Hollowed (41 page)

"
It was the only one I had,
"
he murmurs.
"
They
'
re nearly impossible to get ahold of
.
I was saving it.
"

He means Ruby
. That bullet was meant for Ruby. So why use it now? To save me?

Noah crouches beside
Joel's body while I turn away.
When I look down, I see the barely visible tear in my shirt, and the skin of my abdomen beneath.

Joel
got me. Not much, but he got me.

It feels like nothing. A scratch, at most.
But I know the blade barely nicked my skin, a centimeter at most, and it has to be a good inch
-
long now.
Is the dizziness because of the wound, or because I can't stop thinking bac
k to Alex and her gaping throat and
Artie's rotting chest? I'm afraid to touch it in case it can somehow spread by doing so.

And I don't want Noah to see it. Not yet.

"Briar?"

I ignore him and head outside. The door spills me into the empty streets surrounded by mostly deserted buildings. No streetlights here, but I know instantly where we are. I've walked down this road a hundred times,
past
at the bakery where I thought my sister was murdered. Where
I
suspect she might
still be. Where Joel may have already killed her.

Noah follows, but his steps are slowed by his injured leg and I don't respond to him yelling my name. The slice across my belly has gone from mildly uncomfortable to sizzling hot, stretching all the way through my pelvic bone and the base of my spine. Like hell if I'm going to look down and see how bad the damage
is getting.

If I only have minutes to live, I'm going to spend them doing what I came to do: I'm going to save my sister.

The painted header that used to read
Cakes and Things
has faded
to
become into
Cake     Thi  s.
Before Ruby's disappearance, anyone could sneak inside. After the cops were done with it, though, it was sealed up tight. I'm reminded of this as my fingers are rubbed raw trying to pry boards off the front window.

I brace myself, put my weight into it
,
and pull. Pain rips through my body
, originating
from my wound, making me tremble, but the boards creak and then give, nearly sending me toppling back when they finally break free. There's no glass to contend with, so I'm able to crawl right in just as Noah is
crossing the street.

"
Briar!
"

My legs almost buckle when I hit the floor inside. Still
I
refuse to look down, because I can feel it getting worse and if I see it, I know I'll completely lose it and won't be able to move another step.

As soon as I'm inside, I see her.

Ruby, slouched in the corner on a pile of tattered and stained sheets. Not a bite mark on her, but there are dark, crusted patches of blood on her neck, shoulders, arms, where so many mouths have fed from her.
Her limbs are thin, her face hollow, smatterings of darkness beneath her eyes. I only saw her two days ago, but she looks as though she's been starved for weeks.

At first all I can do is stand there and stare, terrified to move because I don't even know if she's alive or dead. When I force myself to take another step forward, she twitches, and slowly her eyes slit open. The air washes out of my lungs, leaving me feeling both relieved and utterly exhausted.

"Ruby..."

Noah clambers in behind me, hissing when he puts weight on his leg just as I'm dropping to Ruby's side and yanking the gag out of her mouth. The chains around h
er wrists and ankles, though...
I can't do anything for those.

"How did you..." Ruby rasps, staring up at me. Her eyes drop slowly, presumably on my stomach, and her face blanches.

Before I can answer, Noah yanks me back from my sister and twists me around. His jaw clenches. "He
did
get you. If you'll
hold still
, I can try to fix it." Although the downturn of his mouth and the crease between his brows makes me wonder if it really is fixable.

I'm getting too tired to argue anyway. His voice, Ruby's voice, they're both beginning to sound watery and far away. The biting pain has nibbled its way up into my chest, shoulders, throat. I can't stand it. If it can't be fixed, I'd rather they put me out of my misery now.

But as Noah fumbles around in his jacket
for
something
,
paper and a marker, I think, but
I can't find it in me to pay
to what he
'
s doing
.
I try to keep calm and focus on him. The line of his jaw, the way he's mouthing something as he presses a hand to my abdomen. For a few moments, the only thing that exists in this world is Noah, worrying about me, wanting to help me.

The cooling sensation creeping into my body is like nothing I've ever felt. Every inch of m
e
tingles, like fingertips ghosting along my skin.
I lean toward Noah as though I might soak up more. Because that's what this feeling is, isn't it? His magic? Washing around me, inside me, through my lungs and my bones to the very tips of my fingers and toes. A cold rain on a blistering summer day.

There's no pain anymore, I realize. When he pulls his hand away, he's drawn out the fire with it. The slip of paper with its weird little symbol crumbles to ash in his fingers. Still his eyes are fixated on my stomach and as the world begins to sharpen around me again, I finally dare to look down.
T
he wound there isn't black and rotting. It's raw and red like any injury, but it's healing.

When there's skin there to touch again, I run my fingers over it, marveling. My eyes lift, meeting his. "Thank you..."

Noah gives me a weak grin and straightens up. Ruby hasn't said a word, but she's watching us. I instantly feel guilty for basking in the fresh calm Noah's magic brushed over me while she's still bound and undoubtedly in serious need of food. We have to get her out of here and find the boys, make sure they're okay.

"Noah," I say. "The chains, can you
—
"

H
e
hesitates,
then
drops down to Ruby's side. She watches him every step of the way, like she expects him to put a bullet in her head. I guess I don't blame her
.
I'm halfway expecting it, too.

