There was a moment of utter silence.
“Dude.” A girl with a high blond ponytail edged in front of Riley. “Look at you. Look at your outfit. Someonethathot in all black? Vampire.”
He glanced down. “I could be an incredibly handsome goth.”
As one, all the girls rolled their eyes.
“No visible piercings.” The blonde ticked observations off on her fingers. “No makeup. No black hair. I bet you don’t even listen to the Cure.”
Edie couldn’t resist, despite the urgency of the situation. “Also, you have resting murder face. RMF, if you will.”
“Exactly.” The girl nodded. “You look like you’d rather maim someone than wallow in unbearable ennui.”
His neutral expression became an affronted scowl. “I can maim and wallow at the same time, young woman. I multitask very effectively.”
The dregs of Edie’s patience abruptly emptied. The girls would find shelter—she hoped to goodness they did—or they wouldn’t. Either way, Edie and Max needed to go.
“Which is why he’s such a useful companion on our mission,” she interjected smoothly. “Speaking of which…”
“Enough, Delia.” Riley sliced a hand through the air, and her compatriot fell back into the crowd. “You two are trying to get word of the breach to authorities?”
Edie nodded. “Yes. Do you have any additional information we should pass along?”
After considering them for another moment, the troop leader nodded.
“My next-door neighbor is a witch. After the first zombie appeared in our neighborhood, she scried with water to find out what had happened and check the status of all four Zone walls.” She spoke slowly, her brow furrowed. “She saw the site where the initial breach occurred. Afterward, she said she couldn’t tell for certain, but…she believed demons were involved.”
Demons. Fuckingdemons. Wow. Thiscluster of unfortunatenesskept becoming even more unfortunate by the minute, didn’t it?
Max had stiffened beside her. “What’s your neighbor’s name?”
Why did that matter? Confused, Edie swung to face him, but his face told her nothing. His features might have been carved from granite.
Riley’s stare turned distrustful. “Why do you want to know?”
“In case we need to find her and ask for more details,” he said, sounding bored. “Obviously.”
Well, that was rude.
Sorry, she mouthed to Riley, who merely lifted a shoulder in response.
“If you need to find her, find me first.” The troop leader smirked. “You’re a vampire. I know you can track my scent from here, as required.”
Max inclined his head in acknowledgment, still stone-faced. “Very well.”
Edie hadn’t realized vampires possessed such a keen sense of smell. It certainly wasn’t common knowledge. So how did Riley know? Did she have a vampire friend, or…?
Didn’t matter. They had no more time to waste.
“Thank you for sharing your information.” She offered the girl a smile of gratitude. “Is there anything else we should know before we get back on the road?”
Riley shook her head, her braids shining in the sun. “That’s everything.”
The girls still needed to find shelter. Maybe if Edie made one final plea, they might—
“You shouldn’t remain out in the open like this,” Max said to Riley. “Before we go, we can help you locate a place to hide, if you’ll accept our assistance.” When Edie stared up at him, pleased surprise at his offer warming her from the inside out, he met hereyes and shrugged in that casual, infuriating, extremely French way he had. “If they died, you’d be sad.”
“And…” she prompted, hoping for something along the lines ofand I’d rather not have the grisly deaths of a dozen tweens on my conscience either.
