After Moonrise: Possessed\Haunted (30 page)

“No. Too risky.”

“Please, Daddy,” I said, not above manipulation. As I’d already
proved. “For me. On my birthday. I won’t ask for anything else, I promise, even
though you guys forgot the last one and I never got a present.”

“I…I…” His gaze shifted continually, scanning the nearby trees
for movement.

“Please. Em needs to be tucked into bed, like, soon, or she’ll
morph into Lily of the Valley of Thorns.” As we’d long ago dubbed her. My sis
got tired, and she left carnage in her wake.

Lips pursed, Em slapped my arm. I shrugged, the universal sign
for
well, it’s true.

Dad pushed out a heavy breath. “Okay. Okay. Just…break the
sound barrier, babe,” he said, kissing my mom’s hand.

“I will. You have my word.”

My parents shared a soft smile. I felt like a voyeur for
noticing; used to be, they’d enjoyed these kinds of moments all the time, but
the smiles had become less and less frequent over the years.

“All right, here we go.” Mom swung the vehicle right, and to my
utter astonishment, she really did try to break the sound barrier, weaving in
and out of lanes, honking at the slower cars, riding bumpers.

I was impressed. The few driving lessons she’d given me, she’d
been a nervous wreck, which had turned
me
into a
nervous wreck. We hadn’t gone far or cranked the speed above twenty-five, even
outside our neighborhood.

She kept up a steady stream of chatter, and I watched the clock
on my phone. The minutes ticked by, until we’d gone ten without a single
incident. Only twenty more to go.

Dad kept his nose pressed to the window, his frantic breaths
leaving puffs of mist on the glass. Maybe he was enjoying the mountains, valleys
and lush green trees highlighted by the streetlamps, rather than searching for
monsters.

Yeah. Right.

“So how’d I do?” Emma whispered in my direction.

I reached over and squeezed her hand. “You were amazing.”

Her dark brows knit together, and I knew what was coming next.
Suspicion. “You swear?”

“Swear. You rocked the house hard-core. In comparison, the
other girls
sucked
.”

She covered her mouth to stop herself from giggling.

I couldn’t help but add, “The boy who twirled you around? I
think he was considering pushing you off the stage, just so people would finally
look at him. Honestly, every eye was riveted on you.”

The giggle bubbled out this time, unstoppable. “So what you’re
saying is, when I tripped over my own feet, everyone noticed.”

“Trip? What trip? You mean that wasn’t part of the
routine?”

She gave me a high five. “Good answer.”

“Honey,” Mom said, apprehension straining her voice. “Find some
music for us to listen to, okay?”

Uh-oh. She must want him distracted.

I leaned over and glanced out the front windshield. Sure
enough. We were approaching the cemetery. At least there were no other cars
around, so no one would witness my dad’s oncoming breakdown. And he
would
have one. I could feel the tension thickening
the air.

“No music,” he said. “I need to concentrate, remain on alert. I
have to—” He stiffened, gripped the armrests on his seat until his knuckles
bleached white.

A moment of silence passed, such thick, heavy silence.

His panting breaths emerged faster and faster—until he roared
so piercingly I cringed. “They’re out there! They’re going to attack us!” He
grabbed the wheel and yanked. “Don’t you see them? We’re headed right for them.
Turn around! You have to turn around.”

The Tahoe swerved, hard, and Emma screamed. I grabbed her hand,
gave her another squeeze, but this time I refused to let go. My heart was
pounding against my ribs, a cold sweat beading over my skin. I’d promised to
protect her tonight, and I would.

“It’s gonna be okay,” I told her.

Her tremors were so violent they even shook me.

“Honey, listen to me,” Mom soothed. “We’re safe in the car. No
one can hurt us. We have to—”

“No! If we don’t turn around they’ll follow us home!” My dad
was thoroughly freaked, and nothing Mom said had registered. “We have to turn
around.” He made another play for the wheel, gave another, harder yank, and this
time, we didn’t just swerve, we spun.

Around and around, around and around. My grip on Emma
tightened.

“Alice,” she cried.

“It’s okay, it’s okay,” I chanted. The world was whizzing,
blurring…the car teetering…my dad shouting a curse…my mom gasping…the car
tilting…tilting…

FREEZE FRAME.

I remember when Em and I used to play that game. We’d crank the
volume of our iPod dock—loud, pounding rock—and boogie like we were having
seizures. One of us would shout
freeze
frame
and we’d instantly stop moving, totally
frozen, trying not to laugh, until one of us yelled the magic word to shoot us
back into motion.
Dance
.

I wish I could have shouted
freeze
frame
in just that moment and rearranged the scenery, the players.
But life isn’t a game, is it?

DANCE.

We went airborne, flipping over, crashing into the road upside
down, then flipping over again. The sound of crunching metal, shattering glass
and pained screams filled my ears. I was thrown back and forth in my seat, my
brain becoming a cherry slushie in my head as different impacts jarred me and
stole my breath.

When we finally landed, I was so dazed, so fogged, I felt like
I was still in motion. The screams had stopped, at least. All I heard was a
slight ringing in my ears.

“Mom? Dad?” A pause. No response. “Em?” Again, nothing.

I frowned, looked around. My eyesight was hazy, something warm
and wet in my lashes, but I could see well enough.

And what I saw utterly destroyed me.

I
screamed. My mom was slashed to
ribbons, her body covered in blood. Emma was slumped over in her seat, her head
at an odd angle, her cheek split open. No. No, no, no.

“Dad, help me. We have to get them out!”

Silence.

“Dad?” I searched—and realized he was no longer in the car. The
front windshield was gone, and he was lying motionless on the pieces a few yards
away. There were three men standing over his body, the car’s headlights
illuminating them.

No, they weren’t men, I realized. They couldn’t be. They had
sagging pockmarked skin and dirty, ripped clothing. Their hair hung in clumps on
their spotted scalps, and their teeth…so sharp as they…as they…fell upon my dad
and disappeared
inside
him, only to reappear a
second later and…and…eat him.

Monsters
.

I fought for my freedom, desperate to drag Em to safety—Em, who
hadn’t moved and wasn’t crying—desperate to get to my dad, to help him. In the
process, I banged my head against something hard and sharp. A horrible pain
ravaged me, but still I fought, even as my strength waned…my eyesight
dimmed....

Then it was night-night for Alice, and I knew nothing more.

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ISBN: 9781459244450

Copyright © 2012 by Harlequin Books S.A.

The publisher acknowledges the copyright holders of the individual
works as follows:

POSSESSED
Copyright © 2012 by P.C. Cast

HAUNTED
Copyright © 2012 by Gena Showalter

All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been
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