Darker Days (12 page)

We passed the cafeteria and hooked a right to head through the English wing. At the end of the hall, two girls were playing tug-o-war over a green football jersey.

“Give it to me. I
want
it!” The taller one screeched. It was Gabriele Murphy, the editor of the school paper.

“It goes better with
my
eyes!” the other wailed. I didn’t know her name, but we shared the same gym class. At the beginning of the year, she’d spiked a volleyball at Kendra’s head because Jeff Brennan, her summer fling, had been talking to her in the hall before class.

I stormed up to them and yanked the shirt away. They’d already started to tear it, so the rest was easy. With a loud rip, the jersey separated down the middle. I handed one half to Gabriele and the rest to the other girl. “Here you go. Enjoy!” I turned back to Lukas. “Greed again?”

He shook his head, distracted. “Envy.” With a few steps toward the science lab, he cupped his hands to either side of his face and peered through the window. “Vida.”

I elbowed him to the side and stood on my tiptoes. Principal Dubois was locked at the lips of Mrs. Hastings—the guidance counselor. Good thing I hadn’t eaten lunch. I seriously would’ve lost it.

We left them to their gropefest and continued down the hall, peering into classrooms as we went. Everything was empty. Like the mall on the first day of school. I was about to suggest we call it, convinced the Sins had scattered already, when we came to the teacher’s lounge.

Pushing though the door, I froze, trying to digest the scene before me. Mrs. Manning had her feet kicked up onto the table, shoes off and stare vacant. Around her head, a fly circled, landing finally on her cheek. I waited for her to shoo the bug away, but she ignored it.

Across the room, Mr. Marks sat in front of a small TV screen, expression eerily blank. There was nothing but static on the screen, yet he still seemed enthralled. Every few seconds his eyebrow would twitch along with his right cheek. On the floor by his feet was an overturned cup of coffee leaking out across the floor.

As I watched, James Farley, one of the school’s janitors, shuffled past. He slipped in the cream-colored liquid, losing his balance and landing hard on the floor. When Farley finally pulled himself into a sitting position, two of the fingers on his left hand were twisted at an odd angle. Broken. Instead of cursing the pain, he simply sat there staring ahead as the cuff of his pants soaked up the coffee.

“They’re just… It’s like they’re dead. Breathing, but dead.”

“Sloth,” Lukas said in a low voice. “He would have them sit here and waste away—starve to death slowly—and feed from the resulting energy.”

The looting at Flankman’s had been bad. Chaos and fighting. People had gotten hurt… But it was somehow more unsettling to see those people just sitting there. Blank and expressionless. It was like they were alive, but trapped. Trapped—like Lukas. “No, he won’t. We won’t let it get that far. The Sins are going down.”

I scanned the room and, in the far corner, saw a man I didn’t recognize. He leaned against the wall, watching with pale blue eyes and a bored expression. Bored—yet more alive than the others.

I stalked toward him. “Leave them alone.”

He barely glanced my way before yawning and casually waving me off. “Go away.”

“Sloth, right?”

“Tony,” the guy responded. He spoke with a thick city accent and nodded his head a lot. Turning to Lukas, he said, “That’s this body’s name, anyway. I like it. Wrath?”

“
Lukas
,” he said in an icy tone. “My
name
is Lukas.”

“You’re the human, aint’t ya? Tough break gettin’ stuck in the box, kid.” He almost sounded sympathetic. “Vida’s lookin’ for ya.”

Turning back to me, Tony said, “Lookin’ for you, too. Not fans of ya family.”

“The feeling’s mutual.”

“What’s a little laziness, eh?” Tony grinned. “And ya should be thankin’ me. I got yas out of school.”

“I’ll be sure to add you to my Christmas card list. Where are the others?”

“Listen up, girly. The thing ya gotta worry about is Vida and her new friend. The rest of us just wanna be left alone. I ain’t hurtin’ no one in here.”

That got my attention. “New friend? What new friend?”
“Sometimes we don’t get what we want.” Lukas’ fist shot out, lightning fast, and caught
Tony
across the lower jaw. There was an instant of shock before the man’s head rocked back and his eyes rolled up. He crumpled to the ground like a sack of quartz powder, expensive looking suit jacket bunching at the waist.

“Effective, but badly timed. Now we don’t know what he was talking about.” I poked him with the toe of my sneaker. Twice. Just to be sure. If it were me, I’d play possum if outnumbered and wait for an opportunity to strike. “And getting him back to the office is going to be a little tricky now. Ya know, with him out like a light and all… Unless you’re rocking the super strength thing.”

Lukas frowned. “He wasn’t going to come quietly.”

