Heroes 'Til Curfew

  I knew there was little sense arguing about it, especially when I didn’t want to. “You sure that’s okay?”

  “You mean, like, with my parental unit? She won’t really care if I don’t come home for a few days. And she won’t really care when I come back.”

  I didn’t have anything to say. I leaned my head against him and tightened my arm around his waist.

  “It doesn’t really matter, Marshall.” He dropped a kiss on the top of my head. “Not anymore.”

  * * *

  Marco

  “It’s too cold,” Maddy whined, turning up the collar of her jacket. “Why are we doing this?”

  “You should have worn a hat like I told you.”

  “You told me to wear a hat because my hair color’s not stealthy enough for you. Not like there’s enough light down here for anyone to see it. What happened to all the streetlights, anyway?”

  Matt shrugged. I had to wonder why he’d worry about his sister’s platinum hair, but not care at all how much their voices carried right up the storefronts. The super-powered muscles in my legs took me across a gap between buildings in a pretty bad-ass jump.

  “What was that?” Maddy asked, stopping and squinting up to where I was standing. I crouched down. There was a lot of cloud cover tonight, and I was pretty sure she couldn’t see me.

  “Dunno.” Matt sounded worried.

  I grinned.

  “Let’s go home. This was a dumb idea. Joss would be pissed if she knew we were doing this.”

  “No she wouldn’t. I know she’s been keeping an eye out down here lately. And she’s been working so hard this week with the training thing, she’s not in the best shape to deal with Marco and those assholes if they try anything.”

  “And that’s where you come in.”

  “Why do you think she’s been spending so much time training Talents?”

  “Um, to protect ourselves from NIAC? Like she said?”

  “You didn’t have to come along.”

  Matt started walking away, but Maddy kept after him.

  “Like I’m gonna let you prowl around down here by yourself. Idiot. Come on, Matt. What are you thinking? That she’s going to be oh-so-impressed that you showed up to patrol with her? That you’re going to find her in a jam, swoop in and save her, and then what? She’s with Dylan. Give it a break.”

  “Shut up, Matilda.”

  “Don’t you see the way they look at each other? There’s just no way.”

  “Hey, did I mention…shut up, Matilda?”

  “Lookit, I’m not sayin’ she’s totally out of your league or anything—”

  “You are the most annoying person on the planet.”

  Yeah, really. I was starting to wonder why he hadn’t hit her yet.

  “—I’m just sayin’ it ain’t happenin’ any time soon. So this whole fantasy life you got going on that’s brought on this whole case of civic duty, or chivalry, or whatever the heck it is—it’s just a big waste of time.” She crossed her arms over her chest and pouted. “And it’s cold.”

  I jumped another gap, made less noise this time, but scared the crap out of Bella. At least, I was pretty sure I was looking at Bella. Out of her body, she kind of made the space she was in look like way hot exhaust makes stuff look. That patch of distorted air had jumped when I’d landed.

  I strolled over, across the roof of the ice cream place. I thought how, if she were in her body, I’d warm my hands up under her shirt and she’d totally let me. This girl wanted me bad.

  “It’s the twins down there,” I said in a low voice. I didn’t look at her, partly just because it creeped me out, and it was weird talking to the thick air. “They think they’re ‘patrolling,’ but they haven’t even noticed anyone’s in the shop yet. I’m gonna go in. Come down if you’ve got something to report, otherwise you can stay up here and keep watch.”

  There was no response, of course. Bella couldn’t talk or even make any kind of signals that made sense without her body.

  I took the fire escape, feeling the twinges in my knees from all those jumps. I had hoped to find Joss while I was prowling around. Figured she’d be around here somewhere, looking for trouble. Wherever she was tonight, she was keeping pretty well hidden. But Matt and his dumbass crush would bring her out.

  * * *

  Dylan

  Joss moved in her sleep, pressing her back closer against me. She wasn’t the only creature that was stirring, and I hoped the one in my sweats didn’t wake her up. It was going to be another long, mostly sleepless night.

