck stood on end. Was that why it stopped following me? But how would it know something like that? And for that matter, why had it even come