Nightstruck (32 page)

The hydra that had been following me hissed and snapped, perhaps impatient with my hesitation. I triple-checked my gun to make sure it was ready to shoot. I wondered if I should just hold it in my hand as I marched into the square, but a gust of icy wind convinced me that was a bad idea. I doubted Piper being Nightstruck would make her any more punctual, and there was no point freezing my fingers off—maybe making them so numb it would affect my shooting.

That said, I doubted my ability to do a quick draw when I had to fumble around my coat pocket to find the gun, and I might just as easily shoot my own foot before I got the gun out. So I compromised, sticking both the gun and my hand in the pocket, fingers wrapped around the butt and the finger guard.

Another hiss from the hydra got me moving again, and I passed through the entrance into the square. The hydra didn't follow me, instead parking itself firmly in the middle of the path behind me, blocking the exit. I wondered if the other exits were similarly blocked and decided I had to assume the answer was yes.

The night magic didn't seem to affect living things, so the plants and the trees all looked the same. The park benches where people loved to sit and eat their lunches on a lovely day, however, had enlarged and now sprouted rows of teeth. They resembled nothing so much as Venus flytraps, waiting for an unwary insect to take their bait.

Out of curiosity—or a desire to stall—I felt around my left coat pocket and found what was left of a pack of gum. I tossed it at one of the benches And even though I'd expected it, I still jumped and screamed when the jaws slammed shut with an eardrum-shattering bang. I hoped the damn things were as sedentary as they looked.

Billy was normally situated on a plinth in the middle of a small circular plaza relatively close to the edge of the square. With all the streetlamps turning into gallows, there was barely any light in the square, and I moved slowly, hoping my eyes would adjust. The glow from all the high-rises surrounding the square at least meant it wasn't pitch black. However, it was still dark enough that it would make shooting from any distance a challenge. I would have to get close enough to Piper that I couldn't miss.

I wasn't surprised that Billy wasn't on his plinth. Nor was I surprised that Piper wasn't there waiting for me. But I wasn't sure how I could bear to stand there alone in the dark, waiting for her to show up. I could barely see anything farther than about fifteen feet away from me, and I was chillingly aware of just how many bad things lurked in the darkness.

Still, it wasn't like I had a choice anymore. And with dawn now less than an hour away, there was only so long Piper could keep me waiting.

There was a semicircular stone bench in the plaza, and to all appearances it hadn't been changed by the night. I briefly considered sitting down, then decided I didn't trust appearances. Just because I didn't see any changes, it didn't mean the bench was harmless. I was probably too restless and nervous to sit anyway.

I saw no sign of any living creature, but I knew I was not alone. The square was alive with sounds, all of which came from somewhere beyond my limited range of sight. Many of them were the metal-on-brick sound of constructs walking on the paths. I could tell from the pattern of sound that some of them walked on four feet and some on two, but though I occasionally caught a shadowed glimpse of movement in the distance, I never saw anything clearly.

None of this did my nerves much good. Every time I heard a sound I jumped and whirled, wishing I could have a wall at my back so that there was at least one direction no one and nothing could sneak up on me from.

Thanks to the arctic blasts of wind, I couldn't feel my ears or my nose, and my cheeks were burning from the cold. I stamped my feet in a vain attempt to keep them from going numb, and I paced around the circle to stay as warm as humanly possible. I checked my watch approximately every thirty seconds, but, astoundingly, that didn't make Piper show up any quicker. If I weren't convinced that the various constructs in the square wouldn't allow it, I might have chickened out and left.

Finally, after what felt like forever, I heard a little
click-click-click
sound that was all too familiar: the sound of Billy's metal hooves trotting along the pavement. I turned toward the sound, straining both eyes and ears for any sign of Piper. I thought I heard the quiet thump of a human footstep, but Billy's clicks were too loud for me to be sure. I canted my body so whoever or whatever was approaching couldn't see my right side, then carefully eased the gun out of my coat pocket. I kept my arm down so that my leg blocked the gun from sight, holding my breath and waiting. I was shivering from cold and nerves, and in my heart of hearts I still wasn't sure I'd actually be able to go through with my plan.

