Between Darkness and Daylight (11 page)

After a couple of blocks he noticed her having trouble and slowed his pace a notch, gently squeezing her hand as he drew her along.

"Eager to get back to all those bad kids?" she teased, but he surprised her when he stopped short and glared down at her.

"They're not bad kids."

"I was only joking."

"That's nothing to joke about."

She almost snatched her hand out of his grip, ready to read him, and good. Instead, she held on tighter and pulled him close instead.

He was trying to distance himself, she could feel it. Perhaps he was feeling a little self-conscious, regretted relating so much to her over lunch.

Well, she wasn't going to let him make her the bad guy, and whatever was eating him, she wasn't going to let him get away with trying to dump her or dump on her. Especially not now, this close to the school.

Nova still had a bad feeling about his being in or around the building today, her heart speeding from her knowledge as much as from their sprint they'd from the restaurant.

"You don't have to come back with m—"

"Yeah, yeah, I know you're a big boy. But I want to see where you work. I have the time and the luxury." Maybe she shouldn't have added that last bit, given him another point of contention or reason to get away 74

Gracie C. McKeever

from her. But she didn't care. She was going back with him whether he wanted her to or not and she gave him a look that made sure she got that point across.

He surprised her again when he chuckled and wrapped an arm around her shoulder, drawing her along as he strolled. "I'm glad one of us does."

Nova didn't say anything, all her concentration on the large smoked-glass and stone building they were nearing. A sea of kids gathered out front and bright down jackets, stylish leathers, multicolored knit caps, and other expensive name brand outerwear abounded. Individuals and groups loitered at the entrance, waiting to go in.

She caught sight of Ransom among a crew of older rowdy teens near the school entrance, right before all hell broke loose at the center of the crowd.

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Chapter 7

A shriek pierced the air, rising above the usual shouts and laughter of the surrounding teens, and was enough to quash the sense of well-being and sensual tranquility that he and Nova had nurtured at the pizzeria and during the walk to the school. Otherwise, the scene unfolded around him as if no one else heard anything untoward—business as usual—but the sunny day instantly took on an ominous edge. The hard-on he’d been battling since Nova’s earlier phone call and finally given in to at the restaurant wilted in his pants.

Zane immediately searched the throng for Ransom and found him lounging against the school building adjacent the entrance and among a crowd of older boys he probably wasn’t supposed to be hanging with, especially after that stunt he’d pulled on Nova.

“There’s Ransom!” Nova raised her hand and waved and the boy quickly glanced left and right before raising his hand to return her greeting.

Probably hoping none of his buddies saw him—didn’t want to seem soft. Zane had a second to grin at his nephew’s antics before the kid stumbled forward as if shoved from behind.

“Ran!” Zane rushed forward, pushing through the crowd, Nova tight on his heels, as if afraid to get lost.

The crowd in front of them spread like pins under a bowling ball.

Zane heard another scream, but still couldn’t see who was making all the commotion at the center of the separating mass.

He stepped forward just as Manuela Diaz’s mother broke through the throng, shouting profanities in Spanish and reaching into her bag.

Zane watched the knife plunge toward his chest, the sharp blade edge glinting bright beneath the autumn sun, had a second of déjà vu before someone shoved him hard and the crowd swallowed him.

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* * * *

Ransom had thought twice about acknowledging Nova and his uncle, and after only a brief pause, his hand had gone up, his heart speeding as it had the first time he spotted Nova on the street and tried to take her purse.

He furtively pushed himself up off of the building façade where he’d been leaning, intending to meet Uncle Zane and Nova halfway.

Eddie and the guys had been riding him all day about how his uncle must have some cool hook-up with NYPD to have gotten him off without even a slap on the wrist. He hadn’t even missed a day of school, was back the next day like nothing had happened. What they didn't know, what he'd never tell them, was that he had gotten a slap on the wrist and more—like the living daylights scared out of him. But in the end his little "escapade,"

as Uncle Zane put it, had ended better than Ransom could have hoped for anyway.

