Part 10 (2/2)

I jumped to my feet. ”What are you doing?”

”Cleaning up.”

”Cleaning up?” I tagged along behind him, unsure of what to do. Did I help, or stop him from doing what he was doing?

”We can't leave his body here. Someone will find him. Or someone won't and he might die of hyperthermia over night.” Setting Josh down, he dug into Josh's pants pocket and pulled out his car keys. He proceeded to press the keyless remote. The car beeped once and the door unlocked.

”I can't believe this is happening.”

Trevor pinned me with his dark and intense gaze. ”Well, it is, Salem. Deal with it. You can't close your eyes anymore and think this is all a bad dream.” He opened the car door. ”Help me get him into the car. We'll drive him to the hospital, leave him in his car in the parking lot and make an anonymous call to 911.” I picked up Josh's feet as Trevor set him as gently as he could onto the pa.s.senger seat. ”That'll give you time to get home, get some stuff and disappear.”

I dropped Josh's feet, causing him to roll down the seat onto his back, messing up all the work Trevor had just done to get him in properly. ”Screw you! I'm not going anywhere.”

Like a wild man, Trevor came out of the car, grabbed me by the arms and slammed me up against the side of the car. I was getting sick of everyone man-handling me. ”You are, Salem. You know why? Because once Josh's body is found, the police will be called, there will be an investigation, and the trail will lead back to you. You were the last person to see Josh alive and well. What do you think is going to happen after that?”

I stared into his deep dark eyes and realized he was right. I couldn't go back to my regular life. I was different, changed, and what I'd done crossed lines both legally and morally. I'd go to jail for what I'd done.

The life I'd known as Salem Vale, daughter of Lynn and Charlie Vale, sister of Kyle, best friend to Chloe and Jamie, social outcast, and general nuisance, was gone. Sure it had been ripped from my hands without my consent, but it was dead nonetheless.

My bottom lip started to tremble and I could feel the tears gathering, ready to fall at any minute. ”Where will I go? I only have about three hundred dollars in my bank account. That's not going to take me far.”

Releasing me, Trevor finished stuffing Josh in the car. He slammed the door shut and palmed the keys. ”You'll come with me.” I followed him around the car to the driver's side. He opened the door and motioned for me to get in the back seat.

Before I got in though, I looked at him, and asked, ”Then what?”

”Then we'll catch up with Malice on the road and you can help me kill them.”

Chapter 14.

After Trevor dropped that bomb, he shoved me in the back seat. He got in the car, slammed the door, and peeled out of the parking lot, gravel shooting up from behind the wheels.

I stared at the back of his head, not sure if I heard him right. He didn't really mean what I thought he meant, did he? ”You're joking, right?”

He met my gaze in the rearview mirror. ”No. I'm not.”

”We can't just go around killing people, you know.” My gaze flitting to Josh's unconscious form and I swallowed. I guess I should've heeded that before now.

”They aren't people. They're demons and they deserve to die.”

I wanted to ask then, what that made us. Were we still people? I still felt like a person. But I didn't ask him. By the stony look on his face, I a.s.sumed we were done talking about that particular gem of information. I'd save my questions until after we'd gotten Josh to the hospital. Maybe then, I could coherently put my thoughts together. Because right now, my mind was a mess.

All the way to the hospital, I was on the verge of tears. I couldn't wrap my mind around the events that had just happened. In a matter of minutes, my life had been obliterated. I had almost killed a boy I liked and I was now being forced to leave my home, my family, and go on the run with a different boy, who from just a few encounters, I knew I didn't like at all.

Trevor couldn't have been much older than I was. Maybe nineteen. But everything about him, the look in his eye, the way he spoke, told me he'd seen more than any person his age should ever see. He'd become hardened because of it, I was sure.

I wondered if I was going to become like that. I really didn't want to. I couldn't imagine going through the rest of my life with that stoic coldness possessing me, making me as rigid as an iceberg.

Trevor pulled into St. Luke's parking lot. He drove around looking for a spot that was furthest from the doors and shrouded in shadows. After two circles, he found one and parked. Thankfully, the lot was not full and we were fairly obscured from view.

”Are you wearing socks?” he asked.

I frowned. ”Excuse me?”

”Socks. Are you wearing them? We need to wipe our fingerprints from the car. A sock will work as good as anything.” He took off his beat-up runner and slid his sock off his foot. Then he started to wipe the steering wheel clean.

Panicked, I unlaced my boot, slid off my black sock and proceeded to wipe it across the back of the driver's seat, mimicking Trevor's movements. I didn't think I touched it but I wanted to make sure.

”Are you sure this will work?”

Trevor opened the car door, let me out, and then wiped down the interior of the door, the door handle, and all the b.u.t.tons. ”It'll smudge our prints at least.”

I watched him work as I stood on one foot, still holding my sock in my hand. ”What about skin cells? They'd be in our socks wouldn't they?” I'd watched a lot of CSI with my mom. It was one of her favorite shows.

He glanced at me, his eyebrow arched curiously. ”I don't think we have to worry about that.” Using his sock over his hand, he rubbed down the car keys, tossed them into Josh's lap, and then shut the car door.

I sat down on the ground and put my sock back on, then my boot. I watched as Trevor did the same. ”Why don't we have to worry?”

”Because even if they did manage to get some DNA, they won't have a clue what they're looking at. You're not exactly fully human anymore, Salem.”

”You mean my DNA's all screwed up?”

”Yup.” He stood, then putting out a hand toward me, he pulled me to my feet.

”This just gets better and better,” I mumbled.

”Come on, we need to get out of here.”

I followed Trevor as he headed for the far corner of the parking lot and away from the main street. ”How are we going to get to my place? A bus?”

”No, I got a better way to travel.” He moved quickly away from the light of the lampposts and into the thick dark shadows along the outer edge of the parking lot. Once we were in the darkness cast by shadows, he turned to me and grabbed my hand.

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