by Jeff Sampson
But no one was around.
Letting myself shift slightly into the wolf, I scrunched my nose and sniffed the air. Spencer’s scent was all over the place, but it was an old, stale scent. I couldn’t smell any of the others. If they had met in the woods, it would have to have been farther away, but that didn’t make any sense.
Unless something was wrong.
Something was always going wrong.
Grabbing Patrick by his arm, I wordlessly led him back through the woods and to his car.
“Get in,” I commanded him as I gently shoved him toward the driver’s seat.
“Ow,” he said, rubbing his arm and glaring at me. “You don’t have to be so rough.”
I didn’t answer. I rounded the front of the car and was about to slip back into the passenger seat when I heard a gunshot.
Then another. And another, and another, until they became a staccato, deadly rhythm.
I spun and looked across the street to BioZenith. Floodlights had burst on outside the building, illuminating the parking lot. I could see shadows in the lot huddled behind dark cars, some with rifles aimed at a lone figure who walked slowly, casually toward the main entrance. The figure waved a hand and the gunshots stopped.
The attack had already begun.
I jumped into the car and slammed the door shut. “Get in, get in!” I shouted at Patrick.
“I’m in, I’m in!” he shouted back as he slammed the door shut.
“Drive us across the street and up to the guard box.”
He gaped at me, his hand hovering over the keys in the ignition. “You want me to drive toward the gunshots?”
I craned my neck to look back. I could see more figures running to hide behind vehicles, though some tepidly approached the person who’d made the gunfire cease.
“Yeah, I do,” I said. “You don’t want me to hurt you, do you?”
“No, I don’t,” he said.
The car cranked alive and the next thing I knew we were reversing fast down the side alley. When we reached the parking lot, Patrick slammed on the brakes, put the car in drive, and spun us around to face the main street, then pressed on the gas.
“Whoa, Speed Racer,” I said.
Glowering over the wheel, Patrick mumbled, “I bloody wish.”
Not bothering to look either way, Patrick barreled into the street, then aimed toward the open gate and drove us through. Tires screeching, we skidded to a stop just past the guard box.
“I thought Brits were good drivers?” I gasped.
“I’m on visa,” he said. “I might as well be pure-blood American now.”
Before he could stop me, I reached over and yanked the keys from the ignition. As I leaped out the car door once more, he shouted, “Hey!”
Crouching down so I could look through the open door, I met his eye. “You’re the only one who’s been with Megan and I may need you. You don’t have any superpowers, right?”
“No,” he said, furiously shaking his head.
“All right, then wait here. I’ll be back.”
Shoving the keys into my pocket, I opened the car door and slipped out into the cool night, trying to absorb the scene in front of me. As far as I could tell, everyone was so distracted by what was happening in the center of the parking lot that they hadn’t heard me arrive.
Standing halfway between the front gate and the building entrance, and glowing as though in a spotlight, was Megan.
She glided over the asphalt as though hovering. Arms outstretched, she turned in slow circles as she walked, the wind catching her long white-blond hair and swirling it around her. At her feet, a pile of brass bullets lay scattered.
Near the glass doors that led into the lobbies of BioZenith, guards crouched down behind planters and black trucks, their guns still aimed at Megan but no longer firing. Several scientists in lab coats huddled behind the guards, including the scratched and disheveled Mr. McKinney.
I was confused. Why were they attacking Megan if they all worshipped the Akhakhu?
I didn’t have time to try and figure it out. Mr. McKinney wasn’t looking at Megan like everyone else. Next to him, almost hidden in the shadows, were two of triplets. From their hair I could tell it was Brittany and Casey. And standing behind them, holding handguns aimed at Mr. McKinney, were a Hispanic man and woman, and a white man with gray hair.
The triplets’ parents? And maybe Nikki’s dad? But what were they doing here?
Mr. McKinney and the cheerleaders’ parents spat words at one another that I couldn’t hear. The two girls slouched, wide-eyed, as they looked between their squabbling parents and the strange girl twirling in the parking lot in a beatific haze.
