Page 74 of Welcome to Blackbird Hollow
Mrs. Cheng winks at me as we move toward the back room. There’s a secret door that pops out just down from the ice machine, obscured by a giant lilac bush that Mrs. Cheng has lovingly tended to for nearly twenty years.
I shake my head. “Not you too. Can’t anyone in this town buy arms from someone who isn’t a total sleaze?”
“He’s got the best guns,” Mrs. Cheng assures me. “And a cute butt.”
I sigh deeply. Women who outwit me at every turn, Fey-fucking jokes, and warlock arms dealers with cute butts—this is my life. There’s no point in telling Mrs. C to stay inside. She won’t. Plus, I’m not completely opposed to having backup.
As we near the door, the sound of voices gets louder, and I can hear my girl sounding less than pleased.
“This door gonna squeak when I open it?” I whisper to Mrs. Cheng.
She rolls her eyes at me. “Who’re you talking to, Middle Hayes? I am the queen of WD-40,” she snaps.
Mrs. Cheng hasn’t called me “Middle Hayes” since I was little. Makes me feel like I’ve got a mom on my side. Mrs. Cheng lost all her kids, in an incident she won’t discuss, before she came here—but, unlike my own mother, she’s got an instinct for parenting. I think she’d be a mom no matter what happened to her in life.
“Alrighty, then,” I whisper and push the door open.
We step outside, and Mrs. Cheng shuts the door, silent as can be, behind us. We press ourselves against the brick wall, taking stock of what’s happening. From the sound of the conversation, it’s gotta be the Sector agent we’ve been calling Not-Cookie Grandma.
Mrs. Cheng peeks through what appears to be a peephole in her lilac bush. Of course she’s got a peephole in her landscaping. Why would I expect anything less? She throws up her hand, wiggling all five fingers. There’s at least five agents out there then. Great.
I hear the end of one of Alice’s sentences. “The Hedgerider Council?—”
She sounds worried now. I nudge Mrs. Cheng out of the way so I can take a peek. There’s Not-Cookie-Grandma. I glare at her from Mrs. C’s peephole, then take stock of the agents. Two are pointing their guns wrong. One’s got the safety on still.
“Those old have-beens?” Not-Cookie-G laughs. “They’re all the way across an ocean, Alice. What do you think they’ll really be able to do? Do you think we haven’t killed hedgeriders before? Wiped entire towns just like this one off the map?”
She sounds fucking unhinged. But she’s wrong. Sector hasn’t done shit like that in nigh on thirty years. She’s lying to my sweet girl. Trying to scare her into giving up. Anger rises in me as she grabs Alice’s rifle and leans in to menace her. I’ll give it to the broad, she’s quick.
“Come with us, or you’ll see just how weak and useless a family like the Hayes really are.”
Alice laughs at the same time Mrs. Cheng and I do. Her words cover up the sound of us stifling our laughter. “For one last time, bitch. If you try to take me, you’ll find outexactlyhow terrifying the Hayes are.”
I smile to myself, warmth flooding me.That’s my girl.
Mrs. Cheng nods to me, and I step out first, aiming the salt-filled rifle at the back of the agent with a gun on Alice, the only one who’s got a chance of actually shooting her. I point the muzzle at the back of his knees and pull the trigger. The man goes down, howling like a baby as the salt sprays across his legs.It’s gotta hurt like a son of a bitch. I kick his gun out of the way as the rest of the agents turn.
Alice’s eyes leap to mine. I smile at her. “You telling my baby lies, Agent NCG?”
The elder agent frowns at me, clearly trying to puzzle out what I’ve just called her. It gives Mrs. Cheng time to grab Alice’s arm and pull her back toward me, into the lilac bush. But the remaining agents and Not-Cookie-G advance toward us.
In one smooth motion, I swap guns with Alice. “Now, you know damn well that Sector hasn’t wiped shit off shit since Reformation was in its infancy. Let’s not overstate things.”
Not-Cookie-G glares at me, but then her mouth quirks into a smile. “Do you think you can shoot enough of us before we kill her?”
“Thought you were gonna kidnap me,” Alice hisses. “What happened to that?”
Not-Cookie-G shrugs. “You know what they say—if we can’t have you, nobody can.”
I suck in a breath of cold night air. It’s been a long fucking day, and I hate this shit. I hate bandying idle threats and talking. Because that’s what these threats are. Idle. At the end of the day, maybe we got too good at hiding who we really are from Sector. They sure do have an overblown idea of themselves, though.
My eye snags on the mist curling around the downed agent’s legs. He’s sobbing on the ground, but quietly at least. One second he’s there, whimpering away, and the next he’s gone, a bloody streak all that’s left. The sound of his screams disappears into the forest.
“Well, shit,” I mutter. “Looks like we’re gonna set fire to the raindrops.”
“That’s not how that song goes,” Not-Cookie snarls as six huge hellhounds step out of the forest. On each of Their backs rides a beautiful, naked woman. Their limbs are far toolong, Their skin the faintest shades of iridescent green in the moonlight. Various leaves trail through Their long hair, eyes glowing fluorescent.
And when They see me, They all grin, looking like a pack of devils with Their sharp teeth.
