The Gathering Dark (43 page)

“Let’s get out of here,” he said. “They don’t need us. They don’t
want
us. And that’s exactly how I like things.”

Keira looked at him. The smile on his face was infectious and she found herself smiling back. They had a future spread out in front of them now. It was more than she could have wished for a few hours ago, and she was happier than she could ever remember being.

•  •  •

Keira looked up at the blank facade of the Hall of Records. “I wish we could have crossed next to my house.”

“I know. We’ll be back there soon enough.” Walker ruffled her hair.

They rounded the side of the building, coming to an open stretch where the guards had already finished removing the fence. It felt empty and quiet.

But Darkside still didn’t feel like home. Keira glanced around, looking for the best place to slip between the two worlds. A cloaked figure stepped out from behind one of the pillars that supported the facade of the Hall.

Keira froze.

“Oh,” Walker whispered.

The Darkling inched closer. Keira wondered what he wanted—if they should go ahead and cross, even though she wasn’t sure if they were as far away from the Hall as the Reformers had said they should be. The thought was enough to nearly push her through the glassine membrane between the two worlds.

“Are you guys leaving?”

That voice. She recognized it, though she’d never heard it sound quite that sad before.

“Smith?” The question was out of her mouth before she could think to stop it.

“Yep. They let me keep my name, at least.” He pushed back the hood of his cloak. His hair had been shorn off. Without it, the planes of his face looked older. Sharper. “So, is it over? Did they let you go?”

Walker took a step toward Smith. Keira could see misery in the set of his shoulders and guilt in the taut tendons in his neck.

“They said it was ‘acceptable,’ though I don’t know what’s acceptable about any of this. I can’t believe they shaved your head.” His voice was ragged. “Do they still have Aunt Holly?”

“No. They let her go as soon as I told them what I could do for them. As soon as I agreed to give up
everything
for them, basically.” He stared at Walker, and a sound slipped through his lips. Keira couldn’t quite tell if it was a laugh or a sob. “You should have heard how excited they were, when they realized that I could cross as many times as I wanted without any of the usual side effects.”

“What do you have to do for them?”

“Whatever they want. They already took some of my blood for testing. And then they told me to go get your car and bring it back from the shore.”

“You drove my car?” Walker looked shocked. “Where is it?”

“On Jonquil Drive.” Smith waved vaguely. “What—did you think I was going to pull it around for you? I don’t work for you, you know.” Smith lowered his head, every plane and angle in his face turning hard and very, very sharp.

Walker shifted warily. “I know you don’t. You work for the Reformers now.”

“I know. And I know it’s my fault. If I’d listened to you and Mom when you told me to stay hidden, maybe it would have gone differently. But I couldn’t live like that—suffocated with all those limits and rules.” He ran a hand over his raw-looking scalp. “ ’Course, I’m not sure I can live like this, either.” His voice wavered.

Keira stepped toward Smith, her heart cracking in her chest. “I know. I know exactly what that’s like.”

He stared at her. “How would
you
understand what I’m feeling? You might have Darkling blood, but you’re not one of us. You’re not
stuck
here.”

She ignored the anger that twisted his features. He was like a wounded animal, striking out to protect himself. “No, I’m not one of you. But everyone here has been hell-bent on dragging me out of the life I had planned—a life I was
really fucking excited about
, by the way—so that I could be punished for being an Experimental, something I never asked for to begin with.” She jerked her head toward Walker. “He wanted me to run. To hide.”

“I was just trying to keep your head attached to your shoulders!” Walker exclaimed. “I happen to think they look really nice together.” His voice was heavy with hurt.

Keira ignored Walker, keeping her eyes trained on Smith. “His intentions were good.” She thought about the innuendo in Walker’s voice. “Maybe not entirely
honorable
, but still. Good. The thing was, I knew I couldn’t live like that. Constantly looking behind me. Always making decisions based on what the Darklings were doing, instead of what I wanted. That’s why we took the chance on Pike. I knew I couldn’t get back the life I’d planned, but I couldn’t live with running. So we did what we had to do. The same as you.”

Smith’s expression softened and he stared at Keira.

