Tommy Nightmare(92)

“But more could die tonight,” Tommy said. “All to capture one girl? And bringing in all the cops and feds makes me nervous.”

“Ashleigh knows what she's doing,” Esmeralda said. “That's what you kept telling me. We had to bring her back because she understands us, and what we are. You said that. You were obsessed with it.”

“I still think that, but she's not honest. Watch how she manipulates everyone else. How do we know she's not manipulating us?”

“Because we're her soul family. She told me. We always help each other in all our lifetimes. The three of us belong together.”

“I thought you didn’t believe in reincarnation. What if she’s lying about—”

“She is not lying to us!” Esmeralda sat up and hugged a pillow. “Ashleigh loves us. I know it. And I love her, too.”

“Making people feel love is her power. She only has to touch you.”

“But it doesn't work on us,” Esmeralda said.

“It doesn't work on me,” Tommy said. “But I think she cast a spell on you. Has she been touching you a lot, or in any unusual way?”

Esmeralda blushed and turned her head.

“She has, hasn't she?” Tommy asked.

“We have fun together. We both enjoy it.”

“You didn't even like her at first,” Tommy said.

“I just didn't know her.” Esmeralda scowled.

“I know her better now, too,” Tommy said. “And maybe I'm wrong, but...”

“You are wrong.”

“So…if I wanted to duck out of this whole thing, and hit the road...would you come with me?”

“What are you talking about?”

Tommy took her hand. Fear leaked into her, but he tried to hold it in as much as he could. “I've never been happier than that moment when you first got on my bike. And then riding through the desert with your arms around me. You don't know what that meant to me. Didn't it seem like something good was about to happen?”

“Good things have happened.” She squeezed his hand. “We found Ashleigh. She has brought so much into our lives.”

“She’s using us, I think,” Tommy said. “She has her own agenda, and she's using us—”

“We are her agenda!” Esmeralda said. “We're only getting rid of this Jenny person so she doesn't kill us. So the world will be safe for the three of us. We can all be together after that, with nothing to fear. Ashleigh is really smart and she knows what needs to happen.”

“And what if you had to choose between her and me?”

“I would choose her.”

He took her words like a sharp belt lash across the face. Tommy let go of her hand and walked back to the open balcony. “Then the only way I can be with you, is to be with her.”

“The three of us, Tommy. Nobody left out.”

Tommy looked out at the crowd of smiling, dancing, drinking, kissing people, and he thought about the horror he had to unleash on them.





Jenny sped down the highway towards Charleston as the night grew dark around her. She’d called Seth and Darcy several times as she drove, and left each of them panicked voicemails, but nobody had called back.

A mile marker told her she was thirty miles from Charleston. The further she drove, the slower she seemed to travel, though she kept the needle between eighty and ninety in the countryside. She slowed as she passed through the little towns, where police might be lying in wait for a quick buck.

Doubt gnawed on her guts. She felt horrible for leaving her dad in that condition, when he was acting so confused and lost. Maybe she’d made the wrong choice. Seth had brought himself back from the dead before. Even if Ashleigh’s opposite really did kill him, Seth might be able to bring himself back, as long as his body wasn’t too destroyed.

And somebody was waiting up ahead for Jenny, using Seth as bait, expecting stupid little Jenny Mittens to take the hook in her mouth. Jenny was doing exactly what Ashleigh’s opposite wanted.

She thought about turning back. It was stupid to walk into an ambush, and she needed to go take care of her dad.

Then her phone rang. Darcy, finally calling her back.





Chapter Forty-Two


Ashleigh sat in the antique French arm chair in Seth’s room at the Mandrake House. The chair was 19th century, the back and arms carved with images of a woman and gargoyles. It felt like a throne to her. She ate from silver room-service trays: shrimp and grits, sliced heirloom tomatoes, a cheeseburger, a waffle, pecan pie, orange juice and sweet tea. The pregnancy made her crave everything. Besides, she needed to load up on calories to charge up her power, because she’d zapped her latest two victims pretty hard.