Finale

I found Marcie at the concession stand, shivering in pink jeans, a white turtleneck, and a matching pink puffer vest. Seeing her dressed this way made something in my brain click.

“Where’s your cheerleading costume? Don’t you have to cheer tonight?” I asked.

“It’s a uniform, not a costume. And I quit.”

“You quit the team?”

“I quit the squad.”

“Wow.”

“I have bigger things to worry about. Everything else kind of pales in comparison to finding out that you’re”—she glanced around uneasily—“Nephilim.”

Quite unexpectedly, I felt a strange sense of kinship with Marcie. The moment quickly dissolved when I ran down the list of various ways Marcie had made my life miserable in the past year alone. We might both be Nephilim, but any similarities ended there. And I’d be smart to remember it.

“Do you think you’ll recognize Blakely if you see him?” I asked her, keeping my voice down.

She shot me a look of irritation. “I said I know him, didn’t I? Right now I’m your best shot at finding him. Don’t question me.”

“When and if you see him, keep it discreet. Patch will grab Blakely, and we’ll follow him up to his cabin, where we can all question Blakely together.” Except by that point, Blakely would be passed out and no good to Marcie. Minor detail.

“I thought you broke up with Patch.”

“I did,” I lied, trying to ignore the guilt twisting my stomach. “But I also don’t trust anyone else to help me deal with Blakely. Just because Patch and I aren’t together doesn’t mean I can’t call in a favor.” If she didn’t buy my explanation, I wasn’t too worried. Patch would erase her memory of this conversation shortly.

“I want to question Blakely before Patch does,” Marcie said.

“You can’t. We have a plan and we have to stick to it.”

Marcie hitched her shoulder in a really snooty way. “We’ll see.”

Mentally, I did some deep breathing. And quashed the urge to grind my teeth. Time to show Marcie she wasn’t running the show. “If you mess this up, I will make yll

“Do you really think Blakely has information about who killed my dad?” Marcie asked, fixing her eyes on me in a calculating, almost perceptive way.

My heart stumbled, but I held my expression in check. “Hopefully tonight we’ll find out.”

“What now?” Marcie said.

“Now we walk around and try not to draw attention.”

“Speak for yourself,” Marcie said with a snort.

Okay, so maybe she was right. Marcie did look fantastic. She was cute and annoyingly confident. She had money, and it showed in everything from her tanning-salon glow, to her so-natural- they-passed-as-real highlights, to her push-up bra. A mirage of perfection. As we marched up the bleachers, eyes flicked in our direction, and they weren’t looking at me.

Think about Blakely, I directed myself. You’ve got bigger things to worry about than energy-sucking envy.

We strode along the bleachers, past the restrooms, and cut across the track circling the football field, heading toward the visitors’ section. Much to my chagrin, I saw Detective Basso in uniform standing on the top row of the bleachers, gazing down at the rowdy visiting crowd with hard, skeptical eyes. His gaze shifted to me, and the doubt in his expression deepened. Remembering the strange feeling he’d given me two nights ago, I grabbed Marcie’s elbow and forced her to walk away with me. I couldn’t accuse Basso of following me—he was clearly on the clock—but that didn’t mean I wanted to remain the subject of his scrutiny any longer.

Back and forth along the track Marcie and I walked. The stands were crowded, night had settled in, the game had started, and other than Marcie’s throngs of male admirers, I didn’t think we drew any unwanted attention, despite the fact that we hadn’t taken a seat in over thirty minutes.

“This is getting old,” Marcie complained. “I’m tired of walking. In case you didn’t notice, I’m wearing wedge boots.”

Not my problem! I wanted to scream. Instead I said, “Do you want to find Blakely or not?”

She huffed, and the sound scraped my nerves. “One more walk-through, and then I’m done.”

Good riddance! I thought.

On our way back to the student section, I felt an eerie tingle slink over my skin. Automatically I turned, following the sensation to its origin. A few men loitered in the darkness outside the high fence surrounding the stadium, hanging their fingers on chain links. Men who hadn’t bought tickets but still wanted to watch the game. Men who preferred sticking to the shadows rather than showing their faces under the stadium lights. One man in particular, lean and tall despite the way he slumped his shoulders, caught my attention. A vibe of nonhuman energy whipped off him, sending my sixth sense into overdrive.

I kept walking, but I said to Marcie, “Look over by the fence. Do any of the men over there look like Blakely?”

To her credit, Marcie limited her glance to a surreptitious flick of her eyes. “I think so. In the middle. The guy who’s hunching his shoulders. That could be him.”

It was all the confirmation I needed. Continuing to walk along the curve of the track, I pulled out my phone and placed a call.

“We found him,” I told Patch. “He’s on the north side of the stadium, outside the fence. He’s wearing jeans and a gray Razorbill sweatshirt. There are a few other men hanging around, but I don’t think they’re with him. I only sense one Nephil, and that’s Blakely himself.”

“On my way,” Patch said.

“We’ll meet you at the cabin.”

“Drive slow. I’ve got a lot of questions for Blakely,” he said.

I’d stopped listening. Marcie was no longer by my side.

“Oh no,” I whispered, suddenly feeling a shade paler. “Marcie! She’s running over to Blakely! I have to go.” I charged after Marcie.

Marcie was almost to the fence, and I heard her high-pitched voice screech, “Do you know who killed my dad? Tell me what you know!”

A slew of curse words followed her question, and Blakely instantly turned and bolted.

In an impressive display of pure determination, Marcie scrabbled over the fence, slipping and struggling before she swung her legs over, and took off after Blakely into the unlit breezeway tunneling between the stadium and the high school.

I reached the fence a moment later, shoved my shoe into a chain link and, without breaking speed, vaulted over. I barely registered the shocked expressions of the men milling about. I would have attempted erasing their memories, but I didn’t have time. I tore after Blakely and Marcie, surveying the darkness as I sprinted ahead, glad my night vision was much sharper than it had been when I was human.

I sensed Blakely ahead. Marcie, too, although her power was considerably weaker. Since both her parents were purebred Nephilim, she was lucky she’d been conceived, let alone born alive. She may have been Nephilim by definition, but I’d possessed more strength than her as a human.

Marcie! I hissed in mind-speak. Get back here now!

Suddenly Blakely went off my radar. I couldn’t detect him at all. I stopped in my tracks, mentally feeling my way through the dark breezeway, trying to pick up his trail. Had he run so far and so fast he’d vanished off my grid completely? Marcie! I hissed again.

And then I saw her. Standing at the far end of the breezeway, the moonlight illuminating her silhouette. I jogged over, trying to keep my anger under control. She’d ruined everything. We’d lost Blakely, and worse, he now knew we were onto him. I couldn’t imagine him surfacing at another football game after tonight. He’d probably retreat into his current secret hideout entirely. Our one chance . . . blown.

“What was that?” I demanded, stalking up to Marcie. “You were supposed to let Patch go after Blakely. . . .” My last few words came out slow and hoarse. I swallowed. I was looking at Marcie, but something about her was horribly, terribly wrong.