"Good point," he said. "Why didn't it trip Rhonda?"

"Maybe because I saw it?"

I pursed my lips. Maybe--but I wasn't buying that. Instead I moved away from the two of them and started looking at the walls and the ceiling. There were a couple of shadowy places to the right, where the banister of the cut-through met the brick wall. And there was another one on the opposite side where a part of the brick stuck out further than the main wall.

Oh, and there was always behind the bar.

My heart pounding in my chest, I moved slowly to the bar, my hands out at my side and I braced myself against the bar before looking over the side.

Nothing. Though it was shadowy.

"Hey Zoe," Rhonda called out. "Why don't you go OOB and take a look? For all we know they're right here and we can't see them."

Good point. Only--why did I suddenly have stage fright?

Maybe it was because even though I was now weird, I didn't like things weird. The Phantasm I'd met a few weeks back was the icing on the cake to a constant stream of poltergeists (back in October), succubus, and symbionts.

Oh yeah. My life. Want one?

I looked around the area and decided on a nice, open spot where I could snuggle my body up behind the piano, braced by the wall, but not as easy to get too. I nudged myself in there and lay down.

"What is she doing?" Dags asked.

"You'll see."

And in seconds I was out of my body and standing up. I sieved through the piano--wood wasn't so bad--and moved closer to where they stood.

Dags' eyes widened until they looked as if they were going to explode. His mouth was perfect O. I smiled at him and nodded. So--is this what you saw that day at Fado's?

He nodded. "Yeah--" he looked me up and down. "I don't remember the bunny slippers though."

I glanced down at my black bunny slippers and tapped my feet. Yeah, this is apparently the uniform my subconscious likes to put me in. I could look just like I look right now if you like?

Dags shook his head. "No. The bunnies work for me." He looked at Rhonda. "OOB. Out of body."

She beamed.

He beamed.

I stuck my tongue out and shoved my finger inside of my open mouth. Gross you two. Get a room so you can geek in private.

So--I looked around--concentrating on the shadows. Oh, I saw things. Gray images of faces, eyes, things that looked like that cla.s.sic painting of The Scream. But little Shadow People? Or wee men in brown suits? Nope.

Until-- "Zoe?"

I knew the sound of that voice. I turned from where I was at the bar and saw Dags and Rhonda standing near the stairs, just in front of the cut-through. They were looking at the opposite wall.

No--not really. They were looking at two very distinct images in front of the Christmas tree.

Dags, you see them?

He nodded. "I see something. It's not really people. More like.."

"It's a shimmering in front of the tree." Rhonda said. "Like heat coming off of hot pavement on a hot summer day--" she pointed. "Wait, did you see that?"

What I saw was something totally different. They did look like people--though very small people. No more than three feet high. They were reed thin in odd places. Instead of having thin arms and legs, they were thin in the torso, and a little wider along their arms--and their legs--they had no feet.

And no faces. Just--well--they looked like they were made of shadows. And also like we'd discussed at mom's. Like I wasn't quite seeing them all the way.

Well, you two don't look like Brownies.

And for some wacko reason, one of them paid attention, because it turned and looked at me.

Yow!

And it had eyes. Two pinpoints of lights and they were focused on me. And they looked-- Menacing.

I could have sworn I heard it hissing.

Oh no you di'n.

"Are they looking at your body?" Dags said.

My body. Oh good grief no--not again. Another ent.i.ty wanting my body to ride around in like Rai had? I started forward and the one watching me vanished.

And it was in front of me. It didn't have a mouth per se--but it did have a weird oval shaped darker area where a mouth should be and the little f.u.c.ker was batting at me with his hands.

It never actually touched me--and I almost laughed at it.

Until I heard Rhonda yell out.

I looked away from the tiny Brute trying to take me down to see the other one running at Dags and Rhonda. And too late I realized what it meant to do.

They were standing right in front of the cut-through. One good shove and it could knock one of them if not both of them backwards and over the banister. It would take a good physical knock--but then they had tripped me in my physical body.

I moved through the little b.u.g.g.e.r in front of me as it continued to hiss and flail. I had to get to the other one and knock it over somehow. I was sure Dags and Rhonda couldn't see it clearly or they'd be getting out of the way.

Before I could get there a blinding light stopped me right in my tracks. And it was a painful light--close to a hundred suns against my skin. I put my hands up to ward it off and still felt it--almost as if it singed my astral skin.

I managed to look through the light as it faded--and my jaw dropped to the floor. The little shadow man that had tried to attack me was gone. So was the other one.

What I saw was Rhonda huddled down on the floor against the banister. And Dags-- Well Dags was standing with his feet spread wide, his right hand out, palm facing where the shadow person had charged him, almost as if he'd meant to push it away. A white light was dimming from the center of his palm.

WTF?.

And then the light was gone. Dags stayed still with his hand straight out like that for a few minutes. On his palm I swear I saw glowing, spinning circles before he looked at me and gave me a very wan smile. Finally he shifted his weight and stood up straight before cradling his right hand against his chest.

"I guess I have some s'planin to do, huh Lucy?"

I glared at him. I don't know how I knew it, but I knew it. Maybe it was Mom's constant spouting off of things she knew, or maybe I'd actually stumbled on it in a book. But I knew.

