Fractured (27 page)

I stared into the mirror. The waistline was high and tight, just below my breasts, and the skirt was flowing and loose over my hips and legs, ending at midthigh. I turned in place. It was actually comfortable. The color looked good against my light-brown skin and eyes, too. I … kind of looked pretty. And I could run in it. “This is the one.”

Tegan’s grin was huge as she skipped over to me. With both hands, she gathered the curly mass of my hair, twisted it, and piled it on top of my head. “I’ll do your hair and nails. You’re going to look incredible. Ian won’t know what hit him.” Her expression changed, uncertainty clouding her eyes. “I’m kind of feeling sorry for both Ian
and
Laney. Because when Malachi sees you in this—”

My eyes met hers in the mirror. “What?”

She bit her lip. “Malachi is going with Laney to prom. They’re riding with all of us in that stretch SUV Greg rented.”

I squirmed to pull my hair away from Tegan’s hands. It fell over my shoulders and down my back, and I leaned forward so that it hid my face from her. “I knew she’d asked him.” But I had selfishly hoped he’d say no. “I’m glad he said yes.”
So glad that it feels like my heart is being crushed in a vice
.

Tegan chuckled. “She texted me half an hour ago. I’ve never seen so many exclamation points in my life.” She pulled a lock of my hair out from under the strap of my dress. “She said he looked good, by the way. I guess it seemed worse this morning, what with all the blood.”

I pretended to fiddle with the silvery waistline of the dress. “That’s good.”

“The timing was interesting, wasn’t it?” said Tegan. “A few hours after you say yes to Ian, Malachi finally gives Laney the answer she wanted?”

“Coincidence.” And even if it wasn’t, I couldn’t afford to think too hard about it. I raised my head and turned to her. “Thanks for this.”

Her gaze strayed down my arm and lit on the tattoo there, on the beautiful face of Nadia inked on the inside of my forearm. Tegan had been shocked when she saw it as I tried on my first dress. She’d stared at it for a long minute, looking like she was about to cry.

That was her
, she whispered.
That’s how she looked
. And then she’d changed the subject.

Now, she touched it lightly with the tip of her finger. “I laughed at Nadia when she said I would like you if I ever gave it a chance.” She smiled sadly and then shook her head, like she was trying to shed the grief. “Anyway, she was right.”

I stared at her jaggedly stylish dark hair, her fragile smile. Nadia had told me the same thing, that I would like Tegan if I gave her a chance. I still found her kind of hard to take, but it was difficult not to enjoy her at the same time. She was clever and funny and understood things about people that I just didn’t get. With all my heart, I wished Nadia were with us right then, because I knew it would have made her happy. I wished I could have done this when she was alive. “Yeah, she was.”

I ate dinner with Diane and indulged in a little modeling session to show her I’d picked a dress that didn’t make me look like a streetwalker. When we were done, I went around the house to check all the locks and then waited in my room until she fell asleep. Most of that time was spent on Facebook, punishing myself by reading Laney’s ecstatic status updates from the past few hours. Malachi’s page was much more reined in, but his status had been changed to say he was headed to prom with Laney. It wasn’t like him to say something like that, more like a part he was playing. But then again, I wasn’t sure I knew the real him anymore.

After reading that, I spent some time in the bathroom feeling nauseated. I managed to hold it together somewhat, and wandered back to my room to check Ian’s status. His most recent update was also about prom, and I read it over a few times, wondering if he really meant it.

Going to the big party with a beautiful girl. Love my life
.

It made me feel warm and shivery at the same time. I marveled at his simple, sweet enthusiasm for things. I wanted to slip into it, hide inside it, and forget my responsibilities.

But now I could hear Diane snoring down the hall, which meant it was time to go and face them instead. I drove to the Guard house, checking myself in the visor mirror every once in a while, just to make sure I had my game face on.

Malachi and I were patrolling together tonight.

He was waiting on the porch when I arrived, sitting in the swing with his long legs stretched out in front of him, wearing cargo pants and a loose hoodie. As I pulled to a stop next to the Guard car, he stood up, shouldering his own pack, and tromped down the stairs. Malachi had an excellent game face.

I got into the Guard car and so did he, settling his pack between his feet, and then staring straight out the windshield. “Where are we going tonight?” he asked.

