Author's Notes: I'm doing this part a little early because as it turns out I'm going to be out of town for a couple days for a work related thing. Thankfully I had this part already written (just needed some editing) otherwise it would have gone up waaaay later.
Ghost Slayers
Chapter Thirty-three
By Relm
"That's not like Miss Lina to not answer her phone." Amelia mused as she and Sylphiel walked back to the university. The two of them had spent some time looking over the car not that they could find out much looking at the car from the outside. They really didn't think they would find the book in the car but it didn't hurt to look. Finding nothing out of the ordinary left the two Ghost Slayers with no reason to stay in the parking lot. Though Sylphiel had called Lina's phone before they started examining the car Amelia was still dwelling on the fact that their boss didn't answer the call.
"Well she is at the bank and talking on your phone while a teller is helping you is very rude. She's probably just busy with her banking. I'll try her again in a little bit. I'm sure she'll answer." Sylphiel rationalized.
"Unless Miss Lina didn't answer her phone because she collapsed somewhere. She shouldn't be off on her own!" Amelia exclaimed with her voice full of worry.
"Amelia it's not going to do you any good to worry yourself sick. I'm sure Miss Lina is fine." Sylphiel insisted trying to calm the youngest Ghost Slayer.
"But she didn't answer her phone!" Amelia protested. "Try calling her again."
Sylphiel shook her head. "I just called her Amelia. Miss Lina will get annoyed if the phone keeps ringing when she can't answer it."
"You didn't just call her Miss Sylphiel; it was like a half hour ago! She should be done her banking by now!" Amelia insisted.
"And she could be in the middle of driving back to headquarters. Do you want me to get her into a car accident?"
"Miss Lina wouldn't answer her phone while driving!" Amelia protested. "So it wouldn't hurt to call her again."
Sylphiel let out a sigh. Amelia was a sweet and passionate girl but she could also be high strung and protective. This wasn't the first time the youngest Ghost Slayer had been worried about their boss. Lina did do a lot of things that were cause for worry. "Alright I'll call her." She got out her phone and started dialling.
"Hello?" Lina answered sounding both tired and far away.
"Miss Lina, It's Sylphiel. Are you alright? Is something wrong? You sound off."
"Let's just say it wasn't an easy day at the bank."
"What happened? Was there a problem with the cheques?"
"Well not really. Basically what happened was Xellos scaredZel. Zel popped up at the bank scaring everyone. He hid and then the bank teller wouldn't cash my cheques. And when things couldn't get any worse a bunch of bank robbers busted into the bank."
Sylphiel's eyes were as wide as saucers at this little bit of news. "Bank robbers? You were in the middle of a bank robbery? Are you okay?"
"Physically yes but I'm a little drained. Which is more than I can say for Zel."
"Mister Zelgadis? What happened to him?"
"The teller froze up and I had to open my big mouth trying to get her to give the robber the money. So the robber threatened to shoot me. I'd have a bullet shaped hole in my head if Zel hadn't gotten in the way."
"Mister Zelgadis got shot?"
Amelia was also wide eyed but more since she was only hearing one side of the conversation.
"Yes he's okay though... I think. I brought him back to HQ and Filia fished out the bullet. The wound closed up and all the blood he bled out disappeared. He's still passed out on the parking lot floor but he appears to be breathing. I'd like to move him somewhere that isn't a hard concrete floor but since he'll all transparent we can't. Xellos probably could but then again we probably shouldn't move him anyway." The more Lina talked about it more exhausted she sounded.
Just then Sylphiel had an awful thought. "When I called earlier... Did I cause the bank robber to shoot?"
"No Sylphiel. That was before the robbers stormed in. Anyway I'm tired about all this bank talk. Obviously you called to tell me something so what did you find at the university?"
"Just what we figured, Mister Xellos had the book and was probably at the university when he was attacked. He had shown the book to Professor Phibrizzo who confirmed what the book was. Though Professor Phibrizzo figured it was a replica. It seems that Mister Xellos didn't know where the book had come from. We also found his car. It's still in the parking lot and it probably hasn't been driven since yesterday." Sylphiel explained. "We haven't had a chance to get into Mister Xellos' classroom as Miss Filia's step brother is subbing the class."
