Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy (51 page)

“Hey!” David snagged the material before it hit the ground. “You don’t want to leave that lying around. Cops might find it and—”

“I already got blood on everything else,” I said.

His anxious expression softened. “I-I guess. You’re right. Hopefully, it won’t stir too much up.”

“These things take forever to run anyway,” I added. “My dad’s a lawyer and I’ve heard enough horror stories about DNA evidence to know it shouldn’t be a big deal right now. Besides,
if
and
when
they run any tests and start asking questions, we’ll be long gone, right?” I glanced at Brian.

“Hopefully, yes.” He nodded.

David eased up a little and took a step back as Brian continued checking me for wounds.

“Is there anything else?” he asked, gently sliding his fingers down my
shoulder. “You’ve got a lot of blood on you.”

“Yeah,” I said, looking down. “My… leg.” I had felt the pain of something
stabbing into me while I was still buried beneath the rubble, but I never stopped to assess the damage.

I twisted my left leg outward, revealing a soggy patch of red on the back of my thigh. I couldn’t tell how deep the wound was through my jeans, but something had definitely gouged into me earlier. Shreds of denim curled up around the area.

Brian rested his flattened hands on my outer
thigh and I swallowed hard as a flush of heat shot through me,
numbing the pain.

He wiped his bloodstained hands on his jeans, and then stood and reached toward me.

“Thank you, Brian,” I said as he helped pull me to my feet.

“You’re welcome.”

I stood there staring into his hazel eyes for a moment, a
nd then a look of discomfort came across his face. He cleared
his throat and looked away.

“We need to get out of here,” he said.

“Yeah,” David agreed. “Before the cops show up.”

“You would be worried about the cops, wouldn’t you?” Brian raised an eyebrow.

“Aren’t you?” David sneered in response.

Brian’s snarky expression instantly vanished.

“Come on, guys,” I said, pressing my fingers into Brian’s forearm. “Cut the crap. We have to go.”

Just as they turned away from me, Brian shot David a nasty glare and then started walking off ahead with Alice. David responded with a “kiss my ass” kind of smirk and then hung back to wait for me to catch up to him.

“How did you find us?” I asked.

“I’ve been following you guys for a
couple of days, actually. I’m a Tracker,” he replied. “It’s what I do. You might
not realize it, but you three leave a hell of a trail behind.”

“What kind of trail?”

“Wherever you go, you leave a trace of fluorescent energy. Like a fingerprint. It’s an aura of color that lingers
and then fades after a while. It usually gives me enough time
to see where you’ve been and where you’re headed.”

“Wow. That’s crazy.”

“Maybe. You see fluorescence inside. I see it outside. We’re not so different. Right?”

“No. I suppose we’re not. Hmm.” I looked down at my feet as we walked.

No wonder he’d been able to spot us so quickly all those times before when he had been
hunting
us.

“What are you thinking?” he asked.

“What?” I looked up. “Nothing. Sorry.”

He shrugged.

“About your injuries,” he said, glancing at me. “I’m, uh, sorry I couldn’t do more.”

“It’s okay,” I replied with a partial smile. “You’re not a Healer, but you have your own skills.”

“True.” His sharply curved eyebrows rose and he grinned
. “Having this shit inside me has definitely changed the way I see things,” he said.

“It’s changed the way I see things, too.”
Literally.

“I’ve experienced your powers once before, back when
you tried to kill me with them.” David let out a nervous laugh.
“No thanks. I don’t know how you get through a day seeing things like that. Doesn’t it drive you crazy?”

I wanted to tell him the truth—yes. The fluorescence makes me crazy. I see everything. Every. Effing. Thing. I see infected people. Started people. Sleepers. I see if Brian and Alice have… screwed around.

I see David’s yellow glow illuminating his chest like a radioactive heart, throbbing to a quickened, inhuman pulse.

I rarely see people for people anymore.

“Sometimes,” I replied, pretending to be unaffected.

“Only sometimes?” He cocked his head to the side. “Alright then.”

I think he could tell I was lying.

