“The guy two doors down is a crackhead,” I said. “Give him twenty bucks and he’ll swear on a stack of Bibles that the Easter Bunny lives next door.”
I felt Trey’s breath on the back of my neck. His arm skimmed mine as he placed his palm flat on the door, ready to shove even if he pulverized the man’s foot in the process.
Time seemed to stretch out. Finally, the man on the porch moved back. “In that case, my apologies for the intrusion. And I hope you’ll give us a call if you do see her.” He turned and headed down the walkway, pausing and glancing back when he was halfway to the street. “Enjoy the rest of your day,” he called, lifting his hand in a funny little backward wave.
Trembling, I closed the door and flipped the dead bolt.
“He’ll be back,” I said, pressing my forehead to the wood. “He knows I was lying about Serena and he saw my scar. He’s not sure whether or not I’m infected.”
“We have to leave. Now.” Trey headed for the kitchen.
I had to call Kyle and Jason; I had to warn them not to come to the house. I reached into my pocket and came up empty: I had left my phone in Serena’s room.
As I headed for the stairs, I heard Trey promise Serena he’d die before letting anyone touch her.
Praying it wouldn’t come to that, I took the stairs two at a time. How long until the man returned with reinforcements? Five minutes? Ten? A flash of movement caught my eye through an upstairs window as I reached the second-floor landing. A car with tinted windows—the same car I had seen earlier—had rolled to a stop in front of the house and a second car was pulling up behind it.
“Trey!” I bolted back down the stairs.
The sound of shattering glass came from the rear of the house followed by a ragged, male shout.
I tripped on the last step and collided with Trey and Serena in the hallway.
Blood welled from a gash in Trey’s arm and Serena’s eyes were so wide that she looked like one of the girls in the manga Tess sometimes read.
There was a thud at the other end of the hall. I turned toward the noise just as something slammed into the front door with enough force to splinter the wood around the dead bolt.
More shouts echoed in the kitchen. They were in the house.
“Go!” Trey shoved Serena and me into the small half bath underneath the stairs and followed us inside.
The space was little bigger than a closet. Serena and I wedged ourselves into the gap between the toilet and the wall as Trey slammed and locked the door.
“Please tell me your plan has a part two,” I said. Next to me, Serena’s breath came in ragged, pained gasps; it was like she was on the verge of a panic attack.
Trey swore and tilted his head to the side, listening to the growing amount of noise in the house. “There are too many of them.”
He moved to the small window above the toilet. It groaned in protest as he forced it open. He waited for a moment, listening, and then stepped back. His gaze locked on Serena. “Up!” The word was a low, desperate growl.
The window didn’t look wide enough for my hips, let alone Trey’s, but I didn’t argue as Serena scrambled up onto the toilet seat.
She tried to hoist herself up, but whatever they had done to her at Thornhill had left her little stronger than a reg. Trey gave her a boost and supported her weight as she struggled to wriggle through the narrow opening.
I held my breath, almost as though I could make Serena’s slight frame even smaller by constricting my own lungs. I let all of the air out in a whoosh as she made it through.
“You too, Dobs,” muttered Trey, helping me up as something collided with the bathroom door.
I was so scared that I didn’t crack a single joke about him trying to cop a feel.
Serena had barely made it through and I was two sizes bigger. I twisted and squirmed as Trey shoved me from behind. Like a cork from a bottle, I finally popped free and only Serena kept me from falling on my neck.
We were on the small patch of lawn between her house and the next.
Serena stared up at the window and spoke through clenched teeth. “C’mon, Trey.”
A horrendous crash came from inside followed by a wolflike snarl. Someone screamed.
I grabbed Serena’s arm, trying to pull her to the front of the house.
“I’m not leaving him!”
“We have to!” I dug my fingers into her arm as hard as I could, forcing her to look at me. “They’re after you, not him. If we run, they’ll follow. It’ll give Trey a chance to get away.” I had no idea if that was true, but Trey would never forgive me if I let anything happen to Serena. I would never forgive me.
“Serena, please!” I pleaded. “He’ll be safer if he doesn’t have to protect us!”
She shook off my grip. For a second, I thought she was going to fight me, but then two men rounded the back corner of the house and raised the alarm.
With an anguished glance at the window, Serena grabbed my hand and broke into a run.
We reached the front yard. Serena’s car was blocked in the driveway. By unspoken agreement, we veered left, fleeing on foot and heading deeper into the Meadows.
If we could lose them among the ramshackle buildings and vacant lots, we might stand a chance.
The sky had started to clear and the snow was rapidly melting. I slipped and slid on the slush-covered ground as we sprinted across lawns and darted around houses. More than once, Serena kept me from falling. She had lost her werewolf strength but was still more graceful than a reg.
My lungs burned and my muscles ached, but I pushed myself to go faster as shouts sounded in the distance. I concentrated so hard on putting one foot in front of the other that when I finally looked up, I had lost my bearings.
We were still in the Meadows, but I wasn’t sure where—not until we ran across an expanse of broken pavement that was wet with melted snow and ducked into an alley created by two hulking shipping containers. Not until we came face-to-face with a dead end.
5
THE WOODEN FENCE TOWERED ABOVE US AND STRETCHED for blocks in both directions. Something in me sagged in relief as I stumbled to a stop and wiped the sweat from my eyes.
Serena let out a low, frustrated cry and turned to retrace our steps, but I grabbed her arm.
“Wait,” I gasped. Forcing my shaking legs back into action, I jogged to the fence and squeezed into the gap behind the storage container on the left. I scanned each board. It was here; it had to be.