Dark Lily: Shadows, Book 4 Read Online Free Page B

his eyes at the challenge and upped the speed of his wipers. He was considering getting into the spirit and adding some Deep Purple to the mix when he saw it. Or thought he did. Just for a moment. A face in the teeming blackness directly ahead of him.
    Mitchell hit the brakes, hard. Controlling the resulting spin that sent him into a patch of mud, he blew out a breath, leaned forward and squinted at…nothing. Not a damn thing. Only interminable darkness and more pitchfork lightning than he’d ever seen in his life.
    “Okay, that was weird.” He scanned and rescanned what was visible in the Jeep’s headlights—not much—before easing back onto the road.
    His grandfather would say this was what he got for abandoning his family obligations and becoming a cop. Favors begged that sent him to Voodoo Island where ugly faces popped up out of—
    “Shit!”
    The face appeared again in the next lightning strike. It had a body attached to it this time. But the real shock came when he realized both things were suspended three feet above the pavement.
    Mitchell jerked the steering wheel to the right. Lightning shot through the sky, momentarily blinding him. He glimpsed another shape coming toward him on the passenger side. Glimpsed it, but couldn’t do a damn thing to avoid it as the driver’s side of his vehicle rammed into the trunk of an enormous live oak.
    It took him several moments to rejig his brain. Black moss covered half the windshield. As Deep Purple kicked in, he told himself no way had what he thought he’d seen been out there. No fucking way.
    He had himself mostly convinced when lighting illuminated the swamp again. And there it was. A wooden doll with a painted face. And wild, gleaming eyes that bored straight into his.

Chapter Four
    Gaby had no idea what had just taken place, or how she’d wound up with her two back tires in a ditch. One minute she’d been approaching a fork in the road, the next, a vehicle coming toward her from the left had spun out and slammed into a live oak.
    Her own Land Rover stalled—which was bound to do it for the temperamental engine tonight. Pushing away from the steering wheel, she waited until her head stopped reeling, and then she launched herself into the rain.
    However, her temper died as quickly as it had surged. She knew these roads. The other driver, whose door was currently piled into a tree trunk, must have arrived on the last riverboat of the night. He or she would have been concentrating on navigating deep ruts, not watching for oncoming traffic.
    The passenger door was open by the time she slogged her way to the impressive black Jeep. She spied a movement but didn’t see the driver until she literally plowed into him.
    “Jesus!” Halting abruptly, she stared up into a face that might be even more impressive than the Jeep. “Are you all right?” She had to shout to be heard above the howling wind. “Please say yes. We don’t have much in the way of medical assistance on Bokur Island.”
    “I’ll live,” he shouted back.
    She noticed he was looking around and followed his gaze. “Did you lose something?”
    “What? No.” He regarded her briefly before scanning the area again. “No.”
    “So you’re well enough to carry on?”
    He narrowed his eyes. “Did you see someone or something on the road?”
    “In this weather? That’s not very likely, Mr.…”
    “Stone. Mitchell. Are you sure?”
    “Quite sure. But I can see you’re not. Maybe we should…” She pointed at his Jeep.
    “Yeah. Right. Let’s do that.”
    Long fingers curled around her arm. He was still searching as he climbed in and brought her with him.
    “My name’s Gaby.” Shielded from the storm, she raked long, wet strands of hair from her face. “Gaby Jordan.”
    A distracted smile touched his lips. “Well, I guess that’s handy.”
    As opening lines went, it struck her as odd, but then so was her life most days. Gaby let her own smile appear and tried to make out the planes