“I do.” When the shape emerged from behind the tree, hunched down like a wild animal, I squeezed her arm tighter and whispered, “Run.”
RATS AND SINKING SHIPS
Thankfully, Brooke needed no evidence to follow my lead. We took off at the speed of light. Or, well, at about one three-hundred-millionth the speed of light. Give or take. Suddenly traversing the uneven ground and dodging tree branches became the least of our worries. We were running for our lives and we had adrenaline on our side.
But we came to another skidding halt when someone literally jumped across the path in front of us. The movement wrenched screams from our throats and we fell back, clinging to each other like victims in a horror movie.
“It’s Cameron!” Brooke said, throwing a hand over her chest to help catch her breath. We scrambled to our feet and watched as he flew through the forest toward the figure. Only then did we realize Jared was on its heels as well. He came from behind us and ran so fast, we could hardly see him. What I could see was a being that moved with the speed and grace of an animal. The fluid motion of a predator.
Jared yelled for Cameron to get us to safety, so he reversed and hurried back, stopping in front of us. And while we panted and coughed and even sputtered a little, he stood there, completely calm, not out of breath in the least. Freaking nephilim.
Cameron Lusk was the other supernatural being at Riley High, only he was born and raised here. I’d known him since kindergarten, since he’d stopped Joss Duffy from pasting my eyelids together, but I only recently got to know the real Cameron. The half-human, half-angel who was created because of me. Apparently, when the heavens realized I was going to be born and the impending war was becoming more and more impending, an archangel by the name of Jophiel had relations, as my grandfather called it, with Cameron’s mother. And nine months later, out popped a little being who was almost as indestructible as a full-fledged angel and every bit as stubborn.
He divided his time between watching us wheeze and searching the forest, his ice blue eyes sharp, his blond hair brushing his shoulders with the breeze filtering through the leaves. After a minute, he said, “We need to go.”
“What’s going on?” Brooke asked.
“Later. Let’s move.” He looked over at me as I took a hit from my inhaler, and asked, “Can you run?”
I put my inhaler back in my pocket and nodded. We took off, following the path back to school. Brooke and I ran so fast, the leaves blurred in our periphery. The ground melted into one solid mass. We were flying.
When I glanced over my shoulder to make sure Cameron was still behind us, I pulled Brooke to a stop and glared at him. “You have got to be kidding me.”
He was right on our heels. Walking. With a bored expression on his face.
He examined himself, self-conscious. “What?”
After rolling my eyes, I said between gasps of air, “This is just really disconcerting.” We started for the school again, only this time I walked. There was no sense in exerting any more energy than necessary.
Brooke crossed her arms over her chest. “The least you could do is jog a little. Make it look like you’re putting some effort into keeping up with us.”
He cracked a smile, but his gaze stayed on full alert. “It’s not my fault your legs are shorter than my attention span.”
Brooke held up a hand, refusing to listen to him, and fell in step beside me. “Boys.”
“Right?”
We were almost to the tree line when I heard Jared jog up from behind us. I studied him a moment. Could Brooke have been right? Did he still like me? And if he did, why not just tell me? No. He wasn’t exactly the shy type. If he were that into me, I’d be the first to know.
“Well?” I asked.
He shook his head, tossing Cameron a secretive look from underneath his lashes.
“Wait,” Brooke said. “Lorelei saw someone.”
But that glance he’d offered Cameron spoke volumes.
Cameron nodded at him as though sending a secret message right back. “Let’s keep going,” he said, and led the way as Jared brought up the rear.
I tugged at Cameron’s jacket. “I saw someone with a knife.”
“Whoever it was is gone,” Jared said from behind me.
“He outran you?” I asked, incredulous. “You?”
“There’s no way,” Brooke said.
Jared didn’t respond. Maybe he and Cameron had some secret code, intel they didn’t want to share with the rest of the class. They were as bad as my grandparents. I almost argued with them, insisted they spill, but my thoughts had drifted back to two pertinent details: One, Jared was right behind me. So close, I could almost feel the heat of his body, the coolness of his gaze. And two, something had moved inside me. Literally. Like a sleeping dragon had been awakened. I clutched my stomach, worry kneading my brows, and continued onward.
Cameron had parked behind the gym, and he stopped to grab a fresh shirt from the bed of his truck. Not because he got all sweaty or anything. It probably took a lot to make a supreme being sweat. But because, according to him, he hadn’t changed from the day before.
“Where have you been?” Brooke asked him as he lifted off his shirt.
She tried so hard. She really did. But her gaze shifted for just a split second when his shirt obscured his vision, and she got an eyeful of muscle and skin.
I forced myself not to grin and focused on a rock at my foot, awkwardly pretending Jared wasn’t beside me.