Everwild (Skinjacker 2)

Zin turned around to see the portal shrink down to nothing and vanish. She reached out a hand and tried to create a fresh portal back to Everlost, but the living have no such powers. She was no longer a ripper, she was just a living human girl. She knew, not just because of what she saw--and not just because it hurt when she pinched herself. She knew, because, for the first time in a hundred and fifty years, her cap fell off her head, and tumbled to the ground.

"What have you done?" Mary glared at her with such raw hatred, it chilled Zin's newly formed blood. So Zin ran, and didn't stop running until she was far from Graceland.

Allie had released two of her fleshies, one fainting in shock, the other screaming as she ran, but Allie held on to the guard, keeping a close eye on Mary. Mary's hair was wild, her green dress wrinkled, and she was out of breath from the ordeal. Mary Hightower, out of breath! What a wonderful concept! Allie couldn't contain her smile.

A tour guide raced down, responding to all the commotion. He didn't even see the tourist who had passed out behind a zebra-skin couch. "What's going on here, Candace?"

"Don't worry," said Allie, feeling authoritative in her guard uniform. "I'll take care of this. Go find out what that woman was screaming about."

"Who are you?" Mary demanded once the tour guide was gone.

"Don't you recognize me, Mary? It's your good friend Allie the Outcast--although it looks like you're the one who's out-cast now." Then Allie realized something with far too much glee. "Now that you're here--alive and all-- there's something I've wanted to do for a very long time." Then Allie reached back, curled her fleshie's right hand into a fist, and swung it toward Mary with all her might.

This was one strong fleshie!

The punch connected with Mary's eye so hard, that Mary's entire body spun around, and she collapsed into a leopard chair. Allie's knuckles hurt, but it was a good kind of pain.

"My eye!" wailed Mary. "Oh! My eye." It was the first pain Megan Mary McGill had felt in more than a hundred years. She brought her hands to her face, but it hurt to even touch it. She felt she would die from the pain, and she wished that she would, so she could be free from this horribly limited body. I'm alive, Mary thought. Heaven help me, I'm alive! There was no greater hell for Mary than to be bound to a flesh-filled hell on earth.

Allie prepared to peel back into Everlost, but before she could, a man grabbed her by the throat, and pushed her against the wall. It was the tourist who had fainted.

"I should never have freed you! So much trouble you have become!"

Milos! He had found her, but he was too late.

"Before you strangle this poor fleshie," Allie said, "why don't you have a look at your fearless leader."

Milos turned to see Mary, and he was stunned.

"Milos? Milos, is that you in there?" Mary, her eye already starting to swell, stood and gathered what composure she could. "This is only a small setback. You have to go through with the plan--nothing has changed."

Milos just stared at her, still trying to take it in. "But ... but look at you ... everything has changed... ."

"No!" insisted Mary. "You'll have to take care of my children for a while, but I'll work this out! I will! I'll work it out!"

Allie knew she should have taken this moment to escape, but watching Mary Hightower sink into absolute desperation was mesmerizing.

"I can still work from this side!" Mary insisted.

"I think you fool yourself," said Milos. "No! I can make this work, I know I can. Please, Milos," and Mary fell to her knees--a gesture so foreign for her, Allie could only stare. "Please don't leave me like this! I'm begging you, Milos! Please don't leave me!" There were tears on her face now--real human tears.

Milos reached out his fleshie's hand, and wiped away her tears. "Your children do need you," Milos said thoughtfully. "We will see... ."

Then he whispered something in Mary's ear that Allie couldn't hear. Whatever he said, it calmed Mary down. She nodded a glum acceptance. Then Milos turned to Allie and she realized she had waited too long.

Allie could leap to another fleshie, and run, but there were none in the room other than the ones she and Milos had already skinjacked. Then suddenly something occurred to Allie.

Mary was now a fleshie... .

Did she dare do it? Did she dare skinjack Mary Hightower, the self-appointed Queen of Everlost? Of course! In fact she couldn't resist! As Milos came at her, she leaped from the guard, and directly into the flesh of Mary Hightower.

Mary knew the instant it happened.

She could feel Allie picking through her brain. She felt herself infected by this filthy, filthy girl. "GET OUT!" Mary demanded--and even though she was no longer an Afterlight, the force of her will was still strong enough to hit Allie like a mortar blast. Allie recoiled, and was ejected out of her--but not before seeing the depths of Mary's mind-- and what she saw there, the plans, the schemes, the terrible things that would happen if Mary had her way--it was like witnessing Armageddon itself. And what made it all the more horrifying was that Mary truly believed it was all in the service of good. More than ever, Allie knew that Mary must be stopped!

But the force of her expulsion from Mary's body had rattled her and made her weak--weak enough for Milos to grab her. They were both back in Everlost now. She was looking at him--not a fleshie, but Milos himself--and his expression was stone.

"You have made life very interesting, haven't you?"