Sky Ghosts: All for One (Young Adult Urban Fantasy Adventure) (Sky Ghosts Series Book 1) (21 page)

“Would it be totally inappropriate if I asked about your mother?” Jane said tentatively, her face unsure.

“No, it’s okay. She died giving birth to me. I’ve only seen her on a photo that dad showed me.”

Jane just nodded. She couldn’t continue, and mostly, she didn’t see the point. Chad seemed to be one of the most sincere and attractive people she knew. He was simple, but not in a stupid way. He was open, answering her questions right away without thinking. He was warm and easygoing and clever, and she felt a little guilty for not trusting him.

She suppressed a sigh, fighting with the bitter feeling inside her. The clock in the right bottom corner of her laptop’s screen showed eight PM, and she decided it could serve her as an excuse to leave.

“Are we going to have supper today?” she asked and glanced at the others with raised eyebrows.

Dave flung himself off the bed momentarily.

“I’m starving!” he announced.

She got up and grabbed her hoodie, throwing it back on. Pain didn’t seem to hear her, and neither did Chad.

“Are you coming?”

“I want to finish the chapter. Get me something, I’ll catch up,” Pain said, not raising her head from the book.

“Me too, just started the article,” Chad mumbled.

Jane shrugged.

“Okay.”

They left, and it was silent once again in the room. Usually Chad would be uncomfortable alone with Pain, but not this time. He was too unsettled by the news she had brought from Eugene’s. Emotions seemed to boil inside him, screaming for him to let them out. He pushed them down, but they just popped back up, making his hands ball into fists, his teeth grit together. Guys at work always said he had anger issues, but he never believed them. So what if he had thrown a client or two out of the garage? They were being offensive. Now he wondered if the burning killing-wrecking-destroying desire deep in his guts was a reason to see a therapist.

He flipped the page and realized that the article had ended. Not a single word from it lingered in his head. At the corner of his eye, he could see Pain, and he stole a glance at her as she lay on her stomach, nervously wiggling her feet in the air. For a moment he thought she was nervous about the same reason that he was, but then he realized that she must have been anxious from her reading, worrying along with the book’s characters. The corner of his mouth quirked up. He wished he had read that book so he would know what she found there. He couldn’t recall the last time he read something. Car magazines didn’t count, they surrounded him everywhere he went. And he was very grateful that Jane got some for him on his second day there.

“I’m done.”

Pain snapped the book closed and jumped off the bed in one light motion. She seemed pleased: a smile was teasing the corners of her lips, and her eyes were somewhere far away as she put on her sneakers. Something good must have happened in that book, Chad thought. He watched her wistfully from his place until she turned to him, done with the laces.

“Are we going?” Her eyebrows went up.

He didn’t move, and her face darkened as she looked at him more closely.

“There’s nothing we can do against Eugene, is there?” the words spilled out without his command.

She looked away from his face for a second. Chad waited silently, unable to move even a finger, as if he had turned into stone. It looked like she was hesitating, standing there, by the door. Her expression was speculative, her shoulders tense. Was she worried about him? Because he would never believe that. Agreeing with the idea of people being able to fly was one thing, but considering Pain being something but annoyed with him and Dave was completely out of normal.

She raised her head and regarded him from top to toe before answering.

“There’s something else that I haven’t told you about,” she said, rocking on the balls of her feet. “The reason why Eugene is after you… Well, it has something to do with your father. It sounded like Eugene knew him.”

Shit.

He got up to his feet, frowning.

“You haven’t mentioned that,” he said, feeling his pulse quicken.

“Yeah… I had to make sure you weren’t keeping back from us first. Sorry.”

She looked at her feet, clearly uncomfortable now. He wondered if she meant it, if she really was sorry.

“So… so that’s what all this was about??” he made an effort to keep his voice down. “Couldn’t you two just be honest with me??” He shook his head and pushed his hair back from his face.

“I’m telling you now, I
am
being honest!” Pain retorted. “Are you sure you don’t want to share something else about your life?”

“Listen to me! I told you everything on the very first day! I have no idea what this freak wants from me!” Chad grated, feeling his cheeks burn from anger and resentment.

