by Wendy Knight
She leaned back in the snow, intending to push herself up. Instead, burning pain flashed across her forearm. She shrieked and jerked away, trying to figure out how she’d accidentally sank into fire.
There wasn’t fire, although the snow was melted. No, it was…
Empyrean blood.
Cole was already moving, washing it off with icy snow, but it had left its mark, taking off the first couple layers of skin, and it burned like crazy. “It’s like acid,” Cole muttered, trying to get it all off as it burned deeper.
“It’s okay.” She stilled his hands. “You got it all.”
He shook under her touch, and his frantic eyes still searched for more injuries, more pain. She reached up with her good hand and cradled his cheek in her palm. “Cole, I’m okay. You got it all.”
The fear and pain in his eyes as he stared back at her broke her heart. That was her fault, too.
“We need to wrap it before it gets infected. Who knows what alien blood will do to you.” Enika dug through the first aid kit that she had somehow had the presence of mind to grab from the fire. “Thank goodness we kept all the perishable food outside. That’ll be what saved us.”
Yeah, thank goodness for that. But the medicines, the supplies… it was all gone.
Her fault.
The sun’s rays broke through the frozen air just as Enika was securing the last of the bandages. The fire still hadn’t died, and Phoenyx was honestly not sure it would ever stop burning. It had engulfed the garage, spread to the big tree and on to outer buildings. If it kept up like that, it could take out the entire neighborhood, and there was nothing they could do about it. Thank goodness for the frozen ground covered in snow, or things could have gotten very dangerous. Half of the city had been taken out because of looting right after the first invasion. People didn’t seem to realize how dangerous homemade bombs could be without a fire department to save the day.
Until it was too late.
Cole found a wheelbarrow in one of the nearby houses and came back with it. “Load this up. I’m going to find another one for Enika.”
“I’m not riding in a wheelbarrow. I’ll walk just fine.” Enika planted her hands on her hips and raised an eyebrow threateningly. If she hadn’t been covered in ash and soot and burns, and limping on top of that, she might have looked fierce.
“You can’t walk,” Phoenyx said gently as she loaded what supplies they had left into the wheelbarrow.
Enika scowled. “I’m not riding in a wheelbarrow.”
In the end, though, she didn’t have a choice. Cole picked her up and dumped her into the bed and wheeled her down the street. Phoenyx followed with everything else.
The neighborhood was practically empty. A few men had come out to watch the fire, but none had offered to help. They watched silently as Cole and Phoenyx went by, struggling to push their loads through the snow-covered street. She didn’t dare turn her back on them — too many times she’d been jumped for her supplies, and here she was carrying enough for three of them. She had her gun, but she couldn’t exactly carry it in her hand and push at the same time.
Enika shifted her weight so she could watch their backs, though, and the men kept their distance. “We’re not safe in this neighborhood,” Cole said under his breath.
Phoenyx agreed. Which meant a long walk to the next one over, and trying to find a house before anyone found them.
Never mind the tracks in the snow.
They made slow progress, and Enika watched like a hawk, but they made it before the sun had hit its peak. They picked a house that was easily defended, and Cole dumped Enika and the supplies out on the porch and took off with the wheelbarrows, presumably to make tracks leading in other directions. Phoenyx swept the house, looking for any sign of alien or evil human, and Enika kept watch from just inside the door, muttering all the while about her stupid foot and lack of a decent weapon.
The house was clear. It was small, two floors, but a high roof in case the Garce came back. Phoenyx checked through every window, trying to keep an eye on Cole, because none of them should have gone anywhere alone — they all knew that, and yet there they were, alone.
They were practically asking to be attacked.
“How do you think the Pys learned to read?” Enika asked when Phoenyx came down the stairs, tucking her gun into the holster.
She snorted. “Random, but…I don’t know. The same way they learned our language, I guess. Foreign translators?. House is clear.”
