“I could eat.” Hunter smiled. “Payne gets to pick up the check.”
Payne drove us to Frank’s, a nearby diner he told me made the best onion rings. Personally, I’m a fry girl. The important thing was Payne and I agreed on a critical point. Red meat was essential. Hunter on the other hand ordered a chicken Caesar salad. I decided to stay friends with her anyway.
We managed to snag a booth toward the back, away from prying ears. By silent consent, we kept the conversation to non-supernatural stuff until after the food arrived.
“Why don’t we fill Payne in on everything?” Hunter said.
“I filled Hunter in on all of the missing details,” I said. “She knows about me now.”
“I figured,” Payne said, “since Hunter told you her secret.”
“How did you know?” Hunter asked.
“What am I, blind?” Payne asked. “I saw the way Bristol looked to you for confirmation about Archer. I’m not surprised. I figured the two of you would hit it off.”
“I’ll just bet,” Hunter said as she reached over and gently patted Payne’s cheek, making him grin. “And that reminds me.” She grabbed his nipple through his shirt and twisted.
“Ow!” Payne jumped. “What the hell?”
“I’m sorry. Did that hurt?” Hunter asked. “It can’t be nearly as bad as the time those dogs ripped into you while you rescued my Barbie doll, huh?”
Payne glared at Hunter, then me, then Hunter again.
“Oops,” I said before snatching an onion ring. “You’re right, these are good. You ready to hear about today?”
Still glaring, Payne nodded.
“Well, let’s start with school,” I said as I wondered how many onion rings I could steal. They were pretty good. “First off, guess who got themselves locked in a closet?”
From there, I explained everything from Jay to Archer. When I was done, Payne’s burger remained untouched. His onion rings were almost gone, but that was because I’d stolen them.
After taking a few moments to contemplate what he had just been told, Payne asked, “Did you ever figure out who locked you in that closet?”
“No,” I answered. “I’m going to go out on a limb and say Pricilla, but that might be less to do with knowing she did it and more to do with my hating her with every fiber of my being.”
“I don’t know,” Payne said.
“Why?” I asked. “You think Princess P is above such things?”
“Princess P?” Hunter asked.
“Yeah, Princess P,” I explained. “As in perfect, pretty, perky, pesky, pinhead, prissy and probably a whole plethora of perturbing Ps. She’s a walking cliché. The perfect figure, perfect hair, perfect blue eyes—which, by the way, she always has trained on you, Payne.”
“You sound like you want to kill her for admiring me from afar,” Payne said with a quick but wicked grin. “I think I like the idea that you want to fight her over me.”
“Like it would be much of a fight,” I responded. “Not that I would fight someone like Pricilla over you. If you were fool enough to even look at her, then she can have you. I’d just kill the both of you in your sleep.”
“Well then,” Payne said, “it’s a good thing for me that my eyes are only interested in looking at you.”
Payne tried to pull me closer for a kiss, but I elbowed him in the ribs. “Whatever. You’re out of onion rings, by the way.”
With a roll of his eyes, Payne ordered more.
“I think you want it to be Pricilla,” Hunter offered. “I’ve never been a big fan of her either, but I just don’t know if you can pin this on her.”
“If it was just Pricilla,” Payne said, “then it wasn’t anything more than a stupid prank. I’m more interested in what happened at my house. You both could have been killed. We need to know more about these shadow things.”
“Well, I’m pretty sure they’ve been watching me since I arrived in Spirit,” I said. Panic spread across Payne and Hunter’s faces. “What am I supposed to do, though? They haven’t come in the house. They haven’t made any move against me.”
“Until today,” Payne clarified.
“There’s that,” I agreed.
“Plus,” Payne said, “it still leaves the question as to why. And what do we do about it.”
“I have a plan,” I announced. “Trust.”
“Trust?” Hunter repeated.
