Read Harmony 01 After Dark for Free Online Page B

bedclothes, got to her feet, and scooped Fuzz off the quilt. The dust-bunny did not relax in her arms. His hunting eyes were twin flames in the shadows. His small body trembled. Lydia caught a glimpse of fang. He was staring at the space above her pillow.
    The ghost began to materialize. Acid-green energy pulsed erratically. Lydia edged back toward the door. Fuzz hissed.
    'Take it easy. There's nothing either of us can do except stay out of its way until it vaporizes. It really is pretty small. I doubt it will last more than a few minutes."
    She did not turn her back on the ghost as she retreated into the hall. The green glow of the coalescing form grew steadily more intense.
    "That bastard out on my balcony probably thinks this is very funny. If I find out who it is, I'm going to turn him in to the cops. Summoning ghosts outside the Dead City is illegal, and everyone knows it."
    But the vow was a waste of breath. Even if she managed to discover which of the neighborhood toughs had pulled this vicious trick on her tonight, the police were unlikely to get involved. At most, someone would contact the Guild authorities and report the incident. The Guild might or might not take action.
    Fuzz growled again. His hunting eyes gleamed more fiercely.
    In the air above her bed, the green ball of energy started to move. There was an audible crackle as it floated closer to the wall. Lydia grew more uneasy. There was no sign that the ghost was weakening. More disturbing was the fact that it did not seem to be moving randomly now.
    Fuzz stared, unblinking, at the pulsating energy ball over the bed. Lydia knew that there was nothing either of them could do about the ghost except stay out of its way and hope that it did no serious damage. Only a dissonance-energy para-resonator—a ghost-hunter—could summon one; only a hunter could de-rez it,
    The small, pulsing green specter was almost touching the wall over the bed now. Lydia watched in frustration.
    Then she smelled scorched paint.
    "My wall!" Lydia whirled and ran down the hall, barely avoiding a collision with the small end table she had put there because there was no other space for it.
    She dashed into the kitchen, tossed Fuzz onto the counter, flung open the door under the sink, and grabbed the household fire extinguisher, then raced back toward her bedroom.
    Fuzz gamely tumbled down from the counter and scampered after her.
    "It can't last much longer," she told him. "It just can't. Not here, outside the wall."
    The smell of burning paint reached her before she got back to the bedroom doorway. She rounded the comer just in time to see the eerie green glow wink out of existence.
    "It's gone." She breathed a sigh of relief. "Told you it couldn't last, Fuzz."
    The odor of charred paint was unpleasantly strong. Lydia groped for the light switch, flipped it. And then groaned when she saw the scorch marks the ghost had left on the formerly pristine white surface of the wall.
    With the immediate danger past, she whirled and went to the window. She was just in time to see a figure garbed in dark clothing vanish up a rope ladder that dangled from the roof. As she watched, outraged, the ladder was pulled up and out of sight. She yanked open the window and leaned out.
    "Little punk! If I ever get my hands on you—"
    But the jerk was gone, and she knew the odds of learning his identity were virtually zip.
    That was when the full implications of the situation hit her. She had given her landlord so much trouble lately that he would probably seize upon any excuse to terminate her lease. Fire and smoke damage no doubt came under the heading of "willful destruction of property by tenant" or some other vague clause in the contract.
    "If Driffield finds out about this, we're fried. Fuzz."
     
    * * *
    Emmett glanced at the amber face of his watch as he got out of the Slider. It was barely seven o'clock. The morning sun had not yet penetrated the blanket of fog that had crawled in from the river late