by Jade Kerrion
Of course, sneakers did not work well with the wannabe street hooker look, but she scowled back at him. “My feet are about to fall off, Mario. Heels are terrible on asphalt.”
He seemed to consider it for a moment. “Okay, fine,” he said. “But don’t tell anybody else I said you could wear sneakers.”
She rolled her eyes. “They’re going to notice.”
“Maybe, but we don’t have to make a public announcement of it, right?” He pulled a set of twenty-dollar bills out of his pocket and counted off what he owed Dee and Dum for that day’s work. Most of it was Dum’s. Dee’s pay was minimal, largely supplemented by tips. “Now, off you go. The others will close up. Tell Dum he did a good job today.”
Dee followed his gaze. Leather-clad men and women in opposing gang colors walked down the street together, and they were not fighting. In fact, they were talking in a rather companionable way that did not appear likely to be a prelude to a fight. “Damn,” she murmured.
Mario nodded. He kept his voice low. “It’s been happening slowly for a few weeks now, but this is the first time it has been so obvious. Your brother is changing Anacostia. His music is defusing the hostility in the gangs. It’s hard to start a fight after you have just spent hours dancing the night away with your supposed enemy.”
“But it’s just music.”
“Music has its own power, and Dum amplifies it with his own brand of magic.” Mario grinned. “Quite remarkable. Music has given him his voice.”
Dee supposed it made sense. She glanced at Dum again. He was oblivious to the world, and his ever-present ear pods were back in his ears, but he was amazing. She pressed her lips together and blinked back the tears. If only her mother could have seen him now, she would have been so proud that he had finally found his way back after the horrible, scarring experience of their father’s death.
She walked over to him and tapped him on the back of his head to get his attention. He looked up at her, his expression quizzical.
“Time to go home.” She mouthed the words in an exaggerated way.
Dum nodded. He turned around, hesitated almost imperceptibly, and then placed a tiny peck on Jessica’s cheek.
Dee’s eyes narrowed. If she were not standing right next to them, would the chaste kiss have been more racy?
Jessica’s mental giggle confirmed it.
Dee rolled her eyes. Dum and Jessica. Would the wonders never cease?
The alpha mutant grinned brightly, waved, and with a skip to her step, turned in the direction of the Metro station. If any one thing spoke to how inured Dee had become to the oddity of being surrounded by mutants, it was that she was no longer concerned about Jessica traveling on her own.
For that matter, Dee was no longer concerned about her own travels through Anacostia, though it had less to do with possessing power and more to do with her increasing familiarity with the neighborhood. The graffiti-covered buildings became less ominous after she got to know the families living in them. Most families were allied with a gang, but primarily for self-preservation rather than a general desire to create mayhem.
Of course, Dum’s growing fame helped. Some gangs were downright protective of him, or rather of their right to keep listening to him spin happiness through music. The gang members who trailed behind Dee and Dum until they reached their apartment were not fans, but a rotating team of self-appointed bodyguards. Dee nodded an acknowledgement to them before stepping into the building. Dum probably had not even noticed them.
There was no sliver of light under the door of Danyael’s apartment. At four in the morning, the alpha empath was probably asleep. Dee saw him rarely these days, though Dum still trained daily with Danyael. Yawning hugely, Dee unlocked the door of their apartment. Dum pushed in behind her and headed straight for the couch. He sprawled down on it and dragged the comforter over his head. His ear pods were still in his ears.
Darn it, Dum had secured the choice sleeping location yet again. Resigned to the uncomfortable futon, Dee headed into the bedroom. Five minutes later, she too was sprawled in her bed, but instead of sleeping, she pulled out her tip jar and set money aside for the next month’s rent, utilities, and food. There was enough left over to begin paying down Danyael’s loan. Danyael had not specified repayment terms, other than to say he did not need interest. Just because he made it easy for her did not mean that she intended to take advantage of his generosity.
