The Lair (29 page)

“Hey, I get it. I wouldn’t want to trust me, either. To make matters worse, I can’t even promise we’re going to do any good here. I can’t promise we can get the fences back up and even if we do, that’s only a temporary fix. If it’s been three or more weeks since a food truck has come, then you’re all short on energy. We have to get out of here and fast. But I’m not going to lie. I have no way to get all of you up to Utah, where maybe—maybe—it’s safe. We’re going to have to find cars. We’re going to have to caravan it. I’m not going to sugarcoat it. We’re in trouble. Serious trouble. I can’t promise that we’re all going to make it, okay. Hell, I can’t even hope that. All I can promise is that there are guys here who know how to kill the Ticks. People who will help you fight them.”

Trinia was openly sobbing now, but her fear, her gut-wrenching terror, seemed to have morphed into something else. Determination, maybe. Despite the tears, she seemed stronger than she had when she’d first walked in.

Wilson stroked the back of her head reassuringly, but looked up at me. “Can they really be killed?”

“Yeah, they can. I’ve killed them myself.”

“God, I hope you’re right.”

Yeah. Me, too.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

Lily

Lily felt hungover when she woke up. Dry-mouthed, disoriented, head and body aching.

She sat up, shaking her head. It was dark. She was in the front seat of the Cayenne. Her neck hurt from sleeping sitting up. In fact, every muscle ached, especially her left bicep, which throbbed angrily. Blinking, she ran her hand down through the neck of her shirt to the spot on her arm where the bullet had grazed her shoulder last . . . when had that happened? Why couldn’t she remember?

She gingerly poked at the skin around her wound. The skin felt hot and too tight. Cringing from the pain, she tried to put the pieces together. She was alone in the Cayenne. The Cayenne wasn’t moving. It was dark outside, but where was she?

Ely and McKenna wouldn’t just leave her alone unprotected. Her brain stuttered over that thought. There was something she wasn’t piecing together. Again there was that foggy feeling. Her mind wasn’t working at full speed. What the hell had happened to her?

She patted at the wound through her sleeve and her fingers came away damp with blood. She had torn through the stitches. She’d jumped out of a tree. Or off a roof.

That’s when it all came rushing back to her. The farmhouse. McKenna. Josie.

Oh, God. Josie!

Where was she now?

And why the hell had it taken Lily this long to figure out she was missing? What was wrong with her brain?

She pushed the door open and stumbled out of the Cayenne. Her head spun and nausea hit her stomach. Sucking air in through her mouth, she sank back onto the seat and dropped her head between her legs. She knew this feeling. This dizzy nausea and foggy disorientation. She’d felt this before. This wasn’t a hangover. This was how she’d felt when she’d been shot by a tranquilizer dart back on the Farm. But who had shot her this time? And why?

Ely.

Shit. Shit, shit, shit!

“Don’t blame yourself,” Ely’s voice called from somewhere nearby.

Ely’s words sent a burst of hatred through her. She brought her head up, looking around through the haze of her nausea and anger.

“You’re probably already thinking about things you should have done differently.”

His voice came from the other side of the car, but not from nearby. Surreptitiously, she looked around, trying to pinpoint his location. On her side of the car, she could see dawn starting to peek over the horizon, a faint patch of gray. When she looked out the driver’s-side window, she could see a low, squat building not far from the Cayenne.

She couldn’t see him, but as he kept talking she could tell he was somewhere in that direction.

“You’re probably wondering how you didn’t see this coming.”

“Fuck off,” she growled.

Only then did she notice a mewling sound somewhere in the distance, coming from where Ely must be.

Terror shuddered through her as she realized what the noise was. Josie.

That’s why she wasn’t in the car. He was leaving her here. Leaving them here.

Instinct pushed her to her feet. But her right ankle throbbed in time with her arm, and it crumpled beneath her weight.

She ducked her head and scanned the interior of the Cayenne, looking for a weapon and cursing her sluggish brain. She didn’t see her bow and quiver, which meant Ely must have moved it. She couldn’t let him drive away.

In the backseat, all she saw was the blanket from that first night. She grabbed the blanket and pulled it into the front seat with her, but there was nothing else back there. Which meant Ely had at least the tranq gun with him.