  Still, I couldn’t help feeling like Joss’s fight with her dad was the best thing that ever happened to me. And, okay, I felt bad for thinking that, especially knowing it hurt her, but we were living together. Maybe when I was a little kid, like before Dad left, maybe I felt like I belonged at home, but I didn’t remember it. I felt like I belonged here. With her.

  And even if we were living in a creepy basement, eating nasty food out of plastic bags, and sleeping on a dinky air mattress on the floor—well, there was nothing wrong with sharing the mattress since we’d gotten rid of the cot, except how much trouble I had getting to sleep once we stopped fooling around.

  You’re such an idiot, I thought. But I was smiling.

  Tomorrow was going to be another long day. School in the morning, and on time. Joss wouldn’t tolerate attracting attention by skipping school or being late, no matter how I tried to convince her. After barely managing to stay awake through school, I was on the schedule for a shift at Casey’s. Since Joss didn’t have to put in time at her dad’s place, she would be down here in the Warren all afternoon and into the evening, working with the Talents. Finding out what they could do, thinking about how to use it, teaching them self-defense, teaching them how to think.

  I knew I’d get home from work and I’d see the headache behind her eyes. The little smile she kept for me would be tired, but it would be there. We’d eat, do homework, and patrol. But now we were keeping out of sight, with me cloaking us if we had to walk in the open, and we agreed not to get involved unless someone was getting hurt. If we saw something, we were just going to call the police and let them do their job, because clashing with Marco was doing more harm than good, and attracting too much attention.

  But we hadn’t seen anything since Vinyl Salvation. I wanted to be relieved, but I couldn’t help thinking he was just gearing up for something else.

  It was cold. I went to pull the blanket up over my shoulder but it felt like something was wrong.

  I was cold because I was alone.

  I sat up, realized I must have fallen asleep, and fumbled for the flashlight. It was lying on top of Joss’s spiral notebook, opened to a page that read, “Woke up and couldn’t go back to sleep. Gonna take a walk and make sure all’s well up top. Back soon. ~Joss.”

  I swore a blue streak as I got dressed, pulling on layers as I raced down the tunnel. The thing Joss didn’t like about the Warren was the spotty cell signal. I never minded because it meant we weren’t bothered much. But I minded now.

  I turned a corner and skidded to a stop in the kitchen. My cell phone was gone.

  “Dylan, shut the door, you’re letting the heat out,” my mom said. She was stirring something on the stove. When we lived here, in our old house, she used to cook a lot.

  I shut the back door slowly, dazed and confused.

  “Look at you. What have you been up to? You’re filthy. Get upstairs and wash up. Lee’s gonna be home any minute.”

  This isn’t his home, I thought, but I didn’t say it. I went past her, through the front entry and up the stairs to my room. My old room. I shut the door.

  “What’s he yelling about?”

  I turned to Marco, ten-year-old Marco, sitting on my bed reading one of the comics we’d swiped. “You’re not supposed to be here.”

  “Whatever, dude, he’s not your dad.”

  “Mom says he’s gonna be. ’Cause my real dad doesn’t pay the bills.”

 
“Lee’s a dick.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Every time I turn around, you got your hand out,” Lee’s voice boomed. There was a pause. “If he’s growing so damn fast, he can go out and get a job!”

  “Lousy drunk, just like my dad,” Marco muttered.

  I agreed, but I didn’t say so. I was shoving him into the closet. Lee’s footsteps were loud on the stairs. He was yelling my name. “Just stay in here, okay? Be quiet.”

  It was hard to stay visible. I didn’t have control over it when I was really scared, and I was shaking. I had to concentrate.

  The door slammed open and my heart rate spiked. I knew that I flickered in and out of view in that moment. I felt it.

