Vengeance Bound (15 page)

Death is not your fate. You are our servant.

Heat suffuses my body, centering on my shoulder and radiating out. It’s not a pleasant warmth but a searing like being tossed into a vat of boiling oil. I moan, but my throat closes off and no sound escapes. I wonder if They are burning away the blackness in my soul as well, and if I’ll have anything left. Just when I’m certain I can’t take any more, the heat subsides and I return to my senses. The Furies are gone, and I sense Them settling back into the corner of my mind They call Their own. I roll onto my back and look up at the sky, a ragged sob tearing from my chest.

I don’t know how much longer I can do this.

After what feels like an eternity, I climb to my feet and stagger back to my car. Nearly dying has taken a lot out of me, and my legs feel like overcooked spaghetti. A couple whispering to each other pause and look in my direction, but quickly dismiss me. I’m pretty sure I look like hell, but luckily not bad enough to attract the attention of the truck stop denizens.

Without another thought I get into my car and drive away.

WOOZY

I’m about ten minutes from home when I drive off the road. The rumble strips on the highway wake me with a thrumming noise, my car vibrating alarmingly. I straighten the wheel in time to avoid driving into the ditch alongside the road, and slam to a stop.

Not good.

My head pounds, and I rest it against the steering wheel. I’m light-headed and tired and parched. It must be the blood loss from Medina’s attack. This happened after I got shot in Charleston, so I know that what I need right now is sugar. Lots of sugar.

I slowly guide my car back onto the road and take the first exit. I’m still in West County, but it’s a part I’ve never been to before. The houses look newer, and there’s a brightly lit shopping center that boasts a twenty-four-hour drugstore.

I stumble out of the car, catching myself on the door to avoid face-planting into the pavement. Once the dizzy spell passes, I head into the drugstore, making a beeline to the soda coolers at the back. I grab a twenty-ounce bottle of something dark and bubbly, open it, and drink half. I’m just finishing it when I hear a shout behind me.

“Hey!”

“I’m going to pay for it,” I snap, reaching for another one. Already the high-fructose corn syrup in my belly is making me feel better. Hooray for science.

“Isn’t it a little late for you to be out and about?” I turn around and almost drop the fresh soda in my hand. I sag against the door to the cooler. At the end of the aisle, wearing a red smock and looking as goofy as hell, is Niko.

I’m exhausted, but he looks wonderful. It takes me a moment too long to answer him, and another moment to remember Kevin Eames. It’s hard to think about avoiding Niko when he’s looking at me like he’s been waiting all night to see me.

“Hey,” I croak. He pushes off the chip display and saunters toward me, his hands stuck in his pockets.

“What are you doing out at this time of night?”

I smile, because my sluggish brain is having trouble coming up with an excuse. When I got into the car to find Medina, it was after one in the morning. I’m guessing it’s somewhere after two or three now. It’s easy to lose track of time with Them. “Yeah, my mom’s sick. She sent me to get some cough syrup.”

Niko nods, and pushes his dark curls out of his face. “Oh. Okay.” He seems disappointed, and I wonder if he thought I was here to see him. After the scene in the lunchroom, it might make sense. Anyone watching would’ve been able to see the sparks between us. Is he as happy to see me as I am to see him?

The thought warms me before I throw a mental bucket of ice water onto the feeling. Why would he be looking for me? Despite the moment in the cafeteria, we’ve barely spoken. Obviously he’s just happy to see a familiar face.

I clear my throat and nod. “Yeah. Um, do you work here?” My brain is already slow, and the fact that he seems as excited to see me as I am to see him throws my thoughts into further chaos. Does he like me? Is there any way I can ask him without sounding desperate?

Probably not.

I need to quit watching so much television. It’s rotting my brain. There’s no way that Niko is interested in me. It’s just wishful thinking. Even if he is interested . . . well, I can’t exactly return his feelings. It’s wrong. I’m too dangerous.

I can’t forget that I’m not just a girl, even though I enjoy playing the part. I’m a monster. My brain shies away from the mental image of Alex Medina’s final moments. They weren’t exactly kind.

I tear my thoughts away from my inner struggles to what Niko is saying. “. . . so I work here a couple of nights a week. I have insomnia, and I don’t like the drugs because they make me a little crazy. Working helps.” He pushes his hand through his hair and gives a little nervous laugh that makes my stomach flip-flop. “I’m not sure why I told you that.”

