Alice in Zombieland

16 The Good, the Bad and the Really Ugly

At ten fifty-nine that night, I spotted a flashing light outside my bedroom window. Cole’s signal. He was here.

The storm had left its mark, the sky an endless expanse of polished onyx, the ground dark and muddy. I’d been watching for him for the past five—cough sixty-seven cough—minutes, and had wondered how I’d be able to tag him. Well, now I knew.

Filled with a bubbling kind of guilt, I double-checked the Pillow-Ali I’d rigged on the bed, then tiptoed down the stairs and to the back door. Pops and Nana were a lot older than my mom and dad, and their hearing wasn’t nearly as keen. I was taking full advantage, and I knew it, but their new rules had left me no choice. I had to do this.

Hinges erupted into a chorus of noise as I eased the door open, and I cringed. I waited several seconds, heard nothing and locked up, then shoved the key into my pants pocket. The night was far colder than the day had been, and I was suddenly very grateful I’d worn a long-sleeved shirt, thick socks and boots.

“Hey, you—”

Our eyes met, and the rest of the world disappeared—

—he had me backed against a bedroom wall, his body supporting mine. My legs were wrapped around his waist. His hands were flattened beside my temples; mine were in his hair. He’d imprisoned me with his strength to kiss the breath right out of me.

“You okay, princess?”

Princess. He’d once again called me princess, as if I’d sprung straight from a fairy tale. I melted into him. “I’m good.”

“More?”

“Please.”

The kissing started up again, even hotter, wilder.

For the first time, no one interrupted us. The vision was allowed to play out until the very end, a whole lot of kissing and heavy breathing fading into darkness and quiet. In that darkness, I experienced a surge of different emotions. Excitement, longing, nervousness. We hadn’t had a vision in so long, I’d thought they’d stopped for good.

To me, this meant we had a future.

“Why now?” he asked, here in the present. The stockade fence loomed behind him, trees at his sides. There was no moonlight, no flashlight, but I could see his face clearly. Dark hair was brushed back and damp, violet eyes were luminous. “What’s changed?”

“Me, I think.” As I’d already realized, some part of me had been pushing him away, resisting him. And then today, after talking to Kat…well, I was unsure how much longer I had with her, and I was envious of the connection she had with Frosty. I wanted that kind of connection with Cole, and I realized I’d decided I could have it, if only I would open myself to the possibilities.

“Well, I approve. I want that.” His voice was a husky rasp, as rich and decadent as chocolate. “What we saw.”

“Me, too,” I admitted.

“Do you know me well enough now?”

I knew he was strong, determined, protective, and that he cared about his friends more than he cared about himself. He obeyed no rules but his own. In the Wild West days, he would have been an outlaw. I knew his sense of humor fit me, just as mine seemed to fit him.

“Yes,” I whispered. “I do. Not sex,” I added. “Not yet. But…”

“But more than what we have.”

“Yes,” I repeated.

“Good.” He took my hand, ushering me through the darkness and mud. I knew there were traps out here, but I couldn’t see them. Nor did I see any sign of the zombies. “One of the guys will stop by your house every hour to check things out.”

“Thank you.” Cole’s Jeep was once again parked at the curb. Only difference was, Bronx wasn’t poised at the wheel. Cole claimed the driver’s seat.

I buckled in and shifted to face him. “Everyone’s well?” I asked as we rambled down the road.

“Yeah. Recovering nicely.”

“Where was the nest?”

“A mausoleum in a cemetery.”

“And they were…what? Just sleeping in there?”

He nodded. “We opened the door, and they just stood there, staring at us. They didn’t even put up a fight when we attacked.”

“Maybe something was wrong with them.” Like…the essence of a poisoned spirit working through their systems?

“Maybe. We’ve never encountered anything like it.”

“So you guys were able to ash them without any problems?”

“Yep.”

And I bet they’d celebrated afterward. Throw me a pity party, because I wished I’d been there. I shifted to my other side and traced a fingertip over the dusty window, leaving a smear. “How did the boys find them?”

Cole accelerated, passing one car, then another. “They were doing patrols and followed the smell, which was more rank than usual.”

We lapsed into silence, leaving me alone with my thoughts—which quickly switched from zombies to Cole himself. I knew where he was taking me. His home. We’d go to his bedroom, and what? Just start making out? And, crap! Even though we weren’t having sex, I hadn’t initiated “the chat” with him. Things could spiral out of control, or I could change my mind.

