“You’re going to be okay, love,” I told her as I looked for any signs of Val or Hush inside her. “We’re going to take you back to Ricky’s. Get you in a soft bed. Everything will look better in the morning.”
She didn’t move, but nothing else in her seemed to stir either.
“I don’t think Val’s still possessing her.”
“I haven’t seen him with us,” Ricky said.
I checked our surroundings. We were still in the same pullout beneath the trees, grass dark against the night, river murmuring, with only the lanterns Ricky had set out giving light to see by.
“No. I don’t see him.” I stared at the other side of the road where we had entered the cave. Abbi was in there somewhere. I couldn’t leave her behind.
I took a step.
Ricky’s hand landed on my shoulder. “Hold up.”
“Abbi,” I said.
“She’s not a child, Brogan. You need to remember that. She is the spirit of the Moon Rabbit. Ancient.”
“The Hush will tear her apart.”
“I’m not saying we don’t go in after her. I’m just saying we go in with a plan, with weapons or tools that work a hell of a lot better than what I armed you with.”
“They worked,” I said. “The weapons. But there were just too many Hush. I think they were waiting for us.”
She turned her head and spit. “Let’s not give them a second chance to have the upper hand. We go back to the Crossroads, and I’ll summon some help. Something I should have done in the first place.”
She manhandled me toward her truck, but I dug my heels in. “I’ll drive Silver.”
“That’s a monumentally stupid idea.”
But it was Lu’s truck. She loved that thing. We’d been together for a month, solid and real in that truck, had made love in the back of it under starry skies and secluded woods.
She’d be gutted if it got stolen.
“I’m driving the truck.”
Ricky must have seen something in my expression because she just shook her head. “Follow close. If you decide to drive into a ditch, make it a shallow one.”
She strode to her vehicle, and I swung into the cab of mine, shutting the door. It smelled of Lu’s perfume, and my chest cramped with fear.
“She’ll be fine,” I said. “I can feel her. She is very much alive. She’s going to be fine.”
I turned the keys and wiped the back of my hand over my eyes. Ricky pulled out first, going slow in case I really did try to drive into a ditch.
But I held the wheel steady at ten and two, kept my eyes on the truck, and followed Ricky home.
Chapter Fourteen
Idid not expect the werewolves.
The Crossroads was the same as it ever was, but the ground around it was covered in milling werewolves, some in human form, some in wolf, and a few in that rarer in-between state that fills books and horror shows.
If it was a single pack, it was a hell of a big one.
Neither the Kearneys nor Riggs had that many adult members—there were no children here.
Ricky guided her truck into the garage. I parked behind it.
