***
It didn’t take us long to catch up with Robert and Niki. The only thing I told him was how I received help from the western part of town, and there was only one safe way to get there: Shadow Alley. Catelyn and Steven didn’t question how I knew where to go, not even when we caught sight of Robert and Niki.
“Where do you think he’s going?” Catelyn bit her stubby fingernails. Her habit worsened the closer we got to the western part of Vendona. After the Western Flock was ambushed, bad bloods avoided the area, even if they weren’t old enough to remember it. I was five, but the fence was a frightening reminder of the government’s cruelty. All fifteen kids had been killed.
“I know where he’s going,” I whispered.
Robert would start at my parents’ house. Even though he didn’t know I returned, he knew where it was. We had met there, after all, and he would assume it was the only place I would’ve run to when escaping the police. He wasn’t wrong either. I had run toward it to find Shadow Alley. Daniel intervened one street down from their doorstep.
“Wait.” Steven grabbed both of us before we continued our pursuit. His neck arched as he peeked out. We were on the edge of the main square. “They’re talking.”
I ducked beneath his arm to see them for myself. Niki was the one speaking, but I couldn’t read her lips in the dark. “Any luck?” I asked Steven.
“No.”
I exhaled, and my breath plumed out in front of me. The temperature had dropped severely in fifty minutes. I even shivered. “What are they doing here?”
It wasn’t where I expected them to stop. They were outside Old Man Gregory’s. Despite the late hours, the store remained open. Everyone knew it was a secret bar, but Robert never went there. He hated the western part of town the most. He had only made an exception for Daniel.
I dug my hands into his jacket. If I could help him, I would. It meant we would be even. It meant I didn’t have to think about him again. It meant another bad blood didn’t have to die. Still, his emerald gaze was all I could think of as I stood on the street, dancing a slight step to stay warm.
“You think Daniel’s in there?” Steven asked.
I shook my head. “Only old men and drunks use that shop.” I didn’t have to clarify that Daniel was our age. Most bad bloods were. Or younger.
“I can’t see anything. Niki’s in the way,” Steven mumbled. “Can I say I hate her?”
Catelyn hit his arm. “You just did.”
It wasn’t a secret that Niki and Steven didn’t get along, but it was even worse that he was talking about it. Robert refused to believe any of us could hate each other, and it went against the rules. We were a team. We were family. On top of that, Niki could hear far better than the average human, and if she heard Steven say it, she would tell. Snitching was her occupation. It was the very reason Robert took her with him. She could listen for people following them. As the older kids in the flock, we understood her limits. As long as we stayed a few yards away, we were fine. The street noises would cover us up more than anything.
A car sped past on the main road, and Catelyn leapt behind Steven. Only police and the rich drove, but it must have been a rich person because they weren’t on patrol. Steven’s exhale echoed around the alleyway. “This Daniel guy better be worth the risk.”
“He saved me,” I sighed, knowing I couldn’t hide his name now, “and Robert knew just from the powers.”
Catelyn’s pupils widened even further in the dim light. “Robert saw?”
“If he didn’t, he knew another way,” I mumbled as I started walking toward the main square. Before I could pursue Robert further, a hand latched onto the collar of my jacket, and the force yanked me back.
I tried to pull away, but Steven had already let me go. “We’re going home.”
Catelyn’s small features scrunched into a mousy glare. “What’s gotten into you?”
“From what you told me, there was no way Robert saw Serena’s injury,” he spoke at Catelyn only to jut a thumb toward my plaid jacket. “He saw that.”
Robert knew Daniel’s clothes. Whoever Daniel was, Robert knew him well. Robert’s warning sunk deeper into my gut, but my fingers latched onto the fabric inside the pockets. I couldn’t let it go. In all my years with Robert, I had never seen him change faces so abruptly, and with Daniel, I had never met another bad blood so trusting. None of it made sense.
I stood my ground by digging my heels into the broken pavement. “I’m not leaving.”
Steven’s hollow cheeks, already flushed from the cold, reddened even more. “You almost died, Serena.”
“And I’m not going to let another blood die for my survival,” I bit back.
His face twitched. “Blood?”
“Bad bloods have a negative connotation,” I mumbled as I turned away. Even as I said it, I could hear Daniel’s voice—calm, decisive, honest. Three things I never thought a bad blood could be.
“Come on,” Catelyn said as she dragged Steven back over to me. “No one who saves my best friend deserves to die.” Her beam sealed her decision.
