Hollowed (9 page)

There
'
s no reaction, though. Not before we both hear someone swooping in behind her. Not before she has a half-second to turn around and there
'
s an ear-piercing
crack
of a gun firing
against the side of her skull.

Like slow-motion,
Blondie
'
s
eyes roll back and her attacker shoves her to one side. She hits the muddy ground to my right, where she twitches once and goes still.

Pain or no pain, I dig my heels into the earth and push myself back, nursing my ribs while trying to sit up. Behind where Blondie stood a second ago...

"
Noah?
"

There he is, g
un in hand, staring at Blondie, mouth drawn.
He
'
s here. He
'
s here and he rescued me.

I want to grab him and run, because he doesn
'
t know what he just rescued me
from.
At least, he shouldn
'
t, but the way he
'
s watching Blondie like he expects her to get back up makes me wonder. He said he works for the government; it
'
s possible they know about things like this. Maybe he knows what I am.

Already I can feel my ribs knitting back together. Slow and uncomfortable, but the pain is ebbing enough that I can carefully get to my feet.

"
Noah,
"
I say again. Relieved. Hopeful.

His gaze slowly slides over to me.
There is
no kindness in his eyes. No good-natured amusement. No love. He looks at me no differently than he
looked
at the vampire he just shot. And it hurts. More than t
ransforming, the broken ribs...
the look he gives me hurts more than anything I
'
ve ever felt ever since the police told me my sister was dead.

W
hen he raises his gun and aims it at my heart, it doesn
'
t matter. He can
'
t possibly break it any further.

The split second the gun goes off, Oliver is here. A barrier separating Noah and me
. He lets out a snarl that sends a shudder straight down my spine. I don
'
t know what scares me more:
the fact my boyfriend just tried to shoot me, or that Oliver is going to kill him for it.

Oliver grabs for him. Noah leaps back,
boots landing heavily on the bridge. He fires again before turning to flee.
Oliver dodges the shot and
tears across the bridge after him
.
The boys
disappear
into the trees and I
let
the sound of gunfire lead me
to them.

I
'
m just in time to see Oliver slam into Noah full-force and they hit the ground rolling. They come to a stop, Noah on top. Somewhere during the fall, he must have lost his gun because his hands are empty. All the easier for him to slam a fist into Oliver
'
s face. He gets in three hits before Oliver tears him off
and
throws him
effortlessly
aside.

Noah rolls to his feet gracefully. He catches my gaze. One second. Maybe two.

Then he
'
s gone, taking off into the park. I worry Oliver will follow
,
but he gets up, casts a sullen glare after Noah, then looks to me.

"
Who
the hell
was that?
"

I shake my head because
I don
'
t have an answer.
My boyfriend
, except he
'
s not anymore. Trying to shoot your girlfriend is a pretty solid way of saying
It
'
s over.

My Noah. Goofy and fun and sweet. Thirty minutes ago, I never would have imagined him capable of shooting anyone, much less me. There aren
'
t words to describe the hundred different ways my heart is breaking.

But I can
'
t tell Oliver that. I can
'
t, because if I do, I
'
m going to burst into tears and I
'
ve done more than enough of that lately. Instead I shake my head mutely. He lets out an agitated sigh
,
but doesn
'
t push the
subject
.

We head back the way we came. At the creek, Blondie
'
s body is gone. I search up and downstream for any sign of her, but I see the exact spot she was laying. Right next to where she had me pinned. Empty.

"
No way. He shot
her through the head. Where is she?!
"

"
Her friend probably dragged her off,
"
Oliver mutters.
"
If the bullet didn
'
t destroy anything too vital in her brain, she will heal from it.
"

Shot point-blank at the skull, and she can recover?
This is too
surreal. If I cross paths with Blondie again, she
'
s going to be
majorly
pissed. And this time, I won
'
t have Noah to save me. If saving me was even his intention. Why not let the bitch finish what she started if he wanted me dead?

I force the thought aside when Oliver looks at me again. I won
'
t cry. I won
'
t cry
,
I won
'
t cry.

"
Did either of them say anything to you?
"

Nothing that concerns him. Ruby is my business, and I
'
m not so sure I want anyone knowing. I look away, eyes trained on the ground.
"
No.
"

"
They must have said
some
thing.
"
He frowns.
"
Why else would they come after you? Vampires tend to leave one another alone so long as they are not causing problems.
For that matter, you had to have known the guy.
"

I shrug. Oliver sighs and thankfully gives up.

