by Tracey Ward
Across the street in the shadow of another doorway is a figure. A ghost, thin and frail with too white skin and long red hair.
The girl.
I silently curse myself for not paying enough attention to where we are. Ryan has parked himself in a doorway almost directly across the street from the girl’s home and suddenly I’m worried for both of them. I seriously consider stepping out into the fading daylight to get Ryan’s attention, spook the wolf, and divert everyone away from the girl, but if Ryan doesn’t deal with this demon on his back tonight, he’ll be obsessed with it for another month. Maybe longer this time. Maybe he’ll find it some night when I’m on the roof or just too tired to keep following him, and he’ll get himself killed.
Ryan takes his time, the way I taught him. He waits for the wolf to pad slowly through the street, sniffing at abandoned cars and brushing up against random debris that fills the streets. The girl lives in No Man’s Land, deep in the forgotten streets of Seattle to the east of the Hyperion Theater and far north of where the Hydes used to be. No wonder no one has ever found her. There’s no reason for anyone to be this far east. Not unless you’re a Colony.
When the wolf has passed him, putting Ryan in his rearview, Ryan suddenly makes his move.
“No,” I whisper, watching as he pulls himself from the shadows. He’s rushing quietly toward the road. Toward the wolf. He’s positioning himself directly behind the animal. “No, no, no. What the hell are you doing?”
This is not what I taught him. This is stupid. I don’t teach stupid.
The wind shifts, betrays him, and suddenly the wolf smells him. It turns slowly, rounding on him just as he was advancing on it, and suddenly they’re face to face. The wolf’s hair rises sharply, a lone line of anger etched down it’s back to its tail that sticks out straight behind it. They stay frozen that way for a series of painfully long seconds; Ryan hunched and ready with his knife, the wolf crouched low with his teeth bared. A low snarl vibrates through the air, rattling the tension. Buzzing in my lungs. I creep out of the shadows, careful not to let them or the girl see me, as I make my way toward the road. I’m hiding behind a tireless truck when I see the real threat to all of us. It’s the reason the wolf isn’t attacking yet.
It’s not alone.
In the distance, through the grass, I spot the reflection of an eye in the moonlight. Then another. Low and slow, they make their way forward from far down the road. Three blocks or so. They’re coming, and just like that, we’ve lost the advantage. Ryan, a girl, and me against three wolves. I can save one of them, but I can’t save both, and the thought rips through my chest with surprising severity. I’ve focused for so long on saving Ryan, I never imagined I’d be tasked with saving anyone else.
Ryan launches at the wolf, his blade out. He shouts into the quiet. The wolf growls in agreement and the two of them collide in a mess of gnashing teeth, sharp claws, and cold steel. They hit the ground, the wolf on top of Ryan, and just like that, I can’t see them anymore. They’ve vanished, swallowed up by the grass and the darkening day. Ryan shouts in pain and fear, sending my heart so high up inside my throat, I taste aorta.
I creep closer, rapidly closing the distance between us.
The girl curses.
Her voice holds me back. She’s played her hand before I can, and I watch her step out of the shadows toward the scuffle. Her eyes are locked on the ground where Ryan and the wolf went down. Her hand is gripped tightly around a knife. I stare in amazement as she comes around the wolf’s side, just out of sight. When she slashes at it, drawing blood and its attention, I nearly yell for her to stop. To run away. To hide. But it’s too late. Both Ryan and the wolf see her, and the wolf is closing on her.
“Get up,” she snaps at Ryan. “Slowly.”
She’s locked eyes with the wolf, her knife held steady and her feet moving carefully over the uneven ground. She’s backing up. She’s drawing the animal from Ryan.
He stands quickly. I’m relieved to see his knife is still in his hand, but his other arm is bleeding openly. Dark blood drips onto the green grass that’s clawing at his thighs as he goes to stand next to the girl. He looks so much taller than her, so much bigger, it makes me nervous for her. Even though I know he’d never hurt her, it’s a reminder of how vulnerable she is.
