Darker Days

Chapter Fifteen

“Where were you this morning?” Garrett came up behind me as the lunch bell rang. “I was late waiting for you.” He stared at the stain on my shirt. “What happened?”

I slammed the door of my locker. “I told you I probably wasn’t going to make it. And why would you wait for me?”

Glaring at Lukas, he said, “I see you still have your shadow.”

Shadow? Since when did Garrett give a damn who I hung with?

He shrugged and stuffed both hands into his pockets. “Whatever. Can we get a few minutes of stalker-free time? I need to talk to you.”

“Right now?”

“Yes. Right now.”

Five minutes wouldn’t hurt, right? What could possibly happen in five teeny tiny minutes? I turned to Lukas. “You remember where we sat yesterday?”

He nodded once, but never took his eyes from Garrett. Garrett, in turn, glared at him.

“Mind giving us a sec? I’ll meet you in there.”

The second bell rang as Lukas reluctantly headed for the cafeteria. I waited for him to disappear around the corner before turning to Garrett and asking, “Okay, what’s the emerg—”

Without warning, he zoomed in and pressed his lips against mine. I did my best not to gag at the taste of Newports and orange soda, and pushed him away immediately.

“—ency…” I finished, blinking. “What the hell was that?”

A sly smile—the Garrett Girl Charmer, it had been famously dubbed around school. “A kiss.”

“Obviously, but why did it land on my lips?”

“That’s what I need to talk to you about. Us.”

This was not happening. “What are you talking about? We’re not even friends!”

“I think we’d be good together.” He leaned in again, breath tickling my cheek. “I want you to be with me.”

Back pressed against the locker, I sucked in a quick breath. I could face down an entire nest of rampaging harpies, but the idea of brushing off the sudden amorous advances of a sort of friend made me almost pee my pants. Where was the balance in that?

“Aren’t you, like, dating Holly Gillman?”

“I quit her this morning,” he said, voice dark and sweet. He grabbed my hand, thumb stroking circles just below my wrist. His palms were clammy and calloused and scratched my skin in a way that gave me sick chills. “I’ve heard the talk. I know you don’t date—”

“You’ve heard the talk? What talk?”

“The guys—they talk. I told them they were wrong, that you weren’t an icy bitch—”

“Icy bitch?” I didn’t know what pissed me off more. The fact that, apparently, my lack of interest in climbing into the back seat of Harry High Schooler’s Chevy to let him shove his tongue down my throat classified me as icy, or that they’d taken the time to discuss it at length.

“It’s okay. I set them all straight. I told them we’d hooked up.”

Oh. This kept getting better and better. Now I wasn’t just an icy bitch—I was an icy whore.

“I’ve always thought you were a hottie—I just didn’t realize until yesterday how much I wanted us to hook up.” He brushed a strand of hair from my face and tucked it behind my ear. “I know you’re rockin’ the big ‘V.’ It’s cool. I wanna be your first.”

I was usually pretty level headed. A smidge impulsive, but calm in a crisis. At that moment, though, coherent thought ditched. Garrett’s fingers brushing my skin in a so not platonic way turned the bagel I’d scarfed during English to lead in my stomach. I wondered how turned on he was going to be when I yakked all over the front of his shirt.

A bubbling knot of panic formed and the words flew from my mouth before I could stop them. “Sorry. You’re not my type.”

Eyes on mine, his lip twitched and he shook his head. Several seconds of silence passed before he snapped. “I don’t believe this shit!” Letting go of my hand, he began stalking back and forth like a rabid animal.

All I could do was stare because the whole scene was surreal. “Where is this coming from anyway? Since when are you crushing on me? I mean why…” He hadn’t realized until yesterday how much he’d wanted us to hook up… Duh!

Vida. She’d touched Garrett yesterday at lunch. Hit him with her nookie ray or something.

“Wait! I get it now. This is a misunderstanding. You don’t really—”

“Don’t tell me how I feel!” He stopped and whirled on me. Striking out, he slammed the wall next to my head, fist passing so close, it sent my hair fluttering.

To our right, a dangerous growl filled the air and the stench of sulfur drifted down the hall.

Seriously? Today was approaching cataclysm, and I hadn’t even had lunch yet.

Garrett spun around. “What the hell is that?”

“Where is it?” I pushed him away. Mom would kill me if the damn demon doggie I let get away from me started munching on students.

“What is it?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you.” I slipped to the left, putting some distance between us. God only knew what Mr. Happy Hands would try to grab next. I had no interest in finding out.

