Heroes 'Til Curfew (Talent Chronicles #2) (16 page)

“Okay, but I don’t have to like it,” I said,
and she rolled her eyes. “Working tonight?”

“Yeah. I’ve been thinking—”

“Uh oh.”

She swatted me. “About the protection racket
thing. There have been a lot of petty crimes in the mall lately, so
I was thinking maybe I’d skulk around down there tonight and see
what I see. I don’t know who that guy was Dad gave the money to.
Maybe there are other people involved I don’t know about.”

“That sounds like a great idea,” I muttered
with heavy sarcasm.

“I’ll be more careful.”

“All right, what time?”

“I didn’t mean you had to come.”

I glared at her. “Time?”

“Maybe around ten?”

“I’ll meet you
here
at ten. Wait for
me.” I was like, all commanding and shit. Why she was letting me
get away with that, I don’t know, but she was smiling. I kissed her
again.

We both jumped at a sharp rap on the door.
Next thing I knew there was a foot in my gut and I was hitting the
floor.

The door swung open and Joss’s mom poked her
head in. “Morning, sweetie! What was that noise?”

“Uh…I think one of my packs just fell. In
the closet.”

“Ah. Did you oversleep? More bad
dreams?”

“Um, yeah. I guess so.”

“You worry too much, sweetheart.” She shook
her head. “So much like your father. All right, up and at ’em.
Breakfast is on the table.”

“Thanks, Mom.”

The door shut and I picked myself up off the
floor. Joss was kneeling on the bed, squinting, trying to see me. I
planted my fists on either side of her, phasing back into view
right in her face.

“Did I ever mention I’m
invisible?
”

She put her spread hand over my face and
pushed me back. “Get out of my room.”

* * *

Joss

“Thanks for meeting me.” Heather stifled a
yawn, pulled her books tighter against her chest and shivered.

“No problem. I’m usually here early.” The
wind was getting really nippy in the mornings, and that just made
me think of how warm I’d been just a little while ago.

“He slept over? Really?”

I groaned, slapping a hand over my face to
hide the fact that it was probably bright red. “This is not what
you asked me to meet you for.” My voice came out all muffled and
annoyed from behind my hand.

“Wow. Things are moving along fast in Joss
and Dylan land.” In my head I did this huge, gasping freakout, but
before I could get the question out of my mouth, Heather went on,
“No, not too fast.
You
are not being too fast, okay? Just
relax. You and Dylan are fine. I mean good. Great. It seems great.
You know, you guys have been dancing around each other for so long
you could cut the sexual tension with a knife. It’s a wonder you
didn’t rip each other’s clothes off the minute you got over
yourselves and got together.”

“For crissakes, Heather.” This was so
completely embarrassing. And I also couldn’t help thinking that it
was kind of helpful for Heather to just listen to my thoughts and
offer up reassurance. Because I needed it, and it’s not like I
could talk to anyone about this stuff, like with actual speaking. I
was just not that evolved. “What did you want to talk to me
about?”

“First, that I am
not
going to remind
you later that you thought that, about being glad I could read your
mind.”

“Are too.”

“No. Because
I am
evolved.”

“Clearly. I may evolve, or possibly freeze
to death, before you tell me why we’re here.”

“Oh. Right. Well, it’s that prioritizing the
names thing you’ve been thinking about. No, don’t be mad. You know,
I have this theory that if you talked more you might not think so
loud. And your face could freeze like that.”

I so did not care.

“Yeah, I know you might never have brought
it up,” she said quietly, still speaking to my thoughts. “It’s
not
the nicest thing to think about, and yeah, it does seem
mercenary. But no, I don’t think less of you for thinking it. It’s
why we need you. Who else would be thinking like that?”

Who else would be thinking about
selecting the most tactically useful Talents to notify and/or
rescue in the event of all Hell breaking loose in Fairview?
I
could still feel the sting of Kat’s anger in the tunnels when she
said I’d blow off my friends who trusted me.

