The Reckoning (23 page)

I
GRABBED MY NECKLACE
and pulled it on as I raced for the door. I was about to veer around the guard’s body when it rose, pushing to its feet as if its bones weren’t broken in a dozen places. I started around it.

“Stop!” it thundered.

I did. I have no idea why. It was just that kind of voice.

I turned to see the guard’s body standing straight, chin up, eyes blazing an unearthly green. I could feel the heat radiating off it even from a half-dozen feet away.

“Diriel!” it roared, peering about the room.

“Um, over here, my lord,” the demi-demon said. “And may I say, it’s a pleasure to see you—”

He spun in her direction, and when he spoke, his voice was weirdly melodic. Like the demi-demon’s, only deeper,
masculine, hypnotic even. I stood there, rooted to the floor, just listening.

“For over two decades you have not answered my summons. Where have you been?”

“Well, you know, it’s a funny story. And I’ll be happy to tell you just as soon as I—”

“Are you asking me to wait on your convenience?” His voice was low, but it made me shiver in spite of the heat.

“Certainly not, sir, but I’ve made a bargain with this—”

“Mortal?” He wheeled, as if seeing me for the first time. “You made a bargain with a mortal
child
?”

“Like I said, funny story, and you are going to love—”

“She’s a necromancer.” He stepped toward me. “That glow…”

“Isn’t it pretty? There’s such charming variation among these mortal supernaturals. Even the weakest among them gets something, like that lovely glow.”

“A necromancer’s glow is indicative of her power.”

“Quite right, and it’s a good thing, too, because being such a weak necromancer, she needs a very strong glow to attract any ghosts.”

He gave a dismissive snort and walked over to me. I didn’t flinch—but only because I was frozen with terror.

This was a demon. A full demon. I knew that with a certainty that made my legs quiver.

He stopped in front of me and tilted his head, sizing me up. Then he smiled.

“So,” said the demi-demon—Diriel. “I’m just going to help this poor, defenseless necromancer child…”

“Out of the goodness of your heart, I suppose.”

“Well, no, it seems the silly chit freed me. Completely accidental. You know children, always playing with the forces of darkness. So it seems she’s done me a favor, and if you’ll let me complete the contract, sir, I will be right with you—”

“How powerful does a child necromancer need to be to free a demi-demon?” he mused. “I can feel your power, little one. They’ve done something to you, haven’t they? I have no idea what, but it is wondrous.”

His eyes gleamed, and I felt them slicing through me as if he were peering into the heart of my power, and when he did, he smiled again, and it made me shiver.

“Perhaps, but she’s a child, my lord. You know what the Berithian Treaty says about wooing youths. Quite unfair, I agree, but she will be an adult soon enough, and if you allow me to cultivate the child by completing my contract…”

He glanced in her direction. “Whatever deal you’ve made with the child can be completed another time. I’m not letting you slip away again so easily. You have a penchant for disappearing.”

“But she—”

“Is powerful enough to summon you when she wishes.” He turned back to me and before I could move away, his hand was under my chin, holding it, the guard’s dead fingers oddly warm. He tilted my face up to his and murmured, “Grow up
strong, little one. Strong and powerful.”

A blast of hot air. Diriel whispered, “I’m sorry, child.” And then they were gone.

I jumped over the guard’s fallen body and raced to the door. The handle turned before I touched it. I looked around, ready to run, but there was no place to run
to
. I took out the gun and backed against the wall. The door opened. A figure peeked in.

“A-aunt Lauren,” I whispered.

My knees wobbled. There’d been a time when I’d chafed under Aunt Lauren’s constant mothering, but after two weeks of relying on myself and other kids who were as scared and lost as I was, her look of concern was like a warm blanket on a freezing night, and I wanted to throw myself into her arms and say,
Take care of me. Fix this
.

But I didn’t. She was the one who ran over and hugged me and as wonderful as it was, that feeling of wanting to be rescued passed, and I felt myself pulling away and heard myself saying “Come on. I know the way.”

As we hurried out, she glanced back in the room and saw the guard’s body.

She gasped. “Isn’t that—?”

Without missing a beat, I cut her off, stammering, “I—I don’t know what happened. I g-got scared and he just walked in here and—”

She hugged me, whispering, “It’s okay, hon.”

She believed me, of course. I was still her little Chloe
who’d never
think
of raising the dead.

As we slipped into the hall, she saw the gun and took it from me before I realized what she was doing. When I protested she said, “If we need to use it, I’ll be the one who pulls the trigger.” I knew she was trying to protect me from having to shoot someone. I didn’t
want
to shoot anyone, but there was something about giving up the gun that chafed, the feeling of being shoved back into a role I no longer fit.