“Because we’re friends.” I give him what I hope is a reassuring smile.

He grins. “Friends, huh? You want to hang out for a while?”

“Sure.” I wonder if I’m making a mistake, answering so quickly. But right now I’m on my own. They’re silent, and I probably wouldn’t like what They had to say, anyway.

Even though I know better, I follow Niko to the front of the store, grabbing a package of chocolate frosted doughnuts off a display near the register. Niko sits behind the counter and waves away my attempt to pay. “You’re a guest in my kingdom.” I lean against the other side of the counter and drink my second soda, trying not to grin like a love-struck idiot.

I rip open the doughnuts, stuff one into my mouth, chew it, and swallow it quickly. Very attractive. “Wow, so you are king of all that is the late-night drugstore. You’re a pretty lucky guy. Do you get a crown?”

Niko laughs, and snags one of my doughnuts. His fingers brush mine, and a thrill runs down my spine. “Nope, but I do get a nifty scepter. Of course, it looks like a mop.”

I look around the place, taking in the soda coolers and shelves crowded with everything from tampons to Hot Wheels. I would go crazy if I had to spend eight hours in such a confined space. Already my skin feels like it’s a size too small. That, of course, could be the guilt from staring at Niko’s mouth as he talks.
Kevin Eames, Kevin Eames,
I chant mentally. Still, I can’t help but wonder if his lips are as soft as they look. “So, what do you do while you’re here? Surely you don’t get that many customers.”

“Naw. Only a few on the late shift. To be honest, this is all still kind of new to me. I’ve only worked here for about a month, since I turned eighteen. You can’t pull the overnight shift if you’re a minor, so before that I could only work until midnight.” He stretches and yawns, even though he’s very much awake. His eyes don’t look at all sleepy. I barely notice since I’m watching the way his shirt pulls across his chest and lifts a little, revealing his midriff at the bottom. Dark hair sprinkles across the tan flatness of his belly. My mouth is suddenly dry. He doesn’t seem to notice that I’m staring. “I mostly just watch the counter, and read the magazines.”

I take a deep breath and reach over. “These?” I pick up a flashy-looking magazine that promises a story entitled “Fifteen Ways to Wow! Your Guy in Bed.” My face heats.

Niko waves a hand. “Pshaw. Not even close. Those are actually good compared to the stuff I read. I’m talking the stuff like this.” Niko comes around the counter and picks up off a rack what looks like a newspaper. His shoulder brushes against mine as he leans against the counter right next to me, and my heart flutters at the contact. I shove another doughnut into my mouth to hide my sigh.

Niko is oblivious, and he shakes out the pages of the paper and shows me the cover, bending his head toward mine.
GIANT BIRD WOMAN RAINS DOWN JUSTICE
is the headline, and for a panicked second I think he knows my secret. Then he laughs and taps the page. “Can you believe this? People actually pay money to read this stuff.”

I choke down the doughnut and follow it with a swallow of carbonated sugar water. The liquid tingles all the way down, but it gives me time to recover. My heart pounds and I widen my eyes to cover my nervousness. “Oh, my God. People seriously pay money for that?” I sound like an idiot. But Niko doesn’t even notice.

He snorts and nods, flipping through the pages before he finds what he’s searching for. “Listen to this.” He clears his throat and begins speaking in a newscaster-type voice, “‘A large birdlike woman was seen killing a man in a small town north of Charlotte last July. A lone witness, eighty-three-year-old Grace Perkins, said the creature looked to her like a Fury, a mythological creature that killed violent offenders in ancient Greece.’” Niko shakes his head and laughs. “How would some old lady in North Carolina know what a Fury looked like? I wonder how much they pay people for these stories.”

I laugh hollowly, because when he reads it out loud, it sounds silly. Who would believe that Furies exist? I look down at my ripped sweater sleeve and the newly pink scar underneath. Anxiety pools in my stomach and swirls through my middle, and an awful thought stops me.

Niko turns the page, and stops with a laugh. “This one’s even better—”

“Do you like me?” The words tumble out, and at Niko’s raised eyebrow I wish I could call them back. But I don’t. I plunge on ahead. “You were sort of a jerk in the library, and you never even said hi at Tina’s party. But then today, in the lunchroom . . .” I trail off, unsure how to put what I’m feeling into words. “I don’t get you.”

