They spread out over the property in pairs, some of them staying out in the open, some of them darting behind the unused storage buildings.
I crawl in the weeds alongside the warehouse and peer around the corner.
The door is opened and unmanned. Now is the time to grab Gretchen, while everyone is distracted. I hold onto the rusted siding and pull myself to my feet. Before I can make a run for the door, a shadow skulks out from under one of the cars and solidifies into a man. Not Emmerick.
He’s short in stature with darker skin and a long black braid hanging down his back. He’s still as a deer as his eyes dart around the grounds. He sniffs at the air, and confusion plays clearly across his face.
The air warps around him, and Gage steps out of nothingness, holding a ball of violet light in his hand.
The man starts. “What the—”
The light expands around them and swallows the shadow man whole. Then the light contracts. And he’s nowhere to be seen.
Gage absorbs the ball of light into his palm and gazes around with a smug smirk on his handsome, scruffy face.
“He’s close, gentlemen,” he shouts to the others. “Spread out. Ring me as soon as you find him.” Gage saunters inside as the others congregate back to the warehouse and pile into their cars, in groups of four.
“Yee haw!” yells one of the creatures, hanging out of the window of a pickup truck like a dog. “It’s on tonight!”
His chant is reciprocated by a series of “Whoops!” and barks of laughter from his comrades. The vehicles rip out of the lot, kicking up dust and rocks and grass on their way out onto the road.
I dive back into the weeds, my heart pounding hard behind my ribs.
Now I get it. I get why Emmerick needs my help. I get why he’s afraid of Gage. That man is into some serious, old-world kind of voodoo. And part of me can’t help but feel a little jealous of his skill set.
Yet, he’s exerted a very large amount of energy to get me on his side. He can’t do everything.
And speaking of things he can’t do. He doesn’t know I’m here. If he did, I’m sure he would be dragging me inside by now. I find Gage’s cool stream of energy inside the building and lock onto it. Why didn’t I think of this before?
Emmerick needs to know where his brothers are. I’ll rip the information I need out of Gage’s head and—
There’s nothing. I push harder against Gage’s mind and meet with darkness. Total, empty, bottomless darkness.
Damn it. I pull away, just in case he can pick up on my intrusion, and after what I just saw, I wouldn’t be surprised. I should have known. He’s not an idiot. Of course he’s blocking me. That’s the very first thing I would have done if I were him.
He left Renali exposed though. I can only hope she actually does know something and he’s just been relying on me using whatever kind of moral compass I have not to spy on her. I hope. Although, she knows I’ve spied on her now. Maybe she hasn’t told him yet. Maybe I can still get in her head and find what I need.
“Let’s go,” hisses a disembodied voice too close to my ear.
I clap both hands over my mouth to silence my startled gasp and resist the urge to smack shadow Emmerick away—assuming my hand wouldn’t go right through him. Or get its skin ripped off, more likely. I tear my eyes away from the front door and follow the shadow back across the street and further down to the SUV, still sitting like an overgrown roach in the dark.
“Who was that?” I ask, buckling myself back in as shadow Emmerick rematerializes inside the car.
“Dolorean. I haven’t seen him in probably five years.” He jerks the car into drive and whips around in a tight circle. “He’s such an idiot!”
“Is that the first time you’ve seen it happen?” I twist around and narrow my eyes at the darkness behind us, half expecting to see Gage on our heels.
“Yeah.” Emmerick’s voice catches and he clears his throat.
“Holy shit.”
“Yeah.”
“Where are we going now?”
“You tell me.”
I grab my phone off the dash and dial Tessandra’s number. It rings and rings and rings. Not even the voicemail picks up. “Can you take me to the shop? I’m worried about Tessandra. I tried calling her earlier today, and she didn’t answer her phone. She’s still not answering.” I swallow down impending panic and close my eyes. If I can find Gretchen, maybe I can find her, too.
There’s static around my senses as I reach into the world around me. And I’m met with resistance, like someone is pushing against me from the other side. Strange. I shake my head and open my eyes. “I don’t know where she is.” I focus on Emmerick and study him for a moment.
His face is void of emotion, but his hands grip the steering wheel so tight I’m afraid he’ll rip it off the next time he turns.
“Did you know he was here? Dolorean?” I’m assuming he didn’t, but I ask anyway, just to fill the silence.
“No. I don’t know how long he’s been here. I don’t think very long though. Last I saw him he was heading for the West Coast to lay low. I just assumed he never made it.” He shakes his head and grits his teeth. “I’ve never seen anything like that before.”
“I won’t let him take you,” I say, though I have no idea what I could possibly do to stop it.
His face relaxes. “I won’t let him take you,” he says with a small smile.
He pulls in behind the old, sturdy building encapsulating the shop. I unbuckle my belt and hop out before he has a chance to bring the SUV to a complete stop.
I run around the building and burst into the store, startling Milly who’s reading a magazine behind the counter.
“Jesus, Tatum!” Her eyes scan my face and widen in alarm. “What happened to you?”
“Where’s Tessandra?” I look around the shop. Milly is in there alone, save for one customer poking around the gauntlets.