  Then he was on me, yanking me around, yelling in my face, reeking of whiskey. I couldn’t understand what he was saying, couldn’t make myself think of the right thing to say to calm him down, make him see reason, make him go away. As soon as he started to hit, I faded out of sight. But he had me by the arm. He knew just where I was, and using my Talent just made him madder.

  Then he let me go. I opened my eyes and saw him slide down the wall. Marco went at him again, grabbed him up off the floor by the shirt, two hundred fifty pounds of angry drunk, and just started whaling on him. It happened so fast, but still slow. My mom was crying in the doorway. Blood sprayed from Lee’s face onto Marco.

  Marco was beyond caring.

  I grabbed his arm, pulling, begging him to stop. Lee hung limply from his hand. Marco looked at me, blood on his face, his eyes glazed, wild, older.

  “I can’t believe you, man. I can’t believe you’d trash our friendship over this little bitch!” He shook Joss like a ragdoll where she lay beneath him in the dust of the construction site.

  “Just let her go.” I got the words out, even though I felt like I was choking. I didn’t have a chance against him. Not a chance of protecting Joss.

  He stood, pulling her up with him. Her head hung down and she couldn’t stand on her own.

  “Just tell me why. Why her?”

  “You know why. You see it, just like I do. Maybe you even saw it first.”

  “Saw what?”

  “Why I love her.”

  Marco laughed. He went on laughing as the world spun.

  When I could see again, I stood with Marco and Tony outside a house. Inside, Joss was screaming my name.

  I couldn’t move.

  A giant fireball built in Tony’s hand. He hurled it at the house. It smashed against the siding, exploding and spreading, the rushing currents of flame meeting others as Tony threw handfuls of fire at the house.

  I finally broke free of the terror and moved forward, only to have Tony catch me by the neck with his burning hand. I screamed in pain as he threw me to the ground.

  Marco hauled me up to my knees and held me there. “I kinda want him to watch this.”

  Tony laughed as he continued to pitch flame until there was nothing to see but one great mass of fire.

  Joss stopped screaming.

  Marco patted me on the shoulder. “That’s that, then.”

  I was still on my knees, choking on smoke and the tears that ran down my face. Trina was standing above me. Tony offered his hand to her, no longer burning, and she reached out to take it.

  “Why?” I rasped.

  I don’t even know if it was a real question, or if I was asking her, but she answered. And when she answered, she spoke in Joss’s voice:

  “We’re not like other kids. And maybe that means that the regular rules don’t apply to us.”

  * * *

  Joss

  “Dylan, wake up!” I had rolled off the mattress with the end of the dream, but now I climbed back on, intending to grab him by the shirt front and drag him out of the nightmare. But he wasn’t wearing one. I remembered pulling it off of him earlier. My heart was pounding and my head was stuffed with crazy, but there was still room for that. I took him by the shoulders and shook hard.

  He sat bolt upright as he came out of it. I would have been thrown to the floor if he hadn’t locked onto my arms. Still, it took a moment for the dream to clear from his eyes. Part of me wanted to reach up and brush at the tears on his cheeks, but I didn’t know if it was okay to acknowledge them. In the next instant, his eyes focused on me and I was crushed in his arms.

  “Just a nightmare,” he said, in a rough, unsteady voice. “Sorry.”

  “Like the one you had last week? When you came to my room?”

  He drew in a shuddering breath, let it out slow. Beneath my ear his heart was thudding like a speeding train. Like mine. “Yeah. Stupid, huh? Bad dreams, what am I, five?” I wanted to say something, but he kept going. “I’ve been dreaming a lot crap the last couple weeks. It stopped when I started staying here with you, though. Thought I was done with it.”

  “The last couple weeks?”

  “Yeah.”

  “And you haven’t dreamed since you started sleeping here?”

  He pulled back and scrubbed his hands over his face. “Did I just move into another weird dream where you’re crazy and repeat everything I say?”

  “You might want to consider that possibility. It’s just…I’ve been having a lot of nightmares too. More than usual.”

  “There’s been some stress.” He laced the understatement with appropriate sarcasm.

