I looked around at my family, the six of us, Total, and now Akila, all sharing a meal together. We were here, far from everyone else. Far from anyone who could hurt Fang. Far from Dylan and Dr. Gummy-Häagen-Dazs. I felt almost like weeping with joy.
I knew it wouldn’t last. It never does.
19
THE NIGHT WIND CAME in my open window. I lay in my bed, staring at the ceiling. Somehow, being back in this just-like-the-old-days setting was giving me nasty flashbacks.
I thought about how Jeb had taught us everything he’d known and then suddenly disappeared. We’d been sure he was dead. After a couple years living on our own, the first nightmare in recent history: Erasers — a human-wolf hybrid — had come. They’d attacked us, destroyed our house, and kidnapped Angel. Now that we were back in Colorado, a sense of unease rattled me. I felt as if someone were watching me. Someone with a night telescope?
I shook my head. Must tamp down the paranoia.
As if on cue, I heard a sound from outside. Like a slight scratching. In seconds, I had rolled out of bed, crouched by the window, and quickly peered over the sill.
Nothing. The sky was clear. No one was scaling the wall; no one was rappelling down from the roof.
But there was that sound again. It was closer. My breathing sped up, and my hands curled automatically into fists. Then I saw the doorknob of my room turn very, very slowly. Crap!
My muscles coiled, tightened… . A hand crept around the edge of the door, easing it open. I almost gasped. It was an Eraser’s paw. I was sure of it. Huge, hairy, tipped with long ragged claws. I still had scars on one of my legs from claws like that. I slithered toward the door, kneeling behind my desk.
A dark shaggy head poked around the edge of the door. I leaped up — then froze.
“Fang?” I whispered.
My eyes whipped down to his hand on the door. It was just a hand. No claws. I blinked several times.
“Sorry,” Fang whispered. “Didn’t mean to startle you. Trying to be quiet.”
I sat down abruptly on my bed, my heart pounding. “You okay?” Fang soundlessly shut the door and came to sit next to me. “You look like you saw a ghost.” I shook my head, speechless for a second.
“How come you’re awake?” Fang whispered, taking my hand in his own non-paw.
I shrugged. “Couldn’t sleep. I feel like something’s sneaking up on us. Watching us.”
“You think Dr. G-H knows where we are?”
“I don’t know,” I said. “He warned me — he said no wasn’t my final answer. I keep feeling like he’s coming after us, that he’ll keep asking me to join forces with him until he forces me to say yes.”
“Over my dead body,” Fang said, and I flinched.
“Not funny to use that phrase anymore, Fang,” I warned him, then continued. “I can’t stop thinking about Jeanne too. He’s clearly been experimenting on her. Which means he’s probably experimenting on everyone at that camp. And Chu is involved. I saw him gathering subjects in that first aid tent. It’s so totally Nazi-scary. For one thing, can you imagine
an accidental outbreak of one of his ‘rare viruses’?”
“He could definitely do some damage,” Fang agreed.
“And that’s just for starters. People there are desperate, Fang — they’d agree to anything as long as there was a decent meal at the end of it. Lots of those kids are orphans. Who would miss them if something went wrong?”
“You think we should go back?” Fang asked.
“No!” I answered, a little too quickly. “I know; it’s pathetic. One day I’m Mother Teresa, and the next I’m all about me-me-me again. us, I mean.” Fang nodded. “The problem is, I don’t have the slightest idea how to help those people.” I sighed. “This guy is an evil genius. Most of the people we’ve dealt with are evil non-geniuses. I’m not sure how to handle him. He’s the kind of person who’s so brilliant, he probably could destroy the entire world.”
“So do we tell the CSM? The president? The New York Times?”
“I don’t know,” I said slowly. “I’ve been going back and forth on that all week. I can’t think about it anymore right now,” I said, suddenly feeling tired. “Hey, why’d you come in here, anyway?”
Fang’s too-long black hair fell over one eye. “Just checking on you. You’ve been getting wound tighter every day.”
“I guess I have. I just … don’t know what to do, and I feel like I don’t know enough about anything to figure out what to do.”