Echo Into Darkness: Book 2 in The Echo Saga (Teen Paranormal Romance) (8 page)

I found Raquelle in the junior corridor, freshening her makeup and checking herself out in the full-length mirror she'd hung on the inside of her locker. I stomped over to her.

"You are an evil, evil person," I said.

"Are you still griping about the bridge joke? Because I am so over that."

I tugged her shoulder to make her face me. "This isn't about you or what you're over. You crossed a line last night. It wasn't funny and you owe me an apology."

"Are you touching me?" She swatted my arm away.

"Apologize. Right now."

She painted her lip with gloss. "Sorry," she said into the mirror.

"Apologize like you mean it," I snapped.

Raquelle stepped back to get a full view of herself in the mirror. She watched me in the reflection.

"If I'm wrong about why I found you straddling the railing like you were going to off yourself, tell me the real story and I'll apologize. Don't get on my case for saying something that's true."

She smoothed the fabric on her hips, making it impossible not to notice the
Partychick
applique on the butt of her pink sweatpants.

She caught me staring. "Like the sweats? My mom got them for me. My real mom." She put a hand to her mouth. "Oh, I'm sorry, does that remind you that you have a stepmom and not a real one?"

Under other circumstances, her comment might make me roll my eyes. Today her heartlessness made my resentment run wild.

Fiery heat buzzed across my forehead. My fingers throbbed. I took one step back, aimed my palm at Raquelle, and let a flash of yellow light arc from my hand and zap her in the butt.

"Ouch! Oh!" She slapped her hand to the rear of her sweats. The satisfying smell of melting polyester-cotton blend reached my nostrils.

I grimaced and shook my hand. It burned like crazy. Raquelle squeaked in shock when she realized what I'd done. The look on her face was part terror, part murder. "You…
you!
"

She took two generous steps back and pointed over my shoulder. "You saw it! You saw what she did!"

An inch at a time, I turned around. Becca stood right behind me.

Chapter 9

Becca's mouth gaped. Her hands hung limp at her side. Her lunch bag slipped from her grasp and fell to the floor.

"I'm going to the principal's office and you're coming with me!" Raquelle commanded Becca. "You're going to tell Mr. Lauer what you saw!"

Raquelle slammed her locker and tromped down the hall. The burn mark had obliterated the "C" on her sweats.

"Your pants say Party hick," Becca said. "I don't know how they got that way. Did you fart so hard you blew a hole through them?" She pulled out her camera phone. "Say
Party hick!
" She clicked a photo.

"You witch! Both of you are in big trouble. You're going to get expelled from school!" Raquelle yelled.

"What do you serve at that hick party? Hooch and possum stew?" Becca snorted.

Raquelle quivered from head to toe and stormed off.

The smile dropped from my friend's face. She gave me a long, silent stare. I responded with a sheepish grin that said
I can explain everything.
When Becca finally found her voice, it was low and perplexed.

"You lightning-bolted a person in the butt.
With your hand
." Her brows squeezed together. Her aura bounced all over the place. No telling where this conversation was going.

"Give me a chance and I'll tell you everything. The truth this time. I swear," I pleaded.

Her eye went into a spasm. "Normal people don't do this kind of thing! Are you a witch? You're the real deal, aren't you? Well? Well? Start talking!" She slapped her hand on the locker.

I held up my hands against her barrage. "Okay! Remember when I fell off the banister and went into a coma? I woke up with telekinesis, then it developed into other stuff, like I can change the color of your shirt and, well, now I can do the electric bolt thing."

She shook her head, giving my story time to set in. To her credit, she didn't shriek, pass out, or flee. "Connor knew, didn't he?"

I'd wanted to leave him out of it, but she watched me closely to see when the next lie would spill from my lips.

"Yeah. He knew."

"This is why you've been weird since the beginning of school. Man, oh man, I do not freaking believe this!"

"Becca…"

"How could you not tell me? I was your best friend," she said.

Oh no. "Are. You
are
my best friend."

"All this time I was making a first class fool of myself, mixing lame potions and you're all 'look at me, I can shoot electricity from my hand.'"

"I was afraid to tell you. I couldn't control it at first and I was scared."

Her eyes narrowed. "Who thinks paranormal activity is the coolest phenomenon ever?"

"You."

"Who has every episode of Supernatural on DVD and had them autographed at ComiCon? Huh?"

"You stood in line for six hours," I said.

"Who was Wiccan for two whole years even when half the school made fun of her? And who follows the moon phases and has been dying for superhuman ability?" She rapped her finger against my forehead. "Hello? Anybody come to mind?"

"You have. Becca, I'm sorry. If I ever thought…"

She cut me off with a dismissive hand. "Save the apologies. It's too late for that and I don't care, 'cause we are going to be famous! Do you know how much money kids will pay to have you zap their enemies? And then there's the entertainment angle. McKyla's parents hired Flaming Gristle to rock out at her birthday. You'd be way better than any band. You could charge a fortune for this!"

I squeezed her shoulders and looked her straight in the eye. "You cannot tell anybody what I told you."

Her face fell. "You did not just say that."

"There are people out there who will hurt me if they find out what I can do. You have to promise to keep this to yourself."

"You've got people after you? Dude, how much cooler can this get?"

"This is the absolute opposite of cool. This is serious. Who knows what will happen when Raquelle opens her big mouth."

"Oh pul-eeeez. She's not going to the principal, she's gonna keep her big yap shut. Can you see her trying to tell the Partychicks that you…with your…they'd dump her in a second, and then who would be the freak?" Becca bent over, laughing.

