Page 79 of Seducing Jenny
He nodded. “Understand, at the time, I had thought your Earth films were documentaries. In it, two farmhands come across these enormous, tunneling beasts that eat humans and animals and anything else that moved across the land. But the best character is a scientist called Rhonda. She is calm, brilliant, quick-thinking, and smarter than everyone combined in the film. I admired her for years, so when I found my own tunneling beast, I named her for my hero.”
I glanced at Rhonda, her mirrored scales shimmering. “Strigella tunnel in the ground? Like a worm?”
He softly chuckled. “No. They tunnel through Ladrians.”
My stomach flipped. “What?”
“Strigella can eat their way through us,” Longshot said, matter of fact. “That’s usually how we find them, half buried in a corpse’s torso. They like us best when we’re freshly dead.”
I stared at him in horror. “So you’re saying the lovely creature around my neck couldtunnelthrough me?”
“Certainly. If she were so inclined.” He shrugged. “They usually only do it when they are looking for someplace warm or a meal. They enjoy our organ meat.”
I gulped and Rhonda looked me in the eyes. Then she pressed her cheek to mine and nuzzled, sweet and serene.
“Just stay on her good side and you will be fine,” Longshot said, amused.
“Noted.”
Tiger spoke up. “How do we catch Grass?”
Surge shook his head. “No need. Ghosts expend a lot of energy on Halla to possess someone. Now that she’s out of Jenny’s body, for her to do it here, it might take her years to charge up that kind of power. If she can at all.”
“She tried to possess me, before she flung the door open and left,” Tiger said. “I felt it. The elders in my clan used to say itfelt like the coldest thing you can imagine, when a ghost tries to possess you. That’s exactly what I felt.”
Discord nodded slowly, eyes wide. “I felt the same thing.”
“Like I said, that’s proof that she’s too weak,” Surge assured us. “She won’t be able to possess anyone ever again, I’d think.”
Mal crossed the room to me. “Then I’m unbinding you.” He started to work on the chains.
“No, you can’t!” I said, panicking all over again. “If she can come back—”
“She won’t be able to,” Surge said. “Once a ghost leaves a host, they can’t return. Sort of like an immunity after a vaccine.”
Fear still lingered and I wasn’t convinced. “But—”
“I’m doing it, Jenny,” Mal said, his tone adamant as he loosened the chains. “I’m not leaving you in here, covered in filth and blood and misery. I know you feel bad, but we’re not punishing you for someone else’s crimes.”
Tears burned my eyes. I didn’t want anyone to feel unsafe because I was free. “Let Surge decide. Please.”
The little man smiled kindly. “If it’s my decision, then cut her loose. Any objections?”
No one spoke, but they all turned to Discord. She crossed her arms and gave me a surly glare. “I’ll agree to it under one condition. Jenny.”
“Yes?”
“If you ever see that bitch Grass again, swear to me you’ll kill her yourself.”
I met her gaze unwaveringly. “I swear it.”
“Then cut her loose.”
CHAPTER 23
Mal
The chains had been tight against Jenny’s body, so when she mogged back to her human form, there were red lines on her skin from them. She quietly mumbled, “I’ve got stripes.”
