I OPEN my eyes, blurred vision making out Gen’s familiar form, and roll over onto my back. “Oh fuck.”
Well, this is what I get for going in untrained. Did I really expect a handful of days, a scattering of random lessons, to stop me from making mistakes? I’m betting even with a degree in psychic power usage I could screw things up just fine.
“You pulled me with you,” Gen breathes, as if she’s trying to wrap her head around what’s happened. “I’m out of my body.”
“Yeah. Sorry.”
“I don’t like it.” She rests her head on my chest, probably as dizzy as I am.
“I’m not a big fan of it either,” I admit and hold her to me.
After a few more minutes, the world stops rocking. My stomach returns to its normal location, and my sight clears. Gen must feel better as well, because she levers herself up and stares down at me. “You… you don’t look so great,” she says.
“Nah, I’m fine. It’s only bad when you first ‘step out.’” And if you stay too long out-of-body, but I don’t mention that, because I don’t plan on letting that happen. Then again, with her here, there’s no one to anchor me, no one to call me back.
That could be a problem.
“No,” she says, shaking her head, then wincing and closing her eyes. Guess she isn’t as recovered as I thought. “I mean, you—” Gen waves a hand over me. “—you look… rough.”
Huh?
I sit up and take in the hospital’s front doors a few feet away, people coming and going, the cars on the nearby street crawling with late-afternoon traffic. Then I glance down at myself… and do a double take.
Rough is an understatement. I look like hell.
Dirty jeans, torn at the knees probably before my impact with the sidewalk, fresh bloodstains there now (and how the fuck does a spirit bleed, anyway?), sneakers with holes in them instead of my usual work boots, grungy T-shirt like it’s been worn a few days. I’m thin, too, the thinnest I can recall ever being. I piece it all together. Three years into the past, give or take a few months. That would place the timing right around when I broke up with—
“Kat,” I say, swallowing hard.
“What? Where?” Gen looks around for the offending feline, which earns her a laugh from me.
“No,” I say, continuing to chuckle. “Kat. As in Katherine. I’m guessing you’re seeing me shortly after she walked out. It… wasn’t a good time.”
That’s an understatement. I’d just lost my job too. Laid off indefinitely. Sporadic work had already moved me out of a nice two-bedroom condo to the rent-by-the-week hotel I still occupied when Gen and I first met. On top of her deciding she preferred men after all, I hadn’t been able to give Kat the lifestyle she thought she deserved.
So she’d gone back to millionaire Max Harris.
And ended up with no lifestyle at all. And no life, though her one-way trip to the depths of Dead Woman’s Pond, courtesy of Max and Leo’s evil charm, wouldn’t happen for a little while yet.
And I hit rock bottom.
It was the closest I ever came to attempting suicide myself, but I hated my mother so much for that, I never did it. It took a while, a long while, but I got myself back together.
One glance at my Genesis tells me things do get better, no matter how bad they seem at the time.
I’m not good at hiding my emotions, and Gen must read everything on my face, because she leans in and presses her lips softly to mine. “I’m here now. And I love you so much.”
“Ditto.” And then, because that seems to be a thing all spirits say, I laugh.
“What?”
“Ghost.”
She raises her eyebrows.
“You of all people never saw the movie Ghost?”
She shakes her head while I keep laughing. “Never mind. But yes, you’re here, and while I’m always glad when you’re around, maybe we should go back.” And get you out of the danger zone. Assuming I can figure out how to do that.
But her head’s still shaking. “Not until we do what you came here to do. I can help. I can see spirits too. I’m not a fighter, but if nothing else, I can be a second pair of eyes for you. This is dangerous enough without you having to try it twice.”
I want to argue. I want her to be safe. But deep down, I’m really glad she’s here, that I’m not alone in this again, and from the set of her jaw and the flash of her eyes daring me to get into it with her, I know there’s no dissuading her from helping me.
Chris keeps reminding me Gen and I are a team, that I have to make adjustments to my attitudes if I’m going to be half of a real partnership. He wouldn’t care for this, but I’m finally grasping what he means.
Standing, I reach a hand down to her and pull her up beside me. I nod toward the hospital’s rotating front door. “Sooner we finish, sooner I can go to my bachelorette party. I think Chris has hired strippers.”
Though she’s still a little unsteady, she manages to punch me in the arm, hard. “Maybe I’ll ditch the bridal shower and join you instead. Yours sounds like more fun.” The scary thing is, she doesn’t look surprised, and she’s got me wondering if Chris really has planned strippers for my event. If he did, he’d check with her first, and she’d know. And nix that idea, I hope.
A fierce blush creeps from my neck to my forehead, making her giggle.
“Come on,” she says, taking my arm, and tugs me toward the doors. “Let’s go be heroes.”