Текст книги "Through the Zombie Glass"

Автор книги: Gena Showalter

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Текущая страница: 21 (всего у книги 25 страниц)

To-do: figure it out, and fast. Time was running out.

* * *

“—I’ve always known,” Frosty was saying to Kat.

My eyelids fluttered open, and I realized two things at once. I’d fallen asleep while Cole stroked me, and morning had arrived.

Frosty sat beside Kat’s bed, holding her hand. Her other had tubes sticking out of it—tubes attached to a dialysis machine.

Her eyes widened with shock. “You have?”

“Well, yeah. Kitty Kat, I’m, like, a master black ops agent man, and not just when it comes to Call of Duty. To hang around you, and to let you hang around my friends, I had to know all about you. I never said anything about your illness because I wanted you to trust me enough to admit the truth on your own.”

Oh, wow. He’d always known.

“Well, that didn’t stop you from asking a bazillion questions about what I was doing each day,” she grumbled.

“I was giving you the opportunity to come clean,” he said with an unrepentant grin.

“It was entrapment, you turd, plain and simple. I should be furious with you.”

He arched a brow. “Should?”

She sighed. “For some reason, I’ve never found you sexier. And you know I have trouble staying mad at anything sexy.”

He barked out a laugh, but sobered only a few seconds later. His gaze pierced her, intense and demanding. “I want you healed, Kat. I want you around, tormenting me, forever.”

“I want that, too,” she whispered. “More than anything. And I’m sorry I’ve broken up with you so much. I just didn’t want you to see me while I was sick. I didn’t want your sympathy or pity, or worse, you staying with me because you felt obligated.”

“You have nothing to be sorry for. You made me chase you, and I loved it. And I stayed with you because I love you, no other reason.”

My heart constricted. I shouldn’t be listening to this. It was private. A moment of vulnerability and longing I wasn’t meant to share. I rolled to my other side, giving the pair as much privacy as possible, and came face-to-face with Cole.

He was watching me.

“You look better,” he said.

“You’re still here,” I replied. I wasn’t sure why I was surprised.

“Of course I am. There’s nowhere I’d rather be.”

My heart leaped into my threat. “Cole,” I breathed. “Thank you for coming to find me. Thank you for everything.”

He nodded, but a hard gleam appeared in his eyes. “I dropped your grandmother off, checked in with my dad and went back to the cabin. You weren’t there, but your tracks were outside. Then I got your message. I think I was an hour and a half behind you, and by then it was too late. And I’m sorry for that. No,” he added when I opened my mouth to respond. “You don’t get to tell me I have no reason to feel guilty. I love you, and I’ll feel guilty if I want.”

He’d once told me he was coming after me with everything he had. This. This was all I needed.

Though I tried, I couldn’t find the strength to lift my arms and hug him. All I could do was lean forward and press my forehead against his chest. His heart beat fast but steady.

“How did you track us?” I asked.

“Justin had the address for several Anima facilities in the area. I nearly shouted my house down trying to get your sister’s attention. She showed up, I gave her the addresses and she was better than a camera.”

“But she couldn’t get into the building to see us. There was a block.”

“Yeah, but she could see and hear everyone who entered and left. You were mentioned.”

Oh. Thank you, sweet sister.

He kissed my temple. “Will you tell me what I want to hear now? Without falling asleep on me while you’re doing it?”

“Totally. But what do you want to hear?”

Two of his fingers gently pinched my chin and lifted my head until my gaze locked on his. He searched me for a long while, silent, before grinning wryly. “Never mind. I’ll wait.”

“For what?”

“You.” He tucked my head against his chest—against the final L in my last name—breaking eye contact. Toying with the ends of my hair, he said, “I know you like to ask a thousand questions. Is there anything you’re dying to know about what’s been happening around here?”

I was confused by the exchange—seriously, what did he want me to say?—yet caught up in the seduction of him. Everything about him lulled me into a deep sense of relaxation. “Do you know where Nana is?”

“Earlier she was walking by, heard you talking in your sleep and decided to spend the rest of the night by your side, just in case you needed her. I came in a few hours ago. I’d left to shower, and sent her to her old room to rest. She refused to go until I promised to call her when you woke up.”

