Page 48 of Want Me, Take Me, Haunt Me, Make Me

She told her brain that it was quoting a racist old movie and that its imitation of a Southern accent was awful. That sort of helped.

They walked with caution, stopping in doorways to peer around and listen for more noises. Hazel kept her eyes on their surroundings even more than she probably really had to. She suspected Ligat was doing the same.

“Have you been here before?” she couldn’t help asking as he turned confidently down one narrow street. The buildings on either side were bulbous structures, once a variety of bright colors and now faded to shabby pastels. Half-moon windows opened in their sides. Hazel didn’t look in.

Ligat shook his head. “One always moves counterclockwise to exit ethereal places if there’s no obvious way out.”

“Oh,” said Hazel, adding that to her list of notes. Whatever happened to her, her contacts—and the occult world at large, in its roundabout way—would learn a lot.

For the first time since they’d left their temporary shelter, she felt Ligat eyeing her. “If I ask how you found me,” he said, “I suspect you won’t answer.”

“No.” Learned politeness told Hazel she should follow that with an apology, but their circumstances made it ludicrous. “You have most of the cards in this game. I’m keeping mine to myself.”

Besides, while she didn’t know if other spirits could hurt Casper, she didn’t want to find out. Ligat and his master might ignore the dog if they thought he was just another wayward ghost, but letting them know he could track through the ethereal would probably make him a target.

The city blurred around them as they walked, becoming a watercolor and then an abstract. The sound of their footsteps on the stone softened and disappeared. Hazel found that more of a relief than she should have; the ether had plenty of predators besides the skinless horse-things, but the streets around her didn’t look like the ones Ligat had fled through with her over his shoulder, and her mind no longer felt so bruised.

Ligat abruptly cleared his throat. “My apologies for not mentioning it before,” he said, “but I don’t—that is, I don’t believe I can father children anymore. If I’m mistaken—”

“Oh,” said Hazel, blinking. She hadn’t even thought about that potential consequence. “My IUD’s good for another three years.”

“I…” He glanced down at her, confused, and she noticed for the first time that his eyebrows were more brown than black. She thought his hair might be the same, but the hood made it difficult to tell. “…I’m glad to hear it.”

“Well, I’m glad to know you’re not, um, magically enhanced in that regard.”

“It wouldn’t be possible.” Ligat paused, frowned, and then shook his head. “That is, I’ve never heard of it. Growth isn’t one of my master’s areas of concern. Another demon may have those powers.”

“I’ll bear that in mind if I meet any other minions.” Hazel watched the dark figure walk beside her, tall and purposeful, and turned over both his unfamiliarity with the concept of an IUD and how he’d said he couldn’t father childrenanymore. “You were human once, weren’t you?”

Ligat turned burning eyes on her before giving his answer in a completely flat voice. “Yes. I was.”

“How long has it been?”

He’d been expecting a second question, but not that one. Hazel could tell by his sudden blank look. “A century?” he said and shrugged. “I forget exact dates. Time slips away out here.”

Despite his boss and his mission, Hazel couldn’t help wincing in sympathy. Maybe Ligat had started working for the demon knowingly, maybe he’d even signed upbecausehe’d get immortality out of it, but he’d answered with a resignation that very clearly said he wasn’t thrilled about the results.

“I bet,” she replied, because any other response felt like wading into even more dangerous waters. She focused on the street again, watching how even the sketch of it faded as they walked on, dissipating into the blue mist of the ethereal. The buildings around them had almost gone, too, and the marble blur of a gateway stood up ahead.

“I can escort you back,” said Ligat.

Hazel shook her head. “Back is the easy part.” Travel from the open ethereal was very quick if you knew your destination. “Besides, I’m sure you have better things to do.”

They passed under the gate. A faint roaring sound like waves filled Hazel’s ears, the noise that transition between formed and unformed sections always caused, and then she was standing in the open ethereal.

Ligat turned to face her, eyes like embers, the swirling half-familiar shapes of his tattoos glowing on his cheeks and forehead. “As you say.” He sketched a bow that was more than half sarcastic. “Until we meet again.”

No potential response to that seemed right.Go to hellfelt weird, between the sex and the temporary alliance, not to mention that it was probably redundant.Have a nice dayortake care of yourselfwere obvious lies. “See you around,” Hazel finally said before she headed off.

That one was almost a guarantee.

Chapter 25

A firm mental picture and about a block’s worth of walking, if she could go by the way her legs felt, brought Hazel to the edge of her yard. Its ethereal form was more defined than it had been when she’d summoned the dryad. The trees didn’t look totally real yet, but Hazel could see branches and the suggestion of leaves, not just blurs. She was shaping the place. Anybody living there would, but it was happening faster for her, whether because of her actions or her nature.

Thinking of her nature made her check the wound on her hip, bracing herself first. Between sex, journeys in the ethereal, and running away from the horse-things, she’d done enough to make any normal injury worse, and the demon bite had been spreading already. She was prepared to see the lines of contamination reaching further or turning into wide gashes.

They hadn’t changed at all.