He had a point. I scanned the room and saw a roll of duct tape on the edge of one of the desks. Grinning, I grabbed it and waved it back and forth.

“What’s that?”

I bent over Tony and went to work. “This is the coolest invention of the twentieth century.” Once Tony was secured, I handed Lukas the roll.

He peeled the edge back, letting it dangle from the tip of his finger in awe. “This is amazing.”

I took the tape from him and gave it another wave. “Awesome,” I corrected.

“What?”

“This is
awesome
. Use the language of the land, gramps. Jeez. Didn’t you have slang back in the stone ages?”

“Awesome,” he said, as if trying the word on for size. “And that means
amazing
?”

“Yep.”

He nodded and wiggled his finger. “We had slang in 1882. Do people still use ragamuffin?”

I choked back a giggle. “Um, no. No they don’t. Ragamuffin? Seriously? That’s such a lame word!”

He stared at me for a moment before shaking his head. “Sometimes, I want to beg you to put me
back
in the box.”

“Aren’t we the High Drama Dude?” I toed Tony again and put the roll of tape back on the desk.

“Is it strong enough to hold him?”

“It’s strong enough. Trust me. The captain of the football team used this stuff to hang our rival school’s mascot from the sign in the quad. I’m not known for my school spirit, but it was pretty damn funny to see a dude in a purple chicken suit suspended mid-air.”

“You’re not like anyone I’ve ever met.”

“I’m full of surprises.”

His grin widened, and the butterflies came rushing back. “You really are.”

Chapter Sixteen

Getting Tony out of the school was easy. The teachers in the lounge were far past noticing anything. With Sloth gone, hopefully they’d go back to normal sooner rather than later. Between Lukas and me, we were able to drag Sloth across the tiled floor with little trouble. He slid along nice and easy against the well polished floor. Once outside, though—that presented a challenge.

My options were limited.

Public transportation wouldn’t work. I couldn’t come up with a reasonable excuse as to why two teenagers would be dragging around an unconscious, duct taped man in a dirty designer suit.

Carrying him was out of the question. Tony wasn’t a small guy. Even with Lukas helping, we’d end up doing more dragging than actual carrying. There was a human in there—I didn’t want to give him road rash.

Really, there was only
one
option. Mom. I pulled my cell out and dialed the office. This wasn’t exactly how I pictured presenting my victory, but unfortunately it was all we had. But even that didn’t work. The machine picked up on the fourth ring and I hung up.

“No answer. Makes sense, though,” I said to Lukas as I punched in her cell. “She and Dad are out hunting down the Sins.” It went right to voicemail. I snapped the phone closed and stuffed the cell back in my pocket. “Well,
now
we’re officially screwed.”

I stepped from the brush and glanced up and down the street just as a red Mustang turned the corner. It slowed, horn honking twice as it pulled alongside the curb. “Hey, beautiful, lookin’ for a ride?”

Great timing—wrong person. With the way he’d acted earlier, it was probably a bad idea to even consider this, but I was desperate. The longer we stood out in the open, the better the chances were of someone happening along. “Hey, Garrett…Yeah.”

The
Garrett Girl Charmer
beamed out at me from inside the Mustang. “Well then hop on in.”

This was the tricky part. “Um, actually, I have a few people with me, too.”

“Assuming you mean your shadow,” he grumbled.

“Lukas is here, yeah, but I’ve also got someone else…it’s a work thing. One of my mom’s alternative cases.”

Garrett, as far as I knew, had no idea about Penance’s supernatural underground, therefore had no clue what an
alternative
case meant, but I seemed to have his interest.

He perked up a little. “A work thing?”

I turned and motioned for Lukas. He appeared from the bushes, dragging Tony along.

“Dude…” Garrett put the Mustang in park and jumped from the car. “Is he like a criminal or something?”

I moved to help Lukas. Together, we lifted Tony off the grass and leaned him up against the side of the car. “Sort of. Deadbeat Dad. The family paid us to find him. Kind of like yours.”

Garrett nodded and opened the back passenger’s side door, moving to the right so we could set Tony inside. Before I could stop him, Lukas made his way around to the other side and slid in next to Tony, forcing me to take the front seat.

Great.

Thankfully the drive was short—and silent. Garrett kept his eyes on the road and hadn’t tried to grab anything or profess his undying love. He did however, keep glaring into the backseat through the rearview mirror. I couldn’t tell if he was looking at Lukas or Tony.

He pulled the car alongside the curb in front of the office and killed the engine. Whatever Vida’s touch had done, it seemed to have worn off. Everything appeared to be back to normal. “Listen—about before…”

“All good.”

