The Children and the Blood (28 page)

She’d wandered since the fire, since the moment Lily died. In all the chaos, she’d been swept along and tossed about like a dandelion in a hurricane, and never had really come back down. She’d been shattered, left in pieces by the loss of the life she thought she’d been living.

We hunt them. We take them out. Spider’s words joined the noise.

Everything she’d known had been a lie, except for one little girl with bright blue eyes whom the wizards had killed as though she didn’t matter at all.

We’re not like them. Never will be.

Her hand reached up, wrapping around the gun, and she sat up in bed, holding it gently.

She’d always been Ashe to Lily.

And she wasn’t helpless. Or broken. She refused to be.

She couldn’t wield magic, or change what’d happened before. But in all this great mess, she could make a life out of what remained true. She was Lily’s sister. Even if everything else was gone, through a simple name, something of Lily would always be with her.

Her fingers ran over the gun.

And she had one tiny power she could control.

She’d seen his face. And since the Hunters tracked his kind, maybe that was enough.

Because a gun would kill a wizard if they didn’t know the shot was coming.

Down the hall, she could hear Carter and Jericho still talking. Setting the gun aside, Ashe rose and grabbed her jeans from the rug. Pulling them on swiftly, she headed for the door.

The men looked up as she came into the room.

“Carter,” she said. “If I asked you, would you help me find the man who did this? The Blood wizard who killed my family?”

Jericho’s brow rose, but Carter just glanced to him and then met her gaze seriously.

“Yes,” he answered.

“Would you help me kill him?”

Jericho grimaced. Carter simply watched her. And then he nodded.

“Yes.”

She trembled, realizing she hadn’t been breathing. “Thank you.”

Carter nodded again.

She turned and headed back down the hallway, only to stop with her hand on the doorknob.

Arms crossed and leaning on the bathroom doorframe, Spider watched her. With a shrug of her shoulder, the girl pushed away from her support, and a small smile curved across her face.

Without a word, she disappeared back into the bedroom at the end of the hall.

For a moment, Ashe’s brow drew down at the look in the girl’s eyes, and then she continued into her room and shut the door.

The bed squeaked faintly as she sat down. Her gaze rested on the gun nearby.

She had only one power she could use. One single thing she could do.

And she refused to be broken anymore.

If he played one more video game, Cole thought he would lose his mind.

A week had passed since he and Lily found themselves hiding with Travis, and the time had not gone well. When he’d been stuck with Robert and Melissa, he’d often fantasized about having the freedom to do nothing but relax all day.

But in reality, the lack of activity was starting to drive him insane.

Lily wasn’t doing much better. Most of her days were spent pacing the room or making origami crafts from whatever paper she could find. A small mountain of flowers, pinwheels, and cranes now littered the tower room upstairs, but even the girl looked like one more folded creation was likely to leave her screaming.

They both wanted answers. Direction. And one week into this, lightning still hadn’t struck to provide him with either.

People with superpowers were after them. He couldn’t seem to come up with a solution for that.

On the wall, the obnoxious alien clock struck three, and for the hundredth time, he resisted the urge to throw something at it. Nearby, Lily scowled and flung her head back on the floor cushion, glaring upside-down daggers at the trilling, tentacle-laden abomination.

The door swung open as Travis came into the room. Tossing his bag down and sending textbooks spilling across the floor, he flung himself onto the bed. “Dude, this is just getting creepy,” he announced.

Cole waited for more, but nothing came. “What is?”

“That cop was back.”

Lily’s exasperation with the clock melted. She looked between him and Travis in alarm.

“What cop?” Cole asked warily.

“I told you about him.”

“Uh, no. Pretty sure you didn’t.”

“There’s a cop poking around the school, asking about you and the kid. He showed up a few days ago, and then he was back today.”

“You didn’t tell me this, Travis,” Cole said, trying to keep a rein on his temper.

“Oh. Sorry. But yeah, it’s creepy, right?”

“What was he asking?”

“Who knew you, that sort of thing.”

“Did he talk to you?”

“Eh, I told him I hadn’t seen you since your parents went on vacation.”

