Darker Days

Chapter Seven

I caught up to him as he reached the main door. “Wait!”

He stopped but didn’t turn around. “I don’t want to discuss it.”

“That’s fine,” I said, reaching for his hand. “We don’t have to—”

He jerked away and whirled to face me, eyes radiating a mixture of anger and surprise. “What are you doing?”

I stared down at my hand, horrified. What was I doing? “I—”

“I’m dangerous, Jessie. Don’t ever forget that.” Without waiting for me to respond, he crashed through the doors and stalked down the front steps in a blur.

I hurried after him.

“I don’t think so,” I called, almost tripping on my open shoelace. He could be dangerous, I didn’t doubt that, but I also believed he had a genuinely good soul despite the thing living inside him. It wasn’t fair to pass judgment based on something that had been done to him. He was right. Wrath lived inside him, but Lukas had free will. Each moment he chose to fight it. I would bet my iPod and a year’s supply of chocolate that he would never intentionally harm someone.

“You’d be wrong,” he snapped.

“Nope,” I said, resolved. “I’m wrong about a lot of things, but I’m an awesome people reader. And you, pal, are good people.”

For a second, I thought he might hit me. His eyes locked on mine, and I could have sworn there was a spark of red in them—but it was over as fast as it started, and I couldn’t be sure.

He took a deep breath and rolled his shoulders. Like magic, the tension seemed to drain away, leaving him a bit pale and tired looking. “It’s a struggle to control it. Again, I apologize for the outburst.”

“You have nothing to apologize for. I’m the annoying one, remember?”

He gave me a small smile. It was fast. Over too soon—which was a shame because it was a nice smile. One I could definitely get used to seeing on a daily basis. “Yes. You are.”

I swung the book bag over my shoulder and nearly fell backward. Stopping to unload all the books would’ve been a smart move. Now I’d have to lug them all the way home. “So you never answered me. Where do we start?”

“Klaire is looking for a Wells descendant. We should wait and see what she comes up with.”

“Um, hello? Why is everyone but me not seeing this? We have four days! I don’t think my math is off when I say that’s less than one day per Sin. We can’t exactly stand around cooling our heels. Besides, I’m not really the wait around type.” I started walking.

We moved past the edge of the school’s property and crossed over to the main drag. Penance had three distinct areas all divided by Purgatory Lane—someone’s idea of a bad joke. The Ledges—the good part of town. The Flats—the not so good part of town. And East Side. The bad side. Also known as The Pit.

There were two ways I could get from school to home. The long way—basically a huge circle around The Pit—or the short way through The Pit. Mom didn’t know it, hell she’d probably kill me herself if she found out, but I went through The Pit a lot. I’d made a fair amount of cash there, too. Just last week, I’d helped out an elderly couple by banishing a particularly violent ghost from their spare bedroom. Sure, I’d gotten paid—enough to pay for the damages I’d done to a client’s dining room set the week before, with some left over to buy a kick ass silver and bone butterfly knife—but I’d also helped out people in need. Win-win.

My reasons for steering us through The Pit today were less monetary. If the Sins were looking for a place to chow down after school let out, my guess was that The Pit would be ground zero.

About a mile in, Lukas must have figured out what was going on. “Jessie,” he warned. “This is not a good idea.”

“What?” I tried to look innocent. Probably failed, too. Mom always said I was as readable as the Sunday comics. And just as predictable. She told me I took after Dad in that respect. He never could pull one over on her. It was one of the reasons he chose to leave. “We’re going back to the office. Like Mom asked. We’re just taking a little detour.”

A noticeable shiver went through him as he stopped walking to scan the area. Face pale, he said, “This place—we shouldn’t be here. I shouldn’t be here.” Doubling over, he braced both hands against his knees, knotting fingers in the fabric. “I told you, it’s hard to control. I can’t—”

When he straightened, it was all I could do not to gasp. His eyes, previously brown, now blazed a furious blood red. “Are you okay?” Dumb question. Anyone with red eyes could probably not be classified as okay.

He gave a sharp shake of his head, gritting his teeth. Pain. He was in pain.

And it was my fault.

