I return my attention to the screen, hating that he might be right. “How do you figure?”
Asher’s shoulders lift and fall as he shrugs. “Because it’s too formal. ‘Discuss my research about Angels of Death and the Grim Reapers who walk amongst us’. And he offers to meet you way too easily.”
“Yeah, I was expecting it to be a little harder, but at the same time, I want to know what he knows.” I sigh and read the very short message over again, muttering, “I wonder where the hell he even lives.”
Asher points at the phone number down at the bottom of the screen. “Well, that’s a New York City area code,” he says.
“So he’s in New York City?” Where Asher thinks his mother is? Is it a coincidence? I’m not sure, but for some reason I doubt it.
Asher gives a one-shouldered shrug. “That’s at least where he registered the phone to, but it doesn’t mean he lives there.” He pauses and then reaches for the computer on my lap. “Let me message him back and find out where he lives and we’ll go from there.” I hand him my laptop. “Then we’ll talk to my uncle and see what he knows—maybe we won’t even have to talk to him.”
For some reason, I don’t think it’s going to be that easy, especially when Asher’s uncle took the book in the first place and erased it. He might have just been protecting it, but at the same time, if I’ve learned anything, it’s never trust anyone.
And I know it’s a good thing to have August as backup, just in case all hell breaks loose.
Chapter 14
After Asher finishes the email to August, I shut the laptop and then give him my phone so he can call his uncle and see if he’s back from Jackson so we can go over there and talk. While he makes the call, I slip on my jacket, noting how sore my back has become. With each movement of my arms, my muscles ache in protest and I wonder just how bad the bruises are getting.
Asher sits on my bed, watching me lean over to tie one of my boots up with the phone pressed to his ear. “You’re so beautiful,” he says with a strange look on his face, distracting me from the pain. “I’d love to paint you sometime.”
I stand up straight, and tuck my hair behind my ear, feeling a little awkward at his intimate words. “Maybe when I’m not being stalked by the dead.” I head over to the trunk to get the book.
That gets him to smile. “Just think about it. I promise it won’t be a big deal.” His eyes devour me and make my skin flame hotter as I open the lid and get the book out. “You can even keep your clothes on.”
I open my mouth to say something witty back, but he holds up a finger, silencing me as he speaks into the phone. “Hey, Uncle Elliot. It’s Asher.” He pauses, listening to his uncle on the other end, the amusement in his expression diminishing the more time goes by. I close up the trunk then lean against the wall, hugging the book against my chest as Asher says, “Yeah, I figured you’d heard by now. Sorry I didn’t tell you on the phone last night I was just a little embarrassed they… stripped my wings.” He glances over his shoulders at his back. Oddly, my own shoulders lurch forward as a sharp pain shoots through my back, like I’m the one who just turned around and looked at it. His eyes settle on me the longer the conversation goes on. “Actually, I’m at Ember’s right now… why?” He grows quiet again as I reach around and rub my tender back muscles, my fingers nowhere as soothing as Asher’s touch. “Yeah, but why can’t we leave?”
The longer the conversation goes on, the more uneasy he gets, and the more my back hurts. Finally, I can’t take it anymore and I slide my hand up the back of my shirt, feeling around for feathers, but there is just the smoothness of my flesh. And the pain, it’s becoming unbearable, like my skin is melting off my body like wax.
I continue to keep my hand on my back while Asher chats on the phone, giving me random confused looks. Then the confusion erases as his gaze darts to the book in my arms with a concerned look on his face. “I’m not sure… I’ll have to ask Ember if she has it and she just left the house for a little bit to go look for her mother.”
I give him a funny look, which he returns with a warning glance, pressing for me to keep quiet. I recline against the dresser, watching him sink further into doubt. By the time he hangs up the phone, he looks like he’s about ready to flip out.
He leaps to his feet and takes the book from my hands. “We have to go now,” he says, tucking my phone into the back pocket of his jeans before grabbing my hand.
“What’s wrong?” I ask as he practically drags me into the hall as he takes swift, even strides. With every step my back muscles seem to be getting tighter. “Asher, what’s going on?”
He keeps walking, grasping onto my hand. “That wasn’t my uncle on the phone,” he says as we reach the stairs.
“Then who was it?” I ask as I trot down the stairs, working to stand up straight despite the overpowering urge to slant forward and fall to my knees.
“Well, it was him,” he corrects. “But he’s possessed by the Anamotti and I could hear someone in the background that sounded an awful lot like Alton.”
“Alton’s there with him?” Caught off guard, I almost trip down the stairs, but brace myself by grabbing onto the banister for support. “How can that be possible? And how can he be possessed when he is… was an Angel? Or is that why he can?”
Asher glances over his shoulder at me and I can see the worry he’s carrying and the distress. “Being banished makes us susceptible to possession.”
My guard suddenly goes up. Not only could Asher’s uncle be possessed but Asher could be as well.
“I’m me,” he says like he reads my mind. “I promise. And if they try to get to me like that, I’ll end myself.”