Enika nodded, unamused by Phoenyx’s joke, and turned to watch Cole. He was several blocks away now, getting too far to make it back safely if something happened. Phoenyx could understand trying to confuse the trail, but there would be no point if the Garce caught him. “I wonder if English is their native language. They speak it so well. No accent or anything.”
Phoenyx joined her in the doorway, motioning to Cole. Come back. “It does have that weird lilt, though.”
“Not just that.” Enika wrinkled her nose. “Their pamphlets were like professionally made. It couldn’t have been from someone who didn’t speak our language amazingly well. They had to have been fluent in our language, culture, everything.”
Phoenyx pursed her lips, trying to remember the pamphlet. She should have paid more attention the first time she’d read it, apparently. “You got all that from a pamphlet?”
Enika grinned. “I’m just that good.”
Chapter 10
THE PYS COULDN’T FIND them. Cole heard them yelling for Phoenyx in the dead of night while they were trying to sleep. He saw Phoenyx at the window, watching them search.
And then they attacked the neighborhood.
House after house fell under their fires. Phoenyx held her fist to her mouth, and Enika buried her face in her hands, and they stayed frozen like that for hours. Those men who had watched Cole’s house burn earlier now died in their own. Metallic blue flames devoured everything, jumping from house to tree to sheds to the next house, over and over again.
“Will it get to us?” Enika asked through her fingers.
Phoenyx shook her head, and when she realized Enika couldn’t see her, she lowered her fist. “No. We’re across the highway and the wind is blowing the wrong way. Unless the Pys think to look here.”
Cole searched the skies, but the metallic glint of their wings was nowhere to be seen.
“Will it—will it get our old house?” Enika asked in a small voice.
Cole studied the fire, the layout. He couldn’t see his old house from where they stood, but there was a chance, with the road running parallel to the fire, that his house would be protected. “I don’t think so.”
Phoenyx swallowed. “Red eyes,” she whispered.
Cole jerked his gaze back to the streets. The heat had drawn the Garce, and they prowled through the streets like giant, overgrown hell hounds.
“Should we go to the roof?” Enika whispered. The Garce were across the highway and several streets away, but the slightest sound could draw their attention.
“No. Not yet.” Phoenyx narrowed her eyes, and at first Cole thought she was trying to see better. It took him several seconds to remember that Phoenyx had perfect vision. She wasn’t squinting. She was angry.
Phoenyx had always been hot-headed. She did stupid things when she was angry. He was about to ask what she was thinking when the Pys returned, shooting through the night sky like comets, and he wondered if all those times they thought they were watching shooting stars, they were actually watching Pys. Coming to destroy them all.
They attacked the Garce, their blood balls embedding in the shadowy skin before the Garce even realized they were there. Akit landed next to one and bared her fangs. Just like in every vampire movie Cole had ever seen, she latched onto the Garce and drank.
Aylin wasn’t so delicate. She tore into one with her claws, feasting on its flesh while blood, inky and thick, spilled around her, soaking the pure white snow.
Enika gagged and spun away. Phoenyx had gone pu
re white and looked like she, too, wanted to throw up, but couldn’t tear her eyes from the chaos below them. “Why’d they kill the Garce now? They haven’t killed us yet.”
Cole shook his head. “They’re starving. Look at the way they eat.”
“Maybe they just have no table manners.” At any other time, it would have been funny. But Phoenyx didn’t even crack a smile. She finally nodded. “Yeah. They’re starving.”
There was a desperation in the way the Pys ate. Their tattoos, which Cole hadn’t even realized had faded, glowed more brightly with each passing minute.
“They were starving, and they let the Garce attack us instead of eating? That was rude.” Enika hadn’t returned to the window. She sat with her back to a dresser and stared at the opposite wall.
“Very,” Phoenyx murmured. They were silent for a long time, and Cole didn’t see the tear tracing its way down Phoenyx’s cheek until she turned away from the window and it glinted in the light from the fire. “In case—in case something happens, and I don’t get a chance to say this… Enika, you saved me. I was lost when you found me in class. Ready to give up.” She turned and knelt next to her friend. “You have no idea how close I was to giving up, and you swooped in like it was no big deal, and I wouldn’t have made it through that month, let alone all this time later, without you. Thank you. For everything.”
