The Downside Ghosts Series Books 1-3: Unholy Ghosts, Unholy Magic, City of Ghosts. Stacia Kane

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СКАЧАТЬ look like you ain’t been sleeping at all, not like usual.”

      “I’m fine.” How long had it been, really? Only a few days. And she’d been doing so much speed, a lot more than normal. “I’m fine,” she said again.

      He raised an eyebrow, but didn’t respond. “So this thing, he attached to that book? He what Slipknot’s soul powering?”

      She nodded.

      “Bump wanting an update. He—he’s getting on the impatient side, dig. Wanting me to bring you in to him, find out when you plan on clearing all up.”

      “Impatient?” She was so high she actually smiled a little. “Did he tell you to lean on me?”

      Terrible shrugged, but wouldn’t look at her. There was her answer. “Getting impatient, is all.”

      “Yeah, okay. I can see him tomorrow, no problem.”

      “Hey, I think I gotta line on somebody maybe tell us something about the ghosts at Chester. You know Old-timer Earl?” When she shook her head he continued. “Been living here since before Chester opened, way back in the when. Word is he might know what’s up. Tomorrow we find him, aye? After seeing Bump? Maybe he know how this connects to yon Dreamthief, maybe he downing them planes?”

      “There might not be a connection at all. Could be they just decided it was a good place to do their ritual.”

      “Possible he’s brought them ghosts with him, making them stronger or aught like that?”

      “It didn’t say anything in Tobin’s Spirit Guide about him being able to control other spirits, but he’d sure upset them, stir them up. You raise a ghost somewhere, you’re going to cause problems with other ghosts that might be around—especially if you do a ritual like that. That life force sitting at the bottom of a well, but connected to him so they can’t get at it …”

      “Piss em off right, aye?”

      “Yeah. But as for making them stronger, I don’t know. I guess it’s possible. It’s more likely he would … He might be feeding off them. Or—No, that doesn’t make any sense.”

      She shook her head. “I don’t know. I don’t know. I keep feeling like if I had one piece of information, it would lead me to find the other pieces, but I don’t even know what that piece could be or where to look.” She pictured pieces bobbing in the air in front of her, and had to fight not to reach out and try to grab them. That would look weird. She didn’t want him to think she was behaving strangely. What happened to them earlier didn’t seem to be affecting him at all.

      Someone brushed past them on their way to the bathroom, breaking her concentration. “What?”

      “Where you think we might find that? You got any ideas in the people you work with? Maybe some of them shady? We can check them out.”

      “We? Did Bump tell you to shadow me or something? Why are you so into this?”

      He shrugged, but his gaze skittered away from her to the floor and his hands burrowed deep into his pockets. “Something different, aye? Solving a mystery.”

      “Scary, though,” she said, and the words hurt. “Scarier than anything I’ve ever done.”

      “Naw. We keep our heads, we stay safe. No reason for that.”

      Chess didn’t know how it happened. It didn’t even make any sense that it would have happened. She lifted her hand to his chest, hard and hot beneath the black fabric of his shirt. She opened her mouth and looked up at him, ready to say something—to thank him, or to ask what time he’d pick her up in the morning, or just to make some sort of joke.

      But nothing came out. Nothing came out, because her eyes met his and it felt like he’d looked all the way through her. Nothing came out because her back was slammed against the wall and her arms were wrapped around his neck and his lips were on hers, ruthless and tender and demanding all at once, and now she really was flying, up toward the ceiling, out of the building.

      Lust exploded through her body, as if he’d somehow flipped a switch when his hands found the small of her back. Nothing existed in her head but Terrible, his tongue now sliding into her mouth with a skill she never would have expected, his fists gripping the back of her shirt and pulling her even closer to the monolithic wall of his body, as if they could fuse together from the heat and pressure between them.

      Her fingers slipped through his hair, down across the nape of his neck, under the collar of his shirt to feel the scarred flesh of his back. With a gasp he lifted her, curving his palms under her thighs, then shifted so one hand supported her behind and the other raised to tangle in her hair. She wrapped her legs around his narrow waist and held on, pressing his pelvis against hers. Damn. Six feet four and everything in proportion, the quote went. It was true in this case. She couldn’t seem to get enough air. She didn’t think she needed air, not when he was holding her, possessing her, making her feel safer than she’d ever felt.

      “Chess,” he mumbled. His lips traveled away, down the side of her throat, eliciting buzzing tingles that made her entire body vibrate, and back up to steal her mouth again. “Chessie. Never thought … so pretty …”

      The low rumble of his voice made her vibrate more, and she clung to him tighter, certain that if she let go, she would fall, and keep falling all the way through the floor.

      This couldn’t be right, this had to be the drugs, or maybe he was making it worse, she didn’t know, but she had some vague idea in her head that if he didn’t agree to take her back to his place in the next minute, she might actually die. His hips rolled against her in a slow, easy rhythm, turning the flames in her body even higher.

      He was still mumbling, kissing her collarbones, nibbling at her throat with surprising delicacy, when she summoned the courage to remove one of her hands from his shoulder. His arms bulged beneath her palm as she slid it down, finally wedging it into the miniscule space between them so she could feel the ridge of his erection hot through his jeans.

      “Terrible,” she managed. “You know how to use this thing?”

      He pulled away to meet her gaze, and for a minute he was transformed. Still the same features, the lumpy nose and the jutting brow and the hard, dark eyes, but not ugly anymore. Full of character. Full of strength. She looked at his face but she didn’t see it, not the way she had before. The smile spreading across his features was intimate, sexy. The darkness of his eyes concealed so much more than she’d ever imagined.

      “Oh, aye,” he said. “You gonna let me show you?”

      She giggled, a single gasping little laugh, as every internal organ she had flipped. “You know, I think I am. Can’t get any crazier, right?”

      His smile faltered, just a stutter, then came back. “Guessing not. Come on, let us get outta here.”

      He pulled away, setting her back on her unsteady legs. She almost fell.

      “Oops.” Her giggle lasted longer this time. “Oops, my legs are kind of weak. D’you think you can give me a minute?”

      She looked up, expecting to see him laughing, too, but his eyes narrowed instead. She imagined for a second that they narrowed because all of his extra skin was needed for that incredible СКАЧАТЬ