Supernormal (9 page)

“You’re just hot for Anna Paquin,” Liz said.

“Yes, I am.”

“You know I don’t like vampires,” Liz said, toweling her damp hair.

“I thought everyone liked vampires,” Cam said.

Liz shook her head, sending her wet hair flapping around her shoulders.  “The whole neck-biting thing gives me the creeps.”

“Oh, are you going to get so freaked I have to cuddle you in my manly arms?” Danny asked.  He gave a long-suffering sigh, but held his arms out.  Liz muttered something about him being so fucking chivalrous as she settled next to him.

The cookies were gone by the time Wesley Snipes cut Ron Perlman in half, and they had to pause to turn off the movie when Danny’s mom came back home, with groceries and his younger sister, Whitney.  Cam immediately popped up to take the grocery bags, then stood there feeling awkward as Whitney started pleading with Mrs. Evans to let her hang out with “Danny’s friends” and slumped off to her room in a huff when it turned out the movies in their queue were definitely not PG.

Mrs. Evans directed Cam into the kitchen.  “Anywhere on the counter, thank you.  You’re Meg’s boy, aren’t you?”

“Yes, ma’am.”  Cam started unpacking the bags, which made Mrs. Evans smile and call to her son, “I like your new friend, Danny.”

“Oh, Cam hasn’t decided if we’re friends or not yet,” Danny called back.

“Well, it’s too late.  I like him,” Mrs. Evans said.  “Now get off your butt and get in here and help him.”

Danny let out a long-suffering sigh and shuffled dramatically into the kitchen, but he easily pulled apart the bags and started tucking things away.

“You have a younger sister,” Cam said.  “That’s nice.”

“No, it’s not.  It’s annoying.  Little sisters are annoying and they eavesdrop on your conversations.”  Danny raised his voice on that last part.  There was the scrambling of footsteps on the stairs.  Danny grinned at Cam and shrugged.  “She can be okay, I guess.  What about you and Naomi?  I’m guessing you’re the over-protective big brother type.”

Cam didn’t answer for a second.  He focused on organizing the groceries into different piles as Danny emptied the bags—produce, dairy, meat, freezer, pantry—and ran though different futures in his head to distract himself. 
Ashley, water splashing up around her as she ran
.  She was at Ian’s now, working, he knew. 
Ian, box cutter in hand, razor slicing raggedly through tape.  Flipping open boxes.  A glass case falling, shattering, brightly colored figures smashing on the floor
.  Ashley again
, in the alley out back, flattening boxes.
  He checked on Ashley often.

Tyler started laughing.  “Nice going, Danny, now you’ve got that stick up his ass again.”

“Did I?”  Danny elbowed Cam.  “Sorry about that, man, I didn’t mean to put anything up your ass.  ‘Least, not without buying you dinner first.  Meg said not to bring up the parent thing ‘cause it was a touchy subject, but she talks about you and Naomi all the time, I thought—sorry.  But, hey, my dad left us,” Danny offered.  “He’s an asshole.  So there’s that.”

Cam nodded.  “Naomi’s nice.  We got along.”  At least he thought they had.  As long as their parents weren’t there, because when they were, Naomi, who was shy and quiet and easily cowed, would close up all those parts of herself that she thought their parents didn’t like, until there was nothing of her left, only them.

Ashley.  Focus on Ashley.  He could deal with that. 
Ashley, stacking boxes.  Ashley, turning away, face flushed, hair falling free of its tangled knot.  Arguing, her voice shaking, growing louder.  Bricks.  Alley.  Box cutter, slicing through tape, cardboard, skin.  Blood.

Cam dumped the carton of ice cream he was holding into Danny’s arms and ran out the door.

He made it to Level Up
in fifteen minutes; it would’ve been sooner if he wasn’t wearing church shoes.  There was a Closed sign on the door, but Cam could see Ian sorting a stack of comics in his arms.  Cam hammered on the door until Ian came over.  “Hey, sorry, man, we close at two on Sundays—”

Cam cut him off.  “I have to talk to Ashley.”

Ian didn’t ask; he just nodded toward the back.  “Taking out the recycling.”

