Something Deadly This Way Comes Read Free Page B

shutter clicked, and she straightened, frowning at the back of the camera. One of her pictures in our school’s expo at the mall had won top honors, and Nakita had been taking shots ever since.
    Ron, I thought, scuffing my yellow sneakers against the stone and wishing the annoying man would ignore me like most adults did. Ron worked for the light instead of the dark, and though we both believed in the same thing—that choice was stronger than heaven’s fate—he’d rather slap a guardian angel on someone than try to get to the root of the problem and change their life. Which was exactly why I was causing trouble with the seraphs, God’s muckety-muck high angels, and trying to change things. Even after having already saved one person’s life and soul, I knew no one but Barnabas believed I really had a chance. And most times, I wondered about Barnabas.
    â€œIf we can’t find her here, we’ll just go to her apartment and wait,” I said, scanning the skies past the shifting leaves for black wings. The mindless, dripping sheets of black always seemed to congregate when a scything was about to occur in the hopes of snitching a bit of unattended soul—which sometimes made me wonder if the creepy things could read the time lines as well as a timekeeper. Dark reapers on the hunt brought them in faster than crows on carrion. That they weren’t here was a good omen. I hadn’t seen one in months, partly because Nakita hid her resonance much of the time, and partly because she wasn’t hunting.
    Josh turned to sit with his back to the stone. Digging in his gym bag, he brought out his phone. “I’m going to text my mom. Tell her I’ll be home later. If anyone asks, I’m with you.”
    I looked at my watch and added two hours. “Good idea. Where are we supposed to be? The Low D?” Okay, so I lied to my dad. I didn’t feel that good about it, but he wasn’t going to believe I was somewhere in California, much less dead and trying to change heaven’s policy on culling lost souls.
    The soft scent of feathers drew my attention, and I smiled as Barnabas strode across the graveyard, hands in his pockets and eyes roving.
    â€œNo light reapers, no black wings, and no Grace,” he said, running a hand over his frizzy, loosely curling hair and squinting at the buses. “You want me to go check Tammy’s apartment?”
    No Grace? I couldn’t help but wonder why he’d brought Grace into question, but I nodded, glancing at Nakita as the snap on her purse clicked shut. She’d put her camera away, refusing to let Barnabas be involved in anything she wasn’t. “You remember the address?” I asked.
    â€œCoral Way,” he said, then touched the top of my hand. I’ll come back and tell you if she’s there, echoed in my thoughts, and I jumped. Blinking, I stared at him. Nakita had been shielding my resonance since leaving Three Rivers so Ron wouldn’t know where we were if he checked up on us, and I hadn’t known it was possible to touch thoughts while shielded. But Barnabas had been touching me physically, so maybe that’s how he was able to bypass the shield.
    â€œHey!” Nakita said, eyes flashing a divine silver for an instant. “No passing notes.”
    Josh closed his phone and looked up at us in question.
    â€œRelax,” Barnabas said sourly as his fingers slipped from the top of my hand. “I was just making sure that it was possible.” He paused, then said, “See? She didn’t hear that .”
    â€œBecause I’m shielded,” I said, and Barnabas nodded, his gaze across the street and on the cars lining up. I figured his sudden sour mood wasn’t coming from Nakita’s mistrust but from his ability to talk to me silently at all. It meant he wasn’t a light reaper anymore. He was moving toward the dark side, toward me. That a light reaper had abandoned his