We’d reached Roswell just before eight, like Calla said we would. Now we were crammed inside a black Hummer with ‘third-row seating’ that was actually a single seat shoehorned in the back, on the road to Basin Springs. Chester had taken the back seat next to a big metal footlocker that Calla told him not to touch, even though I was sure he would, with Taeral and Sadie on the three-seat row in front of him. I had the passenger seat, and Calla drove the monster of a truck.
Once we’d cleared Roswell, heading southwest, the sparsely green and populated surroundings had given way to nothing but flat sand and rocks, with a faint purple-blue smudge on the far horizon suggesting mountains in the distance.
We were about half an hour into what the GPS said was a fifty-minute drive when there was a series of faint clicks from the back. A moment later, Chester blurted, “Holy hell, woman! Does the NSA always bring an entire goddamned armory to take down one guy?”
“It’s a standard issue weapons requisition,” Calla said without so much as glancing away from the road. “Besides, guns are like Pringles. Nobody can take just one.”
“I like you,” Chester announced. “Hey, if things don’t work out between you and the boss there—”
“Don’t even think about it,” I mock-threatened as I turned to look back at him. “And why are you calling me the boss? I’m not in charge of anything.”
Chester shrugged and didn’t answer the question. Instead, he held up a dull gray handgun with a long grip mounted further up the body than most, and a nozzle like a machine gun. “Your woman’s got good taste in weapons,” he said. “Micro Uzi .45, custom grip. There’s half a dozen of these things in here. And it looks like, what, thirty grenades, some assault rifles, a couple of—”
“Put the gun down and close the damned locker,” Calla snapped. “Now.”
There was a lot more urgency in her voice than there should’ve been. I turned toward her, about to ask what was wrong, but then I saw for myself. There was a barricade across the road, about half a mile ahead of us. Two big Army-green trucks and a handful of guys in camouflage with rifles slung across their backs.
“Please tell me that’s not the actual Army,” Sadie said as we neared the barricade.
Calla took something out of her pocket and dropped it into the console between us. It was a small black bi-fold, probably containing her badge. “Unfortunately, I think it is,” she said with her gaze intent on the armed men.
“Why the hell would the Army be here?” I said.
“No idea.”
“It’s them,” Chester breathed. “The ali—”
“You’d best keep your mouth closed, unless you want me to close it for you,” Taeral ground out.
Chester closed his mouth.
“Let me handle this,” Calla said, slowing as the barricade loomed and one of the soldiers approached with a hand held palm-out. She stopped and hit the window button, then grabbed the bi-fold and flipped it open. “What’s going on here, Corporal?” she said without giving the soldier a chance to speak when he reached us, flashing her shield at him.
The stone-faced man outside actually blinked in surprise before he flipped a blank shutter across his expression. “We weren’t told the NSA was involved in this, ma’am,” he said as he gave me a bare glance, and then his gaze roamed the back seats briefly before returning to Calla. “Sorry, but you’ll have to turn around. Road’s closed. We’ve got a toxic spill out here that has to be contained.”
Toxic spill? That was a bullshit cover-up if I ever heard one, and I didn’t even have to be as paranoid as Chester to know that. From the look that flashed in Calla’s eyes, I knew she was thinking the same thing.
“Stand down, Corporal,” Calla said. “I have authorization to be here.”
“With civilians? Look, there’s a press blackout in effect, so I can’t let you—”
“How much do you want to bet my clearance code is higher than yours?” Calla spoke in clipped, cold tones. “Now, you can either let me through, or you can call your CO and find yourself demoted to private faster than you can say ‘court-martial.’ Got it?”
The soldier’s jaw clenched visibly. He looked past her at me again — and this time he did a quick, almost imperceptible double-take and immediately turned his head toward the barrier. “You’ll have to give me a minute. Hang tight, okay?” he said, and started toward the other soldiers, one hand plucking a CB unit from his belt.
