Part 5 (2/2)

”I guess I have some s'planin to do, huh Lucy?”

I glared at him. I don't know how I knew it, but I knew it. Maybe it was Mom's constant spouting off of things she knew, or maybe I'd actually stumbled on it in a book. But I knew.

I knew it for certain.

I pointed at him a la Body s.n.a.t.c.hers. The only thing I didn't do was hiss. You're a magician!

CHAPTER FOUR.

Dags held his hands up. I just stood there in my all-together-astral with my mouth hanging down to my feet. And Rhonda?

She was looking at the bartender as if he were Brad Pitt--with a b.u.g.g.e.r hanging out of his nose.

”You're--” she twisted her already-peculiar expression into something else. ”What are you?”

Dags sighed and lowered his hands. ”Hey, I'm just like you. Flesh and blood, but with a little added suh-um, suh-um in the brain pan that lets me see things.” He waved the index finger of his right hand in the air. ”Weird things. Made for some pretty weird childhood adventures.”

”So you see ghosts,” Rhonda said. ”And you can like--shoot light at them?” She held her arms out and up in a gesture of frustration. ”I can see ghosts and I can't shoot light out of my hand.”

”That wasn't as cool as it looked. I can explain how to do that and how it--” he put his hand to his forehead and stumbled back, his eyes closing.

Look out--he's gonna fall over!

I was beside him before Rhonda could react. I managed to become solid enough to grab him sideways. He didn't completely pa.s.s out, but it was obvious his knees weren't working.

Geez--he might be short but he weighed a ton.

Rhonda grabbed a chair off of a table and scooted it over. I gave a silent groan as he half helped me get him into the chair. He bent over at the waist, putting his head between his knees. The hair from his ponytail splayed out all around his shoulders, giving a blue-black sheen from the light filtering in through the window.

Rhonda went to the bar, grabbed a gla.s.s from the overhead shelf. I heard the tink of ice being dumped in and then the faucet.

Now why didn't I think about doing that? In fact-- I moved back to my own body and slipped in, stretching as I stood up and headed to the bar to pour myself a couple of gla.s.ses of ice water. I was dying of thirst. So, I stood at the bar and watched the two of them as I guzzled.

Mental Note: water...it does a body good.

”Thanks,” Dags said as he took the gla.s.s and drank down half of it.

Oooh..careful, I thought as he drank so fast. Or you're gonna get-- Dags winced and pinched the bridge of his nose. ”Oh...brain freeze.”

I smiled. I liked him. He was a bit weird. And he might be a little kinky. But I liked him.

Rhonda took the gla.s.s back. ”So--does that happen often too?”

”Only when I react like that--on the spur. I'm not prepared for it.” He smiled at her and tucked stray strands of hair behind his ears. He looked a little pale. And I was kinda happy that for once it wasn't me recuperating from something.

Eh--give it time. This is me talking here.

”What do you mean prepared for it?” Rhonda poked at him. Leave it to the goth-chick. She'd make Batman fear her.

I finished off my second gla.s.s of water and stuck it under the tap again. This was good water. And I could probably drink all there was.

”If I'm going to be going into a dangerous situation, I can usually psyche myself up for that kind of thing. But I didn't think,” he paused. ”I really didn't think this time would be dangerous.”

”So those little shadow people don't usually just bust out like that?”

I drank half of the third gla.s.s, only half paying attention to the two of them. It was kinda boring, and I'd rather be at the hospital in Daniel's room. There was this nagging anxiety at the back of my neck--so afraid he'd wake up and I wouldn't be there. Not only did I want to see those gorgeous blues again--I wanted to know what the last thing he saw was.

Me--or the Wraith?

I moved the gla.s.s away from my face at that thought and frowned. Since when did I start really distinguis.h.i.+ng me from what I did? Was that such a good idea? And where the h.e.l.l was the rulebook for this?

My stomach growled--since I really didn't eat much cold breakfast. I set the gla.s.s down and started looking around the bar, opening drawers and cabinets. Didn't bars have like peanuts or something snacky?

”So is it something natural you learned? Part of your seeing ghosts? 'Cause honestly, I can see ghosts--well most ghosts. I don't see shades.”

”Me neither. I can sense there's something there--but I can't see them.”

”It's really annoying, isn't it?” Rhonda said.

”Yeah--but what I just did wasn't because I have some special power, but because I got these--”

I was crouched down behind the bar when he said that, so I popped up and looked over at the two of them. He had his hands up, palms facing Rhonda.

Rhonda backed up with her mouth open. ”You--you had summonings tattooed on your palms?”

He beamed.

I frowned. He had what? I moved from the bar and stood beside Rhonda. Yeah, Dags had some weird concentric circles tattooed on both palms. There were little squiggles on each one, a little different. Kinda like mirror images. But even as I stared at them the images faded to a light red, about the color of my own mark, and then faded away.

Is that normal?

Dags nodded to me. ”Yeah, they do that after I stop using them. But they're always there. I can feel them.”

”Do you realize what you've done--how dangerous that is?” Rhonda didn't seem happy. Should I seem unhappy too? I mimicked her frown just to be sure. ”You could summon accidentally.”

”Yeah, tell me about it,” Dags took the water from Rhonda's hand and finished it. No brain-freeze. ”But I didn't do it.”

I pursed my lips. Well no, you b.o.o.b. You can't tattoo yourself. Well, you could, but I doubt the pain would make it fun.

He looked at me and made a face. ”That's not what I meant. I mean I didn't choose to have these things on my hands. I sort of got involved in a really weird--group.”

A cult?

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