Lady Renegades (2 page)

“I
T'S WRONG
that I'm kind of hoping someone starts to drown, isn't it?”

From her spot in the lifeguard chair next to mine, my best friend, Bee Franklin, took a sip of Diet Coke, her shoulders lifting underneath the straps of her bright red bathing suit. “It would be if I thought you really meant it,” she answered, and I sighed, pushing my sunglasses back up the bridge of my nose.

It was mid-July, the weather was End of Days hot, and the large rectangle of cool turquoise water shimmering beyond my chair looked like it would feel amazing. But, if I were being honest, I'd have to admit that wasn't the only reason I wished someone might get into some aquatic danger.

I was bored.

Turns out, being a superhero with no one to save is something of a bummer. I was a Paladin, a kind of magically charged knight, my sworn duty to protect the Oracle. Only problem was, the Oracle was my ex (well, one of my exes) and he'd taken off nearly two months ago, leaving me with no boy, no Oracle, and a whole summer with nothing to do stretching out in front of
me. I'd never really liked summer vacation. I was always happiest doing things, being involved in projects, and throwing myself into as many school activities as I could manage.

Sure, there were other things to do in the summer. I'd tried camp when I was younger, but that hadn't worked out. (I might have made a good counselor at some point, but I was
not
cut out to be a camper. Bug spray, no private showers, and outdoor “plumbing”? Yeah, no.) I'd helped my mom teach Vacation Bible School for the past few years, but that was mostly grabbing glue and glitter from the supply closet or reading the occasional picture book about Jonah and the whale. No, what I needed for this summer—the last one before high school ended—was something
meaningful,
something . . . distracting.

Hence the lifeguard gig.

Blowing my whistle, I pointed at a little towheaded boy currently dunking a towheaded girl I assumed was his sister. “No horseplay!” I called out, and, once I'd decided he looked appropriately abashed, I settled back into my chair.

It made sense, this summer job. While I was supposed to use my powers to protect the Oracle, with him absent and my powers still present, I figured I could at least put them to good use. Plus the Pine Grove Recreation Club was desperate for lifeguards this year, and once I'd passed the test (I'd actually had to fake being tired during the part where I treaded water holding a brick over my head), the job was mine, complete with red bathing suit, shiny whistle, and a tall chair where I could sit all day, scanning the pool for anyone in distress and trying not to think too much about my own problems. Like the fact that while most
bad breakups went something like “He sent me a
text,
” mine was “He literally ran away and nearly blew up the entire town to do it.”

So, yeah, I needed a distraction, hence the lifeguard job. A solid plan, but I'd been working here for over three weeks now, and not once had I needed to dive into the pool to save anyone. Which meant that I'd basically sentenced myself to a summer sweltering to death in a tall chair with only my thoughts for company.

Well, my thoughts and Bee's.

She'd applied for a lifeguard position here, too, both to keep me company and because, thanks to a tricky spell back in the fall, she had Paladin powers, too. So really, this was the most guarded pool in the entire state of Alabama. Maybe the most guarded pool in the entire
country
 . . . but no one had the decency to drown even a
little
bit.

Honestly.

Of course, spending all day with Bee had drawbacks. Were it not for Bee and Ryan, my ex-boyfriend and Bee's
current
one, David never could have escaped town in the first place. And both seemed more relieved about their lives being off the magical hook than sorry about what they'd done.

I could smell hamburgers grilling at the Snak Shak, coupled with the coconut scent of my sunblock and the sweet syrup from hundreds of melting snow cones. In other words, the scent of every summer since I was a little girl. This was what I'd wanted for months now—some normalcy. So why did I feel all restless and sad?

I jumped as a few cold drops of liquid hit my arm and glanced over to see Bee with the bright pink straw from her Diet Coke still pursed between her lips. “Ew,” I said, brushing off the soda she'd sprayed at me.

“You're thinking too hard again,” Bee said, setting the sweaty can in the cup holder attached to her chair. “There's, like, a little black cloud over your head, Eeyore-style.”

I smiled despite myself. “There is not. I'm just, you know, focused on the pool.” I nodded at the water, but Bee just shook her head.

“No, you've got your patented Harper Price Brood Face on.” She leaned a little closer then, the rickety chair groaning slightly. “Anything with David?”