But Noah only takes the felt-tip marker in his hand, another slip of paper, another symbol I can't for the life of me make out. He places it against the cuff around one of
Ruby's
wrists. The metal links glimmer, burning a bright red before completely crumbling and falling away from Ruby. She cringes from him the moment she's able,
pushing
herself up to sitting.

I want to run to her and gather her up. Hug her and cry and tell her it's all over and things will be okay now. Whatever anger I feel at anything she's done
—
if what Joel told me is true
—
I can't bring myself to care right now. Isn't what's important that we're here now?
I
'
m so sick and tired of being angry and upset.

Except there is still Noah, and he's standing between us. He pulls the gun from its holster again. Even as he's pointing it at Ruby, I throw myself at him, hands fisting in his shirt. "Noah, stop it! She can hardly move!"

"Doesn't make her any less dangerous," Noah says. He jerks his chin toward my sister. "Truth time, Ruby. Now that Joel's dead, no more blaming him for things, so why don't you come clean."

Ruby gets to her feet, but not without difficulty.
S
he's silent. Looking at Noah, at the gun in her face, at me
,
and back again, like she's trying to piece together some intricate puzzle and just can't make sense of it. More
than that, she looks...h
urt.

"Why did you save her, Noah?"

Of all the things my sister could ask, that catches me the most off-guard. Noah doesn't look the least bit surprised and there's no remorse in his voice when he says, "Because she isn't like you."

I don't have time to reflect on that, or on the anger that shutters across Ruby's face. "
Both of you,
please! Let's get out of here and find the boys
. There
'
s time for all this later.
"

Noah's mouth twists uncertainly, but he looks ready to give in. Maybe because we're both exhausted or maybe because
,
on some level, he's worried about Oliver and Fred, too.

But the second he lowers the gun, Ruby
attacks
.

I don't understand what I'm seeing. Not until I realize Ruby has her teeth in
Noah's
throat, her hands in his hair in s
uch a manner that if he twists
the wrong way, she's going to break his neck.

"Stop it, you'll kill him!" It's all I can think to say. I can't do anything, because I don't know
what
to do that won't result in her ending his life right then and there. As though standing there stupidly somehow increases his chances of survival.

But before long, Ruby tears her head back and Noah is discarded like a rag-doll, thrown
away
where he slams into the front counter and slumps to the ground. Not dead, but grasping at his throat, trying desperately to stop the bleeding. Now Ruby is the one with the gun, and it's pointed right at him.

She is so much thinner than I remember. The angles of her shoulders and hips are no longer smooth, but angular and sharp.
The dark shadows painted beneath her eyes emphasize how much of their luster and liveliness they've lost.
She's a walking corpse; it makes her hard to look at.
N
ow with all of Noah's blood on her face
and
hands, she's a
monster.

"What
the hell are you
doing
, Ruby
?"
I was so convinced if we could just get the truth out of her, if
she
and Noah
talked
, everything would be fine. But I don't recognize the girl I'm staring at now, and a deeper part of me trembles and wonders
if this
is the Ruby that Noah was talking about.

She rolls her shoulders back, twists her head from side to side, eliciting sharp pops from her neck. "Poor, scared little Briar. Always everybody's baby. Always the special one." Her bare feet shuffle against the warped linoleum slowly but purposefully
toward me
.

I don't want to step back, but I don't want her to come close. Would my own sister hurt me? I thought I knew
the answer to that
. I thought if there was anything in the world I could be sure of, it was that
one thing
.
That Ruby loved me, and she would always protect me.
Sparing a glance at Noah, I see him still on the ground, blood all around him.

Stay down, Noah. Stay down. I can't stomach seeing Ruby shoot him to top it all off.

"You're upset," I say, trying to soothe her. "Joel almost killed you, and you're half-starved. Let's go get you a meal and we'll sit down and talk
—
"

"I am
so
through talking to you," she snarls, something so guttural and inhuman that it makes me shudder. "I'm so through with
all
of this."

"We're
sisters
. Ruby, you're a good person. You were always
—
"

She slams a fist against the wall, the plaster crumbling and cracking. "Stop acting like you know me!"

How she can muster that kind of strength right now, I don't know. Unless
—getting a taste of
Noah's witch blood has her on some kind of high. Not a good thing.

For every step forward she takes, I take a step back. Away from her
hard, icy
stare and toward the window until my back hits the pane. Shy of ditching Noah and running away, there's
nowhere
for me to go. And there is no way in hell I'm leaving him behind. My fingers grip the sill, digging in for some sort of balance. Something to support me because nothing else in this room is making a hell of a lot of sense right now. I take a deep breath.

"All right. What don't I know? Was Joel right when he told me you begged for him to turn you?"

"Oh, Briar. You have no idea what it was like for me." Her mouth twists from a sneer to an almost-pout, perhaps regretful that
,
after all this
, her secret has been exposed. "Mom and Dad, my teachers, the entire family...
e
veryone was
always
pushing me.
Do better, Ruby. You're smarter than that. Everyone's counting on you. Don't disappoint us.
" She turns her head and spits on the floor like the words leave a bad taste in her mouth.