Cam could already hear the raised voices.  Just the one, actually.  Hers.  He ran around into the back alley.  It was hot and muggy there, even in the shade.  Ashley was straining, her fingers tearing into the stack of cardboard she was holding, across from an angular blond boy.  Cam recognized him; the one from earlier, from Paco’s. 

“I was here, I’ve been
here
,” Ashley protested, and her voice was raw.

“Bullshit, Garrett.  You were on the beach earlier.  People
saw
you.”  The boy—Troy, Danny had said his name was—jabbed a finger at her; Cam could almost see Ashley bristle.  “You’re always skulking around, like some kind of freak, staring at us.  You want to mess around with the other freaks, see if I care, but just fuck off and leave the rest of us alone, okay?  Jesus—you’re always staring, following us around—”

“I’m
not
,” Ashley hissed, and Cam could see her catch herself as she strained forward.

“—like I’m—like we’re all freaks like you, but we’re not, so just stay the hell away.  I don’t know what your damage is, Garrett, but—”

Cam saw Ashley turning,
lunging
, and he ran, skidding to a stop between them.  “Sorry, sorry!  Sorry I’m late, Ashley.  I got caught up.”  He put a hand on Ashley’s arm and it felt like marble under the thin fabric of her shirt.  So strong—he remembered the beach—she was so damn strong, and Cam’s skin went cold.  He couldn’t really stop her; if she wanted at the kid, he wasn’t strong enough to drag her away.  “I hope you weren’t waiting long.”

“No,” she answered.  Her attention was on him now, though, and she caught on quickly.  “No, it’s okay.  We’re…not late, are we?”

Cam tried to catch her eye, but it was impossible to tell if it worked with those damn sunglasses between them.  “No.  But we should go now.”

Ian came to the back door, a box cutter in hand.  “Everything okay here?”  He nodded at the boy.  “Hey, Troy.  You know, I can’t allow customers back here.  Rules and stuff.”

“Had to talk to Garrett.”  The boy was still glaring at Ashley.

Ian sighed.  “Stop picking on her, you’re just going to get your face punched in.”

“He is not,” Cam said to Ashley.

“No, I meant by me,” Ian said affably.  “Part of the Level Up employment plan.  You work here, I beat up all your bullies for you.”

“She was lurking around Fast Pete’s this morning,” Troy said mulishly.  “Out on the beach, said he could tell someone was watching him and shit.”

“It wasn’t
me
.”  Ashley’s fingers dug painfully into Cam’s arm, holding him in place like a shield.  “I’ve been here.”

“She’s been here,” Ian echoed with a grin, waving the box cutter.  It slipped out of his hands and Ian automatically grabbed for it.  He cursed loudly and Cam shoved Ashley, hard, hoping that surprise would give him an edge.

She moved so fast; he didn’t have a chance.  He had shoved her, trying to get her back, away, and then there were fingers closing around his throat, and his back slammed into a brick wall.  Cam had half a moment to realize there was nothing under his feet, and then just as fast she let go, and his feet slammed into the ground.  Ashley was backed up against the opposite wall, one hand imprisoning the other.

“I’m fine,” Cam told her.

“I’m not,” Ian said.  “Dammit, that was really
stupid
.  Troy, do me a favor, and maybe call someone.  This is, wow, this is bleeding kind of a lot.”

“Sure.  I—you got a first aid kit?” Troy asked, pulling out his cell phone and heading over, with a last hard look at Ashley.

Cam stepped between Ashley and the others.  “We should go.  Now.”  She was staring at Ian, but when Cam touched her shoulder she wrenched herself away from the wall and bolted—out of the alley and across the street, into the sunlight.  Out in the street, the sun was so bright the white stucco buildings glowed.  Ashley clung to a bright, pockmarked wall as she gulped down air.  “Stay away,” she rasped when Cam stepped toward her.  “Stay back.”

Cam stayed back, positioning himself between her and Level Up.  Even though there’d be little he could do if she wanted back in.

Ashley breathed in and out, then stopped and held her breath.  “He’s—his hand,” she managed.  “We should—”  She stepped back warily.  “You should—”

“It’s not bad,” he told her, “just messy.  You’re going to be okay.”

Ashley nodded, but her fingers were still digging into the pockmarked stucco.  “Stupid, stupid,
stupid
,” she muttered softly.

