The boy nodded slowly.
Whats your name, sweetheart? she asked, and I realized there would be no teaching her caution where children were concerned. Ana had spent five years as a grade-school teacher, and shed found it harder than any of the rest of us to let go of what shed learned during her Church ordinationnot the bullshit creeds and oppressive rules, but the ways of life as wed known it. Modesty. Service. Sacrifice.
Tobias. The boys voice was soft and hoarse, as if hed been crying. His gaze slid from Anabelle to me, and I decided the glazed look in his eyes was from shock.
He reminded me of the kindergartners Id spent my service hour with every day of my senior year, until the Church had declared me a cancerous wart on mankinds collective hind end. Tobias could have been any kid in my class, terrified and traumatically orphaned.
We couldnt leave him alone in the badlands. Yet ours was no life for a kid.
The irony in that thought hit home when my sister waddled past me, one hand on her huge belly. Melanie, I called, but she waved off my warning. When I glanced at Finn, he nodded to give me the all clear, the rifle still aimed at the ground. Hed inspected the car from the outside and squatted to peer beneath it, and had found no immediate danger.
Still, Mellie was too pregnant to fight or to flee from sudden danger, so I followed her, ready to pull her out of the path of evil should a demon burst from the bloody car.
Are you okay, Tobias? my sister asked, kneeling in front of the child with Anabelles help.
For a moment he only stared at her, studying her pale skin and even paler hair. Finally he nodded, his gaze fixated on her stomach, while I tried to calculate the mileage his family must have traveled in that doomed blue car. You got a baby in there?
Melanie laughed, and I marveled at the fact that she could find joy where the rest of us saw only tragedy and hardship. Yes. And I like your name, Tobias. She laid one hand on her stomach. Maybe Ill borrow it if this little ones a boy.
Assuming it lived.
Melanie was a tireless optimist, not blind to the dangers of the world, exactly, but not quite concerned enough about them. She refused to think about the overwhelming odds against her childs survival, and neither she nor Ana had even glanced at the carnage inside that blue car.
And I hadnt heard her mention Adam, the ill-fated father of her child, in weeks.
Reese pulled the SUV to a stop beside our truck, right in the middle of the road, and the other half of our group poured out of the vehicle. What the hell? Footsteps crunched in the dirt behind me, and then Reese and Grayson stopped at my side. She carried a plastic jug and he had a hose wrapped around his massive left arm.
Looks like the parents are dead in the front seat, I whispered. Not sure what happened yet, but Finn hasnt found any immediate threat.
Poor thing! Grayson cried.
Devi rolled her eyes and scuffed her boot in the dirt on the side of the road. What the hell are we supposed to do with him?
We cant leave him here. Maddock threaded his arm through hers, frowning as he watched the little boy. Its a miracle hes still alive. He must not have been here long.
Were not even going to think about taking him with us until we know what killed his parents. Devi circled the car toward the drivers side and used one hand to shield the sun from her face while she bent to peer through the window. When she stood a second later, she looked sick. Nothin but blood.
While the rest of us took a closer look at the car, Grayson, Ana, and Mellie lured Tobias toward the cargo truck with promises of water and chocolate from a box of sweets that had been intended for the general store in New Temperance.
As Devi and Finn had said, the front windows were too caked with blood to show anything at all, and through the rear windshield we could see little more than the outlines of two bodies sitting in the front seats. The trunk door stood open a couple of inches, and when I lifted it, I saw that the narrow center seat had been folded down, creating a small path into the trunk from the backseat of the car. A path just wide enough for a six-year-old.
My stomach twisted at the thought of what Tobias must have witnessed. How could any kid see that much carnage without being psychologically destroyed?
When the child was out of sight behind the cargo truck, Maddock opened the drivers door while Finn aimed his rifle at the interior just in case. Nothing jumped out at us, but after one glance inside I gasped and stepped back. Finns jaw tightened, and even Devi covered her mouth in horror.
The man and woman, still buckled into the front seats of the car, were drenched in blood fresh enough to glisten in the afternoon sunlight. The dashboard, windows, windshield, and floorboard had all been heavily splattered with what could only have been an arterial spray.
