Nightstruck (14 page)

Piper made a dismissive noise. “You're not buying into all that bullshit on the news, are you?”

I shrugged, feeling not a bit tempted to tell her about my own encounters with the weird. “I believe we're in the middle of a crime spree and that the wackos are coming out in force at night. Maybe we can go tomorrow.”

“We're going now,” Piper said firmly. “I have my car, and I'll make sure you're back home safe and sound by dark.”

“That's only an hour from now,” I pointed out, not sure she had any idea what time it was.

“So it'll be a short shopping trip.”

“You don't do short, remember?”

Her grin was still impish, even with the new crazy hair. “So don't count on me to keep track of time. You set an alarm on your phone, and when you have to go, you just say so.”

I hesitated. It would certainly be more fun to go out with Piper than to sit around the house by myself for the rest of the day. But when had Piper
ever
managed to get me home by whatever deadline I or my father had set?

“Come on, Becks,” Piper wheedled. “I know I have a bad track record, but you have to admit, it's not all my fault. You never speak up until it's already too late. As long as
you're
paying attention to the time, everything will be fine. Please?”

The fact was that getting out of the house for a while was a temptation too great to resist, and Piper's argument made perfect sense. It was true that when she'd made me late in the past, it was because I'd been unwilling to put on the brakes myself. As long as I trusted her to listen to me when I said it was time to go, there was no reason I couldn't spend the next hour or so doing a little shopping. It would get my mind off some of my troubles, and, as she said, I could set an alarm on my phone to make absolutely sure I got home before dark.

I'm not sure I was completely convinced by my own rationalization. But I went anyway.

*   *   *

Piper has money coming out her ears, so she tends to be a high-end shopper. Myself, I'm more of a bargain hunter. Not because my parents didn't have money but because they'd instilled their own innate frugality in both me and my sister. Since we were shopping specifically for Piper, I thought we'd go to a fashionable stretch of Walnut Street, where there was a mix of trendy chain stores and exclusive boutiques. But I could tell right away that wasn't where we were headed.

“Where are we going?” I asked her, already feeling a niggle of unease. Everything about this little scenario was strange, from Piper's surprising appearance on my doorstep to her ugly new hairdo, and I remembered Luke telling me she'd been acting strange lately, even pushier than normal.

Piper smirked at me. “You'll see when we get there.”

I glanced at my watch. We'd eaten up a bunch of time already walking to Piper's car, since she'd parked three blocks away. “The further we get from my house, the less time we'll have to spend shopping.” The stores on Walnut Street would have been a short drive, assuming we didn't have too much trouble finding somewhere to park, but we were already well past them and now had less than a half hour before sunset.

“Relax, Becks,” she said, as she ran a red light. Someone honked indignantly, and Piper responded almost absently, flipping them the bird. “We'll have fun, I promise.”

I frowned at my best friend and rechecked the security of my seat belt. “Are we really going shopping?” I asked. I was already sure there was something else up, but I had no idea what it might be.

Piper turned her head and winked at me, and I flinched at how close she came to smacking into some pedestrian who was trying to cross the street.

“Watch the road!” I snapped at her. Whatever she was up to, I knew I didn't like it. “What has gotten into you?”

“Remember how I said the other day that I had to find some way to set you up with a guy? Well, I found a way.”

I suspect my eyes nearly bugged out of my head. “What? What are you talking about?”

“I met a guy last night at a party.”

At the rave she went to without Luke, she meant. But I didn't want to explain how I knew about that, so I didn't say anything.

“He is seriously hot,” Piper continued, “and he's also seriously unattached. He was hitting on me last night. I told him I was unavailable but I had a friend I thought he would like. So we're meeting him at the Bourse for coffee, then going to a movie.”

