Havoc (28 page)

The shadowmen were back. And they were no longer content with just standing and watching. I stood, frozen, not sure what to do.

To my left, the long and slender shadow, flatter than the others I'd seen, almost seemed to ooze out of its distortion. Both of its spindly arms disappeared inside Megan's chest now. Her back arched even higher, and her jaw went slack. Casey fell back from her, and my bloodstained hoodie fell to the dirt.

To my right, Nikki was screaming and grabbing onto Dalton's legs and arms. The naked boy struggled, kicking and shouting as the three solid shadowmen dragged him faster and faster toward the rip in the universe.

I had no time to save both of them.

Blood wept from Megan's wounds.

Dalton's face was chiseled into terror, his frantic eyes on me, pleading for me to help.

Megan's shadowman was almost halfway into her body. Dalton was almost to the doorway that led to nothingness.

I leaped forward, to Megan. Shoving Casey out of the way, I grabbed Megan's arm and leg and began to drag her away from the distortion. “Use your powers,” I screamed over my shoulder at the cheerleaders. “They're trying to take Dalton. Use your powers!”

I caught a single glimpse of the girls raising their hands, focusing and struggling to pull Dalton back toward them. But my focus was on Megan, poor abandoned Megan, leaking red and being invaded by … whatever these things were.

I dug my heels into the ground and pulled as hard as I could. The shadowman inside her clung on tight, refusing to let go. Megan coughed, hacking horribly. I refused to let her go. I'd let things get this far with her by keeping her in the dark. She would not be hurt because of me. She would not!

“Aaargh!” I screamed. With one last tug, Megan flew up at me, slamming into my gut and knocking me into the ground. Like a rubber band pulled to its limit, the shadowman that had been digging its way through her skin popped out and was flung back through the distortion. As it did, the image of the city went black, and then the distortion swirled into those same pulsing ripples in the sky.

“No!” Nikki screamed. “Help him! Emily, help him!”

I pushed Megan's unconscious body off me as gently as I could, then jumped up and spun to face Dalton.

The shadowmen that had been clutching at his limbs had already disappeared into the blackness through the rip in the air. Dalton was almost through. He was silent, resigned. Still looked at me with sad eyes.

I took a step, thinking maybe there was still time, maybe I could save him, too.

Then he was through the hole, and in an instant it was as if nothing was there.

For a moment, the five of us who were conscious in the clearing stood there, gaping at the spot where Dalton had been only moments ago. Nikki and the triplets lowered their hands one by one, their faces disbelieving.

Nikki fell to her knees. Opened her mouth to scream, but nothing came out. She gulped in a breath, then wailed, “No!”

“Dalton,” I whispered.

Another one of my pack. Gone. Taken by the shadowmen to who knows where. How?
How?
How was this possible?

“What did you do?” Amy roared at me. She stomped toward me, rage distorting her features into an ugly mask. “Where did he go?”

I was still hybrid. But daytime me was devastated, and werewolf me too busy howling inside my brain about the shadowmen.

I pushed Nighttime forward. Color filled my vision once more as I coalesced into one distinct person.

Snapping my head to face Amy, I stepped to her so that we were nose to nose. In a low voice, I said, “So you know what I am, right? And you know what Dalton is, too. Well,
sweetie
, I'm not in the mood to hear more accusations from girls like you who are clearly up to something.” I shoved her shoulder, but she stood her ground. “I did nothing to Dalton. It was the shadowmen. If you don't know who they are, I suggest some research. That's what I had to do. All I know is that if you hadn't gotten in my way, I could have stopped all of this.
All of this.
Now if you'll excuse me, my friend is bleeding to death.”

She didn't respond. Daytime me knew I hadn't exactly cut her down. Which meant, as I suspected, that she knew more about this than she'd let on.

The cheerleaders, including Casey, did nothing but stare at me uselessly as I collected my hoodie and pressed it against Megan's side once more. Nikki cried silently where Dalton had disappeared.

