The Hollowing (COYWOLF Series Book 2)

by Abby Tyson

  "Can you go?" he asked.

  "Why?"

  "I want to keep looking for Marley."

  "I'm sure Marley's fine," said Savi. "He's probably just embarrassed."

  "Why would he be embarrassed?" prodded Lila.

  Ignoring Lila's question, she said, "Fine, I'll go. Rare book stores can be pretty cool, although they don't generally appreciate poor browsers like me drooling on the glass display cases. Can I keep Marley's phone to use for directions?"

  Ren nodded. "Thank you," he said.

  "So what about all the Zuun and Berto talk?" asked Lila.

  "I think we go with Savi's plan," said Ren, "but like she said, we've got to be extra careful and watch each other's backs if we're ever near the Zuun or Baxter. Agreed?"

  "Agreed," said Savi.

  "No," said Nissa. "Karis is my only concern."

  "We'll get Karis out, I swear," said Savi.

  "Like you got Ara out?" Nissa demanded.

  "If I remember correctly," snapped Savi, "you and Ara were the ones prancing around Marcia's barn like we were relaxing at the beach, instead of trying to escape. So stop blaming me!"

  Nissa turned scarlet with rage. "If it weren't for you blindly handing her over to the ona, we would have escaped without anyone losing their lives!" she cried.

  "Guys!" Ren shouted, once again quelling the tumult with his unspoken authority. "This isn't going to bring Karis or Marley or anyone back." Turning on Nissa, he said, "We'll rescue Karis."

  "You might as well hand her over to the Zuun!" Nissa shrieked.

  "We'll rescue Karis," Ren repeated, speaking quietly to subdue Nissa's temper. "You'll be involved with all of the planning with both the Zuun and us, to be sure you're confident in that."

  Placating Nissa's ego did the trick. With a curt nod, she agreed, then gestured to Glenn and said, "For both of us."

  All eyes fell on Lila. She scowled, then started towards the back door. "Fine," she said, slipping on her sandals, "but only because I'm going to kill those assholes who killed Kofi." Stepping through the slider door, she said, "And it's my turn to get out of this dump and look for Marley."

  Starting towards the front door, Ren said, "I'll walk you to your car."

  At first Savi wasn't sure who he was talking to, but then he glanced back at her, and she realized he probably wanted to talk to her about Saturday. Suddenly feeling queasy, she followed him out.

  "Technically it's your car," said Savi as they walked across the lot. "Well, technically it's Hertz's car, but you guys are supposed to be using it. I absconded with it the other night. If I drive back here after picking up Warren's book, can you bring me back to the Den -- maybe drop me off a few blocks away?"

  Ren nodded, but they were halfway across the lot before he spoke. "I'm sorry my brother did that to you. I never thought he'd be capable of such a thing."

  "To be clear," said Savi, keeping her eyes on the pavement, "Marley wasn't actually trying to... force himself on me."

  Letting out a breath of relief, he said, "That's good, but what was he doing then?"

  "He lost his temper and..." Savi could feel her cheeks getting warm. "He started accusing me of being interested in you."

  "Yeah, I got that." Ren was also watching the pavement. "I'm glad he wasn't doing what it looked like he was doing, but I'm still sorry you had to see him like that."

  "It was partly my fault," said Savi. "I was hoping we could talk through it today."

  "He'll show up," said Ren, the ghost of a smile in his eyes. "He always does."

  They reached the van, but Savi didn't make a move to open the door. Ren looked up at the blue sky. If it weren't for his shaggy, chin-length hair blowing in the breeze and his thickening beard, Savi could have sworn it was Marley's profile in front of her.

  "His whole life," Ren began, "my brother's been obsessed with the passionate and romantic side of humanity. Maybe being a jealous lover is what he thinks he's supposed to do."

  "Or I took the perfect guy and screwed him up with my own neuroses."

  He met Savi's gaze, and she wondered how -- mere seconds before -- she could have thought he looked anything like Marley. Not only were his eyes darker, they were distant, his thoughts deeply hidden; Marley's eyes were an open book.

  "No one's perfect," he said, and walked away.

