Page 78 of Ghostly Touches

“Why aren’t you in your room?”

I counter with my own question. “What the hell happened to you?”

Viktor scowls as he moves further into the room, shutting the door behind him.

“Tanglelings.”

It’s the only explanation he gives before stomping past me into the bathroom. He slams the door shut. The water from the shower starts. Trying not to picture the large asshole naked, I lie back down, ready to get a few more minutes of sleep before the others—

The door opens with a bang. This time both Jonah and I sit up with a start.

“There you are,” Kwil says, relief clear in his voice. “You weren’t in your room.”

He steps further into the room and moves out of the way for Theo to join us. He glares at me.

“What are you doing in here? You should have stayed in your room where it’s safe.”

Before I can defend myself, Jonah lies back down with a dramatic huff and throws his arm over his eyes.

“After two hours of yapping to spirits, the book called Willow in here. I snapped her out of it, and then we fell asleep. Don’t worry, we weren’t plotting to escape or anything,” he says. “Now, I want five more minutes before the bitching starts.”

I giggle as I lie back down and scoot closer to him. Jonah rolls to face me and pulls me closer to his body. It should be weird to snuggle up to a guy I hardly know. But his closeness is so calming that any weirdness that would normally be here just isn’t.

“Where’s the book now?” Theo demands.

Footsteps move around the room. I hear the sound of something unzipping and then a grunt. One of them must have found the book.

“You should have gotten some sleep rather than staying up talking to spirits all night,” Kwil says.

The disapproval in his voice is the last straw. I give up trying to get a few more minutes of sleep and sit up.

“You try sleeping when spirits start yelling at you for help.”

Theo straightens from his crouch where he was rummaging through a duffle bag to look at me.

“Were there many spirits here?” he asks me.

“A ton.”

“Is that normal?”

I roll my eyes. “No.”

“Really?” Theo crosses his arms over his chest as he tilts his head to one side. “Spirits are known to haunt places.”

I don’t really want to discuss this with him, but I feel the need to vent for a moment.

“Yeah, the occasional spirit will stay behind rather than cross over, but it’s so rare when they decide to do that. Even if they do want to stay, most of the time a reaper will come for them anyway. If they stay for too long, they turn into Slivers. But lately that’s not been the case. Most of the spirits say they can’t cross over. They can feel the need to go, but there’s nowhere for them to go. I’ve been helping spirits cross over for the past few years now. It’s exhausting and using all that power puts me in a bad situation.”

Theo nods slowly. “Like having Elders of nearby covens come after you.”

I nod.

“Exactly. Usually, I make money helping people contact their loved ones on the other side with very little exertion on my part. Meaning I can stay in one place for a while before finally irritating a coven or a shifter pack. But because I’m working on sending hundreds of spirits over to the Realm of the Dead frequently, I’ve been moving almost every six months. My car that you just handed over was my home for a year before I managed to secure that house.”

It’s exhausting moving all the time. I knew that after my party on the beach, my time was coming to an end in Mooresville, but I hoped I could stay for at least another few weeks while I figured out where I would go next. My VW bus can only go so far without overheating.

“Why areyoudoing the crossing over?” Theodon asks. “And why does it bother supernaturals so much that you use your power?”

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