The Farm (32 page)

CHAPTER THIRTY-NINE

Carter

The plan was a simple one, as rescue plans go. He and Sebastian would sneak in through the venting in the roof. Lily would wait fifteen minutes for them to get into place and then she’d call the Dean, tell him she was there, and—hopefully—walk in through the front door, therefore providing the distraction Carter and Sebastian needed to grab Mel.

Carter didn’t like the idea of sending Lily in alone. But it was the best plan they had. Which was why it pissed him off when Sebastian didn’t follow it.

Carter stopped and scanned the back wall of the building. “You said there was a ladder up to the roof.”

“True.”

“There’s no ladder,” Carter pointed out.

Sebastian grinned. “It is also true that I haven’t spent the night removing all the screws on the ductwork so that we can move quickly through the ventilation system.”

Carter fell into step beside Sebastian. “Okay, I’ll bite. Why aren’t we going in through the ventilation system?”

“Have you ever crawled through ductwork? Nasty business. Besides, I don’t like dust. Also, earlier I picked the lock on the back door and going in that way will be much easier.”

Carter gritted his teeth. “Let me be more specific. Why did you lie to Lily? Why not tell her the real plan?”

Sebastian paused and turned to look Carter squarely in the eye. “You, my boy, have not been paying attention. She doesn’t trust you. She doesn’t trust me.”

“Not surprising, since we keep lying to her.” It was all he could do not to deck Sebastian. In fact, he might have, if he’d thought doing so would cause the vampire even a twinge of pain. “You know, I’ve worked damn hard over the past couple of hours to convince her that I am trustworthy. Now you’ve blown it.”

Sebastian crossed the rest of the distance to the building’s back door. “Not necessarily. You’re still trustworthy. I’m the lying jerk.”

“You got that right,” Carter muttered.

Sebastian swung open the door. “Don’t worry. I’ll make sure she blames me. And when this is all done and you’ve saved her sister, she’ll throw herself in your arms and you’ll be glad you aren’t covered in dust.”

“Just tell me why.”

“Because Mel is not at all happy to be here. In fact, she’s damn near catatonic. If you and I are lucky, we will get in and rescue the girl before Lily even sees her. If not, Lily will walk in and see what the Dean has done. Her emotions will be completely out of control. First she will lose it, then you will. I can’t even guarantee that my own control won’t slip. Is that what you want?”

Sebastian didn’t give Carter a chance to answer, but disappeared into the darkened building, leaving Carter no choice but to follow him.

CHAPTER FORTY

Lily

I had every intention of following the plan. Really, I did. But as I approached the building, I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck prickling as trepidation tiptoed up my spine. I tried to dismiss it as nerves, but I knew something was really wrong as soon as I saw the human arm.

The school’s front entrance had glass double doors. When I first approached, I thought someone had blocked the doors from the outside by threading a board through the two handles. The nearly full moon was low on the horizen. Even in the dim light of moon, I knew the shape wasn’t right.

Part of the arm was covered in the tattered sleeve of a sweatshirt bearing the logo of the school our Farm had once been. The sleeve was from a hoodie identical to the one I wore. It might have been a cheesy Halloween prop, except for the unmistakable smell of rotting flesh.

I stood there for a moment while my mind struggled to process what I saw. I glanced back across the parking lot to where McKenna sat in the van, watching me. The parking lot was large, since the church and its grounds took up an entire city block. She’d parked the car under a pair of sprawling oak trees at the end of the lot, where it wouldn’t attract attention.

I don’t know why I looked back there, when she couldn’t see the arm from that distance, but somehow it comforted me knowing she was waiting in the van, ready to whisk Mel to safety.

Trying to breathe shallowly, I studied the arm, reasoning it through despite my panic. My brain felt sluggish. Like I was looking at the world through a bowl of Jell-O. Everything was wobbling and dense.

Why was the arm there?

