“I’m not one of your minions, you jackass, and you will not order me around like one.” Steele started to laugh, and Billy wondered if she’d already hit him in the head. The boy had to know better than to laugh at a woman when she could hear you. “When I tell you that I feel just fine, you can either believe me or not, but keep your fucking advice to yourself.”
“I just figured that since you and Nick have become…close, that you would be better off taking it easy and let the doctor check you out when he gets here. It’s no problem whatsoever, and I think it’s a good idea.” The low growl had Billy backing up more, and he slammed his body right up against the door behind him. “What is your problem? Is it that I’m a male?”
“No, my problem is that you’re you.”
Kari started forward to presumably step between them, and Billy reached for her. He had no idea why he’d do that since he couldn’t touch anyone, but his fingers brushed against Addie. The power blasted him back against the opposite wall, and his body felt burned.
When he was helped up, Billy got a second shock. Addie was touching him. Not only that, she was lifting him up like he didn’t weigh much at all. Standing up, he stared at her and she backed off.
“I don’t know what happened.” Billy nodded his agreement. “I must have had some static or something. That’s all it was.”
“Billy?” He tore his eyes from Addie to look at Nick. “What happened? Did you do that to her, or did she?”
“She did it. I’m thinking it was more than some plain old static, too.” He looked back at her. “You touched me. I mean, you really touched me.”
“I’m not supposed to be able to do that, I guess.” He shook his head at Addie. “I don’t think I meant to hurt you. I didn’t, did I?”
“No. You knocked me on my big old butt, but you didn’t hurt me.” He put out his hand and she backed up. “I don’t think that’ll happen again, but we need to be sure. Just touch your fingers to mine and see what we get.”
“I don’t want to.” Steele started to speak and she cut him off. “I hurt him. No matter what he said, I fucking hurt him.”
“Do you feel it?” Addie nodded at Nick. “I can too. Billy has a burn on his arm, I think. It’s not a blister, but a burnt place. One on his belly too. I can feel it like it’s my hurt.”
“Yeah, but there’s more. It has to do with something he has. What do you have in your pocket?” Billy was confused and started to tell her nothing when he remembered the book and handed it to her. When she reached for it, the book leapt into her hand. When she tried to shake it off, it didn’t budge.
“What is that?” Steele started to touch it but didn’t get the chance. He was pushed back as well. “I don’t think it wants anyone to touch it but you. Nick, you try it. I don’t know why, but I have a feeling that it thinks it belongs to you two.”
Billy wanted to warn them away. He also thought it best to just take the book back and hide it away. There was something very strange about this particular book, and he was slightly afraid of it.
Nick put his finger on the cover. When that didn’t seem to have any effect on him, he touched it with his hand. As soon as he covered it with his palm, much like Addie was from the bottom, Billy could see that it was doing something to them. Addie staggered slightly, and Steele grabbed her up just as Mitch grabbed Nick. Billy muscled his way to them to take the book. It was lying on the floor between them. Just as he reached for it, Nick stopped him.
“It belongs to Delaney. Christ, do you have any idea what that is, Steele?” Steele told him trash, but Nick shook his head. “It’s an afterlife book of some kind, geared just to him. And now for some reason, I think we can use it.”
“To do what?”
Billy wanted to know too and was glad that Steele asked. Billy knew what it did for him. Back in the days it had been the only thing that had kept him from doing some stupid things, but for a living person to have it? Billy was afraid.
Nick leaned over and picked the book up. When he opened it, Billy and the rest of them could see that it had the required pages, green, white, and red. But what he knew, and the rest might not, was that there was also a deep purple page, almost black. The book flipped open to this page.
~~~
Nick felt his skin crawl a little when he read the words written in white on the page. He looked at Addie, and he could see from the expression on her face that it scared her a little too. Turning to Steele and the others when he said his name, Nick looked at Billy.
“You have one of these too?” Billy nodded, then shook his head. “You had one and now it’s gone. Lost?”
“No. After a while I guess when I didn’t use it, it just come up missing. I never thought much about it until Summer here gave me this one. I was…I’m not sure what I thought to do with it, but turning it in came to mind. But to be honest, I’d have not a clue who to give it over to. Delaney left it behind. Maybe he lost it, but…that’s a powerful tool to lose. It can cause some big damage to us on this side of a beating heart.”