Seconds Before Sunrise (The Timely Death Trilogy), page 4
I couldn’t stay in school any longer. I had to go to the shelter and train.
Grabbing all of my things, I pulled my keys out of my pocket and rushed to the parking lot. I avoided the lunchroom and used the side door to escape. No one would notice, and if someone did, no one would stop me. The teachers had learned to leave me alone as much as the students did. I wasn’t interested in lectures, and their words wouldn’t stop me from getting around the rules. Especially with Luthicer’s help. He was useful for some things, after all.
“Hold the door.”
I recognized the loud voice before I saw his black hair, and I let the door shut, knowing it would lock.
“Sorry, man.” I moved past Zac.
He raised his hand as if he would run it through his mane, but he stopped himself. Apparently, he didn’t want to mess up his carefully constructed hairdo.
“It’s cool,” he said. He was the tallest teenager I had ever seen. “You think they’ll notice if I just go around the school?”
“Teachers are hawks around here,” I lied, continuing to walk.
“Thanks anyway.”
I didn’t bother speaking to him again. I needed to get away from him fast. If I didn’t, I would confront him about Jessica, and I no longer had the right to. She had her own life, and I had to survive mine without her. We had agreed on it, and that was enough to push me forward. That and my car.
I jogged over the small slope leading down the left side of the school to where the black Charger waited for me. In seconds, I was inside and revving the engine, sighing at the beautiful sound. It was mine, and it was the only solace I had left. I took off, my thoughts slipping away with the speed, tearing out of the parking lot as if I could drive away from it all.
Eric
Being a capable shade wasn’t enough. I had to be able to fight as a human as well, and today was my day to train as one.
Luthicer watched as Camille held up my punching bag. I threw one last punch before I stopped to catch my breath. Kickboxing was more of a cardiac workout than I thought.
“You should probably stretch,” Camille said.
I swung my arm over my chest, and she walked over to the wall. She grabbed a bottle of water and tossed it over. I stopped stretching to catch it, and water droplets trailed down my arm with my sweat.
“Thanks,” I said.
She started to walk over, but Luthicer tapped her arm. “Can you get the timesheets?” he asked, referring to a workout sheet trainers used for young children after the Naming. “I left them in my office.”
Camille opened her mouth to remind him that I didn’t use them, but Luthicer lowered his brow, and she obeyed, heading to the door. Her dark eyes met mine, and she widened them. I prepared myself for the worst. Luthicer didn’t want Camille around for a reason.
I opened up my water bottle and took a quick drink. “What was that about, Luthicer?” I asked, refusing to rollover for the half-breed elder.
He patted the wall. “You should work on your core,” he said. “Sit ups.”
I hesitated but moved forward. I sat down, making sure my feet didn’t touch the wall, and began. We continued this for a few minutes, but Luthicer didn’t look at me.
“Do you hate the Light?” he asked, his voice rigid and quick.
I sat up to rest on my knees. “They’re my enemy.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
I cleared my throat and wiped the sweat from my brow. I needed a shower, not a chit-chat. “Sure,” I gave in to the conversation. I hated Darthon and Fudicia, but they weren’t everyone in the Light. “Hate” seemed like a strong word for a group of people.
Luthicer’s cheeks were sunken in as if they’d dried up with his thoughts. He looked as tired as I felt.
“You are aware of what will happen to the sect if you defeat Darthon, right?” he asked.
My stomach muscles twisted on top of my workout’s intensity. “They’ll lose their powers,” I responded as if he had given me an oral exam. It was a vital piece of information. Whoever won would retain power. Whoever lost would lose their identity.
“But some will die.”
I tried to ignore this fact, but it was true. To have half of your life ripped away would prove to be too dire for some. We had seen it happen to banished shades. It was only natural for it to happen to lights, too.
“I’m aware,” I said.
Luthicer threw his white beard over his shoulder like it was a fashionable scarf. “And what do you think about that?” he asked a question that wasn’t on the exam. The prophecy never asked how we felt about it. It was factual, and that was all we were expected to know.
