“What does he think he’s going to do if he catches us?” I asked nervously.
“Flatten us with that spatula,” James said, laughing. “Quick, in here.” He pushed me into an alleyway.
“Um, he would’ve seen us duck in here, he wasn’t far behind us,” I mumbled as James hurried me into the darkness.
“Trust me, will you?”
Heavy footsteps came to a stop behind us. The pub owner was winded, panting and wheezing like an asthmatic in need of a hit from his inhaler.
Rancid meat and old trash assaulted my nose with every breath I took. Somehow, even with all of the noxious smells around me, our pursuer’s body odor was just noticeable over the rest, like the top note of the worst perfume ever. I tried shutting down my olfactory sense like I’d been taught, but the valve seemed to be stuck in the open position.
“In there,” James whispered, his mouth so close to my ear that his breath warmed my cheek.
I slipped into a small alcove just wide enough for two people.
“Clear off, the lot of you! Nobody fancies your kind round here!” The pub owner yelled, taking several tentative steps into the dark alleyway.
I held my breath as James wedged in beside me. I braced myself for the lecture, wondering if he’d dig in now, or wait until the guy left. To my surprise, I found him grinning down at me.
“James, I—”
“That was bloody brilliant,” he said, his mouth only inches away from mine.
Staring at those full, soft lips, time was suspended. Our bodies were touching in so many places that I was tingling all over from the various points of contact. I looked down, to where his hand was still holding mine, his thumb brushing a gentle circle over a patch of skin. When I dared to meet his eyes, the silver seared through the darkness.
Since we’d met, I’d noted how the platinum expressed each of his emotions, but I was unfamiliar with this one. He reached up to brush a stray hair back from my face, his fingers lingering, threading through my hair. The hand holding mine moved slowly up to wrap around my waist, his gaze darting down to look at my lips, pausing there. When he—
“I have a right mind to call the pair of you in!”
The moment shattered, disappearing in an instant. I froze, completely forgetting about James, his lips, my beating heart and weak knees.
Call us in? Like to the cops? To UNITED?
My fingerprints were all over the menu, my silverware, my glass. And in the TOXIC registry. One scan, and the authorities would know who they belonged to. UNITED would know I was in London. Unlike the man still standing at the entrance of the alleyway, I’d never win a foot race with their agents. Once they had me in their crosshairs, I was as good as contained. I would be—
Don’t think about that now. Handle the immediate predicament. Get you and James as far away from here as possible.
“We need to go, now,” I hissed.
“Give it a second, he’s leaving.”
“James, you don’t understand,” I shot back. “If he calls the authorities—”
“I know, Kenly,” James soothed. He ran his palms up and down my bare arms. “I know.”
With one last barrage of politically incorrect slurs, the pub owner finally retreated.
“See? We’re good. Just breathe,” James whispered.
I took a moment to slow my rapid pulse. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have done that. I mean, in the restaurant.”
“Sorry?” James laughed softly. “For what? Saving my life? Are you mad? I’m tremendously grateful that you did.”
Right, but you wouldn’t have needed saving if I hadn’t asked you such a piercing question.
I couldn’t bring myself to point that out.
“Really?” I asked instead. “No lectures?”
“No lectures.” James reached up to where the hair had fallen into my eyes once more, gently pushing it back again. “But we really should get out of here. Whether that wanker calls us in or not, there are a lot of angry people around who want our heads. We’ll catch a cab over to the Giraffe, it’ll be safe there.”
“Can we afford another cab ride?” I asked, feeling ridiculously guilty over him having to spend more because of something I did.
“Well we didn’t have to pay for dinner now, did we?” he chuckled. “Besides, better safe than sorry. Especially right now.” James was still holding my hand as we stepped back into the alley.
“Why especially right now?” I asked suspiciously. There was a lot going on, what with enemies crawling out of the sewers, but something about the way James said, ‘especially right now’ had me feeling instantly unnerved.
