Authors: Taryn Browning
“You tell me. He was attacking you,” Janie said.
“But—you killed him.” Matt blinked hard.
“Don’t worry, he wasn’t human, and if it wasn’t for me you’d be a corpse without blood.” She bent over and pushed her dagger deeper into her boot. If she were caught with a weapon on school property, she’d be expelled.
“The d—dude tried to b-b-bite my neck.” He clutched his throat.
“He’s part vamp, they do that. Are you okay?”
He moved his hands up and down his body. “Yeah, um, I’m cool, thanks.”
Janie felt uncomfortable. He hadn’t taken his eyes off her since she had saved him from a very painful death. “What are you doing out here anyway? Aren’t you supposed to be wrestling?”
“I left my headgear in Pete’s truck.” He rubbed his forehead.
She nodded. “Look—you’re fine, so let’s just forget this happened and all is good.” Janie knew she’d be ridiculed at school tomorrow. As soon as he told Molly about what happened, she would make sure Janie was ostracized even more than usual. She’d have to leave high school early for the first time, not that it sounded like a bad idea. She just didn’t know how the Apotheosis would handle her exposure.
“You saved my life,” he said.
Janie broke his unflinching gaze. “You’d better get back in there before you miss your match. I’d hate for you to mess up your perfect ‘pin-everyone-in-ten-seconds’ record.”
“You know about my record?” he said, grinning at last.
“It was just a guess.” She turned in the direction of school. “I’ve got to go. Be careful.”
“Wait!” He jogged up beside her and kept pace.
“There’s nothing left to talk about.” She pressed on, hoping he would take the hint and go away. He didn’t.
“I’m not gonna say anything. Anyway, everyone will think I’ve lost it.” He half-laughed.
“Uh-huh.” She tried to limit their communication as much as she could, but he wasn’t having it.
“It was really cool what you did. How did you learn all those moves?” His confused stuttering had turned into excited curiosity. “You were like a tiny Bruce Lee.” Out of her peripheral vision, he made a karate-chop gesture.
Her straight lips parted into an unintentional smirk, and she let out a quick chuckle at his lame imitation.
Five minutes ago, this guy was practically in a fetal position, and now he’s making jokes.
“Are you laughing?”
“No, I think you’re ridiculous,” she said, still stifling a smile.
“Janie Grey, you think I’m funny.”
“I don’t think you’re funny.”
“So tell me, really—how did you learn to take down dudes?” His karate chop hand gestures returned.
Now only feet from the door, she wanted to run to the entrance. She felt uncomfortable and completely enraged by her abnormal, jittery “boy feelings.” She stopped mid-step and turned to face him. “Look, I don’t want to talk about it. You’re fine. Please go away and forget this ever happened.”
“Why are you so mad at me?” His once-prominent dimples disappeared.
“I’m sure you’re an okay guy and all, but I really can’t discuss this with you.” She dipped her head and returned his gaze. “There’s nothing left to say.”
His hazel eyes bore into her. “Yeah. I have a match to win.” He pushed his shoulders back, re-aligning his spine, and strode into school.
Good
.
That’s where you belong
—
in school, with the rest of them, not with me.
The next morning, Janie walked into first period, fidgeting with the string edging of her gray scarf. She knew it; she was going to be exiled to Siberia. People were going to look at her, and people never looked at her.
A thin girl with frizzy hair peered up from her backpack as she loaded her locker with books. The girl quickly broke her stare and placed a textbook on the shelf. Janie recognized her from English class. An Asian couple holding hands passed by, but unlike the girl, they ignored her.
Maybe Matt didn’t say anything
.
To Jane’s relief, it was turning out to be an uneventful day, but she hadn’t had History with the cheerleaders yet.
She noticed Molly standing outside the classroom in her uniform. Her loyal posse swarmed around her like bees to a hive. Janie slid by undetected. Molly didn’t even glance in her direction.
She doesn’t know.
