Last Exit Read online

  I motioned at Tubby. “Go help them.”

  With him gone, I took a long look around, scanning for anything I might need. Then I walked outside and closed the door of my little home for the last time.

  4

  Finn had gathered everybody who wanted the protection I offered in a grassy field next to the RV park. Cecil, face pinched with fatigue, stood surrounded by several members of our group, fielding questions. He gave me a relieved wave.

  Kenny Johnson jogged out to meet me. “What do you think you’re going to do now?”

  “Shut up, moron, and get into the circle,” I said tonelessly. He wasn’t worth wasting energy.

  Finn hurried over, “Brad’s doing some weird chakra shit over there. What am I supposed to be doing?”

  “Get everybody who’s not a carrier of the raven mark into the middle of the circle. Mash them together. The rest of us make a circle around them. We’re going to try to protect them and ourselves at the same time.” Fear tightened my chest.

  Thunder rumbled in a cannonade now, one right after the other. Lightning strobed to life a sky full of human shaped shadows. Phantom dogs barked endlessly, snarling and yipping. Behind them droned that sound of engines running. What the hell was it?

  I turned to speak to my people. “I’ve kept Oscar away from me with a circle before. All the Greggs will share power to hold the circle long enough to keep him away.”

  “What happens if it doesn’t work?” Anita Johnson yelled, wrinkled lips creased.

  I shook my head at her. If whatever Oscar was bringing down on us looked as bad as it sounded, we’d probably die.

  “Gregg family, get ready,” I yelled.

  Shelly and Cecil took a position in front of the scared group of people we were trying to protect. Dillon and Finn stood next to them, holding hands.

  They’d positioned their two children behind them and told Kenny and Anita to keep watch over them. I didn’t trust Kenny or Anita any further than I could throw them, but I trusted they knew their lives would end, and badly, if they harmed a Gregg child.

  Brad and Jadine worked their way out to the front of the group.

  “I’ve cleansed the ground as best as I can.” He shrugged. I’d worked with Brad for a while now. The shrug meant it wasn’t good enough.

  Thunder shook the earth. Lightning flashed right after it. The shouts and the dogs barking faded in, and right back out. Behind them buzzed engines. They were close now, too close to quibble.

  “It’ll have to do,” I told him. “Where’s the consecrated dirt?”

  Brad pointed to several pots of the dirt he and Jadine collected from cemeteries. It was one of their jobs to keep me in the stuff.

  “Sprinkle it around the outside of the circle.” I motioned at the clutch of horrified people.

  Lightning flashed again. I tracked it through the sky and saw something that took my breath away. The shadow of a horseman flitted through the clouds. The whinny of a horse echoed in my head. A memory from a couple of months ago came roaring back in full detail.

  It had been the day Tanner and I escaped Devil’s Rest in a dead man’s convertible. We’d parked the car on an anonymous street in Austin and abandoned it. As we started to walk away, I’d turned for one last look at the horror we’d survived, my mind on what happened to Lot’s wife in the Holy Bible. In the gleaming paint, I’d seen a stormy sky, lightning flashing, and a horseman wearing Oscar’s face charging toward me, sword raised.

  It had been a warning. And I’d ignored it to have a honeymoon with Tanner, who was gone now. What a fool I’d been. Guilt opened a bottomless pit in my conscience. Unfortunately, it wasn’t one I could leap into and escape. I had to stay and deal with my mistake.

  Dread thudding at my temples, I grabbed another pot of the dirt and hurried to help Brad. When I got to Jadine, I spoke into her ear. “Take two steps forward, and I’m going to position you directly inside the circle. You can step backward, but don’t go any further forward.”

  She nodded and held out her arm for me to direct her to the correct spot, nostrils flaring. She whispered in my ear. “I smell wet dog.”

  I sniffed the air but didn’t have her well-developed sense of smell. “When I call the circle, lend your power. There’ll be a sound, but you’ll feel it in your body too.”

  She nodded, sightless eyes staring straight ahead.

  I went through the same routine with everybody in our family, save the children, who clustered next to Anita.

  Hannah stopped me. “Can I do this too?”

