I scoffed. “You think you’re going to scare me to death?”
“Yeah,” he said.
My brain finally snapped to attention. The whole time I was looking for a way to escape, but that isn’t what I needed to do.
Months ago a ghost had gifted me with a mark on my hand that would make bad ghosts my friends.
Maybe.
Heck, I had no idea if it would work on these guys—they were cut from a mold that God had destroyed as soon as they were birthed.
I wouldn’t have blamed God if that was true because these guys were rarer than a five-toed cat.
That was if you’d gone looking for one and didn’t buy a cat from a breeder.
Anyway, my last hope lay securely blazed onto my hand. I jutted it out.
A small swirl flared with light. My hand illuminated like flash paper, burning bright and fast.
The ghosts gasped.
“That was purty,” Tiny said.
“One of your ghost friends gave me that seal. You know what it means?” I tossed out to Boss.
He slowly scrubbed a hand down his stubbled cheeks. “I know what it means. It means I’m supposed to accept you, fair and square.”
The seconds ticked by. I held my breath, waiting for what the boss would say.
He wagged a finger at me and smiled. “That mark means I should accept you as a friend, but you know what?”
I gulped. “What?”
He shook his head. “I’m not feeling it.”
He raised his ham-hock hands and moved to wrap them around my throat.
A voice sounded behind us. “Then how about you try feeling this?”
Boss and his cronies turned. My breath hitched when I saw Roan beside the rusty gas station pumps. The steel-pocked canopy placed him in shadow, but I knew that voice and silhouette anywhere.
My heart lurched from my chest as Roan’s hand shot out.
The ground beneath Boss’s feet opened up. I jumped out of the way. Clawed hands reached up from the underworld, grabbed the boss and pulled him down into the earth.
The ground sewed itself back together.
Right then I felt the negative tug of Roan’s gift. Felt the world tip sideways. My vision clouded, and I stumbled to one side.
“Blissful,” he shouted.
I straightened myself quickly and gripped my stomach, where a wave of nausea had bored through me. I gulped it down.
Roan took a step forward. “Who’s next?”
Tiny and the other ghost fell to their knees. “Please don’t hurt us. We just want to stay here.”
Roan stopped under a sliver of moonlight that cast half his face in shadow. “Now. Y’all going to leave this lady alone?”
