Page 83 of Never Say Die
Maeve lifted her chin. She fiddled with a flower laced through her braid, and said, “Tell me everything.”
Aiden rambled, but halfway through, Shay took over. He tugged Aiden by the beltloop and placed him on the sofa, palming his thigh as details came and went, questions fired off and answered. Shay said,Aiden sliced his throat open by accident, and dizziness followed.He felt someone drown. Aiden faced the window again, listened but didn’t, breathed but didn’t.Yeah, I… I’ve bitten him. Three times, now. Oh, twice. The first time…He tracked a striped heron outside the window, wading through swampy grass.Six people, I think. Six, right? Aiden. Hey, babe?—
“What?” Aiden cleared his throat, blinking away anxious fog. “Yeah, yes. Six witches in the desert. Cit, Laura, and four others.”
“All with their own intent?” Maeve asked.
Kelly hummed suspiciously.
“Yes,” Aiden said. “I don’t think Laura died that night in the desert. I think whatever brought her back?—”
“Continued the ritual when she dove off the roof, freeing her body for a new occupant,” Maeve said, nodding. “I think you’re right. Which means the intent those witches manifested and released had to make a home somewhere. It also means, if I’m putting this together correctly, that your blood became the valve between here and there, Laura’s body and their intent. She’s following you, leaving offerings, making a promise.”
Shay narrowed his eyes. “Awhat?”
“Blood is a sacred thing. You’ve given her access to life, yes. But because she’s an empty vessel, you’ve also given her reason to take what you have. Your blood, your lifeforce, your permanence—she intends to harvest it. Like any ritualistic sacrifice, there’s the one doing the offering and the one being offered. In this case, a sacrifice was never made. Nothing was taken or given. Because of that, you’re tethered to her. Spiritually bound. What’s yours is hers, what’s hers is yours. Whatever is left of Laura, of that…”
“Poor dear,” Kelly mumbled.
“Thatchildis hardly recognizable. Like I said, intent is power. What they’ve filled her with? I can’t imagine,” Maeve said, and shook her head. “I don’t want to imagine.”
“That’s it? We’re being stalked by a bloodthirsty meatsuit filled with bad fucking vibes from a bunch of white-trash witches and she’s spirituallyboundto my boyfriend?No,” Shay snapped. He stood, pacing in front of the window. “No, that… I don’t accept that, okay? We can untie them, or un-tether them—whatever—we’ll find a way.”
“There’s no life inside her, only dead intent. She can’t possibly survive for long, but that doesn’t change your situation. She’s here, now. She’s hunting, now. And you’ll only be able to outrun her for so long.”
“Okay, just. . . Fuck, do you have a bathroom? I need to think for a minute,” Shay said. Maeve pointed to a doorway across from the kitchen. He touched Aiden’s shoulder as he crossed the parlor and disappeared behind the door.
Aiden watched the heron again.Sacrifice. Spiritually bound. Promise. Occupant. What’s yours is hers, what’s hers is yours.He thought he might cry in that white house on the bayou. Weep like a bitch, and fall to his knees, and throw his rosary to the gators.
“You understand,” Maeve said, quietly.
Aiden nodded, rolling his lips to stop the quivering in his chin. He dug his fingernails into his wrist and hoped Laura felt it. “Prophecy,” he said, spitting the word like venom, and drove his nails in deeper.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Aiden straightened the leather collar around his neck and looped his rosary over his head. Maeve lingered at the edge of his mind, speaking to him like a child.If you die, she dies. If she dies, you die.How she’d cooed and bent her knuckle beneath his chin, forcing his gaze.Shay Bennett carries your future. There’s always a price—we both know that.Yeah, he knew it fucking well. Heaving a sigh, he tucked his black tank into high-waist jeans. Tightened his belt, blinked his white contact lenses into place, and laced his boots. Snapped the cap off a lukewarm beer and dumped the bubbly liquid into his watered-down cocktail glass, still flavored like vodka and cranberry juice.
Georgia and Dylan lounged on the other side of the Green Room with Pru and Camila, sipping from a plate-sized margarita stuffed with Coronas. Shay stood beside them, feigning smiles, engaging in empty pleasantries. They’d left the bayou hours ago. Shared a taxi with Kelly, who gave shy assurances. It’ll be all right, boys. We’ll handle this. Maybe she’d noticed Aiden’s glassy eyes. Maybe she’d seen him tremble. Maybe she’d put aside the first impression they’d made on each other nowthat her secrets were tangled with theirs. Whatever the reason, she’d set her fingers on Aiden’s knuckles. He’d wished for his mother, his grandmother, his sister, and squeezed her hand.
Shay had rested his forehead on the window, hidden behind his sunglasses. He hadn’t said a word until they were back at the hotel, standing alone in the elevator. “Maeve could be wrong,” he’d said, but lying never had been Shay’s specialty.
Aiden had nodded, just to give him peace. “Yeah,” he’d said, clearing his throat. “Yeah, it’s not like this shit comes with an instruction manual.”
They both knew, though. Aiden felt the truth in his elbows, buzzing like a beehive between his vertebrae. Sometime soon, Laura would take his blood, and his essence, and his soul, and swallow him into herself. Sometime soon, she’d guzzle him like gasoline, ground herself to this world, this plane, this place not made for things like her, and he would be gone. Sometime soon, she’d try to steal hiseverythingand Aiden would put a blade through her heart, ending them both in the process. Or...
I’ll dig the power out of her, Aiden thought.Bring her heart to my mouth and chew.
If Cit could create her, Aiden could undo her, and if he could undo her, he couldbecomeher. But he needed thewhy, thehow, thesacrifice, thepayment—love, like a crisp green bill.
Camila crossed the room and stood beside him. Her reflection crowded the mirror, distinct and similar, like two leopards from different jungles. “You look like a calavera,” she said, smiling faintly, and trailed her fingers along his smooth jaw. “Mama wants you to call, hermano. Not text.Call. She wants your voice, not words on a screen.”
“I know.” Aiden sighed, scrubbing his hand over his buzz-cut. “Did she watch the Red Rocks show? I sent her the link.”
“Yeah, we watched it together. She said you looked like a hooker,” she said. Laughter barked from him, big and accidental.Camila giggled, too. “Said you’re too skinny, and she hates devil music, and she’s proud of you.”
“Devil music,” Aiden repeated, nodding slowly. “Yeah, well, at least it pays well. Did you get your car fixed?”
“Yeah, I did. New transmission, new tires, patched that power-steering leak.”
