I took a step toward her.
The boys moved in front of her, blocking her from my path.
“Get her grandmother out of here,” Cole said to Gavin.
Gavin took Nana by the arm and drew her back. I reached for her again, realized my hands were still ablaze with the red flames and froze with horror.
Had contact been made, I would have reached past flesh and burned her spirit—and what happened in the spirit always manifested in the flesh. She would have died.
I would have killed her.
Exactly what Z.A. must have wanted. She’d failed to kill me, so she’d gone after my loved one through me. And I’d let her. I hadn’t stopped to think about the wisdom of my actions.
“You’re worse, Ali,” Cole said, holding out his hands in the most nonthreatening gesture he could manage, approaching me. “I’m afraid we won’t be able to control you if something like this happens again.”
“Cole.”
“Don’t agree with me,” he interjected. “Don’t say anything. Just think about what you’re doing right now, all right?”
But I had to tell him—no, I couldn’t. He was right. If I believed it, I would receive whatever I said.
I looked behind me, unsure what to do about Z.A.
She wasn’t there.
My gaze darted to the mirror. There. She was there.
Back inside me. Scowling.
“Put the fire out for me, okay?” Cole said gently.
I tried, I really did, but the flames only grew hotter, only spread faster.
“I’m sorry, Ali,” Cole said, and reached for the minicrossbow he kept stashed at his ankle. Rather than load it with an arrow, he loaded it with a syringe. Then he stepped out of his body, so that we were spirit to spirit.
He paused, then said, “I thought about the vision, and stopped carrying arrows. Realized I might need antidote instead.” A second later, a sharp pain hit my neck.
In a blink, he had another syringe loaded and flying at me. I experienced another sharp sting. Warmth rushed through me, and yet the flames began to wane...finally vanished.
He loaded a third. “This is a sedative.”
I felt a third sting, and whatever the sedative was, it worked quickly. Darkness fell over me, and my knees collapsed. I knew nothing more.
* * *
My head pounded as I blinked open my eyes. I lay on...my bed? No, the mattress beneath me was too narrow to be mine. Gingerly I sat up. Dizziness struck me, and I moaned.
“Hey, Ali-gator.”
Cole’s voice. I breathed deep in an effort to clear my head, saw the haunting beauty of his face. I hated to look away, but curiosity got to me. We...were in a small bedroom I didn’t recognize, with log walls and planked floors.
“You’re in a secluded home Ankh owns. It’s twenty miles from my house,” he said, “but they aren’t highway miles, so it takes me forty minutes to get here.”
I’d been banished.
My expression must have fallen to reflect my dismay, even though I knew this was for the best, because he added, “You’re too dangerous to be around others right now, sweetheart.”
Acid eroded my throat, and I choked. “I know, and I probably should have been sent here weeks ago. But, um, how long will I be allowed to stay?”
“As long as it takes.”
To heal...or to die, whichever came first. “Cole...”
“You have to quit your job, I’m sorry. Your grandmother is going to call your boss. And when school starts back up, she plans on speaking to the principal about allowing us to set up a computer so that you can remotely attend your classes. If they won’t let you, you’ll have to quit the district for a home school program.”
“Cole,” I said, trying again. What did I want to say to him? I wasn’t sure.
He shook his head, dark hair falling and hanging in his eyes. “I took your journal,” he continued. “I’ll go through every page, every passage. Emma told me the key to saving you is in there.”
“When did you talk to her?”
“This morning. She came to see me, and I think I freaked out my dad. He wanted to know why I was talking to air.”
I smiled.
Cole pushed out a breath. “Better.”
“What?”
He cupped my cheek. I reached up, wrapped my fingers around his wrists. “I hate that you’ve been hurt by all of this, I needed to see you smile.”
No wonder I was drawn to this boy. “How can you still like me after everything I’ve done?”
His thumb brushed away a tear that had seeped from the corner of my eye. “It isn’t that I like you, Ali, it’s that I can’t stop liking you. And I don’t want to stop. Besides, you were trying to end a zombie. That’s admirable.”
“You saw her?”
“I did. Her shield slipped for just a second when Gavin and I stepped in front of your grandmother. She was so angry her eyes glowed bright red. When I met her gaze I think it scared her, because she raced back into you.”
“We haven’t seen the end of her.” I could still feel her, a presence in the back of my mind. A heartbeat I had failed to stop.
“We’ll find a way to beat her,” he said, and I nodded despite my fears.
Emma had said the same.
Nana had said the same.
Heck, I had said the same.
Now...I wasn’t so sure.
“You know,” Cole said, “my mom once told me a boy would know he’d become a man when he stopped putting himself first. She said a girl would come along and I wouldn’t be able to get her out of my mind. She said this girl would frustrate me, confuse me and challenge me, but she would also make me do whatever was necessary to be a better man—the man she needed. With you, I want to be better. I want to be what you need. Tell me what you need.”
I need...you, I thought.
Mackenzie had told me she hoped Cole would meet a girl he couldn’t live without. In that moment, I was pretty certain I was that girl. And it was odd to me. So much had happened. So much had yet to happen. But this...thing between us hadn’t changed.
