Rage and Ruin(60)
“Glad you found that funny,” I replied, squinting as the outlines of trees gave way to open lawn. “Because you’re going to think it’s really funny when I break your face.”
“You’re incredibly aggressive.”
Up ahead, I saw a two-story building with its main floor lit up. “And you’re incredibly annoying.”
“And you’re still going the wrong way,” he said.
I stopped.
God had to be testing me.
Wheeling around, I saw that Zayne was crossing the lawn. I frowned, glancing in the direction I was going. I couldn’t make out much about the large building ahead of me, but it looked like a school to me. “Is that not the school right there?”
“It is.” He kept walking. “But I don’t think you want to walk right up to the front doors, do you? We’re here to scout the place, not announce our arrival to whoever is working right now.”
My God, I was going to tackle him and pound him into the ground, and not in the fun way.
“Did it cross your mind to maybe say something?” I complained, breaking into a jog to catch up with his freakishly long strides. A flag whipped around its pole, making snapping noises.
“It did.” He slowed down. “For about a second.”
“Ass,” I muttered, remaining a few feet behind him and to the side. The ground was mushy and soft in certain areas, as if the soil had been recently laid down.
“What was that?” Zayne looked over his shoulder, his face hidden in the darkness. “I didn’t quite hear you.”
Yeah, he had; he just wanted me to repeat myself. Not going to happen. “Where are we going?”
“To check out this side of the grounds. There’s a small neighborhood directly behind the school, and I want to see if we pick up on anything.”
All I felt was the constant low hum of nearby demon activity. “The only thing I’m picking up on is your combative attitude.”
Zayne laughed—he laughed loud enough that I wondered if we’d be overheard.
“That wasn’t meant to be funny.”
“It sure made me laugh, though.” Zayne stopped suddenly, throwing out an arm and nearly clotheslining me.
“Jesus,” I gasped, stumbling back a step.
“Careful,” he advised. “It’s hard to see, but the lawn ends here and there are six narrow steps down.”
Yeah, I definitely wouldn’t have noticed that. Granted, tripping and falling down those steps would’ve hurt only my pride. The words thank you burned my tongue, but I didn’t speak them as I tentatively went down the steps.
“I don’t know if I can sense a Shadow Person,” I said as lightning cut across the sky again. “Since they’re not living demons, I don’t know how that works.”
“With our luck, probably not.” He scanned what I realized was a small, narrow parking lot that likely was for faculty.
Beyond a temporary makeshift fence, several lighter colored vans and trucks were parked along the back of the building, blocking whatever entrances were there. The words Bar Rhinge and Sons Construction were scrawled in big, bold red letters across the vans, lit by the side entrance lights. As we drew closer, I could hear the steady thump of hammers and...
“By the way, I talked to Roth this afternoon,” Zayne announced as we started across the parking lot. “He wants to check out the school with us on Saturday.”
“Cool,” I murmured. “He’s like the opposite of a good-luck charm, so why not?”
A rumble of thunder silenced the trill of cicadas and my steps slowed, then stopped. I looked behind me. Wind continued to beat at the flag and the branches of the trees that dotted the lawn. Tiny bumps rose on my arms as I strained to hear...what, I had no idea. It was a low murmur. Maybe even the wind?
“Trin?” Zayne’s voice was close. “You feel something?”
“No. Not really.” I turned back to the school and lifted my gaze to the dark windows. The goose bumps spread as a fine shiver chased them along my skin. “It’s just a weird feeling.”
“Like what?”
I lifted a shoulder. I wasn’t sure if it was anything, but there was the sensation of hundreds of unseen eyes on us. Could be the ghosts Sam had said were trapped. They could be at those windows, and I just couldn’t see them. “I don’t know. Just a weird vibe. Maybe this school is a Hellmouth.”
Zayne was silent.
I looked over at him. “Now that was supposed to be funny.”
“Was it?”
“How mad will you get if I just drop-kick you into one of those trucks?”
“Pretty mad, to be honest.”
“Okay.” I nodded. “Just going to weigh my odds over here to see if it’s worth making you madder than you already are.”