  She’d gotten the raven tattoo a month earlier. I nodded. If she didn’t help, she wouldn’t hurt. Intent went a long way.

  I pointed at Tubby. “Stay near Hannah. If things go to shit, help her.”

  He gave me only a slight nod, flinching as thunder shook the sky.

  Once we had everybody in position, Orev flapped into the circle, cawing, his wings stretched wide. He landed on my shoulder and cawed softly into my ear. I didn’t speak bird, but I knew the meaning. Hurry.

  I gripped the stang harder, calling its power. My black opal awoke on my chest, sending waves of sharp magic through my body. The mantle awoke behind the thin layer of scar tissue imprisoning it. It pulsated warmth throughout my body. My fingertips tingled with magic.

  The oncoming storm’s wind changed and spoke to me. Now, it said. Lightning flashed again. The fire inside me latched onto it, channeling some of its wild power.

  The rumble of hoofbeats, loud engines, and barking dogs blasted through my head. My magic rose in defense, making me lightheaded. I swayed on my feet.

  “Peri Jean?” Brad called from a few feet to my left.

  “Let’s do it.” I raised my stang and drew earth magic through my body, pushed it into the stang, and sent it outward. Light began to radiate from the deer antlers adorning the stang. Its brightness hurt my eyes, but I focused on it and took a deep breath.

  “I call to the power of the North,” I intoned. My family members repeated the line.

  My raven tattoo woke up, burning as badly as it had the day I got it inked onto my skin. Power thrummed through it and reached out to my family members, going deosil around the circle. Brad yelped as it hit him.

  I said the next lines.

  “I call to the power of the East,

  I call to the power of the South

  I call to the power of the West

  Join me.”

  My family dutifully repeated each line. The power flowing through us got stronger and stronger with each one. Orev perched on my shoulder, so full of power he shook.

  The points of the compass came to life with a flash. The wall of light coming out of my stang passed over my head and connected to each family member.

  The thunder slammed closer, and the lightning cracked around us. The shouts of the men and the howls of the dogs warred with the engines behind them. Thunder shook the earth at short intervals.

  “I call to the powers above and below,” I yelled over the din.

  The golden light of my growing circle passed over my body. Time to call the elements.

  “I call on the element of water.” The dew of humidity misted over me, dampening my clothes.

  “I call to the element of air.” Warm wind chased through the bodies gathered in the circle, drawing an uneasy murmur from a few.

  “I call to the element of earth.” Energy flowed into me from the ground. I breathed it in, letting it flow into the deepest part of my magic. The mantle rose to meet it, twining with it.

  “And I call the element of fire,” I boomed, Orev cawing beside me.

  Lightning cracked down right in front of the circle. Ignoring the screams of my friends and family, I pulled the power into me and fed the mantle with it. It pushed against the scar tissue, stretching it painfully.

  I drove the stang into the circle of consecrated earth.

  “As above, so below,” I called out. “Let this circle protect us from all harm.”

  The g
olden wall of magic dove under the earth, searching for the roots of the world tree to encircle. I willed it to be so, pouring my already flagging energy into the task.

  Lightning flashed in the dark sky. Through the haze of magic and the turbulent clouds, white flashed. I squinted. The clouds moved again. My stomach clenched at what I saw.

  A gray horse with red eyes raced toward us. On its back rode a figure with stag horns, not so different from the ones attached to my stang, on his head. He held a sword aloft. The metal caught one of the RV camp’s pole lights and illuminated the rider’s face for one second. He was nothing but a skull covered with a few bits of dried flesh.

  I’m coming for you, bitch, Oscar Rivera’s voice boomed in my head. I jolted at the shock. Zora’s words came back. The dead men are coming. So they were. Oscar had somehow fashioned himself into walking death.

  A wall of cold crept up through my feet, sending scrabbling fingers in search of my heart. The horse’s hoofbeats shook my whole body. Oscar raised his body off the horse as it sped toward us. I pushed harder at my magic, willing the circle to close.

  “Peri Jean, it’s not going all the way. There’s not enough power.” Brad’s voice shook with fear.

