chapter 18
Mace pulled ahead just slightly when they reached the drop to the river. “I’ll check out the best route on this side, you check the other?”
“Why don’t I meet you at the bottom?” she asked. Nikki’d been doing some calculating in her head. The jump across the bridge was possible only if she had a way to slow her stop before hitting the trees on the other side. But no one has breaks in midair. Except her. And she was going to use them.
She paused at the crest of the hill and looked down into the clearing below. The other Halflings were already there. Why hadn’t they crossed the clearing and passed the finish line? The only reason Nikki could think of was they’d decided to run out the last bit together in a sprint race to the end.
“All right,” Mace said, and started down one of the trails to the bottom.
Nikki recalculated one last time. If she jumped the bridge, she’d sail right over the Halflings waiting in the clearing, land on the other side, and cross the finish line ahead of all of them. The temptation was too great to resist.
Mace pulled to a stop beside Raven, who looked behind with a shrug of one shoulder. “When’s your biker chick planning to join us?”
“We separated at the crest of the hill. She’s headed down the side where the …”
“Where the what?”
Mace didn’t answer. She wouldn’t. He turned to stare at the washed-out bridge and the hillside beyond it. He could hear the whine of Nikki’s bike engine; it sounded wide open, which meant —
Less than a heartbeat later her bike crested the final ramp that would send her airborne over their heads.
“Look!” Raven yelled.
Nikki took the ramp like a pro, tires straight and smooth, and a second later she was above them. All seven Halflings watched as Nikki sailed over. But awe quickly turned to panic when Vegan yelled, “Nikki! The trees!”
Nikki snapped her wings open, and gasps filled the air around Mace. Stretched out alongside her bike were the most brilliantly beautiful red wings trapped between sky and sunlight. She angled them, and the momentum of her bike slowed as her feathers fought the wind.
Vegan was now screaming excited words that got lost in the others’ jumbled yells. Behind Mace, Winter’s voice broke through. “I knew it. I just knew there was something different about her when she returned.”
Nikki landed on the other side and slid to a stop just short of the tree line and a good fifty feet from the finish line. She removed her helmet and shook out her hair before turning toward the group with a “What did you think of that?” glint in her eye.
Glimmer clapped wildly, Zero gave her a thumbs-up, and Vegan was off her bike, jumping up and down squealing.
Nikki’s face broke into a sunbeam-strength smile.
A grin Mace understood. She finally felt like she belonged, like she was a part of their group. Maybe now she could move forward with her life and ditch the whole idea of poking into her past. Mace hoped so, because one thing he knew: Rummaging around in her past would bring nothing but pain and offered nothing but death.
Early the next morning, Nikki took Mace’s car and drove down County Road 182. Though nearly forty miles from home, she knew these back roads from motorcycle trips last summer. Gold-polished nails — compliments of Glimmer — winked at her as they caught the sunlight. The ride the day before hadn’t wrecked the prissy manicure like she thought … which was both good and bad, because she sort of liked looking down and seeing golden jewels at the end of her fingers but sort of hated how girly liking them felt. Kind of the same divided feeling she’d had after the ride yesterday—being on the bikes had been awesome, though at the end of the day, there were still questions that needed answers. Late last night she’d decided it was time to take a road trip and confront Zero.
The first time Mace took her to the underground, she’d slept most of the way. He’d covered her eyes when they left, but not before she got a good glimpse of the area.
Sneaking out of the house early this morning proved no easy feat due to Will keeping such close tabs on her. But she’d managed, and now, after making ridiculously long circles on back trails, she arrived at Zero’s lair.
A big part of her wanted to turn back. Answers often meant consequences, and she was still getting used to the idea of being a Halfling. It wouldn’t be easy to deal with being a mutant. After all, isn’t that what they’d said the horses at Vessler’s lab were? Genetically mutated creatures. Maybe that’s why her wings were blood red when they showed up. She’d also being thinking a lot about her childhood lately. Nikki was positive her mom and dad weren’t Xians — she’d never gone to church or even cracked a Bible before meeting Mace and Raven, so if the Throne had chosen them as her caregivers, he’d made a big mistake. They also didn’t look like Halflings at all. And yet Halflings came from Halflings, so if she was her parents’ child, she must have started as a regular baby. Then there was the fact her name had been in the database Zero recovered from Vessler’s lab. Too many things pointed in the same direction. Vessler mutated her into a Halfling — it was the only thing that made sense. And that meant she wasn’t a Halfling at all.
She navigated the underground’s stairs and tunnel without bothering to turn on the lights. Each metal step clicked as she descended, tiny little warnings to turn back. At the bottom, she mustered her courage and knocked on the metal door. She waited, knocked again. And again and again for a full five minutes until Zero answered.
