Body Surfing

Jasper tried to open himself up as much as he could. He wanted Q. to see him even more than Q. did.
    “They said I couldn’t trust you,” Q. said finally. “They said you’d be different now. Now that you’re Mogran.”
    “I don’t even know what a Mogran is, Q. And I am different. But I’m still Jasper.”
    Q. nodded, gulped. “He made me do it,” he said again.
    “Whatevs, I don’t really—”
    “Leo,” Q. cut him off. “It was him. Driving. The day you died. I would never do something like that to you. You know I wouldn’t.”
    “I—” Jasper waved his hands helplessly. “I know that.” He snorted. “You didn’t sleep with Michaela, did you?”
    Q. blinked, obviously surprised by the turn in the conversation. “What? Of course not.”
    “Not even before she and I were dating?”
    “Jasper, c’mon. You know every girl I’ve slept with. I wouldn’t’ve—wait, did Leo tell you I slept with Michaela? God, what a fucking loser.”
    “He killed me, Q. And Sila too, for that matter. Like you said, anything goes after that.” Jasper waited for Q. to ask him if Sila had come back too. If she were a Mogran. When his friend remainedsilent, he understood that Q. knew almost as much about Jasper’s new state of being as he did. The silence went on for another moment and then Q. laughed nervously.
    “So let’s see. On the one hand, we’ve got the hypnotic suggestion to stab your friend with a needle full of poison, and on the other we’ve got the classic accusation of infidelity to drive a wedge between friends.” He grinned sardonically at Jasper. “Do you get the feeling we’re being played from both sides?”
    Jasper laughed. “I never knew death was going to be this—”
    “Complicated?”
    “I was gonna say high school, but yeah, complicated.” Jasper nodded at the computer. “So what’s with the sigils? I’m assuming they’re somehow related to all this.”
    “It’s kind of fascinating. The Legion—”
    “I’ve got a lot of questions about this Legion.”
    “I bet. Anyway, the Legion has this thing they do, it’s also called the sigil. It’s supposed to protect its members from—”
    “Me?”
    Q. nodded sheepishly. “Apparently sigils originated in the Middle Ages, when everyone was all obsessed with witchcraft. They’re signs, see, you wear them on your chest. They’re supposed to protect you from demonic possession.”
    Jasper held up the doctor’s sigil. “This? Can keep a demon out?”
    Q. shook his head. “The modern-day version is a little different.”
    Jasper waited.
    “They cut your balls and your dick off. Or, if you’re a woman, I guess they just kind of carve you out. Down there.”
    Jasper opened his mouth, closed it.
    “I know,” Q. said. “Ow .”
    Jasper was about to ask why in the hell anyone would do something like that, but then he got it.
    “It’s so you can’t have an orgasm.”
    There was a beat, as each registered what the other knew about Jasper’s new state of being.
    “It’s kind of like a trap. If one of the dem—I mean, one of the Mogran possesses a hunter, they won’t be able to get out. I guess you—I mean, I guess the Mogran are supposed to know about this, which is why they never try to possess the hunters.”
    “That must’ve been in the newsletter I didn’t get.”
    “There are news—” Q. broke off as he realized Jasper was joking. His laugh was a short, forced bark. “Anyway.” He turned back to his computer. “These are from a book called The Lesser Key of Solomon , which is this medieval grimoire—um, spell book—that’s all about demons. It’s kind of the Legion’s bible. Everyone gets all caught up in rendering the design just right, but when you read about them you see there’s actually just as much attention paid to the alloy the sigil is made out of—very specific combinations of gold and silver, with a little copper and iron thrown in.”
    Jasper pointed to his face. “This is me looking confused.”
    “Right. See, the thing is, some of these alloys come very close to being perfect conductors. The silver allows for the highest speed, while the gold helps to prevent oxidation, and the copper and iron give them strength for durability.”
    “Again, Q., not getting it.”
    “Okay, let’s back up a second. No one really knows what the Mogran are. I mean, obviously they’re a disembodied consciousness, but whether that means they’re a soul or a force or just a stray electric