At his expression, Travis scoffed. “Relax. If I’d said I didn’t know you, it would’ve taken him five seconds to figure out I was lying. Everyone at school knows we’re friends.” He leaned back, balancing one foot on the other and folding his arms behind his head. “Don’t worry. I know what I’m doing.”

Cole saw Lily grimace as she went back to the moronic penguin video game, but thankfully the boy didn’t notice. Running a hand over his face, Cole exhaled and then shoved to his feet. Crossing to the window, he tweaked back the curtain and scanned the street. Nothing moved and, in a neighborhood like Travis’, there weren’t even cars parked by the curb.

He let the curtain fall back into place.

Cops at Brighton Modisett. Too close was an understatement. If he knew where else to go, they’d already be leaving.

Days upon days of thinking had left him with nothing but a headache and no options he could see. Neither of them had relatives to help them and, try as he might, he couldn’t let himself rest easy in thinking he was the only one who could see Lily glow. Wherever they went, they ran the risk of someone recognizing her, either from the light on her or the pictures still occasionally playing on TV. And with all signs pointing to the cops being in league with the people chasing them, recognition would equal a fast track to falling into their custody.

As much as he hated it, without a direction, logic said they might as well stay here. Except that nothing was happening here, beyond the exponential growth of Travis’ belief that this was a game. And since he and Lily didn’t exactly fancy spending the rest of their lives in this room, he was starting to think they were going to
have
to just leave if they wanted to get anywhere in solving this psychotic mystery.

Except he didn’t know where to go. And thus he ended up back at the beginning, cycling through the same thought processes that had yet to accomplish anything.

A buzzing sound pulled him out of his frustration and he turned around, looking for the source of the noise.

“What’s that?”

Rolling off the bed, Travis sighed and headed for his cluttered desk. “Nothing,” he said, yanking open a drawer and shoving papers aside. “Just the old phone you had.”

Cole stared at him, speechless.

“Here we go,” Travis said, pulling the cell from the bottom of the drawer.

“You told me you were going to get rid of that,” Cole said, flabbergasted.

“I am. Justin’s going to pay me for it tomorrow.”

“That’s not the same thing!”

“But this way, if anyone comes looking they’ll just–”

“You were supposed to throw it out,” Cole snapped, crossing the room and snatching the phone out of Travis’ hands. Glancing down, he hesitated, the numbers on the display looking vaguely familiar.

“Who is it?”

“I’m not sure.”

“Well, don’t answer–”

Cole thumbed on the phone. “Hello?” he said warily.

Travis threw up his arms in incredulous exasperation.

“You’re a moron for keeping this phone, you know that?” Robert snapped.

Cole paused. “Nice to hear from you too.”

The man was silent, and Cole could almost hear him grinding his teeth. “I take it they haven’t found you yet.”

“I’m hanging up.”

“Wait! I… I’m sorry.”

Cole hesitated, still itching to end the call. His eyes flicked to the alien clock. “You’ve got ten seconds,” he told the man, watching the tentacles tick around.

“The bastards paid us to keep you, okay? Said they’d spare us if we watched you. But I knew they’d turn on us. Why’d you think I kept so damn many guns around? And they did. I barely made it out after you left, thanks to Melissa. That stupid bitch couldn’t even come up with a convincing cover story for our friendly neighborhood spy. But they’re still going to be looking for you. Me too, since I know who they are. So I figure we can help each other.”

“Bullshit.” The word popped out before he could stop it, and he glanced to Lily uncomfortably.

“Look, they screwed me over too, okay? You think it was easy watching you for all those years, worrying you’d get shot or run off and leave us with nothing? But I’m no fool, alright? Not like that harpy they set me up with. She never was a great thinker, and she sure as hell didn’t think fast enough to get herself out of there.”

“Is she dead?”

“I don’t know. Probably. Now that you know it’s all a sham, there’s no point in keeping us around. We’ve seen too much, plain and simple.”

Cole glanced to Travis. The boy was watching him in disbelief from across the room, and tapping his wrist as though to indicate the time.

“Who are they?”

