Beautiful Darkness(79)

“All right, enough a the Charlotte's Web jokes. Grab your specimen firmly with one hand, and make your incision down the belly, top to bottom, with your scissors.” I could hear Mrs. Wilson through the door. I knew what was going on in biology today, from the smell alone. Not to mention the commotion.

“I think I'm going to pass out —”

“Wilbur, no!”

“Ewww!”

I looked through the window in the door. Pink fetal pigs were lined up in a row on the lab tables. They were small, pinned to black, waxy boards inside metal trays. Except Link's.

Link's pig was massive. He raised his hand. “Um, Mrs. Wilson? I can't crack the sternum with scissors. Tank's too big for that.”

“Tank?”

“Tank, my pig.”

“You can use the garden shears in the back a the room.”

I knocked on the window. Link walked right by, but he didn't hear me. Eden was sitting at the long black lab table next to Link's, holding her nose with one hand and poking around inside her pig with tweezers. I was surprised she was in there with the rest of the flunkies — not because she was a rocket scientist or anything, but because I would've expected her mom and the DAR mafia to find a way to get her out of it.

Eden pulled a long yellow rope out of her pig. “What is all this yellow stuff?” She looked like she was going to hurl.

Mrs. Wilson smiled. This was her favorite moment of the year. “Miss Westerly, how many times did you go to the Dar-ee Keen this week? Did you have a shake with your fries and your burger? Onion rings? A side a pie?”

“What?”

“It's fat. Now let's look for the bladder.”

I knocked again, as Link walked by with a pair of enormous shears. He saw me and opened the door. “Mrs. Wilson, I gotta use the bathroom.”

We took off down the hall, shears and all. When we banged our way around the corner in front of the attendance office, Liv smiled at Miss Hester and closed her notebook. “Thanks ever so much. I'll be in touch.”

She disappeared out the front door behind us, her blond hair falling out of her bun. You would have to be brain-damaged to not realize Liv was a teenager, in her ripped jeans.

Miss Hester watched in bewilderment, shaking her head. “Redcoats.”





The thing about Link was, he never asked for details. He just went with it. He went with it when we tried to cut a real tire to make a tire swing. He went with it when I made him help me build a gator trap in my backyard, and every time I stole the Beater to chase a girl the rest of the school thought was a freak. It was a great quality in a best friend, and sometimes I wondered if I would do the same for him if things were reversed. Because I was always the one who asked, and he was always the one who was game.

Within five minutes, we were rolling down Jackson Street. We made it all the way to Dove Street, when we pulled over at the Dar-ee Keen. I checked my watch. Amma would know I was gone by now. Marian would be waiting for Liv at the library, if she hadn't missed her at breakfast. And Mrs. Wilson would've sent someone to drag Link out of the bathroom. We were running out of time.

The actual plan didn't come together until we sat down with greasy food on greasy yellow trays at our greasy red table.

“Can't believe she ran off with Vampire Boy.”

“How many times do I have to tell you? He's an Incubus,” Liv corrected.

“Whatever. If he's a Blood Incubus, he can suck your blood. Same difference.” Link shoved a biscuit into his mouth while he rolled another one around in the pool of gravy on his plate.

“A Blood Incubus is a Demon. A vampire is something in a movie.”

I didn't want to do it, but there was something I had to get out on the table. “Ridley's with them, too.”

Link sighed and crumpled up the biscuit paper. His expression didn't change, but I knew he was feeling the same knot in his stomach I had in mine. “Well, that blows.” He tossed the paper at the trash can. It hit the rim and fell onto the floor. “You're sure they're in the Tunnels?”

“That's what it looked like.” On the way to the Dar-ee Keen, I told Link about the vision, but I left out the part about how I saw it in my bathroom mirror. “They're headed for some place called the Great Barrier.”

“A place that doesn't exist.” Liv was shaking her head, checking the rotating dials on her wrist.

Link pushed away his plate, still covered with food. “So let me get this straight. We're gonna go down into the Tunnels and find this moon outta time with Liv's fancy watch?”

“Selenometer.” Liv didn't look up from copying numbers from the dials into her red notebook.

“Whatever. Why don't we tell Lena's family what's goin’ on? Maybe they can make us invisible or lend us some crazy Caster weapons.”

A weapon. Like the one I had with me right now.

I could feel the curve of the Arclight in my pocket. I had no idea how it worked, but maybe Liv did. She knew how to read the Caster sky.

“It won't make us invisible, but I have this.” I held the sphere above the shiny plastic table.

“Dude. A ball? Seriously?” Link wasn't impressed.

Liv was stunned. She reached out tentatively, her hand hovering. “Is that what I think it is?”