Death, and the Girl He Loves - Darynda Jones Page 0,37
a smiling face appeared out of the darkness. Then another. Glitch put a finger over his lips to shush me while Brooke gestured me forward.
I unlocked the giant window and Brooke and Glitch crawled inside. Holy cow, I loved having my own escape route.
Jared stood behind them. “Got room for one more?”
Narrowing my eyes on him, I said, “I thought that good-bye felt a little fake.”
He grinned and ducked inside. Even Cameron came in, cranky disposition and all.
My gang was back together. Life was good.
“We need a plan,” Brooke said, doing a 180 into Seriousville. “If the world is ending in three days, we’d best be figuring out how to stop it.”
I had to agree with her. “If you have any new light to shed on the subject, I’m all ears.”
“We have to figure out who this Dyson guy is,” Kenya said, clearly on top of it. “What do we know about him?”
Unfortunately, not a lot. Dyson was the only name we had to go on, the one the descendants of nephilim gave us when they’d come after me. They said Dyson had sent them, but they also indicated that he was the man who opened the gates in the first place.
It was so weird to think of Kenya as being on my side after all the crap she put me through. I still wasn’t quite over it. “You could have clued me in,” I said to her, my every word dripping with resentment, “when you pulled the switchblade on me.”
Brooklyn gasped. “You pulled a switchblade on her?”
A mirthful smirk flashed across Kenya’s face. “Like you’ve never thought about it.”
“Good point.”
I played along and looked at Brooke in astonishment. “You’ve thought about pulling a switchblade on me? What kind of a best friend would do that?”
“Not so much a switchblade,” she said, her forehead crinkling in thought. “But there was a paring knife close by one time when we were arguing. Illicit thoughts danced across my brain.”
“Brooke!”
“Only for a second,” she said in her own defense. “And they didn’t involve me actually stabbing you. It was more of a love poke.”
“Oh.”
“Hardly any blood.”
I hid a grin. “Okay, then.”
“So, this guy?” Kenya said, picking up where she left off. “The one who’s supposed to open the gates? What do we know about him?”
I riffled through my backpack and brought out the drawing once again. “This is pretty much it,” I said, handing it over.
She studied it. “Those nephilim that came for you, they said his name was Dyson?”
“Yes.”
We weren’t getting anywhere very fast. Keyna could study my drawing all day, and the only thing she’d come away with was eyestrain. I took it back from her. She glared.
Brooklyn scooted closer to me. “Are you thinking what I’m thinking?”
“Unless you’re thinking that we’re all going to die screaming, then probably not.”
She patted my leg and gestured toward my drawing. “It’s an image.”
I looked down at it. “Yep.”
“No, it’s, you know, like a picture.”
Her meaning sank in. “Brooke, I drew this. I can’t go into something I’ve drawn.”
“So, you’ve tried?” she asked, her tone challenging.
“Well, no, but only because it’s ludicrous.”
“How do you know?” She drew her legs underneath her and leaned toward me. “How do you know until you try?”
I knew that look. There was no getting past this. Until I gave it a try, there’d be no living with her. “Fine,” I said, letting exasperation filter into my voice.
“What?” Kenya asked.
Cameron had settled onto the window seat and Jared sat on the floor beside me, scrolling through the pictures on my phone, his shoulder against my knee.
“She doesn’t know?” Brooklyn asked me.
Glitch spoke up then, happy to fill her in. “Lor can go into pictures and see what happened when they were being taken. It’s part of her superpowers.”
Superpowers. If only.
“Wow. Okay,” Kenya said, folding her arms across her chest. “That’s cool.”
“But I can’t go into drawings.”
“No,” Brooklyn said, folding her arms across her chest as well, “you don’t know that. Try.”
After rolling my eyes so far back into my head, I almost fell backwards, I refocused on the drawing I’d done. It was disproportionate. The eyes too wide-set. The nose not quite centered. “I don’t think this will work.”
“You didn’t think the other would work either. Concentrate.”
I scanned the room. Brooke and Glitch looked on expectantly. Kenya curiously. And Jared humorously. Even Cameron seemed interested. “There’s way too much pressure. You guys have to stop looking at me. I can’t do this if you’re looking at me.”