“Me?”
‘Erin’ tapped her chest. “I’m tired of sharing. I’m about to free myself from this body and take over, and I do mean take over, another. One far better suited for my ambitions.”
“Ivan,” muttered Billi. She was thinking so slowly, but Ivan was there, at the front of her thoughts. “You want to be a prince.”
“Very good. While I’ll be the one in charge, I’ll still have access to his memories. I’ve done the transition a few times now and I do believe I’ve finally got the knack. Out with the old, in with the new.”
“So Erin will be free? You’ll get out and leave her in peace?”
“Ah, sadly no. The Anunnaki need feeding, Billi. This is their gift, after all. They’ll take her soul and will devour it slowly over eons. Frankly better her than me, don’t you think?”
Billi swung forward, trying to land a punch, but the drug was flooding her system so all she managed was a feeble swing that dropped her onto her face. She lay on the cold, marble floor, her eyes closing.
They’d got it so wrong. Reggie had been one step ahead from the very beginning. Erin would die and Reggie would become Ivan. Forever and ever and…
CHAPTER 22
Billi was floating, disconnected from herself. Hard to focus. What was going on? Why did she feel this way?
I’m Alice, falling down the rabbit hole. Taking a trip.
Snakes slithered over her, trapping her in their coils. They hissed in her ear, whispering promises and warnings. The ancient Greeks believed snakes had the power of prophesy. What did they know? What were they trying to tell her?
She bumped up and down. Rocked side to side. A dull, mechanical droning filled her ears, not the whispers of snakes. She tried to move but couldn’t. Not by herself. Her wrists were tightly tied behind her back, but with plastic cable ties, not snakes. Her feet the same. The air was stale and hot. The space claustrophobic.
Her heavy eyelids ached and she struggled to open them.
Billi lay on her side, in a rumbling box. How was she in a box? What was that smell? What was it?
Exhaust fumes. Rubber. Damp earth rubbed against her cheek.
Blinking hurt, her eyes hurt, but she had to open them.
Bumped again. There was the sound of cars passing by.
Eyes opened. They didn’t see much. That fog in her head wasn’t in a hurry to lift. It all worked so slowly. Thinking. Trying to make sense of why she was still alive.
A car horn sounded from behind and she vibrated to a sudden revving.
I’m in the boot of a car. A big car. Big enough to put a body in, and big enough to roll around in.
Which car? Which?
That Mercedes S-Class owned by Erin’s adoptive father. It had been parked outside the house.
Billi pulled at her wrists again. No good. The thick plastic of the cable ties bit into her flesh, not giving her a millimetre of wriggle room.
The glow from the rear lights illuminated the boot with a sombre red glow. Erin had removed her boots and there were a pair of cable ties around her ankles. Her jacket was gone, she was down to her tee-shirt and jeans. Erin had wanted to make sure she didn’t have any hidden weapons. Erin? No, Reggie.
Should have seen that coming. You weren’t thinking. You were thinking like a normal person, not like an occultist. Not a black magician. The normal rules don’t apply.
She lay, on her side, facing the back of the boot. Couldn’t be opened from inside, that she knew for definite. She, awkwardly, rolled over to face the front.
The back of the rear seats. They were divided into three sections, each could be folded down to increase the boot space. She pushed her knees against the middle one. It remained as solid as a door. Billi kicked it in frustration. Come on!
“Hey. Is our sleeping beauty awake? You’ve had a long snooze, Billi.”
“Erin?” She was up front, driving. Billi shook the cotton wool out of her head. “Or should I say Reggie?”
“Reggie’s fine. After all we are friends.”
“I’m friends with Erin, not you.”
“Oh? How do you know? When were you with Erin? When were you with me?” She laughed. “There are some advantages of being a teen girl, you know.”
That was disgusting, and he knew it. He was looking for a reaction. To distract her with implications of what he had witnessed, taken part in. She’d deal with that later. Billi squirmed. There was a storage net by her head. Inside she could make out a can of de-icer spray and a scraper. Above that was the light, unlit when the boot lid was down.
Keep him talking. Play his game. See how he likes it.
“So this was the best you could manage? Piggy-backing your way through the years? How often do you get to… sit in the driver’s seat? And the rest of the time? You just watching Erin get on with her life? Having all the joy that comes with being alive, truly alive.”
“I am alive, Billi.”
“Alive the way a parasite is alive. Just sucking out what you can. A paltry kind of existence, if you ask me.”
“No one asked you,” he snapped. “Remember who’s in the boot, my dear.”
Billi smiled. “No, not a parasite. A leech. That’s the best way to describe what you are. A pathetic shrivelled thing that gets fat and bloated off others stronger than itself.”
He laughed. “Erin? You think Erin’s strong? She’s a frightened little girl who I broke a long, long time ago. She’s a puppet now. I pull, she dances.”
“She’s been fighting since the beginning, since you drove her dad to kill himself. You want her to break, but you know what I think? I think you’re frightened of her. That she is on the verge of finally being
