Heroes 'Til Curfew (Talent Chronicles #2) (17 page)

“What do you keep screwing up?” His hands
came to rest on my shoulders, and that was probably my cue to look
him in the eyes. But I was finding the tops of his boots really
interesting.

“The friend stuff. Kat’s still not talking
to me. Now Heather.” I tried for a short laugh. “I just suck at the
people stuff.”

“Hey.” He tipped my chin so I had to look up
at him. “You do not suck, okay? This kind of shit just happens.
People get mad, it blows over. Usually when they realize they were
stupid and then forget to mention that part. Trust isn’t easy, and
if someone expects it the minute they say ‘let’s be friends,’ they
don’t really know what they’re asking for.”

I nodded as I pulled away from him and
started walking again. I said, “Thanks,” but I don’t really know if
he heard me.

We came to the end of the mall and turned to
cross it. Everything looked quiet across the bricks, as far as I
could see. Without saying anything, we continued to the service
road that ran behind the shops on the other side.

Dylan hadn’t taken my hand again, maybe
because I had it stuffed in my pocket. He walked at my shoulder,
his arm brushing mine every once in a while. In spite of how I had
pulled away, it still felt like we were closer, like maybe it would
be okay to ask him about stuff I wanted to ask.

“Did you trust Marco?”

“Yes.” A pause. “And no. I always felt like
Marco had my back. As long as he was my friend, he was never going
to let anybody mess with me. But he has a temper, you know that,
and I never really trusted him not to take it out on me.”

“Did he ever?”

“Yeah, once. When we were kids. I’ve got
screws in my arm.” He flexed his arm, and then I felt his shrug
beside me. “What did I just say? People get mad, especially kids,
especially boys, maybe. And then it blows over. Right after, I
think he was just as scared as I was, and we promised each other
we’d never fight again. But I don’t think I ever felt totally safe
around him after that.”

Well who would?
“And your parents let
you stay friends with him?”

“Well by that time, it was just my mom.
Marco’s parents were really good about helping out with the
hospital bills and stuff, and my mom…she doesn’t…I mean, yeah, I
guess it was all bygones, you know?”

Um, no.
Why did I feel like I
understood less than before? “Do you miss being friends with
him?”

“No. He hadn’t been my friend for a while. I
know that.
Plus…
” his voice took on a teasing tone, breaking
the mood as he slung an arm around my shoulders, “I have you to
look out for me now. And you are way more badass, not to mention
easy on the eyes, and very kissable.” He proved that with a
smacking kiss on my cheek.

I was going to own being at least more
kissable than Marco. I wished I could believe the more badass part.
Dylan’s ability to shift the mood like that was part of his charm,
but I often felt pulled off-balance by it. I had him talking, and I
wasn’t done yet.

“Wait, go back to the part where—”

“Yeah, okay, in a minute,” he said, stopping
to turn me toward him and take my face in his hands. “I gotta prove
this point first, about your superior kissability.” But right
before his lips would have touched mine, he turned his head and
looked down the alley.

I heard it too.

* * *

Dylan

The gust of wind that cut down the alley
gave me a chill. Or maybe that was because it caught the unlatched
back door of Vinyl Salvation, making it rattle slightly on its
hinges with little, metallic, tapping sounds. Joss flinched the
moment we heard it, and then she slipped from my hands.

Damn.

She was already peeking inside before I
grabbed the door and the girl and separated them.

“Why don’t you just let me do that?” I
whispered, letting my heart rate go into high gear, which somehow
made it easier to imagine being invisible, and to let that spread
over me, over my clothes, and make me disappear.

Joss was watching, giving me a look that was
part raised brow, part narrow-eyed glare. It was an impressively
damning look, so I let go of the back of her jacket. But I couldn’t
resist ducking in to surprise her with a kiss before slipping into
the darkened stockroom. I grinned at the new look on her face,
thinking this invisible kiss stealing thing had possibilities.

“Wait here while I check it out. I’ll be
right back.”

The back rooms of Vinyl Salvation were a
disaster. And not because anything had happened there. Well,
nothing except a bunch of minimum wage-earning kids not having any
kind of system of organization. And the owner, Rick, an aging
stoner with an inheritance and Peter Pan Syndrome, wasn’t the most
supervisory boss ever.

