Pulse

Chapter 28

"It was a necessity," I justified. "So, Mr. Davies, huh? When did this happen?"

"People are saying it happened during lunch," Jiya answered, watching different officials enter and exit the building: forensic scientists, investigators, crime scene photographers. Mr. Davies's sobbing wife was escorted from the building by a pair of grim-faced policemen; Jiya's face twisted a bit with pity. "He was fine this morning, and then a student found him dead in his classroom. There was barely any blood, people said."

"Who's 'people?'"

"People that know people," Jiya said, shooting me a withering look. She exhaled. "Seriously. I must know who that cell phone's for."

"I told you. A friend."

"A friend?" she wiggled her eyebrows at me. "Or like, a friend with the prefix boy- in front of it?"

I blushed, thinking about the feel of Cian's mouth against mine, his teeth grazing my lip, the slight roughness of the scar at his mouth underneath my tongue. I thought about my hands wrinkling the fibers of his shirt, the cottony feel of his hair—

I coughed. "Nope. Just a friend."

I looked up, over Jiya's shoulder. Vinny was standing beside the school, waving his arms frantically. He mouthed, Get. Here. Now.

"Lucie?" Jiya asked, turning. She whirled back to me, perplexed. "What are you looking at?"

"Uh, nothing," I said, tightening my grip on my merchandise bag. I guess I should have been expecting the Horne brothers to be here; wherever death was, they seemed to follow. Which sounded more morbid than it actually was.

I pointed at Jiya. "Do me a favor and make sure no one goes after me, alright? Wait for me here. I'll be back."

"What? Lucie!"

I shot off towards Vinny, and I could feel Jiya's eyes burning into the back of my head. I ignored her and kept running, my feet crushing the grass underneath me. As I reached him, Vinny called, "Cian's in the classroom now. That window."

Vinny gestured at the window he stood beside; I cast it a wary glance. "With the police there?"

Vinny shook his head. "In a nutshell, I made the lights flicker and slammed the door shut, locked it. Scared all of them away, but it won't last too long."

We crouched before the window to Mr. Davies's classroom, fingers grappling the sill as we dared a peek over it. I whispered, "So Cian's heart did the thing?"

"The thing?"

I glanced sideways at Vinny. "You know, the thing. The stoppy-thing."

"Good Lord," Vinny said with a scoff. "You're actually crazy, Lucie."

I fought the urge to counter that, and instead just exhaled and trained my eyes through the window. From my vantage point, I could see Cian's back, arching black feathers sprouting from his shoulder blades like elegant sculptures. I cocked my head a bit, thinking I should feel weird about this, should feel weird about the fact that the guy in front of me owned a pair of literal wings, and that I had kissed said guy. But I didn't feel weird. The way Cian rolled his shoulders back, used the air produced by his wings to move himself quicker than humanly possible, even the way he walked with his back straight and tall as if flaunting his angelic abilities...it was all natural. Nothing seemed out of place, nothing felt strange.

Everything was right.

I couldn't locate Mr. Davies's body or his soul, but I heard Cian talking to him: "What is the shadow?"