Alice in Zombieland

11 Red Roses, White Roses…Black Roses

Justin arrived right on time. In other words, grilling time. To my utter mortification, my grandparents questioned him as if they were cops and he a hardened criminal. All I could do was watch in horror and apologize profusely.

Here’s how it went down:

Pops: Plans for the future?

Justin: Not sure yet.

Pops: Well, why not? You don’t got much longer in school, boy. Now’s the time to figure things out, not later. Didn’t anyone ever tell you that you can’t spell later without the word late?

Justin: I promise you, I’m doing my best to figure things out.

Pops: “Doing my best” is a phrase failures use. Why don’t you buy a man card and finish figuring?

Me: Pops! That’s so rude. Justin, I’m so sorry.

I knew this was for my benefit, for my protection, that my grandparents were concerned about me, and didn’t want me to end up with a guy like my dad, that they wanted Justin to be so intimidated by them that he wouldn’t try anything he shouldn’t, but oh, my goodness, it was too much.

Pops: What? How is a valid question rude? But all right, fine, I’ll move on since baby boy can’t take the heat. How about you finish this sentence for me, Jason? When a girl says no, she means…

Justin, looking desperately at me: No?

Nana: Are you not sure?

Justin, shifting uncomfortably: I’m sure. No means no.

Nana: Well, look at you. You got one right. Now here’s another, even tougher sentence for you to finish. Premarital sex is…

Me: Nana! I’m so sorry, Justin.

Nana: Unlike Pops, I’m not moving on. Justin?

Pops: His name is Jason.

Justin: Uh…uh…

Pops: While you think about that, why don’t you tell me how you feel about drinking and driving?

Justin: I’m totally against it, I swear!

Nana: Methinks he protests too much.

They finally let us leave, and I apologized all over again.

“That was brutal,” he gritted out.

“I know, I’m sorry. They aren’t normally like that, I promise. They just want to make sure I’m safe with you.”

“Don’t worry about it,” he said as he slid into the driver’s side of his truck, but his voice was still as tight as it had been inside the house, and I knew he was going to worry about it for weeks.

I searched the sky as I buckled into the passenger seat. It was dark, a handful of clouds evident. Please be gone. Please don’t be—

The rabbit was there.

Cold fingers of dread crawled down my spine. “Drive slowly, okay?” I said to Justin. Frosty had slowed down and survived. Justin would, too. Surely. Please.

“Whatever your grandparents told you, I’m not drunk!”

Yeah. He was still worrying.

“I have a car phobia, that’s all.”

He kept things at a smooth jog. It was enough to prevent a freak-out.

I closed my eyes and retreated to the back of my mind. At least I didn’t have to worry about the zombies. Because they’d come out last night they now needed time to rest and—here was an increasingly sickening thought—digest their food.

“We’re here,” Justin said.

“How? Only a minute or two—” I blinked and saw that he’d already parked. Cars were lined up all over Reeve’s driveway, in the grass and along the street. “Wow. We really are here.” I must have lost track of time.

He’d survived. I’d survived. What a fantastic day! Being forewarned must be forearmed. And you know what? I could live with that. Literally.

We walked to the front door side by side. The moon was a mere sliver of gold now, the clouds gone and the sky dark though peppered with hundreds of pinpricks of light.

I was surprised when I noticed that Justin was scanning the bushes, cars and trees as we approached the porch. I was doing the same thing.

He missed a step, righted himself and snarled out, “Cole.”

“What? Where?”

I found him a second later. Cole was on the porch, leaning against the brick wall beside the door, a beam of light raining over him. He popped his jaw when he spotted Justin.

He wouldn’t meet my gaze, was too busy glaring at Justin. Had he been waiting for me?

“This is who you decided to come with?” Cole asked, his voice dripping with disgust.

“She knows a good guy when she sees one,” Justin said stiffly.

Lips I’d kissed pursed with irritation. “I need to talk to Ali. Alone.”

“No way I’d ever leave her alone with you. You’re not the kind of—”

Cole was in his face before Justin could finish that sentence. “If you don’t go inside, you’ll be eating your teeth. You know I can make you do it. I have before.”

“Enough!” I got between them and pushed them apart. Still Cole didn’t meet my gaze. “Seriously, that’s enough.” Clearly these guys had some history, but come on. Ruining a party before it had even begun was overkill.

“Why don’t we let Ali pick?” Justin said with a smug inflection that had me gnashing my teeth in annoyance.

“Ali,” Cole snapped. “I waited for you for a reason. You can guess what it is.”

“I—” might have a vision, I realized. This was the first time I’d seen Cole today.

Neither one of us knew what would happen when our eyes met. “I’ll, uh, meet you inside,” I said to Justin.

His gaze whipped to me, hurt falling over his expression. “You said you weren’t seeing him.”

“I’m not.” At least, not now. “He’s my friend.” Kinda sorta.

“His friends die.”

Yeah, but Justin had no idea why. “Well, I won’t.”

“Fine. Whatever,” Justin snapped, and I realized I’d probably lost his friendship sooner rather than later. “I hope you enjoy being stabbed in the back, because that’s all he’s good at.”

He stomped inside, leaving me alone with Cole—who grabbed me by the wrist and tugged me into the shadows.

