Darker Days (The Darker Agency #1)(26)

I couldn’t really classify this disaster as safe, but whatever. “Okay. Small favors. I’ll take what we can get. Any idea how to diffuse the situation? If Greed is gone, how come the people aren’t going back to chill? Back in The Pit, soon as you calmed down, everything was fine.”

He looked a little pale, and I felt guilty about bringing it up. “What happened earlier wasn’t on purpose. I didn’t infect anyone, I just lost control and some of the anger Wrath harbors leaked out. As soon as I regained my senses, Wrath’s influence faded.”

“So you’re saying no one new will go all grabby?”

He blinked twice then nodded slowly. “Yes. And for those affected, it will wear off in time.”

More sirens, these from the Penance PD. “Oh great. Barney Fife is here.”

“Who?” Lukas dodged something and pulled me with him. A pair of red women’s pumps flew past, narrowly missing our heads, followed by an unboxed toaster from the middle of the chaos.

“What are you doing here, Jessie?” Binkie—err—Officer Barnes yelled, jumping from his squad car. A second later, his entire face lit up. “Is Klaire here, too?”

I rolled my eyes. “Don’t you have more important things to worry about at the moment? Like, oh, I dunno, the riot going on inside Flankman’s?”

He looked past me, eyes wide, then cleared his throat. “Of course I do. I was just making sure she wasn’t—” he shuffled sideways then started toward the door, “…inside.”

As Officer Barnes was swallowed by the crowd, three more police cars pulled up in front of the building. Thank God. No way was one small town cop going to be enough to get this under control. Four probably wouldn’t do the trick either.

Luckily for them, I was more than happy to help. “Come on,” I said, motioning to Lukas.

We stepped over the remains of the storefront and into the main room. It was a disaster. There were two kids fighting over a small pile of candy while two women—I guessed their mothers—battled it out over a canned ham. Behind them, Officer Barnes was trying to restrain Mrs. Mesher, the elderly woman who lived down the road from Kendra. She swung her cane, catching him across the shin as he snapped the cuffs into place.

A loud clatter rang above the din, and I whirled to see a man swinging a baseball bat at the beverage cooler. Because opening the door would have been too easy, right? He hit it once. Then twice. On the third swing, the glass shattered, but did he stop there? Of course not. He swung again, hitting the shelf. Bottles exploded, assorted liquids shooting in every direction.

I managed to duck a projectile can of Pepsi but wasn’t so lucky with the two liter bottle of root beer that landed at my feet. The plastic bottle bounced twice and slammed into my shin, fizzing and spitting until the cap shot off and caramel colored soda covered me from head to toe.

“Ick!” I flicked my hands and pushed a strand of wet hair from my face.

“That was mine!” the man screamed, rushing forward.

There was probably no point in telling him three more sat on the floor by the cooler, along with an entire row still up on the shelves. I spread my legs apart, ready to take him on, but it was unnecessary. Lukas intercepted him before he got halfway across the room.

Charging like a bull, he tackled the larger man, forcing him down to the ground. The man struggled, but Lukas dodged him and delivered a sharp jab to the side of his face. The man’s eyes rolled back, and his head lolled to the side.

I held my hand out to help him up, not bothering to hide the smile on my face. “Impressive.”

He returned the grin with one of his own. “Don’t look so surprised.”

From the corner of my eye, I saw something move. A blur of blonde and bright blue. When I turned, Kendra was standing over a man, lips pulled back in an angry snarl.

“That’s mine,” she growled.

“Uh oh…”

“What?” Lukas said, scanning the room.

I pointed to Kendra. “Greed infested normal people are bad—green infested witches are probably worse.”

His gaze swiveled. “Your friend is a witch?”

I nodded. “Kendra doesn’t have very good control over her power.”

“Do I want to know what you mean by that?”

“It means she could do some serious damage. We have to stop her.” I let go of his hand and started forward. “Kendra?”

“Don’t come any closer,” she snarled. Bending down, she scooped up the box at her feet.

I peered over the rim. The box was full of shoes and Kit Kats. Figured. There was no one on planet Earth who had a bigger shoe fetish then Kendra. “Trust me, I don’t wanna take your shoes away.” Another step. “I just wanna get you out of here before someone gets hurt.”

She backed away, lips pulled back in an angry snarl. Funny, little known facts about witches. They’re usually very moody and hard to get along with. They prefer night over day and prefer to only associate with their own kind. Kendra’s mom was the stereotypical witch. Surly and combative, she worked as a night guard at the corrections facility and rarely left the house during the day unless necessary.

Kendra, on the other hand, was an anomaly. She was bubbly and thrived on sunshine. Her favorite place in the whole world was the beach, and she had always kind of been afraid of the dark.