Cat’s head raised, stretching her neck cruelly, her face blending between wolf and human for a moment. Streaked with her own blood, she collapsed again, her features fighting and settling once more—furless.
Dodging Derek’s hand, I ducked around him, fear giving my feet speed. “If you feed on drama, shouldn’t I keep my memories? You could try and turn me against Pietr.” My heart pounded at the suggestion, my throat narrowing.
“That’s what I like about you, Jessica. Always thinking.” Suddenly beside me, he nearly kicked my feet out from under me.
Nearly.
But my stance held even as things fuzzed in my head and my vision dimmed, his grip biting into my wrist. I kept my focus.
Get closer … keep his attention off Cat.…
Twisting in his grip, I landed with my back tight to his chest. Fireworks sparked at the edges of my fading vision.
“That’s nice,” he soothed me, smoothing my hair back. Ants marched through my head. Spiders crawled out from the dimmest regions of my mind, wrapping memories in strangling silk. “Give it up, Jess. Give in.” His breath hot in my ear, my body convulsed, images of Pietr spinning loose in my head. “Where’s your precious brooding hero now, huh?”
Focus. Through the thickening haze dulling my sight, I glimpsed Cat wiggling out of her clothes and prayed we both knew what we were doing. I caught my breath. Jabbing back with my elbow, I stomped my heel down hard on his instep, and tears burned hot at the edges of my eyes.
“Bitch!” he shouted, releasing his grip.
Stumbling forward, my vision cleared. I spread my feet, lowered my center of gravity and kicked, connecting with Derek’s chest, the insulated rubber sole of my sneaker the only thing touching him.
He staggered back with a groan and I caught my breath.
Cat’s body convulsed suddenly and the wolf ripped free, stunning me so much I fell backward into Sophie.
“Thank God you’re okay,” I breathed, tangling awkwardly with her for a moment. She said nothing as I shook free of her and she staggered forward, limbs loose and awkward, her eyes …
The smell of leather and warm horses filled my nose and I recognized someone else peering out from Sophie’s eyes. “Mom?”
Sophie’s head bobbed, her body on paranormal autopilot.
Cat, fully furred and snapping, drove Derek back toward the greenhouse as Sophie advanced on the pair.
Behind me Sarah groaned and stood.
Derek hesitated, his back to the old greenhouse’s glass wall glittering with cracks.
Cat backed off, doing a slow semicircle to keep Derek pinned. But Sophie, awkward limbs moving, stumbled into her, spun, flailed and shoved Derek into the glass.
It looked like an accident. But so much else had, too.
An awful wail tore through the air as Derek’s body slid down jagged spears of broken glass, flesh tangling with disjointed metal. He shuddered and coughed. I raced forward, grabbing Sarah and dragging her with me. Partly because I didn’t trust her at my back and partly because Derek still had something of hers. Something precious.
Her past. Her truth.
His blood puddling by my shoes, I stayed just beyond his fumbling reach and whispered, “Give it back, Derek.” Circles darkened beneath his eyes, color leaking from his face like the blood dripping from the corner of his mouth. “You’re dying. There’s nothing that can save you.” I choked, realizing it was the most honest thing I could say—and the most awful.
That most primitive part of me wanted to reach out, take his hand and hold it in his last moments, giving some small comfort even though he’d tried to destroy so much.
But the part of me he’d attacked kept me back. “Give back the memories you stole,” I urged. “I’m sure you still have them—like trophies in a case. Give them back and go in peace.”
Sarah whimpered, and Sophia, eyes clear and her body again her own, grabbed Sarah’s other arm.
Derek rolled his eyes toward me and opened his lips to speak—the trail of blood thickening at the edge of his mouth. “I’ll give you what you want—”
Sarah, Sophie, and I leaned in. Would he ask forgiveness, explain why he put us through such Hell? There was so much we didn’t know about Derek. Maybe he’d share his reason for being so cruel. In all the fiction I’d read there was always a reason for a villain’s actions.
People weren’t born evil … evil was manmade.