Steven, on the other hand, didn’t look so convinced, but he didn’t try to leave. He would never abandon Catelyn. He depended on her. “What if Robert attacks Daniel?”
“I’m intervening,” I promised.
“You can’t.”
“I’m not just going to sit by and let Robert do unnecessary damage control.” I peered around the corner at Old Man Gregory’s, but nothing had changed. “Daniel saved my life.”
“Robert saved your life, too.” Steven’s words struck me, and almost as if his words had grabbed me, I leaned back into the alleyway.
Even though I stared at my friends, I saw Robert from the night I met him. I was alone in the sirens and snow and shadows. Robert didn’t even ask for my name. He grabbed my hand, and we ran until we couldn’t run anymore. When I fell asleep under the bridge, he used his powers to keep me warm. He always kept me warm.
I shivered, all too aware of his lack of presence now. “Fine.” I checked the store one last time. Still, nothing had moved. Maybe Robert was only clearing his head by getting groceries. Either way, we had to beat him back. “We’ll go home.”
Steven turned around faster than I thought he could move, and he began walking in a prideful march. He might as well have been humming his way back home. Catelyn let out a giggle as we started after him. “Sorry we didn’t find your guy.”
My face heated up as if she had referred to Daniel as my boyfriend instead of a fellow bad blood. “It’s okay,” I managed, even though nothing was okay. In my twelve years on the streets, my instincts had never felt so twisted before. We didn’t even get two yards before my instincts were confirmed.
A silhouette of a person split out of a side street and slammed Catelyn against the fence.
“Who are you?” he growled, and she yelped, only a moment before her body began to glow. In that split second, she disappeared through the fence, her powers saving her.
Steven punched the man in the face, but the attacker didn’t even hesitate. He had Steven pinned against the fence in seconds. It was my turn to fight. I tackled the shadow with every bit of strength I had. It wasn’t enough to take him down, but it was enough to distract the attacker. Steven stumbled out of his grasp.
“Run!” I shouted.
Hesitation flooded over Steven’s face, but Catelyn’s illuminated arm pulled him through the fence, and the two were gone in the night.
The attacker’s grip tightened on me, but he didn’t pin my body against the fence like he had done to Catelyn. He had learned, and fast. “Why are you following me?”
I writhed, but it did nothing. I had lost too much of my muscle mass in the blood camp. I wasn’t as strong as I used to be. I tried to spit in his face, but he dodged it by swaying to the side. His cheeks caught the light, and I froze.
“Daniel?”
His face turned, slower this time, and his emerald eyes moved ov
er me. His grip didn’t loosen, and my arms ached as he dragged me into the light. Finally, his hold loosened, but he didn’t let me go. “Serena.”
I winced but managed a nod.
“Sorry.” He released me and stumbled back as if I had smacked him. “I—I didn’t mean—”
“It’s okay,” I interrupted as I glanced behind him. Aside from us, Shadow Alley was empty. Robert and Niki weren’t even around, but the thought of them made Daniel’s previous words echo. “Was someone following you?”
Daniel peered down at me, his gaze darker than I remembered. “I was mistaken.”
I stared at his face, memorizing every angle of his olive complexion as I searched my memory for someone similar—anyone like him that Robert hated—but nothing came. Daniel must have realized it, too, because he squinted before turning toward the shadows, hiding himself. I half-expected him to run, but only his hand moved. He grabbed his shoulder as he coughed, and I recalled how he walked in the rain. With that memory, others crept in. His half-laugh. His honestly. The dimple on his right cheek when he smiled. He didn’t seem dangerous at all, not comparatively anyway. Despite his fighting, I couldn’t imagine him killing anyone, but I didn’t appear that way either and I had killed more than once.
Right when I tried to convince myself Daniel was dangerous, that Robert was correct, he coughed again and his fingers dug harder into his shoulder. It was impossible not to recall the picture from his bedroom, the same photo where he had been bandaged up as a kid. Someone—or something—had obviously tried to kill him. If he knew what I had done, I doubted he would’ve saved me, and Steven’s words reverberated in my mind. He was right. Robert saved me more than once—even knowing who I was—and he continued to stand by my side. I didn’t even know Daniel, he definitely didn’t know me, and there was no reason in all of Vendona for us to know each other any more than we already did.
Still, I lingered.
“It’s late,” I blurted out, rocking back on my heels like momentum would force me to move back. “You should probably get home. Your dad must be worried.”
Daniel cleared his throat. He was starting to get sick. That much was obvious. “Dad?” he croaked the single word. “Cal’s fine.”
