Heroes 'Til Curfew (Talent Chronicles #2) (37 page)

Assess.

The tunnel vision broke. Nathan was
struggling up. I got my jeans back up and kicked him in the face,
throwing him into the wall, denting the sheetrock. Jeff was lying
on the ground next to where they’d held me down. His eyes were open
and dark. He was still.

Marco lay near the doorway. I was shaking
all over as I righted my clothes. It was hard to make myself get
close to him to leave the room, but I followed the sounds of
fighting out into the store room and gave up on trying to buckle my
belt with fingers that wouldn’t work for me.

Dylan and Corey were fighting savagely.
Dylan phased out, but I could still see they were locked together.
Dylan slammed Corey into the metal shelving, but Corey phased out
and sank into it, the momentum causing Dylan to slam against the
metal support and rematerialize. He staggered back, phased out
again.

I floated a metal ammo can, heavy with
shells, up out of the mess. I had every intention of hurling it at
Corey as soon as I could figure out where Dylan was to be sure it
wouldn’t hit him on the way.

Corey stumbled back, pushed. He tripped over
a box and went down. He was jerked by the shirt by invisible fists
and slammed down on the concrete again. His head bounced and he was
still.

Time seemed to stop when Dylan phased back
and got to his feet. His eyes met mine like a blow that pushed all
the air from my lungs. The ammo can fell from my mind, hit the
cement floor. I almost did too. Suddenly I was weak, faint.

Shake it off!
a voice snapped in my
head.
There’s no time. You have to get home.

And I didn’t want there to be time. If Dylan
wrapped his arms around me right now, if I felt him shaking against
me, it was just going to be more real. And I couldn’t let it be. I
had to stuff it down and pack it away and not think about it ever,
ever again.

“There’s no time,” I told him, grabbing at
his sleeve as I bolted past. “I have to get home.” I threw myself
at the door. “It’s stuck. Corey probably jammed it from the outside
and then came through it to shut us in.”

“All right, help me out.” Dylan threw his
shoulder at it and I put my Talent behind him. He was watching me
intensely through his swollen, red-rimmed eyes, studying, trying to
figure out the right way to deal with me. The door gave on the
third try, exploding out into the world, letting in a rush of cold
air as it banged off the side of the building.

Outside it was really dark. All the new
security lights along the service road had been broken. A groan
came from the office. Dylan turned from the door, his expression
changing to something terrible, something that chilled me. I
grabbed his arm. “I need to finish that,” he said low, almost
without expression.

It made me panic. Maybe because what I saw
in his eyes reminded me of what I’d seen in Dad’s, and I thought
that if I let Dylan go back in there, somehow I would lose him,
too. It didn’t make sense, but I didn’t have time to work it out, I
just pulled at his arm and begged him, “Just let’s go. Dylan,
please, just get me out of here.”

He turned back to me and I saw the struggle
on his face, the effort. “Let’s go, get down the alley.”

I slammed the door and used my Talent to
break the lock and stick it shut. It wouldn’t hold Marco for long
if he was coming to. Halfway down the service road I realized I’d
made a huge tactical error by choosing retreat instead of making
sure my opponent was completely incapacitated. But I couldn’t
punish myself for that now. I had to keep running. I had to get
home.

We were almost to the end of the service
road when we heard the door blown off its hinges. It was too soon
and we both knew it. We skidded to a stop behind Sweet
Blondies.

Dylan grabbed me by the shoulders. “We’re
not going to get all the way to your house on foot. Even if we can
keep ahead of them, the muscles in his legs don’t tire easily. You
need to go, take care of your family. I’ll hold them off here.”

“How?”

I’ll get them to follow me up onto the roof.
You cut down the alley and double back. They’ll follow me and they
won’t realize you’re not there until you’ve put some more space
between you. Just try to stay out of sight in case they split up,
too.”

“Okay, that makes sense, except that I
should stay and you should go on. You can go invisible. You’ll have
a better shot at making it all the way to my house.”

