Hollowed (28 page)

"Oh my God, you're awake.
Don't move, I'm gonna call for help, you'll be okay."

Who is he kidding? If I were human, I'd be dead. My body is trying to heal. The gash in my throat,
the
dozens
of broken bones from falling several stories to the alley below.
I
'
m completely inside myself. Everything
around me is surreal. I'm watching it all on a snowy television screen and trying to make sense of the pictures.

I need...

He squints down at me, bringing his face nearer to mine. "What is it? I can't hear you."

I try to speak
. It comes out as a broken, strangled sound
.

N
eed to heal.

H
is head drops close to my mouth
.
T
akes everything I have to move
. T
he pull of his pulse gives me the adrenaline
push
I need.
My teeth bury into his throat.
He chokes on a sound
, c
onfused
, f
rightened.

Just a little. Just enough to let me heal. Need to find the others, need to get to my parents and make sure they're safe.
N
ever should have come here alone. If they die, it will be all my fault.

Clarity returns to the world. Everything comes slowly into focus. I'm aware of my skin stitching together, bones realigning and mending. Soon, I can breathe again. And I'm aware of the man in my arms; I'm holding onto him so tightly
his bones creak
,
my
nails digging into his back.

He's
dead
.

I shove him away, choking on the blood still in my mouth. No idea if it's mine or his. Dizzy, I roll onto my hands and knees, reeling.

"No..."

CPR. I've learned how to do this. My hands brace against his chest for one beat, two, three. My lungs are still
healing
. I can hardly muster the
breath
to offer him. But it's useless. I know that, even though I keep trying, keep searching for some sign of a
pulse
or a heartbeat. He's lost too much blood.

I killed him.

All because he saw me lying here. All because he wanted to
help
.

My head drops to his chest. The tears are hot in my eyes, on my face, and my broken voice sobs over and over again.

"I'm sorry, I'm so sorry..."

A family,
a job
, friends
. He had all these things. Just like Joel
—
I took them all away.

What was I thinking? What was I doing?

A search of his
coat
turns
up a well-loved leather wallet
. I shove it into my
back pocket. What will I do with the information inside?
I don't know
. B
ut I need to know who this
is
that
died for
me tonight.

There is so much blood on me. Some of it mine, some of it his, and I
bet
some of it
is
Joel's. I strip off my ruined
jacket
and use it to wipe as much of it off my face and arms as I can be
fore wadding it up and tucking it under my arm
. The shirt underneath is
black;
it'll hide some of the color.

I fumble for my phone. The outer casing is cracked from my fall and the screen is a mess of broken liquid crystal. Yet
miraculously when I hit the keypad, I hear it beeping
.
That's two phones I've busted in a matter of weeks. This has to be bad luck.
I need to call Cole and Oliver, or even Ruby, but I don't have their number
s
memorized. And walking back to the hotel like this? Not a good idea.

Noah's
cell is the only number I
'
ve committed to memory
. There isn't time for me to dwell on whether or not he'll come for me. He's my only option unless I want to risk getting picked up for strolling down the city streets covered in blood.

I dial and hope for the best. He doesn't even have voicemail. No way for me to leave a message.
He
'
ll
see an unfamiliar number calling. He might know it's me. He might ignore it.
On the thirteenth ring, I give up and sink slowly to the ground, squeezing my eyes shut. Crying hurts. Breathing hurts.
Existing
is painful.

A moment later, my phone goes off. The ring is choppy and feeble, but it's definitely my ringtone. I'm breathless as I answer it. "Hello?"

Noah's voice is stiff and uncertain on the other line.
"You called?"

His voice sends a fresh wave of tears to my
eyes
. "Noah...Joel's after my parents, he
killed this girl and I just, I just
..."

"Christ, what's wrong with your voice? Calm down. What happened?"

I touch a hand to my throat. The wound is closed, but there's a mangled strip of upraised flesh. My vocal chords are still healing. "Joel said he was going after Mom and Dad. Noah, please..."

Silence, while I
inwardly
plead. Help me, Noah. Just this once, and I'll never ask anything of you again.

"Where are you?
"

"The corner of Main and Avalon." He can't come directly to where I am. He can't
see the body and
know what I've done, not yet. I can't stand to see the look on his face if he were to find out.

"I'm on my way."

He hangs up. I push myself to my feet. One of my ankles pops and grinds when I walk. It's
stopped
by the time
I reach
the corner of the street. Darkness hides my face from the few people that wander by
, and twenty minutes later
Noah's car pulls up. He pops open the passenger's side door and peers out at me.

I slide in beside him. His face, lit dimly by the dashboard lights, is worried no matter how hard he tries to mask it. "What the hell happened?"

