Pow!
Pain bloomed in my gut. “What the—?” A punch hit my jaw, and I stumbled back. My heel hit something and I fell, slamming the back of my head against the concrete.
Two or three blurry Freddies spiraled above me. A sharp metallic taste filled my mouth and slipped down the back of my throat.Who the hell was this guy? Was he trying to rob me?
“Leave me alone.” My wispy, weak voice didn’t match theintensity of my request. “Take my wallet.” I twisted and spat out blood.
Another jolt of pain ripped up my side, and I curled into it.
Stand up. Get away—
I struggled to push myself up, but no sooner had I heaved myself onto all fours than Freddy kicked my side, and my arms buckled.
The streetlight darkened, shadowed by his figure crouching next to me. Freddy twisted his steel, gloved fingers, taunting me with the light dancing on their sharp tips. “Let’s see how you like this up—”
Wham!
Freddy choked on his words and fell. I scrambled away, wincing at the throbbing, dizzying pain in my head. There were only shades of blue and soft ground under me as I crawled. I made it a few feet before I collapsed.
Blurry, the silhouette of a hooded figure loomed. He hauled Freddy up by his shoulders and kneed him until he crumpled to his boots—
My head throbbed again. Who was that? I strained to make out more, but all the blues around me bled into one, and I lost consciousness.
Chapter Two
Two voices swam around me. Male and female. There was a gentle rumbling. I groaned, clutching my head as I peeled my eyes open. I was in the back of a car.
I jerked upright.
Bad move. My head pounded.
Dark hair streaked with blue blurred in front of me, and the female spoke, “We’re taking you to UPMC, just hang in there.”
I rubbed my eyes under my—still intact glasses, thank God!—and let my vision clear.
The voice belonged to the girl from the party, the one who’d come in with My Angle behind her. “I’m... fine. Just a bit disoriented.” And confused. What happened? ThatFreddy guy attacked out of nowhere; if it hadn’t been for that hooded guy showing up...
I shivered and shifted my focus. Sitting in the driver’s seat was My Angle—I couldn’t see him well, but I recognized his scent. Axe.
“You’re My Angle!” I said, the words distorted and easy to mistake.
Blue Streaks laughed. “Wow, Quinn, he must have had quite a fall to think you’re an angel.” She turned to me with a cheerful grin. “That’d be Quinn, and I suspect he’s more spawn of the devil than anything.”
That earned her a whack across the arm. “I just found out my boyfriend’s cheating on me,” he said in a deep voice that vibrated in the air and stirred the hairs on my arms. “Just like that I’m apartment-less, and instead of holing myself up in your room with Super Mario and Pringles, I’m dropping this guy off at the emergency room. You can be nice to me, Shannon.”
She laughed as she shook her head, hair falling in waves over her shoulder. “No. Not happening again. Even after cleaning my sheets, I still had crumbs in my bed for weeks!”
“What’s a few crumbs to my grief?” Quinn asked, turning the car onto College St. and passing my apartment; it was the only floor with all the lights out. “Why not think of it as an opportunity?”
“Opportunity?”
“Think of it as a chance to exfoliate or something.”
“Eww, boys are so gross.”
“One person’s gross is another’s creative.” Quinn angled the rearview mirror. He winked at me. Or was it a trick of the light? Maybe I’d hit my head harder than I thought. “Help me out here, man,” he said. “Together we can prove just how damn awesome us guys are.”
Shannon snorted, and Quinn growled, low and playful.
