Shadow Fall

seriously crap street that made her nervous in broad daylight. The brick was dulled to gray, except for the door, which was painted a clashing, crackling reddish pink. Litter clogged the gutter, and a couple of beer cans were lined up neatly against the building. Remnants of the night. A small sign was above the door, black lettering on a black background, so she couldn’t read it until she was standing in front of it. AMARANTH.

Wasn’t that a flower?

Adam pounded on the door while Custo stood to her side. He didn’t try to hold her, for which she was grateful, though he kept shooting her sorry, troubled looks.

Yeah, well, deal with it.

“I don’t want you to worry about whatever she sees,” Custo murmured. “Adam said ‘possible’ futures. Just because he wasn’t able to change mine, doesn’t mean we can’t change yours.”

Her stomach had started to knot in spite of her determination not to worry. She lifted her chin an extra notch. “I’m not nervous.”

“Liar,” he whispered into her ear.

Adam pounded on the door again. “Zoe!” he shouted. “Open up!”

“I thought we were seeing Abigail,” Annabella said.

“Zoe’s her sister,” Custo answered.

Adam turned, a questioning look on his face.

Yeah, Annabella wondered, how did Custo know Abigail had a sister?

“Angel,” Custo answered them both.

Still didn’t answer the how part of the question, but before she could press, the red door was wrenched open from the inside.

A cartoon character of a girl stood in the entrance. She was part Japanese anime, part Goth, with inky black hair, a blunt fringe of bangs at her forehead, the rest parted severely down the middle and woven in lots of thin, long braids. Her black makeup, heavy enough for the stage, exaggerated her eyes, while the rest of her face was ultrapale. A tight black crop top bared her midriff to show her belly button, and she wore low-riding black skinny jeans that fit like tights.

“I won’t let you in,” she said, snapping her gum.

“Tell Abigail I’m here,” Adam said.

Zoe sneered and snapped her gum again. “She knows who’s here, duh. Been up since dawn waiting with her visions. Got herself all dressed up and everything.”

Adam planted a hand on the door to push it open; Zoe countered with her combat boot to the floor to keep the gap just so.

“But I’m not letting you in,” Zoe finished in singsong. “She told me you’d pound and pound until someone answered, so I came down personally to tell you all to fuck off.”

“Listen,” Adam grated, “what Talia did to you was necessary at the time. You are alive and well, so get over it and let us—”

“Abigail is ill,” Custo said, thoughtfully. “Dying.”

Zoe’s pale pout trembled. Her black eyes trained on Custo, wicked arched brows winging. “I don’t know who the fuck you think you are, but forcing my sister to look into Shadow makes her even sicker.”

Annabella blanched. She didn’t want anyone made sick on her behalf.

Zoe’s gaze hit her, too, her sneer turning her eyes into twin crescents. “That’s right, you’d be killing her.” She looked up, as if thinking really hard. “Hmmmm…Now, should I let my sister’s killers in the door, or should I tell them to screw themselves? Hmmm. Gosh, it’s just so damn hard to decide.”

“Let me help,” Adam said. “Let me bring you both to Segue. I have resources that might be able to…”

Zoe’s sarcasm thickened. “Oh, I think you’ve helped quite enough, thank you.”

Annabella lifted a hand to placate the girl. “They’re here for me, and I am totally cool not bothering your sister about my future. I like to think that I make my own choices about my life, so I wouldn’t really want to hear my fortune anyway. It would kinda destroy my illusions, you know?”

Zoe’s black-kohled lids lowered halfway in an expression of acute boredom. Lovely girl.

“Okay, then,” Annabella said. She leaned her weight into a step back to get Custo moving. No way was she going to kill some dying psychic today. Time to go back to Segue and work on Plan B. Or, uh, C.

Zoe rolled her eyes again. “Okay, fine. She might have said something about going to the party tonight. There. We’re done.”

“What party?” Adam asked.

“I don’t know,” Zoe returned petulantly. “The party. You figure it out.”

Party, party, party…Oh, crap. Annabella had completely forgotten. “The reception for the company. It’s tonight. I’ll get out of it, say I’m sick or something.” If Venroy wasn’t already pissed at her, he was going to be livid about this. The new principal missing the start-of-the-season bash. Freaking fantastic.

At her back, Custo suddenly stiffened. Annabella felt his arm around her waist. It tightened as he lurched forward, then stopped himself. “Abigail is—” He halted for a second, his chest suspended midbreath. “—Adam, Abigail!”

“Move,” Adam said, as he slapped the door to the side and pushed Zoe out of his way.

“Stop!” Zoe shouted. “What the fu—?”

A scream from above cut the air, then strangled into silence.

“Abby!” Zoe screamed back. All bitchiness dropped from Zoe’s tone, leaving only gut-wrenching, frantic worry. She disappeared into the darkness after Adam.

Annabella tried to follow, but Custo held her back. “No, I think it’s the wolf.”

She bucked against the hard bar of his arm across her middle. “Then you’re the only one that can help. We have to go.” She tried to drop her weight to escape him. “You can’t let him hurt her.”

His hold tightened further, but Annabella could sense a hesitation, a moment of deep, conflicted thought.

“Damn it,” Custo said. “You stay with me. Touching me.”

“Yes! Fine!” Her head flushed with the return of circulation as he released her, only to take her hand and drag her through the underbelly of the building.

They burst into a large, windowless room. Its walls and floor were painted drippy black, and a bar took up the far wall, lit with eerie red light. They hurried up a scarlet runner that led to a slightly raised dais. Behind the stage was a short hall, papered with cheap, neon flyers announcing disturbing rocker bands.

Not her kind of club.

Up a narrow flight of steps and down a horror-movie hallway, they found Zoe and Adam crowding another doorway. Zoe was half in, half out, her face fearful, as if she couldn’t quite decide whether to go to her sister or run from whatever was in the room. Adam’s jaw was set with grim resolution.

Their expressions sent a vicious, electric shiver up Anna-bella’s spine that spread across the cold sweat dampening her body.

“Let her go,” Adam said to whoever or whatever was in the room.

“So,” a female voice trembled, as if in the throes of deep pleasure, “this is what it is like to be made flesh.”

“Leave her alone!” Zoe shouted with a painful warble, her love for her sister stripping her naked.

The fear in her voice resonated painfully within Annabella. Her throat grew tight in sympathy, even as her belly quailed against discovering what was in the room.

Adam glanced over his shoulder, spotted Custo, and stepped back. Annabella stumbled after Custo as he slowly moved forward to take Adam’s place at the door. She wrapped an arm around Custo’s middle so the wall of his strength was between her and Wolf; then she stole a quick glance over his shoulder.

A woman sat in a rocking chair, gnarled hands clutching the armrests, aged beyond any believable sibling relationship to Zoe. Her thin white wisps of hair floated off sallow skin, colorless lips working into a parody of a smile. Her eyes were blackened with pulsing Shadow.

Annabella’s blood ran cold.

The smile reached its grotesque apogee. “You can’t hurt me,” she taunted.

“Wanna bet?” Custo started forward.

From behind, Zoe yelled, “That’s my sister!”