Chapter
5

W
e managed to clear the scene before authorities came snooping around. David showed us a shortcut under an overpass—a maintenance tunnel—that spit us out right into the heart of the downtown district in front of a strip of decent-looking businesses and hotels. We probably didn’t have a chance, but David seemed to think we could get a room at one of the nicer ones, despite our lack of credit.

“If they’re not a chain hotel,” he’d told me, “you can
usually convince them to take a risk if you hand over enough
deposit upfront.”

That’s what we had been doing up until now, but all of those places were hardly adequate. I’d like to sleep in a room that didn’t smell like mold or beer for one night.

“So, where’s
he
going to stay?” Brian asked me in a presumptuous tone. The four of us had stopped outside the entrance to one of the hotels.

“He can stay with me,” I replied. “Getting two hotel rooms
is hard enough. Three?” I shook my head. “It’s not worth the risk.”

“Are you sure that’s a good idea?” Brian added, wrinkling
his brow.

“Yes, Brian. We’re adults. We can handle it.”

“If you say so.” He rolled his eyes.

“Shut up, Brian.” I shoved him in the shoulder. “I don’t
sleep with everyone. Quit acting like you’re so damn righteous.”

“Alright. Whatever!” He threw up his hands. “I’m going to go talk to someone and see what they can do for us. Alice, wait here, okay?” She nodded in response, and then he jogged up ahead toward the sliding glass doors of the hotel.

I leaned against the side of the building near the lobby windows and turned toward David, who was looking at me with a raised eyebrow.

“Don’t get any ideas,” I growled, narrowing my eyes at him. “Brian’s just trying to start shit.”

“Sorry.” He averted his gaze. “I… wasn’t.”

Alice took a few steps away so she could sit down on a bench near the curb.

“So, have you talked to the Saviors at all since we last saw each other?” I asked David.

“No. You?” He tucked his hands into his pockets.

“No.” I glanced over at Alice, who didn’t seem to be listening to us, and then back at him. I kind of wanted to tell David about the Prism. In fact, it was right there on the tip of my tongue, but it didn’t seem right. He’d just rejoined our messed-up party and I hardly felt like I could trust him. Maybe telling him wasn’t the right thing to do. Yet.

“How’s… your sister?” I couldn’t remember her name, but I knew he was taking care of her.

“She’ll be alright. I called in a few favors to make sure she’s in good hands until all of this shit blows over. I can’t risk disappearing on her again, and I need to know she’s taken care of.”

David didn’t seem like a trusting kind of guy, so I couldn’t help but wonder who he’d gotten to take care of his sister. It wasn’t my business, though.

Suddenly Brian came marching out of the hotel lobby with a scowl on his face. Alice leapt up from the bench to rush to meet him.

“What happened?” I asked, pushing up away from the wall.

“This place isn’t going to work out,” he said and started walking off in the opposite direction.

“Hey!” David went after him.

“What?” Brain veered around.

“Let me handle this, okay?”

Brian stiffened. “No.” His eyes widened. “You can’t just—”

“No. No. Not like that.” David shook his head. “Jesus, man. I don’t need a Glock to get a hotel room.”

Brian took a breath. “Fine,” he said, looking away. “Do whatever the hell you need to. Just don’t get us in trouble or I’ll—”

“Leave him alone, Brian,” I butted in. “I’m tired of all the ghetto places we’ve been stuck in lately. Maybe he can help us. Let him do his thing and we’ll see what happens.”

“Thanks.” David flashed a smile at me. I wasn’t trying to stick up for him. I only wanted Brian to shut it.

David looked down at the tear in his hoodie and grimaced. “Damn. This won’t do.” He rolled his shoulders back, slipped the garment off, and then handed it to me. “Would you mind holding on to this? I don’t want them to see it.”

I took the torn hoodie from him.

“Hey, kid,” he said to Brian. “You got that leather jacket with you? The one you had…” He stopped himself. “Anyway, do you have it?”

Brian hesitantly pulled his black riding jacket from his pack and unfolded it.

“Don’t get it wrecked,” he sneered, handing it out to him.

“Damn, man. You’ve got a hell of a complex. It’s a coat, not a car.” David shrugged on Brian’s coat. The fit was off—snug in the shoulders and too short overall—but he pulled it off well enough to get by. He perked up the collar. “Stay where I can see you guys,” he said and then headed into the hotel.

