The Haunted (41 page)

“Yes.” Vincent smiled down at me. “Yes, that’s right.”

An anguished moan escaped me, more wild emotion than intelligible speech, and I grabbed at my head. The pain was there.
In there
. And it was killing me.

“Now that
he’s
found you, I can’t kill you,” Vincent continued. “Or else you two will be completed, and that would just ruin everything. No, I’ve got to make sure you stay perfectly…
alive
.”

Suddenly feet came pounding up the stairs, and angry voices echoed in the hall.

“They’re coming,” Vincent said. “But they can’t do anything yet.
I’ve made sure of that.” Then he whispered in my ear, “Don’t even
think
about doing anything stupid. Stay. Alive.”

Uri, Cacey, Sophie, and Kame burst into the room, and Vincent dropped me without a second’s hesitation.

Sophie shot me a worried glance. “Are you okay?” she asked.

“Three’s a party, but seven is a crowd,” I heard Vincent say. “That means it’s time for me to leave.”

There was the sound of someone rushing past me, and then Kame shouted, “Vincent, wait!”

I looked up just in time to see Vincent run to the window and leap out of it. Uri and Cacey followed, but they stopped short.

“He must be protected,” Cacey said. “He disappeared.”

Uri’s face was furious—he looked like he wanted to leap right out the window and chase after Vincent—but Cacey put a hand on his arm. She shook her head once. “Wait,” she said. “There is still time to find out what he’s after.”

In the blink of an eye, all four of them were standing over me and reaching down. I had an absurd urge to laugh at what they were wearing. They were coming to collect me in matching
khakis
.

“It’s okay, Abbey,” Kame said. “We’re here for you. Just trust us.”

His voice was soft and beautiful, and I glanced at him, feeling myself get pulled under the endless ocean that was in his eyes.

But
I’m not ready.
It was the first thought that came to mind, and I said it out loud. “I’m not ready.”

Many thanks go to:

The inspirations: Washington Irving, Sleepy Hollow, L.J. Smith, Caroline B. Cooney (I’m still your number one Fangirl), Elizabeth Chandler, George A. Romero, and Johnny Cash.

The team players: Michael Bourret, Anica Rissi, the Simon Pulse team, and Lee Miller.

The support system: fans, friends, and family.

Thank you one and all.

Jessica Verday wrote the first draft of
The Hollow
by hand, using thirteen spiral-bound notebooks and fifteen black pens. The first draft of
The Haunted
took fifteen spiral-bound notebooks and twenty black pens. She spends her days and nights buying stock in pens and paper. She lives in Goodlettsville, Tennessee, with her husband. Find out more at jessicaverday.com.