A Mad Zombie Party, стр. 62

The rustle of clothing, the shuffle of shoes.

I follow the sounds and find Chance, who is standing behind a kneeling man, his gun aimed and ready. The other slayers are busy at the dock of monitors, rewinding and watching footage.

“One and only chance.” Chance cocks the gun. “Tell me where she is.”

The man actually pees himself. “Th-the injured girl? They took her to the third floor. But I didn’t hurt her, I swear. I was told to watch the monitors and report any suspicious activity. I—I didn’t notify anyone about the brunette at the door. I wanted to help her, and I knew they’d tell me no.”

“Thank you.” Chance slams the handle of the gun into the guy’s temple; he slumps forward, landing with a thud.

Had to be done. If we’d left him conscious, he could have pulled the alarm the moment we walked away.

“He was telling the truth.” Bronx points to one of the monitors. “They’re on the third floor.”

Chance sprints to the elevator.

“Frosty, River, Gavin, Jaclyn, you guys take the stairs,” Cole calls as he, Ali and Justin pile into the cart with Chance.

I get it. Just in case one entrance is guarded and the other isn’t, we won’t all be gunned down at once.

On high alert, we race up the steps. At the third floor entrance, River slides a tiny mirror under the bottom crack. When he ascertains no one is lurking nearby, I take the lead.

The lights are on. As quietly as possible we inch around the corner and—

Meet up with the others. So far so good.

Together, we stealth our way through a lobby, past a built-in reception desk and through a set of locked doors. I’m very good at B and E.

“—nice to me,” a muted male voice says, “and I’ll be nice to you. All right, pretty girl?”

The skid of chair legs, a thump...masculine laughter.

“Leave her alone,” another man says. “We’re supposed to watch her. Nothing else.”

An animal growl erupts from Chance as he shoulders his way into the room. Two muffled shots ring out—pop, pop—the silencer on his semiautomatic doing its job. I’m right behind him, the others pouring in behind me. I take in the scene. Love is bound to a chair and gagged; she cries with relief when she spots us. There’s a cut on her forehead and dried blood on different parts of her body.

Five agents. Well, four now. One is writhing on the floor, a bullet in each hand. The others are still on their feet, two gaping at us, the other two reaching for weapons.

“I wouldn’t, if I were you,” I say, take aim. “All I need is an excuse.”

They still.

Yeah. That’s what I thought.

“Get Love to the van,” Cole commands, but he needn’t have bothered. Chance is already cutting her ties. “As for the others...”

I smile. “Let’s use them to send a message to Rebecca.”

I’m fading in and out as the van soars down the street. The moment everyone exited the building, I nearly collapsed with relief. Cole slid into the driver’s side, nudging me away from the wheel. I would have landed on my butt if Frosty hadn’t come up behind me and caught me.

I must have fallen asleep in his arms. Now voices jolt me awake.

“—should have seen it, Nana.” Ali must be on the phone with her grandmother. “Five bodies, one of them bleeding profusely, each pinned to the wall in the shape of a letter. And do you know what four of those letters spelled? Yeah, you can guess. It starts with an F and ends with a K...are you kidding me? Nana, why would we spell fork?...seriously? What the heck is a fink? No, no, we made the last guy contort into the letter U, does that help...yeah, I know. I laughed so hard I almost pulled a muscle!”

Darkness tugs me back under...

“Dude!” Gavin’s voice booms at high volume. “Milla brought the heat tonight. A real fork you to the enemy. You owe her your life, Love. And if I know Milla, and I do, all she’ll want in return is for you to strip naked and dance for us.”

“Do you want to die?” Chance asks.

“Barbie,” Ali says, and I know she’s speaking to Gavin. “Because you made such a ludicrous suggestion, you have to strip and dance for us. All of us.”

Snicker, snicker.

“I thought you’d never ask.” I can hear the smile in his voice.

“Oh, hell. He was serious. Put it back on!” Cole is laughing too hard; I can’t make out his next words.

A chorus of “yes” rings out, but darkness returns, the world quiet once again.

The next thing I know, I’m rolling over in bed. Bed? Gasping, I jolt upright, waning sunlight greeting me. Wow. I must have slept the day away, drained by thanatos and toxin, a horrid cocktail. I shudder as I recall the pain, the unending, all-consuming hunger.

I’m alone, no sign of Frosty...who owes me a kiss.

As I shower, anticipation energizes me but also scares the crap out of me. Has he changed his mind? I tremble as I don a pink top with lace and a short white skirt. As good as it’s gonna get right now.

When I emerge from the bathroom, Ali and Kat are sitting on the bed.

“Hey.” I expected Kat to confront me sooner or later, but I should have known she’d bring backup.

“Let’s just get it over with,” Kat says. “But first, let’s procrastinate. You look pretty, Milla. Tough and pretty. And it’s totally not fair. I kinda wish you were a toad.”

How am I supposed to respond to that? “Thanks?”

“We’re not here to complain,” Ali says.

“Right. We’re here to, ugh, I can’t believe I’m doing this, but...ugh.” Kat meets my gaze, sighs. “Milla, I want to apologize.”

Apologize? “For what?”

She gapes at Ali. “Fork! She still doesn’t know?”

“Know what?” I demand.

“Good glory.” Ali’s shoulders slump in. “I expected Frosty to tell you.”

“He’s not here. You are. Explain.”

Kat toys with the ends of her hair. “We told you that you’ll save Frosty’s life, and you will, but...you die doing it.”

“Die.” The word echoes in my mind, cutting like a dagger. I’m bleeding shock and betrayal, though I have no right to the latter emotion.

Sow and reap. I’m reaping.

But what of these two girls? They castigated me for something they themselves were doing. It’s hypocrisy, plain and simple.

I want to lash out. How dare they! But feelings are fleeting, I remind myself, and right now, an outburst will be counterproductive.

“I’m sorry,” Ali says. “I didn’t know you when we first approached you, and granted, at the time I was angry with you, even hated you. You helped Anima hurt me. But I never should have—”

“Stop.” I hold up my palm. “What’s done is done. Now we move on and figure out what to do.”

But...but...can we do anything? No one has ever changed one of Ali’s visions.

I need to face facts. I’m going to die. Because, at the end of the day, I’m going to save Frosty. That’s not even a question.

“I’d feel better if you yelled at me,” she grumbles.

“I’m sorry, too,” Kat say. “We had no right. We aren’t your judge, jury or executioner.”

The ragged edge of my anger dulls. “Here are the facts. If I knew in the beginning that I’d die, I might not have agreed to guard Frosty.” I wouldn’t have had a chance to get to know him. Or come to admire and respect him...to crave him more than I crave air to breathe.

As if on cue, the door opens, and he enters the room. He’s wearing a black T-shirt and a pair of ripped jeans that hang low on his waist. His feet are bare, and he looks good enough to eat. Figuratively, I mean.

He notices the girls and pauses, then nods to Ali, to Kat, before staring hard at me. “I heard voices.”