| |
I turned the key in the ignition and drove, ignoring Ruth’s fists pounding on the hood and Justice’s shouted questions. Once their toes were out of the way, I floored it. Didn’t stop until I was too distant for anyone to catch up to me. Even then, I only paused long enough to root around in the trunk in search of another set of clothing.
There wasn’t much to choose from. An old sock that had been used as a rag while checking the oil. A windbreaker that must have belonged to someone male because it fell most of the way to my knees.
“Good enough,” I decided, leaving the sock behind while pulling on the windbreaker. Then I punched the address of Grace’s apartment into a mapping app and got back behind the wheel.
Over the next twelve hours, half the pack tried to call me. Well, that’s not quite true. There were lots of missed calls though. Texts also, some of which made me wince when I caught snippets out of the corner of my eye.
I wasn’t tempted to answer, though. Not until Luke joined the fray.
“Honor, where are you? We can fix this together.”
I clenched my hands around the steering wheel to prevent them from skittering sideways and answering without my permission. Chances were good that Victor wasn’t the only one in the pack doing Aunt May’s bidding. If she had someone watching over Luke’s shoulder for illicit contact, I wasn’t willing to be responsible for Carly’s death.
Instead, I sped just fast enough so cops wouldn’t pull me over, taking care to ensure I was the second fastest car on the road at all times. My stomach growled...then it stopped growling. After a while, the nerves in my feet stopped yelling at me every time I pressed harder on the gas pedal. I was too exhausted to feel the pain.
I was in a daze by the time I hit the Lincoln Tunnel. Honking horns jolted enough adrenaline into me so I managed the crazy merges. I parked the car willy-nilly, knowing it would be towed and not caring. Someone wolf-whistled as I ran down the sidewalk in my state of half-dress.
“Wolf whistle. That’s ironic.”
I didn’t realize I’d spoken aloud until a woman in a Big Apple t-shirt eased her way to the other edge of the sidewalk. I was scaring the tourists. Delightful. Good thing I’d achieved my destination at last.
I stabbed my finger at the call button. “Grace,” I croaked. The door unlocked and I stumbled through it, half expecting Aunt May to be lying in wait inside.
Instead, it was my sister who clattered down the stairs toward me. “They’re gone!” Michael called as he followed. “I tried to smell where they went! But I lost them at the end of the block!”
I blinked. “What time is it?”
“You’re not late.” Grace half carried me up the stairs. “Aunt May left right after you spoke.”
“We would have found a way to save Carly if she’d stayed!”
Michael’s exclamation-point-filled explanation was as good as any. Or maybe I was just too tired to second-guess when Grace added. “Aunt May said she’d call this afternoon. You can sleep on my bed until then. I’ll wake you up in time.”
There was a soft mattress behind me. I collapsed onto it, staring up at the water-stained ceiling.
“Close your eyes,” Grace suggested.
I acquiesced.
***
I DREAMED ABOUT LUKE’S pack. They poured en masse out of the bed of a pickup and converged on the people I’d left behind at Wolf Camp. “Where is she?” Luke demanded.
“Here!” I answered. But the word wasn’t even audible to myself. I waved my hand in front of my face. Saw nothing. I wasn’t inside Luke the way I had been previously. Instead, I was as immaterial as a ghost.
Ruth, on the other hand, both heard Luke and answered. “If I knew where Honor was, would I still be hanging around Wolf Camp?”
Luke ran a hand through his hair, curls catching on his fingers. “Honor wouldn’t just leave.”
“It’s a tough pill to swallow, being bait for the Hunt,” Ruth countered. “Not to say I told you so, but—I told you so. Better to let her go, choose someone stronger. An alpha has to put the needs of the pack first.”
Whatever Luke intended to reply, I didn’t hear it. Because I wasn’t there beside them. They weren’t even there, not really. This was only a dream.
Half asleep, I heard a rustle of movement from the other side of Grace’s apartment. “Should we wake her up?” That was Michael. “She’ll want time to choose weapons!”
“Honor needs more sleep.” That was Grace. “It’s only been an hour.”
“Maybe we should break into Justice’s apartment to get her clothes!”
I almost smiled at Michael’s attempt to help. Could hear an actual smile in my sister’s voice as she answered. “She can use mine.”
The fact I’d heard my sister and Luke’s brother meant I wasn’t dreaming. And yet, with my eyes closed, I still saw Luke’s brilliant blue eyes boring into mine.
“I’m in Grace’s apartment,” I tried to tell him. “Aunt May is holding Carly hostage and Victor is in on it. I’m going to swap myself for her shortly. A rescue would be nice.”
His expression didn’t flicker. Instead, his face faded into darkness. My tensed muscles relaxed as the throbbing in my toes receded.
There was nothing I could do except sleep.
Then my twin’s hand was shaking my shoulder. “It’s time, Honor.”
For one second, I curled closer into her pillow, flaring my nostrils. Waiting for cinnamon to enfold me.
After all, Luke’s scent had marked every other long-distance sharing. A promise that the dreams included kernels of reality. A tangible reminder of what Luke and I shared.
The cinnamon had been present when Carly and Michael bickered in my dreams a week ago. That had been a real memory of Luke’s, as I realized when I met his niece in person.
This dream had to be similar. Or at least I desperately hoped so.
I sniffed harder. Intent, searching.
All I smelled was Grace’s conditioner saturating the pillow.
***
MY MOUTH TASTED LIKE sewage. Well, not literally, although I had a sinking suspicion I might know what sewage tasted like by the end of the day.
Because where would Aunt May hide in New York City? Probably somewhere dark and dank and full of rot.
“Here.” Grace pressed a mug of tea into my hand. Not just any mug—the one Bastion brought me every morning when we lived next door to each other and were supposed to be only distant neighbors. “Drink it.”
I sank into a chair at her tiny kitchen table, taking in the array of weaponry spread out across the polished-wood surface. There were knives and guns and swords of all shapes and sizes. I skimmed my finger across the sharp edge of one of the latter, smiled when blood welled up in its wake.
“Where did all this come from?”
Grace glowed with pride, although her response was chastened by the circumstances. “You can find anything in New York City. I wanted you to have choices.”
I winced at her final word. After all, Aunt May’s call—which we were still waiting for—would take all other choices away from me. Well, all choices except how literally to abide by Aunt May’s likely requirement that I come alone.
I wasn’t the only one who’d jumped ahead to that eventuality. Grace and Michael stood in front of me like recruits hoping to be selected for a prestigious assignment. Why hadn’t I noticed how solid my sister was last summer? And Michael—he was growing into the big boots his brothers had left for him. Still—
“I can’t take you with me. If Aunt May sees anyone except me, she’ll start cutting off pieces of Carly.”
Michael flinched. Grace didn’t. She just speared me with eyes identical to my own and waited, knowing I wasn’t done yet.
“But you can follow behind. Put Michael on a leash and use his nose to trace me.”
The kid stared down at his toes, his mouth sagging. “I wasn’t able to find Aunt May yesterday....”
“But she didn’t want to be found. Grace, I need your smelliest perfume.”