From the outside, it looked like a much nicer place than any of the previous ones we’d stayed at. No wonder they had turned Brian down. A young guy like him with a handful of cash. That’s not suspicious
, said no one ever
.

“What do you think he’s telling them?” asked Alice, peering at the lobby through one of the windows along the sidewalk. We couldn’t see David very well. He was speaking with the receptionist. She had a very concerned look on her face as he spoke and she kept nodding at everything he said. I barely noticed him pointing at something and then tucking it away into his jeans, but I couldn’t see what it was.

“Who cares? As long as we get a room, right?” I shrugged.

“I do,” said Brian, wrinkling his lips to the side. “If that creep screws us over and…” He glanced across the street at a police car parked near the sidewalk. “If he screws us and we get caught…”

I crossed my arms and glared. “You need to calm down, Brian.”

“She’s right,” Alice murmured. “Let’s just see what happens, okay?”

Brian heaved a sigh and looked away from me. “Okay.”

He’d been a nervous wreck ever
since he’d run away with Alice. It was wearing me thin, too. I had my own fears to worry about. It wasn’t just about him and his little golden child.

“Guys!”

We all turned our heads. David was standing between the sliding hotel doors, gesturing for us to come join him.

“Come on! Hurry up,” he called out. I was the first to start walking. Brian and Alice trailed behind me.

We went inside and followed David across the room. I felt someone’s eyes on me and glanced at the receptionist as
we headed toward the elevator door. She immediately looked
away, as if embarrassed to have been caught gawking, and pretended to search for something on her desk.

In passing, I saw she was a sleeper, but not an ordinary
one. She had a dark brown aura resonating from her outline,
along with murky, dirty color swirling inside her, reminiscent of the man we’d seen at the diner not long ago. The one who… dropped dead in front of us. It was different from the
stuff inside sleepers Brian
could
heal. This… was almost
completely discolored—polluted with vile darkness.

I shook it off for the moment, without saying a word to
the others, and followed them into the elevator. Once we were
inside, David smacked one of the numbered buttons and the elevator door closed.

“What did you tell her?” I asked, standing between David and Brian to help keep them separated. David didn’t scare me anymore, not since I had discovered I could hurt him with my powers.

“I saw the cop car across the street and used it to our advantage. I told the receptionist and her manager that you were under protection of the state and that I was your bodyguard.”

“And she believed that load of crap?” Brian scoffed.

“People will believe
anything
if you say it with enough confidence.” He pointed at me. “Then I pointed out the blood on your clothes and she caved in real quick. As long
as you guys are here, you’re going to have to keep your heads
low, alright? Try not to wander around too much. I don’t want people asking you too many questions.”

The elevator stopped and a ding sounded just before the doors slid open.

David exited first. He handed a keycard to Brian. “1532. Attached to room 1534, which is our room.”

The disgruntled look on Brian’s face convinced me he was angry that he hadn’t somehow managed to execute this type of plan earlier. David must have been one smooth talker to really pull it off the way he had. Either that, or the receptionist was gullible as hell.
It was so far-fetched, maybe it sounded legit. Or maybe cops would come
snooping around later on. David seemed fairly confident that they wouldn’t. Then again, I did see him tuck something away after talking with the people at the front desk.

David reached into his pocket and took out another hotel keycard.

“Here.” He handed it to me. Then he shrugged off
Brian’s jacket and gave it back to him. “Thanks.”

Brian didn’t even reply. He could have at least thanked him for everything.
Stubborn ass.

I slid the card through the card reader on the door and
waited for it to click before turning the knob. The lights came
on as soon as we entered and the smell of bleach, wood cabinetry, and clean sheets filled my nostrils.

“We haven’t been in a place this nice before,” I said, poking my head into the bathroom and looking at the large garden tub. “Thanks for hooking us up with these rooms.”

“Don’t mention it.” He slid his gun out from behind his back and flopped onto one of the two queen beds in the room. The sight of the gun made me uncomfortable, but I snuffed out my fears and reminded myself how he’d just put his ass on the line to help us.