The Skinwalker Conspiracies - 02 (35 page)

“Set it down on the table and I’ll get to it in a couple of minutes. I want to get the sheath for this sword first. Do you shoot much?”

“Yes,” she said. “Does that surprise you?”

“A little, I guess.”

“This is Arizona. You should be more surprised when you find someone who doesn’t shoot. Were you a good shot in the Army?”

“I’m no sniper, but I was decent. I preferred machine guns to be honest. Most of the time in Iraq, I was the vehicle gunner.”

There was one notable exception to that statement, but I had no desire to go into that day. No sense in dredging up the past. There was too much to do to worry about the worst day of my pre-Ferryman life, like trying to avoid another day that would top it.

Much later, I stripped down to my boxers and sprawled onto the guest bed I’d claimed. My broadsword had a sheath and I had a pair of spears to round out my ensemble. The Glock image didn’t fire, but by that point, I’d been too beat to try and step out of my body and try it in my ghost form. Karla called it Astral Projection, but that just seemed a little too wordy. I still liked my “stepping out” term.

More than half asleep, I barely heard the door open. Turning my head on the pillow, I looked at the person framed in the dimly lit hallway. It was Karla, in a man’s t-shirt.

“Can I come in?” she asked. Apparently, I can go from almost asleep to wide awake in four syllables.

“Sure,” I said, sliding over from the center of the bed and making room for her.

She moved hesitantly across the carpet. It wasn’t one of those scenes where the girl floats through the room. The uncertainty added a layer of innocence to it.

Karla climbed into bed next to me and we stared at each other in silence for a moment.

“Are you okay?” I asked trying to break the ice. My recent experiences hadn’t exactly prepared me for this. My time with Candy had been a comedy of errors. Other than that, there was only the ghost of Tabitha Lawrence that had turned my heart into a jackhammer. Both Candy and Tabby were the fun and flirtatious type who you’d want to dance the night away with. Karla? She could certainly pull it off, but when it came down to it, she was a girl next door - a sweetheart kind of woman that you’d curl up with on a couch and watch television or read a book with. Despite the fact she was five years older than me; she seemed younger and more vulnerable. It was a whole new level of “hot” that I’d never really encountered before.

“I didn’t want to be alone,” she said, hugging her knees to her chest.

“Don’t worry, I won’t try anything.” Every fiber in my being said to try and take advantage of the situation, but I fought it back while cursing Silas and his morals all the way. It had to be him. It sure as hell wasn’t because I was growing up or anything like that.

She smiled. “What if we just hold each other for a little while and see what happens?”

“I can do that.” The air conditioning might be on, but it felt pretty warm in here all of the sudden. I’d been on my stomach, but I rolled onto my back and adjusted the pillow. She settled in next to me and placed her head on my left shoulder and my hand came to rest on her hip.

Moving my nose and face through her hair, I nuzzled while she sighed. Mostly, I was thankful that I’d showered before coming to bed. Obviously she had as well. Her hair smelled like she’d used a vanilla scented shampoo.

“I haven’t had a boyfriend since Darren. I haven’t even gone on a date,” she confessed. “It’s been a long time.”

“Yeah, me too,” I said.

She giggled. “You and Darren? I never knew.”

“You know what I mean,” I replied to her teasing. “I dated this one girl a few months ago, but it wasn’t going anywhere and she broke it off as soon as she saw how dangerous my life could be.”

“Really?” Karla moved her head back so she could look at me.

“Yeah.” I thought about adding how Cassandra had possessed her too, but even I knew enough not to talk about other women at a time like this.

“That’s so sad. I’m sorry.”

“I’m not.”

“Why? You shouldn’t have to do this alone.” Her words seemed more like an offer than said out of pity.

If my heart beat any faster, I’d be in trouble without my nitro pill. I mustered what courage I could scrounge and everything I’d learned from the brief time I’d channeled Paul Lawrence. “Because if I was still with her, I’d feel too guilty to do this.”

Leaning in our lips touched and I felt more alive than I’d been in years. Karla responded with enthusiasm. She had her own reasons for being in this place at this moment, and I’d like to think I was one of them. Unlike my former girlfriend, Karla Thompson knew all too well the danger surrounding me and she didn’t run for the hills. That fact wasn’t lost on me, but there was a nagging feeling that Karla might be thinking about Darren.

Still, it was difficult to continue stringing together coherent thoughts and wondering about her motives. There’d be plenty of time for that later. Silas always said I should “worry less and enjoy more.” Pretty good advice from a wise man, if my opinion counted for anything. For the moment, someone was in my arms and the world didn’t seem as lonely.

In a half-conscious daze, I’d watched the sunrise through the glow of the shade from my position in the queen sized bed. The lovely shape of Karla Thompson nestled next to me with only a thin sheet covering us. We fit together rather nicely. Despite the fact that I should be sleeping or at the very least trying to rest, I was awake with a mind racing over all the uncertainties in my immediate future.

