Alexander Death (The Paranormals, Book 3) (33 page)

Jenny smiled and lay her hand on his. “I remember. It seems like a million years ago, our first date. Halloween.”

“Remember how you puked on me after our first kiss?”

“You just have that effect on people.”

“I miss the sound of you breathing beside me when you sleep,” Seth said. “I would just look at your face and think how lucky I was to find somebody so funny, and smart, and kind, and beautiful...”

“Oh, come on.”

“I mean it. It would kill me if anything happened to you.” His fingers flexed on her stomach. “You should have let me kill Alexander when we had the chance. Then you'd be safe.”

“You weren't in any condition for that. And we had to get out of there fast.”

“I could have done it.” Seth was quiet for a minute. “Are you sure you didn't want him left alive because of your feelings for him?”

“Seth!” Jenny elbowed him. “That's not it.” Jenny wondered, though. She had a felt an intense, magnetic attraction to Alexander. And his understanding of their kind made her feel secure. Maybe she hadn't been ready to see him die.

“Why didn't you let me do it?” he whispered.

“I don't know, Seth. I just got out of his bed a couple hours before that. Killing him on the same day seemed a little...black widowish.”

“You were sleeping with him?”

“What are you so outraged about? You slept with that girl who looked like Ashleigh.”

“I told you, Ashleigh was behind that. She was possessing Darcy Metcalf.”

“And you're so lucky I believe you about that,” Jenny said. “She did a good job acting lonely and pathetic, though. And then she
knew
I would see you with that girl and think that you were still secretly in love in Ashleigh.”

“And that's why you ran off with Zombie Xander.”

“It helped me decide. But you know, I had to escape from the riot Tommy set up. And from Homeland Security. The National Guard. He saved my life from that mob, you know. I decided I'd rather let them kill me than repeat that terrible Easter again.”

“Then I'm glad he saved you. I wish I'd been there to do it. I'm feel like I'm never there to help the people I love.” A sad look crossed his face, and Jenny knew he was thinking about his brother Carter.

“It's not your fault. And you didn't have a gang of zombies to help out,” Jenny said.

“I wouldn't need one, if I saw you in danger.”

“Aw.”

“So, about sleeping with this other guy...”

“I thought you'd cheated on me. And he was my companion for a thousand lives. See, I'm more like a normal girl now, Seth. I have a psycho stalker ex-boyfriend.”

“But did you love him?” Seth asked.

“I...” Jenny looked him in the eyes. “No, Seth. I didn't love him.”

“Tell me how you hated being with him.”

Jenny couldn't help but think of her long nights with Alexander, how he'd known exactly what to do with his fingers, his tongue... “He did have a thousand lifetimes of experience,” Jenny said.

“Big deal. I just need more practice.”

Jenny turned her head to face him. “Then we'd better practice,” she said.

He kissed her, long and slow.

Ashleigh was working late in her corner office at the Los Angeles campaign headquarters when he came to see her.

“Ashleigh,” his voice said.

She looked up, startled. He'd entered without a sound. The young man was tall, muscular, with shaggy brown hair, handsome except for the tiny burn scars that dotted his face and neck. He was dressed Rodeo casual, T-shirt and jeans and sneakers that must have cost a thousand dollars. He took off his Fendi sunglasses as he regarded her. His dark eyes seemed to laugh at Ashleigh.

“Ashleigh Goodling?” he asked.

“How did you get in here?”

His eyes locked onto hers. “I can get into anyplace I want.”

Ashleigh felt uneasy. Her fingers drifted toward the SECURITY button on her desk phone. “You have the wrong person,” she said. “My name is Esmeralda.”

“I don't think it is.” He dropped into the chair across from her and leaned back, swinging idly from side to side like a bored child. “Esmeralda Medina Rios was a funerary cosmetician. I kept tabs on her. She didn't care for politics. The love-charmer, though—politics are an irresistible nectar to her. The power. The blood. That's why I believe you are not Esmeralda Rios, but Ashleigh Goodling, riding Esmeralda's body like a horse. And if I know you, love-charmer, you're not sharing. You're possessing. Because that's what you love to do most of all, possess.”

Ashleigh gaped at him. “Who are you?”

“Esmeralda is my opposite. It's always interesting to keep tabs on your opposites, isn't it, love-charmer? And how is your Tommy? Using his abilities in the most unfocused and unproductive ways, as usual?”

Ashleigh couldn't help but laugh.

“They can require such guidance and hand-holding, can't they?” he asked. “So few of us are masters. So few of us remember what we truly are.”

Ashleigh, completely caught off-guard and a little frightened, could only stare at him.

“You may now reply,” he said, with half a smile.

“Oh!” Ashleigh was feeling flustered. “Then, what do you want with me?”

“Don't be afraid,” he said. “I'm not going to cast you from Esmeralda's body like Christ and his demons. I could, though. Opposites have special influence over one another, as you know.” He reached across her desk, and Ashleigh shrank back from him. She covered the bracelet on her hand, the one that contained pieces of Ashleigh-bone, keeping her connected to Esmeralda's body.

“But I won't,” he continued. He reclined in the chair and put his hands behind his head. “Esmeralda is as useless to me as your Tommy is to you. No imagination. No ambition. Forget her for now. It's your help I would enjoy, Aphrodite.”

“Cute,” she said. From her large swaths of past-life memory, Ashleigh was beginning to recognize who this man was. A brutal conqueror, an iron-fisted ruler of humans, whom he regarded as cattle. He had been her enemy often, though not always. She needed to be wary. He seemed to radiate power.

“What is your name, this lifetime?” she asked.

“Alexander. You may remember the wars we have enjoyed waging against each other in the past, with our armies of human pawns. But, regardless of our previous conflicts, we now share a common problem,” he said. “The healer and the plague-bringer.”

