Pretty When She Destroys (Pretty When She Dies #3)(20)

“She doesn’t look like either one, dumbasses,” Benchley said testily. “Now out!”

The boys started to argue, but Benchley pushed them firmly out of the office, shut the door, and locked it. When Benchley looked at her, Amaliya dramatically rolled her eyes.

“Sorry about that. Yeah, so, where were we?”

“I’m not going to eat you.”

“Right!”

“And we were about to talk about why I’m here.”

Benchley shoved his hands into the pockets of his cargo pants and paced behind his desk. “Look, if you’re here to tell me I shouldn’t be crushing on Samantha, I know you’re right.”

“Well, yeah, you shouldn’t be, but no, that isn’t why I’m here.”

“Oh.”

“I’m here because I need your skills.”

“My skills?”

“Jeff says you’re the guy to go to when it comes to researching spirits, ghosts, and that sort of thing.”

Benchley visibly puffed up. “Well, yeah. I am. I’m totally that guy.”

It was amazing what a little flattery could do to a guy’s ego, Amaliya thought. She fished her list out of her pocket. “I need some information about possession. Like...when a person is possessed, how much are they aware of what is going on around them? Can they find a way to communicate past the...uh...entity possessing them.”

Benchley sat at his desk, hunched over, and started scribbling on a pad of paper. “Okay. What else?”

“If a dead body gets possessed, is the spirit of the person still attached to it? I did some internet research, but it didn’t make sense to me.”

“Most of the stuff on the internet is just old wives’ tales. The real information is hidden from the general public.” Benchley grinned at her. “People get into enough trouble with the occult just screwing around with low-end spells. Can you imagine what would go down if the hardcore real stuff was on the internet?”

“You mean like bring on the end of the world?” Amaliya flipped her hair over one shoulder and winked at him.

Benchley’s face reddened again. “Yeah. Something like that. So, what else do you need?”

“Everything about Josephine Leduc and her daughter. Everything. Especially details about her powers. I need to know how to do the stuff Bianca’s mother did, especially astral projection. I tried looking this up online, but it seemed like bullshit to me.”

“Like I said...” Benchley nodded.

“Exactly. I don’t have a handbook on how to be what I am, so I need you to help me piece it together the same way you’re going to help Sam.” Amaliya handed the list over to Benchley. “Here, just take this. I have some more notes on there. Stuff I’m not too keen on Cian or Jeff seeing. It’s between you and me.”

With quivering fingers, Benchley took the paper and started to read it. “Amaliya, this is some serious shit.”

“Yeah.” Amaliya shrugged dismissively though she was just as unnerved as Benchley appeared.

“This thing about Bianca…you don’t think it was a dream?”

“Maybe. But if Bianca is somewhere trapped inside her own body, I want to find a way to communicate with her.”

With a low whistle, Benchley scratched at his beard. “But The Summoner might catch on to what you’re doing.”

“That’s why you’re going to find a way for me to do it without alerting him.” Amaliya gave him her fiercest glare. She may have overdone it because he visibly flinched. “If I can talk to her, maybe she’ll know what he’s going to do, where he is, and how I can stop him.”

Sagging in his chair, Benchley opened a drawer, pulled out a fresh file folder, and shoved his notes and Amaliya’s into it. “Can I say something?”

“Sure.”

Benchley’s gaze brushed over her, then the cluttered walls, before returning to the folder. “All my life I’ve been a gamer. I know all the rules. Just like those people out there, I know how to roll the dice, measure the moves, and do all the shit I can see you don’t give a f*ck about by that look on your face. My point is this. Gaming is neat and tidy. There are rules. But this thing we’re facing has no rules. It has no neatness. It’s going to be f*ckin’ chaos, and I hate that. I hate that I can’t open up a book and just find the answers. Figure it out. I’ll help you with this because it makes me feel like maybe, somehow, you can make all this shit make sense. The rest of the group might not want to admit it, but you’re our biggest gun, and maybe our only hope.”

Amaliya tried to look as nonchalant as possible. Though she knew he was right, she didn’t want to actually admit to it. To do so would be almost too much for her to deal with at the moment. “Fine. But I’m not dressing like that.” She pointed to Alice from the Resident Evil films glowering out of a poster dressed in a sexy outfit.

“Aw, c’mon. It would be so wicked!”

Amaliya flipped him off.

Benchley grinned. “I’m on this. I’ll let you know what I find out.”

“Thanks.” Sliding to her feet, Amaliya hooked her thumb onto her belt. “Bench, maybe I am the big gun, but you gotta get me my ammo. That makes you important, right?”

The comment brightened his face slightly. “Yeah. Sure.”