Darling Nana. She’d seen so much death lately. “I want to kill Zombie Ali so bad.”

“Urges?”

I knew what he was asking. “I can feel them, the desires to attack and feed, waiting at the edges of my conscious. I need more light.”

“Yes. That’s what the journal says.”

Surprised, I said, “You were you able to read it?”

“I was. I sat with that thing for hours, getting nowhere, thinking about the numbers and the symbols, about what they could mean, rolling them around in my head, and finally, all of a sudden, the words began to clear. I was so startled I looked around to make sure I wasn’t dreaming and caught a glimpse of my reflection. My eyes were silver.”

“Silver?”

“Yeah. Like mirrors.”

Mirrors. Interesting. “If eyes are the windows to the soul, I guess they can be mirrors, too.” I paused. “What was the catalyst, do you think?”

“Maybe my utter absorption with it. We are what we eat, right? My brain was definitely eating that journal.”

“What were you able to read?”

“A passage about some slayers having gifts others do not, like the visions, and your ability to see the Blood Lines.”

Yes, I’d read that part, too.

“Then there was a section about dying to really live, and the fact that you need fire to burn the toxin out of you.” He arms tightened around me. “I know you tried that on yourself, but I’m thinking your fire was already compromised. Either that or Zombie Ali is as immune to your fire and toxin as you’re becoming to the antidote.”

That one, I thought. That second one. That was the answer. “I wonder what will happen if you use your fire on me.”

“I’ve thought about that, and I’m not willing to risk it. What if it kills you? Ashes you? I would never forgive myself.”

What if Z.A. died, and I lived? “Just...don’t take it off the table, okay?”

He sighed. “All right, but it’ll be a last resort. It’s risky, and I’m not happy with the idea of risking you.”

“Great risk comes with great reward.”

“Yo, Muhammad Ali,” a female voice said before he could reply.

I peeked up from my position against Cole’s chest and watched as Trina, Mackenzie and Lucas approached the side of my bed.

Trina said, “You got yourself and three wimps out of Anima. I’m not sure I’ve ever been prouder of you.”

“Hey,” Kat huffed.

“Yeah! Who are you calling a wimp?” Reeve demanded.

“I believe she was talking about you,” Bronx said.

He was here? I looked over and found him seated beside Reeve’s bed, and the two were...oh, glory...the two were holding hands. Openly. Unashamedly.

Happily.

Mr. Ankh must have relented.

“Ali Bell doesn’t play hide-and-seek,” Lucas said. “She plays hide-and-pray-I-don’t-find-you.”

Mackenzie smiled. “When Ali Bell gives you the finger, she’s telling you how many seconds you have to live.”

Cole chuckled, saying, “Fear of spiders is arachnophobia, and fear of tight spaces is claustrophobia, but fear of Ali Bell is just called logic.”

“Oh, oh.” Kat clapped excitedly. “There used to be a street named after Ali Bell, but it was changed because nobody crosses Ali Bell and lives. True story.”

I snorted.

“I heard Ali Bell once got bitten by a rattlesnake,” Lucas said, deadpan, “but after three days of pain and agony, the rattlesnake died.”

“Well, I heard that when Ali Bell wants to laugh,” Reeve exclaimed, “she reads the Guinness Book of World Records.”

Giggles spilled out of me, but they quickly turned to coughs. I wasn’t sure how many minutes passed before the hacking stopped. I only knew I’d spewed blood all over my hands. Awkward.

“Ankh told me this might happen,” Cole said. “The zombie toxin and the antizombie toxin you produce are going head-to-head.”

Trina tossed me a rag.

“Thanks.” As Cole cleaned me up, he kicked her, Mackenzie and Lucas out of the room. “You, too,” he said to Frosty and Bronx.

“Sorry, bro,” Frosty replied, sounding anything but apologetic. “I’m not leaving Kat.”

Bronx gave him the finger. “And yes, I’m telling you how long you’ve got to live if you try and make me go.”

Cole opened his mouth to protest. I knew he wanted to limit the scope of my embarrassment, and I fell a little deeper under his spell.

“They can stay,” I said. How could I deprive my friends of their boyfriends? I’d hate anyone who tried to take mine away.

Cole rested his chin on the top of my head, petted my hair. “Okay. For you.”

