Cape Storm Page 0,45

a sixteen-year-old boy." There, I'd said it.

And he understood it. "And that's easier for me, right? Because I won't see him as just a kid. I see him as more of an equal."

I nodded unwillingly. "I'm not putting you out there alone," I said. "But I know you. I know you won't hesitate if - "

"If I have to kill somebody who looks like he just got passed up for his junior prom? Yeah, I'm definitely that guy."

I didn't answer that, because there was a new note in his voice: self-loathing. Kevin hadn't lived an easy life. He was more pragmatic than most kids I'd ever met, and tougher, too.

But that didn't mean he wanted to be, even though he wore his damage like a badge of honor.

"I'm sorry," I said, finally. "I wish I didn't have to ask you."

"I wish I wasn't the go-to guy to kill monsters dressed as teens, but there you go." He shrugged. "At least I've got experience."

And that was the heart of it, at last. I'd come to Kevin because I'd seen him kill without hesitation, and without remorse. Granted, he'd had plenty of personal hatred built up, but it took a special kind of detachment to do what he'd done and never suffer much guilt about it. He mostly resented the fact that we all knew about it - not that he'd been forced to do it.

"I'm not your pet psycho." I flinched, because Kevin could have been reading my mind. "But yeah, I'll find Lyle and do this. Just don't put me on speed dial the next time you have to push a school bus off a cliff or something. So. What's our approved monster-killing technique?"

I pulled the tissue-wrapped crystal tooth out of my pocket. "Let's find out." The thing glittered like a diamond in the dull light.

We took the fragment with us, found a crew member to open up the gym for us, and moved equipment to get clear floor space for our experiments. Kevin took to the scientific method with enthusiasm, because there's nothing a teenage kid likes better than trying to destroy something that's indestructible. Kevin tried so many kinds of fire that even I was impressed with the variety and breadth of control he had over it, especially since he didn't kill us in the process.

Except that nothing worked, and eventually Kevin tried stomping on the thing in frustration. That didn't work so well, either.

"Let me," I said, and crouched down across from where the glittering crystal shard lay between us. Kevin mimicked me from about four feet away.

"No fair using Earth powers," he said. "I'll call bullshit."

"You'll be working with an Earth warden, idiot," I said. "Watch and learn. I'm going to start with super-low frequencies and work my way up. You watch the structure with me. If you see any response at all, tell me."

"If I'd known this favor of yours would mean sitting around watching you use a vibrator, I would've said hell yeah earlier - "

"Bite me," I said. He flipped me off. I ignored him - mostly - and paid attention to the structure of the crystal.

It took the better part of an hour, but we pinpointed the frequency range that had the greatest effect on the thing. I couldn't get to Venna's epic pulverizing effect, but I figured that anything that cracked and shattered the bone would do. At the very least, it would distract the holy living hell out of the enemy.

"Yeah, that's great," Kevin said, as I wrote down the numbers. "Big problem. I can't do that, genius. It takes a tree hugger."

"And I'll get one for you," I said. "But I wouldn't call her a tree hugger if I was you. She'll make your face grow backwards if you piss her off." I wrote down the name - Maida Manning. Three hundred pounds of extremely sarcastic Earth Warden who wouldn't take any of Kevin's bullshit. Maida also had a vicious sense of humor. I could see a beautiful friendship developing, unless of course they managed to kill each other first.

I'm so public-spirited.

"Give her this," I said, and handed him the written instructions. "Tell her I'll give her a raise if she manages to not kill you before you kill the bad guys. But whatever you do, wait for Lyle to give a signal to move. Got it?"

"Of course I've got it. I've got an IQ above your dress size." He paused. "Then again, it might be the other way