Stolen Melody (Snow and Ash #2) (6 page)

“Shit.” He looks disappointed. “Was there anything good about it?”

I think about all the times people called me a dirty whore. “I liked singing. I liked the dancing. You know, when all this happened, I was headed out on my first European tour. I was super excited about that. First stop, Paris. We were at the airport in DC when they grounded all the planes.”

“Hey, don’t bitch. You could’ve been in Denver.”

His words awaken a barely suppressed longing. I could have been with my mom and dad. I think about them every day, and sometimes when I’m dreaming, I call out for my mother like she’s two blocks away, there’s a bat flying around in my room, and only she can save me. I guess I’m trying to call her back from the dead, but she never comes. Ever. I clench my jaw as tears punch the backs of my eyes.

Axel flexes his neck like he realizes he said something wrong. He inhales through his nose, and the way he works his jaw, his eyes, it’s like he’s scanning for something else to talk about.

“How the hell did you get stuck in that shit town,” he asks finally.

“So glad you asked.”
 
Not. I don’t like thinking about the weeks following Yellowstone, especially not the part that took me to Sadie’s Bend.
 
But it’s not a secret.
 
Not anymore.

“My manager was my temporary guardian, right? He had a brother in Nashville, so when things got serious, he decided to head down there. I don’t know how he got a car or how he got gas, but we set out. By then he’d run out of heroin and he was going nuts.”

“The fuck?”

“Seriously, I’d never driven a car in my life, but he was shaking so bad I had to. The skies were already pretty dark, and it rained constantly. We turned off the highway to find someplace to spend the night and got lost. Like, lost. Then we ran out of gas.”

He rolls his eyes. “Of course you did.”

I half smile, even though there’s nothing funny about it. “It’d been one terrifying event after another since the moment Yellowstone blew, what with the food riots and the murders and everything else.
 
I was practically numb the first half of the trip.
 
I remember thinking,
what else could happen
?
 
I had this insane idea how things would be better once we got to Nashville.
 

“When the car started choking, I didn’t understand at first that we were out of gas.
 
It’s when I couldn’t get it started again that I got all dizzy and this welling of cold rose in my chest. Ever been that scared?”

He cocks his head, but I can’t tell if he’s saying
yes
, or
no
, or
I’m not telling you
.

“I held onto the steering wheel like it was the only thing between me and death.
 
At that moment, there’s no way anyone could have convinced me that I wasn’t going to be raped and killed the second we got out of the car. I was half-a-second away from going hysterical, and then I got a good look at the guy in the passenger seat.
 
I’ve never seen eyes so vacant, so empty of hope.”
 

If we were going to make it, it was up to me. I’ve never wanted my mother so badly, before or since.

A glance at Axel’s frown tells me he’s listening—intently, actually—so I go on.

“He looked like death. Sweaty, clammy, pale, rings under his eyes. But then he told me to stay with the car and he’d go get help. He couldn’t stop shaking, and I could barely understand what he was saying.”
 

“So where is your manager?”

“He went about twenty feet up the road and around this bend and then blew his brains out.” I still picture it sometimes.
 
The figure lying in the mud with half a head, the rest of it in random chunks along the road.
 
I shudder.

“Jesus.”

“Yeah, that’s pretty much how I reacted, too.
 
Although in my case, there was some screaming involved, and a good ten minutes in a fetal position.”
 
He doesn’t need to know I puked out my stomach, kidneys, and lungs.
 

“Jesus,” he says again. “Did someone find you there?”
 

“No, thank God.”
 
I smooth my hand over my neck. “I lost it for a while, but then I grabbed what I could and started walking. The first town I saw was Sadie’s Bend, and I wasn’t sure who to go to. I didn’t see a police station, so I went to the church. The rest you know.”

“Goddamn,” he says, eyeing me with either respect or pity. I’m not sure which. “No wonder you were a virgin. You spent your whole life in maximum security.”

“Why are we stopping?”

Axel cracks his neck. “Time to feed and water the horses.”

Hopefully he means the humans too. I am so freaking tired. My legs feel like rubber, and what with all the snow jumping, tomorrow my hips will probably be frozen in their sockets.

“Don’t move.” Axel strides over to a redheaded guy with the fuzziest beard I’ve ever seen. I stand perfectly still. I’m not obeying orders. I feel like a calf in a field of prehistoric raptors, and one movement from me will send them all charging.

This gives me time to observe our party. There are twenty-four of us, including me. Despite their crude jokes, which I pretend not to hear, the men are constantly scanning every tree, every building, every shadow as though expecting an attack at any time. A couple of them even use high-tech-looking binoculars.

Axel ambles back. “Here,” he says and drops dried apples and some kind of jerky onto my palms.

I eye the meat. I don’t know. I mean, it could be beef, but…

“We’re not cannibals,” he tells me as if reading my mind.

For the thousandth time today my face heats. I feel like such an asshole, but only for being caught out. The jerky turns out to be decent. It’s even a little garlicky. I could eat a whole cow right about now, and when it’s gone, I wish there was more. A lot more. I devour the whole meal in less than five minutes.

Axel is taking a long pull from a metal thermos when that leader guy approaches. Axel doesn’t stop drinking, but his eyes settle on the guy and don’t move. Even when the guy stops in front of him, he takes a couple more swallows and then wipes the back of his sleeve across his mouth. He hands the thermos to me.

Axel tilts his chin in greeting. “Centos.”

“Diehl,” returns the leader.

They study each other for a moment, and it reminds me of when two big dogs meet at the park. The first to look away is never the alpha, and true enough, Axel averts his eyes. I get the impression he did this on purpose, like he allowed the other guy to win.

