Page 121 of 1001 Dark Nights: Bundle Forty-Two

“He’s very sweet.”

“You’re sending me a hellhound named after a British monarchwho beheaded people for breakfast?”

“He’s the most regal of them all.And the chunkiest. I think he gets the most demons.”

Donovan was almost sorry he’d asked as he tried to ease backonto the bed without creating any undue pain. It didn’t work.

Once he’d settled, Swopes handed him two pills and a glassof water. He didn’t question it. He would’ve taken hashish laced with PCP atthat point.

“You said you can find the doc?” he asked.

He swallowed the pills and then gestured toward his phone.“I installed an app on her cell so I could track her.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” Marika asked.

“It most certainly is.”

Swopes handed him his smartphone. “So, where is she now?”

He opened the app and zoomed out of her location. “She’sheading east. I can catch up when she stops for the night.”

“You mean if she stops for the night.”

“Right.” He could have a hardertime catching her than he’d hoped. She had a lengthy head start. Trying not tobe bitter about that fact, he swung his legs over the side of the bed, wincingwith every movement.

Marika sounded worried. “How are you going to drive likethat?”

“Very carefully.” He winked at her and then looked up atSwopes. “I’m gonna need your shirt.”

“The fuck you are.”

Chapter Seven

Every warning label has an awesome backstory.

—True fact

He was back. Kursch was back. She never felt himenter her mind. Maybe he didn’t have to. Maybe he was just as much a part ofZhou as the human Sia was. The land stretched out before her looked as if ithad just been hit by a series of Scud missiles. Smoke bellowed from carsabandoned on the highway. Fires raged all around her. Bodies in the dozens laystrewn across the landscape.

No longer able to trust her mind, Sia had no choice but topull over. She’d hoped to drive all night, but if she started swerving to misscars and bodies, she would wreck and likely hurt someone in the process.

She pulled onto the shoulder and shook her head, trying tokick Kursch out of it. It worked. The world sprang back to rolling hillssprinkled with yellow grasses and desert foliage. He’d entered her mind. Didthat mean he could locate her? That he could kill her?

Her phone rang. She squinted past the pain of a piercingheadache to focus on the screen. Donovan St. James. Barbed wirecinched around her heart when she rejected the call and blocked his number.After years of wanting him to notice her, he finally had, but not in the wayshe’d dreamed. He’d only watched over her on orders from his charge.

And now he would be mad that she’d blocked his number. Hehad a right to be. He’d risked his life to save her, and she’d left himincapacitated and bleeding in a cheap motel room. Not only that, she’d drugged him. If they’d ever had a chance before, shewas certain that ship had sailed.

A voice popped into her head. Sia?

Benji? She gasped aloud, then triedto calm herself. This could be another trick. But when he sent her anothermessage, she began to think it was really him. Believe nothing.

I know. He’s in my head, too. Are you okay? Whenshe didn’t receive a reply, she said again, Benji?

Nothing. She’d lost him again. Frustration welded her teethtogether, but she had to get off the interstate. She eased back onto theblacktop and searched for the next exit. Hopefully, there would be a hotel oreven just a convenience store. She was not above sleeping in her car in aparking lot.

When she exited a few minutes later, the sun was stilldrifting up the horizon. The off-ramp had no hotels, but there was a smallmom-and-pop convenience store with a single gas pump. Since her stomach haddecided to sing the song of its people, she went inside.

The tiny shop smelled like hot dogs and motor oil. She couldwork with that. A staticky country song played over the speakers as she fisheda hotdog off the warming rack with a set of plastic tongs. She tucked it into abun and went in search of mustard. The bottle they had was empty. That was whenshe saw the first dead body. The clerk behind the counter, a kid in histwenties from the looks of him, lay in a pool of blood.