Jamar just took a deep breath and let it out while shaking his head.
This looked like some sort of weird buddy-system, job-shadow matchup.
“Anyone want to tell the new girl what’s going on?” I asked.
Pike continued as if I hadn’t spoken. “Who wants to take Allie?”
“Take Allie what?” I said.
“I’ll do it,” Davy said.
“Do what?” I asked again.
Tomi stiffened and stopped chewing her gum. She glared at Davy.
Davy looked across the room, made eye contact with her. “I’m not doing anything tonight,” he said to Pike, though it was obviously aimed at Tomi. “And the college doesn’t need me for a few days. I’m free.”
Tomi held very still, her face blank. But she was young. She hadn’t figured out how to keep the pain out of her eyes yet.
She did know how to recover quickly though. She tossed her bangs and muttered something that was ninety-five percent obscenity and five percent poetry. She looped her thumbs in her belt and stared Davy down, daring him to challenge her.
Pike broke up the little lovers’ spat by speaking up so Davy would have to look at him. “Drink and eat something first. I don’t want to hear about Allie tripping over you or her worrying about you being out there.”
“Wait,” I said. “Out there? Do you mean when I Hound for Stotts tonight? No. Absolutely not. No way. I work alone. I always Hound alone.” I so didn’t want this kid on my tail. Especially if Trager were after me.
“Settle down, Beckstrom,” Pike growled. “He’s not going to do any Hounding. And you don’t owe him a cut on the job or any favors, unless maybe someday you want to volunteer to shadow him. He’s just going to be in the neighborhood while you’re doing your job. An extra pair of eyes and ears. Someone to call for help if things go wrong, that’s all.”
“That’s all?” Okay, why was I the only one in the room who thought this was a massively bad idea? “People die when they Hound for Stotts, remember? Heads fall off?”
“I’m not Hounding for Stotts,” Davy said. “You are. All I’m going to do is be on the same street or block when you’re working, keeping an ear out in case something comes up.”
“Well, good luck, because I’m not going to tell you where I’m Hounding.”
Davy grinned, and some of the pale sick look seemed to leave him, revealing a mischievous, disarming twinkle in his eye. He was young-maybe as young as seventeen-but he was also very clearly a smart, ambitious man. “You won’t have to tell me. Finding you will be half the fun.”
I opened my mouth.
“And,” he said, cutting me off, “I’ll stay so far out of your way you won’t even know we’re in the same city.”
“That’s it, then,” Pike said. “We’re done.”
Everyone pushed away from walls and chairs and started toward the door. They all filed out, no one touching each other, not even inadvertently. No one talking.
Too damn weird.
Pike was the last to get up, which was good. I had some talking still left in me.
He pulled his coat off of the back of the chair and put it on while he strolled over to me. “Glad you could make it.”
“Pike,” I said. “This is crazy.”
He paused in his effort to zip up his jacket and gave me a hard look. “You have some problem with me trying to make sure people stay alive?”
“No.”
“Then I don’t want to hear it. You don’t like it, don’t show up next week.”
He walked past me, waiting for me to leave the room so he could turn off the light and shut the door.
“Until then, you’re stuck with Davy keeping an eye on you tonight. Don’t underestimate the kid; he’s good.” Pike started down the half-constructed hallway.
“I work alone,” I grumbled behind him.
“Allie.” He sighed and stopped. He turned to me. “We all work alone. Having Davy watch you isn’t about the job. It’s about you. He’ll have a cell phone on him. If something goes sour, he’ll call 911. Easy as that. So stop whining and shut the hell up. You kids drive me batshit.”
I laughed. I don’t know why. I guess it was I’d never thought Mr. Tough Guy would willingly set himself up for babysitting duty.
“I bet you’re a real hit with the grandkids,” I said.
Pike nodded. “I am.” He started walking again. “So talk to me about seeing ghosts.”
“I didn’t say I’d seen a ghost.”
“You can’t fool a nose. Lies stink.” He glanced over his shoulder. “You stink, Beckstrom.”
“Gee,” I said, “if I knew I was going to get such a great pep talk, I would have come to one of these things a long time ago.”
“Fine. Don’t talk.” We had reached the door at the end of the corridor, which the other Hounds had closed behind them. He rested his hand on the latch to pull it open.
“Wait.” I rubbed at my forehead and gave up on trying to decide if I should be honest with Pike. Who else could I trust? At least I knew he wanted what was best for Hounds. And I was a Hound. So maybe he wanted what was best for me. And if not… well, I’d just deal with that.
“I have seen a ghost.”
Pike let go of the door and crossed his arms over his chest. He leaned back on a bare stud, patient as a stone.
“I saw my father’s ghost. He said, ‘Seek the dead,’ and he touched me. He smelled like wintergreen, Pike. Just like when he was alive.” I kept my tone and gaze level, even though thinking about it made me feel like I needed to wash again. I was sure Pike noticed my elevated heartbeat, the acrid smell of my cold sweat.
“I saw more ghosts too, but they were different from my dad. Sort of pale pastel colored, with black holes where their eyes should be. But they were still people. I could count the buttons on their shirts, see the laces on their shoes. They touched me too, and it burned…” I pressed my lips together and then let out a frustrated sound. “Don’t just stand there and stare at me. Do you know anything about ghosts? Do you know anything about them messing with magic?”
He frowned. “What do you mean?”
“They, some of them, the watercolor ones, suck. Magic,” I amended. “Spells. I could see them when I cast Reveal, and they pulled my spell apart and ate it like it was cotton candy.”
The silence that stretched between us would have been comical if I wasn’t worried that there were things out there-ghostly things-that could do that kind of shit.
“What are you using to manage the pain, Allie?” he asked.
Sweet hells. He thought I was hallucinating.
“Aspirin. Tylenol. Bactine.”
He sniffed but could smell no lie on me.
“I’m not joking, Pike. And believe me, I don’t like standing here in front of you and sounding like an idiot. I prefer to be an idiot in the privacy of my own home.”
Pike looked down at his shoe. “I’ve seen… things. Ghosts, I suppose you could call them. Heard voices, all that.” He looked back up at me. “But I’ve been in wars, Allie. And wars either blind a man or open his eyes to things he can never look away from. I figure some of the things I’ve seen have more to do with that than actual spirits. You seeing your father, I can understand. It’s hard to lose a parent.”
“He said, ‘Seek the dead,’ ” I said. “Does that mean anything to you?”
He shook his head. “Not enough to go on. Maybe he was trying to tell you we all end up there-dead- someday. No way to know.”
“I guess not,” I said.
“Now, the other ghosts you’ve seen-the magic eaters? I’ve been around this town for almost as long as magic has been in use, and I’ve never heard of such a thing.”
“I know what I saw,” I said.
