The Liberator

Blue to stop. But then I think about Charlie and Aspen back there, safe, and how I don’t want them touched by these guys. Also, how I wish Annabelle were safe with them, too.

“Let Annabelle out,” I say calmly.

“Yeah, let me out,” Annabelle says, her voice shaking.

“No,” Blue barks and drives faster.

“Blue!” Annabelle says. “Please. Please, I don’t want to do this. I don’t want to—”

“Turn right,” I scream. “Don’t hit them, Blue. There’s an opening on the right side. Take it! Take it! Blue, trust me like you did Aspen. Take it! Now!”

Blue hesitates, then jerks the wheel to the right just in time. We brush past Lincoln’s truck and blast through the black clouds. And seconds later, from outside the back window, I see what I saw before—

A car.

A different car.

It’s sleek. It’s yellow.

It’s a Ford Shelby GT 500.

And it’s driving toward us, growling like a fucking grizzly bear. Aspen is behind the wheel, and Charlie’s in the passenger seat.

“Pull over,” I yell.

Blue screeches to a halt. We scramble for the sports car, opening doors and closing them.

Aspen slams on the accelerator.

And we’re gone, baby.

We’re gone.

18 Kissing a Demon

We drive for several hours before we’re sure we’re not being followed, and before our nerves are calmed. Then Aspen pulls into a hotel and rents us rooms for the night—or morning, really.

We decide we’ll sleep for a few hours, then get back on the road. We’re headed for Peachville because we can’t think of anything better to do than to find Valery and Max. Power in numbers and all that. Annabelle encourages me to call Val, but I know Blue already has, and I don’t feel like dealing with Red tonight.

Now, as I fall back onto my bed, the weight of everything that’s happened fills me like lead. All this time I never had her soul. Big Guy had to suspect the collectors would come for Charlie’s body next. So why send me on assignment? Blue said my assignment, liberating Aspen, is vital. He said I’m being tested for something big. But what could be more important than keeping watch over Charlie?

Charlie.

I’ve barely had a single moment alone with her since she arrived at Aspen’s cabin. And even though I’m exhausted and starving, all I want to do is be alone with her. But first, I need to talk to Aspen. Once I make sure she’s going to stick around, I can focus on Charlie.

Outside Aspen’s room, I wait for her to open the door. But she never does, even after I’ve knocked several times. Then I shake my head, because I know exactly where she is.

I walk across marble floors to the elevator and take it to the first floor. And there—in the corner of the bar, surrounded by a cloud of smoke—is Aspen. As I get closer, I notice she’s swiped a blue bottle from behind the counter and has it clutched beneath the table. I slide in next to her.

“Care to share?” I say.

Aspen hands me the bottle without speaking. I take a small sip, and my chest warms. Handing it back to her, I let my hand linger on hers. But she still doesn’t turn and look at me.

“Everybody wants something from me.” Aspen squeezes her eyes shut. She’s wearing the blue eye shadow again. “That’s what Lincoln always tells me.”

“Aspen—”

“But my soul?” she says, wincing. “You want my soul?”

I take my hand away. “It’s for heaven. Most people want that.”

Aspen’s green eyes flash. “That’s not the way it’s supposed to work, dead people walking around sealing souls. You’re supposed to live, and then you go in the dirt.” She swallows and looks down at her cigarette. With her mouth turned down and her brow lined with thought, she looks more like a woman than a seventeen-year-old girl. “How does it work? Have you sealed me already?”

I nod. “Once. When you flew Charlie up to see me. That was selfless.” I run my hands over my jeans. “I could do it again now. It’d be right after what you did for us back there. Getting us away from Salem and Easton like that? It was amazing.”

“Don’t you dare,” she snaps.

My back stiffens. “Aspen, you want to go to heaven when you die, because the other alternative isn’t good. Trust me.”

“Just don’t.” Aspen takes another drag, then stubs out the cigarette in a plastic ashtray. She looks in my direction. “You can’t walk away from the things you’ve done. If you’re a bad person, you stay bad. There’s no redemption for the wicked, Dante Walker.”

I pull away from her, stung silent. Then I pull in a long breath, because everything has suddenly become clear. “What did your father do to you?”

Her eyes flick up. “Screw you.”

She rises to get up from the table, but I grab her wrist. “Why do you keep those music boxes?”

“Because I like them,” she retorts, pulling back.

I hold tight. “What about the checkerboard?”

Her eyes burn with anger, scorching my insides. I can almost feel heat where I touch her wrist.

I glance at the necklace she wears, the one without the charm. “Did he give you that necklace?”

Aspen rears back and slaps me hard across the face. I let go of her wrist. She spins on her heel to flee, but she only gets a few feet before slamming into Charlie.

Charlie’s several inches shorter than Aspen, but right now she looks regal. Aspen stops, her chest rising and falling rapidly, but she doesn’t try to dodge Charlie. She just stands there, waiting.

And I do, too.

Slowly, Charlie reaches out. The look on her face isn’t one of sympathy. It’s one of compassion. Her fingers find Aspen’s hands. When I look again, Charlie’s removing Aspen’s fingerless gloves.

Moving on silent feet, I glance over Aspen’s shoulder. Fury detonates inside my body when I see her exposed palms. They’re covered in circular pink scars. Almost like someone burned her with cigarettes.

“Did he do that to you?” I growl.

My heart drops like a stone when I notice she’s crying.

I step closer, but Charlie holds her hand up. Then she wraps her arm around Aspen’s waist. “Let’s go to sleep,”

As the two of them move away, I stand dumbfounded, my jaw hanging open like a caveman.

When they disappear around the bend, I think about what I saw. If her father really did that to her, I hope his soul fries in hell. I press my lips together and think about my assignment. It doesn’t seem so strange that Big Guy sent me to liberate her now that I have an idea of what she may have gone through at home.

The problem is, I still don’t know if I’m the right person for the job.

But who else would understand her the way I do? I think. We’re the same, both wanting parents who see us.

Though after witnessing the marks on her hands, my own demons don’t seem as big anymore. And while her torment is evident, it still doesn’t answer the question of why Big Guy wants her to be helped more than every other teen suffering abuse.

I wait a bit longer before making my way back to my room. When I get there, I find Charlie outside my door. I close the distance between us and place my hands on her hips. This time, she lets me pull her as close as I