Darker Days

Chapter Twenty-five

“Ava,” I breathed.

“Who?”

I grabbed Mom’s hand and started running. “Greed. That’s Greed!”

There was a moment of hesitation, then Mom was flying along beside me while trying to dig her phone from her pocket.

Ava’s eyes widened and she took off. She raced through the rest of the lot and into the street. Squealing tires and horns blared as she ignored oncoming traffic and headed for the park.

“We should split up,” I huffed as we came to the entrance. “One of us hit the main gate, the other go around to the side. Lukas said the Sins are bound by the limitations of the human bodies they hijacked. She’s technically just a kid. How fast can she possibly move?”

Mom shook her head. “She’s a kid that can turn people into raving lunatics willing to rob you blind at any cost!”

“This isn’t the time for the Mom thing. There’s a Sin in the park. Right in front of us. Are you really gonna let her get away?” Low blow, but she needed to see the bigger picture here. We only had one day left, and opportunity had presented itself to us on a nice shiny platter.

After a moment, she nodded and pulled out her cell. “You go in here. Keep your distance and text me if she changes direction.” With a final look, she sprinted in the other direction, heading for the back gate of Penance Park. I watched her disappear before taking a deep breath and stepping into the park.

Everything was quiet. It was still early in the day and there was a definite chill in the air. Most people had abandoned the playground for the season, opting for indoor games instead. The park stayed open year-round—the hills in the back section perfect for sledding—but tended to be deserted after Labor Day.

I passed the swing sets and baseball field and didn’t see Ava, but two young girls—ten or twelve, tops—were fighting over a Barbie doll as their mothers tried to pull them apart. They kicked and screamed at each other while the confused women did their best to remedy the situation. There was really nothing I could do to help them other than finding Ava, so I kept going.

When I came to the monkey bars, I caught site of her for a moment, but she disappeared in the brush behind the picnic area, heading toward the pavilion. I pulled out my cell and texted Mom—Heading twrd pavil—and started to run.

“You can’t stop us,” Ava said as I entered the courtyard. She was standing atop the rock wall that bordered the pavilion, in the shadow of a large pine tree. She giggled—a sound that made it easy to forget it wasn’t only an innocent little girl standing in front of me, but an ancient evil determined to cause chaos. Anyone who happened to be walking by would see me facing off against a cute, seemingly innocent child. “We will be free this time. They will see to that.”

I stopped when I hit the large oak tree at the edge of the awning and stepped into the shade to reduce the sun’s glare. “They? Meredith’s not working alone?”

She giggled again, then pointed a finger to my left. Mom had come in from the other side and was standing a few feet away. We could both rush the kid, but the chances of us making it to her before she got away was slim. If she made it to the pavilion, there were too many ways she could lose us.

“You don’t know anything. This is so much bigger than you stupid Darkers. This is destiny centuries in the making.”

I snorted, earning a stern look from Mom. She was all about the serious while working, but this kid was making me laugh. “Destiny? Someone’s been watching too many Saturday morning cartoons. No such thing.”

Ava grinned. It looked out of place. A truly disturbing expression on a face that should have been so innocent. “You, Jessie Darker, are about to find out that isn’t true. The hard way.”

She made a move—a flinch really—a simple twitch of her leg, hinting that she was about to run. I didn’t think, only reacted.

My mind sent the necessary impulses to my brain, commanding my legs to move forward, but there was no motion. Instead, something buzzed inside my head. A persistent knocking against my skull. There was a strong feeling of vertigo, then darkness. Something heavy and black, and somehow comforting, enfolded me in its embrace. The scenery dimmed and faded. The next thing I knew, I was standing on the edge of the rock wall behind Ava, heels of my sneakers teetering over the rim and head swimming like an Olympic champion. I reached for her without thought, hand covering her small mouth and fingers clamping down over her nose.

She struggled and fought to throw me off, but Sin or no Sin, she was physically just a child. As soon as her body went limp in my arms, I released her nose and let her slide carefully to the ground below.

When I glanced over at Mom, her face was pale and the look in her eyes scared me more than anything I could ever remember.

…

Like me, Mom never went anywhere without the essentials. Quartz powder, duct tape,…handcuffs.

She pulled the shiny metal cuffs from the small box under the backseat of the Mustang. “Carefully,” she said, handing them to me.

The metal was cool in my hands—a serious contrast to the warmth of Ava’s small arms. I snapped the first brace into place, and then the other, then took a quick look around to make sure no one was watching us. Thankfully the coast was clear. Even I wouldn’t be able to come up with an excuse as to why we were handcuffing a small child and stuffing her into the backseat of our car. “Good thing she stole a kid’s body, eh? Carrying her through the park would have been a bitch otherwise. Help me get her in the car?”

