Heroes 'Til Curfew (Talent Chronicles #2) (11 page)

“Just…” I held up a hand, stopping him if he
was going to say anything. I couldn’t even look up at him anymore.
“Forget I said anything, okay? Just, whatever. It’s fine,” I said,
turning away.

He took my hand and spun me back so I
collided with his chest. His heart was pounding hard and fast
beneath my ear.

“It’s not fine. I’m an idiot and I’m sorry.
I wasn’t trying to mess with you.”

I shook my head against him. “No, it’s
okay.” Why was my voice so small? It felt like everything I’d ever
wanted was so close I could hardly stand it. Inside, everything was
shaking, waiting.

“You asked me if I ever thought of you as
more than a friend,” he blurted out in a rush, “and I said ‘never.’
What I should have said was, ‘all the time,’ or ‘it seems like I
hardly think of anything else anymore.’”

I couldn’t find any breath to say anything.
I just stood there, tense and awkward in his arms.

“I should have said something before, it’s
just…I’ve just been so scared I’m going to mess this up.”

My hands were resting lightly on his waist.
Tentatively, my heart pounding, I slid them around to press against
his back.

He hugged me tighter. “So…you gonna be my
girlfriend now, or what?”

I choked out an embarrassingly
watery-sounding laugh, which I tried to smother in his shirt. “I
think I could give that a shot.”

He chuckled, and I could have stood there
and listened to it roll through his chest forever. I felt his
tension loosen a little, and, as he kissed the top of my head and
brushed his cheek against my hair, I wondered why I couldn’t let go
of mine. I had what I wanted, didn’t I? Did anything else in the
world even matter anymore?

He must have felt it too. “Joss?” He pulled
back enough to tip my chin. “You’re sure we’re okay?”

I just nodded.
He just said ‘we.’
But
I stayed still in his arms, afraid to relax, afraid to touch
him.

He smiled and kissed my nose. “These
freckles make me crazy.”

A quiet laugh escaped at the absolute
absurdity of that, and then his lips were on mine.

I didn’t know that kisses could be so
different, but they were, every time he kissed me. First one
tender, the second hard, and now this one, somewhere in between,
and yet also completely outside those prior experiences.

He was pulling me in, not just my body in
his arms, but pulling me in with his kiss. Drawing away all that
clutching tension and anxiety, until it was gone. For a moment I
felt pliant, content. Everything about Dylan, the always unexpected
softness of his mouth, the way his lips slid against mine, the
hardness and warmth of the body pressed to mine—everything was so
good, so right. It all seemed so simple and perfect that I could
have stayed there like that for hours, just kissing him.

Then it changed. He pulled more, drew up a
new tension inside me and I was no longer pliant. I pressed against
him, practically climbed him. I needed to be closer, to feel more,
to give him more. I needed to breathe.

His mouth left mine and found the side of my
throat. I was gasping for breath, letting my head fall back against
his hand. The hand at my lower back slid under my shirt, and my
body shuddered at the feel of skin on skin, at the heat of his
touch on my back. He said my name, low and thick against my neck,
his hand moving higher to skim underneath the clasp of my bra.

“Jill!” my dad’s voice boomed in the
hallway. “It’s past lights out for you. I want to see that
light—thank you. Joss, you got that homework all done?”

Somehow I found enough voice to call out,
“Yes, sir!” Dylan pulled back from my shoulder to thunk his
forehead against mine. He’d whipped his hand out of my shirt fast
enough, but we were still clutching each other. We were still
together, rather than on opposite ends of the room.

He reached around behind him, took my hands
in his, and brought them around to kiss my knuckles. “I have
got
to go home.” He sort of groaned it, dropped my hands,
and tucked a strand of hair behind my ear. Then he turned to the
window.

I followed him, not too closely, back to
feeling confused and kind of embarrassed. Had I responded too
strongly? I had. I was sure I had. I was a fiend or something! I
could feel my face getting hot, thinking about how I’d climbed all
over him.

Dylan didn’t pause, but threw his leg right
over the sill. Then he sat there straddling it and looked back at
me. “Hey, come here.”

I took the hand he held out to me, and he
pulled me into a hug.

