"You're really pretty nice, for a human," Iskby said.

  "Humans aren't bad," Tucker protested.

  "They're the reason we're stuck here," Iskby countered. "They're the reason I've never seen a river or a mountain."

  Tucker couldn't argue with that. So maybe Iskby was right. Maybe humans were bad.

  His brain was starting to hurt again. He hated trying to figure out what was right and what was wrong; it was so much easier when someone just told him.

  "I think I'm ready now," Iskby said softly. "I feel ready. What do I do?"

  Tucker didn't know. He had never known.

  "I think you just sorta let go," he suggested.

  "You mean step off the roof," Iskby said with a laugh.

  "If that works for you," Tucker said.

  It wasn't as if the kid could die twice; even though it really did feel like he was.

  Tucker tried to swallow past the lump in his throat, but everything was just too tight. He wished Iskby would get on with it. On the other hand…

  "Thank you," Iskby said.

  And then he was gone. Just like that. No fading away, no long goodbyes, no stepping off the roof for a second time. One second he was there; the next second he wasn't.

  Tucker couldn't help the sob that leapt from his lips. He didn't want to cry. He didn't care about some weird monkey kid who was too dumb not to play on the roof. He didn't.

  Tell that to his eyes though. And his stupid heart.

  When would he ever learn?

  He could barely see to move, but he had to get out of here, and he stumbled to his feet and over to the ladder. He somehow managed to climb down without dying, and then he ran. His feet still had a mind of their own, and they knew where the exit was.

  He couldn't stand to be here any longer; the air was stale, and there were no rivers or mountains, not that he had ever cared, but now he did. He really, really did.

  Tucker bolted through the streets until he reached the connecting doorway. His fingers were trembling so much that he could barely press the code for the other neighborhood, but he must have gotten it right because he was running through the marketplace next.

  And then he was free, and he was gasping for air on the other side. The side with the mountains and the rivers.

  "Breathe," Tessa ordered. "If you pass out I'll have to catch you, and that'll make both of us look dumb."

  Her tone was so harsh that it snapped Tucker out of his panic.

  "What are you doing?" he mumbled, trying a little desperately to wipe the tears from his eyes.

  "Waiting for you," she snapped. "I thought the fucking sunset was never going to come, and I've only been here for an hour or so. It felt like fucking forever. How the hell did you sit up there all goddamn day? I'm going to need a second bottle of whiskey."

  Tucker was too busy sniffing to respond.

  "Here," Tessa said, handing him a white square of fabric.

  "What's this?" Tucker mumbled.

  "A handkerchief. For your nose. You're leaking," she said a little stiltedly. "You alright?" she asked.

  Tucker blew his nose instead of answering.

  When he offered the fabric back to her, she shook her head and said, "You keep it. When it, um, gets full, throw it in the hamper."

  "Hamper?" he asked.

  "The thing you put dirty clothes in," she replied.

  "Oh, the wash."

  "Sure," she shrugged.

  This ridiculous conversation was helping distract him, and he said, "Have you ever washed your own clothes?"

  Her eyebrows flew up, and she laughed sharply.

  "So no?" Tucker guessed.

  "That's what servants are for," she stated.

  "Sissy used to wash our clothes in the sink," he told her.

  "You clearly didn't have servants," Tessa replied.

  "You are so bad with people," he blurted out.

  "I know. And if you don't want to leak from your face all the time, I suggest that you learn to be bad with people too," Tessa advised. "Although, as I said, that's just my opinion. You have to, you know, build your own framework. Ready to go home?"

  He was. He was ready to flop onto his bed and tell Apollo how…

  Shit. He was beginning to loathe this week.

  There were some advantages to going home to the Graves though. They did have servants which meant that food was waiting for Tucker and Tessa the moment they arrived. And Tucker's abs were ready for food.

  The disadvantage was that everyone was waiting for them, and Tucker was used to sitting down at his kitchen table or on his couch and eating alone. Not eating with, good lord, seven other people.

  "Did you have a good day, dear?" Gisele asked Tucker as he sat beside Aaren.

