Jenny Plague-Bringer(31)

“Am I misunderstanding something?” Mariella frowned at her. Her full lower lip made a cute little pout when she frowned, which made Jenny want to upgrade from smacking her to scratching her. “You seemed to know me. I thought...” A sad look crept into her bright green eyes, and she looked away.

“What did you think?”

“I thought you were someone like me. How did you know so much?”

“I’m not like you,” Jenny said.

“Did you once know someone like me? Is that it?” Mariella looked hopeful. “Maybe you have seen the boy I need?”

“There is no boy.”

“I have to go,” Mariella said, checking the time on her phone. “Can we talk again? Over a nice bottle of wine, maybe? I would like to hear more of your thoughts. Although you must think I am out of my mind now.” She gave a small, awkward smile.

Jenny looked over the pretty Mediterranean girl in the pricey high-fashion clothes. Part of her already hated Mariella for her interest in Seth. Another part of her felt bad for the girl, who’d clearly stumbled through life without meeting anyone like herself, something Jenny fully understood. Now Mariella was trying to reach out to her own kind—unfortunately for her, most of their kind tended to be wicked, ruthless, and deceptive. Jenny herself had always been a powerful evil force. She was working her hardest to change that, but very few of her past-life memories gave any guidance on how to live with the pox and still be a good person.

Yet another part of Jenny recognized that the girl could be tricking her in any number of ways. Maybe she was another Ashleigh, capable of charming people while plotting to ruin them. Jenny decided to listen to that part of her, the one that said to trust no one and avoid contact with others as much as possible. It was how she’d survived her life so far.

“Do you want to give me your mobile number?” Mariella asked as Jenny approached the escalator that would take her underground to the Metro station. Mariella had a look in her eyes that bordered on desperation.

Jenny’s heart almost went out to her, but she stopped herself. The only safe choice was to run the girl off forever. Jenny glanced around to make sure no one was looking at them, and she peeled off her gloves.

“Do you know what my touch does?” Jenny asked her, stepping on the escalator. “It brings pain and death. That’s all I’ve ever been to anyone.”

Jenny held up her bare hands. For a moment, she unleashed the pox, her hands and face rippling with gory disease. A look of terror filled Mariella’s face as Jenny descended out of sight.

Jenny drew the pox back inside her and turned to face forward down the escalator. She heard the girl scream, and she smiled. Her past-life memories did provide plenty of tricks for striking fear into people. She’d always been good at that.

With any luck, she’d scared Mariella all the way back to Italy.



* * *



The bed in Jenny and Seth’s apartment was a rococo-style antique with curving posters at the foot. The high headboard was carved with intricate little grapevines and cupids armed with love arrows., and the mattress was stuffed with goose down. Jenny had never slept in a more comfortable bed in her life, but lately she was having trouble sleeping at all.

She looked at Seth, who dreamed the night away beside her, his bare chest painted silver by the moonlight, a crooked, happy smile on his lips. What did he have to worry about? He didn’t know she was pregnant, or that the baby was doomed. He didn’t know that another one of their kind was trying to track him down.

She was fighting panic. Mariella claimed to see the future, and in that future, she saw herself and Seth together. Jenny wondered if it was true. How would Seth react if she told him she was pregnant, and then the pregnancy reached its inevitable, bloody end? How would he feel about her? He claimed not to care about having children, but he was still young. His mind could change, especially if he learned he’d fathered a child, and it had died.

Jenny regretted how she’d threatened Mariella, remembering from previous lives that the more she used the pox, the more likely she was to miscarry. Her moment of trying to scare the girl could have cost the baby’s life. But the baby had no future anyway, so why should she worry about that?

Her thoughts kept swirling and pounding against the inside of her skull. She could sense everything going wrong, the magic carpet tearing beneath them.

Seth’s eyes drifted open.

“What’s wrong?” he mumbled.

More than I can tell you, Jenny thought.

“Nothing,” she whispered. “Bad dreams.”

“Sucks,” he said. His eyes were barely open, and his blond hair stuck out in every direction. He put an arm around her.