Dying Light (21 page)

The problem is, I don’t know the first
place to look for them. I don’t have Gloria’s people-finding
skills. I can’t pop anywhere in the world like Caldwell. If I go
with Jeremiah now, at least I could find Ally and then leave
whenever I want. He can’t stop me. And if anyone is keeping tabs on
Ally and Nikki—Caldwell aside—it’s Jeremiah.

“
Coming.” I catch up to
Jeremiah, Gabriel at my heels. We take a series of twists and turns
through the church, and once or twice, I think I see Caldwell’s
face for an instant in an unlit doorway. But whenever I look for a
second or third time,
he’s
never there.

I must be imagining
it
.

“
No,” Gabriel says. His
voice is velvet in my ears. “He is waiting for the chance to grab
hold of you.”

Better make sure my shield
stays up then. God, this is getting old.

“
What is getting
old?”
Gabriel asks, those emerald eyes
falling on mine.

All these dudes fighting
over me. Girls like this shit?
It’s not
flattering at all. It’s suffocating.

Life is hard enough without Jeremiah
and Caldwell circling me like sharks, each one waiting for the
chance to chomp off one of my legs.

We turn yet another corner in the
labyrinth of the church.

“
Down,” Jeremiah screams.
His hand connects with my shield, but instead of moving me, my
shield rebuffs him, his own body hitting the floor.

Caldwell’s men fire. Bullets slam into
my shield and ricochet, zipping off in other directions. My shield
shimmers and blurs on impact, but remains solid and
impenetrable.

“
That’s cool.” I can’t
help but be impressed with my awesomeness. I’m
bulletproof.

The bolt-cutting guard yelps as a
stray bullet slices through his upper arm. Blood wells up through
the hole in his black clothing.

“
Less cool,” I say,
worried it was a bullet bouncing of my shield that got him. Another
one of Jeremiah’s men reach forward and grab the bolt-cutting
guard, dragging him around a corner, out of sight.

Jeremiah shouts more orders into his
earpiece and men flood the small corridor.

Caldwell appears in the middle of the
hall and all gunfire ceases. Jeremiah’s soldiers go stiff and jerky
like puppets on strings. A swirl of black shadows emerge from
Caldwell, ribboning around him.

“
What the—?” I take a step
back.

Men start falling at his feet. Anyone
who brushes against the black ribbons falls down.

Dead.

Totally
dead
.

Because unconscious people don’t pass
out, eyes open and vacant.

Jeremiah’s wide eyes meet my own. He
considers the scene, mouth ajar.

Georgia, Caldwell’s
wife-woman-whatever the hell she is steps out from behind Caldwell
and as soon as I see her I realize the black ribbons of death are
coming from her, not Caldwell.

Her palms are turned up toward the
ceiling, but her arms hang low by her side. The ribbons follow her
gaze, reaching out and attacking whatever object her eyes fall
on.

She’s controlling them with her eyes.
Shit.

“
She’s partis,” I tell
Jeremiah, just in case he can’t see the ribbon dancing. “She’s
sucking the life out of people. Uh, you should go.”

Jeremiah stops calling his men into
the room. Smart.

Caldwell seizes this opportunity to
take his men out of the church. First they are here, fighting
Jeremiah’s men. Then they’re gone, his men gone with
him.

I don’t think Georgia can penetrate my
shield, so I step forward, putting myself between her and
Jeremiah’s men. It isn’t that I like any of them enough to save
their lives, but it seems like a jerk thing to do, just standing
over to the side with a shield, watching people die.

I try to gain Georgia’s attention.
“You should join a circus. You can be in the freak
show.”

She turns her cold eyes on
me.

“
Your stage name can be
Rigor Mortis Ribbons. No. Dancer of Death. Or maybe Death and
Ribbon Dancing.”

Her jaw tightens, but I think it’s
working. She’s stopped looking at Jeremiah and his men and in my
periphery, I see them sneaking away, sliding into the hallways
behind us.

“
It’d be a
killer
show.” I grin.
“Get it?”

One of her black ribbons snaps forward
and slams against my shield. My shield hisses like water thrown on
a hot skillet. Sparks even fly.

“
Why the hell hasn’t he
tried to kill
you
, Georgia?” Anger makes my face and neck hot.

My shield throbs wildly, half-blue
fire, half-purple.

She takes a step away from
me.

Caldwell reappears behind
Georgia and they exchange a glance. Then she takes a step back into
his arms. He wraps himself around her. It’s tender, like
she’s
the most precious
thing in the world.

They disappear, leaving me alone,
standing in the center of the hallway.

He
loves
her.

It’s like a fist has been shoved into
my chest and is squeezing my heart.

My shield fails altogether.

For a long time, I thought maybe my
father was broken. He’d died and then suffered in a camp for years.
Maybe he just lost his ability to relate to others. Then there’s
this Maisie shit. But again, I thought maybe he was only going
through the motions. After all, it wasn’t like Maisie and Caldwell
appeared to have this amazing connection or anything. Teenage angst
or not, there was a distance there. Nothing to be jealous
of.

But this.

The way he took Georgia in his arms.
The gentle, sweet way—it wasn’t fake at all. The way she folded
into his chest, with trust and love—he’s given her a reason to
believe in him like that.

He loves her.

But not me.

So it
is
personal. All the attempts I’ve
made trying to say
it’s not me, it’s
him
, crumble away.

