"No shit? Glad I didn't kill you, then. What're the odds of us meeting like this? Khaos is good." He pulls the glove back onto his other hand and straddles his motorcycle. "Works great for me. Means you'll help me find her all the more quickly. Come on, vamp."
"Ian."
"Yeah, that."
I finally straighten, taking a final deep breath. "Before we go, what's your name?"
"You said all of it earlier, but it's best not to do that ever again," he warns, grabbing his helmet off his handles. "Call me Zak. Now, let's go find our pretty little empath."
17
HEIDI
Jessica doesn't waitfor me to finish waking up before the rant begins.
"Don't worry,she said.I'll be totally fine,she said. And then what did she do?" Jessica demands, drifting back and forth angrily in my living room in her ghostly attempt to pace.
"Shewent and got hit by abus like a complete idiot," I groan, still groggy. Adjusting on my cozy living room couch that I was too tired to move from after Silas and Everett transported me back from the hospital last night, I pull a fuzzy throw blanket over my face. "Gods, could there be anything more embarrassing than running directly in front of a bus on live television? That's going to stay on the internet forever and haunt the rest of my life."
Not that I'll have much of a life after yesterday, of course.
I'm still bouncing back and forth between denial that my real identity is all over the news and deciding to pretend the outside world doesn't exist while I live out the rest of my days as a horny, hapless hermit in this cottage in the woods.
Jess throws her translucent hands in the air, facing me. "That's what you're focused on? El, this isn't the time forembarrassment. This is the time to get mad. You should sue the pants off those assholes who harassed you, and sue the bus driver and Chicago and the fae elders and?—"
She continues to rage as I lift the blanket and my shirt to check the splotchy, dark purplish blue bruises covering my still-recovering body. My head is so far the only part of me that's completely healed. The worst of the damage healed a bit more as I slept—yay for shifter perks—but I'm still wildly sore, bruised head to toe, andso freaking tired.
Ever since I woke up in the emergency room to the sound of Everett's utter panic when he arrived after the accident, things have been a blur. No matter how many times I insisted I was the dummy who bolted in front of a bus, he was badly rattled and kept promising me he'd "fix things." Silas laid more protective charms and concealment spells on my place so I could recover and lay low while they handle Marwood's tantrum. They hope this whole thing will die out in a few weeks.
But even if it does, it's not like I can just go back to living the life I chose.
As much as I love Koasville and its small-town community, they don't always like legacies here, even with all the positive changes made after the Upheaval. I haven't even glanced at my phone since the accident because my small townlovesgossip. I'm sure there will be about a million messages on it from dozens of friends, coworkers, old teachers, old classmates, and so on now that they know the truth about me.
Trying not to think about how tattered my life is feeling, I remember something and squint up at my furious best friend. "Hey, where's Athanis?"
She stops her rant to frown. "Who? Bitch, I don't know, and I don't care becauseyou could've diedyesterday and I'm still waiting for an apology!"
"Oh, right. Sorry for not joining you to check out men in the Beyond together," I joke, trying to lighten her mood.
Jessica's lips twitch. She scowls at me, collapsing her weightless body on the other couch. "Don't make me laugh right now. I mean it. You scared the hell out of me."
"I'm really sorry," I say, genuinely this time. I attempt sitting up on the couch, butholy ouch, that's a bad idea, so I lie back again and yawn despite my sore jaw. From the little peek I get of the outside world through a crack in the nearby window shades, I can see that I've slept to midday and the sky is gray, promising rain. "There was another coherent, clear ghost here when I fell asleep. His name is Athanis, and I found him in this ancient fae laboratory and then?—"
Jessica is immediately leaning over me on the couch, her eyes wide. "Wait, is he hot? Please tell me he's hot."
"He's fairly good-looking. He's a priest, though—or he was, so he might not be your type."
"Are you kidding me? I've always wanted to corrupt a priest! Where'd he go? I'm dying to figure out how ghost sex works."
I laugh at her and then wince, because it turns out that laughing feels like taking a hammer to the ribs right now. "I don't know where Athanis went, but if he pops up again, you can't just climb him like a tree. He's from thousands of years ago and probably thinks ankles are scandalous."
"Don't you worry, El, I'll show him the true meaning of scandalous," she bounces her eyebrows deviously. Then she examines my face and sighs. "Seriously, though, how are you feeling?"
I pause, taking stock. "Physically, I'll be fine in a day or two. But I'm pretty sure my life's over," I confess, sniffing when my emotions well up in my eyes.
Jess's expression turns sympathetic. "You'll get through it. I'll make sure you do. You know I'm not going anywhere until you're all good, right? I'm here for you."
"I know," I sniff again, remembering what Athanis told me about guardian spirits.