Where do I begin? Telling him about Ruby might complicate things, but leaving her out of it
would be
admitting she might have been right. That I might think Noah is only using me to get to her.

"Drive," I tell him.

Once we've rounded the corner and are making our way from the corpse I left behind... "Ruby and I ran into Joel with some human girl he picked up. He was going to
—
he
did
kill her. I tried to stop him..."

Noah's arm brushes against mine as he shifts gears and he flinches back, glances at me, and cranks the heater up full-blast. "You know better."
Despite his words, his tone is surprisingly gentle.

"I had to do something." I stare down at my hands. There's blood beneath my fingernails and my skin is pale. I'm still starving. For th
e briefest of seconds, my eyes train the line of Noah's
throat where his pulse makes his skin jump the tiniest bit.
I tear my gaze away, guilt gnawing at my insides and dulling the hunger.

"He could have killed you." Noah gives me a hard look before turning back to the road. "
What happened to Ruby if she was with you
?"

She's w
ith the boys, I hope. "I sent her for help. I don't know..." where she went, if she made it, if maybe Alex
,
or Maverick himself
,
cut her off before she had the chance. But then, why bother with our parents if they had us both? They have to be doing it to lure Ruby out.

Noah grunts in reply, leaving unspoken words lingering in the air. Whatever he has to say, he's not about to let me know. Fine by me. I'd rather he focus on driving. I've lost so much time already
being unconscious
.

I can't let myself think
that
it's too late.

The entire ride I watch my phone, waiting and wishing one of the boys would call. There wasn't time to stop by the hotel and tell them. At least if I'm with Noah, I know I'll be safe.

Noah knows
the way
to my parents
'
house
without having to ask for directions, and it dawns on me
:
of course he does. How many times did he drive there to see Ruby?
How many times was I playing in the backyard or battling my way through a video game while he was just outside?

I slouch down in my seat, head lolling against the window and watching the familiar neighborhood pass us by. Nothing hurts anymore. I'm tired, groggy, but I'm not in pain. The weight of the wallet in my back pocket reminds me who I have to thank for that.

I've just about dropped off to sle
ep when Noah curses quietly and startles
me awake. My eyes snap open and I straighten. There's no time for me to even ask, because I see what he sees
: t
he sky ahead ablaze in angry
red and orange
.

My nails bite into the tops of my thighs. Not my house... Please, please, don't let it be my house...

Noah turns onto my street and draws to a stop
. I fling open the door and get out
. Flashing lights of police cars and fire trucks
and ambulances
flood the
road
. Neighbors have clamored out of their beds and
they
line the sidewalks in their robes and slippers and nightgowns, watching open-mouthed
as
my house go
es
up in flames.

My house. My parents
. Too late. All because of me.

I
make a dash
for the crowd. Noah grabs me, arms tight around my waist, and holds me back. "You can't let them see you!"

I shove at his arms frantically, sobbing until I can't breathe
any more
. Mom and the garden she spent years and years
perfecting
, the medical books she turned to any time one of us so much as caught a cold. Dad and his sleepy smiles, his absent-minded way of buying all the wrong thi
ngs at the grocery store. Our  dogs running laps
around the coffee table and knocking over anything that wasn't nailed down.

The home Ruby and I grew up in. Watching part of the roof crumble in on itself while flames lick out from the broken windows, it's like watching someone die.

I don't realize how hard I'm screaming and crying until one of our neighbors
ov
erhears me and approaches
. Middle-aged lady who spent most of her time on her front porch. Always waved to me when I walked home from school.

"Briar? Briar, is that you?"

Noah quickly pushes me back to the car and this time, I don't resist. He's right. They can'
t see me. I'm supposed to be...
what? Dead? Missing? I climb inside before any
more attention is drawn to us. Noah spins the car around and takes
off. To where, I don't know. C
an't catch my breath long enough to ask. Not while I can still see my burning childhood in the rear-view mirrors and reflected on the windshield.

Everything I've loved... The vampires have taken all of it. My sister, my parents, my home, my pets, my friends. My entire life.
Gone.

I cry until I can't cry anymore. Until everything stops feeling real
,
and all I can do is sit there, staring out the window at the rest of the world
. A world oblivious to the monsters that lurk among them, ready to strip away all the color in their lives.
And it leaves me numb all over.

Noah drives until we reach the park Oliver first took me to feed. I wish he had chosen a better place. But in the
morning
light, everything is still and silent and I guess it's better than going straight back to the hotel. I will have a hundred questions to answer when I get there. I'm not sure that I can.

He puts the car into park and leans back, studying me. Finally taking in my appearance. I swallow thickly
. "Getting blood on everything
.
S
orry."

"Not like I haven't done the same." He reaches out, something so hesitant and lost in his touch as he brushes some of the
hair from my face. "I'm sorry
. I—
I should have..."