But I couldn’t. I knew that the bad g
uys were out and about so I had
to be on my
game. It was getting dark again
and I hadn't seen a soul
all day
. The van had left me long ago, hours maybe, and I
had trudged through the dirt, staying off the road. My shoes were full of sand and I could literally have collapsed, but I didn't.
I hadn't eaten anything all day
yesterday
and my stomach had been growling at me.
More hours passed. Even in the military, with all the exercises and training we did, I'd never been this exhausted before. It did me no good to be awake. With the blood I'd lost and no food in my system and lack of sleep, if I was attacked, it wasn't like I could have fought them off.
Things went from bleak to bleaker as headlights rounded the hill. I debated for mere seconds on whether to take my chances that they might help me. At the last second before they could see me, I followed my gut and ducked down. The movement jammed by arm into my leg and I cursed as I lay in the dirt and groaned
as silently as I could.
They passed by and I raised my head to see. Good call because they were frigging Enforcers. I let my head fall with a thud to the sand at my close call. I couldn't get up, just couldn't.
I thought about Lillian. I wasn't one to dwell in a bad situation, but I wondered if I'd ever see her again. I imagined her fretting over me, wrapping my arm and humming me to sleep with one of her daddy's hymnals, like a good wife. I smiled. I must've been delirious because I could actually hear her humming in my ear.
If terror falls upon your bed and sleep no longer comes,
Remember all the words I said. Be still, be still and know.
When you go through the valley and shadow comes down from the hill,
If morning never comes to be, be still, be still, be still.
If you forget the way to go, and lose where you came from.
If no one is standing beside you, be still, and know I am.
Be still and know that I'm with you, be still
and know
I am
.
I woke with a boot
o
n my neck
, and the sun was down again
. I glared up at the Lighter whose long block ponytail hung over his shoulder. A ponytail? That alone made me want to hurt him. Pansy.
But he had the upper hand on this one. My body was still exhausted beyond belief and he was pressing the breath out of my windpipe. I croaked, all bravado, "You should've killed me when you had the chance
, Lighter boy." He smirked. "Now you're in trouble."
"What a big mouth on the boy who's under my boot." He laughed and smiled menacingly. He pressed harder and I hissed. "What was that?"
I punched his calf with my palm and his foot slid off my neck. He laughed even more as I sat up and he circled me.
"Why didn't you just kill me while I was sleeping?"
"There would be no fun that way," he said like it was obvious. "I knew you were a rebel, out here all alone. I wanted you to wake up," he clucked his tongue, "but from the looks of things, you're in no condition to put up much of a fight. Shame."
I stood trying not to wobble. "See, this is why nobody likes you. That's just rude."
He smirked. "Are you going to pull the
all talk and no action
routine?"
"Nah. Let's go," I beckoned. If I was going out, I was going out with my fist busting a Lighter's jaw.
He circled me before blurring to my right and slamming his fist into my back. I groaned, but stood my ground. And learned. He tried that move again and that landed him a punch in the gut.
I tried to blast him with my hands, but I was just too beat and he evaded it every time.
We went round and round before I had to admit to myself that he was just toying with me. He knew I had no fight in me and could have ended it at any time, but he didn't. I wondered why.
"Ah, they're here," he finally said.
"Who's that?" I asked with dread.
"My brothers.
" I turned to see headlights and huffed out angry breaths.
"Oh, come on. Don't you Lighters fly and soar and other fairy crap?"
"But then your ignorant humans would k
now something was different, now
wouldn't they?" He smiled evilly
to the ones approaching us. There
were three of them, all different, but all the same.
"You know you all look the same?" I goaded.
"Shut your mouth, foul human!" one of the newer ones yelled.
I laughed. "Foul human!" I laughed some more. "Dude, too many evil movies for you."
He backhanded me in a blur that I didn’t see coming. I spit the blood off to the side and tried to keep my cool.
"We are done playing with this one," one of them said. "End it or bring him in for questioning."
I remembered Sherry's
questioning
they'd performed on her. That wasn't happening. "You can just kill
me now. I won't be talking
to you about anything. Unless you've got the latest news on Gossip Girl. Man, I miss that show."
He frowned and cocked his head in confusion. "Enough!" the other one barked. "Finish it. We've got other work to do."
"Allow me," the one in the back said. He stepped forward and his steps shook the ground.
That Graphter thing. Crap.
I always
imagined how I'd die, all bad ace and
chin raised in defiance, maybe give them the finger.
It
did
n’t quite work that way. I accepted it though. I'd put u
p a good fight, but this was it so I'd bow out with grace. I closed my eyes and thought of my L.
My eyelids turned red with another approaching light. I opened them to see another car. They were pointed our way, just sitting there. That looked like the… Gremlin! How the heck had they found me? And why the heck were they just sitting there?
The car's engine revved.
Then whoever was driving pressed the gas and rushed us. I leapt out of the way in a
just in time
man
ne
r and
managed to be
missed. The Lighters and that other…thing…moved, too, and gawked at us as the Gremlin slid into the sand next to me. The passenger door opened. I scrambled up and into the seat without even looking and slammed the door shut as he smashed the gas and turned a one eighty. The Graphter looked peeved and when he lifted his hands I knew what was coming. "Punch it!" I yelled and squeezed my eyes shut tight just as the Graphter clapped his hands.
The windshield shattered at the boom.
We kept going, knocking one of the smug Lighters over in the process of our sliding. I figured they'd give chase, but we weren't big enough fish I guessed.
I turned back to the front, shielding my eyes from the wind coming at us from the now wide gaping windshield. "Dude, that was…what the hell?"
It was Daniel.
He looked at me and then back at the road. "I've been driving all day and night looking for you."
"What for?" I asked, flabbergasted. "Why are you here? Where's everyone else?"
"I came alone. I told no one."
"Ooooh," I dragged out, "so you snuck out to find me and off the competition, huh?"
He gave me strange look. I could see him in the lights from the dash as he sped down the highway. "I can only assume you are referring to Lillian
,
and I can guarantee you that won't be happening."
I chuckled without a trace a humor. "Giving up?"
"Yes," he said quickly.
"Why? I thought you said you loved her." I had no idea why I was arguing with him once he said he'd given up, but it just came out.
"I do," he said sternly and flashed a look that held contempt and regret, one in the same. "But she is in love with you."
I almost smiled. "I know."
"I kissed her," he confessed and I balled up my fist.
"Again?" I asked
, thinking he was talking about the first time.
"Yes.
" I almost choked him right there.
"
When I…said goodbye
," h
e clarified. I imagined the two of them
, Lillian's strange affection for him, him bidding her goodbye forever…
"
I wanted to be upfront with you. She…" he shook his head, "she doesn't love me. She worrie
s
about you constantly, her eyes are searching for you even when you're not there." He looked at me. "She looks right past me when she's looking at me.
She can't help it."
What was I supposed to say to that? So I said, "I still owe you a beat down for what you did. Don't think I've forgotten."
"I haven't forgotten," he said calmly and kept driving. I eyed him
, biting on my lip ring and cracking my knuckles.
"So what are we doing? Going home? Did Sherry make it home all right?"
"She did," he answered. "And no, we're not going there. We have a task."
"What task?"
"We're headed to the state line."