Problem was, I had a soft spot for my workmate and houseguest.
I gave her the look. “Cora …”
She winced. “Fine, Fitch pissed me off, so I took a bite.”
How could she be so flippant about it? “Dammit, Cora, that’s the third time this month. If he finds out what you’ve been doing …”
Her eyes widened in panic. “You won’t tell him, will you, Fee? You won’t let them send me away.”
I sighed. “No, I won’t tell him, but if he finds out, I won’t be able to stop him from banishing you.” The thought of my best friend being banished to purgatory made my insides clench. “Cora, you need to be careful. Ghosts aren’t allowed to feed off humans without express permission. You know the law. But it’s not just that, and you know it …”
She rolled her eyes. “I’m not a malignant, Fee. I’m not about to go ripper.”
Most ghosts were eager to move on, but there were those who simply wanted to stay on this plane, cause havoc, hurt, and torment. These malignant spirits fed off the living and became rippers. The reapers hunted malignants and rippers outside of the regular pickups, but the theory was that even a functional ghost like Cora could turn ripper if she continued to feed off humans without permission. Something to do with the quality of the energy siphoned. I didn’t completely understand it, to be honest, but it wasn’t a theory I wanted Cora to test.
“Just don’t do it again, please, babe.” I pleaded with my eyes.
“But, Fee, he’s a total wanker. He’s always walking through me and licking his lips.” She shuddered.
I grimaced. “Yeah, he is.” Unfortunately, there were no sexual harassment laws to protect the dead, and Fitch was a pervert. “I’ll speak to him, okay?”
Not that I had a clue what I’d say, but this was Cora, my bestie and the sweetest woman I knew.
“Thank you, Fee.” She slid something across the table toward me. “This came for you.”
Cora worked in HR as an administrative assistant to wanker Fitch, and the pink paper she pushed across the table had my heartbeat speeding up.
Pink meant head office. My stomach quivered. Could it be? Taking a deep breath, I unfolded the paper.
Dear Miss Seraphina Dawn,
We are pleased to inform you that your application for promotional transfer to Deadside has been approved.
“Well?” Cora’s brows shot up. “You got what you wanted. You start at the end of the month.”
Which was less than two weeks away. My heartbeat sped up with excitement because this promotion was six months coming. Six months of waiting and hoping, and now it was here. Less than two weeks and I’d be in the Deadside offices. Less than two weeks and I’d see her again.
I looked up and caught the sorrowful twist of Cora’s mouth. We’d been working and living together for the past year. She was my closest friend. It would be weird not working together.
“You gonna miss me?” I teased.
She snorted. “Like a hole in the head.”
“Didn’t you have one of those at one time?” Ouch, me and my mouth. Take it back. Take it back.
Her mouth popped open. “I can’t believe you just made a joke about that?”
I winced. “Sorry.”
She sniffed. “It’s totally bad taste to make fun of the way someone died.”
“Cora, you went camping in a hunting zone and didn’t wear red.”
“I didn’t know it was a hunting zone.” She grinned. “Besides, it was worth it to see Jeremy bawling his eyes out over my dead body. You know, he asked me to live with him after I became a ghost. He didn’t want me to leave.”
Yep, I knew this story.
“Dumb parents and their dumb exorcism,” Cora muttered.
Exorcisms no longer worked like they used to. Back in the day, before the whole world could see ghosts, people believed that demons were responsible for hauntings and possession. Now, we know that the demons are the psychopomps that carry spirits to the other side. Back in the day, all an exorcism did was summon a demon to carry away the errant spirit. When Jeremy’s parents exorcised their son’s dead girlfriend, they simply had her ejected to Necro, the nearest place with Soul Savers. But instead of parking her butt in the waiting room, Cora answered my advert for a housemate and ended up on my doorstep.
Cora was looking decidedly sulky, and my heart went out to her. She’d been in the prime of her life when a shot to the head had ended her. I shouldn’t have brought it up, but my mouth got away with me sometimes.
I took a gulp of my mocha. “Guess who I fired?”
She perked up. “You can’t fire people?” But her eyes gleamed with curiosity.
“I bloody can if they fuck up big time.” I told her about Tripp and her dodgy allocations to purgatory.
“That bitch!” Cora’s eyes flashed. “I’ve got a mind to get stinky Pete to haunt the fuck outta her.”
I stifled a laugh. “Don’t. You’ll just get him into trouble.”
Every spirit had an influence level that determined how they interacted with the living world. Pete’s influence happened to involve body odor that in death was magnified.
We’d allocated him to working in waste disposal for the city, and last I’d checked, he was happy there.
“I’m going to miss you all day,” Cora said softly.
We were back to my promotion. “You could come with me …”
Her expression froze.
Maybe I should have kept my mouth shut? “Cora, I love you, you know that, but I want you to be free.”
“I am free,” she snapped. “Free to make up my mind. If being able to stay on this plane means working for Souls Savers, then I’ll work this job for eternity. It’s better than the alternative.”
“Eternal peace?”
“You don’t know that,” Cora replied. “You have no idea what lies beyond Deadside. Only the reapers know, and they aren’t talking. For all we know, they could simply throw us into eternal darkness. A pit of nothingness. So, thank you very much, but I’ll pass.”
My chest tightened. “I can’t allow myself to believe that.”
“Oh, shit, Fee, I’m sorry. I’m such a twat sometimes.”
I couldn’t blame her. Peace for eternity did sound awfully suspicious, but, “I have to believe there’s something better on the other side.” I had my reasons for needing to believe. I pocketed the memo. “I best get back to work.”
“See you at home?” she asked.
“You’re cooking tonight.”
“Hardly fair, seeing as I don’t eat.”
I grinned at her. “You don’t sleep either, but you demanded a bed.”
I didn’t wait for a response but headed back down to the ground floor. I had a waiting room of ghosts to allocate.
I was halfway down the steps to the third floor when the intercom in the wall blared to life, and Fitch’s nasal-pitched voice filled the stairwell.
“Miss Seraphina Dawn, to Human Resources immediately. Miss Seraphina Dawn, to Human Resources.”
This had to be about Cora.
Oh, saggy bollocks.