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“Huh?”
“She’s the enforcer of the squad.”
Which I guessed was fair. She had murdered her husband and possibly one other person. Allegedly. I didn’t need a ghostly defamation lawsuit to add to my list of expenses. “That actually makes sense. How do you summon her? Do we need to leave a trail of hard-boiled sweets? Do we call Harold’s name three times or set up an effigy of him to lure her?”
Goo suddenly exploded around us as the ghost appeared in the hallway, angrier than ever after getting a salt bath. She screamed even louder and I was sure my eardrums were about to burst.
“Thank goodness. She’s okay,” Owain said in relief.
“Yippee,” I muttered as I yanked him onward.
We stumbled down the stairs towards reception and ducked behind the desk. I pushed Owain to his knees, in a far less fun context than I would have liked, and stood guard at his back, grabbing the stupid welcome plaque as a weapon as Owain worked the safe with slippery fingers.
“Any day now, love.”
“Don’t rush me!” Owain whined, pouting up at me. “I don’t do well under pressure.”
I bit down on my usual sarcastic commentary at the sight of his shiny eyes. I didn’t know what witchcraft Owain possessed, but it made me incapable of firing anything off but a supportive “You can do it.”
Owain smiled happily and turned back to the safe while I questioned my entire existence. Since when did I cheerlead bullshit? I could hear Noel cackling at me in my head.
“Was it a six or a nine…” Owain muttered to himself, and I bit my tongue bloody.
Deep in the safe, my equipment suddenly started to go haywire, all reacting at once. The EMF whined and the Spirit Receiver crackled with static.
Owain paused. “Why is it doing that? It wasn’t doing that before.”
My heart stopped as I turned my head slowly.
Ghost girl was standing right in front of my nose, staring directly into my eyes through the strings of her hair.
“Sorry, babe. I know I’m hot as fuck, but ectoplasm isn’t my lube of choice.”
I felt a gnarled hand around my throat as I was thrown against the wall. The ghost twitched and juddered unnaturally as she closed in on me, keeping me pinned with her hand. Even with the slickness of the sludge, there was no escape from her grasp and I tore at the hand ineffectively, legs kicking out as I felt the chill of the dead seep into my bones.
I had no more clever tricks or things up my sleeve. I’d finally run out of options.
“Owain!” I gasped with the last of my air as yellowed and bloody teeth drew ever closer. “Any day now!”
Despite my cavalier attitude, staring down the barrel of your own incoming demise was terrifying in a completely new way. I’d had my share of close calls, but I’d always managed to think my way out of anything this job had thrown at me.
Now I knew why the turnover rate was so high. Why I hardly ever saw familiar faces back at the headquarters in London.
I closed my eyes and averted my face like that would help, saying a quick internal goodbye and apology to my mother.
“Hey!” Owain yelled. “Time out, okay? Let him go!”
Ghost Girl tilted her head toward Owain, who was holding my tool belt but not doing anything with it.
Owain raised his chin. “We can talk this through.”
“Talk…” I rasped through my closed throat and stared at him with all the fury I could muster while barely keeping myself alive. He wanted to talk. To a ghost. Actively killing me. “Owa…”
“First of all, while I’m glad you chose Last Resort B&B for your happy haunting, we have a zero-tolerance policy on violence,” Owain said while the thing still held me up by my throat. Black spots were appearing in my field of vision and this fucking weirdo was giving it a welcome speech.
The ghost flickered in and out of sight for a split second, offering me no time to even take a breath, much less move.
“Gentle hands,” Owain said. “We could try using our fingers for tickles instead of chokes, hm? How does that sound?”