He had just started forward when someone shoved him from behind.

At first he thought it was one of his homeboys, still razzing him about being tight with Nova and Uncle Zane, until he saw the older, heavy-set woman pass him. Manuela Diaz, one of his uncle's students, was close on her heels, trying to hold her back. The older lady was shouting in rapid-fire Spanglish, but Ransom caught the important stuff and it didn't sound too good for Uncle Zane. The woman seemed to have one mission: getting through the crowd to his uncle to tear him limb from limb.

He caught the flash of the carving knife the lady pulled out of her purse, and then the crowd jostled him to and fro as it parted to let the crazy woman through. Manuela made a diving grab to try and stop her, yelling,

"
Mami
, no!" again and again. But she couldn't get a good grip on her and the older lady yanked out of her grasp, lunging at Uncle Zane.

Ransom pushed forward with his hands, desperate to part the mass. A scream stuck in his vocal chords when he caught a glimpse of Manuela's mother raising the knife over her head and plunging it downward as she screamed "Liar! Liar! Baby killer!" at the top of her lungs.

He couldn't see Uncle Zane anymore—it was as if the man had fallen off the face of the earth—but he caught sight of Nova. She stepped up to meet the woman, an arm raised to deflect the knife's downward trajectory.

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Her thick leather jacket split as easily as paper beneath the sharp blade.

Nova yelped, then did that swift self-defense move she had used on him, grabbing the woman's wrist and twisting it up behind her back, forcing her to drop the knife.

Manuela's mother swore and screamed the whole way down to the pavement and her daughter knelt by her side—apologizing, crying, and praying—as she caressed rosary beads in one hand and rubbed her mother's shoulder with the other.

“Uncle Zane!”
Where was he?

As if summoned, his uncle reappeared, picking himself up from the pavement, disheveled, his face and coat dirt-smudged, as if he had been trampled beneath the rush of stampeding teenage feet. Other students stood on nearby cars, lampposts, and mailboxes, shouting and cheering.

A squad car pulled up to the sidewalk, lights flashing and sirens whooping, and kids dispersed in every direction. Some ran away from the school, while others ran inside. The rest lingered to see what all the fuss was about and what fate would befall a fellow student and her deranged mother.

Ransom made it to the scene just as two uniformed officers climbed from the front of the squad car, while a plainclothesman got out of the back.

"Youngblood, you're making this into a weekly habit."

He didn't know whether the man was talking to him or Uncle Zane, but he recognized the detective as the same guy who'd taken charge of him at the precinct and escorted him to the interrogation room for "safekeeping"

until his uncle arrived.

"How'd you get here so fast?" Zane asked.

"Got a report of a disturbance inside the school. Seems it poured out here." Leary eyed Nova as she turned the ranting and foaming-at-the-mouth woman over to the two uniforms. He went to her side and examined the slash to the arm of her coat. "You'll need to get that looked at."

"I'm fine, really." Nova held her arm close to her body, as if trying to hide the injury from Zane, who came to her side and pulled her into his arms.

"What were you thinking?” he demanded.

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Ransom was curious about that one himself. But Nova didn't have a chance to answer and he didn't have another minute to think about it before Detective Leary was escorting the three of them to the back of a waiting ambulance.

For the second time in two weeks, Ransom took a trip "downtown".

* * * *

She shouldn't have allowed the woman that close, and wouldn't have, had her second sight been more accurate and clear. Perhaps if she'd had a little more practice, were as gifted as her mother, she could have predicted the exact moment and location of the incident and been able to avoid it, could have suggested an alternate route to Zane.

Without alerting his suspicions, though? That was the question.

As it was, she'd barely had enough time to push him out of the way before the woman could sink the knife into his chest. It had happened so fast. One minute they were waving at Ransom, the next the woman was rushing at them through crowd. No one else had seemed to notice the commotion amidst the hip-hop music blasting from a boom box at the curb and the kids milling about in raucous cliques. By the time anyone had known what was going on, the woman was almost upon Zane.

