We hadn’t asked the man about the night of the murders, yet still he thrust a phone in my direction. “Here,” he snapped, “it’s for you.” And then he shut the door in our stunned faces.

A jolt of confusion. I tried to make sense of what had just happened.

Cole tensed.

Gavin palmed a gun, as if he expected the phone to explode at any second.

Tentative, I held it to my ear. “Hello?”

“Ali Bell. It’s nice to chat with you again.”

Shock blasted through me. “Ethan?”

“The one and only.”

Cole didn’t need to hear any more. He slammed into the apartment door, wood shards raining to the floor as the thing ripped from its hinges. He and Gavin marched inside.

I leaned against the wall to maintain my balance. “What do you want?” And how had he known I’d show up?

“My sister.”

Isabelle, a fifteen-year-old girl dying of cancer. “We don’t have her.”

He laughed bitterly. “I know. But Anima says they will bring her back—if I bring you in.”

Wait. “Bring her back. As in...”

“She died, Ali,” he said, his pain crackling over the line. “It was horrible. Painful.”

My shoulders drooped. Another loss. “I’m sorry, I really am.”

He continued as if he hadn’t heard me. “But not from the cancer. Killing her was the only way to save her,” he rushed to add. “We injected her with the zombie toxin. Her spirit rose, as we knew it would. But we controlled the environment and captured it. Now we’re keeping it locked away and her body preserved.”

We, he kept saying. As if he and Anima were one. How was I supposed to respond to that? To any of this?

“So...” Ethan cleared his throat. “This is the part where I admit that I have Justin and some slayer we caught trying to rescue him.”

Knew the first. Hadn’t known the second. My heart sank all the way to my feet.

Cole and Gavin stomped out of the apartment, their expressions equally dark. Cole shook his head, and I knew what he was telling me. The guy had somehow escaped.

“I’m willing to do an even trade,” Ethan said. “You for the boys.”

Please. He’d double-cross me in a heartbeat. “There’s no way—”

“Think about it. Keep the phone, and I’ll send you proof of life. We’ll talk again tomorrow.”

Click.

Chapter 22

FOLLOW THE

BLOOD-SOAKED ROAD

As we ransacked the Anima guy’s apartment, I told the boys about Ethan’s trade suggestion. Their responses?

Cole: “Sure, we’ll trade you. In never.”

Gavin: “Going to kill that boy so dead.”

Now that I’d had a little time to think about it, my answer waffled. I valued my friends’ lives above my own, and if it was within my power to save one, I would.

Yes, Ethan would double-cross me as suspected. But I’d be aware of that going in and have ways to circumvent him. And even if he came up with ways to circumvent me, it could still be a win for my team. If I ended up in an Anima facility, I could free the boys and possibly damage a branch of the company.

Torture and death were the only downsides, but I was in danger of the latter every day, no matter where I happened to be.

We searched the apartment. Besides a few pieces of furniture and a TV, the place was empty. There were no secret compartments or hidden cubbyholes that we could find—just a chair and a few empty bags of chips and cans of soda. It looked like the guy had been holed up, just waiting for us to show up.

We finished canvassing the building, and it wasn’t long before we found the clue we’d so desperately needed. A fortysomething woman had gone outside to smoke the night of the attacks, and she remembered seeing a teenage boy being put inside a dark sedan and hearing two guys in black talk about where to take him. Dr. Hodad or Dr. Rangarajan. The men in black had laughingly decided on Hodad.

Hopefully he was listed.

But when were things ever that uncomplicated?

Darkness had fallen by the time we finished, and the proof-of-life photos still hadn’t come in.

“What’s next?” I asked.

Lines of tension framed River’s eyes. “You’re welcome at my place.”

I looked to Cole. We could go to our new safe house instead.

But he shook his head at me and said to River, “Sounds good.”

Well, okay, then.

“My boys will work a little computer magic and learn everything they can about this Dr. Hodad.” River smiled without humor. “The more we know, the more likely we are to hit him where it hurts and get the answers we need.”

Agreed.

We met up with the other group. Cole pulled Frosty aside, and the two engaged in a heated conversation.

I couldn’t hear what was being said.

“I told Frosty we wouldn’t have any problems, and I was right,” Kat said, beside me. “Now he’s even more ticked, thinking I’ll want to accompany him on every mission.”

“Is he right?” I asked.

“Hardly. This kind of sucked.”

Good.

The boys returned, but Cole wouldn’t meet my gaze.

O-kay. Clearly he had a problem. Thinking about me offering to trade myself for Justin, perhaps?

Yeah. Definitely. In other words, date night had just become lecture night. Great!

Everyone climbed into the cars. Ours claimed the front of the line and Frosty’s the rear. All of us kept our attention on the streets, searching for any sign of zombies. And, even worse, the detectives.