Milly straightens and shakes her head. Worry lines every corner of her face. “I don’t know. She told me I was in charge because she had to leave for a few days. Some kind of family emergency. She didn’t say where she was going. Only that she would call and check in if she could. What’s going on?”
“When did she leave?” And how? Because who knows where her car is?
“About three hours ago.”
“Three hours?” I say, failing to keep my voice level.
“Tatum—”
“Okay. Thanks.” I head back outside before she can say anything else, just as Emmerick is coming around the corner. “She’s not here. Milly said she left three hours ago.”
“Can you hop into her head and find her?”
“I tried that already. It didn’t work. And it should have. Because I did it with Gretchen earlier, and it worked fine.”
With a heavy sigh, he turns his eyes up to the dark expanse of sky. Then he shakes his head and lowers his eyes to my face. “I don’t know. What do you want to do?”
“Give me the keys.”
He hands them over without question or hesitation.
“See if you can find her,” I say. “I’m going back for Gretchen.”
He grips my elbow as I dart past him and holds me back. “I can’t help you in there.”
“You don’t need to. I have half of an idea of how to get her out of there. I just need you to try and find Tessandra. Please. I’m worried.”
He narrows his eyes. Then he nods and slowly releases my arm. “I’ll find her.”
I hurry away but stop short again in front of Renali’s office, noticing for the first time that the interior is completely dark. I pull on the door. It’s locked. I’ve never known Renali to close up early. She’s a workhorse.
Releasing the handle, I turn to where Emmerick was standing a few seconds ago. He’s vanished. “Please find them,” I whisper to the air. I run to the SUV and scan the lot for Renali’s flawless black convertible. It’s not here. Of course she’s not here.
I climb into the SUV, adjust the seat
so I can reach the pedals, and crank the engine to life. I hold onto the wheel and take a minute to breathe.
Three hours is a long time to be missing, but Tessandra is fine. I wouldn’t meet with static if she was dead. That static must be Renali’s doing—however she’s pulling that off. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but she would never hurt Tessandra. I have to trust that she cares about someone other than Gage and herself.
Chapter Twenty-Six
Night drapes a thick, dark blanket of clouds over the sky, concealing the stars, the moon, and any light that might try to break through.
I stop the SUV down the street from Hollings Road again and walk the rest of the way. Nervousness dampens my palms and re-dampens them every time I wipe them dry.
Only Gage’s silver sports car rests in the weeds beside the warehouse. I focus on tracking down his energy, but the only thread of life I can pick up on belongs to Gretchen. Terror lines her thoughts like a curtain. But she’s alive.
The door is wide open, inviting me in. I hesitate a few feet away from it. This is too easy. I peer into the darkness over the threshold. The air is thick and undisturbed. But after what I saw earlier, I don’t trust anything.
I step into the dark, my breath still. My shoes sound strangely muted as I push forward over the dirt and grime. Is this the way I came last time? To the right? The blocky shadows around me are unfamiliar.
This is a bad idea. I stop in the middle of the dusty hall. But I can’t turn around. It’s too late to turn around. And what exactly would I do? Hide out somewhere and wait for them to find me and drag me out.
The way I see it, I have two options. Act recklessly or give in and become a monster. I move forward into the inky void. The future playing out before me still shows me by their side, stealing away in the dead of night to siphon yet another hapless soul.
Would it really be so bad? It’s not like I love my life so much the way it is.
Large hands jerk my arms back, and something hard and cool snakes around my wrists and fastens them together.
“I trusted you with Manuel,” Gage hisses in my ear. His cold breath sends icy prickles down my back. “Now look what happened.” He tightens his grip around my forearms and shakes me. “Do my men mean so little to you?” He pushes me forward, his cold hand squeezing the back of my neck.
I stumble ahead of him, blood rushing through my ears. I bite down on my lip to keep silent.
“I should kill you.” His voice is low and controlled. “I should squeeze this pretty neck of yours until it snaps.”
Do it. I dare you.
He pushes me into the same open room they brought me to before.
“Tatum!” Gretchen jumps from the moldy couch.
“Sit down!” His voice thunders through the empty space.
A breathless squeak leaves her body, and she collapses to the exposed springs. The light in the room is sparse, but I can see her enough to know she’s covered in bruises. Her face, her arms, her collarbone. Who knows where else?
Gage forces me to my knees, and his large boot makes sharp contact with my ribs, knocking me the rest of the way to the nasty floor. He crouches down over me and squeezes my face in his hand. My eyes burn from the pain.
“You are being so much trouble right now.” He releases me and smacks me hard across the face. “I’m a very patient man, girl. You need a severe lesson in obedience. And I’m going to take the time to make sure you get it.” He lifts my head up by my hair and brings my face close to his. “But you’re worth it, aren’t you? All this damn stress that you’re causing me? All the lives that have been lost because of you.” He drops my head, and it smacks against the floor. The walls and dust-caked concrete tilt around me.
He is never going to kill me. I can feel it. He’ll take everything from me, break all of my ties. Until I have no choice but to comply or take my own life.
