Avenger Page 3

  To her surprise, he first studied the night’s clear sky, leaned forward placing his face right by hers, and inhaled deeply. He’d mercifully closed his eyes for the act, his thick lips pursed together as though he was going to kiss her. Her heart still beat in her chest within her body, and she was willing to bet good money its rate had gone through the roof at this closeness to Luke. She closed her eyes, only to snap them wide open when she found herself about to sniff him back in return.

  After what felt like an hour of inhaling, he murmured, “It’s not working.” He sounded confused and downright pissed.

  “Earth to Weirdo! Why would it work?” Her voice quivered. She didn’t like that.

  He wet his lips, confused still. “How come you don’t have an aura?”

  Pru shook her head. “I have no clue what you’re talking about.”

  “Everyone, except you, has an aura.”

  “I guess I’m a freak of nature then.”

  Luke smirked, mumbling something that sounded like, “that you are.”

  She snapped at him, “What was that?”

  Instead of answering her, he studied the cats now sitting further away from them. “How come they were sitting by your feet?”

  Pru huffed. “You’re full of questions, aren’t you?” When he remained silent, she said, “Remember how I was with animals back in the day? Well, as it turned out, I have an affinity with them. They are drawn to me as I am to them, which explains why I chose my field of work.”

  She studied his rugged and muscular body, his hard merciless eyes, and the dimple in one cheek whenever he smirked. “What have you become? It’s as though I never knew you.”

  He sniggered. “Most of your kind know of me.”

  Tired of his cryptic, short responses, she asked, “And that is?”

  “If you don’t know then I won’t tell you. Why haven’t you settled in a body yet? There are many suicide-prone, drug addicts, and sick people around. Shall I tempt you into entering one?”

  “And why would I want to do that? I still have my body.”

  He sat forward and glanced around in feigned amazement. “Where is it?”

  Whether he was a medium or not, she wasn’t about to tell him how to find her defenseless body. Pru wouldn’t put it past him to do something sick with it.

  He sighed. “I want to send you to where you belong, except you’re not helping.” His eyes narrowed as he stared at her forehead.

  Consciously, Pru touched her hair. “What now?” she asked.

  “The cut on your forehead. Its trace is still visible after all these years.”

  She caressed the scar in question and smiled. “A childhood trophy to prove I owned the neighborhood.”

  Instead of a smile, he blinked slowly at her, as though in thought. So far, his way of thinking wasn’t all that encouraging.

  He turned away from her and cursed wholeheartedly. “This isn’t going anywhere and I need some shuteye.”

  “So, you’ll just leave?” Pru bit her tongue. Yes, she was that desperate for company.

  Luke’s jaw convulsed with a tick. He shook his head, rose, and walked away from her. Was he going to ignore her? Hell if she’d let that happen.

  While she played cat and mouse with him, Pru found herself gaining a bit of confidence, some reassurance that her existence wasn’t hopeless, that there might be a way to get back in her body. She didn’t want to lose the one person who made her feel human. She waved goodbye to the cats and fell in step with him, determined to haunt him like the ghost he tagged her to be. “You’re going home?”

  A side-glance. “Yes, and you’re not invited.”

  Who needs an invitation? Pru had decided they were going to become best buddies until she found someone civilized to talk to or until she got her body back. Whichever came first.

  Chapter Six

  At the shriek of the alarm clock, Luke flung the bed cover and sighed his frustration at the worst sleep he had ever had. He rechecked the time, it was indeed half past three in the afternoon.

  No privacy in my own house.

  Pru had followed him home last night and shadowed every move he made, except when he went to the bathroom. He finally fell into a restless and very much interrupted sleep despite her chatter about the moon and the stars. After that, the night of his death played again through his dreams.

  Luke shook that nightmarish memory from his head and focused on his current problem. Things would have been different if Pru were alive. She could’ve easily chased away the nightmare’s hateful tendrils with those soulful eyes of hers and that wicked chewing she did to her lips. He could rekindle his emotions toward her.

