Who else could they hurt? Anabelle? Ironically, if she were a demon, she’d probably be safe from their “purifying” flames, but if she was human…
“Either way,” Devi continued, “I think they’ll give you until tomorrow to turn yourself in.”
“Good. I’ll make my move tonight.”
“I’m sorry, Nina.” Reese shoved the last two bottles of water into his bag. “I’d help if I could, but I have to get Grayson out of town. She’s defenseless until she transitions.”
“If I transition…,” Grayson mumbled, obviously frustrated by her own vulnerability.
“No, I get it,” I assured them both, the gears in my head grinding around the beginnings of a risky new jailbreak possibility. “I don’t want Gray hurt either, and part of my plan depends on you guys getting out of here—with as much noise and demon bloodshed as possible.”
“You’re going to use us as a distraction?” Devi sounded impressed, and a tiny flame of pride flickered inside me.
“Yeah. I’m counting on your escape to occupy most of the cops in town—and hopefully all the fake exorcists—while I break Mellie out of jail.”
“I’m going with you,” Finn said, and I smiled, trying not to let him see how relieved I was by the offer.
“Not in Maddy’s body, you’re not,” Devi insisted, and I spoke up before he could argue.
“She’s right. And anyway, I need you in your natural state.” Finn’s brows rose, and my cheeks burned. “I mean, you’ll be more help to me if you’re not restricted to one body.”
“Fair enough.” His green-eyed gaze held mine. “So, how do we get out with your sister if we’ve already spent our distraction getting to her in the first place?”
“I’m kind of hoping you’ll be able to open the right doors and push the right buttons when the time comes. I mean, the ordained can’t all be possessed, right?” But no one seemed to have an answer to that.
“So, when do we go?” Reese was already peeking through the curtains, edgy and on alert.
“We wait until the search dies down and we can get closer to the wall before we’re spotted, or until the search comes to our door and we have to run,” Devi said, headed for one of the bedrooms. “Until then, we rest up for the big moment.”
But I was too scared and exhilarated to sleep. While they settled into the bedrooms to nap in pairs, I sank onto the couch alone, staring at the silent headlines scrolling on the TV. I watched misleading footage and read blatant lies.
And I directed all my fear and fury into outlining a plan that would hopefully put us all well beyond the Church’s reach….
***
“I think you’ve seen enough of that.” Reese dropped onto the couch next to me and plucked the remote from my grip. He turned off the TV and set the controller on the coffee table.
“More than enough,” I agreed, studying Finn’s latest face. “What about Grayson?”
“Reese convinced her to rest up before tonight and gave me an hour in the driver’s seat.” Finn stretched his arms, one of them behind me, as if he were checking the fit of a new shirt.
Maddock and Devi had retreated into the other bedroom, and I was on watch. “Well, I won’t turn down the company,” I said as Finn leaned down for a kiss. “Mmm…,” I murmured when I finally pulled away for a breath. “You taste minty.”
“I like brushing my teeth.” His grin was all Finn, even with Reese’s mouth. “I like having teeth to brush.” His thumb rubbed over my knuckles while he examined my eyes. “Still working on the plan?”
“Thinking about after. Assuming we actually make it out with my sister, she’ll still be pregnant. In the badlands. There aren’t a lot of happy ways for that to play out.”
Mellie would carry her baby for at least seven more months. She would feel it kick, and she would deliver it, and she would love it.
Then she would watch it die.
“Unless you happen to have an extra soul in your back pocket,” I finished, unable to disguise the grim note in my voice.
“Well, the pants are Reese’s, but I doubt it.” Finn squeezed my hand. “People die unexpectedly, right? Accidents. Heart attacks. Shot in the chest by an outlaw.” I remembered the fake exorcist he’d killed in my living room to protect me. “I mean, look how many people the Church killed tonight just to protect their secret! So there have to be some souls in the well at any given time. Not enough to make the world go round, but maybe enough for one baby born on the run in the badlands without a donor. Right?”