For a moment I was stunned speechless. Piper had never pulled anything remotely like this before, and I felt like I was being ambushed. I was certainly willing to entertain the idea of letting her set me up with someone, seeing as it was nearly impossible for me to meet guys on my own. But at a time and place of my own choosing. The Bourse was about as far away from my house as you could get and still be in the heart of Center City. And if I was going to risk being out after dark, it sure as hell wouldn't be for some movie at the Bourse Ritz, which showed art films and documentaries. I'd let Piper drag me to one once and had been so bored I practically fell asleep.

“You lied to me,” I said, when I was finally capable of speech.

She shrugged, no hint of apology on her face. “I've known you a while, Becks. You wouldn't have come if I'd told the truth.”

“You're right, I wouldn't have!” I answered with some heat. “And for your information, that's my prerogative.”

Piper turned a corner and the Bourse came into view. It's a gorgeous old building near Independence Square, a historic Philadelphia landmark. It's a far cry from a teen hangout, containing offices, tourist shops, and an anemic food court. I had the sneaking suspicion that Piper had chosen it solely because it was so far away from my house. She thought the distance would make me into a captive audience. I seriously contemplated murder as Piper began circling the block in search of a parking space. The light was fading, sunset only minutes away.

“Turn the car around,” I said, putting as much authority as I could muster into my voice. When Luke had told me Piper was getting pushier than ever, he clearly hadn't been exaggerating. “Take me home. Now.”

Piper laughed and took aim at an open space by the curb. The space was open because of the fire hydrant on the sidewalk, but she didn't seem to care. “We're already here,” she said as she maneuvered into her illegal parking spot. “What's the harm in just coming in for a few minutes and saying hello? If you don't want to do the movie after—”

“I said no, and I meant it.” Sometimes I let Piper push me out of my comfort zone because I figured it was for my own good. This was not one of those times. “Take me home, Piper.”

She stopped the car and put it in park, then looked at me in triumph. “I'll take you home just as soon as we've had our cup of coffee, and not a moment sooner. Now come on.”

“But it's dark already. You said—”

“It's four thirty in the afternoon, not one in the morning. Will you chill already?”

She got out of the car before I could protest more. I sat there fuming for a minute or two, so mad I could barely see straight. What did Piper think she was accomplishing? Did she honestly think there was any chance I would
like
the guy she was trying to force me into meeting? Even if he turned out to be Prince Charming, there was no way I could warm to him under the circumstances. Piper
had
to know that.

But she wasn't getting back in the car, and unless I knew how to hot-wire the damn thing, there wasn't much point in me sitting there.

I wondered if there was actual smoke coming out of my ears as I reluctantly climbed out of the car, glaring at Piper the whole way. The glare had no effect on her, and she merely stood there on the curb smiling at me, her eyes twinkling with amusement.

Wow. She actually thought this was
funny.
Who
was
this girl? Certainly not the Piper I'd thought I'd known.
That
Piper was often careless, but not actively malicious. If you had the guts to tell her she was being a bitch, she'd instantly recognize the truth of it and apologize. But I saw no hint today that she even knew an apology was necessary.

I averted my gaze, then checked my wallet to see if I had bus fare. This was one battle of wills I had no intention of letting Piper win. I didn't have much in the way of cash, but it was just enough to get me home. If I didn't have to wait too long for a bus, I shouldn't have to spend more than about half an hour out in the city after dark. Surely the worst of the night madness didn't happen until later.

I glared at Piper one more time, hoping she'd see how serious I was and then relent and take me home. “I'm going to catch a bus,” I told her.

That didn't seem to bother her a bit. “Suit yourself. You don't know what you'll be missing.” Then her smile grew even broader, her eyes lighting up as she looked at something just over my left shoulder. “Or maybe you won't miss it after all.”

The hairs on the back of my neck rose for reasons I couldn't explain, and I turned to see what she was looking at.

There was a boy walking briskly down the sidewalk toward us, waving and grinning. The boy Piper had hijacked me to come and meet, obviously. Although his face was instantly familiar, it took me a couple of seconds to place it. When I did, my jaw dropped open, and a chill shivered down my spine, because I don't believe in coincidence.

