That night Cal stopped at the threshold of his daughter’s room with the bag of presents that she would have been unwrapping in just a few days’ time. He lightly tossed the bag in the center of the room, switched off the light, and closed the door.
The phone rang that night, and he answered it, thinking that it was Laura. He didn’t want to talk to anyone, not even her, but he didn’t want her up all night worrying about him, either.
But it wasn’t Laura.
“You should be glad, Wilson. You’re the lucky one.”
“What?” The words didn’t register at first, only their tone. He didn’t recognize the voice at first, either. He’d never heard it over the phone before.
“You’re the lucky one. Your girl had a nice, clean death. End of story. She didn’t come back as one of those filthy monsters. Those abominations. Better she die than come back as one of them, or end up a paraplegic like the other one.”
Cal knew that he should hang up on him but, in a way, the fury that he was feeling now was better than what he had been feeling, which was nothing at all. All he’d had was an emptiness, a void where feeling should have been.
“So count your blessings, Wilson. She’s better off dead.”
“Barnes,” he said. “If you were here right now, I would kill you. Without any hesitation.”
The man on the other end of the line gave a low, throaty chuckle. “I feel the same way about the thing living in my boy’s corpse,” he said, and then he hung up.
Cal listened to the dial tone for a while. He listened long enough to imagine that he could hear voices, crying for help, buried far beneath the drone. Barnes only lived ten minutes away.
Cal got into his car, but he didn’t drive to Barnes’s house. The moon was full, and the streets were empty. He took his time and was careful. Snow was falling.
Mandy had said she’d loved Jake, and Cal had just watched him walk away, off into the forest, lost and alone. His shame made him burn even more than the words from Barnes.
The cemetery was locked, but the stone wall near the gate was only waist high. Cal climbed it easily. The stones of the cemetery seemed to catch and store the moonlight among the spectral blue white snow. The only sound was Cal’s crunching footfalls as he made deliberate progress toward his daughter’s grave. Once there, he saw that it was covered by a blanket of new fallen snow. It made it look as though she’d been buried for years and not for only a few hours.
He also saw the footprints.
A dark figure moved nearer, weaving among the stones. Cal watched as the figure seemed to coalesce out of the moonlight, its hospital gown glowing as it slouched against a mourning angel.
Cal had to swallow twice before he could get the words out.
“I’ve come for you,” he said. “I’ve come to take you home.”
Cal couldn’t see what effect his words had, if any; the other’s face was hidden in the shadow of the angel’s wing. But then they were both walking forward, toward each other. Neither could say who took the first step.
Author Biographies
SARAH REES BRENNAN’S first novel The Demon’s Lexicon, a dark YA urban fantasy featuring magic, swords, and a cranky boy mechanic, was published in June 2009. It was nominated for the ALA/ YALSA Best Books for Young Adults list, received three starred reviews, and a Carnegie Medal nomination. The sequel, The Demon’s Covenant, came out in May 2010, and she is currently working on the third volume in the trilogy while being inspired by her muse—country music. She lives in Dublin, Ireland between a canal full of swans and a bakery full of muffins.
www.sarahreesbrennan.com
BECCA FITZPATRICK is the New York Times – bestselling author of the paranormal thriller Hush, Hush. She graduated college with a degree in health, which she promptly abandoned for storytelling. When not writing, she’s most likely running, prowling sale racks for reject shoes, or watching crime dramas on TV. Crescendo, the sequel to Hush, Hush, will be published in November 2010.
www.beccafitzpatrick.com
CAITLIN KITTREDGE is the author of The Iron Codex trilogy for young adults, as well as the bestselling Nocturne City series, and the Black London series from St. Martin’s Press. She collects comics, loves bad movies and good books, and is owned by two pushy cats.
www.caitlinkittredge.com
KAREN MAHONEY gave up on her dreams of being Wonder Woman a long time ago, but has instead settled for being a writer of contemporary fantasy. This is her second published story about Moth, the teen vampire who made her first appearance in The Eternal Kiss. Her debut YA novel The Iron Witch, about a girl with iron tattoos and super strength (alchemy! dark elves! a hot half-fey guy called Xan!), will be published in 2011. She is British and currently lives in London.
www.kazmahoney.com
DANIEL MARKS is the super secret pseudonym of a popular adult urban fantasy author. He lives in a highly classified and secluded location (a “house” in a “neighborhood”) with his trusty bodyguard (“wife”), and a cabal of evil minions (some “dogs”). He’s currently hiring for a loyal henchman (“gardener”). Apply at:
www.velvetandnyx.com
JUSTINE MUSK is the author of the YA supernatural thriller Uninvited. She has also written the dark-fantasy novels Bloodangel and Lord of Bones, about a race of men and women descended from fallen angels who go to war against demons—and sometimes each other.
www.justinemusk.com
DIANA PETERFREUND is the author of the four books in the Secret Society Girl series, the first of which was named to the 2007 New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age List and deemed “impossible to put down” by Publishers Weekly. Her young adult debut, Rampant, is a contemporary fantasy novel about killer unicorns and the virgin descendants of Alexander the Great who hunt them, and has been named one of the top ten children’s books on IndieBound’s Kids’ Next List for Winter 2009.
www.dianapeterfreund.com
MICHELLE ROWEN is the national bestselling and award-winning writer of YA fantasy, paranormal romance, and urban fantasy. Her days (and some nights) are filled with writing about demons, vampires, shifters, faeries, and other worldly creatures who seem to want to tell her their tales. She’s the author of the Demon Princess books for young adults, as well as the Immortality Bites and Living in Eden paranormal romance series. She lives in southern Ontario AUTHOR BIOGRAPHIES 429 with two needy cats and a poster of Robert Pattinson.
www.michellerowen.com
CARRIE RYAN was born in Greenville, South Carolina and attended Williams College and Duke University School of Law. Her debut novel, the New York Times – bestselling The Forest of Hands and Teeth (Delacorte Press for Young Readers, 2009), earned starred reviews from Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal and was listed as number four on IndieBound’s Kids’ Next List for Spring 2009. It was also a Junior Library Guild selection, a Borders Original Voices selection, and was nominated for the American Library Association’s Best Books for Young Adults List. Her second novel, The Dead-Tossed Waves, is a companion to the first and was published in March 2010 with a third in the series scheduled for spring 2011. A reformed litigator, Carrie now lives and writes in Charlotte, North Carolina with her husband, two cats, and a dog.