Atoning (3 page)

“Rae!” I called.

The door had already shut. I went after her, running into the street and looking around frantically. There was no one in sight.

I knew I’d seen Rae, beyond any doubt. The question was: had I really seen her…or her ghost? At the thought, my stomach clenched so hard that I nearly doubled over.

I forced myself to replay exactly what I’d seen. Rae’s reflection in the mirror. Did necromancers see the reflection of ghosts? Honestly, I’d never had reason to notice.

I hadn’t seen Rae open the door as she left, though, that was because it was around the corner. Nor had I seen her open the one to leave the theater. Yet I had
seen
it open. That was undeniable. I had watched her walk through an open door and seen it close behind her. She wasn’t a ghost.

I took out my cell phone. In Badger Lake, they work on a private network, but out here, we have full access. I’m sure they track our calls, but it still gives us some sense, again, of autonomy. We weren’t captives or prisoners. If we really wanted to, we could call for help before the Cabal could intervene.

I rang Derek. Or I tried, but no answer suggested cell service was blocked for moviegoers.

I was trying again when the door opened and Derek stepped out.

“Was I gone five seconds too long?” I said.

“Yeah, sorry.”

Speaking of autonomy…Derek knows I need my space, but giving me that can be a struggle for him. There’s a fine line between watching out for your girlfriend and making her feel she can’t watch out for herself. It’s particularly hard with a wolf’s instinct to protect.

“Well, in this one case, I appreciate it.” I lifted the phone. “I was trying to call you. I just saw…”

As I remembered what I’d seen, my smile of welcome evaporated. Derek strode over. “What’s wrong?”

I told him.

“That’s…” he began.

“Extremely statistically unlikely?” I said. “The probability that I’d randomly run into Rachelle in a North Bay movie theater?”

“Yeah.”

“I know it’s a trap. Which is why I didn’t take off after her myself. Someone’s gotten to her and is forcing her to lure me away. So I need you to go back inside.”

“And get Moreno?” He shook his head. “Whoever set this up knows our plans. Meaning there’s a leak and—”

“I know that. I also know that the more people we bring into this, the greater chance we have of losing Rae. Same goes if we stand out here discussing it. I want you to go back inside and out a rear exit. Wait until I take off after her—presuming she’ll try again—and then follow us.”

“To do what?”

“Rescue Rae, of course.”

He rubbed his mouth.

“Yes, she betrayed us,” I said. “Me, especially, and for that, you didn’t even want her in Badger Lake. If she did come back, you didn’t want me to have anything to do with her. We argued about it enough that I could hardly forget. But I’m going after her, Derek. Either you help or you go watch the movie.”

He gave me a look.

“As much as you don’t like Rae, there’s a difference between ignoring her when she’s safe in Badger Lake and ignoring her when she could be in real danger. You’re not going to stop me, and you’re not going to make me handle this alone, so just register your disapproval, and let me go after her.”

“It’s
serious
disapproval.”

“Noted.” I lifted up and kissed him. “And I’m sorry. Mostly. But I’m going to give you the chance to tell me off, as loudly as you can, and then I’m going to run away, and you’re going to storm back inside and pretend you’ve left me to chase a figment of my imagination. In three, two, one… Go.”

While I’ve never dreamed of being an actor—I’d rather be behind the camera—years of drama class means I’m pretty good at it. Six months on the run, playing roles every day, had helped. Derek has zero natural talent and almost as little inclination to learn, but he did a good job of it that night, probably because he really did think I was making a big mistake, so chewing me out for it came easily.

After our fake fight, I raced down the street and ducked around a building, “hiding” in case Derek came after me. Then, I called Liz. I didn’t need a cell phone for that. My former roommate from Lyle House, Liz died a day after I arrived. When I contact her, I’m summoning her spirit.

In the beginning, ghost-Liz was like a friend who lived next door. Give her a shout and there she was. Now it’s as if she’s in another country, and sometimes I just can’t get in touch with her. We haven’t grown apart—the distance is actually a good thing, because it means she’s crossed over into the afterlife. That’s what I had wanted for her. It just took her a long time to want the same thing, to accept she couldn’t hang out in our world and pretend nothing had happened. My necromancer powers are strong enough that I can pull her back, but it’s like making an overseas call on a bad phone line. Sometimes it works; sometimes it doesn’t. Tonight, when I hoped for her help scouting, no one answered.

After about five minutes, I saw Rae walking along the road, as if there were nothing odd about a sixteen-year-old girl aimlessly wandering an empty street on a Friday night. I backed down the side street. Then, I came running out onto the main one, panting as hard as Rae would remember me panting when we’d escaped Lyle House together. I won’t say I’m in amazing shape now, but between playing fetch with Derek and keeping up with Maya, I get a lot more physical activity than I used to. I faked it for Rae, though, heaving like I was about to hack up a lung.

“Rae?”

She didn’t turn, and, as I ran toward her, I had to entertain the possibility that my fake scenario with Derek wasn’t totally fake after all—that Rae had a doppelgänger in North Bay, Ontario. But when I darted into her path, there was no doubt. She was standing three feet from me, and I knew her as well as if it were Tori standing there.

“Rachelle,” I said.

She screwed up her face. “Huh?”

“Rae, it’s me. Chloe.”

“Do I know you?”

I hesitated. “You’re Rachelle Rodgers, right?”

Quite possibly the easiest question in the world to answer, but she stood there, giving me this look like I’d asked her to name the capital of Liberia…and getting the right answer was a matter of life or death.

“I…I don’t think so. I…can’t remember.”

“What?”

She looked around. “I don’t know what I’m doing here. The last thing I remember…” She shook her head. “I don’t know. I think there was a man. Maybe a truck? A van? I…I don’t remember.”

