Falling to Ash (6 page)

The weapon was aimed directly at my heart.

I looked for the nearest exit or hidey-hole, anywhere I could gain some cover. I wasn’t sure how accurate a shot Jace was but I had a horrible feeling he’d be pretty good. His hands were certainly steady enough.

‘Don’t move,’ he said. ‘I won’t hesitate this time.’

‘Neither will I,’ I said, throwing Jason’s dagger directly at his head.

‘Holy fu—’ Jace hit the floor and the flying dagger missed him. Which is exactly the way I’d planned it (go, me!).

Because, of course, I hadn’t been aiming for him at all.

The annoyingly creepy light bulb shattered with a satisfying pop. Glass fell in a musical sprinkle, crunching under my boots as I ran toward the trapdoor.

Impressively, he had actually managed to keep hold of his crossbow and got trigger-happy from his position on the ground. But I was already miles away from where he was shooting. The crossbow bolt
swooshed
past my left shoulder and
thunked
into the wall close to the main door to the room.

‘I hope you’re going to collect that,’ I said. ‘We can’t have any hospital staff finding crossbow bolts around here. That would be totally suspicious.’

I’d reached the hatch but Jace was advancing on me again, having tossed aside the now empty weapon. Maybe he intended to finish me off with his bare hands, but I didn’t think he’d be stupid enough to believe he could take me in a fair fight. Even weakened from lack of blood, I was stronger than him. I think I’d been so shocked to see him earlier, that was surely the only reason he’d been able to match me.

I raised both hands in front of me. ‘Stop right there.
Think
, Murdoch. I’m not trying to hurt you – I only want you to leave me alone so I can get on with my work.’

His step faltered. ‘
Work?
What kind of work would someone like you have to do in a hospital?’

‘That’s none of your business.’

‘It wouldn’t have anything to do with the kid they have down in the basement, would it?’

I couldn’t help it. My mouth dropped open. ‘Um . . . you mean the kid who may have been attacked by a
wild animal
?’ What was the point of denying it?

Jace’s eyes flickered toward the closed door that would lead back into the hospital. ‘Yeah, that sounds like the one.’

‘I’m investigating.’

He actually started to laugh. The bastard. ‘Who do you think you are, Veronica Mars for the undead? I’ve got news for you: you’re not blonde enough.’

‘That’s OK, you’re blond enough for both of us,’ I shot back. ‘Have you had
highlights
?’

Jace narrowed his eyes. ‘If you think I’m letting you go, you’re dumber than you look.’

I glared back. ‘If you think you can stop me, this time I’ll break
both
your legs.’

Stalemate. We watched each other in the gloom. I had no problem seeing the anger and confusion etched into his face, but I wondered if the only thing he could see of me was my eyes. If I closed them, would I disappear into the shadows?

He ran a hand through the close-cropped spikes of his hair. ‘So.’

‘So.’

‘Now what?’

I shrugged. ‘If you can’t bear to let me out of your sight, why don’t you come with me?’
Hello
, was I completely brain-dead? What did I have to say
that
for?

His mouth lifted at one corner, but it wasn’t exactly what I’d call a smile.

‘I think I will.’

We made our way through the winding corridors that led to the basement space that served as Mass Gen’s morgue. Not really a morgue; more just an interim place before bodies were transported to the real deal. It was a depressing fact that life as a vampire meant you learned
these
things about the city – things involving the dead.

Jace had ignored me all the way so far, which was fine with me except for the fact that I had plenty of things I wanted to ask him. I wanted to know what he was doing here, for a start; what did he know about Rick, lying dead in the hospital basement? But even more than that, I wanted to ask him something I had no right to: had the dying woman I’d seen in his head really been his mom? How had she died? I knew it was something bad, maybe even something unnatural. I could still smell the way that awful room had smelled. There was nothing natural about that. And her eyes – I didn’t want to think about how horribly familiar that silver shimmer had been. Not that Murdoch Junior was likely to share his deepest feelings with me.

