HORROR THRILLERS-A Box Set of Horror Novels (25 page)

“
Hello, Diane.
It's time for us to go.” Angelique stood, setting the empty
cola bottle on the bench. She took Diane's hand and dictated the
woman return to the car.

“
Of course, my
dear,” the silly woman replied, letting herself be guided to
the car at the curb. “I love ever so to go for long drives.”

“
Isn't that
lucky.” Angelique moved to the front of the car, an old jalopy
from Ford. “Let's get going then,” she said. “We
don't have all day.”

Diane finished
settling her purse on the seat next to her, then put her hands on the
wheel and her foot to the gas pedal. Angelique spun the crank on the
front of the Model A Ford by force of thought alone and the car came
to life, spitting smoke.

“
Do we have
enough gas?” Angelique asked, once inside the car and settled
in the passenger seat.

“
I filled it
this morning, dear,” Diane said, backing into the street.

The dusty little
town dwindled behind them as Diane drove the child west. She didn't
ask where they were going or why she should go at all. She was little
more than a mechanical person, following instincts and impressions
embedded deep into her mind.

By morning of the
next day they had reached Phoenix and Diane waved good-bye to the
little girl she had let out in front of a rooming house. “Good-bye,
good-bye, dear!”

It was not until she
was entering the town she'd left the day before, that Diane came to
herself and began to shake as if she had palsy. She pulled over to
the curb, let the car idle, and sat, hands gripping the steering
wheel. She shook her head, tried to clear it. All she could remember
was that she had meant to buy cloth, but had never purchased it, in
fact she had never even entered the general store. She had...she had
driven away and gone on a trip far away. Gone for what reason, she
couldn't recall. Gone alone or with someone, she couldn't remember.
But now she was back and thanking all the heavenly hosts she was home
again. Her husband would be beside himself with worry over her
disappearance. She must get home as quickly as possible!

She must have lost
her mind. But she would tell no one. No one, ever!

On the way home she
thought of a lie to tell her husband. She was still shaking. She
wondered if she would ever trust herself again, trust her mind.
Because now how could she?

Angelique entered
the rooming house where Nisroc had stayed. She took a room,
explaining her mother would be along shortly. She demanded to have
the room she knew Nisroc had occupied. Once inside, she sat still on
the bed, her legs dangling over the side. He had been happy here. If
something terrible hadn't happened, he would be here even now.

After a nap she
would walk around and find the area of town where that terrible thing
had happened. It might help point her in the direction he had gone
when he left here.

First she would
strip and bathe herself. The long ride overnight left dust on her new
clothes, lodged in her hair, and a film of it covering her black
shoes. Once cleaned, she would lie on the bed in her underwear and
rest. It was tiring to hold onto a human's mind for so many long
hours. Diane had been an empty-headed woman, but still she had a will
of her own. Keeping her under control and heading north to Phoenix
hadn't been the easiest thing to accomplish. Angelique had only
perfected this ability to control humans in the past year. She had
had to practice and work at it endlessly, trial after trial on human
after human. Still she couldn't hold onto them forever—or even
for any certain length of time. It was a drain on her energy and it
meant she had to concentrate with every particle of her being.

And it was so
boring! She cursed Nisroc for putting her through all this
aggravation and annoyance. If only he hadn't fallen for that woman,
Mary. If only she had intervened. She could have forced him to obey
her. Truth to tell, she had been too busy trying to build a following
among the Haitians, too busy trying to bring down more angels into
lifeless bodies. Frustrated, angry, too full of her own priorities to
deal with Nisroc, she had let him go his way—have his woman,
love her if he could, stay in that doomed relationship until the
human died on him. She even thought that would teach him a valuable
lesson. He'd know then how fruitless it was to love these pitiable
cretins.

But something
changed Nisroc and it had to be the woman. The woman she let him have
for all those years. She didn't understand it, not for a minute. And
she would not abide this disobedience if she had to spend a lifetime
to scour the world to find him and make it right.

CHAPTER 30

THE TALL AND THE
SMALL

From where Jody
swept the front sidewalk in front of Harper's General Store, he could
see Nick down the street working on a two-story building that would
become a casino. For some reason he felt better when he was with Nick
or kept him within sight.

Josh Harper, the son
of Kendrick Harper, the store owner, was a tough, angry boy of
nineteen. He was supposed to be shelving stock, but he had come to
the doorway just to bully the midget his father had hired.

“
The broom's
bigger than you are,” he said, standing stiffly, his thumbs
hooked into pockets. He glared down at Jody.

Jody had been beset
by bullies all of his life. He knew the best thing to do was to keep
silent. Aggressive boys like this could cause a lot of trouble.

“
You hear me,
stump-boy?”

Jody was twice the
boy's age, but he only nodded to agree he had heard Josh.

“
I could have
done the sweeping and cleaning up. I don't know why we needed you
around here.”

Jody moved down the
sidewalk, hoping to put distance between himself and the boy. He
glanced down the street and saw Nick standing, watching them, a
hammer hanging loose in his hand near his thigh. I got this, Jody
thought, wondering if the angel could read his thoughts.

Finally Josh grew
disgusted that he could not get a rise out of the little man and
stomped back into the store.

Jody smiled to
himself. He saw Nick return to work, his back to the street.