  I pushed with every bit of magic I had. Fatigue darkened the edges of my vision.

  Orev let out a distressed screech. Not working.

  He was right. It wasn’t going to work. Without full control of the mantle, I didn’t have enough power to encircle and protect this many people.

  Thunder crashed, and the clouds opened again to emit another dark figure on a horse, this one white. Horse and rider galloped in the midst of white dogs the size of ponies. The dog’s eyes glowed like red searchlights and matched the burning tips of their ears. It looked like they’d been dipped in a vat of hellfire head first. The rider’s voice invaded my thoughts.

  “Wanna fuck?” Michael Gage snickered.

  My skin chilled.

  The clouds fell open now. As more riders and horses came out of the sky. Their voices threatened to drown out my thoughts. Joey Holze. Nash Redmond. Colton Starr. Camden DeVoss. Veronica Spinelli. Their malicious laughter invaded my mind.

  The sound of the roaring engines shook the sky, louder even than the thunder. Finally I recognized it. Motorcycles.

  Headlights reflected off the clouds, and motorcycles with their dead riders roared from the sky. King Tolliver rode out front, a skeleton with peeling flesh, only recognizable by his big horse teeth.

  His nasty voice vibrated inside my head. “Bet you thought you’d never see me again.”

  Fear circuited through me, making me even more exhausted.

  The other motorcycle riders’ presences came into my awareness. Trenchcoat. Other Six Guns I’d helped kill without even knowing their names.

  A speckled white horse descended behind them. Its rider had a familiar mane of brown hair flowing from it.

  My throat closed. No. It couldn’t be. I squinted at the rider. It wore the same peeling skull as the other horseman, making it unrecognizable.

  A familiar voice invaded my mind. “Hey, you little shit. Miss your momma?”

  Sweat tickled my scalp, and my knees went to jelly. I froze.

  The blast of a horn shook the earth. Oscar’s charge made my teeth vibrate. “Kill them all, strip them of their power.”

  I broke from my thrall.

  “Run!” I screamed and yanked my stang from the earth.

  People scattered all over the RV park. Dillon and Finn ran next to Anita and Kenny, all of them trying to get the kids out of danger. Brad grabbed Jadine, threw her over his shoulder, and ran after Dillon and Finn. I looked for Cecil and Shelly but couldn’t see them in the confusion.

  Panic settled into my chest, freezing me to the spot. Cecil needed help. He was no longer strong enough to fight anybody. I stood on my tiptoes. The crowd thinned a little more, and I saw Tubby pushing Cecil and Shelly along. He’d defied my order in the best possible way. I let out a breath.

  Hannah appeared at my side. We joined hands and ran as hard as we could. Since we both smoked like chimneys, what we did was more like stumble along, gasping and coughing.

  A woman’s scream cut through the roar of chaos. “No, no, please no.”

  “That’s Lorrie.” Hannah yanked me toward the commotion.

  We rounded a corner to see a horse looming over Hannah’s friend from the face painting tent. Joey Holze. I knew him even though he had the same skull head as Oscar.

  Then he raised his sword. As he did, the metal seemed to be turn to white, crackling light. He swung. Lorrie tried to jump out of the way, but the blade dragged across her throat. Hannah screamed as her friend tumbled to the ground, writhing, her neck a gaping wound. Lorrie’s life’s blood spread on the ground around her.

  My stomach dropped. Shock froze me to the spot. Hannah tried to run toward her friend. That cut through my revulsion.

  I yanked her back. “It’s too late.”

  And it was. Lorrie’s eyes were already glazing over.

  Joey Holze swung off his horse and leaned over Lorrie, who’d had a little spark of telepathy. His sides expanded as he inhaled. A glow rose off Lorrie. I squinted at it. What was that? Her soul? Then the mantle flipped over in my chest, and I knew. It was her magical core. Joey inhaled again. Lorrie’s magical core went straight into Joey. He stiffened and seemed to expand. When he raised his head, a little more flesh covered his face.

