by Bree Despain
“Nice,” I said sarcastically, but I couldn’t help thinking he was just trying to cover.
Talbot laughed again. “We don’t have to dance if you have a problem with that. How about I go get us a couple of drinks and we can wait for the SKs over at one of the tables?”
“I don’t drink. Well, I mean, I drink … like water and stuff. But you know, I don’t drink.” Could I seem any more lame this evening?
“Well, I don’t make it a habit to buy alcohol for minors.” Talbot put an emphasis on that last word, as if reminding me that I was at least three or four years younger than he was. “But I imagine a Coke wouldn’t bother your sensibilities.”
“Sounds good.”
Talbot shook his head and sauntered off toward the bar. I stood on the edge of the dance floor and watched as a couple at the bar moved aside so Talbot could order our drinks before them. He glanced back at me and winked. I blushed and turned away. I rubbed my arms, trying to warm the goose bumps that prickled up on my skin even though it was hot and sticky in the club.
I felt a hand on my shoulder and looked up, surprised that Talbot had returned with our drinks so fast, but the shiver that had caused my goose bumps transformed into a full-on shudder when I saw who stood right next to me.
“So you’ve finally decided to see what it’s like to party with a real man,” he said, and tried to wrench me back onto the dance floor.
“Let go, Pete.” I yanked my hand out of his grasp. It folded into a tight fist on instinct. Power coursed through my veins. About five different aikido moves that could make him cry like a baby flashed through my mind. He’d deserve it, too, for getting Daniel in trouble with the police. “Get lost before you’re sorry.”
“I haven’t forgotten that you like it rough.” Pete gave me a smile that was even smarmier than his ugly goatee. I wanted to claw both of them right off his stupid face. My fingernails bit into the palm of my hand, I was trying so hard not to lash out at him. I could probably take his face off if I wanted to.
Then do it, a voice snarled in my mind. Teach him never to mess with you again. I shook my head. Sometimes, lately, my thoughts didn’t even sound like me. I backed away from Pete.
My powers tingled under my skin. My muscles tensed, ready to strike. I had to get away from Pete before I actually hurt him. Pete stormed after me. He snarled something, but I concentrated so hard on not lashing out at him that I don’t even know what it was. I turned and was about to run when I smacked into Talbot. He jumped back and one of the Cokes in his hands spilled down the front of his white flannel shirt.
“Whoa, what’s wrong, Grace?” He tried to wipe at the wet spot on his shirt without spilling his other drink.
I glanced back at Pete. He’d seen Talbot and had retreated a few feet, but the tension in my muscles didn’t release. I still wanted to hurt him. “I’m sorry, Talbot. I need to get out of here.” I headed toward the exit.
Talbot ditched the drinks on a table and came after me. “Don’t leave, please!” He grabbed my hand as I started up the stairs, and whipped me around toward him. His face creased with concern, but then his eyes narrowed with anger. “That guy who was following you, did he hurt you?”
“Not tonight,” I said. “But he has before. We kind of have a bad history.”
Talbot’s hand shook as he grasped my wrist. “I can go back there and talk to him. Make sure he never bothers you again.”
“No. Don’t. Pete isn’t the kind of guy who will listen.”
“Then we can make him listen. You know we can.”
“Please, don’t. Pete isn’t worth it. That’s why I need to leave.”
Talbot still shook with anger. I didn’t want him to go back and try to start anything with Pete. I slipped my free hand into his and gave it a light squeeze. “Walk me out, okay? I need to go home before it gets too late.”
“Stay,” he said in a low voice.
“I have a midterm test tomorrow, and you can probably stake out the Shadow Kings better without me. If Pete and his friends try to make a scene because I’m here, they might ruin any chance of us being able to follow the SKs. You can follow them tonight, and then maybe we can figure out what to do with whatever information you get tomorrow.”
Talbot sighed. “Fine.”
I let him hold my hand, his fingers intertwined with mine, until we got to my car. I pulled my hand out of his and folded my arms in front of my chest. He opened my door for me.
“We’re friends, right?” I asked.
“Yes. Of course.”
“Good.” I gave Talbot a small smile and climbed into the driver’s seat of the Corolla. I didn’t want to lose Talbot from my life—he’d already helped me so much, changed me—but I also didn’t want him thinking there was something between us that couldn’t exist. “I like it that way.”
LATER
I was worrying what to do about Talbot, and simultaneously hoping he wouldn’t get himself into trouble with the Shadow Kings, when the Corolla sputtered and almost died at the light at Markham and Vine. If I’d been paying attention at all to what I had been doing before now, I never would have come this way—especially this late. Markham was definitely the last place I wanted to be alone at any time of the night. I checked my door locks and prayed that I could get the car all the way home. Sure, I could run back to Rose Crest if I needed to, but how would I ever explain how the car got all the way out to the city without my parents knowing I’d snuck off when I was supposedly in bed?
I definitely needed to have Daniel look at the engine before I took the car on another late-night joyride.
Crap. Daniel.
