of some sort? I’d never heard the term or read about it in Gran’s book. It seemed strange that Jacob had just spilled the information to me, after everyone in my life had been so careful not to tell me anything . . . almost like they couldn’t.
I bumped into Suzy, who’d stopped in her tracks.
I looked past her and swallowed hard, all the questions I’d had on the tip of my tongue gone.
You’d think it would be the necromancer, the witches, or even more alligators. But you’d be wrong.
Marge and her weirdo husband, Homer, stood across from us, shadowed in the light growing in the east. Alan stood next to him on one side, and Robert was on his knees on the other. He was back in his skeletal form, icy blue eyes gone.
“You did good,” Marge said to Alan. “You even managed to bring me this one.” She patted Robert on the head as though he were a dog. “For that I’ll free you from your ex, as promised, and give you a new body.” As bad as it was to see Robert on his knees, swaying from side to side, it was worse to realize that Alan had betrayed me.
Again.
And I’d walked right into it.
She snapped her fingers, and Alan jerked hard, disappearing. Another snap of her fingers, and a tall male body stepped forward, touching itself, running fingers over the partially stitched mouth. “I’m . . . alive?” he muffled.
Holy shit, she’d stuffed Alan into a new body, for real.
That wasn’t what truly held my attention though. The sound of shuffling feet, clunking bones, and creaking metal could be heard all around the exit. Bodies emerged from the shadows, bodies that had their mouths sewn shut and their eyes stitched open wide. Staring, flicking in every direction as if they couldn’t believe what had been done to them even while they obeyed the commands of a voodoo priestess.
Hell, I couldn’t believe it. I knew in my gut what we were looking at as they shuffled toward us.
If I were a betting woman, I’d say these were the tonton macoutes. These were what had killed my Gran, my parents, and Alan.
Jacob whispered a prayer. “Mother of God, save us from this madness.”
“I’d guess she’s busy right now,” I muttered. “Any ideas?”
He shook his head. “None. This is the darkest of the arts, to trap souls inside the dead.”
I stared at Marge. “You killed my gran?”
She shook her head. “No. And I didn’t kill your ex, or your parents.” She smiled and spread her hands wide. I was going to guess that she was working on semantics. She raised the tonton macoutes, but she herself hadn’t killed Gran or Alan or my parents.
“So you’re just going to kill us now?” I pushed past Suzy so I was in front of the gang, limping to take the lead. “I mean, you seemed to like me just fine when I met you earlier. I thought we were getting along.”
“Money talks. You know how that is, being a bounty hunter and all.” She smiled as she put her hands on her enormous hips. “You see, me and Homer, we follow the money. It isn’t personal. The job ain’t to kill you, but I will if you make me.”
I nodded. “Fair enough, but what exactly were you hired to do?”
She tipped her chin toward our group, still smiling. Easy to smile when you had the upper hand. “Why don’t you ask your little french fry there? He be the one to hire us on behalf of his boss.”
Louis tried to shrink away from me, but I grabbed him and pulled him around to face me. “What are all the goals here, Louis? Death? Dismemberment?”
His throat bobbed. “He wants . . .he wants you to take him to your gran’s spirit. After that, he’ll kill you himself. If he can.”
I pursed my lips and then looked at Penny. Her eyes were inscrutable in the semi-darkness, but I wanted to believe she was telling me to go with my gut. She leaned heavily on the cane, which she remarkably still had in her hands.
Missy shook her head. “This is a game to them, and we are losing, Breena.”
From behind us in the tunnel of the ride came the low laugh of a woman and the Coven of Darkness pushed us farther out into the light. Trapped between tonton macoutes on one side and witches on the other, I did the only thing I could.