“Yes,” I responded. “Trust answers both of Payne’s questions. This family feud’s been going on for a long time. Our families blame each other for everything. Blackburns and McKnights don’t trust each other. Maybe they don’t want us to. So I think that’s exactly what we do. Trust each other.”
Hunter and Payne watched me closely for several seconds. I seemed to have an ability to render them both speechless. I could only assume I had impressed them both with my insightful wisdom.
“Are you insane?” Payne asked in what I noted was a tone severely lacking in the expected reverence for my insightful wisdom. “These things, these shadow creatures or whatever the hell they are, nearly blew you and Hunter to smithereens. If you’re right, they’re responsible for my cousin’s murder. You’ve been nearly killed twice. And you want to use trust?”
“Look, I’m open to other suggestions,” I responded. “But yes, right now I think we need to trust each other. I’m putting my trust in the two of you.”
“Well, really,” Payne complained. “Bristol, I trust you. Hunter trusts you. You made a good impression on my grandfather, which isn’t easy. Trust isn’t a problem for the three of us. But when we’re talking about some creature made of shadows that wants you dead, forgive me, but I want something a bit more powerful than trust to use against it. I want something I can beat it over the head with.”
“Well, here’s the thing,” I said. “I’m not quite sure these things have heads.”
“Oh dear Lord,” Payne said right before his head crashed onto the table.
Hunter chuckled. “You know, I don’t know what I think of your theory. But I’ve got to say, it’s amusing to see you ruffle my normally unflappable cousin.”
Payne looked up with one eye. “Glad this is so amusing to you, cousin. You were in the line of fire today too, you know.”
“Trust me,” Hunter replied, “I remember. But for now, Bristol is right. We have to trust one another. But that doesn’t mean we have to stop looking for something a little more potent against these things.”
“Agreed,” I said as we clinked our glasses together.
When we were done, we made our way out to the car. I took a moment to admire the beautiful SUV that stood before us while Payne opened the door for me. It was large, slick, and black with a leather interior. I know it was petty of me, but I hoped we passed Pricilla at some point. Her head would explode.
“So, do you think your grandfather is going to let you drive again?” I asked.
“He might,” Payne answered. “He told me he would get me my own car if I kept an A average by year’s end.”
“I like the yellow Lamborghini,” Hunter added. “But I don’t think that Grandpa will let either of us drive that.”
“He’s got a Lamborghini?” I asked. “Wow. How many cars does he have?”
“Well, there’s this,” Payne said. “The Cadillac he’s driving today. He owns a couple of limos and a couple of Rolls, but he only uses those when he has a driver. He has a few more Mercedes as well and, of course, a Lexus or two.”
“Of course,” I agreed.
“I don’t know,” Payne shrugged. “Maybe four dozen or so in total.”
“You know he can only drive one at a time, right?” I said. “What can one man possibly need with so many cars?”
“It’s not as much need as want,” Payne answered. “Don’t you have something you can’t get enough of?”
“Like what?” I asked.
“I don’t know,” Payne said. “How am I supposed to know what girls collect?”
“Like purses,”
Hunter said from the back seat.
“You’re kidding me, right?” I said.
“I love purses,” Hunter said as Payne slowly took a sharp turn onto the highway entrance ramp. “Look at this one. It’s a Louis Vuitton.” She held up a small but cute black and white checkered purse. It had slender straps made of brown leather. “I’ve got about a dozen or so Louie Vuitton’s. I’ve also got Prada, a few Coach, some Gucci, one or two Channel, Uggs, a few Versace.” Hunter kept listing names, but a strong feeling of danger distracted me.
“Payne,” I yelled. “Stop the car.”
“What?” Payne asked. His eyes went wide in surprise.
“Stop the car now,” I insisted, certain it was absolutely imperative.
I tensed as Payne hit the brake, carefully trying to bring us to a stop on the dark, curvy road. I pressed myself into my seat to steel against the momentum, but Hunter, who had been leaning forward, hit her head into Payne’s seat. With a squeal, the Mercedes finally came to a stop. I looked back to see if Hunter was all right. She seemed dazed but otherwise unhurt.
