bump, then a faraway whine, which broke off almost immediately. When the sound began again, it was unmistakable.
A howl, a high, extended note that finally fell off slightly, only to climb and hold again.
Annabella grasped the ledge of the window in front of her. All the oxygen in the room had disappeared. Her head pounded. The room tilted wildly.
Her mom came back on, laughing. “It’s been doing that for hours. Got all the other dogs in the neighborhood going crazy. Sounds like it’s right outside my window, but I can’t see anything. I called animal control, so I hope I can get some sleep tonight. Anyway, call me when you can. Love you.”
A monotone female voice asked Annabella if she would like to delete, save, or replay the message.
“Are you okay?” Adam asked.
“Just have to call home.” Annabella fumbled to hang up on her messages, her fingers suddenly stupid, and dialed her mom.
One ring, two rings, three…
“Hello?”
“Tired,” she answered. “Did you get my message?”
“Yeah,” Annabella croaked. The wolf. At her mom’s house. Howling. Got it.
“Damn dog kept me up all night. Remember yours? The one that followed you home from rehearsal?”
“Yeah,” she said again. It was the same dog. The wolf. He’d ceased stalking Annabella and had paid a visit to her mother. To Mom.
Annabella needed Custo. She looked at him through the glass, but he didn’t raise his gaze. His attention was wholly fixed on Dr. Powell.
Her mom went on, “I must have dozed off because I saw him in the house, in my bedroom, but he wasn’t a dog.”
“I haven’t had a keep-the-light-on nightmare in a long, long time. Didn’t know I was capable of it anymore. All my nightmares changed when I had you kids. Nothing was scarier in my imagination than the reality of making sure you kids were safe and healthy. When your brother first got his driver’s license…I still get ill thinking about it. But you won’t understand until you have your own.”
“I think I get it now, Mom.” That kind of fear extends to anyone you love.
“Anyway, animal control never showed, but the dog’s gone now. And your brother stole the last of my good coffee, so I’m going to have to kill him.”
The wolf hadn’t been recovering from the fight with Custo last night. He’d been busy harassing her mother. The meaning was simple, though Annabella didn’t want to see it: the wolf would kill again, and someone she loved, until she gave in. Custo couldn’t be everywhere at once, and if he tried, he’d get himself killed. His bullet wound proved that. There was no time to search for another way to contain the wolf, or to drive him back into Shadow.
“Oh, and Marne from Pretty Ballerina Dance called to ask if you’d come by and talk to her advanced classes. She says you’re an inspiration.” Her mom’s voice brightened with pride.
To sacrifice dancing to end the threat of the wolf was excruciating, but conceivable.
“Honey?”
To allow the wolf to hurt her mom or her brother or Custo…There wasn’t even a decision to be made.
Annabella cleared her throat to keep the emotion out of her voice. “Yeah, Mom, I’m here. Listen, I have to go…”
Custo had given himself up for Adam, the closest thing to family he had. Annabella could give herself up for her mom and for him. Easy. No matter how scared she felt—and her terror was mounting steadily—she just had to shove it into the back of her mind. Let part of her brain go crazy screaming, which it already was, while the rest of her did what was necessary. All she needed was endurance, and she’d been training for that all her life.
“But what about Marne?”
“Tell her yes, Mom,” Annabella answered. It wouldn’t matter one way or another. “Really, I have to go.
The trick was getting away from Adam and Custo, and both at the moment were distracted by Dr. Powell and her increasingly agitated answers:
“I don’t know what you’re suggesting by…”
“I’ll have to look in my notes…”
“No, I have never passed information out of…”
There was no better time. Annabella stepped back, silent on her sneakered feet. The exit was open.
Hesitation would cost her the opportunity, so with three soft steps, Annabella was out the door and into the corridor.
Any moment now Custo or Adam would realize she was missing. She had to get out of Segue, find a dance studio, some place familiar, and then maybe she could ignite a bit of talent to attempt a cross. She should have gone with the wolf the night of the gala performance and ended this nightmare before it started.
Video cameras followed her as she ran down the underground tunnel. She heard a shout, but didn’t stop.
Not even when she sensed the hulk of the wolf at her side, running with her.
Of course the wolf would be there, with her, waiting for the moment when his trap would spring shut. He had to be there when she realized that he’d found the bait that would decide her, that would have her leaving the safety of her protectors.
She’d forgotten about the enormous, code-locked exit, and was astonished to find it open, the thick metal door ajar. She ran through it, just as the door began to close again. The wolf leaped through in a haze of Shadow.
Zoe stood on the other side, alone in the cavernous tunnel, looking bored and put-upon, and very strange without makeup and dressed in the same oversize Segue sweats that Annabella herself wore.
Annabella stumbled to a stop. The wolf crouched, growling beside her, ready to rip Zoe’s throat out.
The girl didn’t seem to care. “Through there,” she said, pointing sullenly. “Abigail says it’s the only way. Any other direction and lots of people die.”
Zoe pointed toward an unmarked concrete doorway.
“Is that the way out?” Annabella asked. She thought they were deep underground. The big yellow lift to the surface was on the other side of Zoe.
“Storage,” Zoe said.
“Abigail wants me to go to a storage closet? Why?”
Zoe shrugged. “Code is 852137. Took her all night to figure that out, by the way, while you were off getting some nookie. Abigail saw that, too; she liked the ‘arrest’ position the best, says it was damn hot, but the one where Custo put your leg up…”
The wolf growled low in his chest.
Annabella’s face heated. The idea that she and Custo had had a voyeur last night made her sick. But if Abigail had seen that…
“Off you go,” Zoe said.
…then maybe she knew a way to get out of Segue.
How Annabella remembered the code, she didn’t know. But the little light turned green and the lock clicked. She grabbed the lever and pushed. The wolf brushed by her to enter, and she followed him into pitch.
The door closed with a devastating soft snick, triggering her fear. Alone, in the dark, with the wolf. She felt his bristling fur brush by her body, his nose at her crotch. His rapid panting and her choking breaths filled the void. A scream pushed its way up her throat. She clenched her teeth to keep it from escaping, her body breaking out in a cold sweat.
Shaking, she fumbled for a light switch, found it, and flicked. Then collapsed against the cold concrete wall behind her, trying to draw on its solidity to bolster her caving nerves.
The wolf backed a pace, regarding her, then barked. It was a formless sound, but she understood the
