Page 138 of Black to Light

“I found them,’ she said, triumphant. “Well, I found Jem first, but now it’s both of them.” Relief filled her voice, a joyful buoyancy that took me aback. “She’s still with him,” she said excitedly. “The girl. She’s still traveling with him… so she’s not dead.”

Black and I exchanged looks, and I smiled at the relief in his.

Gaos.Jem hadn’t killed her.

Another thought hit me then. Where the hell was Nick? I’d initially assumed by “them” she’d meant Jem and Nick. Fear washed over me about whether he was really all right.

Had something happened to him?

Black reached over and took my hand. He gripped my fingers, a tense promise that everything was okay, one I tried to find reassuring. Black’s voice remained business-like as we crossed over the center of the cordoned-off street, and began walking around the circle of emergency vehicles to meet up with the others.

“What about Nick?” Black asked Alisha. “Is Nick following them?”

“I don’t know.” Alisha sounded frustrated again. “I’ve been scanning for him, using the photos we have on file, including the ones where he’s wearing the hat and the sunglasses and everything else. I’m wondering if he’s covering his face more than usual, or––”

Kiko cut in, her voice bewildered.

“Isn’t that Nick right over there?”

All of us turned to follow the direction of her pointing finger.

There was a silence.

Then I laughed out loud… I couldn’t help it.

I heard Jax burst out in a laugh next to me.

Nick stood almost directly across from us, in an soot-darkened alcove on the other side of the street, about twenty yards from the bomb site and well out of the sun. His pale face still managed to shine eerily bright, even in the shadows. It was pretty clear he was trying to stay out of sight, and unnoticed by the first responders working the bomb site a block north to his left. It was equally clear he saw us and had moved out of the shadows just enough that we might see him standing there, which is probably the only reason Kiko noticed him.

Now he stared at all of us like he couldn’t believe we were all just standing there, gawking at him. He frowned when he caught my gaze, and jerked his head in a way that made his message clear.

Why the fuck aren’t you walking towards me?

I laughed again, even as I shifted the direction of my feet, now half-jogging in his direction. Black quickly broke into a lope to keep up with me.

“Where?” Black growled into the headset to Alisha, a faint irritation mixed with humor in his voice. “Where did you last see Jem and the girl?”

“Metro Station,” Alisha said at once. “They boarded a train heading towards the old part of the city about four blocks from here. They’re still on it, heading southeast on Line 1, the same one that goes along north of the river and past the Louvre. They just passed the stop for Concorde…” She paused briefly. “The cameras in the station seem to be working. They didn’t get off. Still heading Southeast. Did you say you’ve got Nick?”

“We found Nick,” I assured her. “We’re all just southeast of the bomb site right now. We’re going over to join up with him now––”

“Meet us here in five,” Black added.

Nick had finally lost patience and pulled himself off the wall, or maybe just felt it was safe to emerge now that we were heading in his direction. He pulled out his large, black umbrella and opened it, then began striding towards Black and me, an annoyed, semi-embarrassed expression on his face.

He started talking as soon as he was confident we would hear him over the sounds of emergency crews and helicopters thudding overhead.

“I tried to stop Jem,” he said in a growl.

“Obviously,” Black retorted back.

“I didn’t succeed,” Nick continued, just as annoyed.

“Obviously,”Jax laughed back.

Nick snorted, as if against his will. “I thought maybe I could grab him before one of you assholes shot him. Even if it meant hitting him over the head with the damned rifle.”

“You don’t look shot,” Kiko observed, also smiling at Nick.

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