  No sex, of course, he thought to himself. He rolled his eyes skyward, unsure of Celestine’s whereabouts.

  Prudence Hall was his childhood crush and the uncrowned tomboy of the neighborhood in charge of all stray animals and roughnecks on the block. In those days, as much as he wanted her to notice him, he feared her rejection.

  The day Miguel hurled a brick at her forehead for telling him off her best friend, Carmen, was a very memorable day. As far as Luke could recall, it was hard to exercise self-control to refrain from killing Miguel. Still, it felt good to pummel him. To others, Luke claimed he never found him. Even when the other boy showed up in the neighborhood all blue, green, and purple, Luke maintained his claim of innocence. Miguel, for his part, knew what was good for him and avoided Luke’s path whenever possible.

  As Luke’s life grew more complicated, Pru disappeared from his mind, except whenever he glimpsed red wavy hair. Now here she was, a spirit that wouldn’t possess him and wouldn’t go away. She’d brought a new meaning to the word haunting. Luckily, the sun was up and he would enjoy a peaceful day without her presence. With a lazy smile spreading his lips, he rose to his feet, stretched to pop a couple of joints and froze.

  Pru was sitting on his windowsill, twiddling her fingers at him, smiling the most adorable morning smile he ever saw.

  “Fuck!”

  “And good morning to you too,” Pru said. She sounded proud of herself.

  “I can see you!” Luke exclaimed.

  “I wondered about the same thing last night. Remember?”

  “This isn’t normal. I shouldn’t be able to see you during the day.”

  “I would’ve offered you breakfast, but I go through things. Not that you have anything to go through in your kitchen cabinets anyway.” There was a giggle in her voice.

  “Celestine!”

  Pru glanced around sarcastically. “Who’s that? Your butler?”

  Unbidden, the image of Celestine in a black suit, hair jelled back, and a tray in his hand flashed through Luke’s head. He couldn’t hold back a grin.

  Pru stared at him, blinking. “You have teeth in your mouth. You can actually smile,” she said in awe.

  “You called?” Celestine asked, hovering by the bed, sounding exactly like Lurch of the Adams Family show.

  Luke cracked up with laughter, unable to stop himself.

  Celestine solidified and approached him. “Is something the matter?”

  The only thing that slowed down Luke’s laughing fit was the way Pru stared at his mouth—no, his lips—with a wistful smile tugging on one corner of hers. He wiped the tears streaming from his eyes and glanced at Celestine, modulating his speech with soft snorts as laughter dwindled. “Remember the spirit I was talking to last night? The one you couldn’t see.”

  “Yes,” Celestine said.

  “Who?” Pru asked.

  Luke turned to Pru, “I’m talking to Celestine now.”

  “Who’s Celestine?”

  “He’s my…counselor,” Luke said, hesitant to share too much information with her.

  “I take it she is here now,” Celestine said.

  Luke nodded.

  “You need a therapist, not a counselor,” Pru said and crossed her arms over her chest.

  This three-sided conversation with two entities unaware of each other gr
ew tiresome and humorless. He turned to Pru. “You wait.” He faced Celestine. “Why am I seeing her during the day? Usually this is possible only at night.”

  Celestine hovered silently for a while, during which Pru stared at Luke as though he was insane. She might be right, Luke thought.

  “If we consider the basics, what you see at night is the aura. What color was her aura last night?”

  Luke shook his head. “She didn’t have one.”

  “If you saw her without the aid of an aura at night, it stands to reason you will be able to see her during the day.”

  Luke asked, “You think I lost it, don’t you?” The bitterness in his voice surprised him because Celestine’s opinion of him hadn’t bothered him before.

  “For the record, I think you’re insane,” Pru said.

  Luke growled with frustration, he couldn’t carry out this conversation, not while he was torn between his sanity and lunacy. In a moment of pure desperation, he pulled on his shorts’ elastic band. “I know what will make you leave,” he said to Pru.

