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I took a steadying breath and watched the tide of bodies stagger past us. None of them seemed aware or concerned about our presence. I was tempted to reach out and touch one, but I didn’t know how the necros were working them or what the connection was.
The rot had allowed more of them use of their mouths because their lips had decomposed, meaning more of them were able to use their teeth. They might not be zombies, but I still didn’t want any of them to bite me.
“Can you feel anything?”
“I’m not a bloodhound.” He rolled his eyes. “The sensation is there, it’s been there since they first showed up. It’s like white noise at this point, present but not something that bothers me too much anymore. I’ll be able to tell the difference when we get closer.”
“Did it feel different when we were in the bar?”
He gave me a tight nod. “Much. Imagine a swarm of bees inside your skull, flying and crawling and stinging you. Imagine it getting worse the closer you got to the source.”
It sounded an awful lot like a panic attack, except my bees were in my stomach more than my brain, which was definitely not a feeling I wished on anyone.
We waited for a gap in the crowd, then slipped out of the hotel. Six groups had left before us, including Desmond and Clementine and Lucas and Sig. That particular pairing set my spider sense tingling, because I didn’t like to imagine what Lucas and Sig might discuss when alone together.
I’d once split town, and Lucas had gone to Sig to get me back. The two weren’t strangers, and that Lucas had volunteered to go with the Tribunal leader made me a lot uneasy. I’d tried to suggest Lucas go with my father, but that unlucky pairing ended up falling to Dominick.
None of the wolves were saddled with Juan Carlos. I’d ensured he was partnered with another vampire since he seemed the most likely candidate for disregarding my no insults rule. He didn’t have to obey my commands, so there was a good chance he would ignore them entirely.
Holden and I wove our way through the moving bodies and were soon out of sight of the hotel. The stink in the air was a gruesome combination of fetid flesh and charred metal and plastic. Most of the buildings in our immediate vicinity remained untouched by fire, but it was only a matter of time before the flames started to close in.
I was surprised more of the landscape hadn’t been consumed during the day. The fires must have been more spread out than I
’d initially suspected, and perhaps there were some brave FDNY officers still working in the city, doing whatever they could to keep the flames at bay. We had heard sirens when we first got into town. The idea of humans struggling outside in these conditions made me queasy, but if O’Brian, Cedes and Tyler had stuck around, there had to be other civically minded folks out there trying to serve and protect even in this madness.
Holden grabbed my arm and pulled me off the street into an empty alley. I didn’t protest, but I gave him a look that clearly made known my opinion on being dragged around.
He dug out his map—a torn section of one of Lucas’s big city maps—and turned it around until it was facing the right way. “I think we need to go a block that way.” He pointed directly at the brick wall blocking the end of the alley.
“Okay, Shadowcat, you want to phase through first, or should I?”
“Shadow what?” Holden was too busy studying the square of map to pay much attention to what I was saying.
“Shadowcat. The X-Man. Kitty Pryde? She can… Oh, forget it.” Pop-culture references were lost on him anyway. I don’t know why I bothered.
“Are the X-Men the ones who have powers? Like Arachnid-boy?”
“You’re fucking with me now, right?” I raised an eyebrow at him, not entirely certain if he could have missed every comic-book character invented in the last seventy-five years. Surely he had to know who Spider-Man was.
He grinned.
Bastard.
“I’m not suggesting we walk through the building. I’m suggesting we go over.” A rusty fire-escape ladder positioned above an old garbage bin seemed to be his main focus. This might not have been my favorite idea, but it would be a lot faster than going around.
And sadly, since I still hadn’t unearthed any mutant superpowers, going through the wall was out of the question.
I scrambled up first, ignoring the rasp of rough metal against my hands. An iron sliver wouldn’t be fun, but it also wouldn’t kill me, so there was no sense in being a wuss about it. I got to the top and offered Holden a hand up off the last rung, bringing us both safely to the tar-papered roof.
Though we hadn’t climbed far, the view was so astonishing my breath caught in my throat.
“My God.”
The streets were packed with the dead, fumbling and tripping over one another like macabre bumper cars. From our new vantage point I could see clearly what I’d missed from higher up in the penthouse. They were everywhere. If this street was any indication, there must be hundreds of thousands throughout the city.
I let out a whimpering breath.
“Wow,” Holden said, following my gaze.