“I don’t like this,” I said under my breath as the corporal stopped in front of one of the other soldiers and said something. The soldier he’d spoken to wore mirrored sunglasses, but his head turned toward the Hummer while the corporal spoke into the walkie. “First of all, a toxic spill? Come on. And did you see the way he looked at me?”
A frown tugged at the corner of Calla’s mouth. “I thought I saw something, but … let’s just get into town, and then we’ll figure out what’s going on here.”
“How, exactly, did he look at you?” Taeral said. “I can see nothing through these so-called windows.”
“This is going to sound crazy, but …” I sighed and shook my head. “He looked like he recognized me.”
I watched the corporal replace his radio, and then start directing the rest of them with a series of hand gestures. A chugging diesel engine roared to life and one of the trucks started to back up and swing off the road. Apparently, they were going to let us through.
And I wasn’t sure that was such a good thing anymore.
“Maybe we should turn around, find another way in,” I said uncertainly, aware I sounded just as paranoid as Chester. I was probably reading way too much into that half-a-second glance from the soldier.
“I’d agree, if this wasn’t the only road into town,” Chester said. “But … hey, can’t you guys fly or something? I mean, you are—”
“Shut it. He’s coming back,” Calla hissed.
The corporal returned to the window. This time he deliberately avoided looking at me. “You can go on through, ma’am,” he said. “Sorry for the delay.”
Calla nodded. “Thanks,” she said, and then immediately hit the window switch to close it before she put the Hummer in gear and rolled forward. “You’re right. Something’s off,” she said in a low voice as we drove slowly between the canvas-backed trucks. Every soldier’s head turned to follow our progress. “Listen, once we get past the barricade, you’d better start passing out those weapons.”
“I’m on it,” Chester said instantly.
An uneasy lump settled in my gut once we drove between the trucks and started picking up speed. “You really think we’re going to need guns, right now?”
Calla’s mouth flattened. “I’m just saying it won’t hurt to be prepared for … whatever.”
“Gideon, do you really think that guy recognized you back there?” Sadie said, leaning forward to hand me one of the strange guns Chester said was a micro Uzi. “Did you know him or something?”
I tucked the gun behind my back, against the seat. “Nope. Pretty sure I don’t know anybody in the Army,” I said. “He wasn’t familiar. I just felt like … I don’t know, maybe I’m imagining things.”
At least, I hoped I was. Because I couldn’t imagine any good reason for a soldier to recognize me — especially if there really was a Milus Dei base out here.
Chapter 6
There was absolutely nothing on the five-mile stretch of road from the barricade to Basin Springs. No other vehicles, no movement at all — no wind, no dust clouds, no birds in the sky or snakes in the sagebrush dotting the sands that lined either side of the road. And definitely no sign of a chemical spill or any other disaster that would require the Army.
Soon the town came into view ahead, a sprawl of pale buildings with variously colored tile roofs spreading to either side of the main road. A heat shimmer hung in the air above the place, blurring the horizon where the distant mountains loomed. We passed a weather-beaten, sun-bleached wooden sign about a quarter-mile out from the first of the b
uildings that read Welcome to Basin Springs, The Town at the Edge of Forever! Two more lines beneath the welcome proclaimed Est. 1918 and Population: 497.
Calla slowed to thirty as we entered Basin Springs, and I shivered inwardly. There was no bullshit chemical spill, but something was still very wrong in this town.
“Does anyone else smell that?” Sadie said in an oddly thick voice behind me. “Blood. A lot of it, and … something else.”
I was about to crack a joke, remind her that she was the only werewolf in this car, when someone screamed. I looked around fast and glanced at Calla, then the rest of them, but it didn’t seem like they’d heard it.
Just as I realized the sound had been inside my head, the scream was joined by about half a fuckton more of them.
“Pull over!” I gasped through the agony exploding in my brain. I had no idea whether I’d spoken loud enough over the noise only I could hear. I clapped my hands to my ears, even though I knew damned well that wouldn’t do a thing to stop it. Blood was already pouring from my nose. Usually I initiated contact with the dead, but they could speak to me if I was close enough and they had something to say.
