Death Before Daylight (28 page)

“You were looking for me?”

He repeated how he didn’t let her watch me,
but explained how he couldn’t watch me while pretending to be the
leader of the Dark. “The night before, I left you in Urte’s care,”
he said. “When I went to pick you up that morning, he told me she
had gotten you already. She had done it before, but since she
hadn’t arrived at the shelter, we knew something was wrong.”

My gut twisted.

“I went straight to the bats.” He knew about
the nocturnal creatures that had been so important to me. “She
always went there when she was in one of her moods.”

“She showed them to me.”

“I know. She showed them to me, too.” His lip
pulled up in a shaky smile as he gestured to my ring. “But when I
saw you were holding her ring, I knew.” Even in the lighting, his
eyes reflected the mist covering his irises. “I think I knew before
that. I sensed it when she took it off.” His hand rose to his face,
and he rubbed his eyes. “I only hoped she left you alone, and while
I found you—” He stopped. “Urte found your mother.”

My trainer had been more involved than I ever
realized.

“I didn’t sleep that night,” he continued. “I
think that’s why I can’t stand the fireworks.” She had killed
herself on Independence Day. “But I also think that’s why you love
them so much.”

He didn’t have to remind me of how much I had
begged to sit on top of the hill during the holiday. Every year he
took me, and every year, he ended up leaving me there.

“You stayed up with me all night,” he
explained. “We sat on the front porch, and you just couldn’t take
your eyes off of them.” He fiddled with his shirt before touching
his paperwork, before fiddling with his shirt again. “You had the
same look on your face when we found you that morning, and you
showed me the bats. You loved everything you saw, and I—”

“Dad.”

A tear escaped him, and he rubbed it off his
cheek. “I am sorry, Eric,” he said. “I am so sorry.”

“Can you stop apologizing to me?” I repeated
the same thing he said to me, but he acted like he hadn’t heard. I
had to say it again, but this time, I forced a smile. “We aren’t
going to get anywhere if we keep doing this.”

His cheeks sank in, and his lips pressed
together, but he nodded.

I stood up, but my knees weren’t shaking
anymore. “Thanks for telling me,” I formed the words I never
thought I would say, “even if it is a little late.”

He stared up at me. “A child shouldn’t know
these things about a parent.”

“I’m not a kid anymore,” I said, even though
I wanted to be. I was only eighteen, but I didn’t have the luxury
of a normal childhood, and for once, I didn’t want it. I wanted to
live my own life. “I think—” I paused and tried to find the words I
logically had, but had yet to emotionally feel. “I have a lot to
think about,” I managed, “but you did what you could.”

“Let me do more,” he insisted and stood up.
“Let me help you now.”

“You can’t,” I said, knowing I had to fight
Darthon on my own. “But I will let you know if you can,” I added
before he could argue. “I’m going home for a bit.”

He closed his mouth only to open it again.
“Mindy and Noah will like that.”

“I won’t be late.”

“Stay out as late as you want,” he said.
“Just come back in one piece.”

37

“That’s it.” I pointed to Crystal’s house,
and Jonathon parked two houses down. We were both humans—for
now.

He killed the lights, but kept the engine on.
“Are you sure about this, Jess?”

“How many times are you going to ask me
that?” I unbuckled my seatbelt before turning to him. In the dark,
his eyes were green. He had to use his shade sight while driving.
“You saw Eric’s face. They’re involved.”

“What if Crystal is too?”

I dropped eye contact. “I’ll text you if
anything goes wrong,” I said as I stepped out of the vehicle. I
shut the door before he could repeat the question.

As much as she was a gossiping punk, Crystal
was my best friend. She showed me around Hayworth, even before Eric
did. While Eric showed me my shade identity, Crystal helped me find
one as a human. She never spread rumors about me, she always
confided in me, and when I thought about our friendship, I smiled.
Even though she didn’t remember it, she stood up for me when Robb
attacked me, and she would again when her memories returned. Until
then, I had to push my personal life aside. The prophecy was bigger
than my problems, and it had to be dealt with first.

