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“Give them back,” I demanded, with all the menace I could muster.
Moira glanced up and smiled sweetly, though the malice in her eyes was plain. The hate there would kill a lesser mortal. At that moment, I saw her essential nature—enslaved and prostituted to evil. This witch had traded her soul for power.
Kill her. Kill the bitch,voices in my head said.
“You shouldn’t have things this powerful,” Moira said. “Nor should you possess the finger I gave you.” She held out her hand and crooked it with the “give here” finger wave.
“Fuck you.”
She sighed.
“Now, my dear. How will we ever get on if you don’t follow directions.”
I scoffed. “Have you met me? Listening is not my strong suit. All my teachers always said so.”
She held out her free hand, and the finger in my pocket vibrated faster and faster until it knocked painfully against my thigh. I reached for it, and my fingers clamped around it, hoping to gain control of the stone. But Moira twisted her hand, and mine flew out of my pocket and pointed straight at her. The finger rattled in my hand, and I couldn’t control it.
The Hand buried in my chest flared to boiling, and I gasped.
“You can’t win,” said Moira calmly. “You neither have the knowledge nor the power to wield that object. Better to let it go. You’ll live longer.”
I gritted my teeth against the struggle to hold on to the object when the back door opened, breaking my concentration.
“Len? I told you not—”
She rounded the corner.
“What the—” said Chastity.
The finger flew from my hand and struck Moira in the face. She stumbled, fell ass-backward on the couch, and the other two stones fell from her hand. The heart stone bounced and flew under the sofa while the eye rolled toward me.
Instinctively, I reached for the eye.
“No!” cried both Moira and Chastity.
The stone bounced up and flew at my chest. Like the hand before it, the stone flared and burned my tee shirt as it reached my flesh. Pain seared me as it sunk in, and the world whirled.
“Get out!” yelled Chastity. Raw panic colored her words, and I wasn’t sure if she was talking to me, Moira, or both of us.
Moira scrambled to her feet faster than you would have guessed an elderly grandmother could move and pushed past me. I tried to grab her, not to get her, but to retrieve the finger she still clutched, but with unnatural strength, she pushed me hard enough to smash my body and head into the living room wall.
“Stop!” I yelled, but Moira wasn’t any better at listening to directions than me. The back door opened and slammed shut as I reeled from hitting the wall.
I spun and fell onto the couch in the same place Moira had been a few seconds before, and the putrid scent of her perfume made me want to gag. My head pounded, and my chest felt like fire.
“Mon dieu!” said Chastity. “What the hell just happened?”
“We were going to get the Hand out of my chest tonight.” I put my battered head in my hands. “But it can’t happen now.”
“No,” said Chastity. Her voice dripped with disapproval. “Now you have two demonic objects in your chest. Didn’t you listen to anything I said? Get out! You can not stay here.”
I looked up at her. “But where would I go? I can’t go back to the little house. I can’t think there.”
Chastity muttered in Creole, and while I didn’t understand the words, I got the tone. I was royally fucked.
Chastity pulled out her wallet and handed me a thick wad of cash.
“Go get yourself a hotel and figure out what the hell you will do, Len. This is way above what this Voodin priestess can do for you. Go! Before you permanently infect this apartment with evil.”