Our powers and whole “sacred bond” thing meant that I was supposed to feel when David was in danger. But there'd been nothing over the past weeks, not even the slightest hint that he was anything less than okay. I didn't even have the sense that he was all that far away. Usually, when we were apart, I felt this ache, almost like a phantom limb or something, and there hadn't been any of that.

But then there was another part of me that worried that my
not
sensing anything might mean he was . . .

No, I didn't want to think about that.

So I turned back to Bee and shrugged. “Nothing.”

She frowned, and I bit back that impulse again, the one that wanted me to remind her that if she and Ryan hadn't helped David leave town, I'd know exactly what was going on with him.

The rest of the afternoon wore on the way they all did, slowly
and with absolutely nothing of note happening (other than some little kid eating both a hot dog and three snow cones, which meant I'd had to call the janitorial people to clean up rainbow-colored vomit, ugh). The pool had fairly informal hours, opening usually around nine, and closing at “sunset.” By this point in the summer, that meant sometime after eight p.m.

This evening, most people had trickled out the gates earlier, probably wanting to get home in time for supper, and for once, I didn't have to round up any stragglers in the changing rooms. Bee and I threw white terry-cloth cover-ups over our bathing suits and pulled the umbrellas off our chairs, packing them up in the storage room by the Snak Shak.

“Another successful day, guarding the heck out of lives,” Bee said as we made our way to the parking lot, bags over our shoulders. We took turns driving each other to and from work, and today, Bee had played chauffeur, so it was her white Acura we headed toward, parked sensibly under a streetlight. Overhead, the sky was striped bright pink and orange, studded with the occasional dark purple cloud. It was the perfect summer evening, but I still felt like my feet were dragging on the hot asphalt.

“And another day tomorrow,” I said to Bee, shifting my bag to my other shoulder. “And then another one after that, and then—lucky us!—another one after that. A pie-eating contest where the prize is more pie.”

Bee paused in front of the driver's side door, her keys in her hand. Her blond hair was curling from the water and the humidity of the day, her skin much tanner than mine. “Well, that's . . . depressing.”

With a sigh, I tugged at the end of my braid where it hung over my collarbone. “I'm sorry. I'm the angstiest lately, I know. I really ought to start wearing black and listening to tragic songs. Maybe start a poetry club.”

That made Bee smile, but didn't erase the concern in her brown eyes. “It hasn't been easy for you lately,” she observed, and I felt a really bitter comment—
When is it ever easy for me?
—leap to the tip of my tongue.

I made myself smile at Bee, opening the car door. “It's probably the sunblock seeping into my brain or something. Or overexposure to chlorine.”

As I went to get in the passenger seat, I happened to glance down into my bag. Frowning, I realized I had only my towel, keys, and sunglasses, which meant that my book was still at the pool.

“Be right back,” I told Bee, and then jogged back up to the pool's gates. They were still unlocked; a few of the cleaning guys were emptying trash cans, picking up litter, vacuuming the pool, all the things I was very glad were not in my job description.

There was no sign of the book by my chair, so I walked across the concrete toward my locker in the changing room. The staff didn't get special rooms or anything, but we all were given our own lockers, so it was possible that my book had fallen out in there.

I kept a bright purple lock on mine and, as I spun the dial, I was already thinking about what I'd do once I got home. Bee would go to Ryan's, and while I knew I was welcome there, I definitely did not feel like third wheeling it. I could sit in my
room with my book and fully give in to this black mood, or I could maybe go out in the backyard and practice a few Paladin moves.

Or, I reasoned, yanking the lock from its slot, I could go over to my aunts' place, watch whatever bad reality-TV show they were currently obsessed with, and let them shove my face full of cake.

Yeah, that's what I'd do. I could use a little spoiling and a lot of sugar and butter.

Opening the locker door, I glanced inside, looking for the telltale orange cover of
Choosing Your Path,
smiling as I imagined what kinds of cake The Aunts might have for me.

I was still smiling when the lights went out, plunging the changing room into darkness.

F
OR A
MOMENT
,
there was no sound but my own breathing and the distant
plink
from the row of sinks on the other side of the wall.

“There's someone in here!” I called, thinking one of the cleaning guys had just reached in to cut off the lights.

But there was no answer, no apologetic “Sorry about that!” The room stayed dark.

I wasn't scared, exactly, but my heart was definitely pounding. If this was some jackass's idea of a prank, boy, had they picked the
wrong
girl to scare.