Amnesia? They were seriously going with the classic—and classically overused—amnesia plot? The chances of someone wandering a street honestly not knowing who she was were—as Derek would point out—statistically improbable. To the nth degree.

She peered at me. “Did you say
Chloe
?”

“Right. Chloe Saunders. We—”

“I know you, don’t I? It’s…” Her eyes went wide. “Oh my God, yes. Chloe. Lyle House. We…” Her eyes rounded, and she grabbed my arm. “We need to get out of here.”

Uh-huh. I saw that plot twist coming.

She continued. “There are men. They…I don’t remember—” She looked around. “Where are we?”

“North Bay, Ontario.”

Her face screwed up. It was a good try, but her acting ability is strictly small-town community theater.

Her eyes widened again. “They put me here to find you. Or so you’d find me.”

Yep, that’d be my guess.

She looked around, still grasping my arm. “Come on! We need to get out of here!”

I cast a glance down the darkened street. No sign of Derek, but
I had to trust he was there. I took off after Rae.

I followed Rae, our footfalls echoing down the empty street. It had rained while we were in the theater. The light drizzle had cleared up before I’d come out, but it had left the road shimmering under the streetlights. Droplets plinked into puddles, adding to the air of desolation. A noir crime-thriller stage. Silent, vacant and hazy with the gauzy sheen of rain.

We passed shop after shop, all of them closed, some permanently. When I strained, I could make out distant music, maybe from a bar, but it was far away. The only place open on this block was the movie theater, and once the shows were on, the streets emptied. I was sure they weren’t completely empty, though. Someone was watching us. And I had a good idea where he or she waited: in the direction Rae was leading me.

I fake-staggered, as if I’d slipped on the wet pavement. I went down on one knee, crying out.

“Come on!” Rae said.

I rose, took a step and stumbled, wincing and inhaling a sharp breath.

“Chloe!” Rae said. “Come on. They’re—”

“I need a sec,” I said. “Let’s duck in there.”

I pointed at a narrow passage between two buildings. She opened her mouth, as if to argue, but I was already lurching toward it.

I hobbled into the alley and lowered myself to the pavement, grimacing as I did. “Just give me a moment.”

She looked genuinely torn now. She had a duty to lead me to whoever was holding her captive, and she probably feared whatever punishment awaited if she failed. But I was injured. So she hesitated while looking anxiously toward the street.

“You stand guard,” I whispered. “Just two minutes. That’s all I need. I banged up my knee last week, and that got it going again.”

I waited until she got into position, crouched, peering out at the street. Then, I motioned to the figure I’d spotted, which I really hoped was Derek. While I could take down Rae myself, this would go a lot more smoothly with the guy who had supernatural strength.

When Derek stepped from the shadows, I exhaled in relief and hobbled up beside Rae.

“Do you see anything?” I whispered.

She shook her head.

“There!” I gasped and pointed at a random store. “I saw something moving.”

She leaned over to peer out. I kept pointing, jabbing my finger at the shadows in a doorway. Behind her, Derek slipped out, moving soundlessly our way.

“I don’t see anyone,” she said.

“There, back in the shadows. I saw a hand move.”

And a hand
did
move as Derek seized her from behind and covered her mouth.

“Her hands,” I blurted. “Grab—”

He cursed as he remembered Rae’s power. Fire. He wasn’t fast enough, and he hissed as she burned him in her struggles. We caught her hands. She fought in earnest then, fighting and kicking and grunting. Behind us, a stray scrap of paper burst into flame.

Derek pinned Rae against the wall, her face pressed to it hard enough to make me wince. He held her there, her feet dangling as he leaned down to her ear.

“Remember me?” he whispered. “I remember you, Rachelle,
and
exactly what you thought of me. Except now I’m not just some big, ugly brute. I’m a big, ugly,
werewolf
brute. Which means I’m even stronger—and more dangerous—than you thought. A lot more pissed off, too, because you betrayed Chloe, and that’s worse than anything you did to me. The harder you struggle, the more I’m going to remember what you did to her. Understood?”

She still gave a few token kicks and squirms. He tightened his grip until she gasped. Then, she went still.

“Now we’re going to take you someplace where we can talk, and you can tell us why you tried to lure Chloe—”

His head shot up, and I knew he’d heard something I couldn’t. His gaze swung toward the street. I hurried down the alley and peeked out. A dark shape moved along the buildings across the road. Another followed. Two figures. Both dressed in black.

“We have to move,” I whispered.

He nodded, hefted Rae over his shoulder and started down the alley. I went ahead and scouted. A couple walked along the road. As always, I took a closer look in case they were ghosts. That had become second nature now—assessing clothing and actions, checking for some sign that I wasn’t seeing living people. These two were dressed in modern outfits. The woman circled past a pop can in her path. Living people, then. Just an ordinary couple out for…

The woman lifted a two-way radio to her lips. Okay, not so ordinary. Damn.

I backed up fast, bumping into Derek.

“We’re surrounded,” I said. “We’ll have to—”

“Chloe!” a voice called from the street behind us.

I turned that way. The voice came again. “Hey, Chloe! You out here?”

It was Daniel. And there was no way in hell he was actually walking down a deserted street yelling for me. I took out my cell phone. Derek and I had silenced them so we wouldn’t blow our cover. I had a string of texts from Maya.

9:15. Maya: Hey, guys. If u r just ‘busy,’ let me know. Concerned.

9:20. Maya: OK, not in the bldg, grabbing D.

9:23. Maya: D’s picking up 1/2 demon. Not M. Guessing u know that. We’re out & about.

Daniel was a benandanti—an Italian witch hunter with supernatural powers, including the ability to sense half-demons, because their demon blood tripped his “bad-mojo” sensor.