Billy, in his almost demonic night incarnation, was the first to appear out of the darkness. Memories flashed through my mind, memories I had managed to keep mostly suppressed because I was unable to face them. I heard the sickening crunch of my father's bones as Billy rammed him, saw the blood that dripped off those horns and spines, felt the crushing sense of helplessness I'd suffered as I'd watched.

My shaking hand rose of its own volition, and for a moment I wasn't sure I was really present in my own body. My mind knew with perfect clarity that I should keep the gun hidden until Piper was close enough to shoot, that it was possible she'd flee if she realized what I was planning to do. My mind also knew that a bullet couldn't hurt a magical construct made entirely of metal. But my body seemed to be a little fuzzy on the facts.

I took aim at the goat, which came to a stop and just stood there staring at me, its head cocked to one side like a curious dog. My finger tightened on the trigger, and I'm pretty sure I'd have squeezed it all the way if Piper hadn't made an appearance just then.

She looked terrible, her clothing torn and dirty, her hair sticking out at all angles. There was a smear of darkened blood on the ratty peacoat she wore unbuttoned over ill-fitting camo pants. But for all the ugliness of her outward appearance, there was a healthy glow to her skin and she had obviously gained some weight, which looked good on her. She looked like a street person with an unusually healthy and plentiful diet.

“I wouldn't recommend shooting at Billy,” Piper said cheerfully. “Who knows where the bullet would end up after it bounced off?”

Her words reminded me that it wasn't Billy I was here to shoot. If it were, I wouldn't be such an emotional wreck.

I shifted my aim and willed myself to pull the trigger the moment I had Piper squarely in my sights. I knew that the more I thought about it, the less likely I was to go through with it.

Piper's eyebrows arched in surprise when I pointed the gun at her, but she didn't look overly concerned. “It'll be kind of hard for me to initiate you into the night if you shoot me. And it would be bad manners.”

My hands shook and my aim wavered. All I had to do was pull that damn trigger and Luke and his family would be out of danger. I had brought that danger upon them, and it was my responsibility to save them from it.

So why wasn't I doing what I had to do?

“Come on now, Becks,” Piper said. “We both know you're not going to shoot me. You may have an inner bad girl just dying to come out, but she's not
that
bad. My inner bad girl was much closer to the surface, and even I had to become one with the night before I could actually
kill
someone. So let's cut the bullshit, okay? If you're still pissed at me when you're one of us, then you can go ahead and kill me. You won't even feel bad about it.” She shrugged as if it hardly mattered to her.

I knew better than to listen to her, and I especially knew better than to talk to her, but that didn't stop me. “I thought it was going to be all unicorns and fairies after I changed, so why would I still be pissed at you?”

Piper laughed. “Unicorns and fairies? That's not what I said, Becks. I said you would feel a whole lot better and that you'd stop hurting. Big difference. Believe me, you can still feel angry. I know, because I'm feeling just a bit irritated that you're standing there holding a gun on me.” She grinned hugely. “But anger can be a real rush sometimes. The only thing that sucks about anger is having to keep it in because no one lets you express it. That's what changes when you join the night. No one's going to tell you you shouldn't be angry or that you shouldn't act on what you feel.”

“And how would I do that, exactly? Join up, I mean.” Yes, I was stalling, still fighting to make myself do the right thing. But if I was going to stand there in a welter of indecision, I might as well see if I could get any information out of Piper. Maybe she would say something that could help others in Philadelphia avoid becoming like her.

Piper crossed her arms over her chest. “Put down the gun, and I'll show you. It doesn't hurt or anything. I promise.”

My arms were getting tired from holding the gun out in front of me, and my hands were going numb from the cold. If I aimed for Piper's torso, I could probably hit her without having to try too hard, but I wasn't any closer to pulling the trigger now than I had been when she'd first appeared.

