by Jus Accardo
Kale inched closer. “We have something to finish,” he growled. I couldn’t tell if he was talking about what happened at Sumrun or the kiss last night. Either way, when it came to Alex, Kale’s view of right and wrong was seriously screwed.
Alex ignored him, stepped back into the room, and took the seat directly across from mine. Nodding to Jade, he asked, “Who’re you?”
“This is Ginger’s expert,” I sat back down. “Supposedly she’s here to teach Kale control.”
One eyebrow up. The Elvis. Alex leaned back in the chair. “Supposedly, eh? What makes you so qualified?”
Glad he asked because I was wondering myself. Other than making a great target-practice dummy with overdone lashes and nullifying Kale’s ability, I hadn’t seen anything that would make Jade qualified to help.
Jade gave him a dismissive glare, then turned to Kale, smiling. “I’m qualified for all kinds of things.”
Oh. Yeah. We were gonna come to blows.
“You’re the ex, right?” Jade leaned back, grinning at Alex. “You and Dez make a cute couple. I can totally see the sparks between you two.”
“Yeah,” I said, letting my head fall to the table. “And hopefully they’ll set Alex’s head on fire.”
“Ouch,” he gasped, banging a fist against the tabletop. “Brutal, Dez.”
Kale’s lips twisted into a snarl. “There is nothing between Dez and Alex.”
Maybe I should have stayed in bed. The four of us locked in the same room for six hours, five days a week?
This was going to be a disaster of epic proportions.
8
By what would have been fifth period, my concentration was shot. All I could think about was Kale. And Jade. And Alex. Our weekdays were going to make one hell of a soap. And probably a messy bloodbath.
“You can take a thirty-minute break. Stretch your legs, grab a drink.” Ginger pointed to me. “But stay inside the hotel.”
Crap.
Obviously, I was stuck here. Turning to Kale, I said, “I’m gonna grab a coffee from the kitchen, then meet you in the common room?”
He hesitated but nodded and turned to Jade, who was trying desperately to get his attention by chattering about the thing he was most interested in. Gaining control over his ability. She couldn’t wait to get started and knew he’d pick it up right away. Blah blah blah.
Lingering in the doorway, I watched the two of them for a moment. Tabs. I was keeping tabs on my boyfriend. When the hell did I turn into one of those girls? On one hand, considering the situation, I could argue that it was for safety’s sake. Something about Jade didn’t sit right with me—and not just that she was hot for my guy. When she wasn’t eye-humping Kale, her eyes darted every which way, almost like she was casing the place. Or committing the hotel’s layout to memory.
On the other hand, it was obsessive. Sparked mainly because of Jade and her obvious drooling. Seriously. The girl needed a damned bib and bucket.
Jealousy. I’d never been jealous of anyone before. There’d been that girl with Alex at Roudey’s, but that was more hurt than jealousy. Jealousy stemmed from insecurity, and that had never been me.
I left before I could do or say something stupid. When I passed the lobby, Rosie was standing by her desk, arms folded. She gave me a quick shake of her head and pointed toward the kitchen. What, did they think I was going to try to bust my way out? They had to guard the exits? Jeez. Talk about trust issues.
Then again, I did have a reputation.
Ignoring her, I made my way toward the kitchen. Rosie smelled like something from the deepest recesses of a cheap department store perfume counter and might not be the most personable human on earth, but the girl was a coffee addict. The good stuff, too. She kept a stash hidden in an old Folgers jar under the sink. When I got to the kitchen, I couldn’t help smiling. For all her bristling and bitchy demeanor, there was a pot of her secret stash waiting for me, my XtreamScream 2010 mug sitting next to it as if in invitation. I poured the coffee, inhaling its calming aroma, then fished my cell out.
“O.M.G. I heard the news before I left for class this morning. Rosie told me. She was in total Bitch Heaven,” Kiernan gushed into her cell before I could even speak. “She went on and on about how Kale had finally met a nice girl.”
