Page 77 of Death Wish

Or this was where the vamps brought their victims for a late-night snack.

Either way, ew.

I popped through the next two rooms, which were exactly the same as the last. It wasn’t until I reached the very last room that I reached my destination. Kay was sitting on the couch, face in her hands. She hadn’t seen me come in, so I approached quietly.

“Kay?” I whispered so as not to spook her.

Her head shot up, her eyes sparkling with hope at my voice. “Oh, thank God it’s you!” She jumped to her feet, rushed over to me, and flung her arms around me, squeezing me tight.

When Kay pulled away, her brows were pinched in confusion. She stared at me like that for a long moment, saying nothing. It took me a moment to realize why.

She had hugged me. She had been able to touch me.

I’d gone solid again.

Reaching out, she poked me in the shoulder to double-check, getting me right in the boney area so it hurt.

“Hey now. Watch it.”

“That hurt?” she asked, but then her voice rose. “That hurt! And I can touch you!” She wrapped her hand around my wrist and shook it hard for good measure.

I jerked away and readjusted my leather gloves just in case.

“Careful. I still have a deadly touch,” I said. “Don’t want to make that mistake.”

Her eyes widened, as if she were still processing the hug. “How… What happened to you?” She waved her hand over my body, not touching this time. “Are you alive?”

“No,” I said, but then quickly added, “I don’t know actually. I do bleed, though, when I’m like this, but I keep switching back and forth randomly. I have no control over it.”

“I can’t believe this! It’s what you’ve always wanted, Jade.” Her grin radiated, and for the first time since this entire shit-show, happiness flickered inside me. Kay just had that effect on people. Even me.

Yes, she had completely ignored the other things I’d said—the more negative parts about the flashing from spirit to alive and it being uncontrollable—but her joy for me was genuine and comforting.

“Have your memories come back, too?” she asked.

I shook my head.

Her smile faltered a bit, but she kept it on. “Maybe that comes next. Then you’ll finally know who you are. Wouldn’t that be amazing?”

It’d be everything I’d ever dreamed of. To know everything about my life that had been stripped from me after death, who and what I was, and to live my life again, exactly how I wanted to? Forget amazing; it would be a miracle.

Kay grasped my arm, gave it three hard squeezes, and laughed. “It seems like we’ve both had a little too much excitement in the last couple of days.”

When I glanced down at her stomach, I remembered why I had come here in the first place, and guilt smacked into me like a tidal wave. I forced myself to meet her eyes again, my throat suddenly drier than the Middle Eastern desert in the summer months.

“Yeah, it’s been interesting,” I managed to get out.

“What have you found out? Do you know a way to fix me?”

I quickly told her about everything Cole and I had been through while she was here at Red, the demon Halfling attacks, finding the box and cure at Wyatt’s, the run-in at Marla’s shop, and the ingredients we still needed. I skipped the whole bit about sex with Cole and made sure to leave out my unexpected meeting with Monnie the demon.

“But as for what is going on with me, I have no idea. It’s been happening randomly since the attack at Wyatt’s, and there’s no one I can talk to about it until we get this demon thing sorted out.”

“No other”—she struggled to find the word—“r-reaper buddies you can ask?”

I shook my head. “The afterlife is just as messed up as this one. My boss is nowhere to be found, and my mentor is trying to sort everything out. Looks like I’m on my own here.”

“Well, maybe this is a good thing. Maybe this is your second chance to get your life back.”

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