After a long pause, James said, “Let’s wait on that until we reach the Giraffe. It’d be best if Willa explains it.”
This does not bode well.
TUG’S PUB WAS a ghost town. Willa and a part-time waiter/dishwasher/busboy named Gabe, who I’d seen a handful of times, were both standing behind the bar watching the local news on the wallscreen. Tug himself was nowhere in sight.
The lack of customers did little to ease the tension that was making me twitchy. There was an ominous atmosphere inside the Giraffe that I couldn’t shake.
You’re being paranoid, I told myself. It’s just slow tonight. Those old guys have to take a night off from drinking every once in a while.
“Hey,” Willa called as James closed the door behind us.
I gave a terse smile in reply and Willa’s hazel gaze shifted to James. One look from my companion and Gabe muttered something about unclogging the grease trap and disappeared into the back.
“Wasn’t expecting you two for a while yet. Everything alright?” Willa asked, eyes bouncing between James and me.
I slid onto a barstool and James claimed the one next to mine.
“Where’s Tug?” James asked.
Willa’s jaw tightened. “Granddad’s still a bit under the weather. He went to have a lie down. Why?”
“We had a spot of a run-in on Tiber, at the King’s Pub. With some Chrome-haters. The owner threatened to call the bobbies,” James explained.
I stared guiltily down at my hands. I didn’t regret what I’d done, obviously. And even with that coil of anger that had been unfurling in my belly, I was proud of the restraint I’d managed. But now that we were on safe ground, I was thinking of all the things I should’ve done differently, the ways I could’ve better handled the situation. For instance, instead of using my Talents to free the fish from James’s throat, I could’ve used the Heimlich maneuver. Having been trained in rudimentary first-aid I actually knew the technique. Instead, I’d panicked, acting on instincts so ingrained, so much a part of who I was that, I hadn’t given a second thought to the consequences. That momentary lapse in discretion had cost us. Judging by the alarmed expression on Willa’s face as James recounted the events at the King’s Pub, probably a lot more than I even realized.
“Bloody hell. And tonight of all nights,” Willa muttered when James finished telling the story. Well, a slightly edited version of it. He left out the part about my intrusive line of questioning that caused him to choke.
“It’s before long then, is it?” James asked.
“I reckon so. Looks as if they’re going full monty tonight, doing a final roundup. The Network is reporting an upturn in attacks, warning all Chromes to keep off the streets.” Willa shook her head disgustedly and gestured towards the now mute wallscreen. “Course proper media has their gobs shut ‘bout it. Typical prats.”
Deciphering my new friends’ foreign brand of English had become second nature to me, but now it seemed they were talking in riddles. What was coming soon? What was a roundup? What was the Network?
I opened my mouth to give voice to these troubling thoughts when the chimes over the door tinkled. We all three turned in unison to find two regulars hurrying inside. Both men I recognized and knew were friends with Tug. They were the men who usually sat at a table playing chess or checkers while drinking pints. Tonight, they bee-lined
straight for the bar.
“Willa, dear, go fetch your granddad,” one, a small dark man with even darker eyes, said. Not quite an order but close. He was middle-aged and wore twisted bands of gold around several fingers of each hand, an odd contrast to his cargo pants and tee shirt that declared, “God Save the Queen,” in black block letters with a giant red tongue underneath the words.
“He’s having a kip,” Willa replied, swiping a wet dish rag along the bar and avoiding eye contact with the man. “Is something the matter?”
“Dunkins, Monroes, Huttons, the lot of them all out in full force, working together even. That’s one for the books,” the small man said. “Just got word the sale’s on for night after next. Rumour has it that they’ve quite a lot of up-scale merchandise.”
James stiffened and turned to the speaker.
“Are they close by? Have you actually seen them, Ali?” he demanded.
