B00AO57VOY EBOK (5 page)

“Do I
look
like the
kind of dead guy who hangs out with demonic pieces of crap?” he snorted,
looking genuinely offended.  “Give me
some
credit, Ember!”

He was right, that had been
out of line.  When he was in front of me, though, with his smartass attitude
and smug smirk, I forgot how much I owed him.  If it hadn’t been for Snake,
Jack would have killed Nathan and I wouldn’t have been able to do anything but
watch.  It had been Snake who’d told me how to break Nathan’s vampy mental bind
so I could save him.  I owed him more than just his imaginary stairway to
heaven for that.

“Okay, so you’re not in
league with the demon,” I conceded, sighing again.  “But I can’t stop him if I
don’t know where he is, genius.”

“God, you’re thick!” he
muttered, rolling his eyes and shaking his multicolored mullet.  “Ember, what
am I?”

“Annoying?” I suggested,
biting back a smile when he scowled at me.  “Inconsiderate?  A pervert?  Yeah,
don’t think I don’t know you like to play Peeping Tom in the shower, Snake. 
That jacket of yours jingles like sleigh bells every time you move.”

I thought maybe I’d hit my
mark with that one.  Snake looked like he was ready to flicker out from pure
embarrassment.  I smirked at his mortified expression and he flipped me off. 

“I’m
dead
, dumbass,”
he said with an exasperated huff, pointing at the counter next to me.  “And if
you can see me, why can’t you see
her
?”

Frowning, I turned to find a
copy of the
Moonlight Herald
on the counter next to me.  I picked it up
with a shaking hand and stared at the picture of Jack’s latest victim. 
Annoying as he was, Snake had a point.  The cops hadn’t been able to find
Jack.  Grams hadn’t been able to find him with her demon searches and Mrs.
Amelia hadn’t picked up anything from the wards around town.  That meant the
only three people who knew where he was…

“Light dawns on marble head,”
Snake muttered to the ceiling like he was praying for patience when my mouth
fell open. 

“Snake, you really
are
a
genius!” I told him excitedly.  “There’s just one small, tiny, itsy bitsy
problem…”

“Yes?”

“I haven’t seen this girl,”
I told him, turning the paper around so Jack’s victim’s picture was facing
him.  “Her or any of the others.”

“So?  You’re a sorceress or
something right?” he asked, giving me a look that said he thought I was being
dumb on purpose. 

“A bandraoi,” I corrected
him, rolling my eyes.

“Whatever.  Bandraoi,
sorceress, the hag with the flying monkeys, it’s all the same thing,” he said
huffing impatiently.  “You’re a
witch
.  A witch who sees dead people. 
So go find her.”

With that, he was gone.  For
a long time, I just sat there staring at the counter where he’d been perched
and thought about what he’d said.  I didn’t usually have to
find
my
ghosts.  They just showed up and never left.  How the hell did one go about
finding
a dead girl?  I was so busy trying to figure it out that I never
heard Nathan come back into the room.  When he touched my shoulder, I nearly
jumped through the ceiling.

“Easy, baby,” he said,
frowning in concern.  “It’s just me, Em.  You okay?”

“Peachy,” I told him
distractedly, turning back to the picture of the girl in the paper I was still
clutching in my hands.

“Shea said she’ll be on the
next flight out.”  When I looked back up at him, he gave me a weak smile before
saying, “And I think you can expect that ‘I told you so’ whether you’re in the
mood to hear it or not.”

“Did she say when the next
flight was?” I asked, thinking fast.

“She’s hoping to get a
flight out this evening, but it’s not guaranteed.  It’s been snowing there all
day.”  He gave me a look like he thought I was crazy when I smiled up at him. 
“Em, I know that look.  What are you up to?”

“I have a plan,” I told him,
jumping off my stool.  “And since the Great and Powerful Shea O’Hare won’t be
here for a couple of hours, that gives me plenty of time to put it into action.”

“Plan?  What plan?”