I rubbed my temples as I tried to comprehend our conversation. “It doesn’t really matter.”
Luthicer pressed his back against the wall as he glided to the floor. “It does,” he argued, slowly turning his neck to meet my eyes. “If there is a battle involving others − not just Darthon and you − I need to know you believe in their malicious nature.”
“I know they’re evil, Luthicer.” I remembered the determination in Darthon’s eyes. His actions had no sympathy or hesitation, and I had witnessed his brutality on my own family. Not to mention Fudicia. She had killed Hannah when she was fourteen. To describe the Light as ruthless was an understatement.
“You didn’t always know this,” Luthicer continued as if he hadn’t heard me.
I lay on my back, stretching my leg over my stomach. “At least I figured it out.”
Luthicer stared at the farthest wall, and I studied the man longer than I ever had before. The shadows that hung beneath his eyes were darker than usual, and his wrinkles seemed deeper. Still, he was calm, and he didn’t move.
“Why are you here?” I asked.
His dark eyes lightened. “Did you know I was born to the Light?”
“No.” I ignored my racing heart.
He ran his long fingernails over his long sleeves. He pulled them up and revealed white slashes of scarred flesh.
“They’re evil,” he said. “And they raise their children to be as well.”
I tried to tear my eyes away, but I couldn’t. The scars were old, patched up in places with healed skin, but the bumpy ridges remained. Some were burns while others were round, hinting of puncture wounds. He had obviously been tortured, and I suddenly understood why Luthicer wanted me to go through the pain of the torture machine.
I stretched my other leg before sitting up. I gulped my water down, and Luthicer waited patiently for my response, but I didn’t have one. There were no words to sympathize with something I couldn’t understand, and I wasn’t about to fake that I could.
“They’ve been evil since the beginning, Eric.” Luthicer used my real name as if it would help reach my conscience. “They attacked our people in a moment of peace. We were balanced. We were free—”
I knew the story. The Light and the Dark lived among humans, but the humans weren’t completely oblivious either. They suspected some of those with power, generally the ones who couldn’t remain silent. They had been labeled as witches or gods. Ultimately, there wasn’t much of a difference in their eyes.
The Light took advantage of it. They depicted themselves as holy, and the people followed them, believing every word about the evil creatures that came out at night. Unbeknownst to them, we were the innocent ones, and when we confronted their lies, they slaughtered us. They wanted power, and they did anything to achieve it. If it weren’t for a select few − the oldest ones who stripped everyone’s powers − the war would’ve continued, and the Light would’ve succeeded. But the power couldn’t stay dormant forever, so it followed two bloodlines. I was one of them. Darthon was the other. The separation of balance created Jessica’s.
“Were you exiled?” I interrupted his history lesson.
“I’m sure that’s what they’d say,” he said in a half-grunt. “But I left.” His lips pulled into the largest grin I’d seen him expose. His teeth were crooked. “After I did as much damage to them as I could.”
My throat tightened as I pictured a much younger version of Luthicer, but my imagination was halted by a lack of information.
“What did you do?” I asked.
“I killed fifteen of them. Maybe more.” His voice dropped. “I was thirty-five.”
I didn’t know Luthicer’s age, but I wished I did. I wanted to do the math to figure out if it had to do with my birth.
“It had nothing to do with your birth or Darthon’s,” he said, hinting at my existence. “I had a daughter with a human.”
This was news to me.
“She’s human, of course,” he said, raising a finger. “But the Light didn’t care.”
“They wanted her to fight?” I asked, thinking I had to have heard him wrong.
A human couldn’t fight a shade. They would simply be a body to clean up, but he nodded.
“I could not allow that to happen.” Luthicer pulled his sleeves down. “But my abandonment didn’t come without a price.”
I didn’t ask what happened after. I didn’t need to. The point was in his physical and mental torture handed to him by the sect, not the details of how it happened.