Adrenaline flooded me, and I threaded my fingers through the loop of the lock still in my hand. My punches were strong enough on their own, but a little extra oomph never hurt anyone. Besides, anyone who purposely scares a girl by herself deserves a broken nose.

“I suggest you turn those lights back on,” I called out, my voice loud in the silence. “Let me
also
suggest that you not let me catch you, douchebag.”

There was someone in the room with me. I couldn't hear
them breathing or moving or anything, but every hair on my body was standing at attention, telling me I wasn't alone. For the first time, something close to fear rattled through me. If this was one of the college boys who cleaned the pool, he'd have already made some noise. A laugh or assurance he was “just playin'.” Or at the very least, I'd smell some cheap cologne.

I slammed the locker door behind me, hoping to startle whoever was in here into making a noise that gave me a sense of where they were.

And sure enough, there it was: the littlest gasp over to my right, close to the other row of lockers. There were benches between me and that area. Lock still clutched in my hand, I started to inch my way toward the light switch by the door, keeping far away enough from the benches to avoid tripping. All I had to do was move a few feet, then I could reach out and turn the switch on, but I didn't want to run. I couldn't remember if there'd been anything on the floor when I'd come in, and I wasn't a hundred percent sure about those benches. They could be closer than I was imagining, and the last thing I wanted was to whack my shin while trying to run away. No, my best bet was to move as slowly and quietly as I could.

There was a sudden breeze as someone moved—fast—right by me, and my heart leapt up into my throat while my fingers curled tighter around the lock.

For all that I'd battled all kinds of bad guys, it surprised me enough for a startled squawk to escape my lips, and I turned, trying to figure out where the person had gone. This was more than just some jerk screwing around with a girl by herself. This
was legitimately dangerous. It wasn't a David-is-in-trouble feeling, but my Paladin senses were kicking in nonetheless. Not just heart-pounding, blood-racing, normal “I may get killed” stuff, but a sensation like Pop Rocks going off in my chest.

Planting my feet firmly, I drew back the hand holding the lock. In one quick, powerful movement, I shoved out. My hand hit something bony—a shoulder, I thought—but the person didn't budge.

Even though I knew this wasn't one of the pool guys, I said, “Last chance to turn on the lights, dude.”

There was no answer.

They'd retreated, I thought, moved back to get a better look, but then, just as I started to turn in the direction I thought they might have gone, there was a sudden shuffle of footsteps, and pain exploded on the side of my head, sparking lights in front of my eyes.

Stunned and in pain, I staggered back, my knee catching the edge of one of those benches after all.

Another sense of movement, and I reached out just in time to catch a foot that had been aiming for my midsection. It was small, but the shoe felt heavy, the tread thick. A boot, I thought, and one that would have forced all the breath out of my lungs had the kick landed.

Using the other person's weight for momentum, I rose to my feet, still holding her (it was a girl now, I was pretty sure) ankle and giving it a vicious wrench.

The bone didn't break, but she gave a very satisfying cry of pain. Still, that motion, twisting her ankle, weakened my grip
on her boot, and she pulled away, retreating back into the darkness, breathing hard.

My head and knee ached, but I had more than just adrenaline fueling me now. My Paladin powers roared to life, filling me with something almost like giddiness. This may be scary and dangerous and all, but it meant my boring summer was over, and to be honest, the idea of taking out some of my angst on someone who
really
deserved it seemed like a solid plan.

“Who are you?” I asked, my voice a little hoarse. “I mean, other than the girl I'm about to wipe the floor with.”

There was a laugh, but she sounded breathless, too. “You wish. Clearly you've never met a Paladin.”

She lunged then, and I kicked, my flip-flop flying, but my foot connecting with her jaw.

“Um, I am one?” I answered, and I could hear the girl spit on the floor.

“Whatever,” she scoffed, and I reached out, trying to grab her. She moved out of my grasp, but I still moved forward. “No, seriously,” I told her. “Aren't you noticing how I'm kicking your butt? You think an average girl could do that?”

No answer, and I racked my brain, trying to think how there could be another Paladin. There was just supposed to be me. Well, me and Bee, but David had turned Bee into—

I grabbed for the girl again, my fingers wrapping around a thin, sweaty bicep, and I heard her draw in a shaky breath. “Wait a minute. Did David make you? A blond boy, glowing eyes, terrible dress sense. Have you seen him?”

The girl answered me, but I'm going to skip over what she
said since it was like 90 percent profanity and didn't really answer my question anyway.