Had Sebastian seen it? He must have. He’d been at St. Patrick’s for several hours before we got there. And if Carter was to be believed, Sebastian’s sense of smell was phenomenal. If he could scent Ticks from miles away, then surely he’d smelled this. Besides, he’d clearly told me to stay in the van until it was time to come in and provide the distraction. Had he been trying to spare me seeing the arm?

Not that any of it mattered. Not really. Because my sister was on the other side of that door. I could feel her fear pulling me forward. It pressed against the back of my head, drawing me to her, through the Jell-O in my brain. Maybe I’d been right all along or maybe her emotions were just that much stronger than mine. Any calming thoughts I might have sent her way got sucked into the undertow of her panic and were washed out to sea. Despite all my planning and my intentions. I had to get to her. I had to save her. I was the only one who could do it. But I’d have to take the arm out to get to her.

My stomach rebelled, pumping bile into my mouth. I swallowed it back. I didn’t have time for puking or squeamishness. Walking closer, I sucked air in through my mouth, but somehow the stench seemed wedged up my nose. I raised my arm to my face and tucked my nose into the crook of my elbow, burying it in the fleece of my hoodie.

I couldn’t watch as I did it. I just breathed out through my mouth, closed my eyes over my horrified tears, and reached for the arm. Even though I grabbed the shred of cloth, I could feel the skin slipping against the flesh rotting out beneath it. For one second, I was terrified I’d pull the skin completely off, but I tightened my grip and gave the arm a wiggle, too aware of the moisture seeping through the sleeve.

Finally it pulled free with a sickening squelch. I tossed it as far as I could, then dropped to the ground and wiped my hand on the icy pavement, heedless of the gravel scratching my palm. It barely helped. There was blood and God only knew what else on my skin and it wouldn’t come off. I felt like I’d never be clean again. Like I’d never forget the feeling of that arm in my hand. Like the memory would eat at me forever, the way the constant stream of bile seemed to be eating my throat. Death was everywhere. I couldn’t escape it.

I pulled my sweatshirt over my head and furiously scrubbed at my hand with the cloth. The bitterly cold air embraced the skin exposed by my few layers of clothes, but I didn’t care. My thoughts reordered themselves slowly.

I used the sweatshirt to open the door handles—it was already ruined and I didn’t want to risk getting more human juice on me—and then I stepped into the building, where I was met with a wave of panic and a sight so grisly I immediately dropped to my knees and puked up the Ritz crackers and canned beans I’d eaten earlier.

Carter was right. The Ticks weren’t the only monsters out there.

CHAPTER FORTY-ONE

Carter

Carter followed Sebastian through the back door straight into the building’s kitchen. Utilitarian stainless counters lined the walls and silent appliances flanked the door. A professional oven on one side and a silent, still refrigerator on the other.

The air was dank and dense with the scent of rotting meat. Like maybe the refrigerator had been full of food when the town fell and it had been slowly decomposing over the past six months. The smell only got stronger as they crept out of the kitchen and down a pitch-black corridor. His stomach flipped over in his belly as bile surged up his throat. The air was thick with the scent of death and decay.

There was something so profoundly wrong about it that everything in him wanted to turn and run. Not only was the scent revolting on a gut-deep level, but it was illogical, too.

The kitchen in the other church smelled musty and unused, but it hadn’t smelled like this. Whatever food had been stored in it had long since decayed. The kitchen here had been empty just as long. So it should smell no worse. Furthermore, the smell was stronger away from the kitchen.

Carter reached out a hand in the dark, grabbing only air for a moment before finally seizing the back of Sebastian’s shirt.

“Wait.” He had to force the word past his growing nausea. He sensed rather than saw when Sebastian stepped closer to him.

“Oh, how sweet. The poor human can’t see in the dark and needs someone to hold his hand.”

Carter ignored the jab. “What aren’t you telling me?”

“I don’t know what you mean.”

“What’s that awful smell? And why didn’t you want Lily to come into the building? Even if you thought she’d try to grab Mel and leave, that wouldn’t worry you. You’d be able to catch them. Which means you just didn’t want her in the building. Why?”

