The journey was long and quiet—too quiet. Edward's had one hand loosely clasped around the steering wheel, the other slumped in his lap, thumb sketching idle patterns on the skin of his palm. The pain in his body hadn't gone away; it had simply seeped into his bones, like yesterday's grief. His legs thudded where bruised muscle met tendon, and his head thudded under pressure that no pill could subdue. All of that was tolerable.
Just barely.
The country slid by the window—gray fields, dark forests, the infrequent hollowed barn crouched like an abandoned thing. His mind strayed, and tightened up.
You're not talking," he said aloud, without needing to look in the rearview mirror to be aware that the Shadow Man had materialized somewhere behind him. Not visibly. Not yet. But present. Edward could feel it.
"So are you," came the low reply, from nowhere and everywhere.
Edward didn't reply at once. Ahead of the windshield, a hawk flew by. He tracked it as far as he could.
"You're hiding again."
"Yes. The place will be scanning you in your vitals, checking for pathogens, genetic anomalies, synthetic toxins. I don't come on your blood or your breath."
"You've done it before."
"Yes. But this time I'll have to do it with caution. They're probing deeper now. They're suspicious more."
Edward swallowed. "You. can actually fool them?"
The Shadow Man hesitated. Then:
"I can slip between the lines of their equipment, yes. Your immune markers will appear normal. No irregular protein chains. Your heart rate may be high, but only due to stress. Emotion. Nothing they can isolate."
Edward tightened his grip on the steering wheel. "You're just a ghost inside me."
"No." The word was sharp. "I'm not a ghost. I'm inside of you now. If you like it or not."
There was silence between them once more. The roar of the highway, the hum of air through the vents, filled the void.
Then Edward posed the question he'd been working through since the phone call:
"Why is Sam wanting to see me?"
"Because she knows."
Edward's heart stumbled.
Not all of it," the Shadow Man amended. "But enough. Enough to feel the lines of what she is becoming. And she remembers you. That's important. You were there when she first changed."
Edward's gut turned with a fresh slice of guilt. "She shouldn't have had to endure that. Not by herself."
"She will no longer be alone," the Shadow Man said. "None of you will. This is not an isolated thing."
Edward didn't like hearing this. His jaw was clenching. "You're not going to lecture us, are you?"
"No sermons," he said. "Facts. You asked for certainty. I'm giving it. You and Sam are now connected—by experience, by biology. If you're looking for answers, she is more so than I am.".
Edward inhaled. "And you're comfortable with me entering a CDC facility? With your. presence concealed in the periphery of my blood?"
"They won't find me," the Shadow Man said to him. "Not if I don't want them to. And I don't.".
The gates came into view in the distance—tall, brushed metal with security cameras and high fencing on either side. A guard inspected his ID, nodded politely but defensive, and waved him along.
Kyle met him at the front of the main building. His white lab coat was messy, his eyes ringed with exhaustion and caffeine. But his smile was real.
"You look like crap," Kyle said, pushing him inside.
"Someone strained me through a sieve," Edward replied. "So. Sam."
"She's awake. She's clearheaded. She's calm. Which is sort of more dangerous than the other." Kyle opened over a door and gestured for Edward to go in. "She hasn't said a word. Just that she wants to see you.".
The interior of the building was sterile and plastic-smelling, with recycled air. Whispers from beyond glass screens and locked doors. Scientists in scrubs strode by on clipboards and slates. Edward moved stiffly, not wanting to make any jerky movement that would betray some unhuman within him.
The Shadow Man spoke not a word, trapped somewhere inside Edward. Sleeper but not asleep.
They arrived at a hall, lined with secure rooms—disguise observation decks presented as hospital rooms. Kyle stopped, doors down, at the third one on the left.
"She's in here. You comfortable with this?"
Edward nodded stiffly, though he was not ready. Not even close.
"Ready or not, you're going in," Kyle said, holding up a key.
She sat up straight in a hospital bed, in bare gray sweats, dark hair tied back. No restraints. No IVs. She looked at Edward the moment the door opened, her eyes still, calm.
As if she'd been waiting forever.
Edward entered.
And Sam smiled.