With the headlights off, Sebastian would have no idea someone was chasing after him.

Let it go, she thought, taking off her Windbreaker and giving it to Grace. You’ve done your job.

Well, not all of it. She still didn’t know the location of Sebastian’s blood farm—or her brother. If Sebastian was killed, she’d lose her one and only connection in the blood world—the only person who could help her find J.C.

She had an AR-15 and a spare clip and more than half a tank of gas. The Range Rover, Sebastian had told her during the drive, had been modified by the same company that had turned his Jaguar into a tank.

Ellie tore onto the street. She turned the wheel hard to her right and, in the rearview, saw Grace thrown sideways against the backseat.

“Buckle up,” Ellie said.

Grace sat up and stared dreamily at her, then out the windshield.

“Your seat belt,” Ellie said. “Put it on.”

Grace nodded slowly. She was still looking straight ahead, her eyes, Ellie noticed, tilted up at the cyclones of smoke in the red sky. There was no fear in her expression or in her voice when she looked at Ellie, the young woman’s eyes clear when she said, “Is the world coming to an end? Has Judgment Day arrived?” Then she met Ellie’s gaze in the rearview mirror. “Tell me the truth.”

* * *

It wasn’t easy to follow the Mercedes. Ellie killed her own lights, and she had to use the fiery red and orange glow in the sky to trail it across flat land and then winding dirt roads. When they dipped or curved suddenly, she worked the brakes and decreased the speed so the Rover wouldn’t overturn.

Guidry, though, didn’t seem concerned about any of that happening to him. He drove fast and had no problem handling the terrain. In a few minutes, she lost sight of him.

She thought the road would never stop curving, but then it did, and now she was driving across a long, mostly flat stretch. Far ahead, maybe half a mile away, she saw curtains of fire raining ash and the orange sparks of what she thought were embers across the valleys of sunbaked land.

Where was the Mercedes? Ellie had both hands on the wheel and leaned forward, eyes darting back and forth, searching for the SUV. She crested an incline and then saw it less than a quarter of a mile away, parked at an angle along the dirt shoulder to her left—and saw Guidry standing outside. She knew it was Guidry because, as she tore down the road, drawing closer, she saw him staring into the scope attached to a sniper rifle with a bipod propped on the hood. His back was toward her and he was using the SUV for cover, and she caught a quick glimpse of the rifle—a massive, mean-looking weapon probably equipped with .50-caliber rounds. And he did, in fact, have night-vision gear; she saw it mounted on his head.