And how could she find that charming?
More than that, her entire life was falling apart, and the only comfort she had was him. Maybe he wasn't the sick one after all.
Maybe it was her.
Yeah, there's definitely something wrong with me. And it wasn't just the wasps trying to break into the car and sting them or the demon that had made her eat a friend. "This is definitely one of those days when you're praying it's a dream. Only you never wake up from the nightmare."
"I've had a few of those in my time. But this one here's not so bad."
"How do you figure?" she asked, flabbergasted by his words.
He flashed a fanged grin at her. "I might have lost some skin, but I got kissed by a beautiful woman who was happy to see me. I gotta say that's pretty epic in my book. Definitely not a worst-case day here."
Given what she'd seen of his past, she knew that for a fact. Still ...
"Thank you."
He frowned. "For what?"
Being here.
Being you. Things she couldn't say out loud without embarrassing herself to the deepest level. But she felt that gratitude so much that it made tears prick at her eyes.
After a few seconds when she didn't respond, Jess looked over at her. She was staring at her hands as if they belonged to a stranger. A cloak of sadness enveloped her. "You okay?"
She nodded. And still she looked at her hands. "I killed a ... Daimon tonight."
"What?"
Swallowing, she glanced over at him. "You were right. They'd lied to me my whole life and kept that knowledge from me. I don't know what to believe now."
"Believe in yourself. Trust your instincts."
"Is that what you do?"
Jess snorted as old memories burned. "No. Not doing it is what got me shot in the back by a man I thought was my brother. I like to think I learn a little as I go."
But sometimes he wondered. Like right now, there was a part of him that wanted to trust her, and if ever someone should know better than that, it was him. She'd already proved that she was willing to hurt him to get what she wanted.
And she'd also run to him when he was hurt to make sure he was still alive.
After she hit him with a car, of course. Yeah, okay, so that part sucked. But she had come back when she didn't have to. It was more than a lot of people would do.
"We're not going to make it back to your house, are we?" He heard the fearful undercurrent in her voice.
"Don't get maudlin on me. We're not dead yet ... any chance those demon powers of yours have anything to help with this?"
"Not that..." Her voice trailed off as if an idea suddenly occurred to her. "Don't wasps hate bad smells?"
"I'm not fond of them neither. Is there something you need to tell me? 'Cause right now, I really can't open a window."
She made a sound of disgust at his offbeat humor. "Whenever the powers surge, they put off an awful smell. I was thinking-"
"I prefer the idea of me driving through the worst BOB ever than having you smell up the car with demon funk to choke us down. No offense, my sight and hearing aren't the only things my Dark-Hunter powers boost."
"BOB?"
He loved that out of all that, she'd gotten only one word. "Baked on bugs. Or in this case, I guess I should have said BOW-baked on wasps."
She started to laugh, but something slammed into them so hard, it snapped her forcefully to the right.
Jess cursed as he lost control of the car and they spun around. He wasn't sure what had struck them, but it felt like a semi.
On steroids.
All of a sudden, there was a lone howl.
Coyote. He'd know that sound anywhere. The only question was if he meant it as a taunt or an order for his servants. When the car finally stopped moving, it ended up embedded against a pole.
"You all right?" he asked Abigail.
She nodded. "I think so. You?"
"Brain's a mite rattled, but that's nothing new for me."
She jerked up in her seat as if someone had shocked her. "You hear that?"
He strained, then shook his head. The only sound in his ears was a bad inner buzzing and the wasps outside. "Hear what?"
"I can't make out the words, but it sounds like someone whispering."
He tried again, and again he heard nothing. "I only hear you."
"You really don't hear that?"
"Sorry. My medium powers are on the fritz, and I can't channel spirits or bells right now. I'll get them worked on later. For-"
"Shh," she said, touching his arm with her hand. "The wasps are talking to someone. I hear them so clearly."
Okay, time to get someone to a psych ward.
"It says to kill the buffalo."
His scowl deepened. "There's no buffalo in Vegas. At least not that I know of."
"That's what they're saying, though."
Maybe what she heard was that weird tendency people had to make ambient noise and other obnoxious things tolerable by incorporating them into understandable sounds and syllables. He didn't know for sure.
At least not until he felt something else strike the car and land on the hood. It struck the windshield repeatedly.
The wasps pulled back enough for them to see a giant mountain lion. It was trying to break through the windshield to get them.
"Oh, this ain't good," Jess muttered under his breath. He put the car into reverse and backed up at a scary pace. Cutting the wheel, he sent the mountain lion flying. Then he put it in drive and floored it.
Abigail held her breath as panic seized every part of her. She didn't see any way out of this. "You think Choo Co La Tah can save us again?"
"Eventually, he can stop it. I just don't know how long we have to hold out. Not to mention, the mountain lion is new. Man, what I wouldn't give for some catnip right now."
Cars were still running off the road as their drivers were swarmed.
As Jess passed a gas station, an idea hit him. It was lunacy, but ...
It was all he had. He headed for another gas station down the street.
Abigail cringed as they pulled into the station and she saw the bodies on the ground of people who'd been caught outside by the wasps and who were now dead from their stings. There were others trapped in cars who screamed for help while the wasps continued to swarm, looking for new victims.