ARC: Cracked (22 page)

“What does that mean? You’re not?”

“Not like him. He trusts people.”

I feel as though that makes him stupid, not good, but I keep my mouth shut.

“He’ll sacrifice himself for what he believes in. He’s brave.”

“You’re brave.”

“No.” She smiles wryly. “I’m angry and borderline suicidal. It functions like it’s the same, but it’s not.”

“He abandoned you. I don’t think that’s particularly good.”

She’s startled. “No, he didn’t.”

“Uri told me. You used to be best friends.”

“Uri told you Chi abandoned me?”

“Yeah–” but actually he never said that. “No, actually he didn’t. Chi didn’t ditch you?”

“No.” A pause. “I ditched him.”

OK, now I’m really confused, because it’s obvious to a blind man that she has the hots for him.

She looks down and a brown curtain of hair obscures her face. “Meda, the basic fighting unit is the couple.”

Couple, not pair. Oh. Her earlier distinction becomes clear.

“That’s why both parents are out in the field at the same time,” she continues. “Whoever I marry will either have a position at the school or a weak, one-legged partner. Neither option is fair.”

Wow. That does suck. “But, now that you’re going to fight demons–”

“Chi already almost died today because I was too slow.”

“But–” I start but she shakes her head. She doesn’t want to hear it. She has a point. It’s going to be a struggle just to be allowed in the field. And her leg does make her weaker than, say, that bimbo Rachael.

“Besides,” she slants me a sideways look, “I thought you and Chi were…” she trails off suggestively.

What? Oh, the kiss. “Nah, I just did that to piss you off.”

Her mouth twists. “I figured.” She studies me. “But… you’re sure?”

Love really is blind. “Yeah.” I smirk. “I can do better.”

She hits me, but it’s half-hearted. “I prefer you to Rachael,” she says, but I can tell she’s relieved.

“Well, obviously.”

I think Jo’s making a mistake. I think it should be up to Chi, since it’d be his life at risk. But I can understand her not wanting to be responsible for the death of someone she loves. I understand better than she could possibly imagine.

FIFTEEN

Jo and I trudge back to the motel room and slip inside. At our arrival, Chi stands up from his spot on the bed. “Jo…” he starts, but she flinches away, as if his outstretched hand were hot iron. He drops his arm and his eyes are full of hurt as he watches her stalk into the bathroom. I follow before she can close the door.

“I thought you were going to apologize,” I whisper.

She squeezes toothpaste on to her brush, not meeting my eyes. “I said I owe him one, not that he’s going to get it.” Then her shoulders slump and she braces herself on the sink. The toothbrush comes perilously close to falling from her hand. If it touches the bathroom floor, we’ll need to torch it. After a deep breath, she forces starch back into her spine. I watch the vertebrae stack themselves straight like children’s blocks. Hazel eyes meet mine in the mirror, and I can’t describe the things I see there. I’m not human enough to understand. “It’s better this way, Meda.”

I’m unconvinced, but I can’t argue when her eyes look like that. I leave her staring in the mirror, closing the door softly behind me. I am even less convinced of her course of action when I see Chi. He’s slamming around belongings, jaw locked. Fire to her ice. He kicks the bed leg then covers his eyes and takes a few deep breaths. Uri and I look at each other, caught between the two brewing storms.

Awkward. Team Meda needs to pull itself together.

Finally, Chi visibly wrestles himself under control and Jo comes out from the bathroom. She’s calm and composed, like nothing has happened – an ice-capped volcano.

“We need to talk about our next move,” she says coolly.

“Fine,” Chi bites out. I hate that word.

Jo turns to me. “Luke is guarding a Beacon named Exo Greer.” The look in Jo’s eye suggests she has some bad news. I wait for the shoe to drop. “Unfortunately, the database doesn’t keep exact addresses for the Beacons for security reasons, so we only have a city.”

Still he should be easy to find. How many parents hate their kids enough to name them “Exo”? Jo’s eyes flick uncomfortably to Chi’s. Oh, there’s another shoe.

I look to Chi and he drops it. “He’s in Washington, DC.”

Demon Central. Un-effing believable. My jaw flaps in the wind.

“On the plus side, it’s the last place the demons would expect you to go,” Chi offers and I look at him like the lunatic he is.

