Wayward Son - Rainbow Rowell Page 0,83

out, isn’t very powerful at all.

55

BAZ

I don’t know what I was picturing. Another improbable American city jutting out of the sand. More American suburbs. Office buildings that look like they came flat-packed from Ikea. Not this.…

The Next Blood have set up shop far from the edge of any town. It’s nearly daybreak when Lamb turns off the road, directly into the desert.

Snow has spent the whole night on the edge of his seat, fidgeting and glaring at the back of Lamb’s head, watching his every move. (Lamb has done nothing but drive and adjust the satellite radio.) Every time Simon moves, he clips me with his wing. I keep shrugging him off. And then he pushes back, like I’m the one bothering him. He won’t let us put away his wings—which have spikes, by the way—even for the ride. He’s being relentlessly childish, and I ran out of patience for it hours ago, back in Nevada. Are we still in Nevada?

If I’d known I was going to spend all night in a car with three bleeding hearts, I would have drunk more than one pet-store rabbit. And brought more Altoids. (They’re very good for blocking out blood smells. Especially the spearmint flavour.) I refuse to ask Lamb to stop for me to hunt—he’d probably offer me a flask instead.

Simon pokes my ear with his wing.

I shrug him off.

He snaps his wing to shove me back.

“For Crowley’s sake, Snow! It’s like being caged in with a bear!”

“Nearly there,” Lamb says coolly.

Simon and I both look out the window. We don’t seem to be nearly anywhere.

But Lamb is slowing down. He checks the line of cars behind us in the rearview mirror. We park at the edge of a hill—a hill of sand—and the other cars park beside us. “All right,” he says, turning in his seat. “Are you ready?”

Bunce nods. Even though she looks less ready than I’ve ever seen her. She tumbles out of the car, her right hand clenched in a fist. Snow and I follow. Shepard is still asleep, and I can’t think of a reason to wake him.

The other vampires are already standing outside their cars, watching us.

Lamb faces us, talking softly. “There’s no time to waste. You’ll be able to see the laboratory as soon as you crest the dune. It’s the only building. Signal to us when you’re in.”

Snow is popping his knuckles, and cracking the joints in his wings. “Let’s go.”

“Right,” I say to Lamb. “How should we signal you?”

He frowns, clamping his hand around my arm. “Baz, I meant it. The mages will go in first—they’ve got the edge. We don’t risk our lives senselessly.”

“Lamb—” I start to argue.

Simon cuts me off: “It’s fine. Penelope and I have this. We’ll signal if we need you.”

Penelope doesn’t look so sure. “I think Baz—”

“It’s fine,” Simon says again, unfurling his wings like whips. The vampires are all watching him. They’ve never seen anything like him. No one has.

He lifts off, flying up the hill.

Penny keeps looking at me, both of us trying to communicate something big with our eyes. Something like—“It’s all right. I’m right behind you. We’ve got this.”

She finally turns away, following Simon. He touches down near her, then lifts up again. He’s twitching with energy, spoiling for a fight. Penny’s wearing her tartan skirt and knee socks again. The backs of her knees are dimpled.

It’s all right, I tell myself. They’ll be all right. They always are. The two of them are unstoppable.

We watch them climb the hill, none of us moving, no one speaking. When a car door opens, I spin towards the noise. Lamb startles, baring his teeth.

It’s just Shepard, getting out of the four-by-four. He looks rumpled and upset, like he’s just woken from a nightmare. “Penelope!” he says, too loudly.

“They’re on their way,” I whisper. “Quiet!”

“On their way,” Shepard repeats, looking at me, his face still muzzy, and then at Lamb.

I point towards Penny and Simon, halfway up the sand dune.

“Penelope!” Shepard gasps. And he takes off after her.

PENELOPE

I tried to tell Baz. I tried to signal him with my eyes—“I have a bad feeling about this. Mayday, Mayday, SOS.” But I’m not sure what I expected him to do, send for the cavalry? Tell them to bring holy water?

I nearly cast “SOS” right then and there. But who would answer the call in this desolate place? And if someone rescued us, then who would rescue Agatha?

This isn’t like me. I don’t feel like myself.

The old me thought