“Simon and Tori are in Dr. Davidoff’s office,” I whispered.

“We’ll go this way. It’s longer, but we’re less likely to bump into anyone.”

We turned a corner and a balding guard stepped from a room. I tried to tug Aunt Lauren back, but he’d already seen us.

“Don’t move, Alan,” Aunt Lauren said, raising the gun. “Just step back into that room and close—”

“Alan,” said a voice behind him.

He turned. A shot fired. The guard dropped. Mrs. Enright stood there, lowering a gun.

“I really do hate these things,” she said, lifting the gun. “So primitive. But I thought it might come in handy.”

I glanced at Aunt Lauren. She was frozen in a binding spell.

“Look what your aunt did, Chloe.” Mrs. Enright waved at the guard, motionless on the ground. “Such a shame. They won’t let her off with house arrest this time.”

I looked from Aunt Lauren to the dead guard.

Mrs. Enright laughed. “You’re thinking of raising him, aren’t you? Such a resourceful girl. I suppose we have you to thank for all this.” She waved her free hand at the cracks in the walls. “That’s what I like about you. Resourceful, clever, and, apparently”—she motioned at the guard again—“getting more confident in your powers each time we meet. I’d almost like to let you raise him, just to see what you’d do.”

“Let us go or—”

“I’m the one with the gun, Chloe. Your weapon takes longer to activate. If he so much as twitches, it’s good-bye to Aunt Lauren. Any bargains come from me, and I’m still quite willing to deal with you. I think we could—”

A dark shape leaped on her back. As she fell, she twisted to see a huge black wolf pinning her. She opened her mouth to cast, but Derek grabbed her by the back of the shirt and whipped her against the wall. She recovered, rolling aside and reciting words in a foreign language. He grabbed her and flung her again. She hit with a crack, then lay still.

I raced forward.

“Chloe!” Aunt Lauren shouted, freed from her binding spell.

“It’s Derek,” I said.

“I know. Don’t—”

I was already there, dropping beside him as he panted, flanks heaving, fighting for control. I grabbed handfuls of fur and buried my face against him, tears threatening.

“You’re okay,” I said. “I was so worried.”

“You weren’t the only one,” said a voice.

I glanced up to see Liz and smiled. “Thank you.”

“I just went along for the ride. After that happened—” She waved at Derek. “You know how blind people need Seeing Eye dogs? Well, apparently werewolves could really use Opening Door poltergeists.”

Derek rumbled deep in his chest and bumped me.

“We need to go. I know.”

I started getting to my feet, but he leaned against me. I could feel his racing heart. He pressed his nose against my neck, breathed deeply, shuddered, and his heart slowed. When he sniffed again, his nose went to the back of my neck, finding the blood and grumbling with concern.

“It’s just a bump,” I said. “I’m fine.”

I wrapped my hands in his fur one last time, holding him tight, then pushed to my feet. I turned to Aunt Lauren. She stood there, staring. Just staring.

“We have to go,” I said.

Her gaze lifted to mine and she stared some more, like seeing someone she didn’t recognize.

“Liz is here,” I said. “She’ll scout the way.”

“Liz…” She swallowed, then nodded. “All right.”

I gestured at Tori’s mom. “Is she…?”

“Still alive, but it was a hard blow. She should be out for a while.”

“Good. Derek? We need to get Tori and Simon. Follow
me. Liz, can you go ahead and make sure the way is clear?”

She smiled. “Yes, boss.”

I took a few steps, then realized Aunt Lauren wasn’t following. I turned. She was still staring.

“I’m okay,” I said.

“You are,” she said softly. Then firmer, “You really are.”

We set out.

W
E COLLECTED
T
ORI AND
Simon just as they were heading out to rescue
me
. After a very brief explanation about the earthquake and the wolf by my side, I asked if Simon had gotten hold of his dad. His face darkened, telling me the answer wasn’t good.

“Voice mail,” he said.

“Seriously?”

“It said he was unavailable and switched to voice mail. I left a message. He could have been out of range or on the phone or…”

He didn’t finish, but we all knew what he meant.
Unavailable
could mean a lot of things, not all of them as innocent as being stuck between cell towers.

“We’ll call again as soon as we’re out,” Aunt Lauren said. “Which should be soon.”

We headed for the nearest exit. We’d gone about twenty feet before Liz came racing over.

“Three of them,” she said. “Coming this way.”

“Guns?” I asked.

She nodded.

If it was three unarmed staff—even with supernatural powers—I’d be willing to take them on. But guns were another thing. I told the others.

“There’s an unused wing to the west,” Aunt Lauren said. “They won’t guard that exit because it’s through a secured door.”