Yet even through all the gore, two things were clear.
First, the man and woman in the blue car were not Tobiass biological parentstheir skin was as pale as mine, even accounting for the pallor of recent death. And second, based on the blood and bits of flesh caking their right hands, the couples wounds appeared to be self-inflicted.
The man and woman had simply pulled onto the side of the road, then ripped out their own throats.
THREE
Who are they? Grayson whispered, glancing at the gore-splattered car.
They didnt have any IDs. Maddock ran one hand through his thick brown hair in a rare display of nerves. But then, the contents of that car had bothered us all. Theyre not his biological parents, but aside from that, who knows?
Grayson sipped from a half-full bottle of water, then passed it left in our huddle, to Reese. Theres not a drop of blood on Tobias. She shrugged. If he was far enough away to avoid the spray, Im betting he didnt see much of what happened.
I think he was in the trunk, but who knows when he crawled in there? Id fought demons, degenerates, and humans on a regular basis since finding out I was an exorcist, but Id never seen anything like the carnage in that car.
Why is no one asking the most obvious question? Devi demanded, and Grayson shushed her with a sharp look. Why the hell would a normal couple just pull onto the side of the road and rip their own throats out? I dont even see how its physically possible!
Finn accepted the water bottle from Reese but hardly sipped from it before passing it to me. They hadnt been normal for a long time. And they probably werent a couple.
But they were possessed. Maddocks voice was so soft that at first I didnt even register the words. Theyd already started to degenerate.
Devi frowned. I didnt notice anything weird about them. Other than their mutilated throats.
Their fingers were too long. Finn exhaled slowly and propped his rifle over his left shoulder. And their chins were too pointy. He glanced at Maddock, who nodded to confirm some unspoken concern; Maddy and Finn had known each other for so long that sometimes they each seemed to know what the other was thinking. Which left the rest of us in the dark. The mutations were subtle. Theyd be hard to detect, especially under all that blood.
How did you two notice? I asked, passing the water bottle to Devi.
Theyve had a lot of practice. Grayson turned to Maddy and Finn, and her eyes held a profound sadness that seemed to stretch even beyond the scope of the carnage wed just discovered. I started to ask what she meant and how she knew that, but
Okay, but how do you know they werent a couple? Devi demanded, frustration sharpening the ends of her words.
Maddy shrugged. Demons dont make commitments unless they need to blend in. Like Graysons parents, whose simulation of a human marriage had allowed them to breed her and her older brother as future hosts to be possessed at maturity. And theres no one to blend in with in the badlands.
Devi rolled her eyes. That doesnt mean any
We should get going, unless you all want to sleep in the open tonight. Finn swung his rifle down and aimed it at the ground, then headed for the cargo truck, where Mellie and Tobias sat snacking on the bench seat while Anabelle leaned on the open passengers-side door.
Whats got his gun sling in a twist? Devi grumbled while we watched Finn walk off.
Maddy accepted the bottle from her and drained the last inch of water. Hes being cautious. The bloods still wet, which means that whatever bodies the demons are wearing now, theyre probably still close. Maddock gestured toward our vehicles, urging us all forward, and I jogged ahead of the group to catch up with Finn.
Hey. You okay?
Yeah, Finn said, too quickly to have given the answer any thought. I just havent seen anything that gruesome in a really long time.
Wait. I reached for his arm and pulled him to a stop facing me. How long is a really long time? When had he ever seen something that gruesome? What are you and Maddock not telling us?
Finn shot an anxious glance at the others over my shoulder, then lowered his voice. If it were my secret, Id tell you, but there are things Maddys not ready to talk about. His conflicted gaze begged me to understand. But it has nothing to do with whatever happened in that car. That dead couple just . . . they remind him of something.
Something you saw too, I guessed. Because Maddy and Finn were never apart.
Yeah, but . . . His shrug made him look vulnerable, in spite of his soldiers powerful build and the rifle slung over one shoulder, and I wanted to pull him into a hug.