He continued to fiddle with his sleeves as if he could retract his honesty. “I know you don’t like me, Eric,” he said, standing up. “But I am on your side, and I have been my entire life − even when I didn’t know it.”
I wanted to tell him he was wrong, that I liked him, but I couldn’t. Although I’d heard his story, my emotions had yet to catch up, and I needed time to reflect on everything before I’d be more comfortable with his dedication.
“And I want you to believe me when I say they are evil − all of them,” he continued. “They aren’t evil as humans. They are people just like us. But, unlike shades, their conscience disappears with their transformation,” he lingered on his words as if it were the first time he’d spoken them. “It’s one of the reasons half-breeds struggle so much. Half of ours disappears.”
“Do you struggle?” I asked, wanting to know how my enemy’s mind worked.
Luthicer’s face twisted, and he turned his torso away as he opened the door. He left, but his last words echoed behind him, “Not anymore.”
Jessica
Minutes ticked by, but the sunset remained above the plains of the Midwest. The sky was plastered with stormy clouds, and the wind pushed against the glass near our table. We had gone a town over to eat at La Bella Luna, but I had barely given the building a glance. The setting sun was enough.
“How’s your dinner?” Zac’s voice sounded too close.
“It’s fine,” I brushed him off.
Crystal bumped her ankle against mine. I didn’t have to look at her to know what she meant. I was being rude.
“How’s yours?” I asked him.
Zac waved his fork over his empty plate. “I love this place,” he said.
I laid my hands on the oak table. The wood was cool beneath my wrists, but the restaurant seemed warm. The golden lighting spread across the red floors and blackened walls like a sunlit river.
The restaurant was beautiful, definitely romantic. I wasn’t sure how to convince Robb or Crystal that Zac would never be more than a friend. They didn’t take no for an answer, and it was the only answer I had.
From across the table, Robb bumped into his girlfriend’s arm. “Want to order dessert?” he asked Linda.
Her lips thinned. She hadn’t touched her salad. “I thought we were seeing a movie,” she said.
“We can later,” Robb said, but he didn’t check his watch. Both Crystal and Linda took a long time to get ready, and the food did, too. The movie had started an hour ago.
“We could watch one at my place,” Zac suggested.
“Dad has to get up early,” Linda excused her half-brother as if he were a child. “We’ll go to a later show.”
“Maybe you should ask everyone else how they feel,” Zac said, and I flinched at his hardened voice. “What do you want to do, Jess?” he asked, but all I could concentrate on were his black eyes, consuming the light around us.
Crystal pushed her chair backwards. “I’m going to the restroom,” she announced, standing on platform sandals too tall for her. “Come on, Jess.” She wobbled away as I stood up.
We had swerved through two rooms before we reached the restroom. She leaned her body against the door and pushed past me. I followed her and locked the door behind us.
Habitually, Crystal pulled a pen from her purse and threaded it through her fingers. “What is going on with everyone tonight?” Her lip ring twinkled as she ranted. “Linda and Zac keep fighting, Robb isn’t paying attention, and you’re barely talking. Not to mention that I’m the fifth wheel − the fifth − not the third.”
“You’re not the fifth wheel,” I said, but Crystal cocked her hip.
“Zac’s into you,” she said. “Like really into you.”
“Wasn’t that your plan?”
Her eyes darted to the ground. “I don’t know.”
I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. Crystal Hutchins was insecure.
“You like him,” I accused.
Her face lifted up, her mouth open. “Who?”
“Zac.”
Her cheeks burned, but she didn’t deny it.
I sighed and fiddled with the tips of my curls. “It’s fine, Crystal. Really,” I said, finally understanding why she was pushy. She liked Zac, and she wanted him around. If he came around me, she would get to see him, but it was starting to bother her. It was written all over her ink-covered palm.
I took her pen away and placed it in her purse. “I don’t like him, Crystal.”
“Not at all?” she squeaked.