I nodded slowly. “But how do we know there will be at the time her baby’s born? How can we know for sure?”
“We can’t. Your sister is in the unenviable position of giving birth with no guarantee. Just like women a hundred years ago.”
“Okay, but even if she and the baby both survive the delivery, infants are like helpless little police sirens, going off with no warning. Noise attracts degenerates, Finn. Beyond that, he’ll need diapers and clothes. And what if he gets sick? We can’t—”
Finn laid his finger across my lips. “Yes, there’s a lot to figure out. But what’s your other option? We’ll make it work because we have no other choice. You don’t have to do everything on your own. You’re not alone anymore, Nina.”
His hand moved over my jaw, his fingers sliding slowly into my hair, and I closed my eyes. His mouth met mine again, and this kiss was deeper. Slower. The novel feel and shape of Finn’s new lips was more obvious under such thorough attention, and I shoved my reservations away. I’d realized that every physical moment we shared would be precious because it would be short-lived. It would be borrowed.
Finn’s existence was a miracle defined by impossibilities, and to be with him, I would not only have to accept those impossibilities, I would have to embrace them.
When he tried to pull away, I slid my hand into his hair, holding him close. I wanted more.
A door flew open in the short hallway and I pulled away from Finn, my cheeks flaming, as if we’d been caught. Devi stormed across the living room, tugging her shirt into place over the waist of her pants. “Someone’s outside.”
Finn stood, and I stood with him, instantly on edge. “Gotta go.” He blinked, and then Reese’s brown eyes were back and he glanced around the room in confusion as Grayson and Maddock both emerged from the bedrooms.
“Company,” Devi explained, headed for one of the windows. “Reese, whatcha got? Degenerates?”
He stared at the front wall, and I realized he was hearing something from beyond it. “Degenerates don’t wear boots,” he mumbled on his way across the room.
Devi and I froze when a beam of light flashed through a gap in the drapes, shining in our eyes for a second. Then it was gone.
“What the hell was that?” Grayson stared at the window from the kitchen.
“Boots, flashlights, commands,” Reese whispered, rounding the end table. “Could only be cops.”
“Or fake exorcists,” Grayson said.
Reese pulled the edge of the curtain away from the wall and peeked onto the covered portico shared by our apartment and three others. “This is still the door-to-door. They won’t send in the big guns until they’ve actually found us.”
Devi grabbed two knives from the block on the counter.
Someone banged on the door of the apartment next to ours and I jumped. “This is the police. We have reason to believe certain fugitives may be hiding in this area. Open the door so we can search the premises.”
A second later, another cop repeated the same speech in front of the apartment across from ours.
“We’re next.” Reese held up a one-minute finger, still peering through the window. Then he turned, crossed into the dining room in three huge steps, and threw his duffel over one shoulder. “They’re all inside. We have to go now, before they come back out.”
I took the backpack Grayson handed me. It was light because I’d have to move quickly. “Finn says he’ll be right next to you the whole time. He’ll open a
ny doors he can.”
Devi picked up a pack and her sleeping bag. “We’ll ram the gate, then head south and wait for you in Faireview. Do you know it?”
“Yeah. Ghost town about an hour south of New Temperance, not quite halfway to Solace.” I’d been there on a field trip once. “I guess I’ll have to…steal a car?”
“Finn can help with that,” Reese said. “Can you drive?”
“I don’t have much practice, but yes.”
“All right. Now or never.” Maddock unlocked the door, weighed down by both a duffel and a pack. Reese peered through the window again, then nodded, and Maddock opened the door.
We filed out one at a time, and as we walked, the cold seeped beneath the hem of my jeans and the cuffs of my coat, raising goose bumps all over my skin. The bitter wind stabbed my cheeks as if it were raining icicles, and the first breath I inhaled nearly froze me from the inside out.
