Dying Light

by Kory M. Shrum

  Where’d you go?

  “I was watching,” he says. He floods my mind with images of Jeremiah returning to the control room. Jeremiah giving orders to tail and observe us. A man steps onto the adjacent train car at the next stop and glances at us through the small door connecting the cars. I know instantly he is one of Jeremiah’s men, though I almost never see their faces with their black mesh full body armor.

  “There’s a—”

  “I know.” Gloria cuts me off. “Don’t stare.”

  Of course she knows there’s a tail. Gloria is like the closest thing to a ninja I’ve ever met. She didn’t need some froufrou angel to tell her shit.

  We get off the train three stops later and climb the stairs to the street. The wind hits me again and I miss the slightly smelly streetcar. It really is the wind that makes Chicago so damn cold. It cuts me right to the bone.

  “Here we are.” Gloria stops in front of an unimpressive brick building. “Come on.”

  We file into the lobby, bringing up the rear behind Nikki and Ally. Instantly, I’m relieved that the wind stays outside. My iced cheeks begin to melt and I’m hoping my crunchy hair is next.

  Gloria leads us to the stairs on the left side of the elevator.

  The foyer of this apartment building isn’t as glamorous as Tate Tower. It has more of a vintage 1920s feel to it with its dark wood walls, Victorian furniture, and large chandelier. The three of them take the stairs while I linger at the bottom, waiting to see the man from the train.

  No faces show up in the front window outside the turnstile door, and when the lobby guard gives me a suspicious look, I smile and follow the others up the staircase.

  I reach the landing of Gloria’s floor and see the three of them standing outside her apartment door.

  “We need to decide how to proceed,” Ally is saying. She’s already slipping into action mode, examining our problems and looking for a solution. I glance down at her bag in my hands.

  “I want to keep you away from the tower,” Gloria tells her as she slips a key into the lock. “In my sketch—”

  “Wait, what exactly happens to the tower?” Nikki butts in.

  “There’s a picture that Gloria drew,” Ally says, but I’ve stopped listening.

  If I’m going to sneak off and meet Caldwell, now would be the best time. I drop Ally’s bag on the stairway and slip down the staircase again. In the lobby, the guard gives me another suspicious glare, and I force a smile.

  “I forgot something in the car,” I lie and quickly cross the lobby out to the sidewalk.

  Gabriel unfurls his wings beside me. God, if only he could block the wind. That’d be awesome.

  “I don’t know how to find him.”

  “Call him.”

  “Like on my cell phone?”

  “No,” Gabriel says.

  Instantly, I know what he means. I search the street, looking for the tail that could show up any time, but don’t see anyone. A couple of people are walking on the opposite side of the street toward some unknown destination, but they don’t spare me a glance.

  My teeth start to chatter and the tips of my fingers go numb. The remaining damp tendrils of hair ice on my head. Again. I close my eyes anyway and try to focus my mind.

  Caldwell? I cast the thought out into the wide expanse of the city. If he’s really watching my every move, he might hear me.

  Caldwell, I think again. Come and get me.

  Chapter 11

  Ally

  Gloria slips her key into the lock of her apartment and we step into the small living room. It’s a studio with a hotplate in one corner on top of a cabinet and a water closet in the other. No doubt it is three times the cost of my apartment back in Nashville, even if it is only a fraction of the size.

  I turn to Jesse, but she’s gone.

  It’s only the three of us—me, Nikki, and Gloria.

  “Where’s Jesse?” I have to squeeze the words out of my throat over my pounding heart.

  Gloria sits her bag on the bed and turns to me. “She might be with Caldwell.”

  “What?” Nikki and I yell in unison.

  “You’re kidding,” Nikki says, dropping her bag on the floor of the apartment.

  “Gloria!” I exclaim. “You knew and you just let her go?”

  Gloria sinks into the chair. Her eyes are puffy with exhaustion as she scratches the back of her head. “She chose this and it is her choice.”

