End of Days (Penryn & the End of Days #3)(24)

‘All right,’ says Raffe.

‘Great,’ says Obi. ‘I think you’ll like what you see. This is the council. They’re in charge of our strategic defense.’

I watch Obi and Raffe make their way around the table. Does Raffe think this is funny? Obi is about to give an angel a tour of the Resistance camp?





18


Doc slips his arm into mine and guides me out of the room. ‘Is she hurt? What has she been eating?’

I look at the door closing on Obi talking to Raffe as we head out into the hallway. ‘Um, my sister hasn’t been eating . . .’

The twins follow us down the hallway. They glance out the windows and watch everyone around us as we walk, always alert.

‘Hey, guys.’ We push out of the building doors and into the night. ‘What’s Obi showing Raffe?’

‘The usual stuff,’ says Dum.

‘Our refugees, our cutting-edge batteries, our amazing electric cars, and maybe some of our dried ramen noodle supply.’ Dee shrugs.

I walk numbly in the cold, my mind mulling over whether any of that would be harmful. No big deal, right?

Right?

I must be moving too slowly as we talk, because Doc turns around and asks, ‘Where are we going?’

‘The grove across the street,’ I say.

Doc takes off at a trot and disappears into the street. I’m about to chase after him when Dee puts his hand on my arm. ‘Let him go. He’ll wait for you at the grove anyway. He doesn’t know where he’s going.’

He’s right, and it is good to see the twins again. I let go of my worries about Raffe. There’s nothing I can do about it now anyway.

I turn to the twins. ‘You guys are awesome. No one else would have gone out to save those poor people on Alcatraz.’

‘Ain’t no big thing,’ says Dum, sauntering beside me.

‘Yeah, we save hundreds of people all the time,’ says Dee.

‘All the time,’ says Dum.

‘We were born for it.’

‘And sometimes we even turn down offers from women wanting to show us their gratitude.’ Dum struts beside me.

‘Once,’ says Dee, looking humble.

‘Yeah, okay, but if it happened once, that means it happened “sometimes,’’ says Dum.

‘Doesn’t matter that she was an eighty-year-old lady who looked like our granny,’ says Dee.

‘A chick’s a chick, man, regardless of her age. And an offer is an offer.’ Dum nods.

Dee leans over and whispers to me. ‘She offered to cook us Brussels sprouts, and we turned it down.’

‘She was heartbroken. Probably needed to find some lucky dude to pour her affections on the rebound.’

‘Rebound’s a bitch.’ Dee shakes his head.

‘Not that we’re ever going to know what that feels like.’

The twins bump fists like true champions.

‘And was Obi totally on board with the Alcatraz recue?’ I ask.

‘Yeah, okay, maybe Obi might have had a little something to do with it.’ Dee shrugs.

‘Not that we wouldn’t have gone ourselves to rescue those people barehanded, but you know, it was a teensy bit easier with Obi running the mission.’

‘Good to know he’s not a jerk to everyone.’

‘Actually, you’d be surprised at what a good guy he is,’ says Dee.

‘I can tell he hasn’t thrown you in jail and abused your sister like Frankenstein’s monster.’

‘He makes hard choices so the rest of us don’t have to,’ says Dum.

That shuts me up. Wasn’t I wishing for someone else to make the hard choices for me?

‘He’s human,’ says Dee. ‘He has flaws.’

‘That’s why we’re here,’ says Dum. ‘We make up for his imperfections.’

‘Don’t take it personally,’ says Dee. ‘He’d sell his firstborn, his parents, his cookie-baking grandmother, his one true love, both his arms, legs, and his right nut for a chance to get the human race back on track.’

‘He’s the most dedicated guy we know.’

‘And there’s no sacrifice that he would ask of any of us that he wouldn’t make himself.’

‘Who else can you count on when you’re chained up on an evil island like Alcatraz?’

They have a point. The Resistance was the only group that would even consider mounting a real rescue mission.

‘He’s a little like you, actually,’ says Dee.

That almost stops me in my tracks. ‘Like me? Obi and I don’t have anything in common.’

‘You’d be surprised,’ says Dum.

‘Stubborn, loyal, utterly driven to accomplish your mission.’

‘Basically, you’re both crazy heroes.’

‘And everybody thinks you’re both hot,’ says Dee.

I scoff. ‘Now I know you’re full of it.’

‘You’re seriously going to tell us you haven’t noticed the way guys look at you?’

‘What guys? What are you talking about?’

They exchange glances. ‘Girl,’ says Dee, ‘even before your latest stunt, you were becoming the most requested fighter of all our events. Butt-kicking girls have always been smokin’ hot, but in the postapocalyptic world we live in, the hottest thing around is a sword-wielding, angel-slaying, foulmouthed—’