  Savi's hopes of a posh, classy bookstore were dashed when she caught sight of Tallahassee True First Books, an unassuming, boxy, two-story brick building across the street from the Florida State University campus. Large picture windows sat on either side of the wooden door, but the store within was hidden behind black, uninviting blinds. The only hint of personality was the ornate script painted on the door that read, "Hopefully you called ahead."

  Before Savi's eyes could adjust from the bright Florida sunshine to the dim lamplight, the earthy, musty aroma of books rushed forward to envelop her. The space around her slowly revealed itself with every intoxicating breath, and Savi silently thanked Ren for making her come, as the gloomy darkness gave way to gleaming beauty.

  A mirror-polished grand piano greeted her, nestled among welcoming plush leather armchairs, each with its own stained glass dome floor lamp. On either side of the lounging area before her, were two enormous shelves that rose all the way to the ceiling and ran nearly the entire length of the building. Drawn to one of the graceful rolling wooden ladders that attached to each wall of books, Savi gripped the smooth iron handrail, cool to the touch, and imagined all of the treasures secreted away on the topmost shelves.

  "We don't have any werewolf stuff here," said a cranky voice.

  Savi straightened up, her heart starting to race. Was this a trick? Had the Zuun somehow found her? Her head snapped around as she searched the space for signs of a threat.

  "None of that vampire schlock either." A middle-aged man wearing a stained t-shirt and sweatpants stepped out from behind the bookshelf.

  "Vampires?" asked Savi, wondering whether she should run while she had the chance.

  "Unless you're in the market for a first edition Dracula." He gave her a mean smile. "In which case, that will be $7,000."

  "Books!" Savi said with a laugh. "You're talking about books."

  The man sneered and held out his hands, gesturing to the thousands of books around her with a shrug. His crudeness tarnished the elegance of the store, and Savi almost wished she'd never seen this glorious temple of books, linked as it would always be with this man's vulgar, tubby face.

  "I'm here to pick up a book for Warren Bolden," she said, pulling the folded note from her pocket. "A first edition Udayan?"

  The man didn't even glance at the paper in her hand, his disdainful eyes remaining riveted on her. "He said his son was coming to get it."

  "He couldn't come."

  "Why not?"

  Although Savi was sorely tempted to leave and call Warren to tell him not to give a penny to this condescending prick, she swallowed her anger and said, "He was unavailable. Now do you have the book or not?"

  "They do," said a hoarse voice. Savi searched for its source, hardly believing her own ears. A man with white hair, who had been hidden while sitting in one of the armchairs with its back to the door, stood, smiling at her.

  "Warren?"

  He waved and started walking towards her, but then his face contorted in a shock of pain. His body went stiff, and he gripped his arm. With nothing more than a weak cry, he collapsed.

  Chapter Thirty-Four

  "Warren!" Savi ran over and knelt beside him. "Call an ambulance!" she shouted at the rude man.

  "No, no," said Warren, his voice sounding even softer than normal. "It will pass. Spare me a moment."

  He closed his eyes and remained on the sparkling marble floor. Savi took a small pillow from the nearest armchair and put it under his head.

  After seizing twice more within the next few minutes, Warren became visibly relaxed. Speaking quietly, so only Savi could hear, he said, "Either these are signs that your gamble work
ed, or my end is truly near."

  Savi had forgotten how morbid he could be. "Let's hope for the former," she said, helping him up.

  "So sorry, Norman," Warren said to the man in sweatpants, who was now behind a desk at the back of the store. "Good thing there was no one here to scare away."

  "Not a problem at all, Mr. Bolden," he said, speaking as respectfully to Warren as he had been rude to Savi.

  "Why are you here?" asked Savi. "I thought you wanted us to pick the book up?"

  "Yes -- you, plural. Where's Marley?" Warren looked to the door.

  Savi thought of the best way to answer. Should she tell him, and risk giving him another seizure?

  "I know that look," said Warren grimly. "What's wrong? What happened?"

  With a sigh of surrender, Savi said, "The truth is, I don't know where Marley is."

  Warren furrowed his brow but left her to answer the obvious question.