Repaying Danyael’s loan left her with nothing for her college fund. With a sigh, she flipped through the glossy college catalogs stacked by her bed. Dum had his music, and he appeared happy enough. She wanted more, but what she wanted was tens of thousands of dollars out of reach.
Three days later, she met up with Edward after her lunch shift at the diner. He was waiting on a bench just inside the entrance of Fort Stanton Park, a rare burst of nature on the hills overlooking Anacostia’s urban decay. He stood as she approached and greeted her with a tight hug and a warm grin. “Glad you could make it.”
“I wouldn’t have missed it.” She tugged her cardigan tighter around her shoulders to ward off the cool wind.
“How much time do you have?”
“Well, I have to get to the club by nine thirty—”
“That gives us lots of time. I can’t believe you’ve never been up here.”
Dee shrugged and adjusted her small backpack on her shoulders. “Dum and I haven’t had much time to look around since moving here. I’m not putting in much more than eight hours of work a day, but the hours are all crazy, and I’m usually asleep during the day.”
Edward chuckled. “In that case, I appreciate you giving up your beauty sleep to hang out with me.” He set the direction and pace, though Dee noted that he checked his stride to match hers. “There’s a recreation center and several ball fields that way, and over here, you’ve got the remains of Fort Stanton and Fort Ricketts.” Paved paths gave way to a heavily wooded area. With the agility of a mountain goat, Edward clambered over the stones and then turned to give Dee a hand.
Dee did not particularly need the assistance, but since it gave her a chance to hold his hand, she accepted anyway. “Do you hang out here a lot?”
“These days I do. There isn’t much else to do since I dropped out of college.”
“You dropped out? Why?”
He shrugged. “I don’t qualify as a dependent, and Mom and Dad’s social security benefits ended when Mom died. Mom had life insurance, but the insurance companies are trying to find reasons not to pay out since she died in a terrorist attack. The companies want to classify Sakti’s attack as an act of war, which is one of the exclusions in the insurance policy. Until there’s some kind of payout, there’s no money for college.”
“But can’t you find a job, get a loan, or something like that?”
“I’m an in vitro, Dee. How many scholarships do you think there are for in vitros?”
She sighed. “Not too many.”
“No, and there are none for mutants. Many in vitros don’t need them because they’re born to wealth; after all, their parents could afford to pay for genetic optimization, but then there are exceptions, and we don’t get much of a break.”
“But what about a job?”
“Have you tried looking for a job recently?”
She arched an eyebrow. “Yes, and found two.”
“Waiting tables?” Edward’s tone was lightly spiced with scorn. “I’m not going to settle for waiting tables.”
“You do what you have to. Bills have to get paid.”
“I can keep living in my aunt’s house for now. The execution of her will is tied up in court; it’s a messy affair over who gets to keep the house. I rented out one of the rooms, and the money pays for utilities and food. There’s nothing left over after that.”
The fine edge of her temper snapped. “So haul ass and find a job.”
His eyes widened. “Are you preaching at me, Tweedle-Dee?”
“I told you not to call me that. You’re living o
ff rental money that doesn’t actually belong to you and sulking because you can’t afford to pay for college without your parents’ social security benefits—”
“Have you forgotten? I’m the victim here. I lost both my parents.”
“Yeah, well, I’m sorry and welcome to the club.”
He looked chastened. “I’m sorry. I forgot that you and Dum lost your parents too.”
“It was a long time ago, but you get over it and keep moving, you know.”
“Moving on shouldn’t have to include settling for less than what you know you deserve.” Edward raised his face to the breeze. He was handsome in a clean-cut way, his features strong though they lacked the precision of Danyael’s sculptured good looks. Edward shook his head. “We shouldn’t have to, Dee. No one should have to settle for less when all those resources exist out there for humans. In vitros are human, too, and we have as much right to the resources that society sets aside for those who need the extra boost.”