I leaned against the counter and dumped the sugar shaker over my cup, trying hard not to snort. Rosie knew damn well Kiernan would tell me what she’d said. “Tell me about it. Total nightmare. This expert Ginger brought in? She’s all over Kale.”
“Are you serious?”
“Oh, yeah.”
“Please tell me she’s a woofer.”
“So not. Total hottie.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah.”
“So she was, what, dribbling on him right there?” Kiernan whispered into the phone.
“Drooling,” I huffed. “Like a damn faucet.”
“Not cool! What’re you gonna do?”
I eyed the doorway, eager to get down to the common room, but I needed to vent. If I kept this bottled up, there was a chance Jade wouldn’t survive the day. “What can I do? She’s here to help Kale.”
“Sure she is. And I’m Ke$ha.”
“I trust him.”
“Oh, no disagreement there, chickie. That boy thinks you invented air.”
I knew Kale only had kisses for me, but hearing someone else say it made me feel a little better. “I’m just gonna have to suck it up.”
“Well, you know I got your back, girl. Right?”
“I know.” I lifted the cup to my lips and took a small sip. Not enough sugar. I tipped the shaker over again and sighed, watching a stream of white grains disappear beneath the dark liquid. “It gets worse. Alex is here.”
“There as in, at the hotel?”
Satisfied with the sugar content, I made my way into the hall and out to the lobby. “Here as in, he made up some bullshit excuse to finish high school, and Ginger is letting him sit in on classes.”
“Wow,” she whispered. “Even after everything that happened at that party in June? How’s Kale taking it?”
I passed Rosie’s desk and threw myself into the couch near the door. “It’s so not going to end well.”
“Shit!” Kiernan hissed. There was a clanking noise and rustling paper.
“Where are you?”
“I saw it was you calling. I slipped into the only working bathroom on campus,” she groaned.
I chuckled. “College life not all it’s cracked up to be?”
“This campus blows chunks. Back home the professors were way hotter. I haven’t seen one yet that I plan on begging for a little extra credit.” There was more rustling. “I hate to bail, Dez, but I’m gonna be late for class.”
“Yeah, go. No worries.”
“Be careful with Alex, okay? I don’t trust him.”
“That makes two of us.”
I downed the rest of my coffee and said, “You comin’ home right after school? I’m gonna need to get out of here for a while.”
Voices. She must’ve gone out into the hall. “Sorry. Signed up for the paper. We’re meeting after three.”
“The paper?” I laughed. “Must be a guy.”
She snickered. “Hey, like I said. Slim pickins. I gotta jump on it while the jumping is good. We’ll hang tonight. Promise.”
The line went dead.
Sighing, I set the empty mug on the table in front of me as something zoomed past the front doors. For a second, the entire lobby went dark. “Did you see that?”
From her desk, Rosie mumbled something I didn’t quite hear but never took her eyes off the television.
I stood and made my way to the glass doors. Nothing but sunshine and a large, empty parking lot. If I was imagining things this soon, how was it going to be after a week had passed? Confinement and I did not go hand in hand.
Dismissing it, I headed to the common room. Alex was sprawled out on the chaise lounge chewing like a cow—sloppy burger in one han
d, TV remote in the other. He was chain-channel-flipping, and I debated grabbing his soda and dumping it over his head. It used to drive me nuts when he did that, and he knew it.
Jade and Kale were at the card table across the room. She was listening intently to whatever he was saying, complete with the occasional hair flip and batting eyes. Every so often she’d bend forward a little and give a good, shoulder-shaking laugh. Please. I invented those moves. Some fifty-cent, out-of-town skank wasn’t going to dethrone me with a few shakes of her obviously padded puppies.
Deep breath. I stepped into the room, shoulders squared and head held high. I was reigning queen here, not her. She wasn’t going to swoop in and toss me without a fight. “So what’d I miss?”
“You were gone awhile.” Kale stood but didn’t come any closer. This was getting ridiculous.
I pulled my sleeve down over my fingers and reached for his hand, but Jade batted my arm away.
“Don’t get too close,” she said to Kale. “You’re toxic to her at the moment. Don’t take any chances.”