Axel indicates me with a tip of his head. “Name’s Imogen…” He frowns. We never did get around to my last name.

“Barrow.” I’m looking at Axel, not Centos–Leader Guy. I’m not sure what their weird gang rules are.

“Imogen Barrow.” His voice is smooth and without accent. I turn and find the guy inspecting me through narrowed eyes, and I edge closer to Axel. “Michael Centos. I lead this group. You’ll abide by my rules.”

I blink. I’m speechless, actually. I don’t think I’ve ever been around this much testosterone. In the end I merely nod and shift my attention to my hands, which are gripping the thermos like it’s a holy relic.

“She will.” Axel’s voice doesn’t reveal what he’s thinking. Or feeling.

That Centos guy grunts and moves on without a backward glance. I practically sag. I’m so out of my league.

I note that Axel is munching his fruit like nothing happened just now. I could scream.

“Excuse me?” I hold the thermos out to him.

He takes it and tilts his head, and for a moment all I can think is he has the most gorgeous blue eyes I’ve ever seen.

“Hey. Rules. What rules? And what’s this code you keep talking about?”

He lifts a shoulder. “You’re mine. That’s pretty much it.”

“My ass!”

Axel drops an apple chip and blinks as though pulling me into focus. “Did you just swear?”

“I have no idea what I’m supposed to be doing here. What does ‘claimed’ even mean? What does it mean when you say ‘mine’?” I use air quotes around the word. “I’ve never seen anything remotely like you guys. If you don’t spill, that Centos guy’s likely to slit my throat.”

He rubs his chin and studies me. “Claimed means you’re mine. No one else can have you or try to take you from me.”

“Okay. How long does this last? A day? Three? Am I going to wake up next week and find myself pulling a train?”

He chokes, and his eyes sparkle. “I have plans for that dirty mouth of yours.”

“Just tell me. How safe am I? How long does this claimed thing last, and what happens to me when it’s over?”

His nostrils pinch, and he levels me with that I’m-a-savage-biker/homicidal-murderer look he’s so good at. “It lasts as long as I want it to.”

I might just throw up. What I really want to do is sit, but there’s only snow, snow, and more snow. Raking my hair off my face, I shift away from him. I hug myself like somehow it will prevent me from falling apart. It doesn’t work.

He runs a hand down my arm, but I don’t turn. I can’t live like this. I won’t. Somehow I’ve got to get away from these animals.

“Smell that?” The blond guy from earlier has to be ten strides behind us, but he’s loud and I get the feeling he’s talking to me. “Good old home cookin.’”

He gives me the creepy-crawlies, but I do smell it. Ham?
 
Someone not too far off is cooking.

I shoot Axel a frown. “Aren’t they afraid strangers will smell the ham and attack?”

“Nope.”

“Why not?”
 

“That’s not ham.
 
That’s human meat.”
 

A shudder slithers up my spine. “Cannibals?”
 

My voice comes out little more than a squeak.

He frowns and rubs his hand down my back. “They won’t attack.
 
Our party is too large.”

“How can you be sure?”
 

“I’m not.
 
But we’re ready.”

I clamp my mouth shut.
 
I’m four again, convinced if I make even the slightest noise the monsters will hear and find me. A quick glance at our party tells me we’re heavily armed, but I still smell meat.
 

Vomit kisses the back of my throat ten minutes later as we pass a wooden fence.
 
The others just keep moving, but I stop.
 
I can’t help it.
 
I thought smelling human meat was bad…

“Keep moving, Melody.”

“But—”

“They’re marking their territory.”

I breathe so fast that my head goes light.
 
Hands, dozens of them arranged in pairs are nailed to the top row of the fence. They’re all frozen, of course.
 
It’s winter.
 
At first all I see is the horror, but then I lock on a pair with blue veins that bulge above the wrinkled skin.
 
I think of my grandmother, and a sharp ache stabs me in the chest.
 
I’m sure I never met this person, but grief grabs my lungs and wrings them until I think I’ll never breathe again. It’s only been three and-a-half years since the Ash.
 
How can people have become so barbaric, so fast?

We keep moving, and despite the feeling of spidery eyes watching my every move, the monsters don’t come.
 
This time.
 

The group stops again at dark-fall near a half-burned-out farmhouse. I shiver when I see it, but not entirely from the cold. The windows all seem to be broken and the front door stands crookedly in its frame. Half-rotted curtains flutter in the breeze, and I picture the ghosts of former tenants waving at passers-by.
 

The barn looks safe enough. At least it’s not falling down. Yet. The guys put together a double-ring watch around the building and assign sleep shifts. Axel takes my hand and leads me up a ladder to what was probably once a hayloft. He readies our bed, and as he does, I feel my shoulders fuse together. What if he wants to do it again?

Every time I tried to pee today, it burned my torn flesh. Plus, I’m still bleeding. No way can I handle him shoving that thing in me all night.

Then again, maybe yesterday was enough to last him a while.

Then it hits me. There’s at least a dozen men just below us and the entire building is open. We’re not having sex. Not in front of all those witnesses.

I relax for, like, a second.

Then he reaches up under my sweatshirt and cups my breasts. He lets out a grunt and rubs his hardness against me. No way.

He reaches behind me and unhooks my bra. “We need to burn this thing.”

“No!”

“The thought of your titties bouncing around gets me hard.”

“Oh, in that case, why didn’t you say so? Of course, by this time next year they’ll hang down past my waist. But you won’t mind, I’m sure.”

He steps back, but a smile plays about his mouth.