“Is the baby okay?” I repeated for her. She gave me a faint smile.
“Dr. Fischer is there.”
That wasn’t a yes.
“And the baby is . . . ?” I asked again.
Dash rubbed at his forehead and I finally noticed he was bleeding from a cut near his hairline. His hand was shaking pretty badly too. He’d been hit and probably hadn’t done anything to take care of his wounds.
Since I was already pacing, I walked to the bathroom. Dug for bandages. I should have done this when we first arrived, but I hadn’t been thinking. Still wasn’t.
“The baby, Dash,” I said again, since talking about other things helped me ignore the things I didn’t want to talk about.
Found a bottle of rubbing alcohol and a clean towel. Took that back to the room and handed it to him. Didn’t look at Terric. Didn’t stand too close to the bed.
If I did, there wouldn’t be anything or anyone who could pull me away from his side.
“They aren’t sure.” Dash tipped the alcohol onto the towel. “Zay sounded worried.”
That wasn’t good. I’d stood side by side at the end of the world with that man and he’d barely worked up a sense of concern.
“That’s not all,” Dash went on. “Clyde called. Anthony was just found dead.”
“Son of a bitch,” I whispered. Anthony was another Soul Complement. “How about Holly?” I asked.
“Can’t find her. They are assuming the worst.”
The worst being that she was dead too. Krogher wasn’t wasting any time. That was the second Soul Complement pair in less than twenty-four hours.
How long before he had drones around Allie and Zay’s place? How long before he wiped out the only people who could break magic and stop him and his magic army?
“We need a new plan,” I said.
We had a plan? Sunny asked.
“You mean something other than walk straight in the front door, into live fire?” Dash asked.
“Worked for me,” I said.
“No so much for Sunny,” Dash said.
I pressed my palm over my eyes. “I know. If I could change that, I would.”
Killing Krogher seemed like a good idea. It wasn’t a smart idea. Probably wasn’t the thing Terric or Allie or Zay or . . . hell . . . anyone would get on board with. But seeing the light snuff out of Krogher’s eyes before any other Soul Complement died would do me worlds of good.
At least it would make Sunny’s death worth something.
I couldn’t think here so close to an almost-dead Terric. I needed air. I needed space.
“If you try to leave this house, I’ll knock you out cold.” Dash wasn’t even looking at me. Couldn’t have known I was walking out.
I glanced back at him. He pressed the towel against his temple, pulled it away, and stuck it over the blood on his thigh. His glasses hung loosely in his other hand. He hadn’t looked away from Terric. “If you try to leave, I’ll tell Davy to make sure you stay unconscious. I think he’d be on my side. He’s pretty sure you got Sunny killed.”
I peered down the hall to the living room where Davy sat in the chair next to Sunny’s dead body. He was staring at me. Angry. Unmoving. The neon magic that was dripping out of him like a torn artery leaking blood was just a smear of dull blue shining up the darkness of his T-shirt. Boy was a ticking time bomb.
I was his target.
“Do you think that?” I asked quietly.
“I think I’m not going to ask what happened back there yet. And I think you’re staying here, with us, until I say you can leave.”
“Who said I was going anywhere?”
Dash dug the towel into the hole in his jeans and sighed. “You’re angry.”
“So?”
“Have you looked in the mirror when you get angry?”
“No.”
He pointed toward the bathroom with the bloody bit of the towel. Then folded it to press a clean patch over his thigh wound again.
I walked back into the bathroom.
Stopped dead when I caught sight of myself in the mirror above the sink.
Too thin, eyes too black, skin too pale with dried blood at the corner of my eye and down the side of my face and neck. That was your basic bar-brawl chic and could have been me any given Friday night.
But a dark light surrounded me, as if every edge had been carved out of thick ice with a hard brightness shining behind it. I barely looked human. I was stone cold.
Death.
It wasn’t just inside me anymore. It was me. It made me. Every inch of me. From heel bone to brainpan.
So much for hiding the monster on the inside. The line between me and it had officially been destroyed. I wore it just as much as it wore me.
Looking in that mirror made a couple of things clear: The monster and I were not happy.
And the monster and I were not weak.
Good. We had work to do.
• • •
The doctor was a very nice, if extremely nervous woman with short, dark hair and thin-rimmed glasses. Dash promised she could be trusted with this sort of stuff.
Since this sort of stuff hadn’t happened before, I had no idea what she’d put on her résumé to land the job.
Her name was Mina, and even though she seemed nervous at first, as soon as she got one look at all of us with our various injuries, she was all business. Quick. Efficient. Capable.
Ordered people around.
She took care of Terric first.
Dash stayed with him while I paced the hall, occasionally glancing in through the open door.
Coward, Sunny said. She picked at her nails with the knife she’d somehow gotten back. Not exactly comforting to discover she could remanifest a weapon. I foresaw a lot of stabbings in my future. You aren’t even standing by his side. Afraid to see him die, Shame?
“Give it a rest. You’re angry at me. I get it. I’m angry at me too.”
I rounded the corner into the living room and almost ran into Davy, who was walking toward the hall. He tipped his head and looked past me. Right at Sunny.
Davy, she said. Can you hear me? Honey, can you see me?
He hesitated and I waited, wondering if I would have what it took to block whatever he might throw at me. Then his yellowed gaze ticked back to me.
“You should go,” he said.
“Where?”
“Home. While you still can.”
“And that didn’t sound like a threat.”
“Did you kill her?” he asked.
Might as well tell him, Sunny said.
No, Eleanor said. Not yet.
Why not? Sunny asked.
Do you really want Davy fighting Shame? Eleanor said. Who do you think would win?
Sunny narrowed her eyes, looked at me, looked at Davy.
It wouldn’t be Davy, Eleanor said. He’d kill him. And then you’d both be dead. Do you want that?
Cody strolled out of the kitchen and took in the situation. Me, standing in the hall, Davy standing just inside the living room. Neither of us moving. Neither of us talking.
“Hello, boys,” he said. “What did I miss?”
“Nothing,” I said. “There’s nothing here to see.”
This house was suddenly crowded with too many heartbeats, too many people, too many ghosts. Death magic pounded at the lid I’d locked it under.
It wouldn’t be long before it broke free.
Davy’s only answer was to walk back to where Sunny’s body lay, covered face to foot by a clean sheet.
Cody looked at me, back at Davy, then headed after Davy.
I didn’t know if I should be happy or worried that he thought Davy was the bigger issue to be dealt with here.