  Her hands shot to her mouth, her dark eyes bulged out of their sockets. “You wouldn’t.”

  Luke smirked and made as though he were about to lower his shorts.

  “Oh, gross!” She floated through the wall and out of the room.

  “Was that necessary?”

  Was that a hint of amusement in Celestine’s voice?

  Releasing the elastic band, Luke said, “You don’t see her so you missed the priceless look on her face when I…well you know.”

  Celestine hovered in the air for a short while and then asked, “How did you know she would react in this manner?”

  Even though Pru had no problem using profanity, her only deterrent in the good old days was raunchy acts. “She struck me as the shy type.”

  “Interesting.” Again that amusement.

  Luke headed to the bathroom. “Any idea what type of entity Pru is?”

  “She has a name? No, I do not know what entities exist without an aura and, or, a physical manifestation. However, I do not know everything there is in the universe.”

  Celestine hadn’t dismissed Pru’s existence as a figment of Luke’s imagination and he was grateful for that. “What about the Pit Keeper? Any ideas?”

  “We shall wait and see how these matters unfold. We might learn something that will enlighten us to Pru’s existence as well as the unexplainable possessions.”

  Meanwhile, Luke would have to settle for the self-assurance that he wasn’t losing his mind. That he wasn’t imagining his teenaged crush.

  That he wasn’t being wangled by her spirit.

  ****

  By the time Luke finished his routine at the gym, darkness had claimed the sky as its own. Stepping out of the gym, he walked casually in the direction of the cinemaplex across the street. The only movie showing at that time was a romance flick that would most probably grate on his nerves. He bought a ticket and stepped in the hall, the thick carpet muffling his steps.

  “I would’ve never pegged you a girly-mushy movies fan,” Pru said right next to him.

  Luke rolled his eyes. “For the love of God, will you just let go?”

  She opened her eyes wide. “I can’t.” She moved her hands as though wafting a scent toward her. “You have this animal magnetism about you that just draws me in.”

  Her teasing words constricted his chest, words the younger Luke would have savored, even as a mock. The laugh in her voice made him turn toward her. “I don’t, usually, but there are exceptions to the rule.”

  Confused, she asked, “You don’t what?”

  “I don’t watch this kind of movies but I have a job to do and it takes me to odd places at times.”

  “Hmm.” She walked silently by his side until he sat. “The theater is half empty. Why crowd yourself by sitting behind someone?”

  “Shh,” he said. Others in the theater would think him odd talking to himself.

  A couple were locked in a face sucking contest on the last row, a fat middle aged man sat alone in the middle of the theater, and a group of giggly teenage girls huddled on their seats, waiting with anticipation for the movie to begin. The main reason behind his silence, however, was the woman sitting in front of him. If she noticed him, she might leave along with her unwanted hitchhiker.

  “Don’t shush me. Besides, it’s okay to like these movies. They’re not my type of course, but hey, everyone has a quirk.”

  He glanced at her, eyebrow raised. A quirk? He’d noticed this woman’s unusual orange aura as he stepped out of the gym. Celestine had run him through the Laymour’s aura color system and there was no mention of an orange one.

  “Don’t look so stunned, even I used to have a quirk,” Pru said, pulling him out of his thoughts.

  He looked at her quizzically, daring her to explain.

  “You must remember how I couldn’t pass a pocket without dipping in it.” She raised her chin proudly.

  Luke snorted, he did remember.

  “Don’t laugh, it’s not a small thing. It started as a party trick to impress others but then it became a distorted habit I couldn’t break from. I’m no thief, I always returned what I lifted. I had to go cold turkey by immersing myself in busy places like malls and such. More pockets, less opportunities to return what I took, and more risk. It was an addiction that made me waste so many days daydreaming up where I would go next. Eventually I had to stop, worry was eating up Mom and…” Her voice choked up and she turned aside.