Apparently, several hundred dead people suddenly wanted to be heard.
The Hummer lurched to a halt, and I scrambled for the door handle, popped it open and practically fell out onto the street. “Please, stop,” I groaned, trying to get to my feet. But there was no way any of them could hear me over themselves. I sensed rather than heard more car doors opening, and then someone coming toward me. Arms lifted me up. They were probably trying to ask what the hell was going on, but I couldn’t hear, couldn’t answer. I had to make the screams stop.
There was a spell I’d used once before. At the time there’d only been one dead voice to silence, so I’d just have to hope like hell it would work on this many.
It took me long seconds to think straight enough to come up with the word. Finally, I grabbed it from my overloaded brain and called, “Ruaigh!” with as much force as I could muster, just as the first trickles of blood started to run from my ears.
There was a massive pop in my head that I felt all the way to my toes, and then silence.
“Gideon!” That was Taeral’s voice. At least it was outside my head, but it sounded like he was shouting through a ski mask. Everything seemed muffled, and my vision was tinged with pink. “What is happening? Damn it, say something!”
“I’m okay,” I managed, trying to blink away whatever was in my eyes. They finally started to water and clear, and I swiped a finger at the corner of one. It came back red. All those souls in my head had made my eyes bleed, too. It hadn’t been this bad in a long time. “Well, I’ll be okay in a minute or five,” I said.
Taeral stood in front of me with an expression that said I was not okay and he knew it. Sadie was next to him, and the arm around me was Calla’s. Chester hung back, staring at us like he was trying to decide whether to help or get as far away as possible from Randomly Bleeding Man.
“What happened?” Taeral said again, with only a little less urgency. “And do not bother trying to tell me it was nothing.”
I shook my head. “I’m not sure, exactly. They were … screaming.”
“Who?” Calla said. “Who was screaming?”
“The dead. Hundreds of them.” I closed my eyes, and a hard shudder worked through me. “There’s a whole lot of dead people around here somewhere, and they’re terrified. Something awful happened. And it damned well wasn’t a chemical spill.”
“The blood,” Sadie whispered. “There’s so much of it in the air. And it’s so quiet here.” She looked at Taeral, and then back to me. “That sign said there’s only about five hundred people here. You don’t think …?”
I knew instantly what she wasn’t asking. There was no way to tell exactly how many voices had screamed in my head, but a small, horrified part of me knew it had to be close to that number. And I really didn’t want to think much more about what that meant. “I couldn’t tell for sure,” I said. “But it was a lot.”
“Listen, we should really get to my buddy’s place.” Chester strode toward us, concern twisting his features. “Whatever happened here, he’ll know about it, and he’s got a shitload of security. Don’t know about you guys, but I got a feeling we really shouldn’t be standing around out here in the open.”
Calla’s arm tightened around me. “He’s right,” she said grimly. “We should go.”
I’d half expected her to make a crack about Chester’s paranoia. But whatever this was, we were all feeling it.
Everyone climbed back into the Hummer, and Calla kicked the engine over and rolled down the main street, her phone chiming occasionally from the dashboard as the GPS flashed directions to the address she’d entered into it. Apart from us, absolutely nothing in this town stirred. No vehicles, no people, not even a twitch from behind any of the closed blinds or curtains. Every door was shut, every house and building silently still.
Taeral reached up between the front seats and gripped my shoulder. “Are you all right, brother?” he said in low tones.
“Yeah, I am now.” I nodded and turned toward him, meeting his concerned gaze. “Really. No more voices.”
“And you’ve no need to heal,” he said.
“Already doing it.” Healing myself was becoming almost a reflex, like glamour — at least, when I had enough power to heal. “Honestly, it’s not like this has never happened before.”
“Aye, it has. But never with so many,” Taeral said. “I am concerned that it may have affected you in ways you are not aware of yet.”