  I shook my head. I wanted to know—I was actually kind of desperate to know more and everything about him—but I kinda didn’t want to have this conversation, and I wasn’t sure how to approach it. “Who’s Lee?”

  He actually started to scoot away from me before he caught himself. His eyes were wide and his whole vibe was you’re freaking me out. Well, I was pretty freaked out too.

  “Where did you hear that name?”

  In your nightmare, I think. “Was that real? Was that where you used to live? Did your mom have a boyfriend named Lee?”

  “Was I talking in my sleep?”

  “No, you weren’t. I just had a nightmare about you. About us. And when I woke up, you were having a nightmare too. And that’s probably just coincidence, except that there’s been a lot of coincidence,” I was doing that mile a minute talking thing, “and I know it sounds kind of crazy for me to wake up and wonder if I was dreaming real things I shouldn’t actually know about—” –but it would explain some stuff about you, even if I don’t want it to be real.

  “Okay, slow the crazy train. Yes, my mom used to have a boyfriend named Lee. But I was having a weird nightmare and I probably said some stuff that your brain just incorporated—”

  “You woke up here, and there was a note from me.” I went on to tell it in detail. By the time I got to the part where he was shoving Marco in the closet, I knew from his expression that I was right. At the point where Lee was just about to start pounding on him, Dylan’s expression got really tight and I cut myself off.

  “And then Lee started beating on me, and then Marco started beating on Lee,” he gritted out. “Yeah. In real life it wasn’t just like that, but mostly it was. We told the cops that he’d been mugged. He never said anything different. He dumped my mom while he was still in the hospital and he never came back.”

  And she still blames you for that. Bitch. “I’m sorry.”

  He shook his head, like he was shaking off the memory and the conversation. “Let’s just focus on the fact that you just dreamed my dream. What the hell?”

  Yeah, really. “Up to that point, I was just a spectator, you know, like watching a movie. And then next thing I knew—”

  “Marco had you.”

  “Yeah.”

  “And I let them burn you alive.”

  “Okay, I thought we were gonna focus. Trust me, Dylan, I’ve been in that burning house plenty of times without you.”

  “Okay… So… You got any ideas why we’re suddenly so in sync?”

  “Up until tonight, would you say your nightmares were your own? I mean, was it all your memories, your fears, your own material?”

  ?
??Yeah, even tonight. I always—” He paused, and I thought he was going to shrug off whatever he meant to say, but he continued, “I always fail to save you from something.”

  Oh. Well. That sucks. “That house was mine. Or, part of it. It’s weird. In some ways it’s the same house Emily set on fire when I was a kid, and in some ways it’s totally different. It actually looks like this house that’s for sale—you know that new subdivision off Market Street? Kinda near the Lutheran Church? It’s only got one finished house in it.”

  “Yeah, I actually know which one you mean. I can see it now.”

  “I only saw it once, and only because Kat dragged me over there because her parents were thinking of building there once their kitchen repairs were done. I never really thought before about why I should mix up that house into my nightmares, but maybe it’s not even mine. Like not my data.”

  “I think Kat’s asked everyone for their opinion on that subdivision, like it matters. But what are you saying?”

  “I know Tony was there and it seemed like he was the cause, but that house—some form of it—is always in my nightmares. And me stuck in there, choking on smoke with the flames rising—that’s always how it ends. It’s not something you could have saved me from. It’s mine. But you and Marco weren’t, that’s what I’m saying. Some stuff’s mine and some stuff’s not. That night you came to my room, you’d been dreaming. Me too. You’ve been having nightmares. Me too. Your nightmares stopped when you started sleeping down here. Me too.”

  “So what’s it all mean?”

  “A few things, I guess. That someone’s doing this to us…”

  “A Talent.”

  “Yeah. Someone who has to be in somewhat close proximity to us in order to work their Talent—which seems to be true for most Talents. When we were home, in known locations, we had nightmares.”

  “But we both had nightmares.”