"Promise me, Becca."

"Oh, all right. But for real, you can change the color of a shirt? That I've got to see!"

*******

The sun was kissing the afternoon sky goodbye when I took Connor's phone from its hiding place under my mattress. I flicked it on and stared at his perfect face. For strength, I told myself. Looking at him gave me confidence.

He definitely would not approve of what I was about to do. If he knew, his aura would turn fuchsia with frustration. I could hear him lecturing me, even from a hundred and sixty years in the future.
Did you not hear a word I said? Have you learned nothing from me?

"The girl from the bridge might be at The Asylum," I told his holographic image. "I have to go."

Jaxon said he'd meet me at the skatepark, but I wanted to take someone who would be firmly on my team. I'd recruited Becca in case our Mutila search went off the rails, or Jaxon didn't show up at all.

After dinner, my BFF and I skidded down icy streets to the southeast side of Portland. Most Portlanders stayed in when the weather turned icy, but I was hoping The Asylum would be packed regardless. Becca's knuckles were white from gripping the steering wheel. Her teeth had stayed clamped on her lower lip since we left the house, and I was reminded that she'd only had her driver's license for about a week.

"You want me to drive?" I asked. I had more experience on the road and didn't want to see her car wrapped around a telephone pole.

"No way. This is the ultimate freedom. It's us against the elements in a car that
I'm
driving! We could go anywhere! Tacoma. Olympia."

"Why on earth would we go all the way to Tacoma?"

"Just sayin'. The night is young. I'll drive you all the way to Seattle if you want, but you don't get the steering wheel."

I checked my seatbelt as the car fishtailed.

The Asylum sat across the river from downtown Portland in a warehouse district along the river. A heavy coat of paint blacked out its low windows. An awning covered a section of broken sidewalk. Beneath it, a dozen guys huddled around a flask. I spotted a bunch of neck tattoos and facial piercings, nothing out of the ordinary for Portland.

On the way to the skatepark, I'd explained Jaxon's role.

"He knows about your magicky talent, too? I really am the last one to find out," she said.

I finished telling her about the Mutila while she parked.

She huffed impatiently. "I don't get why you're even the tiniest bit afraid of them. You're a paranormal ninja. Nobody is going to mess with you."

"I'm not going to give them the chance. I'm only going in to find out if these are some of the people we're looking for, and I'm packing my aura in tight so they can't read who I am." God, I hoped this worked the way Connor said it would. If not… "But if anyone even looks at me funny, we're running for the car. Okay?"

"I'm on it, home girl. Then we race home like we're possessed by demons," she said.

"Why are you making a joke out of this?"

"Echo, look at these guys." She pointed at the group under the awning. "They're high school dropouts all sharing the same flask, and you can zap people with electricity. What's the problem?"

I didn't expect Becca to understand.

I did a careful scan of the people hanging around the door as we got closer. Nothing resembling faction, there. I hooked my fingers onto the entrance handle.

"You're new," one of the guys said. He was Porta-Potty thick on stumpy legs. "You learning how to skateboard?"

"Are you giving lessons?" Becca asked.

"We're meeting someone." I linked her elbow into mine and moved to go inside. The guy blocked us with his arm.

"Skaters get in for free. If you're here to watch, you gotta pay," he said.

"What's the fee? I don’t see any sign," I challenged.

"Two swallows for dudes, one for girls." He held out the flask.

"If you insist." Becca let out an exaggerated sigh and reached for the metal container.

I ducked under the guy's arm and pulled my BFF into the building. "We'll have to owe you for it," I said.

"Hey!" she protested.

"You're my security sidekick. You need a clear head, and you're driving." I gave her a gentle rap on the head with my knuckles. "Anybody thinking straight up there?"

We walked past the gear store and rental counter. Fat, colorful graffiti style letters and graphics decorated the walls. Mattresses were stuffed into corners around the concrete skating bowl. The place was packed with kids waiting their turn to skate.

Skaters dipped in and out of the bowl, riding up half pipe ramps and skidding across metal railings. I picked up plenty of auras—lots of daredevil aggression that comes packaged with youth and testosterone, but nothing dangerous.

An emergency exit light on the far wall at the opposite end of the bowl caught my attention. Good, I thought, there's more than one way out of here. My attention drifted to the trio of skaters standing next to it.

Two of them were guys, and they couldn't have been more different. The bigger of them was over six feet tall. His short legs were out of proportion with broad shoulders that made him look like a squat WWF wrestling contender. The other guy was scrawny, the kind of kid who forgets to eat because he's too busy hacking into government computer networks. The girl with them was a pretty, copper redhead. Even from my spot across the bowl, I noticed her seductive quality.

They wore all the right clothes and flat-soled shoes, and each held a skateboard, yet they seemed out of place. Part of it was their aggressive stances, their glares daring anyone to land on the slab of concrete that they'd claimed as their own.

I didn't see Jaxon anywhere and was considering waiting for him in the car when my spine prickled. The trio at the far end was watching me.

"Omigod. That might be them," I said out of the corner of my mouth. This was the wrong time to be tense, but my insides were writhing.

Becca was at my back. "Okay, stay cool. Uh-oh. One of them is coming over here."

The bigger guy hopped on his skateboard and rode across the bowl toward us. My pulse shot north and I did a hasty check to make sure my aura was wrapped tight.

He struggled to maintain balance from the get-go. His hips jiggered side to side and his arms made odd circles as he tried to stay upright. His top-heavy body tilted too far forward. The board flew out from under his feet, and he did a face dive. His two friends laughed while he packed up his board and jogged back to the emergency exit.