This Wicked Fate (This Poison Heart #2)(37)

Marie sucked her teeth and gripped the steering wheel. “I take back what I said about not hurting him.”

“Wait,” I said. “What isn’t he doing? The deaths have been covered up pretty good. Everybody thinks you’re dead. They think Selene died of an illness. He made it seem like everything was going the way he wanted it to.”

“That’s true, but I have other questions.” Circe crossed her arms over her chest and cocked her head to the side “How are so many of us being tracked here? How is Jason’s line able to pinpoint our exact location here even after we’ve been so careful? Our families are linked. Medea had children with Jason, so we technically descend from him, too, but this other branch of our twisted family tree developed completely separate from us. What are the odds that they would know we’re here, in this place, at this time?”

I felt like the air had been sucked out of my chest. I hadn’t thought of it like that. In some twisted way me and Karter were like distant cousins a thousand times removed. It made his betrayal sting even more.

“Lou knows that we’re here to protect something important and I used to trust him because that’s the way it has always been,” Circe said. “But things have changed. We’re not doing things the same old way anymore, not when it’s putting what’s left of our family in danger.”

“Let’s go in and talk to him,” Marie said. She rolled up the sleeves of her shirt and cuffed them at her elbow.

I gently touched her arm, and she only grinned wider.

“I can’t ask him anything if he’s dead, so keep yourself in check,” Circe said. “Please.”

Marie didn’t respond, which I took to mean she wasn’t making any promises about what she would or wouldn’t do.

I followed Circe up to the front door, and we let ourselves in. The front room was again prepared for a wake, but there was no coffin perched on the platform this time. A strong vinegar smell hit the back of my throat as I breathed in. I quickly cupped my hand over my nose and mouth.

“It smells like pickle juice and hot dog water in here.” I bit the side of my tongue to keep from gagging.

Marie’s face twisted up. “It’s formaldehyde.”

Circe waved the air in front of her like that was gonna help. “Hello?” she called. “Lou?”

A door opened and closed somewhere. Footsteps echoed down the hall, and Lou appeared, in all his Lurch-like glory. A heavy plastic apron covered the front of his body, and he had a pair of blue rubber gloves pulled up to his elbows. Streaks of dark liquid were smeared across them, and as he approached us the pickle-like odor grew stronger, making my eyes water. He smiled at me as warmly as a man who looked like he’d just committed a serious crime could.

“Miss Briseis,” he said stiffly. His gaze flitted to Circe and he stopped dead in his tracks. He clasped his long, sticklike fingers together in front of him. He grinned maniacally, and I had to look away because there was no reason he should’ve been that terrifying when he was smiling.

“Back from the dead,” he said. “You know, I much prefer to deal with people who stay in their graves.”

“You make it sound like I’m some sort of zombie,” Circe said. “I was never actually in the ground, Lou.”

“No, I suppose you weren’t.” He sounded deeply disappointed. He glanced at the front door. “Will you be letting the wide world of Rhinebeck know you’re back, or will you remain a ghost?”

I held my breath as I waited for him to register Marie. As his gaze fixed on her, the sallow pallor of his skin actually flushed pink. The horrible expression of happiness faded away, revealing an even more disturbing mask of terror and anger mixed together.

He clenched his jaw. “You.”

Marie crossed her arms over her chest and tipped her chin up. “What’s good, Lucifer? Still love that your parents named you after Satan. They must’ve seen something special in you from the beginning, huh? What was it? That little glazed look in your eye? Your penchant for dead things? Do tell.”

Lou balled his gloved fists and stepped toward her. Anger rolled off him in waves. “Get out.”

Marie touched her chin with one finger, her fire-engine-red nail poking into her bottom lip like she was thinking very hard. Then she shook her head and shrugged. “I think I’ll stay.”

The vein in Lou’s forehead looked like the vine of some deadly plant had worked its way under his skin.

“Hang on,” Circe said. “She’s with me.”

“I don’t give a damn who she’s with,” Lou said angrily. Frothy white spittle gathered at the corners of his mouth.

The thought of him rushing Marie was ridiculous. She’d hem him up, no problem, which is probably why he hadn’t attacked her already. He might’ve been mad, but he wasn’t stupid.

I stepped back and stood next to Marie.

She leaned into me, her mouth against my ear. “This dude is somethin’ else. It’s all that embalming fluid he’s huffing in his basement. It’s rotting his brain.”

“Lou, whatever Marie did, I’m sure it was petty and awful,” Circe said, shooting Marie a sideways glance. “But we can all agree it was probably a very long time ago and maybe we should try to put it behind us.”