“No, son. Not with my own eyes, but my spooks have. Word is the Poachers, they’ve caught themselves some of them Americans. Bidding supposed to start at million half Globes for their lot. The auction will be the most sizable by far in decades. Even us Chromes aren’t safe either, mind you. What with the Treaty renewal likely to fail, a lot of fretting among the Poachers about going out of business if we’re all sent to the islands.”
Run. Run. Run.
James’s hand on my arm stopped me before I could put my single-minded plan into action.
He’s right. More information. Knowledge is king. Find out what you’re up against.
“Down here? In the Slums? They’ve caught Created here,” I asked, a frantic quality to my voice that I barely recognized.
An odd mix of terror and longing filled me. Was it possible that I wasn’t the only person from the McDonough School, from TOXIC, who’d sought refuge in London? Since the area was home to the largest population of Talents in the world, I felt a little naïve for not considering the possibility before now. All the time I’d spent screwing around with my new friends, I should’ve been trying to locate my classmates.
Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.
From beside me, I felt James’s icy glare. Even Willa appeared distressed that I’d spoken. She shot me a warning glance, a quick slit of her hazel eyes, before returning her attention to Ali.
“Blimey! You American, girl?” Ali asked me, interest piqued.
“We’re leaving,” James said, already on his feet. He grabbed my hand, ready to forcibly remove me if necessary. He gently stroked the back of my hand with his thumb, reassuring me, but the strength of his grip belied his comforting.
“Comm Riley. Tell him to go to the café and collect Honora now. Her guvnor will let her go early. Close up and wait here for Riley and Nora. The three of you go to Tug. Whatever you do, don’t come round the flat.”
“Not without me, you aren’t leaving,” Willa cried, tossing her dishtowel aside and reaching for the knot of apron strings at the small of her back. “You need me,” she added pointedly.
Ali was openly studying me with dollar signs in his eyes. Friendship and loyalty to Tug were enough for the man to run over here with the horrific news, but apparently not enough to prevent him from cashing in on what he clearly perceived as a gold mine. And for the first time, I realized how rare a find Willa and James and the others truly were, how lucky I’d been that they’d taken me in. My new friends saw me, a Created, as one of them, as their kind. Clearly that feeling was not shared by all Chromes.
James’s fingers gripped my hand hard enough to leave bruises.
“Riley will never forgive me if something happens to you, Willa,” he said, tone gentle but firm.
“She’s my friend, too,” Willa hissed, defiant.
Willa held out her hands to me and that was when I noticed the slash across her right palm, an angry red line that triggered a dizzying memory. In my last Vision, Willa’s palm had been cut. At the time I’d assumed the injury had occurred during her altercation with the ginger-haired boy. Now I wasn’t so sure.
Oh my God, please let that be a coincidence.
James died in that Vision. But I could change that outcome. By altering the circumstances. Maybe if Willa wasn’t with us, James and I wouldn’t be separated. If we weren’t separated, maybe he would live. Then again, maybe not. Maybe tonight wasn’t even the night. But there was no way I was chancing that. The risk was far too great.
I let go of James’s hand, and clasped both of Willa’s in mine.
“Please trust me when I say this. It will be safer for all of us if you stay here,” I told her in a low voice. Willa’s lips parted and she was about to offer another protest when I cut her off. “Trust me, Willa. Please. Just trust me.”
Indecision warred in her hazel irises. Willa was concerned about her own safety, enough so that she was relieved that I’d asked her to stay behind. Yet she was also genuinely worried for me, and considering whether to make fuss and demand to go. Beyond all of that, I could see the hesitation that my adamancy added.
“You’ve been a wonderful friend to me, Willa. I can’t tell you enough how much I appreciate it. And that’s why I can’t let you come. I swear, it really is safer for me, for all of us, if you wait here for Riley and Honora,” I said gently.
“You can’t know that,” Willa said.
“But I do. Trust me,” I whispered in reply, repeating the plea with more emphasis.
