photo of a living room. Bile rose in my throat as I looked at the picture. There was a caption under the picture: Holly McGuire, Age 17 and unborn child. The girl in the photo looked like she had been literally torn to shreds. The only evidence that she was human at all was her face was untouched, which actually made the scene somehow more horrible.
Closing the link, I minimized the webpage and sat back, staring at the blank screen. The image of Holly kept running through my mind in a bloody loop.
If I didn’t stop her, it might as well be me who killed her next victims.
This was not going to be easy. Camilla was a very rich, very powerful public figure. People would know when she went missing, I was going to have to plan this out carefully. For the first time I found myself worrying about being caught by humans. A shudder ran through me as I thought of jail....all those tasers. And the orange; so much orange.
Chapter 11
Tip 362: Demon blood doesn't come out of silk, no matter what your dry cleaner says.
Leaving the library I managed to catch the last bus of the day. I’d spent the rest of the day looking up everything I could about Camilla. I even got a librarian involved, telling her I was writing something for my school newspaper. The poor woman had to hear all about how I thought Camilla was the greatest female role model of our time. Barf.
The lie was worth it though; tucked in my backpack was a whole ream of paper on Camilla, including a city map of her neighborhood.
Not wanting to go home just yet, I got off two blocks from the café and after letting Pancake out of my bag we crossed the street and walked to Jenny’s. She was standing outside; strange since judging by the line outside, the café was slammed. “What’s up?”
“Finally.” She said and handed me a big cup of coffee. Pulling out her phone she dialed a number and spoke quietly into it.
My suspicious nature rose its ugly head as I took a sip of the coffee. This was a triple shot with extra chocolate. Jenny only loaded me up with this drink when she knew I wasn’t going to like something.
“What’s going on?” I asked once she was off the phone.
“I don’t know, which is what’s bugging me. Father H called and told me to bring you to him. Come on, let’s go. I don’t like feeling out of the loop.”
I didn’t bother to protest; instead I jogged to her Porsche and was inside before she had opened her door.
“Where’ve you been?” she asked as she weaved in and out of traffic.
“Library.” I said, and had to stop myself from screaming as we came waaay too close to the car in front of us. Without missing a beat Jenny swerved into the next lane and passed the slowpoke. How did she get a license and I couldn’t? Even I wasn’t this dangerous on the road.
“I’m sorry, did you say library?” she asked, unable to hide her astonishment.
“Yes. I do read.”
“I know that. I just hoped you’d know what was going on. Father H sounded freaked.”
“I’m just as lost as you on this one.” I told her.
Jenny’s worry was contagious, so much so that by the time she pulled into Father H’s driveway I was about ready to puke from the stress.
I had the door open before the car even made it to a full stop. I wasn’t even able to knock on the door before it flew open, Father Henry standing there with a relieved look on his face. Pulling me inside, he wrapped his arms around me and gave me a hard hug.
“Thank God.” He said, his voice quivering. When I looked up at him, I was shocked to find his eyes red and watery.
“What is going on?” I demanded as Jenny and Pancake barreled through the door. Not answering me, he gave Jenny a hug and then closed and locked the door behind us.
“Max will explain everything.” He said, leading us into the
Lawrence Block
Jennifer Labelle
Bre Faucheux
Kathryn Thomas
Rebecca K. Lilley
Sally Spencer
Robert Silverberg
Patricia Wentworth
Nathan Kotecki
MJ Fredrick