Hold Me Closer, Necromancer - Lish McBride [104]
Of course. The dead were scattered like toys that I needed to put away. Biting, undead toys. I shivered against the chill of her palms and nodded. I didn’t even have to try to find them. The spirits were all there at my fingertips. Go to sleep, I told them. It’s done. It’s all over.
One by one, I felt them return to the earth. The power poured away with them as they went, but it didn’t leave entirely. I could feel it curled up in my chest like a sleeping cat. The table shuddered as the floor shifted back into its original shape. I didn’t see it. I stared into Brid’s eyes until she told me I was done.
I don’t remember anything after that.
30
Back in Black
For the first time in a week, I woke up somewhere pleasant. Okay, a hospital bed isn’t usually described as pleasant, but no one was whupping my ass or throwing me into a cage, so on the whole, everything seemed fantastic to me. The room was light and airy, and the blankets were soft. The comfortable bed made me feel better about the fact that my entire body ached. But, to be honest, I was kind of surprised to be alive, so complaining about the pain wasn’t too high on my list.
The room was empty—empty except for someone I’d never seen before. He sprawled in an easy chair next to the bed, idly flipping through the comics section of a newspaper. He wore jeans and a T-shirt that read control the population: support cannibalism! in big block letters. Between his reddish hair and easy manner, I figured him to be a relation of Brid’s.
“You made me miss Sunday,” he said, not looking up from the paper.
“Excuse me?” I coughed. He handed me a plastic mug of water with a bendy straw, still not looking up.
“Sunday’s comics,” he said. “So now I have to catch up.” He tossed the paper onto the floor. “I miss Calvin and Hobbes.”
“Don’t we all.”
We stared at each other for what felt like five extremely long seconds. The window was open, and a soft spring breeze drifted in. “So you’re the guy who did the no-no cha-cha with my baby sister.”
My stomach twisted. Was he pretending to be nice to cover the fact that he wanted to eat my face? If I ever ran into a guy who’d even touched Haley, I knew I’d want to smack him around. I closed my eyes, ready to accept whatever action this guy felt he had to dish out. “I’m in hell, aren’t I? You’re the devil, and I died in Douglas’s basement.”
He cocked his head. “You always this high-strung?”
“No. I mean, I don’t think so,” I grunted as I tried to sit up, which turned out to be much harder than I thought. The guy hopped out of his chair to help me. With a little finagling, we managed a position that didn’t make me want to vomit from the pain. He even slipped another pillow behind my back so I could rest comfortably. “Sorry,” I mumbled. “Bad week.”
“So we’ve been told.” He eased back down in the chair.
“Is that how you knew? You know, that Brid, um…” I’d never had to talk to someone about sleeping with his sister. The experience was just as awkward as I would have imagined. The guy jumped in, saving me from my embarrassment.
“Calm down, captain. Brid and I are close, but we don’t talk about everything.” He scratched his chin. “At least, I don’t think we do. Either way, she didn’t say anything to me. But let me tell ya,” he said, tapping his nose, “this thing isn’t just for ornament.”
“I don’t even want to think about what you’re implying. Can we change the subject, please?”
He crossed his feet and rested them on the edge of my bed. “Humans, always so uptight. Fine. You hungry?”
My stomach practically sat up and begged. “I know that look,” he said with a laugh. “What do you want?”
“Anything?”
He nodded. “You’ve reached semihero status right now,” he said, standing up and stretching. “I’d take advantage of it.”
I’d hit that level of hungry where anything sounded good. I’d chew on a block of wood if they brought it to me right now. But as I thought, a promise