“Do you have any idea what a snake that guy is?” he demanded, pressing me against the cold of the wall. “Are you working with him?”

“No!” I kept my gaze down, on his boots. “I don’t even know where he works.”

Cole mumbled something like “Are you kidding me?” under his breath. “So you’re just dating him, then.”

“I’m not dating him.” I want to date you. “We’re just friends.” Kinda sorta.

“Like we’re just friends?” he sneered.

I balled my hands. “I haven’t kissed him, if that’s what you mean.”

A pause. A sharp inhalation. “Just so you know, he’s the kind of friend who will go for your throat—while you’re sleeping.”

Definite history there. “He basically said the same thing about you. So what happened between you guys?”

“That’s none of your business.”

His voice had risen with every word. In a few seconds, he’d be shouting and kids would be spilling out of the house to discover who Cole was murdering. “Let’s just get this over with, okay? Look at me.”

“Not okay. Don’t you want to know where I was this morning?” he asked, settling his hands on my waist.

So warm, so strong. So distracting. I cleared my throat. “Will you tell me if I say yes?”

“I was reinforcing your house. I saw the worry in your eyes when I mentioned that we draw the…you know, and not the you know you were talking about last night. I wanted to make sure your grandparents were protected.”

That was, like, the sweetest thing anyone had ever done for me. “Thank you.”

“And then I find you here with Justin Silverstone.” Anger pulsed from him, each wave slamming into me. He placed two fingers under my chin and lifted my head. “So yeah, we’ll get this over with and go our separate ways.”

I had to purse my lips to hold in my protest. Had he meant go our separate ways permanently or just for tonight?

The moment I met those gorgeous purple eyes, the world vanished and my mind blanked. No longer were we standing—

—we were lying down, and he was on top of me. We were dressed, though my shirt had ridden up to just under my bra. Grass cushioned me. We were in a backyard, but it wasn’t mine. Sunlight spotlighted us, but we didn’t care. He had one hand on my stomach, and one on my face.

“Are you sorry?” he asked.

“No. Are you?”

“Never. I just wish we could—”

Someone laughed from inside the house, and the too-short vision vanished in a puff of smoke.

I gently beat at Cole’s chest. I think we were destined to be interrupted every time.

He accepted the abuse without comment. When I settled, I murmured an apology, unsure how many others I’d have to make tonight, and leaned my forehead against him, despite the fact that I wasn’t certain of my reception. His heart thumped wildly, a mimic of mine, and I took comfort in that.

“What do you think I was sorry about?” I asked.

“Your date with Justin?”

I hit him again.

“What? It was just a guess.” At least the anger had drained from him.

That was, hands down, my favorite vision, even though we hadn’t really done anything. Would have been nice to know what we’d done before the conversation—and what we’d been leading up to.

Whatever the answers, happiness began to flood me. Everything we’d seen had happened in some form or another. Therefore, Cole wasn’t done with me permanently. We would sprawl in someone’s backyard and touch and talk and…whatever else.

“Let’s go inside before I do something I’ll regret,” he muttered, ushering me to the door.

“Like what?”

“Like, I can’t say. Knowing you, you’ll run.”

Before he could open the glass, two boys I’d never met peeked out. They leered when they spotted me, even issued my mouth an invitation to the party in their pants—or tried to. Their words tapered off when they noticed Cole. They frowned and backed away, the color draining from their cheeks.

“You weren’t lying when you said everyone’s afraid of you,” I remarked.

“I know, and that’s the way I like it. No one asks me any questions about what I’m up to, they just expect the worst and keep their distance. You should take a lesson.”

“Ha! I’m not afraid of you, and I never will be.” I wouldn’t mention the times I had, in fact, been afraid of him.

“So you keep saying. But I’ll keep trying to change your mind.”

Cole held the door open for me, and I swept inside the house, purring, “With your lethal manners? Good luck.”

“Funny.”

Music thumped from speakers in the ceiling, voices and laughter mingling and creating a ragged soundtrack of chaos.

Kids meandered throughout, some drinking from plastic red cups, some chanting, “Go Tigers!” Some were more interested in talking, but a few were more interested in making out against the wall. I couldn’t locate Justin in the crowd, but can I just say that there was more T and A in here than in a bucket of the Kentucky Colonel’s best? Shirts were more bralike than anything and skirts and shorts were totally butt-tastic. I was way overdressed in my pink tank and jeans, but that hardly seemed like a good enough reason for all the girls to be looking at me with disgust.

Surely I was mistaken. Except, equally weird, the boys couldn’t keep their eyes off me, either, most of them leering at me just like the ones at the door. Twice I checked my zipper to make sure I wasn’t flashing pantie. (I wasn’t.)

“Be careful of snakes,” Cole said, and turned away from me. He tried to walk away.

I grabbed his wrist, stopping him. “At least tell me what Justin did to—”

“Nope, I’m not talking about that here.” He gazed pointedly at my hand.

O-kay. I released him. “Who’s running now?”

The taunt worked; he stayed put. For a long while, we simply stood there, silent. Finally, he massaged the back of his neck and growled, “Do you want to dance?”

“With your attitude?” And after what had happened the last time we’d danced in public? No. But that was not the word that left my mouth. “Yes.”