"
Fine. Whatever.
You still need to eat. I
'
ll stay with you this time.
"

Food is the last thing I want to think about. But the sooner we get back to the hotel, the sooner I can start searching for the truth about what happened to my sister. The sooner I can scream and cry out every thought of Noah from my mind.

Whenever Noah brought me flowers, it didn
'
t matter if they were from a florist or a store or from someone
'
s yard. In fact, the yard ones were my favorites because inevitably Noah had a story
about surviving getting caught
. Those were special flowers, because they were a reminder of everything Noah was. Determined, thoughtful, unafraid of old ladies chasing him
out of their yards.

Lavender was his favorite to bring me, even if it was hard to find. Sometimes he picked the wrong ones, little purple flowers that looked similar but were something else. I never had the heart to tell him he was wrong because it was the thought that counted.

The first time he left town after we met, he tucked one single, tiny purple bud into my hair as I said, "Don
'
t forget me, cowboy. Even if you don
'
t come back."

Noah gave me a lazy smile. "Y
ou
'
d be pretty hard to forget about."

Now I wonder if he's wishing he could. Forget all about me, pretend I never existed. Especially if he knew I just had my first meal as a vampire
,
compliments of a late-night
jogger in
the park.

I'm not sure if being forgotten would hurt more or less than him coming after me. As I'm standing outside the hotel, staring down at a cluster of long-stemmed lavender mingling with other winter-weary flowers, all I can see are Noah's cold eyes and his gun trained so carefully on me. If Oliver hadn
'
t gotten in the way, that bullet would not have missed its mark.

Speaking of—Oliver
ha
s
to be injured. I tried asking him on the walk home, but he only grunted and waved me off. Payback, I guess, since I wasn't willing to tell him much of anything about my run-in with the vampires and Noah. Which sucks, because I would probably feel better if I told
someone.
But when your only real friend is dead, your boyfriend is trying to kill you
,
and your cat would sooner run into traffic tha
n be in the same room as you...
it
kind of limits one
'
s options.

I flick one of the flowers, watching a few scattered petals drop to my muddy shoes. A little white head and big yellow eyes peers up at me from beneath the greenery and
splotches of color. I stiffen, waiting
for it to growl and hiss and run, like Chuck did.

When it doesn
'
t move
, I nudge
the kitten with
my foot.
"
Boo. Go on, get out of here.
"

Still nothing. I flick one more bunch of flowers and turn to head inside. My day has been long enough without someone else acting like I
'
ve murdered its mother.

Halfway to the door I happen to glance back, and the kitten is two feet behind me.

I stop.

He stops.

Sits. Watches me. He has a burr caught in his tail but hasn
'
t seemed to notice it yet.

This isn
'
t funny. I know the second I reach for him, he
'
ll take off, screeching bloody murder. I can
'
t handle any more rejection today.

"
I told you to go.
"

Kitten cocks his head. He trots forward, placing his paws on my foot in order to rub his face against my leg. Tears prick at the corners of my eyes as I slowly drop to my knees. Miraculously, the cat doesn
'
t bolt
,
but bumps his head against my hand, lets me pet him from nose to tail-tip. When I carefully pick him up, he doesn
'
t protest. He doesn
'
t care what I am. Doesn
'
t care that I look like hell. He purrs noisily and I pluck the burr from his tail.

"
They don
'
t allow animals in the hotel,
"
I tell him. But...
who would notice? Cole said he would have my own room for me when we got back. I have some cash
,
enough to buy a littler
-
box and food. After everything that
'
s happened, having something to focus my attention on would be nice.

Kitten is unbelievably patient as I pull off my sweater to bundle him up in it. Even the t-shirt I
'
m wearing under it is filthy. He doesn
'
t care. I don
'
t know why, but no way am I going to question it.

There are more long looks from the person at the front desk when I slip inside. I tried wiping the mud off of me, but I can still feel it on my face
and
in my hair. Or maybe she
'
s not looking at me so much as eying the bundle in my arms.

I have a card-ke
y for Cole's room in my pocket—
thankfully I didn't lose it
in the park—
and let myself in. Just need to see if he did get me my own room, then I can disappear again. As soon as the door is cracked, I can hear him sighing.

"You really ought to be more careful... You know I don't have the proper tools for this sort of thing."