Absolute Zero (3 page)

At least it wasn’t the
Coats
shooting out tires like they’d done to Zach’s motorcycle. We’d burned The Center to the ground weeks ago, but still, I’d not fully relaxed. Somewhere deep inside, I knew they’d show up again.

They always showed up.

I scanned the darkness one last time. “Ready?”

“Say when.”

I clicked off the flashlight and shoved it in my back pocket. Not the most comfortable thing, but I needed both hands. I bent my knees, curled my fingers around the cool bumper and drew in a quick breath.

The metal groaned beneath my grip as I straightened my legs. “When.”

The engine revved, and I stepped forward, pushing the car a foot or so, then dropped it. A quick squeak of the rubber kissing the pavement sounded, then the car lurched forward.

Sweet
. I didn’t get any mud on my shirt after all.

Lights flashed behind me, and I whipped around. Two headlights cut through the darkness. The vehicle sped around the corner and swerved into the oncoming lane. The car jerked to the side, probably compensating for the crazy driving, but that meant it was headed straight for me.

And of course, I wasn’t holding my flashlight, so the driver probably couldn’t see me.

Not such a good thing.

I squatted to dive to the side, but a powerful stream of snow blasted from my palms and thrust me into the air, nearly ten feet.

Okay. That’s new.

For some reason, the stream of high-pressured snow stopped, and I landed on the roof of the car that had targeted me. Too bad I didn’t land on my feet, though.

The metal groaned beneath me as the full force of my bodyweight caved the roof. Searing pain ripped through my shoulder and elbow. Felt like my bones jolted into my neck from the impact.

The wind whooshed from my lungs.

I rolled onto the trunk, and my knees collided with the back window, but the world went topsy-turvy as I kept rolling. A hard ball of metal dug into my side on my way over the end of the trunk. Ribs cracking resonated through my aching body all the way to my teeth.

A sharp smack to the skull ignited an explosion of white blasts in my eyes. A line of fire shot up the base of my skull, over my head, and landed with a violent pulse at my temples. My stomach clenched as momentum thrust me into two more revolutions on the hard pavement.

Screeching and the smell of burning rubber assaulted my senses. I finally stopped, flopping onto my back. My head throbbed. My lungs burned like acid had been poured down my throat.

“Mandy.” Georgia’s voice registered above the ringing that had settled in. “Oh my God.”

“
W-w-where’d
she
commme
from,” a male voice slurred.

“Son of a bitch. You’re drunk.” Georgia sounded closer, then two warm hands rested on my chest. “Mandy. Are you okay?”

Georgia’s glowing face came into focus. The edges of my vision stayed blurred, those damn white lights making a comeback when I moved. Her eyes were wide and her skin pink. A cough rattled my body and sent a flow of iron-tasting warmth pooling in my mouth.

She leaned toward me. “I saw you fly.”

“Get—”
Cough
. “Them away—” I spit out more blood. “Need to heal.”

Georgia darted to her feet. “Beat it you assholes. What the—”

“I’ll call 9-1-1.” Another male voice entered the chaos in my mind, but he didn’t sound drunk. Why the hell hadn’t
he
been driving, then?

“No. She’s fine. Just get out of here.”

Georgia sounded vicious, like a lioness protecting her cubs. No doubt she looked fierce. She’d gotten so strong in the last month.

I closed my eyes and drew in a deep breath. My frantic heart calmed a fraction as I focused on the aches and pains. Ice crackled, like someone crumpling sheets of paper. Stinging cold tugged at my flesh as the frost crept up my arms.

Muffled voices filtered through the ice that now coated my face, including my ears. Intensifying my concentration, the cold doubled. My body, of its own free will, straightened, and my back arched. Not sure how the ice moved with me, but it did. Like it was an extension of me—my skin—despite wearing clothing. I rolled onto my side. Gravel crunched beneath my weight.

Heal. Heal. Heal.

The pain ebbed, and the ice retreated back to wherever it went. I never understood how it began to crackle off and dissipate so quickly. It had to have been an inch thick.

I quit trying to figure out my frosty tendencies because it literally made my brain hurt. Especially the part where I was never that wet after it melted.

