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“Angel, go!” I ordered, and she shot through, her small white wings looking just like Celeste’s. “Gasser! Move it!” I saw him swoop down one last time to grab someone’s abandoned dessert. Shoving an entire eclair into his mouth, he nodded and aimed himself through the window. I went last, and then I was in the open air, stretching my wings, filling my lungs. I knew we had just made a crucial, devastating mistake and that we’d have to pay for it.
But you know what? It was almost worth it.
The looks on all those faces…
106
“To the trees,” I told Fang, and he nodded, making a big circle to head north. It was a hazy day, but we weren’t high enough to be out of sight. I hoped no one was looking up. Yeah, right.
We dropped down into a tall maple, breathing hard.
“That went well,” said Fang, brushing glass dust off his shoulders.
“It was my fault,” said the Gasman. He had chocolate on his face. “I’m the one who wanted to go there.”
“It was their fault, Gazzy,” I said. “I bet those weren’t even real cops. They had an eau de School air about them.”
“You didn’t think before you dumped the olive oil on the waiter, did you?” Fang asked.
I scowled at him.
“I’m still…” Nudge began, then let her voice trail off. I’m guessing she was about to say “hungry,” but then realized it wasn’t a good time.
But we were still hungry. We did have to have food. As soon as my adrenaline calmed down, I would go find a grocery store or something.
“People were taking pictures,” Iggy said.
“Yeah,” I said miserably. “As an unqualified disaster, this ranks right up there.”
“And it’s getting worse,” said a smooth voice.
I jumped about a foot in the air, then clutched my branch and looked down.
Our tree was surrounded by Erasers.
Without meaning to, I shot a stricken glance at Iggy: He was usually our early-warning system. If he hadn’t heard these guys coming, then they’d materialized out of nowhere.
One Eraser stepped forward, and I caught my breath. It was Ari.
“You keep showing up like a bad pe
“I was about to say the same thing to you,” he replied with a feral smile.
“I remember back when you were three years old,” I went on conversationally. “You were so cute-before you got huge and wolfy.”
“Like you ever paid attention to me,” he said, and I was surprised to hear sincere bitterness in his voice. “I was trapped in that place too, but you shut me out.”
My mouth dropped open. “But you were normal,” I blurted. “And Jeb’s son.”
“Yeah, Jeb’s son,” he snarled. “Like he even knows I’m alive. What did you think happened to me while you were off playing house with my father? Did you think I just disappeared?”
“Okay, there’s one knot unraveled,” Fang muttered under his breath.
“Ari, I was ten years old,” I said slowly. “Is all this back history why you’re tracking us now? Why you’re trying to kill us?”
“Of course not.” Ari spit on the ground. “I’m tracking you ‘cause that’s my job. The back history is helping me enjoy it.” He smirked.
I shot him the bird. (Get it? I shot him the-never mind.)
He was morphing, and when he smiled, his muzzle seemed to split in half, like a dog’s. From behind his back he pulled something small, with brown fur and two white-
“Celeste!” Angel cried, and started to scramble down.
“Angel, no! ” I shouted, and Fang yelled, “Stay put! ”
But my baby jumped, landing lightly on the ground a few feet from Ari.
The other Erasers surged forward, but Ari snapped up his hand to hold them back. They stopped, coiled tightly, their cold, wolfish eyes locked on Angel.
Ari shook Celeste playfully, and Angel stepped forward.
I dropped down to the ground, adrenaline pouring into my veins. Again the Eraser team lunged, and again Ari held them back.
“Touch her and I’ll kill you,” I promised, my hands curled into fists.
Ari smirked, his dark curly hair catching the last bit of afternoon sun. He shook Celeste again, and Angel quivered by my side.
“Give me the bear,” Angel said, low and intense.
Ari laughed.
Angel took a half step forward, but I grabbed her collar.
“Give. Me. The. Bear.” Angel sounded odd, not like herself, and she was staring intently into Ari’s eyes. His smile faded, and a look of confusion crossed his face. I remembered how Angel had influenced the woman to buy Celeste for her.
“You’re-” Ari began, then seemed to choke slightly, coughing, putting his hand to his throat. “You’re-”
“Drop the bear now,” Angel said, hard as concrete.
Seemingly against his will, Ari’s clawed, powerful hand unclenched, and Celeste fell to the ground.
Almost faster than my eyes could follow, Angel snatched Celeste and leaped back up into the tree.
I blinked and wondered if I looked as surprised as Ari did.
The other Erasers sprang into motion, as if it had taken them a few seconds to realize Angel was gone. Ari’s arm shot out, and an Eraser crashed into it.
“You have your orders!” he barked at the team. “Don’t ever question them!” He turned back to look at me thoughtfully. “You can’t question them,” he said in a normal tone, speaking directly to me. “Even if they seem stupid. Even if you’d rather just rip the flock apart.”
An Eraser made an eager, hungry sound, and it was all I could do not to shudder.
Ari leaned closer to me, as if catching my scent, like prey. “Your day is coming, bird girl,” he whispered. “And I’m going to finish you off myself.”
“Don’t sharpen your fangs just yet, dog boy.”
He opened his mouth to say something but then cocked his head and pressed a finger against his ear, as if hearing something.
“The Director wants to see us,” he barked at his team “Now!”
After one last lingering look at me, he turned and followed the other Erasers. They melted into the twilight shadows like smoke.
107
Up in the tree, Angel was clutching Celeste tightly, murmuring softly to her.
“I heard them mention the Director at the School,” Nudge said. “Who is it?”
I shrugged. “Some big, very bad person.” One of many who were after us. I wondered if it was Jeb, our fake father. Our savior and then our betrayer.
“You okay?” Iggy asked. I saw his white-knuckled hold on his branch and gave him a gentle tap with my boot.
“Hunky-dory,” I said. “But I want to get out of here right now.”
In the end, we settled in the top floor of a ninety-story apartment building that was being built on the Upper East Side. The first seventy or so floors had been windowed in, but up here it was just an empty shell with piles of dry wall and insulation. Huge gaping holes gave us a great view of the East River and Central Park.
Nudge and I went to a local grocery store, then schlepped three heavy bags of groceries back to the others. It was breezy up in our aerie, but private and safe. We watched the last of the sun go down and ate. My head was aching, but not too badly.
“I’m tired,” Angel said. “I want to go to bed.”
“Yeah, let’s try to get some sleep,” I said. “It’s been a long, relatively yucky day.” I held out my left fist, and we all stacked up. Tapping our hands seemed so familiar, so comforting, co
The Gasman and I cleared construction debris away, and Iggy and Fang moved stacks of drywall to make windbreaks. In the end we had a cozy space, and the flock was asleep within ten minutes.
Except me.
How were the Erasers tracking us so easily? I looked hard at my left wrist, as if staring at it would make my chip float to the surface of my skin. I myself could be a beacon without knowing it, without being able to do a thing about it-except leave the flock and strike out on my own. The Erasers were tracking us but not killing us. Why had Ari stopped them today?