Chapter 23
Twenty-Three
Ru
I spend the next few hours booking our travel arrangements.
Night train, rental car, lodging. We’ll travel north into Canada. Spend a few weeks working our way west, seeing the sights and staying off the radar. With enough twists and turns in our route, we can shake off anyone trying to tail us.
When I’m sure we’re clear, we’ll head south into Montana, where my dad’s lifelong friend and colleague settled for his retirement.
Mr. Gerrick will help me find a job working for the preternatural community there. My skillset is still relevant. And Sully and I don’t need a lot of money, just enough to get by. I could do something with my degrees that would make my parents proud.
It’s a good plan.
Next, I contact a realtor to see what it’ll take to get my parents’ house on the market.
I hate to part with it, but our safety is more important than a house, no matter how sentimental those walls and the contents within are to me.
It’s time to get that process started. I tell myself Mom and Dad would understand. And I know they’d want us to be safe.
Shit’s getting real.
We can do this. Disappear without a trace. Start a new life. Make new friends.
Friends…
I’d better talk to Zoe. I owe her a huge thank you—more than that. I’ll never be able to repay her for this favor. She saved our skins when we had nowhere else to go.
She’ll be bummed we’re moving so far away, but she’ll understand. Maybe once we’re established, and II Tech gives up on ever recapturing Sully, we can fly her out for a visit. Sully will like that.
I text Zoe. It’s the middle of the night, but I trust she has her phone silenced, and I won’t be disturbing here.
Do you have time for a chat first thing in the morning? I have news. Call me when you’re awake.
I’ll have to stay up long enough for her to wake up. Shouldn’t be a problem. I have loads to do. I’ll need to sell my car. Tomorrow I’ll go to one of those huge car lots that promise to buy anything in any condition. Won’t get the best price that way, but it’ll be fast.
And we need fast.
I should buy a better travel crate for Socks. She’s going to hate this trip, poor thing, but it can’t be helped. Maybe I should even consider snagging a crate for Twenty-Four. He’s generally content to hide in Sully’s hair, but we should be prepared to contain him if need be.
Speaking of Sully, he’s been in and out all night.
He comes in and checks on me, asks what I’m doing, listens while looking nervous and worried, then heads back outside.
When I asked him what he’s doing, he says, “Walking. Thinking.”
When I ask if he’s okay, he says, “Sure.”
He must be anxious about the travel. And who can blame him?
But I’ll keep us safe, no matter what.
Sully
I go to bed before Ru, which is rare, but it’s been a long night and I’m tired. I spent several hours tromping through the snow and working out the beginnings of a plan.
Zoe’s right. I should talk to Voijin. Maybe ask for his help, maybe not, but I won’t be any closer to that decision until I speak with him.
As I’m drifting off to sleep, I hear Ru’s voice from the living room.
“Hey, Zoe. Thanks for calling.”
If I listen very closely, I can also hear her reply. “No problem. What’s up?”
I probably shouldn’t eavesdrop on their conversation, but it’s difficult not to.
“We’re going to be clearing out of your cabin here in the next couple of days,” says Ru. “Just wanted to give you the heads up, and also to say thank you. Again. Thank you. I don’t know what we would have done without you.”
“It’s no trouble, but where are you going? Surely not back to your parents’ house.”
“No, it’s not safe for us there anymore. Too close to II Tech.”
“That’s what I was thinking.”
“I’m going to sell it. And I’m taking Sully to Montana by way of a sightseeing tour through Canada. That should throw them off our trail.”
“Fuck, Ru. Montana? That’s so far.”
That was my response too, especially after I used the phone Ru bought me to look at an actual map. Montana is over two thousand miles from Vermont. And that’s if we went the shortest way, which is not what he’s planning on doing. His route he has planned is much longer.
“Yeah, I know a guy out there,” says Ru. “A friend of my dad’s. He’ll help us land on our feet.”
“Wow.” Her voice grows hesitant. “Have you talked to Sully? What does he say?”
“Yeah, a bit. I told him everything, but he didn’t have much of a response. He’s been quiet. Spent most of the night outside. I think he likes the snow.”
Guilt washes through me. I need to come clean with Ru. Be honest about my plans. What I want. What my dark streak requires. But I’m afraid. And he’s dead set on leaving.
What if he can’t be swayed?
What if I put him in danger when he’s trying so hard to keep us safe?
Zoe pushes. “You should talk to him, figure out what’s wrong.”
“He’s just nervous. It’s a big world out there, Zo. Freedom is still new to him. If he doesn’t like Montana, that’s fine. We don’t have to stay there forever. We can always try somewhere else. We need to leave here ASAP.”
He doesn’t sound like a man willing to abandon his plans.
And now I’m in a race against the clock. Tickets out of here in what? Two days? Maybe three? Meaning, if I’m going to take on II Tech, I’ve got to do it now.
I tune out their conversation as best I can with the help of a pillow jammed over my head. Twenty-Four wriggles out from under the cocoon I’ve trapped him in.
In the dark, breath muffled by fabric, I can pretend everything will be all right.
But what if it isn’t?
Several hours later, when Ru is gently snoring next to me, Socks is pinning me in from the other side, and Twenty-Four is passed out in the crook of my neck, I carefully sneak my way out of bed.
It’s impossible not to wake the animals, but thankfully Ru slumbers on none the wiser.
I have my own plans to enact, and for that, I need to be alone.