“So…what do you slayers believe about heaven and hell?” I asked, keeping myself busy. “Do you go to church?”

“I can’t speak for the other guys, but yeah, I go to church. Me and my dad, every Sunday. You?”

“I do, too.”

We reached our destination, and he parked in his driveway. He got out, came to my side and helped me to my feet.

“Don’t be nervous,” he said. “We won’t do anything you don’t want to do.”

That was the problem! I didn’t know what I wanted to do. Now or never, I mused. “Are we official? I mean, are we together and only seeing each other?”

He paused on the porch to look at me, a strange expression on his face. “Maybe I did a terrible job communicating with you, but we have been together and only seeing each other for a while now. We just had a few things to iron out.”

Elation poured through me, potent enough to make me tremble. “Oh.”

There was a flash of fury in his eyes. “Have you been seeing someone else?”

“No!”

The fury drained, and yet, his new expression failed to comfort me. I’d thought Pops was determined about the boxing thing, but this…

“Okay, then,” I said. “I just had to make sure.”

“Next time make sure sooner.”

Inside, I managed to steal a glance at the living room before he tugged me down the hall. I’d been here countless times, but never inside the house. Only the barn. The sparseness astonished me. A brown couch, a love seat and a coffee table, but no other furniture and no photos on the walls. No vases or flowers or decorations of any kind. Wait. Scratch that no other furniture thing. There was a safe, big and black and probably loaded with enough firepower to raze the entire town.

“Your dad—” I began.

“Isn’t here.”

“And Bronx and Mackenzie?”

“Bronx is asleep in his room, and Kenz is out.”

Kenz, again. A nickname meant affection. I could have let doubts about his feelings for me—and his feelings for her—invade my mind, take root and grow branches, but I refused. No more fear, I reminded myself. Plus, I either trusted him or I didn’t. I couldn’t have it both ways.

My thoughts splintered as we entered Cole’s bedroom. He shut the door with a soft click. I looked around nervously. He had a full-size bed, dark covers and sheets. A nightstand with a book resting on top (I couldn’t see the title). A dresser. Very tidy. Very…lonely.

Without a word, Cole backed me into the wall. The plaster was cool, making me gasp, then he was pressing into me, so hot my brain short-circuited.

“Sure about this?”

“Y-yes.”

He stared at me for a long while before finally meshing his lips against mine, his tongue sliding into my mouth. The kiss was slow at first but soon sped into something wild. Would it always be this way with us? I wondered dazedly.

Somehow, my nervousness vanished and my hands ended up under his shirt, my nails embedded in his skin. I couldn’t touch him enough. Couldn’t get close enough.

Just like in the vision, my legs ended up wrapped around his waist. He leaned back, taking me with him. No longer was the wall the anchor that was keeping me vertical. Cole was.

He walked to the bed with me clinging to him like ivy. Then he was tilting…tilting…and the softness of the mattress was absorbing my weight. He settled on top of me, the kissing never pausing.

To my surprise, he never took things further. Well, not much. All we did was kiss, our hands playing here and there, high but not low. Finally he groaned, and lifted his head. His pupils were huge, swallowing all that violet.

“We have to stop.”

What? Why? “O-okay.”

“When you’re ready for more, we’ll both know it.” He rolled beside me and gathered me against him.

“What if I want to wait until I’m married?”

“Are you asking me to marry you?” he asked with a laugh.

“No!”

“If that’s what you need, that’s what you need. Never let anyone talk you out of it, even me. And I hate to say it, but I’ll probably try.”

“And I’d probably be disappointed if you didn’t.” I snuggled into his side, and he sifted his fingers through my hair, letting the strands fall back into place before capturing them again. I was pleased to note he was trembling as much as I was.

“Do you miss your other life?” he asked.

Surprised as I was by the topic switch, I needed no time to think about the answer. “Yes, but only because I miss my family so much. I wish…I wish I could tell my dad that he wasn’t crazy. I wish I could tell my mom how much I love her. And I wish my little sister was alive and well. She was the light of my world.”

“Has she visited you again?”

“No.” And despite the grimness of her predictions, I wished she had. “Her last words to me were, ‘He’s coming for you.’”

