She looked up into his warm amber eyes and said, “I won’t be afraid of you. I’ll know what you are on the inside, no matter what you become on the outside.”

“How do you know what I am on the inside?” he wanted to know. “I’m well on tae being a stranger tae you.”

“No. You’re not a stranger anymore. And if you weren’t good on the inside, then you wouldn’t care about frightening me or worrying me. And I know you do.”

He was silent for the next several minutes.

“The sun is down,” he said after a while. “Come along. Let’s get something tae eat. And then a vehicle.”

“But by now the only car rental place will be closed, if it even opened at all what with no electricity.”

“Doona worry about that.” He paused a beat. “Is there someone in town who’s ever done you a wrong?”

“Well …” She thought about it. But she knew the answer right away. “Bill Morrow. The jerk. I was in town with Karma twice and on both occasions he threatened to run her over with his truck. He hates her for some reason, even though she never did anything to him. He called me a little freak, too. The jerk,” she reiterated.

“And where does he live?” Ahnvil’s tone was quiet … almost dangerous.

“Above the old five-and-dime. He owns that whole row of stores. He owns a lot of the buildings in town and he thinks that gives him the right to do whatever he wants.”

“And this truck he threatened tae run you over wi’. Do you know what it looks like?”

She scoffed. “It’s the biggest, reddest piece of over-compensation that proves he is hung like a newborn baby in the arctic cold.”

That made him laugh out loud and she grinned at him. “I used to tell him that if he didn’t clean up his act, Karma was going to bite him in the ass. Get it? Karma? Ass?”

He chuckled and nodded. “Verra well. You will go and get us some food. I will go and get us transportation.”

“In a towel. At six p.m.? And just how are you …” She narrowed her eyes on him. “Are you going to do what I think you’re going to do?”

“Oh aye. I have skills,” he confided to her, standing up and putting her on her feet.

“But that’s—” She cut herself off, thought about it for half a second and then said, “Well, you know what, I think I’m kind of okay with that!”

“Doona worry. Just be ready tae go as soon as I pull up.”

“Right. Any food requests?”

“Whatever you can find is fine.”

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

They parted ways, anxiety crawling around in her belly the whole time she was searching for food, which proved to be harder than she thought. The restaurants were all closed because of lack of electricity, and the small market a few buildings down was the same. She was desperate to get something, knowing what it meant for him if he didn’t eat regularly. In the end, the lack of electricity worked in her favor. As soon as the street was quiet she found a cinderblock from a nearby wall and then hauled it through one of the side windows to the market. Silence followed. No alarms, no cameras. She regretted what she had to do instantly, but it didn’t keep her from grabbing things off the shelves. She bagged everything then left. She thought about leaving money or a note, but feared the reprisals if she did. She knew Bill Mackinzie very well, and she would somehow make this up to him. She didn’t know how, but she would.

She escaped unseen back to the motel and was just opening the door to her room when the familiar loud rumble of Morrow’s truck pulled up beside her.

“Grab Karma and let’s go. We’re a li’le conspicuous.”

“I’d say so!” She whistled for Karma and hopped in the truck with her. Luckily it was one of those extended cabs so there was plenty of room for Karma. “Part of me wants to ride past the five-and-dime and blow his horn. The jerk has the Dukes of Hazzard horn installed. It makes it unmistakable.”

“You have a vicious streak in you, do you no’? Remind me never tae piss you off.”

“I’ll be certain to.”

Ahnvil threw the truck into gear and they trundled off down the reasonably plowed roads. She immediately burrowed into her stolen booty and started by handing him several doughnuts in a row. Then she moved on to canned chili. She had commandeered plasticware and a can opener and soon she was spoon-feeding him while he concentrated on keeping the truck on the icy mountainous road.

“I’m sorry I couldn’t get you any real meat. Everything was either frozen or raw or needed a slicer in order to get at it. I didn’t really want to take the time to figure it out. But I got lots of junk food! I love me some junk food!” She unwrapped a candy bar and bit into it.

“Ah, so now I see your true weakness. You have a sweet tooth.”

“It’s true and I’m proud of it.” She deflated a little. “Except it makes my butt a little too jiggly. But I’m not going to worry about that right now.”

“Oh aye, doona worry abou’ it at all. I like your butt just fine.”

That made her cheeks burn with color, but secretly she had to admit that it pleased her. She thought she was silly for reacting that way, but there it was nonetheless. It was just nice to have someone look at her and see so many things they felt were positive about her, rather than focusing on her flaws, shortcomings, and freakish weaknesses. But, of course, he wouldn’t see anything wrong with her. He had to avoid the sun, for the most part, as well. He would be just as sensitively aware of it as she was.

“The road seems all right for the most part. If it continues on like this we should make it to the Walmart with plenty of time to shop before I have to try and contact my ghost friend.”

“I doona know why you want her tae follow us,” he said with a frown. “I doona like it.”

“Your opinion is duly noted. I don’t know why I want her to follow us either. I just … do. There’s more to this. I’m not experienced with this sort of thing, but you said you know people who are powerful and understand things like how to get this Amulet off me. Maybe they can understand why I can see the ghost and you can’t. Maybe they can tell me if she really is a ghost or if she’s something else. I don’t know, and I won’t know unless we can get her to follow us to … Hey, where are we going exactly?”