She looks at him out of the corner of her eye. Despite the tension in her body, her voice is calm and low; soothing for the wolf and her own survival. “Get out of here,” she tells Ryan.
He frowns stubbornly. “No way.”
“I wasn’t asking. Go.”
“No.”
The way she looks at him then, I worry a little less about the wolf and a little more about the knife in her hand. “Get out of here. Now.”
The wolf is impatient. He moves aggressively toward them, snarling quietly.
“Not until he’s dead,” Ryan insists deeply.
“Seriously? You want wolf for dinner that bad?”
“I want revenge that bad.”
“This is for revenge? On a wolf?”
Ryan rolls his shoulders slowly. “He killed my brother.”
“Unbelievable.”
She takes a slow, deliberate step backward. The light through the buildings shifts across her face and I get my first really good look at her. Her hair is a darker red now that it appears in the sunlight. Her eyes are pale, maybe blue. Her skin is pure white, her bone structure too delicate. She reminds me of a porcelain doll Diane had at the Farm. It always made me uncomfortable just to look at. It was impractical. She kept it in a locked cabinet to make sure no one played with it or dropped it. That thing couldn’t survive a strong gust of wind let alone the apocalypse. This girl must be made of something stronger than porcelain, but she sure as hell doesn’t look it, and she gives me that same uneasy feeling the doll did. Like she’s not meant for real life.
The wolf shadows the girl’s step, advancing on them as she retreats.
“Where are you going?” Ryan whispers anxiously.
“If you won’t leave, I will,” she answers matter-of-fact. “Good luck with this. You’re gonna die.”
Just as Ryan takes a step to follow her, the other wolves arrive, growling low. I’ve been keeping an eye on them, hoping these two will get inside before they got too close, but they’re taking it down to the wire. If Ryan and the girl wait too much longer, I’ll have to step in. Ryan will be angry I lied to him. The girl will be terrified two gang members have found her. The wolves won’t be happy either.
My hand tenses around the handle of my own blade. My back sweats cold and clammy under the weight of my backpack and my thighs are starting to scream from being crouched down in this position for so long, ready to launch at a moment’s notice.
Get inside the building, I think urgently. Quit talking and just run already.
Ryan curses angrily.
The girl chuckles. “Yeah.”
“We need to run. We can’t fight them all off.”
“We can’t outrun them all either,” she replies reasonably.
“No.”
She licks her lips, looking quickly over her shoulder. She’s gaging the distance.
Good girl, I think. Do the math. You’ve got one shot at this.
“Back up,” she tells Ryan quietly. “Keep backing up and head to the left. There’s a doorway. That’s where we’re going.”
Ryan looks to where she’s directing him. “You’ve been in this building before?”
“A time or two.”
“There’s a door close by that we can close on them?”
“Why else would I be taking us there?”
“Sorry if I don’t trust the judgement of a total stranger,” Ryan snaps back.
Her hand flexes irritably on her knife. “You’re really saying that to the girl who just saved your life? If I’d known you were getting revenge, I would have happily watched you die.”
“You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You have no idea
what you’re doing.”
Wolves, you idiots. Shut up and run from the wolves!
I move in closer to them.
So do the wolves.
Ryan shakes his head angrily, practically shouting, “I didn’t ask you to help me. You didn’t have to be a part of this.”
“No, but you needed help. And you made me part of this when you staged your Shakespearean drama at my front door.”
Ryan deflates, frowning. “This is where you—”
“Run!” the girl and I shout at the same time, my voice drowned out by hers and the chorus of rage coming from the wolves lunging at them.
When they turn to run, the wolves are quick to follow. Too quick. I’m not sure they’re going to make it inside, so I go after them, sprinting through the grass. Leaping over a toppled power line pole.