His expression softens, and he sets down the paper. His gaze meets mine unwaveringly. “I wanted to talk to you at Tina’s party.” He says it so low, I can barely hear him.

I cross my arms. “Yeah, so why didn’t you?” Some inner demon spurs me on. I listen for Their telltale whispers. But They are still silent, still slumbering. This alarm, it’s all me.

He shrugs and puts the tabloid away in the display rack. “I don’t know. Maybe I was afraid you were out of my league, you know?” He’s close enough that his body heat warms my side, and I’m hyperaware of him. I’ve never felt so alive. Or so afraid.

“No, I don’t know. Maybe you should tell me.”

His eyes meet mine, a smile crinkling the corners. “I think maybe I was wrong about you. When you first showed up, I thought you were one of those girls who fall for the first douche bag who hits on them, and when I found you with Dylan, I was sure of it. I didn’t want to waste my time just to end up dumped for some jock.” He shrugs. “But you aren’t who you pretend to be. I could tell that when I saw you standing over Dylan on Saturday.”

I tense. “You saw that?” My voice is too high and my heart picks up. I feel sick.

He puts a calming hand on my arm. “Not really. I just saw him on the ground and you next to him. Don’t worry. I’m not going to tell anyone. With Dylan I can fill in the blanks. It was pretty impressive, though.”

Relief washes over me. I don’t say anything, just cram the last doughnut into my mouth. He didn’t see Them. And he touched me. My skin burns from the contact. He doesn’t seem to notice my distress, and keeps talking. “You pretend to be this good girl Southern belle, but you change when you don’t think anyone is looking. I want to get to know that girl, the girl who comes out in the middle of the night to buy her mom cough medicine, but could also take down a guy who brags about benching three hundy.”

I blink, and my tongue feels too thick. I can’t find the words, so I just stare at Niko, wishing I could dive into his ocean eyes and escape the awkwardness of this conversation that I started.

He laughs bitterly, and shakes his head. He’s taken my silence to mean something else, disbelief or anger. He pushes his hand through his hair, causing it to stick up in a dozen different directions. “Is it so hard to believe that I might like you and want to get to know who you really are?” It’s a ragged plea, and his voice strikes a chord deep within me. Because what he’s asking is exactly what I want, someone to know who I really am.

I’m just terrified that if he knows the truth, he’ll run for the hills.

Everything is so tangled up together in my mind. I want him, but I can’t have him, even though They’re quiet and far away. It’s Their silence that spurs me on. Maybe They’re tired enough that I can have just a little happiness, just a single moment with Niko. I have to believe that he’ll be safe.

Because I want to kiss him so badly, I can taste it.

I lean forward, closing the distance between us, and my lips touch his. Niko seems startled at first, but then his arms are wrapping around me, pulling me close. Everything falls away but his lips, his arms around me, and the scent of rain and pine. He tastes like doughnuts, and I press into him. I need more. So much more.

But that single kiss is all I get. Someone clears their throat behind me, and we jump apart. A bedraggled-looking guy stands behind me.

“Diapers?” he asks, exhaustion heavy in his voice.

“Aisle three,” Niko answers, and the guy is gone and back before I can say anything to Niko.

“Thank God you guys are open,” the guy says, digging out his wallet as Niko rings up the diapers. “I went to the truck stop down the road, but they’re closed.”

Niko frowns. “That’s $25.63. I didn’t know they ever closed. I thought they were twenty-four hours just like us.”

“They are,” the guy says. He slides his card and picks up his purchase. “There were all kinds of cops and stuff there. I guess maybe they got robbed or something. You be careful,” the guys says as he leaves. He gives me a pointed look, and embarrassment heats my face.

It’s in that moment that I realize I forgot all about the woman in the truck, Medina’s near miss. Guilt sours my stomach. How could I have forgotten about her so easily? She could’ve been seriously hurt, and I was ready to head home without a backward glance.

What’s wrong with me?

“I should get home,” I say abruptly. It sounds like a blow-off, even though I don’t mean it that way. Niko nods, and I walk out of the drugstore with a heavy heart.

“Hey.” He runs out as I’m almost to my car. “Don’t forget the cough syrup for your mom.” He tosses me a red bottle, and I catch it in midair. I was so caught up in the moment that I completely forgot my cover story.