She reached him in three quick steps then, a finger pointed at his chest.

“No, you listen to me, Chad!” she hissed, “I want you to think very, very hard, and make sure that in that teeny-tiny brain of yours something vital didn’t get lost. Because if I find out that you knew about it and you didn’t tell us, you’re going to be very sorry.”

Stop it, stop it, stop it; just go out of that door and stay away from her,
a voice commanded in his head. As much as he didn’t like her behavior, he didn’t want to fight, not when he was so upset. But he just couldn’t help it. His eyes narrowed to vicious slits when he drew closer to her and hissed back,

“Are you threatening me? Don’t waste your breath, Patricia whatever-your-last-name-is, because I’m not scared of you, okay?”

Pain gasped – and then he was flying into a wall.

His back made a dull noise when it connected with the concrete, and he was lucky to duck his head at the last moment so he wouldn’t bang it. A low growl escaped his mouth as he landed on his feet, his hands stressful fists, his knuckles white. The room was spinning before his eyes, the pulse beating into his temples rapidly. His breath was knocked out of him, and when he drew another one, he felt his chest heave up convulsively, a wave of rage washing over him.

But he didn’t have the time to react, because Pain was already in front of him, her hands on his forearms, fingers digging in painfully and bruising his skin. Their gazes locked – pure fury against blunt anger. She must have been soaring in the air, because her face was on one level with his when she leaned closer and said through her teeth, each word piercing through him like a searing needle:

“Don’t you talk to me like this, you cretin! We are protecting you, blindfolded, from only God knows what, and you don’t even have the decency to respect what we do. I don’t care what you think about our tactics. Jane may trust you, but I don’t. So I’m asking you one last time: is there anything you’re keeping back from me? You got ten seconds, go.”

He just stared at her, his vision blurred except for the pair of black infuriated eyes inches away from him. And then he flipped, too.

He grabbed her shoulders and spun, shoving her into the wall – not hard, but abruptly enough for Pain to gasp out of surprise. Her wide eyes flashed across his face as his palm slammed into the wall inches away from her head.

“I know NOTHING!” he shouted, and she flinched in his grasp. “Nothing!”

She froze. Her feet dangled in the air, the weight of her body supported by one of his hands on her right shoulder and his knee and hip pressed against her left leg. For the first time, she felt helpless, taken aback, not knowing how to react. So she froze, not even blinking, her big eyes staring into his enraged ones frantically. A feverish beating sound filled her ears, and she wasn’t sure if it was her heart or his. She realized she was holding her breath, and let it out in a harsh exhalation, drawing all her strength together for a reply.

“If Jane,” her voice came out cracking and throaty, “or Peter or Marco or anybody else gets hurt because of you,” she dropped her gaze with a shake of her head, “I’ll kill you myself,” she finished and looked back up at him.

Chad flinched, as if she had slapped him, and stepped back, his hands falling to his sides. Shock and disbelief chased each other on his face, and as Pain slipped down to her feet, she saw him shake his head and glance at her with a dead look.

“Do as you please,” he said in a low voice and headed for the door, kicking it open before him.

He slammed the door shut and crashed against the wall, pressing his back to its cool surface. Bitterness washed over him, making him want to get back in there, grab her and make her listen. To tell her everything, tell her how wrong it felt, fighting over this with her. To tell her that she was the last person he wanted to take it out on, that he did respect what they were doing for him, how grateful he was, how he cared about them. How he was ready to die for them himself, if needed, and how it surprised him. But he couldn’t move from his spot. He just stood there and stared at the ceiling, trying not to collapse under the weight of guilt. It was better than closing his eyes, because every time he did so, he saw her face, as if it were imprinted on the back of his eyelids.
Damn,
he dragged a hand down his face.
I’m the biggest asshole in the world
.

Inside the room, clenching her teeth and breathing raggedly, Pain was still leaning up against the wall where Chad had left her. In the rush of the fight neither of them seemed to have noticed how hot the air in the room suddenly got, as if there were a fire behind that wall. And still, she had goose bumps on her arms.