“He, who?”

“I haven’t been able to figure that out.”

Cole sat up and glanced at me over his shoulder, his expression grim. “Will you tell me about the wreck? About what happened afterward, to your parents?”

I licked my lips and forced myself to speak before I shut down like every time before. “I came to and saw my dad spotlighted by the car’s headlights. Three zombies fell on him, disappearing inside him, coming back up for air. Then I blacked out, and when I came to again, those same zombies had somehow dragged my mother beside him and they were doing the same thing to her.”

“Was he alive at the time, your dad?”

“He couldn’t have been. He never made a sound.”

“And your mom?”

“D-dead, I think. In the car, there was so much b-blood on her.” My teeth began to chatter.

“She couldn’t have walked to the zombies to try and save your dad?”

“N-no.” Right?

“We don’t have to talk about this anymore,” Cole said, returning to a stretched-out position beside me. “You’re a little shocky.”

“I’ll be okay. But why did you ask about the wreck?” Here and now, of all places and times.

There was a long, heavy pause. “The ‘he’ your sister mentioned…”

“Yes?”

“Don’t react until you hear me out, okay? But if your dad was alive before the zombies bit him, they could have infected him. He could be—”

“No!” I shouted. More softly, I repeated, “No. That isn’t possible.”

“Ali.”

“No.” I peered up at the ceiling, tears welling in my eyes, spilling onto my cheeks. He was saying my dad might have become the very evil he’d once feared, and that simply couldn’t be right. It couldn’t.

If I had to fight my own father…if I had to end him… No! I couldn’t do it. I wouldn’t do it.

But someone would, I thought. For all I knew, they had already.

“I know it’s a hard thing to consider, and you know I wouldn’t have mentioned it if I didn’t think it was a possibility. I would never purposely hurt you, but I wanted to prepare you, just in case, because…that’s what happened to my mom.”

A buzz of shock lanced through me. “Your mother was a zombie?”

“Yes. I was there when my dad ashed her,” he said flatly.

“I—I—” All I could do was hold on to him more tightly, offering what comfort I could.

“She’d come for me, determined to make me like her. I fought her, but not to the best of my ability because she was my mom, and she managed to bite me. I shouted for my dad, and when he raced inside my room she lunged for him. She almost beat him, but he rallied himself and struck with a glowing hand. He was crying when he did it.”

“Oh, Cole. I’m so sorry.”

“The zombies aren’t mindless at first. They remember what they had, and they hate that we still have it. They want to take it from us. The fact that you’re being hunted so determinedly…”

Yeah. I didn’t want to admit it, but he was right. My dad could be hunting me.

Cole sighed and said, “Come on. I’ll take you home.”

“All right,” I replied gently. I needed time to think, to plan.

We were loaded into his car a few minutes later, then parking at the curb soon after that. He checked his phone as he walked me through the forest, and frowned.

“Something’s going down at your house,” he said.

“What?” Suddenly on the lookout for zombies, I raced forward.

“He didn’t say.” Cole moved in front of me and prevented me from falling into any traps. Halfway there, I inhaled the scent of rot. It saturated the breeze, so thick it created a film over my skin.

I looked up but saw no hint of a rabbit in the sky.

Why hadn’t Emma warned me? “Well, the zombies are out here somewhere,” I said, palming my blade. “Do you see them?”

“Not yet, but they’re close by. The scent is unbelievably strong.” He unsheathed his crossbow with one hand and phoned Frosty with the other.

The closer we got to my house, the faster we ran. No zombies jumped out at us. When we reached my fence—no zombies waited there, either, thank God—I caught a glimpse of a retreating Cruz as I threw open the gate, too upset to even tell Cole goodbye. I had to check on my grandparents.

“What the—” I heard him say.

First thing I noticed: all the lights in the house were on. The second thing: policemen were everywhere.

“Weapons,” Cole reminded me.

I tossed the blade to the ground before I scrambled forward. “Nana! Pops!” The officer who stood at the back door grabbed me and held me in place.

“Are you Ali?” he demanded.

Porch light spilled over us. He was an older guy, on the heavier side, with concern bathing his face. “Yes. Where are my grandparents? Are they okay? What happened?”

“Are you okay?” he demanded.