“Will you get on the bed with me?” I asked.
His smile was wry. “I will give you anything but that. I know us, and I know what happens when we kiss and if I get up there, we’re going to kiss. And I’m good with that, crave it, but there’s no one here to stop us.”
“You think Zombie Ali will take over again?”
“Maybe she will, maybe she won’t, but it’s not that.”
“Good. Because I don’t think I’ll want you to stop,” I admitted softly.
He brought my hand to his mouth, kissed my knuckles. “And you don’t know how happy that makes me. But I don’t have a condom and I refuse to risk you, even by pulling out. I don’t have a disease or anything like that,” he added in a rush. “I’ve never been with a girl without a condom, but getting you pregnant is a very real concern.”
For once I wasn’t embarrassed to talk about this with him. “Oh. Well, that sucks.”
“Believe me. I know.” He stood and looked down at me. “I stocked the fridge with all the food I know you like. I expect you to eat it.”
“I will.”
“I’ll come back tomorrow. And every day after.”
“I’ll miss you,” I said.
He reached for me. Balled his hand just before contact. And then he walked away.
This time, he looked back more times than I could count.
Chapter 24
I’m Late For a Killer Date
I felt sorry for lab rats. Like, really sorry. Every morning, Mr. Ankh came to the small house in the woods and drew my blood, checked my vitals. I’d been poked and prodded so much I had to look like a junkie.
I’d told him all the testing was unnecessary.
I was going to die here, and I knew it. All I could do now was enjoy the time I had left.
And I was. Because of Cole. But deep down, I admitted this wasn’t the way I wanted to go out. I wanted
to die fighting, taking as many zombies as possible with me.
I sighed. Cole visited me every afternoon, and he always brought Nana. I could tell she’d asked him for a ride and he’d been unable to tell her no, because there was always a gleam of frustration in his eyes. But even though he wanted to be alone with me, he never complained.
Once, he pulled me aside and said, “Your grandmother is the toughest coc—uh, sex block I’ve ever come across.”
I’d giggled.
On New Year’s, the three of us sat on the couch, watching a movie Nana had brought. I was too distracted by Cole’s heat and scent and general deliciousness to care what it was. I occupied the middle, he had my right, with my head on his shoulder, and Nana had my left.
When the credits finally rolled, I said, “I really am sorry about the new furniture you bought, Nana.” I’d said the same words every day. Guilt hadn’t left me.
“I told you. Furniture is replaceable. You aren’t.”
“But the money—”
“Ali Bell,” she said, wagging a finger at me, the charms on her bracelet slapping together. “If I hear one more word about money, I’m going to scream. I mean it.”
“Good luck with that,” Cole said. “Ali is the most stubborn person I’ve ever met.”
“Hey,” I said.
“It’s not an insult if it’s true.” He kissed my temple. “I wish we could stay longer, but my dad is expecting me back.”
And he probably had some zombie hunting to do.
Nana kissed my cheek.
Cole gave me a long, searching look that told me he would be on me if we were alone. Then the two of them were in his Jeep, driving away. I watched from the window, trying not to cry.
Needing a distraction, I walked through the home, my bare feet thumping against the wooden floors. All of the mirrors had been removed. There were hundreds of books—romances, mysteries, science fiction and fantasy, nonfiction, a Bible—plus a TV and a fully stocked refrigerator. Cole had made sure I had my own clothes, an iPod loaded with Thousand Foot Krutch and Krystal Meyers, two new favorites, and the picture of Emma and me that Nana had found.
A chirp sounded from my phone. I check the screen, and smiled widely as I read Cole’s text.
I’m coming back after I check in w/my Dad. If U could B naked by the time I get there, U would really save me some time.
He was coming back.
To-do list: kiss him. Touch him. Own him.
Hinges creaked, jerking me out of my dreamy elation.
I frowned. I knew the sound well. Someone had just opened the front door, but it couldn’t have been Cole. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter and pressed my back against the wall. Slowly moving forward, I peeked around the corner. My heart hammered erratically.
Footsteps closed in.
Squeezing the weapon’s handle, I jumped out, prepared to attack.
A girl screamed. Her hand flattened over her heart as she scrambled backward, away from me.
“Kat?” I asked, lowering my arm.
“Don’t you dare stab me, Ali Bell.” She stepped from the shadows, moonlight washing in from the window and spilling over her. She anchored her hands on her hips, becoming the very picture of ire, despite the paleness of her skin and the bruises under her eyes. She wasn’t well. “You have some explaining to do. We finally figure out where you are and come to your rescue, and you almost murder me before we can complete the job.”
We?
Shock barreled through me at an alarming rate. “I have missed you so, so much, Mad Dog, but you shouldn’t have come.”
“Like I could really leave you out here once I learned Ankh had you deported to Siberia.”
“I’m only twenty miles away, and he did me a favor. I like it here. And how did you learn about it?”
She ignored my question, saying, “Of course you don’t like it here. There are bars on the doors and window.”
Those bars were meant to protect people from me. “I don’t want to leave.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Are you suffering from Stockholm or something? Because I know my Ali, and she would never move away without saying goodbye, and she would never choose to live here.”
