Phantom sighed.

"Great," he muttered. Sam didn't quite hear him. She twitched the page as she read and reread information she had all but memorised already.

Damn it.

Blood to blood was an emergency bonding, not healthy for either participant*. Well, there was blood to blood in a proper bonding, but there were oaths to say and runes that insured the magic flowed properly. Not to mention the simple fact that they were now bound left hand to right shoulder. That was so…so undignified. She rubbed her forehead. At least her familiar didn't want to kill her.

"You really should pay more attention to what you're doing," Phantom said grimly. His arms were crossed and he was looking at the floor. He raised his head to look at her, and Sam shivered at the haunted look in his eyes. "Now you're stuck with me. I hope you know what you're doing." Sam closed the book slowly. She swallowed and said "Sorry to say but that was a…" "Emergency bonding, I know," Phantom interrupted, "Just let me out of this ring, and lets set up for the proper ritual." Sam turned slowly to face him. She raised one hand deliberately and pointed to him, "How do you know so much about this? Huh?" He simply looked away.

They were silent for a moment. "I'm a ghost," he said finally, "Ghosts live a long time."

Her eyes widened as she repeated that in her mind a few times. "You've been a familiar before?" He turned back to her and she saw he was clenching his jaw. He nodded once.

It was obvious he would say no more on the subject.

Sam didn't know what to say. She just watched him as he stood in the ring of blood blossoms. Gone were the roguish grins, or the fierce protective glare. He was tense, stiff, walking in tiny circles a few centimetres above the ground. Suddenly he jerked his head, before running both hand through his hair and shaking his head.

Her watch beeped, breaking the silence. "Sammykins, ten minutes to school!" her mum called. "Darn it," she muttered, "I'm sorry, Phantom, I gotta get ready to go to school. We'll have to do this later." She dropped to her knees and scooped away the blood blossoms, dumping them in the box they came in. Phantom gingerly stepped away from them. "Look, I gotta be somewhere…" they both said. And then blushed. Phantom grinned. "Well, it's dangerous to leave the bonding like this, but then again, we live dangerously every day, huh?" he said, "So I'll be back this afternoon, after school." "You know when my school ends? Are you sure I'm the stalker?" He gave one of those grins and laughed, "Well, I'm your stalker now, and you know what? It's totally against my will" He said, before bowing. He then jumped into the air and flew at the ceiling really fast. But half a meter from the roof her defence spells sparked to life and short circuited his power for two seconds. He jerked like someone punched him in the stomach and fell. He landed with a thump and the air was forced from his lungs. Sam gasped, and ,not quite ran to him as there wasn't enough room, and crouched beside him. "Um, sorry about…" she had to stop and hold her breath so she wouldn't giggle and offend him.

Only Phantom, the moment he had his breath back, used it to laugh. "Oh man," he gasped, "That's made my day." He sat up, something dancing in his eyes that made Sam want to smile as well. So she did, her smile mirroring his own. He leaned forward and laughed hard. "Shhh, shh! You make Mom suspicious!" Sam said, biting her lip to stop herself. Sure enough, footsteps were heard in the corridor coming towards them. "See you, then," he said, and opened the sliding glass doors that lead to her balcony. He walked out and…continued walking. On air. Show-off.

"Sammykins, are you okay?" her mom said, peeking around the door. She winced when she saw the floor. "I wish you would wait to do you magicky things after school," she sighed. Sam shrugged. She usually did her experiments early in the morning because she'd been up all night preparing. Not point doing something unless you did it well. She decided to risk it and ask her mom something, "Hey Mom, you know that assignment of Mr Lancer's on familiars?" Total lie. Mr Lancer would never give them something so interesting to research, "Is it possible for a familiar to have been a familiar to different people? You know, more than once?" Her mom frowned and walked into the room and tugged at the cover on Sam's bed. Sam's eyes twitched. She liked her bed messy! Then her mom started rearranging her pillows. When her bed was annoyingly, unnaturally neat, her mom sighed and said, "I don't know much about familiars, Sammykins. I'll look at the archives today and see what I can dig up, okay?" Her mum was the head Liberian at the university. The post requires a mind like buzz saw, and more lives than a cat. Sam had heard some of the stories and it was one of the few reasons she respected her mother. "Thanks mom," she said, flashing a rare smile. Her mom smiled back. Then she looked hopeful and made a dive for the cupboard. Sam froze. Oh no. She ran for door, "I have to get to school!" "Sammykins please, just try on the dress!"

"NEVER!" Sam yelled dramatically as she ran down the stairs.

She was already half way to school when she wondered about what he said. He'd flown into a defence spell. How had that made his day?

*For the simple reason that in an emergency bonding, whatever happens to one happens to the other, in relation to how they were bonded