I stayed focused as I walked up to Crystal’s
house, stopping at the end of her driveway. She already stood on
her front porch, and her eyes gazed down the street. “Who’s that?”
she asked, even though she wasn’t stupid. She knew whose car it
was. She always knew everything.

“A friend dropped me off,” I said, waiting
for her to question the fact that Jonathon Stone and I knew each
other outside of school, but she didn’t.

She pointed her head toward her car.
“Ready?”

Her voice wasn’t bouncing as it usually was.
It was tight and strained. She almost sounded like someone else
entirely.

“Yeah.” My grip tightened on my bag when she
didn’t walk toward the car. Zac and Robb must have already been
waiting. “Are you?”

She nodded as she stepped off the porch, but
she didn’t speak as she walked toward the car. It was only then
that I was able to see her stride. She was marching like a warrior
headed into battle.

Perhaps she was involved, after all.

…

Zac’s clothes matched his pitch-black hair.
He blended into the darkness as he picked a table on the patio.
Robb, on the other hand, glowed in his red coat, but neither of the
boys sat down as we took our places at the coffee shop. Even though
it was cold, it was nice enough to sit outside, and we were all
desperate for fresh air—except for Robb. I half-expected him to
smoke later on.

Robb pulled his wallet out of his back
pocket. “What do you two want?”

“Macchiato for me,” Crystal answered. “Black
coffee for Jess.”

I stared at her, and she shot me a grin. “Am
I right?”

She was, so I nodded.

“We’ll be back,” Zac said before the two
ducked inside the building.

The coffee shop lit up the only shopping
street Hayworth had, but I couldn’t see Jonathon’s car parked
anywhere. I had to trust him when he said he would be watching.
This place set my nerves on edge. Even though the coffee shop was
only one year old, I was familiar with it. Too familiar. In my
first semester at Hayworth High, Eric had ditched me here during
our project, and this was the last place I ever saw Camille as
Teresa alive. Crystal had been with me that night, too, and staring
at my friend was an eerie reminder of the time she left me alone,
oblivious to what I would later face. I couldn’t blame her, but I
wished we had picked somewhere else to go.

“You okay?” Crystal broke through my thoughts
as she spoke.

I nodded.

“You seem tense.” Her brown eyes dragged over
my face. “Just the date?”

“Yeah.”

Her right cheek lifted with a half-smile. “I
didn’t mean for this to happen, you know,” she started and stared
at the street. “I just hated to see Eric acting so calm about it
all.”

Eric. She had only recently begun using his
first name. When I first met her, she called him Welborn like
everyone else, but she eased into it better than I had. I knew it
was because she used to call him Eric before, when they were
kids.

“Why did you two stop being friends?” I
asked.

Crystal’s back pressed into her chair. “After
Hannah died, he started getting in fights, and I didn’t like it.”
She made a squeaking noise in-between her sentences. “It reminded
me of my dad.”

A fog crossed her gaze, but everything was
clear to me. She hardly spoke of her father. All I knew of the man
was how early he had left her life. I didn’t know why he divorced
her mom or stayed out of her life, but I imagined the reason wasn’t
good.

“He wasn’t the nicest man,” she said,
glancing over her shoulder to look into the coffee shop. “But he’s
still my dad, you know?”

I did understand. I didn’t have a single
memory of my birth parents, but they remained in my heart as much
as my adoptive parents. Even after everything I learned, I loved
them both.

“Do you talk at all?” I managed, wondering
what it was like to actually have the opportunity to speak to
someone who gave you life.

“No.” Her single word was harsh. “It’s weird,
I know, but I don’t want to,” she stumbled over her words. “Not
anymore.”

I didn’t have a chance to ask her why or
question why she was telling me tonight because the door chimed
behind me. I knew the boys had returned before they even announced
their presence, and I wasn’t about to continue our conversation in
front of them. It was something Crystal and I shared. She was my
only friend who knew I was born and adopted out of Hayworth, and a
part of me knew I was the only friend she talked about her dad
with.

Zac laid a drink in front of her as he sat
between us. “One macchiato for the lady.”

“And one black coffee,” Robb used Zac’s
sentence to create his own as he sat on the opposite side of me.
The boys were in-between us, and the round table had never seemed
so large.