In the back seat, Tony stirred. He was pulling against the tape, glaring at the building like he knew just what was coming. Lukas flung open the door and climbed out, dragging him along. Tony cooperated for the most part, trying to be a bit more discreet in testing his bonds.

I opened the door to follow, eager to give Mom the good news. We’d found one of the innocents. Two down—technically, counting Lukas—only five to go. I had one leg out and was mid-swing with the other when Garrett grabbed my arm.

“Wait—we need to talk.”

Oh, hell in a hailstorm.

“I’m sorry about my meltdown earlier.”

I was hoping he wouldn’t do this. Awkward apologies were something I didn’t do well. “I told you, it’s cool. Momentary brain blurb. It’s already forgotten. It’s not like you
meant
what you said.”

“Jess—I meant everything. I love you.”

There was that word again. That evil, four-letter word.
Love
. This was all a bad dream. A product of one of my notorious sugar binges right before bed. That, or I’d entered Bizzarro Land and had forgotten to leave a trail of neon breadcrumbs.

I lurched forward and scrambled from the car before he started getting grabby again. It would be hard to explain to Mom—and everyone else—why his balls were lodged firmly in his throat and he was singing soprano.

Next to Lukas, Tony mumbled something that, without the duct tape, probably would’ve been pretty colorful. Lukas spun him toward the office and started walking. A few times, he stopped to glance back over his shoulder.

“Well?” Garrett called. He leaned across the seat, poking his head through the open window. “Don’t leave me hanging.”

I didn’t answer. Instead, I spun to follow Lukas up the walk. He’d stopped and was waiting by the door. Our eyes met, and for a moment, I got the feeling that he’d been watching Garrett because he was worried. About me. The thought made me happier than it should have.

As Garrett gassed the engine and tore away from the curb, I heard him laughing. The sound sent chills up and down my spine. Vida had zinged him yesterday. It had to wear off soon, right? I’d just keep away until then.

With a sigh, I made my way up the walk to where Lukas stood with Tony. He shook his head and gave the Sin a small shove through the door. “I really don’t think Klaire is going to be happy about this.”

“Are you nuts? The fact that I snagged a Sin all on my own is going to blow her away!”

Eyebrows raised, he stopped.

“Okay, maybe not
all
on my own, but you know what I mean.”

Sloth gave one last attempt at struggling free, but Lukas flipped him around and pinned him face first against the wall. One arm locked at the small of his back while the other wedged behind Tony’s neck, Lukas said, “I think you’re wrong.”

…

“I was very specific with my instructions. School. Home. Not once did I suggest you flounce off on your own and try apprehending one of these things.”

Yeah. So my plan to impress Mom with my mad Sin-catching skills kind of backfired as Lukas predicted. Actually, backfired was putting it lightly. She was probably going to bench me for weeks over this one.

“I don’t
flounce
. More like swagger. And they’re people, Ma. Not things.”

“I don’t care if they’re defenseless little kittens dangling over a tub of acid—I
told
you to stay away.”

She was stalking the office floor, steam all but puffing from each ear. Mom didn’t get angry with me often. Sure, she got annoyed—she was constantly irritated at my unwillingness to embrace
normal
teenage activities—but angry? Not so much.

“You need to chill. You’re gonna set Lukas off.”

She took a deep breath. “I have the mind to handcuff you to the furniture in your room.”

“That’s a horrible idea. We’d end up spending a fortune on furniture repair.”

She rolled her eyes and settled into the chair behind her desk, fighting a smile. That was more like it. The good thing about Mom getting pissed? It never lasted long.

Drumming her fingers against the desk, she eyed me. “Still, you did an excellent job.”

Score!

“But it doesn’t change my mind. I don’t want you involved in this case, Jessie.”

And there went the air from my happy balloon. “After what I just did? You can’t be serious!”

“I am. If you want to help by picking up some of the slack from the other cases, fine. I do not want you messing with the Sins.”

I felt a
normal
teenage tantrum coming on. “You trust me to take down demons and other creepy crawlies, but not this? How is that fair?”

Mom stayed calm. She was used to this. It was one of the few things we argued about. I wanted more responsibility. A chance to prove to her that I could handle myself. She insisted on keeping me in the kiddie pool. “This isn’t about fair.”

“Then what is it about? Skill? I’m perfectly capable—”

“You don’t need to remind me what you can and can’t do. I’m well aware—and very proud. But this is different. I can’t properly keep an eye on you,
and
catch the Sins,
and
protect your father,
and
make sure Lukas doesn’t turn the town upside down,
and
find the box. I’m just not that good.”