I held back the truth. I wasn’t sure what I thought about him, but I didn’t want to say I hated him. Zac seemed nice, but he wasn’t my type.
“Go for it,” I encouraged, trying to block my thoughts out.
“I can’t,” she said. “It’d be too awkward after prom.”
My dinner churned against my stomach. “What about prom?”
Crystal’s glitter mascara caught the light. Purple spots blocked my vision.
“You guys danced,” she said. “And he kissed you—”
“What?” My voice was high-pitched as it echoed off the mirrored walls. I couldn’t remember.
Crystal’s shoulders rose. “Are you feeling okay, Jess?” she asked, gesturing to a spiraling couch in the middle of the room. Someone knocked on the door, and Crystal shouted back, “Someone’s sick in here.”
I sat down on the couch before I fell down. My brain felt like it was pushing through my forehead. I gripped the rough fabric beneath me and released a deep breath.
Crystal scurried to my side. “What’s wrong?”
“I don’t feel well,” I admitted, rubbing my temples and searching for any memory of prom, but nothing surfaced. “I must be coming down with something.”
“I’ll have Robb drive you home.” She stood up, but I pulled her down.
“In a minute,” I said.
Crystal scooted an inch away. “You’re kind of freaking me out, Jess.”
“I’m sorry,” I muttered.
Her elbows rested on her knees, her head in her hands. “This is because of Zac, isn’t it?”
“No,” I promised.
Crystal’s eyes turned red. “I would’ve said something earlier, but I don’t exactly have many girlfriends,” she admitted, curling her fingertips through her black roots. “Linda doesn’t count.”
I wanted to respond, but I couldn’t. My mind remained clouded, and Crystal’s confession was adding to it. I liked Robb and Crystal, but I still felt like I barely knew them. I didn’t know how to fix it.
“Something is wrong with me,” I spoke the words without considering the aftermath.
Crystal straightened up, and I immediately wanted to ask her to forget what I said.
“What are you talking about, Jess?” she asked, gesturing more to my dress than anything else. “There’s nothing wrong with you.”
I stopped her. “I’m having dreams.”
“So what?”
“So, I can’t sleep,” I added. “I can’t think. I can’t do anything but feel like I’m going insane, and I don’t know what to do about them because they won’t stop, and they seem so real, and—”
Crystal laid her hands on my shoulders. “Breathe, Jess.”
I did what she said, but I didn’t feel any better.
Another knock rapped against my eardrums, and Crystal walked over to answer it. I listened as she opened it, but I didn’t turn around. Robb was there, along with a manager, and Crystal apologized.
“I think we should take her home,” she whispered, but the sound was louder than anything else I’d heard in my life. In that singular moment, it was the only thing I could hear. If I hadn’t known what a panic attack was before, I knew now.
“Jess?” Robb walked around the couch.
I stood up before he could touch me. “I’m okay,” I said.
His expression didn’t budge. “How about I take you home?” he asked, gesturing to the exit. “You can get some rest.”
“Rest is the last thing I need,” I mumbled, marching forward.
Even I had to admit that it was time for me to leave. Otherwise, I would probably ruin everyone’s night, and that was the last thing I wanted. Instead, I wanted Crystal and Zac to work out, but it didn’t seem probable. Zac stood by the exit doors with his jacket draped over his arm. Crystal was gone.
Robb stopped in the doorway. “Where are the girls?”
“Still at the dinner table,” Zac said, looking past Robb to stare at me. “I thought I could take Jess home with you.”
“No,” Robb said, and Zac suddenly seemed taller. Robb adjusted his shirt. “I’ll be fifteen minutes, and they don’t need to be here alone.”
“So, I can take Jess home,” Zac offered.
“Not in my car,” Robb said, pushing past his friend. He opened the door, and cold air rushed in. It was late. “Let’s go, Jess.”
“Thanks anyways, Zac,” I said, but he didn’t respond. I rushed outside, feeling cold, nauseous, and everything in-between.
