Page 105 of Aftermarket Afterlife

The thought of the Covenant was like driving a heated needle between my ribs, stopping barely shy of my heart. I closed my eyes and swallowed hard, only for Candice to shake me again.

“Wakeup, you stupid human,” she snapped. “I don’t want to spend all night sitting around here waiting for you to get over yourself.”

I opened my eyes again, sighing, and took a look at my surroundings.

I was in a hospital bed—no surprise there—with an IV bag hooked to my right arm, the needle taped down to the crook of my arm. It didn’t hurt, but I could tell that it would as soon as I pulled it loose. I blinked, then looked over at Candice. “What happened?”

“You keeled over in the morgue, like a big drama queen,” she said, studying her fingernails. “Only dead people get to nap there, mammal. Bad choices. And it turns out I’m still on your list of emergency contacts.”

Dimly, I remembered filling that out as part of the paperwork when I’d been checked in for Olivia’s birth. Candice was fifth from the top of people to call in an emergency. Dominic was first.

Dominic was no longer available.

I took a painful breath. Sarah was listed under him, but she was out of the state, and I didn’t think she’d come back for a non-emergency emergency, not when she was helping Mary deal with the greater crisis. Istas and Kitty should both have been called before they worked their way down to Candice. My eyes widened as the facts of the situation sank in.

“Wait,” I said, barely managing to resist the urge to grab Candice and shake her. It would just have been returning the favor, after all. “Are Istas and Kitty . . . ?”

“The waheela and the bogeyman are both as well as they ever are,” said Candice dismissively. She whisked the blanket off of me and looked with disdain at my legs, exposed from the knee down by the hospital gown I was wearing. “Both were indisposed by other duties. I would also have been indisposed, but William objected. He said it would be a poor return on the friendship you’ve offered us since coming to this city.”

“I’ll have to tell him how much I appreciate it,” I said, half-numbly.

“Oh, you’re about to have the opportunity.”

I blinked. “Come again?”

“We are returning to the Nest proper. William wants to speak with you.” She sniffed. “I don’t like bringing outsiders there under the current circumstances, but he was quite firm, and I try not to argue with him when I don’t have to. It upsets us both. I’m much happier when I don’t have to deal with an unhappy husband.”

“That’s pretty universal,” I said. “Most people don’t like it when their spouse is unhappy.”

“Yes, but mostly people aren’t married to fifty-foot-long predators who breathe fire,” said Candice.

“Okay, I have to give you that one,” I said, looking around for the call button. “Candy, can you do me a favor?”

“I’m already doing you a favor,” she said sourly. “I’m collecting you and taking you back to the Nest, against my better judgement. What else can you possibly want from me?”

“I want you to find a nurse so we can get this IV out of my arm,” I said. “Let’s not keep the fifty-foot predator waiting, all right?”

“Fine,” sniffed Candice. “Wait here.” That said, she flounced out of the room, and I sighed, watching her go.

“I wasn’t planning to do anything else,” I said, to the empty air.

• • •

My clothes had been too soaked with blood to save; Dr. Morrow had ordered them burnt while I was still unconscious. Which was why I was now walking through the sewers in sweatpants and borrowed shoes, with a thin white tank top under an NYU hoodie two sizes too large swallowing my arms and torso. Candice, who knew the route between the Nest and the hospital well, led the way deeper and deeper into the network of tunnels beneath the city, occasionally pausing to beckon me along and make small, irritated noises over how slowly I was moving.

My legs felt like they were made of lead. My borrowed shoes technically fit, but they fitwrong, rubbing the sides of my feet in an unpleasant way. I wanted to stop and take them off, and the only thing that stopped me was the knowledge that if I did, I’d be walking the rest of the way barefoot.

Candice looked back to snap at me once more, and paused as she saw the expression on my face. She not only stopped walking; she took a few steps back, to meet me, and touched my arm. “Verity? Are you all right?”

“Not in this or any other universe, but why do you ask?”

“Because you’re crying again.”

I stared at her. “When they called you to come and get me, they told you what had happened, right?”

“Yes.” She nodded, with something that looked like real sympathy sparking briefly in her eyes. “I’m sorry about Dominic. He was always very kind to us, once he got over his initial instinct to behave as if we were all horribly dangerous monsters. He was human, but he was good.”

I wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand, saying nothing.

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