by Jordan Dane
When she hesitated, Gabriel stepped closer.
“You need any...”
“No,” she answered way too fast.
“...help?”
Now or never, she flipped onto her belly and backed her way out of the vent shaft. She hoped she looked like a beautiful butterfly emerging from its cocoon, but more than likely, she resembled raw bratwurst being squished into a sausage. Gross! Gabriel would get a full-moon butt shot, but at least she wouldn’t see his face while she did it. As she shimmied out, Rayne regretted every gym class she’d ever skipped. She clung to the edge with her boots clambering for a foothold in the stone.
Going up the wall, she’d been careful. Hanging with her butt out now, careful didn’t enter her mind. All she wanted were her boots on the ground, pronto. The first toehold she found, Rayne placed all her weight on it, desperate to get down and look graceful doing it.
That was not what happened.
Big Mo and Mr. Gravity took over. Everything shifted into slow motion as Rayne felt her momentum give in to the pull of gravity. She fell backward, with arms flailing, and cringed as she waited for the pain that would only half eclipse her embarrassment, but something broke her fall.
When Rayne landed in Gabriel’s arms, breathing became optional.
* * *
Eighteen-year-old Gabriel Stewart should have walked away and not let the girl see him at all. He’d done what he came to do—got rid of the intruders. She’d be the last one. The jerks who had stalked her, he made sure they’d think twice before they ever came back to the old L.A. zoo again. My turf. But when Gabe spotted her looking out the drain shaft—frightened and alone—something made him want to do more.
Stupid! Everything he had done tonight had been stupid and too risky, but now, as he held her in his arms, he forgot...why exactly. Her eyes triggered something in him—a need. The years of him running, hiding, not trusting anyone—they had come at a price that she made him feel.
“Uh, sorry.” After he realized he held her too long, he swallowed and heard his own gulp. What a tool!
“No, really, totally me. I should’ve...” She finished with a sigh.
He put her boots to the ground, but his hands couldn’t let her go. He loved the way she felt soft and warm against his arms and chest. He missed touching. Holding worked, too. She made him feel all those things in a rush, as if he’d opened his eyes and breathed for the first time.
“I’m a klutz. Sorry.” She smiled, and even though she had a hard time looking at him, he saw that her eyes were pale. Not blue exactly. They were gray and unforgettable.
“So...what do we do now?” she asked as she pushed away from him.
Gabe crooked his lip into a smile and stuffed his hands into his jeans. “If we’re smart, absolutely nothing.”
She narrowed her eyes at him and said, “I don’t think we’re talking about the same thing.”
“Probably not. Too bad.”
The girl stared up at him with an intensity that made him uncomfortable. He kept his face unreadable, but inside, his belly tightened. He could see she had more questions, things he had no intention of telling her. He wanted to ask about her brother, too. She had come to the abandoned zoo at night for a reason, but Gabe didn’t give in to the growing tension between them.
He couldn’t risk letting her in.
“Come on. Let me walk you to your sweet Harley.”
“If you know about my bike, you must’ve seen me ride in. I mean, why were you even here in the first place?”
Yeah, good question.
“Just lucky, I guess.” He shrugged and led her out, back the way she’d come. If she knew anything about him, the girl would thank him for letting her walk away.
Chapter 4
West Hollywood
Lucas kept his feet moving and stuck to shadows, still fighting the meds that made him groggy and slow. He had to stay ahead of the men who tracked him. Although he hadn’t lost them, he felt pretty good about gaining ground, except for one nagging doubt that kept him wandering without direction—waiting.
The girl in his head had stopped talking. Without her, he felt lost. The other voices kept him connected and sane, but they weren’t the same. Her voice had become his anchor. He heard it when he needed her most. Now he felt adrift in a strong current, floating aimlessly without sight of land.
He had to do something. Be somewhere he felt safe. Once he got a good look around, he found a sign to Griffith Park and it reminded him of something he should know. That sign brought his feet to a dead stop.
