Afterlife (Second Eden #1) (40 page)

Faye clutched her brow, the dark wave of her hair shadowing her face. For a moment, she sat quietly, her body trembling as she heaved one breath after another. “You’re trying to rile me up, trying to get me angry,” she eventually said, sucking in a breath. “It won’t work. I’m going to break you down and build you back up. I’m going to own you, Dino, and you’re going to know it. You’ll be my own hound. Like the archduke has his Bone Man, Faye will have her Dino, the Fool’s Hound.”

“You can’t make me do anything,” he spat.

Faye straightened. She pulled a lock of hair behind her ear and flashed a practiced smile. “Faye might not be able to do anything.”

“You wouldn’t!”

Faye’s body shifted and twisted. The cold, carefully-manicured features Dino despised transformed into Amber, eyes wide as a doe and brimming with equal parts hope and fear. “But what about Amber? She seemed to be good at getting you to do what she wanted.”

Dino’s heart twisted. He looked away, teeth a wall of rage grinding behind his lips. Her hand gripped his jaw and jerked it to her. Now, instead of Amber facing him, Zoe did. “Or maybe Zoe can talk some sense into you?”
 

She leaned over and kissed him on the cheek. Her lips were so soft. She even smelled like Zoe. After all those years, it was like she never left. Her breath washed down his skin, prickling the hairs on the back of his neck. “It’ll be just like old times, Dino. Just like old times.”

Dino squeezed his eyes shut. A tear slipped out, sliding down his cheek as Zoe’s fist buried in his stomach.

The handle twitched. Amber stared in horror as a force, a person, struggled with the door. The lock moved. It clicked.

She thrashed in her bed, kicking and crying, but the bands around her wrists and ankles kept her chained securely to the bedframe.

The handle swiveled. The door moved. A crack formed, widened, like a thin black wound opening up on a field of grey. She tensed, the beat of her heart a deafening roar in her ears. “You can’t have me! I’ll fight you! I swear to God I’ll fight you until I die!”

Jason stumbled into the room, smashing his index finger against his lips. “Shut up, Amber! You trying to wake everybody up?”

Amber struggled in her binds, squirming as far as she could from him. “This is a trick. You’re trying to get me to give up. I won’t!”

He shut the door behind him and ran his fingers through the thick wave of his hair. “Can I have some of what they’ve been giving you?”

She eyed him, but her struggling stilled somewhat. “Is it really you?”

Jason spread his arms wide. “The one and only!”

The tension knotted up inside her vanished, like a taut rubber band suddenly cut in half. She folded forward, half laughing, half sobbing. “Jason, I’ve missed you so much. You have no idea.”

“I’m pissed, Amber! You ran off without telling me. Everybody thought you were dead. Everybody!” He sighed and smoothed his shirt. “You look like shit, by the way.”
 

“I feel like it,” she said.

He ran to Amber and wrapped his arms around her. They held each other for a long moment, neither needing or wanting to say a word.

Jason eventually pulled back and smiled. “I mean that in the best possible way, by the way.”

“God, I’ve missed you. Get me out of these freaking handcuffs. We’ve got to get out of here before somebody finds us.”
 

Jason untied the bands around her wrists and went to work on her ankles. She rubbed her right wrist, closing her eyes and sighing. “They trapped me. They had some doctor drug me. They thought … They thought I’d try and hurt someone.”

He slowed as he undid the last bind. “After what you did to Ryder in the equipment shed, Amber, can you blame them? The police came and interviewed me after you up and went poof. They told me about the pills, about the mess in the kitchen.” A pain look contorted his handsome features. “Just tell me—”

“Jason, I would
never
try and kill myself, and I’d never try and hurt anyone else. I swear to God I would never do that to you. I wouldn’t even do that to Mom and Chris. I know what it feels like. What happened to Ryder—what I did to Ryder—that wasn’t me. It’s … It’s complicated, but it wasn’t me. If you give me the chance, if you forgive me, I’ll explain everything.”

“I believe you.” He patted her leg and pulled her ankles from the bands. “And I’m sorry I freaked out on you in the shed. I saw how terrified you were after you, I don’t know, did your mutant superhero badassery, and I was all, ‘Damn, she’s going to fry me with her eye lasers.’ Or something like that. I freaked out too. I’m sorry. I should’ve chased you home instead of hiding.”