They make it inside the lobby of the building. I hang back, hiding just outside the entrance, and I listen. Their feet thunder over hard floors, echoing up into cracked ceilings. The wolves’ claws click violently behind them. Metal creaks. It clangs hard, like the sound of a gate closing. The wolves growl and bark. The girl screams.
I look around the corner, ready to run in to save her, but Ryan already has her. They’re behind a gate leading to the stairs. It’s closed but one of the wolves has gotten ahold of her jacket through the grates. It’s pulling her painfully against the door, but Ryan grabs her shoulders and wrenches her back. Her jacket tears but she falls against him, unhurt.
Ryan breathes heavily, smiling at her with a lopsided grin that I’ve seen his brother give to women all over the wild. The one that always makes them smile back.
“That was close,” he tells the girl.
She looks up at him, at that smile, and stares for half a beat.
Then she punches him in the face.
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
Vin
“A Colony has fallen.”
Marlow looks at Andy with greed in his eyes and a devilish delight in his tone when he asks, “Which one?”
“The MOHAI.”
“How many people?”
“Over two hundred.”
“Well,” he sighs, satisfied as a fat, flatulent cat. “That went well, didn’t it?”
Andy frowns. “Sir?”
“Thank you for the update, Andy,” Marlow excuses him, already waving him away. “Close the door behind you.”
Andy obediently leaves the room without a word. He pulls the door closed soundly behind him, leaving Asher and I alone with Marlow.
It’s last place in the world I want to be.
Marlow sits on his throne as always, his eyes distant. His mind is churning. I lock eyes with Asher across the room, and I know he’s thinking the same thing I am.
Did Breanne’s baby go to the MOHAI?
There are only two men in this gang who know the answer to that question: Marlow and Hector. And neither one of them will ever tell us a thing, even if we could ask them.
“The Colonies are becoming a problem,” I tell Marlow quietly, forcing him to work to hear me. “First they grab our men in a roundup and now this? The Risen population will explode if it’s not contained.”
He runs his hand over his mouth, shaking his head. “It won’t be.”
“How do you know?”
“Because I made sure it couldn’t be.”
Asher shifts, his arms dropping at his sides. “You brought the MOHAI down?”
“A team of ours did, yes.”
“Why the hell is this the first I’m hearing about it?” I demand, unable to stop myself.
Marlow never makes a move without me, and now he made a play for the MOHAI and he didn’t bring me in on it?
Marlow sits back in his seat, lowering his hand slowly. “Because, Vincent, I am not beholden to you. I owe you nothing, including an explanation of my actions.”
“You wanna throw it at me anyway? Just for fun?”
“You want to know why I did it?”
“No, I want to know why you did it without telling me.”
“Because. I. Could,” he pronounces carefully. “That’s why. I don’t need you for everything, Vin. I worry you’re beginning to get a bloated sense of self-worth. It’s troubling.”
I chew on the inside of my cheek. I taste blood but I stop myself from mouthing off any more than I already have because I’ll just be proving his point. I’ll play right into his hand.
Marlow watches me struggle with my anger for a few more seconds before continuing. “It was time to strike. The Colonies tried to hide all the jenny parts from us. They tried to short us on the baby we delivered. They forgot who they were dealing with so I made a point to remind them.”
“How did you do it?” Asher asks calmly.
“I sent a team of men into the MOHAI. They broke into their basement where they keep the generators and they stole every part they could carry. Then they went to the kitchens where they added a few jars of Risen blood to their ingredients.”
“Jesus, you poisoned them with zombie blood?” I growl. “That’s how you took them down? With a nuclear bomb?”
Marlow doesn’t answer. He doesn’t look at me. He freezes me out and I have to fight every muscle in my body to keep from jumping up onto that stupid stage of his and snapping his head clean around to the back of his body where he can kiss his own ass.
Asher clears his throat uncomfortably. “How did you make sure the Risen can’t be contained?”
