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.She waited.He said, "I guess some of it rubbed off."Marcy nodded.He waited there in front of her, in the kitchen.There were few people outside of his own culture thathe'd told about hisbruja abuela  and all she did was nod?Then she stepped closer to him, rose up on her toes and kissed him.Soft.Light.But not at all timid.The sensation swam through him like lemonade on a fiery day.He recognized it, despite never having feltquite this kind of easy understanding before.Madre de Dios.He was falling in love with Marcy Bridges!"Thank you for being here," she whispered, her heels sinking back to the linoleum.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlHe could have simply said she was welcome.He could have made another joke about inoculating heragainst sacrifice by taking care of that little virginity problem.But her virginitywasn't a problem and, to behonest, he understood exactly why she wasn't going to be blackmailed into doing anything against herwill.He respected the hell out of her for it.So he said, "Let's go look at all those pictures again."Maybe a half hour later, they found their man.It happened when, after having little luck examining yearbooks and class-reunion pictures, Marcythought to find more information about her classmates who'd died.While Tomas looked up everypossible picture of them in the old books, she did more Internet searches, confirming that all three womenhad been killed in suspicious fires."How suspicious," asked Tomas from the sofa, "is suspicious?""Their bodies seem to have burned more than anything else around them.I found a Web site that's usingone of the deaths as proof of spontaneous human combustion.""Okay," he agreed."That's suspi Hold it."She turned to look at him.He looked good, leaning over the coffee table, his elbow braced across hisknees.She felt guilty for admiring the long, supple line of his body when a priest and Snowball were bothgone, possiblyBut no.She couldn't allow herself to accept the possibility that they might be as dead as Liz Carpenter,Judith Barstow and Cassie Adams, much less that tonightshe &No.She would not become the bride of the fierything that had stalked her since this morning, especially notif that meant the person who'd done this to her in the first place would get some kind of demonic referralpoints.She would sleep with Tomas before she let that happen&She realized that the idea of sleeping with Tomas Martinez wasn't at all unpleasant.She would prefer totake her time, of course, to get to know him better, to have a better reason than some kind of demonicdeadline.A reason like love?She looked quickly away from the lean, swarthy man thumbing through her old yearbooks.True, he'dcome to her rescue more than once.And he seemed to get along with her family.And his kiss gave herhope that sappy movies and romance novels got some things right after all.But there was a good chancehe felt little attraction to her, kisses aside circumstances had all but dared him into those.He might justbe doing this as a thorough apartment manager, or because the abduction of his priest made thingspersonal.Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlOn the other hand, he'd complimented her at lunch.And the kissescould be more than a dare.Was it possible that falling in love could feel this easy?If anything about this day could be called easy.Then Tomas said, "Here! Marcy, look at this!"She went gladly to his side, and not just because he might have a solution to all this.She went gladlybecause sinking onto his sofa, the slope of cushions sliding her hip against his, felt surprisingly right.Surprisingly safe.He showed her a glossy black-and-white rendition of early nineties varsity cheerleaders forming apyramid, Cassie Adams second from the top."She was a cheerleader," said Marcy."Why's that matter?"Tomas moved his index finger, which had been indicating Cassie, to note a small form standing in thebackground of the picture, watching."Who's that?"Just like that, she knew.Her common sense struggled against such certainty they needed more proofbefore they went around accusing people of anything, much less black magic.And yet it felt right."That's Rick Everitt," she said, remembering how the former varsity baseball player had sought her outlast night.How he hadn't seemed to have changed much since high school.How his puppyish attentionsmade her feel uncomfortable.But it hadn't been a help-me-he's-dangerous uncomfortable.It had been more of ahow-can-I-go-find-real-friends-without-hurting-this-guy's-feelings uncomfortable.He'd seemed morelike a victim waiting to happen than a practitioner of the demonic arts!"What makes you think ?"But Tomas had already turned to another page.It was the Spanish club, and Liz Carpenter, as clubpresident, stood proudly on one end.One row of students behind her stood Ricky Everitt, looking at her instead of the camera.Marcy had a hard time drawing her next breath.Even before Tomas showed her the third picture he'dfound Judith Barstow dancing in the hallway and Ricky Everitt watching from the partial cover of alocker door she knew it was him."I dated him once," she said, or tried to.Her voice sounded odd in her ears."He was so& formal.Icouldn't relax around him.""Maybe you couldn't relax around him because on some level you knew he was a nutcase?" challengedTomas."But he wasn't! He was a baseball player and a B student.Shy.Quiet.Never into trouble [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]