Between (13 page)

He looks down. "Can you get up?"

"You could be a gentleman and help me up, since you seem so bloody keen on being my knight in shining armour."

He squats down. "Remember what happened when I touched you last night?"

I struggle to sit. "When you kissed me, you mean?"

Alek
closes his eyes. I’m too tired and sick for this bullshit. I roll onto my side and push myself onto my hands and knees, head down, trying not to vomit.

"See what he does to you?"

"It’s not him, it’s the after-effects of the accident."

Alek
sits on the floor next to me. Something in his face reflects pain, morphing from the anger I just saw directed at Finn. "No, it isn’t, Rose. He wants your life. Every time you get close to him, you die a little."

"No. That’s crazy."

"If he had any guts, he’d just do it. He's supposed to be fixing his mistake. I don't know what his game is, and I don't believe a word he says."

I push myself into a sitting position, tears annoyingly on their way. "Fixing his mistake?"

“He’s the one who fucked up and let you live. He’s here to send you to the Void, technically killing you. He's getting rid of the abomination he created."

"Huh, nice...There's me
, thinking you liked me."

Alek
gives a half-smile. "We're both mistakes, although some of us don't see things that way."

I swallow. "How
... how could he...kill me if I'm not alive? Can't I take his energy?"

"How did you feel when he touched you? The same as when we touch?" he asks. "Did he feel
cold?"

"Yeah."

Alek rubs his face. "He's not human either, Rose. His energy is very different. He’s powerful. "

“
Then if he wants to kill me, he'd have done it by now."

"I'm not sure
; maybe he's using his extra time to kill a few more people at the hospital. Easy targets."

"Is that what Reapers do? Like the Grim Reaper? He seems like such a nice guy."

Alek snorts. "They help people cross over when they die. They choose where to send the souls. So, it's likely he's the one killing people, isn’t it?"

"And you? A Reaper did this to you
, too?"

"You look ill, Rose
; we should talk about this later," he says evasively.

I curl up and rest my head on my knees. "Why couldn't I get out of the house? Did you do
something?"

"No, what happened?"

"That's why Finn came; I was stuck, like there was a barrier at the door or something."

Alek
rubs his eyes and the genuine confusion in his face suggests he wasn’t the one trapping me in the house. Lizzie?

"Why
didn’t you call me instead of Finn?" he asks

"Because I'm a bit scared of you,
Alek," I admit in a small voice.

Alek
shuffles forward. "Don't be, please. Last night, I gave you my energy to replace the energy the ghost in the street took from you. I took energy from Clarissa, sent her to the Void, and gave it to you. If I hadn't, you'd have gone."

"Gone where?"

He shakes his head and breathes deeply, wincing slightly.

"But you gave too much? Is that why you look ill?" I ask.

Alek holds a hand up then squeezes his fingers, as if trying to stop himself touching me. "I never give. Ever. But I had to help you."

"Why me?"

"Because you're the first person like me I've met for many years."

Alek
touches my face and I jerk at the heat of his touch, his electricity trickling from his fingers across my skin. He awakens every nerve ending in my body, overwhelming me. Embarrassingly, a small gasp escapes my lips and his eyes zone in on my mouth.

"Since last night…I want to touch you again. When I first saw you
, I was aware of the strength of the energy inside you and knew exactly how taking that could make me feel." I shrink away from him and wrap my arms around myself. "No, I don't want to take. I want to share and feel again what I felt last night. I don’t care how I was afterwards."

Alek
is wet from the rain; the smell of his damp hair and leather surrounds and replaces the supernatural with the human. Now that we’re close again, the only thing my crazy brain wants is for him to kiss me. Talk of reapers, energy, demons, and death is forcibly shoved out by one thought: Alek. I throw myself at him and he tips backward, catching himself on his arms. Winding my arm around his neck, I search his mouth with mine, pulling his bottom lip into my mouth and biting. Crazily, I climb onto his lap, pushing my face into his.

He loosens his arms to take hold of me
, and then leans backward so I’m lying on top of him. Alek’s darkened eyes search mine briefly before he grabs my head. "Fuck, Rose…"

The following
, crushing kiss pulls me away from the insanity whirling around the mist inside my head. How does he do this? Does he know or just presume he's so hot I can't resist throwing myself at him? This time, his hard lips don't stay on mine long; he pulls my head away.

Alek's
heart thumps against mine, and I look into his pale face. He runs his tongue along his bottom lip and inhales sharply.

"Sorry." I climb off him, heat of shame replacing my sudden desire.

"This is a new experience for me." He sinks back onto the floor again and wipes a hand across his face. "I'm not used to people reacting to me like this, not recently."

The last few hours shifted everything in my world
and I’m lost in a craziness I don’t think will change soon. If I stay in this room and share the desire I see in Alek’s eyes, I suspect my dignity will be the next thing I lose. I can’t cope with anything else, not now. Without another word to Alek, I leave the room.

CHAPTER
12

The first place I have to visit at work the next morning
is the morgue to drop some files off. This means I’ll see my new friend Tom Jones. I groan inwardly, but maybe he’s the most sensible of them all.

"Hello, Miss Rose," he grins through a mouthful of chocolate.

I shove the trolley full of files toward him. I’m on a tight schedule, but he might be able to help. "You can see ghosts, is that right?"

