Chapter 13 Zane #2
“He said you’d come.”
I almost topple forward, thrown off-balance by his sheer proximity. I hadn’t even heard him move. He towers over us and the urge to forcibly move him away from Kaye almost overwhelms me.
“He didn’t say anything about her. I don’t think he’ll be pleased.
” Shadows mask bits and pieces of his face, but what I can see of his expression is smooth, unlined.
I would place him at seventeen. Eighteen tops.
There’s something in the way he carries himself.
Something foreign and intense. Maybe it’s the way he’s lurking over us now, or the way he seemed to appear from thin air. Whatever it is, I don’t like it.
Kaye’s shoulders convulse beside me, and for one second, my mind flashes to the worst. Then she stills, gains control again, and I allow myself to breathe too.
I place my fingers back to the hollow at Kaye’s throat.
The rhythm of her life is faint, slowing and stuttering, but persistent, just like her.
“She needs help. If I can just get her to the car—” And then what? I can’t take her to a hospital. We’re both fugitives now. But I can take her somewhere safe.
The kid doesn’t answer and I realize that his shadow isn’t covering us anymore. He’s crouched next to Stanley, examining the mess of his hands, the pad of one finger poised over a ruined nail.
“Don’t touch him,” I warn. “He can produce—”
“Poisons. I know.”
He doesn’t look particularly fazed. He reaches into his pocket and pulls out a knife, thin and black with a sharpened silver edge. It opens with a click. I fight back a gag as he slips the blade carefully into the broken flesh, coating its surface in the virulent pus.
“Got to say, I wasn’t expecting you to be so squeamish.”
“Listen, Little Baby Sociopath, why don’t you put the knife down and go back to taking candy from children or whatever it is you do in your spare time. I can promise this is one fight you won’t enjoy in the end.”
The kid smiles, sinister and threatening. His young features seem transformed as if into a grotesque mask, innocence parodied. “I have orders. We all have orders. He wants you.”
Kaye’s fingers wrap around mine, suddenly solid despite an uncertain shake. Her eyes focus on mine, blazing with a feverish intensity. The moment passes too quickly, whatever she wanted to communicate gone with her sapped strength, her hands falling to the ground.
I wrap an arm around her shoulders and curl our sides together so I can pull her up with me. “Tell that bastard if he wants us—”
The boy is gone. In his place is easily the biggest, ugliest rat I have ever seen. Its fur is thick, black and matted. Its gaping, feral mouth shows off four massive, pin-sharp teeth. Quicker than I would have believed, it disappears under the car, it’s worm-like ringed tail slipping into shadows.
I scoop up the largest rock I can find just in time.
Nothing could have prepared me for the beady, rabid eyes, mouth agape and foaming.
I throw my weapon and it lands true, but my enemy has already transformed back into a boy.
Blood trickles down his temple and into one eye as he advances, knife in hand.
I push Kaye behind me and reach out on pure instinct.
My fingers curl around something hard and bony, but definitely made of flesh and not steel.
You don’t want to hurt us.
The orders echo in my skull, amplifying my abilities with the batteries of fear and adrenaline.
You don’t know what you’re doing here or how you got here. You can’t remember anything since you woke up this morning.
His weight eases off the knife. My arms feel oddly light without the pressure. Something warm fills my chest, and it feels a little too close to gratitude for comfort. I let myself have it, just this once.
“Have you ever wondered if secretly you’re not special? Like maybe the world is playing along with your bullshit powers so you’ll get on with it and leave them alone?” he says.
Everything seems to freeze inside me.
The knife arcs through the air, point primed for my chest cavity. My arms are weak and limp at my sides. A strange kind of peace settles over me.
I close my eyes.
“You stupid bitch.”
Kaye’s weight presses into my back. Her chin digs into my shoulder, its point firm and bruising. Her arms wrap around me tightly, crisscrossing to form an X over my heart.
“Got you,” she whispers. Dimly, I realize that I’m the only one who can hear her, and only because her mouth is right next to my ear. I watch in horror as she crumples to the ground.
“She didn’t stop anything,” the boy growls. “You’re still the most hunted man in the city even if you do manage to escape. It’s been child’s play up to this point. Just wait until the assassin’s knocking on your door. You should be begging for me to—”
A loud pop fills the alley. The kid drops to the ground in a tangle of twitching limbs as a static crackle fills the air.
“How many times have I told you: just because you have powers doesn’t mean you can’t carry a taser.”
“Not that I’m not grateful, but I thought I told you I’d get my own ride home,” I return.
Edgar looks like a complete badass standing under the glow of the streetlights, tailored wool coat flapping in the breeze and a neon green taser raised like a sword in front of him, wires connecting him to his target.
Our avenging angel. His free hand slips into his coat and withdraws a sleek phone from a hidden pocket, screen ablaze with a red pulse.
“You didn’t think I was going to let you run off and get into trouble every night without keeping some kind of eye on you, did you? Especially after you made it so easy by putting the tracker on the car.”
I guess that’s fair.
“You guys never got moving. I figured you could use someone to bail you out. I should have come sooner.”
I follow the path of his eyes to where Kaye lies crumpled beside me. Buried inside the muscles in her forearm, a shining, silver handle protrudes.
She took the blow for me.