Read Online Unclean Spirits by M. L. N. Hanover - Free Book Online Page A

making the air heavy with sweetness and corruption. I sat in the darkness and stared up at the moon. I saw the inked face of the blue-eyed woman.
    The door slid open behind me, and then just as quietly shut.
    “Hey. Are you all right?”
    Aubrey looked uncertain in the dim light. He was wearing blue jeans and a T-shirt with the logo of an old science fiction show, long since off the air. His hair was mussed. It occurred to me that we’d forgotten to stop by his labs at the university.
    “I can’t do this,” I said. “We’re talking about murdering someone.”
    He came to my side and lowered himself to the ground, legs crossed.
    “I thought you understood,” he said. “These aren’t people. Not anymore. They’re—”
    “Riders,” I said. “Spiritual parasites that have magic powers and take over people’s bodies. I understand that. I just…”
    I closed my eyes and saw Midian fire his Lugar into the back of the woman’s head.
    “Jayné?”
    “I just don’t believe it,” I said. “I want to. But I don’t.”
    “You think we’re lying?” he asked. The idea seemed to surprise him. I didn’t laugh, partly because it wasn’t funny.
    “It isn’t about trust. I believe that you think it’s true,” I said. “That’s not the same. I grew up with a father who knew how the world worked. Who knew how God worked, and what was right and what was wrong. And I believed everything he said because he was sure. And then when it turned out that I wasn’t sure…”
    I spread my hands.
    “Knowing that you all believe it isn’t the same as believing it myself,” I said. “And I can’t do this if it isn’t true. I can go to the police. I can hire a bodyguard. I can do a lot of different things, but I can’t kill someone.”
    Aubrey was quiet. I wanted to brush the hair away from his eyes. I wanted to ask him to forgive me.
    “If you knew that riders were real,” he said. “If you hadevidence that the world really does work the way we all say it does, could you trust me about Coin and the Invisible College?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. “Probably.”
    He was silent for a moment, then sighed and looked up at the moon with me. I could feel the subtle warmth of his body. Somewhere nearby, a police siren rose and faded away. My stomach felt like I swallowed a bowlful of lead shot.
    “You’re angry?” I asked.
    “What? No! No, I’m not mad. I’m just thinking.”
    “Did you believe it? When Eric came to you and told you all about this…this stuff. Did you believe it?”
    “No,” Aubrey said. “He had to prove it to me.”
    A minute later, he rose and walked slowly back into the house. I heard voices raised in conversation. Midian, Ex. I didn’t think Chogyi Jake ever raised his voice, so if he was talking I might never know. He reminded me of my mother that way.
    I had ten thousand dollars in my pocket, less forty that I’d spent on pizza and beer for the bunch of them. I could Google private investigators tonight, make a half-dozen calls in the morning, and set hounds on Randolph Coin’s heels. If he was really the person who’d killed Eric, I could get the evidence and have the bastard thrown in jail for the rest of his life. I didn’t know why that seemed to make less sense than magical vigilantes taking on a society of evil wizards.
    I thought of the three small stones dropping at the apartment, one-two-three. It could have been some kind of magical alarm system. It could have been something else.
    I put my head in my hands and hoped that my mind would clear. It didn’t.
    I heard Aubrey come back out. When I looked over, something was glowing white and blue in the palm of his hand. It said something about my state of mind that I thought it was a ball of witch fire or some other tiny miracle. Then he stepped a little closer, and it was just the screen of Eric’s cell phone. He held it out to me.
    “Call her,” he said.
    “Who?” I asked, taking the phone. It was warm.
    “The