Everwild (Skinjacker 2)

Any Afterlight that steps on the pitcher's mound in old Yankee Stadium will be sent flying toward home plate at 107 miles per hour--the speed at which Billy Wagner threw the world's fastest pitch on that very spot. Any Afterlight that stands directly beneath the capital dome in Washington, DC, will suffer the simultaneous bombardment of every speech ever delivered in Congress and the House of Representatives, causing instant and irreversible insanity. And any Afterlight that enters any Department of Motor Vehicles in the western world will discover that time doesn't just stop, it ceases to exist entirely.

The Memphis vortex is a unique one, because it affects every Afterlight differently. One boy, for instance, had walked in on a dare. His most prominent feature was a sizeable Afro that was his pride and joy--even larger in Everlost than it had been when he was alive. He stepped into the vortex, and ten minutes later rolled out as a six-foot furball with eyes.

An Afterlight girl so self-conscious about her braces that they had already doubled in size in her mouth, stumbled into the vortex to satisfy her own curiosity. When she left, she found her entire head encased in wires, brackets, and gum-bands.

And then there was the Afterlight who was somewhat sensitive to odors. He passed through the vortex, and emerged with a supernaturally acute sense of smell, along with highly irritable sinuses.

The Memphis vortex is a place of excess. That is to say, whatever you bring in with you, you leave with tenfold.

While in Everlost it is known as the Intolerable Nexus of Extremes, the living have a different name for it.

The living call it Graceland.

The Mississippi wind kept most Afterlights away from Memphis, so only a few Afterlights knew of the strange and curious properties of Graceland, and the rumors faded the farther one got from the place. Mary Hightower, however, was now privy to firsthand information. After hearing the Sniffer's account of his own personal experience there, Mary concluded, with both excitement and remorse, that this was the place she must meet Nick. In fact, she believed it was the destined place for their meeting, chosen, perhaps, by the Almighty himself.

Mary had no fear of the vortex, because the way she saw it, she could not be any more right than she already was.

Dearest Nick,

It appears our paths cross again. While I detest the very idea of putting my children at risk, I will defend what I know to be true. It would be foolish of you to battle us, however. I have more than two hundred loyal Afterlights--certainly we outnumber you.

I propose a meeting at a neutral location. I have been advised that the mansion at Graceland is a comfortable place for such a meeting. I will be there waiting for you today at five o'clock PM. I feel confident we will be able to either resolve our differences, or reach an acceptable compromise.

Most humbly yours,

Miss Mary Hightower

The girl who had brought the note looked terrified. Nick smiled to ease her fear, but he knew his smile no longer appeared comforting. Most of it flowed into a dark dripping frown which made the girl back away into Johnnie-O, who stood behind her. Used to be kids were more frightened by Johnnie-O and his power-knuckles than they were of Nick.

"Thank you," Nick told her. Then he reached for the bucket, which he still kept close, and with his good hand he pulled out a coin. "As payment for bringing me this message, I'm going to offer you a reward." He turned the coin in his fingers. "Do you know what this is?"

;Allie the Outcast is here!" he told his restless troops. "I can feel it." And he could. That connection, forged the moment they were born into Everlost, told him that she was right under his nose, if only he knew where to look. "Keep searching!" he told them, sounding more like an Ogre by the minute.

Then, on their sixth day in Memphis, Johnnie-O approached him with some news.

"She's coming," Johnnie-O said. By the tone of his voice, and the look on his face, and the way he cracked his knuckles, Nick knew he didn't mean Allie. "Somehow Mary knew we were here!"

Nick stood from his chair. It was getting increasingly harder for him to rise, and as he walked forward, he dragged his feet, leaving chocolate skid marks on the ground.

"How close is she?" Nick asked.

Johnnie-O cracked a knuckle, the sound as penetrating as a sonar ping.

"Stop that," Nick said. "For all we know she has a kid with big enough ears to hear that a hundred miles away."

"Sorry." Johnnie-O looked deeply worried, and he was not an Afterlight who was easily intimidated.

"How close is she?" Nick asked again.

"You're not gonna like it," Johnnie-O said.

"Just tell me."

Johnnie-O let his large hands fall limp by his side. "She's already in the city. Less than two miles away."

Nick stared at him incredulously. How could that be? Everywhere they went, they sent scouts out for ten miles in all directions, searching the skies for the Hindenburg . If there was one thing Mary Hightower could not do in an airship, it was sneak up on them. "How could she get so close?"

"I think maybe we were all looking too high," said Johnnie-O, nervously cracking his knuckles again.