Something Deadly This Way Comes (4 page)

Jennifer flopped back into her seat. “In this town? You gotta be kidding me. Nothing happens here. Mind your own business.”

Nakita reached for her amulet, and I gently kicked her ankle. Her gaze shot to mine, her eyes seeming to say, “I told you so.”

I was hot with anger. I don't know how, because I was dead and didn't really have a body, but I was definitely warm. Disconcerted, I turned around, very aware of them still staring at me.

I couldn't bring myself to look at Nakita. I didn't want her to be right. There was no way that I was going to spend the next thousand years sending out assassin angels to end lives in order to save souls. I stood when the bus lurched to a halt.

Nakita rose with me. “We're getting off? What about . . . her?”

My eyes were fixed on the front as three kids filed off. “Tammy will be fine until tonight. We need to leave before I shove my amulet down Jennifer's throat.” I looked back at Nakita, who still hadn't gotten into the aisle. “Come on. We know where she lives. Or Barnabas does.”

Nodding, Nakita followed me to the front. “We're leaving?” Josh said as I touched his shoulder, but he immediately picked up his gym bag and stood.

From the back of the bus, Jennifer said in a mocking falsetto, “Going home to play tea party with your dolls?”

Josh winced at my pressed lips and warm cheeks. “Time to leave. Gotcha.”

“Before Madison learns how to use her amulet and scythes the wrong girl,” Nakita said, clearly amused.

“I can't believe I just blurted it out like that,” I berated myself. “I am such an idiot.”

“Didn't go well, huh?” Josh asked as he filed out behind Nakita, and we all got off the bus.

“That's one way to put it,” I said, hands on my hips and staring at the bus from the sidewalk. Tammy was watching me, and Jennifer was making angelic faces looking heavenward. I hated that they were laughing at me, especially with Josh watching.

Nakita and Josh were beside me, and I held my breath as the bus drove away. The three kids who got off with us gave us a long look before heading down the sidewalk.

“Madison?” Josh asked, and I exhaled.

“It's okay,” I said, trying to get rid of my anger. I hadn't handled it well, but it was only my second scything. “We know who she is, and what she's doing tonight. That's more than we did ten minutes ago.” I glanced at my watch, surprised to find out it had only been just that long. “Barnabas is probably a few houses up,” I said as I put my hands in my jeans pockets and started to follow the bus's route. “You want to just walk it?”

Josh immediately shouldered his bag and fell into step beside me. Nakita, though, lingered behind, head down, arms crossed over her middle—thinking.

The loud bang of the
Laundromat's door hitting the wall brought Barnabas's eyes up from where he sat with an untouched vendor-dispensed coffee before him. I watched the woman who just left drag her bratty kid to the busy street, not even using the crosswalk to dart over the six lanes to reach the apartment complex on the other side. The building was the same one from my flash forward—minus the fire trucks. The air-conditioning was on in here, but it was humid from the dryers, and it smelled like bad coffee and fabric softener. The place was empty now, apart from us, and Josh leaned over to open the dryer that someone had left going. The heat billowed out to warm my feet, and slowly the noise died to nothing.

Josh slid from the dryer, sighing as he went to stand before the concession machine. He jiggled the change in his pocket before exchanging it for a double-stuffed, massive cookie the size of a plate. I looked at it enviously as he brought it back and slumped into the couch beside me. Nakita was in the chair next to Barnabas, and I propped my feet up on the table.

“You found the place okay?” I asked Barnabas as Josh took a huge bite, white cream squishing out the back.

Barnabas nodded, running a hand over his loose curls as his gaze went out the window to the apartment building. “How about you? Did you find Tammy?”

Nakita rolled her eyes and set her purse on the table. “She blew it.”

My brow furrowed, and Barnabas's eyes widened. “She's dead?”

“She is not dead!” I said, then lowered my voice when an attendant poked his head in before vanishing into a back room. A sitcom laugh track rose faintly, and I leaned toward Barnabas. “I know who she is. Blonde. Bossy—”

“And thinks Madison is a wacko,” Nakita said as she snapped open her purse and brought her camera out. Focusing on the rows of silent washers, lids up, she added, “You just
had
to blurt it out.”

“Hey. I'm not the one telling her I'm trying to save her soul,” I said, and Barnabas exhaled loudly.

Totally unperturbed, Nakita looked at the back of her camera and the digital screen. “Stay home or you'll ruin your life was the first thing out of her mouth. We had to get off the bus.” Glancing at Barnabas, she added, “Did you see Tammy get off?”

Barnabas pulled himself out of his slouch. “Could have. I saw a girl the right age get off the bus with a boy. She looked scared.”

I nodded. “That was probably her. Jeans, pink shirt. Blonde?”

“Yup, she lives on the third floor, corner apartment.” Barnabas sipped his machine-made drink, grimaced, and set it down. “Sweet seraphs, this is bad. So what happened on the bus?”