If she made it to the back of the SUV, if she could pop the trunk, if her bow and arrow was back there, then she’d have at least a fighting chance. But that was a lot of ifs.

“All I’m saying is that you shouldn’t blame yourself. It’s not that you’re weak. It’s not that you’re gullible or too trusting. I would have betrayed anyone. And there wasn’t a damn thing you could have done to stop me. So don’t beat yourself up over it.”

If she had to guess, she would say Ely was still talking for only one reason: he was trying to distract her. Because right now, all her attention was focused on two things: fighting her pain and talking to him. He knew how bad her injuries were.

As long as he kept her standing here talking to him, he could be sneaking up on her through the darkness. And here she was, standing right next to the Cayenne with the dome light on in the car. The only bright spot in the entire wasteland. Jesus, she hated what those tranquilizers did to her brain.

Think, damn it!

Okay, tranq guns are powerful, but unless you were a helluva shot, you weren’t going to hit someone with one from a distance. They didn’t have the accuracy of a rifle. So he’d have to be within twenty or so feet from her. Which would be perfect if she had time to get her bow out of the back. But she doubted Ely was going to wait for her to arm herself. Tranq guns were also most effective if you took the dart in the neck.

Last time, she’d been shot in the ass and she’d woken up pretty quickly. This time, from the pain, she was guessing he’d got her in the left bicep, not far from her other wound. That was why it hurt so badly. And again, she hadn’t been out long. This time, if he got close enough to get her neck, then she’d be out for a while. Josie’s screams—and she was definitely screaming now—would attract wildlife, or worse, and they’d both be dead before she even woke up again. Forget whether or not they had the Cayenne.

Ely had all the weapons and his brain wasn’t foggy.

Right now, her best shot was to minimize the effect of the tranq dose he was about to shoot her with. She grabbed the blanket off the seat and wrapped it like a cloak around her shoulders, bunching it up around her neck to provide as much protection as she could.

She stepped away from the door before shutting it and plunging the desert into darkness. That would make it a little harder for him to attack her.

She moved down the length of the Cayenne, hopping on one foot and praying she could be quiet. To cover any noise she made, she started talking again.

“Can I assume this heartfelt apology means you’re not working for the rebellion anymore? Is Carter in danger?”

“God, you are so predictable, Lily.” Ely’s voice took on a hard note. “Your inability to live without the people you care about isn’t altruism. It’s not a virtue. It’s your greatest weakness.”

He was closer now. She could hear it, but she still couldn’t see him and Josie’s crying covered the sounds of his approach.

“I’m sorry you think that.” She reached the back of the Cayenne, panting. She was tired, groggy, and defenseless and facing an unknown number of opponents. In short, she was screwed five ways to Sunday. Just another day in the Tick-pocalypse.

“That’s the thing about people like you and Carter,” Ely was saying. His voice held an edge, an intensity that was usually hidden behind his indifferent attitude. “You think you’re so noble. But you really aren’t. None of this is for the greater good. You’re not doing this because you want to protect other people. You’re just protecting yourself. You can’t live without the people you love.”

She looked around the ground for a weapon, even though she was pretty much screwed. Unless she found a bazooka just sitting there.

Her eyes had adjusted to the dim lighting and she could see a rock about the size of a grapefruit lying on the ground maybe fifteen feet away. It was better than nothing.

Unfortunately, nothing was what was between it and her. Nothing to grab hold of. Nothing to hang onto as she hopped across the ground. Crap.

She friggin’ hated this. She hated being weak. She hated feeling vulnerable. Worst of all, she hated knowing that Ely was right about her.

All these sacrifices she’d made to protect the people she cared about . . . they hadn’t benefited others at all. All those “sacrifices” had been for her. Because she needed the people she loved. Because she couldn’t imagine her life without them. Her sacrifices were only selfishness.

Mel was proof of that. Lily hadn’t begged Sebastian to turn her because she’d thought Mel would be better off as a vampire, she’d done it because she couldn’t live without her. The same was true of McKenna.

But that didn’t mean she was going to give up. She still had Josie to think about. She needed to be strong for the baby.