“I’m fine. My grandparents—”

He ignored me, shouting, “I’ve got the girl.” His gaze moved behind me, to Cole, who’d followed me. “Who are you?”

“The boyfriend,” was Cole’s response.

Understanding replaced the cop’s concern. Other cops rushed to our little group, and between their questions and mine, answers began to fall into place. A “vandal” had broken into the house and scared my grandparents. Pops had made sure Nana was hidden and had then come looking for me. He hadn’t been able to find me. The vandal spotted him, knocked him around. Meanwhile, Nana called 911.

Couldn’t have been a zombie. Cole had promised there was a Blood Line all around the perimeter. So…why the smell?

“Justin,” Cole muttered.

My eyes widened. Justin wouldn’t have done this, I didn’t think, but his co-workers certainly could have. Still, that smell of rot…

I’d figure out the flaws in my logic later. Pops was now in the hospital, in stable condition and expecting a full recovery. Nana was here to answer the phone in case my kidnappers called. Only, I hadn’t been kidnapped, I’d snuck out.

I would carry the guilt of this forever. I’d brought this war to my grandparents’ doorstep. I couldn’t even comfort myself with the knowledge that I’d been out fighting tonight. I’d been making out, having fun while they worried and suffered.

“Can I see her?” I croaked.

“Sure,” the cop who’d first grabbed me said.

Though they weren’t done questioning Cole, he followed me inside, refusing to leave my side. I found Nana in the living room, sitting on the couch and silently crying. Her eyes were red and puffy, her nose running. They must have told her I’d been found, but had kept her here while they dug for the truth.

The moment she spotted me she was on her feet and racing to me, throwing her arms around me. I hugged her right back, holding on to her with all of my strength and crying along with her.

“I’m so sorry,” I said.

“We’ll talk about it later. I’m just happy you’re safe.”

After all the wonderful things they’d done for me, I’d caused my grandparents nothing but grief. And the horrible thing was, I knew I’d continue to do so.

Pops came home from the hospital a few days later. He looked so fragile I wanted to slug the doctor who’d released him and the insurance company who’d refused to pay for any more of his care.

I told Nana to take any money necessary from my college account and get him readmitted, but she refused. She had been desperate to have Pops back and under her care.

He had bruises under his eyes, and his cheeks were hollowed out. His skin was grayish and paper-thin, and all of his joints were swollen. He was such a darling man, my Pops. How could anyone have hurt him like that?

First day back at school, Cole and I confronted Justin and his sister in the parking lot. Cole spotted them as they stepped from the bus. He got out of his car and shouted, “Silverstone!”

Justin faced him. Without any other words spoken, the two launched at each other and just started hitting.

I got out and approached Jaclyn. “Interfere, and you’ll end up just like your brother,” I said through gritted teeth. “You and I are going to talk.”

She flipped her hair over her shoulder. “Screw you.”

“If you ever go near my grandparents again,” I snarled, “I will wipe the floor with your face. Do you hear me?”

She scowled, the wind blustering her hair back into place. “What are you talking about? We didn’t do anything to your grandparents.”

“Just like you didn’t start those rumors about me?”

The boys were busy throwing punches, cursing.

She shrugged. “Yeah, I stared the rumors. So what?”

“So you’re an evil little troll with no morals, who doesn’t mind hurting innocent people. I know you and your group came to the house to harass me, maybe even to rough me up. When you discovered I wasn’t there, you turned on my Nana and Pops.”

“I told you! I didn’t do anything to your grandparents.”

“You know who did, and you will tell me.” I didn’t wait for her response. She needed to know how serious I was. I popped her in the nose, blood instantly spurting from her. Her knees collapsed and she hit the ground with a howl.

Dr. Wright raced outside, the school doors banging shut behind her. “Enough!” she yelled. “Enough, boys. Ali. Now!”

The security guards had to pull the boys apart. Me, I held up my hands, palms out and said, “Self-defense.”

All four of us ended up suspended.

Kat came by to see me that night, but I was distracted and we ended up arguing, too.

“I told you about my illness, but you won’t tell me what’s going on with you?” she said, arms lifted with exasperation. “And I know something’s going on. You’re spending more and more time with Cole, you’re bruised all the time and I would think he was beating you if I hadn’t seen the bruises on everyone else you’re hanging out with. I know you’re involved in whatever Frosty’s involved in, and I know you’re keeping secrets from me.”