I followed her and used the key card to get us into the wing. As soon as we were through, Derek stopped short, the hair on his back rising, lips curling in a silent growl.

“Do you smell someone?” I whispered.

He shook his head sharply, with a grunt, as if to say
sorry
, and we started forward again, but he was wary now, gaze flicking from side to side.

“I know this place,” Simon murmured. “I’ve been here.”

“Your dad used to bring you to work sometimes when you were little,” Aunt Lauren said.

“Yeah, I know, but this place…” He looked around, then he rubbed the back of his neck. “Creeps me out, whatever it is.”

“The exit is around the corner and down at the end,” Aunt Lauren said, ushering us on. “It leads into a yard. We’ll
need to climb the wall, but that’s another reason they won’t guard it.”

We continued along. Simon and Derek weren’t the only ones getting chills. It was so quiet. An empty, dead place. Shadows hunkered along the walls, out of reach of the security lights. It stunk, too, reeking of antiseptic soaked right into the floors, like an abandoned hospital.

I glanced in the first open door and stopped short. Desks. Four tiny desks. A wall of faded posters of alphabet animals. A blackboard, still showing the ghosts of numbers. I blinked, certain I was seeing wrong.

Derek nudged my legs, telling me to get moving. I looked at him, and I looked at the classroom.

This was where Derek had grown up. Four tiny desks. Four little boys. Four young werewolves.

For a second, I could see them—three boys working at the three clustered desks, Derek alone at the fourth, pushed slightly away, hunched over his work, trying to ignore the others.

Derek nudged me again, whining softly, and I looked down to see him eyeing the room, every hair on his neck on end, anxious to get away from this place. I murmured an apology and followed the others. We passed two more doors, then Liz came running back.

“Someone’s coming.”

“What?” Aunt Lauren said when I relayed it. “From
down there? That can’t be. It’s—”

The clomp of footsteps cut her off. She looked each way, then waved to the nearest door.

“The key card, Chloe, quickly!”

I opened it and we all tumbled inside. As I closed the door behind us, the lock whirred shut. I looked around, squinting to see with only the glow of an emergency light.

We were in a huge storage room packed with boxes.

“Lots of places to hide,” I whispered. “I suggest we find one.”

We split up as footsteps echoed down the hall. I turned, nearly tripping over Derek. He hadn’t moved, just stared into the room, fur bristling.

I looked around. I saw boxes, lots of boxes, but over along the far wall, something else—four beds.

“T-this was—” I began.

“Where is everyone?” boomed a voice from the hall.

Derek snapped out of it, grabbed my sleeve between his teeth, and tugged me deep into the sea of boxes. We found a spot in the back corner where boxes were piled three high, leaving a small space for us to hide. Derek nudged me toward it. I whispered for the others as he went back to gather them up.

In a minute, we were all wedged in that space, crouched or sitting. Derek stood at the opening, guarding it, ears swiveling. As the steps drew closer, I didn’t need his hearing to pick up the voices.

“Scientists.” A man snorted. “They think they can hire a few rent-a-cop half-demons and they’re ready for something like this. Arrogant sons of…” His mutters trailed off. “How close is Mr. St. Cloud?”

“His flight will arrive in seventy-five minutes, sir.”

“Then we have an hour to clean this mess up. How many kids was it again? Four?”

“Three were recaptured. The fourth—the werewolf—wasn’t, but there was a report that he’d entered the building.”

“Great. Just great.” Their footsteps sounded outside the door. “All right, here’s the plan. I need two survivors. If you can get me two, Mr. St. Cloud will be happy. And that doesn’t include the werewolf.”

“Naturally, sir.”

“We need a place to set up a base of operations. The team will be here in five minutes.”

“It doesn’t look as if they use this wing, sir.” A door creaked. “This room even has desks and a blackboard.”

“Good. Start setting up and get Davidoff on the radio. I want him down here now.”

I waved for Liz to go check things out.

We all strained to listen, praying they’d find some problem with the room or be offered a better one. It didn’t happen.

“At least they’re on the other side of our escape route,” Tori said.

“It doesn’t matter,” Simon said. “We’ve got a Cabal SWAT
team setting up down the hall. We’re screwed.”

Liz came running back in. “There are two guys in suits and one wearing what looks like a soldier’s uniform. Plus four more like him marching up the hall.”

The clomping of boots echoed her words.

“We’ll hold tight,” I said. “They’ll send those guys searching—hopefully somewhere else. When we get a chance, we’ll run.”

Derek chuffed and slid in behind me, letting me rest against him, so warm and comfortable that I started to relax, and when I did, so did he, muscles softening, heart rate slowing.