I should have continued my search for Justin. I shouldn’t have allowed Cole to pull me into the center of the action, but I did. Everyone else rocked out at a swift pace, but he hugged me close and swayed slowly.

This was my night to pretend I had no troubles, and I planned to pretend my heart out.

“What time do you have to be home?” he asked.

“Twelve-thirty. Why?”

“No reason.”

For a long while I debated whether or not to rest my head on Cole’s shoulder. Debated whether or not I should lock my hands around his neck, toy with the ends of his hair, peer deep and meaningfully into his eyes. I’m not sure what I actually did while I was debating.

“Relax. I’m not going to bite you,” he said. “Not tonight, anyway.”

“Funny.”

“Who’s joking?”

He was. He had to be. In the end, I did rest my head on his shoulder, if only to hide what I’m sure was a bemused expression. Then I thought, what the heck, why not do all of it? You’re normal, remember? I locked my hands around his neck and toyed with the ends of his hair. He stroked his fingertips up and down my spine, then over my hips.

I could have stayed like that forever, but after a few songs, we both started to press even closer, rubbing against each other, sweating from the heat of the room, struggling to breathe properly. I straightened. Our gazes connected. He leaned toward me.

I think we realized the consequences of kissing in front of everyone at the same time because we snapped apart a split second before contact.

“Come on,” he muttered, leading me away from the dance floor. “I don’t want to leave you alone, but I can’t stay with you, either.”

I understood. Thankfully I spotted Kat, who looked as beautiful as always though she was even paler than she’d been on her fake sick day. “No worries, I’ll be with Kat.” I raced toward her, concerned.

I received more disgusted looks from the girls, and a lot more leering from the boys. Dang it! Why?

“This might get ugly,” I heard Cole say.

Because he planned to crush every boy’s face into the carpet for daring to look at me like I was— Oh. Never mind. Because Frosty stood a few feet behind Kat, and any guy who attempted to approach her got a mouthful of threats and several F-bombs for his efforts. Kat flipped off Frosty every time he did it, but the moment his back was to her, she would grin.

“Hey, you,” I said when I reached her. “Is something wrong?”

“Ali!” She threw her arms around me in a bear hug that was surprisingly weak. “I’m so glad you came, and I’m great, honest. So where have you been, naughty girl? If I’m remembering correctly, and I always do, the boy you’re with isn’t the one you agreed to come with.”

I sidestepped the question, saying, “Apparently Cole and Justin are enemies, and I can’t talk to one without infuriating the other.”

“Of course not,” she said, blinking as if I’d just told a joke she didn’t get. “Everyone knows that.”

“Well, no one told me!”

“Why would they? The thing between those boys is like breathing. You don’t have to be told it’s happening, you just know.”

“A heads-up would have been nice.”

“And miss all the fun? Nah.” She gave me a grinning once-over. “All the boys want a piece of my Ali. And why wouldn’t they? Look at you, all decked out. Love it,” she added in a singsong voice.

Okay, so I’d put some effort into my appearance tonight. I’d had to, considering I needed to carry some kind of weapon. Not because I’d known I would be seeing Cole. Really. Three different silver necklaces hung around my neck, each a different length, to, uh, choke the zombies if necessary. Though I’d wanted to wear sequined flip-flops, I’d worn boots and switched the plain white ties for pink lace because, uh, the pink were sturdier. You know, for choking zombies if necessary. I had a blade stashed inside the left one. I also had a knife-carrying purse looped across my middle.

I’d covered my injured wrists and hands with gloves. Yes, gloves were out of style, but maybe I’d bring them back. After all, I was the girl responsible for fringe.

“You look amazing, too,” I told her. A scarlet baby-doll dress clung to her curves and stopped a few inches under her butt. A pretty sweater comprised only of white lace covered her arms. She’d wound the top portion of her hair into several knots atop her head, the rest flowing in glossy dark waves.

“Yeah, yeah, I know. Being this beautiful all the time is a burden, though,” she said airily.

Poppy and Wren stalked over to us, both clearly on a mission, their serious expressions filling me with anxiety.

“What’s wrong?” I asked.

The girls shared a dark glance. They were such a striking pair, the redhead and the model-perfect African-American, both dressed to kill. Poppy wore all white, like an angel, and Wren wore a bikini top and glittery shorts.

Wren glared at me and said, “I told you something horrible would happen if you went after Cole. Now there’s a rumor floating around claiming you slept with him.”

My wide-eyed gaze snapped to Kat.

She glowered at me, and I knew she was offended that I’d first thought of her as the culprit. “Hey! I would never say anything.”

“You knew?” both Poppy and Wren gasped.

“I’m sorry,” I said to Kat, ignoring them. I should have known better. To the others, I said, “Everyone thinking I slept with Cole isn’t such a terrible thing, but for the record, we only talked.”

“Well, that’s not all we were told,” Poppy interjected. Like Kat, she was pale, her freckles stark. “The rumor also claims that you slept with Bronx and Frosty—all in the same night!”

Wren had nodded as her friend had spoken. “Basically people are saying you’re a huge slut and any guy who wants a piece of you only has to smile at you to get it. I told you not to go after him. I told you.”

“I didn’t…I wouldn’t…” Dang it! The words were snagging in my throat.

