Nadine gaped at her in blank terror.
“I’d go that way, if I were you.” She swung up her rifle and Nadine staggered back with a moan of protest, but she was only using it to point. “That is, if youwantto raise the blood tonight.”
“What?” she asked, taking another step back.
“Baby Cal’s waiting for you. You’re his sparrow, aren’t you?”
Blood oozed from between Nadine’s fingers. She could feel more of it dripping down her side, her leg.He’s waiting, echoed in her ears like a gong.
So he hadn’t been held up.
He’d been here. With the others.
Waiting.
“Not interested?” The other woman regarded her slyly and then held out the bottle of champagne. “Then you could have a drink while you wait for Ben.”
As if on cue, Nadine heard a terrifying oath come from nearby.
Fuck, she thought, taking off in the direction Odessa had pointed at, her laughter ringing in her ears. She was braced for another shot to the back and was surprised when none was forthcoming. Whatever game she was playing tonight, it seemed to be her own.
What the fuck is wrong with this fucking family?
A ragged sob left her as she looked at the endless maze of trees. The stars were starting to come out and she could see the blaze of Venus, which all but extinguished the surrounding gleams of light. And that constellation over there might be the big dipper and something about the end of its ladle—she thought it might be pointing to the north star.
But what does north mean here?she thought desperately.
Another sob was rising up her throat at the helplessness of her situation.
Ben’s going to kill me because I don’t know which way’s north. I’m going to end up as another journal entry in that fucking green book.
She could see it now:
May 16th, 202X
Killed a stupid little deer in the woods today. Shot her three times before she died and then burned her body in the furnace.
“Nadine.”
She whirled around, hugging her injured side, and thought she caught the gleam of moonlight on metal. “Cal?” she asked shakily.
“I’ve been waiting for you.”
Nadine took another step back. “I—I was shot.”
“I know. Poor darling.” A dark figure peeled from the trees, winding sinuously through the dark. He paused beneath a clearing, his face half-lit. “Want me to kiss it better?”
Silvery light glanced off his bare shoulders, pooling over ridges of muscle and casting the lines and hollows of his body into stark relief. Nadine stepped back and hit the trunk of a tree. Cal stepped gracefully forward, hopping over the root she’d tripped over, and gripped one of the lower branches of the tree, partially caging her in against the wood as he leaned towards her face.
“Come to me,” he said. “You don’t need to cower. You’re my sparrow, remember?”
“But they tried to kill me anyway,” she cried.
“Yes,” he said. “And I’ll take care of that later. Nowcome here.”
She took one hesitant step closer before she could think better of it. “Please—d-don’t—”
“Oh, Nadine. You know I can’t resist you when you beg.” He reached out and ran a finger down her neck before gripping her lightly by the shoulder. “Even if it is for your life.”