The old zoo. He used to hike there, near a boy’s summer camp his parents had sent him. There were plenty of hiding places and he knew the grounds well enough to get totally lost without traffic cams. With any luck, he could make it there before the sun came up, but as he headed toward Glendale, the girl’s soft voice whispered in his ear.
Find me. You have to find me.
Where are you? He reached out to her with his mind, but she didn’t hear him.
She kept talking. Wherever you are, you’re too far. I barely feel you.
Lucas stopped, not knowing what to do. He’d felt her essence in his mind strongest back the way he’d come—back where the men hunted him.
But it’s not safe for me there, he told her.
When she interrupted him, he knew she couldn’t hear him.
Use your gift to find me, she said. It’s the only way. Trust me...please. You have to trust me.
The only way. Her one-way messages were making an odd sense. She’d connected with him and done her part. Now it would be up to him to do the rest. He’d have to find her on his own and use a “gift” that the Believers had suppressed with their drugs, but Lucas felt the pull of his instinct, too.
His brain told him that the old zoo would be familiar ground and would make a solid place to rest, at least for a while. Yet the girl and the voices had awakened something in him. He couldn’t explain the powerful connection—her hold over him—but she had become his future, something he couldn’t lose. Even though he knew that going back the way he came wouldn’t be safe, what would his freedom mean if he wasn’t whole?
Lucas took a deep breath and turned around—fighting his strong urge to keep running. When he did, he focused on nothing but her.
I’m coming. I’ll find you.
Griffith Park Zoo
Twenty Minutes Later
“Well, that sucks all week,” Gabriel said. “Must have been a parting gift from the bastards who followed you into the tunnels.”
Rayne stood in the shadows of the parking lot where she’d left her Harley. The tires had been slashed, totally shredded. She’d need new ones. Her roadside repair kit wouldn’t cover the damage. She wasn’t going anywhere.
“Do you have a cell I could borrow?” she asked. “Mine got trashed.” She’d picked up the pieces of her busted cell phone, but they wouldn’t do her any good.
“Sorry, no,” he said. “Fresh out.”
Fresh out? Rayne pulled a double take at Low-tech No-tech boy and dragged a hand through her hair. She had to take a deep breath to calm down. She didn’t expect him to be Verizon, but come on. He looked normal—sort of—if she didn’t count his Pied Piper bat entourage and the fact that she could roast marshmallows on him. What normal guy doesn’t have a cell phone? Rayne still felt shaky over her ordeal and, at this hour, add exhausted, too. With her bum luck, she had no intention of hoofing it out of the old zoo in the dark, but she had run out of options.
“Who doesn’t have a phone?” Her words sounded harsher—and high-maintenance whinier—than she meant them to be.
“Me.” He shrugged. “Guess I’m the one guy in L.A. who doesn’t text like an idiot. I’m not exactly big on the friends-and-family plan.”
“Do you have a car? I could use a lift to get these tires fixed.”
He scrunched his face. “Not really. I’m working on the engine, but I could...” When Rayne let out a deep sigh, he stopped and said, “So
rry.”
She fought to control the tears welling in her eyes, not doing a very good job of it. When she turned to wipe her face, her fingers trembled. Rayne knew adrenaline had worked a number on her, but she couldn’t help it. She felt like such a...girl. She needed to find Lucas, but without her ride, she’d be useless to him.
“Look...” Gabriel began. Low and soft, his voice brought a second rush of tears that she couldn’t hide. “I know you’re tired. You probably want to get home to your folks.”
Yeah, my folks. Rayne clenched her jaw but didn’t say anything. The only one who would miss her had a scaly green body and enough salad mush to last awhile.
Luke was another story.
“I got a place we can go. It’s not much, but you could rest while I work on my truck. It won’t take long. When I’m done, we’ll load your bike and I’ll take you anywhere you need to go.” He smiled and reached out his hand to wipe a tear off her cheek. “I promise. You’ll be safe...with me.”
