The Burning City (18 page)

June left the room. She surreptitiously checked her hands to make sure the chip wasn’t sticking to her fingers still.

June tried to hang out with Sam’s friends and had a coffee and whiskey when Cindy got the bottles out. The whiskey made her queasy. She set the mug aside.

“Shit,” she muttered. “
Et tu
, alcohol?”

Sam eventually joined them in the living room. She passed her drink off to him as he sat down beside her on the couch.

“We have a lot of planning to do still for the party,” he said. “I’m going to be up late. You can go to bed whenever you feel like it.”

She reached over and patted Dipity curled up beside her. The cat didn’t seem to mind the visitors, and they all played with her. “I think I’ll just curl up somewhere down here. I’m paranoid with Occam lurking in the shadows. I don’t feel like giving him opportunities to catch me alone.”

She wouldn’t tell him about the strange sounds she’d been hearing. He had a lot of work to do, and he couldn’t waste tonight tearing the house apart for vampires.

He kissed her and then stood. “Make sure that cat doesn’t cover my upholstery in fur, all right?”

June gasped. “She’s a lady. How dare you.”

“I’m jealous. You touch her more than you do me.”

“She’s soft and doesn’t smell. Go. Have fun planning your beach party.”

He walked behind the couch, stopped, and leaned over to her. “You and Cindy should go shopping tomorrow. I’ll give you one of my credit cards.”

“Oh, Daddy Warbucks. Should I get myself a pretty new dress?”

“No, but you will need a bathing suit. Preferably a bikini.”

She tilted her head back. “I know it’s hard to tell under all this ink, but I’m actually whiter than a corpse. I sizzle in the sun.”

“Get an umbrella.” He kissed her forehead. “I want to show you off.”

She rolled her eyes, but part of her, a tiny part, both celebrated and threw up from nerves at the same time. Show her off? Like a trophy? Like a real girlfriend?

She patted Dipity again. “I want to be a cat so they don’t take me to the beach.”

Dipity mewled sleepily.

“Screw you too.”

“All ready for some fun and sun?” Sam plunked his bag in the back of their rented van. “I, for one, am ready to spend a day having a good time and not worrying about anything.”

Sam was up before sunrise, and people were over before she even crawled out of bed. She’d puked again this morning and was still a little queasy. Hopefully, her rotting guts wouldn’t ruin the day—not that she was looking forward to spending the day in the great, hot, sandy outdoors.

“I think you might be overstating how much you’re actually going to relax,” June said. “I know you.”

“This is a political and social event. I’m not going to deny that. I’ll have to shake some hands and kiss some babies. Aaron and I have to put our best faces forward so our groups will mingle. But I fully intend to kick back and have a good time. I need it. So do you.”

Sam wore a pair of knee-length swim trunks. They showed off his tanned, muscled calves quite nicely. He also wore a pair of flip-flops and a T-shirt. She had a weird thing about seeing him barefoot or nearly; it made him seem more vulnerable somehow.

“The city won’t let you relax,” she said. “They need a break from the vampires. They’re going to be all up in your grill with cameras.”

The vampire death toll had finally halted at around five hundred. A staggering number. Such a huge loss of life that she, like many others, wasn’t sure she was supposed to grieve. Surely, some of those vampires were innocent and didn’t deserve it. Occam and his kind were unrelenting monsters.

“You look nice.” He eyed her up.

She’d gone shopping with Cindy and bought more than she expected—such a treat to have clothes again that were not only made for women but were her size. She could actually have some style.

She wore a black bikini with a loose cheetah print cover-up over it, cinched at her waist like a robe. That was her style. She also wore a pair of big round sunglasses, a floppy sun hat, and sandals.

She untied the cover-up and opened it. “I don’t want to blind the entire city.”

Sam whistled. “Damn, look at you.”

She tried to close the wrap, but he snaked his hands underneath it and slid them up her sides.

“Stop.” Her cheeks warmed. “I look like a skeleton.”

“You do not. You’ve actually put on a few pounds, I think.”

“The only time in the history of the world it’s been a good thing for a man to say that to a woman.”

He continued feeling her up. If he didn’t stop, they would end up in the back of the van.

