"Are you coming with us?" Meryl asked.

Desmond shook his head. "I would go with you but my powers have been rendered useless there. I would be more of a hindrance than a help. I can do a much better job here where I still have my powers."

"How will you be able to help us here?" Colin asked.

"Amory needs to come here, on what is now my territory, my soil. Once he does, then I will have the power to defeat him."

"You all have talents that will help you on Doran," I said. "Joshua will be able to go as shadow and Ice as any form of animal he chooses, such as a mouse when we're in the mansion. Meryl goes as an oriole, and Mandisa and Penrod can use glamours."

"Will our powers work there?" Meryl asked.

"Yes," Desmond said, then looked at me. "Except for Nyx. She will only have the power of her Host body."

"Which means none since the Host body is human," Colin said dryly.

"The advantage I do have," I said, "Is that the Host I'll be taking over is that of a Sentient who happens to be Amory's niece and a key member of his Inner Circle."

"At least you've got that going for you," Meryl said, still not looking pleased.

"At least," I agreed with a nod. "Now to put our plans into action."

THIRTY-THREE.

Friday, December 31.

Morning.

"Is it going to hurt?" I asked as I moved away from Colin and Desmond. I seated myself in a hardback chair, directly across from the chair Candace Moreno's Host body was strapped to.

The gagged Host fought against the bonds, looking wild-eyed as the Sentient Bryna struggled from within.

It was morning and the four of us were in Desmond's apartment, after I'd used my glamour to help us steal Candace's Host body from the infirmary. Lucky us that we managed to get away without getting caught.

I wondered if we counted as five persons instead of four with Candace in the stone and Bryna in Candace's body.

To be ready for anything when we returned, I was in my leather fighting outfit, but had handed my weapons belt to Desmond for safekeeping when I'd arrived. Wouldn't do to have an armed Zombie-body left behind.

"I don't think it will hurt." Desmond answered my question with a casual shrug. "Although I have never asked anyone if it does."

"Great." I swallowed and tried to relax. "How can you do the same thing Amory can do in the transference of essences?" I asked.

"The magic is in the stones," Desmond said. "My powers are similar to Amory's and I understand the mind and the process like he does. It is a matter of tapping into the power of the stones. We both can do this."

"What are you doing?" I said as Desmond and Colin began to strap my own body down.

"We need to make sure your body remains safe when you exchange essences," Desmond said.

I tested the restraints. "These aren't strong enough to hold me."

"They will be." Desmond rose and stepped back and Colin did the same.

Desmond raised his hands and a yellow glow radiated from his palms. The glow felt warm against my skin and I suddenly felt relaxed, languid. The bonds tightened around me and I pulled against them. The magic he used was so strong that the bonds had no give to them at all.

The Sorcerer picked up the cloth-wrapped stone that had Candace Moreno's essence locked inside. He pulled the cloth aside and I saw the tiny image of Candace staring out the flat side, as if she was trying to look through a TV screen.

Desmond placed the cloth and stone on the end table closest to me. "As long as no one else is touching the stone at the same time, you are safe and you will have control." He crouched beside my chair. "Because you have control of the stone, your essence will go into Candace's body, and Bryna's essence will join Candace's in the stone."

I swallowed and looked up at Colin who gave me an encouraging nod. I knew he wanted to argue against my doing this, but he also was aware that this was a way to get in with the Sorcerer Amory, something we really needed right now.

"It's just temporary," I said to Colin and he gave me a grim smile.

Desmond stood beside me, looking deceptively calm. Colin was on my opposite side.

When I picked up the stone an electrical sensation shot through my arm, straight for my head. It was like my brain was suddenly connected in some way to the stone.

My heart beat faster and I looked up at Desmond. "Go on," he said. "Touch her."

"Okay." Maybe I said it to shore up my courage as I took a deep breath. Then I repeated the word. "Okay."

I can do this.

My heart pounded, my breathing become tight and painful in my chest.

Bryna struggled, her eyes growing wider as I reached for her hand. It all seemed to happen in slow motion, as if I had to force myself to do it.

She screamed behind her gag as my fingers met hers.

Brilliant white light flashed in my head. My whole body prickled when I felt myself grasp the stone.

At the same time I realized that it wasn't my fingers wrapped around it anymore. Yet I was holding it.

The thoughts didn't make sense as I felt myself rush forward, straight for Candace's body. At the same time I wanted to scream for it to stop. To change my mind. Not to do this.

Too late. I felt myself flow into the other body.

Colors exploded in my mind. If felt like I was surrounded with brilliant flashes of light in green, blue, purple, orange, red.

Pictures flashed around me. It was like I was standing in a circular room filled with screens. On each screen were images I didn't recognize. They swirled around me, and then began bombarding me with so much information I thought I might pass out from it.

A mixture of Candace's memories, Bryna's memories, and mine, too. Information came to me with each image, as if they were my own memories.

Christmas with Candace's large family in Mexico; Bryna talking with a tall dark-skinned man she referred to as Amory and the knowledge that he was in a new body; Adam and I in the Italian restaurant when he broke up with me; Candace at work in her position as the CEO in a brokerage house; Bryna stalking Candace, holding the stone, ready to trade essences with her; Bryna watching her own body walk away, now a Zombie, after she made Candace her Host; Colin and I fighting Sentients in the coffee shop.

One image after another after another after another ... a hundred different thoughts all at one time ... everything flying around in my brain until I thought my head would explode from it all.

"Nyx!" I heard Colin's shout somewhere outside my head and the bombardment of thoughts and memories.

Someone was shaking me-but not me.

I grasped onto the thread that was me. A thread that felt drawn so tight that it might snap.

