Halflings (18 page)

“You’ve got to be kidding me.” Raven said, flicking a toothpick from the car window. He didn’t want to be here. He didn’t want to watch Vine eat another piece of candy, and he didn’t want to hear the younger boy’s excitement at all his first-time adventures. He wanted …

He wanted to be with Nikki.

Raven tried to swallow the thought along with a toxic gulp of reality. He
never
went for girls like Nikki. The redheaded shark was more to his liking. Nikki was a parasite burrowing under his skin, causing it to itch and inflame.
That
, he didn’t need.

“Hey,” Vine said. “A bowling alley. I’ve never been bowling before.”

Raven pivoted in the car seat. “We’re not here to socialize, Vine. You aren’t some teenager looking for a girlfriend, okay?”
None of us should be. And we really shouldn’t linger on what a relationship could be like.

He’d become vaguely aware of Nikki in the principal’s office. She didn’t like the mistreatment he’d suffered and was quick to come to his aid. And that was … interesting … but that’s all it was. Then, the painting. The splash of color and life draining from a broken pot had shifted something in him. But it was his assessment of the painting, and the fact she’d painted it without knowing why, that pushed him over the edge. He’d seen the flash of acknowledgment in her eyes, and something deep inside him rumbled to life. Something he’d thought dead. For a speck of a moment, Raven felt … clean.

He forced the sensation from his being. “Look, Vine, we’re from a different world. Nothing and no one can change that.”

Vine’s head dropped forward. He chewed his cheek.

Raven unfastened his seat belt. “And the sooner you realize that, the better off you’ll be.”

“Yeah, but I’m
here
,” Vine countered, tucking a mass of hair behind his ear. “I might as well enjoy it.”

“For a purpose. Not to act like some lesser being,” Raven spat.

Vine looked over. “Is that what you think of humans?”

He shrugged and hoped the long spikes of bangs shrouded his face. “So what if it is?”

Vine shook his head hard and had to push back the hair that landed in his eyes. “It’s just wrong. Humans are the seed of the incorruptible.” His voice dropped. “You shouldn’t even utter such words.”

Raven threw a hand toward a group of teens entering the building. “Look at them. They’re oblivious to the other realm. It’s within their power to see it, but they just bumble along like the only thing that matters is where they buy their clothes.”

“I wish I were human,” Vine muttered.

Raven scowled. “Don’t even say that, Vine. They’re ordinary and average.”

“Ordinary isn’t so bad.”

“It’s worse than bad. Mediocrity breeds weakness. And weakness is death.” Nikki Youngblood, with her flowers and broken pots and innocent charm, was weakness. Especially for him. And weakness he couldn’t afford.

Vine wadded up the wrapper from the candy bar he’d devoured. “I thought this saving-the-world stuff would be more exciting and rock-star cool.” He reached for a sack from the convenience store, which bulged with four different types of sour candy.

Raven sent him a twisted smile. “Yeah, real cool. Babysit a science teacher while he’s bowling.”

“You’re the one who said Dr. Richmond was the target.” Vine chewed the inside of his mouth while selecting candy. “Mmm, sour gummies.”

Raven grimaced. “You’re gonna rot your teeth.”

Vine popped a handful into his mouth. “Can’t help it,” he
said, speaking around the mound of brightly colored worms. “Want some?”

Raven shook his head. He nodded toward the parking lot, eyes narrow. “Maybe Richmond’s a pervert.”

Vine paled. “Ew.” They watched while Dr. Richmond exited his car, grabbed a bowling bag from the trunk, and entered the building. “I mean
ew,
really?” He searched Raven’s face. “Is that what you think?”

“Sure,” Raven said, but had to turn away to hide the smirk. “Come on.”

“No
way
,” Raven heard Krissy Cunningham mutter as the two boys approached the bowling alley’s glass doors. Her hand smacked repeatedly against Suzy Carmichael’s arm, jostling the girl. Krissy had been on Raven’s radar until he realized he liked Nikki. Best friends equals bad medicine.

“Watch it!” Suzie mouthed to her friend when her drink sloshed. She moved her Coke cup to the other hand.

The boys strode effortlessly toward the door, both over six feet of lean muscle. Raven did a head toss for emphasis. As if on cue, the wind caught Vine’s white-blond hair, sending it into a perfect half-circle over his right shoulder. Girls were nuts for Vine’s hair. Too bad all that advantage was lost on a kid too young to use it.

The girls grinned at each other. Raven ate it up.

“Why are they staring at us?” Vine asked, and Raven glanced over to see the panic in his blue-gray eyes.

“Feel like a piece of meat?”

“No,” Vine countered, like any little brother accused of something he was guilty of.

“It’s because we look like a living, breathing Abercrombie commercial.” Raven sauntered along with an air of defiance he’d taken years to perfect, but his gaze remained alert processing every tidbit of information around him with vivid clarity.

Vine tried to ignore the spectators and tossed a piece of candy into the air then caught it in his mouth.

“Yummy,” Suzy mouthed from behind the glass. Apparently, she was a gummy candy fan too.

