“Like I didn’t know I could raise the dead in my sleep. But did I chew you out? Did I even mention how close I came to getting caught because I stayed to help?”
He looked away, jaw working, then said, “I tried to help you, too. And got this.” He gestured to the scratch on his cheek.
“Because I woke up with a guy pinning me to the floor! I know you were trying to keep me from seeing that zombie crawling on me. A good plan, poorly executed. Then you totally lost patience and kept barking orders.”
“I was trying to help.”
“And what if I’d done that to you? Yelled at you to finish Changing before we got caught?”
He looked away again. “I…About that night. I haven’t said…” He squared his shoulders. “We need to get back. Simon will be worried about you.”
We walked about twenty steps in silence, me trailing him. When his shoulders bunched, I knew he was thinking about it again, and I prayed he’d let it go. Please just let it—
He spun on me. “Next time when I tell you to stay, I mean stay.”
“I’m not a dog, Derek.”
I kept my voice steady, but his jaw tensed, green eyes flashing. “Maybe not, but you obviously need someone to look after you, and I’m tired of doing it.”
“Don’t.”
“Don’t what?”
“Didn’t we agree to stop bickering?”
His face darkened. “This isn’t—”
“You’re mad at yourself and you’re taking it out on me.”
I meant to be reasonable, but he exploded, coming at me so fast I backpedaled and hit a chain-link fence.
“I’m mad at you, Chloe. You took off. You got in trouble. I had to rescue you.”
He kept coming at me. I pressed against the fence, the links whining in protest.
“And stop doing that,” he said. “Backing away, giving me that look.”
“Like you’re scaring me? Maybe you are.”
He stepped back so fast he wobbled and caught himself, and the look on his face—It vanished in a second, the scowl returning.
“I’d never hurt you, Chloe. You should know—” He stopped. Paused. Then wheeled and started walking away. “Next time? Handle it yourself. I’m done taking care of you.”
I wanted to fly after him, yell that I hadn’t asked him to take care of me, didn’t need it, didn’t want it. Not if this was the price—his rage, his guilt, his scorn.
Tears prickled. I blinked them away and waited until he was far enough that he wouldn’t turn on me again. Then I followed him to Simon.
Tori was already there. She didn’t say a word to me, as if mentioning what happened would mean explaining why she’d left me behind.
No one said much of anything. We were all too tired and too cold. Our new spot was a delivery bay. Safe, but the north wind blew right in. We huddled against the walls with our thin blankets pulled around us, and tried to sleep.
Twenty-five
I WOKE TO THE smell of sausage and eggs and squeezed my eyes shut to savor the dream, knowing when I opened them, I’d be lucky to get bruised fruit and an energy bar.
“Rise and shine,” a voice whispered.
A paper bag rustled. Then sausage-scented steam bathed my face. I opened my eyes to see Simon holding a familiar take-out bag in front of me.
“McDonald’s?”
“Shhh.”
Simon pointed at Tori, still snoring beside me, then quietly retreated from the delivery bay, motioning for me to follow.
He led me into an alley, where a fire escape ladder hung, then he boosted me onto it. We climbed up to the roof of a three-story building.
I walked to the edge and looked out. There was a park to the east, glistening with dew, the sun still rising behind it, tinting the sky pink.
“Nice, huh?” Simon said. “That park wasn’t quite so empty last night or we would have slept there.” He set down the bag and drinks on the rooftop. “So is this okay for breakfast? Up here?”
I looked at the view again. After last night, this was better than the fanciest breakfast in the fanciest restaurant. It might be the most thoughtful thing anyone had ever done for me.
“It’s perfect,” I said. “Thank you.”
“Good. If it wasn’t, I’d have blamed Derek.”
“Derek?”
“He suggested we come up here and helped me pull down the ladder. Breakfast was my idea, though. We saw the Mickey D’s last night and I thought you might like a bickering-free breakfast.”
Derek picked the spot? Had he been hoping I’d be blinded by the morning sun and stumble off the edge?
“Pancakes or sausage McMuffin?” Simon asked as I settled onto the rooftop.
“Which do you want?”
“I’ve got mine.” He lifted a wrapped sandwich. “I thought I’d buy you both and, whichever you don’t want, Derek will eat. Nothing goes to waste with him around.”
I took the McMuffin.
He lifted two cups. “OJ or a strawberry milkshake?”
“I didn’t think you could get milkshakes in the morning.”
He grinned. “I can.”
When I took the shake, his smile grew. “I thought you might like that.”
“Thanks. This”—I waved at the food and the spot—“is really nice.”
“And well-deserved after your cruddy night. By the way, there’s a cut on your cheek. We should get that cleaned up later. I know Derek gave you the gears last night—more than once.”
“It’s okay.”
“No, it’s not. Going at you about raising that zombie? That was out of line, even for Derek. He’s been…”
“Crankier than usual?”
“Yeah. I think it’s because he Changed—or couldn’t Change—but that’s no excuse to vent at you, not after what you did for him.”
I shrugged and took a long draw of my milkshake.
“About what you did that night, staying with Derek while he was trying to Change…” Simon shook his head. “I don’t know how you kept your cool. Finding him like that when you didn’t even know he was a werewolf.”
“I figured it out.”
Simon took a bite of his sandwich and chewed, looking out at the sky before saying, “I wanted to tell you. Especially after he forced you to admit you were seeing ghosts. We argued; he won, as usual. But if we thought you could ever have stumbled on him like that, we’d have warned you. Even knowing what he is, I doubt I could have stuck around, much less helped. It took guts.” He caught my gaze. “It really took guts.”
I’m sure I turned crimson. I glanced away and chomped into my sandwich.
“I appreciate what you did for him, Chloe. Derek appreciates it, too, though I’m sure he hasn’t said so.”
I swallowed my mouthful and changed the subject. “So, about your dad…You never did tell me how he disappeared.”
He laughed. “Enough about Derek, huh? Unfortunately, Derek is where this story starts. It was after he broke that kid’s back. When it got a mention in the Albany paper, Dad decided it was time to move on. He must have known the Edison Group was still trying to find us. We should have left right away. But…”
Simon picked a burned piece off his muffin. “This happened a lot. At the first hint of trouble, we’d pack and move. Derek and I didn’t understand why, so we’d complain.” He paused. “No, I’d complain. After growing up in that lab, Derek was happy as long as the three of us were together. I hated moving. It always seemed I’d just made new friends, just made the team, just met a girl…”
“I know what that’s like. Well, except the part about meeting girls.”
“Yeah, but I bet you never complained. You’re like Derek. You make the best of things. I bitched and moaned, so Dad always tried to make it easier on me. That day, I had a basketball game I was hyped about, so when Dad saw the article after we’d gone to school, he called Derek’s cell. He told him not to mention it to me, but that he’d meet us after school and we’d take off. He never showed.”
“And you haven’t seen him since?”
Simon shook his head. “We got home, found the car packed, the keys in the kitchen. He’d taken his wallet or had it in his pocket when…whatever happened, happened.”