"These people are not Movement. They're the Soul Eater's guys. They were watching the cabin."

There was a noise at the door. "They're coming. I barred it from the inside, but they will get through," Anne warned.

"Let's go." Max scooped Bella up as carefully as he could, though she cried out when he jostled her leg. "I'm so sorry, baby."

"There's another door." Anne gestured to the side of the room, which had been blocked by the curtains. "Come on!"

They charged through the door, into a maze of industrial shelves coated in a thick layer of dust. At the other end—they had to run about the length of a football field with Bella crying out at each step—an illuminated exit sign glowed an eerie red.

It wasn't a shaft of heavenly light, but he'd take it.

Anne ran ahead and kicked the door down.

"Was it locked?" he called over his shoulder as she let him pass through.

"I don't know. The car's over there!" She ran ahead again, sliding over the gravel in her platform combat boots.

"Easy, baby," he soothed against Bella's damp hair as he leaned down to put her in the back of the car. "Why the hell does the Soul Eater want us?"

"You know why!" Anne closed the door as soon as he slid inside beside Bella. The locks popped into place automatically.

There were no handles.

"Anne?" He pounded the window with his fist. The glass thumped dully. Bulletproof. Break proof.

Outside, three vampires ran from the building, Anne pulled three slim stakes from the waistband of her black plastic pants and threw them one after another without pausing to check her strikes. She didn't have to. As she dropped into the driver's seat, the vampires burst into flame.

"It doesn't matter what the Soul Eater wants with her," she managed through rapid breaths as she started the car. She turned toward him, leaning over the seat.

Max didn't see the hypodermic until she stuck him with it. His vision swam and went dark. The last thing he heard before he blacked out was Anne saying smugly, "Because the Oracle wants her more."

Chapter Nineteen
Hocus Pocus

I was still asleep when Nathan burst into the room. So, apparently, was Cyrus. He sat up beside me, glowering and squinting against the illumination from the overhead light.

Nathan looked from Cyrus to me, then scowled. "Get up. We've got problems."

He slammed the door so hard a light rain of plaster fell from the ceiling.

"Well, that is a somewhat less pleasant wake-up call than I'd hoped for." Cyrus eased from the bed, wincing as he stood. "And I think I'll go back to sleeping on the couch."

"Yeah, and he'll stake you as soon as you fall asleep." My muscles protested as I sat up. "Oh, it's going to be a long night."