Chapter 9 Whitney
Whitney
I fired an entire clip into this guy right after we met, and the bullets did absolutely nothing, even though I was nearly at point blank range.
I’m assuming that I can’t kill him.
At least, not in any way my mortal brain might think up.
Which means my only hope is to reach out to Izzy and Leonid. Maybe they’ll have an idea or at least stronger firepower. Plus, I’m pretty sure my whole family’s freaking out thanks to whatever they saw on the news coupled with my ongoing silence.
They probably think I’m dead.
I had to stay “silent” at the time, because his death magic or some other facet of his powers melted cell phones, knocked out satellites, and generally destroyed anything technological in the vicinity.
But now that he’s playing nice for a bit, I’ve noticed that people are able to make calls, check their email, and carry on as usual.
Which means I need to distract Mr. Always Present and somehow get to a phone.
But once I do, who do I call, and what do I tell them?
Certainly, I’ll let them know I’m alive.
I’ll tell them I’ve been taken by Xolotl in some kind of bond-induced slavery.
I consider calling Izzy or Leonid, but I imagine when push comes to shove, I’ll call my mother.
She’s been the one I call for, well, my entire life.
But exactly what to tell her, I have no idea.
I’m not even entirely sure what I think myself anymore. Not that it matters right now. I’m not even close to being able to sneak away and make a phone call. I’m in the midst of a new criminal activity.
Xolotl’s staring at an ATM. “You’re saying that inside this little box, there’s enough special paper to get us a car?”
I shrug. “I’m really not sure, and I have no idea whether someone will even sell you a car if you don’t have a license or car insurance.”
He clenches his fist, and I notice the sidewalk’s starting to buckle. “Or I could simply threaten that if they don’t give me the car I want, I’ll end their life.”
The man walking past turns his head and glares, but once he gets a better look at Xolotl, he ducks and walks faster.
I’m not sure I’d want to mess with him either.
He is close to seven feet of pure muscle, and he emanates power in the same way some people, like my mother, seem to emanate calm.
Or others, like my brother Nathan, seem to spread mischief.
The all-black isn’t making him seem accessible either.
“Lower your voice,” I hiss. “People can hear you.”
“I don’t care who hears me or what they hear.” He clenches his teeth, and his jaw contracts.
I hate that he looks hotter when he’s furious.
“It appears that there’s no way to do this your way.
” His lip curls. “How about we try it mine?” He turns toward the front of the bank, clearly honing in on the people.
“You said there’s lots of money inside there, and the only thing stopping us from taking it are the people working at the. . .bank? Is that what it’s called?”
I grab his wrist, tugging him away from a terrible idea. “No, look.”
But he spins then, his entire body stepping into my space, his chest right in front of my head, the heat from him rolling over me like a furnace set to blistering, and I’m aware in a way I never was before of quite how enormous he is. He practically has his own gravitational pull.
Wait. Does he?
“What?” He’s staring down at me expectantly.
What did I tell him? I blink up at him like an idiot, and I’m extremely aware that I’m only still holding his wrist by the grace of his not having yanked it away.
My fingers don’t even meet around the width of his bone and muscle.
“Um, let’s see what’s in the ATM first.” That’s what I was going to say.
I force a smile, and I release his hand.
He tosses his head. “Great. You do it.”
My mouth dangles. “Me?”
“You said you can crack it open, and there’s what passes as currency inside.”
I shake my head. “No, I can’t crack it open. I thought maybe you could use your walking-on-water powers to do it.”
He grabs my shoulders and spins me around, pointing over my shoulder.
My heart hammers so loudly that I swear I can hear it in my ears. Why’s he still touching me?
“If I can do it,” he whispers, “then you can do it too.”
Is that true? Can I do everything he can do?
“Not everything,” he whispers. “And usually I can’t make out your thoughts this clearly either. It’s irritating, since I can read most everyone else’s. I’m not quite sure how you’re able to block me when you’re awake. The bond should make that even harder for you.”
I turn my head then, peering at him, our faces so close with him hunched over my shoulder that our mouths nearly touch. “You can read my mind when I’m sleeping?”
Color floods his cheeks, and he straightens. “Just try and get the money out.” He points at it with his mouth. “Now, or I’ll get us what you say we need in another way you might not like as well.”
I want to groan. Every single thing I suggest, he counters with some new way for me to try and use my powers as his champion, and I guess it would be really cool, except I know he wants me to learn them so I can help him massacre people.
