been casually affectionate before. All of a sudden, a spike of jealousy shoots through me, braided together with a sense of longing. I want to do that with her. I want to nuzzle Katrina’s nose and link pinkies with her and a million other adorable things I’ve always scoffed at because I thought it was all either fake or pathetic. I don’t pay much attention as Zolroth gives us a rundown of his fruitless search last night. I’m too busy compiling a list of all the cute things I’ve suddenly added to my bucket list.
Unlike me, my Trina pays close attention, wearing her serious student face just like she does whenever she studies for school. Katrina stares at Zolroth’s laptop as she chews on her lush bottom lip in thought, smudging off the bright pink lipstick she normally wears.
“You know we’re in tornado country…but nothing has happened around here this year.”
“Yes, I’m well aware, love,” Zolroth responds, rubbing her back.
Katrina tilts her head and pulls up a search engine, typing for a second. “So, while there wasn’t anything in town, there was a tornado about a month ago in Churville.”
I lean forward and point at the map. “That says Cherryville, hon.” I experiment with another nickname and am surprised by how much my heart jumps when I say it.
Katrina grins. “Yeah, I know, but they pronounce it—”
“Did someone say cherries? Because I love eating my cherry.” Akor skips into the room in front of Adam, wearing a ninja outfit and no shoes, winking at Katrina, who goes fire engine red for some reason. At first, I’m confused but not surprised by Akor’s odd clothing choice, but then I see he’s outfitted Adam the same. They must be playing.
“Ninjas need big breakfasts so they can crack the necks of their enemies,” Adam reports seriously.
“This is true,” Akor replies, putting his hands together in prayer position and bowing, before taking up a fighting stance.
“Why don’t we leave them to fight and get food, while we go check out this town?” I suggest.
Katrina glances at the clock. “But school starts in an hour!”
I grin at her. “You’ll feel better after we’ve found these angels, won’t you?”
She nods.
“Well, then, this is a mental health day.” I don’t say aloud that I don’t want to be apart from her.
Raz adds to my justification when he walks in, gets the rundown, and adds, “If the angels did touch down there, they’ve clearly moved on because they’re harassing us but touched down originally in a place that’s three hours away. I don’t think they’ll be there, I think they’ll be closer to us now, but maybe we can get a lead so we can find them.”
Katrina nods.
And it’s settled.
Zolroth and Jason stay behind with Adam, while the rest of us pile into our dingy minivan, with Raz behind the wheel, of course. We head on a road trip to Cherryville, which Akor has jokingly decided to call “Churroville.”
“I mean, if they’re going to mispronounce it, they might as well call it something delicious instead of something stupid,” he reasons just before we leave.
Katrina just gives a low “hmm” in response to his joke. She’s too busy scanning the laptop she stole from Zolroth, looking for online news articles that might give us a hint about where in town “miraculous” shit has been happening. Those fuckers like to bribe people to their side.
By some lucky chance, I end up sitting next to her in the back seat. Possibly because Raz puts Akor in timeout in the front passenger seat for trying to teach Adam how to use real throwing stars while we packed up, and Kastros is so huge that the middle seat is crowded just with him on it.
The entire ride, I keep sneaking glances at Katrina, and once she realizes it, she starts to do the same, gazing up at me from underneath those long, silky eyelashes.
I know that we are headed straight for a dangerous situation, but I can’t help feeling unreasonably giddy any time I catch her looking, which is odd. I’m used to being stared at. As a lust demon, it’s basically my job to be a visual temptation for the senses. But her looks do something to me that no one else’s do. Every time I catch her staring, it’s like there are tiny little Russian men dancing inside my stomach, squatting and kicking and then jumping in the air. There’s even a moment where we both sneak glances at one another