She exhaled through the heavy chest. Thoughts, emotions, impulses were whirling in her mind, and she tried to push them down, shut them up. It didn’t work. She shivered and paced to the wardrobe. Why, why did she have to fight with him for such a stupid reason? She threw the wardrobe door open, looking for something to throw on, and saw his beige sweater that hung the first in the row of her and Jane’s clothes. Without thinking, she reached inside and ran a hand along its sleeve, lost deep in thought – and then she jerked her hand back as she realized what she was doing.

“Dammit,” she grounded through her teeth and grabbed a big hooded sweatshirt, one of Marco’s old ones, from the upper shelf. Then she banged the door closed and threw the hoodie on as she walked to the exit. Once outside, she didn’t need to glance at Chad to be aware of his presence. Not wanting to be alone with him in the elevator, she headed for the staircase, and Chad followed without a word.

The next morning, Peter called for Pain to his office right after breakfast. As she walked through the waiting room doors, she saw Jerry sitting on the desk and chatting with Skull about something.

“I thought your shift was yesterday,” she said coldly, heading straight to the office door.

“Yeah, I just have nothing else to do. Decided to keep him company.” Jerry winked at her, nudging his comrade in the shoulder.

“It’s not in vogue to be a workaholic these days,” she responded gloomily and grabbed the doorknob.

Jerry just shrugged, looking at Skull with puzzlement, as if saying, “What’s up with her?”

She walked through the door and found Peter perched on the edge of his conference table. He held a few bags straps in his hand, the bags themselves resting on the floor.

“Hey, kiddo! What’s up?” he asked cheerfully, seeing her sullen face.

She paused, eyeing him with suspicion for a moment.

“Hey, grandpa. Been listening to 50 Cent again, haven’t you?”

Peter’s eyebrows shot up.

“To whom?” He stared back questioningly for a second and then waved his hand at her. “Whatever, look what I’ve got for you!” He tugged at the straps with an encouraging expression on his face.

Pain regarded the bags indifferently.

“Our stuff, huh,” she commented without much enthusiasm.

Now it was Peter’s turn to squint at her with disbelief.

“Are you alright?”

“I’m
fine…
” she drawled, coming up and leaning against the table beside him. There was a scowl on her face, and she was staring into space with her arms folded on her chest and her shoulders slouched. She wasn’t herself the whole morning and the evening before that: no puns, no mean jokes, no comments on the others’ stupidity. So everybody just tried to stay as far from her as possible.

Peter glanced at her with curiosity and concern. It was rare that she was depressed, and somehow it amused him every time. He ducked around her, looking into her eyes. They focused on him after a second, and as he raised his eyebrows with irony, Pain finally gave up, rolling her eyes with an annoyed face. But at least he made that scowl disappear, Peter thought and chuckled out loud, getting upright again.

“Aren’t you excited about your things getting back to you?” he asked, placing his palm on her shoulder.

“Mmm… Not really,” she replied, her eyes on the ceiling.

“And you don’t even have to unpack, can you imagine that?” he continued with theatrical wonderment in his voice.

“What,
you
will unpack my panties for me?”

Nice, she’s back,
Peter thought sourly but with some relief.

“Thank God, you’re being evil again, just like I’m used to seeing you, pumpkin.” He scooped her into a headlock suddenly, rubbing the knuckles of his left hand on her head. She struggled inside his long arms, trying to escape the embrace, immediately irritated.

“Get… off!” she muttered, getting free with a flushed face and an indignant look.

Peter grinned, satisfied. He waited a little for her to remember what he was talking about, and she did ask him after a moment’s thought,

“What do you mean, I don’t have to unpack?” She looked into his eyes, all business.

“You’re going away again this afternoon,” he answered.

She contemplated it for a moment.

“Could we be going to Hawaii?” she wondered, narrowing her eyes.

“Only if you can imagine Marco dancing around in a Hawaiian skirt.”

“Actually, I can.” She shrugged. “Oh, yeah…” She grinned with a dreamy look, making Peter cast his eyes upward.