“Joss, I never—”

Something started buzzing in my pocket.
Dylan pulled back and raised his eyebrows at me.

“Is that a phone in your pocket, or are you
just happy to be with me?”

“Oh, you’re hilarious.” I flipped it open.
Dylan’s fingers stopped combing through my hair as soon as the
conversation got going. I flipped it closed again. “There’s a fire
downtown. In the mall.”

“Is it—?”

“No, it’s not our store.”

“But you want to go.” It wasn’t a question.
“Get your coat.”

We went out the window together.

* * *

Dylan

“It’s Mueller’s,” Joss told me as we made
our way down the mall to where the crowd was gathered.

“The butcher shop?” They also had a lot of,
like, specialty grocery items, mostly German stuff. I’d stolen
chocolate from there, back when I was into that kind of thing.
Stealing, not chocolate…whatever. Once, on a dare, I’d gone in all
invisible and rearranged the cold cut case while Mr. Mueller was in
the back room.

“Thank God it’s been closed for three
months. I just hope it doesn’t spread.”

“They closed?” I put an arm around Joss’s
shoulders as we got closer. She’d told me once how she’d been
trapped in a house fire as a child when a friend let her Talent
with flame get away from her. I knew she was still freaked out by
it.

“Um,
yeah,
” she answered, in full-on
duh
mode. “Mr. Mueller retired and moved to Florida three
months ago. Where have you been?”

“I’ve been distracted by this hot chick in
combat boots. Give a guy a break.”

That shut her up.

We both saw them at the same time and came
to a dead stop. Tony was standing at the back of the crowd,
watching the show. In his arms, leaning back against him, was Trina
Halston. She’d been trapped in that same fire with Joss, but she
didn’t seem real traumatized at the moment. She looked damned
comfortable with the firebug who was probably responsible for
this.

Tony looked over at us, smiled, and gave us
a nod. Trina looked too, but just turned away.

“Come on,” I said, “let’s see if Heather’s
around.”

“Yes, please,” Joss answered, and let me
lead her around the edge of the crowd, giving Tony and Trina plenty
of space.

How lame was it that I was kinda happy about
this fire thing? Especially now that I knew the building was empty.
Not that I get off watching stuff burn down, I was just glad to be
able to spend some more time with Joss tonight. Especially out here
with lots of people around, where I could just be with her and
hopefully keep myself from mauling her on the first date.

Okay, possibly taking your girlfriend to an
arson does not count as a date. I got that, but my head was a
little muddled post make-out. I mean, I
finally
told her,
asked her, whatever. It was done, settled, big mental checkmark on
the list, and now when people referred to Joss as my girlfriend I
didn’t have to worry about whether or not I should correct
them.

My brain went to a happy place, and I
completely lost the next few minutes. I bumped shoulders with
someone, muttered an apology, and tried to shake myself back to the
reality of spinning lights, yelling, the energy of the crowd, and
the fire which was growing with its own energy.

I had to shape up and cool it or I was going
to blow this thing with Joss before it ever got started. I was
already going too far, too fast with her. She’d never even had a
boyfriend before.

Oh geez. Cool. It.

Heather came up to us with a ridiculous grin
on her face.

“You look like the cat who just swallowed
the bird,” Joss told Heather, over the noise, “what’s—?” Then she
turned to me. “You. Stop thinking.”

Her cheeks were bright pink under the
freckles. It was too adorable.

“Advice for free,” Heather said, “if you
tell her that, she
will
kill you where you stand.”

“Oh my God, seriously, just…everybody stop.”
Joss turned redder. “Can we focus please? Heather, what’s going
on?”

Heather filled us in on the details she had,
confirming that Tony had started the fire. “It’s really weird.
There’s something else in his thoughts. I think it’s part of a
bigger plan or something. But whenever he thinks about it, it’s all
choppy. Like static.”

“Static,” Joss said, more than asked. “Have
you ever experienced that before?”

“You know how I said that I don’t hear
everyone? Well, most of the people I don’t hear, it’s like that.
What’s different about Tony is that it’s not all the time like
those other people. It’s almost like…selective. Like he’s blocking
certain thoughts from me.”

