ARC: Cracked (30 page)

My best friend is great.

Caroline disappears out of the door and I hear talking outside. I wonder if the person stationed there is to protect me or protect everyone else from me. They must know I’m a demon by now.

I hear Jo arguing with Chi before they even make it into the room. Caroline pushes Jo’s wheelchair while Chi limps on crutches.

“Meda!” Jo says, as Caroline parks her next to my bed. Caroline then drags one of the chairs out to the hallway to give us some privacy.

“Hey, Jo. Glad to see you made it.”

“Takes more than an army of demons to kill me.”

“Naturally. Hey, Chi.”

He grins. “Hey, Meda, looking…” he winces, then says, “alive.” I stick my tongue out at him. “Alive” is about as much as I can say for either of them. They’re also decked out in the latest in mummy-wear. In addition, Chi has a nasty row of stitches across his face, and Jo’s good leg is in a cast. She follows my eyes and raises her eyebrows.

“Guess they thought it’d be funny if neither leg worked,” she says, and I wince. “Nah, don’t worry, doc said they got to it fast enough. It’ll be fine. Until then, I’m stuck in this stupid chair while other people show off their crutches.” She gives Chi the stink-eye, but she doesn’t mean it.

Chi holds up his hands. “Hey, it’s not my fault.” Then he loses his grip on the crutches and they go crashing. Jo and I laugh. Things seem to have loosened up between the two of them. I look for evidence of happily-ever-after.

“You guys OK?” Caroline calls from the hallway. We all laugh harder. We’re beaten, bruised and not a single one of us can stand up unassisted, but we are “OK”.

“Fine!” Chi yells, and I laugh again. “Fine” about says it perfectly. Chi puts his hand on Jo’s shoulder to balance himself and she jerks away. Chi doesn’t seem bothered by her reaction, but it doesn’t bode well for happily-ever-after.

“So, what happened?” I ask, then lower my voice. “Do they know what I am?”

Jo answers, still leaning away from Chi’s hand. “Yeah. The Templars showed up – drove their motorcycles right into demon headquarters en masse. They started raining down holy water. I was still conscious enough to scream at them to stop.” She meets my eyes, uncomfortably. “I had to tell them. As it was, if you hadn’t been buried in demons, you’d probably be dead.”

“Oh.” I can tell she’s worried about my reaction. “Well, maybe I should send the demons a thank-you card?”

She relaxes with a chuckle, tension broken. “Anyway, without the holy water, the battle got a lot closer. Then more demons came flooding in through the tunnels. The Crusaders just managed to haul us out of there and retreat.” Her face gets tense. I don’t ask how many died in our rescue.

“My dad?” I ask instead.

“Dead, we think,” she says and watches me carefully. “It’s hard to be sure, though. The Crusaders didn’t have time to purify all the dead before more demons forced them out.”

I shrug. Either way, he’s just another demon to me. “How’d the Crusaders find us?”

Jo’s and Chi’s eyes meet. That rarely bodes well. “With the Beacon Map.”

“The Beacon Map?”

“Yeah. They started looking for us when we didn’t show up in Wisconsin. But, for some reason, we didn’t show up on the map.” Her eyes narrow briefly and my face gets warm. “Anyway, they thought we were dead, except the demons kept acting crazy. Something was going on, so they kept watching.” I’m still not getting it. “Then they’re watching the map, when all of a sudden a Beacon pops up out of nowhere, right inside the demon headquarters.”

Beacon pops up right in demon headquarters… No.

“Who?”

Their eyes meet again. No, no, no.

“Who?”

Jo clears her throat. Oh no.

“You.”

Sonofa
– I collapse on to the pillows. I was just thinking I need more problems.

“This is good news, Meda,” Jo insists.

“Yeah. Yet another reason for demons to hunt me down.”

“On the bright side, it means the Templars won’t kill you.”

The look I give her must say it all, because she forces down a laugh.

“Well, without it, we would have died yesterday, so you can be grateful for that at least.”

“When did you become so glass-half-full? Where’s Angry Jo? We had so much more in common.”

She laughs again. “She died five days ago.”

“Hold a séance,” I say crankily and she laughs harder. I sigh. “So, what now?”

“Well, they haven’t really told us. Sure, we saved the day, but now we’re back to being kids again.” Chi this time.

