by MJ Fletcher
I stepped back away from him. When we had been searching for Dad a few months again Nightshade and I had found ourselves stuck in a pea-sized closet where we were plastered against each other.
“What are you talking about? Nothing happened in that closet, Nightshade, and you know it!” I yelled at him.
“Keep telling yourself that, Masters.” He smiled his lopsided smile and it infuriated me.
“I don’t have to tell myself anything. You and I both know that not a damn thing happened that day.”
“If nothing happened why are your cheeks burning red? Or should I add that to the list of things that you conveniently pretend didn’t happened.”
“What are you talking about?”
“When it comes to me, it seems that you have a very selective memory.”
I flashed back to the moment after Nightshade had been seriously hurt protecting me. He had lain on the ground and I had feared he was dying. I kissed him; it had been instinctive. And there were times— many times— that I could still feel his lips on mine.
I looked away, his damn strange-colored eyes, one blue and one gray, staring me down yet again. “I don’t know what you mean.”
“Other things happened that day as well.”
How could he remember when he had been unconscious? And damn, what if he told Slade? Not good. I put my hands behind my back, squeezing them tightly in an attempt to keep myself calm.
“Those few days are a blur to me, Nightshade.”
“I don’t have a choice but to remember.” He pointed to the scars that ran across his chest.
I hadn’t thought about it until now but he must have gotten them from the blast that had been meant for me.
“Oh that,” I whispered glad he was thinking of that instead of when I had kissed him.
“That’s all you have to say?”
“Well, um, what should I say?” Way to be dumb, Chloe. Think about the kiss while he’s thinking of how he jumped in front of the blast and saved your life.
“If you don’t know what to say, why in hell should I tell you?” He turned around and walked back to the car.
“I mean I get it,” I said raising my voice to make sure he heard me. ”You did it because of what happened with Lauren.” He heard all right. He spun around on his heels and got right in my face.
“I’m warning you; don’t ever bring her up again.” He shook his head. “Is that what you think? You think I did this out of guilt over Lauren?” His voice got so loud that it echoed all around us. He pointed at the scar, glaring bright red in the twilight. “I’ve got plenty of guilt Masters, more than you’ll ever know, but saving your ass had nothing to do with Lauren. Am I clear?”
“Yes,” I said with barely a whisper.
He turned away and stomped off toward the gorge. I watched him pace for several minutes before he sat down on the edge and looked off into the fading sunset.
I leaned against the car and continued to watch him as he sat completely motionless. How had I been so wrong about why he had helped me? It was a perfectly good, valid reason. It’s not like I minded, I mean, after all he saved my life. Then it hit me, he had stopped talking to me right after his heroic act, though not anyone else. He was still willing to chat with our cohorts in crime that lead to the rescue of my dad. Yet me, he wouldn’t even see, but he knew about all my awards. I had been so busy I never got a chance to check on him. At least that’s what I told myself, when in reality I was still freaked out over my reaction to him nearly dying. I figured the best thing to do was to keep my distance. And that’s just what I did; I stayed away from him. Now here I was wondering why he didn’t want anything to do with me.
Damn if I didn’t want to hit myself for acting like such a dumbass. I shook my head and leaned back, grabbing his shirt off the hood of the car. Its heat had done a good job of drying it. I took a deep breath and walked over to Nightshade.
He sat still as a statue, his eyes locked on the sunset that finally gave way to the new night sky dotted with stars. I stopped behind him, anxious yet eager to put this to rest between us.
“Look, I’m no good at this type of thing,” I said fumbling my way through unfamiliar territory. “I just wanted to say that I’m sorry for never having thanked you for saving me.”
“I couldn’t save Lauren.” His voice was low and filled with pain.
Pain of losing someone you loved I understood, so I slowly crouched down and sat beside him and handed him his shirt.
He took it and slipped it on. “Thank you.”
“That must have been hard,”
“You have no idea.”
I did, but we weren’t talking about me, this was about him.
“I didn’t do it because of Lauren or for anyone else,” he said.
“Whatever reasons you did it for, I should have told you sooner how much I appreciated you saving my life. Otherwise, I’d be dead instead of sitting here enjoying this glorious evening with you. So are we good now?”
“Ever the wise-ass, Masters,” he said shaking his head and if I was not mistaken I caught a hint of a smile. “And, yeah, we’re as good as we’ll get.”
I took that as a positive and nodded in acknowledgement. I wanted to ask him about Lauren but this wasn’t the time.
I looked up at the night sky amazed. “It’s beautiful,” The stars were in full bloom, twinkling brilliantly on a vast blanket of black.
“Yes, it is.”
We sat in silence watching the night sky, an understanding or was it only a truce that had been drawn between us? A chilled breeze blew across the landscape and Nightshade silently got to his feet, jogged back to the car and returned with his leather jacket. He draped it over my shoulders and then sat beside me.