I doubted he shared those with anyone. You could see it written on his face – the grief and bitterness sort of locked in around his eyes. It made him look far older than nineteen.

Jace glanced over at me. ‘So what’s your interest in this kid?’

I met his gaze, knowing that my eyes would be shining brightly in the gloom. They always responded badly to stress. ‘Why should I answer any of your questions? All you’ve done is attack me and threaten me.
Again
.’

‘That’s my job.’

I shook my head, frustrated that a seemingly smart guy could be so short-sighted. ‘It’s not your job. This is what your
father
does.’

‘My father’s gone.’ His voice was low; something hollow echoed beneath the hard edge. There was pain hovering beneath the surface – a lot of pain – but I didn’t have time to tread gently. Not that I could tread anywhere gently in these boots.

‘He’s dead?’ I couldn’t wait to tell Theo that the ‘great’ Thomas Murdoch had actually croaked. Last time we’d talked about him, my Maker had seemed almost disappointed that the hunter had been so quiet lately. It looked like Theo wasn’t the only one missing Murdoch Senior.

Jace scowled. ‘Try not to sound too happy about it. No, he’s not dead – he just skipped town and I haven’t seen him in weeks.’

Oh, well
 . . . ‘I wasn’t happy. Simply curious.’

He didn’t sound convinced. ‘You’re not the only one. A lot of people are looking for my dad, but I can’t tell them a damn thing. Anyway,’ he continued, ‘I’ve tried all the contacts I can think of – all Dad’s old hunting buddies – but if they know anything they’re not talking.’

‘Maybe you’re better off,’ was all I said.

‘You don’t know anything about it.’ Jace’s voice had risen well above the respectable level you were supposed to use in a hospital. Not to mention the fact that
we
were supposed to be sneaking into a restricted area.

‘Shut
up
! Do you want to get us caught?’

He slid me a sideways look from those almost too-pretty brown eyes, what with the long lashes that put mine to shame. ‘What do I care? This is
your
stupid mission.’

‘Then why are you even here? I thought you said you were here for the boy.’

‘It sounded like a possible vampire attack when I heard about it over the police scanner and I wondered if Dad might be here,’ he replied. ‘He checks out anything with vamp-potential.’

I glanced around, suddenly worried that Thomas Murdoch could be creeping up on us at any moment.

The young hunter shrugged. ‘Anyway, there’s no sign of Dad and I don’t care about the kid one way or the other. I’m only here now to keep tabs on you. Can’t have an undead freak wandering around in a place where humans are sick and vulnerable.’ He crossed his arms. ‘I don’t trust vampires.

‘Because you know so many.’

‘Well, I don’t generally spend time getting to know them, I leave that to my crossbow. That’s the best way to deal with monsters.’

I narrowed my eyes. He didn’t look intimidated, just gave me a slow quarter-smile. A lump rose in my throat.
I
tried to swallow past it so I could give this self-righteous punk something to chew on, but it felt like nothing would shift the ache of wondering if he was right. After all, a year ago I would have agreed with him. And a part of me – the Marie part – still did.

We finally reached the door we needed. There was an orderly on duty and luckily he took a shine to Jace. I tried flirting with him until I realized I was wasting my time; the guy only had eyes for the tall hunk of brooding muscle standing next to me. One look into Jace Murdoch’s soulful brown eyes – allied with his smooth talk of ‘medical studies’ – and the orderly was only too happy to allow us into the restricted area.

‘He was totally hitting on you,’ I whispered as we walked down a corridor that stank of disinfectant.

The corner of Jace’s mouth quirked blink-and-you’ll-miss-it fast. ‘Yeah, I’m just irresistible.’

I leaned against the wall. ‘OK, before we go any further I need to know something. Are you helping me or not?’ I was pleased that my voice was steady.

‘Sure, I’ve got nothing better to do.’