In the darkness, Sebastian gave a beleaguered sighed. “I don’t suppose you’d be willing to merely trust my opinion that it would be better if Lily were not around for her sister’s rescue.”

“No, I won’t. What aren’t you telling me? What has the Dean done to Mel that you don’t want me to see? Is Mel hurt? Is she even still alive?”

“She is . . . still alive.”

Carter cursed. “How badly is she hurt?”

“I can’t tell. The Dean appears not to have hurt her physically, but . . . psychologically, she seemed unresponsive. Traumatized, if you will.”

“Traumatized? By what?”

“The delightful scent you so keenly observed,” Sebastian answered in a crisp, elegant accent. “Which, I promise you, smells even more revolting to me. So if you wouldn’t mind, I’d like to proceed so we can leave as quickly as possible.”

The tone of Sebastian’s voice set Carter’s nerves on edge. The vampire’s diction got more and more proper the closer he was to losing control. It was his one tell.

“Give me the sitrep, so I’ll know what to expect. Do it fast so we can get in and out quickly.”

Again, Sebastian sighed. “Fine. You were dead-on about the Ticks not recognizing the cultural significance of all churchs. Sacred ground or not, it’s not always identifiable enough for their tiny brains. But apparently the Dean knew that was a possibility. He brought along insurance.”

“Insurance?”

“There is one thing that will absolutely ward off Ticks. Always.”

“What is it?”

“As it happens, it works fairly well for humans and vampires as well.”

Before Carter could demand more answers, they turned the corner into another hallway. The stench made the air feel thick with death. A row of windows near the ceiling cast wan beams of moonlight across the floor. Suddenly he could see the source of the smell. A trail of body parts littered the ground. Arms and legs mostly. His stomach rolled over as he fought against his nausea.

Sebastian’s quiet voice broke through his battered senses. “Every predator alive is repulsed by the scent of its food rotting. A corpse more than a day or two old will ward off all but the hungriest of Ticks. Luckily humans and vampires can reason their way past their fear.”

Carter let out a shuddering breath. “Lucky us.”

Before he could say anything else, he was hit in the chest by a wall of fear so strong it nearly knocked him on his ass. From one breath to the next, he went from that eerie state of adrenaline- fueled calm to pure gut-wrenching panic. Sweat sprang from his every pore. The adrenaline in his veins turned against him, making his muscles shake. Every instinct he had screamed at him to flee.

Only Sebastian’s hand gripping his shoulder kept him pinned in place. Even then, if he’d had any way of shaking him off and bolting, Carter would have.

Sebastian himself had gone unnaturally pale in the single ray of moonlight. His pupils had shifted from their normal round human form to creepy, scalloped vertical slits. But his expression lacked the deadly calm Carter had seen so many times before a battle. Even the vampire looked shaken.

The supernaturally strong hand on his shoulder tightened. “You must regain your control.”

Carter nodded. Some tiny seed of his logical mind agreed one hundred percent. But that chunk of brain was a second away from abdicating.

They had to do this now. While he still had some control. Mel needed to be rescued and she had to be right on the other side of the door. And they were already too late. His overwhelming emotional reaction could mean only one thing. Lily had beat them to it.

CHAPTER FORTY-TWO

Lily

Only one thing kept me from losing it completely in the following minutes: I was nearly there. I’d have Mel back soon.

The doors to the school led into a foyer with a hall branching off in either direction. Just inside the door, I took the bow and quiver off and set them down. I couldn’t bring them any farther for fear the Dean would see them and freak out. I only had four arrows anyway and didn’t want to waste them on the Dean. I pulled the heavy Maglite from my back pocket and turned it on. I kept my shiv tucked through the loop in the back of my jeans. I could get it quickly if I needed it.

There was a storage closet off to the left and the door had been opened; all the sacramentals for a Catholic mass spilled out of the closet onto the ground. I couldn’t tell if someone else had pillaged the church months ago, or if the Dean had done so when he’d first arrived.

