Toxic

by Jus Accardo

  I blinked. I’d totally forgotten. “So you called Dad?”

  She punched my arm, then threw her hands up in mock surrender. “Ya got me.” Sighing, she leaned back against the couch. “All I’m saying is, maybe someone else knew. Someone you didn’t realize. Maybe someone overheard Ginger telling you to go.”

  “No. It was only me, Kale, and her. I haven’t figured out her plan just yet, but I know I’m right.”

  “Okay,” Kiernan said slowly. “But Dez, she was with Kale the entire dance. It does give her an alibi. She can’t be in two places at once.”

  “What about when Kale and I were dancing?”

  Kiernan shook her head. “She was sitting at the table. Talking to Alex. What did she do, beam your dad a message from her brain?”

  “Who knows?” I looked around. The living room reminded me of something from a Martha Stewart nightmare. There were doilies under everything and enough fake flowers to choke an entire herd of horses.

  Meela was a Six that lost her son to Denazen. She’d jumped at the chance to help us when she’d heard what happened. Supplied with clothing—out of style and ill fitting, but clean—she’d opened her home to us for as long as we needed.

  Kale and Jade were sent with Paul and Panda to a nearby relative of Daun’s. Alex had taken the others to Dax’s apartment downtown. Thankfully, he hadn’t been at the hotel but offered his place if we needed more room.

  I didn’t know where the rest had gone, but Ginger assured us they were safe.

  I took a deep breath and tried not to gag. Either Meela spritzed the flowers with something, or the air freshener she used smelled like something Rosie would have worn. The thought stung. Our relationship had been rocky from day one, but Rosie had been my friend—even if neither one of us would ever had admitted it. And now she was gone.

  I pushed my grief aside and focused on the facts. Jade would not get away with this. “I think Jade’s Supremacy. Like me—in fact, I’m sure of it. That means she’d have some seriously epic abilities.”

  Kiernan looked skeptical. “I dunno, Dez. Brain beaming? So not. I kinda think you want it to be her.”

  “What I want is to nail the person responsible. And that person is Jade.”

  Kiernan shrugged but didn’t answer. Instead, she grabbed the other blanket from the couch—a pink-and-white floral monstrosity—and spread it over her cot. “I’m on your side, Dez, but I think you’re wrong about this.”

  I waited till she’d burrowed under the covers before I got up and slunk out to the backyard.

  The crisp night air was like a slap in the face. The sun would be up in a few hours, and I’d still be awake. Thinking. Worrying. Plotting. Jade was going down. She’d be dragging Kale off to Denazen over my dead body. Which at this point, was a very real possibility.

  The pain in my shoulder spiked again. Funny how that happened whenever I thought about Jade. It was a sign. I was willing to bet my fingers. Tugging aside my borrowed T-shirt—creeptastically a powder-pink, adult-sized Hello Kitty Loves You sleep shirt—I stared down at the mark Able had left behind. The original spot was hard to see now, the dark middle bleeding out in all directions.

  The spidery lines creeping from the center were past the tip of my collarbone now. If it kept spreading this fast, they’d be down my arm and well past my elbow by the end of the day. Not to mention up the side of my neck. Time was running out. The poison would be out of the vial soon. I’d have to come clean, which meant I needed a resolution. Now.

  The screen door creaked, and someone hobbled out onto the porch.

  “You’re up late,” Ginger said from behind me.

  I didn’t turn around. If I ignored her, maybe she’d take the hint and go back inside. The last thing I needed was a speech on letting events take their intended course.

  “Shouldn’t you be asleep?”

  “Shouldn’t you? I mean you’re what, like, ninety? You old folks need your shuteye.”

  She snorted. “That was pathetic. Merely a shade of your usual venom. Is something bothering you, Deznee?”

  I sighed. “Why are you even asking? You already know the answer. Probably know the date and time I’m gonna buy it, too, right? Please at least tell me I go out in a blaze. Doing something crazy. None of that crapping out all peaceful-like in my sleep.”

  The bench behind me squealed in protest as she sat. “You know it doesn’t work that way.”

