Page 147 of Black to Light

I pushed the thought from my mind. I yanked on the latch of my own door, pushed it open with a booted foot, and climbed out to land on the sidewalk. I’d just adjusted my gun and holster under my jacket, making sure they were tucked away and out of sight, when I spotted a group of four people walking across the road in our direction.

I knew at once they were seers.

They walked like seers, with that strange, animal-like quality that was nothing like how vampires moved, but equally foreign to how most people moved through the world.

I couldn’t help the relief that washed over me when I saw Yarli’s face, and Manny’s next to hers where he held her hand tightly in his.

I walked straight towards them, practically met them in the center of the road.

I noticed only then that they had Luce, one of Black’s human soldiers, with them, along with Pavel and Wendy, both seers who’d been recruited from the refugees of Old Earth. All three of them had been part of the team Black sent out to finish erasing any sign of seers and seer tech in labs and governments throughout the world.

It wasn’t the entire team, of course; it wasn’t even a quarter of that team. Presumably, the rest of them were out there, still doing their job.

“We saw them go in,” Yarli said at once.

“And Nick, just now,” Manny added calmly.

Black, who’d joined us, nodded. He glanced at Ace, who pulled his cell phone out of his pocket and began texting.

I assumed he was telling Nick what Yarli just told us.

I wanted to hug Yarli, and Manny, and Luce, for that matter… and even Pavel and Wendy, who I didn’t know very well… but now wasn’t the time.

As if to emphasize that point, horns blared at us where we blocked part of the street. Jax, A.J., and a few others held up hands peacefully to the honking cars, but we’d already started to get out of their way. We walked quickly, moving in the same direction Nick had gone.

A tall white fence with warning signs all over it blocked our view of the hill.

Alisha had just sent all of our phones a map of the area, including the visitor center and small gift shop for the national archeological park, and the blocked off opening to the cave.

I took a screenshot as soon as I got the notification and opened it up. I stared down at the map long enough for my photographic seer’s memory to kick in and record every part I thought we might need.

Then I closed my phone and shoved it in the back pocket of my jeans.

I already knew they’d gone inside the cave.

It didn’t occur to me until later to questionhowI’d known that, or why I’d been so sure.

None of us spoke as we passed through the gate at one end of the white fence.

A heavy padlock lay on the dirt just inside, the metal cut in a violent tear, even though the bar had to be nearly an inch thick. Somehow I doubted it had been Nick who’d done that; I wondered if it had been Dalejem, or if it had been broken like that before he got here, too.

Our group remained unnervingly silent.

A few people clapped Yarli and Manny on the shoulders, or touched their hands or arms in hello. Manny and Yarli did the same in return, as did Luce and the two other seers.

But no one really spoke.

The silence felt heavier now, like it contained and carried a lot more.

I glanced at signs pointing up the walkway that led to the visitor center.

The asphalt path rose gently towards a higher point on the base of the rocky mountain, shaded by a small forest of trees. It wove leisurely in looping switchbacks, past displays detailing the history of the caves, finds by the excavation teams, images of what the valley looked like during various Ice Ages and between them, timelines of the evolutions ofhomo sapiens,drawings of local predators and prey.

We were walking fast.

Everyone had a hand on a weapon.

That sick feeling I’d had in the car hadn’t lessened.

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