“No, you’re fine.” She sucked in a breath. “
We’re
fine, right?” She rolled onto her ankles and put a hand on his shoulder. “Aren’t we?”

He reached over and squeezed her hand. “Of course we are. When I heard they had you locked up in here, I knew whatever they planned wasn’t good. Your mom’s kind of gone off the deep end with the whole thing. She thinks I had something to do with it. Wouldn’t even let me come see you. Can you believe it?”

“About her? Yeah.”
 

“When she told me I couldn’t see you, I knew something was up. So I decided to come see you for myself. Thank God I did too.”

“I owe you for that.” She looked to the door and swallowed. “We’ve got to get out of here. Fast.”

“Follow me,” he said.

Jason grabbed her hand, and together they slipped into a dark hall. The flotsam of a hospital littered the corridor—cheap waiting chairs, empty IV stands, stretchers. They tiptoed across the linoleum. Two nurses chatted at the end of the hall. Jason pulled her into an empty room, and they waited for the conversation to die down.

“They’ll walk off in a bit,” he whispered.

They lingered there in the darkness, listening to a conversation about the new Italian place opening up off Maplewood. Part of Amber missed those conversations about nothing. She suddenly ached for the hallways of St. Luke’s, of days spent in the art studio with Jason, of hours spent listening to Mr. Engel prattle on. She even missed Tiffany and her friends, for some odd reason. It was a tantalizing shard of normalcy, this conversation between nurses, and it reminded her of everything Afterlife wasn’t.

“This is taking too long,” Jason huffed.

“Hold on. I might be able to help.”

Amber gripped his shirt for support and closed her eyes. She could feel Eve inside her, watching, waiting, tempting her with the power of the curses. She reached inside her soul, tapping the power of her spirit, and when she did, she felt the slow, cold crawl of some other mind pulling down her own.

“I … I can’t use them,” she murmured, the cold shock of the realization bringing her gaze to his.
 

“What’re you talking about? Use what?”
 

“Nothing. I just … nothing.” She frowned, glancing toward the door. “You hear them?”

Jason leaned forward. He scrunched his nose and shook his head. “Sounds clear enough to me.”

They slipped into the hall and padded toward the quiet desk. Jason and Amber slid to the corner and listened. No sounds came. The hospital wing was quiet, but it was more than just quiet. It was something deeper, the kind of heavy silence that was unnatural and dark.

Before she could say anything, Jason squeezed her hand, and tugged her around the corner. Amber swallowed her scream when her eyes took in the scene before her. She grabbed his shirt and hauled him back before he could trip over the nurse’s body.
 

“Oh my God!” Jason yelled. “The nurse … Oh God, Amber. Oh my God!”

Amber barely registered the nurse. Her wild eyes locked on something farther down the hall. A dark silhouette stood beneath a flickering fluorescent light. Tall and thin, he wore a pressed black suit, black oxfords, and pale gloves. And while his back faced her, she knew him well enough to know he wore a pale mask shaped like a skull.

Bone Man paused mid-stride. He held his thin blade tight beside him, its tip dripping crimson.
 

Amber jerked Jason around. “Run,” she hissed.

“But—”

“
Run!”

As Bone Man pivoted on his heel, Amber and Jason lurched around the corner. Her head throbbed from the medication, and a chill sweat sprouted on her skin, but despite her leaden legs, she ran with the fury of an Olympian sprinting for the gold.
 

They bolted through the dark corridor, crashing through a door at the end of the hall and sliding into an empty room. Amber spotted a chair, grabbed it, and shoved it underneath the door handle.
 

“Amber, what’s going on?” Jason asked, pacing in a tight circle. “Those people were dead! And who was that guy in the mask? Did he—”

“Watch the door, Jason! He’ll kill you if he gets in.”

“But who—”

A force slammed against the door. “Bone Man,” Amber said.

Another crash against the wood sent her heartbeat racing, her arms trembling uncontrollably. She focused on the window, running for the pane. “Your car outside?”

“Yeah. Jesus, what’s going on Amber?”

“There’s no time!” She grabbed another chair and backed away from the window. Bone Man crashed against the splintering door. Amber took a deep breath and focused. Bone Man rammed the wood again, cracking its face.
 