There was only one person who hated me enough to accuse me of something that skeevie. Mackenzie Love. Was she truly that vicious, though? I mean, I’d seen my social death in her eyes; I’d expected something from her end. But this, even though, according to Frosty, Cole had told his friends to be nice to me, was too much.

Fury burning like a fistful of acid in my chest, I searched the crowd for her. I’d politely ask her if she’d done it. Then, when she smugly proclaimed that she had, I would smash her stupid face into the floor!

Sadly, I found no sign of her.

“Thanks for the intel, girls. Try and do a little damage control, and tell people how stupid they are.” Kat twined our fingers and led my protesting form away. “As for me, I’m going to the bathroom and I’m taking Ali with me,” she called over her shoulder.

I glanced over at Cole. He was speaking to Frosty, but his eyes were on me. Surprise, surprise, he was glaring. He also stiffened with every step I took away from him. Had he heard the rumors, too? Would he do anything to his ex when the truth came out? If the truth came out?

When Kat bypassed the bathroom, I frowned. “Uh, where are we going?”

“A place Reeve showed me last night and swore me to secrecy, since even she’s not supposed to know about it,” she whispered, sounding scandalized. “But you don’t count, since you’re one of us. Besides, you need a moment to calm down and we need someplace to talk in private. Just get ready to be weirded out!”

She pushed her way through the crowd, snaked several corners, went down a flight of stairs, and finally, we were alone. No matter where I looked, I saw plush furniture and shiny knickknacks. The walls were papered with cherubs, and there were even alabaster columns to guide us to each new room.

“What do Reeve’s parents do?” I asked.

Kat gave a sad little sigh. “Well, her mom’s dead. Her dad’s a genius plastic surgeon with the hands of an angel, or so he likes to say. Every week he’s dating someone new. Oh, and don’t call him doctor. He insists we call him Mr. Ankh.”

We worked our way down yet another flight of stairs, the fresh air turning musty, with a copper tinge to it. My nose wrinkled. I recognized the scent of blood. I wanted to hold my breath, but there was another odor infused with it, one that caught my attention. Was that…rot?

“Kat,” I said, tugging at her hold. “I think we should stop.”

“No way. It’s just a little farther.”

My heart beat so hard against my ribs I feared they would crack. You’re loaded down with weapons, remember? You’ll be fine. And Cole wouldn’t be here if he hadn’t used a… What had he called it? A Blood Line. The house has to be protected.

When we reached the end of a long, narrow hallway, Kat stopped in front of the only door. I was shocked to my soul when she pulled a lock pick out of her bra and shoved the tip inside the tumbler.

“Do you always carry one of those?”

“Of course. Frosty once told me I had to be prepared for anything. I said, ‘What about being kidnapped, locked inside a room and held prisoner as some weirdo’s idea of the perfect female?’ And he said, ‘Totally,’ then showed me how to free myself if that happened. He refused to tell me how he’d learned, though.” A twist of her wrist, and a click sounded. “Aha!” A little push and the door sailed open, welcoming us inside.

I allowed her to pull me past the entrance. I’d find out what had caused the odor, make sure there was nothing nefarious going on, and then I would force Kat to bail with me.

A few steps in, she released me, held out her arms and spun. “Well, what do you think?”

I studied our new location. No longer was the floor carpeted with thick, soft fibers. There was dark, dank tile. There were several metal tables, some with cuffs for wrists and ankles—and there were drains underneath every single one of them.

I thought…I thought she’d brought me to some sort of…torture chamber.

Trembling, I reached into my purse and palmed the blade. Before I could talk myself out of searching for clues, I slipped past her, doing my best to hide the metal behind my arm.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” she whispered. Whispered, yeah, but still her voice echoed.

“Probably not,” I muttered.

“So you don’t think Reeve’s dad needs to buy a case of Febreze? Well, then, do you think he does secret surgeries down here?”

“I think it’s none of your business,” a male voice boomed from behind us.

Oh…crap.

I felt like a Tilt-A-Whirl as I jerked around, facing off with the intruder. He was only a little taller than me, which put him at just above five-eleven. His pin-striped suit did not look anything like the suits my dad had sometimes worn to church the few times he’d attended. He had salt-and-pepper hair, skin tanned to a deep bronze and weathered with a few thin lines, though not unattractively.

For an older guy, he was pretty hot—and he was eyeing us like we were rats in a cage.

With my free hand, I grabbed Kat by the forearm and shoved her behind me, and maybe I used too much force because she stumbled and humphed. “Who are you?” I demanded, more with bravado than anything.

“I am the owner of this house,” he said at the same time Kat muttered, “Say hello to Reeve’s dad.”

Kat peeked out from around me and waved. “Hey, Mr. Ankh.”

His jaw clenched as he nodded in greeting. “Kathryn.” To me, he snapped, “And who are you?”

You’ve faced zombies. This is nothing. “I’m Reeve’s friend.”

“Yes, I guessed that. What is your name and what are you doing down here with Kathryn?”

“We were just looking for a quiet place to talk, honest,” Kat said, and even I wanted to believe her. All that innocence in her tone seemed impossible to fake.