“We’re going to the funeral
home.”  He narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest, his usual
‘Time to Deal With the Crazy Chick’ stance. 

 “And why, pray tell, would
you want to do that?” he asked in a deceptively calm voice.

I smiled.  “Because that’s
where they take dead people,” I told him, shrugging.  “Can you think of a
better place to find a ghost?”

“Well…no,” Nathan said
hesitantly, giving me another concerned look when I beamed at him.

“Great!” I chirped, already
headed for the door.  “You just volunteered to help me.”

“Help you do
what
?”
he demanded, already looking resigned.

Stopping in the doorway, I
looked over my shoulder and gave him another brilliant smile.  “Break in, of
course.”

Okay, so breaking into the
local funeral home might have been my brilliant idea, but when Nathan parked across
the street just after eleven that night, I started to rethink the whole thing. 
I tended to avoid funeral homes during the
day
—for obvious reasons—but a
funeral home in the middle of the night was a horror movie waiting to happen.  I
had a sudden vision of being chased through narrow halls by some psycho and
felt a chill slide down my spine that didn’t stop until it hit my toes.

“Em, are you sure this is
the best way?” Nathan asked uneasily, staring at the funeral home.  “This isn’t
how you usually meet your invisible playmates, is it?”

“Hardly,” I muttered.  “If
you can think of a better way, I’m open to suggestions.  Trust me, nobody wants
to go in there less than I do.”

“That’s debatable,” Nathan
grumbled under his breath. 

He turned to look at me and
I saw that he looked a lot paler than usual.  Like,
a lot
.  I felt my
lips starting to twitch and did my best to look solemn.  I failed.  When Nathan
scowled at me, I started giggling and couldn’t stop.  Seriously, it was just
too much.  My big, strong,
fanged
boyfriend was scared of going into a
funeral home.  What did he think was going to happen?  Did he think he was
going to end up in one of the coffins?

“I’ve had that experience,”
Nathan mumbled, picking that thought out of my head with no problems at all. 
Seriously, the whole mind reading thing could be annoying sometimes.   

“Wh-what?” I choked out,
trying to stop laughing.

“Being locked in a coffin,”
he said with an uncomfortable shrug.  I swear, if vampires could blush he would
have been as red as my hair.  The mental picture of a blushing Nathan sent me
into new peals of laughter.  With an exasperated look, he mumbled,   “Some of
my buddies have really warped senses of humor.  Let’s just say it wasn’t an experience
I care to repeat.”

“I bet,” I said, finally
managing to get control of myself.  “Okay, I will try to fight any urges to lock
you in a coffin.  Pinkie swear.  Feel better?”

“And what am I promising in
return?” he asked, his full lips turning up at the corners in a way guaranteed
to send my heartbeat sprinting like it was in the hundred yard dash and
determined to win.  Seriously, those lips—along with the rest of him, for that
matter—should have come with a warning label.

“Oh, I’ll think of something
later,” I told him, wishing he’d stop smiling at me like that.  It wasn’t doing
anything good for my concentration.

“You know, I can think of
much more
pleasant
things to do instead of breaking and entering,” he
murmured, hooking a hand behind my neck and drawing me toward him.  “Allow me
to demonstrate just one of the many options I could offer you.”

For a second, I got lost in
the warm glow of his beautiful hazel eyes.  All I could think about was him,
the way his scent surrounded me and the way he would taste.  And, oh God, did
he taste good!  The second his lips met mine, a rush of heat swept through me
that practically melted me to the leather seat.  Only Nathan could do that to
me, reduce me to nothing more than putty in his very capable hands. 

But as much as I wanted to
stay there and let him show me
exactly
how capable those hands were, I
couldn’t.  With each minute I waited, Jack could be on his way to killing
another Ember look-alike.  With a sigh of true frustration, I gently pushed
Nathan away.

“You’re going to hold that
thought, right?” I asked breathlessly when he just looked down at me, the heat
and passion in those beautiful eyes making me seriously reconsider my plan for
about half a second.

