“We should see what he left in there,” Penny said, then moved before I had a chance to respond. We’d have to move quickly, or we wouldn’t have time to catch up.
When he was far enough away not to notice us, we slipped inside. Unlit candles lined stone walls. Some were old, half-melted. Others were new.
“Maybe some kind of ritual,” Penny said. “If so, he’ll be back.”
“I don’t want to wait,” I said, and took her hand. “He may not come back.” I headed toward the bike, a shadow in the wind, with Penny by my side.
We were back to trailing the Charger by the time he’d rounded the first corner. We followed at a distance, until he stopped in the middle of town. At the clinic. Again, I parked a street down, a block over. It was close enough to watch him, far enough for him not to see us.
“Not really a suspicious stop,” I said.
“No,” Penny said. “But that doesn’t mean there’s nothing to discover.”
We watched and waited as he entered the building, as it seemed that once again we’d hit a dead end. That’s what I thought, at least—until we heard the screams.
Chapter Fifteen
Penny
It was a voice I’d know anywhere, even from a distance, even when her cries of agony sounded nothing like her giggles, or the soft way that she spoke.
Kaylee.
My chest was tight, fighting for air, as my wings fluttered. The sound reverberated in my ears, even after the silence. I’d gone without thought, without regard for witnesses to my shift or the danger that awaited me. I went for her, for the sister I would protect above anything else. Kaylee, who needed me. I couldn’t lose her, too.
I shifted back and tried the door. It didn’t budge. A back door, maybe I could get in through the back. I ran around to the back of the clinic, and found exactly what I was looking for. And something more. Axel stood, holding the door open. Glass shards covered the ground beneath his feet.
“Let’s go,” he said.
I rushed past, and scanned the dark room for my sister. Empty chairs. No sign of her.
“Downstairs,” Axel said, again opening a door for me. Was it scent that told him? Or did he hear something I couldn’t hear? Either way, I was grateful.
The basement was darker than the windowless lobby upstairs. In the center of the room, the middle of the morgue, was a person, still on the table. I pushed back the fear of the scent, the metallic tint in the air that told me I was too late. She could be bleeding and still be okay. She had to be okay.
I ran to Kaylee, ignoring everything else. If there was danger, Axel was with me. If whoever had hurt her remained, he would stop them. My priority was my sister.
I grabbed her wrist, and found a faint pulse. I could hear it, but that wasn’t enough. I had to feel it to know for sure. I released the breath I hadn’t realized I was holding.
Bright light filled the room, blinding after the blackness. Axel stood by the switch. I turned back to Kaylee, and lifted her head.
“Kaylee.” My voice cracked, desperate and foreign to my ears. “Kaylee, it’s me. I’m here.”
Her skin was cold, her face pale. And her eyes didn’t open.
“Kaylee,” I said, with a gentle shake of her shoulders. “Kaylee.”
“Penny.” Axel’s voice was soft, as was his touch on my wrist. “Penny,” he said, “look.”
He pointed to the side of my sister’s neck. There were two round puncture wounds, like she was the victim of some kind of horror movie vampire. That was what my life had become, some terrible horror movie filled with zombies and wannabe vampires.
“Have you seen anything like it?” Axel asked.
“No.”
“Think the coroner drained her for his zombie ritual?” he asked.
I said nothing, only stared down at my sister. She was too pale. And it didn’t matter why. It only mattered that she had been hurt.
Something white caught my eye, a piece of wrinkled, white paper in Kaylee’s hand. I knew what it was before I looked. Still, I rolled back her fingertips and confirmed my suspicion. It was my letter. She was out looking for me. Of course she was. There was no way Kaylee would break curfew if it hadn’t been to follow me.
“Let’s get her home,” Axel said. It was both the best and worst idea I’d heard all night. I couldn’t go back there. I couldn’t bring Axel there. But I had to. “I hope it’s not a long walk, because there’s no way I can hold her on the bike while I drive. And I don’t think we’re going to fit three on the seat.”
We didn’t have to. I reached down to my sister’s neck, and pressed her thumb to her amulet. I said the words out loud, not caring that I wasn’t supposed to say them. Not in front of anyone. “Tos. Servitio. Magica facienda. Pinnarum in cineres abit.”
Pale skin morphed to black feathers in my palms. It was what had to be done. I knew I could trust Axel. I did so with my life, and even more so, with Kaylee’s.
Axel’s eyes were wide as he looked at my hands, at the raven I held. “You never cease to amaze me, Penny.”
I looked up at Axel, to the compassion in his dark eyes. It didn’t matter what anyone thought. I could trust him with anything, with everything. He was meant to be my mate.
I didn’t enjoy the drive home. Not like I had our other rides. I held Kaylee as we rode, and ignored the world to watch her. She didn’t move, though she breathed. She would heal. We’d made it in time.
I couldn’t help but feel responsible. If I hadn’t been out, she would have listened to our father. She would have been home safe, where she belonged. It was just like it had been with Danny.
I wished I could have listened, as much as I wished I could have belonged. But I didn’t. And I couldn’t. And that hadn’t changed, no matter how much easier it would have been.
