Darker Days (The Darker Agency #1)(14)
I snapped my fingers to get her attention. “Where are the others?”
At the sound of my voice, Vida’s smile turned arctic. For a moment, she said nothing. Finally, tossing her hair, she laughed. A delicate sound that grated against every one of my nerves like someone rubbing two chunks of Styrofoam together. “Another Darker? Really, Lukas? When ever will you learn?”
“Vida,” he warned.
“Relax. She’s much too boring to waste my time on.” Vida swiveled in her seat and scanned the room. “But that one,” she said with a wicked smile and a nod across the room. “That one has promise.”
Before I could blink, Hanna Fisher, head of the cheerleading squad and all around bitch, was out of her seat and across the room. She made a beeline for the geek squad, passing the jock table and catching the attention of everyone in the room.
I’d been going to the same school as David Ogden since the first grade. He was the ruler of the nerd herd and pretty much defined the stereotype. Head of the math club, co-head of the chess club, and dressed in clothing that would make a Sunday school teacher cringe. He had a serious acne problem and glasses thicker than the paperback growing mold at the bottom of my book bag. A really sweet guy, but definitely not someone on the Penance Hot To Trot list.
In short, he was the kind of guy that got his jollies from HBO late night and the Victoria’s Secret catalog—not real time action.
Imagine his surprise when Hanna came over, hopped in his lap, and started sucking on his face like he was Ian Somerhalder.
Several seconds of shocked silence ticked by before the entire cafeteria erupted in hoots and hollers. Someone from the jock table—I couldn’t see who—tossed a handful of french fries at them. Someone else let loose a sharp wolf whistle and started chanting, “Take it off, take it off!” I jumped from my seat to tear them apart, but Mr. Spoker got there first and dragged Hanna—kicking and screaming—from the room. I felt bad for David and his friends. They were probably going to have to walk around with their binders hanging low for hours after the show Hanna gave them.
I whirled and stalked back to the table where Garrett was still staring at Vida like she’d invented Cheese Wiz. With a roll of my eyes, I said, “Lust, I take it?”
Vida answered me with an over exaggerated yawn. “Not as smart as the last one, is she?”
Lukas gripped the edge of the table tighter and leaned forward. “Vida, where are the others?”
She blew him a kiss. “I know you’re not going to work with the little human here to put us back in that dreadful box. Not after what happened last time you betrayed us.”
Lukas didn’t answer, but Garrett did. He chuckled, tilting his head and grinning from ear to ear. “Little human. She’s so damn adorable.” Elbowing Lukas, he added, “Isn’t she adorable?”
Lukas rolled his eyes.
Vida laughed and pinched his cheek. Turning to me, she said, “I’m only going to give you this warning once, Darker girl. Back off, or else.”
“Like that’s the first time I’ve heard that before.” Well, it was actually. Today, at least.
Vida smiled. She rose and turned to Garrett who was still staring at her chest. “This one will be fun.” She extended a scarlet-tipped finger and bopped him on the nose before turning and sashaying back into the crowd.
Kendra shook her head. “No one’s ass should shake like that. It’s unnatural.” When she turned back to me, there was a mischievous smile on her lips. Leaning across the table, she whispered, “Little human? Last time? Someone has some sharing to do…”
Craps. I glanced back at Garrett who was staring after Vida like a love-sick puppy. “Yeah…so about Lukas…”
Chapter Six
I got away with telling Kendra that Lukas was one of Mom’s clients and needed twenty-four-seven protection because of something he’d gotten mixed up in. It wasn’t technically a lie…She’d let it go—for the moment—but I knew she wouldn’t let it rest forever. She and her mother, Cassidy, were a few of the only non-client humans—witches were technically human, therefore not considered Otherworlders—who knew about the things that growled and grumbled in the night.
And even though Kendra knew what the Darker Agency did, Mom forbade me to involve my friends in agency cases. I couldn’t blame her, really. I’d let Kendra help me hunt down a poltergeist a few years ago, and she’d broken her arm, inciting a ranting phone call and some serious threats from her mom. Cassidy Belfair was not the kind of woman you wanted to piss off.
By the time the last bell rang, even though we hadn’t seen Vida again, my skin was still crawling. The girl had presence. A creepy one. Lukas was on edge, too. He kept looking over his shoulder and standing very still, as if listening for something. Twice, I caught him sniffing the air—once he even sniffed Matt Hawker. That had been hard to explain.
In a badly timed attempt to multitask, I got caught passing a note to Sheri Reame in seventh period science and ended up with after-school detention. She’d slipped a paper into my locker earlier that morning offering to pay me two hundred bucks me to find out who her boyfriend was cheating with. Mom would freak on me if she found out, but it technically wasn’t a case. It was a simple exchange of information. I already knew who her boyfriend was playing the tonsil Olympics with—hell, half the school knew. So on the off-chance I was caught, I had a solid argument. At least I thought so.