“Oh, it’s not that bad, Meda,” Jo says. “We’ll get in, make contact, get out. It’s a big city and it’s true – they won’t be looking for you there.”

No, you’re right. Traipsing into Demon Central is a
good
idea.

“Would you rather not go?” Jo has no patience tonight.

“I have an idea,” Chi says. “Why don’t you all stay behind and I’ll go.”

Hardly. I need to talk to Luke, especially since I don’t know what he could reveal. I open my mouth to answer. Jo cuts me off, red-faced. The volcano bubbles through the ice.

“Why don’t
you
all stay behind and I’ll go?” She snaps and Chi’s jaw hardens again. The two of them face off, eyes locked, fists clenched.

“Children!” I say. “Knock it off. We’re all going. I’m the one who needs to talk to Luke.”

Chi breaks first and turns to me. “Well, if we’re all heading into Demon Central, I guess it’s a good thing I got us a secret weapon.” His voice is full of challenge. He knows whatever he’s about to show us is going to piss Jo off – and he’s looking forward to it.

“Really?” Uri pipes up.

“Yup.” Chi kneels stiffly by the bed and pulls out something wrapped in a sweatshirt. “I told you I was getting extra supplies.” He unwraps it to reveal… I cross my fingers and hope for a rocket launcher.

“An old book?” I ask.

“You stole a
grimoire?
Are you
insane
?” Jo, of course.

“Nope.”

“The exodus is supposed to have that.”

“
They
have all the rest of the grimoires,
they
have full Crusaders,
they
 have the rest of the senior class.
We
have a Beacon to protect that is wanted by the whole host of Hell.”

Chi’s actually talking sense.

“Yes but
we
can’t protect it. If the demons get their hands on it…” Her face summarizes the potential horrors. “Besides,” she snaps, “I bet you can’t even read it.”

“Nope,” Chi says easily and Jo opens her mouth. Possibly to scream. “But I bet you can.”

And she swallows it and chokes.

“You’re taking advanced ancient languages, right?”

Jo blushes. “Ah, yeah, but–”

“But what? Can you or can’t you?” he challenges.

She sticks her chin in the air. “Can.”

“Good.” His smile is tight.

I clear my throat. “So what will it do? What’s our secret weapon?”

Chi turns to me. “This grimoire contains the Inheritance ceremony.”

I still don’t get it. I can tell by Jo’s expression that she does.

“Meda,” she says slowly. “The secret weapon is you.”

“What do you mean?”

“You’re a Beacon and a Templar,” she says earnestly. “The only one like you I have ever heard of. Ever. We’ve already decided they’re related, right?”

I nod and Chi picks up the explanation.

“So doesn’t it make sense that somehow your version of the Inheritance could be somehow special? Change-the-world-for-the-better special? What if it’s like a version of what Zeke has – shooting demon-killing light?”

“Is Zeke a Beacon?” Not that it really matters, since I’m not either.

“No,” Chi explains. “So it follows that yours would be even bigger than Zeke’s.”

Uri, behind me, gasps in awe like he just saw a firework.

“How do you know I just won’t cure cancer and my Templar abilities are just normal?” I’m stalling, but thinking. Of course I’m not a Beacon, but why shouldn’t I accept the Inheritance? How could having extra demon-fighting skills be bad? Especially if compounded by my already awesome demon abilities?

“We don’t,” Jo says. “But what have we to lose? It wouldn’t hurt to have one more fighter on our hands. Someone the demons don’t expect.”

She has a point and, as Chi pointed out, the whole host of Hell is after me. Extra skills could come in handy. “OK, let’s do it.”

“Well, we can’t do it
now
, now,” Jo says. “I have to figure it out first – study the spell.”

“When then?”

“Hopefully by the time we make it to DC.”

“Hopefully?”

She pauses awkwardly, and I narrow my eyes at her, waiting for her to come out with it. “Other than basic protections, I’ve, err, never actually done magic before.”

Great. Just great.

“We need to get some sleep before we do anything,” Chi says.

At the mention of sleep my body remembers how tired it is. We all creep off to be hounded by nightmares.

When I wake up, the room is empty except for Uri passed out on the other bed, hugging a pillow with his mouth hanging open. It shouldn’t have surprised me, but Jo even sleeps violently – I had to snatch sleep between kicks.