 The most unavoidable of my thoughts centered on the ghost of Hernando De Soto and our pending showdown. Like some old west gunfight, we were going to have it out in a park nearby … my very own O.K. Corral. The real question was my fate. Was I an Earp, Clanton, or McLaury? Personally, I wanted to be Holliday, because he had that cool mystique about him. Maybe, I could do the “I’m your huckleberry” line instead of my earlier line. Although, the part about him dying from rotted out organs didn’t appeal to me so much.

The prize in all this wasn’t control of cattle trade and mining rights in southwest Arizona. No, it was my body, and I had no intentions of bringing it along.

“To the victor go the spoils,” I mouthed. The outcome wasn’t certain. I’d roughed him up pretty bad only a short time ago, but he’d come ready for a fight this time with who knows how many of his lackeys.

Competing with the ominous portents of my less than sunny future was the woman I snuggled up against and the whirlwind we’d been swept up in. Her restful breaths fought my fears to calm me. Karla’s hair, freed from the ponytail during our activities, brushed along my chest with every slightest move.

I could get used to something like this, but a quick check of what I knew about previous Ferrymen didn’t mesh with stable relationships very well.

My mind was adrift in a sea of “what ifs.” Some swirled around whether I was still going to be alive in forty-eight hours and others wondered what Karla would say when she woke up. Was I a diversion or therapy so she could finally close the door on Darren? The old noggin hurt just thinking about it. Then again, I didn’t want to fess up and tell her the last woman I kissed was a ghost and, technically, old enough to be my grandmother.

Karla shifted in my arms and I felt her coming to. She wriggled free and slid out of the bed. I’m sure there was a sour expression on my face me when I thought she was headed back to her room, but I sighed in relief when the door to the bathroom just outside this bedroom opened and shut. I took the opportunity to shake the arm that had been pinned under Karla awake.

Two minutes and a flush later, she crept back into the room, stopping only when she realized I was awake.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Too much to think about,” I answered, enjoying the fact that she was still naked. “Can’t sleep.”

“You need to rest,” Karla said sitting down on the bed next to me. “Roll over onto your stomach.”

“Why?”

“I give a good deep tissue massage. You’re obviously wound up tighter than a spring. Let’s see if I can unknot you.”

“You can go back to sleep,” I argued. “I’ll be fine.”

“No Mike, I’d just feel guilty. Now c’mon and let me show you what I can do.”

I complied while grinning at her, until she clucked her tongue and said, “Good grief! Whatever you’re thinking, it’s so not happening.”

“It already did,” I countered. “Twice.”

“Three times isn’t always a charm,” she chided and worked the base of her palms against the small of my back. She pressed down and rotated in concentric circles against aching, corded muscles.

I’d received plenty of massages during my rehabilitation period. Karla wasn’t quite up to their level, but the fact she was doing it in her birthday suit more than made up for it.

“That feels good,” I said.

“Just relax, Mike. Try and let go of the tension.”

I spent a few seconds just enjoying things before offering, “Maybe I should step out of my body and just let it pass out?”

She made one of those distasteful sounding noises and said, “Yeah, but then I wouldn’t be able to sleep knowing you’re creeping around.”

For a moment, I started to protest that I wasn’t a pervert or anything, but then I did something that I don’t usually do - I thought about something other than me.

“How are you dealing, Karla?”

“What? Oh, I’m fine,” she said. Not that I believed her one bit.

“Got a bridge you want to sell me while you’re at it?”

Her ministrations stopped. “What’s that supposed to mean?”

Propping myself up on my right arm I turned so I could look directly at her and say, “It means I’m not so wrapped up in all my problems that I can’t spare a few moments to worry about how you’re holding up. Your whole world has been turned upside down in the last few days and I’m the reason for pretty much every bit of it. Just don’t feel like you need to lie to me.”

Where those words came from, I wasn’t really sure. My guess was all that crazy moral fiber crap Silas keeps feeding me all the time. Either way, I said it with a sincerity and maturity that most twenty-four year old guys likely couldn’t muster.

She was speechless for a minute and I worried that, given my excellent people skills, I’d screwed things up. Instead, her expression softened and I could see a small smile. “That’s sweet. I’ll … I’ll be honest. I don’t know how I am.”

Karla paused and traced her fingernails along my free arm. “I went nuts when you first showed up. Then I felt guilty over how I treated you and offered to help to make up for it and maybe in some ways get them back for Darren. Then things got really serious and I thought I was going to die. Now, it’s just plain crazy.”

Sitting up, I put my arms around her and whispered into her ear, “I wish I could say that everything will be okay, but I have no idea how this is going to play out.”

The embrace was raw and about as emotionally honest as I’d ever experienced - two people clinging to something in the middle of an unbelievable situation.

After a couple of minutes, I said, “Thank you.”

“For what?” Karla asked while her breaths kissed the skin on my neck.

“Reminding me that life is worth living.” Somewhere out there, I hoped Tabby and Paul were smiling.

Her embrace tightened. “Just win, Mike.”

We slid back onto the bed. “I’ll do my best.”