  I turn and run from the room. After stumbling over my bag on the steps, I take the stairs two at a time. I fall against the wall as I wind my way down from the fifth floor to the first. I stumble into the lobby and see Jesse standing on the sidewalk, her hands in the pockets of her hoodie.

  I rush across the lobby, straight for her. As I reach the door, Caldwell appears on the sidewalk beside her. He says something, but I can’t hear their voices clearly through the thick glass.

  “Jesse, no!”

  She turns toward the sound of my voice. Stupidly, she turns her back to the one man who wants her dead more than anyone else in the world.

  Our eyes meet, and the shield goes up around me. This makes me even more furious that at a time like this, she still chooses to protect me rather than herself.

  I try to squeeze through the turnstile door but I can’t with the shield around me.

  “It’s a trap,” I yell. “He’s manipulating you.”

  Caldwell reaches up and wraps his arms around her. Over her shoulder he gives me the most malicious grin.

  Caldwell takes one step back, and then they’re gone.

  Jesse is gone.

  Chapter 12

  Ally

  “How could you just let her go?” I whirl on Gloria who comes to a stop in the middle of the lobby, her cheeks flushed from her quick descent. Nikki reaches up and presses the earbud on her intercom.

  “Caldwell has taken Sullivan. Keep an eye out and report to me if she’s spotted.”

  “I didn’t let her do anything,” Gloria says, clenching her teeth. “And no matter what I did, we would still be here because people make choices. I have to work with what I’m given.”

  It’s her self-restraint that gets me. It encourages me to reel in my anger though it’s hot and fresh, picking at the sides of my face, throat, and chest. “I’m sorry.” The words come out of my mouth, hard. I take a breath and try again. “I’m sorry. I know you would’ve done something if you could.”

  “Hopefully, they’ll spot them and we’ll know where to go,” Nikki says.

  I reach out and squeeze her hand. “Thank you.”

  “Is everything all right, Ms. Delaney?” the man behind the desk asks. It takes me a moment to realize he’s talking to Gloria.

  Delaney, as in her brother Micah Delaney. Now that I’ve read the journals, I understand Caldwell’s A.M.P, the one who used his power of sight to trap Jesse and the rest of us, is—was—Gloria’s brother. How hard it must’ve been for her to accept that her baby brother was working for the other side. What had it cost her to kill him herself?

  “We’re fine,” Gloria tells him. She meets my eyes. “Can we go upstairs and talk?”

  “Of course.” All the fight leaves me. I’m still angry that Jesse let Caldwell take her. It is incredibly stupid and dangerous. But I can’t take that anger out on Gloria. She’s been through too much.

  We take the elevator this time and enter Gloria’s apartment with all the gravity of a funeral procession. As soon as Gloria shuts the door on her little space, I speak up.

  “I don’t understand, why would she let him take her? She could have stopped him if she wanted.”

  Gloria takes a seat at her little two-person table. “Whether or not she will admit it to herself, she wants to be with him.”

  “Excuse me?” I can’t wrap my mind around the idea that anyone would want to be alone with a sadist.

  “She’s changing,” Gloria says.

  I open my eyes wider at Gloria, and give a sideways glance at Nikki. She c
an hear you, I think.

  Gloria shrugs. “This isn’t anything Tamsin doesn’t know.”

  Nikki gives me an apologetic smile. “Jeremiah has a theory. The longer the partis are exposed to their powers, and the more powers they acquire, the less stable they are. And on some instinctual level, they want to be together. Like a squirrel’s instinct to bury nuts or a bird’s instinct to fly south. The power is dictating their actions just as much as their own thoughts now.”

  Gloria flips open the sketchbook. “Just like the other partis are drawn to Jesse, she’s drawn to him. It isn’t smart, but it’s instinct. I am not sure she can resist it, or even fully consider what a bad idea it is.”

  “Maybe he manipulated her mind,” Nikki says, her fingers still grazing the gun on her hip.

  “He can confuse her, but not control her,” Gloria says.