She pointed at the landscape around them. “This isn’t what
I would have picked either.” She stopped with her finger aimed at Walker. “But it’s not all bad. You play the hand you’re dealt. It’s the only thing you can do, really.”

Walker smiled the smallest bit at the card-playing reference. “I think everyone’s plans have changed,” he agreed.

Smith scrubbed at his face with his sleeve. “Speaking of changed plans, if you think the Reformers are going to let me keep seeing Susan, then you’re an idiot. I tried to call her but I don’t think I was making much sense.”

“Susan—” The word leapt from Keira’s lips.

The hurt in Smith’s eyes lanced straight through her. “I know she wasn’t serious about me—not at first. And yeah, mostly I asked her out to piss off Walker and to see what human girls were all about. But you know what? I really like her.” He grimaced. “
Liked
her, I should say.” The tears that had gathered in his eyes spilled down his cheeks.

Walker stepped forward, his hands out, as though he were offering something. “Smith, I’m sorry. I really am.”

“Quit acting like it’s your fault!” Smith roared. Instead of bouncing back to them, his voice sank into the outside walls of the Hall of Records, muffled by the stone. Smith crouched down, pulling his hood tight over his head. “Because it’s not your fault,” he whispered. “Please, leave me alone. I just need to be alone for a while.”

In a split-second he was gone, crossing over into the human world.

“Wait!” Walker called, barreling through the barrier after him at a dead run.

Keira slid across after the two of them. It was easier than breathing.

She landed hard on the grass of the Reynoldses’ yard, her threadbare clothes offering little protection against the twigs and stones that littered the lawn. Scrambling to her feet, she looked around for Smith and Walker. Smith was nowhere to be seen, but Walker lay against an overgrown lilac bush. He moaned.

Keira turned to go to Walker, but stopped when her gaze got as far as the back door.

Jeremy Reynolds appeared on the other side of the inset window, the light from the kitchen framing him.

Keira froze.

How much had he seen?

Chapter Fifty-Five

J
EREMY SLOWLY OPENED THE
door and stepped out onto the concrete patio. His feet were bare, and he had on a pair of slippery-looking basketball shorts, which did nothing to hide what he was thinking about.

“You’re back,” he said, padding over to her like a cat stalking a mouse. “I knew you would be. You felt it too, when we kissed? You like me. Admit it.”

Her disgust crushed her relief. Jeremy obviously didn’t care how she’d gotten into his yard. All that mattered to him was that she was
there.
He hadn’t even noticed Walker, tucked beneath the lilac bush.

“After the rumors you spread? Why would you do that, anyway?” She crossed her arms.

Jeremy shrugged. “I was mad. I know, I know, I shouldn’t have done it. But once we’re together—
really
together—everyone will shut up about it. Things’ll be normal.
Better
than normal.” In the light from the door, she could see his pupils, dilated in the darkness and glittering with hope. “C’mere.” He held out a hand.

“I don’t want you like that, Jeremy. I’m sorry. I’m dating Walker,” she said, edging toward the gate.

Walker, who was still lying in a ball under the lilac bush.

“If you don’t
want
me,” Jeremy insisted, closing the gap between them, “then why are you
here
?”

Frantic, Keira looked at Walker’s motionless form and licked her lips.

“If it’s Walker you’re worried about, don’t be. I’ll take care of him,” Jeremy said, watching her tongue trace her bottom lip. He reached out and caught her wrists.

Keira wrenched her arms against his grip, but he didn’t let go.

“Get OFF ME!”

He bent his head, bringing his lips to her neck like he hadn’t heard her. The body spray and deodorant smell of him filled her nose and she gagged on the idea of kissing him. She twisted away, lifting her foot to kick him in the groin, but she couldn’t get a decent shot at the bulge in his pants. Instead,
she kicked his knee as hard as she could. She felt the joint shift sideways beneath her heel and her stomach lurched.

Jeremy screamed and dropped her wrists. All at once, Keira was pulling backward against nothing. She landed hard in the grass with Jeremy looming over her like a storm cloud.

“What the FUCK?!” He raised his arm above his head, flattening his hand like he was going to slap her. Keira barely managed to throw an arm up to shield herself before she realized he hadn’t swung.

