Song for the Dead (Ada Palomino 2)

He eyes me. “I need to shake her.”

“And I need to stay alive.”

“So do I. If you die, I die.”

“How romantic,” I mutter, my eyes trained on the road as it disappears under us.

“We can lose her in Port Orford,” he says as we pass another sign, going too fast to read it.

I press my hands on the dash to keep me in place, praying that we don’t crash. Up ahead the road is lit up, maybe from the town.

But Max doesn’t slow down. Not even a little.

“Max,” I hiss at him as the tiny town gets closer and closer, and we start passing cars. “We’re going to get pulled over.”

“I’ll talk my way out of it,” he says determinedly, a firm set to his jaw as he shifts gears again. “There.”

We blow past streetlights and I turn in my seat to see the car appear, illuminated behind us, just a few feet away, almost at our bumper. It’s the little old lady, smiling a shark’s smile, disappearing for a moment as the lights pass and reappear.

“Oh my god!” I exclaim. “She’s right there! Go faster!”

“What do you think I’m doing?” he shoots back at me. “Fuck. Hold on!”

I whip around to see us enter the town of quaint little buildings gathered along a few main streets, an SUV pulling out in front of us.

Max whips the wheel around, the Super B careening around the SUV, cutting through the middle of the road, nearly colliding with an oncoming car in the other lane.

I close my eyes, a scream ripping out of me, so certain we’re going to die.

But as the horns of the cars and tires screeching fade away behind us, I open my eyes to see us back on the road, Max shifting like he’s a fucking NASCAR driver, eyes going between the road ahead and the rearview mirror.

“That bitch,” he growls, and I look to the side mirror to see her copying the same moves that Max made, speeding up behind us. She’s impossible to shake.

We continue to burn it through town, Max whipping the car around another car, narrowly avoiding taking out a family in the crosswalk, his reflexes working at lightning speed. Still, it’s not enough to shake her and from the way she’s coming after us, I know she would have plowed through that family without remorse.

Now we’re shooting up the hill out of town, disappearing back into the black of the road.

“This is never going to end,” I whimper, my heart wanting to climb out of my chest, my fingers permanently pressed into the dash.

“Don’t sound so pessimistic,” he grunts, shifting again and picking up speed as the road starts to wind along the coast. “Hold on, darlin’.”

“I’m already holding on!” I screech, as he suddenly wheels the car to the left, cutting across the lane and nearly hitting an oncoming car as we burn it up a steep road that heads up what feels like the start of a mountain.

It feels even darker here, the road turning to gravel, the car bouncing over the rocks until one of them flies up and hits the corner of the windshield, creating a small spiderweb of a crack.

“That fucking does it!” Max roars, spinning the wheel around so we’re doing a donut and I’m pressed against the window as we spin and spin on the steep road until we’re facing the way we came, the demon car illuminated in our headlights.

Max slams the car into park and then throws open the door, hurrying out and going to the trunk.

I’m caught between staring out the windshield at the demon car and the shark-mouthed lady, and watching Max in the back. I can’t see what he’s doing until he’s marching past the car, heading to the demon car, a fucking sword in his hand.

“Max!” I scream, frantically trying to unbuckle my seatbelt. What the fuck is he doing? That bitch is going to run him over.

As if on cue, the demon car, a Kia of all things, lurches forward, the back tires spinning and spitting out gravel, speeding up the hill toward Max, who isn’t getting out of the way.

“Max!” I scream again, fighting with the seatbelt, watching with horror as he faces the car, sword in his hand. This is fucking insane!

At the last minute, he somehow manages to launch himself up in the air, flipping his giant frame around until he lands on the roof of the Kia, denting it, the sword stabbed straight down into the driver’s side, going straight through the old lady’s head.

The car continues to speed forward, causing Max to let go of the sword and roll off the back of the Kia and onto the road behind, as the demon car speeds toward me.

I stare in a silent scream, watching the demon woman snap her shark teeth, a sword impaled through the middle of her head, blood pouring out red to black until it turns to dust, leaving only the sword behind.