“And Luke?”

“He was here. They called him in for the attack on the demon headquarters. But he had to get back to the mysterious Exo. Apparently she lost her babysitter. He agreed to come back and talk to you – but only you.”

“So he knows?”

“We had to tell The Sarge what we were trying to do when we got caught,” Chi says, “but… Meda, Luke already knew who you were. The instant we said your name, he knew.”

So my mom must have told him about me, which meant they were still in contact, which means he might know… But actually, it no longer really matters what he knows. I mean sure, there are some things I would like answers to, and there is more I would like to know about my mom, but it’s no longer life-and-death. I am a Templar, I am a Beacon. I will be protected.

And as for my mom, whatever happened, whatever her reasons were, they don’t really matter anymore other than as a way to know her better. She loved me, no matter what, in her own way. And everyone has their own way.

“When will I meet him?”

“As soon as you’re feeling better, they’re going to recall him,” Jo says.

“I’m better.”

“I’m not going to argue,” says Jo.

“You? Argue? Never.”

I’m too battered to go anywhere, so we hang out in my room for the rest of the day, happy to be alive. Thanks to my new Crusader abilities, I’m already healing much faster than I would normally. I’m too beat up to tell if I gained any extra athleticism and, despite straining hard enough to nearly pop a blood vessel, I can’t shoot any demon-killing light out of my hands, which is disappointing. Apparently the golden light that exploded from me at the demon headquarters always happens at the end of an Inheritance ceremony – it’s just never been performed in a room full of demons so Jo had no idea it’d fry them like that.

Caroline continues to stand guard in the hallway, though she stops in to tell us Luke was informed I’m awake and will be here as soon as he can. Unfortunately, he’s still trying to hunt down Exo and doesn’t want to leave until she’s found. Chi does his best to stay as close to Jo as possible, while she reacts like he has a repellent force field.

I kick the hornet’s nest.

“So, what’s the deal?” I look pointedly at the two of them. She’s still in her wheelchair and he’s sitting on the other bed, as close to her as possible.

Jo pretends innocence. “What do you mean?”

Chi ruins it by grabbing her hand, but she jerks it free. “Madly in love – can’t you tell?”

Jo glares at him. “We are not.”

Chi’s unfazed. “Yes we are. You told me so yourself – can’t backtrack now, darling.”

She rolls her eyes. “I only said that because we were about to die.”

“You meant it.”

“No, I didn’t. You begged me to say it.”

Suddenly he swings from the bed and drops to his knee on the carpet – bandaged leg stuck out to the side, so they are face to face. “So you lied? You really didn’t mean it?”

Jo’s mouth opens and closes a few times. “I…”

“That’s what I thought.” He smiles and straightens back up and falls back on to the bed.

Once he’s a little further away, Jo can apparently think again. “I meant it
at the time
. I thought we were going to die.”

“Ah, so you only love me in deadly situations. Fine – I guess we’ll just have to live dangerously. The way things are going, that shouldn’t be hard.”

Jo gusts in frustration, “Chi–”

“Yes, darling?”

“Stop calling me that!”

“Is there one you like better?”

“Yes! I mean, no. I mean, I’m not your ‘darling’.”

“All right – love of my life, but that’s kind of a mouthful. One day, let’s just shorten it to ‘wife’.”

Even I find that frightening, and it wasn’t directed at me.

“Chi, stop it. I’m serious.”

“So am I.”

“Just stop it!” Jo shouts and tries to wheel backwards.

Chi’s face gets serious. “Jo–”

“Stop it!” She awkwardly pushes at her chair wheels, and I think she might be on the verge of tears. She looks at me. “Help me – will you?” she snarls.

“Jo–” Chi starts again and Jo covers her ears. I push her out of the room. Once she’s in the hallway, she shoves away from me. Caroline looks up from where she sits guard, baffled. I just shrug.

Chi’s sprawled on the bed when I come back in, looking completely relaxed.

“That was kind of a dick thing to do,” I say.

“She’ll get over it. She’s just trying to chase me off – for my own good. This time I won’t be chased.”

“Well, can’t you at least wait until she is feeling better? She’s in a wheelchair, for Christ’s sake!”

“Are you kidding me? This is Jo we’re talking about, the only person who could ever beat me. I need every advantage I can get.”

“I thought you were trying to romance her. I didn’t realize this is a war.”