“What the hell?” Payne said.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “I had this feeling something bad was going to happen.”
“Yeah,” Payne answered and pointed forward. “Look.”
A big cow stood in the middle of the road. It was one of those adorable black and white cows. Only it didn’t look so adorable right now. It just stood there, staring at us.
“It’s not mooing,” I said. “Cows moo. Why won’t it moo?”
I reached for my door handle, but Payne stopped me. “Where the hell do you think you’re going?”
“I’m going to take a look,” I explained. “There’s something up with that cow.”
We all looked back at the cow that continued to just stare. It was ridiculous, but there was something about the cow’s stare that seemed wrong.
“If you’re right,” Payne said, “then there’s no way you are going out there.”
“What is it going to do?” I asked. “It’s a cow!”
Payne looked like he wanted to object more. Within a few seconds, the three of us were outside the car. The cow just stared. Hunter had climbed out on the left side behind Payne, so I was alone on the right. Payne seemed to be aware of this and moved toward me, but I told him to stop. He wasn’t happy, but he did.
The cow didn’t move or make a sound. It continued to stare—directly at me.
“Bristol?” Payne called.
Something shadowy passed over the cow. Like smoke rising from within it. And then for the first time, the cow mooed.
“It’s okay,” I said. “Did you two see that?’
“See what?” Payne asked. “I heard the cow moo. Is that good?”
I moved toward the cow. It was not only mooing, it was moving. It seemed to be looking around. Like it was trying to figure out how it got there. Or maybe I was just reading much more into it than I should. It was, after all, just a cow. Now that it didn’t seem so fixated on me, it was much more adorable.
“There was something inside,” I explained, “like smoke. I saw it leave the cow right before the cow started to act like a cow again.”
“You’re kidding?” Hunter said.
“No,” I insisted, “I’m not.”
Payne looked back and forth between me and the cow. I think he was trying to decide if the cow was really acting like a cow. “This is weird.”
“I know,” I answered.
“You’re telling me the cow was…” Hunter waved her hands. “Possessed?”
The cow mooed again, as if to say it found that quite distressful.
“More or less,” I answered.
Payne took the cow’s head in his hands and looked it in the eyes. The cow pulled its head away and mooed again. Now that it was mooing, it wouldn’t shut up.
“Now what?” Payne asked. “What do we do with a cow that was possessed?”
“Well, whatever it was is gone now,” I answered. “I don’t think we have anything to fear at this point from the cow. We need to figure out what to do with her. We can’t leave the poor thing out here on the road like this. It must have come from somewhere.”
“The cow?” Payne said. “You’re worried about the cow? Bristol, if you hadn’t told me to stop when you did, we would have crashed into it. We could have been killed.”
“Wow,” Hunter murmured. “Murder by bovine. What a way to go. I don’t even eat red meat.”
“That’s irony,” I said. “How do you move a cow?”
Payne tried to pull at the cow, but the cow pulled away and gave him an offended moo. “Stupid, stubborn cow! We need to call someone, or we’re going to be here…”
“Until the cow comes home?” I offered. That little comment earned me a baleful stare from Payne, Hunter, and the cow. “Why don’t I call my uncle? He’ll know what to do.”
“Good idea,” Payne said. “In the meantime, I’m going to get a couple of flares and put them on the road so no one—”
A squeal pierced the night. We turned in time to see a red truck come around the same bend we had traveled moments ago and smash into the back of the Mercedes. The two cars skidded to a halt as the airbag exploded into action. Thankfully, we were several feet away and out of danger. The same could not be said about the Mercedes.
“Uh oh,” I said.
“Oh hell!” Hunter said.
“Grandpa’s gonna kill me,” Payne said.
The cow mooed.
“What the hell are you doing stopped in the middle of the road?” the driver said as he emerged from his damaged truck. “Is that a cow?”
I pulled out my cellphone and dialed my uncle’s number. “Hey, Uncle Mark. What do you know about cows?”
