Revolution (Collide, #4)(54)

He smirked. "Are you going to pull the all talk and no action routine?"

"Nah. Let's go," I beckoned. If I was going out, I was going out with my fist busting a Lighter's jaw.

He circled me before blurring to my right and slamming his fist into my back. I groaned, but stood my ground. And learned. He tried that move again and that landed him a punch in the gut. I tried to blast him with my hands, but I was just too beat and he evaded it every time. We went round and round before I had to admit to myself that he was just toying with me. He knew I had no fight in me and could have ended it at any time, but he didn't. I wondered why.

"Ah, they're here," he finally said.

"Who's that?" I asked with dread.

"My brothers." I turned to see headlights and huffed out angry breaths.

"Oh, come on. Don't you Lighters fly and soar and other fairy crap?"

"But then your ignorant humans would know something was different, now wouldn't they?" He smiled evilly to the ones approaching us. There were three of them, all different, but all the same.

"You know you all look the same?" I goaded.

"Shut your mouth, foul human!" one of the newer ones yelled.

I laughed. "Foul human!" I laughed some more. "Dude, too many evil movies for you."

He backhanded me in a blur that I didn’t see coming. I spit the blood off to the side and tried to keep my cool.

"We are done playing with this one," one of them said. "End it or bring him in for questioning."

I remembered Sherry's questioning they'd performed on her. That wasn't happening. "You can just kill me now. I won't be talking to you about anything. Unless you've got the latest news on Gossip Girl. Man, I miss that show."

He frowned and cocked his head in confusion. "Enough!" the other one barked. "Finish it. We've got other work to do."

"Allow me," the one in the back said. He stepped forward and his steps shook the ground. That Graphter thing. Crap.

I always imagined how I'd die, all bad ace and chin raised in defiance, maybe give them the finger. It didn’t quite work that way. I accepted it though. I'd put up a good fight, but this was it so I'd bow out with grace. I closed my eyes and thought of my L.

My eyelids turned red with another approaching light. I opened them to see another car. They were pointed our way, just sitting there. That looked like the… Gremlin! How the heck had they found me? And why the heck were they just sitting there?

The car's engine revved. Then whoever was driving pressed the gas and rushed us. I leapt out of the way in a just in time manner and managed to be missed. The Lighters and that other…thing…moved, too, and gawked at us as the Gremlin slid into the sand next to me. The passenger door opened. I scrambled up and into the seat without even looking and slammed the door shut as he smashed the gas and turned a one eighty. The Graphter looked peeved and when he lifted his hands I knew what was coming. "Punch it!" I yelled and squeezed my eyes shut tight just as the Graphter clapped his hands.

The windshield shattered at the boom.

We kept going, knocking one of the smug Lighters over in the process of our sliding. I figured they'd give chase, but we weren't big enough fish I guessed. I turned back to the front, shielding my eyes from the wind coming at us from the now wide gaping windshield. "Dude, that was…what the hell?"

It was Daniel.

He looked at me and then back at the road. "I've been driving all day and night looking for you."

"What for?" I asked, flabbergasted. "Why are you here? Where's everyone else?"

"I came alone. I told no one."

"Ooooh," I dragged out, "so you snuck out to find me and off the competition, huh?"

He gave me strange look. I could see him in the lights from the dash as he sped down the highway. "I can only assume you are referring to Lillian, and I can guarantee you that won't be happening."

I chuckled without a trace a humor. "Giving up?"

"Yes," he said quickly.

"Why? I thought you said you loved her." I had no idea why I was arguing with him once he said he'd given up, but it just came out.

"I do," he said sternly and flashed a look that held contempt and regret, one in the same. "But she is in love with you."

I almost smiled. "I know."

"I kissed her," he confessed and I balled up my fist.

"Again?" I asked, thinking he was talking about the first time.

"Yes." I almost choked him right there. "When I…said goodbye," he clarified. I imagined the two of them, Lillian's strange affection for him, him bidding her goodbye forever… "I wanted to be upfront with you. She…" he shook his head, "she doesn't love me. She worries about you constantly, her eyes are searching for you even when you're not there." He looked at me. "She looks right past me when she's looking at me. She can't help it."

What was I supposed to say to that? So I said, "I still owe you a beat down for what you did. Don't think I've forgotten."

"I haven't forgotten," he said calmly and kept driving. I eyed him, biting on my lip ring and cracking my knuckles.

"So what are we doing? Going home? Did Sherry make it home all right?"