29

Adam

A gunshot jerked Adam out of a deep sleep.

“—the hell?” Bobby asked from the bunk beneath him. Another shot. A third. A fourth.

Adam was on the floor, pulling on a shirt and his boots.

Tilla was in the living room, shotgun in hand.

“Bobby! Get your ass out here!” a voice shouted. “You too, Adam!”

“Jodi,” Adam growled.

“Stay here, Ma,” Adam said. “Call Early.”

She nodded, but shook her head when she lifted the phone.

“It’s dead,” she said.

The brothers exchanged a glance. Adam didn’t like that Jodi was smart enough to cut the line.

“What is she up to?” Bobby asked.

“Let’s go see,” he said.

He went first, hands raised, nudging the trailer door open with his foot and stepping onto the little wooden porch and steps.

Jodi was there. Billy stood beside her. At least Adam thought it was Billy. It was hard to tell without the makeup but the guy had the right build. And he had a pistol. Adam didn’t know the make, but he’d shot out Bobby’s tires and the Cutlass’s.

His car. The fucker had shot his car.

Adam swallowed the anger building in his chest. He had to stay calm. The feelings rolling off of Jodi were volatile, a green-orange grease fire of frustration and panic lit by her terror.

“I’m taking Bobby,” she spat. She looked wild-eyed, high again. She clearly hadn’t slept. “And Billy will shoot you if you get any closer.”

“Why do you want Bobby?” Adam asked.

“To make a trade,” she said, like it was obvious, like Adam was the dumbest person in the world.

“He won’t take Bobby,” Adam said. “He doesn’t have any magic. But I do. Take me instead.”

“I would. I want to,” Jodi spat. “It was supposed to be you, but he can’t use you, and he won’t show me how to do it if I don’t give him someone he can use.”

“You’re talking to him,” Adam said, cold certainty creeping up the back of his neck. “You’ve been talking to him the whole time.”

“In my dreams,” Jodi said. “He’s always there, just as soon as I close my eyes.”

“You summoned him,” Adam said. “You let him in.”

And now she couldn’t kick him out.

“I just wanted my birthright,” Jodi shrieked. “Not this . . . shit!”

She waved a hand to indicate the mud and the trailer and the life Adam’s mother lived.

Adam got it. He really did. Bobby probably got it even more. After all, he’d done everything he could to run away. Adam heard the crunch of shoes on the gravel behind him as Bobby moved closer.

“He doesn’t have any magic,” Adam repeated. “John can’t use him.”

“Liar,” Jodi spat. “You’re a damn liar, Adam Lee.”

She was shaking, and Adam was glad Billy was the one holding the gun.

His face was swollen, kind of puffy, maybe a reaction to the makeup, but he was clear-eyed. Adam doubted he could wrestle the pistol away from him.

“Jodi . . .” Adam started gently. “You don’t have to do this.”

“I don’t have a choice,” she said, eyes shining. “He’s already taken Mom and Grandma Sue.”

“What’s he going to show you?” Bobby asked.

“The magic,” Jodi said wistfully. “He’ll teach me the magic.”

“He kills people, Jodi,” Adam said. “You said it yourself. He killed your mom. You want to be like that?”

“It’s better than dying!”

She flushed with rage, the fire burning brighter. Adam could see it now. She’d been working up to it, talking herself into it for a while, probably the entire time she’d been with them.

She jabbed her finger at him, and he had no doubt that he’d be dead if she were holding the gun.

“It was supposed to be you,” she repeated. “You are all so stupid. They thought she was cooking. Like she could cook drugs.”

“So what was with the chemicals?” Adam asked.

Black mascara ran down Jodi’s face.

“We were just keeping them for Billy!” Jodi said.

“Shut up, Jodi,” Billy said, eyeing her.

“I thought I could keep him out. If I’d just known what to do,” Jodi said.

“The charm,” Adam said. “You thought he was our dad, and you thought you could use the bones to bind him.”

She really had made it for protection. Only the bones had been Robert’s, not John’s. He’d tricked her and the charm, made with whatever recipe she’d looked up on the Internet, hadn’t held him.

“It didn’t work,” Jodi sobbed. “Now she’s dead.”

She choked, caught between crying and her high.

Even Billy looked a little worried. Adam wondered if he’d been the one to suggest that he hold the gun. If so, then Billy wasn’t completely stupid. Adam couldn’t decide if that was good or bad for their chances of getting out of this alive.

“I’ll give him Bobby and he’ll teach me,” Jodi said. “That’s the deal.”

“Bobby doesn’t have any magic,” Adam repeated the lie. “But you do. What’s to stop John from taking you instead?”

“He won’t do that,” Jodi said. “He needs me. He doesn’t understand stuff like the Internet. I’ll help him hide.”

“He’ll kill you,” Adam said calmly. “He killed Jimmy, and he loved Jimmy.”

Adam wondered if that had been part of it, the love. Maybe it wasn’t just the ritual. Maybe John truly had cared about his victim and that had made for a bigger sacrifice.

“He needs me,” Jodi repeated.

“Not as much as you think,” Adam said.

He almost pointed out that Tommy had three daughters but did not want to turn Jodi’s attention to their younger cousins.

Jodi turned to Billy, quick as a snake, and demanded, “Shoot him, Billy. Shoot him now.”

“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” Billy said.

“Shoot him!” Jodi shrieked.

Bobby stepped in front of Adam.

“I’ll go with you,” he said. “Just leave Adam alone.”

“Get in the van.” Jodi nodded to the beater they’d come in.

It was covered in bumper stickers for the loser clowns and a bunch of other crappy acts.

Bobby gave Adam a weak smile, a last assurance, and obeyed.

Billy shot Adam a nervous glance and followed Jodi. He slammed the door behind Bobby.

Adam was very glad he didn’t have the magic to make heads explode. Then again, maybe he wished he could. If so, Jodi and Billy would meet a messy end.

Tilla emerged from the trailer after the van had peeled away.

“Why didn’t you shoot Billy?” Adam asked.

“Couldn’t get an angle,” she said with real frustration. “This thing sprays.”

Adam had no doubt that his mother knew her gun.

“I should have shot her when you first brought her out here,” Tilla said.

Adam had to agree. His mother’s homicidal tendencies might have been useful for once.

He couldn’t feel his brother. Adam didn’t have the same kind of link like he had with Vic.

“Where are they going?” Tilla asked.

“The homestead,” Adam said, eyeing the Cutlass’s sunken tires.

“How do you know?”

Honestly it was as much a guess as his Sight, but what Adam said was, “It’s where it all started. It’s where it’s got to end.”

“What do we do now?” his mother asked.

“We have to find them. Can you head to the neighbor’s? Use their phone to call Early. I’ll try to change some tires.”

Adam went to check but it took a glance to see that the tires on the Cutlass and the spare on Bobby’s refrigerator weren’t the same size. He couldn’t switch them out to get a working car.

The tires on Dad’s old ATV were long flat too, not that it would have been fast enough to catch up in time.

He turned to follow Tilla to the neighbors. Maybe he could borrow their truck.

A car came down the road.

Adam knew, could already feel it.

“Vic,” he said.