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eyebrow when I met his gaze.
    “I don't know how long it will take,” I told him.
    He nodded. “I'll be here.”
    Then there was really nothing else to do but try to deal with the corpse, as distasteful as it was. The herbs I'd sprinkled on him did exactly jack shit to help with the smell. I had no room to get comfortable, crowded up against the arm of the chair, a stack of phone books walling me in from behind. I wished at least for some place to sit. I could have perched side saddle on the end table, but it looked about as sturdy as an Olsen twin, so in the end I just hovered awkwardly over the curled up bundle of skin and bones. I wished I didn't have such an attentive audience. I really had to pee. My mouth tasted about as bad as the room smelled and I thought that it was a shame there weren't more people like me. We could have organized for better working conditions. I could have been the Norma Rae of the Resurrectionists Union. Rise up, indeed, comrades.
    “What was his name?” I looked up at Dana. She stared back at me with a deeply troubled frown.
    She started. “Carl. Carl Fogerty.”
    “Okay.” I curled my hands over the arm of the chair, hunching over him a little, and closed my eyes.
    I had to admit that Leo seemed to be right. After Morgan—the witch whose body I’d recently helped steal—had killed my cousin, I’d struggled to resurrect him. To be fair, I had just engaged in a dual with a second murderous witch and I had healed two others of their coven. They’d helped me out, giving me a little power infusion that did seem to help me float up faster. But then again, I had never had any trouble ascending.
    I rose up steadily, like bubbles in champagne, entering that beautiful blissed out space that paid no mind to offending odors or freezing cold or whiskey shivers. Here I just floated under the blue black sky, dotted with distant stars. My body felt light, weightless. I glided along as relaxed and as smooth as light on the surface of a lake. I rose up through the spheres, gathering light to me, easy and calm and gentle. No need to rush, no need to hurry.
    Shimmering pinpoints of light collected upon my astral body, covering my arms and legs with fuzzy white and gold. It tingled, making my skin shiver into goose bumps, the hairs on my neck standing on end. I exhaled long breaths and with each new inhale I felt strength coming into me. Refreshing, like drinking cold water after running a mile in the sun. Bright, like the first bursting taste of a summer strawberry. And relief, like gasping for air when you thought you would drown.
    The light gathered upon me seemed to tremble, the finest vibrations as though it were alive. The lights glowed against my skin, becoming so bright that I had to close my eyes. Even my eyelids burned white.
    A feeling of tenderness, of deep affection, enveloped me. Such a sense of safety, of comfort, like I’d come home. I wanted to float away on that feeling. I wanted to tuck myself into that loving light and just stay there. It would be easy to do. I wanted to.
    But. Miles to go. I opened my physical eyes for a second and from a very great distance I watched Leo and Dana watching me through fuzzy and overexposed vision. Vaguely I knew my head hung down and that I stared at them from under my eyebrows like some sort of demon bull, but I just closed my eyes again and concentrated on bringing all the light I could manage down to Carl Fogerty's wrecked and wasted body.
    I spread my hands out over his chest, feeling cold lifeless flesh beneath my fingers. From here, I felt no horror at the touch, only abstract concern. Light traveled from my hands to cover him, moving down my arm in a steady flow until to my astral eyes he glowed in a luminous white cocoon. The light drained from my limbs and I felt a cramping flash of pain in my head as the last twinkle jumped from my fingers.
    Nothing happened for a long moment. I drew my eyebrows together, using my astral fingers to press