He unhitched himself off the table and came to stand in front of her. The bright summer morning filled the room with its fresh yellow light, and he squinted when sun rays blinded him. It was pleasant, though. The previous night it was raining, hard, and he couldn’t sleep, listening to the sound of water dripping onto the windowsill. It wasn’t the rain that kept him awake, of course, but it wasn’t helping, either. Before he finally drifted off, he had expected to see gray soggy streets outside in the morning. Instead, a warm sunny day was waiting for him.

“You’re going out of city,” he said. “A friend of mine – a civilian friend – owns a barn far from here, near the North Fork. He’ll rent a van in his name, and you’ll go there. Marco and Jerry will go with you, Ryan will drive. They will return back here. Nobody except for you will know about it because I still haven’t figured who’s been ratting on us to Eugene. You’ll leave your cell phones here. I’ll give you a new phone and a SIM card through which we’ll keep contact. I’ll call you every evening to make sure everything’s alright, and you call me if there’s an emergency.”

“And what’s the point of going there, Peter? You saw what happened the last time,” she drawled, her voice trailing off at the last two words.

“I want to hide you well so that Eugene will have to contact me and make some offer to get Chad. I’m sure he’s watching the building and him inside it. It won’t be long before he finds out Chad is no longer here, and then he’ll have to make a move. I give him a week, no longer.”

Pain frowned, contemplating his words.

“There’s a grain of logic in your words, I agree,” she said finally.

Peter chuckled.

“Thank you very much.” He sat in his leather chair and crossed his arms.

“So, when are we leaving?”

“Today after lunch. You have your meal, then pack your things, as many as you need, be prepared for a long time. Then you head to the first hatch. I’ll meet you there. Marco already knows the route. At the exit you get into the van, and in a couple of hours you’re there.”

Pain sighed, swooping the bags off the table with her two hands.

“Okay.”

“See you at the hatch.” Peter nodded to her.

She returned the nod without a word and left.

Back in her room, she found her sister and Dave scooched in the recliner together, the laptop open in Dave’s lap, sounds of shooting and screaming filling the room.

“We’re watching a movie!” Jane said cheerfully as she saw her sister. She noticed the bags and jumped to her feet, followed by Dave’s incredulous look. “Our bags!”

Pain dropped them, letting Jane find her one and rummage in it by herself. Nothing could have made her pack at the moment. In this kind of mood she would postpone it until the last minute, and then she would just throw in the first things she found in the room. She glanced at Chad. He lay on his bed, his face buried in the pillow, pretending not to hear them or napping, she wasn’t sure. At least, this way she didn’t have to look him in the eyes.

She couldn’t know that he hadn’t slept the whole night, replaying their fight over and over in his head, imagining ways to get out of it with no harm to either side. He had always been like this, couldn’t get some things out of his head for long. Now he couldn’t sleep, either. He didn’t care about the noise in the room, but he was very aware of Pain’s presence, of that gnawing feeling somewhere in his chest; of the hot, heavy air around him, window or no window. Why were the others alright in their clothes? He was shirtless, only a pair of thin pants on him, and yet he couldn’t get rid of that restlessness, that ridiculous feeling when you’re so tired that you can’t make yourself sleep, and then you’re tired even more.

“We’re going out of city after lunch, so don’t hurry to unpack,” he heard Pain saying. “Pack all you might need for a couple of weeks. It may be a long trip.”

“Where are we going now?” Jane asked, her voice alarmed.

“To some barn on Long Island. Peter said it’s super secure and all clean, but I’m not sure there’s a point in all this,” Pain answered and sighed loudly.

Chad wondered if what she meant was “there’s no point in saving him, this pathetic meat sack.” He cut the thought off instantly, angry with himself. She was better than this. She would never think so, no matter how hard they fought.

“Hey, let’s watch the movie first and then pack?” Jane suggested.

“Whatever.”

He heard her drag a chair across the room to where the recliner was, and their voices ceased, the sounds of shooting resuming. He never thought they could be soothing, but somehow they all merged together, helping him to fall asleep.

He dreamed about her for the second time that day.