“I am,” I admitted, “but I can’t tell you anything more.”

Absolute hurt flashed over her features. “You don’t trust me?”

“I do, but these secrets belong to a group of people. I can’t betray them.”

“But I’m your friend.”

“You are. And so are they.”

“Ali—”

“I’m sorry, I just can’t,” I repeated.

She’d left in a huff.

I spent the rest of the night in a daze, roaming the house, checking doors and windows, with weapons strapped all over my body. After all those years of doubting him, I’d become the image of my father.

There was no reason to sneak out. Cole and the boys were out there, checking traps and patrolling the area. There was no reason to stay up, either, but I couldn’t force myself to sleep.

Pops and Nana had forbidden me from seeing him. For real this time, they’d said. And they meant business. Nana was sleeping on the couch in the living room.

Something had to be done.

The next morning, I texted him. Can U come over for dinner tonight? My grandparents would come to love him if they got to know him.

His reply was immediate. Yes. Everything OK?

Just need U.

About X. C U.

X must mean “time.” I grinned. Then, while I had my phone out, I decided to text Kat. I’M SORRY. I hated that I’d hurt her feelings.

I wasn’t expecting a reply until much later, if ever, but only a few minutes passed before I heard that telltale beep. No, I’m sorry. I was pushy & U know I’m never pushy.

A chuckle left me. Kat had a gift. She could make me laugh, no matter the circumstances. Friends?

Best.

Feeling as if a weight had lifted from my shoulders, I stripped off the weapons and went down to breakfast. Nana had already set the table, and Pops occupied his chair. His shoulders were hunched, his clothes wrinkled. He hadn’t bothered combing his hair over, just let the remaining strands hang limply over his temples. The circles under his eyes had darkened. His palms were flattened on the tabletop, and he was staring at them, lost in thought. Maybe he’d contracted some kind of virus while in the hospital.

“Pops,” I said gently.

He jolted as if I’d slapped him, his bloodshot gaze whipping up. “Yes?” There was a raspy quality to his voice, one he’d never before possessed.

“Are you okay? Can I get you anything?”

“I’m fine,” he murmured.

Nana carried in a big pan of eggs, steam rising from the top; ham and cheese scented the air. I took my place on Pops’s left. After Nana had scooped us each a portion and claimed her own seat, we ate in silence. At least she and I did. Pops pushed his food around his plate with his fork, not taking a single bite but grumbling under his breath.

“You need to eat something,” Nana told him.

He stopped grumbling and stared at her. Really stared, as if he were transfixed by her.

“What?” she asked, shifting in her chair. “Do I have something on my face?”

He said not a word.

Her gaze flipped to me, silently asking me the same question. I shook my head no, then returned my attention to my grandfather. His fingers were digging into the tabletop, his knuckles bowed up, as if he were trying to hold himself back.

From…attacking?

His lips pulled back, baring his teeth. A low growl rumbled from him. Every muscle in his body tensed.

Just as he sprang to his feet, I sprang to mine. He dove for Nana; I dove for him. I caught him just in time, and we jetted to the floor, slamming hard. Nana screamed.

“Taste,” Pops snarled, bucking and straining in an attempt to dislodge me to get to his wife.

Taste? Only zombies wanted to— Oh, no. No, no, no. He was alive. He couldn’t be…wasn’t…

I tried to pin his arms but failed. He was stronger than he appeared. Then my calm, sweet grandfather punched me in the cheek once, twice, and I stopped trying. Pain exploded through me, and only my lessons with Cole kept me lucid.

“What are you doing, Carl? Stop! You’re hurting her!”

I hated to do it, but I punched him back. Nana rushed over, probably thinking to help me, but all she did was agitate him, making him fight me even harder in an effort to get to her.

“Get my phone,” I shouted. “It’s in my room. Call Cole. Please, Nana. Please. Only Cole. He’ll help us. Please!”

She hesitated, backing up only a few feet, her expression dark with horror and uncertainty. Pops punched me again and again, a battering of his fists. I grappled with him, knowing releasing him would make everything worse. I couldn’t fight him and shield Nana.

“Now!” I shrieked. “And don’t come back in here. Pops isn’t himself. He’ll harm you.”

“Ali, I—”

“Go!”

