Shadowface 1979 (Shadowface #2)

Tommy

Light the match.

Talia is sitting in the front row, next to Professor Crux.

She smiles at him, looking sexy with her long, shiny black hair in waves over her chest with the flower headband she likes to wear ever since spending six weeks with the hippies.

Her low-cut bell-bottom jeans are tight in all the right places.

She looks my way with a dangerous glint in her eyes, though she can’t see me since I’m hiding behind the curtain at the side of the stage.

The best part of attending an ancient school like Kinsmen University is that everything here is dark. The wooden panels on the walls, the floors and ceilings, and the secrets—especially the secrets. It’s easy to hide in the shadows, especially when you dance with the devil like we do.

She knows I’m here though, and she’s waiting for me.

My stomach twinges as I watch Talia interact with the professor. I don’t like the way he looks at her, or the way his hand grazes her thigh while she talks to him.

I bet his wife doesn’t know he’s screwing her.

Or that Talia is the leader of the cult he’s currently studying, and that she’ll slit his throat without a second thought to get the Codex back that’s in his possession.

That’s how it works in this town. People turn a blind eye to the evil that lurks here.

Once they get a taste of its power, everyone wants a piece of it, no matter what they must do to get it.

She’d hate that word cult, or that I consider us to be part of one, but I have a hard time calling us anything else.

I ignore them, and my gaze drifts to Bax. He’s in his usual spot, with his hippy hair he hasn’t cut since high school. Remy is three rows behind him in his dark leathers, looking haunted as usual. They’re all counting on me.

Light the match.

Sweat drips down my forehead, as the lights dim, and Professor Crux takes his place at the front of the lecture hall.

It’s late October, the second month of my first semester at Kinsmen University, and Talia wants to make our presence known. The demonic symbols Bax and I drew on the quad when we were stoned aren’t cutting it for her anymore, even if I was rather proud of the artwork.

At least I wasn’t killing people.

I was born into this life, but that doesn’t mean I’m good at it being evil. In fact, I’m terrible at it, but I need to show Talia I can do this. She wants me to cleanse this lecture hall with fire, and every person in this room needs to burn.

I adjust the fabric of the burlap mask, making sure it’s in place, and chuckle, knowing I found it behind the FreshMart where Mrs. Holly is shaking in her boots every night, worrying about being chopped up to pieces by Shadowface. As if any of us would actually choose her.

Talia gave me simple directions after her soft kisses in the hallway before class started. Her hand teased the bulge in my pants, getting me worked up.

She pressed her forehead to mine. “Just do this for me, Tommy. When we get home, you can sit by the fire and play ‘Hotel California’. Close your eyes, baby.”

That sounds like heaven, strumming my guitar with my girl in my arms. Even though Talia isn’t my girl—and she will never be. A girl like Talia cannot be tamed and my heart belongs to someone else.

She’s all sweet whispers and kisses right now, but Talia Vital is testing me. Everything Talia does is manipulative and serves her own agenda, but I’ll be damned if I don’t like it. I’m an agent to her dark agenda, and I don’t ask questions—it’s easier that way.

The professor starts his lecture, taking center stage in his too-small suit, pushing up his aviators with every student pouring over his every word.

The students scribble away with their pencils, some crinkling their noses at the small amounts of kerosene Bax left around the room.

He doused this curtain as well. Oily sweetness tickles the back of my throat.

I stand perfectly still, and Talia’s eyes don’t leave mine as I watch through the small slit in the curtain.

Her eyes are smoldering, black smoke swirling inside of them as the light dances from the fancy chandelier above her. Whenever she’s about to cause chaos, her energy shifts like ashes in the wind.

Light the match.

I hold the matchbox, take one out, and play with it with my fingers, studying it.

Seconds tick by, and before I know it, the hour is almost over, and all I can do is gaze through this slit in the curtain as my adrenaline spikes.

Sweat cascades down my neck, and the rough burlap scrapes against my skin, making it hard to breathe.

I’m a lover, not a killer. Killing people doesn’t come as naturally to me as it does the others. And if I get caught, we could lose everything.

Our parents’ ability to protect us has limits, and should I fail, my father will have my ass. Revealing this town’s secrets could lead to multiple death sentences.

Light the damn match—

I clench my teeth…goddamn it. With a twitch of my fingers, the fire flickers into existence, and I hold it in front of my face, opening the curtains a crack. I scan the audience one last time, staring out at the poor suckers who are about to have a terrible day.

Rather than darkness, a beacon of light illuminates from the shadows. A beautiful ghost from my past.

The white of her eyes shine, even from way over there. Her head’s down, pencil in her hand. She’s still the most beautiful girl I’ve ever seen.