Soft plinks filled the air—nails tapping against the tile floor if I had to guess—stopping a few feet away. The growling came again, followed by a foul-smelling breeze. Wonderful. Apparently, in addition to Garrett, I had a demon dog stalker.

Garrett jumped back, flattening himself against the lockers as the blood drained from his face. I held my breath, wishing I hadn’t left my bag—with all my supplies—in the locker. If the thing materialized, I could grab it, but otherwise, I was flying blind. When Garrett didn’t move, the growling faded, along with the smell.

I scanned the hall one last time before accepting the inevitable. He was gone. Hopefully for good this time. “I’m going to lunch.”

“Wait.” Garrett reached for me, but I dodged him.

“No way. We’re not having this conversation right now. Or ever. Trust me—you’ll thank me for this later.”

“I think I love you!”

“No you don’t,” I called over my shoulder, hurrying away from him. Ten steps, give or take. That’s what it took for me to walk from Garrett to the cafeteria. When I rounded the corner, I couldn’t believe my eyes.

Pandemonium.

I stepped across the threshold and ducked just in time to avoid a rogue carton of chocolate milk. It smashed into the wall behind me and exploded, sending liquid chocolate missiles in every direction before falling at my feet.

“You slept with him, didn’t you, you whore!” Simone Mills screamed as she launched herself across the table at Kelly Kline—her best friend. The two collapsed to a chorus of enraged screams as the rest of their table ignored them. Simone, being the larger of the two, wound her hand around a chunk of Kelly’s long brown hair and yanked hard. The smaller girl let out a scream loud enough to wake the dead as a portion of the hair pulled free. I reached the girls, pulling them apart just as Simone geared up for another go.

Just beyond them, Jack Harding and Mark Gotten exchanged blows as the crowd around them cheered. Mark was clearly winning, having grounded Jack. There was blood trickling from under his nose, and his lip was already starting to swell. To their right, the new math teacher Mr. Hipsey watched the fight with hungry eyes. It was like he was doing all he could not to dive in and join the beat down.

“Jessie!”

It surprised me to see Kendra in the corner next to our normal table. As I walked in, she pointed to the floor underneath it where, tucked in a ball, Lukas was huddled and looking like a raw nerve about to explode.

I raced across the room, dodging flying objects as I went, and skidded to a stop in front of her. “Kendra?”

“I think there’s something wrong with your cousin!” She leaned a little closer, arms folded. “The Seven Deadly Sins, Jessie? Really? You kind of left that part out!”

Cassidy must have told her. I felt guilty, but now wasn’t the time for apologies. “What happened?”

She jumped back as two of the guys from chorus—I couldn’t remember their names—rolled across the floor kicking each other and screaming. “He started shaking, mumbled something about leaving, and poof. Everyone went apeshit. He crawled under there and hasn’t moved.”

“Craps.” I dropped to my knees and grabbed his hands. When he lifted his head, his eyes were blood red. “Lukas, listen to me. You need to calm down.”

Kendra knelt beside me. “Which one is he?”

I gestured to the chaos. “Isn’t it obvious? He’s Wrath—sorta.”

Her eyes grew wide. “Sorta? Do I even want to know what that means?”

“Probably not.”

“And yesterday. The chick that came over to the table. I bet my family’s spell book that was Lust. Am I right?”

I rolled my eyes. Kendra was smart and always there when you needed her, but holy crap was she easily distracted. “I promise I’ll fill you in—for real—later on. Right now, we kinda have a small issue to deal with…”

She blinked, then frowned. “Oh. Right—sorry. What can I do to help?”

Some kind of spell to put everyone to sleep so they couldn’t do each other any more damage would be awesome, but since Kendra didn’t have reliable control over her magic, I didn’t dare voice the suggestion. With our luck, she’d turn everyone into toads, and let’s face it. That would have been much harder to explain than this.

“It’s the crowd. They’re way too amped. We need to get him out of here.” I turned to Lukas. “Lukas? Lukas can you hear me?” He was staring right at me, but the glazed look in his eyes said he didn’t see me.

Behind us, a chair crashed against the wall, and Kendra let out a toe-curling scream.

I turned to her. “Go into the hall and hit the fire alarm—then get as far away from the school as possible.”

She shook her head, strands of blond whipping back and forth. “Leave you alone? No way.”

“I got this. I promise.”

She didn’t budge.

“I’ll be fine,” I pressed.

Reluctantly, she stood and made a beeline for the door. A few moments later, the fire alarm went off. The noise got most people’s attention, and they swarmed the door, making their way in chaos mode to the nearest exits.

I focused on Lukas. Sliding my arm under his, I hauled him to his feet. His skin was hot to the touch—not the comfortable warm it’d been last night when our hands had touched—no, this was scalding. Almost on fire. We started for the door but only made it several steps before he collapsed, dragging us both to the ground.