“I think you’re beautiful,” he murmured. “I always have.”

“You don’t look so bad yourself. I was hoping for a Speedo, though.” She reached around and groped his ass.

“That’ll have to wait until I’m drunk.”

“Don’t get too drunk. You’re supposed to make a good impression, remember?” She let go of him and tied her cover-up.

“That’ll make a hell of an impression.”

She was trying to be a good sport. She had her hair pulled up so she wouldn’t sweat to death, her various layers of protection on so she wouldn’t bake, and Cindy had dragged her to the salon. She now had shiny black-lacquered nails. Cindy had also talked her into being waxed: legs, armpits, bikini line. She almost felt pretty.

Sam, June, Cindy, and Natalie all rode in the van. The interior already smelled like sunscreen. Cindy wore a bright red one-piece and a flowery sarong, her cleavage absolutely mesmerizing. June sat in the front seat with Cindy behind her and tried not to stare at her boobs in the side mirror.

“I’m working on my tan today,” Cindy announced as they drove. “I’ve had so little time, since I’ve been helping you guys. I actually have free time again. I don’t know what to do with it.”

The day was sunny and hot and the sky clear. They’d brought two full cases of water with them, a cooler with food June could eat, and several battery-operated fans for their tents.

“I don’t even know what people do on a beach,” June said. “Make sandcastles? Bury each other?”

Sam was driving. She kept getting distracted by the muscles in his arms, all sleek and shiny with lotion.

“We can go swimming,” Cindy said. “Or we can rent some skates. They have a path right by the water. There’s this cool bridge too. It goes over the highway.”

“Skates,” June said. “Do I look like I’d function well with wheels on my feet?”

Sam chuckled. “Don’t worry. You’ll find something to do.”

June was doubtful but tried not to be a wet blanket. After all, today they got to do something other than worrying, hiding, or plotting to take down a terrorist.

Jason would probably love the beach. Diego, too, maybe. He wasn’t outdoorsy, either, but he took trips to the coast with his friends every summer. Her heart sank. Were they tucked away in some dark, windowless, reeking room somewhere? Were they being fed only potato chips and root beer? She’d brought the picture with her. She couldn’t bear to leave it at the house, to not have it next to her while she slept.

They drove the freeway next to the lake, the sun glinting on the water, the road packed with cars. Hopefully they weren’t all going to the beach.

“Your tent is set up for you, Sam,” Natalie said from the backseat. “I just got a text.”

“Good,” Sam said. “I’m going to be a little too busy to take care of it.”

“Aaron is just arriving,” Natalie said. “He’ll meet you at the beach house.”

Sam had gotten a lot of concessions for their gathering. Part of it was his political smoothness and an exchange of promises and cash, and part of it was him bringing up over and over how the city had disparaged him, how he’d been slighted and maligned and they owed him this.

The beach was closed to the public today, and anyone attending the party was on a list and couldn’t enter the area without being checked-in. The beach usually closed at seven PM, but they were given permission to camp overnight. Some caveats were involved, however: anyone leaving the beach after seven would not be allowed to return; no fires were allowed and only tents could be used; no vehicles were allowed on the beach; no alcohol or drugs were permitted; if things got rowdy, the police had the authority to shut the whole thing down. Additionally, in the morning, they had to clean the beach and return it to its pre-party state. Sam and Aaron already had a volunteer group prepared to do this.

When they arrived, June groaned inwardly. People were everywhere, teeming on the long wide stretch of golden sand. The lot was filled with cars, but Sam had a reserved spot close to the beach entrance.

Sam killed the engine. “We can drag all the stuff to our tent first. Then we can head to the bar and have a drink. What do you say?”

June perked. “They have a bar?”

“In the beach house, yes.”

Maybe she could choke down a few drinks and loosen up a little, if her stomach didn’t rebel.

“Just take the things we need right now,” Sam said. “I’ll send someone out to get the big cooler and the sleeping bags later.”

“I’ll make sure someone grabs it.” Natalie opened her door.

June tried not to roll her eyes.
Yes, Jeeves, send the servants to fetch my things.