I faced the front, too, my stomach aching. “I figured we could hunt around downtown. The Mazikin are trying to pick people up, and they’ve gone beyond the homeless. I think they’re trying to lure people who have cash. And cars.”

“All right.” He put on his seat belt.

I waited, my hands on the steering wheel, until I couldn’t stand it any longer. “Are you okay? From this morning, I mean.”

“Raphael did as well as he always does. It’s like it never happened.”

Bullshit
. “That kid hit you pretty hard. He caught you by surprise. That doesn’t happen often.”

He shifted impatiently in his seat. “I was slow. But I could have handled him.”

I flinched. I wasn’t used to this edge from him, this irritation. “I know. But if you’re feeling depressed or something, we should talk about it. I mean—”

He squeezed his eyes shut. “Thank you. Is that what you want to hear?”

“No, I want to hear that you’ll stop punishing yourself for accidentally killing Nick! I want you to snap out of this funk, because I’m afraid you’re going to get yourself killed!” My heart pounded with frustration. I wanted to shake him.

“Duly noted, Captain,” he said in that overly formal tone that told me he was shutting me out completely.

I gritted my teeth and drove us to Providence. “When was the last time you heard from Henry?” I finally asked. He’d been texting every few days since he’d headed out alone, just to let us know he was alive. But I knew that he sometimes called Malachi, and part of me wondered what on earth they talked about.

“He checked in this afternoon. He hasn’t had any luck.”

“I wish I knew what the Mazikin were up to,” I said as I exited the highway and headed for downtown. “I mean, is it a mistake, patrolling the streets? Should we be focusing more on our school? They got Evan. Who will they try to take next?”

“I don’t know. But if we can keep them busy here rather than at school, our friends will be safer.”

I decided to say what I’d been thinking ever since realizing the Mazikin had possessed yet another of our classmates. “I know one thing that could draw their attention. Me. That’s what they said they wanted anyway. Evan confirmed it this morning.”

Malachi grimaced. “You can’t be serious. I understand the value of bait, Lela. Ana and I used that tactic many times. But only when we knew what we were facing and had a strategy to get her out. She was too important to sacrifice. And so are you.”

I found a spot in an alley and edged the car in, deciding to drop the argument for the moment. There, in the dark, Malachi handed me my knife belt. He slid a baton into a holster on his back, hidden under his shirt. Our movements were practiced. We didn’t need the light. I barely needed to think. He’d trained me like this, in the dark of the basement of the Guard house, so now my fingers moved on their own to check the knives and secure them along my waist, to make sure they were in exactly the right position in order for me to draw them quickly. Wordlessly, we got out of the car and walked down the street, side by side.

The cool breeze blew my hair around my face as we walked block by block, keeping an eye out for alley dwellers and hookers, anyone looking like they were seeking company for the evening. Up near one of the massage parlors, I spotted a familiar face. It was one of the two boys I’d seen the night Henry and I stayed in the homeless camp. “Hang back,” I said to Malachi.

He slowed his pace and let me walk ahead, sniffing the air. The kid, lanky and narrow-faced, watched me approach with wary curiosity, probably wondering whether I wanted drugs or sex or both. Which seemed incredibly sad, because he looked no older than fifteen. He crossed his arms while his fingers fiddled with the loose cuffs of his long-sleeved shirt.

“Hey,” he said quietly. “How’s it going?”

“I was going to ask you the same question. Do you remember me? We met a few weeks ago, out at the camp by the interstate.”

He took a cautious step back. “Don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“Yes, you do. Where’s your friend?”

His brows drew together. But he didn’t run.

“The camp was attacked that night. I never got to see who got away. I heard you and your friend screaming.”

He looked at the ground at my feet and tugged at a greasy curl of hair on his forehead.

“I’m not a narc,” I said.

“Is he?” The kid raised his head and stared at Malachi, who must have been standing behind me.

“No. He’s here to make sure no one gets dragged off. Is that what happened to your friend?”

The kid’s gaze darted back to mine. “He wasn’t my friend. We were just hanging out.”

He and I took a step away from each other as a cop car cruised by. “Have you seen him since then?” I asked.

He nodded. “A few times. There’s some kind of new weed on the street, and he’s deep into it. Selling it, I think. They’ve got some kind of crazy scene going on in this abandoned warehouse down in the Jewelry District. I think it’s off Eddy Street?”