I needed to get closer. Crouching down, I ran alongside the barbed fence, and then into the parking lot to hide behind an old white car. I was closer to the group at the entrance now and, slipping into hybrid, I could finally hear them.
“What do we do about the girl, sir?” one of the guards asked, not taking his eyes off of giggling, gleeful ShadowMegan.
But Mr. McKinney ignored him. He was too focused on the cheerleaders’ parents.
“Tell them to stand down, McKinney!” the Hispanic man bellowed. He stood in front of Brittany and Casey, one hand aiming a gun at Mr. McKinney, the other held back to keep the girls from jumping in front of him.
Mr. McKinney shouted back. “We didn’t involve your daughters! They aren’t a part of this! If you just leave, no one has to get hurt!”
“Oh no,” the triplets’ mother said, switching her gun from one hand to the other. “We’ve been waiting two decades for this. We were cut off. Aim your guns away from the Rebel or we go for your precious wolves.”
“Why are you working with Rebel?” Mr. McKinney asked. “You know what she is, who her people are. She is a peasant upstart, not one of the glorious leaders!”
“And that’s why she is in the right! That is why her people’s ka are pure!”
Whispers tickled my ears to my right. I looked over in the shadows to see Spencer, Tracie, Nikki, and Amy huddled together behind a concrete divider. I sighed in relief—they were safe.
Crouch-walking, I made my way as quickly as possible to the huddled group. I pressed my hand against Spencer’s shoulder. He jumped, startled, then grinned wide when he saw it was me.
“What happened?” I hissed.
Eyes ablaze with fury and her wild hair more a mess than usual, Amy answered. “My idiot sisters are what happened,” she said through gritted teeth. “Casey was working with our parents the whole time. That’s the real reason she went with you. Apparently they’re all caught up in this shadowmen crap too.”
“Nikki, yours too?” I asked.
The red-haired girl nodded. Shiny streaks ran down her cheeks and I could tell she’d been crying.
“They tricked us,” Nikki said softly. “They said they wanted to help us, just like Mr. and Mrs. Cooke.”
“And now we’re here,” Tracie finished for her. Craning her neck, she looked past me. “Where’s Evan?” she asked. “Is he in the car you drove up in?”
“No, that’s Patrick,” I said as I dug through my pants pocket. “Evan slipped through to the other side, however it is he does that. I don’t know when or how he’ll get back. But something happened I didn’t expect.”
Tracie rolled her eyes. “I’m going to take an educated guess and assume that your friend Megan acting like she’s on crack has something to do with it?”
Before I could answer, ShadowMegan’s voice boomed across the BioZenith grounds.
“I tire of your arguments!” she said. “I demand silence!”
Her words echoed endlessly between the buildings, like a priest’s commandment in a chapel. The bickering parents fell silent.
“What is Megan doing?” Spencer asked, eyes wide with bewilderment.
Swallowing back my fear and sadness, I shook my head. “That’s not Megan. Not anymore.”
Together, the five of us rose to peer over the top of
the concrete divider.
In the center of the parking lot, beneath the glimmering stars and the yellow moon, Megan stood with her hands raised. A swirling, mystical aura the colors of deepest night and impossibly bright daylight surrounded her, becoming a pulsating ball of energy.
As we watched, she rose into the air like some divine being sent down from above.
“Whoa,” Spencer said beside me.
“She has powers too?” Amy asked. “When did this happen?”
I couldn’t answer her. The wolf side of me was terrified and from the way Spencer and Tracie trembled beside me I could tell they felt it too. We were seeing something old and dangerous, hidden within something designed to be beautiful.
But every instinct told us the truth.
The ball of energy spun slowly so that ShadowMegan could take in the people surrounding her. All of the adults, and Brittany and Casey, watched her with awe. The rifles the guards were carrying slipped from their fingers and clattered to the metal floor. The cheerleaders’ parents dropped their weapons as well.
“I am what you have been waiting for,” ShadowMegan declared as she smiled down at the scientists. A few on Mr. McKinney’s side that I didn’t recognize fell to their knees.