For a second, I thought about flattery. On a normal mom, it might have worked.
Sure you are—you rock! Are you kidding? You’re totally that good.
On my mom, though, it’d never fly. She had the best bullshit meter in the country. “But I just proved you don’t have to do this alone. I snagged Sloth without even a hair out of place. If this is about your whole fascination with normal—”

“This has nothing to do with normal, either.” She sighed. “This has to do with keeping my
seventeen-year-old daughter
off the radar of one of the oldest evils around.” She stood and leaned over the desk. “We don’t have time to take things slowly, Jessie. I only have three days to find these people or they’re going to die. This morning your father and I tracked them to a warehouse downtown, but they’d cleared out by the time we got there.”

I opened my mouth, then closed it. There was no sense in arguing—or telling her technically I was already on their radar because of Vida. For all my beef with logic, I understood her reasoning. I didn’t like it and didn’t agree—but I understood. She was doing the mom thing. I couldn’t blame her.

Much.

Gritting my teeth, I retreated up the stairs to my room. I slammed the door and dove for my cell. Time to make good on my promise to Kendra. The cell rang five times, and I was about to hang up, when she answered. “Hey—”

“Took you long enough,” she snorted. “Before you say anything, though, I need to apologize.” Knowing Kendra, she was tapping her fingers and biting down on her bottom lip—nervous tics.

“Nothing to say. It’s all good.”

“All good?” she squeaked. “We are talking about the same thing here, right? The part where I tried to
kill
you at Flankman’s yesterday?”

“
Kill
is a little dramatic, dontcha think? I mean, you were using magic. How much harm could
you
have done?”

She gasped, but I could tell it was totally fake. Kendra had a definite flair for the dramatic. “Jessie!”

“Seriously, it wasn’t you, Ken. Don’t sweat it.” I readjusted the cell and rolled onto my back. “Was surprised to see you at school, though. Thought for sure Cassidy would keep you home.”

“Not even,” she mumbled. “She couldn’t get me out of the house fast enough.” There was a slight pause, then I heard her take a deep breath. “She’s helping your mom with something, isn’t she?”

Feeling a spike of guilt, I glanced toward the door. “Yeah. We need to find a family. They’re one of yours.”

Kendra’s voice got a little lower. “Do you know the name?”

Kendra and I had a slew of things in common. We were both part of a small, lesser known community. We loved the same music and laughed at all the same jokes. We also both had parents that wanted to keep us
safe
.

“Wells. Ring a bell?”

She was quiet for a moment before exhaling into the receiver. “Not even a little one.” A pause. “Listen, I’ll hit you back later, okay? Mom’s on my ass to do the dishes. If I take any longer, she’s liable to curse me with a tail.”

Do the dishes.
I sat up straight and swung both feet over the edge of the bed. That was code for someone listening.

The coven Kendra and her mom belonged to was full of some seriously badass women. They all kept pretty close tabs on each other, terrified that their secrets would spill into the supernatural world. Sometimes, I worried what they were hiding. I’d seen them go to extreme lengths when they thought someone had been compromised. Anyone that paranoid of people getting into their dirty laundry had to be hiding something bad.

“Yeah, totally cool. We’ll hook up in school tomorrow,” I said, meaning
call me back as soon as you’re sure it’s clear
.

There was a faint snap, then some rustling paper. “You gonna be okay?”

“Totally. You know me and Mom. The Darker girls have it covered.” I hoped I sounded more convincing to her than I did to myself.

“Stay safe.” And the line went dead.

I rolled upright and kicked at a stray sock on the floor by my feet as I grabbed my iPod. Volume cranked and eyes closed, I flopped backward onto the bed and let the calming sounds of Beethoven’s Ninth wash over me. My life was kind of like his music. Chaotic at times but balanced. Peaceful in its own strange way. I was betting Beethoven would’ve made an awesome monster masher. The guy’s dedication to his craft was boundless. Hell, he used to stick his head into icy water to stay awake. If that wasn’t dedication, then I didn’t know what the heck was.

I stayed like that for a while, letting the calming melody soothe my nerves as I tried to think. I understood where Mom was coming from, but she was going to have to cut the apron strings eventually. I was almost an adult, and I’d seen more than most people did their entire lives. No. I wasn’t going to be benched. She needed me. We’d just talk this out. Like adults.

I swung my legs over the edge of the bed and opened my eyes. At first it was just a dark blob in my field of vision. Then it took shape. A person’s shape. I stumbled back, yanking the bud from my left ear along with the small silver hoop earring. Lukas was standing over me, looking down with a strange expression on his face. He thrust a white mug at me. “I thought this would make you feel better.”