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"Ambitious and fiercely original. Sondi Warner is the exciting new voice we've all been wai...
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August 30 | Friday Night
"Watch it!" I yanked Detective Zyr from the path of the swinging enchanted door before it banged shut.
The minute he scented vampires we knew something was wrong. A dark energy crackled in the frigid apartment. Aurie swayed on her feet as pandemonium swirled around her. Books flew off the shelves. Framed prints rattled against the walls.
Trillions of invisible pings of emotion played shrilly in my head. The din was underscored by a low rumble—the sound of my big leather couch gaining speed as it rushed toward the detective and me. Zyr caught it at the last second, but his face was a mask of concern as he looked my way for answers.
"What happened, Yokai?" I asked warily.
"Did you lie to me?" Aurie croaked.
Confused, I shook my head. I held up my hands, taking a cautious step toward the angry ghost as I cast Empathy to figure out what she meant. I sensed her distrust and growing cynicism, but it was the blade of her anguish that cut the deepest.
"You feel alone," I murmured. The sensation felt like the day my parents dropped me off at my last religious therapy camp when I was sixteen. Right after I'd been released from the hospital. "You feel betrayed," I whispered.
Aurie bit her quivering lip, nodding as tears fell.
"You know, my father once told me, 'If you can't stop acting out, don't come back.'" I held up my butterfly tattoos for her to see. "You're not acting out. It's just hard to contain what's going on inside, right?"
"You made it out alive," she sniffled. Her focus sharpened on me, and I knew it was progress. I slowly edged another step toward her.
"Yes, I got a second chance, and this Afterlife is yours. To finish your unfinished business. I'm not asking you to turn off your feelings. I'm offering to share the burden if you're willing to tell me what's wrong. We're here for you, Yokai."
"Darcy Cyprian came." Her tear-streaked face resumed its leaking as she said his name.
"Cyprian, himself, came here?" Zyr growled incredulously.
He turned to charge after the vampire, but Aurie needed us. I reached to stop him. Incredible savagery raced up my arm and slammed into my chest, and I let him go. Zyr glared at me with fiery yellow eyes, baring his teeth. His claws were out. The times I had thought he was wild in the past paled by comparison.
"You can't go after him alone." I tried to reason with the wolf.
"What? You want me to radio in and say, 'Vampires found my enchanted witness protection'? I'm going—"
"You're not going anywhere until you tell me what happened to my sister." Aurie suddenly stood between us, no longer out of sorts. With her clarity, the mayhem in my apartment settled.