As soon as they started pulling their bags out of the back, they had attention. People in the parking lot wandered over to greet Sam. She tugged the brim of her hat down over her glasses.

“It’s gonna be like that all day,” Cindy said. “Don’t worry. We’ll have fun together. I won’t let you sit around alone.”

Getting from the car to the beach proved a task. People kept stopping Sam. Natalie carried his things.

When they finally started across the beach, the progression got even slower. People swarmed around them. Sam needed bodyguards. Judging by his enthusiastic reaction, though, he ate it up.

“Can we just go to our tent?” June asked Cindy. “If he has to stop and say hello to everyone on this beach, it’s going to be midnight before we get there.”

“Good idea,” Cindy said. “We’re chopped liver, anyway.”

Natalie stayed with Sam, as was her punishment for being his assistant, and June and Cindy walked off.

The beach was nice, actually—long and curving, with several piers jutting from one end and a big hook on the other, curling out into the lake. Out on the hook, a forest of volleyball nets were already strung up. The skating path Cindy mentioned snaked through the sand, an asphalt line following the water’s edge out to the hook. The bridge arched over the highway that ran parallel to the beach.

The centerpiece was the beach house, blue-and-white, in the shape of a giant cruise ship. On the lower level were kiosks to rent bikes and skates. On top was a bar. The place was swarming with people.

Sam’s tent had been erected out past the volleyball posts, near the hook. Cindy, Natalie, and a few others would be out there with them, a little city surrounding their emperor. Sam’s tan-and-green dome tent was no bigger than the others.

“You can leave your bag.” Cindy stepped over to another tent and began unzipping it. “No one’s going to bother our stuff. Don’t worry.”

June unzipped Sam’s tent and ducked inside. Since she was short, she could stand upright, though her head brushed the canvas ceiling. That was a new experience, being able to touch a ceiling. The tent was plenty big enough to hold both her and Sam and all their crap comfortably.

She set her bag and a small cooler with water in it on the floor. She knelt, took a bottle out, and unzipped her bag, though she wasn’t sure what she was looking for. She rooted around inside. Clothes, sunscreen, tampons—because God knew her body would probably choose the beach to give her a surprise—and some bags of freeze dried fruit, in case she couldn’t digest anything else. Her phone so she could call her mother. She pulled out the picture of Jason and Diego.

Their solemn expressions twisted her heart. Micha appeared in her mind, wasting away in his bed. What right did she have to be here? How could she have fun while they were all prisoners?

“Hey!” Cindy slapped the side of the tent. “You ready? Let’s hit the beach house.”

June tucked the picture back into her bag. “Yeah, coming.”

Cindy had ditched her sarong, and June struggled even harder not to stare. Her booty was as big as her boobs. She wore a sun hat and sunglasses, and they covered more than her suit did. June remained huddled in her cover-up.

They got quite a few looks as they walked, but most of them were not for June. She should drag Cindy around with her like a busty shield from now on.

“I really need a drink,” Cindy said as they trudged through the sand toward the beach house. “Like, really-really.”

“So do I.”

They ascended the stairs to the top. The bar was a concrete patio populated with tables and chairs, most of which were occupied. The scent of grilling food hung on the air, and for once, it made June’s stomach growl instead of turn.

The patio looked out over the beach, giving them an idea of how many people were already there. How many were Paranormal Alliance members and how many were SNC members? June had never been in the same place with so many paranormal people before. She wanted to run screaming as she imagined how many were telepaths.

June hung back while Cindy fought her way up to the bar to get them drinks. She returned with two obnoxiously huge pink drinks in hurricane glasses with umbrellas and fruit spilling over the rims.

“That’s not a drink,” June said. “It’s a dessert.”

Cindy handed one over. “I got double shots of rum. And I asked—only natural fruit juices, so you can drink it.”

June carried her ridiculous drink as she followed Cindy around, seeking out a place to sit. They found a small open table near the railing and sat down across from each other.

“Sam and Aaron will end up here,” Cindy said. “We’ll run into them.”

June slumped in her chair and eyed her drink. Cindy started sucking hers up through her straw.

“I feel so awkward,” June confessed. “With all these people. I’ve never been around so many paranormal people before.”