Body Surfing

would,” Q. said, “except the jar was coated in a layer of wax, and sealed with it too.”
    “Wax doesn’t conduct?”
    “Zip. Zero. And as long as it’s kept at a stable temperature, it doesn’t break down either.”
    “So you’re saying that all you have to do is dip one of these sigil things in wax, and presto, you’ve got a demon trap?”
    Q. shook his head. “That’s the tricky part. If you coat the sigil in wax first, then it won’t attract the demon. But even if you could carry around a bucket of hot wax to dip it in when a demon showed up, you still couldn’t do it fast enough. The demons would be in and out in the blink of an eye. You need to find something that’s basically a one-way conductor. In but not out.”
    “And you think you can do this?”
    “Yeah, I think we can do this.” Jasper’s friend looked at him. “We can get him, Jasper. We can get Leo, and we don’t have to kill anyone to do it. All we have to do is get him out of Michaela.”
    “And get him to jump into someone wearing one of these.”
    Q. smiled. “That’s the easy part. The Legion’s been tracking Leo forever, they know his habits better than he does. He tends to work his way through what they call an affiliated network pretty systematically.”
    “In English?”
    “He sticks with the friends and family of the person he’s possessing. I think he’s gonna stay close to the people who knew you, and since you were such a curmudgeonly fuck, that narrows it down a lot.”
    Jasper’s eyes went wide. “Oh shit. My dad.”
    Q. nodded. “But first—first we have to get him out of Michaela.”
    “How—” Jasper’s eyes went wide. “Oh . Shit.”
    Q. put his hand on Jasper’s arm. Jasper looked down at his friend’s hand. Q. couldn’t know how important it was to him, that he could touch him like that.
    But Q. wasn’t just touching him. He was taking his watch—Q.’s own watch—off Larry Bishop’s wrist. It had been through the wringer in the past week: two car accidents, a nine-story fall, a swim across the Hudson River. The crystal was completely gone now, the facestained, the links dented. But the hands were still there, and they still read 8:32 P.M. The time of Jasper’s death.
    Q. looked at the watch for a long time, and then he held his wrist out to Jasper. A big silver watch sat there.
    “I’d put it on, but I already got a new one.”
     
    Six hours of heart-to-heart soul-searching conversation later, Q. pulled his car—no Porsche, but a pretty snazzy BMW nonetheless—into the hospital parking lot.
    “Tell me again why we’re doing this?” Jasper said.
    “You need to get out of this body,” Q. said. “In case you forgot, you’re wanted for about a dozen crimes.”
    “Including the sexual assault of the woman you want me to go in there and sleep with. What part of that makes sense?”
    “Jasper.” Q.’s voice took on a slightly desperate tone. “You need to think of your host.”
    The word grated in Jasper’s ears, but he didn’t say anything.
    “You said Sue was practically Larry’s fiancée. If he’s going to have sex with someone, it should be her. You need to make this experience as easy on Larry as you can.”
    “But does Sue even know him anymore?” Jasper said. “Leo wiped, like, ten years out of her mind. What about her?”
    “Jesus Christ, Jasper, I’m trying to make the best of a bad situation. I don’t know what to do about Dr. Miller. We’ve got to take care of who we can. And right now that means Larry. After we’ve dealt with Leo, we can try to find someone from the Legion, see if they can tell us what we can do for Dr. Miller.”
    “You’re right, you’re right.” Jasper pulled his borrowed cap over his forehead. “So, I guess I’ll find you? After?”
    Q. grinned. “I won’t exactly be able to pick you out of a police lineup, will I?”
    Jasper shuddered.
    Q. laughed grimly. “Your third time in a week. Who knew death was such an aphrodisiac?”
    “Fuck you, Q.,” Jasper said, opening the door. “Don’t forget I can always possess you.”
    “Not if I wear this.” Q. held up the doctor’s sigil, which Jasper had given him, since he was about to ditch Larry’s body. Q. laughed nervously, rubbed his new watch.
    He pushed the door closed then, and began lumbering toward the hospital to have sex for the third time in his life. My name is Jasper Van Arsdale , he reminded himself. I am seventeen years old. I have—
    He faltered. What