I walked past the discarded implements of a faith I didn’t practice and tried not to think it was a sign of bad things to come. If God hadn’t protected this church and its holy regalia, then what hope did I have that he would protect my sister? But maybe that was what Joe had meant earlier about human choice. It was my choice to protect my sister, just as it had been his to protect McKenna.

Pushing aside the thought, I crossed the foyer and found the doors to the cafeteria that Sebastian had described. The second I walked into the room, I caught sight of Mel. Alive.

The room was empty except for Mel and the Dean. Mel’s back was to the east wall, her gaze blank and unfocused. She wasn’t rocking or stimming. I couldn’t blame her. If the lack of movement allowed her to retreat into her own mind, then she was the lucky one. But she was still humming. This nursery rhyme I knew instantly.
Little Bo Peep has lost her sheep and doesn’t know where to find them.

Everything else in the room was so horrific, I couldn’t look at it long. Five or six kerosene lanterns lay spread out in a half circle around where she sat and the Dean paced in front of her. Between each lantern sat a human head. Legs made up the second ring, one for each lantern and each head. The result looked vaguely like a mosaic of the sun, with the legs as the beams and Mel at its center.

The Dean paced between me and Mel, weaving his way between the heads and lanterns as if barely aware that one was a life taken and the other a risk. He tugged at his hair as he walked, intermittently rubbing at his eyes and muttering to himself. He wasn’t looking where he was going. If he accidentally kicked one of the lanterns, the room could catch fire. But maybe he was too far gone to notice. Maybe he didn’t care. Whatever madness gripped him, he was no longer the greasy, controlling man I’d seen in the admin building or even the one I’d spoken to on the phone just hours earlier.

I noted this all quickly. It only added to the terror pumping through my veins. I had to get out of here. To flee. I might have even done it, but my feet felt cemented to the ground. Beneath my fear, I felt a great surge of shame. Mel was trapped here, had been here for hours. I wanted so desperately to get her back to safety, yet still I had the urge to bolt. It took unimaginable will to keep from fleeing the room. My legs shook with the effort, but I made myself stay.

“Mel,” I gasped out through trembling lips.

Both the Dean and Mel jerked in my direction as if neither had noticed my entrance, though I hadn’t been quiet coming in the front door at all.

Mel broke off midtune, relief pouring off her. Hope. And something else as well. Shame maybe. In that moment, Mel, who was such a mystery, even to me who should know her best, was as crystal clear as a high-def CD.

She was embarrassed that she’d let herself get caught by him. Ashamed that she couldn’t do more to save herself. Ashamed of her fear.

I wanted nothing so much as to run across the room to her and wrap her in my arms. For once she might have let me. She started to stand, but the Dean stepped in front of her.

“You came,” he whispered. Then again, louder, “You came.” He let out a laugh, shaking one finger in my direction. “You’re a tricky girl. Early. But you came. I knew you would and you did.”

I barely spared him a glance, but held out a hand to Mel. “Come here, Mel.”

Mel moved to step around him, but he spun on her, surprisingly fast for such a rotund man. He grabbed her hair and tugged hard. Mel let out a screech of pain, stumbling toward him. Her body fell against his. She tried to push herself away, but his grip on her hair must have been too strong.

He stepped closer to me, dragging her along beside him. “Oh, no. Oh, no, you don’t. You don’t get to have her. Not yet. Not until I have you.”

Mel kicked out at him ineffectually and he jerked her off the ground, her feet kicking out as she tried to regain her balance. One of the kerosene lanterns tipped over. Her foot inadvertently snuffed the flame, but the fuel glugged out onto the ground.

“Let her go!” I screamed, stumbling forward myself.

He ignored me, dragging Mel closer. “Stop right there!”

“Please,” I begged. “Let her go. I’m here. Just like you asked.”

“You came alone?” he demanded.

“I did.” But as I spoke, my gaze flickered to the ground, to the rapidly spreading kerosene shining across the floor.

“What kind of a fool do you think I am?” He pulled Mel closer with one hand and with the other whipped a gun out from his waistband.