Amber bit her lip, hurling the chair with all her strength at the windowpane. It cracked the glass and clattered onto the floor. She cursed, picking up the chair and beating it against the window. “Help me! Hurry!”

Jason appeared beside her, clutching a broomstick. He rammed it against the glass, and she followed with a blow by the chair. Bone Man smashed against the door yet again. His next hard hit would shatter it into pieces.

The window finally exploded outward as the chair went barreling through it. Jason cleared the shards with his broomstick. Amber leaned out. Two floors below, the parking lot waited. An old pickup was parked just beneath the window. Amber took a deep breath, grabbing Jason’s hand.

“We can’t jump,” he gasped. “That’s insane!”

Amber pulled him toward the window. “If you don’t jump, he’ll kill you. Please, Jason, you have to trust me.”

He looked at her and swallowed. “I trust you.”

Amber clenched his wrist and pulled him to the window. Together, they leapt into the night, plummeting into the pickup’s bed. Pain shot up her shins from the impact, and the truck groaned and rocked from the weight thrown inside the bed.
 

Jason scrambled from the truck first and helped her onto the pavement. They sprinted through the lot, his Mercedes appearing beneath a tall parking light. They reached the car and ripped the doors open. Jason and Amber dove inside, her friend fumbling in his pocket for the keys.

Amber slammed her door shut and beat on the dash. “Start the car! Start the car!”

“I’m trying! Shit!” Jason rammed the keys into the ignition. The car rumbled to life. He floored the gas, and the Mercedes screeched from the lot, leaving ribbons of black and pale smoke in its wake.

Amber spun around as they fishtailed out of the hospital drive. Bone Man appeared beneath the fluorescent light, gripping his glimmering sword. He stepped into the darkness, and his thin form began a slow, steady sprint in their direction.

“We have to call the police,” Jason said. “I know—”

“No, the police won’t help. He’ll kill them too.”

“What? You can’t be serious. There’s nothing else to do.”

“Yes there is.” Amber took a deep breath. She turned to her friend, placing her hand on his knee. “Ms. Flannery’s house. There’s a mirror. We need to get to it.”

“Mirror? Amber, you’re not making sense. None of this makes any sense.”

“It won’t make sense until you see it for yourself. But, Jason, we have to do this. Take me to Ms. Flannery’s. It’s the only way to make sure no one else dies tonight.”

“Okay, okay. We’re heading that way.”

Amber glanced behind her. Shadows swallowed the dark street. Trees rustled with the chill evening wind. Somewhere in that black, Bone Man ran, his steady, unblinking gaze set on the car speeding into the distance.

Screams and sirens sounded beyond Dino’s air-tight cell. He lurched from the floor, stumbling in a pain-coated stupor to the door. A great force rocked the base. The ceiling shuddered. Dust fell in trails around his shoulders.

He coughed, waving the dust from his eyes. “Hey! What’s going on?”

No answers came, save the harried shouts of men and women rushing through the corridor beyond. Another blast crashed into the base. Cracks spread along the ceiling. Dino fell against the wall for support. He turned to the door, slamming his palm against it until his hand throbbed. “Someone let me out! Hey!
HEY!
”

He squeezed his eyes shut and called upon his curse. The power welled within him. It bubbled to the surface. And then, it deflated, sinking back into his heart. Faye must have the scarab somewhere close enough to keep him solid. He glared up at the cracks spreading along the ceiling. “Great,” he mumbled. “After all this, I get buried in the rubble. Just perfect.”

He spun around, pressing his back to the door. “Someone! Anyone! Let me out!”

Somehow, he had to find a way out. Amber still needed him. Bone Man still lived. If the ceiling collapsed on him, it would dust him. If it didn’t, and he couldn’t escape, the blackjackets would find him. He almost preferred the ceiling collapse. “Dammit, someone let me out! Hello!
HELLO!
”

Screams sounded on the other side. Boots slamming on the floor. Metal clashing. Explosions. Cries. Silence. Then, the steady march of boots thudding closer.

Dino swallowed. He wiped his palms on his shirt and scrambled from the door. The footsteps reverberated on the other side. The steps slowed and came to a stop right at his door.
 

The lock clicked. The handle twisted as his savior, captor, or executioner turned it.