  This time I turned around. “You obviously know what’s going down.” I hated the desperation in my voice, but no matter how hard I tried, I couldn’t hide it. “Tell me. Tell me if he ends up back at Denazen.”

  Tell me if I end up dead…

  For a second I thought she might answer. Her expression softened, brows knitting together with a sympathetic frown. Her gaze flickered to my shoulder, then away. Oh, yeah. She definitely knew. She knew, and the sick part was, she was the one person I didn’t have to worry about squealing. Not because I could trust her, but because if I was meant to die, she didn’t intend on lifting a finger to stop it.

  After a moment, she shook her head. “I know his purpose and path. Kale’s road, like yours, has never been an easy one.”

  And Kiernan thought Rosie had been cryptic?

  “You know who’s responsible for burning down the hotel, don’t you? The person who let Dad’s people in.”

  “I do.”

  That pissed me off. I mean, I knew she did—at least I figured she did—but to hear her admit it really set me off. Jumping to my feet, I stomped forward. “I know you have all these stupid little rules, but people died. Good people. Friends of yours. You’re just gonna let her rip us apart from the inside?”

  “There is no interfering in things like this. They happen the way fate meant them to. To allow otherwise would be chaos. We’ve been through this many times now, Deznee.”

  “No, chaos is what we had tonight. A burning building. With people stuck inside. Something you could have prevented. That’s chaos. There were kids in there, Ginger. Little kids.”

  “That’s fate.”

  “That’s bullshit.”

  She didn’t answer.

  “You know it’s Jade, and you sent Kale with her.”

  Thoughtful, she lifted her head to the sky and sighed. “Jade is…in a unique situation.”

  “Unique situation? And that gives her the right to destroy us?”

  “Perhaps you need to consider the possibility that you and Kale are not meant to be together. That clinging to each other could destroy you both?”

  I just about fell over. “What?”

  She didn’t answer.

  “Screw you,” I spat. An icy chill had crept into the air. “This is where I draw the line. Is that what all this Jade crap has been about? You really are trying to push them together? ’Cause you have some fucked-up notion Kale and I aren’t meant to be? And pushing him back to Denazen is your answer?”

  Reality was starting to slip. It was like a bomb going off inside my brain. Everything from the tips of my toes to the edge of my nose…it all went numb. Everything, that is, except my shoulder. With a sudden flash, pain exploded.

  “You’re wrong…” I stumbled up, fighting to keep my balance. My voice sounded funny. Garbled and thick. “…if you think Kale and me aren’t going to stick, you’re wrong.”

  She got to her feet, knuckles white around her cane. Eyes sad, she said, “I’m sorry. I know this is hard, and you probably think me no better than your father.”

  “The thought crossed my mind several times,” I admitted bitterly.

  “I am on your side, Deznee. I know it doesn’t look that way, and you think I don’t love my grandson or care about these people, but that couldn’t be further from the truth.” She was quiet for a moment. The cool September air kicked up, fluttering the edges of her bright blue housecoat. “Everything is happening as it was meant to. And unfortunately, when all is said and done, I fear it will be you and Alex that pay the biggest prices.”

>   26

  I’d been right. No sleep for me. After Ginger finally went inside, I spent the rest of the night on the porch. Well, most of it. There was an hour stretch where I paced from one end of the lawn to the other, wet grass tickling my toes as I racked my brain to figure out a way to prove Jade was behind all this.

  And that whole thing about me and Kale? I had no intention of paying attention to it. Never in history had there been a more wrong statement. Kale was the only thing that kept me sane sometimes. Nothing about him being in my life would destroy me. Not ever. As far as the Alex thing, well, I was choosing to look the other way concerning that, too. Alex made his own choices—usually bad ones. They were his responsibility.

  I’d been doing that a lot lately. Ignoring things. A tiny whisper in the back of my head said that was wrong—unlike me—but I chose to disregard that, too.

  By the time the sun crested the hills behind Meela’s house, I crept back inside with an idea about how to get the dirt on Jade.