I had already failed, though I didn't yet want to admit it to myself. My only chance had been to fire the moment Piper first came into view. Before I had a chance to think. Before I had a chance to see her, hear her, remember what she had once been. No matter how bitchy she was being now, no matter what my recent memories, I couldn't forget the girl who was my best friend, and that meant I couldn't shoot.

Shuddering, I lowered the gun, though I wasn't about to drop it as Piper had commanded. Maybe I didn't have the guts to shoot her, but that didn't mean I was going to join up, and I had a feeling she might object when she realized that.

“Good job, Piper,” said a voice behind me.

I shrieked and pulled the trigger reflexively as I whirled around. I was lucky I didn't shoot my foot off.

Aleric stood in the plaza behind me. Unlike Piper, he didn't look like he'd been sleeping in the streets or Dumpster diving. His jeans were torn at the knee, but the tears looked like they were factory made, and his black leather bomber jacket looked so shiny and new I was surprised there weren't tags hanging off of it. He'd apparently raided a salon and used a ton of product to get that overly neat bed-head look, and if it weren't for the color of his eyes and the aura of cruelty that clung to him, I'd have thought him the hottest guy I'd ever seen.

Aleric smiled, apparently amused by my wild gunshot and startled cat impersonation. I wasn't comfortable having either him or Piper at my back, so I took a few hasty steps to the side so that I could keep them both in my line of sight. I didn't know at first who to point the gun at, but I'd already seen that shooting Aleric was pointless, so I decided on Piper.

“Gee thanks, Al,” she said. “I'd just gotten her to put the gun
down.
”

Aleric ignored her as if she weren't even there. “You surprise me, Becket,” he said. “After everything Piper has done, after everything she's threatened to do, you still can't shoot her?”

“Hey!” Piper protested. “Are you
trying
to get me killed here?”

Aleric still ignored her, all of his attention focused on me. I thought maybe he was about to jump me, but he just stood there, looking at me in a way that made me feel like worms were squirming around under my skin.

Piper took a step toward me while I was distracted by Aleric, but I quickly snapped back to attention and yelled, “Stop, or I'll shoot!”

My voice and my hands were shaking so much I didn't think I sounded very threatening, but Piper stopped and held her hands up. If she had kept moving toward me, I think I might have found the courage to pull the trigger, but of course she wasn't going to make things that easy for me.

Aleric sauntered over to the stone bench I'd declined to sit on earlier, leaning his butt against its back and looking back and forth between me and Piper. He sure looked like he was enjoying himself, the corners of his mouth lifted in a faint smile, his eyes sparkling.

“You know she arranged for the attack on your surrogate mother last night, right?” Aleric asked. “It was her idea to hold that little girl as hostage. And of course she never had any intention of letting the child live, whether its father succeeded or not.”

“Aleric?” Piper asked, and for the first time since she'd been Nightstruck, I heard uncertainty in her voice. “What are you doing?”

His green eyes seemed almost to glow in the darkness, and though my gun was pointed in Piper's direction, I couldn't tear my gaze away from his.

“Your will is admirably strong,” Aleric said. “She killed your father right before your eyes. She trashed your home. She tried to kill your boyfriend's mother. And the next time she tries, she'll succeed. She won't kill Luke right away—she'll leave him for last, because after he's dead the other deaths won't hurt you so much.”

My eyes filmed with tears and my ears started buzzing. These were all the reasons that I'd convinced myself I had to kill Piper in the first place. He was telling me nothing I didn't know, nothing I could argue with. Killing another human being was unequivocally wrong. But letting Luke and his family get killed because of me was wrong, too, and I could stop it.

Piper said something I couldn't hear over the buzzing in my ears.

“I was there on the night she killed your father,” Aleric said, his eyes still boring into me. “You could have saved him, you know. If you'd fired the gun the moment you had a chance, then Piper would have died and lost control of Billy.”

I shook my head in denial, but my throat was too tight and my breath too short to protest. The constructs didn't need anyone ordering them about to be vicious. Why would Billy have backed off when my father was a helpless, trapped victim?