Krissy sucked the last of her Coke until the straw rumbled against ice. Raven had to wonder if their approach had warmed up the temperature in the concession stand.

“Maybe that girl Suzy likes me,” Vine announced, nodding toward the window and the girls on the other side.

Raven stopped dead and slammed a hand into Vine’s chest so hard he choked on a gummy worm. “Stay away from earth girls.”

Vine set his jaw. “Why? You always date on journeys and don’t say you don’t ‘cause I’ve seen you.”

Raven grabbed him by the T-shirt and pulled him to his face. “I can handle it, Vine. You can’t.”

But Vine wouldn’t back down. “How do you know?”

Raven shoved him away. “Because you’re soft.”

“Guess you don’t remember our fight. I held my own with you when I hadn’t tapped into my angelic ability. You know I can beat you. So, if I’m soft, what does that make you?”

Raven clenched his jaws tightly. This wasn’t the time to put Little Brother in his place. “You heard me, Vine. Keep your distance.”

“Good morning, sunshine,” Mace said and smiled over at Nikki.

She rubbed her eyes with the backs of her hands and yawned. “It’s not really morning, right?” She searched the horizon for the arrival of the sun.

“No, Sleeping Beauty. It’s only nine-fifteen. You dozed the last twenty minutes or so. We’re almost there.”

She popped the passenger visor down and studied her reflection while they bumped along yet another gravel road. “Red, puffy eyes, hair in clumps. Oh, yeah, I’m just like Sleeping Beauty,” she mumbled, pressing fingertips to the inside corner of her eyes.
Yeah, like that’s going to fix it.
Giving up, she snapped the visor closed. “Where are we?”

“About an hour from home. We’re going to drop the computer with a friend.”

“Is he a zy, uh, xian?”

“No, a Halfling.” He concentrated on the road. “But, Zero is … well, he’s different.”

“Different?” She pulled her hair into a ponytail and searched the floorboard of the car for something to secure it. “Different how?” Finding two pencils, she slid one into each hand. At the base of her neck, she twisted and tucked until her long hair was clustered into an updo.

“That was cool,” he said and nodded to her hair. She quirked an eyebrow in response.

“So, tell me about Zero. You said he’s different. Does he have some hideous black wings sprouting from his spine or something?”

Mace’s jaw clenched. “No,” he answered sadly. “You won’t see anything like that.” Heavy silence floated on the conditioned air and filled the car.

“What is this place?” she asked as Mace pulled open a thick metal door. A forever stretch of stairs spiraled down into the abyss. If this was some weird portal into the great beyond, she’d rather stay in the car.

“Miles of connected underground walkways and tunnels that were once used by the city. But after a small earthquake, they deemed this area unstable.” He stopped at the first landing. “Oops, you probably need light, don’t you?”

Her eyes had adjusted, but light would lessen the creep factor. “Yeah,” she said, irritated that she didn’t want to brave the tunnel without it. In the last bit of the car ride, Nikki’d become agitated about a number of things. The situation as a whole topped the list, but she was also mad at the scientist for dying, and most of all angry at herself and the pathetic way she responded to Mace. Helpless little victim just wasn’t her style.

The problem was Mace made her want to drop her defenses and actually let someone else fight the battles. That equated to weakness, a commodity she couldn’t abide.

He reached to the low ceiling and pulled a chain. Rows of can lights sprang to life, winding down and illuminating the stairs. He gave a half-hearted motion with his hand. “Head toward the light.”

She cocked a brow. “Thanks, but I’m not quite ready to cross over to the other side yet.”

“It was just a joke,” he said.

Metal echoed with each step as they descended. On the next landing, she paused. In the dense quiet, her mind worked overtime like a multicogged machine designed to churn out a variety of emotions. It suddenly became important to determine her role in this train wreck. “Mace, what do I have to do with all this?” she asked simply, hoping the very tone would generate a
simple answer. When none came she rested a hand against the round banister. The shocking cold sent a chill up her arm and down the length of her body. “You and Will said I’m a Seer, and that I’m not in as much danger, but I still don’t understand.”

He paused beside her. “When we’re sent on a journey, sometimes we’re in contact with a Seer and that connection helps us along the way. Seers can even get glimpses of the enemy’s plan. When we first arrived, you’d seen into the other realm and kind of became a doorway for the hell hounds.”

“They crossed into this realm because of me?” No more drawing in the woods.

“To destroy you. A hound can kill you quickly or —”

“Or what? What else could they have done to me?”
And am I really expected to live with these massive swings of emotion? First angel kisses by the lake, then the knowledge that hell hounds want to kill me?
Nikki fought panic.

“They might have tormented you until you went mad,” Mace said.

She cringed.

“They tend to prefer torment, especially when they’re running in packs.”

She raised a hand to silence him. “Okay, I get it. Nice tidbit of info there, golden boy. Next time, when I ask, just tell me I don’t want to know.”

“I’ve tried that approach on several occasions. It hasn’t seemed to work yet.”

She stared at him for a moment, then continued down the stairs, feet clanging out her agitation.

“You’re handling this amazingly well.”