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" - at!" I sucked in a breath "Shit! Oh, shit!"
My entire being had imploded and been reasseain Patrick let lared directly into his eyes "Never, ever do that again!"
"It takes a while to get used to" He looked down at the white-knuckled grip I had on his threads
"You&039;re ruining ers, then wobbled to the couch closest to the hearth The fire entled the roar inlike it in my life It was a crystalline harmony
"What kind of htful sounds
"What ged, but his gaze said, I only hear the ravings of a crazy person Patsy and Gabriel cauess they didn&039;t feel it necessary to rearrange their atoet from one place to the next Patsy chose the pan opposite ht side of the fireplace, leaning against the flat stone
"Let&039;s start fro in the ce I wasn&039;t exactly a prisoner, but I doubted very much they&039;d let me walk out At least not yet I wondered if they had my parents somewhere else and, if they did, why hadn&039;t they told ht them here, too? And if they didn&039;tmy heart squeezed But a dark little voice whispered that soer
For all I knew, so was I
"I&039;m with PRIS," I admitted
Patsy and Gabriel looked at me blankly, but Patrick&039;s interest was piqued He shifted toward ation Services has a team in Oklahoma?"
"Yes," I said, unnerved by his intensity "Relax, dude We&039;re not a hit squad We only investigate the paranormal"
"Sweet Lord," murmured Patsy "You certainly hit jackpot, didn&039;t you?"
"The Megabucks We&039;ve gotten evidence here and there, but nothing big enough to shut up the skeptics" I glanced at her "Nothing like this"
"PRIS and other such organizations cause problems for us," said Patrick "The world is not ready for us When it&039;s tirate, we&039;ll do so on our own terms"
Patsy held up her hand to stall Patrick&039;s next words "Save the lecture We have a lotthose steps" With a loud sigh she looked toWho are you?"
Sheesh The queen had a short aze flicked toto you" She stared at the blank space next to me for a minute Then she said, "Thanks, Melvin Yes, I&039;ll tell her Ew No You can&039;t do that without lips"
No one else in the room seemed to find her behavior odd Hey, I knehen to shut up I tried to appear nonchalant, but it was hard to keep aze off Patsy
"Melvin says he saved you from the Tainted variured out how his soul found its way back into his corporeal for everyone" Her head swiveled to the blank spot and her on really squish Melvin?"
"Yeah," I said "And the other vampire"
Patrick cleared his throat "We found the remains ofer, Melvin And the ashes of the Wraith"
Wraith? Tainted va to spin I didn&039;t knohat these terms meant I wasn&039;t sure I cared
"Ah Ralph tried to save old star or soht him and bequeath hientleh," said Patsy "Melvin&039;s attached hiht I didn&039;t see anything Anyone All the same, chills raced up host is following me around?"
"I know it&039;s hard to believe," said Patsy kindly, "but it&039;s true"
"Oh, I believe it" I had validation for all those years of searching and theorizing and traipsing through godforsaken places Hysteria threatened, but I onna love this place Oh, and Dad He&039;s really wanted to use that new spectrometer"
"I&039;m afraid I can&039;t let you invite them to town," said Patsy Panic erupted They didn&039;t know my parents were in Broken Heart I had no idea if Mom and Dad had been unavailable because the phones crapped out or because they&039;d run into trouble But if I was sitting in the living roootten hold of my parents?
Wait Calm down, Libby I didn&039;t have any facts I needed to quit operating on emotion These seemed like niceer, people, so they&039;d probably question ain
It was next to i into h to ask if he&039;d said anything about ain
As if on cue, Ralph walked into the living roo I leapt from the couch, unaccountably happy to see him