He stood in the middle of a field, a dark line of trees far ahead, a thick layer of mist covering everything around him, making his vision foggy, letting him see only dim silhouettes of his surroundings. They were perfectly familiar. This was the place where he spent most of his time as a boy, where he went horseback riding, where his father shepherded their cows. He looked around, surprised. The sky was cement gray, hanging low and heavy over his head, and he felt the brisk wind pierce through his shirt, the air damp and chilly, making him want to have something thick and warm to wrap himself in. It was summer, wasn’t it? Then why was it so cold? Even rain wouldn’t bring such weather.

He looked at his goose-bumped arms and stiffened. They were grimy, cut and smeared with blood, his plaid shirt tattered and dirty. When he looked down at himself in alarm, he saw that the white vest under it was the same, torn across the stomach, the skin under it raw and oozing red. The weirdest thing was, he didn’t feel any pain. Actually, he didn’t feel anything at all, except for the wind and the dampness.

A soft whisper rustled behind him then, making his head whip up. He whirled and saw a dark figure, half-covered by the mist. It was hard to make out who it was, until he heard the whispering voice again.

Chad.

He darted forward, cutting through the tall grass, his jeans soaking wet in no time. What was she doing here, at his father’s farm? The air was puffing out of his mouth in misty clouds, and now he was almost running, but it seemed like she was getting farther and farther away as he tried to reach her. The black figure didn’t seem to change, though. It didn’t move or get smaller. It just hovered in the gray infinity before him, a human-shaped beacon.

Chad stopped and leaned forward, hands on his knees, trying to restore his breath. Shivers went through him, and his hands trembled, prickling from the freezing air. He closed his eyes, breathing in and out, feeling his throat ache at the coldness, his pulse beat with overwhelming force inside him.

Chad.

His eyes flew open. She was in front of him now, as if she had just appeared there. Her black gear was covered in drops of water, and the hilt of her sword was visible above her shoulder. Chad froze in his spot, staring at her with bewilderment. It wasn’t her appearance that stunned him – it was the way she looked into his eyes, flatly, unanimated, her eyes piercing right through him. Like a doll. She didn’t move, didn’t blink, didn’t breathe. Her face was expressionless, white like a mask.

He drew a sharp breath.

“What are you doing here?” he heard his voice as if it were coming from someone else, distant and anxious.

She took a step closer to him and reached out a slim white arm, her sleeve pulled up to the elbow. He looked down, seeing the scars that covered her forearm: a white net of lines, entwining with each other, dotted with birthmarks here and there. Every part of her seemed already familiar to him, every detail memorized to perfection. He just stared stupidly, uncomprehending what she wanted from him. Until she turned her hand palm up, and he gasped.

It was covered in red, as if she had dipped it into a paint can. Chad felt a trickle of cold sweat on the back of his neck in spite of the freezing weather. He raised his astonished look at her face, which was still senseless and blank.

“What the hell, Pain??” he inquired, his teeth chattering. “What happened, why are you here?”

She blinked at him, and finally, a ghost of surprise appeared on her face.

“I came for you. I came to save you.”

*

“Chad, come on, we’re leaving.”

Someone shook his shoulder, and he choked, bolting upright on his bed. He whipped his head to the side, breathing heavily, and saw Jane, her face startled. Dizziness flooded in from the sides of his vision, and he made an effort to breathe and not to throw up.

“Are you okay?” Jane asked, worried.

He waved his hand at her, mouthing, “I’m fine,” and swung his feet off the bed. He ached to get away from it, to break every connection with his dream as fast as he could. Swaying, he staggered to the bathroom. Pain’s and Jane’s identically concerned looks followed him, while Dave was scrupulously packing his bag.

As the door slammed shut behind him, he ran the water and bent over the sink, breathing harshly. The dizziness was receding slowly, the nausea already gone, but all his insides were gripped by a cold fear that penetrated deep into his bones and made him shiver all over. With an effort of will, he made himself splash cold water on his face, his trembling hands spilling most of it on the floor. It helped a little, and soon the weakness was gone. When he raised his head and looked in the mirror, he saw that his face was gray and ghastly, unfamiliarly boyish. As his breathing returned to normal, he straightened up and wiped himself with a towel.
Just a dream,
he thought,
just a stupid dream
. If only that hollow feeling deep in his chest was gone along with it.