Zoey didn’t have the first idea how, but she at least could deliver the box of donuts and apple turnovers that Andrea had baked.
Dominic had done yet another disappearing act, which made her nervous. She was constantly checking over her shoulder as she worked. She’d been in touch with Cin the whole time, and he hadn’t seemed to be trying to track her down, at least.
Cin, Lorenzo, and Heath were sitting on empty packing crates in front of the warehouse, waiting for her. The rest of the kids were gathered around a makeshift burn barrel stove, roasting hot dogs on sticks. She handed them the box of pastries, and they tore into them enthusiastically.
Cin, as usual, was wearing gorgeous new jewelry that looked out of place with her ragamuffin clothes, and which she couldn’t possibly have afforded on her own. Her necklace and earrings were dragons sculpted from silver wire, with little red flames.
“You have excellent taste in shoplifting,” she said to Cin, who shrugged cheerfully.
“Mmmf fd bff cmfl,” Cin said to Zoey, around a mouthful of donut.
“Say what now, girl who was raised in a barn?”
Cin chewed and swallowed, and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand. “You should be careful. Have you heard about the ghouls? Word on the street is that they ate some guy.”
Zoey frowned. Frequently the street kids heard things before anybody else did. On the other hand, they were an excitable bunch, like teenagers generally are, and they also spread a lot of rumors.
“Wouldn’t that be on the news?” she asked skeptically.
“Not always. Sometimes the police hide it because they want to make sure poor people get eaten,” Lorenzo said loftily.
“Says who?”
“Says Cin.”
Cin nodded vigorously. She was already on her second donut. “My fremfs up norf tole me,” she mumbled, crumbs falling out of her mouth.
“Maybe you guys should move farther south,” Zoey said uneasily. It was possible that they were right, and the news had been suppressed so that tourists wouldn’t be scared off.
“Into the fancy areas? No way,” Cin shook her head. “Too many cops.”
“We’ll be fine,” Lorenzo said confidently. “If any ghouls come near us, I’ll kick their skinny behinds.” He reached into the pocket of his denim jacket and pulled out a pair of num-chuks.
“Do I want to know where you stole those from?” Zoey asked.
Lorenzo smirked. “I don’t know, do you?”
Zoey tried to grab his donut away from him, but he dodged her easily.
“Prison’s not going to be as much fun as you think it is.”
He smirked at her with all the confidence of a teenager who knows everything. “I run fast.”
Cin shrugged, going for casual. “It’s not so bad. Three hots and a cot.”
There was no point in arguing with an infatuated kid who was trying to show off for his larcenous crush. “Be careful, then. Lorenzo, you need to go home after this, Andrea is going to worry if you don’t. I’ve got to go,” Zoey said. “I’ve got a final job this evening. Peace out, juvenile delinquents from hell.” Zoey climbed on her bicycle.
“Later days, naggy old woman.” Cin gave her a sarcastic mock solute.
“Naggy, I will accept with pride. Butold woman?Ouch. Just for that, stale donuts for a week. Not even kidding.”
“Wait, you are kidding, right?” Heath called out after her. “Hey, I’m not the one who called you old! Cin gets the stale donuts, I get the good ones! Right?” She waved goodbye as she peddled away.
As she wove through traffic, she tried not to think about ghouls, which was about as effective as trying not to picture a pink elephant in a tutu. Would Cin and her friends be safe? What could she do to make them safer? Nothing, really. They were like semi-feral cats. She couldn’t make them go stay in a foster home. The local authorities had enough on their plate dealing with semi-regular magic attacks. They wouldn’t be bothered trying to corral a group of throwaway kids, and Cin and Lorenzo would be miserable at a foster home anyway. And they’d just run away again.
There was a package already waiting for her at the dispatch center. She had no idea what was inside, and she didn’t ask. She just stuffed it in her bag and zipped across town to the restaurant. Or, she was reasonably zippy. There were more obstacles than usual in her path – there had been ever since that whole weird wolf thing with Dominic. Was that just a coincidence? She was getting so used to it now that she barely even noticed, she just went whichever way the little GPS in her head told her. Often – like this evening - the obstacles moved with her, trying to cut her off, which almost certainly meant that they were related to Dominic.
She still made it to the restaurant 15 minutes early. It was a little hole in the wall Italian joint, her favorite kind, and as she walked in, the smells made her stomach growl.