“What’s stupid?” he asked.

“Me.  Thinking I could—”  She stopped and shook her head.

Cam wasn’t sure what to say to that, and when he stepped forward she moved away.  So he settled for, “Do you want to grab an ice cream?”

There was the flicker of something behind those smoked lenses.  She glanced at him?  He really hated those glasses.  “What?”

“Ice cream.  It’s always a good idea.  And it’s hot out.  Come on, my treat.”

This was not how she expected this day to go.  To be sitting on the beach, melting trails of ice cream and sprinkles dribbling down her hand.  She couldn’t think of the last time she’d just…stopped, and sat on the beach.  Listened to the low, steady thrum of the ocean as the waves peaked, crested, stretched out, and pulled back again.  It was a comforting sound, if she let herself be comforted.  The early evening sun was still warm against her skin, but there was a breeze, and the ice cream was a cool slippery slide down her throat.

“Thanks, Danny…yes,
Sling Blade
, I promise.”  Cam hung up and shoved his cell phone in his pocket.

“Is he going to be okay?” Ashley asked.

“Mrs. Evans talked to one of her friends at the hospital.  Ian needed a few stitches and a tetanus shot, but nothing serious.  He’s already been released.”

Ashley raked her hands through her hair.  “I knew this wasn’t a good idea.”

“Ice cream?”

“No.  A job.  Working.  Pretending to be—normal,” she spat out.

“Nothing happened.”

“It almost did.”

“‘Almost’ doesn’t count.  Trust me, I see the things people almost do all the time.  It wasn’t Ian,” Cam said after a moment. “You were going to go after that boy.”

Ashley let out a shaky breath.  “Yes.”

He glanced at her.  “I won’t ask, if you don’t want me to.”

What’s your damage?
he’d said, and even the memory of it sounded so much like Jase, Ashley shut her eyes against it.

Cam was quiet for a long moment.  She heard him shift in the sand, the air in and out of his lungs.  She focused on that, on the rhythm, and the quiet crash of the waves.  Comforting sounds, and, god, she wanted to let herself be comforted.

“Look at that,” Cam said, and his voice was quiet, too, and comforting.  Ashley scrubbed at her eyes under her sunglasses and looked.  There were a few people on their stretch of beach, and the sky was orange and gold and endless in the evening sun.  “It’s different in Savannah.  You don’t get sunsets like that.”

It was an offering, a way out, and she knew that.  She latched onto it.  “Do you miss it?”

“No.”  It came out quick and certain, but then he sighed and said, “Not the big things.  Not where it matters.  I miss…the humidity.  I didn’t think I would, I complained about it often enough.  I miss the moss.  There’s moss everywhere.  It makes the place look…”  He went silent for a moment.

“I’ve seen pictures.  It’s pretty.”  She rolled her eyes at how stupid that sounded.  “I mean, it seems like a nice place to live.”

“I’ve heard it can be.  Do you miss Chicago?”

Ashley shrugged, but she shook her head.  “It was just a place I lived.  ‘Til I lived somewhere else.”  She glanced at him.  “Danny told you?” she guessed.

“Aunt Meg, actually.”

“You’re changing the subject on purpose.”

“Yes.”

“I won’t ask,” she said, and he smiled at that.

Still smiling, he asked, “Where else?”

“Just places.”

Cam quirked an eyebrow.  “It might be easier if we went through and made a list.  Subjects to avoid.  Places of residence.  Well, previous places of residence.  Here’s nice; I like it here,” he admitted.

Ashley allowed herself a brief nod.  “Yeah.”

“Family?” he asked.

“No.”  Not anymore, and no one who’d given enough of a shit to stick around when there had been someone.

“Agreed.”  And it was vehement enough that Ashley laughed and Cam smiled again.  “Your scars,” he added.  It wasn’t a question.  Ashley stopped laughing, but she nodded.  “Career path?”

She turned back to the sunset and tried for indifference.  “Doesn’t look like that’s really going to work out for me.”

“You have to figure out something.  You can’t really be a ward of the state for the rest of your life.”  Ashley flinched at that, and Cam quickly said, “All right, no careers.  I’m guessing no college, then?”