My eyes widen. “Asher, don’t talk—”
He covers my mouth with his hand. “I said I’ll do whatever it takes to protect you and I meant it.”
I want to argue with him, but I can tell by the look on his face that he’s made up his mind. “So now what do we do?
He stops in the center of the stairway, staring up at the window just above the door where lightning snaps across the sky and thunder booms. “We keep the book from him, until we can figure out what’s going on and out what’s on these pages… ” he trails off. “God, I could hear it in my uncle’s voice the moment he started talking. He sounded so...” He stops abruptly when we arrive at the bottom of the stairway and I bump into him. He whirls around and steadies me by the shoulders with a gracefulness that reminds me that, even though he isn’t an Angel of Death at the moment, he’s still not human. Letting go of my hand to hold up the book, he says, “He wanted this. In fact, he sounded like Gollum from Lord of the Rings, only instead of wanting the ring, he wants the book.” Asher balances it in his arms, opens it up and then flips through the blank pages.
We both stare at the pages for a moment as if the words will somehow miraculously appear on them. All the while, the clock in the background ticks while thunder booms.
“Dammit, we need to get my uncle’s blood to see what the hell he was trying to hide.” Sighing, Asher gives up and shuts the book while I start itching at my back, my skin is starting to coat with sweat, my nails scratching at the top layer of skin. “We need a place to hide out for a while until we can figure out a plan,” Asher says, putting the book under his arm. “Somewhere where the Anamotti will have a hard time finding us.”
“How about we hit the road and go to New York?” I ask, grabbing the car keys from the end table. “It would help keep the Anamotti away and we could talk to August. He might be able to tell us how to free the innocent souls that are possessed, and then we could put a stop to the madness in the town and the death waiting for everyone if Alton goes through with what I saw happen in the death omen.”
“Hitting the road isn’t a bad idea.” His head tips down as he looks at the book again, strands of his dark hair falling into his eyes. “But I’m still not sure we can trust this August guy.”
“Well, it doesn’t hurt to at least look into it.”
&nbs
p; He sighs, giving in. “All right, grab some stuff and we’ll hit the road if he gets back to us. Then we can head out there after I try to track down some more information on him.”
I nod, glad he’s giving in. Then I rush back to my room and pack my bags while Asher waits on the stairway, watching the front door like he’s afraid someone’s going to barge in. I make sure to pack my lap top and leave a vague note to my mom just in case she returns and cares that I’m gone.
By the time I go back to Asher, he looks so worried that his skin has gotten noticeably paler. His eyes meet mine as I walk down the stairs with the bag slung over my shoulder and when I reach the bottom, he grabs my hand and we hurry to the door.
Something occurs to me as Asher opens the front door. “Asher, how can you be helping me right now when you couldn’t in the past? Is it because you’re banished?”
Wind gusts through my hair and a drizzle of rain escapes into the foyer as the door swings open. “No, even though I’m partially free from my Angel blood, I still could get in a lot of trouble for helping you right now,” he says, not upset, but sort of relieved.
I tuck my hair behind my ear to keep it from blowing in my face. “Then why are you?”
He doesn’t answer right away. Instead he leads me outside and into the rain bucketing down from the angry sky. Asher keeps walking while holding onto me, but then he stops just short of the grass to spin around to face me. “Because I’m saying fuck the rules,” he says with passion emitting with every syllable. “I don’t give a shit anymore. About any of this.” He swings his arm around, gesturing at the land. “It’s not fair that you were created to bare our sins and I’m not going to let you suffer anymore, regardless of what happens to me.” He cups my cheeks in his hand and I swear to god I can hear his heart hammering in his chest. “All I want is you safe. I should have been keeping you safe this entire time.” Rain drenches his hair, beads his skin, soaks his clothes and makes them cling to his body.
My stomach flutters at the sight of him and his powerful words. Emotions surface inside me that are potent, intoxicating. I’ve never felt anything like them before and it makes it too complex to control—difficult to keep inside— it’s hard not to just let them pour out of me like the rain. I don’t think it’s love, but I wonder where my emotions for Asher are going. If at the end of this, I will be in love with him, and if at the conclusion of all of this, I’ll have to kill him to save humanity and their souls.
“All right, let’s hit the road then,” I call out over the thunder and my shaky voice reveals that I’m feeling something powerful. “At least until we can figure out how to save the town.”
Asher looks like he notices it, but doesn’t comment on it. Instead, he nods and grabs my hand again, his skin cold from the rain. Then we head for the car in the driveway, side-by-side beneath the rain. It’d seem like the perfect moment except for the thunder booming above us and there are people standing all over the grass.
“Shit,” Asher and I say, noticing them at the exact same time. We stop dead in our tracks at the brink of the driveway as more people emerge. They aren’t regular people. They’re possessed; their expressions numb, eyes glowing through the veil of rain, and their hands are held lifelessly at their sides. I recognize a few of them as my neighbors. The two policemen that are always stalking me stand with them, too. However some of them I’ve never seen before; they’ve been drawn in from town, I’m guessing, but why?