Bronx leaned forward in his seat and buried his face in his hands. “I don’t think I’ll ever leave your side again. You were so close to death, Reeve, and there was nothing I would have been able to do to stop it from happening.”

Reeve traced her fingers over the shell of his ear. “I survived. We all survived.”

The way he looked up and stared at her caused the air in the room to crackle with awareness.

It was the same stare Cole often gave me. Needy. Confused. Resolute. A little savage.

“We have to bring Anima down,” Cole said, determined and cold. “We can’t allow such a threat to remain.”

“What are we going to do?” I asked.

A pause as the three boys shared a look fraught with promise.

“Go to war,” Cole said.

Chapter 27

Blood Bath and Beyond

The boys lived up to their promise.

A few days later, after I’d gotten caught up on my schoolwork, a grinning Cole strode into the bedroom. It was Tuesday afternoon, and Kat and Reeve were in class. Nana was downstairs making cookies.

She hadn’t wanted to leave my side, but she’d started to cry every time she’d looked at me, and her worry had pricked at the darkness writhing and frothing at the back of my mind, banging at the barely standing barriers.

I’d told her I had a craving for something sweet.

Cole leaned down and kissed my forehead, his lips soft and perfect. I wished I’d had the energy to fix my hair and slap on a thousand pounds of makeup.

Maybe it was a good thing all the mirrors had been removed from the room.

“You should be at school,” I said.

His grin only widened. “School shmool. I’ve got a surprise for you.” He swept me into his arms and carried me through the house...then down the stairs and into the basement.

I sniffed, expecting to smell rot. There was a good chance he had a zombie down here. But no. I smelled copper. Dried blood. I frowned. Then I heard the rattle of bars.

Frosty, Gavin and Bronx formed a wall of menace in front of one of the cages, and Cole shouldered his way past them to give me a front-row look at—

Ethan.

If I had been standing, I would have fallen from the shock.

One of his eyes was swollen, and there were several cuts on his bottom lip. Someone—or four someones—had beaten the crap out of him.

Gavin winked at me. “We did good, yeah?”

Frosty cracked his battered knuckles. “Hunting him down was easy. Taking him captive was easier. Still. You’re welcome, world. Now, who wants to watch me get a little information out of this douche purse?”

I would never live that down.

“You didn’t capture me,” Ethan spat. “I gave myself up.”

“Sure you did,” Bronx said. “After we pounded your face into the dirt.”

Ethan shook his head. “Just listen. The same way my father got the zombies to enter people’s homes, he’s sending the zombies to Cole Holland’s barn tonight.” He drew in a breath. “My father captures and collars the creatures, and lets some of them go. The collars have GPS, and he’s able to monitor their whereabouts. Then, through electrical impulses, he’s able to lead the zombies to where he wants them to go.”

Remote control zombies. Nice.

“If that’s true, why haven’t the zombies entered any other houses?” Cole demanded.

“The night they entered the houses was a test to see if it would work. Tonight isn’t a test. My father wants Ali back. He thinks she’s the key to saving my sister. Izzy only has a few more months to live—if she’s lucky.”

“Which gives you motive to pretend to help us,” Cole said.

Ethan shook his head, sad. “Believe me. I learned my lesson. I can’t save someone I love by hurting someone else I love.”

Like Cole, I remained suspicious.

Cole returned me to the bedroom and tucked me back into bed.

“What are we going to do about the supposed zombie attack?” I asked.

His knuckles ghosted along the curve of my cheek. “I’ll plan my own attack. Meanwhile, you’ll rest and regain your strength.”

Translation: I wasn’t to be involved.

“I have to go,” he said. “But I’ll come back after... I’ll come back.”

Then he was gone. And I was alone.

I didn’t worry about the outcome of the coming battle.

I drafted a new to-do list.

Only one item: don’t let my friends go into the danger zone without me.

When I was at my best, I was an asset. I could be at my best again, if only for a little while. So, when Nana came in with cookies and milk, I thanked her and kissed her and sent her on another errand. I told her Mr. Ankh was at work (finally), and his PMS—personal male secretary—wasn’t here to guard the office, then asked if she would grab the bag filled with vials of antidote.

He wouldn’t mind, I assured her. And I needed it.