“So you two came on your own?” I said to Liz. “How?”

“Drove.”

“But Derek doesn’t have his license.”

Simon laughed. “Doesn’t mean we don’t know how to drive. Dad let us start last year, bombing around empty parking lots.”

“That’s a few minutes at the mall, not eight hours on the highway.”

Derek grunted, as if to say it’d been no big deal, though I’m sure it couldn’t have been easy.

“We took Andrew’s truck,” Liz said. “After we found…After Derek found his…Well, you know. We probably weren’t far behind you. I helped navigate.”

“How’d you communicate?”

“Paper and pen. Amazing inventions. Anyway, once we were in Buffalo, I led him here. We couldn’t figure out a way in
and he got stressed and apparently that”—she waved at him—“is what happens when a werewolf gets stressed. By then, the garage door was open, some staff guy bringing in a car. He took one look at Derek and decided it was time for a new job.”

Noises sounded in the hall. Liz went to check it out. Behind me, Derek’s flank twitched. I rubbed it absently, the muscle jumping under my fingers. Then I asked the question I’d been dreading since Aunt Lauren first found me.

“Rae’s dead, isn’t she?” I said. “Dr. Davidoff said she was transferred, but I know what that means. The same thing it meant with Liz and Brady.”

The look on Aunt Lauren’s face at that moment…I can’t describe it, but if I had any doubt about how much she regretted the role she’d played in all this, I saw it as I mentioned their names. For a second she said nothing. Then she jumped, like she’d been startled.

“Rae? No. Rae isn’t dead. Someone broke in and took her. They think it was her mother.”

“Her adoptive mom?”

Aunt Lauren shook her head. “Her birth mother. Jacinda.”

“But Dr. Davidoff said she was dead.”

“We said a lot of things, Chloe. Told a lot of lies, telling ourselves it was better for you all, but really, just because it was easier. If Rae thought her mother was dead, she wouldn’t ask for her. From everything I heard, though, they think that’s who—”

Derek’s flank twitched again. I glanced down to see a muscle spasming. Another started in his shoulder. When he caught me looking, he growled, telling me it was nothing, just ignore him and pay attention.

As Aunt Lauren talked, I rubbed the muscle in Derek’s shoulder and he leaned against my hand, relaxing. I knew it wouldn’t help. He was ready to Change.

“We need to get going,” I said. “I’m going to call Liz.”

She raced through the boxes before I even finished summoning her. Tori’s mom had joined the SWAT team in the next room. Apparently, Derek hadn’t hurt her as much as I might have hoped. She was nursing a killer headache…and a killer grudge. Derek was to be shot on sight—shot dead, not tranquilized.

Reinforcements from a Cabal satellite office were on the way to help sweep the building with manpower and spell power. They were determined to find us before this St. Cloud guy arrived.

“We’re going to have to make a run for it,” I said. “As soon as it’s quiet—”

Derek convulsed, nearly throwing me off him.

“Someone doesn’t like your plan,” Tori said. “And just when I was thinking how nice it was that he doesn’t have a voice. Won’t keep him from arguing apparently.”

“That’s not it,” I said as Derek convulsed again. “He’s Changing back.”

“Can it wait, because—?”

Derek’s whole body spasmed, all four legs shooting out, a back claw nicking Simon, a front paw swatting Tori. They both leaped out of the way.

“I think that’s a no,” Simon said.

“We need to clear out,” I said. “As you can tell, this requires room. And it might not be something you want to see.”

“Tell them I second that,” Liz said. “I caught a glimpse, and that was enough.” She made a face and shuddered.

I shooed them out, then turned to Derek, lying on his side, panting. “You’ve done this alone now, so I guess you don’t need—”

He caught my jeans leg between his teeth, pulling gently, his eyes asking me to stay. I told the others I was, and said if they heard any sign that the SWAT team was searching this hall, they were to get out—all of them.

“We aren’t leaving you two,” Simon said.

Derek growled.

“He’s agreeing with me,” I said. “For once. You have to go. With any luck, they’ll presume that means Derek and I are someplace else.”

Simon didn’t like it, but he only grumbled for Derek to hurry.

Aunt Lauren stayed after they’d gone. “If anything happens, you’re coming with us, Chloe. Derek can look after—”

“No, he can’t. Not like this. He needs me.”

“I don’t care.”

“I do. He needs me. So I stay.”

We locked gazes. Again, a look passed through her eyes, surprise and maybe a little bit of grief. I wasn’t her little Chloe anymore. I never would be again.

I walked over and hugged her. “I’m fine.”

“I know.” She hugged me back, fierce and tight, then left to join the others.