Alexander Death(37)

“And then what happened?” Seth asked.

“I said okay, I would help out Ashleigh and the angels,” Darcy said. “Then the Mexican girl angel took my hand.”

“And then?”

“Next thing I remember, I was at the hotel in Charleston, getting picked up by the cops. Everything in between is just like little bits and pieces of dreams that don't make any sense.” She looked down at the job application again. “Shootsy. Who can I put as a reference? All the main people at church are gone.”

“Did they tell you where they came from?” Seth asked. “Tommy and the other girl? Or where they were going?”

Darcy shook her head. “Heaven, I guess. Or Hell, if they were really demons and not angels.”

“Did they say what Ashleigh was going to accomplish while she had your body?”

“No, just that it was very important.”

“What else can you tell me about them?”

“That's all I know, Seth.” She looked up at him. “So I asked you to take me to Charleston with you?”

“Yes.”

“And you said yes?”

“I did.”

“Um...we stayed in a hotel together?” she asked.

He nodded.

“So did we, you know...?” she blushed.

“Oh, no, we had separate rooms. It was a suite.”

“Oh.” Darcy looked down. “'Cause it's okay if we did, you know. I mean, I wouldn't feel too bad about it.”

“We didn't, I promise.”

“Yeah. Why would you want to...do that...with a big fat ugly girl, anyway?” Darcy shoved to her feet. She was sweaty from the humidity and the weight of her advanced pregnancy. “I have to go turn this in. Thanks for telling me what a total jacktard I've been.”

“Darcy, you're not ugly,” Seth said.

“Just leave me alone, Seth,” Darcy told him. “I'm tired of everybody treating me like crap.” Then she lumbered to the front counter and smiled as she turned in her application to work at Taco Bell.

Seth looked down at the chili cheese burrito on his tray, still untouched in its paper wrapper. He was still confused, but Darcy had given him a lot to chew on. Somehow, Ashleigh's opposite had brought Ashleigh back and put her in Darcy's body. The unnamed Mexican girl seemed to be part of that. Darcy had mentioned taking that girl's hand, so the girl's power seemed to depend on touch, too, just like Seth and Jenny, and like Ashleigh and Tommy.

He didn't know how everything fit together, but he was starting to make some guesses. Ashleigh had taken over Darcy's body and somehow lured Jenny down to Charleston. Ashleigh's opposite, Tommy, might have used his power to induce fear in order to start the riot, creating a smokescreen against the government agencies that were also looking for Jenny. It would also be easier to kidnap someone in the middle of a riot, when craziness and violence were happening everywhere.

Then, maybe, the zombie-maker had moved in to capture Jenny. Maybe people who were already dead were immune to Jenny pox, in which case the zombies would have done the actual seizing of Jenny.

He didn't like the picture that was emerging at all. He'd been thinking Jenny was just avoiding him because he'd hooked up with that girl in Charleston. Now it looked like Ashleigh and her opposite had teamed up with two others of their kind in order to capture Jenny. He wondered where they all were now, and what they were doing to Jenny, and how he could possibly hope to track them down.

Seth was sure of one thing: if Ashleigh Goodling was back in the world, then Jenny was in a lot of danger.





CHAPTER TWELVE





Ashleigh studied herself in the mirror as she applied lip gloss. She could see the reflection of Tommy behind her, sprawled on Esmeralda's bed in his underwear, smoking a cigarette and flicking the ashes in the sill of the open window.

“You look slutty,” he said.

“Too slutty?” Ashleigh asked. She checked herself out—low-cut blouse, short skirt, a band of brown skin visible between them. High heels.

“Depends what you're planning to do,” Tommy said.

“I plan to volunteer and then get hired.”

“Guess it depends whether it's a dude or a chick making the decision.”

“It's a dude,” Ashleigh said. “I do my research.”

“Why can't I come with you? We don't have to show up together, they don't have to know we're together. I can help you out.”

Ashleigh applied mascara. “Tommy, I think you're still pretty rough around the edges for this work. You're going to need some training.”

“I'm not a dog.”

“Polishing, then.”

“I'm not a piece of furniture, either.” Tommy shoved off the bed and came up behind her, grabbing her around the waist. She could feel him getting hard, poking his way up under her skirt. “I'm a man.”