Page 48 (2/2)

"What are you doing?" I demanded "Anya is back there, alone"

"She’s fine"

"How do you know?" I said, incredulous "Haven’t you seen her in class? She can’t take them on her own"

"She can," Noah said firmly "She’s a Whisperer A rare kind of Monitor One that can speak to the Undead; persuade them, manipulate them"

"What?" I said, confused

"Didn’t you hear her just now? She was speaking to the for you, anyway, not her We can lead thelanced out the rearat the pale children in the distance "Île des Soeurs," I blurted out, before I realized what I was saying The taxi slowed, and with a jolt, we h the Montreal streets, I wiped the water and dirt frolanced through the rearviewbehind us, but the streets were eo to the Île des Soeurs Maybe it was because the convent on the island was the one place the Undead feared, though I hadn’t thought of that till after No, it was a feeling I had, a feeling I hoped I could trust

We drove until we reached a long bridge leading over the St Lawrence River On the other side was a tiny island pinpricked with trees

"Can you drop us at the convent?" I said to the driver He nodded beneath his cap

Île des Soeurs was a slow of televisions flickering through the s Driving through the streets, I felt so here were visible The driver parked in front of a gated building that looked like a junkyard The sideas covered with loose trash and scraps

"This is it?" I said as a gray cat darted out froe bin and scampered across the road

"Yep," the man said

We paid him, and the rumble of his car’ssun was bleeding red all over the St Lawrence River Pulling upbehind the iron gates It was cream with brown trim and thin bars over the s

Parked in its driveway, hidden in the shadoas a gray Peugeot

"It can’t be," I said "It’s the sao"

"Coates The iron bars twisted and coiled toward the center to forates, the bars were lashed together with a chain, and locked

"Do you think she’s in there?" I said

As if in answer to ht turned on in one of the s on the third floor I juht my arm

"There’s only one way to find out," he said

Before I kneas happening, Noah grabbed the top rung, and in an elegant swoop, lifted hi on the other side

Wiping his hands on his pants, he let out a breath and stood up "Now you"

He braced hirabbed the bars and stuck one leg through, and then another, contorting h to the other side

There were stray cats everywhere Creeping between the crevices of the foundation, crouching beneath the bushes, peering out from underneath the front stoop as we approached the front door

"Are you just going to knock on the door?" I asked

"Do you have a better idea?"

I didn’t, but so about it made me feel uneasy A cat darted across the lawn in front of asp caether we cli as Noah pressed the bell

Somewhere inside, a chime sounded, but no one caainst er up to the buzzer again, we heard footsteps thud inside The sound of locks being unlatched And then the knob turning

The door opened a crack, and a wo a shovel, its tip pointed at us through the gap The foyer behind her was dark

When I saw her face, I froze "Miss LaBarge?"