She lowered herself to her hands and knees and began the painful, awkward crawl toward the rock.

“You know I can hear you panting out there in the darkness, don’t you, Lily? I can tell how much pain you’re in. Why not just give up?”

She ignored his question and his jab. No way was she going to let this guy win.

“So tell me something, Ely. Why exactly did you betray the rebellion? Are you working for Roberto? Did he promise you safety? Money? What?” She was just throwing words out there. She didn’t give a damn what his answer was. “No, that’s not it at all,” she muttered. “You’ve been looking for your family. Is that it? Did Roberto get to them first and promise he’d keep them safe if you’d find me and kill me?”

She could see the rock just a few feet ahead. Maybe five. Far enough that she couldn’t just reach out and grab it, but close enough that she wanted to. She was so close.

“But that’s what I don’t get. All this time, you kept saying you’d promised Carter you would keep me safe. So what’s up with that? You were just lying? Why bother?”

By now, even her good limbs ached. Pain shot through her body with every inch she moved forward. And she was pretty sure her arm was starting to go numb.

“If you weren’t keeping me safe because you’d promised Carter you would, then why? Why not just kill me?”

The rock was only a foot or so away now. But she’d been so busy talking and crawling, she hadn’t heard anything from Ely in too long.

Damn.

She reached out to grab the rock, but before she could get it, a black boot came down on her hand.

Ely squatted down. It was almost like he was trying to save her the trouble.

He held the tranquilizer rifle in his hand. God, she hated those things.

Again he flashed that annoying smile of his. “You’re quite the fighter.” The bastard winked at her. “Your daddy would be proud.”

If she’d had any fight left in her at all, she would have punched the jerk right there and then, but she was down to zero. She was just out. Between the pain and exhaustion and the grief, she had nothing left. She clenched the blanket tighter around her neck. Even at zero, she still wasn’t willing to give up entirely.

Slowly, Ely took his foot off her hand and stood up. “Come on, Lily. Have a little dignity. Just put down the blanket and give me a clear shot at your neck. This will all be a lot easier once you’re out.”

“Why?” she asked. Why should she make this any easier on anyone? Life wasn’t about doing what was easy. It was about fighting, no matter what. “Why not just walk away now and leave us here?”

He shrugged like he didn’t really care either way. “I promised I’d keep you alive no matter what.”

“If you’re betraying Carter anyway, why keep me alive just for him?”

Ely shifted his weight back a step, nudging the nose of the rifle in her direction. “Come on.”

“I’m serious,” she whined. She knew she was acting like a big baby, but she didn’t care.

She was hurt. She was tired. She was beaten. She wanted Ely to see that he’d won. He had her at his feet.

He had every advantage but one.

That would be the knife strapped to the outside of his boot, and he’d obviously forgotten about it.

She looked up at him trying to keep him talking long enough for her to grab the knife. “If you’re keeping me alive just because you promised Carter, don’t you think he’d rather you put me out of my misery?”

But she didn’t give him a chance to answer. She flung the blanket off her back and toward Ely, hitting him in the chest. With her other hand she lunged for the knife. Her hand closed around the handle even as her momentum carried her forward into his legs. They both went down in a tangle. She heard the soft
whoosh
of the tranq rifle being fired, but the shot went wide, landing in the dirt. She tugged the knife free of its sheath and stabbed blindly. She was aiming for his thigh but thought she hit closer to his knee. Either way, he cursed and grabbed at his leg, losing his grip on the tranq gun.

She scrambled for the gun and twisted it around. She wasn’t one for pretty speeches. As soon as her finger found the trigger, she just fired the damn thing.

Ely fell back, looking down in shock at the dart sticking out of his chest.

She stumbled to her feet, backing out of his range. Tranq rifles only held three darts. So she turned it around and held it butt out, like a bat, ready to swing it at him if she had to.

Ely ripped the dart from his chest, but his eyes were starting to glaze.

His lips twisted into a sneer. “You stupid bitch.”

“You want to know the sad thing? It’s not that you betrayed Carter. It’s that if you’d gone to him for help, he would have done anything for you. Whoever it is that Roberto has, Carter would have gotten them out.”