without Ely pointing it out to me. I knew that without Ely walking away from me in disgust. Hell, I was disgusted with myself. I knew all that. Having him know it, too, sucked.
I didn’t want to make any more mistakes. I didn’t want to endanger any more innocent people. But beneath all that noble stuff was the crushing guilt. I had put Lily and Mel in danger. And no matter what I had told myself at the time about how noble my goals were, I had to live with the truth. I’d put them in danger for one simple reason: I wanted Lily with me.
Yes, I had believed she was the
And my need to protect her had gotten Joe killed. It had deprived McKenna’s baby of a father. It had gotten Mel turned into a vampire. It was a screwup of massive and irreversible proportions. A screwup I didn’t know how to undo.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Carter
A few minutes later, Ely came back with another guy.
“This is Zeke,” Ely said, giving the guy a little shove forward. “I pulled him out on that last raid.”
“He came in with you today?”
Ely nodded.
I looked at Zeke again. He was Latino, like Ely, but built differently. Ely was built like a fire hydrant. He wasn’t tall, but he was broad and muscled. This guy was almost as tall as I was, but he was lean.
But there was something I didn’t like about the guy, something I couldn’t quite put my finger on. Something about the belligerent set of his jaw and the angry gleam in his eyes. Something about how he stood.
Then it hit me. Why he seemed so familiar. Why he set my nerves on edge.
I gave the guy a tight smile and nodded toward the door. “Give us a minute?”
Zeke nodded.
“Shut the door on your way out,” I told him. “But stay right there. I’ll call you back in a second.”
Ely smirked like he saw exactly where this was going.
I waited until Zeke was gone and the door had clicked closed behind him before I said, “You pulled out a Collab?”
Ely shrugged. “He’s a solid guy.”
“Out of all the thousands of Greens whose lives are at risk, you pull out a fucking Collab?” What the hell had he been thinking?
Ely didn’t even flinch from my gaze. “I figured he’d know more than any damn Green. That he’d be able to tell us more about the defenses, about how the Farms work. About how to bring them down.”
“Sebastian and I have been in and out of more than forty Farms. You’ve been in and out of even more. We know how Farms work. We don’t need some damn sellout to tell us how to game the system.”
Collabs were teenagers just like the rest of us, but they’d betrayed the other humans. They held positions of power at every Farm. They used power, weapons, and fear to keep the Breeders and Greens in line. They drew blood from humans to feed to the Ticks. And when a Green stepped out of line and was punished by being left chained outside the fence at night, it was the Collabs who did the chaining. In short, the Collabs betrayed the entire human race to save themselves.
In my eyes, Collabs were the real monsters.
“I don’t care how solid you think he is,” I shouted “He’s still a Collab. This guy is used to having power no person should have. He’s used to taking whatever the hell he wants. Do you have any idea what that kind of power does to someone? It messes with your head. It twists something inside of you and breaks you in a way that can’t ever be repaired. This Collab that you’ve brought into my house is fucked up. Emotionally. Permanently.”
“You don’t know that about him.” Ely got right in my face. “Zeke is a good guy and I trust him.” Ely gave my shoulder another shove. “And I don’t give a damn if you trust him or not.”
“I—”
“Hell, I don’t even care if you kick our asses out of here, but do yourself a favor and listen to what he has to say first.”
Everything in me rebelled at the idea of hearing a Collab out.
“Just listen to him. Just calm down for a second and listen to him. In ten minutes, if you still want to kick him out, I’ll go with him.”
But I’d known Ely for close to two years. He was tough as hell, and he’d saved my life more than once. Looking at him now, I didn’t see even a flicker of doubt in his gaze. He believed Zeke had some bit of information that I needed.
Finally, I gave a stiff nod. “I don’t like it. But I trust you. You’re the closest thing I have to family. If you say he’s a good guy, I believe you.”
Ely looked at me hard for a second, before giving a nod in return. Then he busted out laughing. “God, don’t be such a wuss.”
I laughed, too, because neither of us was comfortable with the sentimental crap.
“Whatever,” I said. “Bring Zeke back in.”
I made myself go lean against the wall opposite the door. If I was standing, I’d start pacing, and I didn’t want either of them knowing how on edge I was.
A moment later, Zeke was standing in front of me.
“Why’d you leave the Farm?” I asked him.
“Because when Ely showed up, he said he could get me out. Said he knew somewhere that might be safe. I figured it was worth the risk.”
“Sure, but why? You were a Collab. You weren’t in any danger. You weren’t about to age out. Collabs are like gods on a Farm. Why leave that behind?”
Zeke scowled. “Hey, it’s not like you’re making it sound.”
“How am I making it sound?”
“Like we can just do anything we want,” he said. “It’s not like that.”
“Close enough. I’ve been on Farms all over the country and it’s the same story.”
Zeke eyed me up and down, his face twisting into a frown. “Look, I don’t need this shit. I didn’t get out just so you could treat me like a freakin’ narc. I didn’t come here for that.”
“Then why did you come here?”
“Because I didn’t like the shit that was about to go down at that Farm.”
“What shit? What’s going down at your Farm?”
Zeke frowned. “Ely didn’t tell you?”
“No.” I shot Ely a glare.
He just smirked. “I thought you should hear it from him.”
I looked from Ely to Zeke and back again. “Would one of you please just spit it out. What’s going on?”
Zeke sent another look in Ely’s direction and then said, “The Dean is trying to poison the Ticks.”
“Oookay.” I drew the word out. Zeke looked like he was about to say something else, but I held up a hand to stop him. “Back up a sec.” I still had too many damn questions. Obviously the Ticks were a problem for everyone. Even if Roberto had engineered the Tick virus, they’d clearly gotten out of control. But I didn’t see how this new twist—which should have been good news—was something Ely and Zeke were both worried about. “How’s the Dean poisoning them?”
“Antifreeze. About a month ago, we were ordered to mix it into the blood before we brought it out to the feed stations.”
It was a brilliant idea. Antifreeze was poisonous but sweet. Most animals would drink it if it was out. I’d seen some PSAs about it in the Before. “Did it work?”