He forced Mel in front of him. Her foot landed on one of the legs and she slipped going down onto her knees, the extra leg trapped beneath her own. A high, keening sound pulled from her throat. The Dean never released his hold on her hair. Her neck strained backward, exposing her throat, and he wedged the nose of the gun into her jaw.

I whimpered as if it was my own neck. “I don’t—” I had to shove the words out past my mingled fear and disgust. “—think you’re a fool.”

“It’s a trick, isn’t it? You didn’t come alone. You brought him, didn’t you?”

“I didn’t!” My voice quavered and I prayed he couldn’t hear the lie.

“You couldn’t have made it here on your own. You didn’t even call first. And you didn’t throw up. You must have known. You must know about the Tick-proofing.”

I had no idea what he was talking about and I shook my head mutely, but he didn’t notice.

“Didn’t you know that’s what the bodies are for?”

“What? What are they for?” I asked. I looked from him to Mel, hoping for some sign . . . something, anything that would make this make sense.

Mel met my gaze. Her head was twisted to the side by the Dean’s hold on her, but the panic seemed to have faded a bit. Or maybe shock had taken her, I couldn’t tell which. But suddenly I knew I wasn’t going to let this bastard win. He’d tortured my sister and I was going to bring him down.

“Did you even consider that’s why I do it? It’s a trick I learned from the Order of the Dragon. It’s the only thing that really repels them. You didn’t know that, did you? The scent of rotting humans repulses them even more than it does us. It terrifies them. Did you think I kept Greens tethered outside the fences because I’m a sadistic bastard?”

As he talked, I slipped a hand behind me, reaching for the shiv I’d wedged into the back of my pants.

He seemed to be waiting for me to speak, so I did. “I didn’t—”

But then he cut me off immediately. “That’s not who I am! That’s not why I do these things! I’m protecting you all. The Ticks feed off the fresh blood, but as soon as the bodies start to rot, they leave. They stay away. It’s the only thing that keeps them away!”

My hand tightened on the shiv. “You’re sick.”

Anger flickered across his face, but before the Dean could answer, there was a crash from the back of the room.

The Dean pushed Mel away from him and grabbed me, just as I was reaching for the shiv. Mel went sprawling across the floor in a tangle of too many legs. She knocked over two more of the kerosene lanterns. One flickered out, but the other stayed lit, its flame dancing across the fuel as it spilled.

The Dean pulled me to him, turning me so my back was against his chest. One arm snaked around my neck; the other pinned my right arm to my side. The Maglite clattered to the ground as he jammed the pistol into my ribs just under my breast.

The flashlight spun across the floor, casting an odd arch of light around the room, like a pinwheel firework. I saw still shots from throughout the room: Mel sprawled on the floor, the flames spreading across the surface of the kerosene, a pair of legs standing in a dark corner of the room.

I didn’t know who was there. Carter? Sebastian? Someone else?

The Dean had pulled me so our backs were to the front door now. Only three of the six lanterns were still lit, but fire spreading across the floor cast wild, flickering light into the shadows at the end of the hall, where shapes shifted and moved. Human speed? Or Tick speed? My muddled brain couldn’t tell.

“You stupid bitch.” Panic made the Dean’s voice shake. “You lured me away from the body parts. You didn’t bring in the arm, did you? Now we have nothing.”

He tried to drag me back a step, but he hit the doors. I could hear the clicking of the door latch, but it stuck and he couldn’t get out. He was taller than I’d thought and when his arm tightened on my neck, I struggled to pull air into my lungs. Even arching up onto my toes, black spots popped before my eyes.

I could feel him twitching behind me, as he looked about the room, turning from one corner to the other, spinning us both around.

Where were Sebastian and Carter? I cursed the fact that I’d come in early. I hadn’t trusted Sebastian’s motives, hadn’t believed that he’d be able to get her out. But now she and I were in here alone. Still, I couldn’t afford not to take advantage of our captor’s momentary distraction. Not when flames were spreading across the floor.

