Page 121 of Thief of Night
Charlie’s fingers felt chilled as all the blood seemed to race to her heart. “I wouldn’t do that. I don’t want to die.”
“You play too many games,” he accused, voice harsh.
“If I warned him, then he wouldn’t come,” Charlie reminded him. “And you’d kill me. I’ve never been a hero. You know that.”
He seemed slightly mollified as he pressed the button to turn the car on. But then the engine didn’t turn over. Even the dash light didn’t come on.
Mark slammed his hands down on the wheel. “Did you do this?”
Typical Charlie Hall, in trouble because her ex had a shitty car.
“I think it’s the battery,” she said softly, remembering the van. Around her, Mark’s shadows moved like a slow strobe light. Panic made her heart skip. If she didn’t make it to the rendezvous point, even if she escaped Mark, there would be nowhere to go.
She reached for the door handle.
Before she could get out, though, he’d hit the lock button on the doors. “You wait here,” he told her.
He gave her a stern look as he got out of the car, shadows following him like the train of a bride. As he went to open the hood, he palmed the keys and the doors locked again.
Looking around, Charlie scrambled to find anything that could be used for a weapon. There was a glass bottle by her feet that she could smash. In the glove compartment, she found a screwdriver, which she tucked into her pocket.
The registration was in there too. The owner of the car had been named Marie.
Time seemed somehow to move both fast and slow. Charlie felt sick. If she couldn’t run, she’d have to travel with him until she saw an opportunity to give him the slip—or kill him in his sleep, she supposed, though she’d have to bet against her own squeamishness.
She imagined how it would be, being on the road with him, the paranoia and casual violence. Breaking into the next home and watching shadows bleed more innocent people. Acting as though she didn’t despise him. Smiling if he touched her.
She could steal Red from under the Cabal’s nose. Maybe she could even swindle the stars out of the sky. But she couldn’t do what it would take to stay by Mark’s side, not even for her own sake. No one was coming to save Charlie. And maybe she wasn’t going to save herself either this time.
Mark swore, kicking the front tire of the car violently. The shadows seemed agitated. Archer manifested, gnashing teeth. The NeverMan drifted toward the lit windows of a nearby apartment.
Taking a deep breath, Charlie slid over to the driver’s side, unlocked the door, and got out. She crouched down behind the car, easing the door closed.
She tugged the body spray out from under her bra and then took the cap off the can.
Mark slammed the hood down hard, clearly frustrated. Then he noticed the empty passenger seat. He smiled horribly.
“Chaaaarrrlie,” he called. “Are you hiding?”
She bit the inside of her cheek. It just figured that she was going to spend the last moments of her life kneeling on the frozen asphalt of a parking lot.
Mark’s shadows floated around him, slowly moving in every direction. It wouldn’t be long before they found her. “This is going to be a fun game. And my prize is going to be cutting you to ribbons.”
Charlie lunged. She flicked the lighter and sent a flaming spray of perfume toward the ground, where a thin tether connected Mark to Rosalva.
Mark swung toward Charlie, his face a mask of hunger and rage. “I knew you would betray me.”
“Well, youshouldhave,” Charlie told him.
Rosalva floated away from him, but the others closed in. The NeverMan caught Charlie by the throat.
Charlie flicked the lighter. The shadow hand slithered away, half solid and half a thick black fog. “Stay back,” she said, turning slowly, flame in front of her. Archer and JonJon wavered, close by, ready to lunge, but seemingly nervous about the fire.
“Pathetic,” Mark said, grabbing her by the arm that held the lighter and throwing her to the ground. Her head hit the asphalt and she felt a brief sideways sense of time slipping. Then Mark had his fingers around her throat. He squeezed, bringing his face close to her. Darkness started in spots, bleeding outward, the way old film went bad when exposed to thesun. “No one will care when you’re gone. You were born trash, Charlie, and you’re going to die like trash.”
She tried to spit in his face, but she couldn’t gather enough breath.
Red stepped out of the darkness behind Mark.
