Damage by Anya Parrish

Author:Anya Parrish [Parrish, Anya]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: teen, teen fiction, young adult, young adult fiction, thriller
Publisher: Flux
Published: 2011-07-13T22:00:00+00:00

Jesse

We park at the back of the cafeteria, wedging the car in behind some industrial-sized dumpsters and humming machines working overtime to heat the five-hundred-room hospital. Baptist Memorial isn’t the biggest hospital around, but it’s definitely one of the busiest. It’s a teaching school and a research center and there are always people coming and going. The parking lot out front is jammed. It wouldn’t have been easy finding a spot even if I’d tried.

I didn’t bother. It isn’t like I care if this car is towed. Probably better if it is. Then I can blame someone else for the dragon’s damage. Maybe the hospital will even call Fiorelli’s to lug the damn thing away.

Still, I manage to pull in far enough to hide everything but the bumper behind the dumpsters. We might need the car again, though as a getaway vehicle it has the major downside of taking forever to turn over.

The closeness of those last few seconds—when Dani was locked in a staring contest with an invisible girl and the dragon’s bloody muzzle was inching in through the broken window—still makes me shiver. I don’t want to tell Dani how close she came to having her throat ripped out. I don’t want to think about it myself. I’ve never been so afraid. Almost getting killed myself is one thing; watching Dani almost get killed is something else.

Something much, much worse.

“I think we should try to find a disguise,” she says as she squeezes out of the car.

We’re so close to the dumpsters on one side, and to a stained concrete wall on the other, that there’s barely room for either of us to open our door. It takes nearly a minute to slip through the narrow opening, shuffle down to the tail end of the car, and step out into the space where giant vents cough smoke into the air. We won’t be getting back in very quickly, either.

I try to tell myself that it’s okay and that the things hunting us won’t be back for a while, but I don’t really believe it. I’m losing what’s left of my hope that we’re going live through this day.

“I’m sure some of the people at the hospital have seen the news report with our pictures. It would be better if no one recognizes us,” Dani continues, following me around the corner toward what looks like a delivery entrance for the cafeteria. It’s deserted at the moment, but a planter sprouting cigarette butts promises that this concrete slab is a popular hangout. We should hurry.

“We’re going to have to talk to someone anyway,” I say. “When we ask for our records.”

Dani hesitates on the last step, close enough to the butt planter that I can smell the tar and nicotine. “Yeah, I was thinking about that. Maybe we shouldn’t ask. Maybe we should just … take them.”

“Okay.” I’m all about not interacting with anyone in this place. Just looking at the big red-brick building as we drove through the evergreens and up the tree-smothered drive made me want to smash something.

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