  She was missing her old life. It somehow hurt Luke to know she suffered this way. A girl like her shouldn’t be throwing herself at anyone just to get noticed. He shook his head, it didn’t matter. She was not alive, and that did matter.

  She cleared her throat and turned back to him. “I guess you’re here to exorcise someone. Who?”

  Deciding to humor her, he pointed at the woman before him.

  Gaze on the woman’s head, Pru asked, “Why?”

  “Orange aura,” he whispered.

  “Orange isn’t good?”

  He nodded.

  “I thought orange aura meant protection, which would make her a good person. Look at her, she’s not dangling from the ceiling or spewing colored puke.”

  “Doesn’t work like that,” he said.

  The woman turned back, glared at him, and faced the screen again.

  Luke rolled his eyes. For fuck’s sake, previews were playing. The movie hadn’t even started yet.

  Since Pru wouldn’t leave, the best option was to get her to do the talking. He leaned toward her and whispered, “Tell me about you.”

  “What do you want to know?”

  He sighed. “Everything.”

  Another glare from the front seat.

  Pru pursed her lips as though considering his request. “Okay. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not dead. I was driving with some friends to a concert when I had an accident. Then, boom! I’m like this.” She went silent for a while. “Being like this sucks big time.”

  Even though he’d tried to focus on the woman before him, the sadness in Pru’s voice pulled his attention back to her. “What did you do for a job?”

  This time the woman didn’t turn. Either she gave up on him or was totally into the movie that had just started.

  “I work at an animal shelter where I get to be around my favorite creatures.”

  He nodded remembering how animals surrounded her in the park. He slowly drew out the spiritual dagger.

  “Purty,” she whispered in awe, gaze fixed to the small shell in his hand.

  He glanced at his hand and smiled. When not extended, the dagger was curled on itself like a small twinkling seashell. He flicked his hand once and the dagger extended to its full length, a spark of light pulsed through it. Its sharp tip would not break skin unless he stabbed a host who had bonded with the spirit possessing him or her. Its usual use was to break through the chakra in the middle of a host’s forehead to allow Luke the opportunity to inhale the spirit ou
t of the body.

  “Whoa! Not purty anymore,” Pru said, drawing away from him. “What do you think you’re going to do with that?” Her gaze shifted to the woman. “Oh, no. You’re not gonna cap her off.”

  Luke called on the Spirit Within him to take over and pale his appearance. Pru’s jaw dropped open, fear evident in her gaze. “What are you?” Without waiting for an answer she glanced around, yelling, “Help! Anybody. This guy is an assassin.”

  Luke smirked. Good luck with that, he thought.

  He slunk to the edge of the seat and leaned forward, one hand poised to touch the woman’s neck, to turn her swiftly to him.

  Pru uttered an ear-shattering shriek and leapt at him, or rather through him. The heat of her immersion in him flared every nerve end in his body. He experienced sunshine, spring breeze, and warmth radiating from his skin—unlike what he usually felt while inhaling a spirit. They were badly timed pleasant emotions.

  He yelled at her, “Don’t do that.”

  The possessed woman swiveled about and froze at the sight of the dagger hoisted in the air above her. Her gaze flicked to his paled appearance and she shot to her feet, following Pru’s shriek with one of her own. This one was heard. Even though the theater’s lights were dimmed, Luke was facing the bright screen. Hurriedly, he switched on his shifting power, which rendered his face vibratory, allowing no clear grasp of his features.

  Luke ignored Pru—now face down on the seat beside him—and dashed to the exit. The movie was stopped, lights were coming on, and some of the other cinemagoers were drifting to the woman while others, like the teenage girls, huddled together.

  He waited at one corner of the cinema, hoping to catch the woman on her way home. Instead, he witnessed the arrival of a police car.

  “Brilliant!”

  It wasn’t a total loss. The woman frequented the same gym he did, a second meeting was possible.

  Pru, however, had proved to be a difficult companion. Her clear thinking during her teen years had turned to soft feminine impulses that affected his work. Luke scrubbed a hand down his face.