The Stars Never Rise

“Okay, but even if she and the baby both survive the delivery, infants are like helpless little police sirens, going off with no warning. Noise attracts degenerates, Finn. Beyond that, he’ll need diapers and clothes. And what if he gets sick? We can’t—”

Finn laid his finger across my lips. “Yes, there’s a lot to figure out. But what’s your other option? We’ll make it work because we have no other choice. You don’t have to do everything on your own. You’re not alone anymore, Nina.”

His hand moved over my jaw, his fingers sliding slowly into my hair, and I closed my eyes. His mouth met mine again, and this kiss was deeper. Slower. The novel feel and shape of Finn’s new lips was more obvious under such thorough attention, and I shoved my reservations away. I’d realized that every physical moment we shared would be precious because it would be short-lived. It would be borrowed.

Finn’s existence was a miracle defined by impossibilities, and to be with him, I would not only have to accept those impossibilities, I would have to embrace them.

When he tried to pull away, I slid my hand into his hair, holding him close. I wanted more.

A door flew open in the short hallway and I pulled away from Finn, my cheeks flaming, as if we’d been caught. Devi stormed across the living room, tugging her shirt into place over the waist of her pants. “Someone’s outside.”

Finn stood, and I stood with him, instantly on edge. “Gotta go.” He blinked, and then Reese’s brown eyes were back and he glanced around the room in confusion as Grayson and Maddock both emerged from the bedrooms.

“Company,” Devi explained, headed for one of the windows. “Reese, whatcha got? Degenerates?”

He stared at the front wall, and I realized he was hearing something from beyond it. “Degenerates don’t wear boots,” he mumbled on his way across the room.

Devi and I froze when a beam of light flashed through a gap in the drapes, shining in our eyes for a second. Then it was gone.

“What the hell was that?” Grayson stared at the window from the kitchen.

“Boots, flashlights, commands,” Reese whispered, rounding the end table. “Could only be cops.”

“Or fake exorcists,” Grayson said.

Reese pulled the edge of the curtain away from the wall and peeked onto the covered portico shared by our apartment and three others. “This is still the door-to-door. They won’t send in the big guns until they’ve actually found us.”

Devi grabbed two knives from the block on the counter.

Someone banged on the door of the apartment next to ours and I jumped. “This is the police. We have reason to believe certain fugitives may be hiding in this area. Open the door so we can search the premises.”

A second later, another cop repeated the same speech in front of the apartment across from ours.

“We’re next.” Reese held up a one-minute finger, still peering through the window. Then he turned, crossed into the dining room in three huge steps, and threw his duffel over one shoulder. “They’re all inside. We have to go now, before they come back out.”

I took the backpack Grayson handed me. It was light because I’d have to move quickly. “Finn says he’ll be right next to you the whole time. He’ll open any doors he can.”

Devi picked up a pack and her sleeping bag. “We’ll ram the gate, then head south and wait for you in Faireview. Do you know it?”

“Yeah. Ghost town about an hour south of New Temperance, not quite halfway to Solace.” I’d been there on a field trip once. “I guess I’ll have to…steal a car?”

“Finn can help with that,” Reese said. “Can you drive?”

“I don’t have much practice, but yes.”

“All right. Now or never.” Maddock unlocked the door, weighed down by both a duffel and a pack. Reese peered through the window again, then nodded, and Maddock opened the door.

We filed out one at a time, and as we walked, the cold seeped beneath the hem of my jeans and the cuffs of my coat, raising goose bumps all over my skin. The bitter wind stabbed my cheeks as if it were raining icicles, and the first breath I inhaled nearly froze me from the inside out.

We stepped silently, carefully, as if the sidewalk were rigged to explode upon contact. From inside the adjacent apartment, I heard doors being slammed and furniture being shoved across the floor, and every few seconds a cop shouted, “Clear!” but there were no protests or objections. The neighbors were cooperating, and I couldn’t blame them, with Adam’s ashes still blowing all over town.