Something felt off about her words. She was too upset, there was too much emotion. Like she was giving up.
Enika hugged her tight but laughed shakily. “It was no big deal. I needed you as much as you needed me. You’re my best friend!”
Phoenyx shook her head and with a shaking hand, brushed the tears from her cheeks. Slowly, she rose to her feet. “I don’t—I don’t even know—”
“Don’t.” Cole shook his head and pulled her against his chest. “Don’t you say goodbye to me, Phoenyx.”
“Goodbye?” Enika yelped. “Who’s saying goodbye?”
“She’s giving up,” Cole snarled, harsher than he meant to be.
Phoenyx jerked back like she’d been slapped. “I’m giving up? How dare you—”
“You’re saying goodbye.” He would have yelled, but he couldn’t attract the Pys. “Why else would you do that?”
“Just—just in case—”
“If you were doing it just in case, you would have done it when we were trapped in that tree for hours on end.” He crossed his arms over his chest. “I won’t let you quit on us, Phoenyx.”
“I—I would never do that, Cole.”
Which he knew. But the way she was acting, the tears that soaked her cheeks. Something didn’t add up.
“Hey.” Enika struggled to her feet. “We’re all exhausted. Of course we’re going to be emotional. I’ll keep watch. Let’s get some sleep.”
Phoenyx shook her head. “I’ll take first watch. You can’t watch them anyway. Weak stomach,” she teased, but the smile didn’t reach her eyes.
Enika rolled her eyes. “You clearly need sleep more than the rest of us.”
Phoenyx shrugged. “I wouldn’t be able to sleep anyway. Too upset. But we’ll have to move again tomorrow. Farther away. So let’s get as much rest as we can.” To Cole, she said, “I’m sorry I scared you. I’m just—it’s been a rough day.”
He instantly felt like a monster. He knew how hard it had been. She so rarely complained and never showed fear. He forgot sometimes how difficult this was on her. How she shouldered so much of the burden. They were a team, but she carried all the emotional weight. “I’m sorry I yelled. I just—I can’t lose you, Phoenyx.”
Another tear escaped, despite her fight, and her bottom lip trembled. “I know,” she whispered. There was something else, something she wanted to say, but she didn’t. Instead she kissed him, buried her head against his chest, and listened to him breathe for several long seconds. “Sleep now. You have to take next watch.” She grinned and pushed him away.
But sleep didn’t come, despite the overwhelming exhaustion. He watched her stare out the window for hours, until Enika’s soft snores were the only sound, and the Garce lay dead below them.
It was then that Phoenyx moved.
At first, he thought she was coming to bed, to get him for his shift. But she moved past the bed and out the door. He frowned, sitting up, straining to hear her footsteps. Maybe she just needed a break from the chaos outside. Maybe she was pacing the hall. Except she went down the stairs. Apparently a midnight snack, then.
The door creaked below him.
His exhausted brain first thought the Pys had come in. Or the Garce, which was stupid because they didn’t open doors, they busted through them. By the time he realized what Phoenyx had done and made it to the window, she was sprinting down the road as hard as she could go.
He didn’t even bother with shoes. He took the stairs four at a time and raced after her. “Phoenyx,” he bellowed once safely away from the house and his sleeping sister.
She slowed, but didn’t stop until she realized he wasn’t going to give up and go home. She couldn’t outrun him — not with clear tracks in the snow. He’d catch her eventually. Finally, she turned toward him. “I have to go.” Her voice shook and it wasn’t because of the cold.
“What? No. No you don’t. This is self—”
“Yes, I do,” she yelled back, her hands in fists at her side. “Look at this! Look what I’ve done!” she swept an arm back the way they’d come, toward the still-burning neighborhood. “This is my fault. They almost killed us because of me, Cole. And if I stay, they’ll just keep coming after us.”
