Gypsy Magic - J.R. Rain Page 0,41

sounded like a radio with bad reception. The deep pink, drop waist dress seemed faded to an almost cotton-candy color.

“Keep your skirt on, dollface.”

My anger returned in full force. I stepped on the gas again, traveling five miles over the speed limit. Finn would need more comfort than Marty could provide at the moment. Furthermore, I’d promised no more ghosts!

I ought to have tossed the pencil case Darla had attached herself to into the compost bin or buried it in the backyard. No, I should have just burned the damned thing.

“I told you not to let Finn see you! That was the deal!”

“An’ it’s still the deal!”

“No, it’s not, because you broke your end of it!” I yelled at her. To anyone driving by, I had to look like a crazy person—screaming at an empty seat beside me.

“Tell it to Sweeney,” she grumbled.

“I’m not telling anything to Sweeney!” I yelled. “I don’t even know what that means!”

Darla squirmed, reaching into an interior pocket of her dress to retrieve a handkerchief. She wrung it between her slender fingers like she was preparing to hang it out to dry.

“I didn’t do it on purpose,” she said.

“So what the hell happened?”

“I was just passin’ the time, honest. I was watchin’ somethin’ on the tele, some handsome fella wrestling on the tube. All sweaty and wearin’ them short shorts you know I like so much. I sort of... didn’t realize the kid had come home.” She paused a second and then batted her eyelashes at me, as if doing so would have any sort of effect on me. “And who was that handsome man with him? Talk about a real cake-eater!”

I pinched the bridge of my nose. It felt like someone was tapping away at the middle of my forehead with a ball peen hammer. I should have known better than to trust Darla. I eventually moved my fingers from my nose to massage the ache between my eyes.

“How could you have been so careless?”

“I’m sorry,” she said, shaking her head.

“I should just chuck the pencil case and this locket into the nearest river and see where you end up.”

Her flickering face seemed to blanch, her eyes flying open wide, her expression stricken. She managed to screw her face up into an expression so tragic, I almost apologized. And then I almost hit myself for being an idiot. Darla was, or at least had been an actress. I was fairly sure I couldn’t trust anything she said or did.

“Please, doll. Ya can’t do that to me! I’m so young an’ who knows where I’d end up! Prolly dead somewhere! An’ I don’t wanna die!”

“Darla, you’re almost a century old and you’re already dead,” I seethed through clenched teeth.

“Well, regardless… I can’t go back to the house anytime soon,” she whispered with a shrug, her histrionics forgotten for the moment.

“And why is that?”

“Well, that Oliver Twist that brought the kid home…”

“His name is Marty,” I grumbled.

“It don’t matter what his name is! Because…. because he’s a ghost hunter!”

“I’m aware.”

“You’re aware?” she pouted.

I nodded and frowned at her as she sat up straight—er floated up straight—and glared at me. “Well, guess what? That ghost hunter and your son are trying to exorcise me!”

The genuine terror in her voice took some of the wind out of my sails. Irritating she might have been, but she was ultimately harmless. I sighed and seized my phone from the mount on the dashboard and ordered Siri to call Marty.

It took three rings for him to answer and, when he did, I could barely hear him. The horrendous noise of Henner’s ghost box threatened to drown everything else out. If I strained, I could make out Finn’s shrill voice over everything else. He said a few choice words to the empty air where Darla should have been. I made a mental note to get harsher where his vocab was concerned.

“Poppy! I was about to call you. Where you at?” Marty asked.

“On my way home,” I said, glancing sideways at the ghost in my passenger seat. “I know this is going to sound weird… but can you hold off on the exorcism, please? Finn and I know the ghost and, despite what he says, she’s harmless.”

“Hmm, that’s not what Finn seems to think.”

“Well, Finn’s exaggerating. Darla won’t hurt him or anyone else.”

“I’m just a misunderstood girl, all alone in a cold, mean world!” she crooned from beside me. I just shook my head.

“She piggybacked on some of our things in order to