I moved slowly, picking my way around
randomly stacked cartons, and stepping over used packing materials
that had never made it to the trash in someone’s excitement to get
the latest release out onto the floor. Even though I was invisible,
I still tried to skirt away from the light that spilled in through
the open door to the sales floor. Something caught my eye, and I
jerked my head but it turned out to be just light glinting off a
drum kit that was set up back there, along with guitars and amps,
like a practice had just broken up.

And that’s when I saw that Joss was
following me. I turned to glare at her, but then remembered she
couldn’t see me. She jumped a little when I took her hand, then
smiled, and it was hard to be mad at her. I positioned myself in
the doorway, farther out in the opening than I would have
otherwise, so that Joss would have more cover as she looked from
behind me.

Jeff hurled something toward us, and I
almost turned and knocked Joss to the floor. Then a record
shattered above us and rained black bits onto the floor.

“Idiot,” Joss hissed behind me.

In the wide, high-ceilinged shop with the
tile mural walls that made the music bounce, Jeff was sitting up on
top of one of the record racks, pulling out discs and throwing
them, Frisbee-style, at Vinyl Salvation’s “Angel of Rock.”

“Cut it out, jerk. You’re gonna make me mess
this up.”

I looked up to see a girl straddling the
life-size angel statue that hung by steel cables from joists of the
arched ceiling. The owner had bought it from an old church, which
might not have sold it to him had they realized it would be strung
up in an indie music store wearing leather fingerless gloves with
long fringe and an electric guitar with a Union Jack design.

“That’s Angie,” Joss breathed, “what’s she
doing?”

I turned around and used the excuse of quiet
communication to pull Joss into me. I wished she would have stayed
outside. “She’s giving the angel a makeover,” I said into her
ear.

“Oh, nice. Cretin. Did you see anyone
else?”

“That guy, Corey, from the other night, the
one who nabbed you at Dog-Eared.”

“I don’t like him.”

Which I think might have been Joss humor.
But before I could be sure, someone snapped, “Hey!” and we both
jumped.

“Don’t even think about it, Corey,” Angie
menaced. “I’m supposed to be writing an English paper tonight, and
instead I’m stuck here with you idiots because Bella’s making me
watch her body because you’re a huge perv.”

“I’ll watch it for you.”

“Don’t you have some spray-painting to
do?”

“Bella. Damn,” Joss muttered.

“Let’s back on out of here,” I whispered,
starting to herd Joss away from the open door. “The cops can run
them in for vandalizing the place. We’ll go call them.” I didn’t
have any interest in slugging it out with these guys again.

“Maybe she didn’t see us. Every time the
cops have to get involved in Talent stuff, it’s bad for all of us.
I can take these guys. Besides, I have some questions.”

She went around me in the dark, slick as you
please, and strode out into the light.

Damn.

For a second, I thought about staying
invisible. Some element of surprise idea. But only for a second. I
phased back and went in after her.

Bella picked that moment to re-inhabit her
body. She jerked and then jumped up.

“Joss Marshall’s here with her boyfriend!”
she yelled, at pretty much the same moment that everyone saw Joss
standing there, and me, the nameless sidekick, coming up behind
her.

“Um, thanks for the heads-up, Bell,” Jeff
said sarcastically. “Go get Marco!”

Damn.

Bella headed for the door, but a
double-sided CD rack lifted up off the ground and whizzed by her,
almost knocking her over, and settled in front of the door.

Jeff let out his dumbass chucklehead laugh
at that. “Oh no, what
will
we do now? Corey, go get
Marco.”

Corey grinned and walked into—through—the
display.

“Hey, thanks for keeping me from getting
squashed the other night. I heard all about my ‘brush with death’
when I woke up in the hospital. Dylan, either your girlfriend
really likes me, or she’s a genuine white hat. What do you
think?”

I took a deep breath, in and out. It was too
late to turn back now, so I was just gonna let Joss do things her
way and watch her back. That meant not discussing my girl with Jeff
and losing my temper. Yet.