Dee shrugged. “There aren’t many resources out there, not anymore. I can’t find scholarship money either, not as a human, and…I guess it doesn’t matter. I’ve already missed all the application deadlines, and the school year started two months ago. Next year, maybe.”
“You want to go to college too.”
“Yeah. I’m not planning to wait tables forever. Dum and I just need to get our feet under us. We will repay Danyael’s loan in three months, and then I can start saving for college.”
“That’s great.” Edward grinned at her. His smile was charming as he tugged her to sit beside him on a pile of rocks. “What colleges are you thinking of?”
“Crazy expensive ones in the northeast. I was pretty good at school, when I attended, at least.”
“Back at Elysium, you were always the one asking the teacher questions that she didn’t have answers for.”
Dee wrinkled her nose. “Yes, that’s the way not to be the teacher’s pet. Ms. Jensen was never fond of me.”
“She liked me though,” Edward bragged.
“She wasn’t fond of Dum, either.”
“Dum was never particularly good at connecting with people. He’s always lost in his own world. Does he still wear headphones to bed?”
Dee bit down her instinctive defense of her brother. Edward was right. It was true; Dum had never been good at connecting with people, but the key word was “was.” In a month, Dum had changed. He was even flirting—heck, Dum had moved well beyond flirtation. He had kissed a pretty alpha mutant who was way out of his league. “Yes, he still wears headphones to bed. At least he’s got a good reason now as a deejay—”
Edward sat upright. “Dum’s working as a deejay?” He laughed. “Wow, it must be a dump of a club. Was the manager that desperate?”
Dee’s brow furrowed. “Dum is a hell of a deejay. He expresses himself through music—”
“Of course he would. He doesn’t speak.”
Dee shot to her feet. “You are a snide and condescending ass.” She turned and stalked away.
She heard the thudding of his feet racing after her, but she did not stop as she scrambled over rocks rounded smooth from years of passage. Dee slipped only once, slamming her knee into the ground. Her faded denim jeans ripped from scoring against the gravel, but she kept going even when she felt blood trickle down her knee.
He caught her hand. “Dee, wait.”
Like hell. She shook off his hand and then spun on him when he continued to chase her down. He held out his hand to her in an apparently reconciliatory gesture, but his smile was still smug and condescending. Asshole. “You are a jerk.”
His shoulders raised in a shrug. “I call it as I see it.”
“But you’re not seeing it.”
“What am I not seeing?”
“You haven’t seen anything. You haven’t seen Dum at his job. You haven’t seen what he can do. All you’re doing is talking like your words actually mean something. They don’t.” Except that they had meant something. They had ripped a hole in her.
She turned away before he could see the tears in her eyes. He called for her to stop, but she ignored him and ran from Fort Stanton Park, jumping on a bus that was just pulling away from the bus stop outside the park. She shoved a handful of coins into the fare machine and then slumped into the first empty seat.
The lump in her throat made it hard to swallow, and the tears in her eyes clouded her vision. Damn him. I can’t let him affect me like this. He’s just a stupid boy. A stupid boy with dreamy blue eyes and a wicked smile. Her juvenile crush on him had never been acknowledged or reciprocated until recently. He had held her hand, he had asked her out, and then he had ruined it all with his snide comments about her job and her brother.
Dee glanced up and saw the free clinic at the junction of the next street. She leaped to her feet. “Wait, here’s my stop.” Ignoring the bus driver’s muttered curses, she scurried down from the bus and walked into the clinic. It was filled, as it almost always was, with patients slumped in uncomfortable chairs, idly flipping through old magazines. The receptionist scowled at her from behind the desk; Dee could not recall when she had ever seen a smile on that woman’s face.
The door of Danyael’s office opened, and an elderly gentleman stepped out. A street bum, no doubt. His clothes were grubby and he smelled like he needed a bath rather desperately, but there was a wide smile on his face, and he politely tipped his baseball cap at the frowning receptionist as he walked out of the clinic. A street bum with manners.