  "We had a big fight Saturday, and no one's seen him since."

  His face went dark as he closed his eyes and sighed in frustration. "I told that boy to treat you like the queen you are."

  Savi knew Warren valued her because she might have stopped him from ever altering again, but the way he always put her up on a pedestal was disconcerting. Was Warren part of the reason Marley had acted like she was meant to be with him before they'd even gone on a date?

  Warren's whispering voice drew her out of her musings. Staring up at her with almost tearful eyes, he said, "My deepest and most profound apologies if my son has done anything to cause you pain."

  While Marley's dad was often overly dramatic in his sentiments, there was nothing put on or insincere in his words, and Savi had to look away before her own eyes began to swell at the memory of Saturday night.

  "It's fine," she muttered.

  Rubbing his chin with a shaking hand, he gracefully changed the subject. "Since Saturday, you say? No wonder he hasn't answered my calls."

  Savi expected him to grill her about every clue or lead they'd had since his disappearance, but instead, he said, "Well, I'm sure he'll turn up. Young love can turn the wisest into fools."

  He put his arm around Savi's shoulders and started guiding her to the front desk. "Even if my son can't be here to enjoy this with me, it's an honor to have you, of all people, as my companion."

  Of all people? What does that mean?

  "I've never heard of Udayan before," said Savi. "When was he published?"

  "That's the most exciting part," he said, his energy returning. "He never was published. Supposedly, Udayan was a student of the famed poet Harisena."

  From under the desk, Norman pulled out a metal safe deposit box with the keys already in the lock, along with a box of latex gloves, and placed the stack in front of Warren. Warren set the gloves aside and started to unlock the safe deposit box with solemn anticipation.

  "If he was never published, what's in there?" asked Savi.

  Warren's eyes shone as he turned the key and gently swung the hinged cover open. Inside, protected by a few layers of tissue paper, was what Savi thought at first was a closed handheld folding fan. As she looked closer, however, she realized it was actually a stack of thick strips of paper, browned with age. Two slim pieces of smooth, dark wood served as bookends, with black strings wrapped around the whole parcel, securing the strange book together. With his gloves on, Warren delicately undid the loosely tied strings and lifted the wood up off the paper.

  Two scrawny, tan strings that Savi hadn't noticed before ran through the pieces of wood and paper, holding it all together like a Venetian blind. Although now that Savi could see it better, the paper didn't look like paper at all. There was definitely faint writing on it, but there were also even fainter lines ingrained in the material itself, and thin, wiry wisps curled away from the sheaf unlike any paper Savi had ever seen.

  "What is it?" she whispered.

  Warren delicately placed the top piece of wood on the bed of tissue paper, and gazed lovingly down at the artifact.

  "Palm leaves," he said. "Six thousand years ago they were used as paper in southeast Asia. This one dates back to the late fourth century, and was found in a Hindu temple in Nepal in the 1800s by a British explorer. It was believed to have been destroyed in World War II." He looked at her with tears in his eyes. "This is Udayan's only known surviving writings."

  Savi peered down at the artifact. The writing was in a looping script that she didn't recognize. "What language is it?"

  "Sanskrit."

  "Do you know what it says?"

  "A translation was done shortly after it was brought to Britain, but that appears to have truly been lost. I have a scholar friend who has agreed to translate it." Warren replaced the wood, retied the strings, and closed the box.

  Norman gave him a pleasant smile and said, "I'm glad we were able to fulfill this item for you. How will you be paying?"

  Warren handed him a credit card. She knew she shouldn't look, but Savi was curious how much a piece of history like this cost. Trying to appear casual, she glanced down at the number on Norman's screen; when she saw the total, she forgot to remain sly.

  "Eighteen thousand dollars!"

  With a bewildering tranquility, Warren said, "Worth every penny."

  "Marley never mentioned that you collect rare books," she said, trying to reconcile their spare apartment with the amount of money he was spending.

  Gazing dreamily at the now locked safe deposit box, he said, "I've been searching for this book my entire life."

  "Why?"