He gave my shoulders a shake. “Marco just
killed
Jeff. Broke his neck like it didn’t mean anything.
And after— If you think I’m going to leave you here to face them
again, you’re out of your fucking mind.” He shook his head, like he
regretted cursing at me. “I need you to get out of here. To be
safe.”

“Do you think I can just leave you
here?”

“Your family needs you to get home. I need
you to go. Please.”

“Dylan…”

We could hear running footsteps pounding up
the dark alley, Marco and Corey shouting and threatening.

“They’re coming. It’s the only plan. I can
do this. God, Marshall, let me. For once you’re just going to have
to believe in me.”

Is that what he really thought? I touched
his face. “Everything I believe is in you.”

He flinched like I’d struck him, and then he
kissed me, hard and fast, shoved me away. “I love you. Go!”

I raced down the alley and doubled back.
From the other side of the vacant building I could hear Marco,
Corey, and Nathan approaching. Dylan called out, “Yeah, I’m on my
way up,” as though he were talking to me, and then the sound of his
boots on the fire escape echoed down the service road. I made my
way quickly and silently to the next alley and peered around. I
couldn’t really see anything in the gloom but I could hear more
than one pair of shoes on the fire escape. When the racket stopped,
I sprinted to the fire escape of the vacant building next to the
Sweet Blondies.

I jumped for the end of the ladder and
missed. I tried again. I didn’t have near the reach that Dylan did.
I had to use my Talent to float a dumpster around the corner so I
could climb on top of it. Meanwhile, angry voices drifted down at
me.

Dylan’s plan to split up made tactical
sense. I had to make myself admit that. Us fighting together didn’t
always work—we worried about each other too much, lost focus. See
also: Vinyl Salvation. I knew that I could lend him my Talent from
a distance, as long as I could see him. As much as I hated having
him be the one to take the hits, I had to think it through and
realize that he had rage on his side, and was in better fighting
shape than I was at this point.

The vacant building was a twin to Sweet
Blondies next door, having a flat roof with a low wall around it.
Except that where the ice cream shop on the corner was lit up by
the lights along First Avenue, it was all shadow where I was. I
scurried across the space to the other side, trying to keep low and
crouched down behind the wall.

Shadow suited me just fine right now as I
wrapped my arms around my knees and tried to not to shake. I needed
to pull myself together to help Dylan. Concentrate on that and push
this other crap down. But I couldn’t stop the reaction.

Marco and Corey stalked Dylan across the
roof. He was walking backward, slowly. It seemed like maybe they
were carrying on a conversation. I could only imagine the taunts
Marco had for him right now.

Put it away.

I closed my eyes and shook my head, trying
to find my focus. When I opened them again, all I could find were
Marco and Corey. They were close together, lashing out at a Dylan I
couldn’t see. And if I couldn’t see him, I couldn’t help him. He
knew
that.

But he doesn’t know you’re here.

I lashed out and wrapped my Talent around an
old antenna, yanked it free of the roof, and hurled it at Marco and
Corey’s backs. Corey whirled around to look for his attacker, but
maybe Marco suspected it. He used the diversion and kicked out
hard.

Dylan rematerialized at the base of the low
wall. He’d come so close to going right over it. He got up, weaving
slightly on his feet as Corey charged and grappled with him.

And then part of the wall just vanished.

Dylan?

I clamped my hand over my mouth to cover a
scream. Corey went over the edge. Marco grabbed his arm to yank him
back up. Dylan, who had gone invisible when Corey grabbed him,
phased back in right behind Marco and shoved hard. He was trying to
put Marco over the edge too, but he needed my help for that and I’d
been so concerned thinking he might have gone over with Corey that
I didn’t see it in time. Marco lashed out at Dylan with his free
arm, making contact and sending Dylan skidding across the roof.

Dylan dragged himself up and faded out as
Marco and Corey advanced on him again. He was exhausted. I could
see Nathan, wall disintegrating Nathan, watching from the fire
escape, unwilling to come over the wall and join the fight, but
still willing to help try to kill Dylan. I lashed out at the fire
escape and yanked hard, ripping the bolts that tied it to the
bricks. Nathan cried out and grabbed for the wall.

