Okay, time for a new game plan.Since this sort of scenario had happened to me before (minus the guns), I was used to being forced to recalculate midstream.That didn’t mean it didn’t suck that I had to leave behind my quaint apartment and my cool job as a body piercer.
The problem was, I’d been running since I turned twenty, which was when Dad decided I was old enough to join him in Hell.Eight years of constantly watching over my shoulder, of always being on alert.Hellfire and damnation, I just wanted to relax for once.
Now that Dad had upped the ante, had basically announced that he wasn’t toying with me anymore, the very last thing I could do was relax.
Unless I could figure out a place to hide where he’d never, ever find me.
As I headed north on MD2, I passed a sign for the BWI or, as the tourists called it, the Baltimore/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport.
I could get on a plane and go anywhere in the world.But where could I go that Dad would be least likely to find me?
I’d already tried hiding in Stockholm, St.Petersburg, Venice, Tokyo, the Florida Keys…shit, every place I’d ever attempted to escape to had been near water.
No wonder it was so easy for Dad to find me.
I needed to go someplace where there wasn’t any water.Like the Sahara Desert.No, no, I neededsomewater.I was half mermaid.No way could I survive in an actual desert.
Abruptly, my mom’s voice rang in my head as if she were sitting next to me, giving me advice.
I sharply glanced over at the passenger seat.Nope.No dead mermaid there.
Whew.
Still…
I should have told you about this a long time ago, Daruka.Considering a demon knocked me up and then left me to raise his offspring, I’d say I’m not very good at doing what I’m supposed to…
Shit.I hated the memories of Mom.Because that’s all they were.She was gone, and now I’d never get to make fresh, new memories with her.And that hurt like hell.
If he becomes too unbearable, if you don’t want to do what we both know he’s going to want you to do one of these days, there’s a place you can go where he won’t find you.
I mashed the heel of my hand into my eye in an attempt to stem the flow of tears as I cruised west on US50, knowing I would hit traffic before crossing into Washington DC.But once I cleared the city, it should be smooth sailing, er, driving.
Halfway across the country.
Was I really doing this?Was I finally taking Mom’s advice?
Was I moving to Arrhythmia, Texas?
ChapterTwo
Daruka
Longest.Trip.Ever.
Possibly because every time I saw a decent-sized body of water, I’d pull over so I could take a dip.I didn’t really know a whole lot about the interior United States, and I was worried that there wouldn’t be much water.
Turned out, I had nothing to worry about.
Well, until day three, when I finally reached Texas.
Seriously, how was that even possible?One minute I was cruising through a state that was basically a swamp, and the next, it’s damn near a desert.
With bugs.And longhorns.
Big hair.Cowboy hats.
Holy shit, this place wasn’t a myth after all.
