Page 55 of Shiver

“No, it’s not okay. How can it be okay? He’s been watching us. Every step we’ve made, he’s been right there. He can’t be real, Riley. He can’t be human. He’s coming after me and there isn’t anything I can do about it.”

Riley seized her shoulders and shook her. “Stop it, Devra.”

“No. I can’t. I won’t. We have to get out of here, but there’s nowhere we can go.”

“You’re safe. You’re with me, now. We’re going to stop him. Together.”

“Don’t you get it? We can’t stop him. He’s a phantom, ademon.”

He pulled her against him, holding her close. “Devra, he’s just a man.”

She buried her head in his chest. “There’s nowhere I can go, nowhere I can hide. He always finds me.”

“Exactly. And that’s why you’re not going to hide anymore.” He pulled her chin up until her eyes locked onto his. “Do you understand? You’re not running and you’re not hiding. You’re going to find out who he is and you’re going to take back the life that he stole from you. He’s not a devil or a demon. He’s just a man. A sick man. Get it?”

She nodded. But he was wrong. There was nothing they could do to stop him. She knew that deep down in her soul.

* * *

The next day,Devra sat quietly as they crossed the Columbia River into Washington State. Everything was damp and green, the air cool and crisp. She opened her window and breathed deep the pine-scented air as a flood of memories washed over her. Her heart ached as she thought about her parents and how much she missed them. Would they welcome her home?

She guided Riley off the main freeway and onto the back highways that meandered through the Cascade Mountain range.

“Sure is beautiful up here,” Riley commented.

“When the sun shines, it’s the most beautiful spot on Earth.”

“Are you nervous about seeing your parents again?”

She wondered how much it showed. “A little, it’s been almost fifteen years.”

Confusion played across his face. “Don’t you mean ten? Fifteen would have made you too young.”

Devra stared out the window trying to come up with an answer that wouldn’t have him asking more questions. But he was right, she’d been too young—too young to be forced out of her home. Even after everything they’d been through together, she wondered how he would feel about her once she’d finally worked up the nerve to tell him the truth. She had to. It was only a matter of time before he’d discover it on his own.

“What are your folks like?”

“I don’t know. Normal, small-town religious folks.”

“Who think their daughter is a killer?”

“Yeah,” she said sadly.

“Maybe they’ve gotten over it, changed their minds. Time does heal.” A dark shadow crossed his eyes.

Not always.

Two hours later they pulled into a long gravel driveway sculpted out of the forest and curving around massive pines to end at the doorstep of a tiny clapboard house. Devra’s throat tightened as she stared at her childhood home. “It looks exactly the same.”

Her gaze followed the flight of a dragonfly as it flitted to and fro before disappearing within the green depths of the forest. She had forgotten how surreal and enchanted the forest was. How she’d loved to wander through it, following the fairy trails of butterflies as they zoomed through the thick green ferns.

Wild yellow daisies grew in abundance around the house. As she stared at them, her wonderment and excitement vanished under a heavy cloak of foreboding. He’d been here, her devil. He knew about her childhood field of daisies. Knew how she had liked to pick them to brighten the house. He wanted to remind her. “He wanted me to come home. That’s what the daisies were about. That’s why he didn’t kill me at your ranch.” The certain knowledge gripped her heart and squeezed. She’d played right into his deadly hands.

Riley looked confused. “But why?”

“Because it’s my turn,” she said softly. “The game is up.” Something nagged the back of her mind, something she couldn’t quite grasp.

“Devra?”

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