“You’re just thinking in terms of the best
chance of saving the most Talents. The best chance for all of us.
I’m saying I get it. It makes sense. Yeah, it feels ugly to think
about, but honey, we didn’t start this. You are not the bad guy
here.”

“No, I’m just the one who thinks about
choosing who to save first so I’ll have the best chance of saving
my own ass.”

“That’s not how you think at all, and I know
it. Don’t make yourself out to be something you’re not. Plus you
and Kat need to get over this thing. You’re feeling guilty for
doing the right thing, and you shouldn’t. We asked you because
we—okay, mostly I—know you can think like this where none of us
can. You’re doing the right thing by keeping information from
people we’re not sure about, and as soon as it affects her in a way
she doesn’t like, she lashes out at you. That’s not fair.”

“Don’t get in the middle of it. No sense
having her mad at both of us.”

“I’m not sure if it would help for me to
talk to her or not, at least right now. But I want
you
to
know that I think she’s dead wrong. I don’t usually come out and
take sides when my friends fight, and I love Kat, but—Dead.
Wrong.”

The thing was, while I let Kat make me feel
guilty, I also knew in my gut that I was doing the right thing by
keeping things from Eric. Not because I thought he was the mole.
Jesus. But because I couldn’t assume he wasn’t, and controlling
information was part of the responsibility these guys had dumped on
me.

But I was really upset about Kat being mad
at me. And I was really surprised by how upset I was about it. The
truth was that, while I totally disapproved of her penchant for
sticking her nose in other people’s business, which was a recipe
for trouble, and for letting other people know about her Talent,
which just invited disaster, I really had to admire her. She was
fearless, and…good. I was all about playing it safe, but Kat was
about justice, helping people. She was—

“If you start singing that old
Did you
ever know that you’re my hero?
thing, even in your head, I am
totally leaving.”

“Oh shut up.”

“No, you shut up.”

“I wasn’t speaking,” I growled, but I
actually had to laugh, just a little. Having her back me up did
make me feel better.

“So,” she started again, all rapid-fire and
business-like, “about this prioritized list. I got started on it,
but I got stuck. Some things are obvious, like Raine’s little
brother, Lakota, is a healer. Obviously useful. And then Jessie,
with the clear-making, we’ve seen how that can really help, but
then some stuff I’m not sure about, because I wouldn’t have thought
of Jessie’s as really useful if I hadn’t seen it, so maybe I need
to think outside the box, you know? But I’m not really good at
that, so I made a list of kids and their Talents, and I’m thinking
we can go through and—”

I made some garbled noise and threw up my
hands to ward her off, to try to stop the info-lanche. “T-M-I! I
don’t want to know that. This is the whole thing we’ve been talking
about. Controlling information. I don’t need to know who everyone
is and what they do.” I shook my head when she tried to shove a
bunch of spiral notebook paper under my nose. “I can’t believe you
wrote it down!”

“Sor-RY. Geez. So how are we supposed to go
over this stuff if I don’t write it down?”

“We’re not. My fault. I should have gone
over this with you before, because Dylan and I talked about this
when you weren’t around. Dylan and Rob are working on getting us
some disposable cell phones. Don’t know how, don’t wanna know.
Rob’s going to get those all set up with phone numbers. You’re
going to take everyone you know is a Talent and assign them a phone
number. Their phone number will be their identity, as far as all of
us are concerned. This prioritizing thing you’re doing is good, but
I don’t want to know who’s a Talent and who can do what. After you
get all the numbers assigned, and everyone’s nice and anonymous,
then we can probably work together on the priorities, and we’ll get
with Rob because I think he has the brain we need for coming up
with some kind phone tree network whatever.”

She blew out a breath, annoyed. “I don’t
understand why you and I can’t just talk about this.”

“Because revealing everyone’s secrets to me
is against
your
principles. I’m just trying to help you
maintain your high moral standards.”

“Ha ha. You’re hilarious. And help me
maintain my high moral standards, says the woman who woke up with a
man
in her bed this morning!”

My mouth fell open and she broke up
laughing. “Bitch.”

“You should see your face right now.”