“Don’t make me regret that anymore than I
already do,” she was saying. “What are you guys doing here?”

“What’s it look like we’re doing?
Redecorating, some inventory control, that kind of stuff.”

“What do you think?” Angie called.

We looked up at the statue. She had done its
makeup and given it some interesting tattoos. She sat there, cheek
to cheek with the defaced angel, grinning down at us.

Angie’s eyes suddenly went wide as she lost
her balance and slid sideways off the statue. She flailed for the
instant it took her to hit the floor. Since I knew what to look
for, I saw the fraction of a second when Joss cushioned her landing
a bit, just like I saw that her loss of balance looked a lot like
someone being shoved.

“Don’t quit your day job,” Joss said dryly.
Then to Jeff, “So what happened, Rick refused to pay you guys?”

The door burst open, shoved so hard that the
CD display that had been blocking it fell over and slid a few feet.
Marco took a few running steps to leap up on top of it. The hollow,
metal sound echoed off the tile. Tony and Nathan flanked him,
making it look like a medals ceremony from the Juvie Crime
Olympics. Corey came through the wall as though he couldn’t be
bothered to take two steps to the right to come through the
door.

Show off
.

I had a quick
this could have been me
thought, but I wasn’t really clear how much of that was
glad I
got out
and how much was
wish I wasn’t on the other side
right now.

And it was just long enough to be ashamed of
myself for thinking that. But hey, I was pretty scared. If I’d
still been on Team Marco, maybe I could have found a way to smooth
things over, talk my way around him. But not now, and if we didn’t
find a way to back out of this, I didn’t see any way I could keep
Joss from getting hurt. Again.

“If it isn’t my absolute favorite couple.
Strange place to bring a date, Dylan. Or did you find out you’re
not enough man for her and decided to share?”

“Jesus, does he
ever
get tired of
making an ass of himself?” Joss asked of no one in particular. She
was standing in front of me, feet planted apart, hands behind her
back. She reached up slightly and tugged at the edge of my jacket,
as if to remind me he wasn’t worth getting pissed about.

Too late.

“I was just asking Jeff what you guys are
doing here tonight. Did Rick refuse to pay? Is that why you’re
trashing his store?”

“Pay?”

“Oh come on, let’s just not. It’s a school
night. Petty crimes, plus merchant payouts, plus you, equals
protection scheme. Dylan didn’t have any trouble figuring out just
what you were doing, so out with it.”

“Dylan didn’t have any trouble,” Marco
mocked her. “Of course not. ’Cause we all know the last thing Dylan
wants is trouble. ‘Oh, no, I don’t wanna! What if we get in
trouble?’”

“Yeah,” I tried to laugh it off, “it’s all
about fear of getting caught for the invisible guy. Maybe I was
just tired of being your flunky instead of your friend.”

“Hey!” he snapped, stepping forward, and
Joss and I both braced. “You don’t get to play that card. Not when
you threw over your best friend for that bitch!”

As he said it, his arm drew back and then
snapped forward, swiping the CD display next to him like an angry
bear. Only this super-powered Grizzly launched the thing into the
air, spinning toward us.

I would have hit the deck, but I only had
enough time to grab Joss’s shoulders before it stopped, hovered for
a fraction of a second, and then bounced back toward Marco,
volleyball style.

There was a sizzling crack in the air, and
then the display burst into a cloud of dust over Marco’s head
before he could catch it or punch it or whatever. Choking, he
reached out for Nathan. I was sure the kid was going to get it, but
Marco just shook the kid’s shoulder in that way that was all too
familiar to me.

“Nice one, kid. Way to have my back.”

Nathan flushed and grinned. Marco learning
people skills for this crime lord thing? That was not good.

Marco coughed again and shook more dust from
his hair. “Why you gotta make me lose my temper? No, Rick didn’t
pay. He probably meant to, but you know how he is. Real forgetful.
Or he left the cash with one of his loyal employees and who knows
what happened to it? But we didn’t get paid, and there have to be
consequences for that. Just like there are going to be consequences
for you guys if you don’t turn around and pretend you weren’t ever
here.”