The Lair

CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE

Lily

They stayed at the house as long as they could, letting McKenna rest, but it wasn’t long before they realized they were in trouble.

Suddenly Ely appeared in the doorway. “It’s time to get out of here.”

“You think?” As if to make Lily’s point, the night air was once again rent by the piercing howl of a Tick.

“There’ll be time for sarcasm later. Let’s move.”

She had already been packing some bags and she had a few ready by the door. Just stuff she’d found around the house that she’d thought might be useful. Now, she went back to the bed, where McKenna lay curled around the fidgeting baby, whom McKenna had named Josie. Lily touched McKenna’s shoulder.

“Time to get up. We’ve got to move.” McKenna didn’t even twitch. A flicker of fear skittered across her nerves. Lily shook her harder. “Come on, honey, get up.”

Slowly McKenna’s eyelashes fluttered. She turned her head. “Huh?”

“We gotta go. Ticks are headed our way. We gotta get out now.”

“Okay.” She tried to wedge her arm under her. “I feel so strange.”

“You’re supposed to feel strange,” Lily reminded her as she picked up the baby. “You just had a baby. You’ll get your strength back.”

“I’m so cold.”

“We’ll bring the blankets with us. Come on, Ely. Help me get her up.”

Lily sat on the edge of the bed and tried to wedge her spare arm under McKenna. The second she touched McKenna’s skin, she knew something was very wrong. Her skin was as cold as chilled lunch meat and just as clammy. On instinct, Lily pulled back the covers.

From the waist down, McKenna was covered in blood. Not a little blood, either. More blood than Lily had ever seen. Her stomach flopped over and bile mixed with peanut butter crawled back up her esophagus.

She called out, “Ely!”

He turned around. He went instantly pale and staggered back a step. He said nothing. No vulgar stream of curse words. No gasp. Just deathly silence.

Then slowly he crossed to the bed, shaking his head. “Oh, God, McKenna.” His voice broke. “I’m sorry.”

She hadn’t looked down yet, and when she did, her head bobbed weakly.

Lily thrust the baby into Ely’s arms. “We’ve got to stop the bleeding.”

“No,” he said. He grabbed her arm before she could reach for the blanket. “You’ll get it all over you.”

He yanked her hard, pulling her from the bed. Lily’s legs wobbled and she would have gone down to her knees, if he hadn’t supported her weight.

“No!” She struggled against his hold, but he was gripping her arm in an iron-tight grasp, walking backward toward the door. “Ely, stop! We’ve got to stop the bleeding.”

“No.” His voice was cold now. Dead. “We’ve got to go. Now.”

“No!” Lily screamed again. Her heart was being torn from her chest. “No, we can save her! We can get her to the car. We can drive.”

He whipped her around so she was facing him. “They’ll smell that blood. They already do. That’s why they’re coming.”

They were talking over each other now. Neither listening. Lily didn’t care. All she knew was that she couldn’t leave McKenna. She couldn’t lose McKenna.

“We’re faster than they are. We’ll—”

“Anywhere we go, they’ll be there.”

“I’m not leaving her. I need—”

“Think, Lily! We can’t—”

“He’s right,” McKenna said from the bed.

Her words were soft, barely audible, but somehow they both heard her.

“I’m not going to make it,” she said, her eyes wide with terror. “You need to go now. Take Josie and go.”

“No,” Lily said again.

“I can’t even walk.”

“This isn’t what you want. You want to live. I know you do. You want to live to fight for Josie.”

She met Lily’s gaze dead on and when she spoke, her voice trembled. “This way she’ll have a chance. This is me fighting for her.”

“No!” Lily said again, nearly senseless now. McKenna was right. Ely was right. But Lily couldn’t face it yet. She collapsed on the floor, sobbing at the brutal, unreasonable horror of it all.

Ely grabbed her arm, wrenching her to her feet and shaking her until she met his gaze. “Get it together! We have to get out of here. Now. Either you walk out or I carry you out.”

