Sparks by Laura Bickle Read Free Book Online Page B

dark and sticky trailed on the concrete floor down toward the floor drain, and the room smelled like a butcher shop.
    The ghost of a tall, thin man grasped the throat of a young woman spirit, pinning her to the wall. The harsh light played through bullet holes in his chest, but Anya could see no mark on the girl. Tears streamed down her cheeks.
    "Get the fuck off of her." Rage boiled in Anya's chest.
    The man turned, sneered at her. "Mind your own business." Perhaps he was used to no one seeing him. Perhaps he was used to scaring humans, both in life and in death. But Anya was having none of it.
    Sparky lunged for him. His teeth grabbed the back of his hooded jacket, ripped him down from the wall. The salamander mauled him, growling, tail lashing, teeth tearing into his ectoplasmic throat. Anya had never seen him this violent, but she'd never seen him defending a child, either.
    "Get back," Anya told the girl, and she shrank back between the bars of a set of shelves.
    Anya felt the power of the Lantern burning in her chest. She could feel the fire expanding into her aura, reaching outward through her palms, hungry for that terrible ghost. A Lantern was different from other mediums in one critical aspect: A Lantern attracted ghosts like insects to a bug zapper... and could devour them.
    "Sparky," she warned, and the salamander clambered out of the way. Anya reached toward the ghost, writhing on the floor. She breathed him in, drawing him into the black void in her chest. She could taste the metallic frost of the ghost as she swallowed him, the ash in the back of her mouth as the fire in her chest immolated him. She stepped back, gasping, feeling the burn of it bubbling on her chest. That might leave a scar on her physical body, but it would heal.
    She turned to the girl. The ghost of the girl cowered behind the racks, terrified.
    Anya stuffed down the fire in her heart, tried to reach out with hands that didn't scald. She struggled to let the wrath drain down through her feet, into the ground. "It's okay... he's gone now."
    The face of the girl peeped behind a body bag. "He's not coming back? "
    Anya swallowed, shaking her head. "No." She didn't know for certain where the ghosts she devoured went. Someone had once told her that they went to feed powerful fire elementals, but she wasn't entirely sure. "You're safe now."
    Sparky growled. Anya turned to see a man-shaped shadow forming on the wall. The black mass resolved to the translucent shape of a man in a black coat and jeans. Cold blue eyes stared out of a chiseled face, the kind of face that might have belonged on an album cover in the 1980s. A shock of blond hair was ruffled over his skull in some kind of butchered punk tribute hairstyle.
    "Get the hell away from the girl," she snarled. "I've had enough of you fucking perverts."
    The ghost held up his hands. "I'm not here to harm anyone. "
    "What are you here for? Hanging out, waiting for the apocalypse?"
    A smile played over his mouth. "I'm here for the girl. "
    Anya bristled. She lifted her hand, feeling the heat gathering in her fingertips. She'd devour this one as easily as the last.
    "I'm here to take her to the Afterworld. "
    Cold trickled down Anya's spine. "Who are you?" she asked, suspicious. Ghosts were inveterate liars, no matter how smooth their manner.
    He turned toward the girl, making Anya bristle. "Trina, my name is Charon. I'm here to take you on a trip." He extended his hand toward the shelves.
    "How do you know my name?" The girl watched him, her arms wrapped around her sides.
    "Your grandmother told me. She would like for you to come visit her. "
    "Can you take me out of here?" Trina shivered, and looked up at the ceiling.
    "Yes." When Charon smiled, it was with the beatific smile of an angel. Sparky waddled up to him and sniffed. His gill-fronds reached out, sensing the ghost's aura. The ghost let him, offering no sudden moves or resistance.
    Sparky might be on the fence, but Anya didn't trust him. At