Changing Beauty (The Deadly Beauties Live On 2)

ROSLYN

I haven’t slept, but I have heard a lot of weird conversation

s through the door, despite the fact they’ve been trying to keep their voices down. Most of it didn’t make sense, but I did hear Thad tell someone to keep me safe.

I also heard something about killing the anointed one? The hell are they into? And why are they talking about this anointed one like it’s me?

They’re bounty hunters, but Thad never told me how dark that job gets. He also neglected to tell me that his friends don’t seem to particularly like me very well, based on their cryptic conversations.

I’ve waited in his room for hours after quietly locking the door. The sun is close to setting, and I know someone is in the next room. That person hasn’t made a sound other than flipping channels on the TV.

I know Thad told them to keep me safe, but I don’t feel safe. At all.

Quietly, I slip out of his window, using the same stealth I used when I was a child who was running away from a neglectful home. I might have only faced one physically abusive foster father, but there are plenty other ways to abuse someone to the point they run.

My silence pays off. The TV is loud enough to mask the slight crunch my feet made when they impact the ground. I halt immediately when I hear the TV mute, as though that person somehow did hear that.

I don’t move; in fact, I barely breathe. Apparently they feel satisfied that it was nothing, because they turn the volume back up.

My eyes move to my house, and an internal war wages. I have nowhere to go but home, but Thad’s friends know where I live.

I trust Thad, even though he sounds batshit crazy. However, I don’t trust his even crazier friends. Not to mention some freak already broke into my house once.

Instead of going to the door, I move to the window of my room, raising it ever so slightly so that I can reach in and grab my purse off the small table I have wedged against the windowsill.

Note to self: Don’t just leave your purse so accessible to thieves.

After securing it to me, I walk quickly around the side to where Jenny’s car is in the driveway. I know she’s going to get pissed, but I don’t care. She owes me three-months’ worth of utilities, and that’s all she has to pay for rent.

Her keys are predictably in the ignition, because we’re apparently too trusting with all of our valuables. Hell, we barely even lock the door.

I won’t be that stupid again. I’ve gotten lax since my running days are behind me. Looks like I’m about to be running again.

Deciding I’m not ballsy enough to pull out right in front of Thad’s house, I go the opposite direction, heading toward Edgebrook.

After driving for a solid twenty minutes, I find myself beside the lake on one side, and covered by woods on the other. This stretch of highway is nothing but the lake and the woods until the lake veers and it turns into just woods on either side.

It’s creepy as hell, considering I’m officially in hiding until… Until… Hell, I don’t know how long.

What did Thad mean when he said something about me being human? What the fucking else could I be? And why was someone saying something about hashtag and Buffy while leaving?

Unbidden, Wendy’s book of freaky pictures crosses my mind, and I shudder. No way am I going there. I’m not crazy enough to believe the two coincide.

Just as I reach the end of the lake on my right, I’m swallowed up by the woods. Hella creepy indeed.

The shadows dance as the bright, full moon blares down, catching small slithers where the trees aren’t fully blocking its light. The eerie sounds of the wind howling through the woods is also less than comforting, and I’m forced to endure the sounds because Jenny’s stereo has been screwed up for months.

My heart thuds in my ears when I hear a sound that has my stomach twisting in nervous knots. Like every damn horror movie ever freaking created, the car starts sputtering until it completely stalls out in the middle of the road.

The dark, creepy, scary, no-house-in-sight road. And my cell phone is not in my purse. Of course it isn’t. Why would it be? That would be way too easy. Stupid thing probably wouldn’t have a signal out here in the middle of nowhere anyway.

Deciding not to meet up with Jason or Freddy, I stay my ass in the car and wide awake. In the movies, the girl always gets out of the car, and a hand clamps down on her ankle. Or, like an idiot, she runs into the thick of the forest. She’s usually screaming or crying or begging the killer not to kill her.

Nope. My ass is staying planted in the fucking car until someone comes by. And I’m keeping the doors locked while they work on the car outside. I’ll even be holding…

Shit. What’s in here to hit someone with?

Searching Jenny’s car, I find lipstick, perfume, and… gum. That’s so not helpful.