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The scorching summersun heated my skin even though my blood felt like liquid ice as I stood in the very spot I had more than two years ago when my life imploded. It hadn’t been that good to begin with, but I at least had some control over it.
That night, I hadnocontrol, and everything I thought I knew about the world shattered.
I ran the toe of my boot over the loose bits of gravel and concrete, the yellow construction tape I’d ripped down fluttering in the wind. The city demolished the abandoned warehouse a few months ago to make way for regentrification or some shit. I hadn’t been able to even look at this place, let alone go near it.
This was the first time I’d set foot on these grounds since that night.
I’d left Jayla—my little thirteen-year-old shadow—with four other street kids while I met up with a few guys to sell some stolen merch. After what happened a few months prior, I’d quit fighting, so I had to up my theft game to make money.
Jayla begged me to go, but it was too dangerous. I didn’t want her anywhere near Isaac or his lackeys. They were terrible people, and thanks to Griffin, she was already on the creep’s radar…
“Please, Tate.”She stared at me from the bean bag chair I’d bought her, those dark irises like shimmering pools of onyx. “I’ll be quiet as a church mouse. I promise on my dead granny’s grave.”
“You don’t know the meaning of quiet.” I motioned my hand opened and closed. “You got a motormouth that runs on high octane and nitrous.”
She pouted and crossed her arms with a huff. “No, I don’t.”
I plopped down on the bean bag chair, both of us small enough to share it even though I was seventeen. I wasn’t the biggest teenager on the streets, but that was what made me so dangerous. No one expected a tiny girl like me to hold her own. And then some.
“Don’t be mad, Jayla Bear.” I poked her side. “I promise to bring you back a surprise.”
The dilapidated building we’d been squatting in the last few weeks used to be a shipping warehouse that held furniture, but a fire on the second floor ruined the merchandise, and the company moved. The place had been vacant ever since. Soot still crawled over the ceiling on the first floor, and metal beams and rods had fallen through the floor. No one went upstairs unless they had a death wish.
I set us up in a little nook far away from the damage. Battery-operated lanterns illuminated the mismatched rugs and the few folding lawn chairs for guests. Two clean sleeping bags were rolled in the corner.
It wasn’t the lap of luxury, but it could have been worse. I’d lived under an overpass before.
Jayla’s head slowly swiveled in my direction. “What kind of surprise?”
My lips curved into a smile. “It wouldn’t be a surprise if I told you.” Plus, I hadn’t planned on getting the kid anything special. I could find something to wow her, though.
She sucked her teeth. “Fine, but it better be good. You know how boring it is with the twins, Mike and Josh. Shelly and Van aren’t much fun either.”
I chuckled at her dramatic expression. “They aren’t that bad.” And boring was safe. Well, as safe as you could get being a bunch of runaways squatting in an abandoned building.
“Are you going to get some food too?” She batted her thick lashes as she rested her head on my shoulder. “Maybe some of that Kung Pao chicken I like.”
“Demanding, aren’t you?” I gently tugged on a raven curl, the perfect spiral springing back into position as soon as I released it.
Jayla swatted my hand away. “You know I hate it when you do that.”
“I can’t help it. I’m so jealous.” I ran my fingers through her soft curls. “I wish I had your hair.”
She scoffed. “Oh please. You have pretty pink-red hair that’s always silky soft.”
“Want me to shave it off and make you a wig.” I yanked on my ends. “I’ll do it. Just say the word.”
A giggle erupted out of her. “No way. Then you’d be even scarier, and no one would let us crash at their place.”
“Hmm. Good point.” I would have given her my hair or the shirt off my back if she really wanted it…
A dribbleof cold sweat fell from my forehead and dropped onto the dusty rocks and chunks of old cement. If I’d brought her with me, she never would have been hurt.
I choked back the bile seeping up the back of my mouth. When I’d returned with warm food for everyone, I walked into a nightmare I’d been trying to shake ever since…
Death choked the air,permeating from the four bodies already rotting in the moisture-laden atmosphere. Bags of Chinese food slipped from my hands, tumbling all over the ground. The boots I got for Jayla’s surprise—ones just like mine—slammed into the concrete.
But the thing leaning over Jayla’s tiny form didn’t startle. He hunched over her, drawing strange glowing strands from her mouth into his.