She was still unconvinced. I found myself wishing that the Director had added in the gift of Mind Manipulation. Then I could’ve compelled Willa into compliance, to stop wasting precious seconds. Ali was toying with something in his pocket, indecision clear in his eyes. I would have bet anything that it was a communicator. I was running out of time to get away.
Finally, Willa bit her bottom lip and nodded her acquiescence.
“Alright then. But swear it to me you’ll come back.”
“I promise,” I said. Both of us were well aware that the situation was beyond my control and promises of return were futile.
Turning my attention to James, I was intent on delivering a nearly identical plea. He needed to stay away from me. It was far too dangerous. And I would never forgive myself if he was killed because of me.
“You can’t come with me either,” I said quietly. Leaning in closer to whisper in his ear, I inhaled his wonderfully clean scent, soap and fresh grass. It was so very James. “I have to tell you something. I saw—”
He pulled back, cutting me off.
“I don’t care,” he said plainly.
If he was set on coming, I had to tell him about the Vision. An informed decision was impossible until he had all of the information. Putting my hand on his shoulder, I pulled myself up again right next to his ear, so only he could hear me.
“Seriously, I need to tell you this, just listen. When I—”
Much to my dismay, he pulled back again. Leave it to James to be this aggravating when I was trying to save his life. I looked up at him, ready to give him the death glare to end all death glares, to force him to at least listen to what I knew.
But when our eyes met, I knew in my heart that I was wasting my breath. There was no way he was going to let me venture out alone. In that moment, I was torn between gratitude and exasperation.
The trouble was, while I wanted to keep James safe, I also really didn’t want to be alone. I was terrified. And if that wasn’t bad enough, if I was being truthful, my other motivation for staying with him was even more selfish than the first. I wasn’t ready to say goodbye to James. In our short time together he’d become an integral part of my life. One that I didn’t want to lose. I didn’t know how much more I could stand being the voice of reason.
“Let’s go. Now.” He whispered his next words in my ear. “Don’t speak again, for any reason.”
It took everything in me to hesitate when he started towards the door, to ignore my mind chanting run, run, run. My feet rooted in place, I knew I needed to tell him to stay. To stay safe. To stay alive. To stay away from
me.
Since he still had a firm grip on my hand, our arms pulled taut when he started forward and I didn’t. Once he realized I wasn’t moving, James looked back at me. Since he told me not to speak I pleaded with my eyes, asking him if he was sure, if he really wanted to stick with someone who was the night’s most valuable prize. The faintest trace of his trademark smirk surfaced. With a brusque shake of his head, I was done protesting. For better or for worse, we were in this together. All I could do was pray that we were changing things by leaving Willa behind.
As we reached the door, he called back to Willa. “Comm Riley, tell him I’ll be in touch soon as it’s safe.”
I was used to following orders. That was one thing the McDonough School had taught me well, which was why I let James take the lead. I followed him out of the Giraffe, matching his long strides easily, with a parting wave to Willa over my shoulder. Terror was blatant in her expression and I wondered if this would be the last time I saw my friend.
“Hang on a sec,” I said to James, turning back.
The door to the Giraffe was still swinging closed as I pulled it open again. The men were speaking tersely and adamantly to Willa, but I couldn’t make out their words from across the room. The conversation stopped abruptly and they all looked up when I stepped back across the threshold.
“Kenly!” Willa exclaimed, her wide eyes darting back and forth between me and the men.
“Forget something?” the small one sneered.
With a wave of my hand, I sent them both sailing through the air. The pictures on the back wall of the pub shuddered as they slammed into the boards. The two figures came to rest on the pine floors, neither moving. Willa’s jaw was practically resting on the bar as she gaped at the crumpled forms.
“Hope they weren’t too close to Tug!” I said as I ran back out the door, blowing a kiss in her direction.
“That was wicked!” she called back, a huge grin on her face.
Once I was back out on the street, James stopped his frantic assessment of the street and turned to face me. He placed his calloused palms on my shoulders and squeezed lightly.