Blaire
BLAIRE
squinted into the morning light. The air up here in Alaska smelled different. It had a freshness to it that she’d never experienced anywhere else.
It was such a shame she couldn’t enjoy it. Instead, she was sweating bullets, thinking about everything they were about to do. And the explosive secret she was keeping from Roman.
“Most of the village seems to be packing up to head out,” Ellis remarked, moving to stand beside her. She handed a granola bar to .
“You can’t exist on my brother’s blood and nothing else indefinitely,” she murmured, biting into her own bar. “I mean, I’m sure you’re eating other parts of him too, but they’re not exactly calorie-dense.”
managed a wan smile. “Oh, I don’t know. I always feel very … full, afterward.”
Ellis choked on her granola bar. , laughing under her breath, patted her friend on the back.
“Why are they leaving?” asked. Through the trees, another truck rumbled past, several kids about her age sitting in the back, laughing and shoving playfully at one another.
Ellis shrugged. “Probably the full moon tonight. They like getting right back to nature, letting their beast instincts take over.
shuddered. “They’re not going to be like the ones on Greenrock, are they?”
Ellis shook her head emphatically. “Oh no, the ones on Greenrock were fucked up. Farida told me that their alpha—the one she was banging—he was constantly being challenged by the youngsters. There was something really fucking … wrong with those ones.” Ellis sniffed, a grin splitting her face. “Probably a good thing Farida vaped them all.”
stifled a shiver.
How could they just speak so casually about Farida decimating an entire clearing full of people? Not that wasn’t grateful. Most of them had been either Skin Thieves from that messed up pack … or Coalition Troops and Operation Agents who were just going to kill one another anyway.
But was almost positive that there was something … wrong … about Farida, too. And she was sure that what she thought she knew was only scratching the surface.
Don’t rock the boat. Just get through this mission , she told herself.
“Well, it won’t matter to us anyway, I guess,” she said, hoping she sounded breezy. “We won’t be heading anywhere near them and their full moon orgy, will we?”
Ellis shrugged. “Probably not. We’ll try to give them a wide berth. You know, since we’re planning on stealing one of their trucks to get us to wherever Baxter is hiding the bodies.”
flinched. Ellis squeezed her hand, then plucked the uneaten granola bar from her, unwrapping it and handing it back to her.
“Figure of speech. We’re going to get them all out, Bee. Don’t you worry.”
Hearing Jack’s nickname for her come out of Ellis’s mouth … ’s eyes stung, and she pressed her fingers to them to stop the tears. The last few weeks she’d spent with Jack had been so weird. He’d been angry, and she’d been absent, and he’d confessed his unrequited love to her … and then everything had gone to shit. If she never got to at least reconcile with him. Even if he couldn’t stand to look at her anymore, she at least needed to know he was okay, that he would be okay.
“Hey, we’ll find them, I promise,” Ellis murmured, reaching over to stroke ’s hair. sucked in a deep, shaky breath.
“Yeah,” was all she could manage.
“How many do you think remain?” Farida asked behind them. stiffened, but Ellis turned back.
“I’ve seen about two dozen of them leave. That’s probably a third of them out of the picture. I’d say there will be a few who’ll stay behind with any youngsters. We might need to leave it until late afternoon, maybe on dusk, to be sure that everyone who is leaving has left.”
Farida huffed and turned to head back into the Vault. watched her go, ducking through the darkened doorway of the rough timber cabin, which was somehow the way the exterior of the Vault showed itself here in the Alaskan Taiga.
Was Farida’s magic doing that, too? Making the Vault blend into their surroundings? Or did the Vault itself have some sort of power?
If it was Farida … where did her magic end? Was there an end? Where had it come from? She was definitely a Drinker— had seen her fangs, had watched her guzzle blood from a cup the same way Ellis did.
She shook her head and finally took a big bite from her granola bar. There was no way to get answers to these questions. Even Roman didn’t seem to know. He seemed to think Farida didn’t know.
was almost positive that was complete bullshit.
Don’t worry about it , she told herself firmly. Just focus on getting Jack and Jude back … and Mom, and … yeah, even Harvey, I guess.
When dusk arrived, they’d steal a truck. They’d follow the fire trails mapped out by Farida in the direction of this military base. A truck might have been less mobile than them all running there, but Roman had said it was better to conserve as much of their energy as possible. Just in case.
They were trusting that Farida would be more than a match for whatever was waiting at the other end for them. But Roman was taking no chances, especially where was concerned.
This is going to go so badly , thought, chewing viciously on her granola bar.