Ghost Girl

Chapter 2

I helped Sylvia to sit up and sip some water. How rapidly our roles had reversed. I felt perfectly normal, although in desperate need of a bath to wash away the lingering effects of the fever. She blinked first at me, then at the warrior. Another sound escaped her lips, this one quieter and more like a gurgle, but no less shocked.

"Cara…he's…he's naked!"

The warrior moved slightly, somehow enhancing his musculature more. His face changed too. I got the distinct impression he was trying not to laugh, although his lips were still set in a firm line and his jaw was rigid. His eyes, however, shone.

"Only half-naked," I murmured, tearing my gaze away from his face to his body. "It's perfectly all right for us to see him like that."

"Are you quite sure? Because I don't feel all right. I feel a little light-headed." She touched her temple as if to fortify her mind.

"It's only skin. We all have it."

"Yes, but it does seem wrong to look at him in that state. The sight may corrupt our moral fiber."

"If you think so then avert your eyes. I would hate for your moral fiber to be in any danger," I mocked.

"Oh, I will. Soon. Quite, quite soon. After I've learned every little thing there is to learn from such a specimen. He is quite the specimen," she said, tilting her head to the side as if the different angle could teach her more.

"You're interested in science?" I asked idly.

"I am now. Aren't you?"

"Indeed."

"So he's the warrior."

I nodded.

"How intriguing. I can see how he'd be very good at destroying demons and the like. I imagine all those muscles would prove useful."

"I imagine they do." I smiled at him and he arched his brows at me, waiting. He seemed unmoved by our whispered discussion and open observation, although the slight lift of one corner of his mouth and the sparkling eyes implied otherwise.

"What do we do with him?" Sylvia asked.

"He's going to help me find the book of spells that the parchment was torn from." I nodded at the page that had slipped to the floor when she fainted. "The book has a counter-curse in it that will cure me."

She whipped around to face me. "You're not cured? But you seem so much better."

"I feel better. Mr. Garrett's spirit cursed me, and we must read the counter-curse aloud to break it. It's in the book that Mr. Myer wants so much, the one that Brother Francis's spirit mentioned but is now lost."

"Why would Garrett curse you?"

"I don't think he meant to. He was looking at Myer at the time, and it's my guess he was trying to curse him. Since Garrett was in spirit form and I was the only one who could see and hear him, I suppose it affected me instead."

"That's rather unlucky."

"So now all we have to do is find the book."

"And the warrior is going to help you?"

"I am," he said, speaking for the first time.

Sylvia jumped. "He understands us!"

"Of course," I said.

"I had thought…oh, never mind. How are you going to help us?" she asked him.

He shrugged boulder-like shoulders. "That is for you to decide. I must stay near Cara, however, or she will sicken and die."