Another hand was wrapped around Jeremy’s wrist.

Walker’s hand.

Jeremy yelped and whirled around, howling as Walker maintained his grip, twisting Jeremy’s shoulder in its socket.

Walker looked down at him. “Touch her,
ever again
, and I will break you.” He twisted harder and Keira could see the unnatural bulge of Jeremy’s shoulder joint beneath his shirt.

“You can have her,” Jeremy spat between his panting breaths. “She’s nothing but a tease any—” His scream cut off his words before he could finish.

Walker let go of him and Jeremy dropped to the ground, moaning and cradling his shoulder.

Keira got unsteadily to her feet. Walker was by her side in an instant.

“Thanks,” she said. “I don’t love being the damsel in distress, but I wasn’t exactly expecting that.” Her voice cracked and failed. Keira shook her head.

“It was the least I could do, after disgracing myself by getting knocked out by a shrub.”

“You can both go screw yourselves,” Jeremy spat, staggering to his feet and lurching toward the house. The door slammed behind him.

Walker whistled. “He’s a
shining
example for losers everywhere, isn’t he?” Residual anger colored his words.

Keira laughed in spite of her trembling. “Should we look for Smith? Do you know where he might have gone?”

“I think the best thing to do is to let him cool off; get himself together. He needs that sometimes. When he’s ready, he’ll come back. Chasing him makes it worse. I suppose I should have thought of that before I went tearing off after him and landed in a bush.”

“If you’re sure . . . ” Keira stared into the darkness. She hated to think of Smith out there, hurting and alone.

“Let’s go find the car, okay?” Walker wrapped an arm around her and started for the gate. “Where do you want to go?”

She wanted to go home, but she was sitting smack in the middle of a spiderwebbed lie and she had to untangle the deception, first. “I’d better call Susan. I’m supposed to be at her house—maybe she’ll let me wait there and I can have my mom come pick me up.” Her voice hitched on the last word.

They walked down the sidewalk, heading toward Jonquil and Walker’s car. It wasn’t until they’d turned the corner and found the Mercedes waiting beneath the yellowed glow of the
streetlamp that she trusted her voice enough to speak again.

“That sucked,” she said.

“I’m really sorry about Jeremy,” Walker said. “Not all guys are like that. Most guys aren’t like that. In fact, most guys think guys like that deserve an ass-kicking.”

“It’s not just Jeremy,” she said, climbing into the unlocked car. “And it’s not just Smith. But that’s all part of it—I mean, I don’t want to sound ungrateful. I know I could be dead right now, but what I told your cousin, about not wanting to run from the Reformers because I didn’t want to give up the life I had planned . . . ” She looked over at Walker. “It was true. And everything’s different now. I don’t like different. I don’t like
uncertain.
”

The sad-edged gleam in Walker’s eyes was a thousand years old, the look of someone who had seen too much and known too much and had a pretty good idea of what lay ahead. He reached over and cupped her face in his hand, his thumb gently tracing the hollow beneath her eye.

“I’m not going to pretend everything’s going to go back to normal,” he said. “But we’re alive and we’re together and your music—it’s the center of everything, now. That’s a start, right?”

Keira leaned into his palm. “It is. And I know things change—that life doesn’t always go exactly the way you think it will. I just never guessed that it would be so . . . ” She paused, searching for the right word.

“You didn’t think it would be so complicated?” he guessed.

“Something like that,” Keira admitted. Her new life—the
one that included Walker, Darkside, and even the Reformers—rose around her like a flood. She battled the sense that it was sweeping her away with it. She wasn’t going to think about all the changes at once. She couldn’t. It had to be one thing at a time. Apparently, the motto was going to stick. Maybe she should have it tattooed across her wrist. Of course, with the dark matter inside her swirling across her skin like an ever-changing tattoo, she might not need any earthly ink.

Suddenly it occurred to her that she hadn’t seen a single dark mark on either her skin or Walker’s the entire time they’d been Darkside—and she’d seen an awful lot of their skin there, recently.

She blinked away the sudden rush of heat that came with the thought. “Hey, how come the dark marks only show up on our skin when we’re here?”