  "Not really," Tucker mumbled.

  "Lie," Tessa hissed.

  "What, Tessa dear?"

  "I said he did a lie in," Tessa replied easily. "It was a pretty normal day, I think."

  "A lie in? What's that?" Gisele asked.

  Tucker glared at Tessa, but she winked at him and said, "It's when you lie on the bed of a dead person. It's sort of like a séance. But since Tucker didn't get any sleep last night, he accidentally fell asleep. And that's how he spent his day. Right, Tucker?"

  "What?" he said, confusion filling him.

  "Because Gisele LOVES to discuss every aspect of things. She asks a thousand questions. She's very curious that way," Tessa said. "So I think for your sake, you fell asleep on the bed, didn't you?"

  "Oh," he said. "Yes," he added quickly.

  It wasn't easy to lie, especially not with Nefeli and all of her ghosts staring at him, but he understood now that if he didn't, he was going to have to relive all those moments with Iskby on the rooftop, and he simply couldn't do that.

  "Fell asleep," he said loudly. "Exactly."

  "See?" Tessa said. "Totally normal day. I, on the other hand, solved not one, not two, but three cases. All before lunch."

  "How nice for you," Ollie grumbled. "Will I be able to send any of them bills?"

  "Sure," Tessa shrugged.

  "Will any of them pay it?" Ollie demanded.

  "Maybe," Tessa said with a grin. "Stranger things have happened."

  She, Ollie, and Gisele started to argue. At least Tucker thought they were arguing; he wasn't sure since it didn't seem to bother anyone else. Julian was completely focused on his food, and Curtis was splitting his attention between his food and the conversation, occasionally even adding his own two pennies. Even Nefeli was following the conversation with a rapt expression. Aaren was the only one who seemed to notice Tucker's distress.

  "Tessa must really like you," Aaren said softly. "Otherwise, she wouldn't have gotten them to look at her. You wouldn't think it, but she's the most intuitive of them. Except for Curtis. Curtis sees everything."

  "What's intuitive mean?" Tucker asked.

  "Intuition," Aaren said, "a direct knowledge or awareness of something without conscious attention or reasoning; anything perceived or learned without conscious attention."

  A dictionary lived in Aaren's mind, and when called upon, he could quote any entry. He made Tucker feel dumb. Not on purpose though. Aaren was too nice to ever make anyone feel dumb on purpose, but just knowing a six year old who had an entire dictionary in his head made Tucker feel dumb.

  "And she's kind," Aaren said.

  To his surprise, Tucker agreed. Tessa was kind. She had sat outside of the Hidden and waited for him for over an hour. An hour might not seem like much, but he had seen how aggravated just standing there and waiting had made her. But she had done it. For him. And that was the very definition of kind.

  She hadn't offered him any type of verbal comfort. In fact, she had been just as gruff and grumpy as always. But she hadn't made fun of him for crying or told him to man up. She had just handed him a handkerchief and acted as if nothing was wrong. And to top it all off, Tessa had saved him from Gisele's inquisition.

  Tucker wasn't wrong; Tessa was scary. But Tucker could see now that just because Tessa was scary didn't mean she wasn't also nice.

  "What would happen if you fell off the roof?" Tucker asked Aaren softly.

  "I would bend the air elements into a basket to catch me," Aaren replied.

  "Oh. Good."

  Just then, Tucker's stomach made a loud noise, and he remembered that he hadn't eaten all day. So, with some effort on his part, he ignored the entire Graves family and focused on feeding his beautiful abs.

  Chapter 11

  After dinner, Tucker somehow managed to get away from them. They had probably just let him go because he had the feeling there was no escaping the Graves women if they didn't want you to. On the bright side, he didn't have to worry about them leaving him.

  Maybe. It seemed to him that everyone eventually left. And if they couldn't leave, like Apollo, they just kicked Tucker out or stopped talking to him. It was almost as if he had a time stamp. Good for this long; then toss in the trash.

