Бри Деспейн - The Dark Divine

Daniel pushed open the gym doors. Red and green streamers reached across the room in a zigzag pattern. Balloons hobbled in the air. A strobe light bounced off the dancers, who twirled and swayed to the music--- completely oblivious to what was going on. How we'd be able to pick out one person in this din seemed impossible.

We slipped inside the gym, and T hugged Daniel to me, linking my arms around his neck so it looked like we were dancing, quite intimately.

Daniel stared down at me. He raised one eyebrow.

"My dress is a mess."

Daniel, clad in jeans and a white shirt, stood out enough in a room full of suits and slacks, but we definitely wouldn't be able to search for my brother incognito if anyone noticed my bruises or Pete's blood smeared across my white dress.

Daniel wrapped his arms around my waist. And for a fleeting moment, I felt safe to be in his strong embrace-- like it was a promise that everything would turn out the way it should.

Daniel rested his chin on my shoulder. I heard him inhale deeply, holding the breath in the back of his throat, mulling it for tastes. The room wafted with so much sweat and perfume, could he really pick out one person's scent? Daniel lifted me off my feet and twirled us toward the center of the crowd. His movements were lithe and graceful, navigating us through the other dancers without disturbing anyone. For a second I forgot to breathe--forgot why we were even here.

"There," Daniel whispered into my ear.

I followed his gaze. I could see the top of a dark, disheveled head moving beyond the wall of dancers, following Daniel and me as we glided across the room toward the locker-room doors.

"We just need to keep him following us," Daniel said. "Get him out of here before--"

The music stopped and the lights flipped on. We halted as the crowd came to a standstill.

"May I have your attention?" Principle Conway said from a microphone near the DJ. "Please, stay where you are. Stay calm. There's been a crime near the school. The police are locking us down until they have the situation under control. No one will be allowed to leave..."

Cries of concern went up in the crowd as uniformed officers moved toward all the exits. Someone shouted and stumbled, as if she'd been knocked aside. Her cry was followed by the clanking of one of the metal exit doors as it swung open and shut. Three officers ran to the door, shouting. The dark head that had been following us was no longer in the crowd.

Daniel cursed. "That was an outside exit."

He looked at the door to the men's locker room. The guard there was distracted by the commotion. Daniel swept me up in his arms. He flew at the door and knocked the officer flat before he even knew we were there. Daniel whipped the door open and lunged into the locker room.

"Stop!" someone shouted behind us. "Freeze!"

Daniel jumped on top of a bench. He grabbed an open locker door, used it to launch us up on top of the row of lockers, slid across, and landed on a bench on the other side. He bolted down its length, and jumped to an exit that led us into a long corridor. He ran, holding me to his chest. Shouts filled the corridor behind us, and then ahead of us around the corner. I heard the buzzing of police radio static. Daniel skidded into a stairwell entrance and lunged up the stairs. Up and up we went until we made it to a heavy-looking door marked roof access . Daniel kicked it, the lock crunched, and we burst through the doorway into night.

Daniel took in a deep breath. The air had chilled since I was last outside. Clouds smothered the moonlight. A storm was coming.

Voices echoed way down in the stairwell. Daniel hitched me up in his arms.

"What are we going to do?"

"Hang on!" He squeezed me tight and sprinted toward the edge of the roof--running at his full speed toward open air. Before I could cry out, he jumped off the edge, sailed over the alley where Don had stabbed Pete, and landed with a thud on the parish roof. Daniel wrapped his arms around me, protecting me as we rolled on impact across the sloping roof. He scrambled to his feet and pulled me with him up and over the apex of the roof. We crouched behind the steeple. I started to speak.

Daniel held up his hand. He waited, listening. "They think we doubled back," he whispered. "You can hear them?"

Daniel gave me a duh kind of look. He listened for another moment. "They've lost Jude, too. Someone saw him running toward Day's. They're sending a squad car back there."

"Or is he heading home?" My heart pounded so hard I thought it might burst. "We have to find a phone. We have to call them. My dad calmed Jude before ... maybe ...

I don't even know if Dad's home yet. I haven't seen him all day."

"He's not home." Daniel ducked back, pulling me with him. A second later, an officer walked through the alley below us. "He's probably somewhere over Pennsylvania by now," he whispered.

I stared at Daniel.

"Your father is on an airplane." Daniel stood when the officer was out of sight. "You were right. We do need another moonstone. Your father is trying to get one."

"From where?"

"From Gabriel. Your father tried to contact him after Thanksgiving, but the colony doesn't exactly welcome intrusions from the outside world. They don't own cell phones or anything like that."

"Welcome to the club," I mumbled.

"Your dad sent several letters, but there was no reply. When he got those blood-test results, he took the first flight he could get."

"So my father knows about Jude?" That made sense. "Why didn't he tell me? Why didn't he tell Jude?"

"He wanted to wait until we had another moonstone. He thought if Jude knew what was happening, he would only change faster. Your father came to see me before my shift ended at the market. He asked me to keep an eye on things while he was gone." Daniel bowed his head. "That was a mistake. I should have been the one to leave."

I grabbed his hand. Here was exactly where I needed him to be. "Jude might be headed home. Charity and James are in danger, and if Dad's not here, then I don't know what--"

"We can run there."

"No. If I'm wrong, we could lead him right to them." I slumped my shoulders. "I don't know what the right thing to do is. I don't know where we go from here."

"Jude's scent is in the air. It's more confused, though. I can't tell where he is. I don't know if he's just been here or if he's nearby." He squeezed my hand. "There's a phone in your dad's office. We can call Charity. Tell her to get to a neighbor's house or something. Maybe we can call the airport, too. Leave a message for your father as soon as he lands."

The clouds parted slightly, and a sliver of moonlight shone down on us. Daniel inspected the scrapes across my knuckles. I was scraped all over from tumbling across the wood roof shingles. His eyes glinted too bright as he kissed my wounded hand.

He shuddered and backed away against the base of the steeple. He held his moonstone against the hollow of his neck. "Just give me a minute," he said softly, and closed his shimmering eyes. "It'll be okay."

"That's what you think," a voice snarled behind me.

Chapter Twenty-seven fall from grace

SECONDS LATER

"I knew you were here." Jude teetered on the apex of the roof. He walked across it like it was a balance beam, closing the distance between us. "I don't know how. I just did." His eyes seemed so black yet bright in the dim moonlight. "Kind of a fortuitous place to end this, don't you think? It's like God led me here."

"God isn't what led you here," Daniel said. "Think about it, Jude. Think about what you taste and smell. Think about what you feel writhing inside of you."

Jude laughed. "God led me to this, too." He pulled something from behind him. It was Don's knife, still stained with blood. "It was just lying in the alley, waiting for me."