“
It’s me.” I can feel
tears welling, my throat constricting under their weight. It’s why
Lane didn’t want me. It’s why Ally found someone else. It’s
why—

“
Jesse,” Gabriel takes a
hold of me. “Breathe.”

“
It’s
me
,” I scream and the church
explodes with blue fire.

Jesse

J
eremiah is dead.

Blackened flesh. The
scorched glass of his spectacles. Almost nothing is left of the
sweater vest. The three other men lay dead in the hallway with him.
Jeremiah’s men no doubt.

I’ve been responsible for
someone’s death before. I was present when Caldwell killed Brinkley
and I couldn’t save him. That was my fault.

This is different. I
killed someone.

Four
someone
s
.

I slump against the wall,
sliding down its unforgiving stone until I’m on my knees beside the
body. Jeremiah’s body.

I breathe. In. Out. I try
to think, but my mind is a clear shocked buzz. White flames burn
around me, then fizzle to smoke. I can’t process what I’ve done, a
single mantra repeating in my head.

I don’t kill people, I
save people. I don’t kill people, I save people. I don’t kill
people, I save people. I don’t kill people
—

“
You need to leave this
place.” Gabriel warns. “You cannot stay here.”

“
Jesse. Move. He’s
coming.”

Nothing Gabriel says can
make me get up from the floor. My eyes fixate on a place where two
stones jut together, one pushing the other up and out of
place.

Gabriel gives up and
disappears. Or he is forced out by the owner of the polished black
shoes that step into my field of vision.

Caldwell kneels down in
front of me. “Jesse.”

He is able to get quite
close, because my shield doesn’t erect around me.

“
You don’t understand what
is happening to you.” He lays one hand over my knee. “But I do. I
have gone through this, and I can help you. The longer you fight
what you are, the more grief you will experience.”

“
I don’t know what you
want from me.” I look up and search his face. It’s as unreadable as
the scorched stones surrounding us.

“
I want you to accept your
role in this. Stop trying to play the hero. Stop trying to escape,
and embrace what you are. It will make this—everything that must
happen—easier.”

“
For you or me?” I ask,
but I know the answer. I saw it in the way he wrapped his arms
around Georgia. I’m just a chess piece
he’s
trying to maneuver. But can I
get something from him too? Should I play so I can help
myself?

“
Come with me. It’s almost
time for the main event and I want you there.” He stands and offers
his hand. “Please.”

I look at the four dead
bodies.

I did that.

Me.

If Caldwell kills me,
maybe it would be better. I’m going to die anyway. The world will
die anyway. And if he kills me, at least it will keep me from
hurting anyone else.

Ally

“G
oddammit!” Gloria slams her laptop shut. I let go of the
steering wheel just long enough to reach over and slip the device
out of her hands before she throws it into the windshield. I hand
the computer to Nikki in the backseat.

“
What happened?” Nikki
asks, sitting forward to accept the laptop.

Gloria turns toward the
passenger window. “He took her back to The Needle.
Fuck.”

“
There goes our window of
opportunity.” Both Gloria and Nikki give me a cold glare. “I’m
sorry. You’re right. Now is not the time for pessimism.”

My chest constricts as I
turn on Gloria’s blinker and switch lanes. It’s as if I can see an
ever-expanding ocean between us, taking Jesse farther and farther
away from me.

Nikki’s ear glows blue,
her wireless device blinking to life. “Tamsin.”

Her brow furrows, the
creases above her eyebrows deepening. She exhales.
“
I’ll
be there
soon. Follow protocol three until I arrive.”

The blue earbud goes dark
and she meets my eyes.

“
You’ll have to drop me
off at Tate Tower.”

“
We can’t stay at Tate
Tower,” Gloria says, unyielding.

“
I understand,” Nikki
says, her voice calm. “But I have to go back. Jeremiah is dead, and
I have to assume control.”

I tap the brake without
meaning to, my eyes flicking up to meet hers in the rearview.
“Jeremiah’s dead?”

“
Jesse killed him.” Nikki
measures my face. “If my report is accurate.”

“
Shit,” Gloria
says.

“
What happened?” I ask
Nikki.

“
They were trying to
rescue her from Caldwell, and she lost control. Four men were
killed.”

My heart lurches.
Four men were killed
.
She will become less stable, the
more power she absorbs.

“
I have to run things
until Jeremiah is able to. We—”

“
Wait, what? You said he
was dead.”

Gloria turns away from the
window. “Jeremiah has NRD.”

“
So
he’ll only
be dead for a little
while?” I ask.

“
Right,” Nikki says. “So
until he is able, I have to coordinate the units.
It’ll
be easier for me
to monitor everything from control at Tate Tower. So, please, take
me back.”

“
You can’t stay there,” I
remind her.

“
We’ll only
stay until Jeremiah is awake. Our secondary
location doesn’t have the medical ward up and running yet. Once it
does, or once he’s stable enough,
we’ll
move. We should still be able
to clear the building before Jackson’s prediction catches up to
us.”

I hook a right at the next
light and carry us east.

“
There’s something else.”
Nikki settles back into her seat as if bracing herself for my
reaction.

I don’t tell her to spit
it out. I just flick my eyes up to the rearview and meet hers in an
invitation.

“
There are more partis in
the city,” she says. “Besides Jesse.”

“
How do you
know?”

“
When they use their
power, it produces gamma rays. In addition to Jesse’s output, we’ve
registered three other sources in the city in the last 24 hours. No
doubt one is Caldwell, but we don’t know about the other
two.”