“I’m not mad.”
“Oh, really?” That I laughed out. “I’ve seen you happy. This is not happy.”
“Didn’t say I was happy, either,” he returned. I threw up my arms in frustration. “There’re doors back here, along the side, if I remember correctly. I’m going to see if it’s accessible or if any windows are boarded up. Map out the area for Saturday night.”
“Have fun.”
Zayne faced me. “You’re not coming?”
“No. There’s probably debris and crap all over,” I pointed out. “I’m just going to stumble and trip all over everything.”
“Then what are you going to do?” He stepped toward me.
“Play in traffic.”
He made a noise that sounded like a cross between a laugh and a curse. “Sounds like a good time. Just try not to get hit and killed. Sort of like to survive the night.”
“Getting hit by a car wouldn’t kill me.” I tossed the words back at him.
Zayne lifted his hand, and I thought maybe he’d give me a thumbs-up before he walked around the fence.
“Jerk,” I muttered, turning my gaze to the dark windows.
Of course I wasn’t going to play in traffic. While Zayne was scoping out a good entrance for Saturday, I wanted to figure out what I was feeling and possibly hearing. Plus, I would probably break a leg and alert everyone to our presence trying to navigate an active work site in the dark.
I lifted my gaze to the neat rows of the second floor. It could just be insects, but the vibe...yeah, the vibe was way off, and I didn’t think it had anything to do with the fact that I knew what could be inside.
The air was thicker here, like soup. The steady clang of hammers made me wonder if the workers had noticed anything. Missing tools. Disembodied voices. People seen in the corners of their eyes but gone when they focused on the area. Those things would be experienced if there was just one ghost in a place, but over a hundred? God.
Why would someone trap them here? And if this was related to the Harbinger, what could it want with ghosts? And Shadow People? The plot was thickening, but the problem was I had no idea what the damn story was.
Another flash of light streaked the sky, illuminating the windows for a second. Anyone else would’ve probably been able to see whether anything was in those windows, but they were blurs to me. Thunder immediately followed, and then a big, fat drop of rain smacked my nose. That was the only warning before the sky ripped open and rain poured from above.
Soaked to the bone within seconds, I sighed heavily. The rain was kind of warm, so at least there was that.
I was debating the merits of crawling under one of the vans when I felt cool, icy fingers slip over the back of my neck. I cranked my head around, expecting to see either someone with freezing hands and absolutely no concept of social propriety, a ghost or an abominable snowman.
No one was behind me. I struggled to see through the veil of rain, scanning the lawn. It was impossible for someone to have touched me and disappeared that quickly. The cold feeling was still there, settling between my shoulders, forming a pressure. It was that same brutally cold sensation I’d felt that night we found the zombies.
I turned and walked back to the steps. Instead of climbing them, I jumped and landed in the thick grass. The cold feeling was still there, and the sensation of being watched intensified.
Someone was out here.
I knew it in my bones and my blood. My grace sparked deep within me as I took a step forward. There. By one of the trees.
Out of the rain and the darkness, a thicker shape peeled away from the base of the tree. Was it a person? A ghost? A Shadow Person? I couldn’t tell. Not with the distance and the rain.
Squinting, I could see it about four feet from the tree. I walked forward, and then instinct took over. My pace picked up until I was jogging and then running as I reached for one of my daggers, just in case—
The soft, mushy ground sank under my feet, and for a heart-stopping second, I froze. So stupid, so incredibly stupid, because that was a second too long. The ground gave way under me, sucking me down before I had a chance to scream.
Clumps of dirt and grass fell with me as I plummeted into nothing. Panic rose, but I squelched it as I folded my arms and tucked my legs, bracing myself as best as I—
—slammed into the hard ground, air punching out of my lungs as a flare of pain shot across my pelvis and down my left leg. My head cracked off something, and starbursts blinded me as another spike of pain erupted along the back of my skull and then shot down my spine. The sudden impact stunned me into immobility. I lay there on my side, legs still tucked as I breathed through my clenched jaw, eyes squeezed shut.