  “You’re pissed at me.” Kiernan appeared in the doorway. In her hands was a steamy peace offering. Coffee.

  I took the cup from her and did my best not to laugh. She was wearing an orange broomstick skirt and pink blouse with an obnoxious ruffled collar. Jesus. Meela was obsessed with pink.

  “I figured you might be,” she continued, gesturing to herself. “Which is why I did something only a true friend would. I spared you from this.”

  “It’s—”

  “Beyond words? Yeah. I know.” She backed into the kitchen and pulled out a chair. “Meela? So not going to be working the runways any time soon. The other outfit isn’t going to buy you a date, but it’s not as bad as this one.”

  I sank into the chair across from her.

  “And I figure if you forgive me, maybe you can fix it for me?”

  “I wish I could, but how would we explain it? No one knows about the change in my ability yet…”

  She frowned but nodded. “True. I see your hair is blonde again—though I thought the streaks were red at the dance? Now they’re blue.”

  I reached up and fingered a strand of hair. Blonde mixed with deep blue highlights. In the chaos I’d totally forgotten about it. I never consciously changed it back. Then again, I’d never consciously turned it green, either. I was going to have to get a handle on that ASAP. “Huh. It’s better than the green.”

  Kiernan tugged at the edge of her blouse. “So about last night… I wasn’t trying to make it seem like I thought Jade was squeaky clean, I just thought—”

  “Over it. Redemption is yours if you want it.”

  She eyed me, a smile spreading across her lips. “Oh?”

  “I need you.”

  “No offense, but I’m not into blondes. Plus,” she said waving her cup at me, “you’re a little lacking in the muscle department for my tastes.”

  “Your gift. I need to do some digging.”

  “You wanna spy on Jade and Kale?”

  “Not Kale. Just Jade. I know she’s working for Dad, Kiernan. I know it. I just need to find proof so Kale and the others will listen to me.”

  “She never leaves Kale’s side. Do you really believe she’s going to drag him with her when she goes to chat up your dad?”

  “She can’t be with him every minute of every day. She has to leave him alone at some point. And I’m betting when she does, even if it’s to make a phone call, I’ll get the proof I need.”

  After finishing my coffee, I went to see what clothes Meela had scrounged up for me. Kiernan had been right. The second outfit wasn’t nearly as bad as the first. Simple black sweatpants and a Marist College hoodie. I’d just finished changing when there was a knock on the door. I emerged from the bathroom and found Kale and Jade in the kitchen with Kiernan and Paul, and Alex and Dax were talking quietly to Mom in the hall.

  “Wow,” Jade giggled. “You guys look…great.”

  And that’s the universe for you. Always there with a crappy sense of humor. Jade was still wearing her shimmery gown from the dance. You’d expect that after escaping a building fire—and assumedly sleeping in the damn thing—she would have shown up looking like a disaster. You know, like a normal person? Nope. She’d pulled her hair into a ponytail, and the dress, though slightly wrinkled with spots of ash, still made her look beautiful. Like a supermodel at a disaster photo shoot.

  Kale was staring. He hadn’t uttered a word since I’d entered the kitchen, and he hadn’t taken his eyes off me. A few days ago, that would have made all things right with my world. This morning? It hurt more than my shoulder—which was getting close to insane.

  I was a mess. My life was crumbling around me, and the only thing I wanted was to confess everything to him. But I couldn’t. There was no way to tell him Dad had paid me a visit without sending him off the deep end. And there was no way to come clean about the new Supremacy information I had without ’fessing up about Dad’s visit. And the whole thing with Able? Yeah. If I told him about that, he’d try to trade himself to Dad for the cure. Normally I was proud of the fact that I could stand alone, but for the first time in my life, being on my own was really starting to bother me.

  “We have a lot to get done today,” Ginger said, cane clinking against the kitchen tile. “There will be a meeting at tonight’s party. Because of last night’s events, the location will not go up on Craigslist.”

  My mouth fell open. “Seriously? We’re having a party? The damn hotel just burned down. People are dead. Rosie is dead. And you wanna party?”

