Page 15 of A Sacrifice in the Smoke

He screams in agony while I scream in horror. Swearing, Noah reels away from me and delivers a hard kick to the weeper’s gut. The creature goes flying, only to be replaced by the other one, probably drawn by the smell of Drew’s blood. As Noah kicks that one away, too, I’m screaming and wrenching at my arms, which causes the entire chair to tilt. It slams to the ground, causing Noah’s attention to snap toward me. “Goddamn it,” he snarls. Within the same breath, he appears at my side and shoves the pocketknife into my grasp.

He returns to Drew, no, he runs right past him, heading for the weepers. I force myself to focus on the ropes, although my hands are shaking so badly that I almost drop the pocketknife three times. The seconds become minutes, and the minutes hours as I cut the ropes. I knick myself so many times that my grip becomes slippery with blood.There.The ropes fall away and I leap up, wasting no time getting to Drew so I can do the same with his bonds.

When I’m finished, Drew tries to stand up, but he crumples instantly. I catch him just as he’s about to hit the earth, my knees taking the blow instead. Drew’s head lands in my lap, and I catch hold of it, trying not to look at the gaping holes in his throat. The second weeper must’ve gotten him, too, despite how quickly Noah moved. Black dots fill my vision—a warning that I’m on the verge of passing out. I’m dimly aware of the sounds Noah makes as he kills the weepers. Squishing, moaning, cracking. Doesn’t matter. All that matters is that I stop the bleeding. I use precious seconds wriggling out of my jumpsuit so I can use it as a rag.

“I’m going after the human,” I hear Noah tell me. I lift my head, processing his words a beat too late. Before I can scream at him to get a medical team first, the hunter is a blur of movement, and then I’m alone with Drew in the tunnel.I can’t believe he just did that.I stare at the place where he was just standing, so shocked that it feels like I can’t move.

“Doesn’t m-matter,” Drew says weakly, drawing my gaze back to him. There’s fear in his eyes and his skin is unnaturally pale. “They w-w-wouldn’t get here in t-time.”

Already I can hear his heart slowing. I grit my teeth and say a prayer to every god there is, silently vowing to do anything they wish, if only they would save this boy.Don’t cry, Charlie. Don’t you dare cry while he can see it.“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry,” I whisper, blinking the stubborn tears back. My free hand rakes his silky hair back, again and again. Half of his face is sticky with blood, but I pretend nothing is wrong, smiling determinedly down at him.

“Not your f-fault, Charlie. Listen, I know y-y-you’ll forget me eventually. I know that. But don’t forget me… too quickly,” he finishes.

“I could never forget you, Andrew Jonathon Hayes,” I whisper, giving him another tremulous smile, my lips wet with tears. “You’re my first love. You will always be my first love.”

“Good. Then it was worth it,” he says, somehow managing to smile back. It’s such a Drew smile, in its loveliness and purity. I’m about to choke out a response when he adds, “Nina…”

I nod so hard that it hurts. “I’ll tell her you love her. I’ll watch over her—I promise.”

This seems to be what Drew needs.

The breath rattles in his lungs like loose change in someone’s pocket. When he dies, it feels like organs being removed or a soul splitting in two. Ash fills my mouth. I reach to close Drew’s eyes and feel a shock go through me at how cold he is already. Next, I reach for his hands, intending to fold them over his chest. When I move him, though, that strange ring on his finger glints.

I don’t know why—I don’t even think about it, really—but I watch myself slide it off, then tuck it into the pocket of my jeans. Because of the skull, it creates an odd bulge beneath the denim. The moment I feel it against me, a sense of calm steals over my mind. The tears begin to retreat.

Sounds echo down the tunnel.Better move,that inner voice says.Could be another weeper.

But, for some reason, I don’t get up. I sit there, in the mud, hands limp in my lap. Soon enough, Noah comes around the bend. The relief I should feel is muted. Absent. After a moment, I see that he’s dragging Leo behind him, exactly the way Leo had been dragging the weepers earlier. When I realize I can’t hear his heartbeat, I still feel nothing. I raise my gaze to Noah’s and say, “Is he dead?”

Pity gleams in the vampire’s eyes, making them even brighter than usual. He lets Leo fall face-first into the mud. “I’m sorry,” he says, glancing toward Drew. “I didn’t know.”

“Didn’t know what?” I ask, my voice faint.

“I didn’t know the human was—”

“I’ll never stop fighting you and your kind!” Leo hisses suddenly. He’s dragging himself away, his legs making a path through the muck like some kind of worm. “The rebellion is more powerful than you can imagine. We won’t—”

Noah must’ve found his gun, because he takes it out from the back of his jeans. Without a word, he turns, aims, and pulls the trigger. A bullet goes through Leo’s head and bursts from the other side. Noah lowers his gun and glances at me. There’s a hardthudas Leo’s body hits the ground a second time. “Sorry, I guess he wasn’t dead enough.”

I don’t say anything. Like a spirit, I drift away. Away from the empty shell that once held Drew, away from the darkness, away from the memory of all-encompassing pain. Noah says something about Bill—probably that he’ll let my master know that the case has been solved.

As I walk, I discover that I can still feel. There’s blood trickling down my jawbone, tears clouding my vision, and waves of pain in my arms and legs. I force myself to keep going, though, knowing the wounds in my body will heal. My heart, however, feels like another matter altogether.

It feels like years later, and also seconds later, when I reach the street. There, beneath a wide moon, I succumb to a sudden urge torun.

Horns blare and tires scream, but I ignore them. Despite the wild-eyed Lavender darting through traffic, cars keep roaring by. The rumbles of those engines are equivalent to the noise in my head, and I’m grateful for it. They honk and squeal and pick up speed, always rushing, always in a hurry to go somewhere. Even if there’s nowhere to go.

Then I’m flying.

My hands and face tears across cruel pavement. Moonlight bleeds across the world as I push myself up, scrape the road off my skin, and continue drifting in the direction of the hotel like the ghost I feel. The mindless urge to run is gone, as quickly as it came. I stop anyway, staring blankly up at the stars, seeing only the dying light in Drew’s eyes.

The sky accepts my scream like a sacrifice.

Afterwards, the ground rumbles, as though all the gods I’d prayed to are acknowledging me. But they’re denying my pleads. Turning away. Because Drew is dead, and he’s human, which means he isn’t coming back.

Fittingly, it begins to rain. No, not rain—this is a downpour. With water streaming down my skin and soaking my clothes, I raise my face to scream again.

Chapter Five

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