“All your years of work have brought us to this point,” she went on. “You created the vespers who would lead you to your salvation. How long we have all waited for our worlds to unite.” Smiling her inhumanly broad smile, she exhaled rapturously, closed her eyes, and aimed her face toward the dark sky above. “That time has come now!”
Movement caught my eye by the glass doors. Mr. McKinney stepped past his awestruck guards to walk toward ShadowMegan. His cheek was covered with a large bandage that was stained in the center with blood. His hands were clenched into fists, and he trembled with anger.
“The Rebel,” he spat at her. “You’re the one who’s been holding our people—my son—hostage.”
ShadowMegan nodded, not looking at him. “Yes,” she said distantly. “That was me. I thank you for keeping your promise to manipulate Emily.”
“This isn’t right,” he shouted, pointing an accusing finger up at ShadowMegan. “We only agreed to help you come over, not the rest of your filth. You’re here for the portal to bring them over, aren’t you? Well, it’s not going to happen! Give me back my son, you unclean—”
With an absentminded flick of ShadowMegan’s wrist, Mr. McKinney’s voice caught in his throat. Choking and gurgling, he took a wild step back.
And then, one by one, each of his limbs twisted and snapped. The sound was sick, horrifying, but I couldn’t cover my ears, couldn’t do anything but watch. His gurgles struggled to become screams.
His neck snapped last. Mr. McKinney collapsed to floor. Dead.
“Oh God,” Nikki said, her hands covering her face.
No one else made a move as ShadowMegan spun within her energy bubble.
“What are we supposed to do now?” Tracie whispered to me, frantic. “Getting inside BioZenith and blowing up the portal was going to be hard enough. But how are we supposed to fight that?”
“I don’t know,” I said. My mind raced, trying to find some answer, but the wolf side of me kept howling and thrashing inside of me, and I couldn’t think. “Just…I don’t know yet.”
“I know I have acolytes among you,” ShadowMegan called down. “Step forward. You will find salvation with me.”
“Here!” Mr. Delgado bellowed. “We’re here!”
He and his wife shoved Brittany and Casey forward, forcing them to leave the safety of the shadows and the protection of the awestruck guards. Along with Mr. Tate, they pushed past the cowering scientists and wound past the cars to stand in front of Megan.
The three parents bowed their head. Brittany reached out and grasped Casey’s hand, but the quiet triplet smiled up at Megan, tears in her eyes.
“We did as you asked and told the other acolytes of your arrival,” Mrs. Delgado said, her words halting, jerky, as though she had a sob in her throat. “Our daughters helped. We ask that you bless them, too.”
ShadowMegan tilted her head, her lips parting into a radiant smile. “Of course, my children. Your vespers are precious things. They shall ascend higher than us all.”
“Thank you,” Casey said, her voice almost a whisper.
Next to me, Amy trembled, her features contorted in rage.
“Traitors,” she spat. “I can’t believe this. I can’t…” She shook her head.
As the ball of black-and-white light that surrounded ShadowMegan swirled like oily streaks on a soap bubble, she hovered forward toward the entrance to BioZenith. The Delgados, clinging to their daughters, followed, with a quiet and stoic Mr. Tate at their heels.
ShadowMegan casually flicked her hand and one of the cars the guards huddled behind crumpled like aluminum foil. Glass crunched and shattered as ShadowMegan closed her hand into a fist, and then the totaled vehicle spun away as she flicked her hand once more.
The dumbstruck guards backed away until they hit the wall next to the entrance. Then they parted to let ShadowMegan pass.
She was going for the portal. And no matter how upsetting it was to see my friend like this, no matter how terrifying she was to the feral third of my brain, I knew one thing for certain.
I caused this mess. And I had to stop it.
I looked over at Spencer, Tracie, Nikki, and Amy. “All right, no more sitting around. We need to follow them in and stop whatever it is she’s planning.”
“How are we supposed to do that?” Nikki asked.