"Nyx." Desmond's voice. "Open your eyes."

My eyes. Not my eyes.

Warm hands on my own. Not my own. But grounding me. Bringing me forth out of the swirling haze that surrounded me.

"Open your eyes," Desmond repeated.

I gripped the strong male hands holding my own and clenched my teeth, and willed everything to slow and come into focus.

Gradually it all fell into place, memories slotted but ready for me to draw on when I needed them.

I opened my eyes. Colin was crouched in front of me, his hands grasping mine tight. "Nyx?" He looked concerned. "Are you all right?"

He looked different, the outline of him not so sharp, the colors of his clothing not as brilliant. His light blue shirt looked grayish-blue, his hair a darker gold than I was used to.

I was seeing him as Candace would, through her eyes. The scents of Desmond, Colin, and even the smells in Desmond's apartment were dull, muted. My hearing didn't seem as acute as it always had.

When I looked down at my and Colin's hands, I saw small hands with smooth light brown skin and long, manicured nails. I wondered vaguely how one would fight with such long nails.

All of the aches and pains that Candace's body had, I now felt, including the bruise from the IV that had been in her hand while she was at the infirmary.

I felt everything-the scrapes along one side of her face from the asphalt as well as other cuts and bruises, along with her injured backside from being hit by a truck. She really needed a chiropractor.

Other than that, Candace's body was toned and fit. She obviously worked out, but I felt nothing near the power of my own body.

My own body ...

I raised my head-Candace's head-and saw myself in the seat across from me. My heart thumped harder.

Seeing myself through another person's eyes sent a shock through my core. The fair-skinned woman across from me with black hair would have been pretty, but her face was slack, her expression blank, her eyes vacant.

My body looked so ... Zombie-ish, and a sick feeling churned in my belly. Despite the blank appearance, the shell of a body was pulling against the bonds that held her to the chair. Held me to the chair.

I turned my gaze toward Desmond. "You do know," I said, startling at the sound of the unfamiliar, sultry voice, "that I'll have to kill you if you don't get me back into my own body." Desmond and Colin studied me.

"Are you sure it's Nyx in the driver's seat now?" Colin asked.

Desmond gestured to the floor and Colin and I looked down to see the stone by my foot where I'd dropped it. On the smooth side two women now shared the stone. Candace, of course, was one of the women. The other I recognized as Bryna when I drew from the memory of her looking at herself in a mirror in Amory's manor. Words actually came to me in that odd French-sounding language the Sentients had been using the night Candace-Bryna was hit by the truck.

"It's me in here." My throat felt different as I spoke, the body I was in strange, feeling somehow fragile compared to my own body.

Desmond moved around me and looked behind my ear. "Two burn marks." He frowned as he came back around so that I could see him. "I'd thought the first mark would be the one used to transfer Bryna's essence to the stone, and yours into Candace's body. Let us hope that Amory doesn't notice.

With your Host body's short hair, it's a possibility."

"Great." I tried to move but then realized I was strapped to the chair. "Think you can let me up?"

Desmond and Colin unstrapped my loaner body and I rubbed my wrists and arms where the bonds had been the tightest. I did my best to avoid looking at my real body because this whole thing was creeping me out.

I wobbled as I got to my feet, as if the muscles in "my" body were confused as to which memory they should be working from.

Colin caught me by my upper arm and steadied me. His palm felt warm against my skin. The sensations of being touched in this body felt alien.

Candace was gorgeous, her body more rounded than mine. The heaviness of her breasts and the stretch of her slacks around the hips felt so different. I'd never had short hair and hers tickled at the neck and the lack of any length and weight felt naked.

Worst of all was the feeling of impotence. My powers, my magic had all been left behind in my own body. The absence of the elements made me feel alone, as if I'd been abandoned by family and friends.

The remnants of Candace's essence told me she'd worked out at a gym regularly, including weight training, and that she was strong for a human female. But without my Drow strength I was weak and vulnerable in a paranormal world.

I glanced at my real body again even though I'd told myself I wasn't going to. It was a mistake.

The Zombie-like expression and the drool rolling from one corner of the mouth made me shudder.

"I don't know if this is going to work." I brushed my palms along my hips, a nervous movement.

"I don't have any of my magic or paranormal strength. What if something happens when I'm in the Doran Otherworld?"

"That's why I'll be with you, along with the rest of the team." Colin tried to give me a reassuring smile. It didn't work. I wasn't reassured.

Then I realized that it was my team he was talking about, and I had every confidence in them that they'd get me in and out safely.

"Most of all, pay close attention to Bryna's essence." Desmond took one of the cloths from the Magi, went down on one knee, and wrapped the stone before picking it up and setting it on the coffee table. "You will be fine."

I took a deep breath and nodded. "What now?"

"Step two." Desmond remained on one knee as he met my gaze. "What more can you learn from Bryna's essence?"

With a nod I closed my eyes. Relax, Nyx.

I let the images start to roll through my mind again. This time I focused on Bryna. Her thoughts, her feelings, her knowledge. I allowed it all to flow through me until I felt as if I was walking side-by-side with her, only I was the one in control.

"Bryna is Amory's favorite niece," I said. "She is also his confidante."

"We couldn't have been more fortunate than to have found his niece." Desmond gave a grim smile. "What does he have planned?"

The words came easily to me, as if they were my own thoughts and memories that I was speaking from. "Amory's planning a lot for this world, but he's only revealed it on a limited basis."

"What do you see in regards to Amory sending his people here?" Desmond asked.

"It's what we suspected," I said. "Amory is having his people take over positions of power and they did take the entire Paranorm Council, exactly as we thought.