She didn’t understand I was developing an immunity to it, and the more antidote I used, the faster that immunity would build, so she found nothing suspicious about the request. To her, it was medicine, and I was entitled to medicine.

“Found it,” Nana said as she strolled inside the room. She lifted the black medical bag for my perusal before setting it beside me on the bed. She was smiling, always smiling. Until she looked at me.

Nowadays, no one but Cole smiled when they looked at me.

“You’re the best, Nana.”

“Of course I am. I’m partly responsible for your creation.” Tapping a fingertip against my wrist, she said, “Ali, darling, when were you going to tell me about your tattoos?”

Uh-oh. “Are you mad?” I asked softly.

“No, but you’re a minor and I would have liked to be a part of the decision.”

“Well.” If I survived the coming events, and I would...confidence matters...I might as well warn her about tattoos three and four. “I would like to get two more.”

“What? And why?”

I explained about the slayers, and the memorials they had etched on their bodies, and her expression softened. I told her how badly I wanted to honor Pops, but left the details of the fourth tattoo vague. It had to do with Cole...

“All right,” she said with a sigh. “I give my permission. But next time, I’m going with you. Now, should I inject you with the medicine? I’ve never used a needle before, but I’ve watched a lot of TV, so I’m just sure I’ll do it right.”

“Sure, just—” My gaze had locked on her neck...on her pulse, glowing so prettily, beating so softly, wafting the sweetest scent to my nose.

Shuddering, I closed my eyes. When it came to the protection of the people I loved, I was stronger than I’d ever realized. But right now I wasn’t going to take any chances.

“Are you all right, dear?” she asked, flattening her hand over my brow. “You do feel warm.”

I hissed at the moment of contact.

Bite her, Z.A. whispered.

“I’ll be fine, don’t worry. Just... Nana, I love you so much, but I need to be alone right now. I’m going to inject myself, okay?”

“I love you, too,” she said, but I heard the hurt in her tone. “And I’ll give you your privacy, but please don’t shut me out.” She kissed my cheek before striding from the room.

My hand shook as I dug through the bag, withdrawing one, three, six specially marked syringes. The ones with the antiallergy antidote. I stuck myself in the arm, again and again, and felt the familiar warm tide. Z.A. screeched, then quieted. The urge to bite and feed left me. And, with the massive amount of the dose, Z.A. was no longer able to feed off me, and energy returned to my body. The trembling faded from my limbs.

Testing my range of motion, I threw my legs over the side of the bed and stood. I remained steady, my knees rock-solid. I stretched my arms over my head, then twisted from the left to the right. No pain. No weakness.

It had worked.

For the past few days, I’d had to suffer through the humiliation of Nana’s sponge baths. Once, when I had been whining about my desire for a shower, Cole had picked me up and carried me into the stall. He’d gotten in with me, holding me up, and we’d washed with our undergarments on.

All I could say about that: if I’d been well, I wouldn’t be a virgin.

Today, though, I showered on my own. After drying off, I dressed in my fighting clothes. Long-sleeve black top, camo pants and combat boots. My weapons had been moved into Reeve’s room with me, more for my peace of mind than anything, and I loaded up with daggers and throwing stars.

There was a mirror in the hall, and I meant to bypass it, I did, but I found myself stopping and peering into the glass. I saw...me. Just me. My face a little too thin for my liking, and there were bruises under my eyes, cracks in my lips, but my color was good, rosy, all health and no sickness.

I found Nana in the kitchen, cleaning up the mess she’d made while baking the cookies.

“Ali!” she exclaimed, running over and throwing her arms around me. “You look... Wow! The medicine worked.”

“Thank you.” I took a moment to absorb her love and warmth, basking in the sense of home. “Now, I need to borrow your car.”

She pulled back, frowned. “My car?”

“I’ll be careful with it, I promise.”

“I know you will, but you’ve never shown an interest in driving before. And I know you’ve had a few lessons, but you still only have your permit, and—”

I cupped her cheeks. “Trust me, Nana. I need to do this.” It was time. A girl on her way to war had no room for fear. I wasn’t going to tolerate this one anymore.

“I can drive you anywhere—”

“Please, Nana. Please. I’m not shutting you out. I just want to prove to myself that I can do this.” I needed to start this new journey with a victory.

