“So where did you see her?”

“At the lab beneath the barn, which makes sense, because she was kidnapped with Elizabeth, except I don’t think she was a prisoner.”

“Well, we can sort all this out after I clean you up.”

We hobbled out of the church together. Trev’s car was waiting nearby. “Looks like you’ll be getting blood all over your pretty Jag.”

“I brought plastic.”

“You what?”

“Anna told me you were injured, so I brought plastic.”

“I can’t believe you right now.”

“I can’t believe you’re surprised.”

The plastic crinkled as I sat down. It stuck to my arms, covered in sweat and blood. I needed a shower. And a shot of tequila.

“Got any booze at your place?”

Trev slid in behind the wheel and started up the car. “What do you think?”

I grumbled as he took off.

“We’re a half hour out,” Anna said through the line. “You’re okay?”

“For now,” I said. “Bring booze.”

She relayed the message to Sam, who grunted in the background.

“Hey,” I said. “I’m going to need it. I’m banged up, remember? We can use it to numb the pain and clean the wound.”

“I can buy rubbing alcohol for that,” Anna said. “I think there’s some in the first-aid kit already.”

“Bring me booze,” I said again, and she finally relented.

I lay back on the bed in Trev’s hotel room and slammed my eyes shut. The room was spinning. And not because I was drunk this time.

“We have to go after them,” I said to Trev as he handed me a glass of water.

“I know.”

“They have Elizabeth.”

“I know.”

How had I lost her? She’d been so close. And then she was just gone.

Probably that had been their plan all along. Send in a bunch of Branch agents to distract me so they could nab Elizabeth without a problem.

Of course, I couldn’t compete with her mother. Elizabeth would probably have followed her anyway.

I took a gulp of water and set the cup down.

Trev stood at the end of the bed staring at me. “We should probably check out your wounds.”

“Are you trying to get me naked?”

He sighed. “You’re a lot more like Cas than you care to admit.”

I snorted. “Bullshit.”

“You’ve got the sarcasm down pat.”

I tugged off my shirt and tossed it aside. Trev had to help me with my jeans, which were almost glued to the wound in my leg, and I had to bite back a string of curse words while he doused the area with water to loosen some of the old blood. Then he quickly and none too gently ripped the material away.

“Fuck!”

“Sorry.”

The jeans met the shirt on the floor.

Trev pulled on a pair of black-framed glasses.

“Since when do you wear glasses?”

He shrugged. “About a month, I guess. It’s been getting worse lately. I think I might have worn glasses before the Branch, but the alterations, and all the shit they had us on, changed my sight for the better. Now that I’m not receiving treatments…” He gestured to the glasses. “Sight’s going again.”

He crouched beside the bed to examine my leg. “Didn’t go straight through, so that’s good. Seems to be a superficial wound.”

He stood up and came to the head of the bed to check out the wound in my shoulder.

“Knife wound,” I explained. “But just a slice.”

“Deep, though,” Trev said. “It’ll need stitches.” There was a second slice on my abdomen, on the lower right side. “That one, too, probably.”

“You got any pain meds?” I asked.

“Ibuprofen.”

“That’ll work.”

A half hour later, as promised, Anna, Sam, and Cas showed up. Cas whistled when he saw me lying in bed with hardly any clothes on. I told him to screw off.

Anna came straight over and wrapped her arms around me. I groaned from the pain, and she pulled back. “Sorry,” she said. “I’m just glad you’re okay.”

“We have to get Elizabeth.”

She nodded. “We will.”

“How bad is it?” Sam asked Trev.

“Not bad at all. He should be fine in a week or two.”

I sat upright and winced when the wound in my side pulled open. “I’ll be fine by tonight. When we go get Elizabeth.”

The longer she was out there, the farther away she’d be. And not just in physical distance. If she was with Riley right now, they could have already wiped her memories. Or brainwashed her into thinking I was the bad guy. Or worse… killed her. And I still didn’t know the answer to the question that’d been nagging me since I arrived here: Why Elizabeth? What had the Branch done to her?

And then it all clicked into place.

The Angel Serum.

The other night, when Elizabeth was cut by a shard of glass from the broken rum bottle. The cut was gone minutes later.

“Hey,” I said, the realization becoming clear. But my call was drowned out by Cas and Trev arguing. I yelled again, “Guys!”

They all turned to me. “Elizabeth was treated with the Angel Serum.”

“Yeah, we already figured that out,” Anna said.

I groaned. Sometimes I hated how smart she was.