No Humans Involved
Page 20

Still she stared into her glass, her thumbs now caressing the sides.
Unlike humans, supernaturals know there's an afterlife. There must be, or there couldn't be necromancers. Through us, they also know that most ghosts are happy enough. If you know this, then perhaps contacting a loved one isn't such a wise idea. What if he's stopped grieving for his lost life, and you only rip open those wounds? What if you rip the scabs off your own grief?
"If you'd rather not contact him, maybe there's something else-" Her head snapped up. "Why wouldn't I want to contact him?"
"I just meant- I'm not trying to renege on the offer. I certainly will try, if that's what you want. But if this isn't what you want, then I'd completely understand-"
"Would you?"
Molly's voice had gone cold. She set her drink aside, deliberately. My gaze swung to the door. She followed it and gave a brittle smile. "Thinking of leaving already, Jaime? And why might that be?" I laughed. "Leaving? No. I was just wondering-" I leapt from the chair. Her hand flew up, lips moving in a sorcerer's knockback spell. I tried to duck, as Lucas taught me, but wasn't fast enough. Instead of hitting me in the torso, it slammed into my shoulder, whipping me around. My feet flew out. I saw the edge of the coffee table sailing up to meet me. Tried to twist. Too late. Impact. Pain. Darkness.
I AWOKE to the blast of a car horn. Something held me down, tightening around my wrists and ankles when I moved. I opened my mouth to call out, but tasted plastic and glue.
Everything was as dark as when I'd fallen. Blindfolded? I move my head, testing for that pulling sensation against my temples. Sadly, I know what a blindfold feels like. Know what being kidnapped feels like too. For a second, that's all I could think: Goddamn it, not again.
But when I moved, instead of a blindfold, I felt something scratchy against my bare hands and face. Like an old blanket. Bound, gagged and covered.
The floor vibrated beneath me. The steady hum of moving tires. I remembered the horn blast that woke me. I was in a vehicle. In the trunk- No, I wouldn't be able to see light in a trunk. I pictured the car in Molly's drive. An SUV.
She'd bound and gagged me, then managed to haul me into the garage, drove in, put me in the back and was now taking me
Where?
Well, I was pretty sure it wasn't out for daiquiris.
I'd taken self-defense courses. They'd given me more confidence than skill, but one piece of advice I remembered was that if someone tries to get you into a vehicle, you do everything you can to fight it, because you can be damned sure that wherever he's taking you, it's someplace private, to do something you won't like.
I had to get out before Molly-or whoever was driving-got wherever we were going. But how? I was trapped. I had no spells. No demonic powers. No superhuman strength.I was just a necromancer. Defenseless.
Bullshit.
Ordinary women got out of situations like this all the time. Okay, maybe not this exact situation, but if you took the black witch out of the equation, it wasn't that much different than any kidnapping. I wasn't sure what the statistics were for escaping a kidnapper, but I told myself they were pretty good.
As I shifted, the blanket scratched my cheek and it made me think of why I was covered in one-because I wasn't in a trunk, meaning someone could look into Molly's SUV, see the rear seat folded down and a bound woman in the luggage compartment. Goal one, then? Remove the blanket.
I'd just moved when a voice stopped me.
"You got home from school okay? And your sister?"
Molly. In the driver's seat. On her cell phone. Talking to her children. I allowed myself a flutter of relief before I started wiggling again, squirming out from under the blanket.
"There's a box of Twinkies in the cupboard over the stove, but don't let Tish see where you found them. They're meant for school. Tell her it's a special treat and Mommy's sorry she wasn't home to see her after school."
A sliver of light appeared above my eyes. I kept wriggling until the edge of the blanket slid down past my nose, then took a deep breath of cool air. In front of me Molly's head was hidden behind the headrest, only her arm visible as she held her cell phone.
"I might be late, but I'll pick up dinner and call you on the way to find out what you want."
The blanket slid down to my neck. There. Finally. Another deep inhale through my nose as I relaxed. Then I looked up way up
at the tinted window, and realized the chances of anyone peering in from a passing transport and seeing me here were next to none. I had to get closer to that window.
Using my feet, I pushed toward the side. Then I twisted around so I could use my bound hands to pull myself up-
Molly's gaze met mine in the rearview mirror.
"Hon? I have to go. I'll call you as soon as I can. Look after your sister, okay? Love you."
She disconnected, then, without a word to me, cast a spell. An energy bolt slammed into me, and I dropped into darkness again.
CAPTIVE AUDIENCE
I WOKE TO MOLLY SLAPPING MY FACE.
At first, I could only moan. Everything hurt, as if I'd been dragged over rocky ground. As I inhaled, that's what I smelled: damp earth. Trees too, that crisp odor of autumn. And another scent, fainter and not nearly so pleasant-rotting vegetation and brackish water.
Quiet. Very quiet. The sigh of rustling leaves yet to fall. The soft, almost tentative call of a bird. The creak of a broken branch in the wind.
Lying on the ground. Damp earth, the ripe smell of it surrounding me. Something digging into my spine-a rock or a twig.