My focus blurred as I thought back to it. Maybe I hadn't screwed things up too badly. “Other than she and her friends thinking I was a freak of a Goody Two-shoes? I don't know. If she looked scared, maybe she'll stay home tonight instead of going to the movies to swap spit with David.”

“It was Dan,” Nakita said, and I rolled my eyes.

“Dan then. But if her brother doesn't die, she won't run away, right? Problem solved.”

Nakita, though, didn't look convinced as she exchanged a worried look with Barnabas. “What?” I asked, thinking they knew something I didn't.

Josh turned his cookie around to lick the cream squishing out. He looked happy and content, and I shifted my leg until our knees touched. He smiled as he looked up, making me glad he was here with me. “Don't you ever stop eating?” Nakita asked him.

“No.” Josh turned to look at the vending machine. “You chipped your nail polish.”

Nakita gasped, immediately checking her fingernails, then bending first one sandal up to check her toes, then the other. “I did not!” she exclaimed indignantly.

Barnabas was smiling, and Josh held the last of his cookie up. “Madison, you want one?”

I shook my head, and Nakita glared at him. “She doesn't eat, mortal.”

“It's still polite to ask,” Josh said, chewing, and if I was able to blush, I would have. “Barnabas, did they tell you yet that Madison identified Tammy by her aura?”

A jolt of excitement raced through me, and I sat up, having forgotten my success there. “No,” Barnabas said, looking as happy as I suddenly felt. “Madison, that's fantastic! How long have you been able to see auras?”

“I can't,” I said, though I was starting to wonder.

Nakita, too, was smiling again. “She looked back through at the time line to where she flashed so I could see Tammy's aura resonance. She's a fish.”

“Green with an orange center,” Barnabas said cryptically. “She's got issues.”

“Fish?” I asked, wondering if it was some kind of code.

“My aura is blue,” Josh said.

Barnabas looked askance at him. “I know,” he said, then turned to me. “So you talked to her. You scared her. You think it was enough?”

I shrugged, glancing at Josh's cookie. “I don't know. It's not like I zap back home when reality realigns itself. I want to talk to her again.”

“There's a good idea.”

Ignoring Barnabas, I licked my lips, wishing I was hungry. “That looks good, Josh.”

Josh beamed as he stood up. “I'll get you one.”

“She doesn't eat . . . Josh,” Nakita said dryly, then took a picture of everyone's feet and the crumbs he had made.

I shook my head, and Josh sat back down. “Thanks, anyway,” I said softly. “I'll be glad when I learn how to look between the now and the next and find my body. I'm tired of not being hungry.”

Nakita froze, and I looked up to find her staring at me. Her eyes blinked, and in a sudden motion, she shoved her camera into her purse. “I'll be outside watching the apartment,” she said, then walked quickly to the door, her back stiff and her pace stilted. The door hit the wall, making a bigger dent, and then she was outside, standing with her arms crossed and her head down in the fading sun.

Bewildered, I looked from Josh, his mouth full and chewing slowly, to Barnabas's resigned expression. “What did I say?” I asked.

Josh shrugged, but Barnabas winced. “She's worried that once you get your body back that you'll dissociate from your amulet and leave her. So am I.”

Worried, I looked out the plate-glass windows.

“Those black wings you put in her left some of your memories in her. She knows you better than anyone on heaven or earth, and she's afraid. I'll be okay, but Nakita . . . You taught her what it's like to fear death, and she thinks that once you're gone no one will understand her and people will think she's more of a square peg than they already do.”

Oh, God. How do I get into these messes?

Josh jumped when his phone vibrated. Excusing himself, he went to answer it and give us some privacy at the same time. My gaze dropped, and I ran my fingernail along a groove in the table. Looking up, I gathered my determination. “I don't want to give up being the dark timekeeper,” I said. “But if I can't make this work—if I can't convince the seraphs that the early scythings are unnecessary to save a person's soul before it goes bad, then I'm not going to stay around to send reapers to kill people who are too scared, or frightened, or
just plain stupid
to find joy in life.”

Barnabas looked out the window, his hat pulled low over his eyes. “You wanted to know what was bothering her. That's it.”

He was being unusually callous, and I frowned. “You don't think I'd rather stay here with you?” I almost growled, crumpling up Josh's cookie wrapper. “I'm trying to make this work!”

“So is she.” Barnabas leaned forward. “She hasn't been on earth as long as I have. She doesn't understand about human choice and the fragility of your dreams and the strength that lies in your hopes and faith. Angels see everything in black and white, and the earth was made to be colorful. Think about what you're asking her to do. She is all about the soul, Madison. Life is secondary to her. Life is transient, and you're asking her to risk someone's soul for an extension of something that to her is a blink of an eye.”

“But all we have is that blink,” I said miserably.

Barnabas leaned back and glanced at Josh, talking with someone on the phone. “I know. It's one of the reasons I left heaven. I think that Nakita is starting to understand. She's come a long way.”

My throat was tight, and I watched Josh close his phone, looking as depressed as I felt. “So have you, Barnabas,” I said softly.

