Burning Midnight (20 page)

Sully pulled into the parking lot of Yonkers High in his brand-new red Corvette Stingray, riding right on the bumper of Dom's black one. It was a showboat move, a giant brag button, but damn, did it feel great.

Everyone in sight stopped to watch. Kids poured out through the main doors, drawn by the snarling, rumbling din of the car engines. Sully could see Mr. Looney, the principal, trying to herd kids back inside while simultaneously watching the Corvettes himself, but kids kept scooting away, wanting to see who the hell was inside those brand-new, $65,000 sports cars.

Sully opened his door, stepped out, and waited for Dom.

Side by side, they headed for the building.

“Sully, Dom,
what the hell
?” Mike Lea caught up, grinning.

“We found another marble,” Sully said. “A Mustard.” Eventually it would all come out, but for now that was the story. If anyone knew Hunter could find spheres at will, people would follow them everywhere they went.

“Again?”
Mike said. “You lucky, lucky bastard. How much did you get for it?”

“A whole hell of a lot,” Dom said. He was grinning so hard it was like his mouth was inside a set of parentheses. “Like, a dump truck full of money.”

“So when are you taking all your friends shopping?” Mike asked.

“Soon.” Sully pointed at him. “That's a promise.” He knew Mike was joking, but Sully had plans to spread the wealth to his Garden Apartments peeps, and eventually much further, to all the little Hunters out there freezing under bridges.

The crowd made way as Sully and Dom passed, some kids calling out questions, like the press shouting to a couple of rock stars. Sully felt like a rock star, which made it a little strange to be heading to Mr. Caruso's chem class.

He was so tempted to drop out, maybe hire a tutor and get his GED once things settled down. He wanted to be out hunting. Even more, he wanted to be with Hunter.

But once again: Mom. She wanted this, and since she was without a doubt the finest mom who'd ever lived, he was going to make her happy.

Dom, on the other hand, was just here for the glory. He was planning to drop out as soon as he got tired, in his words, of acting like a big shot.

It was pizza day at Yonkers High, so no bag lunch for Sully. He was still a little sweaty from gym class the previous period. It was an unseasonably warm April day, so they'd played a little softball. Sully had hit two long home runs. Mr. Gregory had encouraged him to try out for the baseball team. Chem class had made more sense than it ever had before, even though he'd missed two weeks of school. Same with trig.

As Sully set his tray down beside Dom's, his phone rang. A Manhattan number. This time he knew exactly who it was. He gave Dom a look, then headed into the hallway to answer.

He put on his best smarmy-asshole voice. “Alex, buddy. How you doing?”

“David Sullivan.” For once, Holliday didn't sound in the mood for banter. “There's a car waiting outside. Your associate is already inside, so, if you wouldn't mind.”

Sully looked out through the glass wall of the hallway. A white SUV was parked out front. He couldn't believe Hunter had just climbed into it on Holliday's invite. She'd been cautious to the point of paranoia up to now, and suddenly she was putting herself in Alex Holliday's hands? If Hunter was already in the vehicle, though, Sully didn't have much choice.

“See you in a while.” He tried to keep his tone light, but it was hard with that SUV waiting. The last time he'd seen Alex Holliday, his bodyguard had been pointing a gun at Sully and his friends, and Holliday had told them they were all dead.

Just to be sure, he texted Hunter.

AH says ur in this SUV? True?

Her reply came immediately.

Ya. Come on.

“Holliday?” Dom was heading toward him.

Sully pointed at the SUV. “Hunter's already inside. He wants to meet.”

“This is a bad idea, Sully.”

“We'll be fine.” He wasn't at all sure of that, but what choice did he have? “If Holliday was planning to hurt us, he wouldn't call me on his private phone and send a car to pick me up. He's not exactly trying to hide his trail.”

Dom shook his head, not convinced. “I don't agree with Mandy, that the marbles are bad and all that, but some of what she says makes a lot of sense. Hunter's playing with fire, but she's too in love with the marbles to see it.” He shrugged. “Hell, how do we know that Gold doesn't have some sort of hold on her?”