“I’m not leaving her,” Lily protested.

“You are.” He gave her another shake, somehow managing to shake her and hold Josie at the same time. “I promised Carter I would keep you alive and I will. I didn’t make any promises about this baby. If I have to put her down to carry you out, I will do it.”

She looked into his eyes, nearly recoiling at the cruel determination she saw there. He would do it. He would drop this precious newborn and leave her here to die. He would carry Lily out and leave Josie.

If Lily didn’t get it together, Josie would die, along with her mother.

“Do you believe me?” he growled.

She nodded, unable to speak past her grief and her burning hatred.

“Then stand up and walk out of here.” He released her arm. Her legs wobbled but she stood. He thrust the baby into her arms. She felt so tiny and fragile. “I’m going to go check outside. You do what you have to do to say good-bye and be out front in two minutes. Don’t get any blood on you.”

Lily nodded past her tears, her grief, her rage. He didn’t see her nod because he was already gone.

Lily walked over to the bed, careful not to look at anything beyond McKenna’s gaunt face and hollow eyes, but her peripheral vision caught the bright-red oval of blood, which seemed to be spreading over more of the bed with every minute that passed. How could a human hold that much blood? How could she still even be alive?

She was so pale lying there in the moonlight that she looked almost blue. Lily clasped her hand, even though her fingers were beyond cold and too weak to squeeze back.

“Thank you,” she said, and Lily couldn’t believe McKenna was thanking her when Lily was the one who was letting her die.

All she could do in response was shake her head. She couldn’t even speak. She couldn’t even breathe.

Lily’s jaw, her chest, everything was shaking with the urge to sob; it took all she had not to give in to it.

She moved McKenna’s arm off her chest and lay baby Josie there, carefully placing her hand back over the blanket, so she could hold her baby one last time, even though she was too weak to do it.

McKenna looked down at her child, tears pouring down her paper-white face. “She looks like Joe. She’s beautiful.”

Lily nodded. “She has his eyes. And your mouth.” She forced the words out, not because she believed them, but because it seemed to be the kind of thing people said about babies. And maybe because she wanted it to be true. She wanted to believe that this tiny baby held a part of her friends.

Then McKenna looked back at her. “You take her now and go. You keep her safe.”

Lily nodded, her hands shaking as she picked up the baby.

“It’s okay,” McKenna said, despite the fear that made her voice quiver. “This is a good way to die.”

Lily wanted to scream. It wasn’t a good way to die. It was a shitty, horrible way to die. And there was a good chance it would only get worse.

Nothing about this was good. A baby shouldn’t lose her mother within hours. Newborn babies shouldn’t be orphans. Josie would grow up without knowing her parents. She’d never even see a picture of them. If she grew up at all.

As if to echo her thought, the door flung open again as another howl, much closer this time, went out from a Tick.

Ely stood in the open doorway. “We’re out of time. They’re here. It’ll take them a couple of minutes to find a way in, but they’re coming in.”

Those words snapped Lily out of her daze. “How many?”

“Three.” He scanned the room, then strode over to the bags she had waiting by the foot of the bed. He picked up a backpack, unzipped it, and unceremoniously dumped the contents on the floor. “Put the baby in here. We’ll have to wait until they’re in the house, then we’re going out the window.”

“Out the window?” But even as she asked, she was taking the backpack from him. She knew it was the only way out. She grabbed a couple of the towels that had fallen to the ground and shoved them in the bottom with her free hand. Then carefully, past the tears streaming down her face, she placed the baby in the backpack. Tiny as she was, wrapped up tightly in the blanket, she fit right in the bottom. Lily carefully tucked the towel around her head and neck to hold it in place and then zipped it up, leaving a hole in the top. Josie hated it and squealed in anger or maybe fear. Probably fear. Then Lily eased the straps over her shoulders.

“You ready?” Ely asked.