When I walked through the door, I’d expected an assault. I’d expected a tirade of blame and disappointment for leaving. What met me instead was my father’s arms. He held me, and Kaylee. And he cried. I’d never seen him cry.
The great room was filled with my extended family, the constable that cared about my sister’s safety. First and foremost, was Austin. They’d been waiting there since Kaylee had left. They were waiting for her, and for me.
The crowd moved for us as we headed to the stairs. I heard the whispers and recognized the looks of concern and disapproval. Not only was Kaylee injured, but I’d brought home a wolf.
Corey grabbed my arm. “Who the hell is this guy, Pen?”
“Back off,” I said.
Axel stepped closer, but I didn’t need to be defended.
“How could you bring this, this—”
“It’s not the time, Corey,” my father said in a voice that left no room for argument, then he ushered us up the stairs.
Only our family, Axel, and Austin came up to my sister’s room.
I laid Kaylee in her bed before releasing her to human form. With her settled, there was little to do for her but wait for her body to heal itself.
I could feel Axel’s nearness, even though he hadn’t entered the room. Just outside my sister’s door, he kept himself within reach if I needed him. I appreciated the sentiment, though the protection he offered couldn’t spare me this pain.
“Penny,” my father said, with his hands on my shoulders. “Tell me how this happened.”
“I wish I could,” I said. I wished I had been there. I wished I could have protected her. “I heard her scream. And when I reached the morgue, she was like this.”
“You made her shift in front of the wolf,” he said. It wasn’t a question.
“Yes,” I said. “I’d do it again.”
He ran a hand over his face, releasing me. “He’s not one of us,” he said. “You shouldn’t have showed him. You shouldn’t have brought him here.” There was more anguish than anger on his face. His features were tight, more wrinkled than I remembered, as if he’d aged years in a matter of hours.
“I trust him,” I said.
; “We can’t trust an outsider, Penny,” my father said. “You know—”
“He’s my mate.” I knew Axel could hear, and I hadn’t spoken the words to him. Here I was, declaring my love for him, without him in the room. It didn’t matter. I wanted him to know. Both Axel and my father needed to know.
My father’s eyes went wide, as he searched my neck for the mark of our bond.
“He’s a wolf,” my father said. “You need to let this go. You can’t mate a wolf.”
It was the reaction I had expected, and it changed nothing.
He continued, “You can’t keep running around in the middle of the night putting yourself at risk.”
We’d already had this conversation. At least this time he didn’t tell me I had to leave.
“Look what happened to Kaylee,” he said.
I closed my eyes. I didn’t have to look to see her. The image of her pale skin, the marks on her neck—it was etched in my mind.
“I didn’t make her leave,” I said, though his words stung. More than him, I was trying to convince myself.
“I don’t know what to do with you,” my father said, and walked away.
I watched him go, then Axel appeared in the doorway.
Part of me wanted to apologize for my father. Part of me wanted to ask if he’d heard. Instead, we stood, me in the dark, him silhouetted by the light in the hall, without words.
How could I explain everything that I felt? How could I explain my need to stay by my sister’s side? How could I put into words the connection I felt to him? The feeling he gave me, the certainty in myself, in who I was? How could I tell him what I needed?
Axel entered the room, his steps slow and sure. There was strength in his stride, and understanding in his eyes. He clasped my face in his palms and kissed my forehead.
“I should go,” he said, just loud enough for me to hear.
I glanced back at my sister, conflicted.
“I know,” Axel said, “you need to stay.”
And with that, he turned to go. I watched, a million unsaid confessions spinning through my head, but I couldn’t speak. I couldn’t find the words, and then he was gone.
Chapter Sixteen
Axel
It fucking killed me to see her like that. I would have given anything to take that away, make it me that hurt instead of Penny. I couldn’t ask her to come with me. I wouldn’t. She needed to be with her sister. It was clear in the way she kept her body turned toward Kaylee, kept her eyes glued to the bed.
It wasn’t my place to stay, even though it hurt to leave. I wanted to be there for Penny, but I wasn’t welcome in that house. And there was still work to be done.
I backtracked through the streets we had traveled, searching for the silver Charger. It wasn’t at the hospital, or the house. I found it at the cemetery. As soon the silver metal caught my eye, I felt the rise of something all too familiar. Anger boiled, an old friend I no longer cared to suppress.
Empty seats, engine cold—the bastard had been here a while. Dangerous, but human, I couldn’t risk exposing my shift. I didn’t need my fangs for him anyway. I had my fists. And I would make him regret what he had done.
This time, I didn’t hide in the shadows. This time, I wasn’t there to watch. I strode straight to the mausoleum, threw open the door, and found exactly what I was looking for.
His shoulders jolted before he whirled around, coat tails whipping behind him. Sunglasses lodged in the center of dark hair, Trench’s wide eyes were as bright as the moon.
Surprise morphed into confusion. Recognition, but not fear. That was a mistake on his part. He should have been very fucking afraid.
“Mr. Barnes? The not-a-reporter, right?” he asked. “What are you doing here?”
“Hunting for you.”
For every step I took forward, he took one back. His heart raced, eyes wide with realization—he’d been caught.
