He loaded a third. “This is a sedative.”

I felt a third sting, and whatever the sedative was, it worked quickly. Darkness fell over me, and my knees collapsed. I knew nothing more.

* * *

My head pounded as I blinked open my eyes. I lay on...my bed? No, the mattress beneath me was too narrow to be mine. Gingerly I sat up. Dizziness struck me, and I moaned.

“Hey, Ali-gator.”

Cole’s voice. I breathed deep in an effort to clear my head, saw the haunting beauty of his face. I hated to look away, but curiosity got to me. We...were in a small bedroom I didn’t recognize, with log walls and planked floors.

“You’re in a secluded home Ankh owns. It’s twenty miles from my house,” he said, “but they aren’t highway miles, so it takes me forty minutes to get here.”

I’d been banished.

My expression must have fallen to reflect my dismay, even though I knew this was for the best, because he added, “You’re too dangerous to be around others right now, sweetheart.”

Acid eroded my throat, and I choked. “I know, and I probably should have been sent here weeks ago. But, um, how long will I be allowed to stay?”

“As long as it takes.”

To heal...or to die, whichever came first. “Cole...”

“You have to quit your job, I’m sorry. Your grandmother is going to call your boss. And when school starts back up, she plans on speaking to the principal about allowing us to set up a computer so that you can remotely attend your classes. If they won’t let you, you’ll have to quit the district for a home school program.”

“Cole,” I said, trying again. What did I want to say to him? I wasn’t sure.

He shook his head, dark hair falling and hanging in his eyes. “I took your journal,” he continued. “I’ll go through every page, every passage. Emma told me the key to saving you is in there.”

“When did you talk to her?”

“This morning. She came to see me, and I think I freaked out my dad. He wanted to know why I was talking to air.”

I smiled.

Cole pushed out a breath. “Better.”

“What?”

He cupped my cheek. I reached up, wrapped my fingers around his wrists. “I hate that you’ve been hurt by all of this, I needed to see you smile.”

No wonder I was drawn to this boy. “How can you still like me after everything I’ve done?”

His thumb brushed away a tear that had seeped from the corner of my eye. “It isn’t that I like you, Ali, it’s that I can’t stop liking you. And I don’t want to stop. Besides, you were trying to end a zombie. That’s admirable.”

“You saw her?”

“I did. Her shield slipped for just a second when Gavin and I stepped in front of your grandmother. She was so angry her eyes glowed bright red. When I met her gaze I think it scared her, because she raced back into you.”

“We haven’t seen the end of her.” I could still feel her, a presence in the back of my mind. A heartbeat I had failed to stop.

“We’ll find a way to beat her,” he said, and I nodded despite my fears.

Emma had said the same.

Nana had said the same.

Heck, I had said the same.

Now...I wasn’t so sure.

“You know,” Cole said, “my mom once told me a boy would know he’d become a man when he stopped putting himself first. She said a girl would come along and I wouldn’t be able to get her out of my mind. She said this girl would frustrate me, confuse me and challenge me, but she would also make me do whatever was necessary to be a better man—the man she needed. With you, I want to be better. I want to be what you need. Tell me what you need.”

I need...you, I thought.

Mackenzie had told me she hoped Cole would meet a girl he couldn’t live without. In that moment, I was pretty certain I was that girl. And it was odd to me. So much had happened. So much had yet to happen. But this...thing between us hadn’t changed.

“Will you get on the bed with me?” I asked.

His smile was wry. “I will give you anything but that. I know us, and I know what happens when we kiss and if I get up there, we’re going to kiss. And I’m good with that, crave it, but there’s no one here to stop us.”

“You think Zombie Ali will take over again?”

“Maybe she will, maybe she won’t, but it’s not that.”

“Good. Because I don’t think I’ll want you to stop,” I admitted softly.

He brought my hand to his mouth, kissed my knuckles. “And you don’t know how happy that makes me. But I don’t have a condom and I refuse to risk you, even by pulling out. I don’t have a disease or anything like that,” he added in a rush. “I’ve never been with a girl without a condom, but getting you pregnant is a very real concern.”

For once I wasn’t embarrassed to talk about this with him. “Oh. Well, that sucks.”

“Believe me. I know.” He stood and looked down at me. “I stocked the fridge with all the food I know you like. I expect you to eat it.”

