Body Surfing by Anita Shreve

Author:Anita Shreve [Shreve, Anita]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Contemporary, Fiction, Romance, Adult
ISBN: 9781846177729
Publisher: Little, Brown & Company
Published: 2006-12-31T16:00:00+00:00

24

Lana held her drink up to the two men.

“Death is in my sight today.”

Q. shifted nervously on the silk toile of the doctor’s couch. The huntress was a bit over the top.

When no one joined her in the toast, Lana shrugged, knocked back her drink. As she poured a second, she nudged the shotgun on the table.

“I’m assuming you don’t carry this around on a regular basis.”

J.D. Thomas, still shaking slightly, sipped his tea loudly. “No, I—”

Lana turned to Q. “The demon was coming for you.”

Q.’s hands were trembling as well. Not with nervousness but with a strange uncontrollable energy, as if he needed to whale on a punching bag for twenty minutes, then run a half marathon. He was acutely conscious of the small red stain on his shirt, the heat rising off his chest. Lana glanced at his hands, then edged a second glass of Scotch toward him.

“Be patient. Eventually you’ll learn to control it, but for now you’ll have to wait until the energy dissipates of its own accord.” She flexed her wrist tenderly. “He made you strong. Very, very strong.”

The big clunky watch Lana wore had slipped down her forearm. A jagged scar transversed her wrist, the pale flesh knobbled and delicate-looking, but also resilient. Healed. Scarred, but healed. He didn’t have to ask Lana how she’d gotten this scar. He knew instinctively. Knew she’d gone through what he had, and come out the other side.

Q. nodded resolutely.

“He was in me for more than a week. I think I was a random choice. He was just hanging out. Letting me be myself mostly, but turning it up a little. Lowering inhibitions and all that. And—and yeah. He was making me strong. I felt solid. Hard. Like bullets would bounce off me.”

Lana set her glass down. “I doubt they’ll bounce, but—” Before Q. knew what was happening, the huntress had ripped his shirt open like a drunken bachelorette at Chippendales. His face went as red as the stain on the remnants of his shirt.

“What the—”

He was cut off by the doctor’s gasp. Lana just shrugged.

“Things continue to look up for your candidate, doctor.”

Q. looked down at his chest. The place where Lana had cut him had all but healed. When he flicked off the scum of blood, all he saw was a pink dimple about an inch long. It looked as though someone had cut him a week ago, not five minutes before.

Q. shook his head, half disbelief, half recognition.

“I felt him making me stronger. But that wasn’t his main focus. It seemed more like he was looking around for something. Someone.”

Lana flashed a look at the doctor, but didn’t say anything. Q. took a deep breath. For some reason he didn’t want to tell the huntress this next part. He didn’t trust her as he did the doctor. She had her own agenda, and it seemed a little more ruthless than Dr. Thomas’s. But he knew he had to.

“My friend Jasper has—my friend Jasper had been dating Michaela for a year, still hadn’t gotten past second base.

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