“—and more,” he promised, and with a frighteningly fast move, Derek grabbed Sophie and me, Sarah wedged between us, completing a strange human circuit. And in his death throe, he vomited everything out of his boiling brain and back through us.
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
Jessie
I woke with a pounding headache. Even trying to pry my eyes open the smallest amount made me queasy. I swayed and closed my eyes again. Warm, I was wrapped in an electric blanket turned one notch too high.
“Jess.” Pietr’s voice came through the fog of pounding pain. Gentle and scared.
“Ow,” I said.
A hot hand rested on my forehead, bending my neck gently until I felt I had a hot water bottle for a pillow.
“Pietr?” I whispered through dry and uncooperative lips.
“Da, Jess.” Words rumbled through his chest. “I am here.”
“What the hell happened?”
Cat scolded, “Language!” but her exclamation was tender.
“You let him grab you,” Pietr snarled. “And then you all dropped to the ground at once.”
“All? Ohhh.” I pulled away from the hot water bottle and the noise of the racing clock vanished. I forced my eyes open and noticed Pietr’s arms wrapped around me, Pietr’s chest rising and falling where my head just rested.
My bulletproof vest lay on the ground near Pietr. He made no apology for the way he skimmed his hands back over my torso, checking for wounds. “Ouch. Stop. I’m bruised. Nothing else. Sophie?” I called, finding her seated not even ten feet away. “Is Mom…?”
Sophie closed her eyes a moment, her lips pressed tight. “She’s still here. I’m going to totally regret this in the morning, but—come here.”
Pietr watched me, worried. “I’m not letting you up yet,” he said. “You’re not quite together.”
“The heck I’m n—” I stood, swayed, my knees betraying me, and I flopped into his waiting arms.
“Belligerent, aren’t you?” he whispered, lips against my cheek. He scooped me up in his arms, walked a few steps, and sank down beside Sophie.
“This is different from seeing auras and energy fields,” Sophie admitted, “but since she made herself at home earlier…” Her eyes popped open and roses seemed to blossom in a sudden breeze. “Jess.”
I trembled hearing my mother’s voice. “Mom…” Tears sprang from my eyes, streaming hotly down my face.
“I can’t stay. And you don’t need me as much now—”
“I’ll always need you,” I hiccupped. “You’re my mom.…”
“Shhh,” she soothed. “You’re doing much better now. You’ve made some strange choices since my death.” Her gaze paused on Pietr before returning to me. “But they’ve worked out well. I’m so glad you made him understand he wasn’t the boy I was warning you about.…” Her voice grew softer, the words coming at a slightly different speed than Sophie’s lips moved at, almost like I was watching a poorly dubbed kung fu flick.
“Mom?”
Sophie shook herself, straightening, her brow furrowed. “He’s a good boy.” Mom returned, clearer for a moment.
Pietr tucked his head against the back of my neck. His whisper of “thank you” warmed me all the way down.
“I love you, Jess,” Mom whispered. “And your father, and Anna…” Sophie sucked down a breath, steadying herself. “I have to go.”
“But…”
“But I’ll always be with you. In your heart,” she clarified. “I know. It’s cheesy.”
Pietr chuckled. Had Dad told him even that part of my
message from inside the asylum?
“Where did you think she got it from?” Mom asked, her eyes finding Pietr’s. “Treat her well,” she commanded.
He nodded.
“And be smart, you two.”
Pietr’s skin heated at her words.
“Jess,” Mom said, her voice thinning again. “Forgive yourself. You made the right choice. You did what I asked in the end.”
“I—”
“Stop now,” she commanded. “The fight? It’s forgotten—as it should be.”
“I was so mad I didn’t say…”
“There’s so much we never say when we should. We never know when our time’s up, when the last chance comes and slips us by. But you know that now. That’s why we need to live life fiercely—make each moment count. And love courageously.”
“I love you, Mom.”
“I never doubted that.”
Silence stretched between us, and Sophie blinked.
“Mom?” I croaked.
She shook her head, glancing around. “She’s gone, Jessie. This time, I think it’s for good. She did everything she could to help us—to help you. I think you should move on now. Forgive yourself. She did.”