I shrugged. “Seems like the whole blowing-up-the-portal plan should still work. You ready?”
Tracie sighed. “No.”
At the same time, Amy grinned deviously. “Definitely.”
“All right,” I said. “Let’s—”
I never got a chance to finish. Headlights flashed behind us, and the buzzing of engines thundered down the darkened street. We turned just in time to see four black vans come roaring down the road, tires screeching as they veered through the gate, past the car in which Patrick still hid, and pulled to sudden stops in the middle of the parking lot.
Caught by surprise, ShadowMegan twisted in the sky and looked down at the sudden intruders. The guards, the scientists, the cheerleaders’ parents, and all of us vespers watched, stunned, as the backs of the vans burst open and dozens of men dressed in black military gear poured out.
ShadowMegan grinned. She raised her hand to crush these newcomers and resume her plans—and then stopped when a man in a crisp suit climbed out of the back of one of the vans.
The man brushed smooth his jacket sleeves, then held his hands behind his back, his white beard–covered chin held high. In his tailored gray suit and red silk tie, he looked imposingly rich and important. He actually looked a little bit like Anderson Cooper with a goatee. An evil-twin Anderson Cooper.
And seeing him, ShadowMegan’s face twisted into revulsion.
“You!” she spat.
The man nodded. “Hello, Rebel.”
ShadowMegan raised both of her hands, the swirling energy whipping into a tornado. But before she could break the man apart like she had Mr. McKinney, who still lay dead atop the asphalt, the man’s eyes glowed and he waved his own hand.
The energy exploded into smoke and drifted away. ShadowMegan hung in the sky, her pale skin tinged blue, frozen in place. Even the wild, flowing strands of her hair hung mid-whip, as though we were now looking at a photograph of the possessed girl.
Like a block of ice, ShadowMegan dropped to the asphalt, landing on her side with a heavy, echoing thunk.
“What the hell,” Amy whispered.
“Emily, do you know who that is?” Spencer asked me.
Again I didn’t get a chance to answer. Footsteps crunched behind us. Tracie, Spencer, and I heard them first, and we spun around to see four of the black-clad military men trying to sneak up on us, rifles raised.
“Hey!” I shouted.
But
it was too late. With a series of pops, four darts flitted from the end of the rifles and into the necks of everyone except Nikki. My hand shot instinctively up to my throat and I yanked out the needle, then tossed the vial of green liquid onto the ground.
Spencer, Tracie, and Amy collapsed to the ground. Startled, Nikki noticed the guards just in time to try and stop their shots with her own powers, but a dart pierced her chest. Eyes rolling back in her head, she crumpled.
The Nighttime part of me seethed with rage. I let her take over. Adrenaline flooding my veins, I clenched my fists and ran over the asphalt to attack the shooters. Behind me I heard voices rising and someone screaming as more pops sounded. A car door slammed and glass shattered.
The four shooters pulled their triggers. Pop-pop. Pop-pop. As each dart pierced my skin, I roared and tore the needle free. My skin tingled and my vision went hazy, blurry, but I refused to stop until these men lay unconscious. Even when my own feet threatened to give out beneath me, I kept running—at least, I thought I was running. Distantly, I felt myself fall onto my hands and knees, the rough street scraping my palms.
The man in the suit stepped between me and the guards. Heaving in anger and frustration, I looked up at him.
His pale eyes glowed. He waved his hand.
And then everything went black.
20
FIGHT THIS, EMILY
I was ice.
I couldn’t see, or taste, or hear, and I constantly faded in and out of consciousness, but when I became briefly, hazily aware of myself, I could feel.
My skin was frozen to the point of burning, hard and smooth. Blood rushed through my veins slowly, sluggishly, a slush slurry. Cold air swirled around me, somehow seeping through the icy carapace of my flesh and chilling my insides until I trembled.
It was unlike anything I’ve ever felt before, and when my dreams faded and the blackness gave way to dim light seeping through my sealed eyelids, I forgot all about who and what I was and everything that had happened to me.