Body and Soul

I stood up and shoved him against the shelving. “Think!”

“We don’t have that many on the line right now,” he said, his voice shaking. “Just Mrs. Baxter, the guy who owns the dry cleaner’s, and the girl.”

Misty.Which was exactly where Alona happened to be at this particular moment. Damn it.If Erin tried to claim “Ally,” that would be bad. I didn’t know what would happen. It would be worse, though—much worse—if Erin figured out what made Ally so different. A powerful ghost who wanted nothing more than to be alive again in the presence of a body she knew was currently occupied by a spirit?

Not good.

I let go of Malachi/Edmund and ran for the back door. “You stay here,” I called to him over my shoulder. “We’re not done yet.”

I just hoped the same could be said for Alona and Lily.

“I figured you wouldn’t be able to stay away,” the blurry spot continued. It took a second for the full implication of her words to sink into my brain. She recognized me. She knew.

My breath caught in my throat.

Up until now, I’d been assuming whoever was pretending to be me to haunt Misty was someone who’d decided to take advantage of “Alona’s” absence to have a little fun at “her” expense, maybe a ghost from the list who’d gotten pissed at something I had (or had not) done for them.

But this…this was not that. This spirit, whoever she was, obviously knew exactly who I was. She’d been waiting for me. Me, as in Alona Dare.

Crap.

“Took you long enough, though,” the ghost said. “Listening to those two jabber on all night was almost enough to make me want to kill myself again.”

Movement at the top of the blurry spot gave the suggestion of someone tossing her hair in disgust. In fact, if I squinted hard enough, I could almost make out a face in the haze before me. God, this would be so much easier if I could seeher.

“Not that I killed myself in the first place,” she added. “Whatever. You know what I mean.” She waved dismissively. Or at least, that’s what it looked like. A smaller piece of the blurry area moved in a half arc.

I shook my head, my brain whirling with possibilities. Will was the only one who knew what had happened with Lily’s body. So who was she? Someone who’d eavesdropped on Will and me and heard too much? Her voice didn’t sound at all familiar, so she couldn’t be someone I’d talked to on a regular basis.

But more important, what did she want? I was afraid I didn’t want to know. You don’t go to this much trouble to set up a power play without a really good reason.

I swallowed hard against the rapidly developing pit of dread in my stomach.

“What is it?” Misty whispered. “You see something, don’t you?”

I’d almost forgotten about her in the room behind me. “Misty, go downstairs,” I said over my shoulder as calmly as I could. “I’ll handle this.” How, exactly, I wasn’t quite sure, and for the first time I wished Will was here. Not that he could have done anything, but he definitely had more experience with being defenseless in the presence of ghosts and might have had some tips. But with or without Will, one thing was certain: I couldn’t have Misty up here listening to me as I tried to talk to this…faker.

“But what if you need me?” she persisted. “What if she wants to talk to me? She was my friend.”

“Oh, how sweet,” the ghost purred, oozing closer.

My pulse spiked, and I backed up, giving the ghost room to exit the bathroom. I didn’t know who she was or what she wanted, which was bad enough. But if it turned out that my presence gave her physicality—you know, like the ability to hurtme—that would be much, much worse. I didn’t know for sure if I had that aspect of the ghost-talking “gift,” but now didn’t strike me as a particularly good time to find out.

“If I need you, I’ll call you,” I said to Misty. “Just go, please.” I dared another glance back to make sure she was listening. Figuring out what was going on and who this was would be tough enough without worrying about blowing my cover.

With an unhappy expression, Misty started for the hall but stopped to linger in the doorway.

I gritted my teeth. “Seriously? I’m trying to do my job here.” Or at least pretend to, anyway. But I was rapidly losing patience with Misty and her softheartedness. True, she had no idea what was really going on, but even so, this ghost had been haunting her, terrifying her for who knew how long, and she wanted to hang around and have a chat?

“I know,” Misty said. “But I just wanted to say…Alona, for what it’s worth, I am sorry.” With pleading in her eyes, she addressed a spot high on the wall above the bathroom door. How tall, exactly, did she think my ghost would be? “I shouldn’t have done that to you, no matter how Chris and I felt about each other. And I would have told you eventually. I was just afraid that you would be so angry.…” She trailed off and looked down at her hands, fidgeting with her thumbnail. “I didn’t want to lose you as my friend. I was selfish. I wanted you both. I never wanted to hurt you, and I’m even sorrier I didn’t get the chance to tell you that before. I hope you can forgive me.”

I stared at her, stu

Misty took a deep breath and nodded, more to herself than to me, and walked out, her steps lighter, as if having said the words had cleansed her in some way or lifted a weight from her.

“Such devotion. It’s adorable,” the ghost drawled. “She’s been so upset lately.”

I whipped around to face her, reinvigorated suddenly. She was not Alona Dare. I was, no matter who I looked like. She shouldn’t even behere, and that apology was not for her. “Shut up,” I snarled.

“So much hostility,” she said with an amused gasp. But she still moved back slightly, proving she wasn’t as tough as she thought she was.

“You’ve gone to a lot of trouble to get my attention. What do you want?” I folded my arms, though I supposed any effort to make Lily look fierce was probably wasted. She was too cute, scar and all.

The ghost laughed. “What, Misty? That’s just business.”

Which meant what, exactly? “What do you want?” I repeated. The more she dragged this out, the worse it was going to be. I could feel it hanging above my head, like the proverbial piano on a fraying rope.

The blur edged closer, and I caught a glimpse of dark red hair and brown eyes before the particles reshifted into a messy, undefined swirl. Was my ghost vision finally improving? That would be nice…or not.

“I’m here to make you an offer that is going to rock your world,” she said.

“Please.” I rolled my eyes, angry at her for playing me and at myself for falling for it. I’d walked right into her trap, and now I was stuck. She knew who I was, and the only thing stopping her from blabbing it all over the undead world was her own greed. She wanted something. The only question was what.

Actually, no, that wasn’t the only question. Would I be able to do what she wanted? That was a good one. I wasn’t Will. I was blind in this world and limited by a far less flexible situation at my current home. I couldn’t go traipsing off to strange places, alone, in the middle of the night.

And here was the big question. What was she pla

My stomach ached at the thought. If word got out about me, I’d be flooded by ghosts, not only with final requests and messages but also with questions about how I’d done what I’d done with Lily—Body Wrangling 101. Like I had any satisfactory answers on that topic other than, “It just happened.”

Regardless of my knowledge—or lack thereof—the results would be the same. Eventually, I wouldn’t be able to hide my “issues” from the Turners. And those rehab center brochures would lead to applications and being shipped off to Arizona or some other godforsaken place…if not worse. Will’s mom had once come very close to having him institutionalized. In a neat little twist of fate, I could end up facing the same situation.