Footsteps sounded, and I was shocked to see Dr. Wright enter the room behind Mr. Ankh. “You shouldn’t have allowed your daughter to—” Lips glossed a bright red clamped shut when she spotted me. Her eyes narrowed to tiny slits. “Alice Bell, what are you doing down here?”

Kat clutched and twisted my shirt, whispering, “Is that Dr. Wright?”

Neither adult turned to her but continued to focus on me.

“It’s Ali,” I said.

“I am still waiting for a confession,” Mr. Ankh said. “After all, you are the one who arrived with—” a sneer “—Justin Silverstone, are you not?”

“Justin Silverstone?” Dr. Wright asked with a clear flare of dislike. Every day she’d wrapped her slight frame in some sort of business suit. Tonight she wore a soft, flowing dress completely at odds with her take-charge demeanor. Was she the new girlfriend of the week? “Cole won’t be happy about that.”

Kat pinched me on the arm.

I wasn’t sure what she wanted. I was too confused. Dr. Wright, the principal of Asher High, was hanging out with Reeve’s father in a room full of dried blood and gurneys, but her biggest concern was my escort?

Okay. She might care more about her students than her social life…even though her social life might just get her killed. Unless…had Mr. Ankh kept zombies down here?

Yes, I decided a moment later, he had. That smell was too distinctive to spring from trash or mold.

Did Cole know about this?

I didn’t have to think about that for long, either. Yes, Cole knew. Otherwise he wouldn’t have let his entire crew take the night off and come here, not even with the Blood Lines. This had to be a safe place for zombie slayers. Which meant Reeve’s father was on our side. Which meant Dr. Wright was on our side, too, since she was with him, here, in this room.

And if all the slayers hated Justin—and they must, considering the way they’d reacted to the mere mention of his name—I had to wonder if he was pro-zombie or something.

What could Mr. Ankh possibly do down here, though? Study the zombies? Experiment on them? Was that even possible?

“Ali, you have some explaining to do, and I will not tolerate lies, nonanswers or evasions,” Dr. Wright said, her dark gaze trying to X-ray its way to my brain. “Did Justin tell you to come down here?”

Well, well. There was confirmation of my suspicions. “No, he didn’t. And now I’d like to return to the party with Kat.” No reason to get her tangled up in this. Cole and crew would blame me. “We’re very sorry to have disturbed you.”

“You’re not walking away that easily,” she said right before Mr. Ankh said, “Very well, you may go. But if anything like this happens again…”

You’ll regret it, I finished for him. “It won’t.”

Dr. Wright had stiffened after Mr. Ankh overrode her decision, but she didn’t protest.

I reached back and grabbed Kat’s hand. She remained silent as I dragged her out. Both Mr. Ankh and Dr. Wright moved aside to allow us to pass. I held my dagger tight and maintained as much distance as possible, just in case I’d miscalculated and either one of them decided to attack.

“Classic,” Kat said with a giggle the moment we reached the top of the stairs. “That was so wild! You were all, I don’t care what you do to us, I’m strong and brave. And they were all, like, oh, we’ll do plenty, we’re stronger.”

By tomorrow, when she retold the events to others—and she would—I would have punched Reeve’s dad in the face and tied Dr. Wright to a chair. True story.

“What do you think they were doing together? Because Dr. Wright is soooo not his type.”

Discussing recent zombie activity? Planning a zombie attack? “Wish I knew,” I replied honestly.

In the distance, I heard shrill chanting, my ears twitching as I tried to listen. Was that…fight fight fight?

Kat must have heard it, too, because she paused and clapped. “Five dollars says it’s Cole.”

“No way,” I said, even though I suspected the worst. If you don’t go inside, you’ll be eating your teeth. You know I can make you do it. I have before.

“Are you kidding? It’s always Cole.”

We raced through the house. When we reached the living room, the cheers were so loud I cringed. I shoved my way through the crowd, only to discover that yes, Kat was right. It was always Cole.

The fight du jour? Cole versus Justin. Punches were being thrown and furniture overturned as the two rolled and flew throughout the circle of chanting teenagers. Justin had rage on his side, but Cole had experience and brute force.

“Fight, fight, fight,” everyone continued.

Cole could have pinned Justin in seconds, could have ended the entire ordeal. Instead he allowed himself to be hit in the face multiple times, in the stomach a few more, and in the groin—well, not at all. Only when Justin got down and dirty did Cole retaliate and really start to hammer at him.

Frosty worked his way to Kat and jumped in front of her, shielding her just in case the action was tossed her way. I spotted Mackenzie—finally!—and even Trina, their fists pumping toward the ceiling, their mouths stretched in wide grins. They were loving this.

“Enough!” I shouted over the cheers.

Neither boy looked my way or acted as if they’d heard me. Cole threw two more punches, only two, but that was enough. The hard double tap sent Justin to his back, where he stayed, unconscious.

I rushed forward, intending to check on him, but the dark-haired girl who enjoyed glaring at me on the bus beat me to his side. She felt for his pulse, then patted his cheek in an attempt to wake him up. He moaned, but failed to rouse completely.

“Is he okay?” I asked.

She looked up and scowled. “Stay away from him. You and your boyfriend have done enough.”

“Is Justin okay?” I insisted.

