“Did he tell you the boy’s name?” Joel told him Nick Stark. “I’m thinking you should come on up to the house then. But I’m telling you right now, should you try something stupid, I’m going to send you over. And from what I know about you, it won’t be anywhere pleasant you want to be.”
Joel followed the man. “I didn’t hear your name. Or even if you told me. I’m so…did you know that all you have to do is think of someone and you could be near them? Not Addison however. She’s sort of off limits to me.”
“Billy Pike, and that would be about right. This boy Glass is looking for? He tell you what he wanted with him? Other than to have him dead?” Joel told him that the stepson had killed Glass.
“But the more time I spend with him, the more I think he was justified in it.” Billy said that he was. “Is Addison here? I know that her grandmother has sold out and moved on. I’m assuming that she’s coming for her granddaughter. They were very close and I missed out on that too.”
There were a great many things he’d missed out on. And hearing Ellen talk about her murder spree had made him realize that there were a great many evil people out there. He didn’t want to be one of them. Not any longer. Joel realized that Billy was talking and he’d missed some of it. When he asked him to repeat it, Billy turned to look at him.
“You’ve made yourself a huge turnaround since you were killed. What the hell happened to you? And if you tell me you found religion, I’m not going to believe you. There is no way that much can happen to you in two weeks.” Joel asked him why two weeks. “You’ve been dead that long. Didn’t you know?”
“No. It seems…there are times when I still have to remind myself that I’m actually dead. I went to my graveside. Not a single flower marred the grass there. No prints—auras, I guess they’re called—showed that a single person, other than a couple of men, came to see me off. As you have probably already guessed, I’m not a well-liked person.” Billy didn’t agree or disagree with him, for which he was grateful. “Ellen…she opened my eyes to what I was going to do. What I wanted to do. She killed those people, all of them, because it was fun to her. How could she…? She just wanted to practice her cutting and did it. Why? Then when she told me how she got out and what she’s done since then, I left them. I decided that I wanted no part of them.”
They were at the house and Joel didn’t even try to go inside. There was something like a glow around the house, and he knew that trying to cross that line he’d be hurt…or worse. Billy had no problems and entered the orb around it as if it were nothing. A man came out moments later and Joel had an insane need to go to his knees in front of him. He knew as surely as he was standing there that this was the famed Steele Bennett.
“Billy said that you want to talk to Addie.” Joel nodded and didn’t look at the man’s face. “He said that you were with Wooten and Glass, and now have had a change of heart on a few things.”
“They’re gathering an army.” It sounded so stupid when he said it aloud that he looked at the man. “You’re him, aren’t you? Steele. I’ve heard so much about you that I’m sort of thinking I’m going to wet myself, but I know that’s not possible.”
“No, it’s not. But you fuck up here, and I will make sure you’re never seen again. I’m Steele and you’re Joel Delaney. I heard that you were looking to bring Addie to your side. You know that it doesn’t work that way, right?” Joel told him he had no idea how any of this worked. “Yeah, you left your book behind.”
Joel looked at him then. The man was bathed in light, bright white light that hurt his eyes. If he had his book, then all was lost for him. But it mattered very little right now. He had to tell them what he knew.
“Ellen is going to bring the living to her. She has a bunch of cell phones and some money now. Glass and his men, six of them when I was there, are whispering in the ears of the living and having them go out to this house in the middle of nowhere.” Steele was joined by a woman and she glowed as well. Joel continued, but he knew that he was somewhat babbling and tried to calm his thoughts. “Ellen has a house that she’s using as a base, I guess you could call it. She’s planning to fill the yard with the dead after she’s finished with them. While I was there a…I don’t want you to think I had anything to do with it, but when I was there, she cut the throat of a pizza delivery person. Perfect her art, is what she called it. Get perfect at it until she can have Addison and this other man, Nick Stark, brought to her and make them suffer for us. I never wanted her to suffer. And to be honest, I’m not sure why I even…it matters little now. But I want—”