He raises an eyebrow. "
Are you trying to be funny?”

"Are you really a psychic? Can you see ghosts?"

"I can see people doing weird stuff. Things I don’t think they should be." He taps the side of his nose, and I decide my recent conversations with Alek have addled my brain. Standing in the relative normality of my workplace, the events of last night seem less real; today is what’s real. Normal. Although, I’m unsure Tom fits into the ‘normal’ category.

"What do they do?" I ask.

He sinks back in his chair. "I can tell you all about what’s happening, if you like. Just not here."

"Where then?"

"I like beer." He grins broadly, showing me chocolate-covered teeth.

"Fine. I have a lunch break around one
o’clock. How about you?"

"Luckily enough
, that’s my lunch break, too!" He sounds too delighted to me.

"Can you meet me at the Kings Arms
around one then?"

"It’s a date!"

"Um. No, it’s not."

****

The pub is almost empty, apart from other hospital staff taking time out. I position myself in a dark corner, as far from the door and bar as I can, to wait with a glass of Coke and a pint of beer on the table in front of me.

On time, almost to the second, Tom arrives. I’ve only seen him sitting, so his tall and skinny frame is a surprise. He reminds me of a giraffe with his red hair and long face. Certainly there’s no resemblance between him and his singing
-star namesake; I can’t see women wanting to throw their underwear at him. Tom waves and approaches the bar. I point to his pint but he waves a hand at me. When Tom comes to the table and sits on the leather stool opposite me, he has a packet of crisps in his hand. I suspect his diet is why he looks as pasty in here as he does in the depths of the hospital.

The packet crinkles as he rips it open, unashamedly stuffing crisps in his mouth. "Working down there makes me hungry," he says through a mouthful.

"All that sitting on your backside must be tiring."

He frowns at me. "The ghosts and the other... people, they suck the energy out of the air around
them."

A shudder trips down my spine.
Alek.
Me
. "So, you’ve seen ghosts?"

He ignores me. "Did you know there were other people like you working in the hospital?" he whispers.

"Like me?"

Licking salt from his fingers, he studies me. "Have they found you yet? Are you working for them?"

"What
are
you talking about?"

Tom leans over and pulls a notepad out of his rucksack. He flicks through it and comes to a list of names. I crane my head. "Why have you got my name in your book?"

"Your story was in the news; the girl who died for half an hour, and then came back to life. Nobody can die for half an hour and then live. You were all over the internet."

"Because of the sex tape?"

His eyes widen. "What?"

"I'm joking, Tom! Why the hell am I on the internet?"

Tom sits up straight and smiles proudly. "I'm a paranormal investigator; there's a few of us. We monitor the internet for reports needing to be investigated, and then gather information to share. That's how I found you."

Great, he's a
looney tune.

"Are you stalking me?" I ask him slowly. "Because
I’ll go to the police."

He ignores me. "Do you know any others?"

"Any other what?"

"People who should be dead."

I wait for an amused smile but Tom’s serious. What’s worse is every word he says backs up what Alek said.

"Do you know
Alek?" I ask.

"He's one of you."

"And what am I?"

"I’m not sure. But others like you are in the hospital. They…get rid of ghosts."

"Oh, cool. I’m a ghostbuster..." I say, voice laden with sarcasm.

He slurps his pint,
and then wipes the foam from his lips with the back of his hand. "People like you need energy. Not sugar and crap, but energy from people or ghosts. The ones like you at the hospital come into the morgue…to feed."

He should have a low voice, be leaning forward and whispering secretly. But he’s practically announcing this to the world around him
, and I’m relieved we sat where we did.

"I eat food," I retort
.

"Do you eat much?"

"Do I look like I eat a lot?"

"You look different to last time I saw you
, not as ill. Did you feed on a ghost? Or are you feeding off people?"

"What the hell?" I make to stand and he puts his hand on mine before withdrawing it as if I’ve burnt him.

"Not on purpose; you can’t help it. You absorb it from those around you. That’s why people don’t really like you much."

I open my mouth to retort and look back into his intent face. "Are you going to put this information about me on the internet?"

"No, I have the links about your... kind if you want to see." He rips a corner from his notebook and scrawls a web address. "Thing is, Rose, I think something dark is happening. I’m not sure what, but more people are dying at the hospital than statistically should be."

Statistically? Is he keeping count? "What’s happening?"

"That’s what we’re trying to find out!" he says, putting his pen on the table. "Will you help? And can I help you?"

"Help me what?"

"Stay out of it, survive."

Finn.
The uneasy feeling he could be involved re-enters. "What do you know about Reapers?"

"Reapers. Ooh. What are they? Like four
horsemen?"

Obviously not.
"It doesn’t matter."

"Are they like you?"

This gangly, auburn-haired guy could be my only human ally; although, I doubt he’d be much use against an army of supernatural creatures.

"I have to go," I tell him.

Tom glances around as if he’s a secret agent then pulls his phone out. "Can I have your number?"

"I don’t think so." I picture a tribe of nerdy paranormal investigators stalking me.

"Okay, here’s mine." He scrawls on a beer mat and slides it over. "If you need help, or more information, let me know."

I gawk at his proud confidence. From what he’s told me, I don’t think he realises what he’s dealing with.