Dying Light (38 page)

“
Where’s Maisie?” Rachel’s
glazed eyes slide from one face to another without really seeing
anyone. She buries her chin in the neck of her jacket.

“
Here.” Maisie shouts over
the roar. “I’m freezing. So if everyone is done making out, I’d
like to go check on Winnie Pug.”

Ally frowns. “We weren’t making out.
It’s good luck to kiss on New Year’s Eve.”

“
It is,” Gideon adds with
a devilish smile. “Do you want a little kiss for
yourself?”

My nostrils flare. “I will cut
you.”

“
I don’t need your charity
slobber.” Maisie flips her hair over one shoulder. “I kissed that
guy.”

We all turn and see a kid not much
older than Maisie, also sporting the double black X marks of the
underaged on his hands. He’s grinning, goofy but cute. His black
hair hangs in his eyes. Black eyeliner encircles his lids. Very emo
and totally Maisie’s type.

What does one do when they find out
their little sister has been making out with some unkempt boy on a
balcony? How the hell should I know? A month ago I didn’t even know
I had a little sister, but our father is an absolute Hitler, so I
stole her and here she is, safe—relatively, with me. So what if I
don’t know what to make of her on most days.

What I do know is I’m not her mother
and where she puts her mouth is none of my damn
business.

I shrug. “Good for you.”

“
Call me, Michelle!” The
boy yells as the five of us start to push our way off the balcony
into the club.

“
Michelle?” I hold the
door open for everyone.

“
I couldn’t give him my
real name, could I?” Maisie yanks her beanie down over her red
ears.

Good point. We’ve been on
the run for almost a month. No one knows where we are, and we have
to keep it that way. Gideon’s fancy gadgets, money, and stealth
skills won’t hide us from my murderous father for too long. We need
to be careful until we
want
him to come to us, until we have him right where
we need him to be.

I grab Ally’s hand and
pull her into the club after Maisie. Rachel and Gideon take up the
rear. For the few minutes it takes us to squeeze past the crowd
toward the street, we’re warm. The collective body heat of a
hundred revelers is welcome despite the sour smell of beer and
sweat. And unless I’m mistaken, that
tang
is vomit. Gross.

I reach forward and grab Maisie’s hand
so we don’t get separated. She twines her cool fingers with their
chipping black nail polish in mine and pulls all of us out toward
the street. We regroup on the sidewalk as people shoulder past us
on all sides. The fierce wind picks up right where it left off,
gnawing ruthlessly at my cheeks. I wrap my blood-red scarf tighter
around my head in feeble attempt to protect myself.

Ally slips her arms around my waist,
and I tuck her icy hands into my pockets. She is so cuddly when
she’s drunk. I love it. I should keep her drunk all the time. She’s
brilliant and can spare the brain cells, but alas, I guess there’s
her liver to consider.

Maisie leads our little group in the
direction of our hotel. Thank god, it’s only about five blocks
away. I don’t know how much of this bitter wind I can take. I see
more drunk people than I’ve ever seen in my life. I’ve only had two
Shirley Temples, which left a sloshy feeling in my stomach that I
tried to soak up with super greasy cheese sticks.

A
really
dumb idea.

I probably feel as nauseated as the
drunk people shambling around me.

As soon as I see the neon sign of our
hotel glowing overhead, I break from the group and rush into the
warm lobby. I yank my scarf off my head, pulling the breath-damp
fabric off of my face.

“
I’m sick of being cold.”
I groan. “I’m so glad we’re heading—”

Gideon shoots me a look
that I’ve memorized at this point.
Don’t
say anything until we’re in the suite.

“—
somewhere warm.” I roll
my eyes and pile into the elevator with them. Rachel is so drunk
she mashes the buttons for floors 14 and 16 before managing to hit
the correct button, number 15.

Somehow we make it to the room, a
suite at the end of a beige hallway with red carpet. Gideon slides
the keycard in and out of the slot and the light flickers
green.

Maisie is the first one in. “Winnie
Pug? Pug-Pug where are you?”

The pug in question leaps off a white
Victorian chaise and runs toward her. He presents his belly for a
rub in three seconds flat.

The rest of us squeeze
past them into the foyer of the suite. This hotel room alone is
nicer than any house I’ve ever slept in, but that’s Gideon for you.
Rachel made the suggestion that we sleep in an abandoned house one
night on the road from Chicago to New York, and he snorted and
arched his eyebrows at her. Then in the most self-righteous tone
I’d ever heard, he said, “I have two legs not four.
I
do not sleep on the
ground.”

Gideon throws his keycard on the
lacquered table by the door. Ally and I kick off our shoes. Rachel
pulls off just about every layer of clothing she swaddled herself
in except her underwear.

“
Well then,” Ally says,
nodding at Rachel’s boobs. “Good night.”

Rachel stumbles into her unlit bedroom
without a word of acknowledgement.

“
Such a good boy,” Maisie
coos, scratching Winston’s ears, then patting his fat belly. “You
wanna go out? Let’s go out.”

She finds his leash on a table by the
door and slips it over his head while he prances circles around
her, too excited to make the harnessing easy.

“
Take Gideon’s shield
thingy.” I point at the device on the counter.

“
It’s freezing out there,”
Ally reminds her, still hanging on to me. “Go to the little pee
patch and come right back.”

“
Yes, Mother.” Maisie’s
tone is annoyed, but she’s smiling. I think she likes the way Ally
babies her, even though Ally can’t be more than nine years older
than Maisie herself. But the kid is taking it well, the whole
‘never-unsupervised’ thing. This little two-minute jaunt with
Winston is about as much space and freedom as she’s had in her
months with us.