“Lukas, please!” I tried in vain to get him standing again. Without his help, it was pointless. He was too heavy. Times like these were when a little of Dad’s demon genetics would’ve come in handy.

“Jessie.” His voice came in a strangled growl. “Have to get out—” He grabbed my arm and used it to pull himself upright.

Some stumbling and a few pulled muscles later, we made it into the hallway.

“Farther,” Lukas gasped. His fingers were digging trenches into my arm. “Outside.”

Outside was a no go. That’s where everyone would be gathered because of the fire alarm. From bad to worse. But the gym was right down the hall and, more than likely, empty. “I’ve got a better idea.”

By the time we’d made it down the hall and to the gym, Lukas was shaking and pale. Damp hair clung to his forehead and the back of his neck as he struggled to stay on his feet.

“It’s okay. We’re out.” I steered him toward the bleachers. He stumbled several times, and I thought for sure we’d both topple to the ground again, but we made it without wiping.

His breath came in shallow pants, fingers clamped like a vice around the edge of the bench. After a few minutes, his breathing evened. “Are you okay?”

“Other than wanting to hurt your friend—I’m great.”

“My friend? You mean Kendra?”

The corner of his lip curled up and he shook his head, angry. “The boy in the hall. That whole disaster was his fault. Whatever you were arguing about sent me over the edge. I felt it. There was no way to pull it back in time.”

I sighed. “Maybe school is a bad idea.”

“I need to stay away from everyone.” He rubbed a shaking hand across his cheek. “The pull of the box is intensifying. It’s making it difficult to keep Wrath under control. Someone’s going to get injured—or worse.”

I was about to tell him modern high school was a dangerous place regardless of his presence, but the speakers above the door squealed to life.

“Can I have everyone’s attention,” Principal Dubois’s voice crackled with static across the PA system. “Due to the fact that I no longer feel like being here, school is dismissed for the day.” In a sing-song voice, he ended with, “You don’t have to go home, but you can’t stay here.”

Even from inside and down the hall, we heard the hoots and screams of appreciation from the student body on the front steps. Idiots. They didn’t think this abnormal? Since when had Dubois ever let us leave early?

He nodded and looked to the door. “It’s one of them.”

I bit my tongue against an instinctive Duh. “I figured.” The look of agony on Lukas’ face back in the cafeteria was the only thing keeping me from jumping up and charging out to find them. You’re losing your touch, a little voice inside my head chided. Letting him slip under your skin.

“It’s okay,” he said, watching me like my skull was made entirely of glass and he could see right through. The twisted wheels turning—itching to charge. “Mostly everyone’s cleared out. It should be safe to have a look around.”

Part of me screamed victory, while another hesitated, terrified to repeat the incident in The Pit. “You sure?”

He watched me in that way of his. Searching, yet somehow distant. Annoying, yet at the same time intriguing. “Positive.”

The halls were so empty that I heard each tap my sneakers made as they hit the floor. Every now and then, my foot would turn the wrong way and the rubber would make an annoying squeak. Stealth had never been a strong suit for me.

We passed the cafeteria and hooked a right to head through the English wing. At the end of the hall, two girls were playing tug-o-war over a green football jersey.

“Give it to me. I want it!” The taller one screeched. It was Gabriele Murphy, the editor of the school paper.

“It goes better with my eyes!” the other wailed. I didn’t know her name, but we shared the same gym class. At the beginning of the year, she’d spiked a volleyball at Kendra’s head because Jeff Brennan, her summer fling, had been talking to her in the hall before class.

I stormed up to them and yanked the shirt away. They’d already started to tear it, so the rest was easy. With a loud rip, the jersey separated down the middle. I handed one half to Gabriele and the rest to the other girl. “Here you go. Enjoy!” I turned back to Lukas. “Greed again?”

He shook his head, distracted. “Envy.” With a few steps toward the science lab, he cupped his hands to either side of his face and peered through the window. “Vida.”

I elbowed him to the side and stood on my tiptoes. Principal Dubois was locked at the lips of Mrs. Hastings—the guidance counselor. Good thing I hadn’t eaten lunch. I seriously would’ve lost it.

We left them to their gropefest and continued down the hall, peering into classrooms as we went. Everything was empty. Like the mall on the first day of school. I was about to suggest we call it, convinced the Sins had scattered already, when we came to the teacher’s lounge.

Pushing though the door, I froze, trying to digest the scene before me. Mrs. Manning had her feet kicked up onto the table, shoes off and stare vacant. Around her head, a fly circled, landing finally on her cheek. I waited for her to shoo the bug away, but she ignored it.