Just because you didnt have a body at the time doesnt mean you went through any less than he did. Finn had spent countless nights curled up in the sleeping roll next to mine, listening to stories about my mothers escalating abuse and neglect while a demon Mellie and I knew nothing about had ravaged her body and devoured her soul. I wanted Finn to trust me enough to let me return the favor. Whatever it is, its your childhood trauma too, I insisted.
But not like it is his.
You know you can tell me anything, right? I whispered as the footsteps at my back grew louder.
Yes. Finn pulled me into a hug to speak directly into my ear, and in spite of the grim circumstances, the feel of his body pressed against mine made my pulse rush. And as soon as Maddock is ready to talk, Ill tell you everything.
Before I could argue, we were overtaken by the group again.
When we pulled back onto the abandoned highway, Mellie rode in the SUV so she could stretch out for a nap on the third-row bench seat, and Tobias sat in the truck between Anabelle and me, while Finn drove.
I wasnt sure how to approach the questions we needed him to answer, but Anabellebless her heartwas finally in her element for the first time since wed escaped from New Temperance.
How old are you, Tobias? she asked, and I could hear teacher-Ana in her voice again.
Almost seven, he said around a mouthful of chocolate, which Devi had vehemently objected to wasting on a kid.
What grade are you in?
Second.
I used to teach second grade! Anabelle said, and when Tobiass eyes widened, she laughed. I dont look much like a teacher without my cassock, do I?
Tobias shook his head and sucked the bit of chocolate on his tongue.
It had taken Anabelle nearly a month in the badlands to finally give up her Church robes in favor of a pair of jeans and a few T-shirts wed liberated from our first supply raid, and she still didnt quite look comfortable in the causal clothes.
Look, I can prove it. Ana held out her right hand to show him the brand on the backfour stylized, intertwined columns of flame, each representing one of the sacred obligations of the people to the Church. Together, those individual flames formed the symbolic blaze with which the Church claimed to have rid the world of the demon plague.
Though, as it turned out, that was a lie, the brand was a lie, and pretty much everything the Church had ever told us was a lie.
But Tobias didnt know that. His eyes widened when he saw the brand, and trust opened his expression in a way that even chocolate hadnt been able to.
Anabelle set him a little more at ease with a few funny stories from her days as a teacher, and then she gently switched gears. Where did you go to school, Tobias?
At the Day School.
Which day school? Where are you from, sweetie? Solace? Diligencia? Those were the two closest cities, other than New Temperance, and we knew for a fact that he hadnt come from my hometown, because Anabelle would have recognized a second grader, even if he hadnt been in her class.
Verity, he said at last, and Anabelles gaze snapped up to meet mine over his head, while Finn stiffened on the seat next to me. Verity was more than a thousand miles west of New Temperance, in the mountains of what was once called Colorado.
Id never heard of anyone traveling so far, except as part of an armed Church caravan. How the hell had a little boy wound up so far from his hometown, with two possessed adults who were not his biological parents?
Tobias, there were two people inside the car we found you next to, Anabelle said, her voice almost fragile with tension. Were those your parents?
He nodded again. They picked me over all the other boys at the childrens home. His small chest puffed out with pride. They said I could live with them in their house. Out east.
Chills raced the length of my spine, then settled into my stomach. Tobiass new parents couldnt have adopted him without a parenting license. Were they unable to have children of their own? Had they adopted him for the same reason my mom had given birth to Melanie and me? If so, why would they rip out their own throats so soon after the adoptionmuch too soon for either of them to inherit their newly adopted host?
The answer suddenly seemed obvious: theyd found other, older potential hosts, already ripe for harvesting.
Wed seen evidence of a few nomads roaming the badlands. They were few and far between, but it was entirely possible that Tobiass parents had run across a small band and killed their mutating human hosts so they could claim fresher bodies. Maybe theyd planned to come back for Tobias and raise him as a future host. Or maybe theyd abandoned him entirely in the face of a new opportunity.
Finn clutched the steering wheel, and I realized he hadnt said a word since wed resumed our trek south. Something was wrong, but he wouldnt talk to me about it until we had privacy.