I was glad for the silence since his actions left me speechless. He not only thought of getting his jacket but got it for me and then he put it on my shoulders. Had I just entered another portal and not realized it? Don’t get me wrong, I appreciated it, though I had not expected it. I smiled, I couldn’t help myself especially with my hoodie being somewhere in the Diesel Factories. I slid my arms through the sleeves, grateful for the warmth and comfort and his gallantry.
“Well, I guess I lost the race,” Nightshade joked and I laughed.
“Sorry about that. How’d you know what was happening anyway?”
“The screens projecting the race switched to a feed of you fighting the First Kind. I circled around trying to catch up to you guys and when I saw you running I gunned it. I was surprised to see Charlie there, though not as surprised as he was.”
I had forgotten he had called my attacker by name. “Who is he?”
“He’s a Guilder. A little over a year ago he disappeared. We have something of a history together.”
“Is that a bad thing?”
“Let’s just say that if he was on fire I wouldn’t help put it out.”
I was beginning to understand that when Nightshade held a grudge, you better watch out.
“How do you think he hooked up with the First Kind?”
“Not sure.”
To my way of thinking he answered too quickly, which meant he was holding something back. I bit my tongue, much too ready to argue with him. We were finally talking and I wanted to keep talking. Besides I had to remember not to always fight with Nightshade, though why it was such a struggle I didn’t know.
“Did Jess talk to you about what we learned so far?”
“Yeah, she mentioned it,” he said and seemed to wait for the inevitable question about Lauren.
“Just checking.” I couldn’t bring myself to ask him about her. I kept seeing a nervous Jess worried about screwing up whatever was forming between her and Nightshade. And I sure as hell didn’t want to add to that screw up or be the reason he couldn’t get his deceased girlfriend off his mind.
“You really think this has something to do with Lauren?”
“It sounds like it does. It could even have something to do with why she died.”<
br />
He looked away as if needing a moment and so I sat quiet so as not to disturb him.
“The night she died she was frantic when she called me,” he said, turning back to face me. “She was scared, I could tell, and I knew it was serious once she told me where she was. She had been under strict orders not to divulge her location to anyone. I got to her as quickly as I could and she told me that her research group had found an object linked to the First Kind and that someone was trying to take it from them. She had gathered her things together and was anxious to leave.” He shook his head. “The attack came so quick we barely had time to defend ourselves. But right before we were about to leave, before the attack, I sent her stuff back to my place through a portal. I haven’t looked at it since that night. It should have all her research notes and maybe that can help us figure out just what the First Kind has.”
“Thank you, Nightshade. It’s our first decent lead and could be just what we need to stay one step ahead of the First Kind.” I reached out and grabbed his hand to give it a squeeze, though I would have much preferred to do something else.
Chapter 5
Status: An unhappy boyfriend, an annoyed father and some crazed idiot.
“You could have called?” Slade was still upset that I hadn’t let him know I was alright. And I think it bothered him that it was Nightshade that had come to my aid once again. He and Jess had made their way back to the Diesel Factories and recovered my Doorknob.
Everyone seemed to know about it. It had to do with the feed from the race being sent out live so once the attack happened everyone had been able to watch the fight and also watch when Nightshade flew in for the rescue. Apparently, it made for great video.
“How many times do I have to tell you that we were in the middle of a desert? I had no signal. What was I supposed to do?” Not entirely true, I had completely forgotten to call anyone being lost in the moment with Nightshade. I dug through my bag trying to clear it out but instead wound up just dumping its contents on my bed.
“But you said you were in other places when you were portal jumping.”
“Yes, Slade, we were in San Francisco and Brazil, which I didn’t even know until later when Nightshade told me and Manhattan not to mention some scary crazy bridge that was broken. I wasn’t really thinking, ‘hey, this might be a good time to text Slade and see what’s up.’ I was kind of busy dealing with the guys who were trying to kill us.” I turned to him, annoyed that this was still a problem for him.
“You don’t have to get so mad.” He raised his hands in mock defense.
“When you keep questioning me, yes, I do get mad.” I realized that I had raised my voice and I wasn’t sure if it was because I was angry with him for questioning me, which of course led me to wonder if he trusted me.
“I’m sorry. Crucify me if you want, but I was just worried about you.” He walked over to me, leaned down and kissed me gently.
I smiled, though felt badly for getting angry at him. After all, he was my boyfriend. How did I expect him to feel when he had been helpless to help me? I ran my hands through his hair, tousling it, and he smiled and I kissed him this time.
“You better get going and don’t forget we meet at Nightshade’s at six sharp.”
“So he’s really going to help?” Slade asked as if he didn’t quite believe it.
“What? You’re questioning your new best buddy?” I laughed and punched his shoulder.
“It’s not like that and you know it,” he said, teasing me with a poke in the ribs. “I helped with his car and that’s it. It’s not like I suddenly think the guy cares about anyone but himself.” He gave me another quick kiss and waved as he headed down the steps out of my room.
I rifled through all the junk I had dumped from my purse onto my bed, grabbing what I needed. The rest I scooped up and shoved into my nightstand drawer for later inspection, which most likely would never happen. I dropped a change of clothes into the bag and added my DS handbook along with an extra doorknob since I didn’t want to get caught without one.
