Quietly, I made my way through the rubble, keeping to the shadows, until Stick was just a few yards away. He looked even thinner than usual, a near-skeleton of a boy with pinched skin and greasy hair and dull, dead eyes.
“Stick,” I whispered, casting a quick glance toward the group by the fire. They all had their backs to me, or to Stick, more likely, and didn’t notice us. “Stick! Over here! Look this way!”
He jerked and raised his head. For a few seconds, he looked confused, gazing around blearily, his eyes staring right through my hiding spot. But then I waved to him, and his eyes nearly bugged out of his head.
“Allie?”
“Shh!” I hissed, drawing back into the shadows as some of the gang members half turned their heads, frowning. I gestured for him to follow, but he just sat there, staring at me as if I was a ghost.
In a sense, I suppose I was.
“You’re alive,” he whispered, but his voice lacked the excitement, the relief, I was expecting. It sounded dull, almost accusing, though he wore a confused expression. “You shouldn’t be alive. The rabids…I heard…” He shuddered violently, curling into himself. “You didn’t come back,” he said, and now there was a definite note of accusation in his voice. “You didn’t come back for me. I thought you were dead, and you left me alone.”
“I didn’t have a choice,” I said through gritted teeth. “Believe me, I would have come here sooner if I could, but I didn’t know you were alive, either. I thought the rabids got you, like Rat and Lucas.”
He shook his head. “I went back home and waited for you, but you never came. I stayed there, alone, for days. Where were you? Where have you been all this time?”
He sounded like a pensive toddler, and my frustration increased. “Near an old hospital in Sector Two,” I snapped, “but that doesn’t matter now. I came here to see if you’re all right, if you’re taking care of yourself.”
“What do you care?” Stick muttered, fiddling with his tattered sleeve. His watery gaze eyed my coat and narrowed darkly. “You never really cared what happened to me. You always wanted me gone. You and everyone else. That’s why you never came back.”
I swallowed a growl, barely. “I’m here now, aren’t I?”
“But you’re not staying, are you?” Stick looked up at me, his eyes hooded. “You’re going to leave again, leave me alone with these people. They hate me. Just like Rat and Lucas did. You hated me, too.”
“I didn’t, but you’re sure pushing me in that direction,” I grumbled. This was crazy. I had never seen Stick like this and had no idea where the sullen rage was coming from. “God, Stick, stop being a baby. You can take care of yourself. You don’t need me around to look after you, I’ve always told you that.”
“Then…you’re not staying.” Stick’s voice trembled, and his anger melted away into real panic. “Allie, please. I’m sorry! I was just scared when you didn’t come back.” He scrambled forward, pleading, and I cast a nervous look at the group around the fire. “Please, don’t go,” Stick begged. “Stay with us. This place isn’t so bad, really. Kyle won’t mind another person, especially someone like you.”
“Stick.” I shushed him with a sharp gesture, and he fell silent, his eyes still begging me to stay. “I can’t,” I told him, and his expression crumpled. “I wish I could, but I can’t. I’m…different now. I can’t be seen aboveground. So you’ll have to survive without me.”
“Why?” Stick crept forward. His chin trembled; he was near tears. “Why can’t you just stay? Do you hate me that much? Am I that pathetic, that you can just leave me alone to die?”
“Stop being dramatic.” I half turned, embarrassed and angry, both at myself and him. Kanin was right, I should never have come here. “You’re not helpless,” I said. “You’ve been Unregistered just as long as me. It’s time you learned to fend for yourself. I can’t help you anymore.”
“No, that’s not a reason,” Stick protested. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
“You don’t want to know.”
“Why are you keeping secrets? Don’t you trust me? We never kept anything from each other before.”
“Stick, leave it alone.”
“I thought we were friends,” he insisted, leaning forward. “No one here likes me, no one understands me like you. I thought you were dead! But now you’re back, and you won’t tell me what’s going on.”
“All right!” I turned to face him fully, narrowing my gaze. “All right, you really want to know why?” And before he could answer, before I could reflect on the absolute stupidity of my actions, I opened my mouth and bared my fangs.
Stick went so pale, I thought he would faint. “Don’t scream,” I told him urgently, retracting my fangs, knowing it had been a mistake the second I showed him. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m still me, just…different now.”