“I know he’s not your dad.” The correction came on its own, like I lost my ability to lie.
His lips slid into a lazy smile. “More of one than the other one I had.”
I could only stare back. Daniel had parents. Of course he had parents. Everyone had parents, but the idea of Daniel’s parents abandoning him didn’t register with me.
His eyes fell away from me like he saw my thoughts. “Did your parents take you in again?”
Parents. Robert was the closest person I had to a parent, and he was nowhere near a parent. Even though he was the Southern Flock’s leader, we had started it together. He was my equal. My biological parents were people I watched from a distance during lonely days. I looked like my mother, and so did my sister. I had yet to figure out their new daughter’s name, but I told Daniel, “Yes.”
“That’s good.” His face lifted once more, and his gaze moved across me as if he were studying me in the way I had studied him. “You look better, Serena.” His back pressed against the brick wall only for him to push himself away from it. He took two steps away before he spoke over his shoulder, “Try not to be out this late.”
Daniel was leaving, and I was losing my chance.
I couldn’t stop myself. I called after him. “I don’t have parents.”
My words immobilized him.
I stopped, too, standing in place, facing his back. My heart pounded with every confession I gave. Why I wanted to tell him was beyond me, but at the same time, he was the first face I saw after gaining my freedom again. In a way, he accepted me first. He was the only one who told me I would be okay again—mentally and physically—and so far, he was the only one I believed. He had healed me. And I didn’t want to believe a person like that could be dangerous. I wanted to believe someone could be good.
“I—I don’t have parents,” I repeated, feeling every word fall off my lips, quieter this time.
He turned around slowly, like he had to force every inch. I held my breath as he met my eyes, and I half-expected him to ask me why I was telling him, but he asked the last thing I expected. “Where are you staying?”
“With a friend.”
His expression didn’t budge.
My nerves forced me to push my hair back, but the winter gale brought my hair back over my shoulder, made tendrils by the swirling wind. “I was looking for him, actually.”
Daniel kept his silence.
I focused on his expression when I said, “His name’s Robert.”
He didn’t move. His lips didn’t bend. His eyes didn’t squint. His brow didn’t even twitch. It was as if Daniel were an optical illusion, a human who didn’t have to move. There were only a few people in all of Vendona that could do that, and it was only because of their soul. Like a flame, it had already flickered away, put out by the streets, and only smoke remained. Daniel was a ghost of a person. I simply hadn’t seen him before. His gaze faded at the edges, and his voice had always been hollow. He was just like me. It was why I liked him. I related to him. We were the same.
As he stared at me in silence, I felt every breath I took as my last one. Robert was right. Daniel could kill me, and he wouldn’t blink after doing so. I only wanted to know why Robert hated him before I went.
“Do you—” I began only to be interrupted.
“Never heard of him,” Daniel said, abruptly.
His four words held me in place. He didn’t know a Robert. He was a different Daniel. It wasn’t a rare name. They were strangers. Supposedly. Not one part of me believed him.
I refused to surrender. “He’s about this tall.” I stood on my tiptoes and lifted my hand into the air. “And he has brown hair.”
“What are you getting at?” His quickened voice comforted me. Even Daniel could get defensive. It was a familiar tone, one all bad bloods used, and one I could accept as honesty.
My hand dropped to my side. “I thought you might have seen him.”
“Wouldn’t know if I did.” He stepped forward, and then, he stepped even closer. I remained still, especially when he laid his hands on my shoulders. “Go. Home.”
His words didn’t correlate with his actions. He never let me go, and I never turned away. Our fogging breath mixed between us, and his eyes watched the cloud form and dissipate. His hands became heavier, and the backs of my feet sunk into the gravel until I ducked out of his touch.
“Do you want your jacket back?”
“Keep it.”
I started walking away before I was tempted to stay longer. I had indulged in him too much, explained too much, gave away too much. Even he had to know I was in a flock now. I wouldn’t be able to deny it, and I doubted I could face Robert again. Everything I did tonight was the very reason I was a risk. It was the very reason Robert should’ve killed me when I returned home. I wasn’t the same person I was when the police caught me, and I never would be again.
My eyes squeezed shut as I walked, but the lack of one sense heightened my other ones. I could hear everything around me, including the footsteps as someone ran up behind me. I spun around, but Daniel kept walking past me. He had followed, and now, he was going in the same direction I was: toward my house in Southern Vendona.
I chased after him. “Where are you going?”
“What does it look like?” he snapped over his shoulder. “I’m walking you home.”
Bad Bloods: November Rain Page 14