He laughs. “With Jo, it’s gotta be both. A romantic assault.” He puts his hands behind his head. “She wants what’s best for me. I just need to make her realize that it’s her.”

And the drama continues.

Fortunately, Jo never figures out I outed her, so I’m cool with both my friends. The two of them continue their war – Chi marches on, an unstoppable juggernaut despite Jo’s unrelenting cannon fire.

Once we’re healthy enough to travel, the three of us are packed into a van and shipped to West Virginia. With the school in Mountain Park compromised, the whole community is being relocated, but secretly. Now that the demons are willing to attack Crusader communities directly, they can’t risk sending me to an existing school.

The Crusaders purchased a small valley in the mountains, on the top of another played-out coal mine. Apparently the escape tunnels worked so well they’ve decided to use that plan again. There’s no school and, because of the secrecy, it’s taking a while to move all the trailers and everyone in. The valley has a massive timber mill on one edge, hanging over a river and built into the side of the mountain in a series of ascending connected buildings like stair steps. It was built at least a hundred years ago and is half rotten – no, make that three-quarters rotten – and they’re quickly renovating it to use as the school until a new, secure building can be built. It’s hard to believe that there’s a downgrade from Project Enlightenment.

When we arrive, the place is a hive of activity. Trailers are arriving and being put up, aluminum sheds constructed. Motorcycles roar day and night, but in small groups of three or four, so as to not draw attention. The older students have already arrived to help, but the younger ones have been sent to other communities until protections are in place. The students greet Chi and Jo, but I’m avoided or viewed with downright hostility. No one asks about Uri. They must know.

The adults have no idea what to do with me. As demon, Templar and Beacon, I am three times the average freak. Apparently, the other chapters are being called to weigh in on the decision and, judging from the tone of the adults we come in contact with, this is not a good thing. Until then, I’m followed by guards. I point out I’m a Beacon, they point out that so was Einstein. Apparently, my destructive powers rival that of the atomic bomb.

But there’s nothing we can do about it and, compared to demon prison, it seems like not much to worry about. We heal, and I am grateful for my new Templar abilities. Before the Inheritance it would have taken me months, not days, to recover from the injuries I’d received.

A week after I woke up, five days after we relocated to the new school, Luke finally arrives. But I don’t speak to him. I have more important things to do. It’s the day we hold a memorial for Uri.

There is no space large enough to fit everyone, so the ceremony is held outside in a field, at sunset. It’s still early spring in the mountains, so it’s chilly. The daffodils and crocuses have started to bloom and someone’s gathered a near-mountain of them to place below Uri’s memorial. Propped on an easel is a large wooden board, and at its center are a photo and a plaque, both illuminated by a silver-flamed candle resting on a small shelf.

Uriel James Green, 1998–2011. In the photograph they chose, Uri’s got some crazy kung-fu pose going and he’s grinning at the camera through his floppy hair. It feels out of place at the solemn event. It’s perfect.

A eulogy is read, a prayer given. People step forward and mount their mementos, sometimes with an explanation, sometimes not. I have nothing to give him. The first friend I ever had, who died because of me, and I haven’t a single token to give him. Nothing to mark our time together.

I cry. Tears flood and pour. I’m an ocean of sadness; my skin cannot contain it all. It drowns me, I can’t breathe and my sobs have turned to gasps. There’s no air. Suddenly Jo’s at my side, holding my hand, and Chi’s on the other. The ocean spreads between the three of us and I can breathe again. They don’t say anything. We just stand together and mourn our friend.

TWENTY-ONE

I’m sitting in the trailer I’ve been assigned, reading, when I hear arguing outside my door. Chi and Jo – who else? I pull myself up and head out into the living room, where my guard, Rebecca, sits reading a magazine. I give the middle-aged woman a polite nod and open the front door before they reach it.

“Hey, guys,” I say, but am ignored.

“When will you get it through your thick head? I don’t love you.” Jo shoves him away.

“Nice to see you this fine morning,” I add.

“As soon as it’s true,” Chi says to Jo, placidly.

“Hope you’ve had a good day so far.” It’s awfully uncomfortable not to exist.

Jo stops. “It
is
true.” She turns to face him. “Listen. To. Me. I want us to be friends, but I have had it. I’m tired of your stupid games.”