Free Fragile Spirits by Mary Lindsey

resolution.”
    Shit.
Straight from the book. She
had
read the manual. I had no choice, really. “Have you soul-shared before?”
    She shook her head, and a spike of fear came from her. “What do I do?”
    “Nothing. I do all the work.”
    She rolled her eyes. “I could give you such a hard time about that statement, you know.”
    I’m sure I blushed, but it was too dark for her to see, fortunately. “Touch me.”
    “Oh, look who’s getting weird ideas.”
    “No. Really. Soul-sharing kind of hurts at first, and contact helps.”
    She studied me with narrowed eyes.
    “I’m not kidding you. It hurts less.”
    “Pain doesn’t bug me.”
    I glared at her. “Well, it bugs me. Touch me.”
    “Why don’t you touch
me
?”
    “Why does everything with you have to be a challenge? The touch is consent. It has to come from you. Touch me, please, Vivienne.”
    “I love it when you beg.”
    I reached up to crank the key to start the car, and she took my hand between hers.
    “Do it, Paul.”
    This was it. My first soul-share with my Speaker. I faced front and closed my eyes. “Out,” I whispered to my soul. Beginning with my chest, a burning, ripping sensation filled my body and worked its way out to my extremities. The peculiar feeling of my soul ripping apart and breaking free of my body sort of defies words. It’s nothing that my familiar human body had experienced and is singular to the Protector. “In,” I commanded my noncorporeal form. Much faster than my soul had exited my own body, it entered Vivienne’s.
    “Ow! Son of a . . . Ow!” she gasped. “Dang, Paul.”
    It’s okay. It’s over now,
I said from inside her body. I couldn’t hear her thoughts, but she could hear mine, just like she could hear Hindered. I could feel her emotions, though, and she was as excited as I was. I felt no fear at all from her.
Are you okay?
    “Whoa. Cool. You’re in my head!”
    I am. Please take my keys with us and lock the door to the car.
    She pulled the keys out. “So how much control do you have in there? Can you make my body do things like the Hindered can?”
    Someone has been reading the manual.
    “I told you I would. I just didn’t finish it.”
    No. I’m only a partial soul. A tendril of my soul is left in my body to keep it alive. Not enough to animate it, though. It takes a complete soul to animate a body. You’ve got the conn, Captain.
    She locked the car, and through her eyes, I could see my body buckled into the driver’s seat, looking like it was peacefully asleep.
    The resolution began the second Vivienne entered the house. The ghost tried to barge into her body several times without invitation, but my presence kept it out. The average Hindered waited for an invitation, but this one turned out to be a borderline Malevolent and was sick of waiting around. The good news was that he didn’t seem to be looking for revenge, which was what most Malevolents craved.
    “Floorboard!”
he said for the billionth time.
    “Yeah, I’ve got that,” Vivienne said. “Which floorboard?”
    He made groaning sounds, and a lamp flew across the room, smashing against the wall and landing in pieces on the floor, causing poor Mrs. Nelson to scream yet again.
    “Now, listen to me,” Vivienne said. “What’s your name to start with?”
    “Ethan Hollister Jr.,”
he wailed.
    “Does the name Ethan Hollister Jr. ring a bell?” Vivienne asked Mrs. Nelson, who was cowering in a corner.
    She shuddered. “He was the previous homeowner. He died last year. It was his wife who was murdered in this house.” She covered her face and wept.
    “No!”
the ghost screamed.
“Floorboard!”
    Vivienne took several steps closer to Mrs. Nelson. “How was the wife murdered?”
    “According to the articles I’ve read, her head was smashed in,” Mrs. Nelson said. “With some type of blunt object. The son is on death row, awaiting execution for the murder.”
    “He didn’t do it!”
Ethan moaned.
“Floorboard.”
    “And