After class, she met Ava and her only other friend, Luke, by her locker. Luke rewrapped his stylish scarf around his thin neck over a fitted cream sweater, tapered dress pants and tan loafers. Luke Turner was a good-looking kid in a dorky, boyish kind of way. He was of average height, somewhat nerdy, but always fashion-conscious. He wore thinly rimmed glasses after getting an eye infection from wearing contact lenses. He had assured Ava and Janie that he would switch back to blue contacts within the month; brown eyes were evidently not “posh.” Plus, blue apparently proved a good contrast to his dark brown hair. He followed the latest fashion trends, even if they only belonged on a runway. His tight, tapered jeans looked great on the members of Fall Out Boy, but on Luke, they made his legs appear even more pencil-thin.
“What’s for lunch?” he said. “No fast food. I’m watching my figure.”
“Are we going off campus?” Ava asked Luke, but his eyes were locked on something else.
Janie followed Luke’s stare, then wished for a large rock to materialize and block her from
his
view.
“Hi, Janie,” Matt said.
Janie lined up Ava’s textbooks along her shelf, ignoring Matt and still waiting for the large rock to appear.
“Janie, Matt’s talking to you. Aren’t you going to answer?” Luke’s voice fluttered like he had a butterfly lodged in his throat.
Janie turned to face Matt. “Hi.”
“You look good, considering—” Matt made a see-saw motion with his eyes.
“I already know,” Ava said.
“Know what?” Luke eyed them.
“Nothing,” Janie and Ava said.
“Why do I feel like I’m missing something?” Luke cocked his head, giving Matt the once-over. “And why are you here?” He cleared his throat. “Sorry to be rude, what I meant to say was—”
“Why are you here?” Janie finished.
“Janie, can I talk with you?” Matt said. “Alone?”
She rolled her eyes. “Whatever will get you to go away faster.”
“We’ll meet you outside at the car,” Ava said, shutting her locker and starting for the door. Luke didn’t budge. “Luke, now.” Ava snapped her fingers.
“Okay, fine, harsh much,” Luke said. Ava dragged him down the hallway by his scarf. Janie spotted them arguing in the distance. One of Luke’s hands rested on his hip while the other made figure-eights in the air.
“So, you’re going off campus for lunch?” Matt said.
“You’re asking me about lunch?” Janie noticed Molly glaring at her from across the hall.
“I guess that’s pretty lame.” He followed her gaze. “Forget about Molly.”
“Easy for you to say.” She left Molly’s I’d-like-to-kill-you expression and focused back on Matt’s gorgeous hazel stare.
“Are you okay?” He brushed his fingers along the side of her eye. “Did that happen last night?”
Janie touched her eye. She’d tried to cover the mark with her dark eye shadow and heavy studio foundation. She found it covered the lingering bruises better than regular cover-up. Fortunately, Seekers healed faster than the average human.
“Yes, but not with you—” Janie caught herself. “I mean, I’m fine. Is there something you need, or can we end this conversation?”
He fidgeted with something in his jacket pocket and focused on the floor, surprising even himself. He was usually so confident when it came to girls. “Uh—I just wanted to thank you again for last night.”
Her voice softened. “No problem. I guess I should thank you for not saying anything.”
His eyes returned to hers. He paused, looking for the right words. “You’re different, you know, than other girls.”
“Wow—thanks for pointing out the obvious.”
He stepped closer, moving into her personal space. “No, I don’t mean that in a bad way.” His smile was comforting. A feeling she didn’t feel “comfortable” having.
“Look, I’ve got to meet my friends. Don’t sweat last night. It’s over. You can go back to doing whatever wrestlers do.” She bit her tongue. She sounded like an idiot.
“I’ll see you around, Janie.” He touched her arm.
“Sure.” She squirmed out of his reach. “See ya.”