Behind me, Alex muted the TV and stopped chewing. Everything went silent.
Toxic? What a stupid, stupid thing to say! Didn’t this idiot realize Kale was extremely literal? “No matter what his skin does, Jade, Kale is not toxic. To anyone. Are we clear?” The ice in my voice could have frozen hell over.
It didn’t seem to faze her, though. She just shrugged and flashed me her sweetest smile. “My bad. You know what I mean.”
“Whoa,” Alex said, turning the volume on the TV back up. “Check this out.”
I sank onto the couch, and Kale followed. Sleeve still pulled across my fingers, I took his hand. He resisted at first but relaxed after a moment when nothing happened. On the screen, the newswoman was standing outside a small Victorian. The print under her name said “Morristown.” One town over from Parkview.
“I’m coming to you live from Stanton Street in Morristown, New York, where we’re just an hour away from the vigil for Layne Phillips.”
The woman’s lips kept moving, but the words were lost. The only thing I heard was the name of the girl. Layne Phillips. The name Brandt had given me.
Jade gasped. “Oh, my God. I remember hearing about this like a month ago. It made national news. Her parents found her in her bed in July, shot between the eyes. Right in the middle of her birthday party.”
At Sumrun in June, Dad told us the first of the second generation of Supremacy kids would turn eighteen in July. Was Layne the first? Is that what Brandt had been trying to tell me? That it’d begun? I didn’t know where he was at the moment—we’d initiated relative radio silence—but he’d obviously heard about her death and somehow connected it to Denazen. That was the only explanation for him giving me her name. “How old was she?”
Jade scrunched up her nose and snorted. “Not like it mattered, but she’d just turned eighteen.”
Bingo! She had to be one of the Supremacy kids.
Alex stuffed the rest of his burger into his mouth. “Total waste—the chick was a hottie.”
Jade’s eyes widened. “You knew her?”
“Not personally or anything.” He turned to me. “She was at that river rave a few years back. You remember her. She was the one with all the tattoos. Had that killer bitch badge. The one that wound around her waist and wrapped around her tits.”
He was right. I did remember her. She’d flashed everyone at the party showing off that creepy tattoo.
“She had that barcode tattoo, too. ’Member?” he said with a smile. His head swiveled until he was staring at Kale. “We used to joke that she was someone’s property.”
“Alex,” I warned. Anyone could see where he was going with this.
He ignored me. Nodding to Kale, he asked, “What about you? Do you have a Denazen barcode?”
Kale’s fist was a blur as it shot across the couch. No counting this time. The blow landed square on Alex’s jaw. He rocked back and, just like in the cartoons, flew feet over head off the chaise.
Kale was off the couch, a look of horror on his face. From the other side of the chaise Alex rose, rubbing his face and looking just a little pale. It took me a minute to realize why. He didn’t know what Jade could do. The only change he was aware of was that I wasn’t immune anymore. Last he heard, Kale’s touch meant instant death.
From the look on Kale’s face, he hadn’t been thinking about Jade’s presence. He’d lost his temper. Slowly, though, it dawned on him. He looked from Alex to his hands. The sleeves of his new black hoodie had ridden up to reveal long, pale fingers. Jade was there. He’d touched Alex.
Alex was still alive.
I saw the realization just a second before Alex did. Something sparked in Kale’s eyes, and a twisted smile—twisted, but so, so hot—slid across his lips. His voice was low and dangerous. It sent chills up and down my spine and made my breath catch. Part of my brain was screaming at me to do something, but another part was just too enthralled to look away.
“I owe you.”
And if I’d blinked, I would’ve missed it. Right hand flat on the arm of the couch, Kale propelled himself over in a single swoop.
He landed in front of Alex, who’d taken a step back, still a little confused, just as Jade and I scrambled to our feet. “How the hell—”
“It’s me. My ability mutes his,” Jade said, inching her way around to the edge, but she was too slow. Kale’s fist shot out again, this time catching Alex in the gut. He stumbled back, coughing, and for a minute, it looked like he was about to go down.
