Shallow Grave by Lori Drake

Author:Lori Drake [Drake, Lori]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Clockwork Cactus Press
Published: 2018-01-30T16:00:00+00:00

12

Chris didn’t linger long at the scene of the crime. To say he was frustrated would be an understatement. Not only had he failed Kate, he’d failed to get through to Joey in the aftermath. He hated taking over Ben without permission, but in the heat of the moment, it’d seemed better to ask forgiveness later, since he had no way of gaining consent.

Leaving Joey to clean up the mess, he went looking for his body. It seemed unlikely that Jessica had been able to move it very far. Everything had happened so fast, and she’d been right on Joey’s heels when the door had burst open. He started at the bathroom and went room to room, searching.

Self-doubt dogged his every step. Had he done the right thing, getting involved? Had he given Kate a chance at survival, or taken it away? At least she hadn’t had to look up at Colt’s sneering face as she died. Chris had that dubious honor. But who—or what—had taken over Colt? Was it another astral walker, like Chris? A spirit, like the ones Harper had communicated with? Chris didn’t know the answer, and though he kept a wary eye out for any sign of a spiritual disturbance as he moved from room to room, he came up empty on both fronts. No spirit, no body.

Despair threatened to overwhelm him. He sagged against a wall and rubbed his spectral forehead. In the three months and change since he’d returned to his body, he’d managed to forget how difficult it was to control his emotions on this plane. He hadn’t forgotten everything, of course. The sense of isolation, of disconnection, had followed him back to the living world. Though the nightmares had mostly abated, he still felt… different, somehow. And now, plagued by doubt and frustration, he found it difficult to function at all.

He had to find his body. The thought made him seek out Jessica. She’d been in the process of moving him when the commotion had called her away. Maybe she hadn’t finished.

When he opened his eyes, he found himself in the kitchen.

“There you are,” Jessica said, crossing to where Eric sat at the table. He held a bag of frozen peas against one side of his face. “Did Brandon find you?”

Eric peered at her with his uncovered eye. “I find it hard to believe Brandon wants to punch me.”

“What happened?” She reached for the bag and pulled it away from his face, revealing an impressive shiner.

“Itsuo,” he spat, and jerked his head back when she probed his swollen eye with her fingertips. “We have to deal with him. His attitude sets a bad example.”

“We’ve got a bigger problem.”

Eric pressed the bag to his face again and frowned. “What happened?”

“Kate’s dead.”

Chair legs scraped noisily against the tile as Eric stood abruptly. “What? How?”

“I don’t know. We found Colt with her, both of them beat to hell, but—”

The bag of peas flew through Chris as it arced toward the sink. Eric was already in motion, heading for the door.

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