The Spirits of Christmas Read Online Free PDF Page A

passed through Akira to step closer to Nora. Akira
shivered convulsively as Rose’s energy sparkled inside her, but as Rose moved
away, she stared after her, startled. Ghost energy felt like ice usually, a chill
so cold it was painful. Rose felt more like a shot of whiskey, burning its way
through her veins but leaving a soothing buzz in its wake. Whatever it was, it
was unlike any spirit energy that Akira had ever felt before.
    “What are you doing, Rose?” Akira asked as the ghost first
touched Nora’s expanded midriff, then wrapped an arm around Nora’s shoulders as
if half-hugging her.
    “I’m not sure.” Rose sounded dreamy. She started humming
under her breath. “Calming, I think.”
    “Good,” Hannah said unexpectedly. “If the girl’s blood
pressure is too high, getting excited can’t be good for her.”
    Nora did look calmer or possibly dizzy. Her eyes were almost
unfocused, as if she were listening to Rose and no longer entirely present.
    Zane slipped his phone back into his pocket and shot a
questioning look at Akira. In the distance, Akira could hear a siren. “What’s
going on?” he asked quietly.
    “Rose. Some kind of ghostly energy. I think she’s trying to
lower Nora’s blood pressure.” Akira breathed her response, voice barely above a
whisper, not wanting to break into Nora’s reverie.
    Zane’s eyebrows arched in surprise. “Did you know she could
do that?”
    Akira shook her head. This was all new to her. Maybe spirit
energy worked on a spectrum, like electromagnetic radiation? Rose’s new ghostly
energy might be a different frequency than the energy that Akira had
experienced before. Like infrared versus ultraviolet. If only she’d found a way
to measure spirit energy.
    But she pushed thoughts of the science away. At the moment,
their first priority was to get medical attention for Nora, and to decide what
to do about the small boy presumably still sound asleep somewhere in the house.
And maybe later Rose would let Akira run some tests.
    *****
    Where the hell was Rose when she was needed? Akira
thought irately. She wanted that magic calming potion back. Like, desperately,
like, right now. She wasn’t sure who she wanted it for, though, whether it was for
Toby or herself.
    Toby paused.
    Akira held her breath.
    “I—I—I—” he gasped. “I want my mama!” And then the wails
started again.
     “Spank him,” snapped Hannah. “Shock him out of it.”
    “I’m not going to hit him because he’s scared,” Akira hissed
at the ghost. “Why would that make him feel better?”
    He was like a siren, like a wind-up toy that went on and on
and then trickled down, and then started up again. Akira found herself
wondering why his throat didn’t hurt. If she cried like that, it would be
painful. Shouldn’t the pain make him stop?
    She pressed her back against the wall, appreciating the
solid feel of it behind her. This had to be a nightmare. It had seemed so
logical when Rose accompanied Nora in the ambulance and Zane followed them both
to the hospital.
    He’d never met Toby; Nora, who seemed completely dazed by
then, would be happier about leaving Toby with a strange woman than a strange
man; and he could handle Nora’s paperwork with a wave of his GD administrative
wand and/or the platinum credit card in his wallet.
    Akira had agreed. But she’d been hoping, despite all logical
evidence to the contrary, that Nora would be home before Toby woke up. A quick
check at the ER, some pills to lower her blood-pressure, and why not?
    No such luck, though.
    “Fine, if you won’t, I will.” Hannah strode across the room
to where Toby was sitting up in his twin bed, sobbing. “Quit crying or I’ll
give you something to cry about,” she growled.
    He looked at her for a silent second as he gulped in a
breath and then the heartbroken sobbing started again.
    She raised her arm, lifting it high. “I mean it,” she
threatened.
    “Don’t you dare!” Akira raced across the room,