The Deepest Night

“Yes.”

“Ja,” he corrected me.

“Ja.”

“Hell. Your accent is atrocious. Just nod, okay?”

I pushed a lock of hair from my cheek, glancing up at him. He paused, taking me in, then moved behind me. He gathered all my hair past my shoulders and began quickly to braid it.

“If anyone talks to you, asks you questions or anything, you look at me. That’s it. Don’t try to answer. Act like I’ll beat you if you answer.”

I nodded, managing to keep my head in one piece by holding both hands against my temples. I didn’t know where he’d learned to braid a woman’s hair, and right now I didn’t care. All that yanking and pulling; it was as if an elephant was attempting to groom me.

He finished and stepped around to face me again. He clasped his hands around my upper arms and bent at the knees until our eyes were level. He looked disheveled and determined, bruised and mussed. In the half-light of the warehouse, he looked like he felt worse than I did.

“We need to blend in for a while. There’s a crowd gathered out there, and we need to be in it. But if things go bad and you can escape, I want you to. Turn if you can. Whatever it takes.”

“Not without you,” I said.

“Yes, without me! Don’t worry about me! I can Turn, too, remember?”

I rubbed at my scalp. That’s right. I’d forgotten. He could Turn now. Couldn’t he? It had something to do with the stars.…

A dog snuffled up to the door. It caught the scent of us and let out a deep, frightened bark before skittering off.

“Time’s up,” Armand said, and pushed open the door.

He kept her as close to him as he could, their arms linked. She was a featherweight against him, her head to his shoulder, her steps matching his. He tried to walk slowly because he knew that would be better for her, but the people hustling past them weren’t going slowly. They were running. Some sprinting. An enemy aircraft had been downed, right here in their very own town, and everyone wanted to be able to say, Did you see?

A mob of young men—too young to be soldiers yet, still just a shade too young—jostled roughly by, shouting and laughing, deliberately knocking elbows and shoulders. Light as could be, Armand snatched the hat off a straggler and slipped it behind his back, but the fellow didn’t notice. He was calling to the others, hurrying to catch up with his mates.

Mandy settled the hat over his head and pulled the brim low, and the wound above his eyebrow was gone as if it’d never been.

Dawn had arrived in a sweep of green clouds above them, the sky brightening into blue turquoise. If there were any stars left out, he didn’t see them, and he damned well didn’t hear them.

Could use a spot of help right about now, he thought anyway. Bloody Jesse. Wherever you are.

But all he heard were people and dogs. A far-off whine of aeroplanes, likely out searching for their hides, too.

He was hoping for a pub, an inn, someplace where he could take Lora and tuck her away until that mirror- glazed look was gone from her eyes. It was so early in the morning, though. Surely there’d be a coffeehouse. Something.

He’d meant to steer them away from the crowd, but it was proving impossible. It appeared the entire population of the town had emerged from their beds to throng the streets, everyone flowing in the same direction. Before he knew it, they were at the beginning of the lane Lora had ravaged, the very place he had carried her from not an hour past. People were picking up chunks of cobblestone, exclaiming, as men dressed as soldiers and police attempted to keep them back. Dogs shimmied through legs, sniffing and winding toward the wall in the distance, which even from here looked as if it’d been struck by a train.

The dogs were bloodhounds.

Shit.

Lora’s fingers tightened over his arm as the nearest of the hounds fixed on them and began to howl. He pulled her closer and tried to angle them away.

Another dog approached on stiffened legs, hackles raised. It pinned them with wild eyes and joined in the howling. On the left came a third.

Armand swiveled all the way about. With Lora clamped to his side he began to ram his way through the people, as rude and fleet as the gang of boys had been.

“Sir,” called a voice behind them. “Sir! A moment, sir!”

He didn’t stop. He scanned the street for any way out, an alley, a store—but there were no alleys and all the stores were shuttered. The next intersection was a good thirty yards away.

Eleanore was breathing heavily. She staggered against him, losing her balance, and he hauled her upright and kept shoving though.

“Sir! You there, in the leather coat! Young woman! You are commanded to stop!”

All the damned dogs were baying at them now, baying but, thank God, not pursuing.

Animals distrust you, Lora had told him once, when she’d been trying to convince him of what he was. And it was true, they did, they always had; he’d never had an easy time of it learning to ride, he’d never had a pet of any sort, because animals wouldn’t go near him if they had a choice about it, not since he was a lad. These hounds were no different, but by the gods, he wished they’d shut up—

He pushed past the elderly couple in front of them and came up short against a man in the navy blue uniform of a police officer.

Everyone else around them melted back into a circle.

“Good morning,” said the officer pleasantly. He was tall and broad and black-haired, with a fresh nick on his chin from the morning’s shave. He studied them both, from Armand’s white-knuckled grip on Lora to her small, breathy gasps. “Perhaps you’re unaware that my colleague behind you has been attempting to speak with you?”

“Has he?” Armand sent a glance over his shoulder, feigning doubt. “I fear we never heard him. It’s chaos back there. All those dogs.”

“Yes. All the dogs.” Another look, longer, harder, at Eleanore. “If you would both be so good as to come with me?”

Despite the phrasing, Mandy knew it wasn’t a request, and that there wasn’t going to be a quick way out of it, either. There were policemen on all sides of them now, a handful of soldiers sprinkled in. One of the soldiers broke rank and came forward.

“These people need to be interviewed by the major.”

“Certainly, if he wishes,” responded the policeman, amiable. “Right after I’m done with them.”

“Sir, I must insist—”

“Do you imagine this man and woman are the enemies you seek, captain? Do they look like daredevil pilots to you?”

“The dogs,” said the soldier stubbornly.

“Ah, yes. Well, the dogs can interrogate them after the major, I suppose. We like to keep a sense of order around here.”

The crowd broke into laughter.

“This way,” said the policeman to Armand.

Lora was staring into the distance, pale and frowning. She gave a slight, nearly imperceptible shake of her head.

She couldn’t Turn yet. Mandy wasn’t even certain he could. He felt jittery and oddly unfocused. When he thought about smoke, the sensation of dissolving, all that came back to him were the words don’t leave her.

As if he ever would.