I swallowed hard, nodding and taking a swipe at the tears still on my cheeks.
Looking back toward Sarah, I noticed Cat, fully human and fully clothed.
Not far beyond her Alexi paced beside Derek’s body as if trying to determine what to do next with it.
“Leave him,” I suggested, a shudder shaking my backbone.
It was over. We were all going to be okay.
Dmitri came into my line of sight and I flinched. Scooting further into Pietr’s lap, I whispered, “His second…”
“Dmitri thought he was with us,” Pietr apologized.
“With us?”
Pietr’s arms tightened around me and in the moonlight his stars glowed, a reminder of his devil’s bargain. “It’s nearly done, Jess,” he swore.
“We’ll burn it,” Dmitri said, extricating Derek’s body with a sickly squeak as glass slipped free of skin and muscle.
“It.” I shivered.
Pietr pulled me tight to his chest, rumbling protectively. “I agree,” he said, and Derek’s body was dragged back into the bunker to be destroyed with everything else.
“How do you feel?” Pietr asked, his eyes searching my face.
“Like my head’s been unzipped and turned inside out,” I admitted. “Like it’s overstuffed. Worst. Headache. Ever.”
Standing, Pietr lifted me and gingerly pulled me into his arms, tucking a stray wisp of hair back behind my ear. “Time to go. Max is in the car with Mother.” He looked over his shoulder at Dmitri dragging Derek’s body away.
Sophie rose and Sarah moved to join us.
Pietr bared his teeth at her.
“Stop,” I urged. “We’re sticking together for a little while. At least until we get our stories straight.”
“And get cleaned up,” Sarah stated, tipping her chin up.
At a slow, shambling pace, we made our way back to the car and then to the house, leaving Dmitri to wait for the explosion that would destroy the evidence.
Jessie
Back inside the Queen Anne we collapsed, an exhausted and relieved jumble of bodies stinking of sweat and gunfire and, more importantly, life. Reaching for Pietr I dragged myself to him. “You did it. Do you understand? You got her out,” I reminded him, winding my arms around his neck. “You got what you wanted most.”
He grinned, peeking over my shoulder to where his mother dozed. “There were two things I wanted most.”
“Well, I hope I’m not wrong with what the other thing was when I say you’ve got me. Because, if I’m wrong, I just sounded really arrogant.”
His laugh shook me. “You? Wrong? Never.” He nuzzled my neck.
“Sorry to break up the love-in,” Cat said, reaching out to turn on the radio. She adjusted the volume. “Seven a.m. news.”
The announcer’s voice was firm, clipped, and yet reassuring. “This morning an explosion ripped through the Colonial section of Junction, killing and wounding an unknown number of victims at this early hour. Firemen on the scene believe the explosion was the result of an underground gas leak caused by the recent construction at a nearby Grabbit Mart. The construction company responsible is currently unreachable. We will keep you updated as the story develops.”
“They’re going to get away with it.” I rested my head on Pietr’s chest.
“It’s okay,” Pietr rumbled. “There weren’t many to get away.”
“The asylum. It’s the company’s other campus. What if…?”
“Shhh. Later, Jess. It’s not a priority. Especially since Dr. Jones is out of the picture.”
“Good point. The experiments should stop. For a while.”
The radio announcer rambled on, “And in more tragic news, another student from Junction High was struck by the 5 a.m. train. It has been confirmed that Marvin Broderick, recently held by local police for an undisclosed crime, committed suicide on the tracks.”
“At five?” I swallowed. “Derek was occupied with us.”
Cat nodded. “Definitely.”
“Then … Marvin did kill himself.”
Max untangled himself from our awkward sprawl. “Maybe the bastard realized…” His jaw twitched and he focused his glare on a spot on the wall. “… that what he did was unforgivable.”
“I can’t even think about it right now,” I apologized.
The basement door creaked open and Amy and Annabelle Lee crept out, peering at the pile of us. “Sophie? Sarah?” Amy’s eyes narrowed. She looked at me. “Lucy?” she asked in her best Ricky Ricardo voice.