“So we’ll keep running. We’ll keep hiding. We’ve been doing it for months, Phoenyx,” he snarled.
“We can’t hide from them! Enika can’t keep running!”
“We can hide — we did it tonight—”
“Cole.” She crossed the distance between them and took his hands. “I have to do this. Enika can’t run.”
He jerked away from her. “Then we’ll wait until she can.”
“I can’t wait. They’ve got my mom and my sister. They are hunting us because of me. All those people are dead because of me. We can’t fight back.” With a sad, sarcastic smile, she said, “I was born to run, right?”
“I won’t let you do this, Phoenyx. We’re a team. You’re—you’re my future. You’re my life.” His voice broke. “You can’t just — you can’t just leave.”
“I’ll come back to you.” She hesitated, afraid he would reject her again, but took his hands anyway. He pulled her against him, knowing full well she could feel how badly he shook, how the fear and the anger and the pain betrayed him. “I promise, I’ll come back.”
“No. I can’t let you do this, Phoenyx. Enika—you didn’t even say goodbye.”
But she had, and they both knew it.
She trembled as well, and as hard as this was on him, it had to be so much worse for her. “I won’t let you go,” he said against her hair.
She half-laughed, half-sobbed. “You can’t leave Enika alone, and you can’t lock me in the basement. I didn’t leave you a choice.”
“How am I supposed to do this without you? How am I supposed to turn around and walk away when you are everything?”
She pulled back so she could see him, her eyes dark, so dark they were almost black. Phoenyx rose on her toes and kissed him, kissed him with all the longing and pain and fear that had plagued them for all these months. His hand came up to cup the back of her head, to hold her there, and he devoured her, his tongue sweeping over her bottom lip, delving into her mouth. She molded against him and he could feel every curve, every pounding beat of her heart as his blood roared in his ears. They’d been so careful, so chaste, all these months because it had been a matter of survival but now—
Now he had nothing to lose.
She pulled back, breathing hard, and he realized she wasn’t saying she loved him with her kisses.
She was saying goodbye.
Her eyes shimmered with unshed tears, her cheeks flush
ed. “I’ll come back, Cole. I promise, I’ll come back.”
* * *
ENIKA HADN’T SPOKEN TO him in days. After the initial blow when she’d screamed at him until the Garce had come, and they’d been forced onto the roof, she’d refused to even look at him. The last words she’d said still echoed in his head.
“Did you even make sure she had food? Weapons? Ammo?”
No. He hadn’t. It wouldn’t have mattered — if she hadn’t she wouldn’t have come back to stock up. She wouldn’t have taken their supplies. She’d promised to come back, but Cole wasn’t stupid. She was going on a suicide mission, and they all knew it.
Phoenyx wasn’t coming back.
He’d let her go out there alone. No one survived alone.
Enika limped into the kitchen, and he glanced at her over his shoulder. She had a huge duffle bag and started shoving what was left of their supplies into it. “What are you doing?”
She glared at him.
“Enika,” he practically snarled.
She raised her chin defiantly and he knew before she opened her mouth he wasn’t going to like what she would say. “We’re going after her.”
Huh. Look at that. He did like what she said.
“How? You can’t walk.”
“But we have a wheelbarrow.”
Cole raised an eyebrow and crossed his arms over his chest. “You want me to push you all over creation in a wheelbarrow when there are Garce in every shadow?”
“Yes.”
“Enika.” He ran a hand through his hair and stared at the ceiling. “We’ll go after her, but we have to find a way that won’t get us killed in the process.”
She continued stuffing things in her bag. “We need a car.”
Cole almost laughed. Cars were practically extinct. Access to fuel had run out soon after the invasion, when everyone tried to flee and found there was nowhere to flee to. Plus, the noise attracted Garce, and they could tear right through the metal. Ironic that nothing stopped them but heights, as far as they knew, and the thing that hunted them flew. They didn’t have a chance to fight back. “There are no cars, Enika. If there were, Phoenyx would have taken one.”