Love's Cruel Redemption (The Ghost Bird #12)(95)

“We can’t stay here and wait for him to make a move,” Nathan said. “He’s just trying to rattle us. They’re on the other side. We need to get around. We’ll need to stick together.”

I had to agree with that, but with my heart pounding so hard, it was shaking my knees. I swallowed, pressing my hand into his tightly. “Let’s go.”

We faced off with the dark hallway, with me leaning into Nathan, practically holding myself up with his strong body. I kept squinting, as if expecting to see something through on the other side.

There were options to go around. We could go upstairs. We could take the hallway in front of the office. We could go into the office and call them from a landline.

All of these options were the same to me. It meant going where Volto possibly wanted us to go to. But he couldn't be everywhere at once.

Could he?

We tiptoed forward to the shortest hallway that would lead us to the cafeteria. Nathan was right. We needed to get to them. At first, everything was silent.

Then a wailing sounded. It was distant at first, but coming closer.

Nathan's hand strengthened in squeezing mine. “It's the police. Someone called them.”

Oh no. Not now!

Nathan nudged me forward. “I have to get you out of here. We need to hide in the school. Somewhere they'll ignore in case they search the building.”

“We can't just leave the others to handle this alone,” I said.

“You have to.” He turned to me. “You've got to stay away from the police and any investigation.”

I wasn't sure my ghost bird status was worth all this. What would they think of Mr. Blackbourne and the others making an exchange at this time of night?

We looked down the dark hallway, which led around to where the others were. Police lights lit up the sides of the hallway. They were close, possibly in the parking lot.

Nathan turned, and tugged me along, heading to the stairs. “Never go up the stairs. Sure. That's always it, isn't it?” he muttered.

Despite what he was saying, we climbed. I was breathless at the top, from fear and from going so fast, but he urged me on.

“Isn’t there a light on your keys?” I asked.

He brought them out, checking but his light wasn’t working. “Battery died at camp,” he said.

“We need to find someplace to hide,” he said. “At least until we can be sure they aren't coming for us.”

“There's a closet,” I said. I examined the extending hallways around us and then picked a direction. There were loads of classrooms, of course, but it was too easy to take a look inside of them. The little dusty closet had a few places to hide, if they checked inside it at all. “I think it's this way.”

With all the lights off now, including in these hallways, most everything was pitch black. We paused just inside the edge of a hall. Without any light, it was way too dark to see up here.

He motioned to the edge of the hall where lockers were lined up. He pressed a hand to it and kept his other hand with mine. “We'll follow these. “They'll get us to the end of the hallway.”

“Maybe we should use a phone,” I whispered. “For light.”

“We can't give him the advantage like that,” he said. He tugged me gently. “Come on. We've got to go.”

I clutched to him. I wasn't sure I could go through with this without him. He was much braver than I thought I ever could be.

He stepped forward, keeping his palm against the lockers. It was the only sound aside from our footsteps. A clunking noise erupted as he hit one of the locks, and he changed position to avoid hitting them again.

But he didn't stop. He kept a moderate walking pace, slow enough that we wouldn’t trip hard over anything left on the floor.

We were halfway through when he stopped. I paused beside him.

I didn't know what he was doing. It was too dark to see. Did he hear something?

Suddenly, I smelled it.

Jasmine. Lavender.

It was the same scent Volto often carried with him.

“He's here,” I whispered.

Before Nathan could respond, there was a zap, familiar to me and yet weaker.

A stun gun.

Nathan jolted forward, releasing my hand. The sensation stopped instantly. “Go!” he shouted.

I didn't want to. I couldn't leave him. But there was only one of Volto, and I needed to either hide or get to the others and stop whatever he was doing.

I glanced back only once, spotting the green glow of a mask. It propelled me forward, wild fear taking over me.

I ran. I needed to get to the others. For Nathan. I couldn’t take him on alone.

There was a stairwell ahead of me.

I used the lockers as my guide to get to the end of the dark hall.

A body collided with mine, taking me down. I struggled, crying out and kicking.

A bag went over my head, stifling my voice and blinding me completely.





Vanished




Nathan

––––––––

Her footsteps stopped somewhere in the distance, she cried out, followed by the sound of dragging. Muffled movements. Silence.

The pain that had radiated out from his back had subsided, but his limbs were numb. The voltage had been set high. He breathed in sharply, crouching on the floor, palms against the tile. He resisted the urge to vomit, swallowing back bile to keep himself together. He’d been zapped hard before, but this was rough.