  A snippet of Brinkley’s journal comes back to me. You can mindfuck us all day. But you can’t fool her.

  “Or you,” I tell her. Gloria doesn’t spare me a glance. “I wonder why he hasn’t tried that trick on me yet. You’d think he’d love the spectacle.”

  “Maybe you’re different too.” Gloria looks up from her sketchbook and meets my eyes.

  I laugh. “I’ve no family history of NRD and I don’t have the AB- blood type. Jesse was able to replace me, so that negates any remaining chance I have NRD.”

  “I don’t understand why it was so essential that we left Tate Tower. We are better equipped, better staffed, better everything. If there was to be a bombing of some kind—”

  Gloria hands Nikki the sketchbook and then locks herself up in the bathroom.

  Nikki stares at the picture. “We need to evacuate to the South Side building then. Unless she’s sketched that one too?”

  I shrug. “I don’t know. You’ll have to ask.”

  Nikki gives up on trying to interpret the sketch and pulls me into her arms. She kisses my cheeks and runs her fingers through my hair. “Jesse is tough. She’ll be okay.”

  “You’re a saint,” I say, wrapping my hands around her neck.

  She laughs. “Hardly.”

  “Jesse is so mean to you, and yet you never bad mouth her to me.”

  “Because I know you love her.” Nikki’s voice constricts around the word love. “She’s a smart ass, but she’s also innocent. She doesn’t deserve to be murdered. Jeremiah wouldn’t let her be killed any more than he’d let anyone else be.”

  I look into her eyes. “It’s more than that. Jeremiah’s not protecting some child here. He wants something from Jesse.”

  A pained expression crosses her face. “I would tell you if I could.”

  “But you do know? At least admit you know. Don’t try to make me think I’m crazy or imagining things.”

  “You’re not crazy. But I can’t tell you.”

  “You should go back to Tate Tower.”

  “No. Jeremiah gave me leave to be here, and I want to help you. I do, Al. Please let me help you. I understand why you don’t trust him, but you can trust me.”

  “Okay, but let’s make a deal,” I say, because we do need her help to get Jesse back. Again. By filtering Jeremiah’s assistance through Nikki, maybe we are keeping ourselves safer and Jeremiah at a distance without giving up resources. Or maybe that won’t work at all. I don’t know. “When you talk to Jeremiah, tell him I want to know the real reason for his generosity. I’ll never be able to trust him unless I understand his motivation. Tell him that unless he’s willing to tell us why he’s in this, Jesse and I are never coming back.”

  Nikki’s eyebrows shoot up. “Never?”

  “Never. Tell him that.”

  Nikki frowns, clearly wanting to object. Then she tries to hide her sad smile by kissing me. “I’ll tell him.”

  Gloria steps out of the bathroom and turns off the light behind her. “I ordered a pizza. Nicole, can you go down and wait for it?”

  It isn’t a subtle request by anyone’s standards, but Gloria is trying.

  Nikki gives me a sidelong look. “I was heading down anyway.”

  She plants a kiss on my cheek and slips out of the room. As soon as the door closes, Gloria turns to me.

  “What’s going on?” I ask her.

  “We might have to kill her,” Gloria says, deadpan.

  Shock rocks my body. “Oh my god, why?”

  She doesn’t answer me. Instead, she stares at the back of the door as if waiting for Nikki to pop back in.

  “I hope you’re kidding.”

  “Anything is possible.” Gloria slips back into her seat at the table, her sketches spread out before her. “Sometimes the only option is to kill the one we love.”

  I sink into a chair at the table. “Surely you didn’t send her down for a pizza just to let me know you intend to kill her.”

  “No. I thought you could use the time to work on the partis. Have you weeded them out yet?”

  Guilt washes over me. Was I that obvious? I thought I handled the situation back in Tate Tower pretty well. When we were locked out of the rooms, I was near frantic. My laptop, papers, and Brinkley’s journal were still tucked under the bed. What if Nikki had found them while I was away? Luckily, I was able to scoop everything up while Nikki packed her own bag.

