Spiritwalk Read Online Free PDF

near her, keeping his distance now so that she wouldn’t feel threatened.
    “The way I see it,” he said, “is we’ve got two choices. Either we camp out here for the night, or I take you somewhere.”
    The moonlight was bright enough for him to see her stiffen, even if he couldn’t make out her features.
    “I... I told you...” she began haltingly.
    “Okay,” he said quickly. “No problem—or at least nothing we can’t handle. I know a place in town where you can stay long as you want. Are you game?”
    She nodded slowly.
    “We’re going to have to find a name for you. I can’t just go around calling you ’hey you.’ “
    “I’d like one like yours—a color.”
    “Sure. Black and Blue—wouldn’t we make a pair?”
    “But I can’t think of a name. I...”
    “Don’t force it,” Blue said. He looked down at the button-sized bone disc in his hand. “Maybe I’ll just call you Button.” His smile was lost in the dark.
    “B-button?”
    She was like a mouse, Blue thought, all trembling and scared and lost in the middle of a field. “Sure,” he said. “Why not? We can think up a better one later. But first we’ll find ourselves a more comfortable place to hang out in—what do you say?”
    “Okay.”
    “So let’s go.”
    He fitted her with his spare helmet, then pushed his own down over his thick hair. Warning her to hang on, he kicked the bike into life and headed down the parkway, the big engine throbbing under them.
    She held on, leaning close against him. He could feel her breasts through the thin material of his T-shirt, her arms tight around his waist. Her closeness woke memories he didn’t want to deal with, but he couldn’t help realizing how much he’d missed having someone to care about. Somone to cruise with and hang around with in the House. Someone who could maybe care for him....
    Pushing those feelings away, he concentrated on the bike, on the wind in his face and the asphalt unrolling underneath him, but it was hard to ignore her, hanging on to him as if he was her anchor in a world gone strange. No name. No identity. He could see how that’d screw you up. But sometimes, he thought, it could be a blessing. It all depended on what you’d been. Who you’d hurt, and how bad. And maybe how bad you were hurting yourself.
    They crossed a bridge in Hull, over the Ottawa River into downtown Ottawa. The hour was late and there was little traffic, so he just took Bank Street all the way down to the Glebe. At Patterson Avenue, he turned left, gunning the bike up the quiet street to O’Connor. There was a control button for a garage door on O’Connor, mounted on the Harley’s handlebars. Blue thumbed it as he turned onto O’Connor, and the door slid open. A moment later he was parking the bike alongside four others and killing the engine. The door closed automatically behind them, rolling smoothing on its rollers.
    “Well, here we are, Button,” Blue said. “End of the line.”
    His passenger got off and stood uncertainly beside the Harley. Blue removed his helmet, then helped Button with hers. In the light of the garage they got their first good look at each other. Button spotted the small gold earrings in each of Blue’s ears. She seemed less nervous now. Their gazes met and Blue saw that something in his eyes seemed to satisfy her that she was in safe hands.
    “I don’t know about calling you Button,” he said as he looked at her. “It’s not that you aren’t cute as a...” And then he noticed something else—she wasn’t casting a shadow. He kept the shock from his face as she spoke.
    “I like the name,” she told him. She swayed slightly and put a hand to the seat of the Harley to keep her balance.
    He couldn’t stop staring at the floor where his own shadow lay across the cement where hers should have been. Keep it cool, he told himself. But this was some weird shit.
    “Tired?” he asked, keeping his voice level.
    She nodded. “What is this