Read The Spirits of Christmas for Free Online Page B

path, red hair glinting in the sun.
    Akira walked back to the kitchen carrying the container and
biting her lower lip so hard it hurt. She knew the Latimers would help Nora if
she asked them to. She probably didn’t even have to ask. For all she knew, Zane
had already texted Grace and a moving van was at the house, packing up Nora’s
possessions to move her someplace safer. But Nora didn’t seem like someone who
would easily accept help like that. In fact, Nora didn’t like someone who would
easily accept any help.
    Maybe Rose could hypnotize her again?
    “Rose.” Akira called to the ghost girl as she reached the
kitchen. “I need to talk to you.” Rose had accompanied Nora to the hospital in
the ambulance, returning with Zane in the morning, and the two of them hadn’t
had a chance to talk about last night’s events.
    “It was amazing. Amazing.” Rose twirled around in the middle
of the kitchen floor, her skirt flaring up, her hair spinning with her.
    “What was?” Akira crossed to the counter.
    “I saw a baby get born. A baby. She was so tiny. She was so
. . . it was so . . . it was so gross. Really, just ew. The whole thing. Ick.
Disgusting. I can’t believe you have to do that. But then after, there was a
baby. And she blinked. Her eyelashes were the littlest, teeniest-tiniest
eyelashes you ever saw, just little dark specks on her eyes. They were so
adorable.”
    Akira smiled as she lifted the lid off the container. And
then she frowned, distracted from Rose’s enthusiasm by the food in front of
her. What was this? Everything Maggie made was good so she was sure it would be
tasty, but she’d never seen it before. It was sort of like her favorite vegetable
biryani, only…not. Those were chunks of chicken, she thought, poking at it with
a sense of rising indignation. What had Maggie made?
    “What dat?” asked Toby, sliding off his chair and joining
her. He stood on tiptoes as Akira lifted the container down to show him.
    Before she could tell him that it was biryani and he
wouldn’t like it, he heaved a huge sigh of relief. “Subiyan. Yes, peas. Dank
you.”
    “What?”
    “For me?” he asked, looking up at her, face plaintive. “I
yike.”
    “Um, sure,” Akira said. This looked an awful lot like some
kind of stir-fried rice to her. “How do you feel about tofu?”
    “Tofu pasghetti or tofu smoovie? Or de cheese square tofu or
da tofu on sayad? I no yike on sayad.”
    Akira translated all of that without much difficulty as she reached
for a bowl, and it renewed her resolve. Another semi-vegetarian had moved to
Tassamara. That made the town’s count two. Three if they included Toby. Somehow
she had to figure out how to keep them here.
    *****
    Ba-de-ba-ba .
    Akira opened sleepy eyes.
    Ba-de-ba-ba.
    She picked up her phone and glared at the screen, licking
dry lips and yawning. “Yes?”
    “Good morning, love.” 
    “Jerk,” she mumbled at him. “What time is it?”
    “Oh, insanely early.” Zane sounded much too cheerful for a
man who hadn’t come home all night. “You ready to wake up?”
    “No.” She clicked the off button and set the phone back
down, then rolled over and stared at her sleeping companion. Toby was adorable
asleep, the chipmunk cheeks eminently kissable, the short dark curls a scruff
that she longed to pet.
    Ba-de-ba-ba.
    Her phone rang again. She closed her eyes. She could ignore
it. She would ignore it. But he’d keep calling. She could turn the ringer off. But
eventually she’d have to deal with him.
    “Where the hell are you?” she hissed into the phone.
    “I know. I’m sorry.” He sounded contrite but also amused. Or
was that pleased with himself? Her eyes narrowed and she shifted to try to get
a look at the clock. It was after seven, but not much after.
    “Your errand took you twenty hours,” she snapped, doing the
math with ease.
    “Yeah, I didn’t expect that,” he said. “Also, though, I
haven’t slept in, um, thirty, maybe?”
    Akira blinked.