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“Persistent little thing, aren’t you?”
Turning my body so I faced away from the fire escape, I swung backwards and forwards like a trapeze artist gaining momentum. Once my legs came higher than the height of my arms, I propelled them back over my head and let go.
I landed on my knees, skinning them on the metal. I hissed and gave the ghost an unhappy look as blood oozed to the surface.
Once again she pointed up.
At least this time I could take the stairs.
When we reached the roof, all of New York was laid out before us, sparkling like a Christmas fairy tale.
The ghost stood on the edge of the rooftop, and even though she was already dead, my stomach churned nervously to see her perched so close to falling. She was staring east and turned to look at me over her shoulder. Her tiara glittered in the moonlight.
“What do you want me to see?” I pleaded, moving to stand next to her. With her ghostly hand, she touched my cheek, and a chill stung me. She motioned again, her hand coming right through my face so I could see which way her finger pointed.
“Long Island?”
The chill left me, and when I looked at her she smiled. Then a breeze skirted the rooftop and she broke apart like fog, vanishing into the night.
Chapter Ten
“Tell me exactly what she said. ” Desmond was kneeling in front of me while I sat on the edge of my pink bathtub. He was dutifully cleaning my ravaged knees, getting out slivers of rust before my body healed itself.
He wore his black boxer briefs and a rumpled gray tank top, and his hair stuck out in all directions. Seeing him like this stirred my blood with something different than simple lust. I put my hand on his muscular shoulder and squeezed when he removed a shard of metal from my skin.
“She didn’t say anything. She was a ghost. ”
He dropped the washcloth onto the floor and rocked back on his heels, crouching before me with a predatory stare. It was easy for me to forget there was a monster in him, but sometimes he let it drift to the surface. In those moments he could scare the hell out of me. He didn’t have to say anything else.
“She wanted me to see Long Island,” I told him.
“Why?”
“I don’t know. ” And I really didn’t. I knew where she’d died. I could step out my front door and see the school. So she wasn’t directing me to anywhere that would hold clues to her death. But there was something across the river she wanted me to know about, something I had to look for.
I’d searched all of Manhattan, so maybe it was time to start looking farther afield.
Desmond got to his feet and pulled me up with him. He brushed my tempest-strewn hair behind my ears. In turn, I tried to pat down his own wild waves.
“Are you sure you weren’t dreaming?”
I looked down at my knees—already mostly healed—then back to him.
“Okay,” he admitted. “Stupid question. ”
“Trust me, I wish I knew what she wanted. Long Island isn’t the most helpful clue. ”
“Well, we’ll be there tomorrow night. So if your ghost wants you to see anything in and around Sunnyside, she’s in luck. ”
I faked a smile, but he wasn’t buying it.
“I’m going to give you an early Christmas present. I think it’ll cheer you up,” he said.
I nestled closer and palmed his package, my eyes going innocent and inquiring.
“You’re insatiable. ” He laughed, letting me fondle him for a moment before gently pushing my hand away. “But I think you’ll like this more. ”
I snorted. “Unless you’ve cloned yourself and we’re about to have a very confusing three-way, I doubt it. ”