“Secondary Talent?” Joss asked.

“Those aren’t unheard of, right? But I don’t
think that’s what this is, even though I don’t know what it is, you
know?”

“How’s the fire going?”

“Not great, and they can’t figure it out.
Which makes sense because it’s not a natural fire. Every time they
think they’ve put out a hotspot, Tony starts a new one.”

“Not like we can do anything about him,
either. Not out in the open like this.”

I was relieved to hear Joss say that. After
the book shop thing I was starting to get worried she was going to
take on vigilante tendencies.

“He’s thinking that it won’t be done until
the fire department can get everything good and wet. So this
thing’s going to continue until they can actually starting working
their way into the building, or Tony gets tired and decides to go
home.”

“I hope it doesn’t spread before then,” Joss
muttered. “So there’s nothing we can do?”

“Well…”

Joss’s eyes narrowed. “Why does it make my
blood freeze in terror when you say ‘well’ like that?”

“Actually, the rumor is that you’re a
cold-blooded ice-bitch,” Heather snarked.

“Hey, now,” I snapped.

“Aw, your boyfriend’s protective. That’s so
adorable!” she crooned, like I was the new puppy. I glared at
her.

“Can we please focus?” Joss growled.

“Okay, look, there’s someone over here who
wants to meet you.”

“Again, the chill of doom creeps up my
spine.”

“You’ll live,” Heather told her as she led
us to another area of the spectators.

The small group of underclassmen saw us
coming, and I saw the exact
moment
we got close enough for
them to recognize us because one of the boys came to attention and
stepped ahead of the others, staring straight at Joss. I didn’t
like this kid.

“This is Kenny,” Heather said of the kid who
was staring at Joss, “Tim, Chelsea, Alice, Joel, and Raine. They’re
sophomores.”

The girls looked familiar. And no, not
’cause I was scopin’ out the jailbait, but because goth girls stand
out a little, you know? Especially the one with the blue lipstick.
Raine, I guess. The guys…not so much. I didn’t know them. I
wondered how Heather did.

“How do you know us?” Kenny asked
Heather.

“I know everything.”

Oh, well, that explained that.

Joss moved slightly to stand a little behind
me. Shy or not, that really wasn’t like her. She was stiff, on
alert.

“Hey,” one of the boys said, nodding at
her.

“Tim, your dad around?”

“Yeah, he’s…” Tim turned toward the
activity, craned his neck to get a better look around another group
of kids, “over there by there by that truck.” He raised his arm to
point.

“Put your arm down! I don’t want him to look
over here.”

Tim grinned at her. “Your dad doesn’t know
you’re out.”

“Yeah, and I’d like to keep it that way.”
She tugged at the back of my jacket like she was ready to move on.
“Tim’s dad’s the Fire Chief,” she told me. “My parents have known
his parents, like, forever.”

The idea of Joss’s parents playing bridge or
having backyard barbeques with other parents was pretty bizarre.
The image of Joss’s dad manning a grill did not compute. Joss’s dad
with a flame thrower to keep other people off his lawn, yes, having
dinner parties, no.

“You’re Joss Marshall,” Kenny blurted
out.

“How do you know that?” She pretty much
snapped it at him, making him take a step back. I would have
too.

“I…er…I heard what you did at that girl
Kat’s party. How you got everyone out of there when that team of
NIAC agents stormed the place? Oh man, awesome, you were, like,
in charge!
I heard—”

“Wrong,” Joss cut him off. “Don’t believe
the hype. I said, ‘Let’s go out through the garage.’ That was the
extent of my involvement.”

That made Kenny stop and think for a minute.
I have no idea what. Then he told us, “I can control water!”

Joss reached out and cuffed him on the side
of the head, like she was swatting a fly. “What is
wrong
with you? You don’t go around telling people shit like that.” I
snickered and she gave me light kick.
What? It was
funny.

“Yeah, well, it’s kind of lame anyway. You’d
think I could help with this fire, but it’s like I have to see the
water—sometimes just what’s containing it, but, whatever. I can’t
do anything from outside the building.”

Maybe you should go inside,
I
thought.