Esprit de Corpse

“Yes, I see that could happen. Maybe there’s a way we can work with that.”

“Right. I’m on my way to talk to Conrad now. Where’s Shannon?” I suddenly noticed her missing. While I was jealous of the attention Dante paid to her, I didn’t want anything bad to happen to her, either. “She’s still here, right? On the Coil?”

“Yes, I left her to watch her father. Since she has no way of reaching me, we had best get back there.”

“Before we go, I want to say I’m sorry I’ve been acting badly. I—You—Well, you know I have this jealous streak, right?”

“As wide as the Styx and twice as green.” Dante gifted me with his best I-love-you smile. “It’s flattering but cara, it’s also insulting.”

I hung my head, Theresa’s straight dark braid brushed against my burning cheeks. “I know.” Now my voice cracked as well as rasped.

“I have missed you. When you act jealous, we cannot be together.”

My heart skipped a beat. Which was a bit unnerving now that I had an actual heart again. Did Theresa suffer from arrhythmia? “Ah, Dante.” This time I whispered, thereby avoiding all vocal frailties. “C’mere.” I held out my arms and stepped up to kiss him.

Smack!

I smacked all right, but not on his lips. Instead, I face-planted right through him and landed on the floor with a splat.

“You’re not corporeal?” I asked, pushing myself into a seated position, rubbing my knee. I’d landed hard on the right one. Great, now I added knees, palms and chin to the parts of Theresa’s body that hurt. Good thing she wasn’t going to want it back because no matter how saintly she was, she’d be pissed at having it returned damaged.

“We have been away from Hell for some time, Kirsty. As you learned during your Reaper training, our afterlifeforce diminishes the longer we are away. At this point, I can manifest only as a visible and audible spirit. As time moves on, that too will fade.”

We had studied it in school, but I couldn’t recall that section in detail. I wished I had Amber’s photographic memory. We weren’t even two weeks out of Reaper training and already my book-learning was fading just like Dante. And Shannon.

I stuck out my hand for a lift up, realized what I’d done and climbed to my feet under my own steam. “Let’s go talk to Conrad. Now we have something to negotiate with.” I gestured toward the body I now wore as I limped down the hall.

“After you, Beatrice.”

“Beatrice? Is she back?” I asked, glancing around.

Apparently, a fading Reaper can still blush. “Kirsty, I meant, Kirsty, of course.”

I stopped walking and turned to him, holding up a hand when he opened his mouth to speak. “Don’t. Even.” I said.

Not having the sense to shut the skeg up, he said, “Look, Beatrice. It’s been a rough couple of days.” A look of horror bloomed on his face when he realized he’d screwed up again. He glared at me like I was the problem, activated his scythe, and popped away. I might have been slightly more at fault on the jealousy thing, but this time, he was in big trouble.

I’d liked Beatrice, but I couldn’t begin to compete with her.

I made my way to cell block B in L wing, arriving to find the lights dimmed for the night. A few more steps brought me to the cell where Conrad sat on the edge of the lower bunk, staring at the floor.

Dante stepped out of the shadows, an unrepentant look on his face.

I chose to be the consummate professional, putting our troubles on hold until later—assuming there was a later. Instead, I looked around. “Where is she? She’s gone. Oh, my God, she’s gone!”

“They moved her across the hall,” Conrad responded, no doubt thinking Theresa was speaking to him. His voice, like Theresa’s, was hoarse from Maddy’s attempted strangulation.

I turned toward the cell opposite Conrad’s. Someone had cleaned it since we got here. I spotted Maddy’s spangled top tossed on the floor. Her grating snore rolled off the bottom bunk in waves. Apparently she only wanted the top bunk when there was a chance Conrad might have wanted it.

Conrad had been sitting up on his bunk, probably feeling safe for the first time in days with two sets of bars between him and his former cellmate. He rose now and crossed his cell to face me. “They locked that crazy bitch away from me,” he croaked. While I now had the sexy voice of a late-night DJ, Conrad sounded like he had a bad case of bronchitis.

But Dante knew I hadn’t been talking to Conrad and I hadn’t been asking after Maddy. I’d meant Shannon, of course. “Where is she?”

“Do not worry, Kirsty. Your friend is standing beside me. You cannot see her now.”

“Can’t see who?” Conrad asked looking directly at Dante. Then his brain caught up with what he’d heard and he swung his gaze to me. “Kirsty?”

Oh, sure. Now someone gets my name right.

I realized that Conrad could see and hear Dante, but had no idea Shannon was there. That worked perfectly with my plan. Now to play the player.

“Yes, Conrad, it’s me. Kirsty. See, I can possess bodies, too. Just like you.” I did my best to keep my voice light. It hurt like hell to mask the raspiness, but I wanted him to think this body was in tip-top shape.

He crossed his arms over his chest. “What do you want?” Suspicion rode the edge of his rough voice.

“First, Conrad, I wanted to thank you for saving Theresa Mudders’ life.” His gaze flicked down to my uniform name badge. She’d died for him and he hadn’t even bothered to learn her name.

“Well, um. Of course. I couldn’t let her die.”

My resolve threatened to dissolve. Had Conrad actually done something for someone else? Someone he didn’t even know?

“How would that look at my hearing?”

But of course. It was all about him. It was always all about him.

“Ah, so you saved her to make yourself look good, is that it?”

He puffed out his cheeks, eyes jumping around, looking anywhere but at me. “Well, that was the icing on the cake, of course. But I really wanted to save Lisa.”

“Theresa,” I corrected. I drew a deep breath, actually needing one, to force the following words out. “Well, whatever your motivation, you accomplished something noble today so you deserve to be recognized for it. Thank you.” I surprised myself by realizing I meant it.

Conrad met my gaze for a moment, then he quickly looked away. He might have manipulated a lot of people into a lot of things, but he must rarely have earned anyone’s genuine gratitude. He cleared his throat but didn’t speak.

“So while you’re doing noble things, I’m asking you again if you could see your way clear to returning Shannon’s body to her. You’ve lived a long and wonderful life. It’s her turn now. You know it’s the right thing to do.”

Conrad took a step back, as if I could somehow force him to relinquish his daughter’s body. “Don’t be ridiculous. Why would I do that?”

“Firstly, because she’s fading. Unlike mine was, Shannon’s body isn’t lying somewhere with a room for rent sign on her chest. It has a soul—you. So she’s excess and excess gets trimmed. If she’s out of her body much longer, she’ll fade away to nothing.” I reached one hand through the bars, imploring him. “If she fades away, then her soul is done. Nada. Zip. She won’t go to Hell. She won’t ever get to Heaven and she won’t get reincarnated. She’ll just . . . fade.”

Conrad fidgeted, something I never thought I’d see him do. “So give her that body,” he said, gesturing at me. “You’re dead so you shouldn’t have it.”

“Right back at you,” I said, enjoying watching him squirm. “She can’t. She’s grown too weak to leap into any body but her own.” If Conrad noticed I wasn’t arguing to give the body back to its rightful owner, he didn’t mention it. He probably figured that since he didn’t care about Theresa, I didn’t either. His only frame of reference for viewing the world was his own selfish point of view. I imagined he’d always worked from that distrustful stance.