“Did you think I would just eventually give up?” she asked, stepping past him before he offered her entrance.
He wore shorts with ducks all over them and a rumpled T-shirt with a roll of toilet paper on it. Emblazoned across the chest it said Just how I roll.
She looked him up and down. “Nice,” she mumbled, a smile tugging at her lips.
“Sorry, I already bought Girl Scout cookies.” He continued to hold the door open. “So, thanks for stopping by, and maybe try my neighbor about three hundred miles west of here.”
“Cute, Zero. Don’t you want your present?”
She reached into her backpack and shook the package at him. “Juice boxes.”
Zero licked his lips. His hair was a mass of white-blond sprigs sticking out everywhere.
She rattled the gift again. “The newest flavor. Watermelon Zinger.”
Zero lurched at her but missed. He crossed his arms in a huff. “What do you want?”
She dragged a box from the package and tossed it to him. “Answers.”
He snagged it in the air, tore off the straw’s plastic covering, and shoved the straw into the small hole. Pink liquid squirted onto his arm. He grumbled and lifted the drink to his lips. “I’m sworn to secrecy.”
She dropped into his computer chair and spun it around to face him. “So there is more to the story.”
He held up a finger. “Didn’t say that.”
“I’m not a real Halfling, Zero.” Hearing the words from her own mouth, Nikki fought the onset of tears. Her cheeks tingled. She busied herself with a juice box. She slid the straw in easily and handed the drink to Zero, who’d just finished the first one.
“Of course you are.”
“No, I’m a freak.”
He choked on a laugh, and Watermelon Zinger spewed from his nose. “We’re all freaks, baby girl. Take a closer look.” He leaned on a counter opposite her. “Besides, what makes you so special?”
“What?” she said.
“What’s wrong with being a Halfling? We’re kind of cool. I mean, yeah, sure, we may rot in hell for eternity once our time here is done.”
She felt queasy.
“Sorry, I, uh, didn’t think about …” He lifted his hands, dropped them. “You’re kind of immortal now. Well,” he corrected, “unless someone kills you.”
Her head pounded. It was too early in the morning for talk like this.
“Look on the bright side,” he said.
Her eyes found his. “Which is?”
He gestured toward her but didn’t speak. Moments passed, his hand still hanging in the air. Finally, he dropped it. “You’re right. Stinks to be you.” He snagged another drink, wrestled with the straw, squirted more liquid, and handed her the sticky mess. “Why don’t they invent a better system for these stupid things?” He swiped his hands on his duck-emblazoned shorts. “Look, you want answers, Will has them. Talk to him. Let him know you’re ready.”
“Ready?”
“To hear the truth. You can take it. You’re a big girl.”
Her eyes narrowed playfully. “I thought I was a baby girl?”
“Nah. Not so much.”
“I just can’t talk to Will.”
“Why not?”
“He makes me feel really …”
Zero motioned with his hand for her to continue.
“Childish.”
He laughed out loud. “He is sort of older and wiser than you. Like reeeeaaaally older and —”
She pressed a hand to her throbbing temple. “I get it.”
She’d been stupid to come here. He wasn’t going to talk. She’d have to pin Will down, and the crazy thing was she might have known that all along. Maybe she’d avoided talking to Will because once she asked she’d actually have to know. Nikki chewed her lip. “Is it bad, Zero?”
“Is what bad?”
Ugh. Did she have to spell it out? “You know, the truth about me.”
He took a long drink, stared at the ceiling. “Yeah, it’s bad.”
Something dropped in her stomach. Okay, time to go.
Zero pointed to her throat. “Vegan give you that?”
Her hand fell lovingly to the amulet. “Yes. She’s a special girl — uh, Halfling.”
Zero tugged at his collar and produced a similar trinket. “She really is.”
Keagan Townsend perched on a hilltop above the rocky country road. Nikki Youngblood’s head fell into the scope of his sniper rifle. “I have a visual on the target, Mr. Vessler.” Seeing her again caused a sensation that coursed through his body like a Tabasco cocktail. It was the familiar hunger for fresh blood. He willed his breathing to slow. Fingers trembling, he licked his lips, hoping, praying that Vessler would change his mind and let him take the shot.
Through the headset, Vessler’s voice hummed. “She’s a good girl, our Nikki.”
Townsend barely heard. The girl filled his vision. He imagined hovering over her lifeless body. He envisioned hunting her, chasing her, and, finally, the sweet reward of death.
Vessler’s angry tone snapped Keagan’s attention to the present. “Did you hear me, Townsend? Leave the girl. She has to come to me by her own will.”
Townsend sneered and dropped her from his scope.
“Just pick up the bait,” Vessler ordered.