Once we got Ava buckled in and situated, I climbed into the passenger seat. Mom started the engine and pulled away. It only took five minutes. We were both thinking about it—the thing that had happened not once—but twice in less than an hour. Mom was just the one with the guts to say it.

“That wasn’t normal.”

“Normal.” I shuddered. “You have kind of an obsession with that word, ya know?”

She rolled her eyes.

“I thought I’d started sleepwalking again. Now, I’m not so sure. I think I’ve been—I’ve been shadowing.”

Mom didn’t even flinch. “That’s impossible.”

I tilted my head back and gnawed my bottom lip. “Were you there when the guy tried to shoot us? And then with Ava in the park? Apparently, it’s not.”

“There has to be another explanation.”

“Maybe I’m just some uber-special, super powerful hybrid kid destined to save humanity from the forces of evil. A long lost member of the Justice League!”

“I’ll go out and buy you a cape,” she said, voice dripping with sarcasm. “Please try to be serious.”

I wanted to tell her my brain had overdosed on serious lately, but decided to keep it to myself. “Oh! And a mask. That’s important, too. Secret identity and all.”

“Or maybe you were just sleepwalking.”

“Then how do you explain what just happened?”

“Stress? Neither one of us saw you move.” I could tell from her voice that she didn’t believe that. How could she? Mom was nothing if not logical.

“I’ve been waking up in strange places lately. And the other night—the one you found Lukas and I on the couch? That night, I was sitting in bed, then poof. I was downstairs in the kitchen.”

She pulled up to the red light on the corner of Conclave and Main and turned to stare.

Eyes wide, Mom smacked me across the back of the head. “And you thought that was normal?”

“I’m seventeen. Teenagers do weird crap all the time. We don’t analyze. I was tired. I just figured I didn’t remember coming down the stairs.”

A few seconds of silence ticked by. The light turned green and Mom tapped the gas.

“I have something else to tell you, too.”

She gripped the wheel and sighed. “Why does that sound ominous?”

“Don’t be mad at him, but I went to see Paulson.”

“Paulson? Why on earth would you—” Lips pressed in a thin line, she growled, “Jessie, I told you to keep out of it!”

I threw up my hands in surrender. “I know! But it was the only way. I needed to find out why Meredith seems to have a bug up her ass when it comes to us. Plus, I thought he might have some ideas about the location of the box.”

“Meredith—what are you talking about?”

“Our relative Simon Darker figured out who Meredith really was when he tried to help Lukas the first time the box was opened. Only he found out too late. He and some witch—a Belfair witch—trapped her, but not before flinging the whammy that killed him. Somehow she got free, and now she’s got a serious grudge against the Darkers.” I took a deep breath.

Mom knew me too well. “And?”

“And what?”

“Did he have any ideas about the box?”

“He says it’s at the church.” I swallowed. “Which is another confession…”

“You already went to the church,” she sighed again and flicked the blinker. The car veered to the right as we turned down Gingham Avenue.

“Yeah—but we didn’t find anything. Simon says the box is safe, though. The Sins can’t touch it unless a human hands it to them willingly.”

“You’re forgetting something.”

“No, I’m not.” I protested. I’d been over the whole thing a million times in my head. There was nothing I’d missed.

“They have a human.”

I blinked. “They do?”

Mom sighed. “Meredith may be a witch, but she’s still human.”

I didn’t answer. There was nothing I could say that would gloss over that little oversight.

“Anything else—that Simon said? I’ve had enough confessions for one weekend. I’d like to get them out of the way now.”

“The only other thing he said was that we could get help.”

“Help? Dealing with Meredith or help for Lukas?”

“Both, I think?”

“I don’t suppose you know who we’re supposed to get help from?”

“Wouldn’t that just make things too easy? No challenge.”

“I’ve had enough challenge with this to last me a lifetime.”

“I second that.”

We were quiet for a few moments.

“What about the shadowing?”

Mom glanced into her rearview mirror at Ava. The kid was sitting in the back seat sulking like a pro. “I still don’t truly believe that’s what it is. Let’s forget that you’re seventeen. If you were going to start shadowing—why now? But it’s moot. Half-demon children do not inherit demonic traits. My human genetics overwrite them. For now, you tell no one. Not until we have everything figured out.”

“Not even Dad? He might be able to—”

“Especially not your father.”

I wanted to argue, but the fact that we’d just missed our turn caught my attention. “Um, did you forget how to get home?”

She glared at me from the corner of her eye. “We’re making a little pit stop.”

“Oh! Ice cream?” I hitched a thumb toward the back. “What about the Sour Puss? I don’t think she deserves any…”

“No ice cream,” Mom said with a slight smile. “How about some religion instead? I feel it’s my duty as a parent to reinforce your faith in God. Let’s check out that church.”