Before Jody could
finish up his sweeping outside the store, a little girl about his own
height skipped up the sidewalk toward him. She carried a short length
of rope in one hand and swung it in a circle as she skipped. She
stopped in front of Jody. He looked up from his work, a smile coming
to his face, but when he saw the girl's eyes the smile died. She was
angrier than Harper's son. She was so angry it was possible her mind
was as tilted and spinning out of control as a falling ferriswheel.

“
Don't look at
me that way, you monkey.” She deliberately swung the rope so
that it struck him on the shoulder. He straightened, frowning at her.

“
What's wrong
with you?” Jody asked. This was not the child from his
nightmare. This was a true human. A defective one, to be sure, but
no fallen angel.

“
What's wrong
with you,” she countered, mimicking his voice. “I never
saw such a little bitty man.”

“
I'm a midget.
I was born this way.” He almost added, What happened to you and
what's your excuse? Then decided not to.

“
I hate
midgets,” she said. Again she swung the rope, stinging his
shoulder. He stepped back.

He realized this
might not be a good town for him. Some places were that way. Most
people had a prejudice against little people, but some towns had a
disproportionate dislike for them. It seemed Reno might be one of
those places.

Beyond the girl Jody
saw how once again Nick paused in his work and had turned to stare at
the store. He wanted to send the thought of I've got this again, but
he couldn't because he wasn't sure he could handle this evil little
child.

“
I have work
to do,” he said, trying to sidle past the girl to the open door
of the store.

The girl blocked his
way, the rope swinging faster and faster in her hand. “Our
preacher says demons walk the streets of Reno. The whole town is
going to hell for letting gamblers have their way. Are you a demon?”

“
No, but I
think maybe you are.” Oh, he shouldn't have said that, he knew
it the second the words left his mouth. Had he not been heckled by
Josh before being confronted by this mean child, maybe he could have
kept his silence, but there was only so much a man could abide.

The girl's response
was immediate and furious. She struck him across the face with the
rope, but didn't stop there. She hit him over and over, throwing back
her arm and putting as much force into the blows as she could manage.

Jody dropped the
broom and crossed his arms over his face. He couldn't even think. The
attack was so instantaneous and brutal that all he could do was try
to protect himself.

As suddenly as the
blows began, they halted. Jody lowered his arms and saw Nick standing
over the girl, holding back her arm that had wielded the rope in such
a vicious manner. “Stop it,” Nick said, twirling the girl
by her arm to face him. “How would you like to be struck with
this rope? Don't you know you're hurting someone?”

The girl's lower lip
went into a pout. “I don't care,” she said. “He's
just a midget.”

“
And you are a
bad girl,” Nick said, snatching the short rope from her hand.
He threw it into the street. “Where is your mother? I need to
report you.”

Now the girl grinned
evilly. “She's busy and you can't find her. Let me go.”

Nick pushed her away
from him and took a wide-legged stance in front of Jody. “Go
away,” he said. “Go now before you get what you deserve.”

The girl stood her
ground for just seconds, glaring back, but this was no small man she
faced, not someone she could dominate and terrorize. She turned and
hurried off down the sidewalk away from the store.

“
What a brat,”
Jody said, picking up the broom. His face still stung where he'd been
hit and he expected there was a red stripe of flesh swollen there.
“I'm having a bad day.”

Nick turned to him
once the girl disappeared into crowds in the next block. “I've
noticed that. Do you want me to hang around?”

“
No,
I've...I've got this.” He smiled a little and stepped quickly
to the door of the store.

He saw Nick hurry
back down the street to his own job. He wondered how a creature as
full of heart as Nick could have ever fallen from God's grace. He
might be unholy in one sense, but in what mattered, this fallen angel
was truly a fine, sympathetic being. Why he, Jody, had been directed
to team up with him, he hadn't a clue. What he did feel in his bones,
however, was how much his safety depended on the angel.

What began to
frighten him was the thought of the girl in his nightmare. She
necessarily was darker and more of a threat than the child who had
just beaten him with a length of rope. She was no child at all. She
possessed powers he couldn't imagine. If she caught up with him, she
would be bringing something much stronger than rope and she'd have in
mind a far more lethal action than a beating.

Jody ignored the
hateful gaze of the Harper boy as he moved past him in the grocery
aisle. He had been instructed to clean the back storage room and that
is where he was headed. Old man Harper wouldn't be paying him a
dollar a day for standing around while being bullied.

This was one tough
town.

Angelique didn't
like Phoenix. It was dry, hot, and full of dust that got into her
nostrils, making her sneeze. She rose from the bed where Nick had
slept and knew where he had gone every day when he rose in the
mornings. She dusted off her shoes, straightened her dress, and
slipped out the door and down the stairs.

Peeble's grocery was
not far from the rooming house. Angelique walked slowly down the long
aisles, stopping here and there to stare at the shelved foods.
Crackers. Canned soup. Bagged sugar and flour and beans and rice. She
felt Nick everywhere in this store. When she rounded a corner and saw
the produce bins against the wall, she stopped and her heart skipped
a beat. Death here. The scent of gun powder and blood. Reckless
disregard for life. The sudden murder of someone who had stood before
that produce.

And Nick too late to
prevent it. Because now Angelique knew Nick had changed and murder
was not something he could allow if he had any way to prevent it.