Evanescent - By Addison Moore Page 0,42
from the malformed girl as she strains to look up at Laken. Her entire person shivers with hope, and it makes me feel like shit because deep inside I don’t anticipate things ending well.
“Let’s go.” I pull Laken into me and lead her out of the room. “I’ll check on you in the morning, Pearl,” I say as we walk toward the exit. I look right into her innocent eyes. “You’re in good hands.”
“Cooper?” Ezrina tucks her chin and glowers at me as if she might carve up my head with a paring knife for the fun of it.
I stop shy of the doorway, and she limps on over.
“Per the Countenance, the Spectators must die.”
I give the slightest hint of a nod.
“I have a way,” Ezrina looks slightly more than proud of her extermination method, whatever it might be. “All of them dead.” She heads back toward Pearl as I guide Laken out of the defunct laboratory, quick as possible.
“Don’t start with that one,” I shout as we take off.
Pearl lets out a howl of either pain or approval as we sail toward the exit.
All of them dead.
I give a hard blink. The thought of committing murder on a mass scale doesn’t sit well with me. I won’t do it. Wes and the Counts have another thing coming. I’ve got a gut feeling there will be blood on my hands, only it won’t have anything to do with the Spectators.
We step out of the lab and into the dull, still night, perpetually illuminated by a lavender-blue sky. I point out the mansion in the distance—tall and boxy with an undeniable prowess. Its large wrought iron gates swing open like wings.
“Creepy.” Laken hugs my right arm as we move along the cobbled streets. A crowd barrels in this direction, all of them chattering a million miles an hour—women with their old fashioned hairstyles, their odd dresses that hang to the floor with expansive hoopskirts, bustles up top that accentuate their assets. A man with a handlebar mustache escorts two women with their arms hooked at the elbows.
“They look straight out of the eighteenth century,” Laken gasps. “Are they?”
“No clue.” I pull her to the side as they approach, but one of the women makes it a point to walk right through Laken.
“Oh my, God!” A bubbling laugh escapes her. “Did that just happen?”
“That just happened.” I tighten my grip around her waist, and she relaxes into me with her soft curves. “They like to mess with us. They’re not hospitable to guests.”
“You said there were waterfalls. Can we see those?” Laken looks as enthused and happy to be here as a kid at an amusement park. I can’t say I blame her. The Transfer has all the qualities of a haunted theme park and then some. It’s one hell of a ride, that’s for sure.
“This way.” I lead us down a darkened path that takes us straight through a forest. The trees bend unnaturally, nothing you’d find in nature with their corrugated leaves, their charred trunks and branches. Everything needs a little TLC, a miracle, to even hope to survive.
The hills knot up on the horizon, and we crest the top and take a seat in the shaggy pasture.
“It looks amazing in a morbid sort of way.” She leans in and sighs.
The waterfalls can hardly afford a trickle. The lake below is more than slightly dehydrated.
“I don’t know what this world is about—why the residents seem to prefer the fashion sense of yesterday, or even why and how Ezrina ended up here. But I do know that for whatever reason, for whatever purpose, someone wanted my family to have access to this place. I don’t believe in coincidences, Laken. We’re both here for a very specific reason.”
I pull her back onto the lawn with me. Our eyes lock for a moment, and the air thickens between us with possibilities. Laken lies down, and I pull myself gently over her, positioning my neck where she could draw from it with ease.
“Go ahead,” I encourage. “Take whatever you need from me. I want you to have it.”
“Coop.” Laken reaches up and traces my lips, my eyes with her fingertips. “You’re amazing, you know that?” The words come out in a broken whisper.
“I think you have it backward. If anyone is amazing, it’s you. Thank you for trusting me.”
Her fingers trace down to my neck, stroking me with all of the affection she can afford.
“I don’t know how I’ll ever repay you for all