Feeling a rising resentment, Sully asked, “What do you mean?”

Dom scowled. “Come on. You know what I mean. Her skin is gold. There's something inside ‘talking' to her. It's in her head, in her brain.” He hesitated, because he saw Sully was getting pissed off. “For all we know, it's controlling her.”

“It's
Hunter.
Is she a little different from before? Sure. You would be too, if you'd been through what she's been through. But it's still
her.
She's the same funny, intense, occasionally frustrating girl she was the day I met her.”

Dom heaved a big, fat sigh. “
Occasionally
frustrating. Yeah.” He gestured toward the exit. “Fine. Let's go.”

“What? Where?”

Dom crossed his eyes. “Where do you think? You think I'm not coming with you? I'm guessing Mandy will want us to swing by and get her, too.”

Sully shouldn't have been surprised. Hunter was their golden goose; of course they'd want to watch over her.

As Sully slipped into the back of the SUV, Hunter gave him a kiss. She seemed wary but excited.

Sully wiped his sweaty palms on his thighs. He had no idea what to expect from Holliday. One thing he was sure of was that Holliday wasn't going to let Hunter have the Midnight Blues just because he couldn't burn them himself. Best-case scenario, they'd have to build up a mountain of spheres to trade. Sully didn't want to think about the worst-case scenario.

“Can you explain again what's going to happen if you burn the Midnight Blues?” Sully asked Hunter.

Hunter took one of his hands and held it in her slender golden ones. She never wore gloves anymore. Her hands finally felt warm.

“The third wave will come. More spheres. Some of them bigger—much bigger. I'm thinking maybe they can cure diseases, maybe we'll live longer, but I'm not sure.”

“And they all lived happily ever after,” Mandy said. “This doesn't strike you as too good to be true?”

It did. But then again, spheres were too good to be true.

“Where are these things from? Can they tell you?” Mandy asked.

Hunter closed her eyes. “I get glimpses of it sometimes, from the Golds' memory. There's no ground, no up or down. Colors everywhere, shooting around, sometimes spraying like a rainstorm. Sometimes patches of night sky with stars open up, so it's out in space, I guess.”

Sully had never taken an astronomy class, but in physics Mr. Cracovia had taught them about some weird stuff out there—black holes, dark matter, hypervelocity stars. Maybe the spheres evolved in one of those places.

The driver took them to the Holliday's flagship store in Manhattan, where Cosette waited to escort them to an elevator around back. She told Dom and Mandy they'd have to wait outside. After a good deal of bitching and moaning on Dom's part, he relented.

Cosette led them through the huge lobby and into Holliday's office. Hunter went right to Holliday with her hand extended, maybe to show him she was not intimidated. For his part, Holliday barely flinched at Hunter's appearance. He seemed somewhere between impatient and enraged as they shook hands.

“What is it you want?” Holliday asked. No pleasantries, no offer of a drink or even a seat.

Hunter shrugged. “I want the Midnight Blues. One of them is mine already.”

“Is that right?”

Hunter nodded. “I was just loaning it to you, in case that wasn't clear. How much do you want for the other?”

Holliday looked at Sully, as if expecting him to weigh in.

When Sully said nothing, Holliday turned away and paced across his office. “It's not for sale.”

Hunter's eyes narrowed. “You already know it's not any use to you. I'll give you a fair price.”

Holliday glanced sidelong at her as he paced. “Oh, will you? Why are you so sure you can burn them when I can't?”

Hunter put her hands on her hips. “There's only one way to find out, isn't there?”

Anxious as Sully was, he enjoyed seeing Alex Holliday off-balance. They had him. Besides the Golds, the Midnight Blues were the only spheres in the world Holliday hadn't burned, and they always would be.

“What do they do?” The way Holliday paced, he looked like he was imprisoned in his own office.

“Don't you already know?” Sully said. “I thought you knew everything about the spheres.”

“They'll bring a third wave,” Hunter said. “New marbles with new powers. I'm not sure what powers.”

