Echo Into Darkness: Book 2 in The Echo Saga (Teen Paranormal Romance) (13 page)

I went to the edge of the bowl and jumped in. I kicked one of the boards, sending it flying across the cement. That was enough to sever the phantom thread that kept the whole lot of them moving. All the skateboards rolled to the center and stopped.

Tugg watched me, wide-eyed, like I was his personal superhero.

"What happened here tonight?" I asked again.

"Two of them came in. The skinny guy and the red-haired girl. She moved things without touching them," he stuttered and motioned to the mess of clothing and gear, "and she was standing over there and she lifted me off the floor like, like," he made an upward motion with his finger. "And
voop
, she hung me right up on the wall."

"Why?"

He hesitated. "Because I wouldn't give them your name."

They had remembered me after all. My head swam and, much like the night I was drunk, the graffiti walls blended together. I joined him on the floor.

"You know them?" he asked.

I wheezed a couple of deep breaths. "Did you tell them my name?"

"I didn't remember it."

"Okay," I wheezed. "Okay. That's good."

"Who are they?"

"That's what I came to ask you. Do they come here a lot?" I asked.

"Just a few times."

"Do you know their names?"

He clamped his jaw down tight, undecided. Gave me a once-over. Decided I was worth helping.

"The skinny guy called the girl Luma. She's the one who did all the damage. That's all I know, and you did
not
hear it from me, got that?" He lurched to his feet. "I'm quitting this job. If they come back, I'm not going to be here. I don't even skateboard, I just show up for the girls."

Tugg closed the shop and drove me home. "I wouldn't have told them your name, even if I could remember it," he said when he pulled in front of my house. "I'd never do that to an innocent girl. This Luma chick, though…she's evil."

A shudder ran down my neck. "Thanks, Tugg."

"Yeah. See you around."

I was betting I'd never hear from him again.

********

Becca's car was back from the repair shop, and Kimber let me ride to school with her.

"How much longer until you get your keys back?" Becca asked.

"The last time I asked, my dad said when pigs fly and dinosaurs pop out of his butt."

"Gross."

"Yeah, well, he got his point across. I'll be hitching rides until college."

We rode the rest of the way in silence, my mind still wrapping around what I'd seen the night before. The damage at The Asylum meant the Mutila kids were trained in Coercion and Destruction. It had frightened me, seeing firsthand what they were capable of.

Once we got to school, Jaxon was impossible to find. Since he was new, the office had allowed him to switch out of my chemistry class because he wanted to take woodworking, of all things. I finally found him during lunch, leaning against a locker outside the biology labs, circled by—you guessed it—a group of underclass girls.

The girls stretched their bubblegum with their tongues, watching him like they fantasized about the secrets he held beneath his coarse exterior. Anyone spending time with him saw the restless storm that raged below the surface. Girls liked to crack that barricade. I guessed they relished the challenge of making a seemingly untouchable guy lust after them. It validated their power.

He broke out of the circle to join me, earning me a few dirty looks.

I wondered what was happening between me and Jaxon. We'd had a couple of hot moments, and I liked the pleasure part of our relationship more than the information-gathering part. Flirting was fun, but I was ready to take things to the next level.

I nodded toward the girls. "Aren't they cute. In a few more years, they'll be old enough to drive." I didn't like notion that I was competing for his attention.

"And they'll be way more experienced." His eyes did that quick body scan that boys do but think girls never notice.

"Why do I get the impression you're picturing me naked?" I asked.

"I'm always picturing you naked."

"Oh." My cheeks warmed.

"That's what guys do. We picture everyone naked."

"Everyone? Talk about a lack of self-control."

"Yup. Teachers, other kids' parents, even other guys. If we're competing against a guy, picturing them naked gives us an edge."

"Eww." Picturing my teachers naked was the last thing I'd ever do.

"God, you're gullible. I'm beginning to think you
are
a clueless little angel after all. No, I don't think about guys. You, though, take up a lot of space in my head."

"I've been thinking about you a lot, too." I gave him my flirtiest look—a mysterious smile with half-mast lids.

"You look sleepy," he said.

Not what I was going for, but he stepped in close and ran his thumb across my collarbone. My neck tingled.

"I got more information about the kids at the skatepark," he said.

"Me too. After work I went…"

He didn't wait for me to finish. He turned on his heels and walked through the outside door.

Chapter 15

"Wait—where are you going?" I caught up to Jaxon in the parking lot. He pulled out a set of keys and beeped the lock open on an older model Jeep.

"Don't tell me you've got one of the Mutila tied up in your backseat," I joked.

"Wish I did. I'd like to know what would happen if you had to face off against one of them. I'd like to bet my money on you." He pursed his lips, seemed to evaluate me.

"You're asking who I'd bet on? Not going there. Especially not after what I saw at The Asylum last night."

"You went back?" He leaned inside and emerged with an English text for his next class. I recapped my trip to the skatepark.

"Luma. Interesting name," he said. "I don't recognize it from my old neighborhood."

"I think she's a Coercion Agent, or a Destruction Agent."

He squinted one eye in a silent question.

"I've been doing my own digging." I explained the different agents to him. "What did you find out?"

"Remember the one kid who looked like he could stop a Greyhound bus in its tracks? His name is Roth. He was driving the SUV that hit Becca."

"Did you get his license number?" I asked.

"Nope."

"How did you find this out?"

"I described him to the guy I know from my neighborhood. Unfortunately, he never knew Roth's last name," Jaxon said.

