Reckonings by Carla Jablonski Read Free Book Online

her tool above the cat. “Now, let’s see what we can find here.”
    Using the magical implement, she cut open the cat body, reached inside, and lifted a ghostly form from it. This was Tim’s inner self—complete with T-shirt and glasses.
    Not a bad self-image , she thought, holding it up to inspect it. And it’s suffused with light energy—so if he’s to align with the dark forces, it hasn’t happened yet .
    Still, she was certain that the potential for evil had to be there. She just had to keep looking for it.
    She pulled Tim’s ghostly self completely from the cat shape, and as she did, the cat form rippled, then turned back into the boy it had once been. “Bye-bye, kitty,” the Body Artist said. She gave Tim’s regular body a quick appraisal, then laid his ghostly one on another table to really start her work.
    â€œSeam ripper,” she commanded, and a tool leaped into her hand. She glanced at it. “Not you. The one with the insulated grip.”
    She began cutting into Tim’s ethereal body.“Huh. That’s odd. No resistance.” As she continued to work, she grew more and more puzzled.
    I don’t understand . I should have hit some darkness by now if he’s going to grow up to become the monster Molly described. Something must be wrong. She put down her tool and drummed her long fingernails on the steel table . Well, it could be a case of inner beastliness, I suppose. At least that’s fixable.
    â€œHeart seeker,” she ordered. A grisly-looking device materialized in the air in front of her. “Don’t open the heart. At least not yet,” she instructed. “Don’t even scratch it. I just want to get a good look. Cut me a window.”
    The device did its work. It hovered a few inches from Tim’s floating ethereal body, and as Tim’s heart was revealed, the Body Artist sank to the floor, bathed in the light streaming from the boy.
    Â 
    Timothy Hunter felt cold. He opened his eyes and blinked a few times, trying to piece things together. His glasses were missing, so things were a bit blurry, as was his brain. He rubbed his eyes and noticed something—something important.
    â€œHands,” he declared thickly. “I’ve got handsagain.”
    He rolled over and spotted the blond woman from the park sitting on a chair facing him. “You!” he exclaimed. “Who are you? And what did you do to me?”
    She stared at him with enormous green eyes.
    â€œUh, miss? Are you okay?” Tim asked nervously.
    â€œYou’re a boy,” she murmured. “Just a boy.”
    â€œWell, I could have told you that,” Tim grumbled. “Saved you a whole lot of trouble.”
    â€œYou don’t understand,” the woman said.
    â€œWhat’s to understand? I understand you put me in a cage!” As Tim sat up, he made the startling discovery that he wasn’t wearing his clothes. When—and how did that happen?
    â€œDid you put me in a towel?” He felt himself flush, and he couldn’t decide if he was more humiliated by the fact that she’d seen him without his clothes or that his voice squeaked when he yelled at her.
    The woman’s expression changed from awestruck to amused. “Stop blushing,” she said. She stood and stretched, working her muscles as if she’d been sitting there for a while. “I kept my eyes closed the entire time.”
    â€œYou did?”
    â€œWell, no, but you don’t need to be embarrassed. I’m a professional.”
    â€œOh great,” Tim scoffed, clutching the edge of the towel tightly. “That makes everything all better. A professional what ?”
    â€œBody artist.” She waved a hand at the posters of heavily tattooed people behind her.
    Tim didn’t get what tattoos had to do with the current situation—or the magic he had seen her perform in the park. “I don’t see anything