I knew it for certain.

I pointed at him a la Body s.n.a.t.c.hers. The only thing I didn't do was hiss. You're a magician!

CHAPTER FOUR.

Dags held his hands up. I just stood there in my all-together-astral with my mouth hanging down to my feet. And Rhonda?

She was looking at the bartender as if he were Brad Pitt--with a b.u.g.g.e.r hanging out of his nose.

"You're--" she twisted her already-peculiar expression into something else. "What are you?"

Dags sighed and lowered his hands. "Hey, I'm just like you. Flesh and blood, but with a little added suh-um, suh-um in the brain pan that lets me see things." He waved the index finger of his right hand in the air. "Weird things. Made for some pretty weird childhood adventures."

"So you see ghosts," Rhonda said. "And you can like--shoot light at them?" She held her arms out and up in a gesture of frustration. "I can see ghosts and I can't shoot light out of my hand."

"That wasn't as cool as it looked. I can explain how to do that and how it--" he put his hand to his forehead and stumbled back, his eyes closing.

Look out--he's gonna fall over!

I was beside him before Rhonda could react. I managed to become solid enough to grab him sideways. He didn't completely pa.s.s out, but it was obvious his knees weren't working.

Geez--he might be short but he weighed a ton.

Rhonda grabbed a chair off of a table and scooted it over. I gave a silent groan as he half helped me get him into the chair. He bent over at the waist, putting his head between his knees. The hair from his ponytail splayed out all around his shoulders, giving a blue-black sheen from the light filtering in through the window.

Rhonda went to the bar, grabbed a gla.s.s from the overhead shelf. I heard the tink of ice being dumped in and then the faucet.

Now why didn't I think about doing that? In fact-- I moved back to my own body and slipped in, stretching as I stood up and headed to the bar to pour myself a couple of gla.s.ses of ice water. I was dying of thirst. So, I stood at the bar and watched the two of them as I guzzled.

Mental Note: water...it does a body good.

"Thanks," Dags said as he took the gla.s.s and drank down half of it.

Oooh..careful, I thought as he drank so fast. Or you're gonna get-- Dags winced and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh...brain freeze."

I smiled. I liked him. He was a bit weird. And he might be a little kinky. But I liked him.

Rhonda took the gla.s.s back. "So--does that happen often too?"

"Only when I react like that--on the spur. I'm not prepared for it." He smiled at her and tucked stray strands of hair behind his ears. He looked a little pale. And I was kinda happy that for once it wasn't me recuperating from something.

Eh--give it time. This is me talking here.

"What do you mean prepared for it?" Rhonda poked at him. Leave it to the goth-chick. She'd make Batman fear her.

I finished off my second gla.s.s of water and stuck it under the tap again. This was good water. And I could probably drink all there was.

"If I'm going to be going into a dangerous situation, I can usually psyche myself up for that kind of thing. But I didn't think," he paused. "I really didn't think this time would be dangerous."

"So those little shadow people don't usually just bust out like that?"

I drank half of the third gla.s.s, only half paying attention to the two of them. It was kinda boring, and I'd rather be at the hospital in Daniel's room. There was this nagging anxiety at the back of my neck--so afraid he'd wake up and I wouldn't be there. Not only did I want to see those gorgeous blues again--I wanted to know what the last thing he saw was.

Me--or the Wraith?

I moved the gla.s.s away from my face at that thought and frowned. Since when did I start really distinguishing me from what I did? Was that such a good idea? And where the h.e.l.l was the rulebook for this?

My stomach growled--since I really didn't eat much cold breakfast. I set the gla.s.s down and started looking around the bar, opening drawers and cabinets. Didn't bars have like peanuts or something snacky?

"So is it something natural you learned? Part of your seeing ghosts? 'Cause honestly, I can see ghosts--well most ghosts. I don't see shades."

"Me neither. I can sense there's something there--but I can't see them."

"It's really annoying, isn't it?" Rhonda said.

"Yeah--but what I just did wasn't because I have some special power, but because I got these--"

I was crouched down behind the bar when he said that, so I popped up and looked over at the two of them. He had his hands up, palms facing Rhonda.

Rhonda backed up with her mouth open. "You--you had summonings tattooed on your palms?"

He beamed.

I frowned. He had what? I moved from the bar and stood beside Rhonda. Yeah, Dags had some weird concentric circles tattooed on both palms. There were little squiggles on each one, a little different. Kinda like mirror images. But even as I stared at them the images faded to a light red, about the color of my own mark, and then faded away.

Is that normal?

Dags nodded to me. "Yeah, they do that after I stop using them. But they're always there. I can feel them."

"Do you realize what you've done--how dangerous that is?" Rhonda didn't seem happy. Should I seem unhappy too? I mimicked her frown just to be sure. "You could summon accidentally."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Dags took the water from Rhonda's hand and finished it. No brain-freeze. "But I didn't do it."

I pursed my lips. Well no, you b.o.o.b. You can't tattoo yourself. Well, you could, but I doubt the pain would make it fun.

He looked at me and made a face. "That's not what I meant. I mean I didn't choose to have these things on my hands. I sort of got involved in a really weird--group."

A cult?