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One

AFTER FOUR NIGHTS ON the run, I was finally safe, tucked into bed and enjoying the deep, dreamless sleep of the dead…until the dead decided they’d really rather have h that slid into my sleep and pulledto remeuishable

I rubbed h the curtains The rooh in the last feeeks to last me a lifetime

A scrape at thelass sounded like a zoet in

I went to theand pulled back the curtains It’d been nearly dawn by the tiot to the house, so I knew it had to be at leastoutside was so thick I couldn’t see anything I leaned closer, nose pressed to the cold glass

A bug splattered against theand I juh sounded behind me

I whirled, but Tori was still in bed, whi in her sleep She’d thrown off the covers and was curled up on her side, her dark hair spiked across the pillow

Another chuckle erupted behind h But no one was there No, strike that I just couldn’t see anyone For a necromancer, that doesn’t mean no one is there

I squinted, trying to catch the flicker of a ghost and saw, off to the left, the flash of a hand that was gone before I could see more

“Looking for someone, little necro?”

I spun “Who’s there?”

A snicker answered irl has heard a million times from jerk boys

“If you want to talk to me, you have to show yourself,” I said

“Talk to you?” he said in an arrogant high school quarterback voice “I think you’re the one ants to talk to me ”

I snorted and headed back to bed

“No?” His voice slid around ured you’d want to know more about the Edison Group, the Genesis experiments, Dr Davidoff…”

I stopped

He laughed “Thought so ”

The four of us-Tori, Derek, Simon, andere subjects in the Genesis project, an experi supernaturals My aunt Lauren had been one of the doctors involved, but she’d betrayed her colleagues by helping us get away Now she was being held captive Or so I hoped Last night, when the Edison Group tracked us down, a ghost had tried to help host who had looked like Aunt Lauren

We were supposedly in a safe house owned by a group opposing the experi about the project? I wasn’t about to banish hiht be

“Show yourself,” I said

“Bossy little necro, aren’t you?” His voice slid behind me “You just want to see if I’m as hot as I sound ”

I closedHe began to uy,special, but with a sht he was I could still see through hiive him another pull

“Uh-uh,” he said “You want et to know each other a little better ” He disappeared again

“What do you want?” I asked

He whispered in et to know you better Not here, though You’ll wake your friend She’s cute, but not really my type ” His voice moved to the door “I know a place we can chat in private ”

Yeah, right Did he think I’d just started talking to ghosts yesterday? Well, close-teeks ago, actually But I’d already seen enough to know that while there were sohosts anted to help and some who just wanted to talk, there were more anted to cause a little trouble, spice up their afterlife This guy definitely fell in the last category

Still, if he was another Edison Group subject, one who’d presumably died in this house, I needed to find out what had happened to hibetter, she still wasn’t anyone I wanted watching my back

So I followed the ghost into the hall, but stopped at Simon and Derek’s door

“Uh-uh,” the ghost said “You don’t need to bring a guy along ”

“They’d like to talk to you, too ” I raisedDerek would hear htest noise-olves have superhearing All I could hear, though, was Siuy who’d brought us here, had taken the downstairs bedroom

“Coirl This is a limited-time offer ”

You know he’s up to no good, Chloe

Yes, but I also needed to knoere in danger here I decided to proceed with extreue, which I took as a positive sign

I started walking

We’d gone straight to bed after we got here, so I hadn’t gotten a good look at our new place I only knew that it was huge-a raht out of a Gothic horror movie

As I followed the voice down the hall, I had the weird sense I was in one of thoseclosed door after closed door until I finally reached the staircase…heading up

From what I’d seen of the house as we’d driven up, it was three stories The bedrooms were on the second floor, and Andrew had said the third was an attic

So the ghost was leading me to the dark, spooky attic? I wasn’t the only one who’d seen too many horror films

I followed hi with two doors I paused A hand appeared through the door in front ofI took a second to prepare myself No matter how dark it was in there, I couldn’t let him see my fear

When I was ready, I grabbed the doorknob and-

It was locked I turned the dead bolt latch and it clicked free Another deep breath, another second ofthe door open and stepped in-

A blast of cold air knockedswirled

A dead bolt on an attic door, Chloe?

No, I was standing on the roof

Two

I WHEELED AS THE door swung closed behindhit it, hard, and it slarabbed the handle as the dead bolt clanked shut I twisted the knob, sure I was mistaken

“Leaving so soon?” he said “How rude ”

I stared down at the handle Only one very rare type of ghost couldworld

“An Agito half-demon,” I whispered

“Agito?” He twisted the ith contempt “I’m top-of-the-line, baby I’m a Volo ”

Which uess it was a more powerful type In life, a telekinetic half-demon could move objects eist

I took a careful step back Wood creaked underfoot, re me of where I was I stopped short and looked around I was on a kind of ay that circled the third floor-the attic, I presumed

To ht was a nearly flat section littered with rusty bottle caps and beer cans, like someone had used it as a makeshift patio That calmed , but safe enough