  “There is a Six party every night, Deznee. To suddenly deter from the normal routine would only put people on edge. The last thing we need is a wave of panic. Things will continue as usual, and we will use the opportunity to regroup and plan.”

  She reached into the pocket of her blue housecoat. Out came a handful of small, colored slips of paper. “You will be notifying people in person. No one goes alone. I’ve split you in to teams. You are to stay with your partner at all times. Do not share your list or the instructions on it with anyone but your partner—including those in this room.”

  She turned to Mom. “Sue, you will go with Dax.”

  Mom nodded and took the folded piece of blue paper. Was it my imagination, or was she smiling?

  Next, Ginger turned to Paul, who was standing in the doorway. Handing him a small orange sheet, she said, “You and Barge take this one.”

  She continued handing out slips until all that was left was me, Kale, Kiernan, Jade, and Alex. Uneven numbers.

  “Jade,” Ginger said, handing her a pink slip. “You are with Kiernan.” Turning to me, she said, “You and Kale.”

  Jade looked from the slip to Kale, frowning. “Is that a good idea? Kale could accidentally hurt someone if I’m not with him. He could hurt Dez.”

  Ginger grabbed the redhead by the shoulders and spun her toward the door. “He got along for years without you hanging all over him. I think he can manage.”

  “This is good! I can keep an eye on her,” Kiernan whispered. With a wink, she followed a very sulky Jade from the room. A few seconds later, the front door slammed closed.

  “What about me?” Alex said.

  Ginger flashed a red-tinted smile. She’d been drinking the Mobol’s fruit punch again. It was the only one that stained. “You’re with me, Alex.”

  Without a word, they were gone, too, leaving Kale and me truly alone for the first time in days.

  “You don’t want to be with me.” Kale took a step toward me.

  Not be with him? That’s all I wanted to be. “It’s not that.”

  “But you don’t want me with Jade?”

  “Of course not!”

  “Are you angry with me?”

  “Why would I be angry?”

  He looked genuinely confused. “I don’t know. That’s why I’m asking.”

  “We should get moving on this list.” I took a step back and unfolded the paper. A few seconds more, and I’d end up spilling everything. Lying to Kale was o
ne of the hardest things I’d ever had to do—not to mention I sucked at it.

  “Okay,” he said slowly. “But we aren’t done.”

  “We’re not done. Never.” I let the hoodie sleeve cover the tips of my fingers and squeezed his hand. “First thing on the sheet says to notify Prias Sheen about the party location.”

  “Where is the location?”

  “Um,” I skimmed the paper. “Looks like it’s in The Rockies.”

  “Rockies?”

  “It was an indoor rock climbing place. Closed down a few months ago. It’s on the very edge of town.”

  “How do you climb a rock indoors?”

  “They’re not really rocks you’re climbing, more like plastic. They put a harness on you, and one of the guides is there to spot you.”

  He looked horrified. “Plastic rocks?”

  “Forget it.”

  …

  We gave Prias, a woman with the ability to manipulate vegetation, the information about the party’s location and continued to move down the list. Seven names. By one in the afternoon, I was starving.

  “Anything on that list about munchies?”

  Kale stuffed the list into his pocket. “You’re hungry?”

  “Ready to eat a small horse.”

  For a second, he looked worried, then he nodded. “Expression?”

  I smiled. “Expression.”

  “Ginger said don’t deviate from the list.”

  We’d just gotten off the bus—Kale’s favorite mode of transportation—and were standing on the corner of Main Street in front of Shaker’s Pizza. There were a dozen places we could grab a quick bite. In and out and back to work in the blink of an eye. There were only two more things on our list. Check Ginger’s post office box and notify one more person. We had time to eat.

  “I’m sure she didn’t mean to have us starve. What ya in the mood for?”

  “Cheese sticks,” he said, leaning close. There was a spark of hunger in his eyes—and not for fried cheese, either. He was remembering the last time we’d had them, if I had to guess. Right before all this started. He’d bitten one end, and I’d chomped the other. It was sweet. A very Lady and the Tramp moment that lead to, well, a not-so-Disney moment. An hour’s worth of them.