‘Fine. Just don’t get in my way,’ I muttered.
And don’t try stabbing me
, I wanted to add.

As we came to a stop, he suddenly looked at me with something other than disgust. ‘Hey, listen—’

But I never did get to hear what he was going to say, because I suddenly realized that the ‘secured’ door was
partly
open and a gut-twisting stench came from the room beyond.

My stomach knotted. A thick coppery smell hit me like a fist.

‘What is that
smell
?’ Jace was visibly gagging. He drew the silver-edged knife from beneath his jacket.

No, it can’t be
 . . . I stepped closer and peered around the edge of the door, trying to see through the narrow opening. The body of a large woman in green nurse’s scrubs lay on the shiny floor, blocking the door from moving any further.

‘Crap,’ I whispered. I thought I’d said it under my breath but Jace was right beside me. I imagined I could feel the warmth from his arm as it rested against my rigid shoulder.

‘What?’ Jace caught sight of the nurse’s body. ‘Oh.’

The woman’s dark blonde hair was spread behind her on the floor, trailing blood and something that looked like wet, glistening pieces of meat. I swallowed and tried not to choke. I could smell the blood. There was
so much blood
; it was intoxicating and nauseating at the same time. Something dark rose up inside me, and I don’t mean vomit. I mean, something in my ‘soul’ – the part of me that I didn’t want to admit was there.

The monster.

I growled, low in my throat.

Jace grabbed me by the arms and pulled me away
from
the door. He shook me. Hard. ‘Hey, get a grip. This isn’t feeding time.’

I tried to block out the sickly sweet scent of fresh blood. It was almost impossible, but I had to do it. This was self-preservation: if I went vamp right now Jace wouldn’t hesitate to turn that knife on me. In fact, I was pretty surprised he hadn’t tried to kill me again already.

The room smelled like slaughter and I wanted to puke. It was so twisted, being hungry and nauseous at the same time.

Jace looked at me, a frown pinching his eyes into something more dangerous. ‘No, seriously, what
is
that smell?’

I tried to steady myself as I experimented with a deeper breath. ‘It’s blood, Jace. What did you think it was?’

‘Not the blood. I know what
that
is.’ He shook his head, as though trying to brush off cobwebs. ‘I mean the other smell. The one that’s like . . . rotting meat.’

I cringed and remembered the stench that had hit me to start with; before the blood had taken over and gotten the better of my senses. I sniffed the air, picking out that raw-meat stink again. And something else; something that reeked of death and decay. If evil had a smell, surely this was it.

I didn’t want to know what it was, but as I stuck my
head
back around the gap in the door I had all the confirmation I needed.

Rick was sitting on a steel trolley swinging his legs and gnawing on something that looked suspiciously like an arm.

Swallowing hard, I looked back down at the nurse’s bloody body.
Yep, it was an arm. That was pretty much the grossest thing I had ever seen
. I caught sight of a nametag:
Fox
. Poor Nurse Fox.

‘Well?’ Jace was trying to push me out of the way.

He so did
not
want to see this
. I shoved him back, edging away from the door and hoping to God that the thing chewing on a human limb hadn’t caught our scent. Apparently, vampires didn’t have much of a scent to humans, but I was pretty certain Rick wasn’t anywhere near human. Not anymore.

‘What is it, Moth?’ Jace was trying to muscle his way past me again.

‘We need to get out of here,’ I said, fixing him with what I hoped was a look that said:
Do What I Tell You If You Want To Live
.

He scowled. ‘Did Rick go vamp? Is that it?’

‘It’s much worse than that,’ I replied. ‘I think he’s a zombie.’

Chapter Five

I COULDN’T HELP
taking childish pleasure in watching the color drain from Jace’s normally golden cheeks. He licked his lips. ‘No way, there’s no such thing.’

I shook my head. What was wrong with this guy? His father hunted things-that-go-bump-in-the-night for a living.