Darkness Becomes Her Read Online Free

I tipped my head back and yelled at the hazy night sky. “Seriously!”
    Was this someone’s idea of a mind game? Did I fall down the steps at Rocquemore? Bang my forehead too hard on the pavement?
Goddamn it!
Tears blurred my vision as I stared at the blade resting on the ground between my legs.
    Blood. Blade.
    Whatever had just happened, I knew one thing. It was real. I held the proof of it in my hands. My mother, as screwed up as it sounded, had been right.

Three
     
    A N ENGINE’S DEEP RUMBLE AND THE BLARE OF MUSIC CLICKED into my shocked senses. Bright lights blinded me. The whine of brakes. The smell of rubber burning on asphalt … It all reached me too late.
    I threw an arm over my face and turned to roll, realizing I was sitting in the side street, in the path of an oncoming vehicle. I’d been caught off guard, distracted by what I’d just done and seen. Blood rushed through my system so fast, my limbs were numb and my head was cloudy.
    The truck swerved and came to a rocking halt, the left front bumper so close that I could reach out and touch it. A puff of exhaust breezed over me, the smell turning my stomach. A small figure leaned out of the open driver’s side. I removed my armfrom over my head as the loud engine vibrated through me like a slow, continuous stream of electricity going for the ground.
    “Hey, you okay?” a girl in overalls and a tweed cabbie hat asked.
    I tried to respond, but couldn’t find my voice.
    “You drunk or something?”
    “No,” I croaked, rolling to my knees and flattening my palms on the asphalt to help push my weak body to its feet. Once I was steady, I brushed my hands on my jeans.
    “’Kay. Well, you mind moving? I got mail to dump.”
    I eyed the girl with her grease-stained overalls, white ribbed tank underneath, flannel shirt, and thin frame. Her brown hair was braided into two plaits, and she had shrewd green eyes, a splattering of freckles over the bridge of her nose, and a smudge of grease on her face. An old UPS logo peeked out from a thin layer of black spray paint on the truck’s side. “You’re from New 2. One of the mail runners.”
    “So?”
    I swallowed, knowing I was in shock and probably not in the best frame of mind to make a spur-of-the-moment decision, but I knew if I didn’t take advantage of the opportunity in front of me, I’d talk myself out of it. One day. All I needed was one day. “I’m looking for a ride into the city.”
    The girl’s left eye squinted, sweeping over me from head to toe, and not shy about it either. “You one of those parrots?”
    “Parrots?”
    “Yeah, you know … paranormal tourists?” She flapped her elbows. “Squawk, squawk!”
    “How old are you?”
    “Almost thirteen.”
    My brow lifted. “They let a twelve-year-old deliver the mail?”
    The girl rolled her eyes, leaning her forearms on the large steering wheel. “You ain’t been to New 2 before, have you?” I shrugged. “Things don’t run down there the way they run outside The Rim.” Her eyes turned calculating. “You can get in, but it’ll cost you.”
    “How much?”
    “Twenty bucks.”
    “Done. Just give me a sec.” I snagged the gun and blade from the ground, then hurried to the car to grab my mother’s box. I shoved the sword into my backpack, having to angle it so it’d fit, slid the gun into my waistband, and then locked the car.
    “Just gotta dump my bags at the P.O. and then I’m done,” the girl said as I got in. Her gaze went briefly to the backpack, but she said nothing about the gun and blade. Instead she stuck out a greasy hand. “I’m Crank.”
    I took the small hand. “Ari.”
    Crank shoved the massive stick shift into gear and releasedthe clutch. The big truck rocked back and forth several times, making me snag the cold metal door handle as it finally lurched into motion.
    No one had come out of the hotel when the gunshots were fired. Hadn’t they heard? A tingle of unease slid down my back as the sight of the