  Warren pocketed his card and took the entire box off the desk. He said thank you to Norman, then started walking to the door. Savi followed, waiting for an answer. When they stepped out into the blinding sun, Warren closed his eyes and basked in its warmth. Turning to her, he nestled the box in the crook of his elbow like an infant.

  "This," he said, "is the future."

  After calling Ren and telling him what had happened, she called Baxter and told him to meet her back at the convenience store. She told him her plan, and although he didn't appreciate being viewed as less valuable than the rest of them, agreed to negotiate a deal.

  "The only problem is that we don't know how to reach them," said Savi.

  "Not your only problem," he said, "not by a long shot."

  "Did Marcia ever say anything about the Zuun?" asked Savi, ignoring Baxter's pessimism. "Any clues that might lead us to them?"

  "I remember her sayin' that they were bad all around -- not only because they were trying to undo our work, but because they were in league with big oil."

  Thinking about the little of the landscape she had seen, she said, "There were a bunch of dirt roads and trucks going back and forth. I guess it could have been some sort of oil well." A memory was nagging at her... something Omar had said...

  She took out Marley's phone. "Maybe we can look for oil and gas sites in Virginia on aerial imagery."

  "This is Virginia we're talkin' about, kid," said Baxter. "They've got that kinda stuff all over."

  Savi found a map that marked fossil fuel drilling across the country with green dots. "Well it's our only lead," she said, zooming in. But Baxter was right. There were a lot of green dots in Virginia.

  She let out an exasperated sigh and stared at the convenience store.

  "How'd you get away from the Zuun, anyway?" asked Baxter. "I thought they ran a tight ship."

  After giving him a brief recount of her escape, she said, "Apparently Berto has a contact inside the Zuun, who told him where we were." The memory of the lab, and Omar trying to set off those explosives in her leg, made her cringe.

  Thank goodness Hazel didn't actually --

  "The explosives!" Savi cried triumphantly. "He said they were inspired by the capsule used in fracking." She picked up the phone again and filtered the map to show fracking sites only. About half of the dots disappeared, and all of those that remained were near the border with Kentucky. Savi zoomed in and found three that had a cluster of
trailers that could be the lab.

  "It's got to be one of these," she said, pulling some paper and a pen from the glove compartment.

  "You think they'll even still be at the same one, now that Berto's team know where they are?"

  "We have to try," she said, writing down all the addresses. When she handed him the paper, he held it at arm's length, regarding it warily.

  As he got out of the car, Savi called to him. "Baxter?"

  Closing the door, he leaned on the open window. "Yup?" The sight of him reminded her of all the times she'd seen him like this at the Ready4U Convenience Mart back home.

  "Thank you," she said, giving him a warm smile, "for helping."

  Baxter looked away from her, puffing his bottom lip out and sliding it around. "What else am I gonna do?" he said with a shrug, "sit around and watch your ma's ass all day?"

  "Baxter!" Savi cried, regretting her kindness. "Don't be disgusting."

  He stuck his tongue out and made a goofy face. "I'm kiddin'. I'm already spoken for anyhoo." He waggled his curly eyebrows at her and drummed on the car door before walking away.

  Ren dropped her off about a mile away from the main brick road of the Den, so it was dusk by the time Savi got back to the cottage. She was looking forward to dinner with her mom and -- she hated to admit it -- Dave, but her thoughts of a nice family dinner fled when she saw her mom sitting at the table, arms crossed, staring at an open bottle of coconut rum.

  Savi froze in the doorway, a dim memory from Saturday night emerging, of hiding the bottle in her sweater.

  "You swore to me." Her mom's harsh whisper made Savi's insides clench and jumble together. The last time she'd heard her mom talk like that was when Aunt Jolie had forgotten ten-year-old Savi at the mall.

  "You swore you'd never touch this stuff again. And then I find this in your room? How did you even get it?"

  "Someone --" Savi's voice was thick. She cleared her throat and tried again. "Someone bought it for me."

  "Who? Someone who lives here at the Den?"

  "No." Savi didn't want to throw Baxter under the bus, now that he was turning a new leaf and trying to make amends. "It was someone outside the liquor store."