Body and Soul

“Can we skip the buildup and cut to the part where you get to the point?” I snapped, fighting the urge to move farther away from her. I refused to give her the satisfaction.

“I’m going to be your spirit guide,” she said in a rush. “And we are going to rule this in-between place.”

I opened my mouth with an automatic “forget it” hanging on the tip of my tongue…and stopped. What?That was not the blackmail scheme I’d been expecting. It didn’t sound like a blackmail scheme at all, actually. It was…I didn’t know what it was.

I shook my head, confused. “What did you say?” I had to have heard her wrong.

“You’re a ghost-talker. You need a spirit guide. I’m it,” she said, her voice full of pride.

Wait…what?I started to speak but stopped myself before trying again. “You think I’m a ghost-talker?” I asked in disbelief. No way. Did she actually think I was a regular—well, relatively speaking—ghost-talker?

“We’re having this conversation, aren’t we?” she scoffed.

I resisted the urge to laugh in giddy relief. Could I have really gotten it that wrong? She did seem to know me, though. How was that possible?

I hesitated, and then finally asked, “How do you know me?” What did I have to lose? If she knew I was Alona Dare in another body, she’d have said so, probably in a scathing tone. If she didn’t, it would still be a reasonable question for me to ask as a run-of-the-mill ghost-talker.

She rolled her eyes. “Figures that you weren’t paying attention yesterday.”

“Yesterday?” I asked with a frown. She’d seen me yesterday? Where had I been that she would…

Oooh! Malachi’s.It had to be. She was one of the angry ghosts in that faker’s office, that was all. She’d noticed my intense interest in Misty’s problems and bet on the fact that I’d follow up, giving her the chance to propose this spirit-guide idea. Smart.

Now it all made sense. It was laughable, knowing what I knew, but I could see how she’d arrived here, both physically and with her logic.

With that final piece of the puzzle in place, a huge weight of worry rolled off my chest. I let out a slow breath of relief. She honestly had no clue. I was just another ghost-talker to her, not a living dead girl, so to speak.

“Look, I appreciate your offer, but I don’t think that’s a good idea,” I said firmly. It was, in fact, a ridiculous idea. I was a spirit trapped inside a body, the last person in the world qualified to have a spirit guide. If she attempted to claim me as her ghost-talker, I was almost positive it wouldn’t work. But explaining that was kind of out of the question.

“You think I can’t do it? You think I’m not worthy?” Her tone held a challenge, and I caught a glimpse of a stubbornly pointed chin in the swirling haze where her face would likely have been.

I shook my head and put my hands out, palms up in a gesture of peace. “No, that’s not it at all.”

“Because you don’t know me, you don’t know what I’m capable of. I get what I want. Always,” she said in a tone that brooked no argument.

Whoa. That sounded very familiar, like something I would have said not so long ago. If she, whoever she was, had even half my stubbor

A faint warning bell sounded in the back of my head. “I can still help you,” I said quickly. Well, Will could, assuming we could get back on speaking terms. “You just need to need to stay calm and—”

“Do not tell me to stay calm,” she said through clenched teeth. “This is not up to you.”

Oh, not good. Spiraling out of control here.“Uh, okay, look, it’s totally not a reflection on you or anything,” I said in my best attempt at soothing. If she got angry enough, we might yet find out if she could shove me around or not.

The blur straightened up, almost as if she were coming to attention. The first trickle of real fear climbed up my gut, along with the urge to run. I took a slow step back.

“I claim you, ghost-talker,” she declared.

I gaped at her. Seriously? Was there a spirit orientation class—Dealing with Ghost-talkers—that I’d somehow missed? How did she know what to say when I’d just sort of fallen into it? Clearly she’d done her research. This didn’t bode well.

“Wait!” I said quickly. Just because I didn’t thinkit would work didn’t mean I was actually right. I’d been wrong more times recently than I cared to remember. “Don’t—”

“You are mine and mine alone,” she finished in that same overly loud and formal tone.

My eyes snapped shut out of instinct. Holding my breath, I found myself waiting with dread for the supernatural breeze that had marked my co

But the room around us remained silent and still except for the dull roar of the central air-conditioning kicking on outside.

Huh.

I opened my eyes slowly. No supernatural breeze, and I didn’t feelany different. Guess maybe I was right…this time.

I laughed, more out of relief than triumph. Okay, maybe there was a little triumph in it. It felt good to score one in my column for a change instead of everyone else’s.

“What the hell?” the ghost demanded.

I grimaced. So much for relief. I might not be tied to this ghost as a ghost-talker, but she was still here, and she’d still have to be dealt with.

I took a deep breath, steeling my patience. “Like I said, I don’t think it’s a good idea to—”

“Two of you? How can it not work on either one of you? That makes no sense.” The ghost sounded distinctly put out.

“—try to claim me,” I said, and then stopped, her words finally penetrating. “Two of us?” I asked, hearing the deadly chill in my voice. “You tried this on someone else?”

“Of course.” She didn’t even hesitate in answering, too preoccupied and a

I didn’t miss the indictment and jealousy all jammed in that one word.

“Did you try to claim Will?” I asked tightly.

She ignored me. “But no one ever said that the living chick was a talker like he is.” I could hear the frown in her voice as she tried to match pieces of gossip with the facts as she knew them. “Of course, nobody said you’d look like this either. All weird and…glowy in the middle.” Her tone held equal parts distaste and fascination.

Glowy? Did I look different to her, not like other living people? Whatever. I dismissed her words, though I recognized on some level that what she was saying was important somehow. But I wasn’t about to be distracted, not now.

I closed the distance between us, getting in her face, or where I imagined it would be. “Did you try to claim Will?” I bit each word off. A dim part of my mind, probably the part assigned to reason and logic, pointed out that if she had claimed him, she wouldn’t be here. But the majority of me just didn’t care.

She gave an exasperated sigh, which I felt against my cheek. “Yeah, but whatever. Like I said, it didn’t work.”

If I’d thought about it, I would have realized that keeping my mouth shut was the better option, but I was beyond that. A horrible surge of fear and fury overtook me. It didn’t matter that her attempt had failed. It might have worked. And then she, this girl who I didn’t even know, would have been linked to Will, taking my place. God only knew whether she would have protected him or helped him or just left him to flounder. Frankly, she seemed more concerned with herself than with anyone else. He needed someone to look out for him, not take advantage. And what about me? Would he have just left me behind? I was already alone, stuck in this body and not able to help him like I could before. If it had worked, if she had claimed him, would he have even thought twice? I didn’t know what she looked like, but she didn’t soundstepsister ugly.