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His eyes shifted to me and I was surprised to the soles ofVital

I ca you as dead," the hu like the rest which lay at my feet All around me "But you look like you’re alive"

Clyde nodded "I have a confession, Master"

I held up my hand and he hesitated "Why don’t you call ue, rolling it around to see if it sounded right

Must’ve ’cuz he continued, "The policeworave beneath him She comes and visits here Takes respite in my presence"

Oh shit

Out loud I said, "What do you mean she visits you? What, she comes by for a chat?"

"Caleb," Jade said in a low voice, her hand on my ar at ravity

"Sorry," I said I hadn’t really y accepted" He paused to deliberate on his words "She is not a y that I can feel right here" He nature" hovered above his grave

"Can you hear her?" I asked

He nodded "I cannot respond, I cannot evacuate estured to the disturbed earth "But I can feel her energy" He curled his hand into a fist and laid it where a beating heart should have been

Cripes

Jade spoke up, "I think the better question is why Gale is co tiave her a look

I looked back He was sharper than I would have liked and was understanding the nuances of innuendo Was that even allowed? Right? Possible?

Apparently it was

I paced a little back and forth, the sprinkling rain beginning to soak through my T-shirt God forbid I’d wear a coat I didn’t even own an umbrella

Hell, that was for tourists

"Okay," I stopped"I don’t kno creepy it really is, Jade"

She looked at me like please

I shook my head "You kno hard it is to tell other people how it feels to be an Eht?"

She nodded

"Well, for Gale, it would feel good to be around the dead Right?"

"It is the way that I feel as well I feel energized around Officer Gale Aliveand turned to him, his face as serious as a heart attack, as Gra?" I asked as Jade put a wet arh my wet clothes

Clyde’s eyes bored into low of late day slanted and reflected around us as a light rain fell His eyes seeray they were charcoal "She has caused me to live, Master You restored me to this earth while she allows me to remain Alive I live because of her While death screams all around me I live because of her"

My head spun While ht I’d come to terms with Clyde, he’dthe acquisition of the cop, Bobbi Gale

Wasn’t this just special? My parents were gonna die And what did this mean? That the cop hat? Infatuated with my corpse? Was Clyde even a zombie anymore?

I let h to the graveyard, flowing through Clyde like a strea hi taut between us, a silken web of sa simultaneously His mouth fell open, andit like it’d been burnt Feeling it up close like that was overwhel

For me, it just hat it was

Crows landed and watched Clyde and I with glittering eyes, some tilted their heads

They were all dead, of course

So was Clyde, he was absolutely dead And absolutely changed Dead but alive Somehow, he was other now

I didn’t knohat to do with that But I kneho I was gonna talk with about it

Bobbi Gale was going to do a little explaining Explaining the weirdness of visiting Clyde

AFTD or not, there was so down here

Jade

Jade watched Caleb say a fewflesh crawl, she felt Caleb put him to rest

It raised the fine hairs on her arms They rose as if electricity rode her body, a blanket hovering just above her skin She shuddered She didn’t let Caleb kno much the whole death deal creeped her It didn’tend of the dead, she was just a bystander Still, her power rose, reaching out to the call of the dead and the tere not dissimilar

A complement That’s what Tulle called psychic abilities that were not the saether She and Caleb’s poere a blend So

Like now

Clyde floated above his grave, the earth reaching up its brown fingers, clasping his for him down in a warm embrace The rain soaked the dirt even as it sed him

Caleb stood a moment more, his back to her and Jade saw the ht She let her eyes roam the back of hi the muscle that he’d built there Each incidence of violence, iuessed that it hat he could control His physique and the dead Everything else was a mess to be cleaned up when it happened