At last she took off, disappearing around the corner. Without her presence, the full force of Pops’s rage switched to me. No longer was he content to punch me. Instead, he clawed and bit at me. Forget grappling. There was no longer any need to hold him, and I sprang away from him.

“Calm down, Pops. Okay? You don’t want to do this.”

He jumped up—only to go lax, his body collapsing to the floor. His eyes rolled to the back of his head. He stilled.

I watched in horror as his spirit rose from his body.

Horror—because I knew. A zombie had bitten him. Had infected him. Had killed him.

He was dead.

But he would live on.

He looked just as sickly as he had while inside his body, yet there was now a deeper cast of gray to his skin. His gaze swept through the room, never quite landing on me. He sniffed, licked his lips and moved toward the only door.

“Pops,” I said, and stepped out of my own body.

Instantly his attention locked on me and he forgot about tracking Nana. He stalked me throughout the room. When he lunged for me, I hopped out of the way. There were no Blood Lines in the house, so we both ghosted through the table, the food.

A pattern formed. We would circle each other. He would propel toward me. I would dive out of the way. The process would begin all over again. I had a dagger in my boot, but I couldn’t bring myself to stab him. I just couldn’t bring myself to disable him. Then I’d have to try to ash him, and I didn’t have the heart.

A scowling Cole finally strode into the room, Mackenzie, Bronx and Mr. Holland behind him. Mr. Holland demanded to know where my grandmother was, and after I told him, he took off. Bronx kicked the doors shut. I purposely avoided Cole’s eyes. This was the first time I’d seen him today, and I couldn’t afford a vision right now.

“Don’t kill him,” I said. “Please. There has to be another way.”

“Quiet,” Cole said. “Watch your confessions.”

Pops sniffed the air and licked his lips. “Taste.”

My friends stepped out of their bodies and surrounded him, quickly subduing him by pinning him to his stomach, his hands locked behind his back, his ankles tied with a glowing length of rope.

“Maybe we can…” I began, only to press my lips together and look down when Cole’s violet eyes swung to me. Our gazes locked—

—Cole was standing in front of me, his hands on my shoulders. “I’m sorry. It had to be that way. The man you loved would not have hit you like that. I don’t know when he was bitten, only that he was. What you saw today was a shell. Only a shell.”

“Then how was he able to come inside the house,” I asked as tears streamed down my cheeks, “with the Blood Line around the property?”

“Permission overrides the Blood Line. His house. His rules.”

My heart broke inside my chest. I should have checked for bite marks. I’d smelled the scent of rot the night of the break-in. “If I’d had more time, I could have figured out a way…”

“There was no other way,” Cole insisted, his tone ragged. “He had to die. To my knowledge, no one’s ever come back from this.”

He would know, wouldn’t he. He’d watched his own mother die this way—

“—Taaasssste.”

My grandfather’s voice broke through the vision. The world returned to normal. Cole was across the room, holding Pops down.

“Give me permission, Ali,” he gritted out.

I realized the power of my words had stopped him from acting before now—just as the power of his words nearly unhinged my jaw to get the right words out. I resisted.

“What’s wrong with him?” Nana cried from outside the closed doors. “Why did he do that to Ali? That’s not like him. He’s a good man.”

“I told you things are dangerous down here, Mrs. Bradley,” I heard Mr. Holland say.

Mackenzie stepped back into her body. “We just need a few minutes more,” she called.

“Ali,” Cole prompted.

I couldn’t dump this burden on him. “I’ll…I—I will do it.”

He studied me before nodding stiffly. “Can you?”

I looked down. Obstacle one: my hands were perfectly normal. Beyond a doubt, I could light up. The question was, could I do it on command?

“I don’t want to hurt him,” I said, my chin trembling. Obstacle two: my love for the man.

No, not a man. Not any longer.

“He won’t feel a thing, I promise you.”

Pops struggled for freedom, and I began to cry. He wanted to destroy Nana, and I couldn’t let him. So, really, there were no obstacles. I closed my eyes, dug deep inside myself and found a reservoir of determination.

“Yes,” I said, and I believed it with all my heart. “I can.”

Something inside me shattered, and heat exploded through my hands, up my arms, pooling in my shoulders. My eyelids popped open. Both of my arms were totally and completely lit up, from the tips of my fingers all the way to my collarbone.

