Evil Harvest Read Free Page B

sure.
    The kid driving the Ram had on a denim baseball cap turned around catcher-style and wore a pair of mirrored sunglasses. Not particularly bright, wearing sunglasses for night driving. A girl of about seventeen sat in the passenger seat. She had short, curly hair and wore a pink tank top.
    He scanned the pickup’s bed. Three guys and three girls sat in the back of the truck, the girls scantily clad. One had on a thin white tank top; her nipples poked through the fabric. The other two girls had on bikini tops and short-shorts. The guys in the back were shirtless, no doubt trying to impress their girlfriends with their puny physiques.
    I’ll show you a real man, ladies, he thought.
    He pressed a button on the door and lowered the passenger window.
    One of the guys in back, a kid with sandy brown hair and a deep tan, picked up a bottle of Rolling Rock and chugged heartily.
    Rafferty glared at the driver and said, “Evening.”
    “Hey,” the driver said. The girl in the passenger seat giggled.
    “Think it’s a good idea to drive with those shades on at night?”
    “Probably not.”
    “Wanna take them off?”
    “Okay.” He pulled the glasses off, folded the arms and hung them on his shirt collar.
    “Now how about your buddy in the back with the Rolling Rock?”
    The light turned green and the driver looked anxiously at the light, then back at Rafferty.
    “Stay put. There’s no one coming. Now what about the beer?”
    The driver stuck his head out the window and looked back. “Aw shit, Randy. I told you not to go into the cooler yet.”
    Randy, the sandy-haired kid, took another pull off of the bottle and let out a loud belch. The girl in the white tank top rolled her eyes and said, “Jeez, Randy, that’s gross.”
    “Where you from?” Rafferty said.
    “Bradford, Pennsylvania,” the driver said.
    “And I suppose you’re all twenty-one?”
    “Uh, yeah.”
    “What are you doing in Lincoln?”
    “We’re on our way to Niagara Falls.”
    “You staying in town?”
    “Just for tonight. We’re going back to our hotel.”
    “What hotel?”
    “The Sun Motor Lodge.”
    “If you say so.”
    Rafferty looked at Randy in the back of the truck. The kid had a crooked smile on his face, as if he were waiting to deliver the perfect retort to Rafferty if called upon to do so.
    “Hey, sport.”
    “Me?”
    “No, your fairy fucking godmother. Yes, you.”
    That got his attention.
    “Dump the beer out. Now.”
    “I ain’t driving.”
    “Dump it.”
    “This is bullshit.”
    Rafferty felt the heat start to flush under his skin and he took a deep breath to get it under control.
    “Pour the beer out or you’ll all spend the night in jail.”
    Randy rolled his eyes in disgust. Rafferty had to be careful, because he could feel the Change rising inside of him, the prickly heat under his skin and the redness that seeped into the corner of his vision like a spilled bottle of ink.
    He could change forms, rip open their throats, slash their bellies open and eat their guts, claw their eyes out....
    Get ahold of yourself. No kills before Harvest.
    He closed his eyes, kept them shut for a second. The redness dissolved, the flushed sensation melted away. That was better. “Do I have to pull you over?”
    “Just dump it, Randy,” the driver said.
    Randy blew air out his nostrils in disgust and poured out the Rolling Rock, the beer lapping against the pavement.
    Rafferty leaned over the passenger seat and pointed at the driver. “Your pal Randy’s not too bright. You’re all lucky I’m on my way to a call or I’d bust all your asses. For one thing, I don’t think any of you are twenty-one. Now get where you’re going, and if I see you little shits on my way back you’re all gonna spend the night in my hotel. Got it?”
    “Yeah man, we got it,” the driver said.
    “We got it, all right. And if we’re lucky we’ll get it some more at the hotel,” Randy proclaimed. This time all three girls in the back