He was supposed to call me tonight, and I’d left my phone in the car. I felt like a jerk for giving him such a hard time for standing me up—and now he probably thought I was avoiding his calls.
The light turned green, and I cautiously eased my sputtering car into the intersection. I turned right and got as far away from Markham Street as I could before I pulled my cell out of the cup holder between the two front seats. I checked the screen.
No messages.
No missed calls.
I dialed Daniel’s number. He picked up on the fifth ring.
“Hey, what’s up?” he said a little too casually. He sounded like me when I was trying too hard to seem normal.
I could hear faint music and a ticking sound—maybe that cat clock of Maryanne’s in his apartment?—in the background. I also heard what sounded like someone else speaking in a hushed tone.
“Where are you?” I asked.
“Home.”
“Is somebody there?”
“No. Just watching TV.” I heard him cough and then the sounds of the music, and the voice died away.
“You didn’t call. You promised you’d call, but you didn’t.” Never mind the fact that I wouldn’t have been there to answer—but still.
“I’m sorry,” he said. No explanation offered.
“So where were you this afternoon? I sat there waiting for you for almost an hour. I thought you wanted to help me with my application.”
“I do, Gracie. But something came up, okay?”
“What? What could possibly come up that you’d forget? You didn’t even call.”
Daniel sighed. He stayed silent for a moment. “Katie called me this morning. She was freaking out because her little brothers got into her room and trashed all the posters we’d made for the fund-raising booths. She came over so we could make all new ones, and it was so much work … I guess I just lost track of time.”
“Wait, you’re telling me that you stood me up because you were with Katie, alone, in your apartment, and you lost track of time? What the hell were you two really doing?”
Daniel swore under his breath. “It’s not like how it sounds. You know me better than that.”
“Do I?” I hated myself for getting so mad. I mean, if I told him what I’d been up to this evening, it would sound just as bad. But what I’d done was all in the name of finding Jude
. It had a higher purpose behind it—unlike Daniel, who had just blown me off to paint pictures with another girl. Something that used to be our thing. “You’ve been hanging out in bars, lying to me, running out on dinner, and standing me up. I feel like I barely even know you anymore.”
“Gracie, please …”
“I’m starting to think that your dodging me like this is your way of letting me know you’d rather forget about me and go to Trenton with Katie.”
“Don’t, Grace,” Daniel snapped.
“Don’t what?”
“Don’t ever think anyone or anything in this world could really make me forget about you.”
I sighed. “Then why are you avoiding me?” I remembered that text message that sent him running from dinner. He’d claimed it was from Mr. Day. But did Mr. Day even know how to text? “Is there something else going on? Just tell me, please.”
“I can’t.” He took in a deep breath. “I just need some time. I need you to be patient with me.”
“But—”
“I just need some more time. That’s all I’m asking for.”
He’d all but admitted there was something wrong, and he wanted me just to drop it? But wasn’t that what I wanted, too? Just a little more time before I told him about Talbot training me? It felt so different when he was the one keeping secrets.
“How much more time, Daniel? Because I don’t know how much longer I can wait.”
“I don’t know. I really don’t know.”
My heart ached. I could feel something pulling and straining between us—about to break. It had been only a week and a half since we’d lain together on a bed of grass, watching the stars fall around us, but it suddenly felt like a lifetime ago.
I wanted to be in that place again. Wanted nothing to come between us. Wanted to spill all my secrets so he’d tell me his.
But he doesn’t trust you.
“I’ll see you tomorrow,” I said before I hung up the phone.
CHAPTER NINETEEN
Final Exam
THE NEXT DAY
I barely slept at all after I got home from the club. I regretted leaving before the SKs got there, but at the same time I knew that I had needed to get away from Pete. And I wondered if I’d done the right thing by not just telling Daniel everything.
But I still couldn’t do it.
If Talbot had found and followed those SKs last night, then it meant we’d be closer than ever to finding Jude. And I couldn’t risk anyone interfering with that.
Daniel and I sat next to each other in AP art like usual. He passed me my pastels when I asked him to, and I nodded when he suggested I use a darker blue than the one I’d selected. But you’d think we were two strangers forced to share the same table, the way our eyes barely met when we talked.
I couldn’t help letting out a small growl when Katie came over to the table to ask Daniel if he still had one of her brushes. I hated the way she looked at him. I hated her shiny hair, her too-cool haircut, and her vintage-style headband with the funky ribbon flower just above her ear.
Daniel opened his bag and pulled out her brush. I wondered if he’d borrowed it while they were working together in his apartment yesterday. And did she just touch his fingers when he handed it her?
“You okay, Grace?” she asked.
I didn’t answer.
I welcomed the bell ringing to signify that it was time to move on to the next class, and I could barely wait for the last period of the day, when I could get away from this school and all these people and head out to the Good Samaritan project. I wanted to see Talbot. Talk to someone who understood me. But mostly I needed to know if he’d found those SKs last night.
I stopped at my locker on my way to the bus. I couldn’t find the stake Talbot had given me, and I wanted to look for it one more time. It wasn’t there. I slammed my locker door shut and was about to go when I saw Katie again. She carried a box of poster paints in her arms, headed toward the main hall.