Frowning, Barnabas looked away. I knew he wasn't happy about leaving his light-reaper status. My special talent seemed to be screwing up everyone's life. Sighing, I watched Nakita standing in the lowering sun looking perfect and worried. She wasn't a fallen angel like Barnabas, but one in good standing. So far. But I'd scarred her, changed her forever when I had accidentally put two black wings inside her. They had been eating me alive when I'd lost contact with my amulet and had fallen through her like a ghost. The black wings had latched on to her and started to eat her memories, much richer than mine. Eventually the seraphs had gotten them out, but the memories that the black wings had taken from me were forever a part of her. She now knew what it was like to fear, something that most angels have no concept of.

“I don't want to leave,” I whispered.

Barnabas made a small noise. “Then we'd better make this work.”

Josh shuffled up, his eyes darting from me to Barnabas. “I have to go,” he said in disgust. “My mom found out I wasn't at The Low D with the guys and wants me home.”

“Oh, no!” I exclaimed, guilt from making him lie for me rising up fast. “Josh, I'm so sorry. I didn't mean to get you in trouble.”

He shrugged, head down as he zipped his gym bag shut. “I told her I took you to dinner instead, and she's not mad, but I gotta go put in an appearance. You'd better call your dad. She might have phoned him.”

I hated this. Lying. It made more trouble than it solved, but what were my choices here?
Hey, Dad. I'm on the West Coast tonight, trying to stop a boy from dying in an apartment fire. Back after midnight! Love you!

Throwing my head back, I looked at the stained ceiling. Someone had put graffiti up there, and I blinked. Barnabas silently stood and shook out his long duster like it was his wings. “I'll take you home,” he offered to Josh.

“Puppy presents,” I swore softly, standing as well. “Do you think you can come back?”

Josh hoisted his gym bag to his shoulder and brushed the cookie crumbs from his shirt. “I don't know. I'll cover for you best I can, but if anyone asks, I left you at The Low D with a couple of girls.”

I made a face. Yeah, that was likely. I only had one girlfriend, and she was out at the curb, afraid I was going to ditch her.

Josh glanced at his watch, still set for Illinois time. “It's almost six thirty at home.” Frustrated, he dropped his hand and grimaced. “I might not be able to get away until after midnight, which will be ten here. Everything might be done by then.”

“If we're lucky.” I glanced at Barnabas, knowing that he wasn't going to sit and wait for Josh. He'd come right back. “Well, I'm going to have to put in an appearance tonight, too,” I said, thinking of my curfew. At least it was the weekend. “Call me?”

Josh smiled at that, and my entire frame of mind changed when he edged around the table and took my hands and pulled gently, hesitantly. I leaned in as he did, and he gave me a kiss.

He smelled like soap, and his lips quirked in a soft smile when he pulled away. “Soon as I know what's up, I'll call,” he said. “Maybe I can get away sooner.”

“Okay.” I felt soft and squishy, and I let his fingers slip from mine reluctantly. Outside, Nakita was frowning, but Barnabas patiently waited.

Shifting his gym bag higher, Josh leaned toward me again, and after one last kiss, he rocked back, smiling.

“Come on, Buck Rogers,” Barnabas said as he motioned to the door. “Let's go.”

Giving me a last look, Josh headed for the parking lot. “Who's Buck Rogers?” he asked as the door opened, Barnabas catching it before it hit the wall.

I slowly sank back down in my chair, still feeling the warmth of those two kisses. Such a small thing, but not really. My smile fading, I watched Barnabas talk to Nakita. The dark reaper glanced at me, then away. I couldn't help but wonder what he'd said to her as he started walking away with Josh.

Stretching out my leg, I shoved the dryer door shut with my foot, then stood to push the button to get it started again. The soft hum and sliding
schlummp
,
schlummp
,
schlummp
of someone's jeans slowly filled the steamy room. Head down, I leaned over the adjacent dryer, wondering if Nakita would come in or continue to boycott me. I wished that Josh could have stayed, but I'd be lying if I didn't admit that having him at home to help me if I needed it was a comfort. Being two time zones from home made it hard to cover one's tracks. Even if one was a timekeeper.

The faint humming in my legs grew stronger. Realizing it wasn't coming from the adjacent dryer, I pulled my head up. The world had gone blue. Like I was in a gigantic fishbowl in reverse, the parking lot beyond the huge plate-glass windows was a sunny, inky blue, but even as I stared, the fluorescent lights in the Laundromat began dripping an insidious indigo. I was going to flash.

We've done it!
I thought joyfully, eyes alight as I looked for Nakita, her back to me as she watched Barnabas and Josh leave. Why else would I flash forward unless Tammy had indeed changed her fate?!

My hand rose to grip my amulet, shocked to find it more than warm. It was hot! “Nakita!” I shouted, and she turned. Her eyes widened at something she saw in me, and I heard her mental shout to Barnabas echo as it hit the top of the atmosphere and bounced back.