Touch (Denazen #1)(19)

I gripped the outer edge of the roof and lowered myself down. After a second, I let go. The fall was short, but the landing still jarred a bit. Nothing like the skateboard off the barn, though.

We stepped away from the garage and started around the house, but I was paying more attention to what was going on behind us than in front. I ran right into a pair of garbage cans. It wouldn’t have been so bad if they’d been the plastic kind—but that would have been too easy. These were the good old-fashioned metal ones, complete with toppling lids that danced and clattered when they hit the concrete.

Shouts from the front of the house told us we’d been caught.

“Hurry,” Kale hissed as he dragged me along. I tried my best to keep up, but his legs were longer.

They were behind us—I didn’t need to look back to know that. We cut through Cole’s yard, hopping the fence and landing in a patch of his neighbor’s flowers. Stumbling forward, we were out and running, jumping over toys left strewn about their yard. Just beyond us, a thick patch of forest waited. If we could make it, we might be able to lose them.

Kale paused, looking to his left, then right. “This way,” he said, breathing barely labored. Me on the other hand, I was gasping for air. Note to self—join a gym.

We made it to the middle of the lawn and skidded to a stop behind an aboveground pool. The smell of chlorine mingling with fresh-cut grass made my nose itch.

“If we head into the woods, we can lose them,” I urged.

Kale peered around the edge of the pool, sighing. “I know what those men are capable of. I know what they’ll do to get me back. If I run, they will follow. It will allow you to escape.”

Anger bubbled in my chest. “We went through this at the bus stop. There’s no way I’m walking away from this. Not if my mom is out there. Plus, someone needs to make my dad pay for what he’s done. You could have bailed to save yourself, but you stayed. No way am I ditching you now. We’re in this together. All the way.”

Kale was quiet for a moment. With one last peek, he nodded. “Let’s go then.”

We began to inch away from the side of the pool when the brush in front of us started to rustle and shake. “Crap!” I flattened myself against the wall of the pool, thinking they had us surrounded again for sure, but what stepped out from the brush wasn’t a man in a suit—or a leotard. In fact, it wasn’t a man at all.

A scream caught in my throat.

Kale regarded the party’s new guest with clinical interest—not fear. “Is that a—”

“Bear!” I squeezed his arm, trying to remember how to breathe. In. Out. In. Hold. “It’s a frigging bear!”





7


“It looks much bigger than in the Encyclopedia,” Kale said, leaning forward a bit. For a second, I thought he was going to reach out and touch the thing. “Maybe it won’t see us.”

“Won’t see us? It’s staring right at us! Look at its face! It’s thinking about a tasty afternoon snack!” This was the fourth one I’d seen in two weeks. Parkview really had to do something about the growing bear population. Pretty soon they’d be taking over.

The bear ambled forward a few steps, making a loud keening sound. It was about four feet away when the Denazen men rounded the corner of the pool. One of them let out a loud yelp—Denazen must have picked these guys for their bravery—(not)—causing the bear to look from us to them. The man in front, obviously clueless about how to deal with a bear, fired his tranq gun at the large animal. The dart hit the bear in the shoulder. Idiot. One tranq dart was not going to take down a bear. It was only going to piss it off. Letting out a roar, the bear rose onto its back legs, swatting paws tipped with wicked long claws at the men.

That was our chance. With their attention on the bear, I grabbed Kale’s hand and darted into the woods. Shouts behind us told me we were still being followed, but I was hoping we’d gotten enough of a head start to put some distance between us.

We ran. Kale nimbly dodging bushes and low hanging branches—me, not so much. Several times I stumbled, only to have Kale catch me at the last minute. His reflexes were insane. We came to the edge of the woods, stopping for only a fraction of a second before sprinting across the road to Parkview Mall.

“It’s crowded in there. They won’t be able to make a scene.” I started forward, but Kale hesitated. “What’s wrong?”

He looked down at his hands and shook his head. “It’s too risky.”

“Your skin is mostly covered. Unless you plan on rubbing your face on people, we’ll be fine.”

He still didn’t look sure.

“I promise, we’ll be careful.” I took his hand and squeezed. “I’ll make sure you don’t hurt anyone.”

After another moment, he nodded, and we speed-walked through the entrance. A woman at the perfume kiosk spritzed customers as they walked by, trying to sucker them into spending their hard-earned cash. As we approached and she held up the bottle, ready to attack, I said, “If you want to keep your fingers, put down the bottle.”

She mumbled something about mall security and turned to pounce on the next customer.

When we rounded the corner of the main drag, I took a second to check behind us. Two of the suits were just entering the building. School had officially ended last week, so while not as crowded as a weekend, there were still a fair number of bodies.