She was probably on her way to make more posters with Daniel.
It seemed like good luck for her that her brothers had ruined most of the posters—she’d get more undivided time with my boyfriend. It was convenient, actually, and the timing all too suspicious. She’d been in the art room when Daniel and I had made plans for our picnic, and now I was supposed to believe her little crisis just happened to come at the exact same time?
She’s trying to steal him from you.
I clenched my fists as she walked by.
You should teach her a lesson.
My eyes narrowed as I watched her walk. It would take only one hit to send her slamming into the lockers. Paint would spill everywhere. But I could probably get out of there before anyone knew it had been me.
“Grace!”
I whirled at the sound of my name. April came bounding down the hall. I glanced back at Katie. It was too late now to do anything.
“Grace,” April said. “Holy crap, you will never believe who just texted me.”
I looked back at her.
She shook in that cocker-spaniel way of hers, but the look on her face told me it wasn’t out of excitement. It was enough to push all thoughts of Katie out of my mind.
“Who?”
She grabbed my arm and leaned in close. “Jude,” she whispered. “Or at least I think it was. The number’s blocked, but it has to be him.”
She held out her bright pink cell phone. She’d glued little white gems in the shape of the letter A on the back. My hand shook as I took it from her and read the text: Tell her to stay away. Time’s running out. She’s right where they want her.
“Is this it?” I asked. “Nothing else?” If he was going to bother to send messages, why the hell was he being so cryptic? It was almost like he wasn’t fully conscious or something.
“That’s all,” April said. “But it’s him, right?”
“Yes. I think so.” Who else would send this text?
“But what does it mean?”
“It means we’re on the right track.” I tossed April her phone, and we headed straight for the bus. If Jude was telling me to stay away, then it meant I was getting close. Had he seen me at the club last night? Did he know Talbot had tracked a couple of the Shadow Kings—assuming he had? I needed to get to Talbot, now.
The only problem was that just before the bus pulled away from the school, Gabriel climbed on board and announced that he was going to be our chaperone for the day. This was the first time since the project began that he’d actually come along with us. I’d wondered if he had an aversion to the city, but Daniel said it was because Gabriel wanted to work with the first group for the first week, and then with the second group for the last week. But why did he have to choose today of all days to come along? I needed to find a way to leave with Talbot without Gabriel sniffing him out.
Gabriel stood at the front of the bus and we drove toward the rec center in Apple Valley. He launched into some speech about today’s assignment that sounded more like a sermon. I pulled out my cell phone, switched it to silent, and texted Talbot.
Me: 911! Jude texted April!
Talbot responded immediately: ?! What did he say?
I repeated Jude’s text to him, then added: I think we’re on the right track. What did you find last night?
Talbot: I’ll show you when you get here. I have a surprise for you.
Me: Problem. Gabriel’s on the bus.
Talbot: Sh**
Me: Meet me on the other side of the building. I’ll slip away.
Talbot: Sounds good.
Me: So what’s my surprise?
Talbot: You’ll see …
And then, ten seconds later: Bring your stake.
I was still riffling through my backpack when the bus pulled into the Apple Valley rec center parking lot.
“Crap,” I said under my breath.
“What’re you looking for?” April asked.
“My stake,” I whispered, and glanced at Gabriel as he got off the bus. “I swea
r I left it in my bag on Friday. But I can’t find it anywhere.”
“Um …” April unzipped her bag and stuck her hand inside. “Okay, don’t get mad.” She pulled out my stake—or at least something that looked like my stake, only the hilt of it was now covered in bright blue crystals and diamond-like gems.
“You Bedazzled my stake?”
“Um … Surprise,” April said. “Just because you’re hunting nasty stuff doesn’t mean you can’t do it in style.”
LATER
We filed off the bus and down into the parking lot, where the idling vans waited for us—all of them except for Talbot’s. The class congregated around Gabriel, who was still going on about something, so it was relatively easy to whisper to Claire and April that I was going to go use the bathroom in the rec center, and then slip away from the crowd. I went inside the building, ducked past the receptionist, and headed out the exit on the other side. Talbot’s van waited for me under a large oak tree in the east parking lot. I looked back to make sure no one was watching, and then climbed inside.
Talbot met me with an approving smile. “Looks like my influence is finally rubbing off on you. You’re getting good at this sneaking-away thing.”
“All part of the job,” I said. “So what did you find? And where’s this big surprise?”
“I told you, you’ll see.” Talbot’s smile grew twice its usual size, and he pulled the van out onto the road. He headed in the opposite direction from the dojo, where we usually trained, and drove toward the city. I tried asking him questions about what had happened at the club after I left last night, but he just kept that goofy grin on his face and said, “You’ll see,” in a singsong voice. Which pretty much made me want to punch him in the arm—and made my heart pound with anticipation.
Talbot pulled the van up to an old apartment building near Tidwell Library. I could see the entrance to the alley where we’d saved that woman from the gun-toting Gelals.
“Soooo?” I asked, tapping my fingers on the dashboard.