Cole, Mackenzie and Bronx were staring at me with shock and awe.

I stumbled to my grandfather before I lost my nerve, crouched beside him, and waited until Cole had flipped him over. Pops nipped his teeth in my direction. Shaking, avoiding his gaze, I flattened my palm over his chest.

Within a single heartbeat of time, he was gone and ash was floating through the air. I gazed at my arms in bafflement. Cole had said it would take some time.

“Ali,” my grandmother called. “Ali, are you okay? Talk to me!”

Cole jumped back into his body. “Ali. Don’t touch anything else.”

“Ali!” Panic now laced Nana’s voice. “I am your grandmother and I demand you talk to me.”

But I had to touch my body. I had to return, had to respond to my grandmother.

“No,” he shouted as I reached out.

Spirit fingers brushed natural fingers. I gasped as the two halves of myself connected. The glow vanished, but I could feel remnants of the heat, little buzzes of lightning snapping and sizzling.

“Are you okay?” he demanded.

“Yes.” I called, “I’m fine, Nana.” But Pops isn’t. A fresh spring of tears cascaded down my cheeks. “How did I do that?” I asked Cole.

“I don’t know. I’ve never seen anything like it, and I was afraid you’d burn your body when you touched it. Next time, listen to me. I can’t take another scare like that.”

“Ali?” Nana said shakily. “I need to see you for myself.”

I peered at Cole pleadingly, silently begging for permission to tell her what had just happened. She deserved to know.

He nodded.

“The truth?”

Mackenzie protested, but Cole said, “Yes.”

I opened the dining room doors and Nana rushed inside, Mr. Holland close to her heels. Both of them scanned the room.

“Carl!” Nana gasped, throwing herself on top of Pops’s motionless body, as if to act as his shield from further damage. “Wake up. You have to wake up.”

I had to choke back my sobs. “He can’t, Nana. He’s…he’s gone.”

“No. He’ll wake up. He will.”

Eventually, though, she realized the truth and cried all the harder.

Cole helped her to her feet and led her to one of the chairs he’d righted. “There’s something Ali wants to tell you before the authorities arrive.”

I sat next to her. I was shaking, breathing so shallowly I knew I’d hyperventilate if I failed to calm down.

Though I feared she would decide I was crazy, that we were all crazy, I told her about the zombies. About Dad’s ability, and now mine. I told her that people trying to control the zombies had broken into the house, that somehow a zombie had bitten and infected Pops.

Zombies had changed Pops. Killed his body—and I’d had to destroy his spirit.

With every sentence I spoke, she released a pained moan, and each of those moans choked me up. By the end I could barely understand myself.

“This is…this is…” She couldn’t quite make herself say the words that would condemn me, but I knew she was thinking them. She had to be.

“Unbelievable, I know,” Mr. Holland said, picking up the slack. “But she’s telling you the truth. This is why she’s been gone so much. This is why she’s been bruised. This is why she snuck out that night.”

Cole crouched between us, his solemn gaze on Nana. “It’s time to call 911. You can’t wait any longer, or there will be questions. Tell them he collapsed.”

I knew why he wanted that. The authorities would do an autopsy and decide Pops had died of that “rare” disease.

Her chin trembled, tears continuing to track down her cheeks and leave red marks. She looked at me, taking in my battered face. “He was so ashamed. He told me only this morning that the people who broke in dragged him outside. He was so scared, thought they were going to kill him. But they took him past the fence, held him down, told him about the horrible things they were going to do to him. He said the more terrified he became, the more he felt little pricks of heat in his chest. He thought he was having a heart attack. Then he heard the sirens. They let him go, and he rushed back inside.”

Rage bloomed inside me, white-hot, consuming. So. The people Justin worked with were responsible. They had forced my Pops past the Blood Line, had filled him with fear, an aphrodisiac to the zombies, and then watched as he was devoured.

Maybe Justin and Jaclyn hadn’t known. Maybe they had. Either way, their leaders had expected Pops to infect me—to turn me into a zombie. What I wasn’t sure about was whether they wanted to experiment on me or end me.

“I’m sorry, Ali,” Cole whispered, and I knew he’d arrived at the same conclusion I had.

My life had just taken another terrible turn, and I had a sick feeling things were only going to get worse. And you know what? I’d had this feeling several times before…and not once had I been wrong.