  Sick realization flooded me. Joey had eaten Lorrie’s magical core, maybe her soul as well, the same way I had consumed Loretta Nell Grimes’s a couple of months earlier. And it had nourished him, probably made him stronger.

  Another scream came, this one male. Hannah and I turned to see Early Ramey running at top speed, King Tolliver in hot pursuit from the back of his motorcycle. King caught up to Early, pulled a glowing white sword from nowhere, and used it to lop off Early’s head. The poor teenager’s body fell. His head rolled a couple of feet, hair flopping, and bounced against a tree.

  King pushed down the kickstand of his motorcycle, marched over to Early’s still form and inhaled the magical core. The same thing Joey had done. Strips of flesh appeared on King’s skull. Cold sweat broke out over me.

  Despite the fear, a little thread of hate glowed to life. King had cut Early down the same way I’d stomp a roach in my RV. As though sensing my thoughts, King faced us.

  We snarled at each other as guilt seeped through me. I’d been responsible for the people who traveled with us. Now I’d failed Early and Lorrie, and judging by the screams around me, many others.

  The stitch of hate reddened and grew. It called my magic. I let it come until hot energy vibrated through my body. The black opal burned on my chest. Heat grew in my fingertips until they throbbed. When the pain became so intense I could stand it no longer, I threw it at King.

  A flash of light told me my aim had been true. King let out a screech of pain and toppled over. His blue motorcycle landed on top of him. Just as I thought him dead, King pushed the motorcycle off and picked himself up. He turned his skull head to face me, and I swear on my sweet dead grandmother, the fucker was smiling. He mounted the motorcycle and made it roar to life.

  What the hell? I’d killed him. If not that, hurt him bad. And here he was acting like nothing had happened.

  King raised his sword.

  I quit thinking and ran. Hannah and I raced for my camper, not because it was safe but because I was out of ideas. A short distance away, Dillon and Finn ran next to Kenny and Anita. Both men carried a screaming child. My mother leaned forward on her horse as she closed in on the group, sword of doom raised for the kill.

  Hannah and I screamed “Dillon!”

  Dillon glanced at us, and we both pointed. The young woman saw the problem and tackled her husband, screaming at the same time for Kenny, who carried her other child, to drop to the ground. It all happened in a split second, right as my mother, Barbara Willis Mace, swung her sword.

  Anita
, for some reason, did not drop to the ground. She turned to face the horseman, thin lipped mouth open in a scream. She never got it out. The sword completed its arc and sliced cleanly through her neck. Anita’s head thumped to the ground. Kenny wailed his grief, let go of Zander, and lunged at the horse. Finn wrestled him away. They all ran for their lives.

  I stood frozen among the carnage, barely hearing Hannah’s screams for me to keep going. Everything I’d lived for the past few months was being destroyed right before my eyes.

  My mother climbed off her horse, skull tilted in a way I remembered from when she smirked. She leaned over Anita and inhaled the poor woman’s soul. Even though Anita hadn’t had any supernatural abilities, every soul has a little spark of magic. My mother’s armor filled out a little at the breasts and hips. Her mane of hair grew thicker and richer in color. She mounted her horse and charged toward us.

  My emotions regressed to that of a child. Mommy was mad again and would hurt me. I grabbed Hannah’s hand and ran for my life. In my flight to escape my rampaging mother, I saw things that would haunt me forever.

  Snarling red-eyed, red-eared dogs attacked an RV and ripped open the sides, the metal emitting pained screeches as it bent. They set upon the elderly couple huddled inside and tore them to bits in a matter of seconds.

  A horseman set another RV on fire. This one belonged to Noah and Gus, the couple Tanner had played cards with. I took a few steps toward it. The RV exploded in a burst of fire. Gus and Noah streamed out, engulfed in flames, waving their arms, their pitiful screams thin in the air as they ran in circles and finally fell.

  The horsemen lapped up their souls and grew stronger.

  My eyes fell on Oscar Rivera in the middle of it all. The antler horns on his headdress vibrated as he laughed.

  I searched my power. It was there, but weak. Trying to recover. The failed circle and blasting the horsemen had taken up too much energy. I needed rest, and a lot of it. But I didn’t have time for that.