Something Deadly This Way Comes

Chapter Ten

Demus dropped back to take in Paul. “Your aura is green?” he mocked, staring at the luminescent stone around Paul’s neck. The glow of the stone was a reflection of Paul’s aura, and it was indeed a bright, gold-laced green.

Paul dropped his eyes, his lips set tight as he ran a hand over his sandy-brown hair. He was embarrassed, and I didn’t think it was because he was still wearing the rumpled clothes that he’d worn to school today. The stone he used to touch the divine should be shifting up the spectrum to a light timekeeper’s red by now, but it was that sparkly, neutral green, as Demus had so inelegantly pointed out, that ebbed to a flat black even as I watched.

“You shut up.” Nakita threatened to smack him, and I cleared my throat. I thought it odd she was defending Paul, seeing as she didn’t like him, but she had apologized to Paul for knocking him out once, so maybe it was part of her trying to understand. Barnabas, too, looked more uncomfortable now that Paul was here.

“You’re not doing this!” Demus said, ignored, and I didn’t like the look in his eye.

“I can’t stay long,” Paul said, glancing at everyone, his gaze lingering on Josh questioningly.

“The rising light timekeeper should not be here!” Demus hissed, and I jerked when I felt him tap into the divine. Barnabas was already moving, his dark shadow darting across the open area to slam into the redheaded angel.

“Look out!” Nakita shouted, and I found myself on the ground, the air pushed out of my lungs and Nakita on top of me. Damn, she was fast! Blowing the hair out of my eyes, I wiggled to get a better look as Barnabas sat on Demus, a handful of red hair in his grip as he pulled Demus’s head up. Paul had fallen back, knowing to get out of the way when angels fought, and Josh was behind that pillar again.

Barnabas lifted the chain around Demus’s neck until he had his amulet in his possession. “Nakita, do you have any rope in that purse of yours?”

“Get off me, Nakita,” I wheezed. Yeah, my life was so glamorous, out after midnight among the tombstones, sweating and slapping at mosquitoes.

Nakita slipped off, and I took a huge gulp of air, sitting up to brush last week’s dried grass clippings off me. Nice. I hadn’t been in my new dark timekeeper clothes five minutes and I get them dirty. Josh extended a hand to help me up, and I took it gratefully.

“Thanks,” I said softly, my lips next to his ear. “And relax, will you? You look like he wants to be my boyfriend or something. He’s just a guy.”

“Yeah?” Josh said as he watched me brush the last of the dirt off. “Just a guy who can do that amulet thing and walk through space.”

I grinned at him, appreciating that he felt jealous. “He’s not the one who held my hand when I died,” I said, shifting my weight to bump into him. “And he’s not the one who was there when I got my body back.”

Josh’s shoulders eased, and he actually smiled, even when Paul came to stand at my other side. The two guys warily greeted each other as Nakita leaned against a stone and pulled her long stockings off.

“This is wrong!” Demus was shouting, and I looked at the dark street that suddenly seemed too close. “The seraphs need to know what you’re doing! That grub is going to tell Ron. He’s going to put a guardian angel on her!”

I had broken curfew too many times and gotten away with it to be cowed by what a seraph might think about me hanging out with my future adversary. They were the ones who picked me. If they couldn’t handle my rebellious tendencies, then they should have picked someone else. Still . . . I watched the sky. Demus couldn’t do much without his amulet, but there was no need to advertise.

“Here,” Nakita said as she handed Barnabas her white stockings. Barnabas tossed me the reaper’s amulet, and I caught it, feeling the violet stone warm in my grip as both Paul and I looked down at it. I hadn’t made it, but the amulet around my neck had been used in its construction, and it was as if the two stones were greeting each other.

“Get off!” Demus huffed as Barnabas yanked his arms back and tied his wrists. “Nakita,” he pleaded when Barnabas finished and got off him. “He’s going to put a guardian angel on her. Nakita, stop this! You’re traitors! Traitors!” he shouted.

Feet spread wide, Nakita stood over him as Barnabas yanked him into a seated position. “I told you to be quiet,” she said, bending provocatively to shove her last wadded-up stocking into his mouth. “And I’m not a traitor,” she added, looking unsure as she stepped back.

Paul gave me a look like he wanted to laugh but was afraid to. “Having problems with your reapers?”

My heart was pounding. Demus’s face was as red as his hair. “He’s new to my methods,” I said with a false lightness, then turned away as if it didn’t bother me. But it did.

Paul grinned, reaching out a finger to poke my shoulder. “You’re alive now?”

I couldn’t help but smile back. “Yeah, so no scything me, okay?”

He laughed, pantomiming cutting through me with a blade, remembering our first meeting when he’d tried to kill me. I had been evil incarnate, according to him. Now I was hoping he saw us as colleagues . . . sort of. Glancing at Demus, Paul said, “I don’t know exactly what you want me to do here.”

Excitement tingled to my toes. “Your amulet is strong enough to see the time lines, right?” I asked. “I mean, Ron didn’t give you an amulet that couldn’t, yes?”

Paul looked down at his green stone. “I can see them, sure. But that doesn’t help you much. I don’t have the slightest idea where to look.”

Barnabas gave Demus a nudge to be quiet. “What have you been doing the last three months?”

“Not this,” was Paul’s quick, defensive answer, and Josh snorted.

“If you can bring the time lines up,” I said, “I can see them through your thoughts. I’ll show you her resonance, like I would a reaper.”

Paul’s eyes were wide. “You can do that? Show someone else what you’re looking at?”

“It’s how a timekeeper shows a reaper what soul to take,” I said, realizing that Ron hadn’t told him that much. Sure, Paul could jump across space and make a sword from the divine, but he didn’t know the first thing about his job. What was Ron waiting for?

“Like I said,” Barnabas muttered as he leaned toward me, “what have you been doing the last three months?”

I glared at Barnabas to be quiet. We needed Paul’s help. “You want to try it?” I asked Paul. If he didn’t, we were screwed.

Paul glanced at Josh, then me. “You, uh, won’t be able to read my thoughts, will you?” he asked.

I looked at Nakita and Barnabas, not sure myself, and they shrugged. Maybe this wasn’t such a good idea. “I don’t know. Paul, you’re going to have to do this eventually,” I cajoled, and his eyes grew determined.

“Okay,” he said, sitting down on one of the stones.

Nakita made a tiny huff. Arms over her chest, she leaned toward Barnabas. “Why is it they both have to sit down to do stuff?”

Nervous, I sat across from Paul, feeling the damp go right through my thin clothes. I took three breaths, trying to center myself as Barnabas had taught me. It was a lot harder now that I was alive. I guessed that taking Paul’s hand might improve the chances we could pull this off, but Josh was scowling again, and I didn’t.

“Okay, I found it,” Paul said, his expression calm as he looked at his inner mindscape. “I found you.” His one eye cracked open as he compared my real aura with the one on the time line. “Found them,” he added, meaning the reapers, I guessed as he glanced at them. Then he cringed. “Madison, I have no idea what I’m looking at.”

“Hold on,” I said. Closing my eyes, I brought up my mindscape. As I feared, there wasn’t much to look at, just that blurry haze of nothing.

“Try touching him,” Nakita said dryly, and Josh exhaled loudly.

“Okay,” I said, then reached for him.

“Hey!” he yelped.

I got a flash of bright light, and then it was gone. My eyes flew open, and I stared at Paul. He looked scared, his eyes wide in the dim light of the distant streetlamp. My heart pounded, and I realized my hand was fisted in my lap. “Are you okay?” I asked him as Barnabas grumbled.

“Yeah,” he said, clearly flustered. “It just surprised me. Let’s try again.”