“You planned this!” He started toward me with the fury of a charging bull, but stopped when I waved the knife. “Now I’ll have to find another body or I’m done.”
“Yes,” I said, sickened by my own violence.
“After all these years … so many lives.” Holding his palms together, he shook his head. “I can’t believe you did this.”
“I had to.”
“No, you didn’t. You could have trusted me and we could have been happy forever.”
“Your definition of happy. Not mine.”
“I have to give you credit. No one else has ever stood up to me. And I can’t take your body because you’re a Temp Lifer.”
“Eight minutes,” I murmured, keeping my distance.
“But I could touch you and drain your energy, leave you close to dead.”
“That would waste valuable time — and you wouldn’t have much energy left to take another body.”
“True. And I don’t want to hurt you — despite everything.”
“Approaching seven minutes.”
“That is plenty of time to take a new body.”
“You think so?”
“I know so.” He stared hard at me. “There are homes close by — I’ll find someone. And then I’ll come back for you.”
I moved aside — far out of his way — as he bolted for the gate. I knew what would happen next and I steeled my heart against pity. I also reached down for the rainbow cloth bracelet on my wrist and quickly did the “good luck” ritual of turning it right and left, then kissing the cloth and whispering the lucky chant. I needed all the luck I could get.
“It’s locked!” Gabe exploded.
He rushed around the fence, rattling iron bars and swearing with crazed fury.
I glanced down at my watch.
Five minutes.
With a shout of rage, Gabe stormed back toward me, reaching with his bloody hands but sharply pulling back as I waved the knife. “Amber, give it to me now!”
“What?” I asked innocently.
“The key!”
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“You do too! Give me the key
I steeled my emotions, shutting off sympathy. “What key?”
“The key to the damned gate!”
“The gate was open when I got here,” I lied.
“I don’t believe you! The gate was open and now it’s locked. It didn’t just lock itself. You did it!”
“Why would I trap myself in here with you?”
“Give me the key!” he bellowed.
“I can’t give what I don’t have.”
He cradled his hands, shaking uncontrollably. I could see flickers of silvery mist blending with the blood, as if his soul was slowly seeping out.
“I’m starting to glow … I have to go now! They’ll find me.”
I knew he meant the Dark Disposal Team. That had been part of my plan, so I didn’t say anything, only gave another grim nod. This was the only way to save Eli and myself. With Gabe captured, unable to use his psychic sense and flee before the DDT arrived, for once and for all he’d be stopped.
He knew it, too, and regarded me with a look that was terrifying and tender at the same time, as if he both respected and hated me. He was desperate now, and angry, a caged beast with no way out.
Only two minutes left. I still gripped the knife, although there was little reason to, since he was rapidly losing strength. Gabe sagged down to his knees, moaning and clasping his bleeding hands, almost as if praying.
There was a flash, and a group of figures in formal business suits, wielding silver lassos, materialized. I’d never seen so many DD Team members before, as if they’d called in everyone on the other side to bring down their most-wanted fugitive.
I could hardly bear to watch as the silver whips snapped toward the spectral glow that was seeping from Eli’s body. As his glow spiraled upward, like a flame rising from a fire, the DD Team’s whips lashed out and curled around it. Energy crackled, and light exploded like bursting stars. Then the shape of the glow shifted, spreading and growing, until I could see a handsome young man with a dark ponytail, seaman’s clothes, and ocean-green eyes.
“Amber,” I heard him whisper one last time. “I won’t forget … you.”
The whips curled tighter, spinning Gabe’s ghostly essence. His glow faded, like a dimmer switch slowly turning off. And as Gabe disappeared in the throws of silver ropes and business suits, I felt something strange and familiar happening to me. My world tilted and shifted into sensations I recognized.
Grammy had managed to pull harp strings and speed up the process like I’d asked. But I wasn’t ready to go yet! Eli’s body was still here, bleeding in a cemetery without anyone to help him. Gabe would be gone and Eli would be alone. Alyce would take my place, but she wouldn’t know what to do. But there was no time. I was swept by a whirlwind and pulled into a roar of swirling colors and movement.
Flying forward, spinning … then impact.
When I opened my eyes, I was swimming in darkness, blinking. My vision gradually adjusted and I could make out furniture and familiar objects like stuffed animals on a shelf, a bulletin board tacked on a wall, and a furry white cat curled on a bed pillow.
My bedroom, my cat, my body.
Thank heaven — and Grammy.
I was home.
* * *
I had no memory of falling asleep but I must have, because I was awoken by a rough tongue licking my face. Instinctively I reached out to push Snowy away until memory crashed back and I wrapped my arms around my cat.
“Snowy!” I cried, loving how her soft fur tickled my skin. “You’re the most beautiful, wonderful, best cat in the world. It’s so good to hold you again.”
She replied by wriggling out of my arms and scampering out of my room.
“Still the same old attitude,” I said, smiling.
Then I leaned back against my pillows and waited for my thoughts and feelings to catch up with each other. Being back in my own body felt like being reborn, although it wasn’t anything new. I had this crazy urge to sing or dance, like there was something to celebrate. Yet I was sick inside with dread, too, remembering the terrible things had brought me to this moment.
Still, for a moment, I reveled in being back home and danced across my sunlit room to the mirror. “I’m me, I’m me, I’m me!” I sang, as if inventing a brilliant new song.
Gazing in the mirror was like magic. There I was: too-curly brown hair, freckles sprinkling my pale skin, and dark eyes just like my father’s. I was wearing a nightgown that was too long and old fashioned to have been my own choice. And when I looked around my room, which was completely reorganized so that everything was color coordinated and neat, I recognized Grammy’s work.
While I knew Grammy had gone back to the other side and I guessed that Alyce was herself again, I didn’t know what had happened to Eli.
Ohmygod! What if he was still in the cemetery?
Quickly, I looked around for a phone and found one on the dresser.