  Doc didn't seem that way, but he was also hardly ever around, so maybe he just hadn't had time to get bored with Tucker yet.

  Tucker didn't really believe that. Not about Doc. Doc just wasn't like that. He was more like Sissy. Once he attached to someone, he was loyal to the point of death. Check that, loyal past the point of death.

  Tucker liked being around D-Dog because he didn't push or prod. You had to be the one to open the door and let him in. The Graves, however, were trying to get in with pry bars.

  So Tucker was doing what he did so well; he was running away.

  They were just too much. He wanted to like them; he wanted to trust them, but he didn't really know them. And how could he trust them? He didn't much trust anyone. Case and point, he had thought Apollo was truly his friend, but then Apollo had locked him out; Tucker hadn't even seen it coming.

  The fact of the matter was he had gotten sloppy. One of the first lessons he had learned was that he should always be the one to cut and run. Moving in with Apollo had been a dumb move. He didn't know what he had been thinking. Roommates were for other people, but not for him.

  His feet slowed, and Tucker glanced up, grimacing when he realized that he had walked all the way home. His resolve to leave Apollo behind instantly fled, and Tucker approached the front door hopefully. But it still didn't open.

  "Why the hell are you doing this?" Tucker snapped, irritation filling him.

  "You brought her with you!" Apollo retorted. "And I warned you. I said I would let you in when you came alone."

  Tucker hadn't brought anyone with him. Had he?

  He turned around and scanned the darkness, sighing when he saw a shadow with oddly moving hair looming near the end of the church.

  "So I did," Tucker muttered before turning and walking towards the park instead.

  When he had been TJ, he had always been afraid to be outside after dark. But once he had become Ghost Guy, he hadn't had a choice. People were weird about ghosts, and they seemed to think they were easier to see at night.

  They weren't. In fact, they were harder to see. Tucker would have had to squint to see the hundred and eight little children trooping along after Nefeli.

  That was adults for you though. Ghosts broke all the rules for them, so they couldn't apply any sort of logic to the concept.

  "Why are you following me?" Tucker asked after a minute of silence.

  "Why did you have a lie down instead of freeing my ghosts as you had promised?"

  "One, I promised to see what I could do," Tucker said. "Two, I didn't have a lie down. Tessa just said that to get Gisele off my back."

  "She wasn't on your back," Nefeli argued.

  "It's an expression," Tucker sighed. "How can you be three thousand years old and not know anything about people?"

  "I don't care about people," Nefeli said, her tone curt.

  "I see," Tucker said.

  It was always better to be the one to leave. He knew that, so why was he bothering with her? Helping her ghosts was one thing; that was his job. Getting her to live? Not his frigging problem.

  "Look, forget what I said earlier, ok?" Tucker said. "I'll help you if I can; but don't bother, you know, eating and all that junk."

  "That was our deal; I have already agreed to it."

  "It was my deal, and I'm saying forget about it. Besides, I'd rather you didn't hang around the Graves."

  "Why not?" she demanded.

  "Because they do care about people, and I don't want them getting hurt."

  He couldn't believe how fast it had happened. He knew less about them than he knew about Iskby, but already he felt the need to protect them. And if that meant showing up for dinner a couple of times a week and running off Nefeli, so be it. It was a small price to pay to see Gisele smile. And when they were done with him, he would move on. Just like he always did. He would get hurt a little, but since he knew it was coming, it wouldn't hurt much.

  When Tucker reached the park, he left the sidewalk and cut across the grass instead. He didn't walk far before plopping down onto the ground and laying back. For a long while, he stared up at the black sky, watching the few dim stars he could see and thinking of Iskby.

  "Isn't it weird that Iskby never saw this much grass?" he said, more to himself than to her.

  "Who is Iskby?" Nefeli asked.

  "The ghost I sat with today."

  "You sat with a ghost?"

  "That's kinda what I do," Tucker replied. "Well, not really. I don't like sitting with them. I don't like…"

  "Knowing them?" she offered.

  "Exactly."

  "We're not so different then," she said.

