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“Which is?”
“As far as I can tell? Killing you.”
Chapter Ten
Super duper.
“The dead want to kill me.” I sighed.
“This one definitely does. I mean, damn girl, what did you do to her? It felt like I was burning up from the inside.” Santigo took a sip of water, then seemed to decide a sip wasn’t enough. He polished off the rest of the glass in a long, drawn-out series of gulps, his Adam’s apple bobbing.
“I didn’t do anything,” I protested.
“She certainly thinks you have.”
“Well I sure as hell haven’t burned anyone alive from the inside out,” I snapped.
I wasn’t sure why I was feeling so defensive about it. It was such a ridiculous thing to accuse me of. But I also couldn’t quite put a finger on why it was I felt like I was lying. Of course I hadn’t burned anyone alive, that was insane.
Yet the memory of flames crackled and curled at the back of my mind.
I shook my head, hoping to chase the thoughts away. When I looked over at Wilder, he was observing me with the most puzzled expression on his face. At least he wasn’t recoiling in horror like Santiago had earlier.
Nothing to take you down a few self-esteem pegs like a guy who had once tried to seduce you now acting like you carried the plague.
“What does any of this have to do with my mother?”
“That’s just it. This wasn’t her. Your blood…” Santiago shuddered, then looked into his empty glass like he was hoping he could further rinse my blood out of his mouth. “Your blood is just loaded with that kind of venom. She’s not the only one following you. I could feel the tug of at least three more spirits. Maybe more. There were definitely four very distinctive dead voices calling your name.”
“Oh come on, that’s ridiculous.”
“I don’t know what to tell you. I just know what it felt like in there, and it was a lot of anger, confusion, and pain, and all of it was directed at you.”
“Are you saying my mother was one of those voices?”
“Do I know your mother? Would I recognize her voice?” He rose a brow at me, his expression saying ask stupid questions, get stupid answers. “Voices don’t tend to announce themselves by name. These ones were mostly just shouting.”
“Why are they here?”
“Aside from getting some sort of revenge on you?”
“Yeah.”
“Best I can tell, something happened to you. I don’t know if it was because of the incident in the house, maybe the demon marked you somehow, or if there’s another element at play here. But someone has done something to you that is calling back the spirits of those who you’ve wronged in some way. You’re being haunted.”
“But they’re not ghosts. They can talk,” Wilder pointed out.
“I know, and that’s what makes this so fucked up.” Santiago rubbed his arms, suddenly cold in spite of how warm the room was. “These aren’t ghosts. They’re, well, they’re alive.”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
“Whatever has happened to you, Genie, it’s brought the dead back to life. These aren’t spirits or apparitions anything like that. They’re alive. I don’t know if they’re alive until they fulfill their purpose, or alive permanently. I’ve never seen anything like this. But whatever brought them back, they’re all tethered to you, and I don’t think they’re going anywhere until they finish whatever business brought they have with you.”
I glanced at Wilder, who was giving Santiago an incredulous scowl. “So someone with magical abilities did this to her.” He wasn’t even trying to hide the accusation in his tone.
“Don’t look at me, wolf boy. Why would I curse her?”
“For money? For power? For fun? I don’t particularly think you’re the kind of upstanding dude who has a morality clause against these sorts of things.”