“I know, I know. I got some ’splainin’ to do.”
Amy spotted our newest addition, Mother, and smiled a moment, surely noticing the family resemblance.
“You’re back,” Amy stated, seeing Max.
“Da,” he agreed, sweeping his tousle of dark hair back from his eyes to look at her. “I’m back.”
She looked away.
“Did you hear—” I pointed at the radio.
“Yes.” She went pale. “I’m…” Letting out a huge sigh, she caught and held my eyes. “I need to clear my head. I mean, I guess that’s it, then, right? Marvin’s dead. Is that justice?”
Silent, Annabelle Lee wrapped her arms around Amy’s waist and hugged her tightly.
“Things appear to be—handled—in whatever you all were doing…?”
I nodded.
“What I need is some sense of normal,” Amy admitted. “So I’m going for a run. On my regular course.”
I pulled myself up, reached for my jacket and glanced at my sneakers, tugging the laces tight. “What you need,” I stated firmly, “is the truth.” I looked at Max.
I nodded at the question his eyes asked. This was the time. Desperate times. Desperate measures.
Max stood. “Amy,” he said so slowly I wanted to shake the words out of him, “we need to talk.”
Something about her shut down. “After I run.”
“I’m coming with you,” I announced.
Although she said, “You’ll just slow me down,” the corner of her mouth turned up faintly, welcoming the idea.
“When I get back, everyone’s going home,” I said. “So showers are most definitely in order.”
Outside, Amy swept her auburn hair up and into a ponytail, pulling a hat firmly down on her head. We plodded forward, soles slapping the road as we ran.
A few blocks down we turned onto Main Street, hopping onto the sidewalk and out of the sparse Junction traffic. Running in the shade cast by the old department stores, houses, restaurants, and cafés that crowded the street, we shivered as the first flakes of snow peppered down.
A cat burst out of an alleyway and Amy jumped in surprise, stumbling and cursing.
“You okay?”
“Yeah, yeah,” she said, obviously spooked. A couple months back she
would have seen the cat, hopped over it, and stroked its back with her trailing foot. But now? She was shaken.
I wondered what she was thinking, this best friend of mine who’d grown up rich enough—in ways most people never counted—in a trailer park until her parents started fighting. She’d had everything she wanted for a while. But things changed. Her brother escaped by enlisting—finding that some battlefields were easier to understand than others. Her mother left, and her dad lost his job.
She found Marvin.
Her prince turned rapist.
She lengthened her stride, and I pushed to keep up, as we reached the east end of Main, the spot where the redbrick heart of town became punctured with postage-stamp lawns and the street stretched into an abbreviated suburbia.
Up toward the colleges we went, feet pounding blacktop as we climbed the hill. Amy could have eased up—gone more gently with a slow jog—but she had reasons to run. And nothing would stop her today, so I fought to keep pace.
Like the friend I should have been all along.
“You know there’s something different about Max,” I puffed.
“Yes,” she said. “He’s uncomplicated. I like him because of that.”
Oh boy.
“Marvin lied from the beginning. He—my dad would have called it—sold me a bill of goods.”
“So you like Max?” I pressed her, knowing her answer.
Something moved in the shadows and Amy hopped to the side, jostling against me, eyes wide. Recovering, she said, “So much it hurts. But…”
“But what?”
“Everything’s changed. So fast. I don’t know what to do.”
“Trust me. Trust Max,” I urged.
Off the blacktop and onto packed dirt we went. Everything was colder here: the ground, the air … Winter was already moving in, so cold it burned in my throat and lungs. This park wasn’t as well-kept as the one by the river, but its crisp wildness felt right.
Amy slowed, watching me. “Max wants to talk,” she said.
“Yeah.”
She shook out her feet and legs, clapping her hands together. “Guys never want to talk—not unless they’re breaking up with you.”
“You think…”
“I do have a little more experience with this relationship stuff,” she pointed out. “I just didn’t expect the it’s not you, it’s me speech so soon.”
Bargains and Betrayals Page 26