“Just get those numbers from Rob, match them
up to names randomly—
randomly
, okay? Don’t be putting them
all in order by names or birthdays or something.”

“Yeah, yeah, yeah.”

“And you can start that prioritizing thing
by just breaking them into groups of, like, Talents that can be
used as weapons, support stuff like…like the healing thing or
someone who can find food or water. Make a group for people who can
be stealthy or get information, like Jessie and Dylan. Um…on the
weapons stuff, go back and split those people up into who can do
things from a distance versus who needs to make physical contact.
Maybe best to do that with your intelligence group too.”

“My what? Oh, the stealthy info-seekers.
Gotcha. Geez. Anything
else
you need me to do?” She sounded
put out, but it was hard to tell if she was serious.

“As a matter of fact... I need to talk to
you about the stuff going on with Marco and his crew. The crimes
and stuff.”

“I didn’t know anything about your dad
paying anybody off until you thought about it at the Warren the
other day.”

“Warren?”

“Those tunnels. If it’s going to be a
meeting place, it needs a name. Not everyone’s communication is as
efficient as mine.”

“Good point. The Warren it is. Anyway, what
do you know about what’s going on with Marco?”

“Not a lot. There’s so much static in his
head. Like I told you the other day, with Tony.”

“That doesn’t make sense. You could read him
before.”

“I
am not
hiding anything!”

“I didn’t say you were. Now, you just need
to listen to my voice and let me work things out in my head on my
own. I know how you are about not wanting to reveal stuff about
people’s thoughts if you don’t have to. But I’m just saying, he’s
doing wrong. I don’t think you’re morally obligated to
protect—”

“I’m not protecting him! I don’t
know
what’s going on. Buildings are getting burned, you got
kidnapped—yes, you did, and it
was
serious. Robbery,
vandalism, your dad’s being blackmailed, so probably other
merchants too…How can you think I wouldn’t say something if I knew
about it?”

“Don’t be mad.”

“Well damn, Joss, how do you think it makes
me feel when you think things like that? When you question my
loyalty? My decency. My common sense!”

“Hey, now, that’s not fair. I didn’t
say
anything like that. I didn’t even
really
think
it. I’m just trying to figure things out, and you can’t hold that
against me.”

The first bell cut through our argument.

“End of round one,” Heather muttered. “The
point is, you don’t trust me.”

“I’m not really good at that. You know that.
You know it’s not about you. Don’t go away mad.”

“I’m not. I’m just going away.”

But as she walked off, I knew she was
lying.

Chapter 9

Joss

“So…are you ready to tell me what’s
bothering you today?” Dylan swung our linked hands as we walked
down the service road that ran behind one side of the mall, as if
he needed to remind me that he was there.

Are you ready to tell me what was up with
you last night?
But that was the kind of thing old Joss would
say, to push him away. So I bit it back.
Don’t screw this up,
too.

“You don’t have to. I mean…but you can. Tell
me. If you want.”

Or I could just leave you floundering and
trying to figure out how to talk to me, while I try to figure out
how to talk to you.
Yeah, Dylan could tell something was up. It
kind of bothered me, just that he could tell, you know? I wasn’t
used to having anybody read me, or even having anybody try.

But it wasn’t like he was pushing.

“Look, I’m sorry if—”

“Heather’s mad at me.” We had both spoken at
once.

“Why?”

“She took something I thought the wrong
way.”

“Something you thought? Not something you
said? That’s not fair.” He stopped walking, and our joined hands
jerked me to a stop before I realized it. We were almost as far as
the charred husk that used to be Mueller’s. A few shop owners, my
dad included, had installed more security lighting behind their
buildings, not able to wait for the city to do something. In the
glow of those lights, Dylan scowled down at me.

I kind of liked the scowl. “Well, no, but…”
I decided I had to fill him in on the whole
she said/she
said
mess, and ended with, “I’ve been thinking about it, and I
get it. No one wants to feel like someone doesn’t think they’re
trustworthy. But the trust thing is really hard. For me. I guess I
just don’t understand people like I should, and I keep screwing
up.”