Page 95 of Possess Me! (I Want You To)

“He knows what I am. What you are,” my jaw clenched. “He’s probably already out on the road, waiting for us to show up.” We’d be sitting ducks. I kindly did not point out the fact that Luca was surprisingly memorable with his long, muscular legs, pretty grin, and floppy pink hair. His hair would be like a beacon in the dark woods, even with the baseball cap to cover it.

“Okay cool, so maybe he’ll help us.”

“No.”

“You are being confusing and cagey as hell.”

“We need to get away from the road.” I jerked my head West and Luca huffed out a long, annoyed sigh.

“Not before you tell me what’s happening.”

There was no point arguing with him when he was like this.

Especially after he’d proven to me over and over again that he might be trustworthy.

So I told him.

I told him how I’d made my way to the gas station. How I’d gathered the stolen cards, and his phone. How I’d stepped inside the convenience store with the intent to frame the corpse for our theft. I explained how I’d waved the full wallet, how I’d made sure the security cameras caught every movement. How I’d paused—beers in hand—only to realize the cashier was not looking at the damn wallet.

No.

He’d been looking at me.

“I was wondering when you’d show up,” his lips twisted into a feral little smile. Immediately I stopped thinking about the pink-haired forest creature I’d left battered in the woods. There was a gun behind the desk. I could see it tucked half-hidden beneath a pile of scattered magazines. The man’s eyes were wicked, his teeth yellowed.

He smelled of stale smoke and too many days without showering.

None of those things, however, were what caused me alarm.

No.

It was one of the magazines. It lay toppled over, laying open on the dirty tile, its pages brightly illuminated by the flickering lights above. The Occult News. The only national newspaper run by the Supernatural Alliance Committee that acted as a second government for all monster sanctuaries. The same exact government that had killed me. The same one that held Lydia prisoner.

Everything hit me all at once.

In a manner of seconds I knew that he knew what I was.

But I played it cool, despite the way I trembled inside my host, ready to abandon the body so I could make sure this new development did not mean that Luca was in danger for a second time that day.

“I’m not sure what you mean,” I’d flashed a smile as I picked up the beer bottles, waiting a painfully long time for the guy to ring up my stolen card.

“Your host came by earlier,” the cashier continued, the glint in his eyes wicked as he deliberately held the card hostage. Technically, I didn’t need it. But…I flicked my gaze toward the security camera to my left. It would be strange—should the footage be reviewed—if someone saw me leave behind one of the cards I’d stolen.

It wouldn’t fit the alibi I was creating for Luca.

So, I grit my teeth, and forced my smile to remain even though my heart was pounding and I itched to chase my twink down and stand guard over him. I’d piss a circle around him to mark my territory if it meant keeping him safe from all the assholes that he attracted. If this man knew what I was, there was no doubt in my mind that he was a hunter. This close to the supernatural prison, that could not be a good thing.

Calling him a poacher would probably be more accurate.

There were a lot of hunters like that. People that had perverted the law, that chased rare creatures down and sold them at auction like they weren’t sentient beings, but cattle for the slaughter. Ghosts were rare enough there was no doubt in my mind he wanted to collect me.

He slid my card back to me with two fingers, deliberately slow.

If he really was a hunter, that meant he’d know there was no use attempting to detain me. Without my host there was nothing he could do. Which was why…I needed to get back to Luca, as quickly and efficiently as possible.

With his shattered phone burning a hole in my back pocket, I took the credit card back, and headed to the door, beers in hand.

We weren’t safe here.

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