I pushed myself to my knees, leaning forward on my arms and looked up.

“Okay. Now, who’s the dumbass who hit me?”

Chapter 4

“N
o, Zach. I’m fine. Really,” I said into my phone while Georgia maneuvered the car into her driveway. “We just got to Georgia’s house.”

“Come by and pick me up,” he said.

“It’s almost eleven, not too late?”

“No way. I want to see you.”

I needed to see him. I hated this distance between us.

Georgia jammed the gear into park, and the car jolted back as it settled into the driveway.

“Okay. Meet me at the end of your driveway in ten minutes,” I said as I tapped
End
and tossed my phone on the console.

My stomach tingled at the thought of him sneaking out to meet me. It soothed the sting of his absence tonight…and all the other nights this past week.

“You flew into the air, Mandy. I still can’t believe it.” Georgia let out a long breath.

“That was new. Too bad I didn’t stay up until after the car passed beneath me. Would have hurt much less. Thanks for re-directing those drunk-driving idiots so I could heal.”

“They were the three from the party. Guess that Nate guy never found their driver.”

“Or they took off without him.”

“Hello, the reason for a DD is so the drinkers give up their keys to him and not do something stupid like hit a chick on the side of the road!” Georgia shook her head. “So, you’re going to go meet up with Zach?”

“He’s freaking. I shouldn’t have told him until tomorrow.”

“You two sneaking away at night for some alone time.” She wiggled her eyebrows. “Naughty. Naughty.”

“Very funny.” I smacked her arm. “He’s been a little distant lately. You know? Not calling as much. Barely doing Facebook chat with me. Always working.”

“His parents raggin’ on him big time?”

“That must be what it is.”

Georgia looked out the windshield and drew in a deep breath. “Tomorrow’s the day, Mandy. What do you think Lois and Gary will tell us?”

“I try not to think of it, because, every time I think I understand something about all this super-power crap, I get it all wrong. Or get stabbed with a dart and carted off to a research facility.”

Georgia’s stare bore into me. Her nostrils flared. “I’m scared.”

“I’ll be close by, sis.” I slid my hand over the leather to hers. “Blaze and Kelvin. We’ll face it together.”

“I wonder if she saw that the safe was broken into?”

“It was hiding something she was supposed to give to you after graduation, and she asked you to save tomorrow night for a birthday dinner, so she had to have looked in that safe by now.”

“I guess.” Georgia’s fingers gravitated to her mouth. “I have a bad feeling.”

I didn’t want to say anything, but I had a bad feeling, too. No reason to, really, but most of the summer Georgia’s parents had acted like the plain-Janes they are. We’d not seen anything strange. Hell, we were about to approach them with what we knew when her mom requested some face-to-face time. “You have a bad feeling?”

“I don’t know. Lois. Maybe she’s lying. Or Gary, even. I mean—”

“We’ll find out tomorrow. We’ll find out what they know.”

“I should have just stayed at your house tonight. This sucks.”

“You still can. Run to your room and get some stuff. Ah hell, you’re the same size as me, you don’t need anything. Come on. Let’s go.”

“What about Zach?”

“I can see him tomorrow.”

She raked her teeth over her bottom lip. “No. I’ll just go in. They’re asleep by now I’m sure. They stopped waiting up for me.”

“It’s not even eleven.”

“I know. They can barely stay up past nine. So lame.”

True that. They were the definition of lame, but at least Georgia had parents. Even though they weren’t her birth parents and have been lying to her for eighteen years. Hell, they didn’t even know that Georgia’s real birth date was the same as mine. August tenth.

Or maybe they did? I couldn’t shake the feeling they knew more about the Kelvin and Blaze bit.

“Okay.” Georgia cranked the door handle. “Have fun with Zach.”

I slid toward her and drew her into a sideways hug. “Call me when you wake up tomorrow. Love ya, sis.”

“You, too.”

She thrust open the door, stepped out, then I settled into the driver’s seat. With her shoulders slouched, she moped up the sidewalk leading to her front door. The porch light illuminated the darkness that had settled in around the house. The neighboring houses were dark and with no streetlights near Georgia’s, it looked like she lived out in the country instead of just a few blocks from my and Scott’s apartment.