“Becket,” Piper said, sounding so self-satisfied I longed to shake her, “I'd like you to meet my new friend, Aleric. Aleric, this is Becket.”

The boy I'd literally run into when fleeing through the fog near school smiled at me, showing no sign of being surprised to see me.

 

CHAPTER TWELVE

I was stunned speechless. What were the chances that I would run into Aleric when being chased by a trash monster at school, and then he would run into Piper at a party and arrange to meet up with me here in Center City? It's not like we lived in a small town.

“It's a pleasure to see you again,” Aleric said. His words and his tone were perfectly pleasant, but there was something sharp and predatory in his expression, something that made me unwilling to shake the hand he offered me.

Piper jabbed me with an elbow, but that didn't make me feel any more inclined to shake Aleric's hand. His too-green eyes glittered with amusement. Far from being offended by my refusal to shake, he seemed to enjoy it.

“You sure do get around, don't you?” I asked him, and I was shocked to hear a faint quaver in my voice. Yes, there was something spooky and unnerving about Aleric—and about his showing up in my life for a second time—but surely there was nothing to be
scared
of. After all, we were in public, with plenty of people around. And he hadn't said or done anything that should make me afraid of him in anything but a shy-girl–meets–hot-guy way.

Aleric raised an eyebrow. “As do you.”

“Wait,” Piper said, sounding confused. “You two
know
each other?”

“I wouldn't go that far,” Aleric said, his eyes locked on mine. “We bumped into each other once before.”

“Wow,” said Piper. “What a coincidence!”

“Either that or he's stalking me,” I said, earning another elbow and a sharp sound of protest from Piper. I tried to make it sound like I was kidding, but I don't think either Piper or Aleric was fooled, even though Aleric laughed like I'd just told a great joke.

“I think the universe is trying to tell us something,” he said when he finished laughing. “Let's get that cup of coffee. I'd like to hear more about your stalking theory. Personally, I think it would be kind of a neat trick to arrange to randomly run into your friend at a party. I'm sure you have a theory about how I pulled it off.”

“Thanks,” I said insincerely, “but no thanks. I was just on my way home.”

Piper grabbed my arm to keep me from walking away. “What is
wrong
with you?” she muttered under her breath. If she thought Aleric couldn't hear her, she was delusional.

I jerked my arm out of her grip. If he was really some perfectly ordinary nice guy rather than some creepy stalker dude, then I was not only making a fool of myself but was also being unforgivably rude to him. But everything about him made me want to shrink away, despite his undeniably handsome face and his friendly smile.

“Next time you want to set me up on a blind date, ask my permission first,” I snapped at Piper.

Because I thought there was a slim chance I might be overreacting, I smiled at Aleric as best I could. “Piper and I are having a disagreement,” I told him. “Don't take it personally. I just refuse to let her get away with lying to me.”

Piper groaned. “Oh come on, Becks. Get over it already. Where's the harm in getting a cup of coffee?”

“Everyone hates a liar,” Aleric said, still smiling. His eyes seemed to bore into me, telling me he knew my every secret, my every lie.

My pulse was kicking as if I'd just run a mile, and my stomach kept wanting to turn over on itself. The sensation reminded me very much of how I'd felt when I'd approached the “baby” in the alley. My primal instincts had been right to warn me away then, and I was inclined to give them the benefit of the doubt now. Even though Piper didn't seem to sense anything at all wrong.

“Hey!” she said indignantly, though I seriously doubt he'd been talking to her. “It was just a little white lie. Let's not make it into some grand betrayal.”

I didn't think now was the time and place to have it out with Piper, so I mostly ignored her as I took a couple of steps backward. “Nice to see you again, Aleric,” I said, and no one could miss the sarcasm in my voice. “Just in case I end up ‘accidentally' running into you again, you should probably know that my father is the police commissioner.”