45

Stella

The woman Harlow called Mercy Loth had already disappeared into the crowd, but she was left inconsolable and frantic. I had managed to catch sight of Mercy for a few moments, and she looked to be in her early thirties, with dishwater blond hair, pale skin, and a nose that was slightly too broad for her face.

When she'd went by us, Mercy had actually bumped into me, and she dropped a book. I bent to pick it up, and that's when Harlow began to scream. The book was still in my hand, but I feared it would only upset Harlow more if she knew about it, so I tucked it into Fae's diaper bag.

"Mercy Loth is here ?" Nova asked her. She gripped Harlow's arm, forcing her to look at her instead of falling into hysteria.

"Do you know what's happening?" Max asked me in a low whisper.

"Someone that really hurt Harlow and her family is here, maybe even stalking them," I explained as simply as I could.

By then, Harlow's outburst was drawing attention. Lazlo and his band were still playing, but they were noticeably distracted and looking into the crowd.

A moment ago, the night had felt almost magical, holding so much promise, and now it was cold and ominous. The hunger I had been trying to ignore since Jovie started me on my treatment was roaring awake. But I just suddenly felt so, so empty, like everything inside me had been scooped out and filled with ice.

"What's happening?" Samara asked, pulling me from my thoughts. She and Castor had apparently been drawn by the commotion, and they were hand-in-hand. I hadn't seen them in weeks, but we'd all been busy rebuilding our lives here.

"I don't know really," I said, because that was easier than explaining whatever was actually going on.

"It looks like Remy is taking care of it," Castor said, looking past me to where Remy was talking with Harlow and Nova.

"She always does," Samara muttered with a sneer.

I was about to ask her what she meant by that, but Lazlo announced that the band would be taking a break for a few minutes. He set down his guitar and got off the stage to attend to Harlow.

"Are you okay?" Max asked me. He picked up Fae out of her stroller, holding her arms, and that seemed smart given the uneasy feeling simmering in the crowd.

"Yeah, yes." I nodded. "You?"

"Yeah," he said, but his lips were pressed into a thin line. "I just… I want you to get out more, but I don't know if it's safe for us tonight."

"If you think we should go home, then let's go home," I said.

"We should get my sister and Boden first," Max said. "I doubt Serg will be able to leave since he's working, but I'm sure he'll be fine anyway."

With Lazlo off the stage, he was with Harlow and his family, and Remy and Boden had moved on, setting their sights on the mayor. He and his alderman Wilder were pushing through the crowd.

"Vaughn, you have to listen," Remy was saying, and she grabbed him by the elbow, so he stopped cold and glared at her. "There are so many strangers here tonight, and some of them are very dangerous. Do you have any protections for us against the uninfected?"

" You are virtually a stranger to me, Ms. King, and I don't know why you keep seeing fit to tell me what I can and can't do in my own town," Mayor Vaughn retorted. "If you would let go of me, I have matters to attend to that are much more pressing than whatever rumors you're busy chasing."

The way Remy glared at him, I thought she was going to punch him. Boden must've had the same concern, because he put a hand on her back and said, "Come on, Remy. Let's go."

She continued to glower at the mayor, long enough that Wilder's hand went for the baton holstered on his hip. When Remy finally released Vaughn, he immediately made a beeline for the stage. As soon as he got to the microphone, he started pacifying the audience.

"This is fucking ridiculous," Remy muttered.

"What do you expect him to do?" Boden asked her. "Shut down the whole fest because one person here may have hurt someone else?"

"Harlow was more than hurt, and I've had a bad feeling about this whole thing," Remy insisted.

As Vaughn droned into the microphone about how our community was a beacon for all of humanity, and Remy continued to gripe that no one was taking the dangers seriously, I found myself unable to focus on what either of them were saying.

The hunger inside me grew, but it was something more than that. There was a pull inside me, a calling. I was drawn away from the crowd, leaving my family watching the mayor speak.

All around me, the air was filled with the scent of food. Tangy kabobs and spicy chili and venison sausage. But despite my extreme hunger, none of it sounded appealing. It all smelled as appetizing as dirt.

That left me with no real distractions as I followed the pull , letting it lead me away from the stage and toward the mayor's office at the edge of downtown.

But I wasn't the only one.

The woman Harlow accused of being Mercy Loth, I saw her again, and she was sneaking into the side door of the mayor's office. She slipped in with the door closing behind her. But it didn't matter that I lost sight of her, because I knew that I'd be able to trail her the same way a dog would track its prey, and I went inside.

Since the mayor's office had been a church before, the exterior walls were lined with large stained-glass windows. The lights inside the old sanctuary were off, but all the excess lighting from the fest made the room glow crimson and emerald through the stained-glass.

Mercy was nowhere to be seen, but my legs marched directly across the room. I opened a door, leading to a staircase into the basement. It had a dank, musty odor, but underneath that was something familiar, something that summoned me down the stairs.

As I made my way down, I heard a woman weeping softly.

"What have they done to you?" she cried.

In the basement, there were several jail cells. The only one that had anybody in it held the same zombie boy from my nightmares. His hands and legs were bound with a rope, but he was sitting near the bars so Mercy could reach in and untie him.

"Don't worry. Mommy will get you out of here, and everyone who hurt you will have hell to pay," she promised him.

Suddenly, the whole world began to shake, and dust and dirt rained down from the ceiling above.