“Oh, most definitely,” he murmured,
brushing his lips across mine again.  That barely-there kiss did more to turn
me to mush than the full-on, bone-melting kiss that had come before.  Seeing my
mesmerized expression, Nathan grinned.  “Let’s go get this done before I decide
to keep that promise sooner than you wanted.  I have to tell you, that outfit
you’re wearing is not helping me be a gentleman.”

Blushing, I looked down at
myself as Nathan got out of the car.  I’d never been a big fan of black, seeing
as I’m about as pale as one of my ghosts, but even I had to admit my breaking-and-entering
ensemble didn’t look half bad.  I’d chosen the black hooded shirt because it
was the only one I had that would hide my very vivid hair, but it hugged every
curve and made me look a lot thinner than I was.  The black yoga pants had been
chosen more for function than fashion, but they did some really great things
for my legs—and my rather voluptuous derriere. 

“Okay, here’s the plan,”
Nathan said when I joined him next to the car.  “We’re going to get in and get
out.  The security system here isn’t all that great, but we won’t have much
time before the boys in blue get here to check things out.”

“How do you know what kind
of security system this place has?” I asked, narrowing my eyes at him.

“I did my homework.”  When
my eyes narrowed even more, he shrugged and grinned.  “Do you want to do this
or not?  I’d say you have five minutes, tops.  Will that be enough time?”

“Hell, I don’t know,” I
admitted, glancing at the funeral home warily.  There wasn’t anything overtly
scary about the single-story red brick building with its white columns and dark
shutters, but I couldn’t deny that it gave me the heebie-jeebies.  As visions
of zombies and psycho morticians danced through my head again, I shivered. 
“I’ve never actually had to
look
for a ghost before.  They usually just
find me.”

Nathan looked from me to the
funeral home and back again, his eyebrows drawing together in a frown.  I could
almost see the gears in his mind turning as he tried to figure out a way to
turn what I’d just said into another argument against what we were about to
do.  Deciding not to give him the opportunity, I jerked my hood up and started
tucking my hair beneath it.

“All right,” Nathan sighed,
not looking particularly pleased.  “Don’t forget, Em.  Five minutes and we’re
out of here.  Agreed?”

“I’ll do my best.”  When he
frowned at me again, I smiled.  “Fine, five minutes.  Can we go now?”

“You’re mighty eager to run
in there,” he said with a slight smile, reaching out to catch a curl I’d missed
and tuck it behind my ear.  The way his fingers lingered against the side of my
neck did absolutely zilch for my concentration. 

“No, I’m just eager for this
to be done and over with,” I told him, standing on my tiptoes to give him a
quick kiss.  “But, just so you know, if zombies start chasing us, I’m tripping
you.”

Winking at him, I turned and
started across the street.  I hadn’t made it three steps when Nathan’s hand
wrapped around my arm.  I looked up to find him shaking his head and smiling at
me.

“Most criminals don’t go
through the front door, baby,” he said with a chuckle.  “Might I suggest we use
the back entrance?  And maybe try to stay away from the streetlights?  You
know, just so we don’t get caught before we even get inside?”

“Oh, yeah, good idea,” I
muttered, my cheeks heating up. 

After that, I let him take
the lead.  I mean, what did I know about breaking and entering?  Before I’d met
my undead Prince Charming, I’d been a good, law abiding citizen—well, mostly. 
Since meeting Nathan, however, I’d committed grand theft auto, vehicular
assault, attempted homicide—of a demon, but still—and now breaking and
entering.  Call me crazy, but I was starting to think he was a bad influence.

“Okay, so far so good,”
Nathan said nervously when we reached the back door without bringing a SWAT
team down on our heads.  “It’s crunch time now.  Once I break the lock, we need
to find your dead girl, summon her up or whatever it is you intend to do, and
get the hell out of here.  And we need to do all of this before Moonlight’s
finest show up.  Got it?”