The clock says 1.52 and the sun slipping around the curtains says it’s afternoon. I blearily stumble to the door in search of the others and the sun blinds me. When my vision clears I find Jo sitting on the cement. She leans against the brick of the motel and the grimoire’s propped open in her lap. A notepad and a pen sit on the ground beside her. She doesn’t even glance up as I come out.

“Chi went to get food. We’ll leave as soon as he comes back. You should probably wake Uri.”

Good morning to you, too.

I stumble back inside for bathroom rituals and Uri’s awakening. A motorcycle’s grumble announces Chi’s return. I’m thrilled to see he brought back food from Sugar Burger. There aren’t any stores in the UK or the northeast where Mom and I bounced around the most, or at least there aren’t many. I suspect the South hogs them to punish the North for the Civil War. Just a theory I’m working on.

After breakfast we pack and get on the road. Jo reluctantly climbs on behind Chi. She’d probably be more comfortable sharing the motorcycle with a viper than Chi, but Chi’s a better windbreak than Uri. Why does she need a windbreak? Because she reads on the back of the motorcycle. Fortunately, I think it distracts the rest of the motorists from noticing my suspiciously small driver. We give Uri the only helmet with a visor, but since he can’t be more than four-feet-eleven inches and 105 pounds, I don’t think his disguise could withstand a close inspection.

We stop again to eat at dinnertime, then again as we enter DC around 11pm. As we pull up to the restaurant, I can’t believe it.

“Sugar Burger? Again?” I mean, I love it, but we had it for every meal. Chi climbs off his bike and holds his hand out to help balance Jo. To no one’s surprise, she ignores it. Chi’s mouth tightens and his movements are sharp as he unclips his helmet.

“The founder’s a Beacon,” Uri answers.

“Really?” I wouldn’t have figured a fast food owner, but then again, he’d done a lot more to improve my life than, say, Gandhi.

Uri’s entirely sincere as he answers. “How could their food
not
be divinely inspired?”

Another good point. My mouth waters.

Chi orders as we use the bathroom and idle around in the lobby. There’s a little coin-operated toy machine, so Uri begs some cash and we all end up shelling out the 50 cents for cheap toys while we wait. Uri becomes the proud owner of a temporary tattoo of a fat-baby angel.

“Lame,” he complains, but sticks it on his shoulder anyway.

I pop open my plastic egg, and inside is a tin heart. Mr Wizard heard my prayer! But what’s this?

“It’s broken.” Damn you, Mr Wizard.

Jo peers over my shoulder and plucks it from my hands. “No, it’s not. Haven’t you ever seen these before?” She struggles with the thin, cheap chain, then frees the mass of slick shiny snakes into two necklaces. Suspended from each is half of a heart, cracked right down the middle. “See,
best friend
.”

She hands them to me and, indeed, each heart has one of the words. Great, so I have two broken necklaces.

She laughs at my expression and explains. “You take one half and your BFF gets the other.” She points to where they hang between us, one from each of my hands. “You want ‘best’ or ‘friend’?”

“
You’re
my best friend?” I’m horrified.

She raises an eyebrow. “Oh, I’m sorry – you have someone else in mind?”

No. “Wait, I’m
your
best friend?” An interesting accusation.

She snorts. “I think you might be my only friend. I don’t know if you’ve noticed but…” her voice drops to a whisper, as if she is imparting some great secret. I like secrets. “People sometimes find me hard to get along with.”

Well, that’s no secret.

“Naw. I don’t see it.” My eyes are wide and innocent.

She laughs. It’s hard to hate someone who so freely embraces their horridness.

“So which do you want?” I ask as I dangle them between us, tin tokens of friendship between a demon and its hunter.

“Obviously, this one.” She snatches up the one that says “best”, leaving the other one to me. “I think it best defines me as a person,” she says loftily.

I rub my fingers over the small scratched letters before slipping it around my neck.
Friend
. I wanted this one anyway.

The restaurant is closing so we have to eat somewhere else. That’s fine with us – we need to make some plans and the empty restaurant is not ideal for covert discussions. We move to a Wal-Mart parking lot and look disreputable while we munch sandwiches under a street lamp.

“So how’s it coming with the spell?” I ask Jo.

She lets out a breath that says “not good” before she answers. “It’s a pretty complicated spell, and…” she fidgets. Jo never fidgets. “It might be pretty dangerous if I get it wrong.”

My sandwich pauses on its mission to my mouth. “How dangerous?”