“Wait, wait,” he said. “There must be some mistake.”
With a slip of a heel, he was on his ass. The bastard looked up at me, hands and feet scrambling.
“Oh, there was,” I said. “You shouldn’t have touched the girl.”
“Whoa, whoa,” he said. “I never touched any girl. Please. You’ve got the wrong guy.”
His pulse, his pupils, his scent—he was terrified, but not lying. As a natural born lie detector, I was sure.
“Black hair,” I said. “Pretty.”
“Really,” he said, voice cracking, “I swear I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I had been so sure.
“You were there,” I said.
“Where?” Was it possible that he was that good of a liar?
“At the morgue.”
“I stopped by earlier to pick up my paycheck,” he said. “But I didn’t see any girl.”
I studied him. The stink of urine filled the small space. No, he wasn’t lying.
I took a step back, seeing the reflection on his glazed eyes. I saw what he saw—I had become what I’d spent so long running from. I’d become what I had accused him of being—a monster.
“She was on your table, barely breathing,” I said.
His wide eyes opened further.
It wasn’t him, but I refused to believe he’d seen nothing. So I asked, “What did you see?”
Chapter Seventeen
Penny
Like a shoelace, Austin’s limbs wound around Kaylee as they both slept. If she so much as breathed funny, he had made sure that he would be the first to know. She was lucky in that way. Their love was easy, as natural as, well, breathing.
When she woke, I would be here, too. I sat beside the bed, in the hard, wooden desk chair that she’d had in her room since she was little. It was the seat where she used to draw, every day as long as I could remember. First it had been scribbles that she had needed to explain to me. Like when she’d made three squiggly lines that somehow were meant to be a turtle. Then it had been fairies and unicorns. By then, the drawings spoke for themselves. I still remember the pink and purple glitter that had to be on everything. Even all of these years later, there was probably a few rogue flecks in the nooks and crannies of the hardwood.
It was difficult to just sit. It was hard not to do something, anything, to help. Part of me wished I was with Axel, that I could be out there catching the degenerate that had hurt my sister. The rest of me felt guilty for even considering it.
I watched the subtle rise and fall of the purple comforter, and thanked the stars that she still breathed. It should have been me. I was out every night. It should have been me that was attacked. I wished I could have said the right thing. Whatever that was. If only I had convinced Kaylee to stay home. I should have tried harder, figured out the words.
Time ticked by, and all I had to show for it was regret. Replaying the last conversation I had shared with my sister. And worse, reliving the night that Danny had died.
I was toxic, harmful to those closest to me. More than ever, I understood Axel. Traveling across the country, away from everything and everyone, held appeal. If I was too far to follow, Kaylee would be safe. She’d be happy here, like she was meant to be, if she didn’t need to worry about me.
A pained sound broke the silence in the room. At the edge of my seat, I took Kaylee’s hand. Her brows furrowed, and her eyes squeezed tight before she finally woke.
“What, where…” her voice was soft, broken.
“I’m here,” I whispered. “You’re okay.”
Kaylee released my hand and touched her neck, where two puncture wounds healed slower than they should have. It was like a bite from a zombie, yet different, cleaner.
“I thought I was dead,” she said, as she inched upright from beneath Austin’s arm. He slept soundly, and didn’t move.
“I’m sure,” I said. “You weren’t far from it. When we found you there on the table, I thought that piece-of…” I choked back the tears that threatened to fall. “I’m glad you’re okay.”
&nbs
p; “Yeah,” she said. “Thanks.”
“Why were you there?” I asked. “I know you were looking for me, but why there? Did you find something I missed?” How had she known it was the coroner before I did? After all of this time, it was my sister who had gotten close to figuring this whole thing out. “How is he turning them? Did you see him?”
She looked at me with confusion. It was too much too fast, she’d only just woken.
“The blond-haired zombie,” I said. “The one that murdered our brother.”
“No,” Kaylee said, and put her hand to her forehead. “No zombies.”
“Did the doctor say anything? Did he tell you why he drained your blood? Did he tell you anything that explains his connection to those monsters?”
“What?” She was still too pale, and more confused than ever.
“The coroner,” I said. “Tall guy, black hair, stupid sunglasses. We followed him to you. He did this to you. Don’t you remember?”
“It wasn’t a man,” she said.
“What?” It was my turn to stare at her in confusion and disbelief.
“I was looking for you,” she said, then cleared her throat. “And when I heard this rustling behind the clinic, I went to check it out.”
My first thought was to tell her that she shouldn’t have checked anything out, that she should have been home. But that wouldn’t help anything, not now. So I just listened.
“There was a woman on the ground, digging through the trash,” she said. “I wasn’t sure what to do. Her clothes were nice, but dirty. Her hair was a mess. When I got close, she looked at me. And I knew her.”
“Who was it?” I asked.
“Amber Maine,” she said. “The girl who buys strawberry ice-cream at the shop every Thursday. Or at least it kind of was her. One of her eyes was yellow, and she didn’t seem to recognize me. She had this crazed look, so I backed away.”
One eye? Did that mean she wasn’t yet completely turned? I hadn’t encountered any zombies like that.
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