Only. . .for the first time, I realize that maybe I could use them against him.
I’m not sure whether I can, but I can’t know until I’ve mastered their use.
So I focus on the stupid ATM, and I know that nothing will happen, but then, instead. . .bizarrely, I can feel it. I can feel. . .its guts. “This is so weird,” I say. “It’s metal. There’s so much metal inside it.”
“Steel.” Xolotl’s still leaning over me, almost touching my face.
I take a step away, reaching toward the ATM.
“Are you guys going to get cash, or what?” The woman behind us has a card out in her hand, and she’s glaring. She’s really pretty, with perfect raven hair and striking green eyes. She looks like men don’t tell her no very often, and when we turn toward her, she smiles.
Right at the death god.
Xolotl glances toward me, and then he turns back toward her to glare. “Go away, unwanted female.”
Her eyes bulge.
“What he means is, we’re, um.” I clear my throat. “This ATM isn’t working, and we’re here to do some service on it.”
The woman arches one eyebrow, her eyes taking in my red dress and black boots. “You don’t look like you work for the bank.”
“Subcontractor.” I force a smile. “Hopefully we’ll be done soon, but maybe go to the window inside instead.” And with that, we’d better hurry. If she goes in there and tells them someone’s working on the ATM outside. . .who knows how long it’ll be before someone comes out to check?
Speaking of them coming places, I glance up and see not one, not even two, but three security cameras. “Hey, Lotl.”
When he turns to face me, his eyebrow is arched. “Did you just call me Lotl?”
I maintain a carefully straight face. “I like it. I think that’s what I’ll call you from now on.”
“I forbid it.”
That just makes me like it more. “Can you kill those three cameras?” I point. “It’ll make our life easier over the next few days.”
It takes a bit, but I explain what I want, and then I smile as I watch them start to smoke.
“Now you do your part.” He drops his meaty hands on my shoulders and turns me toward the ATM again. “You should hurry, or more useless humans will come and interrupt us.”
I should’ve picked a smaller ATM, but I read once that the ones in the middle of nowhere have no money in them. I focus on the metal inside the machine, and I sense that part of it’s a drawer or something. I reach for that metal, and I sense the sliders and a small catch, and then I pull.
The drawer doesn’t pull out, but the whole front of the machine falls off, twenty-dollar bills billowing outward.
“Whoops.” I rush to the front and start grabbing stacks of hundreds from the now-open compartments.
“This is kind of awesome.” I know it’s wrong, but is it more wrong than lots of people dying?
I kind of can’t help the giddy glee that bubbles up inside me as I look at the huge stacks of money. “This is—well, it’s really cool.”
We knock over two more ATMs, and I buy a nice bag on the way to the second one.
Before the third, I buy a nice men’s bag so Xolotl can carry it.
It turns out, huge stacks of cash are really heavy.
But within an hour and a half, I’m able to answer the question of whether a dealership will sell you a car without any identification.
Yes.
Yes, they will.
It just takes a small bribe.
Also, city ATMs do carry quite a bit of cash.
And now, so do I.
“You’re in a good mood,” Xolotl says. “If I knew all it took was some paper, we could have done this before.” He taps the center console of the Tahoe we just bought. “I still say we should’ve gotten the black one.”
I roll my eyes. “You have no idea how hot black cars get.” My stomach growls then. I suppose powdered sugar donuts only get you so far. “Hey, tell me this.”
He turns toward me, his eyes the exact same color of blue as the Tahoe I just picked for him. “What?”
“Can you eat?”
“Consume carbon?” He blinks. “Why would I?”
I laugh. “You’re so weird.”
“I am?” He shakes his head. “Your body’s demanding sustenance, and you’re the one acting strangely as a result.” He turns the key and starts the engine. “Now let’s go get you fed.”
“What about you?” I frown. “This is part of our deal. You have to eat with me.”
“Why?” he asks as he pulls out of the dealership, clipping the curb as he does.
I wince.
“What?”
“You’re a terrible driver,” I say. “And you’re going to break our brand-new car.”
“You used my powers to get this car, so it’s not ours. It’s mine to ruin as I’d like.” He’s glaring as he tears down the road. “Now look around for food you want to eat, and we’ll go take some.”
“We’ll pay for it,” I correct him. “With money we stole.”
He laughs. “Exactly.”
“Ooh.” I point. “What about that?”
“Inclined Burgers?” He’s peering at the place like it’s unworthy.