Hollowed (40 page)

"
Here, there, everywhere.
"
He shrugs, eyes darting to Noah.
"
This knife of yours has come in pretty handy, witch.
"
Moonlight glints off of the blade.
"
I was really wonderin
'
how I was gonna get the upper hand with someone as old as Mav, but this did the trick.
"

Noah seethes, every line and angle of his face and jaw tense.
"
Great. Now you can give it back.
"

"
What
'
s the rush?
"
Joel tosses it from one hand to the other then holds it up, examining the intricate designs along the sides.
"
It
'
s one a
'
them fancy things you witches use, all enchanted and shit.
What's it called...a Winter weapon?
"
He must see the brief flash of shock across Noah
'
s face, because he grins.
"
Heard the
witch
who makes
‘em
rarely gives ‘em out. Would be a shame if this were to get, you know,
misplaced
.
"

Noah
'
s
jaw clenches
. He
'
s trying to play it off like it doesn
'
t bother him, but obviously that knife means something more than I thought it did. I want to throttle Joel. What if
Ruby is
already dead? What if all those vampires feeding from her
was
too much
for her body to handle
?

"
You can tell us where my sister is or I
'
m knocking that self-satisfied smirk off your
fucking
face.
"

Joel
'
s smile morphs into a scowl.
"
Neither of you got any manners.
"

Before I can reply, a gunshot
cracks between the fragments of our words, ending a discussion that
never would have gone anywhere
. Joel wrenches to one side, barely missing it, and he hisses at Noah.
Another shot goes off.
Joel lunges
—
not for Noah, but for me
—
while I dive for my gun.
My
fingers brush cool metal
. J
oel is on me.

One of Noah's bullets
dives into
the wall above our heads and Joel grabs a fistful of my hair, dragging me to my feet. He holds me in front of himself as we face Noah, the knife against my throat
. His
personal
meat-
shield.

"Drop it,
" Joel
rumbles
. To Noah. Not to me.

Which means he doesn't notice that I managed to grab my gun before he grabbed me. When I swallow, I feel the razor-sharp edge
against
my pulse-point.

Noah
aims
for Joel's head, but he doesn't fire. All it would take is the slightest jerk of his hand and I'll be joining Artie, Alex
,
and Maverick on the list of vampires killed by this weapon. But how much does Noah care? How far can he be pushed before he decides it's worth it to get to Joel, even if it means killing me?

Except Noah's expression flickers, torn. "Let her go."

"Put down the gun," Joel says, "and I'll consider it."

If
Noah ditches his gun
, Joel will likely slit my throat anyway and Noah knows it. I think fast.

"
You know, I don
'
t blame you for being pissed off
at
my sister.
"

Joel glances at me. Only briefly; he
'
s not stupid enough to take his eyes off of Noah for long
.
"
Say what?
"

"
It makes sense,
"
I continue.
"
You wanted her, but she was pissed that you forced her to become a vampire and she left. Must
'
ve been pretty hard for someone who always takes what he wants and doesn
'
t let it get away.
"

His entire body tenses.
"
Think you
'
re so smart, princess,
"
he murmurs, too close to my ear for comfort.
The heat of his breath creeps down my neck.
Ew.
"
For the short remainder of her miserable life, Ruby will remember who it was that gave her what she wanted.
"

Noah is staring at me. I meet his eyes, finding solace there, keeping me clear-headed despite that my stomach is clawing its way up my throat.
"
What are you talking about?
"

Joel
'
s
lips draw back into a sneer.
"
I didn
'
t turn her because I wanted her. I turned her because she
begged
me to.
"

Something has
sucked the air from my lungs. "You're lying." But why would he? What would be the point?

"Nope. She was pretty organized 'bout the whole thing; even set up that bakery to look like a murder scene so y'all would think she was dead." He shrugs. "
You can believe me or not
, I don't give a shit."

It isn't what he's saying that makes me feel like I've been punched in the gut. It's that, somewhere deep inside, I think it could totally be true
. E
ven if I don't
want
to believe it. Why would Ruby do that to our family? To me?

Staring into Noah's eyes and seeing the uncertainty there, I realize that
he
'
s known this all along. It
'
s why he assumed I had chosen to be turned. He put too much stock in the idea that Ruby and I are anything alike.

Another secret. Another lie.
Had Noah tried to tell me any of this, though, I never would have believed him.