“As if you really care.” She returned her attention to Justin and smoothed her fingers over his cheek, clearly done with me.

I had no idea who she was, but I wasn’t going to try and take over. Obviously she would take good care of him. Turning, I searched for Cole. He was still in the center of the room. Little beads of sweat dotted his brow. He was panting, blood smeared under his nose and on his chin, hands curled into fists. Mackenzie and Trina stood beside him, patting him on the back for a job well done.

He must have sensed my gaze because he found me in an instant.

“Are you okay?”

“What?” he said.

I knew only because I’d read his lips. There was too much noise and too much distance between us to hear each other. He motioned toward the kitchen with a tilt of his chin, and I nodded.

I turned to Kat to let her know I was taking off, but she had her arms locked around Frosty and the two of them were kissing as if they needed the other’s oxygen supply to subsist.

O-kay. Feud over? All forgiven? I hoped so. I liked them both. And maybe then Frosty would go back to being on Team Ali. Maybe he’d finally open up and tell Kat what was going on with the zombies, and I wouldn’t have to hide anything from her. We could remain friends.

Cole beat me to the kitchen. He was leaning against the counter, waiting for me, his booted foot tapping impatiently.

“Let’s clean you up,” I said.

“No.” He took my hand and tugged me to a spacious pantry—already occupied. As light flooded into the darkened area, sending the shadows diving for cover, Reeve and—oh, wow. Bronx. Reeve and Bronx jumped apart as if a bomb had just detonated between them.

Their lips were swollen and red and damp. Twin pink circles appeared on Reeve’s cheeks as she peered over at me. I took pity on her.

“I saw nothing—except when I mention this to Kat. You know I’ve gotta tell her, or we’ll both suffer. But you might want to go check out your living room,” I said. “Cole and Justin had a slight, uh, disagreement and, well, they broke some stuff. Also, your dad is downstairs.” Waaay downstairs.

Her mouth dropped open wider with each ball of information I tossed, and she finally pushed her way out of the pantry.

Bronx attempted to follow her, but Cole stepped into his path.

“You know you’re not supposed to hang with her.”

A muscle ticked under Bronx’s eye. He remained silent.

“And yet you thought it’d be okay with her father if you stuck your tongue down her throat?”

Still refusing to answer, Bronx shoved his way out.

“Why can’t he hang out with—” I began.

“Nope. Not discussing that with you.” Cole snapped the door closed, every shadow returning.

Giving him a minute to calm down and myself a moment to adjust to the dark, I stood still and quiet. Bit by bit, I began to make out the different areas of the storage closet. As a whole, the enclosure was bigger than my bedroom. There were cans of food on the shelves, Crock-Pots and toasters on the floor. There was a ladder, and other things guys found necessary.

“Reeve’s dad texted me,” Cole said, “and told me you were downstairs.”

“Is he one of you?”

Several beats of silence passed before he admitted, “Yes. He and my dad are friends, and he funds our activities. He can’t see the zombies, but he’s seen what they do to us and helps us when we’re bitten—on the condition that Reeve stays out of it.”

Good to know. “And Dr. Wright?”

“She knows. We needed someone on our side at school, and she was it.”

As I’d suspected. Now, switching gears. “What was the fight about?”

“Justin asked me where you were. I told him I didn’t know. He told me to go to hell and stay away from you. I told him you’d made your choice and he needed to deal.”

“So he hit you?”

“No. He said you belonged on his team and if I tried to recruit you you’d be killed.”

“So you hit him?”

“I did. Broke his nose, too.”

I scrubbed a hand down my face. “Let’s backtrack a little. He has a team?”

He snorted. “You mean he hasn’t asked you to help him?”

“Help him with what?” As with Mr. Ankh and Dr. Wright, I had my suspicions.

“The zombies.”

“No. Until a few minutes ago, I had no idea he was involved.”

“He’s not involved. He’s a menace.”

And Cole was one big bowl of confusion. “You’re not making any sense. He’s either involved or he isn’t. Which is it?”

Cole banged the back of his head on a shelf, sighed and said, “Listen up, because I will never repeat this. I shouldn’t be talking about it now, especially considering you’re dating him.”

I stomped my foot. “I’m not—”

“Justin used to be one of us,” he said, causing me to shut my mouth. “Then he met up with a group of people who claimed to want to destroy the zombies but have only ever tried to stuff the evil spirits inside of living bodies. Think possession,” he added, probably sensing my increased confusion. “Remember the way you returned to your body?”

“No, actually, I don’t.” I’d been in too much pain.

His chuckle was without humor. “That’s right. I had to do it for you. Anyway, these people say what they’re doing is research to discover ways to counteract the zombies’ infection, but how can we believe them when they’re willing to hurt innocent people to do that research?”

“How do you know that?”

“After Justin told me about them, I visited their lab, saw people in cages, each living person in different stages of decomposition. And we’re pretty sure those researchers are the ones who burned down my old house.”

Labs. Cages. Decomposition. Burning houses! “Justin works for the people in the hazmat suits?” Who were, apparently, just as evil as the zombies.

“Yes.”

“Well, he hasn’t mentioned them to me, I promise.” I wouldn’t give him a chance to mention them, either. I wanted nothing to do with anyone who was hoping to stuff something evil into something good.

