Body & Soul полностью

Will passed the Turners' street and pulled around the corner into Sacred Heart, as was our practice. The Turner house backed to an empty lot, and Sacred Heart, a huge cemetery, was across the street from that lot. It was my cemetery, in fact. Living as Lily Turner, I was now closer to my original body than I'd been since I was in it. Irony, right?

In any case, the cemetery groundskeeper's shed was on the outer edge of the property and the perfect place to hide the Dodge from view while Will dropped me off or picked me up. This additional subterfuge was, unfortunately, necessary. Will was still persona non grata around the Turner household — Mrs. Turner still blamed him for what had happened at the hospital. And my first attempt at sneaking out through the front door a few weeks ago had ended in the neighbor tattling on me, and my being forced to come up with a story that involved taking a long walk as part of my physical therapy (lie), and how if there had been a car in the driveway it must have been after I left (BIG lie).

I pulled at the handle and shoved the door open, ready to jump — well, stumble — out as soon as possible.

“Wait,” Will said. “I… I'm sorry, Alona.”

But it was one of those apologies that didn't sound all that apologetic. It was the “I'm sorry if you're upset” bullshit Chris and a couple of other ex-boyfriends had tried at various times on me. Uh-huh. There was a reason why they were exes. Well, reasons beyond my dying and, in Chris's case, his cheating. Though those were good reasons, too.

Will tapped an uneven rhythm on the steering wheel, watching his hands instead of me. “I think we should just agree that we're doing our best to find a solution to this… situation, and we should try not to take the stress of it out on each other.”

“Fine,” I said tonelessly. He could say whatever he wanted. It didn't change the fact that I still was — and always would be — the bad guy. For not being Lily, for not being grateful for the chance to be Lily. Whatever.

He sighed. “I'm going to try to see Malachi again tomorrow. It's safer if you stay here—”

“That's fine. I'm going to see Misty tomorrow.” The words were out of my mouth before I even realized I'd made the decision. But I guess some part of me had been mulling it over since seeing her in Malachi's waiting room. I knew Misty, probably better than anyone. She was not prone to scaring easily or imagining things that weren't there. Heck, when I'd tried to haunt her, she hadn't even noticed. If she thought “Alona” was haunting her, she probably had good reason to, and I wanted to find out what was going on, even if Will didn't. Someone out there was taking advantage of my absence and pretending to be me, and doing it so well that even Misty, the person who'd known me best in my old life, believed it. That was so not going to stand. I wanted to know who was behind it so I could kick ass accordingly.

He looked at me. “I don't think that's a good idea.”

I gave him a tight smile and felt the still-tender skin of my scar stretch painfully with the movement. “Then I guess we're even.”

“How are you going to get there?”

Oh. That would be a small problem. Misty lived on the other side of town, closer to where I used to live. Car privileges weren't exactly up for the asking these days in the Turner household — near-fatal car accidents tend to have that effect — and walking with a bad leg was pretty much out of the question. I shrugged, hoping it looked breezy and unconcerned. “I'll figure it out.”

He sighed and shook his head. “I'll take you.”

“So you can spy on me, make sure I'm taking proper care of Lily?” I demanded. “No thanks.”

“I'm trying to make sure we all stay safe, okay?”

“Fine,” I said immediately. “Then you'll take me to Malachi's with you, if it's about keeping all of us safe.” He'd walked right into that one. Not that I wanted to go — can you say giant waste of time? — but, by God, I was going to hold him to those stupid standards he thought were so fair. He couldn't argue, after today, that he would be safer without me.

He grimaced but said nothing.

That's what I thought. “Good. Pick me up here tomorrow at noon, and we're going to Misty's first.” I levered myself out of the car, using the door as support.

“What are you going to tell the Turners?” He was, unfortunately, correct to ask. Mrs. Turner was the very definition of overprotective. I'd had to wait until she took Tyler out shopping this afternoon to be able to sneak out and meet Will.

“That I've made some new friends with motorcycles and we're going to have an orgy in the park,” I said. It wasn't any of his business how I managed “my” family.

He threw me a dark look.

“Don't worry about it. I'll handle it. Unlike some people, I actually have a spine when it comes to dealing with parents.”

He glared at me, spots of red rising in his cheeks. And okay, maybe implying he was a mama's boy was a bit of a low blow, but it was true. I limped out of the way and started to shut the door.