“All right.” She nodded. “I’ll get the keys.”

* * *

Perspiration dotted my brow, and I struggled to draw air past the lump growing in my throat. On the wheel, my knuckles were bleached of color. Cars zoomed past me, and horns blared.

Someone gave me the finger.

What was the problem? I was only going ten miles an hour under the speed limit. If ten was the new word for twenty. And twenty was the new word for thirty. Whatever. I was motoring forward, and that should be good enough.

I managed to double the usual fifteen-minute drive before reaching Cole’s barn—and miracle of miracles, I didn’t crash. Several other vehicles were parked in the gravel driveway, so I knew a handful of slayers were already here, preparing for the night’s activities.

As I stalked to the door, I glanced at the sky and found a rabbit-shaped cloud directly overhead.

Emma was still looking out for me.

I smiled as I entered the building. Cole, Frosty, Gavin and Veronica were bent over a table, talking, probably planning as they looked over a stack of papers.

I took a moment to enjoy the utter normalcy of the moment. The savage beauty of Cole. The bond between the four. The determination they radiated.

Anima should run and hide.

“Ali,” Veronica gasped out.

All eyes lasered straight to me. I cared only about Cole, and—

–he had me draped over his shoulder. Blood dripped from both of us, and I couldn’t tell if it belonged to us or someone else. I was panting, struggling to free myself from his hold.

“Let me go,” I demanded.

“Never again.”

“You keep saying that. What do you want with me—”

–as quickly as the vision had appeared, it vanished.

I blinked, shook my head. I’d asked Cole Holland...what do you want with me? As if he were a stranger?

Why?

“What’d you see?” Gavin asked, and I looked to him—

–we stood in the middle of a night-darkened road. Zombie ash was piled at our feet, twirling into the air, dancing away, and Hazmats surrounded us.

Kelly raised his mask. He was scowling. “Where is he? What have you done with him—”

“—this again,” I heard Veronica say, jerking me back into the present.

Gavin scowled at her. “Next time, shut your mouth and let the vision finish. We saw tonight’s battle. At least, what I think is going to be tonight’s battle, and it wasn’t pretty.”

She sputtered for a response.

Cole closed the distance between us. “How?”

I knew what he was asking and I wanted to lie. “Antidote.” No lies. I jutted my chin. “What we saw—”

“I don’t know what it means, and I’m not going to try to guess. I’ve never been right before. What matters—you were told not to use the antidote unless absolutely necessary. Today, it wasn’t necessary.” His eyes narrowed, and he took my hand, tugging me into the locker room. I expected him to turn and lecture me the moment the door closed, shutting us inside, alone.

He did turn.

But he didn’t lecture.

He meshed his lips onto mine, feeding me a bone-melting kiss I’d never forget. I responded immediately, wrapping myself around him, drawing him closer, drinking him in.

Backing me up, he pinned me against the wall and caged me in. His body enveloped me, pressing, rubbing, seeking. All the while his hands roamed, stopping to knead here and there and oh...glory. I shivered with the force of the pleasure.

“You feel so good,” he rasped. “Taste so good. You’re ready for me, right? You told me you were ready.”

“So ready.”

“We have to stop, though. We can’t do this here.”

Whimper. “I know.”

Panting, we broke apart.

A hard knock sounded at the door. “Cole,” Frosty called. “Your dad just walked in.”

Cole pressed his forehead into mine. “We’ll be out in a sec.”

Murmuring. Fading footsteps.

“One day,” he said to me, “we’re taking off, just the two of us.”

One day. I wanted that—wanted a future.

Cole’s eyes narrowed. “What you did was stupid, Ali.”

“Sometimes the wisest decision seems like the most foolish.”

“I should spank you.”

“Try. Please.”

He chuckled. “You thinking you’ll end up spanking me?”

“Knowing it.”

Before I realized what was happening, he was spinning me around and smacking me on the butt. “Come on. You can help us figure out the best course of action for tonight. In the morning, we’ll talk about our latest vision...and what you did with the antidote. And more about you being ready for me.”

I heard the husky promise in his voice. “Cole,” I began.

He shook his head. “Later.”

Yeah. That was probably for the best. I nodded.