Within the next ten minutes, both my uncle and Varick McKnight were on the scene. Uncle Mark had one of his deputies direct traffic to avoid another collision. After another twenty minutes, both the red truck and the Mercedes had been towed. The man got a ride from someone after being assured by Varick that any damage from the collision would be paid for. When Varick McKnight tells you he’s going to pay for something, you just smiled and accepted his word.
My uncle found out where the cow came from and arranged to have it brought home. While the farm in question wasn’t very far, it still seemed incredible the cow had made its way here on its own. Pinky, the deputy that had been directing traffic, wondered out loud if the cow had been planning his escape for months. Finally, the only thing left to deal with was the three of us. Uncle Mark and Varick McKnight approached.
“Okay,” Uncle Mark said. “What happened?”
“Don’t ask us,” I told him. “Ask the cow.”
“I’ll take the cow’s statement later,” Uncle Mark answered, ignoring the cow mooing in the background. “Right now, I’m asking you.”
“Sherriff,” Payne said. “It’s not Bristol’s fault. I had my grandfather’s permission to use the Mercedes to take Bristol home. I didn’t think it would be a big deal to stop for dinner.”
“Wait,” Uncle Mark interrupted. “I thought Bristol was having dinner at your place tonight.”
“She was,” Varick McKnight interjected. “However, my grandson Archer was injured earlier. He fell and hit his head. I took him to the hospital.”
“Is Archer okay?” I asked.
“No permanent damage done,” Varick said. “He has a slight concussion. He’s spending the night in the hospital, for which he’s not happy. But nevertheless, he is staying.”
“Good,” Uncle Mark said. “So you went to eat and then…”
“Then we left,” I answered. “Payne was driving. We were going the speed limit. We stopped because there was a cow in the road. We have no idea how Bessie got here anymore than you do.”
“Bessie?” Uncle Mark asked.
I shrugged. “I feel bad calling her the cow. Bessie seems like a good, solid cow name.”
“Right,” Uncle Mark said. “Well then, I think you’ve ha
d enough excitement for now. I can take Bristol home from here.”
“And I’ll take my grandchildren,” Varick said. “Bristol, we shall have to have you over for dinner soon.”
“Sure, thanks,” I said. “Just don’t serve steak, okay?”
Everyone except the cow laughed.
Chapter Thirteen
An Unexpected Visitor
There was music playing. Really old music from the late fifties or early sixties. It was a female voice, one I wasn’t familiar with, crooning out a melody, begging for her lover to let her go.
I thought the girl singing was a wimp. If you felt that way about your boyfriend, just break up with him. Still, it was a pretty enough tune.
The music poured out of the radio in an old car. Only the car didn’t look old. It was a Corvette, black, slick, and brand spanking new. The car was idling on the side of the road somewhere off the beaten trail. It looked like the perfect setting for two teenagers to make out, but the pair in the Chevrolet weren’t locking lips. Instead of being snuggled next to each other in the back seat, they sat silently in the front seat. The girl seemed to shrink away from the boy. She was pretty in an understated sort of way with her dark brown hair that was tied up in a pink bow. In fact, she looked a lot like me.
The boy’s face was masked by shadows as he reached his hand out to take hers. Every time he did, she would give it a gentle squeeze and then pull away. She wasn’t scared of him, but whatever affection he might feel was definitely one-sided.
“We can’t go on like this,” she said. “It’s not fair to either of us.”
“Why not?” he said. “I love you. I know you love me. You’re just… confused.”
“I’m not confused,” she said. “I don’t love you. I know that sounds cruel, but it’s just how I feel. I’ve been honest with you. I told you it’s over. You need to accept it. It’s not that I don’t think you’re wonderful, it’s just not right.”
He was silent for a moment as her words hung in the air. I couldn’t help but notice his hand was now clenched into a fist. After a few seconds, he relaxed his hand. “It’s him, isn’t it?”
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