Ascension (Southern Spirits) by Bradford Bailey

Author:Bradford, Bailey [Bradford, Bailey]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Total-E-Bound Publishing
Published: 2013-04-20T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

It was never a good thing to wake because you felt like you were being watched. Ro didn’t handle it well at all, screeching when his eyes popped open and he found a blurry face too close to his own.

“Ack!” someone yelped.

Ro flailed his arms, smacking into something, and he blinked in time to see Stefan fly backwards as if hit by an invisible hoof to the gut. Conner appeared then, looking perplexed before he burst into raucous laughter. Ro didn’t think anything was funny when he first woke up. He’d never been a morning person, and that didn’t seem likely to change now.

Conner was still chortling, him and Stefan both now. Ro stood up then quickly let out a mortified sound when he realised he was bare-assed naked.

“Just think on your clothes, man,” Stefan advised around giggles. He got himself together while Ro closed his eyes and pictured himself wearing his most comfortable outfit. Stefan must have taken his acquiescence as a need to hear more, because he started talking as Ro willed himself to be clothed.

“You expected to be naked so you are. Just like you expected to have to sleep, so you did. Man, once I realised I never had to sleep again, I was bummed and happy both. Bummed because sleep is so good sometimes, but happy because there’s so much I could be doing instead of snoozing!”

“Enthusiastic, ain’t he?” Conner asked, his lips brushing against Ro’s ear.

Ro opened his eyes and was relieved to find Stefan had been right and his dangly bits were no longer dangling quite so freely. “He’s helpful.” Ro smoothed a wrinkle out of his shirt then asked Conner, “Where were you?”

Conner looked away and sighed. “Went to check on everyone. That weird-ass wall is still around your dad. I tried talking to Sev but he shooed me off because he was talking with the funeral parlour guy.”

“Well, that’s not depressing,” Ro muttered, reminded again that he’d only just died and had left people behind to hurt. “I feel so scattered, like I should be more shook up, more freaked out, I don’t know.”

Conner turned back to him then and pulled him in for a hug. “It took me a lot longer than it’s taken you to get to where you are. Honestly, right after I died, I don’t even think I was whole, if that makes any sense.”

“I was scared and confused,” Stefan said before Ro could ask what Conner meant. “I was still pretty stupid back then.”

“Stefan!” Conner snapped. “Don’t talk about yourself like that, not even in the past tense. You were never stupid.”

Stefan rolled his eyes so hard Ro was surprised they didn’t hear the tendons straining. “Riiiiiiiiight. I was”—Stefan hooked two fingers from each hand in the air—“intellectually challenged. Whatever.”

“You can be sit-challenged,” Conner warned.

“What the hell does that mean?” Ro asked.

Stefan sniffed and turned his nose up at them. “It means Conner will try to paddle my behind. He’d have to catch me first, though, and he’s old!”

“Brat.

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