Once I finished getting ready. I headed downstairs and went to the kitchen to grab some food before taking off. Dad was already sitting at the island flipping through some papers and looked up when I entered. After hugging me and being grateful that I was alright when I arrived home late last night, he had given me a lecture. He had been searching for me since he had heard about the attack and though he had been mad he didn’t flip out on me. He had also been more understanding about the no cell phone service thing than Slade.
“Where are you going?”
“Getting together with friends.” I smiled and grabbed water from the fridge.
“What friends?”
“Slade, Jess, Nightshade, and Edgar.”
“Where?”
“Nightshade’s house over on Franklin.” I didn’t want to give Dad any reason to get mad or worry, so I was doing my best to respond to his interrogation without getting annoyed.
“Nightshade, the one with the car?” Dad scrunched his brow in question.
“Yes.”
“So the one who helped rescue you yesterday and you spent half the night with, you’re going to his house tonight.”
“Yes, Dad, along with my friends and my boyfriend.”
“So which one is that now?”
“Ewwww, God, you can’t mean that you think me and Nightshade— you’re so gross.” I stomped out of the kitchen and toward the front door.
“I’m here if you want to talk,” he called after me and I slammed the door behind me as I left the house.
I walked down the street, frustrated that Dad would even think I could be interested in Nightshade when I had such a great boyfriend. Then again who was I to judge? Dad had chosen Mom and it certainly seemed as if that had been a bad choice. I still hadn’t told anyone about seeing her. I knew I would have to sooner or later but when I did it would make the fact that my mother was a traitor all too real to me.
“Chloe!”
If there’s one thing I know it’s that Val’s voice would most likely drown out any noise known to man. I laughed and turned to see her running in my direction, her Cape Beanery bib apron dangling around her neck.
“What’s happening, Val?” I asked as she caught up with me.
“I’m headed to work. Are you going to meet Edgar?” She smiled as we fell in step together.
“Yeah, we’re working on a project.”
“He told me that you’re meeting with Nightshade and Jess.” Val grabbed her fluttering apron and wrapped the strings around her waist, cinching it tight and tying it closed.
“We’re doing research over at Nightshade’s place on Franklin.”
“Is Slade going to be there too?”
“Of course.”
“When you get done send me a text and let me know how it went.”
We crossed the street to the Cape Beanery.
“Sure, if we get done early maybe we’ll stop by for a drink.”
“You think Edgar would come with you?” she played with the knot in the string of her aprons wrapping it around her fingers.
“Probably.”
“Great, I’ll see you later.” She rushed forward to grab the door, as a customer walked out she ran in to start her shift.
I turned down the street to head toward Franklin and Nightshade’s house.
“Chloe?” I glanced over my shoulder to see the customer who had exited the shop waving at me and walking my way.
“Faith, I didn’t see you.” Actually, I had been too busy talking with Val to pay much attention to anything else.
“No problem, what’s up?” She smiled and joined me as I walked.
“Just going to meet some friends.”
“I saw what happened at the race. That was crazy.”
“Yeah, it was pretty messed up,” I said, thinking how messed up it was to have walked with Val and talked about normal things and now walking with Faith and talking about a whole different universe. But th
en who’s to say what’s normal. I certainly had a hard time defining it now.
“So do you really think it was the First Kind?”
“Not really sure.”
“Well after seeing that I’m glad I was put on your team to learn defense. You rocked taking those guys on. And it was so cool when Nightshade zoomed in like that at the last minute.” She emphasized the point with her hands, mimicking a car skidding to a halt.
“I guess.” I was never one to brag nor did I like when other people did it for me. It made me feel uncomfortable. We turned off Washington Street onto Franklin and I could see Nightshade’s house at the corner of the block where it crossed with Lafayette.
“So when do you think we’ll have another training session?” Faith asked.
I was about to answer when I noticed someone on the other side of the street. He was standing under a tree, his eyes cast down at the ground and wearing a long coat, which was odd since the weather had been warmer recently.
“I’m not really sure.” I slid my hand casually into my purse and wrapped my fingers around my doorknob.
“I hope it’s soon. With everything going on I want as much practice as possible.”
As we walked further up the block I saw the man cross to the street behind us. The large arched windows and steeple of Nightshade’s church turned house loomed closer. And I wondered if more people lingered close by waiting to pounce. If I could make it to the house I would have plenty of backup. I wasn’t sure if Faith would be much help but I knew my friends would be on it in a minute and I was confident I could hold off any attacks till then.
We reached the waist-high, black gate and I swung it open, grabbed Faith’s elbow and pulled her along toward the door. She looked at me surprised but followed without protest. My other hand was still wrapped tightly around my doorknob in case of an attack.
“Faith!” The man shouted sharply from behind us.
I confess I was a little surprised that he called her by name. We both turned and Faith frowned as soon as she caught sight of the man. He had followed us and was now standing at the gate, his small mouth set in a tight straight line and his eyes focused directly on Faith.