I wasn’t going to get through to her, was I? “Seriously, how did you find me? And who is we?”
“I can answer that.” Ethan moved to her side, watching me warily.
Ethan? The potential spy?
Great. Wonderful. This couldn’t get any worse. “Fill me in before I have a panic attack.”
“Well, for starters,” said another female, “I found out about the zombies.”
Reeve stepped up to Kat’s other side.
Okay. It was officially worse.
“My dad doesn’t know that I know,” Reeve said.
“When you disappeared, Reeve did some investigating, and told me what she learned,” Ethan said, “and that’s when we discovered the zombies, and your whereabouts, and decided to bring Kat in to help us save you. You’re welcome, by the way. Do you have any idea what we had to do to hack into Mr. Ankh’s computer and get the coordinates to this place?”
I hoped that was rhetorical.
“In other astonishing news,” Kat said before I could process everything I’d been told, “Frosty and I broke up—of course. He wouldn’t tell me where you were being held.”
“I doubt he knows.”
She waved away my words, and I noted her hand was trembling. “Semantics.”
“You have to stop pushing that boy away every time you’re feeling vulnerable,” I said. “One day he’s going to stop coming back.”
Her mouth opened, closed.
“Enough chatting,” Ethan said. “Let’s get out of here.”
“Wait.” The three of them weren’t safe with me, not without a trained slayer nearby, but if there were zombies out there tonight, they wouldn’t be safe without me. I’d have to escort them to their car, wherever it was. “Give me a minute.”
I stalked to my bedroom, dressed in a black shirt, camo pants and combat boots. Then I strapped blades to my ankles and wrists, sheathed a larger revolver at my waist and stuffed two smaller ones in my pockets.
I phoned Cole but immediately went to voice mail. Either his phone was now turned off or it was in use. Probably in use. “Ethan, Kat and Reeve just showed up at the cabin. I’m going to walk them back to their car. I’ll also try to do a little detective work on Ethan. Call me.”
When I returned, Kat wouldn’t meet my gaze. Dang it. I shouldn’t have stepped into her business. I thought I’d learned my lesson in the butt-in department.
“I’m sorry,” I said, and squeezed her hand.
She nodded, the action stiff.
I read the fine print: not forgiven. I sighed. “Follow me.” When we reached the front door, I drew in a deep breath for strength. My hand trembled as I twisted the knob, and my knees knocked as I walked outside. Cold air enveloped me, hugging me with unwelcoming arms of ice.
A forest loomed around me. A dusting of snow had fallen, leaving the slightest glaze of white. It was pretty. I stiffened, searched the darkness...but saw nothing out of the ordinary.
“Where’s your car?” I asked.
“On the road outside the forest,” Ethan replied. “We didn’t want your captors to hear us coming.”
I’d talked to Cole about the area, and knew we had a two-mile hike.
“I’ll take the lead,” I said. “You guys will do what I say, when I say, without any argument. I’m serious. I love you girls with all my heart, but if you question me out here, I’ll knock out your teeth, I swear I will.”
Kat finally cracked a grin. “Look at you, all forceful.”
Ethan stepped in front of Reeve, protecting her from my supposed wrath. Did he understand I’d do what I’d threatened—and so much worse—to him?
“Stay behind me.” I entered the forest, listening. Footsteps crunched behind me. No sound in front of me. Good. We maneuvered around trees, going downhi
ll, minute after minute ticking past.
“So, Ethan,” I said, “have you ever heard of Blood Lines?”
“No.”
“Then why do you have them around your house?”
“Your friends asked me the same question, and I’ll tell you what I told them. I don’t know.”
He was lying. He had to be lying.
“How did you and Reeve meet?”
“Can we not do this now?” he asked tightly.
“You’re right. We’ll wait till we get to the car. We’ll put the girls inside, and then you and I will walk away for a little chat.” Afterward, there was a chance only one of us would be walking back.
“Ali?” Reeve said. “What’s going on?”
He nodded readily. Too readily? “The car.”
“I’ll let Ethan explain it later.” We reached a small, round clearing, the sky no longer shielded by the tops of the trees. A big white cloud shaped like a rabbit appeared to be...pulsing. There. Gone. There. Gone. There.
I stopped, stiffened. Smelled nothing I shouldn’t.
Hungry, a voice whispered. So hungry.
Hmm. Smells so good.
Must have.
Want.
Mine. Mine, mine, mine.
The zombies were out, and they were nearby.
“What is it?” Ethan whispered, his voice trembling.
“Kat, Reeve, climb the trees behind you,” I demanded, palming a dagger and a gun. “Now!” I scanned the line of trees in front of us. At the far right, a bush shook, snow dancing to the ground.
A second later, Emma burst through, even though I hadn’t summoned her.
Panic bathed her expression as she ran, her tiny arms pumping quickly at her sides. “They’re coming!” she screamed. “Leave! Alice, leave now! It’s a trap!”
A trap? I couldn’t leave and protect my friends. What was more, I wasn’t going anywhere without my sister. I launched into motion. As I raced, I tried to push my spirit from my body, but Z.A. wrapped her hands around me and anchored me inside.
“Let go,” I screamed at her.
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