“Firefly…” I whisper, too stunned to breathe, and I pull my mask off so I can get a better look at her. She has the same frosty eyes and the same face. God, I miss her face. She takes my breath away.

Except it’s not her. This girl has dark hair.

Tommy…now!

I blink and Didi’s gone, and a blaze of fire shoots up the curtain, causing dark plumes of smoke to fill the room and the chaos we carefully constructed erupts.

Damn. I actually did it.

Everyone screams and pushes each other over to get to the exit. As a student in this class, my sudden appearance won’t be suspicious. I move into the crowd and pause, looking back toward where she was.

“Tommy, let’s go, man.” Bax is suddenly behind me, pushing me forward, and I fall into the smokey hell. I’m not budging; I just saw Didi, I swear it. I just saw a goddamn ghost.

“We gotta go, man.” Bax continues to urge me forward as the room behind me begins to disintegrate into flames and dark smoke.

People are trying without success to escape the theater, scrambling over the seats, desperate to exit.

Many have abandoned their bags and books, and they all pour out of the room before the fire takes over.

I stand, frozen in time, desperate to see her again. Desperate for any part of her until her memory consumes me.

Did I actually see her, or did I imagine it? How did I overlook her before? I’ve seen her in recent months, or at least, I thought I did. But each time, it turned out to be someone else.

I shake my head and pull back into myself.

It can’t be Didi. It’s impossible, because she’s dead…and I need to come to terms with that.

After all, I’m the one who buried her.

The sprinklers finally go off, a cool mist hissing over the flames, and I stand perfectly still as the water washes over me and the flames hiss around me. I should let the toxic air suffocate me.

Talia emerges from the darkness, her eyes fiery.

She grabs my hand and pulls me toward the exit, where a bottleneck of people are pushing each other.

“Tommy. Let’s go.” She’s not concerned about the black smoke building around us; this is an order.

She’ll give me hell later for freezing and choking up the way I did.

We follow the crowd, and eventually, everyone files out of the burning room.

Once outside, I suck in a breath of fresh air, coughing out the smoke I inhaled. Both of us keel over, the same as everyone else. On the brink of death, like everyone else.

Smoke alarms are going off across campus, and the chaos continues outside, everyone frantically hugging each other and crying. Two security guards bump into me as they pass us.

“Hey, watch out,” one of them snaps.

Talia grabs my hand. “We have to keep moving.”

I glance up to see Remy running one hand over his dark beard. Bax stands beside him—both unscathed. They must have gotten out first.

“Let’s go. Lucy is waiting for us,” Remy says.

Lucy, Remy’s girlfriend or whatever she is to him, is waiting in Bax’s van, A.K.A., the Shaggin’ Waggin’.

“Give me a minute, man.” I cough. Damn, my lungs are burning. If I spent any more time in that room, I’d have died of smoke inhalation from a fire I started.

Remy’s impatient, but thankfully, he backs off. I am his best friend, and even though we had our issues in high school by falling in love with the same girl, I’d die for him now. I would have died for him then, too. Not to mention he’s Talia’s brother.

“Hey, Tommy, you okay?” one of my classmates asks, slapping my back as he passes by. Because to him, I’m Kinsmen University’s biggest track star and the son of the mayor, not an arsonist or a killer.

No one would ever suspect I am one of them.

“Yeah, I’m alright.” I wave back to him, keeping my hands on my knees. I follow Bax and Remy across campus, and we hightail the hell out of there.

Eventually, I stop and slide my hands around Talia’s waist, and her eyes flicker at me. Her face is dark and flushed, and I can’t read her expression.

“Are you okay?” I ask her, bowing my head and pressing my lips to the top of her head. The scent of her perfume blends with the smoke and heat that radiates off her.

She bites her lip and nods, her tight body morphing into mine. She peers up at me with those questioning onyx eyes.

“I’m fine, Tommy, are you?” Of course, she’s fine; she transcends death.

She’s not happy with me. She’s hiding it for now, but her eyes are tight and her tone is stiff.

I jerk my head to Bax and Remy, who are waiting for us. “Let’s get outta here.”

We stumble over the cobblestone path across campus just as the fire department shows up. The Gothic buildings of Kinsmen University loom before me, yet even amidst the crowd, I can’t shake the image of Diana. That girl looked exactly like her, but the truth is, I see Diana everywhere.

She’s in the air here, her presence lives within the towering trees she loved so much. She’s in every scar this town bears, every secret it keeps. Everything reminds me of her.

I’ve suppressed her the last few months because it was damn easier to cope by trying to forget her than admit a part of me died that day.

Three months. Three months that changed everything. Before she became another lost soul in the brittle bones of this town. All the victims who eventually become the dust in the air we breathe.

There is no way that was her back there.

No. Damn. Way.

Because if it were her, then that means she would have risen from the dead.