“Hey, hon.” Laurel’s face immediately moved into view. “How do you feel?”
Laurel looked solid enough to touch. Jackie smiled, which even made her mouth hurt. “It’s fucking cold. My entire body hurts.”
She leaned down and kissed Jackie’s cheek, her lips the barest whisper against her skin. “I figured. I wasn’t quite sure if you’d make it or what would happen once you got here.”
Here. The other side. So Nick had managed to bring them across. “Am I dead?”
Laurel shook her head. “No, not yet, but I don’t think you can stay here long. The living aren’t supposed to be here.”
“How long?’
It was Nick’s voice, and Jackie realized he was sitting behind Laurel on a couch. Things looked oddly familiar. Jackie turned and noticed the massive slate fireplace of Nick’s living room. “This looks like Nick’s place.”
“A few hours maybe?” Laurel said with a shrug. “And, yes, hon. It’s Nick’s. We needed a safe place to come to.”
Jackie reached out tentatively and tried to touch Laurel’s arm but was disappointed to see her fingers pass right through, disappearing for a moment before reappearing on the other side. How creepy was that? She shivered. “Heat doesn’t work around here, I take it?”
“We’ll get you back as soon as we can,” Nick said.
Jackie stared at him for a moment, those depthless eyes surprisingly readable in the ghostly gray gloom. Laughter almost bubbled out of her mouth. “You don’t have a fucking clue, do you?”
He stared at her in silence and then finally offered up a grim smile. “No. This is all new to me. I’m hoping Laurel knows what she’s doing.”
“I’ll get us to Drake,” she replied, “but after that, it’s up to you.”
“We need to figure out how to get Jackie back first.”
Laurel’s answer was simple. “You have to take her back.”
“What?” He didn’t bother hiding the chagrin in his voice. “I don’t have the power to do that now. It took most of what I had to get us here.”
Laurel reached down and brushed a wisp of hair from Jackie’s face. “I know. You’ll have to get it back from Drake.”
Nick slumped back on the couch. “Ah. And I thought it would be something difficult.”
Jackie struggled to sit up. Every movement felt sluggish, as if she were moving through water. “I wanted to kill him anyway.”
“I don’t even know if he can be killed here,” Nick said. “The rules I knew don’t seem to apply anymore.”
“It’s not his blood you want, Nick. You want his power. He takes it from the spirits here, draining their souls away to give him strength to pass back and forth.”
“Okay, and if it’s not through blood, just how do I do that?”
Laurel looked at a loss. “I don’t know, but we’ll figure it out.”
Jackie shivered again. The cold was seeping deeper into her bones by the minute. If this kept up, she would hardly be able to move, let alone function in this place of the dead. “So, where’s he at?”
“At the moment, I’m not sure,” Laurel said. “But he keeps everyone locked away inside the Hancock building.”
Nick snorted. “Seriously? I hadn’t thought him so corporate.”
“That’s almost thirty miles from here,” Jackie lamented. “I can’t walk that far unless there’s a ghost version of that Porsche sitting in the garage.”
“No cars.” Laurel stood up, backing around the coffee table that sat in the middle of the U shape of the sofas. She looked at both of them. “I just will myself to where I want to go. It’s very easy here. Crossing over, not so much. I’m hoping it’s an effect of this place and doesn’t require actually being dead to work.”
Jackie clutched her arms tightly across her chest in an effort to ease the chill. Teleport? Her life force was crystallizing inside her body, thin shards of death forming in an unbreakable lattice. She could barely move, much less will herself somewhere. “I don’t know how to do that kind of shit, Laur.”
Nick leaned forward, hands resting on his knees. The aggravating, indifferent look he usually presented had disappeared. He looked… worried? Scared? God help them if he had lost his nerve now. “Maybe you should stay here while we get Drake. It’ll be safer for you here.”
I’m not dying alone in this place. Jackie shook her head. “Screw that. If I’m going to be dead in a couple hours, I don’t really want to do that alone.”
“Then try to see if you can do it,” Laurel said. “If not, we’ll have to carry you there.”
Jackie forced herself to sit up straight. “I don’t want to hurt our chances of getting him.”
“It’s fine, hon. Just try something simple like moving over to the couch next to Nick. Picture yourself seated next to him, focus your thoughts on wanting to sit next to him, and visualize everything you can about it.”
Nick leaned back, one arm laid out across the back cushion. Jackie eyed the spot on the couch next to him, and the probable warmth that might be obtained snuggled into the crook of his body. Okay, not so hard to think about. Jackie closed her eyes and wished for that simple, comforting embrace. It might not help, but at least it would feel good, and far better than his mouth licking and sucking at the hole in her arm. It would be nice to die without that lingering image and sensation squirming in her gut.
“Jackie, relax.” Laurel’s voice was a soothing whisper of wind in her ear. “Quit squinting. It’s a mental thing, not physical.”
Jackie took a deep breath, the tightening muscles in her chest failing to provide much air, and let it out in a rush. “Relaxing. Sitting next to Nick. Warm body. Warm, fucking body.”
Jackie felt a nudge, a soft push from behind, as if the whole couch were tipping her toward Nick, and then his firm, depressingly cool arm came around her. Jackie put her hands out against him to push away, but the strength appeared to have dissipated from her body. He held her tightly, the big hand planted firmly on her hip, pulling her close.
“Holy shit,” she said in a rush. “I did it.”
Laurel clapped. “Awesome, hon.”
“Did you help her, Laurel?”
“Shut up, you dumb cowboy.” She huffed at him. “I gave her a little nudge, but that was it. You did it mostly on your own, babe.”
“Great,” Jackie said but felt no elation at the feat. Her body hurt too much to feel good about anything. “Now what? I’m still about as useful as a wet noodle.”
“I’m going to go check out the Hancock building and see where we need to go,” Laurel replied. “We need a safe place to arrive.”
Nick shifted against Jackie but kept his arm snugly against her body. “And what if they’re waiting? Maybe we should just all go now.”
Laurel shook her head. “No. I can handle getting away from Drake’s goons. He’s not back yet, but he might be soon, so we need to hurry.”
“You sure?” Nick sounded skeptical. Given what she had witnessed from Drake, Jackie felt the same way.
“Nick, you are as different here as you are in the living world. Trust me, if Drake was back, I’d know.” Laurel straightened up and closed her eyes. “See you soon. Be ready.”
Without a chance to even wish her luck, Laurel vanished from sight. A shiver rippled through Jackie’s body again, clenching her body into an even harder knot. “Shit.”
“She’ll be back,” Nick said. “She knows what she’s doing.”
“Any clue what you’re going to do when you get there?”
He was silent for a moment. “No.”
“You don’t give a dying girl much confidence.”
“We’ll get you back home, Jackie.”
Yeah, right. She did not voice the opinion, and let herself sag against Nick’s chest, feeling a swell of tears push up behind her eyes. “This isn’t how I want to go.”
“You aren’t going to die in this place,” he said, his arm pulling her more snugly against him.
Tears welled up, and Jackie tried to blink them away. Somehow even blinking was painful. “You don’t know that. I can tell I’m dying here, Nick. Don’t placate me, you’ll piss me off.”