Janie sat on the cold sidewalk staring at the large neon “Power Plant Live!” sign. It towered over a semi-circle of linked buildings, housing bars and restaurants, and lined an expansive courtyard. During the summer, the courtyard was a popular venue for concerts, but too cold for outdoor concerts in November. Janie checked her cell—college night in downtown Baltimore. Drunken students would spill out of the bars after last call, perfect prey for the undead.
There had been a rash of unexplained deaths in the area. Janie figured the murders had to do with the growing population of Daychildren. Ever since she reached the age to Seek, more and more had been born. True vamps were usually not a problem anymore. They seemed to be evolving, wanting to live among the human world without issue. They looked down upon demons. Most vampires had no interest in drinking a demon’s filthy blood, let alone changing a demon into a vampire, creating the vampire/demon half-breed known as Daychildren.
“Find any?” Kai said. Janie jumped off the curb, tripping on a crack in the asphalt. She righted herself. He started to laugh. “It just kills you that you can’t feel me coming.”
“What do you want?” Letting her heart return to its proper place outside of her throat, Janie reached for her dagger.
“Whoa, you don’t need that. I’m not going to hurt you. I could’ve already killed you.” Kai put his hands out. “You’re still alive, aren’t you?”
“Is this fun for you? Some kind of game?” Janie retrieved the blade from her boot. She didn’t trust him.
“Your eye looks awful.” He pointed to her bruised face.
Janie stared at the three jagged scars lining his forearm. White lines appeared where new tissue had formed. Judging by their location, they appeared to be defensive wounds, as if he were protecting his face from something or someone. She thought it odd. Vampires, or Daychildren, in Kai’s case, didn’t scar. Their bodies healed quickly without leaving a mark. She guessed the scars had formed during his human days.
She ignored his comment about her eye. “You know I have to kill you. It’s my job.” Her eyes flicked to his waist. His scythe glistened under the light of an overhead lamp post. Thirty degrees outside, and he wore a T-shirt. Lucky for him, Daychildren didn’t feel temperature. Janie, on the other hand, could feel every bit of the biting cold, and she shivered.
Kai nodded, ignoring her. He looked in the direction of the parking garage. “Did you hear that?”
“What?” Janie clenched her jaw. He distracted her. She couldn’t do her job with him around. “If you’d stop talking to me, I could listen.” She held her breath and focused into the distance. A girl screamed.
“The parking garage.” Kai jumped off the curb and took off in a blur.
“Uh—he’s too fast.” Janie shoved her dagger back into her boot and raced into a full sprint toward the garage. She ducked under the arm gate and curved up the ramp. She arrived at the first floor and stood in between the rows of cars, listening for any sound. The screaming had stopped, but Janie’s skin still crawled.
She swerved around the maze of cars, scanning the garage. The door to the staircase slammed shut. She ran down the middle row and jumped up onto the walkway. She flung the metal door open. The metal slammed against the concrete wall, creating a shower of rusty paint around her. The top of the door fell off its hinge, causing the metal door to crash to the ground.
She retrieved her dagger from her boot and started up the empty stairwell, skipping steps in her ascent. She reached the second floor and opened the door to the garage level, her dagger ready to strike. She smelled decay and maggots.
Out of the corner of her eye, she caught a flicker of something large. She flung her dagger in the direction of the movement. The blade sliced through flesh and bone. The Daychild slumped over and landed on his knees, clutching the dagger between his hands. The potbelly with a mullet staggered back to his feet. His hollow black eyes focused on Janie. With one forceful tug, he dislodged the dagger from his chest.
“Where’s the girl?” Janie said, breathing heavily after hurtling the staircase.
“Around,” the man said. “You forgot to shut the door.”
I closed it
.
Crap!
The door swung open and a rush of stale city air blew by her. Janie sprang onto the hood of a car; the heavy metal door came only inches from striking her. The Daychild had an ability—telekinesis.
He released the sticky green-encrusted dagger. Instead of clanging to the ground, it floated in mid-air, slowly rotating until the tip of the blade faced Janie. “You’re a fast little Seeker. Do you think you’re fast enough to move before I drive this dagger through your head?”