“Almost.” Lily turned back to McKenna and sat gingerly on a clean spot near her shoulder. She reached behind her and yanked out the ponytail holder that held her hair back and snapped it onto her wrist. She smoothed out a section of McKenna’s hair, talking to her as she braided.

“I’ll keep her safe. No matter what.”

“I know.” McKenna’s near-blue lips curled into a wan smile.

“And I’ll tell her everything about you and Joe. She’ll know how much you loved her. How much you both loved her.”

McKenna nodded. Her breathing was shallow now, her gaze losing focus.

“Do you want me to—” Lily couldn’t finish the sentence.

“The pity kill?” McKenna asked softly.

Lily nodded. So, McKenna had been awake for that conversation in the freezer.

From near the window, Ely muttered a curse.

By then, she’d reached the end of McKenna’s hair. She doubled the braid back on itself and snapped the rubber band on near her scalp, so it caught both ends of the braid. She held out her hand. “Ely, your knife.” He slapped it into her palm and she quickly sawed through McKenna’s hair. She took the braid and tucked it into her pocket. Someday, she’d pass McKenna’s braided hair on to the baby. “She’ll always have a part of you.”

“You done yet?” Ely asked.

She could barely hear him over the fussing of Josie nestled in the backpack and the roar of blood in her ears. That was all the excuse she needed to ignore him for a moment longer. “You tell Joe I said hey.”

McKenna smiled, but her breathing came in panicked bursts now.

Then, from downstairs came the sound of crashing glass and splintering wood. They were sounds she couldn’t ignore.

Ely flung open the window. “Get out of here. I’ll handle it.”

With sorrow choking her, Lily climbed out the open window. An icy blast of wind hit her. She was gasping for breath when the gunfire tore through the silence. Three quick bursts. She flinched at the noise, clutching the window frame.

She looked back through the window as Ely climbed out. With the candlelight still dimly lighting the room, Lily could see McKenna sitting in the bed. Her legs were stretched out in front of her, but the angle was all wrong. Like she’d been trying to move them and couldn’t. Like she’d been crushed from the waist down. She’d turned her torso toward the open bedroom door. The dark holes in her forehead almost weren’t visible. She’d faced her death head on. Lily was the only one who wasn’t ready.

She never would be.

Feeling like her heart was as broken as her body, she turned her back on McKenna’s body and looked out into the darkness of the roof. Ely was already a few steps ahead of her. He was crouched down, skittering sideways toward a tree whose branches reached out toward the house. There was something sinister about his furtive movements. She followed him, knowing she must look the same. This was how you crept away when you left a dead comrade. You skulked through the darkness. There was no nobility in it.

She buried her shame and followed, keeping her steps light but careful. She couldn’t trip and fall; that would mean certain death for her and for Josie.

Josie was strangely quiet in the backpack; maybe she was confused. Maybe she liked being jostled.

Lily could hear the Ticks tearing through the house below them, destroying this tiny bit of sanctuary they’d found. They rummaged liked the beasts they were, tearing everything to shreds. It wouldn’t be long before they followed the scent of McKenna’s blood up to the second story.

At the corner of the house, Lily stared out at the branch and felt her stomach drop. Ely had stopped, too. They both just stared at the tree. From the ground by the front of the house, it had looked like the branch reached the house. The tree was a sprawling live oak. It had looked sturdy. But from here, it was obvious there was at least a four-foot gap between the edge of the roof and the branch.

Ely glanced at her. “Here’s what we’re going to do. I’m going to jump for the branch and try to shinny down to the ground. Once I’m down, you lower the backpack to me. It’s a couple feet drop. Maybe three or four.”

“So basically you want me to throw you the baby.” His expression twisted and she held up a hand. “I know. Not helpful.”

“You have any better ideas?”

“No.” Damn it!

She was supposed to be the smart one, so why didn’t she have any better ideas?