She disappeared through the door, and the front light doused. I rested my head back and drew in a deep breath.
God. I wonder what Georgia’s parents are going to say tomorrow.
Everything could change for us. But what if they didn’t say anything? How would they react to what we had to tell them?

With my luck they’d haul our asses to the psych ward and throw us in straight jackets.

I shook my head as I shifted the car into reverse, then navigated the short driveway. With empty streets and hitting every green light—all three of them—I met Zach at the end of his driveway in less than ten minutes.

I scooted over to the passenger seat, and he plopped into the driver’s side. Instead of shifting the gear into Drive right away like he normally did, he leaned over and pulled me into his arms.

“Are you okay? Damn those guys who hit you.” Boy I loved these strong, warm arms around me. Once again the growing distance between us faded into oblivion. How could I doubt anything with him? How could I ever glance at another guy?

It’d just been a moment of weakness.

“Those guys were so drunk, Zach. No way should they have been driving. Not even sure how they knew where they were going.”

“Obviously they didn’t.” He pulled the door shut and put the car in drive. “And you took their keys?”

“Tossed those suckers into the woods!” I couldn’t hold back a laugh. “We called a cab, though, so they won’t be out there long.”

“That’s a good one.”

What I should have done was toss the keys and left them out there to fend for themselves, but that felt too mean.

Zach steered the car away from the end of his long driveway and made the first turn toward the outskirts of town. It was too dark to go to our meadow, but there was a nice place to park near it.

“How was orientation?” Zach asked.

“Fine. Sorry you missed it. But I can show you around tomorrow if you want.”

“That’s cool. After work, though.”

“Your dad has you working a bunch.” I unbuckled my seatbelt and scooted close to him.

“They’re all still pissed I skipped out on State and stayed here. So they’re keeping me…busy.”

I wondered if they’d ever get over Zach’s decision and stop hating me for it. “Thanks for coming out here so late even though you have to work early tomorrow.”

“Sure.” He smiled, though for some reason, it didn’t reach his eyes like it normally did.

And that quickly the doubt flooded back in. Things certainly had changed over the summer. I’d thought that since we fried The Center, and Zach and Georgia were staying here to go to college with me we’d have a blast.

I was naïve to think that.

Zach put his arm around me. I nuzzled my forehead against his neck and drew in a deep breath. His familiar woodsy cologne tickled my nose. My entire body responded to his scent, warming from the inside out.

Maybe it was the danger of meeting at the end of barely-lit driveways and stealing away to abandoned parking lots to be alone, to learn each other more intimately than possible with the ‘rents lurking.

Soon I’d have my own apartment—well—an apartment with Georgia. Then Zach and I could really do some getting to know each other.

If we wanted. And after my behavior tonight, I had to ask myself if
I
wanted it. Of course I did. Zach was…Zach. My first love.

I hated the nagging doubt chipping away at the back of my brain.

“This weekend you’re moving into your place, right?”

I hadn’t missed the
you’re
part. He’d originally promised to help, but I suddenly felt an
I can’t come
discussion brewing. “You’re helping, right?”

“I’ll try.”

Try?
I wanted so much to ask him again what was going on with him, but I didn’t dare. Probably because I didn’t want to hear anything bad right now, and somehow, I knew something was going on with him.

Zach veered the car off Main Street toward our spot. My heart throbbed, and I nestled closer. “Soon I’ll have an apartment. No more meeting at our spot like this.”

“This has been fun, too.”
Has?

“But a nice comfy couch with a TV or some music going and no ‘rents hovering. That’d be better.”

“You going to have a house warming party?”

“Me? A party? Who would I invite? Samantha Jones?”

His jaw tensed, then he coughed into his hand.

I giggled, trying to lighten the mood stifling me in this car. “Kidding. I’d be up for something if we survive our little dinner thing with Georgia’s parents tomorrow night.”

“That’s right. It’s tomorrow.”

The car jostled as he pulled into the dirt lot. It’d only hold three or four cars at the most. Tall, overgrown trees surrounded the lot except a narrow path leading to it. Unless someone specifically knew it was there, no one would see that entrance.