“I will.”

“I’ll come back tomorrow. And every day after.”

“I’ll miss you,” I said.

He reached for me. Balled his hand just before contact. And then he walked away.

This time, he looked back more times than I could count.

Chapter 24

I’m Late For a Killer Date

I felt sorry for lab rats. Like, really sorry. Every morning, Mr. Ankh came to the small house in the woods and drew my blood, checked my vitals. I’d been poked and prodded so much I had to look like a junkie.

I’d told him all the testing was unnecessary.

I was going to die here, and I knew it. All I could do now was enjoy the time I had left.

And I was. Because of Cole. But deep down, I admitted this wasn’t the way I wanted to go out. I wanted to die fighting, taking as many zombies as possible with me.

I sighed. Cole visited me every afternoon, and he always brought Nana. I could tell she’d asked him for a ride and he’d been unable to tell her no, because there was always a gleam of frustration in his eyes. But even though he wanted to be alone with me, he never complained.

Once, he pulled me aside and said, “Your grandmother is the toughest coc—uh, sex block I’ve ever come across.”

I’d giggled.

On New Year’s, the three of us sat on the couch, watching a movie Nana had brought. I was too distracted by Cole’s heat and scent and general deliciousness to care what it was. I occupied the middle, he had my right, with my head on his shoulder, and Nana had my left.

When the credits finally rolled, I said, “I really am sorry about the new furniture you bought, Nana.” I’d said the same words every day. Guilt hadn’t left me.

“I told you. Furniture is replaceable. You aren’t.”

“But the money—”

“Ali Bell,” she said, wagging a finger at me, the charms on her bracelet slapping together. “If I hear one more word about money, I’m going to scream. I mean it.”

“Good luck with that,” Cole said. “Ali is the most stubborn person I’ve ever met.”

“Hey,” I said.

“It’s not an insult if it’s true.” He kissed my temple. “I wish we could stay longer, but my dad is expecting me back.”

And he probably had some zombie hunting to do.

Nana kissed my cheek.

Cole gave me a long, searching look that told me he would be on me if we were alone. Then the two of them were in his Jeep, driving away. I watched from the window, trying not to cry.

Needing a distraction, I walked through the home, my bare feet thumping against the wooden floors. All of the mirrors had been removed. There were hundreds of books—romances, mysteries, science fiction and fantasy, nonfiction, a Bible—plus a TV and a fully stocked refrigerator. Cole had made sure I had my own clothes, an iPod loaded with Thousand Foot Krutch and Krystal Meyers, two new favorites, and the picture of Emma and me that Nana had found.

A chirp sounded from my phone. I check the screen, and smiled widely as I read Cole’s text.

I’m coming back after I check in w/my Dad. If U could B naked by the time I get there, U would really save me some time.

He was coming back.

To-do list: kiss him. Touch him. Own him.

Hinges creaked, jerking me out of my dreamy elation.

I frowned. I knew the sound well. Someone had just opened the front door, but it couldn’t have been Cole. I grabbed a knife from the kitchen counter and pressed my back against the wall. Slowly moving forward, I peeked around the corner. My heart hammered erratically.

Footsteps closed in.

Squeezing the weapon’s handle, I jumped out, prepared to attack.

A girl screamed. Her hand flattened over her heart as she scrambled backward, away from me.

“Kat?” I asked, lowering my arm.

“Don’t you dare stab me, Ali Bell.” She stepped from the shadows, moonlight washing in from the window and spilling over her. She anchored her hands on her hips, becoming the very picture of ire, despite the paleness of her skin and the bruises under her eyes. She wasn’t well. “You have some explaining to do. We finally figure out where you are and come to your rescue, and you almost murder me before we can complete the job.”

We?

Shock barreled through me at an alarming rate. “I have missed you so, so much, Mad Dog, but you shouldn’t have come.”

“Like I could really leave you out here once I learned Ankh had you deported to Siberia.”

“I’m only twenty miles away, and he did me a favor. I like it here. And how did you learn about it?”

She ignored my question, saying, “Of course you don’t like it here. There are bars on the doors and window.”

Those bars were meant to protect people from me. “I don’t want to leave.”

Her eyes narrowed. “Are you suffering from Stockholm or something? Because I know my Ali, and she would never move away without saying goodbye, and she would never choose to live here.”