Free Knight's Curse by Karen Duvall Page B

over me. I had let things get too far with one in particular, but I was just a kid and he took advantage of that. If I ever run into him again, I swear I’ll use my Balisong.
    Meeting Aydin was the first time I’d ever made a new acquaintance without Gavin being involved. This was a new experience for me, and I liked it. A lot.
    “Where are we going?” I asked Aydin, following a few paces behind while marveling at how well his jeans fit. I also liked how he smelled; sandalwood mixed with something spicy, an edgy scent that made my nose tingle. We headed away from LoDo and toward a residential area with some enormous houses that had to be at least a century old. “I thought you were taking me out for coffee.”
    He glanced at me over his shoulder. “I am.”
    “Is it far?”
    “We’re almost there.”
    I continued walking behind him, watching his easy strides and the slight swagger that radiated self-confidence. “How do you do that? Disappear, I mean.”
    “It’s an acquired skill.”
    I guessed that. “Where do you go when you vanish?”
    “Nowhere.” He tossed me another quick look and I saw amusement in his eyes. He slapped his side. “It would be a lot easier to talk to you if you’d walk beside me.”
    I quickened my steps to catch up, but even though I left a good couple feet between us, I had to fight the magnetic pull that seemed to emanate from him. What was it? Did he feel it, too?
    “That’s better.” He thrust his hands in his pockets. “I don’t go anywhere. I’m still here, you just can’t see me. Or I should say regular people can’t see me, but you could without your contacts.”
    “How do you know that?”
    “Because you can see ghosts. And in essence, that’s pretty much what I become.” He smoothed a hand over his jacket and looked down at his jeans. “Which is why I can’t wear clothes when I make myself invisible. There’d be no solid mass for them to hang on.”
    I stopped walking. “You become a ghost?”
    He turned and walked backward so that he could face me as he talked. “It’s complicated. I lose my solid mass and become transparent. All those energy particles you see that form a ghost are essentially what I become when I, uh, vanish.” Looking sheepish, he added, “I’m sorry if I shocked you by showing up naked. I had to show you I was different to get your attention.”
    Oh, he’d gotten my attention all right. The hot blood rushing to my face was evidence of that. He faced forward again and I hurried to stay even with him. “How do you know these things about me, about what I can see? Who told you about my eyes?” I wondered if he knew about my other senses, too.
    He shrugged. “Lots of flapping gums in the Fatherhouse.”
    “And you live with those people?” That was disconcerting.
    “They don’t know I’m listening.”
    Considering his ability to vanish at will, that made sense. “So you’re a thief, like me.”
    “Bingo.”
    I felt a little thrill at hearing that. He was like me. Not exactly like me, but the closest I’d ever come to finding another person remotely similar to myself. The so-called friends Gavin arranged for me to pull jobs with were nothing special. It was always me who took the most risks because I could see, hear and smell better than anyone else.
    “Here we are,” Aydin said, leading me down a driveway to a dark two-story house with a columned porch. But he didn’t walk up the path to the front door. He went on around to the side and headed for a staircase leading down to what I assumed was a basement.
    I stopped on the top step, a sense of caution preventing me from following him. “There’s no coffee shop down there.”
    He stared up at me. “Yeah, there is.”
    “Where’s the sign? The lights? The parking lot filled with cars? I don’t hear any people talking or coffee mugs clinking.” I’d begun to think this might be a trap. Even if it were, I imagined it couldn’t be much worse than something Gavin might