Megan's wounds wrapped as best I could, I lifted her in my arms, then walked barefoot through the woods back into Dalton's backyard. Daytime's internal numbness threatened to seep back into my consciousness, but I kept her down for now. She was a strong girl. She could deal. But later. Later.

I hiked around the side of Dalton's house, past the fallen garbage bags. Spencer was parked there, looking at his phone. Catching sight of me, his eyes went wide and he raced to my side.

“Holy crap!” he said. “What happened? Oh my God!”

I gestured toward the car with my chin. “Open the backseat. We need to get her to the hospital.”

He ran ahead without any further questions. Reaching the van myself, I gingerly set Megan in the backseat, then crouched beside it. Before I could close the van door, I heard a voice shouting from across the lawn.

“Hey! What's going on? I've been getting noise complaints.”

Mr. McKinney stormed across the grass, glaring, grimacing. It wasn't until he caught sight of me, wearing nothing but wrinkled jeans and a T-shirt, barefoot and bloody, my hair a tangled mess, that he stopped.

“W-what—” he stammered.

“This is what your son did,” I said, staring deep into him. “This is what you made him and let him become. Secrets tend to bite you in the ass, Mr. McKinney.”

“Where's Dalton?” he said. “Where's my son?”

I blinked at him. Smiled. I'm sure my white teeth were quite a contrast to the red blood that had spattered across my cheeks.

“They took him, Mr. McKinney. Those shadowmen. I don't know what they are. But I bet you do.”

He lunged forward as if to jump into the van. “What do you know?” he demanded. “What are you talking about?”

I reached forward and pulled the door shut before he could get inside. Through the tinted window, I said, “I know more than you think. And I lost a lot to find it. Now it's your turn to figure things out.”

Megan stirred on the seat. I gestured for Spencer to go. He gunned it, and we left a gaping Mr. McKinney in the dust.

Deep inside, daytime me felt guilty for mocking a man whose son had just been stolen. But as Nighttime? I didn't care.

If people like him were going to mess with me, try to direct how I was going to live my life, send killers after me, and keep me in the dark as I tried to handle it all?

Then they deserved everything they were going to get.

24

PROJECT LEAD

Spencer pulled us right up to the emergency room door. The nurses at the front desk took one look at me and Megan and ushered us in right away. While Spencer was told to wait in the lobby, Megan was placed on one of those rolling beds and was rushed to be looked at. Once I was examined and they determined I had no injuries of my own, I was allowed to wash up in a bathroom.

The bathroom was small, sparkling white. There were instructions near the toilet on how to take a pee sample to give to the nurses. I leaned over the sink, letting the water run warm, staring at myself in the mirror. I was still Nighttime at this point, with my blood-red war paint on my cheeks and nose where I'd absently rubbed myself while taking care of Megan. I splashed my face and watched the water swirl pink down the drain. I splashed again and let myself recede into the hybrid. Once more and I was normal me again.

The last splash was more for the tears that threatened to burst from my eyes than the blood.

I dried my face, then pulled my glasses from my pocket and put them on my nose so I could see clearly. I'd rescued them from my hoodie before Megan had been carted off.

I was still numb, I think. The shadowmen were more dangerous than I'd ever imagined, even when terrified out of my mind. The cheerleaders knew secrets. One of my pack had disappeared into the ether. The only really good thing I had to cling to was the ease of my transformations now.

It had started before we'd smashed the machine in BioZenith, but I guessed the hybrid became easier after that. I wasn't sure entirely how I knew, but I could control this now. Control when and how I changed. Maybe there were limits; in fact, there had to be, because I hadn't been able to slip into the hybrid state right away when I was chasing after Megan.

But at least all these sides of me were at last coming together. I could teach it to Spencer and Tracie and Dalt…

I closed my eyes, took in a shuddering breath. He couldn't be gone. Not forever. I'd saved Megan because she wasn't like us. Wherever Dalton had been taken, I would save him. I
would
save him.

More or less composed, I left the washroom to discover a kind nurse had left me a pair of booties to walk around in. I found Spencer in the waiting room, absently watching a TV he couldn't hear, a stack of papers on a clipboard next to him. Seeing me emerge, one of the nurses came to ask me details on what had happened, who the girl who'd been attacked was, if there were people we needed to call. I gave them Megan's parents' numbers, as well as my own.