We stepped silently, carefully, as if the sidewalk were rigged to explode upon contact. From inside the adjacent apartment, I heard doors being slammed and furniture being shoved across the floor, and every few seconds a cop shouted, “Clear!” but there were no protests or objections. The neighbors were cooperating, and I couldn’t blame them, with Adam’s ashes still blowing all over town.
We turned the corner of the building, sticking to the shadows, and my heart thumped harder when I saw two more teams of cops, the ends of their navy cassocks flapping in the cold wind. They had their backs to us, and they turned left into the next section of the complex without seeing us. But there would be more of them. We could hear them all around us, knocking on doors and demanding entry.
“Finn says this way!” Maddock shout-whispered as I fell into line with them. Then he did an about-face and led us back the way we’d come. We tiptoed past the cluster of apartments we’d been staying in, then followed Maddy into the portico of the next bunch just as a man threw open his door and stepped onto a worn welcome mat.
Devi brandished the knife I hadn’t realized she was still carrying, and the man gave her a big smile. And winked one bright green eye. Then he tossed a set of keys at Maddock, who caught them.
“Parking spot C40, around the corner and to the right.” Then the man stepped back into his apartment and closed the door. And suddenly I understood how Finn could help me steal a car.
“Damn, he’s handy!” I whispered to Grayson as we jogged toward the lot as quietly as we could.
“Yeah.” Her bright white smile shone in the parking lot lights as we followed Maddock down the center aisle, past mostly empty parking spaces. “He scouted out two of them a few days ago, in case we needed a quick escape.”
The vehicle in space C40 was a massive, dented, rusted thing with three rows of seats, a hatchback, and plenty of cargo space in the rear. I couldn’t tell what color it was in the yellowish lights, but the paint was dark. Maddock unlocked and opened the cargo area, and everyone threw their bags in, while I clutched the strap of my backpack tighter. Then Maddy slid into the front seat behind the wheel and Devi climbed in next to him while Grayson and Reese piled into the middle row.
“What’s your plan for getting through the wall?” I asked.
Maddock met my gaze as he shifted into reverse. “How many guards work the gate at night?”
“Two on a normal night.” However, I’d already counted more than a dozen points of light bobbing on the grounds as cops went from door to door looking for us. “But with the town on lockdown, there could be two or three times that.”
“We’re going to have to climb the wall, aren’t we?” Grayson leaned over Reese to stare out at the massive barricade on our left, visible between the buildings.
Devi snorted. “Even if we could get that high with no footholds, the razor wire would shred us like paper.”
“No one’s ever gone over the wall, that I know of. No one human, anyway.” Though that evening’s televised massacre had proved that degenerates could get through our barrier en masse if they were motivated enough.
“We can’t just drive through the gate!” Grayson whispered. “They’ll shoot!”
“We’ll be fine,” Devi said, and I almost choked on shock when I realized she was truly trying to be nice. “Two lanes, one incoming, one outgoing. The guards are armed, but they won’t be expecting us to try something so brash. All we have to do is make enough noise to bring everyone running, then head out into the badlands. Grace, you duck down on the floorboard and stay there.”
“Don’t worry, Nina.” Maddock leaned past Devi so he could see me, his hands still clenching the wheel. “We got this. Go get your sister.”
I stepped away from the vehicle, and he backed out of the parking space, then burned rubber on his way out of the lot, already drawing attention to give my sister her best shot at survival.
The streets were mostly dark and completely deserted, thanks to the lockdown, but I’d only run a couple of blocks before I heard the first sirens. A second after that, a pair of police cars raced toward me, red and blue lights flashing, and I ducked behind a parked car as they zoomed past, headed toward the town’s south gate.
“This is too slow,” I whispered, jogging through the shadows. “They’ll already be through the gate or captured long before I get to the courthouse.” I couldn’t see or hear Finn, so I had no idea whether or not he’d heard me, and after spending the last couple of days with Anathema, being alone felt strange.
Lonely.