“Jenny? Do you know where she is?”

“She has been with me these past months,” he said. “Until, as is increasingly the problem in recent lives, she ran off with your servant, the healer.”

“She's with Seth?” Ashleigh sat up. “You know where to find them?”

“Of course, with him,” Alexander said. “They grow closer together each lifetime, and further from us. We must reclaim our slaves. Our property must be returned to us.”

“I don't want to reclaim Seth,” Ashleigh said. “I want him dead, maybe, but not back in my life.”

“Of course, they must be punished for their insulting disloyalty in this lifetime,” Alexander said. “That is understandable. But we have eternity to think about. Countless lifetimes when they could be serving us. Or we can let them draw together and become our enemies.”

“What did you have in mind?” Ashleigh asked.

“I want to destroy them. I want to give them both a death so horrific it leaves them scarred for lifetimes. And if there is anyone who knows how to maximize the suffering of others, it's you, charmer.”

Ashleigh stood and walked around the desk. She leaned against the front of it, looking down at him. “I like how you think. We'll punish them with the worst death we can design.” She offered her hand.

Alexander drew on a black glove. “Sorry, I don't feel like getting charmed today.” He shook her hand.

“There's just one little loose end I need to tie up,” Ashleigh said.

Alexander had arrived in a cab, so they left in Esmeralda's mother's car, an old Toyota Corolla. Ashleigh had lovingly convinced Esmeralda's mother that she should start taking the bus to work, leaving her car for her daughter to use. After the election, Eddie was supposed to buy her a new BMW convertible. Until then, it was best to avoid anything that might draw attention to the congressman's affair with her.

They drove towards a private airport, where Alexander had a plane waiting. Ashleigh stopped at rundown Citgo along the way.

“Where are you going?”

“Just one second.” Ashleigh got out of the car and approached the two payphone boxes outside the store. Both were covered in years of spraypainted messages, and one of the phones was gone, with only a frayed wire where it had been.

Ashleigh picked up the remaining phone, holding it a few inches from ear, since it was thick with grime and filth. She fed in a few quarters, then called 911.

“I want to report an escaped convict,” Ashleigh said. “He usually goes by Thomas Krueger, but I think his legal name is actually Thomas White. He escaped from Riverbend Prison in Louisiana a few months ago. He says he's killed two people since then. He's always armed. You can find him after 10 p.m. every night at Jack's Spot on Sepulveda.”

The operator tried to take her information, but Ashleigh said, “This has to be anonymous. He'll kill me if he knows I reported him. He's very, very dangerous and violent. He's high on meth most of the time, so expect him to fight back or shoot at the police when they go to arrest him. Thank you!”

Ashleigh hung up the phone and returned to her car.

“Everything good?” Alexander asked when she sat down.

“All squared away.” Ashleigh beamed at him. She tried not to think about the intense attraction she felt for Alexander, which almost made her squirm. He was strong, powerful, the first guy she'd met that she might not be able to manipulate at all. It seriously turned her on.

“Then let's drive,” Alexander said.

“Sorry!” Ashleigh cranked the car, blushing. “I can't wait to see that bitch's face when I finally destroy her.”

Jenny and Seth took a quick charter plane ride to Charleston, where they picked up Jenny's old Lincoln. The clerk at the parking deck booth was amazed to see the car had checked in more than three months earlier, and said she needed to contact her supervisor. Seth shoveled cash at her until she decided it wasn't such a big problem, after all, and raised the arm for them to exit.

Jenny let Seth drive, content to watch the familiar South Carolina countryside. She'd missed the long, crooked limbs of the oak trees, the little cypress swamps, the familiar mats of moss that grew everywhere.

They arrived in Fallen Oak and drove straight to Jenny's house. Jenny felt nervous as she got out of the car—she hadn't spoken to her dad in months, and he hadn't exactly been happy with her then.

As they walked up the front porch steps, her dad appeared behind the screen door. The main door was open to catch the breeze, as it usually was between May and October.

“Jenny?” he said.

“Hi, Dad.” Jenny smiled.

He opened the door, and Jenny embraced him, careful to keep her head away from his. After a minute, he squeezed her tight.

“I missed you so much,” he whispered. “My little baby girl.”

“I missed you, too, Daddy.”

He stepped back, looking her up and down. “You been okay?”

“Yes. How about you?”

“Where you been?”

“Um, Chiapas,” Jenny said. “In Mexico.”

“Doing what?”

“Helping zombies grow cocaine for a big cartel.”

“Goddamn, you do know how to find trouble. Did you know about this, Seth?”

“I went to get her as soon as I could track her down,” Seth said.

“Well, come on in, you two. Dang gnats are still thick as gravy out here.”

Inside, he led them to the kitchen. “I was just fixing to fry up some bacon,” he said. “Guess I'll cook the whole mess, now.”

Rocky lay in a patch of sun on the kitchen floor. His head raised and his tail thumped at the sound of her dad's voice.

“Whoa, Rocky comes inside now?” Jenny asked.

“Hell, I can barely get him outside anymore,” her dad said. He set a black pan on the stove, ignited the gas burner with a match. “He sleeps on my feet at night.”

“That's good, Rocky.” Jenny knelt beside him and petted him with a gloved hand. He put a paw on her knee, wagging his tail. Jenny felt tears in her eyes and tried to swallow them back. Rocky had finally gotten over his fear of people. “I'm so proud of you,” she whispered.

“Well, guess I'll appreciate it come winter,” her dad said. He tossed in a pack of bacon, then cracked eggs into another pan. “Right now, it's too dang hot for that. He don't listen, though.”

“Are you still seeing June?” Jenny asked.

“Yep. She's working a shift at the Waffle House in Varnville today.”

“Can I help you cook, Mr. Morton?” Seth asked.