he was right.
“Because they didn’t do this when I drove by with Josh.”
Oh Lord, there’d been mortals here. People passed this section of the property every day! “Did your friend see the ghosts?”
“No,” Tucker said, and it wasn’t Angel’s imagination—he sounded a little sad. “He said it looked dark, so he’s not immune to it. But he didn’t see the random graveyard stretching into the hell dimension. He didn’t see what I see.”
It must have been lonely to be so singular. Was this why Tucker knew so much about seeking out no-strings companions?
“I see it too,” Angel told him and looked out the window stoically. She wished she didn’t. The swarms of the undead were parting before the truck, but Angel could make out plain farm women in cotton dresses, miners in overalls and thermal shirts, children in knee pants or dirty tunics. “These people couldn’t all have died here. Not even in the town, Tucker. There’s far too many of them!”
“I know. It’s like the place—the graveyard in particular—just sort of sucked them in.”
“Why would somebody lay a foundation like this?” Angel muttered. “I wondered that when I came, and I wonder that now. Why would someone create a property that is essentially a giant ghost trap?”
“Don’t ask me,” Tucker muttered. “I’m just the hired muscle. Now I need you to get out first and come over to my side. They hate you, but they’re looking at me like they want to jump in my body and use it for a meat puppet, so, uh, yeah.” He shuddered, and Angel remembered their conversation before he grabbed hold of the bed frame. “Not doing that.”
Angel glanced around to Tucker’s side of the truck and gasped. He wasn’t kidding. The ghosts were gathered around the driver’s side as Tucker slowed down, staring at him with hunger in their eyes.
That fear Tucker’d had, that fear of being possessed—this was what he’d been talking about. These ghosts weren’t the tame ones, the mere visions that populated the house. These ghosts were angry, and they wanted life.
Angel, who trafficked in the world after life, was suddenly afraid.
“Tucker, how long do we have before they figure out they can get into the car?”
Tucker shook his head. “They can’t. The glass, the metal, something about the space of it is different. They’re treating it like a house or a property boundary.”
Angel frowned. “Are you sure it’s not this symbol of protection hanging from the mirror?”
“Oh!” Tucker gave a bark of laughter. “I’d forgotten about that.” He touched it and frowned. “It’s still… hot. Still hot in my hands. I don’t think I could wear it comfortably, but you’re right. It’s probably what’s protecting the truck.”
Tucker stepped on the gas and drove the car to the far side of the road, the one obviously marked by the change in metallurgy, by the absence of anything in a bilious color scheme or smoky shades of gray.
“But I’ve got an idea.” He stopped the car and looked at Angel. “We still have to get out, but….” He grimaced. “Remember when you touched the doorknob through my hand?”
“You want me to do that?”
“Here. My backpack. I’ll put it on; you touch my back through it. Hopefully it will give me enough of whatever you’re wearing to keep them out of my skin.”
Angel felt an imaginary pulse fluttering in her throat. “Are you sure?” she asked. “Tucker, this could… uh, take a bad turn.”
“Yeah, and then it could veer left off of ‘bad’ right onto ‘wrong,’ and then go south straight to hell. I am aware, Angel. But….” He rubbed under his breastbone. “I wish I could explain it to you. Why I have to go look. There’s a thing here I need to see. I just….” The expression he turned toward Angel was pleading. “Angel, this radar in my stomach, it’s sort of imperative. And it’s been tingling since I woke up after the bed thing. I wish I could explain it better than that, but—”
“You didn’t tell me?” Angel asked, surprised. “Oh, Tucker, you never ignore an empath’s feelings. That’s very important. It’s good that we came. Bad things happen when that’s not addressed.”
The bleakness on Tucker’s face touched Angel in a broken place she didn’t know she had. “I know. Oh, believe me, I totally know. So I know it’s scary. I’ve passed graveyards in the city that haven’t been this populated. This is bad shit right here. But I’ve got to, man… sweetheart… hell, whatever. I’ve got