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Chapter 1

Maybe getting drunk and dressing up like a pirate for the masquerade was a bad idea

Okay, definitely a bad idea At least the pirate part

I stared openly at the girl standing in line next toin htly fuller than the top Or it could’ve been a pout Either way, it was the kind of lip that begged to be between ot that ridiculously curvy body into a skintight golden cat suit, but I was all for helping her get out of it

I leaned toward her "Meow"

Best coh a slim, black mask "If you ask to rub my belly or make any of the obvious body-part jokes, I’ll steal your sword and you’ll leave here needing a peg leg Or worse Got it, sailor?"

"Aye, aye, Captain" I gave her an enthusiastic salute

She turned her back toher neck to check the progress of the line The rear vieas so spectacular, I considered not saying anything else to her until ere inside so I could enjoy it in peace

But she caught er?" I said quickly, the words slurring a little Everything in my line of vision shifted to the left "Are you here for the s dressed like a jungle aniinary claws and hissed

No response

I restedoffit back on It felt cockeyed Orto let you in looking like that without asking questions" Tiger Girl eyed my dreadlocks warily "Howto puke on my shoes?"

I wanted to close , but I couldn’t stop staring at her I let et a read, but the alcohol had done its job

"I won’t puke on your shoes," I told her, while pro in to the dizzy, I closed my eyes for a second "I’ve just had one hell of a day"

"And I guess now you’re going to tell irl I’d never seen before that my dad had recently come back from the dead, my mom was in a coma, and an entire battalion of Civil War soldiers had appeared on my front porch that very afternoon "I’m more of a doer than a talker"

"Soestively "By any chance, would you be a doer?"

"Do you kiss yourbeneath the surface of my skin She didn’t know It wasn’t intentional Her eyes told me that she’d seen evidence of " I inclinedht anyone else’s

To irl followed the crowd into the Phone Company

The inside was transforer a classy, upscale restaurant but a garish, fall-thee ith hundreds of tiny fake spiders hanging froraced every corner Ghosts strung up on invisible wires swooped through the crowd at randohter in their wake

There were puodly aoers were the things they couldn’t see

A veil shiateways that served as holding places, lobbies to the future or past, where travelers stood before they entered the bridges that took the on water

Wherever there was a veil, there was usually a "rip"