“They’re for the pain,” she said.
“Will they make me sleepy?”
“Yes.”
“Then no thanks.”
She shook her head. “Stop being macho and take them. If you don’t need them now, once you get started on this goofy plan of yours, you’re going to need them. Believe me.”
He took the bag.
McReady smiled at him and then offered her hand. “You’re fifteen?”
“Almost sixteen.”
“When I was fifteen, I was still writing poetry and wondering if I was going to get a date for the soph hop.”
“What’s that?”
“It doesn’t matter.” Then she did something Benny would never have expected. She bent and kissed him on the cheek. “Be safe and stay alive.”
She turned and walked away to check on Joe. Benny watched her go. The woman, like most people he’d met since leaving town, was a contradiction. Brilliant, thorny, and different from every angle.
Lilah came over and stood in front of Chong, who was trying to get himself out of his wheelchair. “I can carry you.”
“No, you can’t.”
“I’m strong enough,” she insisted.
“I’m not,” Chong replied. “And Benny would never ever let me live it down.”
She gave Benny a hard look.
“It’s true,” he admitted. “Never.”
Her lip curled as she fought to think of something biting to say. Instead she growled low in her throat. It sounded a lot like Grimm.
“Then get up and walk, you stupid town boy,” she snapped.
Chong stuffed his pockets with bags of Archangel pills, then reached out a hand. “Little help?”
From the look on Chong’s face, it was clear that Lilah nearly tore his arm out of its socket. He stood in front of her, wobbly-kneed and as pale as death. Although Benny would die rather than say it, his friend never looked more like a zom than he did now.
And with that thought came an ugly splinter of speculation. If they did manage to get back to town, and if somehow the reaper army could be stopped—Chong would have to break the news to his parents that he was infected, that he would always be infected, that he was only a few tiny steps from crossing the line to being the kind of monster everyone in the world hated and feared.
What would they say? How would they react?
How would the rest of the town react?
He studied the pale face of his best friend and knew that there was no pill that could ease all the pain Chong had yet to face.
He knew one thing, though . . . no matter what happened, no matter what anyone said, Benny was going to be there for Chong. So would Nix. And so, without a d
oubt, would Lilah.
While Lilah helped Chong, Nix pulled Chong’s chair closer to Benny’s and sat in it. They held hands and leaned close for a kiss.
“I want to say something,” she began.