  That wasn't true. Because he did care about people; he just didn't like knowing about them. He didn't like it when they carved out a space in his heart and then left it empty.

  "Tell me about this Iskby," she suggested.

  "Why? You don't care about people."

  "True," she admitted.

  "And anyway, he's dead and gone," Tucker murmured. "So even if you did care, there wouldn't be any point."

  "Is that really what you think?" she asked. "That there is no point in speaking of someone once they're gone?"

  "Don't you?" Tucker retorted. "You don't even remember their names."

  "I don't remember their names. I don't remember my own name," she admitted. "But I still remember them. I remember them the way they were before. I can't let myself remember anything else. Only darkness lies that way."

  Now he felt like an ass.

  "It's so strange," Nefeli said. "No one ever sees me. Their eyes see me, but fear fills them, and they look away, forgetting me the moment they do. Maybe that was part of my… blessing," she said, her voice twisting on the word. "Doc saw me though, and he didn't look away. As much as I have tried to forget that, I can't. Why did he see me?" she demanded.

  "Doc sees everyone," Tucker shrugged.

  "Why?"

  "'Cause he's not scared of anything."

  "Then he's a fool," she spat.

  Tucker started laughing.

  "Why do you laugh?"

  "You really don't know D-Dog," Tucker said, trying to control his amusement.

  "Explain."

  "So this one time, ninjas attacked him."

  "Ninjas?"

  Tucker spent five minutes explaining ninjas, and then he spent ten minutes describing Doc's fight with the ninjas.

  "His car was completely trashed!" he exclaimed at the end. Before she could scoff, he told her about the shark. And Gac, and the army of souls, or the actual army that had been possessed by souls; he didn't know the correct term, but the way Doc had defeated them was still amazing.

  He told her how Doc never ran into traffic, how he could roll any number with the dice, how he always won, except at pool, how he was fiercely loyal, willing to do anything to protect those he loved, and how he never looked the other way.

  "I wish I was more like him," Tucker said softly. "I think I might have looked the other way today, but wasn't it a little too late?"

  "What do you mean?" Nefeli asked.

  "Iskby's parents aren't nice. Not to him, not to each other. Iskby's already dead, but what if they have another kid? What if that kid spends his life up on the roof too? And what if he accidentally falls because his dad yells his name in that tone he has?"

  Tucker knew that D-Dog wouldn't have run away crying. But he also wasn't D-Dog, and he had a little trouble with the concept of just walking up to someone and killing them.

  He had killed a man before. But that man had been in the actual act of trying to kill D-Dog, and Tucker's mind seemed to make an allowance for that.

  He wasn't like Doc. He couldn't read cruelty in people's eyes, and he wasn't sure he was smart enough to kill someone just because he thought maybe the world would be better off without them. So he walked away.

  "Things were so much easier when I was ten," he sighed.

  "Why?" Nefeli asked.

  "Because Sissy told me what to do."

  "Can you not decide for yourself?"

  "Maybe, but what if I'm wrong? I didn't… I don't…"

  Tucker trailed off because he simply didn't know how to explain it. His life had been so very different than most people's. Most people progressed into adulthood. And most people had parents and family to guide them there.

  He had only had Sissy. And as Tucker, he had had no one. Not until D-Dog. But D-Dog was funny. He knew Tucker was just a child, but he insisted on treating him like an adult. And sometimes, only sometimes, Tucker wished he wouldn't.

  "Most fifteen year olds are in high school," Tucker said. "Dreaming about dances maybe or the next sports match. The worst thing they face is an F. Or a no. Or a breakup. Sure, I know I'm oversimplifying it. Apollo says I have a habit of oversimplifying things, but the fact of the matter is I didn't grow up right, and I don't know the rules."

  "What rules?" Nefeli asked.

  "The rules!" Tucker exclaimed, frustration filling him. "There have to be rules. There are eight billion people in the world, and everything sorta pretty well functions. There have to be rules! And most people have to be following them. Otherwise, the entire world would be burning."

  "That has never been true," Nefeli said.

  "What has never been true?"