“First I showed them my death bite, and told them what you’d said about mouths. One of the alphas is a dentist and once she took a good look, she could tell a werewolf had killed me after all.”
“And that did it?”
“Not completely. They were willing to investigate, but they can’t do anything without forming a committee. So I pointed out that if they didn’t stop Angie, there was going to be a vampire nearby who knew pack secrets.”
“That must have lit a fire under their tails.”
“It got them moving, but not fast enough to save your boyfriend. For that, I had to get tough.”
“How does a ghost get tough?”
“I threatened to haunt them.”
“They went for that? I mean you can be annoying, but you aren’t that bad.”
“Wanna bet? You remember how I can take any form I had in life? I picked the worst form I could think of.”
“A teenager?”
“A baby. And I had colic for my whole first year.”
“Remind me to never get you mad at me.”
“Been there, done that.”
I started yawning, and decided I could use a nap after all. I went back to my cabin and ended up sleeping most of the day, and woke up with David beside me. It was very nice.
The rest of the seminar wasn’t bad, either. I attended a few more sessions, with presenters who were considerably less creepy than Angie, and Captain Bob stuck around to make sure I paid attention. The meals were convivial, and nobody seemed to mind David showing up every evening, especially after the Council invited him back the next year to talk about vampires.
There was a gala the final night, which was the first time David and I had danced together. I was wearing a new dress that was tight in all the right places, and he looked absolutely mouthwatering in a suit I’d had no idea he owned. Much to my delight, he’d kept up with the latest dances and had some serious moves.
Most of the attendees were leaving the next morning, but we had to leave that night to make sure we got home in time to get David back to his own light-proof bedroom. So even before the gala ended, we changed out of our party clothes, packed up, and loaded everything into my car. I’d been looking for Captain Bob all evening, but it was only when I was locking the door to the cabin that I spotted him sitting on the hood of the car.
“Just the ghost I wanted to see,” I said.
“How many ghosts do you know?”
“One is enough. Did you ever dress as a pirate for Halloween or a costume party? I mean, as a grown man.”
“I might have.”
“Could you switch into that costume?”
“Why?”
“Just bear with me.”
He frowned, but his clothing morphed into an impressive pirate captain’s costume: a royal blue frock coat with gold trim, a wide-brimmed hat, and big black boots. It was more foppish than David usually wore in his pirate guise, but not so close to Disney’s Captain Hook as to raise copyright issues. Best of all, he looked really good in it—if he’d been wearing a chintzy beard or a painted-on scar, it would have spoiled my plan.
“Perfect!” I said.
David raised an eyebrow.
“I’ve got an idea.” Said idea had been percolating for the previous couple of days, but until I saw Captain Bob in costume, I hadn’t known if it would work. “Captain, have you given any thought to going back to the sea? Or at least to a lake? You see, Pirate Dave’s Adventure Cove has this pirate ship that nobody rides.”
“Nearly nobody,” David put in.
“Fine, nearly nobody rides. So I was thinking, how about a haunted pirate ship?”
“With me providing the haunting?” Captain Bob said.
“Why not? With the proper set dressing and some spooky music, and maybe some special effects, people would be in the right mood to see you.” I didn’t know how we’d convince our workers that Captain Bob was a special effect instead of a real ghost, but that was just a detail. “I bet it would be a big hit.”
I could tell David liked the idea, but Captain Bob had to make a show of looking doubtful.
“Why would I want a job?” he said. “You can’t pay me, and you can’t expect a man to work for nothing. Not even a dead one.”
“What would you say if I told you that there are computer programs that are voice activated?”
“Really?”
“So if somebody set it up for you, and lent a hand now and then, you’d be able to surf the Web, post on Facebook, whatever you wanted. In fact, if you promise to stay out of my bedroom, I’ll even help you play solitaire.”
“I’m in,” he said, and jumped into the front seat of the car.
“I’m riding shotgun, ghost boy,” I said.
“What do you care? You’re just going to roll down the window and ride with your head hanging out anyway.”
David silently endured our bickering for a solid fifteen minutes of driving before roaring, “Enough!” Belatedly I realized I should have consulted him before inviting Captain Bob to move in.
Before I could decide between an apology or a bribe, David said, “If you two don’t behave yourselves, I’m going to turn this car right around!”
I snickered, and Captain Bob snarked, “At the rate you’re going, we’ll never get there anyway. You drive like my great-aunt!”
“Number one, I’m older than your great-aunt. Number two, I sailed ships across the Atlantic and the Caribbean, so it’s safe to say that I know more about navigating than a ferryboat captain.”
As they continued their discussion, I decided that while Captain Bob wasn’t the new BFF I’d pictured, he was going to work out just fine.