She wanted to ask what she should do if he jumped for the branch and fell. If he killed or injured himself trying to get across. Carter would have had some backup plan. That was Carter: the guy with five levels of planning to keep her safe.

But Carter was back at Base Camp and she was out of time. Before she could ask Ely for his thoughts, he was leaping through the air.

Ely was short, squat, and immovable. The kind of guy who looked like he could go head to head with a Mack truck and win.

If she’d had to guess, she would have said he didn’t have a graceful bone in his body. Yet somehow when he jumped for the branch, he made it look easy. He landed nimbly on the branch. It swayed beneath his weight, but didn’t break. She watched in awe as he moved across it, his arms stretched out like a tightrope walker.

A moment later he was on the ground, beneath her. She slipped the backpack from her shoulders and unbuckled one shoulder strap to give herself more play. Then she lay down on her belly and scooted right up to the edge of the roof before she lowered the bag down. The gutter bit into her armpits as she held her arms over the edge of the roof, dangling the bag from its extended strap. What had seemed like an impossible distance before seemed like nothing now. Ely reached up; she felt his fingertips grazing the bottom of the bag and she released it. Letting go, trusting that he would catch it. He did.

From inside the house, she heard the high-pitched yip of the Ticks followed by what had to be feet thundering up the stairs. They were out of time.

She did some quick calculations. Ely was about her height. With his arms extended, he’d been able to just graze the bottom of the bag. With the strap extended, the bag was maybe three or four feet long. So if she lowered herself over the edge, the drop would only be three or four feet. She could do that, right?

“What are you waiting for?” he growled. “Get down here.”

“Give me room!” she called, even as she wiggled her legs over to the edge.

She heard him cursing as he stepped back. She was halfway off the roof when she realized her mistake. She’d forgotten about her shoulder. Pain roared through as the weight of her body tore at the stitches. She felt them ripping open. Her fingers slipped on the edge of the gutter. There was a horrible wrenching noise as the screws pulled loose and the gutter pulled away from the roof.

She let go by instinct, dropping the rest of the way to the ground. She landed badly, her ankle crumbling beneath her. She stumbled back a step before falling hard on her ass.

When she opened her eyes, Ely was standing over her, the backpack cradled against his chest. “Jesus, Lily!”

She couldn’t tell if he looked more exasperated or impressed. The fall had knocked the air out of her and she couldn’t catch her breath past the twin pains screaming up her shoulder and ankle. Shit.

“Get up. We’ve got to go. Now!”

With Ely barking orders at her, she had to obey. If that hadn’t been bad enough, a howl of excitement came from inside the house. They were probably done with McKenna by now. The thought sent a sick squelch of anguish through her, but she didn’t have time to think about it. She had to move.

Despite the pain in her heart and her body, she had to move. Because she couldn’t die here in this yard. Not when McKenna had given her life to save her baby’s. Because if Lily died, then Josie would, too.

She was the only person on earth who loved this baby like her parents would have loved her. It was her job now to keep her safe.

So she moved. She ran like she’d never run before. Past the pain. Through the fear. Despite the panic. She ran.

Ely was ahead of her. She could see the strap of the backpack in his hand as he ducked around the car. A moment later, she flung open the door of the Cayenne. Her breath caught as a Tick crashed through the upstairs window.

For a second, it perched on the roof. Then, in one crazy motion, it leapt the distance from the window to the tree, landing nimbly on one of the branches.

It swung on the branch with the skill of an Olympic gymnast. She slammed the door of the Cayenne closed as the Tick let go of the branch and soared through the air.

“Ely!” she cried in alarm.

He yanked the door closed on his side of the SUV and thrust the backpack into her arms. “I see it.”

But his keys were still in his pocket. He raised his hips up and dug into his pocket, but panic must have made him clumsy. The Tick landed a few feet in front of the car. Despite the darkness, she could see its features clearly: the heavy, too-large head. The distended jaw. The thick brow ridge. The jutting lips that couldn’t quite contain the leonine teeth the Ticks used to devour their victims’ hearts. The fresh blood rimming its mouth. The Tick cocked its head to the side, staring at them through the glass. Puzzling it through.