“You been there?”

With another quick shake of his head, he backed up so that he could lean against the brick storefront behind him. “I’ve heard they’re like a cult. Rumor is some of them were victims of those attacks, you know? Like what happened in our camp. And now they’ve sort of gone in together and have their own thing going.”

Or, more likely, those victims of the attacks were Mazikin now. They’d become the bad guys. And there were enough Mazikin at this point that they were being noticed by others. It was both good and bad—people knew they existed now, though they had no idea what the Mazikin were. They would assume a cult or gang, when the truth was much more terrible. I looked over my shoulder at Malachi, who was watching the kid with a predator’s concentration. His gaze slid over to me, and he inclined his head in the direction of the Jewelry District. I nodded.

I pulled a ten-dollar bill from my pocket and held it out to the kid. “Nice talking to you.”

He wiped his nose with his sleeve and took the cash with a silent bob of his head. Something about the vulnerability of that movement caught me, and suddenly I wondered where this kid’s mom was. Was she worried about him? Had she thrown him out? Or was she like my mom, stuck in oblivion?

“Take care of yourself,” I murmured, pivoting on my heel, now headed to scope out the Jewelry District. How easily I could have been just like that kid. How close I had been.

“Are you all right, Captain?”

I let out a long, slow breath, wishing he would say my name. I needed to hear it now. “It’s fine. I wish I could have done more for him than just giving him some cash. He’ll probably be shooting it into his arm within the hour.”

“You know a lot about what happens out here,” he said. He put a careless, heavy arm around my shoulders as another cop drove by. We were supposed to be a couple, out for a stroll, and it made me ache.

“I lived a different kind of life than the kids we hang out with at school, that’s for sure,” I said. “I come from a completely different place.”

“I can see that. They are quite privileged, I think.” His arm dropped away from me.

My chuckle was bitter. “Yeah, that’s a nice way of putting it.”

We were walking along Friendship Street, past apartment buildings and parking lots, and I held out my hand and lightly slapped it flat against each parking meter we passed. Malachi was not nearly so loose, as usual. His line of vision zigzagged up and down the street, lingering on each person we passed. His intensity freaked people out, often causing them to avert their eyes and scoot to the far edge of the sidewalk. A few even crossed the street to avoid us.

“My family had money,” Malachi commented. “For a time, at least. Before everything fell apart. We never wanted for anything.”

“Maybe that’s why you fit in so well.” It slipped out before I could stop it.

He stiffened. “I fit in because it’s my job to fit in.”

“Come on. This is more than a job for you.” I slapped my hand hard against the cold metal of the last parking meter on the block, remembering his Facebook status and all of Laney’s little heart symbols after her announcement that he was her prom date.

He stopped at the curb. “Of course it’s more than a job.” His eyes glittered darkly, and the edge had returned to his voice. “Just like it is for you.”

And then a high, wavering scream pierced the quiet, sending both of us into action.

TWENTY-SIX

WE MADE IT TO
the end of the block and stopped short, listening. Nearby, rapid-fire footsteps pelted through the darkness, followed by another shriek.

“I’m looping around,” Malachi said, and then he took off, hurdling the low fence blocking an alley between two warehouses.

I sprinted toward the sounds of scuffling feet and muffled shrieks. Up ahead, in the half shadow of a dim streetlight, two figures were struggling, one on top of the other. “Hey!” I shouted.

The figure on top whipped around and bared his teeth. His victim used the opportunity I’d given her, and she scrambled to her feet and took off again, her dark hair streaming behind her. The attacker growled at me as I ran toward him, but then he dove onto all fours to chase after the girl.
Damn
.

I ran across a street, ignoring the squeal of tires and the honks of a horn pounded by the driver who’d almost hit me. We were in the Jewelry District now, desolate streets and abandoned buildings interspersed with funky little shops and restaurants now closed for the evening. Scraggly patches of weeds reached out to trip me as I chased the Mazikin across an empty lot. The girl he was after was almost too far ahead to see, but I caught the flash of something reflective as she disappeared into one of the buildings at the end of the block, a rambling low structure with a realtor’s sign out front, planted in the weedy gravel next to a chain-link fence.