But
now
,
I
think I
have a pretty good idea where
Joel is
keeping Ruby.

"
What
do you say
, witch?
"
Joel nods.
"
Gonna put that thing down?
"

Sl
owly
,
Noah lowers his gun.
He
leans over to place it on the floor,
and
all the while his eyes never leave mine, like he's trying to tell me something. Reassure me. "Let her go, Joel. Let her out of this room, and you and I will finish this on our own. Even the playing field a bit."

"
What
'
s the point in that? I want both a
'
you dead.
"
He grins wide. I feel the bite of metal, knowing damned well I have about point-two seconds to do something before he
carves my neck open like a stick of butter.

I jab the barrel
of the gun
back
at
him, somewhere against his abdomen,
and
squeeze
the trigger. P
ray to all that is holy or amazing in this world that his hand doesn
'
t spasm.

It doesn
'
t. His arms jerk away as
his shriek is drowned by gunfire
, g
iving me space and time to whirl out of his grasp.
He reaches for me again, grabbing my arm, spinning me around. There
'
s a flash of silver and a cold bite across my
stomach
before one of Noah
'
s bullets takes
Joel
in the chest, pushing him back the half inch I need to get away.

Not very gracefully, at that. My legs trip over one another and I end up tangled in a heap at Noah
'
s feet, while he continues firing shots across the room. Shots that aren
'
t slowing Joel down
,
and the second Noah has to hesitate to reload, I heft up my gun and take aim. Trying to do it from the floor? Not working so hot. My first shot falls too far left and the second barely nicks his shoulder
.
By the time
Noah has reloaded
,
Joel is almost on us.

I roll to one side to avoid a kick to the face while Joel lunges for Noah, blade-tip inches from his
cheek
. He flips backward, slamming a heavy boot into Joel
'
s face,
jaw giving a messy crunch like cereal
. Joel rears back only for a second. Noah is barely flat on his feet again. Joel swings a leg out, sweeping Noah
'
s legs out from under him
. W
hen he lands
,
a
pained, clipped cry
escapes
his mouth.
Not a good sign.

W
hile Joel is stationary
,
I take the chance to fire off a sh
ot. This one takes him right
between his shoulder
-
blades.
Makes him pause
. D
raws his attention off of Noah and onto me as he slowly turns around.

And I
'
m clicking on empty.
I don't have time to reload.
Shit shit shit.

There
'
s a cold burn across my
stomach, part dread, part terror, part physical pain. I
spin
around
and run
, already knowing I won
'
t get far, knowing
he
'
s faster and stronger and this might be it.

A heavy hand clamps onto my shoulder. I squeeze my eyes shut. Noah
'
s gun goes off and the grip goes slack and falls away, leaving me stumbling forward a few steps and twisting around to see what happened. Why this one shot out of all the bullets we
'
ve put into him so far made him stop.

Joel staggers to a halt, swaying. When he turns to face Noah, I see where the bullet
entered
at the base of his skull. One fine, round little hole. Noah leans against a support beam, nursing his left leg, but the gun is down like he knows he doesn
'
t need it anymore.

"
You really think that knife is the only weapon I have effective against vampires?
"
A wry smile twists at his mouth.
"
Bullets can carry spells, too.
"

"
You...
"
Joel reaches back, fingers shaking as he touches where his hair is matted and thick with blood and sweat and dirt. He
whirls around
then
, laughing around his broken jaw and bloodied teeth.
S
waggers across the warehouse like nothing happened, arms swinging, steps wide.

Halfway to the door, he staggers, and then he'
s
down.

I can
'
t bring myself to move or breathe, waiting for him to get back up again.
Noah limps over, shoving a boot into Joel's shoulder and rolling him
onto his back
.
His eyes stare straight up at the ceiling beyond us, glassy and vacant. Like any other corpse in the world. He was never a vampire, never special.

I don't know yet if I feel sorry
for his death
.
Should
I feel sorry? All I can think of is
Sherry and Ruby
. Of the people we left to fight Oli
ver and Fred...
people who will never return home, who will n
ever see their families again. People w
ho won't even get to enjoy their lives as vampires because Joel ruined their chance. And if Joel hadn't thrown me from that roof? I never would have attacked
John
in the alley.

No. I don't think I feel sorry at all.

"
Why didn
'
t you use that bullet earlier?
"
I ask.