“Not on the phone. Dammit, we’ve already been too long. They’re probably tracing us already, since you kept this line.”

“You called me.”

“I figured you’d do something stupid, left on your own.”

“Goodbye, Robert.”

“Dammit, wait! Look, Sunrise Campground near highway eighty-nine. Can you get there?”

Cole hesitated. “Yeah,” he said, suddenly understanding the familiarity of the phone number. Robert loved the campground and used to call home from the nearby ski resort before he’d acquired a cell.

“Good. Lot twenty-three. I’ll find you.”

The call ended.

Cole set the cell down on the desk, staring at it.

“What the hell were you thinking?” Travis burst out.

Cole ignored him. Ninety-nine percent of what he’d just heard was gibberish, and the last time he’d seen the man, Robert had tried to smash him over the head with a bookend.

He glanced at the glowing girl watching him from across the room.

“Are you listening to me?” Travis snapped. Striding to the desk, the boy snatched the phone as though to stop Cole from making another call. “I was going to get rid of this for you! And now they’ve probably traced the call and everything. I can’t
believe
you answered the phone! Are you insane? Haven’t you seen–”

Travis kept ranting. Cole barely heard him.

They needed answers. And a week of waiting had gotten them precisely nothing.

“Is their house still empty?” he asked.

“And you just picked up the line like– what?” Travis’ ears caught up to his tirade. He sputtered and then regrouped. “Yeah, I checked this morning.”

Cole nodded. Every day for the past week, Travis had stopped by the hill overlooking Cole’s old neighborhood and used his ludicrously expensive binoculars to see if anyone came by the Smith’s home.

But the driveway stayed empty and the darkened house never changed.

“Can I borrow one of your trucks?”

Travis groaned. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”

Cole waited.

“No, seriously,” Travis continued. “Be kidding me. Please. You can’t honestly think anything he said was the truth.”

“Probably not. But I still need to find out for sure.”

The boy stared at him.

“He knows what’s going on, Travis. I can’t just sit here.”

“The cops are going to be waiting! He’s setting you up!”

Cole shifted uncomfortably. “Maybe,” he allowed, and then glanced to Lily. “That’s why you and Lily stay here. I’ll go see what he has to say and if it’s safe, I’ll let you know.”

Lily dropped the controller and surged to her feet. Crossing the room, she glared up at him. “No,” she said flatly.

Determination trembled through her, covering the fear in her eyes.

“Lily–”

“What about the bad men? The other ones?” she said, her gaze darting to Travis as she tried to hide her meaning. “Huh? What then?”

“I’m trying to look out for you here, Lily. If it’s a trap–”

“Then don’t go.”

“It’s not that easy.”

“Then take me.”

Arms folded, Travis regarded him with satisfaction. “Can’t argue with the kid, huh?”

Frustrated, Cole turned away. “What if he knows a way out of this?” he asked, directing the question at Travis because it was easier than fighting with Lily. “We can’t just stay in your room forever.”

“Then take me,” Lily repeated, biting off the words.

“I’m trying to keep you safe!” he snapped, his tone harsher than he intended.

Her face crumpled, though anger still held back the fear. “But what about you?”

Cole hesitated.

“We stick together,” she continued, her voice trembling. “We have to.”

He grimaced uncomfortably.

“So you can’t leave without me.”

“This is stupid, Lily!” he protested as a last ditch defense against agreeing. “If those men are there…”

“You’ll protect me. And I’ll protect you.”

Behind her, Travis looked like he’d laugh if he wasn’t so aggravated with Cole for still planning on going. Shaking his head, the boy paced away from them.

Cole looked back down at the girl. “One condition,” he said softly. “You see anything wrong – and I mean anything – you run. You don’t wait for me. This is part of me protecting you, Lily. You’ve got to promise.”

For a moment, she didn’t move. And then reluctantly, she nodded.

“Promise,” he ordered.

“Promise,” she repeated.

“I still don’t like this.”

Lily nodded, but her hand found his and she worked her fingers into his grip. She trembled as she clung to him.

Cole sighed. “So what about the truck?” he asked Travis.

“You’re both idiots,” the boy said flatly.