She could hardly breathe her heart was pounding so hard.

Josie was squirming in the bag, making a confused, mewing sound that was almost crying.

Ely still hadn’t found the keys. He was cursing as he patted his pockets frantically. The Tick just stood there in front of them, a pained expression on his face, like he was trying to remember what this strange metal thing was. Or maybe like he couldn’t quite figure out how to break open the crunchy, outer shell of the car to get to the yummy goodness inside.

Either way, Lily wasn’t going to wait around for him to figure it out. She ignored Josie’s crying and carefully lowered the backpack to the floorboard between her feet. Then, she scrambled in the seat so she could reach around into the backseat of the Cayenne for her bow and arrow.

“What are you doing?” Ely demanded.

“I’m protecting us. Find the keys, damn it. Let’s just pray they weren’t in the backpack when you dumped it out on the floor.”

She blew out a puff of breath and thrust open the door.

She put only one foot out the door—her other foot was useless anyway. Agony seared through her left bicep as she extended the bow. Blood seeped through her shirt where she’d ripped through the stitches. But she pushed past the pain and tried to steady the bow as she notched an arrow and lined up the shot at the Tick. He was still ten, maybe fifteen feet away, but she saw the instant he drew in the scent of her blood. She had one chance to get him through the heart. One chance for the clean kill or she wouldn’t have time to notch another arrow. She waited until he roared right before he launched himself at her. She fired, but didn’t wait to see if she’d landed the kill shot. The Cayenne’s engine rumbled to life as she ducked back in the car. The momentum of the car lurching forward slammed her door closed. The Cayenne rammed right into the Tick and for one horrible moment, he clung to the hood of the car, the arrow piercing his chest, his face contorted into an expression of too-human horror. Then Ely cut the steering wheel hard to the right and the Tick flew off the hood before the Cayenne sped away into the night.

For a long moment, she just sat there, struggling to suck air into her lungs despite the pain wracking her body and the shock wracking her mind. Beside her, Ely was still cursing. His anger or maybe his fear made him mean. As for her, she had nothing left in her except the need to see Josie. To make sure the baby was okay.

Her hands shook as she reached down to the backpack. Josie was still crying, so Lily knew she was alive, but was she hurt? She couldn’t tell from the increasingly frantic cries.

She unzipped the backpack and spread it open. It was too dark to even see the baby, so she fumbled for the overhead light and flicked it on.

Lily slipped a hand beneath Josie’s head and slowly raised her up out of the bag. The sheet that they’d wrapped her in had unraveled, revealing her tiny, naked body. At some point, they would have to stop and get the diapers out of the back, but for now Lily just looked at her. She was tiny and fragile, her limbs wobbly; even her skin looked thin. Her crinkly red skin and scrunched-up face hardly looked human. Despite that, Lily felt an almost overwhelming need to protect her. To actually curl her own body over the baby’s and shelter her from everything.

Looking at Josie, Lily felt a strange sense of peace.

Strange because she should have been overwhelmed. She was overwhelmed. And afraid.

She had just lost McKenna. Her best friend had just died. A horrible and pointless death, which Lily would never be able to make peace with.

And to make things worse—she was wounded. The gunshot wound on her arm had broken open. And she was pretty sure she’d sprained her ankle when she landed from the roof. Worst of all, she was with a guy who thought anyone who wasn’t able-bodied was a liability.

Despite that, she felt a renewed sense of resolve.

Strangely, the ease with which Ely had handled McKenna’s death brought her comfort. Three shots across the forehead. There would be no coming back from that. He’d been freaked out, but he’d done it. That meant, if the time came, he would do the same for her. But it wouldn’t come to that. She would protect McKenna and Joe’s baby. No matter what.