I grabbed the hot mug to stop my fingers from
shaking, and I took a sip even though I knew it would burn. I
wanted my insides to be warmed up.

“It’s kind of hot—” Robb started.

“It’s fine,” I promised after I consumed the
sizzling liquid.

Robb chuckled. “You’re tougher than I
am.”

“She’s a tough chick,” Crystal said, but it
didn’t sound friendly. It sounded like a threat, but she quickly
covered her tone with a large grin. “I’ve seen this girl run a
hundred miles an hour before.” But she hadn’t. “You should’ve
joined track.”

My face burned. “When have you seen me
running?”

“You go jogging all the time.” Crystal waved
my question away. “It’s a small town. I’ve driven by you
before.”

“I have, too,” Zac mentioned as he raised his
cup up. “You are a fast one.”

The memory was one I could never forget.
While I was having nightmares, I ran after one. It was the only way
I felt like I had any control, and Zac was the one to pull up in
Robb’s car. Even though Robb had explained it, I didn’t believe
their excuse, but our conversation only deepened my confusion. I
couldn’t figure out which memories my friends had and which ones
they didn’t.

“Maybe we can go running sometime,” Robb
said. “I go jogging on Saturday mornings.”

“I didn’t know,” I mumbled into my cup as I
avoided his offer. I didn’t want to spend more time with him. I
wanted to spend time with Zac, and I needed to find a way to get
him alone if I were going to test him.

“I used to play basketball in middle school,”
Robb continued, “and Zac and I were on a soccer team as kids.”

“Don’t remind me,” Zac muttered.

“What?” Crystal beamed. “I didn’t know
that.”

“There’s a reason for that,” Zac said.

“Our parents were close, so they wanted us to
be,” Robb continued anyway. “It was a soccer league outside of
school since we went to separate schools. What were we? Five?”

“Six.”

“He could barely kick the ball.” Robb laughed
as he leaned over the table to hit Zac’s arm. “You’re better
now.”

“I don’t play now.” Zac formed a smile when
he looked at Crystal. “It was a long time ago.”

A long history hung between everyone at the
table but me, and I wished I had taken notes over everything I had
learned from them. If what Jonathon had told me was true, Zac’s
mother had died when he was a kid. In fact, it would’ve happened
around the same time Eric’s mom died, but the two boys couldn’t
have reacted more differently. Zac didn’t seem bothered by it at
all. It fit Darthon’s personality perfectly.

I gulped down the rest of my coffee. “I’m
going to get another one.” I stood up before Robb could offer.
“Want to get Crystal another one?” I asked Zac.

He stared up at me, but didn’t move. “She
isn’t finished.”

“Yes, I am.” Crystal slammed her cup down
like she had downed a beer.

Zac glanced from her to me, and I waited for
him to ask what was going on, but he didn’t have a chance.

“It’s okay,” Robb said and slid his chair
away from the table. “I’ll grab you one.”

A silent curse took over my heart.

“Thanks, man,” Zac dismissed his friend, and
I knew what had happened. Robb was giving his friend the chance to
be alone with his girlfriend. I had lost my chance for now.

I walked into the coffee shop without waiting
for Robb, but he caught up with me. “Let me get yours, too,” he
said before ordering the same drinks.

“Thanks,” I muttered, even though I wanted to
say the opposite. It wasn’t Robb’s fault. He didn’t know.

I went to the pick-up counter to wait and
kept my eyes on Crystal and Zac through the window. The murky glass
made it hard to see him, but I could make out Crystal’s white hair.
If he attacked her, I would know.

Robb appeared next to me after he paid. “I
hope I didn’t ruin something.”

I glanced over. “Why would you say that?”

He fiddled with his shirt. “You seemed like
you wanted to talk to Zac.”

I shrugged. “Valentine’s Day is next week.”
The lie slipped out easily. “I was going to see if he needed help
picking out a present.”

Robb leaned against the counter, inches away
from me, and caught my stare. His brown eyes were as warm as the
coffee we drank. “You’re a really good friend, Jess.”

I tried to shift away without him noticing.
“Thanks,” I managed, even though it wasn’t the truth.