Spooky Business (The Spectral Files #3) - S.E. Harmon Page 0,108

hand through my hair, pulling hard enough to hurt. “Goes without saying.”

It also went without saying that if I couldn’t figure out how to make him not a ghost, I was going to make Kevin finish me off with his service revolver. Because he couldn’t possibly think he was leaving me behind.

“No, I mean stranger than before, if that’s possible.” He held out his hands, which were getting fainter and wispier.

“Fuck you, McKenna,” I said with a humorless laugh. “Figures that even in death, you’d be settled enough not to have any unfinished business.”

“Well, I know you’re safe and I got to tell you I love you.” He smiled faintly. “That’s pretty much everything that matters.”

Danny’s familiar scent wrapped around me as he got closer, a blend of his usual utilitarian soap and something uniquely him. He leaned in to press his lips against mine. I sighed into his mouth.

It should’ve been strange kissing a ghost, but it wasn’t. If it had been a first kiss, it would’ve been wonderful. Every brush of his lips against mine would’ve been full of promise and belonging and love. As a last kiss, it was fucking awful—a representation of everything I was going to be missing for the rest of my fucking life.

I pulled away, staring at him with hot, dry eyes. Yeah, I don’t think so. You’re not going any-fucking-where.

Without warning, I shoved my arm through his chest. He gasped and reared back, but I wouldn’t let him get far. I wriggled my hand around, my eyes half closed in concentration as I searched for that elusive trail of light.

“Give me some room,” I said urgently to Kevin as I knelt beside Danny’s prone body.

He didn’t ask questions, crab walking back a few paces, his color high from his exertions. I opened Danny’s mouth with one hand and started feeding him the golden cord of light with the other. As the last of it went inside him, he gasped, his entire body shuddering violently. Then he lay still.

“Did it… did it work?” Kevin asked hoarsely.

“I don’t know.” I could hear voices approaching and glanced up to see Tabitha urgently leading two EMTs up the deck, a stretcher between them. I stroked his hair back from his forehead. “I just don’t know.”

Chapter 28

There were fifty-five tiles on the ceiling of Danny’s hospital room.

I’d counted them at least a hundred times over nine days, sitting by his bed. The room had been a revolving door of visitors, and I knew he’d be horrified to know they’d seen him in this fragile state. Everyone from his doctor to the food service staff had encouraged me to stay positive.

“His vitals look good,” his doctor said.

“Stay hopeful,” the chaplain insisted when he came by on his rounds.

“His aura is beautiful,” my mother said, dabbing her eyes circumspectly. “He’s going to be fine, Rainstorm, I just know it.”

“It’ll turn out all right,” the janitor assured me as he mopped the floor to a glossy shine. “You’ll see. My sister had a similar situation.”

I doubt it, I thought sourly. I sincerely doubt your sister floated out of her body like a goddamned poltergeist and you had to merge them back together.

I tried to be gracious, but staying positive really wasn’t my jam. Danny’s nurse, a cheerful guy named Stevie, was the worst of them all. His general outlook on life seemed to be seeing the glass half full. Mine was seeing the glass as, “Hey, who drank half my shit?”

Danny’s mother was also a burr in my ass. She’d been unusually kind and gentle with me, which set my nerves on edge yet again. She was all, “Call me Paula, dear. Ms. McKenna makes me think you’re talking to my mother.”

So kind of you to finally accept me in your son’s life. Just in time for his death. But again, I tried to be gracious. And again… not really my jam.

She kept making me go home to do useless things like eat and shower and sleep and… whatever the hell she wanted me to do when she forcibly shooed me out the door each day. I ate… something and slept on the couch for a few hours. Then, I’d shower and put on different clothes. They were starting to hang a little loosely, which made me think I should probably put a bit more effort into eating. I usually snuck back to the hospital after a couple of hours and loitered in the halls until she felt sorry for