I nearly jumped out of my skin when, across the street, a black Ford Explorer blew through a red light and crashed into the back end of a Honda Civic. The crunching metal and shattering glass made me twitch in surprise even though I’d watched it all go down. The driver jumped from the SUV and started pounding on the Honda’s window. “I’m in a Goddamned rush. Get this piece of shit out of my way.”

On the sidewalk a few feet from us, a couple began screaming at each other. I watched, horrified, as the woman pushed the guy, and he, in turn, pushed her back. Within moments, they were punching and kicking each other like a schoolyard death match.

All around us, anger, rage, and violence bled into the air. Stifling and thick.

Lukas crashed to the ground like a stone. Fists knotted in his hair, he was shaking, breath coming in shallow gasps as chaos exploded all around us. A sheen of sweat now covered his forehead, and every few seconds, he’d gasp, eyes rolling back into his head.

I dropped to the sidewalk beside him. “Lukas. Lukas, look at me.”

Nothing.

I grabbed his shoulders and gave a small shake. There was no response. “Lukas, you have to control it.”

A man stormed past us and threw a metal garbage pail through the front window of Karson’s Pawn Shoppe. “I won’t pay these prices. It’s a rip off!” Behind me, glass shattered. I closed my eyes as bits and pieces rained across my back and over my head.

Lukas was unfazed. He continued to stare ahead, looking right through me. I had to do something. Fast. In the distance, an echoing bang split the air. The sound bounced off the buildings around us and made the tiny hairs on the back of my neck stand tall. A gunshot? Another car wreck? Someone was going to get hurt—or worse—killed. I had no idea how far this would spread. Or how fast.

I shook him again. Nothing. Drastic. It needed to be drastic. I could hit him, but that’d probably piss him off even more. The last thing I needed was to get my ass handed to me by an angry Sin.

So I did the only other thing I could think of.

Throwing myself forward, I grabbed the sides of his face and pulled him toward me. At first, nothing happened. I sat there, balanced awkwardly on my knees with my lips pressed against his. It was warm. Soft. Not unpleasant, really—just weird. After a moment, his lips parted and I froze. He sucked in a breath and reached out to cup my face on either side. His fingers curled around chunks of my long hair, and for a second—just a second—I was terrified. Butterflies-in-the-stomach, freefalling into chaos kind of terrified. Not because I thought he was going to hurt me, but because I thought he was going to kiss me back.

But he didn’t.

Slowly, he pulled away, mouth hanging open wide enough to remind me of clown face on the fourth hole of the Penance miniature golf course. I never could get the ball into that hole… Bringing his right hand up, he ran a finger along his bottom lip, never taking his eyes from mine. A chill replaced the space he’d vacated. A surprisingly unwelcome one.

Disappointed. I was actually disappointed.

Around us, the sounds of arguing began to taper off. Sirens blared in the distance and a fire truck flew past, the breeze from it sending my loose hair flailing in all directions. Things seemed to be cooling down.

“What were you thinking?” When I didn’t answer, he kept going. “Are you crazy? Why would you do that?”

Wonder what he’d think if I told him he’d just sort of been my first kiss? Heat rose in my cheeks, and I tamped down a burning feeling in the pit of my stomach. I wouldn’t let him see his indifference bothered me. “It was the only thing I could think of. I needed you to snap out of it.”

“And you thought that was the best way to do it?”

I didn’t trust myself to speak, so I simply shrugged.

He climbed to his feet. “I lost control—I’m sorry.”

Control? I’d had my face smushed up against his, and he hadn’t taken advantage of it. That was control-a-plenty in my book. Or maybe I’d done something wrong. I wasn’t unkissable, right? I mean, I lacked skill—obviously—but…

He looked around, taking in the disaster. Guilt. It was evident in every twitch of his lip and flinch.

Oops. He was apologizing for the violence, not our almost-lip lock. “It wasn’t that bad,” I lied. Truth was, it’d been terrifying. Like the apocalypse had blown into town and smacked everyone upside the head. And I was worried about kissing? Brain meltdown, Jessie!

“I need to get out of here.” He didn’t wait for me to get up before starting back the way we’d come.

I didn’t argue.