Pretty When She Dies (Pretty When She Dies #1)(98)

Closing his glowing eyes, he concentrated on his dead minions and sent the fresher ones into the day to do his bidding.

*

Sergio wondered for the hundredth time how he had been dragged into this madness. He also wondered how he could actually be having some sort of warped fun. It was rather exciting being a vampire hunter. When he drove the big truck into the ghost town that was the supposed lair of The Summoner, he felt a shiver of anticipation flow over him.

“Yuck,” his grandmother said in a somber tone as she looked around at all the burned-out buildings.

Swinging his head back and forth, he looked over the abandoned town as the truck crept along. He was just thinking it looked rather ominous when his grandmother shouted, “Sergio! Stop!”

He slammed on the brakes and everyone jerked forward. Samantha fell hard into the back of his chair, woke up, and started swearing.

“What, Grandmama?” He looked around frantically, his heart thundering in his ears.

The little old lady threw open the door and tumbled out of the truck.

Sergio shifted into PARK, swung his door open, leaped out and ran after her.

“Sergio! Innocente, no! The sun isn't completely up!”

Sergio heard Jeff jumping down behind them, but he continued to run after his amazingly fast grandmother. He had several crosses around his neck. His revolver and a crucifix were tucked into his back pocket. He wondered if it was enough to fend off The Summoner.

His grandmother reached a discarded cowboy hat lying on the road and snatched it up.

“It's Amaliya's!” She held it out triumphantly.

Sergio heaved to a stop and leaned over, his hands resting on his knees. He seriously needed to work out. His lungs hurt from his short run and he gulped down air.

Jeff caught up to them, followed closely by Samantha. He snatched the hat away and looked at it. “Are you sure?”

“Yes! Yes! I'm sure!” Innocente was breathing a little heavily, but she reached out to grab the hat back, her expression feisty and determined.

“It reeks like-like-” Samantha made a face.

Sergio could smell it, too. “Something dead.”

Innocente drew her hand back and sniffed her fingers. “It's not her.

It's something else. She's not dead.”

Jeff tossed the hat into the nearby bushes that bordered an abandoned motel. Sergio could tell the young man was thinking over the situation quickly. Sergio looked over at the gas station to their right, then slowly toward the motel. He became aware that all four of them were now standing in the middle of the street, the truck idling nearby, staring at the abandoned motel. Probably not their smartest move.

“Shit,” he muttered, and suffered his grandmother's automatic smack on his arm.

“In there,” Jeff decided.

“Yeah,” Samantha agreed.

Innocente drew near Sergio anxiously and he slung his arm down around her trembling shoulders. He cuddled her into his side and tried hard not to show his own fear. He was sure he was not imagining it. Even though the sun was showing over the trees now, the motel seemed abnormally dark and foreboding.

“I really, really, really don't want to go in there,” Samantha said after a beat.

“You and me both,” Jeff answered grimly.

“The dead are in there,” Innocente said sadly. “I can hear them in my head.”

Jeff looked toward her curiously.

“She's a medium,” Sergio answered the unspoken question. “She has always seen ghosts and heard the voices of the dead.”

Lifting his eyebrows high, Jeff said, “Oh.”

“That's creepy,” Samantha decided.

“You have no idea, mijita,” Innocente said sadly.

Jeff began to walk along the front of the motel toward the rural road that cut through the town. Sergio followed and touched Samantha's shoulder as he passed her. She gave him a faint smile.

“There's a Lexus down the road,” Jeff said, and started toward it.

“Stay here,” he said to Samantha and his grandmother.

He hurried to catch up with Jeff before they could protest him bossing them. Despite the vampire hunter's funky looking mechanical leg, he was fast on his feet. Sergio struggled to keep up.

A navy Lexus RX was pulled over into the trees near the hotel and Jeff motioned for Sergio to be cautious. Keeping an eye out for any trouble, they both crept up to the vehicle and peered inside.

“Oh, crap,” Sergio said softly when he saw the body of a young woman. Her blond hair was over her face, but she was obviously dead.

Her head was completely twisted around on her shoulders. Her body was stuffed down behind the passenger seat.

“Window's shot out,” Jeff said, and pointed to the broken windshield.

“Whoa.” Sergio looked around nervously. His heart was beating even harder than before. He glanced back to where his grandmother and the blond woman were standing at the edge of the gas station's parking lot staring toward them. It was getting serious fast.

Samantha began to motion with one hand and he was relieved she was smart enough not to call out. He had trouble figuring out what she was trying to tell them in pantomime, but Jeff seemed to catch it.

“It's Cian's,” he said softly to Sergio. “She says it's Cian's.”

They both looked toward the ascending sun that was slowly pushing back the gray remains of the night. The sound of shattering glass came from nearby and the men ducked down behind the truck. Sergio signaled for his grandmother and Samantha to get out of sight and the women darted off to hide behind a sign. There was nothing they could do about the truck parked across from the gas station.