Gideon disappears into the bedroom
after Rachel and softly closes the door behind them. I nudge Ally
toward the couch.

“
So what’ll it be?” I ask
her. “Water? Juice? I don’t think we actually have Gatorade, but I
can walk down to the store.”

“
Water’s fine.” Ally falls
back against the covers and grins up at me. A light pink blush
spreads over her cheeks. She finger-combs her hair. “My hair is so
pretty. I love my hair.”

I snort. “I love your hair
too.”

“
What else about me is
cute?” she asks.

“
Everything.” I fluff the
pillow for her and search the room for a blanket. I yank a red
velvety throw off the back of a chair as Gideon slips out of the
bedroom and passes me on his way to the mini fridge. He grabs one
of the wrapped water glasses from the bar above.

“
Grab us one too.” I have
zero problems assigning tasks to other people. Sometimes I wonder
if it was a mistake going into death-replacing. Sure, I was a great
death replacement agent, and dying for other people is cool, but
I’m really good at bossing people around.

It’s like a calling.

Gideon fills two water glasses with
some fancy bottled water from the fridge and hands me a glass. I
don’t dare remind him that Ally vowed not to drink this water
yesterday. She ranted about the effect of plastic on the
environment for almost ten whole minutes. I could’ve reminded her
that planet is about to explode anyway, but that meant Gideon
would’ve won the argument and I’m Team Ally all the way.

I put the glass of water in her hand.
What she doesn’t know won’t hurt her. “Here you go. Drink
up.”

She waves her water
around. “I just feel so
good
, you know?”

I smile. “I can tell.”

She runs a hand through her hair.
“It’s a new year. A new beginning. And we have a great plan for
kicking Caldwell’s butt.”

“
We do.”

“
And you’re so cute and
you
kissed
me.”

With arched eyebrows, Gideon closes
the bedroom door behind him. Thankfully, the sound of the
television comes on, affording us some privacy.

I sink down onto the sofa
beside her. “I’ll do it again if you want me too. I’ll kiss you
a
million
times.”

She bites her lip and I’m about to
lose it. I lean forward to kiss her but she starts talking again,
so I hang there mid-smooch, lips puckered.

“
Life is so good right
now. No one is stabbing us, burying us alive, beating us up, or
kidnapping the dog,” she goes on, her voice echoing inside her
water glass. Her face pinches. “That means we are probably about to
die.”

I press my lips together and sigh.
“None of that. You’ll jinx us.”

It’s difficult getting her to sit up,
but I manage it. I want her to drink this water. I tilt the glass
toward her lips, encouraging her.

“
This is good,” she says
and frowns at the water. “Is this tap water?”

“
Yep.”

“
Because I’m not drinking
that $15 water Gideon bought.”

“
It’s tap,” I say again.
“You’re just too drunk to taste it.”

Ally shrugs and finishes the glass.
Then she hands me her empty glass.

“
You want
more?”

“
No,” she grins. “I want
something else.”

“
We’ve got chips, but
that’s about it. And Rachel can’t close a bag to save her life, so
they’re probably stale.”

She shakes her head,
grinning.

Then I realize what she’s
saying.

“
Oh
.” I smile. “Okay.”

She crawls over the pillow between us
and pulls herself into my lap. She straddles me, wrapping her arms
around my neck. She kisses me once on the cheek, probably a missed
target rather than a sweet gesture, and then manages to get my
mouth the second time.

She pulls back. “God, is it you or is
it really hot in here?”

“
We’re still wearing our
coats.”

She laughs and looks down at herself.
“Oh. Right.”

I reach up behind her and pull her
jacket off. “Better?”

She snuggles up to me. “You’re still
hot.”

“
Thanks for
noticing.”

“
Let me help you take your
coat off.”

“
Okay.” I let her attempt
to pull off the jacket, but it’s not really going anywhere and she
accidently pulls my hair twice. So I help her get my jacket off and
throw it over the arm of the sofa. One of the throw pillows falls
to the floor with a
poof
.

Ally doesn’t stop there. She slips her
hands under my shirt, giving me a curious look. “Is this
okay?”

I try to find the voice to tell her
it’s more than okay. She would have been naked an hour ago, in the
grubby bathroom of some bar if she wasn’t such a
germaphobe.

She is so beautiful. Her eyes are
bright, reflecting the lamplight in her dark eyes. Her face is
flushed from the alcohol, her smile lazy. Her eyes half-closed. My
heart pounds in my chest, thudding against my ribs so hard it
hurts.

“
What’s wrong?” A frown
creases her face and I think she can hear my heart throbbing.
“Don’t you think I’m pretty?”

“
Don’t be
stupid.”

I reach up and pull her down into my
arms. I kiss her, even more deeply than I did on the balcony. I
slip my hand under her shirt and unsnap her bra with one twist of
my fingers. So much for moral standing.

She gasps in my mouth and the sound of
it makes my whole body shudder.

“
Lay down,” I
command.

She laughs, surprised, but
her voice goes all deep and breathy. “Yes,
sir
.”

I climb on top of her, positioning
myself between her legs. I kiss her neck and she squirms, bucking
her hips up against mine.

“
Do you love me?” she
asks.

“
More than
anyone.”

“
Are you sure?”

I cover her mouth with mine. “Please
stop talking.” I pull back. “Unless you want me to
stop.”

“
No, no.” She grabs the
front of my hoody, twisting it up in her fists and pulls me down on
top of her.

I have the button of her jeans between
my forefinger and thumb when a voice calls behind me.

“
I am very sorry to
interrupt, but you need to see this.”

Gideon stands in the living room, his
back to the bedroom he shares with Rachel.