I reached my left hand up, trying to gain purchase on his face, but though my nails scratched skin, he only yanked me farther off the ground. The gun rammed harder into my side. Oh, God, he was either going to shoot me or strangle me.

I arched to the side, trying to get away from the gun and free my windpipe at the same time. Something sharp and cold scraped the left side of my waist.

The shiv! In my panic, I’d forgotten I had it.

I dropped my hand, fumbling under my shirt. My sweat-drenched palm slipped on the handle. The black spots on my vision burst into stars as I yanked the shiv free of my belt loop. I heard the fabric of my shirt rip. I only had one shot at this. I hopped up, trying to loosen his grasp on my neck enough to suck in more air. I slammed one arm toward the gun, trying to knock it away from my ribs, and jabbed the shiv blindly toward his head.

I felt the pressure of the gun leave my ribs just a second before it fired. The roar of the gun almost blocked out his scream as the shiv connected with his face. I felt it sink into his skin. Felt the blade meet fleshy resistance and bone. Everything in me recoiled from the feeling, but I forced myself not to let go of the shiv. I pulled it free and dropped to the ground, landing hard on my butt.

His screams continued, seeming to blend with someone else’s screams, maybe my own as air rushed back into my lungs. My head spun.

I tried to get my feet back under me, but the floor was too slick, my muscles were trembling, and my head spun. From somewhere over me, I heard a gun go off. Four shots in rapid succession. I waited for pain to bloom all over, but the aches in my body stayed the same: air-starved lungs, bruised butt, strained back and neck muscles. No gunshot wound.

I shook my head, trying to clear it. The air I pulled into my lungs was thick with smoke. The fire was spreading. The screaming continued. Mel.

Oh, God, Mel. Had the Dean shot her? Had that been the four—or was it five?—shots I’d heard? If he’d shot her, why hadn’t he tried to grab me again?

Time had slowed to a crawl, but no more than a few seconds had passed. My ears still rang with the boom of close-quarters gunfire. Finally I got my hands and knees under me. I looked around the room, which was suddenly brighter from the spreading fire. The Dean lay sprawled in front of me; a horrible gash split open his cheek, but that wasn’t what had killed him. He’d taken three shots to the chest and another to the forehead, and each was oozing blood that looked black in the light of the fire. Carter stood above him, the Dean’s pistol in his hand.

Shaking, I sagged to the floor. Carter slowly lowered the gun to his side. For a second, he stood there over the Dean’s body, just staring at it. Then he slipped the gun into the back of his waistband and turned to me.

He knelt down beside me, running a careful hand over my hair and face as if looking for wounds. “Are you okay?”

I nodded, my hand at my throat. I wasn’t sure I could talk past my crushed windpipe and through the smoke.

“I was so afraid I wouldn’t get to you in time. He had the gun on you.” He pulled me against him, pressing his lips to mine in a quick, fierce kiss. “I thought I’d lost you.”

I croaked out a single word. “Mel?”

“She’s with Sebastian.” Carter helped me stand, one hand at my elbow, the other around my waist. “We’ve got to get you both out of here.”

I glanced around the room. The fire was spreading rapidly. Then I saw Mel on the ground with Sebastian crouching over her.

“What happened?”

“The Dean’s stray shot caught her in the leg. Sebastian’s bandaging it now.”

“Sebastian?” Panic shoved down the aches that had kept me immobile. “Sebastian, the vampire, is bandaging her?”

Mel was bleeding. I’d seen Sebastian with the bloody Collab. He hadn’t been able to control himself. He’d devoured the Collab in his bloodlust. He’d do the same with Mel.

I shoved Carter away and stumbled across the room. My legs wobbled under me, but I pushed forward, through the smoke. A few steps from her, I slipped on the fuel-slick floor and crawled the rest of the way to her still form.

He was bent over her leg and, in the half-light, I couldn’t see what he was doing. Ticks drank blood straight from the heart, but maybe vampires were different. Maybe they ate from the femoral artery.