I wanted to argue. I wanted to tell him that all of my southern parts were staying out of this conversation. But that would be a lie.
Besides, I didn’t get the chance to tell him. Because just as I was trying to gather all of my confusing and overly emotional thoughts, the school siren started to blare, and the emergency light above Stuart’s room started flashing.
13
Iraced into Stuart’s room to see his body lurching in the bed as he tried desperately to get air despite the way Nancy was holding her hand over his nose and mouth.
“What are you doing!?” I shouted as I sprinted in that direction.
Rita was faster though. I hadn’t seen her from my angle, but she’d been by the emergency panel, and right as I reached the middle of the room, she grabbed her cousin around the waist and pulled her back.
Nancy turned, snarling, but Rita didn’t flinch. Instead, she took the pencil I’d seen by Nancy’s crossword book, and shoved it straight into her cousin’s eye.
I stood gawking, my mouth hanging open as the demonic shimmer filled the air and Nancy’s body collapsed to the floor.
Rita took a step back, shaking her head and making acluck-cluckingnoise as she looked up at me, her expression both sad and energized. “Poor Nancy,” she said.
“How—?” I began, but was cut off by Eric and Cutter, who barreled into the room, followed by the kids they’d been training.
“What’s going on?” Eric asked. “Kate? Rita?”
“My Rita got the bitch,” Eddie said. “The demon. Not Nancy. Good woman. May she rest in peace.”
Eric looked at me, and I nodded.
Rita took a deep breath, smoothed her gray curls into place, and moved to Eddie’s side. He put his arm around her. “You okay, sweetie?”
“I’m fine dear,” she says, patting his arm. She looked up at me and shook her head. “I am so sorry. I noticed her complaining of indigestion when she came down for coffee, but I didn’t think anything of it. Now I think it must have been a heart attack. Poor thing, she went into the restroom. When she came back out, I thought she seemed a little off. I guess one of those beasties ended up inside her. It does seem to happen a lot in this town.”
I gaped a bit more. “You know about that?” I turned to Eddie. “Did you tell her? I thought you didn’t tell her.”
Rita waved away my words. “Eddie didn’t say a thing. But I’ve seen a lot of strange things in my time, sugar. After I saw this kind of thing once or twice, I did a little poking around. I watched you, in fact,” she said. “And my Eddie.”
I frowned at Eddie even as I made a mental note to try to be stealthier. Probably not going to happen, but at least I was noting it.
She looked at Eddie. “Demons, right?”
Eddie looked at me. “Told you. She’s a helluva woman.”
“So, I guess congratulations are in order?” I asked. After all, the woman knew his dark secrets.
“Congratulations?” Eric repeated. “For killing the demon? Good job by the way.”
I shot him a quick glance, and he shrugged, clearly as out of sorts by this revelation of Rita’s hidden skills as I was.
“We’re getting hitched,” Eddie said. “But don’t any of you dare make a fuss about it.”
“Of course we will,” I said. “But later.”
He snorted as I looked over at the bed, hoping all this activity had pulled Stuart out of his comatose state, but apparently it hadn’t. He was breathing fine now, his chest rising and falling. But no sign that he was awake or inclined to talk.
So why was Nancy so intent on killing him?
It was a question I wanted to raise to Eric, but then I realized the answer: Stuart.
I was about to share that insight with Eric, but all of the students were gathered by the door, fascinated by this turn of events.
Instead, I went the practical route. “Rita, what do you want to do with the body? If we call the police and say that she had a heart attack, they’re going to ask about the pencil in her eye.”