I’d gone four more blocks, avoiding both gravel and streetlights, when a soft whirring sound made me draw to a skittish stop. I twisted, looking for the source, and froze when a boy on a bicycle turned the corner I’d just passed, pedaling my way.
Heart thumping, I glanced around for somewhere to hide, praying he hadn’t seen me. Then he rode through the light from a streetlamp and I realized his chest was bare. As were his feet. He was riding a bike in his pajamas, during a lockdown.
Wait a minute….
“Nina!” the boy shout-whispered, and I exhaled in relief. I was starting to catch on to Finn’s MO.
“Where did you get this?” I asked as he rolled the bike to a stop on the shadowed sidewalk next to me, and I wasn’t sure if I was asking about the bike or the boy riding it.
“From a house a couple of blocks away. Here.” He climbed down and leaned in for a quick kiss with unfamiliar, full lips that were cold from the night air. “Go. I’ll catch up after I put him back to bed.”
“Thanks. And hurry!” I climbed onto the bike as Finn jogged back the way he’d come, and then I took off on my new wheels.
I flew down darkened streets and through deserted shortcuts, while in the distance, wailing sirens were punctuated by gunshots and shouts. As grateful as I was for the distraction, fear for the other members of Anathema lurked at the back of my mind, eclipsed only by the more immediate fear for my sister as I sped toward her.
The courthouse lawn and town square were abandoned, the building lit only by the normal floodlights, and as far as I could tell in the dark, all signs of the afternoon’s massacre had been cleaned up. No blood, no ashes, no bodies. I stopped beneath the awning of a storefront across the street, shrouded in shadows, studying the front of the courthouse, trying to decide where they would keep a teenage prisoner.
The police department was headquartered on the first floor—Finn had been there that afternoon—but I wasn’t sure which side of the building it was on. According to Adam’s dad, there were additional cells in the basement. I’d always dismissed that claim as paranoia and the product of an active imagination, but considering that the Church was being run by demons, paranoia suddenly seemed like a reasonable state of mind.
I was about to head for the rear of the courthouse when headlights appeared at the end of the street and a car rumbled to a stop in front of the broad steps. A police officer got out of the driver’s seat and opened the rear door for a passenger in pale blue fitted robes. Surprise quickened my pulse. Even from a distance, I recognized Anabe
lle’s profile and her pale curls.
What was she doing there? Was she possessed?
No. She couldn’t be. I’d known her all my life. I would have noticed a change if she’d been possessed, no matter how skilled an actor the demon was.
They had to know she was my friend. Surely they’d brought her in to help deal with Melanie, or maybe to offer insight about me. Or both.
Or maybe they’d lured her in under some pretense, because Anabelle was to be my next warning—the next friend they’d burn on national television if I didn’t turn myself in.
I watched until she and the cop disappeared into the building, and then I circled to the rear of the courthouse, sticking to the shadows, and parked my borrowed bike next to a large, rusted trash bin in the small, cracked parking lot. I’d quietly tried three of the four back exits—they were all locked—when the fourth opened and a police officer leaned out, lights from the parking lot glaring on his fitted navy cassock. He looked to his right, and I froze, certain that trying to open the locked doors had gotten me caught. Then he turned to the left and his eyes widened. “Nina!”
I couldn’t see his irises, shaded as they were by the brim of his hat, but the familiarity and relief in the cop’s voice told me his eyes were currently Finn-green.
He stepped onto the small concrete porch and wedged a thin pocket flashlight into place to hold the door open about an inch. “They’re on high alert inside, thanks to the run on the gate,” he whispered. “But almost none of those left in the courthouse are possessed. They’re mostly low-level cops and a few clerks, and that’s how I figured it out!”
“Figured what out?” I jogged up three short steps and suddenly we were face to face—my normal face to his newly dark, full features, yet another in an endless parade of faces that looked nothing like those that had come before, yet somehow looked exactly like Finn. Like the characteristics I was learning to identify with him specifically, regardless of the body he occupied.