Across the room, Mr. Marks sat in front of a small TV screen, expression eerily blank. There was nothing but static on the screen, yet he still seemed enthralled. Every few seconds his eyebrow would twitch along with his right cheek. On the floor by his feet was an overturned cup of coffee leaking out across the floor.

As I watched, James Farley, one of the school’s janitors, shuffled past. He slipped in the cream-colored liquid, losing his balance and landing hard on the floor. When Farley finally pulled himself into a sitting position, two of the fingers on his left hand were twisted at an odd angle. Broken. Instead of cursing the pain, he simply sat there staring ahead as the cuff of his pants soaked up the coffee.

“They’re just… It’s like they’re dead. Breathing, but dead.”

“Sloth,” Lukas said in a low voice. “He would have them sit here and waste away—starve to death slowly—and feed from the resulting energy.”

The looting at Flankman’s had been bad. Chaos and fighting. People had gotten hurt… But it was somehow more unsettling to see those people just sitting there. Blank and expressionless. It was like they were alive, but trapped. Trapped—like Lukas. “No, he won’t. We won’t let it get that far. The Sins are going down.”

I scanned the room and, in the far corner, saw a man I didn’t recognize. He leaned against the wall, watching with pale blue eyes and a bored expression. Bored—yet more alive than the others.

I stalked toward him. “Leave them alone.”

He barely glanced my way before yawning and casually waving me off. “Go away.”

“Sloth, right?”

“Tony,” the guy responded. He spoke with a thick city accent and nodded his head a lot. Turning to Lukas, he said, “That’s this body’s name, anyway. I like it. Wrath?”

“Lukas,” he said in an icy tone. “My name is Lukas.”

“You’re the human, aint’t ya? Tough break gettin’ stuck in the box, kid.” He almost sounded sympathetic. “Vida’s lookin’ for ya.”

Turning back to me, Tony said, “Lookin’ for you, too. Not fans of ya family.”

“The feeling’s mutual.”

“What’s a little laziness, eh?” Tony grinned. “And ya should be thankin’ me. I got yas out of school.”

“I’ll be sure to add you to my Christmas card list. Where are the others?”

“Listen up, girly. The thing ya gotta worry about is Vida and her new friend. The rest of us just wanna be left alone. I ain’t hurtin’ no one in here.”

That got my attention. “New friend? What new friend?”

“Sometimes we don’t get what we want.” Lukas’ fist shot out, lightning fast, and caught Tony across the lower jaw. There was an instant of shock before the man’s head rocked back and his eyes rolled up. He crumpled to the ground like a sack of quartz powder, expensive looking suit jacket bunching at the waist.

“Effective, but badly timed. Now we don’t know what he was talking about.” I poked him with the toe of my sneaker. Twice. Just to be sure. If it were me, I’d play possum if outnumbered and wait for an opportunity to strike. “And getting him back to the office is going to be a little tricky now. Ya know, with him out like a light and all… Unless you’re rocking the super strength thing.”

Lukas frowned. “He wasn’t going to come quietly.”

He had a point. I scanned the room and saw a roll of duct tape on the edge of one of the desks. Grinning, I grabbed it and waved it back and forth.

“What’s that?”

I bent over Tony and went to work. “This is the coolest invention of the twentieth century.” Once Tony was secured, I handed Lukas the roll.

He peeled the edge back, letting it dangle from the tip of his finger in awe. “This is amazing.”

I took the tape from him and gave it another wave. “Awesome,” I corrected.

“What?”

“This is awesome. Use the language of the land, gramps. Jeez. Didn’t you have slang back in the stone ages?”

“Awesome,” he said, as if trying the word on for size. “And that means amazing?”

“Yep.”

He nodded and wiggled his finger. “We had slang in 1882. Do people still use ragamuffin?”

I choked back a giggle. “Um, no. No they don’t. Ragamuffin? Seriously? That’s such a lame word!”

He stared at me for a moment before shaking his head. “Sometimes, I want to beg you to put me back in the box.”

“Aren’t we the High Drama Dude?” I toed Tony again and put the roll of tape back on the desk.

“Is it strong enough to hold him?”

“It’s strong enough. Trust me. The captain of the football team used this stuff to hang our rival school’s mascot from the sign in the quad. I’m not known for my school spirit, but it was pretty damn funny to see a dude in a purple chicken suit suspended mid-air.”

“You’re not like anyone I’ve ever met.”

“I’m full of surprises.”

His grin widened, and the butterflies came rushing back. “You really are.”