Nolan cursed as he sped toward the hospital. When she’d called him, he’d just finished running the length of the woods surrounding her Victorian. There were a few suspicious tracks, but nothing he could prove was a threat. For all he knew, they could have been made by hikers on a nature walk.

He’d actually thought it was a city council member calling—yet again—to get an update on his progress. Nolan didn’t want to tell them he had changed his mind about chasing Lily away. If he did, they’d task someone else with the job—if they hadn’t already. The paint and fire were clearly meant to scare the siblings.

The truck hit a small pothole. He held Lily steady as she slumped over. Her head dropped to the seat.

“Lily, answer me,” he demanded. She didn’t move. He drove faster. His shifter hearing focused on her chest and he listened to her raspy breathing. “Just hold on. We’re almost there.”

Nolan saw the hospital in the distance and turned to drive into the parking lot. Only, the truck didn’t turn. He gripped the wheel, circling it to go left. Instead, it went straight. He slammed on the brakes, but they didn’t work. The wheel jerked against his fingers and he let go. The truck drove itself away from the hospital.

“Lily, are you doing this?”

She didn’t answer.

Nolan sat her up on the seat and brushed the hair out of her face. The truck slowed as it came to a stop sign. “Hold on. We’re getting out of here.”

Nolan slid her next to him and opened the door. When the truck stopped on its own, he hopped out. He turned to pull her into his arms, intent on running her to the hospital. However, the truck door struck his arm and sent him stumbling before it slammed shut. The truck took off down the road without him, increasing speed.

“Lily,” Nolan yelled. A shift rippled over his body. Bones popped as fur covered flesh. He leapt after the truck. His werewolf form didn’t turn him into a four-legged animal, but it gave him a strength his human form did not possess. He could run faster and longer, leap higher, heal faster. But he wasn’t Superman. He could be injured or killed. And he couldn’t outrun a speeding truck.

Nolan sprinted, trying to catch his runaway pickup. The vehicle took a corner a little too fast, and the tires skid on loose gravel. The delay it caused was enough to allow him to jump on the bumper and hold the tailgate. His claws dug into the black plastic bed liner. The truck turned again, throwing his feet out from under him. He held on, using all the strength he had to pull himself up and over the back.

Breathing hard, he went to the window to look in at Lily. She lay unconscious on the seat, sliding and bouncing with the vehicle’s movement. The back window had a slider that opened, but it was latched on the inside. Nolan knocked on the glass. He’d break it if he wasn’t worried about the shards landing on her.

“Lily, I need you to wake up.” His voice was gruff in his shifted form.

Nolan stood, looking over the cab. The truck took them out of town toward Lily’s home, which also happened to be in the direction of the old mines. If someone was causing this to happen, it would be a sick poetic justice to magically crash a Goode-Crawford descendent into the place where so many had died.

A fear worked over him, and he had to wonder if this wasn’t just meant to scare Lily, but to kill her.

He knocked harder, leaning back down to yell, “Lily!”

Small puffs of white left her lips.

Nolan went to the driver’s side and reached for the handle. They passed the driveway to Lily’s house. It was as he feared. They were on their way to the old mines. He held on, ready to heave himself around to the front seat. He opened the door, careful to make sure Lily didn’t start to slide out.

The door slammed shut a little too forcefully.

“Dammit!” He jammed a claw into the seam of the slider window to break the latch. It took a couple of sweeps and he chipped his claw, but he finally managed to get the window open.

Nolan reached down to touch Lily. She was cool but breathing. “I don’t know who you are, but you need to get your spectral ass out of my truck!”

The wheel turned. Nolan swept his arm back and forth over the driver’s seat. Air as cold as a winter’s day met his hand.

“I’m warning you. You’re haunting the wrong pickup.”

The faint sound of a cackle answered him.

“Who summoned you? What do you want? If you hurt her, I swear I’ll exorcise—”

“Yee-haw!” came the disembodied answer.

The truck turned a hard right, kicking up dirt. Nolan had to hold on to the window frame to keep from flying out of the back. His feet slid down the truck bed and his hip hit the hard liner. He jerked back and forth several times and braced himself for impact.

To his surprise, the truck came to a stop.

Nolan pulled himself up. They had circled around to Lily’s house. Deep ruts tore up her yard from where the truck had off-roaded its way to the porch. He didn’t stop to consider why as he jumped out and flung open the passenger door. There wasn’t much room between him and the railing and he stood in the overgrown flower bed. He pulled Lily from the pickup and held her against him.

“Dante! Polly! We need help,” he shouted.