From what little Sully understood, everyone would get the new powers when third-wave spheres were burned, or something like that. It was smart of Hunter to leave out that detail. If Holliday thought the Midnight Blues would bring new, rare spheres that would give him powers that no one else had, he might bite.

Holliday combed his fingers through his hair. “All right. I'll give you the Midnight Blues. In exchange, you agree to hunt for me, exclusively, for a period of five years.”

“No!” Sully shouted.

“Deal,” Hunter said.

Sully grasped her shoulders. “Hunter,
no.
That's millions and millions of dollars.”

She turned and kissed Sully softly. “It's not just you and me in this. If I can burn the Midnight Blues, I have to do it, even if I don't like the price.”

“
No.
Hunter, no. It's
way
too much.”

Holliday looked like he was trying not to smile. “I'll have my lawyers draw up a contract. In the meantime, can I get you two something to drink? Have you had lunch?”

Sully shook his head. Holliday was back to wearing his smug, charming expression, which made Sully even more certain that Hunter was getting screwed.

“What about Dom and Mandy? They should have a say in this. We still owe them way more than they've gotten.”

Hunter squeezed her eyes shut. “Please don't make this any harder on me. I have to do this.”

Sully pulled out his phone. All he could think to do was call Dom and tell him what was happening. Not that Holliday was going to allow Dom and Mandy to storm into his office and stop the deal.

“Don't you understand?” Sully said, not even trying to keep his voice down. “He'll
own
you. You'll spend the next five years flying around the world so he can scoop up every last marble, the new ones as well as the old, and sell them in his damned stores. He'll run the competition out of business.”

Hunter only gave the tiniest shake of her head.

Sully took a big, huffing, frustrated breath. “What if the Gold isn't telling the truth, or you're misunderstanding?”

“You said it yourself. Sometimes you have to take a leap of faith.”

The door whisked open, and a woman in a teal jumpsuit and silk scarf breezed in. She handed a sheaf of papers to Holliday and left without a word.

“Here we go.” Holliday spread the papers on a marble desk built into the wall. “Hunter?” He curled one finger and gestured her over, already getting accustomed to treating her like one of his employees. Sully was certain the contract had been prepared days ago, and was airtight.

“Hold on,” Sully said. “You can't sign until we have a lawyer look the papers over. The contract could say anything.”

Hunter accepted a gold pen from Holliday that all but disappeared in her hand.

Sully was gasping, breathless. How could she do this, knowing what had happened when Sully signed a Holliday contract? He grasped her elbow. “I want to talk to you outside, in private.”

Hunter turned to Holliday. “I'll be right back.” She followed Sully into the lobby.

The door clicked closed behind them. They were alone in the huge, glass-ceilinged space.

“We
always
do it your way. From the Forest Green deal to who keeps the Gold to going after the Midnight Blue, you always get your way.”

As Sully glared, Hunter took his hand and squeezed it. “Sully, this is bigger than you and me—”

“It sure is. Dom and Mandy risked their lives right beside us to find that Gold. They should have a say in what goes down now.”

“No, that's not what I'm saying, and you know it. It's bigger than all of us. The
Gold
wants this. I'm not doing this for myself, I'm doing it for the Gold.” She gestured at the door. “You think I
want
to be that jerk's gofer for the next five years? The only way he's going to give up the other Midnight Blue is on his terms. You know it, and I know it. He has to feel like he won, or he's not going to play the game.”

Sully folded his arms, shook his head. They didn't need the second Midnight Blue that badly. Hunter was so stubborn. He was seeing that,
really
seeing it, for the first time.

“Don't we owe the Gold this, with all it's done for us?” Hunter asked.

“We don't owe it
anything.
You said it yourself, we give them a place to live, and they give us something to pay the rent. That's the deal.”

Hunter put a hand on top of her head and exhaled in frustration. She was still holding the gold pen. “We're so close. Just trust me one last—”

“No.”
Sully closed his eyes, trying to calm down. “No. I'm sorry. I'm not trusting you one last time.”

Hunter swallowed. Her hands were shaking. “We can't stop now, Sully. We've come too far.”