14

The house looked more like a coliseum than an actual home. Enormous columns lined the front door on either side; the lawn was pristine. At the moment, however, I was more concerned with the ten-foot-tall security gate that marked the property’s borders on all sides.

The gate was a problem.

I could have climbed it. If there’d been a pack of hellhounds on the other side, I doubtlessly would have, but this was recon, not a confrontation. I needed to be invisible, and that meant that if I was going to scale the gate, I at the very least needed to identify the least conspicuous location from which to do so.

I moved with the absolute silence of a panther stalking its prey, light on my feet, drawn to the shadows. The tank top I’d pilfered from the dormitories was black. The jeans had a dark wash. I could do this. I could blend. I could disappear into my surroundings….

About a quarter of the way around the house, I made my move, sidling up to the wall. It was made of brick and topped with wrought iron. I braced my foot against the base of the wall and curled the tips of my fingers downward, poised to dig my nails into the mortar.

“I bet you were a cat in a former life.”

I didn’t jump. I didn’t curse. My heart didn’t beat any faster at the interruption, but my breath caught in my throat.

“Skylar?”

“Hiya, Kali.”

For someone who gave every appearance of being Human with a capital H—physically, at least—Skylar Hayden was surprisingly stealthy.

“What are you doing here?” I asked, relaxing my hands and mimicking her posture, like I hadn’t been on the verge of beginning my career in breaking and entering a few seconds before.

“No idea.” Skylar grinned. “The universe works in mysterious ways.”

“Uh-huh,” I said. “Likely story.”

“Also, when you and Bethany didn’t show up for school this morning, Elliot kind of freaked. He called Bethany, and her dad answered the phone. I tried calling you, but apparently, you don’t have a cell phone.”

“I lost it,” I said. If by “lost,” you mean “used it to dismember some zombies a few nights ago.” I went through cell phones almost as quickly as I went through clothes.

“In any case, I told Elliot you guys were fine, he went to class, and I came here. Speaking of, why are you here? I sense that the chocolate chips have hit the fan.”

“What else do you sense?”

Skylar shrugged. “Little bit psychic,” she reminded me. “I have my limitations.”

She seems … enthusiastic.

I almost responded to Zev’s words out loud, but stopped myself just in time. That’s one word for it.

“So why are we climbing the Davises’ wall?” Skylar clearly wasn’t put out by the idea—just curious.

“We are not climbing anything,” I told her. “I need to get inside Bethany’s house. The two of us were in an accident this morning, and I think the people we saw yesterday might have taken her.”

“Taken her where?”

“I don’t know, Skylar. All I know is that someone ran our car off the road, I got knocked unconscious, and when I woke up, Bethany and the car were both gone.” I hadn’t meant to tell her that much. At this rate, I’d be confessing my deepest, darkest secrets by noon.

You seem to be somewhat attached to this human.

I ignored the running commentary in my head—and the scent of strawberries and blood, which I belatedly realized was the way Skylar smelled to the parasite inside of me. The one that connected me to Zev. The one that, according to Zev, I would eventually have to feed.

If I concentrated, I could hear Skylar’s heart beating, could see the pulse of her carotid artery in her neck.

I focused on not concentrating.

“If you think someone took Bethany, why are we at her house? Shouldn’t we be looking for evidence at the scene of the crime? Talking to people who might have seen where she went? Or, ohhh, we could check out local hospitals, and I could borrow Genevieve’s police scanner, and maybe Darryl could hack the DMV.”

I wasn’t sure which part of that run-on statement to respond to first. “Genevieve has a police scanner?”

Skylar shrugged. “We all have hobbies.”

Given what I spent my spare time doing, I wasn’t exactly in a position to be throwing stones.

“This isn’t a game, Skylar.” My voice was serious, but when Skylar responded, her tone made mine seem like child’s play.

“I know, Kali.” Her blue eyes were shadowed, her mouth set into a firm line. “Trust me, I know.”

Somehow, it was easy to believe that she knew the stakes, maybe even better than I did. “We shouldn’t be talking here,” I told her. “Someone might see us, and let’s just say that the people who ran Bethany’s car off the road might have reason to be looking for me.”

Like the fact that I was still in possession of their “specimen.”

And the fact that my body had disappeared from the side of the road.

The fact that I wasn’t dead …

On the off chance that Skylar was psychic, I stopped that line of thinking in its tracks and started talking, careful to keep the details to a bare minimum. I needed to tell Skylar enough to convince her this was dangerous, but not so much that I’d put her in more danger. Hitting a few key points, I ended with, “Whatever’s going on, Bethany’s dad is involved. She mentioned something about her dad keeping some of his equipment at home. He might have records here, too….”

I trailed off.

All I needed was a name. Once we knew who Bethany’s father was working for, Skylar could go Nancy Drew them to her heart’s content.

Know thy enemy.

Drain them dry.

“Kali?” Skylar’s voice broke into my thoughts, and I realized that I’d been staring—at her throat.

“Yeah?”

“You didn’t get rid of the chupacabra, did you?”

I didn’t answer. Instead, I turned back to the wall. “I need to get inside.”

Skylar nodded. “Go ahead. I’ll work on Plan B.”

More terrifying words had never been spoken, but before I could convince Skylar that there would be no Plan B, she was already off and running, and I was left with two choices: follow her or scale the wall.

I scaled the wall.

The mortar cracked under the force of my fingernails, and I flashed back to the feel of thick, leathery flesh giving way under my razor-sharp nails.

They’re out there. They’re waiting. They’re yours.

Find them. Find them now.

It was only nine thirty in the morning, and already, I wanted to hunt so badly I could taste it on the tip of my tongue, bittersweet.

Dropping to the ground and landing in a crouch, I couldn’t help turning my inner ear to the world around me. There was something close. Something old.

Something deadly.

Ignoring the hum of the preternatural at the edge of my senses, I made my way to the side of Bethany’s house. The windows were closed. A camera stared down at me from overhead. I dodged its view and considered my options.

“For what it’s worth, I’m going in the front door.”

This time, Skylar didn’t appear right next to me. Instead, she yelled the words across the lawn, from the gargantuan front porch.

How had she gotten past the gate?

“I had the guard buzz me in,” Skylar called. “He’s really very nice.”

Even from a distance, I could tell that the expression on Skylar’s face was anything but innocent. She wanted in—not just the house, but the situation. If the woman in heels was keeping track of the Davises’ visitors, Skylar had just thrown herself onto her radar, and from the way she was standing there, I got the feeling that it was intentional, that she would keep doing it, again and again, until her life was on the line as much as mine.

Until she’d destroyed every reason I had for wanting to keep her out.

As I watched, horrified, Skylar stepped forward and rang the doorbell. I pressed my back against the side of the house, slipping as far into the shadows as I could. The front door opened, and Skylar grinned.

“Hey, Bethany,” she said, her voice carrying. “What’s up?”