Touching Darkness by Scott Westerfeld

Author:Scott Westerfeld [Westerfeld, Scott]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Publisher: HarperCollins
Published: 2009-11-26T06:00:00+00:00

18

10:42 P.M.

CONSTANZA

Constanza Grayfoot led a busy life.

In one afternoon she’d led them to the veterans’ hospital on I-35, on a long visit to the stores of downtown Bixby, and through the tempest of the Tulsa Mall. And now, nine dollars in gas money later, they had wound up where they should have started—down the street from her house, waiting for midnight to fall.

Only one problem: they were practically unarmed. Rex stared out the front windshield at a stunted, gnarled mesquite tree, the most immediate sign of the nearby badlands.

“This is not good.”

“I thought you said the house was clean,” Melissa said.

“It is.” In a few slow drive-bys Rex had determined that Constanza’s house didn’t have a lick of Focus on it. If her family was working with the darklings, they were doing it somewhere else. “But won’t they feel us out here?”

Melissa shrugged. “If they’re looking for us, they will.”

“Yeah, well, I blew all my weapons on Sunday night. This is not a great time for a rumble.”

“We can always do another brilliant improvisation,” she said. “And Categorically Unjustifiable Appropriation is in the trunk, as yet untouched by inhuman hands. By the way, I’m still waiting for you to stick it back on my tire. Any day now would be fine.”

“We should wait,” Rex said. “Drive back into town now and come back after we get some more weapons from Dess.”

“From Dess?” Melissa laughed. “Haven’t you noticed? That girl’s too busy with her own projects to make anything for us. She’s about as useful as Jonathan these days.”

Rex shook his head. “Dess’ll be pitching in soon enough. We’re going to need her to find whatever’s out in the desert. Until then, she can play with all the maps she wants.”

“You think Dess can turn the pictures I got from Angie’s mind into coordinates?”

“That might be complicated.” Rex looked at her and frowned. “You might have to…” He didn’t bother to finish. They were miles from the mind noise of central Bixby, it was late at night, and the emotion was strong in him; Rex knew she could read the thought.

She smiled and reached over to touch his arm with a gloved hand.

“Don’t worry, Loverboy. I wouldn’t think of besmirching your honor that way.”

He smiled back at her but felt his face flush. There was no point in denying the stab of jealousy he felt at the thought of Melissa touching Dess, sharing her mind as she’d shared it with him. It had been bad enough that time with Jonathan out in the desert. But there was no choice, Rex reminded himself. If she hadn’t, they’d all have been darkling meat.

Speaking of which… He looked at his watch. Over an hour. Enough time to get back to home and safety before midnight. “Maybe we should come back with Jessica. We wouldn’t need weapons with her around.”

“Ah, the mighty flame-bringer. Too bad she’s grounded.”

Rex sighed, wondering if any seer in history had ever had to deal with such a motley crew of midnighters.

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