Marlow sighs, like we’re annoying him. Like this is all so irritating for him to deal with. “The fences were destroyed. It wasn’t hard. They were weak and inefficient.”
“And you did it because…” I nudge him impatiently.
“Because I can.”
“Yeah, you mentioned that. That’s bull.”
“Is it?”
“It is,” I fire back. “The real reason you did it is because they pissed you off. You got slighted and you lashed out.”
“Perhaps. Then again, I might have done it because I want to expand.”
“You might have cleared the MOHAI but you can’t take it.”
“I believe I can. It’ll be vacant soon. Well, of anything living.”
“And that doesn’t feel like a problem to you?”
“At first, it might be, but once the Risen are cleaned out, we can take control.”
“You mean once we clean it out we can start fighting the Colony for control, because they’re not going to walk away like it’s nothing.”
“If we fortified the fences,” Asher says slowly, “we might be able to hold it.”
I stare at him, stunned. “You’re on board with this?”
“It’s already done, V. You can’t undo it. And be real, man. Would you undo it if you could?”
The simple answer is no. I won’t lie, my palms are sweating with excitement at the idea of an empty Colony. The possibilities are endless. Marlow would immediately move into the castle by the water but he’d never give up the aquarium to do it. He’d leave it with someone else. Someone he’s been grooming for years. Someone he knows could hold it for him, come hell or high water.
Someone like me.
He sees me thinking it. He’s watching me, grinning into his palm because he knows he’s got me, and I want to rip him apart for trapping me like this. He’s caged me with my own desire because he’s a crafty son of a bitch. He’s smarter than me, I’ve always known that, but I assumed that because I’m faster and younger and just better than he is, that I’d make it out from under him someday. Free and clear. But this, taking over the aquarium for him, that’s not freedom. It’s just a different kind of slavery. It’s worse in a way because it looks like everything I want, but it comes with a shackle I can never shake off.
Marlow would still own me. Always and forever.
“It’s tempting,” I answer without really answering.
“We’ll be making moves to take it immediately,” Marlow warns me.
“Who’ll lead the siege?”
&
nbsp; “Chapman.”
I laugh in amazement. “Are you for real? How does that guy keep failing up?”
“It’s not a promotion. It’s a calculation. It’ll be a dangerous job taking the MOHAI and holding it. If it’s a failure, I can’t risk losing anyone important. Chapman is the logical choice.”
“He’s an idiot.”
“Who is fully expendable.”
“Aren’t you worried he’ll screw it up?”
“Deeply,” Marlow admits. “But what choice do we have? We have to act quickly and we have to act carefully. I can’t exactly send you, can I?”
I stand up straight, my chin lifting. My pride boning me the way it always does. “I’d get it done.”
“I believe you. But I also have concerns about sending you.”
I know what his concerns are. He’s worried I’d take it and keep it.
And he’s absolutely right.
“You can trust me.”
Marlow chuckles. “And you, Vincent, can trust me. Wholly and completely.”
“I see your point.”
“I knew you would.”
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Trent
I watch the girl’s building from across the street. I sit on the slightly higher roof and I follow their shadows through the window carefully. Ryan is inside an apartment with her. It’s a large, nearly empty space. A loft, from what I can tell. The wolves are long gone. The gave up on getting through solid steel after about ten minutes of angry barking. Before coming up here, I thought about killing that wolf. I could have ended it right there, but would it really have ended it? Even if Ryan kills it, will he be better afterward? Is that closure of some kind or is it just wishful thinking on both our parts? Honestly, I don’t know and the not knowing bothers me more than anything has in a really long time. The uncertainty sits with me up here on the roof like an annoying companion that won’t shut up and won’t go away.
I think the girl knows how I feel. Through my binoculars, I can see Ryan moving around her room, making himself at home. He’s touching things. Her things. It’s driving her crazy. Her body language speaks volumes and all of them are uncomfortable.