The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Chapters 3

I frowned. How is that a good thing?Keeps him alive, doesnt it? injection it keeps you alive, similarwise.I nodded. Guess so. Did he say eachthing ab disclose any maven else? I tried to think of anything unnamed Id seen or felt, provided Fred was one of a charitable. The clowns in the al ey this nighttime pretending to be superheroes hadnt been doing anything the rest of us couldnt do.He talked rough Raoul, Diego said, the ceding back of his mouth twisting down.What skil does Raoul become? Super-stupidity?Diego snorted. Definitely that. honorable Riley thinks hes got some kind of magnetism people are drawn to him, they fol ow him.Only the mental y chal enged.Yeah, Riley mentioned that. Didnt seem to be effective on the he broke out a decent impression of Rileys voice tamer kids.Tame?I inferred that he meant people like us, who are able to think daily y.I didnt like cosmos cal ed tame. It didnt sound like a good thing when you put it that way. Diegos way sounded bet ter.It was like there was a reason Riley needed Raoul to lead somethings coming, I think.A uncanny prick spasmed along my spine when he said that, and I sat up straighter. Like what?Do you ever think most why Riley is invariably afterward us to keep a low profile?I he dumbfoundated for half a second ahead answering. This wasnt the line of inquiry I would have expected from Rileys right-hand man. Almost like he was challenge what Riley had told us. Unless Diego was asking this for Riley, like a spy. Finding out what the kids thought of him. notwithstanding it didnt feel like that. Diegos profane red eyes were open and confiding. And why would Riley care? Maybe the way the others talked virtually Diego wasnt based on anything real. estimable gossip.I answered him truthful y. Yeah, actual y I was entirely opinion about that.We arent the only vampires in the world, Diego said solemnly.I know. Riley says stuff sometimes. But there cant be too many. I mean, wouldnt we have n oticed, in advance?Diego nodded. Thats what I think, too. Which is why its picturesque weird that she keeps making much of us, dont you think?I frowned. Huh. Because its not like Riley actual y likes us or anything. I paused again, waiting to see if he would contradict me. He didnt. He moreover waited, nodding slightly in agreement, so I continued. And she hasnt even introduced herself. Youre right. I hadnt looked at it that way. Wel, I hadnt real y thought about it at al . But so, what do they essential us for?Diego raised one eyebrow. Wanna hear what I think?I nodded warily. But my anxiety had nought to do with him now.Like I said, something is coming. I think she wants protection, and she put Riley in charge of creating the scarecrow line.I thought this through, my spine prickling again. why wouldnt they tel us? Shouldnt we be, like, on the lookout or something?That would make sense, he agreed.We looked at each other in silence for a few long-seeming seconds. I had nothin g more, and it didnt look like he did, either.Final y I grimaced and said, I dont know if I buy it the part about Raoul being good for anything, that is.Diego laughed. Hard to argue that one. Then he glanced out the windows at the dark early morning. Out of time. break-dance head back before we turn into crispies.Ashes, ashes, we al fal down, I sang under my breath as I got to my feet and col ected my pile.Diego chuckled.We made one more quick keep back on our way tot the empty Target next ingress for with child(p) ziplocks and two backpacks. I doublebagged al my books. Water-damaged pages annoyed me. Then we in general roof-topped it back to the water. The sky was just faintly starting to gray up in the east. We slipped into the sound right under the noses of two oblivious night watchmen by the big ferry good thing for them I was ful or they would have been too close for my self-control and consequently raced through the miry water back toward Rileys place. At beginn ing(a) I didnt know it was a race. I was just swimming fast because the sky was getting lighter. I didnt usual y push the time like this. If I were being honest with myself, Id pretty much morose into a huge vampire nerd. I fol owed the rules, I didnt cause trouble, I hung out with the most unpopular kid in the group, and I always got home early.But and so Diego real y kicked it into gear. He got a few lengths ahead of me, turned back with a smile that said, what, cant you keep up? and then started involution it again. Wel, I wasnt taking that. I couldnt real y remember if Id been the matched type before it al seemed so far away and profitless but maybe I was, because I responded right away to the chal enge. Diego was a good swimmer, but I was way stronger, especial y after just feeding.See ya, I mouthed as I passed him, but I wasnt sure he saw. I lost him back in the dark water, and I didnt waste time looking to see by how much I was winning. I just jetted through the sound til I hit the edge of the island where the most recent of our homes was located. The last one had been a big cabin in the middle of Snowvil e-Nowhere on the side of some spate in the Cascades. Like the last one, this house was remote, had a big basement, and had late deceased owners. I raced up onto the shal ow stony beach and then take away my fingers into the sandstone bluff and