And then, I sat next to Spencer. Curled my legs up underneath me and leaned into him. I inhaled his pheromones and felt myself relax.

“Hey,” he whispered at me. “What happened back there? For real?”

I moaned, content. “I'll tell you later. For now, I just want to sit here like this. With you. Okay?”

“Okay.”

I decided then, so what if these pheromones had been programmed into us? So were the changes in general. If they were there, I was going to take advantage of them.

Especially since I was quite certain in that moment that it wasn't just the musky scent that made me feel so comfortable around Spencer. As he leaned his head against mine, I took his hand in my own, linking our fingers together. I could see us together like this, even if we were never werewolves.

It wasn't long before Megan's parents and brother showed up and were ushered through to see her. And then my dad and stepmom were there, pulling me into hugs, asking me if I was okay, telling me they were so glad I was safe, expressing how lucky it was I'd been there to keep Megan from getting hurt worse than she had by those damn feral dogs plaguing the neighborhood.

An hour or two passed before Lucas came out from the emergency room and into the waiting area. He assured us that Megan was all right. She was being given blood transfusions and treated preemptively for common diseases like rabies, just in case. She had been awake long enough to say hello to her family.

“Do you think I can see her?” I asked him.

He grimaced and looked down at his shoes awkwardly. “I don't think so, Emily. She … she said she doesn't want to see you right now.”

It was getting late. I wanted to wait longer, just to make sure she was truly, one hundred percent all right. But I knew, deep down, things were fractured between me and Megan. It would take more than a few hours to bridge the rift that had come between us.

So I said my good-byes to Lucas and Spencer, and my dad and Katherine drove us all home.

That night, I managed to go to sleep without the use of any sleeping pills. I simply told Nighttime I needed the rest. She didn't argue.

I didn't dream of dead Dr. Elliott. Those memories were faded and distant now. Instead, I saw the shadowmen. I saw their strange, spindly cities. Saw Dalton huddled and alone, surrounded by creatures he didn't understand.

Not exactly a step up. But at least these dreams weren't all bloody.

The next day, we got a call from Megan's mother. Megan was indeed all right. Not wanting visitors, but all right just the same.

I had breakfast with the family, though I was basically Debbie Downer the whole time. They didn't need to question why. The rest of my Sunday was spent up in my bedroom, staring blankly at the files we'd managed to steal from BioZenith.

BioZenith. It was strange, their lax security. A lot of this was strange. Mr. McKinney hadn't gone to the police about Dalton, not that I'd heard of anyway. Neither had any of the cheerleaders. They were keeping what happened at Dalton's house quiet.

Which meant they were all hiding something. Together, maybe?

I got an email midday from Tracie, basically telling me once more to leave her alone. I was happy to oblige. I'd already lost Dalton. The thought of losing her, too…

At least Spencer still texted me. Still trusted me.

So this was what it was like to be an alpha, huh? Leader of the pack. The head honcho. All the weight of the supernatural world on your narrow shoulders. No map to guide your way. You know how some people complained Buffy was all super bitchy sometimes? Let me tell you, folks: Walk a few feet in her shoes, and you will absolutely get it.

I suppose at least I'd gained some ground. I'd uncovered a few mysteries. I'd learned more about how I worked. I forgave myself for Dr. Elliott. That's something.

It still didn't bring back Dalton.

Musing on all I'd seen, I decided I knew what those shadowmen were. Beings from another world. Not quite aliens, not really. Other-dimensional beings. What they wanted from me? Who knows. But it had to involve what I'd seen with Megan, the way the shadowman had climbed into her, invaded her body….

I shuddered. I figured the best way to distract myself was to see if I could find anything in the files about the shadowmen. Maybe that portal in the BioZenith labs was some way into the shadowmen's world? If so, maybe I could use it to get to Dalton.

Clinging to that idea, I clicked through file after file, scanning for any relevant info. I didn't get very far before someone knocked on my door.