The passenger door slammed shut. His truck began to move as Nolan cradled Lily against him. The vehicle took off toward the mines, skidding and sliding its back tires against the ground like it was driven by a teenage boy trying to impress his friends.

Nolan turned and tripped. He almost dropped her but managed to pull her tight against his chest. Lily bounced in his arms and moaned lightly. He glanced down, seeing an overturned gnome with a chipped face.

“What did you do to my—Oh, wow, you’re really hairy.” Dante appeared at the front door.

Polly was right behind Lily’s brother. “Oh no. I was hoping the bad luck wouldn’t affect her too, but it looks like with her missing powers, she’s as susceptible to the curse as everyone else in town. And it’s progressed fast. My potion is only half boiled. I can’t counteract this fully yet.”

“What happened?” Dante’s question was less accusatory than before and more worried.

“She fell from a tree. I tried to take her to the hospital but…” He looked to the dust cloud where his truck disappeared. “I lost control of my vehicle.”

“You wrecked—” Dante started to say.

“Quiet, Florus,” Polly scolded. “Hold the door for Nolan.”

“My name is—never mind. I’m calling an ambulance.” Dante pulled a phone out of his pocket.

Polly flipped her hand toward Dante. The phone flew from his fingers onto the ground by his feet. “She’ll be fine once we get her in the house. Her bad luck would increase at the hospital. Here, she’ll be surrounded by a blanket of magical love.”

“She needs a doctor,” Nolan said. “Dante?”

“Yeah.” Dante grabbed his phone off the ground before he opened the door to let Nolan past. He heard Lily’s brother dialing for help.

Nolan laid Lily on the couch. Before he could speak, an object flew past his head. He turned to see who had thrown something at him, only to find Polly lowering her fingers and Dante holding an empty hand up to his ear.

“She needs a doctor, you crazy old bat, not a fairytale magic house,” Dante said.

“Mind your manners. You’re not too old to send to your room without supper, little boy,” Polly answered, though her tone had no malice in it. “Now knock on wood. Stop borrowing trouble. Don’t bring bad luck down on this house.”

“Who needs a doctor?”

Nolan looked down at the weak question. Lily’s eyes had opened, and she blinked slowly. He stroked the hair back from her face. “You do. You were in an accident. You fell. Where does it hurt?”

“It tingles,” she mumbled.

“I’ve got something that might help.” Polly ran from the room.

Dante picked up his broken phone. “Lily, I need your phone.”

“It’s in my truck, broken,” Nolan answered for her. He started to look for his when Lily grabbed his wrist.

“Dirty,” she said.

“Dirty?” He glanced over her.

“Cowboy. Driving.” Her grip tightened. “I saw him. I didn’t see him, but I saw him. He kept laughing, a loud cackling sound.”

“I think the truck was possessed,” Nolan explained.

“Did you fall down too?” Dante asked. “You’re both talking nonsense.”

“Stan,” Polly stated. She returned holding out a clear vial with pink liquid swirling with yellow. “Your presence here woke up Stan. That’s unfortunate. That spirit is a handful. More bad luck.”

“Of course ghosts are a thing,” Dante mumbled. “Why wouldn’t truck stealing ghosts be a real thing?”

Lily closed her eyes with a small moan.

“Wake up, dear, I need you to drink this for me.” Polly knelt beside Nolan and held out the vial. She pinched it between her thumb and forefinger and shook it. “It’s half done, and will half work, but it should spread out the bad luck so that it’s in smaller doses.” Polly pulled a cork off the top.

“I don’t—” Lily tried to protest.

Polly poured the vial into her open mouth.

Lily sputtered and flailed her hands, too late to stop it. Little pink droplets dotted her cheek and chin only to be absorbed.

“There you go,” Polly soothed. “I’m sorry we had to do it that way, but you were about to bip when I needed you to bop.”

“Stop making up words,” Lily groaned. Her color began to return to normal, and she took a deep breath. Her eyes appeared to focus better than before, and she tried to push up from the couch.

Nolan stood, to move out of her way.

“What did you give me? I feel strange—” The words barely made it past her lips when a loud creak sounded. Lily’s eyes widened as the couch she sat on suddenly broke. The legs splinted to the side, and she dropped with the antique couch to the floor, protected by the cushioned seat.

“There you go, right as a turnip.” Polly patted her shoulder. “Don’t worry. You won’t be unlucky forever, but just in case, maybe we should put your mattress on the floor and let you get some rest. Boys, help me carry her. That potion is going to make her sleep for a good long while.”