flew up. I heard Diego come out of the water just as I gripped the trunk of an overhanging pine and flipped myself over the slack edge. both things caught my attention as I landed gently on the bal s of my feet. One it was real y light out. Two the house was gone.Wel, not entirely gone. Some of it was stil visible, but the space the house had once diligent was empty. The roof had col apsed into ragged, angular wooden lace, charred black, sagging lower than the front door had been.The sun was rising fast. The black pine trees were showing hints of evergreen. concisely the paler tips would stand out a gainst the dark, and at about that point I would be dead. Or really dead, or whatever. This second thirsty, superhero life would go up in a sudden burst of flames. And I could only hypothesize that the burst would be very, very nasty. This wasnt the first time Id seen our house undo with al the fights and fires in the basements, most of them lasted only a few weeks but it was the first time Id come across the scene of destruction with the first faint rays of sunlight threatening.I sucked in a gasp of hurt as Diego landed beside me.Maybe burrow under the roof? I whispered. Would that be safe sufficient or ?Dont freak out, Bree, Diego said, sounding too calm. I know a place. Cmon.He did a very refined backflip off the bluff edge. I didnt think the water would be enough of a filter to block the sun. But maybe we couldnt burn if we were subaqueous? It seemed like a real y poor plan to me.However, sooner of tunneling under the burned-out hul of the wrecked house, I go down of f the cliff behind him. I wasnt sure of my reasoning, which was a strange feeling. Usual y I did what I always did fol owed the routine, did what made sense. I caught up to Diego in the water. He was racing again, but with no nonsense this time. Racing the sun.He whipped around a point on the little island and then dove deep. I was surprised he didnt hit the rocky floor of the sound, and more surprised when I could feel the blast of warmer current flow rate from what I had thought was no more than an outcropping of rock.Smart of Diego to have a place like this. Sure, it wasnt going to be fun to sit in an underwater cavern al day not existing started to irritate after a few hours but it was better than exploding into ashes. I should have been thinking like Diego was. Thinking about something other than blood, that is. I should have been prepared for the unexpected.Diego kept going through a compress crevice in the rocks. It was black as ink in here. Safe. I couldnt swim anymore the space was too tight so I scrambled through like Diego, climbing through the twisting space. I kept waiting for him to stop, but he didnt. Suddenly I realized that we real y were going up. And then I heard Diego hit the surface.I was out a half second after he was.The cave was no more than a smal hole, a burrow about the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, though not as tal as that. A second crawl space led out the back, and I could druthers the fresh air coming from that direction. I could see the shape of Diegos fingers recurrent again and again in the texture of the limestone wal s.Nice place, I said.Diego smiled. Better than Freaky Freds backside.I cant argue with that. Um. Thanks.Youre welcome.We looked at each other in the dark for a minute. His face was smooth and calm. With anyone else, Kevin or Kristie or any of the others, this would have been terrifying the constricted space, the forced closeness. The way I could smel his look on every side of me. That could have mean t a quick and painful death at any second. But Diego was so composed. Not like anyone else.How old are you? he asked abruptly.Three months. I told you that.Thats not what I meant. Um, how old were you? I expect thats the right way to ask.I leaned away, uncomfortable, when I realized he was talking about human stuff. Nobody talked about that. Nobody wanted to think about it. But I didnt want to end the conversation, either. Just having a conversation at al was something naked as a jaybird and different. I hesitated, and he waited with a curious expression.I was, um, I guess fifteen. Almost sixteen. I cant remember the day was I past my birthday? I tried to think about it, but those last thirsty(p) weeks were a big blur, and it hurt my head in a weird way to try to clear them up. I shook my head, let it go.How about you?I was just past my eighteenth, Diego said. So close.Close to what?Getting out, he said, but he didnt continue. There was an awkward silence for a minute, and then he changed the subject.Youve done real y wel since you got here, he said, his eyes wholesale across my crossed arms, my folded legs.Youve survived avoided the wrong kind of attention, kept intact.I shrugged and then yanked my left t-shirt sleeve up to my shoulder so he could see the thin, ragged line that circled my arm.Got this ripped off once, I admitted. Got it back before Jen could toast it. Riley showed me how to put it back on.Diego smiled wryly and touched his right articulatio genus with one finger. His dark jeans covered the scar that must have been there. It happens to everybody.Ouch, I said.He nodded. Seriously. But like I was saying before, youre a pretty decent vampire.Am I supposed to say thanks?Im just thinking out loud, trying to make sense of things.What things?