“You and me both,” I murmured. “Don’t worry, though. I’ll let you know if anything weird happens.”
Taeral smirked. “You mean other than bleeding from your eyes?”
“Yeah, besides that.”
“There it is,” Calla said as she came around a corner and slowed. “Can’t be more than one — holy shit, what the hell happened here?” she finished with a gasp.
My heart lurched as I saw what she meant. The hotel was less than a block ahead, on the left side of the road. And unlike the rest of the silent but untouched structures in this town, the place was thoroughly trashed.
The vertical neon-tube sign reading MOTEL staked by the curb was half pulled from the ground, leaning over bright shards of broken glass where several of the letters had been broken. A wooden front door hung crookedly away from the entrance with the top hinge ripped out. One of the large windows that flanked the door had been smashed to shards, and the other bore spider-webbed cracks across most of the surface. There were holes blown in the roof, and shattered clay tiles littered the sparse lawn.
“Do me a favor and pull into that alley,” I said, pointing just past the hotel to the space between it and the next building. It was pure instinct, but something told me that leaving a vehicle on the street was a bad idea right now.
Calla nodded and rolled past the ruined motel, her hands clenched tight on the wheel as she turned and bumped over the curb into the alley.
“Damn it, what did those bastards do to this place?” Chester nearly shouted. He was already trying to get the back hatch open before the Hummer stopped. “If anything happened to Rex, I swear to God I’ll gun down every one of those fake Army assholes back there. I knew they weren’t really —”
“Chester, calm down,” I said sharply. When he glared at me, I said, “Look, some of them might still be in there. If they are, do you really want to let them know we’re coming?”
He relaxed a little. “Yeah, all right. Guess it’s better to sneak up on them.”
“Exactly,” I said. “Don’t worry, we’ll find your buddy.”
I hated the fact that I was probably lying about that. Much as I didn’t want to admit it, I was almost positive there was no one left to find in this town. But it wouldn’t hurt to check.
The five of us filed out, and Chester suggested that we split up, since he knew how to get into the back entrance. Sadie and Calla went a
round back with him, while Taeral and I headed for the front.
“Do you actually think the Army is in there?” Taeral half-whispered as we approached the battered door.
“Probably not. We would’ve seen more trucks and barricades if they were occupying the town,” I said, not without a measure of doubt. If there were soldiers around, they could be on foot. Hell, every single building in Basin Springs could be stuffed with soldiers, or whoever those people were, and I wouldn’t know.
But I guessed I was about to find out.
Taeral lifted the door away from the entrance, and I slipped inside with him right behind me. The lobby was small and apparently empty, the floor liberally strewn with broken glass and wood splinters and debris. There was a small seating area with a couch, a handful of chairs and a silent black television to the left, a large card table with folding chairs to the right, and a reception desk complete with old-fashioned bell straight ahead. Several single keys with large, numbered fobs hung on a pegboard behind the desk, and an empty stool sat behind a cash register.
“Looks like the power’s out,” I said under my breath as I moved slowly across the room. Glass crunched beneath my feet. “I didn’t want to say anything to Chester, but I don’t think his buddy’s okay.”
“Nor do I,” Taeral murmured. He started to the right, toward the card table and the two doors beyond it, one marked Ladies while the other read Germs. “There is no one here,” he said. “Not in this building. Not in this entire town.”
I knew he was right, but I still didn’t want to agree — at least, not out loud. Not yet. I refused to believe that for whatever reason, everyone in Basin Springs was dead.
Even though the screams I’d heard told me otherwise.
“Maybe they were telling the truth,” I said, slowly rounding the silent reception counter to walk behind it. “The Army, I mean. Maybe it was a chemical spill, or it could’ve been toxic gas, or …”
Something creaked behind me, and a rasping, unfamiliar voice said, “Hands up and turn around. Right now, or I’ll shoot you both.”
Hand of the God Page 4