Lina let out a light chuckle. "Valgaav teaching the class? Oh boy I feel bad for the students."
"Yes I feel bad for them too. You should hear how he's yelling at them. Mister Valgaav doesn't seem to be in a good mood. If we're going to get into the classroom we're going to have to wait."
"No there's no point. I'm sure the book probably disappeared as soon as it attacked him. Come back to headquarters and we'll all put our heads together."
"Okay Miss Lina we'll be back shortly."
"What happened to Mister Zelgadis? Is he alright?" Amelia quested right away as soon as Sylphiel hung up her cell.
"He got shot but Miss Lina thinks he's okay now. Miss Filia got the bullet out." Sylphiel explained.
"How could he get shot? Mister Zelgadis is transparent!" Amelia wondered.
"I don't know. Miss Lina wants us back right away. So let's go."
...
Back at Ghost Slayer HQ Lina sat slouched against the Ghost Slayermobile watching the ghostly librarian sleep. She had been like that since Filia had taken the bullet out of Zelgadis. Since they didn't want to move Zelgadis he was still laying on the parking lot floor. Not wanting to leave him there all alone it was decided that they should take turns watching him. Since Lina felt very physically drained she didn't feel much like going up several flights of stairs so she volunteered take the first watch.
It was a strange thing to watch a man who looked like a ghost sleep. His body was transparent like a ghost yet his chest rose and fell with each breath. If he wasn't transparent you would just assume he was a man sleeping peacefully on the ground with his shirt ripped open.
Lina hadn't known Zelgadis for every long but he had almost killed her and almost got killed trying to save her. It was a very strange relationship. The more she got to know him the less she felt she knew.
Looking down at her hands Lina remembered the feel of Zelgadis' blood that had spilled all over her. It had been bright red and warm just like blood was supposed to be like. Zelgadis' body had been heavy to drag to the car but it had also been warm too. At that moment despite the flickering of his body Zelgadis had seemed exactly like a normal bleeding man. But the blood was gone now and so was Zelgadis' physical presence.
'What is happening to you Zel?' Lina mentally posed that question knowing full well she wouldn't get an answer.
The sound of a car engine broke Lina from her thoughts as car came into the parking lot. It was Sylphiel and Amelia returning from the University. Not realizing so much time had past Lina had to wonder how long she was lost in thought. 'I must be more tired than I thought...' Lina thought as she rose to her feet and waited by the Ghost Slayermobile for her workers to park.
"Miss Lina!" Both Amelia and Sylphiel called out as they got out of the car.
"Are you alright?" Sylphiel asked as they approached their boss.
"Very tired." Lina admitted. "But probably better than he's doing." Lina motioned to Zelgadis on the floor.
"At least he seems to be sleeping peacefully." Sylphiel observed. "Is this where the bullet wound was?" She pointed to where Zelgadis' shirt was ripped.
"Yeah he was shot in the stomach. But as you can see the wound healed itself and there's no blood. It just disappeared."
Sylphiel frowned. "What happened to the bullet? Did it disappear too?"
Lina shook her head. "No it didn't. Filia has it right now. She's doing some tests on it."
"I'd like to take a look at it myself. Did the blood disappear from the bullet too?"
"Yup, it's clean as a whistle."
"I'd like to take a look at it myself." Sylphiel stated while getting up. "Unless there was something else you wanted me to do?"
Lina shook her head. "No you two go upstairs. I'm going to watch Zel for a while. I'll bring him up if he wakes up. Filia said she'd come down in a couple hours to switch places with me."
"Are you sure? Myself or Amelia could stay and look after him." Sylphiel suggested.
"Yeah you look like you could use some rest Miss Lina." Amelia added.
"Nah it's okay. I gotta call the bank anyway seeing how I didn't get to cash my cheques. In fact they have the cheques so I really need to call them." Lina realized. "Crap I bet they lost them too! Oh man! This day sucks..."
"Well at least you're not dead." Sylphiel offered sympathetically.
