Sweet Reckoning (5 page)

A
light, persistent knocking woke me at four in the morning. I saw Ginger through the peephole, and let her in. My eyes darted down the hall, but there was no sign of Marna. It was the first time Ginger had ever looked less than perfect. Small purple bags rested under her eyes.

“What’s wrong?” I asked. “Where’s Marna?”

“She went home with your friend last night,” Ginger spat. “We had a row about it over the phone, but she wouldn’t listen. You have to reign in that bloke of yours, Anna.”

“Ginger . . .” Man, she was prickly this morning.

“No, Anna. This is bloody serious, and you know it. She’s already talking about coming back to see him next week!”

Anxiety spread through me like nettles. This was the worst time for any of us to veer off our paths. The Dukes and whisperers would be watching. If she started making frequent trips to Atlanta, her father was likely to notice.

“You can use your persuasive ability thing,” Ginger said.

I shook my head. “It won’t work if they want to be together. They’ll fight it.”

Marna was desperate for love. And Jay was a relationship kind of guy, who was on the rebound with a girl he was wild about.

“I’ll talk to Jay,” I promised.

Ginger pulled out her phone and shoved it under my nose, asking, “By the way, have you seen this?”

I took the phone from her. It was an article from a Santa Barbara newspaper. The headline read
LOCAL EXTREME
sports star engaged. It had a picture of Blake and his girlfriend,

er . . .
fiancée
, Michelle, sitting on one of his motorbikes, beaming. They looked gorgeous. And in love.

“Oh no,” I whispered. I looked into Ginger’s broken face. “His father is making him.”

“Whatev.” She snatched the phone back and shoved it into her purse with a shaking hand.

“Ginger—”

“Gotta go. Take care.” She slung her purse over her shoulder and left.

I tried to go back to sleep, but I couldn’t relax. Ginger and I weren’t exactly friends, but I still hated to see her upset. Marna and Blake were the only people she cared about.

At five I pushed myself out of bed. By seven I was parking outside of Jay’s house, greeted by the scent of wild honeysuckle bushes. His home was quiet, everyone sleeping in since it was a Saturday. I let myself in, like everyone did at Jay’s place. He was conked out on his rumpled bed, lying diagonal across it. I sat next to him and gave his shoulder a gentle shake.

“Jay,” I whispered.

He didn’t budge. I shook him harder and said his name louder. With his eyes closed, he grinned and flung a heavy arm over my lap.

“Jay, it’s me. Anna!”

His eyes cracked open and he pulled his arm away.

“Dude. Sorry.” His voice was groggy. “What time is it?”

“It’s seven. I need to talk to you.”

He sat up and scrubbed his eyes with the back of his wrists before giving me his sleepy attention.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea for you to jump right into something with Marna.”

He blinked and scratched his short hair with both hands.

“It’s nothing to worry about. I can’t believe you came all the way out here to say that.”

“I’m serious, Jay. I love you both, and I don’t want to see either of you hurt. Plus, if Veronica found out . . .”

“She dumped me. I’m allowed to have a little fun, right?” Guilt spun around his chest. “We’re just hanging out.”

I gave him my “yeah, right” look, and he gave me a sheepish grin.

“You’re not gonna tell Roni, are you?” he asked.

“No way.” The breakup was mostly her doing, but she’d still go ballistic with jealousy if she found out he’d immediately moved on with her nemesis.

“Do you hate me?” he asked.

“Of course not.” I needed to talk sense into Jay, but I knew how it felt to fall for somebody. Nothing anyone said could stop it. “It’s just that Marna lives in England,” I explained. “And her dad is
really
controlling. He’d never let her move here.”

“Yeah, I know. But she’s a flight attendant, so she can come here on her days off and stuff.”

He sounded way too hopeful.

“That’s such a long trip, Jay. It’s going to get really tiring.”

“You’re the one with a boyfriend on the other side of the country, so you don’t have much room to talk.”

Hmph.
Well, crap.

“Anna,” he said, searching for words. “There’s just something about Marna. I didn’t think we’d ever be able to be together, you know? But I’ve always thought about her. Probably too much. Roni used to test me. She’d ask stuff like, ‘What would you do if that British girl came back right now and tried to get you to break up with me?’ And I’d tell her she was crazy for asking, ’cause I knew that would never happen, but really . . .” He cleared his throat and dropped his eyes. “I knew what I’d do. As much as I loved Roni, I always thought about Marna. Everything feels different with her. Bigger. I can’t explain it. Like she’s my soul mate or something—and I don’t even believe in that crap.”

“I get it, Jay. I really do. But Marna isn’t at a time of her life when she can settle down with you. I don’t want you to get your hopes up about her.”

“You worry too much.” He slid back down into his bed and closed his eyes.

I rubbed the top of his thick blond hair and sighed. “Go back to sleep.”

“Nigh’-night,” he mumbled.

And he fell asleep. How nice would it feel to be so free of worries you could slide into sleep that easily? I hoped Jay’s life would always be like that.

Outside in the warm morning I climbed into my car and called Patti.

“You doing okay?” I asked her.

“Fine. You?”

“Yeah. Just tired. I think you should stay where you are until it’s time to move.”

She sighed. “You’re probably right. There’s plenty of stuff in walking distance. I should go over to the store and get a couple novels to keep me busy. I’ll need my car eventually.”

