He turns his head toward me.
“That’s nice of you to say, but I know you wouldn’t.”
“That’s where you’re wrong. When a tidal wave washes out the luau, you surf it and look for land.”
“Thank you,” he says. “I’m sorry. I know this is a strange moment for you, but I have to ask . . .”
I put a hand on his shoulder.
“Brigitte is fine. She’s working. Doing auditions. She got a part on some cable-TV series.”
He puts his hand over mine for a minute.
“Thank you.”
“She misses you.”
He takes his hand away.
“It’s mutual.”
Brigitte Bardo and Father Traven were an item back in the world. A defrocked priest and an ex-porn-star zombie hunter. A Hollywood love story if there ever was one.
“And how are the others? How’s Candy?” he says.
Now it’s my turn to get awkward.
“Everyone is fine. Candy’s doing good. But she goes by a different name now. I’ll tell you about it later.”
“Of course,” he says.
We stand there in awkward silence, and I think about all the life leaking out of me. There’s only one thing that’s going to take my mind off all this blood.
“I don’t suppose you have a light, do you?”
Traven goes to his camper and comes back with a match. I take out a Malediction and he lights it for me. Breathe in a big lungful of the beautiful poison.
“Bless me, Father, for I have sinned.”
“Then you’ll fit in just fine around here,” he says.
He nods to the camper.
“I have some work to do. I’ll come back when the Magistrate calls for you.”
“Don’t worry about me. I bet I’m the only one here with cigarettes. The rest of these assholes are smoking locoweed and pocket lint.”
Traven gives me a small smile and then heads back to his camper.
“Enjoy the smoke,” he says.
I sure as hell will. It might be my last.
I cool my heels in the burned-out pickup for an hour. Smoke one Malediction and light a second off it. But I stop there. Got to ration myself, which isn’t in my nature, but these are weird times.
The good news is that while I was bleeding when I started the first cigarette, I’ve pretty much stopped by the time I flip the butt of the second away. That’s means I still heal quickly. Good news there.
The cigarette arcs through the air in the direction of the mountains and almost hits Daja, who’s headed my