Lina rolled her eyes. "If I had died I would have haunted that stupid bank and terrorized that dumb teller." Lina grumbled sitting herself back down on the ground next to Zelgadis' sleeping form.
"You know by the time you die Miss Lina you're going to have lots of places you're going to haunt." Amelia said with a small smile.
"Yeah I'll be the busiest poltergeist in Sailune." Lina joked sarcastically.
"Okay, well call us if you need us Miss Lina."
Lina out another big sigh after Sylphiel and Amelia left. Pulling out her cell phone Lina really didn't want to have to make the call to the bank. "Better get this over with..."
...
While Amelia went to the office area to deal with any potential phone calls Sylphiel went to see Filia in her lab.
In the lab Filia was doing her best to examine the bullet while both Xellos and Slimer were staring at the blond woman intently. Had Filia not been so focused on what she was doing she might have been annoyed with being watched.
"Miss Filia?" Sylphiel softly questioned from the doorway.
"GAH!" Filia screamed while recoiling in shock. "What the hell is wrong with you? Are you trying to give me a heart attack?" She snapped at Sylphiel.
"I'm sorry! I didn't figure I would scare you." Sylphiel apologized while coming into the lab. "I mean you've got Slimer and Mister Xellos with you and all."
"I do?" Filia looked around and jumped once more. "What? When did you two get in here?" Filia shouted.
"We've been here the whole time." Xellos commented with an unhappy pout. He quite enjoyed annoying Filia but to be ignored to the point of being completely forgotten was quite insulting.
Slimmer nodded also looking somewhat insulted.
"Oh." Filia laughed nervously.
"Anyway what did you find out about the bullet?" Sylphiel wondered as she sat herself down next to her co-worker.
"Did Lina tell you the whole story?"
"She didn't go into massive detail like she would normally but I think she's a little drained for that. But I'm pretty sure I know the important details. That's a bullet shot from a bank robber's gun that was meant for Miss Lina. But Mister Zelgadis took the shot instead." Sylphiel clarified.
"Yup and I took it out of him." Filia showed Sylphiel the bullet under a magnifying glass.
"I'm not a bullet expert but that's kinda what bullets look like in those forensics television shows after it's been pulled out of someone." Sylphiel observed.
"I came to that same exact conclusion. If Zelgadis was a true ghost and just somehow managed to stop the bullet it shouldn't look all mangled mushroom shaped like this. But then again transparent people shouldn't almost bleed to death." Filia commented sarcastically.
"Is there any blood on the bullet? Like trace amounts that aren't visible to the naked eye?"
Filia shook her head. "Nope, it's completely clean."
"What about other things? Like strange residue?"
"Not any that I can find. But if you want to take a crack at it it's all yours." Filia handed over the equipment to Sylphiel.
"This job just gets stranger and stranger each day." Sylphiel mused.
"That's for sure."
...
Going over files and files of paper work can be very tedious and boring. Especially when you weren't the paperwork type of a person. And Gourry was far from being secretarial. The blond police detective had to fight off a symphony of yawns as he worked on the mountain of paperwork he had been ignoring for quite some time. He would have gotten out of it today if he hadn't accidently spilled hot coffee on the chief. Now there was no chance for escape for Gourry. He was almost literately chained to his desk.
Zangulus on the other hand found this amusing. For years he had been stuck picking up the slack of doing the paperwork. It was supposed to be fifty-fifty but it never was. So being able to watch Gourry suffer through something he had been forced to do for years was a rare delight for the curly haired officer.
"Zangulus must you watch me like that?" Gourry whined. "You'd think you were enjoying watching me suffer."
"Oh I am." Zangulus responded with evil glee as he took a sip of his coffee. "You know the coffee is really good today. Don't you think? Except it looks like I just finished what I had. I think I'll go get another cup. Do you want another one Gourry?"
Gourry frowned and glared at him. "Zangulus! You're so mean!"
Zangulus just laughed as he walked away.
Amongst all the papers scattered on Gourry's desk laid the demonic book open and ready to claim another victim. However there were too many eyes to see and the book needed not to be seen. For books were fragile things after all easily destroyed by water and fire. And destroying the book wouldn't set it free.
So the book laid there waiting for the right moment...