As evil as she was, as many problems as she had caused over the years, over the centuries perhaps, he could not bring himself to kill her. When all was said and done, she was a child. As evil as she might be, she was still not an adult, and that made a difference. He knew now why inner-city gangs used kids to commit some of their hits. No matter how heinous the crime they committed might be, it was almost impossible to sentence children to death, and their punishment was invariably lightened because of their juvenile status.

She wasn’t a child, though. Not really. She was much more than that.

But when he looked down at her face, felt the smallness of her form beneath him, he could not bring himself to finish her off.

She looked up at him, all innocence, and then that innocence was slowly washed away. She smiled at him lewdly, wickedness and a base sensuality creeping across her corrupt features, and he finally understood emotionally, not just intellectually, that she was not a child. That she had never been a child.

His grip tightened around her neck, and he wondered why she had done that, why she had revealed herself to him. Did she want him to kill her? Would that somehow make her stronger? Or was she simply teasing him, playing with him, leading him on before finally doing him in?

He felt her muscles tighten beneath him, felt a surge of strength in her chest.

There was a sudden flash of brightness, an abrupt incandescence at the side of the bed that distracted her attention for a second.

And Mark snapped her neck.

He saw knowledge flood into her face in that last second, as the life drained from her, and he thought that she had not expected this, had not even considered its possibility.

She spit at him with her last breath.

Daniel stood by the side of the bed, the source of the brightness. “Quick thinking,” he said.

Mark looked at the ghost of the other man. He had not had time to determine the source of that flaring incandescence, had assumed it was something she had created and was going to use against him, and he’d moved quickly only because of his certainty that this would be his final chance. He had not expected it to be a diversion intentionally created by Daniel’s ghost, and he climbed off the bed and the girl’s lifeless body, facing the glowing form.

“Daniel?”

“In the flesh.” The ghost smiled. “Well… in the spirit.”

“You’re dead, aren’t you?”

Daniel laughed, and the sound was like music, like Kristen’s laugh. “Oh, yes.”

“What’s it like?”

“Being dead?”

Mark nodded.

“I don’t know,” Daniel said thoughtfully.

“You don’t know?”