board free. It groaned but didn’t give.
“Regs,” Serena muttered affectionately as she stood and nudged Jason aside. She bit her lip and lashed out with her fist. The bottom of the board moved just enough for her to slide her fingers under the edge. After that, she was able to pull all of the boards off in seconds.
She examined her nails. “And the manicure is still intact.”
Fresh air filled the room. I sucked it down until my lungs were close to bursting.
And then I took a closer look at the window. It was small. Too small for any of us—even Serena—to squeeze through.
I picked up one of the boards and hurled it at the wall as my eyes filled with tears. We were close enough to the outside that I could feel the fresh air on my face and hear the distant sounds of traffic, but we were still trapped.
I walked to the ripped futon mattress and sank down. Hank and his wolves had put us in a box and we weren’t getting out unless they let us. I pulled my legs to my chest and pressed my forehead to my knees.
After a minute, Kyle came and sat next to me. This time, when he tried to put an arm around me, I let him.
“Tess?” I pushed open the door to my cousin’s room. The mattress had been stripped and the closet stood open and empty. A lone wire hanger dangled on the rod.
“She’s not here.” Amy walked across the room and flopped onto the bed.
I swallowed. “You’re going to leave a stain.” As soon as the words slipped from my mouth, a pool of red appeared on Amy’s white cotton T-shirt.
She sighed and sat up. “You are such a buzzkill. Besides, it’s not like Tess is coming back here.”
A tasseled pillow had been abandoned on the floor. I picked it up and hugged it to my chest. “She’ll come back. She wouldn’t leave me.”
Amy shot me a small, sympathetic smile. “Everyone leaves you. Haven’t you figured that out yet?” I flinched and she frowned. “Sorry. You know everything gets twisted in here. I end up being the me you think you deserve.”
I didn’t argue.
I wondered, suddenly, if Jason and Kyle had their own versions of Amy, if their guilt, like mine, warped her like a fun-house mirror.
Amy reached back and touched a small indent in the mattress. “He laid his head here, you know.”
A shiver swept down my spine. I didn’t have to ask who she was talking about.
She stood and stretched, then frowned thoughtfully. “Doesn’t it bother you that Ben and Kyle have the same disease?”
“No.” I didn’t even have to think about it. “Kyle’s not Ben and a disease doesn’t change who someone is.”
“Ben thought it did.” She walked to the window and drummed her fingers on the sill, fast and furious like the beat of a werewolf’s heart. “Can you really date one of them? I know I was with Trey, but he never told me what he was. And you do have options. Jason wants you so badly, it’s a miracle he doesn’t spontaneously combust.”
I flushed. “I’m not talking relationships with you.”
“Why not? They’re fascinating.” Amy turned to stare at me, her expression so earnest that I almost believed it was really her. “It always breaks down to relationships. My relationship with Jason. Ben’s relationship with his father. My family tree and the fact that my grandfather is a senator. Everything happens because of a connection. Cause and effect. Kyle knows it. That’s why he ran away from you. He’s scared he’ll be the cause of you getting hurt or infected or dead.”
She sighed. “He hasn’t figured out that no matter what you do, some people just end up broken.”
As she spoke, the shadows in the room thickened and lengthened. Smokelike tendrils stretched out from the darkness. One wrapped itself around my wrist and my skin blistered and peeled.
Amy gazed at me sadly. “You can’t outsmart fate.”
I started awake. Kyle’s arm tightened reflexively around me, but his breathing stayed deep and steady. Even in sleep, he tried to keep me safe. It took me a second to remember where we were, to remember falling asleep with Kyle on the futon mattress.
A few feet away, Jason and Serena were passed out on the cot. Jason slept sitting with his back against the wall and Serena—weirdly enough—had fallen asleep with her head on his shoulder. They weren’t far away, but it was hard to see them clearly.
I blinked. A cough clawed at the back of my throat as my eyes teared.
Smoke.
The room was filling with it.
“KYLE!” I SHOOK HIS SHOULDER AND CHOKED OUT HIS name.
He jerked awake in a sputtering, coughing start as I staggered to my feet and stumbled to the door.
I touched the metal with my fingertips. It wasn’t hot—yet—but the smoke at this end of the room was growing thick.
Kyle roused Serena and Jason. The next second he was by my side, moving me out of the way so he could throw himself at the door.
It didn’t budge.
Serena joined him in the assault—both of them yelling for someone to let us out. Through the haze, I caught glimpses of dark smears on Kyle’s hands: blood. He and Serena were tearing themselves apart against the door, but it wasn’t doing any good.
I glanced back at Jason. He hauled off his jacket and grabbed Serena’s from the cot. He doused them in the sink, then, coughing, squeezed past Kyle and shoved the fabric along the bottom of the door. The flow of smoke slowed but didn’t abate.
Screams and crashes drifted up from somewhere below us.
Serena backed away from the door and pressed her hands to the sides of her head.
“Serena?” I coughed her name and reached for her shoulder. She knocked my hand away so hard that I winced and cradled my wrist against my chest.
“Oh, God. Oh, God. Oh, God.” Her eyes were wild and the words were a repeated gasp.
The smoke tore at my lungs. I stumbled back toward the window. The air here was easier to breathe, but not by much. Light-headed, I slumped to the floor. That’s what you were supposed to do in a fire, wasn’t it? Crawl underneath the smoke?
A few feet away, Jason had the same idea. None of us would hold out against the smoke for long, but he and I had the added disadvantage of reg lungs.
The ceiling pressed down and the walls closed in, mirroring the constriction in my chest.
Jason groped for my hand and I wasn’t sure if I had thought the words or if I had managed to choke them out.
Kyle was suddenly there. He crouched next to me and pressed something cold and damp over my mouth and nose: his shirt. He had shredded it and soaked the rags in the sink. He waited until I held the cloth in place on my own before turning to Jason and pressing a second piece of fabric over his face.
I couldn’t see Serena through the smoke, but I could hear the thuds as she continued to throw herself at the door.
It was hopeless. It had to be if Kyle was here and not helping her.
The pounding stopped.