Gabriel touching her face felt like the most natural thing. Rayne had a connection to him that she couldn’t explain. Her head told her to be wary. Trust had to be earned. Being on her own, if she ever invited a guy over to her place or dated someone, she had to be more careful. She’d be alone if the guy turned out to be a perv.
She didn’t know why she’d made the sudden leap to thinking about Gabriel as a boy she’d want to see again. It was hard not to think of him that way, especially after he saved her. Rayne felt a strange bond with him and he intrigued her. She definitely wanted to know more about him, but someone like Gabriel looked too perfect for a girl like her. People she knew would think she’d won him in a raffle. She couldn’t trust her heart, not with a guy who looked and acted like him.
But something else had taken over. A feeling, gut instinct, whatever. At that moment under the magic of the moon, Rayne believed Gabriel and followed him.
Minutes Later
“You live here?” Rayne asked, trying not to channel Mia.
“One of the places, yeah.”
“Oh, like this is your summer place. Yeah, I get it.”
Gabriel Stewart lived at the zoo. He’d found a corner of an old maintenance shed and made it home. Something about that suited him, though Rayne couldn’t help but feel a pull of loneliness. Being on her own, she knew what it meant to fly solo, without a family, but this wasn’t normal, not even close. His choice of isolation felt deliberate.
Gabriel had run away from something.
“Cozy,” she said.
He had a sleeping bag on cement as his bed, and a rusted blue truck had been pulled inside the shed’s garage bay and had its hood up. He had a small camp stove, a bag for his trash, and a stack of his clothes were folded and stashed on a low row of cinder blocks, to keep them off the dusty concrete floor.
Folded...really? Rayne heaved a sigh.
All things considered, Gabriel turned out to be a neat freak, a flaw she decided not to hold against him, especially after something far more interesting caught her eye. The guy had strange wood carvings lined up near his makeshift bedroll.
“You make these?” She picked up a carving of a dog. The wood felt smooth in her hand and she ran a finger over the amazing detail of the knife work.
“Yeah. When I can’t sleep.”
Rayne put down the wooden dog and gazed at the countless carvings of animals that filled his space in the shed. From the looks of it, Gabriel didn’t sleep much.
“Well, I gotta work,” he said. “So you can get home.”
Gabriel lit candles near his truck, something it looked as if he’d done many times before, and did as he promised. He got to work.
“If you get cold, I got an extra blanket. You see it?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
Rayne grabbed the blanket and burrowed into his sleeping bag. That should’ve felt weird, but it didn’t. With heavy eyelids, she watched him work. In good light, she noticed his eyes were the color of amber, and right now, they had an intense focus that made her jealous of the truck. A few times she caught him stealing glances at her when he thought she wasn’t looking. That made her smile inside.
Before she drifted off to sleep, she noticed the corner of a paper tablet sticking out from under a backpack. The notebook looked familiar, something she’d seen in art class. After she pulled it out and flipped it open, her eyes grew wide. Vivid images of sketched faces filled the pages, drawn in pencil or charcoal. Some were scary and all were incredibly detailed.
Kids mostly, kids her age.
“Are you an artist?” she asked.
“Not really,” Gabriel answered without looking up. “I just like whittling.”
“No, I’m talking about these sketches. Did you do these?”
When he saw what she had in her hands, his expression changed. “That’s my sketchbook. It’s private.”
His reaction brought a rush of heat to her face.
“Sorry. I didn’t mean to—”
Gabe had the strangest look on his face. Not what she expected. It was as if she’d caught him doing something bad, not the other way around. She hadn’t meant to intrude on his personal stuff, but his reaction surprised her.
He looked afraid.
He stopped working on his truck, wiped his hands and came to her. He knelt by the bed and reached out, asking for his sketchbook. After she handed it over, he set it under his stack of clothes and didn’t hide it. That made her feel worse than if he’d flipped out.
“It’s okay,” he said. “Just...don’t do it again, okay?”
“Yeah, sure.”
