Doomsday Can Wait (Phoenix Chronicles, #2)(6)

"Weren't you supposed to be his keeper?"

"He goes missing every year. He always comes back."

I suddenly remembered—once a year Sawyer went hunting.

For his mother.

That she'd showed up at my place was becoming more and more interesting.

"If he always goes off, why run across the country to tell me about it?"

"I'm not here because of Sawyer," she said. "I'm here because of Jimmy."

I forced my fingers to uncurl from the fists they'd automatically made at her words. Stupid to be angry and jealous over his leaving me and choosing her. We'd been eighteen. Grade A idiots, both of us. But mostly Jimmy, since he had to have known the next time I touched him I'd see her.

I'd been born psychometric. Basically when I touched people, I saw things. I'd seen way more than I ever wanted to of Jimmy and Summer.

Imagine—your first love, your first time, all rolled into one. Alone and lonely, a street kid who'd found a home, found him. Thinking he loved you, believing you'd be together forever, then "seeing" him in the arms of someone else. I'd reacted badly—for the past seven years.

"What about Jimmy?" I asked.

Something in my voice must have tipped Summer off to my mood because she inched back.

"What are you afraid of?" I moved forward. "You're a fairy. You've got powers, too."

"You know damn well I can't use them on you."

I smiled and Summer stepped back again. If she kept it up she'd fall down the stairs. Not that it would hurt her any.

"I do love the fairy rules," I continued. "Can't use your magic against anyone on an errand of mercy. And since my whole life is one long errand of mercy ..." My smile widened. "Sucks to be you."

"You have no idea," she murmured. Before I could ask what that meant, she went on. "Getting back to Jimmy."

My smile faded. "I don't know where he is."

She glanced down, the brim of her hat shading her too beautiful face. Fairies could practice glamour, a type of shape-shifting that made them more attractive than the average human. However, since fairy magic didn't work on seers, I had to think that Summer was truly gorgeous. So how much could it suck to be her?

"I do," she said reluctantly.

"You do?" For a second I forgot the question. Then I stiffened. "You know where he is? He called you? Came to you?"

"I saw him." She waggled her fingers—manicured and painted pale pink—toward her head.

"I thought you could only see the future."

"Right."

"What good does that do me today?"

Summer's gaze lifted. "There was a Fourth of July parade, right down the center of town."

"The Fourth is in two days."

"Which makes it the future."

"What town?"

"Barnaby's Gap, Arkansas."

"And you think Jimmy's there why?"

"I saw him watching the parade." Her lips, the same shade as her fingernails—who does that?—tightened. "He didn't look good."

My heart took a sharp leap, then fell with a heavy thud. Jimmy hadn't exactly been himself the last time I'd seen him.

"You could have just gone and gotten him. Why come to me?"

"You two have a connection."

"Seems to me that you two have the same connection."

"No." She took a deep breath, let it out slowly, the movement perking up her already too perky breasts. "What we had—" She broke off at my glare. "He loves you."

I had a hard time believing Jimmy Sanducci had ever loved anyone—except for Ruthie. She'd taken him off the streets same as me, but Ruthie was dead.

"Even if he did love me once, what difference does that make in dragging him back from Arizona?"

"Arkansas."

"Whatever."

"There's going to be trouble."

The hair on the back of my neck tingled. "You've said that before."

The day after I'd killed the leader of the darkness— a.k.a. Jimmy's father.

"It's here."

"Here?" I moved toward my duffel and the knife inside it.

"Not right this second here, but soon. It's coming."

"What's coming?" I asked, though I had a pretty good idea. The woman of smoke was going to be the next big pain in my ass.

"I'm not sure," Summer said.

"Then what good are you?"

"I found Jimmy." She lifted her just-pointed-enough-to-be-cute chin. "You didn't."

"Fine, you give me a ring when you've got him in hand."

"No."

"No?" I raised my eyebrows. "You seem to have forgotten who's the boss of you."

"You have to come with me. You're—" She paused and bit her lip.

I narrowed my eyes. "I'm what?"

I was a lot of things—some of them good, some of them kind of creepy. I still wasn't used to it myself.

"The leader of the light. You're stronger than any of us."

I wasn't sure about that, though I knew that I could be. Unfortunately, what I had to do to increase my powers was slightly more than I was willing to, unless absolutely necessary.