“Yes. I thought you understood.”
“Well, even I have my moments.” She gave me a wink as she ran a hand through her blonde hair. I laughed under my breath.
“You did not just make a blonde joke, did you?”
“Of course not, that’s fucking ridiculous.”
I shifted the truck into a higher gear and pressed the gas. “Try to sleep. I’ll wake you when we get close.”
She nodded. “Lea?”
“Yeah?”
“No more secrets. One more fucking secret and my head might explode.”
You think we can keep secrets from each other right now? I thought.
She groaned and I grinned.
Maybe we would die before dawn, but at least we’d die as friends. That had to count for something.
CHAPTER 36
RACHEL
I jarred awake, sitting up in a panic. I rubbed my arm, surprised there was no more pain. Sure enough, the claw marks were now pink streaks on my skin. My leg too. “They’re healed.” I looked over at Lea, but she didn’t look surprised.
“Beauty of the blood,” she said. “Though it was faster even than I thought. Probably the bond is helping too.”
I looked around, realizing why I had woken up. “Why are we stopped?”
“I think we’re here,” Lea said, staring out the windshield of the now-stopped Humvee.
A village lay ahead. It was an hour or so before dawn, but there should have been some kind of light—even a candle. The village was completely dark.
“How can you be sure?”
“I smell death,” she whispered.
My heart jumpstarted. “They killed them all.”
“We don’t know that.” But she didn’t contradict it. “We need a plan. If Stravinsky’s boys have already been here, you know it won’t be pretty. In fact, it will probably be dangerous.”
“Which is why we have the antidote.”
Lea grunted softly. “We don’t know it will even work. Or how long it will take to work.”
“Lea, we have to try.”
“It’s probably too late for them, Rachel. We should focus on making sure we’ve stopped Stravinsky for good before he moves on to his next location.”
“No. That’s not good enough.”
“Why are you so dead set on this? Why do I think this is personal?”
“What’s wrong with wanting to save an entire village?” I asked a little too defensively.
“Nothing.” She paused. “But—”
“I knew there would be a but.”
“I think you’re too close to this. Your personal feelings make you dangerous. They could get you killed.”
“You don’t know anything about why I feel so strongly against this, Lea. Let it go.” Then I started singing the alphabet song in my head in case she tried to sift through my thoughts.
“That’s mature,” she grumbled.
“I’m not the one digging into someone else’s head.” Although I had to wonder what I would find if I tried.
“Don’t even think about it.”
Ivan’s face appeared in the driver’s window, standing next to the door. “So what’s the plan?”
“For Lea to stay out of my head!” I snapped.
Ivan gave her a strange look, but she simply shook her head. “Don’t ask.”
“I wasn’t planning to.”
“The plan,” I said, “is to go into that village and save as many people as we can.”
Lea and Ivan shared a look and I shook my head. “Stay here if you want. I’m going.”
“I’ll go with you, mi amor,” Antonio said from behind Ivan.
“Shut up, Cazador,” Ivan growled. “We all stick together in this.”
“We need to investigate,” Lea said. “And to do that we need to get closer.”
The guys climbed back onto the truck and Lea drove us closer to the village, turning the truck around to point away, as though ready for an escape.
As we met at the back of the truck, eerie moans and cries echoed in the darkness, which I had to admit was creepy as shit.
Lea’s hand tightened on the steering wheel. “We need to presume Stravinsky’s men have done their job.”
Ivan nodded. “I smell the concoction.” Lea’s eyes widened, but Ivan gave her a reassuring smile. “The toxin works immediately, then the residual chemicals break down quickly.” When she started to protest, he put a hand on her arm. “I know from what happened to my own pack, Lea. I found some papers about how it works.”
“So the toxin is only a threat immediately after it’s sprayed,” Antonio said, his gaze sweeping between Ivan and me. “After an hour or so, it’s no longer toxic?”