Deep down, I think I might know the answer, but I don’t want to accept it just yet. Accept what the burn on my back means or why the Anamotti have suddenly stepped up their game.
As I stare at the thickening crowd, at the people wandering in from each side of the street, I spot another person that I recognize. She’s tall and thin, and has dark hair that runs down her shoulders in waves. She’s wearing a long, floral dress and her lips that were once red are blue. I went to school with her up until a week ago when her body was found near the riverbank only a half a mile from my father’s crime scene.
Her lips curl into a smile as I look at her and for a second I think she’s going to beg me to help her like the other dead girl did, but all she says is, “Hey, Ember. It’s nice to see you again,” she says with a little wave. Vomit burns at the back of my throat at the sight of her fingerless hand. “Alton says, ‘Hi’ and that ‘he’ll see you soon.’”
My jaw drops as Asher’s hand tightens around mine. “We have to get out of here…” His focus is secured on the people gathering in large numbers. “Quickly.” He blinks his eyes away from them and then we’re running to the car, puddles splashing below our feet while thunder and lightning crack above us and rain hammers down. Like at school, the people don’t move, letting the rain drench them as they watch us, waiting for something.
When we reach my mom’s car parked in the driveway, we climb in and I start the engine. Asher drags his fingers through his soaked hair and pushes it back from his face. We buckle our seatbelts without saying anything and then I put the car in reverse. When I check the mirror, I see that the people have migrated from the lawn to the end of the driveway, making it impossible to back up.
“What should I do?” I ask as Asher rotates around in the seat to look behind us at the forming group.
He deliberates, measuring the thickness of the crowd. “I think we should just go. Test them and see if they get out of the way.”
I grip the shifter with one hand and the steering wheel with the other. “And what if they don’t move?”
His Adam’s apple bobs up and down as he gulps. “Then bump them with your car.”
“I can’t do that,” I say, alarmed. “They’re still people, despite the fact that they’re possessed.”
“Yeah, you’re right,” he mutters, turning around in his seat and tilting his head to check out the side window. “Just drive up on the grass.”
“You want me to hot rod it over the front lawn?” I question, eyeballing down the perfect path just between the house and the edge of the group.
He places the book on his lap and puts a hand on top of it like he’s afraid to let it go. “If you don’t feel comfortable enough doing it, I can trade places with you.”
I tap the gas pedal, giving it a little throttle. “No, I’m good. In fact, I’m sort of looking forward to doing it.”
His pierced brow shoots up as his head whips in my direction. “I’m a little surprised you’re not slightly afraid, considering you crashed your car into a lake.”
I pump the gas a few more times and the car starts to inch down the driveway. “My dad loved working on cars,” I say. “And hot rodding them.” I crane the wheel. “He actually used to steal them with me in the car.”
“Seriously?” Asher gapes at me.
I give a little shrug. “As embarrassing as it is, it was sort of like a father/daughter bonding thing.”
I rotate the wheel in the other direction when the back end reaches the people. They don’t even move out of my way. Then, pressing on the gas, the tires squeal as the car lurches forward. I burn rubber; the tires tear up the grass, splattering mud and rain all over the windows. I have to flip the wipers on from the sheer magnitude of debris that suddenly covers the windshield.
I’m enjoying myself a little bit as I pull away from my house, not too surprised that I’m sort of relieved to be leaving the stillness of it behind. Then I spot someone in the crowd that makes me slam on the brakes. The car lurches to a stop and my hands start to shake as I stare at my mom standing just to the side of the car in the midst of the horde of people. She’s dressed in old jeans and an overly large t-shirt, her hair pulled back in a messy bun and her skin bare of makeup, looking pale. There’s no doubt it’s her, though.
“Mom,” I whisper and my foot that’s holding down the brake starts to tremble, causing the car to roll forward again. I quickly reach over and shove it into park then take my foot off the brake.
Asher tracks my gaze to her standing in the crowd. “That’s your mom
?”
I slowly nod, my fingers fumbling to find the buckle of the seatbelt. “Yeah, but what’s she doing out there with them…” I trail off as the buckle unclicks and then suddenly, I’m moving in fast motion, reaching for the door handle, ready to jump out.
“Ember, wait.” Asher snags my arm and stops me. “Don’t get out.”
I jerk my arm, but he doesn’t let go. “Asher, let me go. It’s my mom out there…” I look at her through the windshield and she’s looking at me, her expression not numb like the rest of them, however it is horribly morose. “Please, I need to see her, to see if she’s okay.”
My mom lifts her hand and waves, though there’s something robotic about her movements, something about it shatters me inside. Then she places her hand on the base of her neck and that’s when I see the marks. Or more like wounds that look like they were inflicted by a knife or a rope. There’s also an X on her forehead. When I realize what that means, I start to freak out, pushing and shoving at Asher to let me go, but he keeps holding onto me with unbreakable strength. I hear him say something, but I’m veering towards shock because it looks like my mom is dead.
Cinder X (Death Collectors, #2) Page 18
