Darker Days

but static on the screen, yet he still seemed enthralled. Every few seconds his eyebrow would twitch along with his right cheek. On the floor by his feet was an overturned cup of coffee leaking out across the floor.

As I watched, James Farley, one of the school’s janitors, shuffled past. He slipped in the cream-colored liquid, losing his balance and landing hard on the floor. When Farley finally pulled himself into a sitting position, two of the fingers on his left hand were twisted at an odd angle. Broken. Instead of cursing the pain, he simply sat there staring ahead as the cuff of his pants soaked up the coffee.

“They’re just… It’s like they’re dead. Breathing, but dead.”

“Sloth,” Lukas said in a low voice. “He would have them sit here and waste away—starve to death slowly— and feed from the resulting energy.”

The looting at Flankman’s had been bad. Chaos and fighting. People had gotten hurt… But it was somehow more unsettling to see those people just sitting there. Blank and expressionless. It was like they were alive, but trapped. Trapped—like Lukas. “No, he won’t. We won’t let it get that far. The Sins are going down.”

I scanned the room and, in the far corner, saw a man I didn’t recognize. He leaned against the wall, watching with pale blue eyes and a bored expression. Bored—yet more alive than the others.

I stalked toward him. “Leave them alone.”

He barely glanced my way before yawning and casually waving me off. “Go away.”

“Sloth, right?”

“Tony,” the guy responded. He spoke with a thick city accent and nodded his head a lot. Turning to Lukas, he said, “That’s this body’s name, anyway. I like it. Wrath?”

“Lukas,” he said in an icy tone. “My name is Lukas.”

“You’re the human, aint’t ya? Tough break gettin’ stuck in the box, kid.” He almost sounded sympathetic. “Vida’s lookin’ for ya.”

Turning back to me, Tony said, “Lookin’ for you, too. Not fans of ya family.”

“The feeling’s mutual.”

“What’s a little laziness, eh?” Tony grinned. “And ya should be thankin’ me. I got yas out of school.”

“I’ll be sure to add you to my Christmas card list. Where are the others?”

“Listen up, girly. The thing ya gotta worry about is Vida and her new friend. The rest of us just wanna be left alone. I ain’t hurtin’ no one in here.”

That got my attention. “New friend? What new friend?”

“Sometimes we don’t get what we want.” Lukas’ fist shot out, lightning fast, and caught Tony across the lower jaw. There was an instant of shock before the man’s head rocked back and his eyes rolled up. He crumpled to the ground like a sack of quartz powder, expensive looking suit jacket bunching at the waist.

“Effective, but badly timed. Now we don’t know what he was talking about.” I poked him with the toe of my sneaker. Twice. Just to be sure. If it were me, I’d play possum if outnumbered and wait for an opportunity to strike. “And getting him back to the office is going to be a little tricky now. Ya know, with him out like a light and all… Unless you’re rocking the super strength thing.”

Lukas frowned. “He wasn’t going to come quietly.”

He had a point. I scanned the room and saw a roll of duct tape on the edge of one of the desks. Grinning, I grabbed it and waved it back and forth.

“What’s that?”

I bent over Tony and went to work. “This is the coolest invention of the twentieth century.” Once Tony was secured, I handed Lukas the roll.

He peeled the edge back, letting it dangle from the tip of his finger in awe. “This is amazing.”

I took the tape from him and gave it another wave. “Awesome,” I corrected.

“What?”

“This is awesome. Use the language of the land, gramps. Jeez. Didn’t you have slang back in the stone ages?”

“Awesome,” he said, as if trying the word on for size. “And that means amazing?”

“Yep.”

He nodded and wiggled his finger. “We had slang in 1882. Do people still use ragamuffin?”

I choked back a giggle. “Um, no. No they don’t. Ragamuffin? Seriously? That’s such a lame word!”

He stared at me for a moment before shaking his head. “Sometimes, I want to beg you to put me back in the box.”

“Aren’t we the High Drama Dude?” I toed Tony again and put the roll of tape back on the desk.

“Is it strong enough to hold him?”

“It’s strong enough. Trust me. The captain of the football team used this stuff to hang our rival school’s mascot from the sign in the quad. I’m not known for my school spirit, but it was pretty damn funny to see a dude in a purple chicken suit suspended mid-air.”

“You’re not like anyone I’ve ever met.”

“I’m full of surprises.”

His grin widened, and the butterflies came rushing back. “You really are.”

Chapter Sixteen

Getting Tony out of the school was easy. The teachers in the lounge were far past noticing anything. With Sloth gone, hopefully they’d go back to normal sooner rather than later. Between Lukas and me, we were able to drag Sloth across the tiled floor with little trouble. He slid along nice and easy against the well polished floor. Once outside, though—that presented a challenge.

My options were limited.

Public transportation wouldn’t work. I couldn’t come up with a reasonable excuse as to why two teenagers would be dragging around an unconscious, duct taped man in a dirty designer suit.

Carrying him was out of the question. Tony wasn’t a small guy. Even with Lukas helping, we’d end up doing more dragging than actual carrying. There was a human in there—I didn’t want to give him road rash.

Really, there was only one option. Mom. I pulled my cell out and dialed the office. This wasn’t exactly how I pictured presenting my victory, but unfortunately it was all we had. But even that didn’t work. The machine picked up on the fourth ring and I hung up.

“No answer. Makes sense, though,” I said to Lukas as I punched in her cell. “She and Dad are out hunting down the Sins.” It went right to voicemail. I snapped the phone closed and stuffed the cell back in my pocket. “Well, now we’re officially screwed.”

I stepped from the brush and glanced up and down the street just as a red Mustang turned the corner. It slowed, horn honking twice as it pulled alongside the curb. “Hey, beautiful, lookin’ for a ride?”

Great timing—wrong person. With the way he’d acted earlier, it was probably a bad idea to even consider this, but I was desperate. The longer we stood out in the open, the better the chances were of someone happening along. “Hey, Garrett…Yeah.”

The Garrett Girl Charmer beamed out at me from inside the Mustang. “Well then hop on in.”

This was the tricky part. “Um, actually, I have a few people with me, too.”

“Assuming you mean your shadow,” he grumbled.

“Lukas is here, yeah, but I’ve also got someone else…it’s a work thing. One of my mom’s alternative cases.”

Garrett, as far as I knew, had no idea about Penance’s supernatural underground, therefore had no clue what an alternative case meant, but I seemed to have his interest.

He perked up a little. “A work thing?”