Chapter Twenty-Three
The place where Lenny woke was stained, and he knew that feeling. It broke on him gradually, even before he recognized how awful he felt, shaky and exhausted, washed out. The air was tight and heavy with death, ticking like a cooling engine, and the feel of it stabbed at his ghost sense before his own pain could hit him. He quickly catalogued what he knew. The death was recent, violent, two or more people. There were shades nearby, rapidly fading, but no real spirits, and even the echoes would be gone by the time the bodies had cooled. No unfinished business, then. No conflict. He wasn’t needed.
He rolled over onto his side, pushed himself up, and was nearly sick. His stomach lurched, and his throat constricted. He closed his eyes and held perfectly still until it pa
