I tipped my head toward Roan. “Why are ghosts so melodramatic?”
“I don’t know. Do you think real people go around talking like that? ‘I’m going to kill you. You’re about to die.’ Wow. This guy’s got issues.”
I laughed. “He certainly does. Keeps other spirits chained here. Has a horrible attitude. Thinks that he owns this house when really it belongs to the living. I mean, he’s definitely got issues.”
“I would agree.” Roantsked. “You got the tube?”
I winked. “I sure do.” I passed it to him and pulled my lasso.
“You think your little toys will hold me?” the spirit said.
“Yes, I do.” I thumbed open the loop to make it wider and started swinging. “The thing about bullies like you is that you think you can control others and that it’s okay. Look, pal, controlling others is never okay. You need to be stopped, and we’re the people to do it.”
I swung the rope. The blob shifted, zipping across the room.
“Fast sucker,” I murmured.
The house rumbled and rattled. Knickknacks toppled from bookcases and tables. Porcelain shattered.
Porcelain could be fixed. People were much harder to mend.
“You’ll never get me,” he sneered.
“Oh I will, too.” I raced forward, the rope in hand. I gave it one good swing over my head and threw.
The loop sailed through the air. It landed directly around the spirit. As soon as the fibers of the lasso collided with the electromagnetic energy of the ghost, the lasso tightened.
“What is that thing?” Roan yelled.
I tugged and pulled, fighting to tighten the. “It’s designed to work with apparitions. It should hold him. Open the tube!”
Roan opened the tube and threw it across the floor. It landed just underneath the spirit.
The ghost snarled and yelled, cursed and blasphemed. “You will die for this! The master will have your head!”
I gave the rope another good tug. The can sucked the spirit into it like a vacuum. The rope fell empty to the ground. Roan darted across the floor and capped theSpiritus.
Both of us exhaled. Sweat sprinkled my brow. I swiped my forehead clean and glanced across the room. Roan stood like a god at the end.
Lamplight haloed his figure. He seemed larger, as if with every inhalation he grew and the house shrank. His hand curled around the canister, his bicep flexed. Every muscle taut. Energy charged Roan’s body. He was a lion ready to pounce.
“Roan?” I whispered.
He didn’t answer.
“Roan?” I said louder.
He dragged his gaze from theSpiritus. When his eyes met mine, I sucked air. They were dark, inky, as if something else had taken hold of him.
I rushed over. “Roan!” I pressed my hands to his chest. He was cold. Like from the inside out. I fisted his shirt and jerked him forward. “Roan!”
He blinked and shook his head. Roan rocked back and pressed his fingers to his forehead. “I had the strangest sensation.”
“What was it?”
His jaw clenched. “I don’t know. It’s hard to explain. Like I was standing surrounded by spirits.” His gaze broke from mine. “It’s so strange. I felt a rush of something.” He lifted his free hand and stared at it. “Something in these hands. Something about them.”
I studied him curiously. “What do you mean?”