Cole pinched the bridge of his nose. “Justin will tell them about my interest in you, so they’ll be contacting you sooner or later, in some way or another. They’ve contacted all of us. If you refuse to help them, they’ll try and convince you and it won’t be a pleasant experience.”

“I don’t care.”

A heavy pause. Then “Your grandparents will care.” A sigh. “Maybe you’d be better off walking away from me, Ali.”

What? “No!”

“Your life is about to change. You’ll be out almost every night. Probably be caught by your grandparents, definitely in constant trouble. Your free time will disappear, and your grades will drop. You’ll be hurt all the time, probably suffer broken bones. Sometimes you might even hope to die.”

“So?” I would be killing the very creatures that had destroyed my family—I would be stopping those creatures from destroying other families. That was a fair enough trade.

“So. I don’t want that for you. If you aren’t careful, social services will come knocking on your grandparents’ door. They’ll accuse them of beating you. That’s happened to a few of us.”

“I’ll be careful,” I said on a trembling breath.

“You’ll never be careful enough. Besides, training you will take too much time and until you know what you’re doing, you’ll only be a liability.”

He was saying this to see if it would scare me away. Right? He needed to know I was strong enough to defend myself verbally. Right? “You were a liability at one point. So was Frosty, and so was Mackenzie. But you learned, and you thrived. I can do that, too.”

“Besides everything else,” he continued as if I hadn’t spoken, “you will make enemies other than Justin if you hang out with me, and they will strike at you every chance they get.”

Okay, yeah. He’d heard the rumors. “I don’t care,” I repeated.

I wished I could see his expression as he said, “Easy enough to say now, but one day you’ll crumble. I’ve seen it happen one too many times.”

“Well, that day isn’t today,” I blustered on, trying to ignore the hurt inside me. Hurt that was swirling, burning. He wasn’t testing me. He just wanted me gone.

“When it comes, and it will, it won’t be with me. We’re done.”

There it was. A straight-up admission. He wanted nothing more to do with me. Well, fine. Okay. I’d go.

But…I didn’t want to go.

“Is Mackenzie the one who’s telling everyone I nailed you and all your friends?” I asked. He owed me that much.

He shook his head, the darkness giving way as a small beam of light seeped from the crack in the door. How menacing he suddenly appeared, the expression I’d wanted to see haunted…and oh, so haunting. “That’s not her style. She’s very up-front in her dealings. When she dislikes someone, she doesn’t go behind their back. She gets in their face.”

Unconvinced, I splayed my arms. “Who else would tell everyone I slept with you and all your friends in the same night? Who else would know I was with your friends?”

“I don’t know who did it, but I’ll find out and take care of him. Or her.”

What he didn’t say: the damage was already done, and there was nothing either of us could do to fix it. “I don’t need you to fight my battles, but a little—” concern, compassion, fury on my behalf “—support would have been nice.”

I could hear him grating his teeth. “If I thought, even for a second, that Mackenzie was responsible, believe me, I’d have her in here and on her knees begging for your forgiveness. Just trust me on this. She’s not as bad as you think.”

“Do you still like her?” I asked before I could stop myself.

“Not the way you mean.” No hesitation from him, at least. “When she moved in with me and my dad, I broke things off.”

My mind snagged on two things. The first squeaked out unbidden. “You’re shacked up with your ex-girlfriend?” The second I refused to voice. If he’d broken things off with Mackenzie only because she’d moved into his home, he could still have feelings for her—could have been using me.

“Again, not the way you’re implying. We don’t share a room or anything like that. I haven’t slept with her since…”

“Since?” I prompted. Shut up! This isn’t any of your business. He’s trying to cut you loose. Trying? Ha! He has. Show some pride and let him.

He massaged the back of his neck. “Since a few weeks before school started. And that is not to be repeated. I don’t talk about this stuff with anyone.”

Less than a month, then. Hardly any time at all. “Why did you stop?” Enough!

Rather than issuing a rebuke, he said, “Because I didn’t need the complication of a live-in girlfriend.”

Not because he’d stopped caring for her. I might barf.

Just before my seventh-grade year, and only a few weeks after our chat about virginity, my mom had again sat me down and said, Alice, there’s one fact of life that is never changing. Boys think about sex a lot. As in all the time a lot. They will do and say anything to get you into bed, and not even half of it will be true. Be careful, and don’t forget another never-changing fact. You are a treasure, and you deserve to be loved rather than used.

All this time, I could have been nothing more than a substitute for Mackenzie, someone for Cole to pass time with until she moved out. “How did you guys end up in the same house?”

A shrug of those wide shoulders. “Her dad and stepmom were tired of dealing with her and kicked her out.”

Mackenzie, unwanted by the people who were supposed to care for her most. I so did not want to feel sorry for her, especially now that I knew she was living with Cole, but fine, whatever. I softened just a little.

“So. Yeah. This is it for us,” he said. “We’re not going to get to know each other better. We’re not going to hang out, and I’m not going to train you.”

I barely bit back my cry of denial…of pain. I’d lost so much already that I couldn’t bear the thought of losing him, too. No wonder I’d pushed him so hard, abandoning my pride.

“Why did you tell me all of this if you were going to kick me out of your life?” I shouted.