Again, Nova's instincts had gone into overdrive. Again, she'd acted without thinking twice.

Unconsciously, she rubbed the bandage covering her right forearm. It was just a scratch, but Detective Leary and Zane had insisted she get it patched up at the hospital. That had been a couple of hours, a precautionary tetanus shot, and an official statement ago. Now she sat on a bench across from the squad's Police Administrative Assistant. Several detectives bustled in and out, shuffling papers, working on reports, and moving to and fro with the business of their day as Ransom came over with a soda from a nearby vending machine.

He took the seat beside her, handing her the can, and she held it against her forehead, the coolness soothing a pounding headache that had cropped up out of nowhere.

"Hey, Wonder Woman."

"Don't be a smart aleck or I won't take you rock climbing."

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"You were going to take me rock climbing?"

"Maybe I should let your uncle talk to you about it first."

"Too late, secret's out." Ransom settled back in his seat and smiled at her before sliding closer, shoulder-to-shoulder, just short of cuddling.

Nova reveled in the warmth emanating from his body, a subtle glow of energy that she recognized as the boy's aura. She glanced at him from the corner of an eye to test her theory and recognized the pale, narrow band outlining his figure. It looked like light blue smoke adhering to his body.

She wondered now if the glow to Josh's complexion she'd noticed earlier had been just ruddy youthful good health shining through or her ability to see the young man's life energy. She'd never paid any attention to it before, the force field beyond the skin of the body, had only heard her mother extol the virtues of being able to read the colors. According to her mother, the ability to read auras brought one closer to his or her own True Nature, brought one closer to truth in others.

Nova had always found her Mom's Zen philosophies hard to swallow, especially as a young girl, when she’d been more interested in reading whether a boy liked her enough to take her to the prom or trying to tap into her special abilities to get answers when she hadn't studied for a test. Her mother often told her not to lower herself and prostitute her gifts so, but Nova never really believed she had them to begin with.

Until coming to New York.

Since being in the city, especially since meeting Ransom and Zane, she was more aware of the human energy field, better able to see it without trying, to read it without knowing how. She was less willing to sell her gifts short, more able to appreciate them and believe in their existence. Nova hadn't truly believed in auras until now, when she was able to glance at the boy and see the bright layer of color surrounding his body.

"So, where's your uncle?"

"He's in that detective's office, conferring. About what, I don't know."

Ransom shrugged.

Nova was curious herself, but figured she'd find out some of it sooner or later. She knew it wouldn't be enough to sate her curiosity, that Zane wouldn't be nearly as forthcoming or accommodating as she'd like, but she was determined to get something out of him.

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* * * *

"I'm calling in a lot of favors, Youngblood, but I think it's worth a shot."

"It's not the knife."

"We don't know that for sure."

Zane sat across the desk from Leary, staring at his own clasped hands dangling between his knees. He didn't think it was worth a shot. But Leary was nothing if not thorough, and he wouldn't be doing his job if he didn't at least explore the possibility that the knife Manuela’s mother had wielded today was the one used to murder Sinnead. Zane would have gone for it, just to get closure, but there were too many holes and questions. He hadn't known Manuela when Sinny was alive, when he'd still been working for CAPS. He hadn't become the young girl's counselor until a year ago, when he'd first come to the school, years after Sinny's death. He didn't know her mother or father from Adam's housecat and doubted that his wife had. That meant neither of them had a motive for murdering Sinny.

"Want to tell me what Manuela said when you questioned her?" he asked, pinning the detective with a look.

"In due time, in due time."

“What about her mother?”

"Patience, patience."

A knock sounded on the door and a young woman popped in her head a second later. "I have those results for you, Detective." She brought over a sheaf of papers, spread them out on the detective's desk, pointed out some areas, explaining in hushed tones.