I threw up my hands. "So we've established that a steroid-eating skateboarder into coercion is probably the one who hit us, and his crazy red-haired sidekick trashes places and threatens people. No last names. No license plate number, and I still don't know anything about the girl who was going to jump to her death."

"Pardon me for not whipping up a miracle."

"I'm sorry. I'm frustrated."

"You're the one with all the abilities," he said, his tone short. "Try going into a trance and see if you can psychically conjure up a license plate number."

"If that was on my playlist, don't you think I would have done it by now?"

He lifted a shoulder. "I'm sticking by my original theory, that you're a semi-talented angel."

This steamed me. Just because I wasn't letting him in on the fine points of my abilities didn't give him the right to insult me. I sucked in my cheeks and swung my eyes across the parking lot. The bell signaling the start of next period rang, meaning we were alone.

Jaxon swore. "I'm late for class."

"Well, you're going to be later," I said. When my pride got the best of me, I was inclined to do stupid things, and I felt a moment of poor judgment coming on strong.

I slid off my bracelets and set them on the asphalt. Then I raised my hands waist high, concentrating all my energy, and aimed them at Jaxon's ride. His Jeep shook.

"Uh, what are you doing?" he asked.

"Shh." I clenched my jaw.
Come on, float, darn it.
I'd watched Connor do this same trick to Raquelle's car. He'd made it look ridiculously easy. I, however, was about to crack a molar if I clenched my teeth any harder.

The tires lifted off the asphalt.

"Cool, huh?" I twisted my mouth in a cocky smile, and tried to push the Jeep over the curb. "I'm not as innocent as you think," I said, struggling to keep my magic act going.

He grinned ear to ear.

A loud
crack
shot through the air. The Jeep fell back into its spot. Its bumper snapped off and clattered to the blacktop.

"Oops," I grimaced.

"What did you do?" His palms aimed at the sky. "You broke my Jeep."

He picked up the bumper and dumped it onto the backseat. "I was thinking of asking you out, but I guess I'll be spending that money at the body shop."

"Sorry," I said instinctively. Wait. No I wasn't. "That's my devil side acting out. You never know what you're going to get with me, but I guess you're not into bad girls after all."

I was as surprised as anybody to hear myself say this. On top of that, I'd used my ability in public, which could get me in huge trouble. This time jumping bad boy brought out a side of me I'd never seen.

I headed for the school doors. After a few steps, I glanced over my shoulder. Jaxon's lip curled into that smirk, heat smoldering in his eyes. The look was so palpable, it crept through my aura and pressed my skin all over, like a hot, humid night. I allowed him a smile and forced myself not to look back again.

After Trigonometry started, I hid my phone under my desk and sent him a text.

I would have said yes,
I said.

Ms. Fullner's lecture went in one ear and out the other while I waited for Jaxon's response. My phone didn't beep, not even once.

Later that afternoon, he met me at my locker. "So, what do twenty-first century girls like to do on dates?" he asked.

I was gathering overdue homework for my next class but stopped long enough to acknowledge that his thigh leaned against my hip.

"I like going to movies. You?"

"Don't know. Haven't been to one in this time zone."

"It's fun. You get buckets of popcorn and gigantic sodas and sit in the dark for two hours."

"Sounds like a perfect place to make out."

My stomach did a flip. "Um, yeah, I guess some kids go and never watch the movie."

"You seem like the type who never misses a minute of any movie." A sly smile curved his mouth. "Are you sure you want to go out with me? I could be very bad for your reputation."

I had no reputation, not the kind he meant, anyway. "I guess that's a chance I'll have to take."

"Oh, angel, you have no idea what you're getting yourself into."

"Is that a challenge?" I asked, taking in the rose color of his lips.

"Saturday night. You buy the popcorn. Consider it payment for the bumper."

*******

A dozen different shirts and sweaters lay in a pile on my bed. Jaxon was due to show up any minute and I still didn't know what to wear. All my clothes seemed too cute, too…
innocent
. When Tugg called me innocent, he'd meant it as a compliment. Now the word made me feel fragile and naïve. Pretty much the opposite of how I wanted to come across to Jaxon.

The clock ticked closer to date time. I used my magic touch to cut out the entire back of a black blouse, then replaced it with black lace. I shimmied into a pair of skintight jeans and added tall boots with heels that would bring us eye-to-eye.

I put on eye shadow—three shades of brown to make my eyes large and sunken. I lined the bottom lid with black. The overall effect was edgy and mysterious.

It was seven o'clock, then a quarter after. No sign of my date. I killed a few minutes by running through my ritual—telekinesis, levitation, the whole bit—so that I wouldn't accidentally slip up while I was in public. I slid the bracelets onto my arm for good measure.

My eyes settled on Connor's portrait. It still sat against the wall next to my desk, as it had for months. That tropical gaze that had lured me to him seemed piercing now, cool and judging. That quirky smile that I'd painted seemed filled with doubt, like he knew what I was up to and did not approve.

I tried not to feel tense but the truth was the date with Jaxon left me feeling scattered and uncertain. The portrait staring back at me made it worse. The girl that Connor fell for had been struggling and broken. Kind. Caring.

There was no room in my life for sweetness anymore. My days were filled with too much fear and uncertainty.

Now I was acting a part, with my revealing shirt and stiletto boots and cocky promises. I hoped the changes on the outside would sink through my skin and make me tougher on the inside. But at that moment, my identity felt like a handful of confetti tossed into a shifting wind.