After Gabriel went back to work, Rayne kept an eye on him...and his sketch pad.
West Hollywood
Lucas had crossed over a dangerous threshold and he knew it. He felt the intense presence of the men who hunted him. Everywhere he looked, he spotted a traffic or security camera pointed in his direction. He didn’t care anymore. He’d lost his objectivity, and with each step, his gift sent a punishing shock across his skin. He’d grown numb to the pain, and his craving need to be with the girl had blinded him. His instinct to run had gotten jumbled up with the bad stuff he sensed, and only one reason made the risk worth it.
He had to find her—the girl in his head—and finish what he’d started. She had become his compass, his North Star. L.A.’s skyline had turned steel-gray. The sun would be up soon. His feet hurt, his stomach rumbled from hunger, and his body craved sleep, but all of that meant nothing.
He was close—to her.
Talk to me. Keep me awake, okay? He willed her to listen as he kept his feet moving on never-ending pavement.
She never answered him. The girl only kept talking. You’re getting stronger. I can feel you. Her voice gave him the only comfort he needed.
Up ahead, Lucas saw a strip mall lit in neon. Not a big deal until he noticed a difference in the light. The neon glowed brighter and radiated rings of dazzling color in a subtle pulse. He stopped and marveled at the difference as if he were a kid seeing his first Christmas.
Near the stores, an intersection grabbed his attention. He let his mind wander and he went with it. The streets were an X that marked the spot, and the visual image of a bull’s-eye hit him and drew his eyes across the street. His next mind link went to an old parking garage that stood several stories high. Surrounded by a cyclone fence posted with signs that the property had been condemned, it looked empty and forsaken.
However his mind had pieced together the puzzle, he knew the girl would be there, in a garage targeted for demolition. A strange, unremarkable place to start his new life, but there it stood in its mediocrity. He didn’t question how he knew; he just did. Lucas crossed the street, picking up his pace as he got closer. Flashes of a girl teased his mind in precious fragments. She carried the face of his future, every shade and color of her.
The girl in his head came to him in prisms of crystal. Her essence was reflected in countless images caught in the refraction of bouncing light. He imprinted
every glimpse of her into his memory. Her skin, a soft curve of a lip, the incredible way her mind held him without a touch. He didn’t have to see her to know everything he sensed about her would be real.
She had blinded him to everything—even the van driving slowly behind him.
Griffith Park Zoo
Gabe didn’t realize how tired he’d been until he lowered the hood to his old truck and blew out the candles he’d worked by—except for one. Cupping a hand near the flame so it wouldn’t blow out, he carried the monster candle to where the girl slept.
Rayne. Her name reminded him of springtime and music and a life when he could dance in the rain—the last time he felt safe...and loved.
Under the flickering light of a candle, he stood over her now, gazing down as she slept on her stomach. Hearing the rhythm of her breathing relaxed him, and with her eyes closed, he could stare at her all he wanted. He could’ve stayed there, watching her sleep, but that would only be torture over a life he could never have. He knelt and pulled the blanket over her shoulder.
With his truck ready to run, Gabe knew she’d soon wake up and leave. She had a brother to find, and despite how much he wanted to help her, he couldn’t. He didn’t have a choice. Even if she asked for his help, he’d have to say no. Yeah, he’d come off looking like a major jerk wad and he’d totally deserve the tag.
It would be better for her to get pissed at him for refusing to help than to drag her into his screwed-up existence. Gabriel backed away from where she slept and crawled into the flatbed of his truck to shut his eyes for a while. Before he blew out the candle, he looked at the girl’s face. Maybe for one night she’d keep the nightmares away.
Maybe.
West Hollywood
Before he spotted a way through the fence of the condemned parking garage, Lucas saw a dark van hit the gas as he crossed the street. The headlights were blinding as the vehicle barreled for him. It swerved at the last second and screeched to the curb. Shadows moved behind the windshield. When a door slid open, an interior light came on and Lucas saw two men jump out. He didn’t stick around to see what they wanted.
