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The Influence(110)

By:Bentley Little


He’d told Dave that he knew what he needed to do, and he did. Despite his false bravado, he wasn’t sure if he could arrange it, wasn’t even sure it would work, but the basic idea was sound, and the fact that it used the monster’s own powers against it gave him a feeling of satisfaction. Karma was a bitch.

Even if it didn’t exist.

He thought about Lita, lying unconscious in a New Mexico hospital, and that made him hurry even faster.

Did you fuck her?

Dave’s question had hit him hard. His answer had been honest—he hadn’t had sex with his cousin—but he couldn’t deny that he had thought about it, and the knowledge made him feel both guilty and disgusted with himself.

Although he was fairly certain that those thoughts would not have occurred to him had not that creature been shot out of the sky.

Ross tried to recall exactly what he had seen Christmas night, when that thing had flown over the ranch, tried to reconstruct in his mind the feelings he had experienced at that moment, but so much had happened since then that his memories and attitudes were all jumbled together. Although he couldn’t say for sure what it had looked like when it was alive, he clearly recalled the way it had appeared in the shed, curled into a fetal position, rotting, its flesh melting, its terrifying face filled with a horrible malevolence, and he felt once again the strength of the power that had enveloped him, that had made him believe for a few moments that it really was an angel.

It had influenced him there, and its effects were still following him, not merely following him but spreading, touching those he touched, and he understood now that the only way to put a stop to it all was to destroy the body once and for all. He had tried calling the Cochise County sheriff’s department to determine whether any efforts had been made to do that, had tried calling the Tucson diocese of the Catholic church and asking for Father Ramos, to see if they were doing anything, but both inquiries led nowhere. As far as he could ascertain, the sheriff’s office had sent no one out to investigate, and Father Ramos appeared to be persona non grata with the church.

Wanting some intel on the ground, he had gotten Jackass McDaniel’s number from Dave, and when the handyman answered the phone, he told Ross that he was packing, getting ready to leave. “I’m done here,” he said. “I’m out.”

“What happened?” Ross asked, a sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach.

“What hasn’t happened?”

“I mean, what made you decide to leave now?”

“My gold turned to shit.” His voice rose. “My gold turned to shit. All the nuggets I dug out are now little pieces a smelly dog crap.”

“I’m coming back,” Ross said.

“Oh no. Don’t do that.” He could hear the concern in McDaniels’ voice.

“I’m going to get rid of that thing.”

“The angel?”

“Yeah.”

“Other people’ve already tried,” McDaniels said. “But it protects itself. Everyone who’s gone after it’s gotten killed, one way or another.” He paused. “You ain’t gettin’ through, either.”

“Have you seen it?”

“Oh yeah. I went out there with Hec the other day. He was a sharpshooter in Iraq, and his wife, Hannah, was kinda attacked by somethin’ in her garden, so he had the same thought you did, cut it off at the head. We went out to Holt’s place, but the road’s all dug up and I think booby trapped, so we snuck in through the east side, through Shel Dilson’s land—Shel’s family’s gone; they took off around the same time you did—and we found it, the angel. It’s bigger now. Holt’s shed’s not there anymore, and that thing’s out in the open, and we saw it.” McDaniels took a deep breath. “It’s…different. It’s turned into somethin’ else, somethin’ new.”

Ross thought of Jill’s paintings. “Like an egg?” he asked.

“Yeah. And I think it’s ready to hatch.”

“You said your friend was a sharpshooter. Did he miss?”

“He didn’t even try to shoot at it. It was too damn scary. We just slunk off. Holt was there, though. We saw him. Him and a bunch a guards. They’re watchin’ out for it, makin’ sure nothin’ disturbs it until it’s out.”

“Well, I’m coming over there,” Ross said.

“When?”

“Now.”

“You sound sure a yourself, like you know somethin’ the rest of us don’t.”

“I have a plan,” Ross admitted.

McDaniels was silent for a moment. “Could you use another hand?”