“Here it comes.”
“Gotta time it right, Adele.”
“I know what I’m doing, assholes.”
Sloane hit the Plexiglas in reply. At least she was no longer hitting me. I took a deep breath and waited. The softened concrete shimmied to wrap around the barrier like a ribbon, minute undulations making room for air, softening the wall enough to allow passage. As the motion slid along the final corner, the cab’s wheels spun against gravel before catching, and the car lurched forward. The Shadows were still looking at the slow wave as we sped forward, like it was a tsunami we wanted to meet head-on. I concentrated on the target, narrowing my eyes at the ground in front of the wall. That’s why none of us saw the Tulpa that dropped between the cab and the wall until it was too late. Dropped down to save me, I realized at the last, like an angel, like a martyr…like a fly caught between a flat surface and a swatter.
The cab impaled Skamar on the silver-edged tip of the cactus that had shot up from nowhere, its spongy base absorbing the cab’s impact but impaling its occupants on the barbed leaves. I barely had time to duck, much less gasp, but the screams of the Shadows around me joined the images from just before that: Skamar’s mouth going wide with pain, Adele’s blood coating the Plexiglas, the green and brown trunk of the Joshua tree folding like a marshmallow to cushion the impact.
The cab would have bounced backward on its wheels, but the bodies of the Shadows around me were pulled forward, and it merely shuddered as it jarred to a halt, lifting slightly off its wheelbase. I was bleeding; too numb to feel it, but I could smell it. Damn I was fragile! And the Shadows were still alive. They were momentarily struggling like worms on hooks, but they’d survive this. I leaned forward, kicking up at the soft flesh of cactus limb that would have impaled me had I still been sitting up. Careful not to let the barbed cluster fall atop me, I swung it around, burying it in Tariq’s back. As he screamed, I braced a foot on the seat and kicked out the back window. I kept kicking until the hole was big enough for me to climb through, and-making sure I had my bag with those valuable soul chips with me-I had nearly done so when I paused. Surely one second more wouldn’t kill me.
I leaned back and slapped Sloane across her bloodied face. She had a barbed leaf through her windpipe, so she didn’t have too much to say about it.
The Tulpa, however, laughed so loudly it again shook the car. He rocketed past us, skeletal smile wide as I ducked, but he ignored me to drop in front of all the destruction. Then, rabidly, he began pulling at Skamar’s body. Her screams were like scissors on silk, too breathless to hold any weight but telling of destruction. She was lanced through the stomach, so his formidable strength widened the already impressive hole.
The Shadows stilled, their pain nothing compared to Skamar’s agony. I froze, limbs gone numb, then shook my head and found my wits enough to will the Joshua tree gone. My emotions were nowhere near under control, and as I’d only discovered this ability the month before, it took some time. And I had to bolt as soon as the cactus dissolved; the Shadows stirred immediately. But it would take time for them to heal enough to give chase. I sprinted half a block, braced for the Tulpa’s pursuit, but when I glanced over my shoulder, he merely shot me a thumbs-up. With a now-freed and limp Skamar scuffed like a kitten in one claw, he shot into the air like a bottle rocket, screaming with wild glee, and after another moment, disappeared into the night.
I ran…and kept running. I ran until I’d left the city proper and was somewhere in the middle of the desert, panting hard, tears dried on my face. Glancing back, I saw Vegas glittering stubbornly beneath the bright hornet’s nest that was its sky, and I waited. I stood, slumped, waiting. I sat, and waited. But there were no storms or gales or howling winds that night. I sat for hours in the middle of a blackened void, and though the sky didn’t clear above the city, it also didn’t worsen. At one point I closed my eyes, bent my head, and sobbed for Skamar, cries slicing the air like razors, so the scorpions and snakes and lizards didn’t bother me, sensing the sharp pain. My sorrow was palpable, a heavy cloud marking my location. But the Tulpa didn’t come for me.
No one did.
The story spilled from me as soon as Warren answered his phone. My words tumbled over themselves like dice, cut up and spit out, but rolling up snake eyes anyway. With tears in my own I told him about how the Shadows had ambushed me and made a play for the boneyard, how Skamar had intercepted them, and how my created cactus had led to her capture.
“The Tulpa has her,” I sniffed. “I don’t know where.”
“Okay, calm down.” Warren’s voice was tight and wooden, but he wasn’t yelling. A part of me wished he would. I wiped at my nose and sniffed again. “Where are you now?”
Alone, was my first thought.
“I came back to the warehouse. To wait.” For anything. For anyone.
“So you and Hunter stay put. The rest of us will cross at dawn. Keep the alarms on until we get there.”
But I was still caught on the first thing he’d said. “Hunter?”
Warren paused. “Yes. Isn’t he with you?”
“No.”
Another beat of silence, then a soft curse. “I should have known this would happen.”
“What?” My heart skipped full beats before speeding up abnormally, and my knees actually buckled. Eyes wide, I looked around the outside of the building as if that would bring Hunter into view. Instead I saw visions of him bent over his drawing board, Hunter working, Hunter fighting…Hunter approaching me. “What happened?” I croaked, shaking off the images.
“Due to the lack of safe zones, I ordered the troop into the sanctuary as soon as I’d learned you left for Midheaven. I didn’t know when you’d be back,” he added, almost apologetically. “That’s why the Shadows attacked the boneyard. But Jasmine Chan went missing two days ago, and Hunter left the sanctuary right after that. I think he’s gone to find her.”
“So he’s missing too?”
“They both are.”
And now so was Skamar. “Oh my God.” This time my legs did buckle. The sky was still holding overhead, if barely, and yet my world was still falling apart. I sat hard on the asphalt, slumped against the warehouse wall.
“Just stay where you are, okay? Do you know how to get in?” He raised his voice when I didn’t answer. “Joanna?”
“Okay. Yes.” I lifted a hand and covered my eyes. “Yes, Hunter showed me.”
“Hm,” Warren said, and I knew what he was thinking. Hunter never showed anyone how to deactivate his complicated system of codes and alarms.
We hung up and I let both my hands drop. My head lolled on the wall. Tears pricked my eyes again. Then after a long moment of silence, and before I went inside, I picked up my bag and ran my finger over the soul chips inside like they were a rosary. I revisited the first option I’d rejected when trapped in a cab surrounded by Shadows.
I prayed.
22
Exhaustion was a formidable opponent. As worried as I was, it pulled me into sleep again, even though I was slumped on the warehouse’s cold concrete floor. I watched peacefully as my mind played out my worries in a dream. Skamar was leading Jasmine away from me. I yelled for them to come back, but Skamar only lifted the young girl to her toes and began floating, faster, so that Jasmine had to run to keep up. Finally, the young girl put on a sudden burst, the speed provided by my swiped powers, and took the lead enough to turn back and look at me as she ran. The pink and white streaks in her dark hair flew around her face like zigzagging neon, and she shot me a sheepish smile before waving through the hole in Skamar’s stomach.