Wild Ride (26 page)

“I have a question,” the woman said.

“Of course you do, Honey,” Bill said, rolling his eyes again.

Mab looked up at Frankie, sharing the experience of what a dick Bill was. “You know, Bill, you should see an optometrist about that rolling-eye problem. Makes you look rude and patronizing.”

“Well, I'm sorry,” Bill said, clearly not. “But I don't believe in this stuff.”

“Now there we share an experience. However, your beloved does believe, and it's just mean to keep patronizing her like that, so stop it.”

“Yeah,” Honey said.

“You don't believe in this, either?” Bill laughed. “That's a good one. That'll be great for my article.”

“I didn't believe,” Mab said, “until I got hit with the magic stick and now I see a whole lot more. Ten bucks, please.”

“Ten bucks,” Honey said. “It used to be five.”

“And you used to be a brunette,” Mab said. “Things change.”

“Wow, you could see that?”

“Anybody can see that,” Bill said. “Your roots are showing.” He nodded
at Mab. “You're on.” He got out his wallet and slapped a ten on the table. “You get this if I believe you're really seeing the future.”

“It's not always the future,” Mab said, remembering Delpha's reading for her. “Sometimes it's just deeper into the present. It's not much fun.”

“You need to work on your patter,” Honey said. “You're kind of a downer.”

“You want happy, go see a clown,” Mab said. “What's your question?”

Honey beamed at Bill. “I want to know that we're going to live happily ever after.”

“I want to lose ten pounds,” Mab said. “Give me your hand.”

Honey put her right hand out, and Mab remembered Delpha and said, “The other one.”

Honey put her left hand out, and Mab took it gingerly, not sure what she was going to see or if she was going to see, pressing her palm down on Honey's—

At first there was nothing there, and Mab thought,
I knew this wouldn't work
. And then there was something, not visions, not voices, just a feeling, love and longing and fear—
Terror
, she thought, and tried to figure out what that was about. Honey was radiating not physical fear, but abandonment, loss, something beyond the need for love, although that was overwhelming. . . .

Mab dropped her hand, stunned. The psychic thing worked. Now what was she going to do with it?

“What?” Honey said, alarmed.

“You love him so much,” Mab said.

“Yes, I do,” Honey said.

“But you're afraid there's something wrong, you're so terribly afraid—”

“No,” Honey said, losing her smile. “No, I'm not, I'm
not
—”

“Give me your hand, Bill,” Mab said, and when he hesitated, she said, “You don't believe in this crap anyway,” and he put out his hand.

She took it and put her palm on his, determined to find out what Honey already knew, subconsciously. If this jerk was . . .

Love, good steady love, and guilt, and fear . . .

“Oh, hell,” Mab said, “you love her, too.”

“Of course I do,” Bill said, and Honey began to smile again.

“But you're going to hurt her, you're going to leave her.” Mab looked at Honey with sympathy. “He loves you all he can, but he cannot love you very much.”

“What?” Honey said.
“Why?”

“Honey, she's just yanking your chain,” Bill said, trying to get his hand back from Mab.

He's terrified
, she thought, getting a word for the first time,
terrified . . . no, that's not it.
“Terry,” she said, and Bill looked at her, appalled. “Terry, do you know a Terry?”

“Of course we know a Terry,” Honey said. “He's Bill's best friend. They play basketball every Sunday.”

They don't play basketball.
“You have to tell her,” she said to him. “It's not fair. She loves you very much, but she knows something is wrong and it's making her miserable.”

Bill looked at Honey, who still looked mystified. “I don't—”

“Don't be a bastard, Bill,” Mab said, letting go of his hand. “People don't lie to people they love, they lie to people they're using because they think their needs are more important than anybody else's.” She thought of Joe for a minute and then thought,
No, he's different.
“Look at her, Bill. She doesn't deserve to be lied to.
Nobody
deserves to be lied to.”

“Bill?” Honey said.

Bill stood up. “Come on. Let's go.”

Honey stood up. “We're all right. You love me. She said so.”

“You want your money back, Bill?” Mab said.

