Derek caught the back of my jacket. “You still have a pissed-off ghost looking for you and a huge reward on your head. Stay here with Tori. Simon and I will find a new spot. ”
Before they took off, Derek turned back to me. “I mean it, stay right here. ”
“Even if the owners of these”—Tori rapped the vehicles on either side—“come out?”
Derek ignored her. “She’s your responsibility, Chloe. ”
When they were gone, Tori turned to me. “Why do you let him get away with that? He treats you like a little kid. ”
I said nothing, just started walking away from the spot where Derek told me to stay.
She smiled. “That’s more like it. ”
I led her to a strip of gravel between two buildings. Then I lowered myself to the ground. “This is safer, but still close enough. ”
She stared at me. “You’re kidding, right?”
I pulled my jacket sleeves over my hands to keep them warm.
“You actually listen to him?”
“Only when he has a point. ”
She towered over me. “You’re going to let a guy order you around like that? Make the girls sit on their butts while the men go hunt up a cave to sleep in, maybe drag back some food for us to eat?”
“Yep. ”
“Well, I’m not. I’m going to show those guys that a girl can do this just as well as they can. ”
I leaned back against the wall and closed my eyes. She stomped off. I opened my eyes, watching her get farther away.
Derek said to stay. And he said to look after her. Conflicting requests at the moment. I know he’d tell me to forget Tori and take care of myself. But I couldn’t do that.
“Hold up,” I said as I jogged behind her.
“If you’re going to whine at me about pissing off Frankenstein, save it. ”
“I’m not here to give you crap. I’m helping you find a spot. As long as we don’t go far, Derek can track us. ” As she stepped onto the sidewalk, I made sure my hood was still on, then hurried out and caught her sleeve. “We can take quiet roads, but I need to avoid people as much as I can. ”
“I don’t. I’m not the one with stalker ghosts and a half-million bucks on my head. ”
“Yes, but if the Edison Group wants us back badly enough, they might have gone public to flush us out. We both need to be careful. ”
We reached the end of the street. As she started turning left, I stopped her again.
“This way,” I waved to the darker end of the street. “Look for a good spot in an alley. The wind’s coming from the north, so we need a northern barrier. A corner or alley end or recessed delivery door would be best, so we can see anyone coming. And the worse the lighting, the better. We want dark and we want secluded. ”
“You’re as bossy as Derek, you know that? The only difference is you give your orders nicely. ”
But, apparently giving orders nicely was a strategy that worked, because she made no attempt to take off or take over, just came with me as we checked spot after spot.
Behind a row of stores we found a long, narrow alley with a wall on one side and a solid six-foot fence on the other.
“This looks promising,” I said.
“Uh, yeah. If you’re Oscar the Grouch. ” She waved at a row of trash bins.
I lifted a lid and pointed at shredded paper inside. “Recycling. There aren’t any restaurants around here, so the garbage won’t smell. ”
I continued down the alley. It dead-ended at a wall.
“This is great,” I said. “Three sides, the bins block part of the entrance. We can shift boxes around and put paper down to sit on. ”
“And maybe, if we’re lucky, find a cardboard box big enough to crawl inside so we can pretend we’re homeless people. ”
“Right now, Tori, we are homeless people. ”
That shut her up. I stopped near the end of the alley and let out a laugh.
“Come here. ”
She sighed. “What now?”
I waved for her to come over.
“Oh. ” She reached out to thaw her hands in the hot air blowing from the vent.
I grinned. “We’ve even got heating. How perfect is that?”
“Too perfect,” said a girl’s voice. “Which is why this spot is taken. ”
Three girls were walking toward us down the alley. All were about our age. One was blond and dressed in oversized fatigues. Another had dreadlocks. The third girl wore a battered brown leather jacket, and when she stepped into a patch of moonlight, I saw a thick scar running from her eye to her chin.
“See that?” the dreadlocked girl pointed to a tag on the wood fence. “That’s our mark. That means this spot is ours. ”
“We d-didn’t see it. Sorry. We’ll go. ”
I started to walk away, but Tori pulled me back. “No, we won’t go. You can’t reserve an alley, mark or no mark. It’s first come, first served. You want this one? Be here earlier tomorrow. ”
“Excuse me?”
The scarred girl pulled a switchblade from her pocket. It snapped open with a twang. Tori glanced at the knife but didn’t budge, her gaze locking with the girl’s.
“Check it out,” the scarred girl said to her friends. “This chick’s going to challenge us for our spot. How long you been on the streets, girl?” She looked Tori up and down. “Since about nine this morning, I’ll guess. What happened? Mommy and Daddy said you couldn’t see your boyfriend on a school night?”
The girls snickered. Tori flexed her fingers, preparing to cast. I caught her wrist. She tried to shake me off. I got her to notice the matching knives now in the hands of the other two, but her gaze returned to the scarred girl, and all her rage from the last twenty-four hours bubbled up. The boxes near the girls quavered and rustled. Papers swirled behind them. The girls never turned, dismissing it as the wind.
I clasped Tori’s wrist tighter and whispered, “Too many. ”
To my surprise, her hand relaxed. Expecting a trick, I held on, but she shook me off, saying “Fine. We’re going. ”
“Good idea,” the scarred girl said. “Next time, girls, if you see that”—she pointed at the tag—“steer clear. At least until you have the hardware to play. ”
We started to pass, but the scarred girl’s hand flew out, smacking Tori’s chest and stopping her.
“Life out here isn’t what you girls think it is. You’ve got a lot of lessons to learn. ”
“Thanks,” Tori grunted, and tried to keep walking, but the scarred girl stopped her again.
“The thing about lessons? If they’re going to sink in, they’ve gotta come with consequences. So I’m going to help you remember this one. Give me your jacket. ”