“I don’t know,” he growled. “All I do know is that this is for your own good. One day, you might even thank me.”

I’d give this one more shot. Just one. “What about the visions?” Please. Change your mind. Want me.

“For all we know, they’re glimpses of what we’re supposed to avoid.”

I flinched, his words echoing hollowly through my mind, at last breaking me. No, he wasn’t going to change his mind. And now, I didn’t want him to. He was done with me, and I was done with him. I’d tried, at least. He couldn’t say the same.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I shouldn’t have—”

“No. You should have. But I won’t thank you later. I’ll thank you now.” He might have broken me down, but I would never let him know it. I rallied my wits. I was stronger than this. “You were right. We’re no good for each other. See you around, Cole.”

The hinges groaned as I opened the door. Without a backward glance, I strode away from him. Though my vision was blurring, I could see that kids were milling around the kitchen, still drinking beer.

Someone grabbed my arm from behind, stopping me. “Do you have a ride?”

Cole had followed me out.

“Yes,” I said, sounding as far away as I felt. Well, I would have one. I’d ask Kat.

“All right then.” He let me go, moved away from me and disappeared around the corner.

I stayed where I was. I’d finally found a purpose for my life, a way to deal with my loss, and he wanted to take that away from me. Newsflash, Cole Holland. I won’t let you. I wouldn’t be fighting the zombies with him—so what. I wouldn’t learn trade secrets from him—so the heck what. I would do everything on my own.

I stomped into the living room. First thing I noticed was that Justin was gone and so was the dark-haired girl who’d doctored him. Mackenzie, Frosty and Bronx were gone, too. I found Kat on the couch, two-fisting bottles of beer. She was paler than before, trembling even.

Having dealt with my father in all the stages of his alcoholism, I knew how to handle her—with force. I pried the bottles from her kung fu grip and waved my fingers. “Keys.”

“Why?”

“I’m driving you home.” I kept the fact that I’d had only a few lessons and hadn’t yet gotten my license to myself.

“Oh, all right. He always does that, you know,” she grumbled as she dug in a hidden pocket of her dress. “Jumps to obey Cole’s every command. Go, Cole says, and he goes. You need to fix that. I mean, I was hoping you’d distract Mr. Authority, keep him busy so that Frosty could crawl after me properly.”

“I think Cole just dumped me,” I grumbled back. I didn’t think; I knew. At least the hurt was fading. I was even numbing out. “Besides, we weren’t really dating.”

“What! He dumped you? Justin must have beat him senseless.” She held out a glittery key chain in the shape of a cat. “There’s no other reason he’d do something so stupid. You’re the best thing that’s ever happened to him!”

“Thank you for the vote of confidence, but he just wasn’t into me enough.” I took the key and helped her up. She swayed, so I wound my arm around her and ushered her toward the door. No one tried to proposition me. Had they, I might have shoved their noses into their brains.

“Let’s get married, me and you, and have a thousand babies together,” Kat said. “That’ll show ’em!”

“What a fantastic idea. Let’s talk about it in the morning.”

Outside, cool night air stroked my arms and face. Clouds had appeared en masse, obscuring the moon—I jerked to a halt. There was my rabbit. Bigger than before, even brighter, holding something small and round in its hands.

“What’s wrong?” Kat asked. “Is your car phobia acting up again?”

“Something like that.”

“You’ll do fine. My car likes to steer itself, hence the reason for my crashes. But seriously, you won’t have any trouble.”

“We should—” I saw a flash of movement behind the far tree…saw the train of a dirty wedding gown…smelled the rot.

Too soon, I thought, ice crystallizing in my veins. The zombies shouldn’t be out tonight. They should be resting.

“Is that cloud spinning or is it just me?” Kat asked.

I glanced at the rabbit. The round thing in its hands now had hands of its own—clock hands, tick, tick, ticking away. It had come to warn me, I realized. Not about a car wreck, but about the zombies. The time had come; they were here.

“Go inside, Kat. Don’t let anyone out here, okay?” I gave her a push toward the door. I figured—hoped, prayed—Cole, Reeve’s dad, someone, had doubled up the Blood Line thing around the perimeter. I wasn’t sure how that worked or how long it lasted, but figured the more the better.

“But why?”

“Don’t ask questions. Please,” I said. “Just trust me.”

Grumbling under her breath, she obeyed, tripping back through the front door to hopefully guard it. As I stared at the shadows around the trees—dancing now, multiplying—I dug my phone out of my pocket and dialed Cole.

No answer. I was dumped to his voice mail. Avoiding me? Whatever. I left a message. “I think the zombies are at Reeve’s.” As I spoke, I used my free hand to reach for the blade in my purse.

A body lumbered into a thin ray of moonlight—followed by another and another. I gulped, fear spiking through me. “Scratch that,” I added, then did a double take when I spied my little sister flickering into view beside one of the zombies. She was pale, still in her pink tutu and wringing her hands together. “They are here.” Click. “Emma?”

“Go inside, Ali,” she said, and vanished.

“I can’t,” I replied anyway. Right now, I was the only one capable of seeing the zombies, the only one capable of defeating them—and yes, I was beyond inexperienced. But this was what I’d wanted. A chance to save the world.

For better or worse, I’d take it.