His hand is surprisingly gentle as it snakes up my arm and over my shoulder. “You’re not afraid of pain, are you?” he says, his voice calm and consoling. “No, you’re not.” He runs his fingers through my hair and brushes the stray pieces away from my face.
I want to spit on him, or at the very least push his hand away. I think about trying to speak. Tell him that I surrender. But something in my gut tells me he won’t believe me. He’ll see it in my eyes.
“Maybe it will help to torture little Gretchen,” he says kindly, like he’s trying to coax a stray and wounded animal out of the bushes. “Burn her. Make you watch.” He pats the back of my head and stretches up to his feet. “Think about that while I go and check on that last guy. See what I can do to keep him from running.”
He strolls from the room, and moments later, an old metal door slams and echoes dully down the hall.
“He’s going to kill me, isn’t he?” Gretchen asks, her voice twisted with several different emotions.
“I’m sorry.”
“Why? It’s not your fault he’s crazy.”
“Everything is my fault.” Plus, I don’t think he’s all that crazy.
She stands up and shakes something out of her hair. “Blame lessens your will to survive. Mom said you felt guilty. That was why you had to stay in that place so long.”
I shut my eyes, as if that will take the memories away.
“She also used to tell me that we are never to blame for the actions of evil people. She would always say that when I asked about you. When I was younger, I thought it meant that she thought you were evil. But she didn’t. She meant the men who killed your family.”
And Gretchen’s next. Of course he’s going to kill her. He was always going to kill her. He’s just dragging this out to weaken my resolve. And it’s working.
She sits down on the floor next to me, and I open my eyes. “What are you doing?”
She reaches behind my back and tugs at my wrists. “It’s a zip tie. I can get it open.” She holds up a bobby pin, and a small smile twists the corners of her mouth. “A lot of the magazines that come to the shop are tied up with these. I’ve been playing with them for years.”
“Does the door out there open from the inside?”
“Yes, but it’s usually locked. And if he’s leaving, that means he’s bringing some of the creatures back to stand in his place. I tried to run the couple of times I could get it open. It didn’t go well.”
I imagine it didn’t if those bruises are any indication.
“Mind if I roll you over,” she asks. “I can’t see.”
I roll over and face my back to the dim light.
“Is my mom okay?”
My throat constricts. “I…I don’t know. I wish I could tell you different.”
“It’s okay. Emmerick will find her.”
I draw my brows together. “Why do you say that?”
“When he moved in, I told Mom I didn’t think he was human. His energy just feels different, as I’m sure you know. She said he was there to help us. She didn’t elaborate, but I kind of felt like I knew what she meant.”
She tugs on the tie around my wrists. I didn’t notice anything too different about him. I guess I did in some way. I did question his age, for one, but my radar around him is definitely not on the same level as Gretchen’s. It shouldn’t be a surprise that she’s developing some kind of heightened sense or ability. It does run in the family in some capacity.
I’ve underestimated her. We all have.
The tie starts to loosen.
“I think he was human once,” I say. “Emmerick.”
“Did you see something?” Hope fills her voice.
“It was something he said.”
“What happened?”
“I don’t really know. Some kind of crazy voodoo.”
The tie loosens some more, enough for me to slide my hands out and release the tension building up in my shoulders. I sit up and whirl around to hug her. She locks her arms behind my back and squeezes me tight.
“I’m not afraid to die,” she says. “I don’t want to, but everybo
dy dies.”
I pull back and shake my head. “You’re not going to die.” Now that I can move freely, some of the gears are spinning again in my brain. I didn’t come here to get tortured and watch her die. I climb to my feet and reach for the kerosene lamp on the floor by the disgusting mattress.
“Are you making a run for it?” Gretchen asks, joining me in the center of the room.
“No. Not yet. I need a rock or something. Preferably a few.” There’s debris everywhere. “Maybe some bits of metal will do?”
She catches onto the small thread of energy in my voice, and her face brightens in excitement. “What you planning?” Her eyes start scanning the unlit corners for something useful. “What kind of rocks do you need?”
“I need…stones, really. Rocks aren’t going to be strong enough. They’ll crumble into dust.” Now that I think about it.
“Oh wait!” She digs a small pouch out of her skirt pocket and dumps three rough garnet stones the size of quarters into her hand. “What about these?” She hands them over.
The small amount of dread that I was starting to feel diffuses at once. “This is perfect.”
She smiles. “I grabbed them from my room when we went back to pack. I thought they might bring us some extra protection, but I don’t think they’re working.”
“Well, you’re still alive.”
“Through no luck of my own.”
I set the kerosene lamp down and go back to where Gage dumped me. She sits down next to me.
“What are you doing? Can you kill them?”
I close the stones in my fist and shut my eyes. “No. But I can incapacitate them.”
“Cool.” She falls silent beside me.
At first I don’t know what to fuse them with. But then Gage’s words ring loud as a bell through my ears.
Maybe it will help to torture little Gretchen. Burn her. Make you watch.
Three stones may not be enough to break free of this place, but it will have to do. And Gretchen was right. Three minds buzz along the grounds outside, stalking around the building, waiting for prey.
No Rest for the Wicked Page 21