  “How many do you have left?” Gloria asks, prompting me again to spill it.

  “I just crossed off two more. There are still twelve people I’m checking into.”

  Gloria nods, pulling her own laptop out of her bag. “Keep searching. We need to know everything we can about the others with powers. I think there are eight partis left, including Jesse and Caldwell.”

  I gather up my bag and open it. It’s relief more than anything that I feel when I pull out the laptop and power it on. I always hated sneaking around. More often than not, I wondered who exactly I was protecting and if it was even worth it.

  “I assume you don’t want Nikki to know what I’m doing then.”

  Gloria flicks her eyes up to meet mine. “She is loyal to Jeremiah and Jeremiah does not want what we want.”

  My stomach churns. I trust Gloria’s judgment, but I also hope that Nikki is on my side too, even if she and Jesse mix about as well as oil and water.

  “Then maybe we shouldn’t work for him,” I tell her.

  The lines between Gloria’s brows smooth over. “The enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

  She has a point. Jeremiah is serving his purpose, I suppose. He provides support and a home base here in Chicago so we can be closer to Caldwell. He has resources we don’t and he is doing some good. And Nikki is a good person, if nothing else.

  “How did you know I was researching them?” I ask Gloria while waiting for the black screen to blink to life.

  “I saw you.”

  I can only assume she means while viewing me. “And?”

  “You should keep doing it. We may need that information very soon.”

  “Why?” I type in my password and I’m rewarded with the article on Monroe Dupree. His haunted face bores into mine.

  Gloria’s eyes fall on her sketchbook. Her fingers reach out and trace the edge of the yellow cover. “We’ve got company coming.”

  Chapter 13

  Jesse

  “So what’s the plan?” I ask and push myself out of Caldwell’s arms. “More mind rape? Or would you rather bury me in a box and let me suffocate repeatedly? That was fun.”

  “You have no reason to trust me,” he says, running his hand through his hair.

  “Nope.”

  “All that I ask is that you listen to what I have to say.”

  “Isn’t that what the devil always says? Then you find yourself getting pitchforked from behind, 24/7 for eternity.”

  I take a turn about the room and realize I have no idea where we are. No windows and no doors. Shit. It’s another kind of coffin.

  “Walls can be knocked down,” Gabriel reminds me, his voice faint in the back of my mind.

  “This room isn’t doorless t
o contain you,” Caldwell says and crosses to the sofa on the far wall. “It’s for my protection. No one can come in and out of here except me.”

  “So why am I in your safe room?” I’m trying to figure out where to put myself. “You plan to leave me here to starve to death? Because I will totally blow this room apart.”

  “I wanted somewhere private for us to talk.”

  “Where’s Winston?”

  “He’s safe with your sister.”

  “Yeah, about that.” I do another turn around the room but there’s nothing to fixate on with the lack of windows, doors, or décor of any kind, save three pieces of furniture. Two rose-colored chairs and a sofa, which he drapes himself over, like a French courtesan. “Tell me about this so-called sister.”

  “Her name is Maisie. She’ll be seventeen in February.”

  I go all weak in the knees.

  “She’s eight years younger than me. You must’ve had her right after you died.”

  “16 months after.”

  “And she’s been with you ever since?”

  “Breathe,” Gabriel says. The scent of rain intensifies. “Breathe, Jesse.”

  “She was born in the camp and raised by foster parents until she was six. It took us that long to get her back. Georgia, her mother, insists we keep her close.”

  Her mother insists we keep her close. So while he saw fit to keep one daughter close he left the other one in the care of a pedophile. What. The. Fuck.

  “Are you kidding me? And what about me?”

  “You were already fifteen by the time I got out of the camps.”

  “That was when the worst of it started,” I told him. “You could’ve come back for me. You could’ve saved me from all that shit.”

  The power rolls along my skin, and the more I look at his snide little face, the more I know I want to firebomb him. I want to watch the skin burn off his bones just like Eddie’s.