"Crap," I muttered, and drew back. We'd let ourselves get too close. Close enough to hear her say, "What are you seeing tonight?" to a little girl and her mother.
"The Bumblebee Symphony," the pig-tailed girl said proudly.
Her mother smiled and said, "She's been so excited."
Alma's lips curled up, but a smile was the furthest thing from the horrible expression on her face. "The grasshopper is the bad guy."
The little girl's face fell as she stared at Alma in horror.
The old crone cackled and carried on down the street as the poor girl dissolved into tears.
"Holy crap," I whispered. "She's a monster."
"I bet she drowns kittens," Beth said in a dark voice.
"She could've been committing acts like these for many years." Carol shook her head. "We've got to stop her."
"Yeah," I said, trying and failing to find some hope. "We only havetwodays to do it."
17
EMMA
We wereall dragging butt as we climbed out of my car and headed into my house. Even though we’d realized that Alma Sanchez was a miserable excuse for a human being, we hadn’t quite figured out how to tell my powers. They'd followed her around town with me, yet not a thing had happened on my powers' part to even the score. If the day of the full moon came, and my powers were still saying she deserved them, and if I didn’t comply, there would be dire consequences. What could I do?
The second I opened the door the overwhelming scent of cooking food hit me. Oh, Daniel. What an angel. My wonderful new live-in boyfriend had made dinner.
I'd already known it, but here was further proof there were more benefits to him living with me than the good, hot time in the sack. A benefit that started with good food after a long day, whether he was entirely moved in or not yet.
Dropping my bag on the table by the door, I kicked off my shoes with a groan, and the ladies followed suit. We slumped through the living room and headed toward the kitchen without a word. There was Daniel in a tight t-shirt that hugged his incredible muscles. His messy hair hung over a focused face as he stirred a pan of sauce.
“You must be a fantasy,” I told him.
He jumped as if he'd been so focused on his sauce that he hadn’t heard us traipsing in like a group of exhausted buffalos. “I made spaghetti. I figured the ladies would join us, but I wasn’t sure exactly how much to make.”
Coming up behind him, I hugged him, then looked at the army-sized pot of cooking spaghetti. I had to hold back a laugh and take a second to get my mirth under control before I managed. “It looks like more than enough.”
He looked relieved. “Good, because Alice and Henry are here too, and it’s been a while since I cooked for this many people. I mean, I’ve done this recipe before, it’s my mom’s, but not when I wasn’t sure how many people wanted to eat.”
“Daniel,” I told him, amused. “It’ll be fine. It'll be perfect."
He smiled. “Okay, then, you guys sit at the table. I’ll bring it over.”
Exhausted and more than willing to be bossed around, we did as he said, dragging chairs from all over and squeezing them in together before collapsing into them. Daniel carried over a pile of plates, napkins, and forks. We passed them around, silent and tired. I moaned in delight as Daniel came by and plopped a giant’s portion of spaghetti onto each of our plates, including one for himself, Alice, and Henry. The ladies glanced at me, their expressions saying, “Do we have to eat this much?”
I nodded my head. "Eat up."
“Alice, Henry dinner!” I shouted as loudly as I could, which wasn't very loud right now.
One great thing about this house was the insulation and size. We rarely bothered each other with noise. Unfortunately, it meant I usually had to move my tired butt across the house for stuff like this.
It must have been my lucky day though because Alice and Henry appeared at the end of the hall.
“Food,” I said, pointing to the plates.
Henry stared. “Did you make it?”
I snorted. Everyone knew I wasn’t a great cook, but I didn’t much care for the reminder. “Nope. Daniel.”