“No,” he said, and left the tent, Honey hurrying to catch up with him.

Mab looked at Frankie, perched up in the rafters. “This job sucks.”

Except I really can tell fortunes.

Another woman, a brunette in her forties this time, came through the open doors and sat down. “I want to know about my boyfriend.”

“Of course you do,” Mab said. “Ten bucks.”

It was going to be a long day.

E
than led Weaver to the trailers and said, “My mother lives here.”

Weaver frowned at the neat grouping of Airstreams, two on each side of the path. “Who lives in the others?”

“Gus next to Glenda. The other two used to be Old Fred and Hank, but they're gone now. Delpha's is down that path next to the river.”

“So there are two empty trailers, but you're sleeping in the woods.”

“I like the woods—you never know who might show up there.” Ethan knocked on the door of Glenda's trailer. When she opened it, he said, “Remember how you always wanted me to bring home a nice girl?”

Glenda looked past him to Weaver, dressed all in black with her gun under her arm.

“This isn't her,” Ethan said. “This is Weaver. The man in black.”

Glenda looked at Weaver again and nodded. “Mab mentioned you.”

He turned to Weaver. “Come on in and tell Glenda everything.”

“Ursula will be upset,” Weaver said.

“How badly do you want me to do that medical exam?” Ethan said.

Weaver pressed her lips together for a minute and then walked up the trailer steps, and pushed past Glenda to go in.

Glenda lowered her voice. “So this is the infamous Army Barbie. I hear you gave her Carl's dragon.”

“Weaver has a gun that kills minion demons,” Ethan told Glenda. “And glasses that can see them in the dark.”

“We don't need that,” Glenda said, “we have
powers.
”

“And if we play our cards right, we'll have both,” Ethan said, and gently pushed her into the trailer.

When they were all inside, he said, “Okay, let me start. Weaver, my mother and I are part of the Guardia, a hereditary anti-demon peacekeeping
force with supernatural powers stationed here in Dreamland to watch over five super-demons called the Untouchables.”

“Ethan!” Glenda said, outraged.

“Supernatural powers?” Weaver said, sounding skeptical.

“Mom, Weaver is part of an elite secret government demon-research group investigating Dreamland because of its high demon population.”

“So much for ‘secret,' ” Weaver said.

“Elite?” Glenda said, looking Weaver up and down.

He looked from one to the other. “Play nice.”

Glenda's chin went up and she pressed her lips firmly together, so Weaver said, “Fine. I'll go first. The government is interested in demons the same way it's interested in any force, as a possible threat and a possible weapon. My partner feels strongly that using demons as weapons is a bad idea because he thinks exploiting living things for government ends is wrong, and I think using them is a bad idea because they're evil little suckers and they'll turn on us in a heartbeat.”

“She's also blown a hell of a lot of them away for us,” Ethan said, hoping that would soften Glenda.

Glenda didn't say anything, so Weaver moved on. “My boss, however, is torn. She doesn't really believe in demons, thinks they're like UFOs and my partner and I are crazy, but if they turn out to be real, then finding a way to use them could considerably up her status in the Defense Department.”

“Particularly after the demons kill everybody above her,” Glenda said, taking out a cigarette, which Ethan saw as a good sign.

Weaver nodded. “The problem is, she's becoming more convinced they're real with every report we turn in. And she's talking about coming here herself, and if she decides that the demons are real and of use to her, she'll try to commandeer the park for the government.”

“Over my dead body,” Glenda said. “She has no idea what she's messing with.”

“I agree,” Weaver said. “Especially since I have no idea what we're messing with. Which is why I need information.” She sat back, waiting politely.

“She saved my life, Mom,” Ethan said. “More than once. Talk to her.”

“So there are minion demons in the park,” Glenda said. “How are they getting in?”

“Ray Brannigan is bringing them in,” Weaver said.

“Why?” Glenda said, looking taken aback for the first time. “He wants to run the park, not destroy it. I know he wants us all out of here, but he doesn't want the park wrecked.”