Danyael stepped out of his office and was about to wave his next patient in when he caught a glimpse of Dee. “I’ll need five minutes,” he announced, and then signaled to her instead.
Dee poked a finger at her chest. “Me?”
He nodded.
Shrugging off the irritated glances of the other patients, Dee went into Danyael’s office and sank into a chair, feeling like a truant student called into the principal’s office.
He shut the door behind her. “Do you need help cleaning that scrape?”
Dee stared down at her left knee. Her injury was such a small thing. “Are you going to heal it?”
Danyael chuckled and offered her a rare smile. “Yes, with water, antibiotic ointment, and a gauze bandage. You don’t need much more than that.” He brought a stool over for her to prop up her leg and then pulled his own chair over so that he could sit while cleaning her wound. She winced only once when the antibiotic ointment slathered over her raw flesh. Danyael covered the injury with a piece of gauze and then taped it down. “You’re all set.”
She did not move from the chair. “Is Dum an alpha empath?”
“It would depend on who you ask.”
She rolled her eyes. Danyael had evasive answers down to an art form. “I’m asking you.”
“There isn’t a precise point at which a non-alpha becomes an alpha mutant. Much of it depends on the context. I don’t think Dum is an alpha empath, but with additional training, he could be a great deal more powerful.”
“He already is. You should see what he’s doing at Legends each night.”
“I do. I’m at the club every night.”
Her jaw dropped. “You are?”
“For over a month now, since the night the fight broke out.”
“But I haven’t seen you in there.”
Danyael shrugged. “I don’t go in. Nightclubs aren’t in my budget, but each night, after Dum and I are done with training, I accompany him there, and I sit outside the club, listening for an hour or so. I was at the first outdoor club event too, yesterday. Quite a turnout.”
“I didn’t know that,” she murmured. Why was she surrounded by people who would not talk to her? Dum had not told her, naturally, and neither had Jessica, though the alpha telepath must have known of Danyael’s presence at the club.
Danyael smiled. “I appreciate good music, and Dum spins a great set of tunes.”
The compliment charmed a smile out of her. “Yes, he does. You do know that Mario wo
uld let you into the club for free any day of the week, right?”
Danyael looked startled, and then he laughed. “I didn’t think to ask.”
Dee rolled her eyes; it was typical of Danyael. She hesitated only briefly before plunging headfirst into the complex world of mutant powers. “Is Dum attack- or defense-class?”
“He’s attack-class. His empathic power travels through physical barriers.”
Dee nodded slowly. “That’s why you’re coming to the club. You’re keeping an eye on him.”
“He’s my student, which makes him my responsibility. Jessica’s very powerful, but short of knocking him out, she doesn’t have the ability to redirect him if he screws up. Dum’s doing just fine, though. He’s playing it safe and sticking to what he knows best: music. I haven’t had to intervene at all.”
Dee inhaled and then released her breath in a sigh. “I’m glad you’re there. Thank you.”
Danyael acknowledged her gratitude with a faint smile. Awkwardly, he pushed to his feet and reached for his crutch. Dee knew a hint when she saw it. It was time for her to go.
“I want to go to college,” she burst out.
Danyael’s smile brightened, and his dark eyes seemed to gleam with pleasure. “That’s wonderful, Dee.”
“You don’t think it’s crazy?”
“No, of course not.”
“I still have to figure out how to pay for it.”
“If you need—”
She shook her head. “No more loans, Danyael. If nightclubs aren’t in your budget, college tuition isn’t either.”
He chuckled. “I was going to offer to co-sign a loan, though I’m not sure I’m any more credit-worthy than you are.”
Dee sighed. “I’ve looked and can’t seem to find any foundations that would offer scholarships to people like me, never mind Dum.”
“Why don’t you start one?” Danyael asked.
Start a foundation? “Uh…” There were so many reasons why not to, not the least of which was that she had no idea where to start. “How would I raise money for the foundation?”
Danyael shrugged. “It was just an idea. If you can’t find what you want, you might have to make it yourself.”