Free Matt Archer: Blade's Edge by Kendra C. Highley Page B

soft…just a few more inches….
    Out of nowhere, something like a rubber band snapped me right between the eyes.
    My lips popped off Ella’s with a smack and I banged into the window again, rubbing my forehead. “Ow.”
    “Are you okay?” Ella asked, looking concerned.
    “I don’t know.” What was it with these headaches? It was almost like the ones I got post-fight when the knife-spirit…
    Oh, no.
    Seriously? Now? How’d it maintain a connection with me from this far away? And what the heck was its problem?
    Pissed with the spirit for intruding, I pulled Ella close and started kissing her again. She giggled, like my make-out schizophrenia amused her. I’d just gotten warmed up and had my hand at the hem of her t-shirt when the knife popped me again. I jerked back, ready to tell the knife to shove it, only to have the spirit toss me into the deep end of crazy.
    We are one, Matt. There’s not room for anyone else. I must have your sole dedication.
    With that proclamation, I gasped and let Ella go. For the first time, I noticed something weird about the spirit’s voice. While it was alien and eerie, like it had been washed through a synthesizer, there was something else distinct about it. The timbre was on the high end—a soprano.
    Was the knife spirit… “A girl?”
    A coy little sound, like a pleased cat would make, floated through the back of my mind, even as Ella asked, “What are you talking about?”
    “Oh, my God,” I whispered. The knife-spirit was female? What the heck did that mean? And was it snapping me in the forehead because it was…jealous? Of Ella? Did being saddled with this entity in my head mean I wouldn’t be allowed a girlfriend? Ever?
    Panic started to set in. I thought about reaching for Ella again, just to see what the knife would do, but found I couldn’t. Something held me in check and kept me from moving.
    Now don’t fret, the knife whispered. You may spend time with her, but you have boundaries. I can’t have you distracted from our purpose. We’re in this together, until the end.
    Holy crap…I had a stalker in my head. I sat there, hardly daring to breathe, wondering if the spirit watched me all the time. Did I carry it— her —everywhere even when the knife was at home, safely locked in the box in my closet? Could she hear my thoughts?
    Worse—did she watch me in the shower?
    A strangled groan choked from my throat and Ella stared at me like I’d lost every last marble I had and then some. “Matt? What’s going on?”
    Man, I’d gotten myself in trouble. How could I explain this situation wasn’t my fault without sounding like I needed a shrink or an exorcist? “Nothing. It’s…nothing.”
    But Ella was already shaking her head. “You’re staring into space with this freaked out look on your face, and you’re talking to yourself. It’s not nothing. Was it something I did?”
    “No…God, no.”
    “Then what is it? Something’s bothering you.” She reached for my hand. “I can handle whatever it is. Really.”
    Great, that was code for “tell me what I did wrong and hurry up about it.” Ella still thought this was her fault. I didn’t have any way out but to tell her the truth.
    I took a deep breath. No telling what she’d think of me now. “The knife…it’s kind of mad at me or something. It doesn’t like me messing around with you.”
    That earned me a really weird look. “What?”
    “I don’t know exactly.” I struggled to find the right words. “The knife is telling me that I belong to…that we’re in this together…that I can’t let myself be distracted by you….” How did someone explain they were possessed by a jealous girlfriend? “Look, I know I sound like a freak, which frustrates the crap out of me. I don’t want to scare you off, and I sure don’t want you to think I’m crazy. Because…”
    And it just came out: “Because I love you.”
    Ella’s jaw dropped a little. “You do?”
    “Well, yeah.” I played with the