“He's bringing them in to kill us, Mom,” Ethan said. “They killed Delpha, they tried to kill Gus earlier this week, and they tried to kill Weaver and me today.”

Glenda jerked her head up. “What good does it do Ray to have you two dead? I can see him going after Mab, he'll inherit her ten percent, but it's not like he's going to get any richer killing you and Weaver. He's all about money, he'd sell his soul for . . .” Her voice broke off.

“Sell his soul for . . . ,” Ethan prompted.

Glenda sat back. “My god. It was right there and I never saw it.”

“What?” Ethan asked.

“He made a deal with Kharos to take over the park.”

“Who is Kharos?” Weaver said.

“The Devil,” Glenda said. “Ray's traded his soul for money and power. He made the deal forty years ago, why didn't I see it?”

“I don't see how you could have seen it,” Ethan said, not following. “I don't see how you see it now.”

“Wait a minute,” Weaver said, straightening in her chair.
“The Devil?”

Glenda ignored her to talk to Ethan. “Forty years ago, Ray Brannigan was a skinny, stupid teenager. Sometime after the weekend that the Untouchables escaped, he began to change. He filled out, got smarter, hell, his
hair
got thicker, almost overnight. Everything came his way. West Point, the Army Rangers, great investments, mayor . . .” Glenda tapped her cigarette, upset now. “And I didn't pay any attention back then because your father had just died and you were on the way and . . . Oh, god, Ethan, he's been planning on handing the park to Kharos for forty years.”

“Why wait so long?” Ethan said.

“I don't know, go ask Ray.” Glenda stubbed out her unlit cigarette. “This is bad. Ray has access everywhere. He—”

“Okay, about
the Devil
,” Weaver said, her self-possession gone. “The real Devil? He
exists
?”

“A devil,” Glenda said. “A big one. And yes, he's real, the son of a bitch.” She shivered a little bit as if someone had walked over her grave. Or was digging it. “Kharos wants out, he wants all the Untouchables out, and once they're all free, they'll take their real forms, they'll be so powerful that we can't—”

“We need Weaver with us on this, Mom,” Ethan said, cutting her off as her voice began to rise in panic.

Glenda swallowed. “All right.” She nodded at Weaver. “All right, you can help. But you do not interfere with the capture of an Untouchable. You can do whatever you want with the minions, but you have to leave the Untouchables to us.”

“And this devil is one of the Untouchables?” Weaver asked.

“Yes,” Glenda said. “There are five: the Devil, his wife, his right-hand man, a sex-crazed mermaid, and a trickster.”

Weaver nodded, a little wide-eyed. “Okay, then.”

“And you have to keep the government out of this,” Glenda said.

“I'll keep Ursula out of it,” Weaver said. “My partner needs to know. And then we'll decide together what we report. He's against killing, but I think even he would have to admit the Devil needs to be put down. We still have a mission to complete, we can't stop our work, but we can help you fight evil.”

“I have a mission, too,” Glenda said. “And I'll cut you off at the knees if you get in the way of my duty.”

“That's fair,” Weaver said. “Especially if we're dealing with, you know,
the Devil.
” She shook her head, a little pale.

Glenda looked at her, puzzled, and Ethan said, “Her dad was a preacher. Now our first problem. We got attacked by pirates—”

“Pirates?” Glenda said, lost.

“From the Pirate Ship,” Ethan said. “They were possessed. We destroyed them all, but I'm pretty sure there'll be more attacks because I think Kharos is trying to kill us all. So—”

“You destroyed them?” Glenda said. “But then we have no Pirate Ship ride.”

Ethan looked at her, dumbfounded. “They were trying to kill us.”

“I know, but now we're down a ride,” Glenda said. “That's going to hurt the park receipts.”

“So would a dozen minion-possessed pirates,” Weaver pointed out.

“Right, right,” Glenda said, frowning. “Okay, forget the pirates, we'll just have to close the ride. Now we have to get Tura back in her chalice.”

“Tura?” Weaver said, trying to follow.

“The sex-crazed mermaid, kills cheaters,” Ethan said.