It was an act. A second later he launched himself forward. Kale turned and ran in the other direction. Alex fumbled for a second but followed, determined to ground him. Kale leapt at the wall by the door. Right sneaker hitting about two feet high, he pushed off in an amazing back flip and landed behind Alex.
I couldn’t figure out why Alex looked surprised. He knew all about Denazen and what they’d made Kale into. This whole thing was pointless even with the use of his ability. But Alex wasn’t giving up.
Things were flying. Couch cushions, a lamp, the cordless from the corner table. All zooming above our heads and chasing Kale around the room. He dodged them with ease like some weird live version of the Matrix movies. Some missed by a wide margin, while he narrowly avoided others.
“You need to try harder. I’m getting bored.” Kale laughed. He was enjoying this much too much, but who could blame him? A showdown with Alex—a proper one—was something Kale deserved. Even if not for the events at Sumrun, it was the natural order of things for the new boyfriend and the old one to throw down. Especially if the old one was a dick who refused to take no for an answer.
Twirling to avoid the porcelain lamp, Kale’s feet did a fancy sidestep, and the lamp crashed into the wall behind him. Darting forward, he grabbed a fistful of Alex’s hair and slammed his head against the wall as Rosie appeared in the doorway.
“What the heck is going on in here?” she screeched as Alex crumpled to the floor. He ignored her, as did Kale, and she disappeared—probably rushing off to find Ginger.
A feral growl escaped Alex’s lips as he jumped to his feet, regrouping. “I’m just getting started, 98.”
His hands jutted out, and the couch surged forward. But the look of smug satisfaction on Alex’s face didn’t last long. Without turning, Kale leapt into the air and, in an astonishingly perfect backflip, landed safely on the other side. Alex wasn’t so lucky. With Kale not in its path, the couch collided with him, knocking him back into the wall.
Jade watched the whole thing go down with a stupid grin on her face. “Kale is totally rocking the Fight Club vibe!” she squealed as Alex climbed to his feet and threw himself back into the fray. Once in a while she’d try to step in, but every time they’d swing close, she jumped back with a tiny yelp and hide behind the couch.
Frigging moron.
Allowing Kale a few minutes to kick the crap out of Alex was something he deserved, but it was time to end this before som
eone started to hemorrhage—that someone being Alex, of course. He’d landed a few blows using his ability, but Kale had maintained the upper hand most of the fight. Enough was enough. It was a miracle that the entire hotel wasn’t down here with all the noise they were making. What the hell was taking Rosie so long?
“Knock it off,” I yelled.
Of course, my commanding voice and fearsome reputation got their attention right away. They froze in place and whimpered apologies, properly cowed.
Not even.
“You’re not a good person,” Kale growled as he dodged a flying plate. It crashed against the wall behind him, bits and pieces exploding in all directions.
“And you are? Least I’ve never punished anyone.” Alex laughed and swung out with his own fist. The blow landed in midair beside Kale’s shoulder. He straightened and rolled his shoulders. “Tell me something, Reaper. Did you keep count? Have a score sheet, maybe? You can tell me the truth. You liked it, didn’t you?”
Any lingering control Kale might have had evaporated.
Alex saw it, too. He smiled and inclined his head toward me. “You can’t hit that anymore, eh? No worries, brother man. I can step up to the plate in your place.”
Kale threw himself forward, knocking them both down. They crashed into the wall, bumping the TV from its stand and sending it crashing to the ground. Bits of plastic and glass exploded, bouncing across the floor, making tiny plinking sounds.
Kale jumped up and hauled Alex to his feet. “You are no better than me. And you’re going to stay away from Dez.”
Alex shoved him away. “Or what?”
Kale grabbed the front of his shirt. “Or I’ll come find you. Alone.”
And that’s when the shit really clipped the fan.
Ginger came hobbling into the room—finally—screaming at the top of her lungs. Kale, momentarily distracted, turned. Alex had never been above a low blow and used this to his advantage. He brought his head back and slammed it forward into Kale’s. I heard the crack as though it’d happened to me. Both boys stumbled back a few steps but managed to stay on their feet.