Marco gave up trying to figure out where
Dylan was for a minute to pull Nathan up onto the roof. I ducked as
he looked my way again. He knew I was here and when he was done
with Dylan, he was coming for me again.

Except that wasn’t going to happen.

Marco had made me feel helpless. But I
wasn’t, and I didn’t have to just sit here and watch. I reached
toward the roof. What I wanted to do was different than the way I
was used to using my Talent. I didn’t know if I could, but I
thought about what my dad had said about the fire, about Vinyl
Salvation. I thought about how the floor had trembled under my
hands, and how I had felt in that moment.

I stared at the roof until I wasn’t seeing
it with my eyes anymore, but just with my mind, seeing more of it
than my eyes could, seeing the roof and its structure, the joists
and pipes underneath. Seeing flashes of Marco’s sneering face,
hearing his voice in my head, threatening me, Dylan, Jill, Dad,
Kat. I felt his grip on me, felt his hands like he had any right to
touch me.

There was a vibration in my mind. The
shaking I hadn’t been able to stop shifted into something else.
Something strong and angry. Something that had purpose.

My fingers dug into the brick of the wall I
knelt behind. Something groaned, timbers snapped, and across the
alley the roof of Sweet Blondies began to ripple. I couldn’t see it
yet, but I knew. I felt it somehow, felt a little peak rise,
cracking and spitting asphalt as it moved across the roof toward
the fighting, spitting debris.

The boys were yelling, backing up, running
toward the other side as the wave of destruction approached them.
Dylan rematerialized and jumped onto the wall. I pushed harder at
the wave, trying not to be distracted by how precarious his
situation was, how the wall could give, how Nathan could dissolve
it.

Dylan threw out his arms for balance and my
concentration snapped. The wave stopped. He was looking in my
direction and it was like we both knew what came next without so
much as a signal. He turned his back on me and jumped.

His feet hit my cushion of air, punched
through. He went down on his knees, caught himself on his hands.
Then he stood up and my heart started beating again.

I heard one of the boys yell, “Marco, what
are you—?”

Marco was standing on the wall, looking down
at Dylan. Dylan didn’t waste any time, but took off past the
building, onto the next street, out of sight. Leaving me.

Marco leapt off the building and landed on
his feet with a force that cracked the service road and sent
asphalt flying back at the building. Above him, Corey and Nathan
were leaning over the wall. Marco rubbed at his knees, straightened
slowly, and turned to look up at where I was hiding. Pain was
tearing through my head, but I reached out for the dumpster. It
moved slightly as I took hold of it, preparing to lift.

That got Marco’s attention. He gave me a
single sneer and took off after Dylan.

Dylan had run to lead Marco away from me. So
that I could follow our original plan and get Trina away from my
mom and sister. But Dylan was exhausted and Marco wasn’t. I needed
to follow them, protect Dylan, but I had no idea where he would go.
I had to think.

“Bella said to tell you—”

I whirled to the sound of the voice to find
Curtis kneeling beside me. He grabbed my wrist and when I tried to
yank my arm back, I found that I didn’t have the strength to pull
away.

“—that you should have left Marco
alone.”

I tried to say something to him, but
blackness clouded my vision and I couldn’t hang on to the
thought.

And then I finally slept.

Chapter 17

Dylan

Where’s Joss?

That was the first thought I had when I came
to, but I didn’t jump up and start looking or asking questions. I
just lay on the floor and cracked my eyes open, took a look
around.

“
He can be taught.” That’s what she’d
say.

But where was she?

I was lying on my side in a corner on a
concrete floor. Everything I had hurt. I tried to move discreetly,
test out my stiffened limbs, but my wrists were stuck together
behind me. It was pretty cold, but not quite as cold as outside,
and the lighting wasn’t great. There were a bunch of lanterns
sitting around, some battery-operated, some gas. Boxes and
packaging material littered the floor. I had no doubt the lighting
had come from the Army/Navy store.

The only other person in the room that I
could see was Nathan. He was sitting on a camp stool not too far
from me, bouncing a hacky sack on his sneaker. And that scared the
shit out of me. Where the hell were Marco and Corey?