“Yeah. Once I get word, I’ll come get you and we can run back to the apartment to grab our stuff and leave.”

“All right, sweetie. Be safe.”

A sudden chill slid up my spine. My thumb hit the End button and I heard the Legionnaire chuckling inside my head—a rattling, insidious sound. I turned and jumped at the sight of the dark whisperer behind me in the car. Its ugly face grinned in gleeful malice, and its giant wings stretched through the sides of my car. How long had it been there? The hearing of demon spirits wasn’t very good, but in this small, quiet space the whisperer would’ve had no trouble. I went over the conversation in my mind, searching for anything incriminating I might have said. Any little thing could be used against me at this point.

“What do you want?” I asked, letting my irritation show.

Again, it chuckled, and without answering flew away. What the heck was that about? Just a checkup? I had to be more careful—constantly on guard. This was why Marna needed to stay away from Jay. Hopefully she would do the smart thing. For once I was siding with Ginger.

Not knowing if or when Pharzuph might come back to town, I got out of Atlanta and drove to a mall. I walked around all day, buying a few things. At four o’clock I went to see a movie by myself, which was lonely, but it passed the time.

I never stopped looking for demon spirits.

Veronica called to see if I wanted to hang out, but I told her I couldn’t. The incident with the whisperer in my car was too fresh on my mind. I promised her we’d see each other before she left in five days. I hoped I could keep that promise.

My anxiety was rising. Dad hadn’t contacted me or sent his ally spirit, Azael, with any messages. I hated waiting. By the end of day three I’d bitten off all my pretty fingernails. I’d seen a whisperer every day. Each day one would find me, swoop down, circle me, and leave, as if monitoring my location. The only good thing was that after they spotted me, they left me alone.

On day four, after my daily whisperer sighting, I went to see Veronica.

“I can’t stay long,” I said. All of her bags were packed in her room, and stuff was lying around with the look of someone in the midst of moving. Something inside me ached at the sight.

Close to Veronica’s chest, like a thin band around her, was a deep, blue sadness. On top of that was a fizz of orange excitement with a sprinkle of gray nervousness. Emotions were funny things.

I reached for her hand and she took it, then looked down at my fingers.

“What did you do to your nails?”

“Oh . . . I’ve been kind of stressed.”

“Sheesh, Anna! You could’ve at least cleaned them up with a file. Can I do your nails? For old times’ sake?”

“Sure,” I said.

Her dark, thick hair had been recently cut and blown out in a voluminous style around her jawline. I memorized the look of perfectly drawn eyeliner around her almond eyes, the slant of her regal nose.

We sat down on the floor with her basket of polishes.

Veronica talked to my nails. “Don’t worry, you poor things. Roni’ll take care of you.”

She gently filed the messy nubs, and I bit back a wave of emotion.

“How’s Jay?” she asked without looking up.

I cleared my throat. “He’s . . . okay. How are you?”

“I’m okay, too, I guess. It’s weird, though. I miss him. But I feel like I don’t have the right to call him anymore. It’s hard to stay friends after you’ve been together.”

“Yeah,” I whispered. “I wonder if you’ll meet someone in Spain.”

She grinned up at me. “We’ll see. I don’t want anything serious, but I’m counting on a lot of hotties in my near future.”

“I’ll miss you,” I said.

She patted my hand. “Don’t get sappy. No tears. Just think of me when you do your nails, ’kay? And for God’s sake, don’t bite them anymore.”

My poor nails were the least of my concerns.

I
missed Kaidan like crazy. It’d only been five days since our video chat, but it felt so much longer. We were trying to stay cautious—to chat only when we knew it was safe, but it was hard.

I was tired of bouncing around to different hotels every day, hanging out in their gross bars sipping Cokes so that if whisperers came I could jump into action. I was only eighteen, but I had a fake ID to buy alcohol if necessary. I was bored, lonely, and impatient, waiting for Dad to give me the thumbs-up to leave for Virginia Tech.

I was surprised to see Ginger’s number calling me that afternoon as I sat in my hotel room, reading about a swoony alien guy. Books were about the only thing that could distract my anxious mind.

“Is she with you?” Ginger asked, sounding frantic. “She” was obviously Marna.

“No.”

“Shite! She snuck off when we got stateside.”

I set down my book and sat up. “Are you here?”

“No. I’m in Newark, the armpit of the bleedin’ world. Will you find out if she’s with your friend and call me straight away?”

“Okay.”

We hung up, and I called Jay. It rang so many times I thought voice mail would pick up, but then he answered.

“What’s up?”

“Is Marna with you?” I asked.

“Um . . .” He got quiet.

“That’s a yes.” I sighed. This was not good.

I heard Marna say in the background, “Argh! Just tell my sister I’ll be back in time for our morning flight!”

“She just wanted to know where you were,” I said.

“Well, she’s suffocating me. I don’t have to answer to her.”

“Dude,” Jay said. “How can you two hear each other when the phone’s at
my
ear?”

We both got quiet.

“I’ll tell her she’s okay,” I said, and then hung up.

Ginger answered immediately and I told her, “She’s fine. She’s working here tonight, but she’ll be back in time for your flight in the morning.”

“Ugh!”
Ginger screamed into the phone, and disconnected.

Four hours later I was sitting on a stool in a bar, playing a game on my phone and ignoring the stares from two men when Ginger called again.