David
had
to have made her. Paladins could only be created when one died, passing his or her power on to another person via this kind of creepy kiss thing. Or, if you had an extra-superpowered-up Oracle—which David was—then the Oracle could make them. David had done that back in the fall, turning a bunch of girls into jacked-up ninja debutantes, but he'd then drained that power from all of them except Bee (she'd been kidnapped before David could get to her).

It was the only thing that made sense. And if David had created this girl, then she knew where he was. Maybe he was even close. He'd
have
to be. After all, when I'd been David's Paladin, being too far away from him had physically
hurt.
So David couldn't be far.

The thought made something in my throat go tight. “Tell me!” I demanded, giving the girl a shake. My fingers were so tight around her arm, it's a wonder they weren't touching. I could practically feel bones grinding, and the girl gave a little whimper of pain.

And then, all at once, it was like the strength went out of my grip. I actually felt it go out of me, like someone had opened a drain. One moment, I was all Paladin Triumphant, and the next, I was just a regular girl, the pain in my head seeming to multiply by about a thousand.

I couldn't help but stagger a bit, and the girl in my grip must've felt it because she twisted away immediately, and then
before I could so much as think, her foot was shooting out, catching me right in the thigh.

It was a good move, and one I'd used myself. Hit just the right spot, and the whole leg goes numb, knocking the person to their knees. It certainly worked on me now, and as I crumpled to the gross changing room carpet, a cold sweat broke out over my entire body.

For almost a year now, I'd had Paladin powers, and I'd started taking them for granted. I'd been in a lot of scary situations, but I'd always—
always
—known I was going to be okay. How could I not when I was basically a superhero? But being a regular girl facing someone with those powers?

The girl kicked again, and while I reached out automatically to deflect it, it was basically like a butterfly batting at a Rottweiler. My fingers glanced ineffectually off her ankle, and the kick hit me high in the chest, making me bite my tongue in agony.

Dropping to her knees, the girl grabbed my braid, yanking my head up, and I had a dizzying, sickening moment of realizing that she was going to kill me. She'd either cut my throat or snap my neck or something, but I was going to die in a matter of seconds. The last time I'd been this close to someone murdering me, I'd been able to stab him with the heel of my shoe. Tonight, I was wearing flip-flops, and one of those had gone flying off in the middle of all of this.

Still, I fought. I twisted in her grip even though the movement scraped my cheek against the carpet and made me feel like I was about three seconds away from losing a whole chunk of
hair. I might not have my Paladin strength at the moment, but that didn't mean I was going out easy.

But the girl just held on tighter, her knee coming to rest painfully against my ribs as she leaned closer. “Once I'm done with you,” she whispered, “your friend is next. I'll be the only one. That's what he wants.”

The words barely penetrated as I thought of Bee, waiting on me out in her car. I yanked my head again, trying to get the girl to let me go, my scalp burning, my face stinging. Had David told her about
Bee
? How else could she know?

But then the last thing she'd said hit me.
That's what he wants.

“David sent you after me?” The thought hurt almost more than the grip she had on my hair.

The girl was leaning closer now, her breath warm on my face, smelling like Juicy Fruit gum. “You didn't think he could just leave you here, right?” she asked. “Not when you're the one who wants to kill him.”

My head was swimming, both with pain and confusion, and I tried to twist in her grip again. “I would never hurt him,” I heard myself say, but the words sounded weak, breathless.

The girl snorted, and I grimaced as her knee dug into my back. “He said you'd say that.”

I tried to roll over, but she was still holding me too tight, her powers in full force, and mine . . . gone, it seemed like, so I stayed where I was, fingers digging into the grubby carpet.

“You talked to him?” I asked, and she shifted slightly. I got the impression she was reaching for something and, while that was worrying, I wanted to keep her talking.

“That's not how it works,” she said. “It's more like—”

“Like you just know,” I finished for her. I understood that. It was the same way I would feel when David was in danger. Orders didn't have to be
issued
; you just knew what to do.

And now David was ordering this girl to kill me? I couldn't believe that.

Something cold pressed against my neck, and I felt like my muscles turned to water, my breath sawing in and out of my lungs so quickly I was almost wheezing.

This couldn't be how I died. Not on the floor of the changing room at the local pool, cut down when I was helpless and scared.

I was just starting to coil some kind of strength together when the girl was suddenly off me, and I realized another person had come into the changing room.

Bee.