Comatose

Meet Miss Jane

The door slams and a very irritable-looking Rowan storms past me on the stairs, his pretty eyes not even sparing me a glance as he continues up to his room and slams that door too.

I let out a low whistle. "Morning to you too, dear," I call up brightly. There's no response from above.

Bounding down the last few steps, I swing by one hand around the creaking banister and come face-to-face with a much calmer boy. He slides off his jacket and lays it across the back of a chair, pleasantly ignoring the fuming going on elsewhere.

"You're up early," Pan comments casually. "I thought it was a Jane Tinker rule to never get out of bed before ten on any given day."

I shrug, a wide grin splitting my pale face. "Jane Tinker rules tend to get ignored a lot. Especially when grumpy boys try to get their mood to ruin my day." Hooking a thumb back at the staircase, I ask "What's his deal?"

My question elicits a heavy sigh from Pan, which in turn makes my eye brows lift curiously. "What did you do?" I ask instead, this time more serious about it. If Rowan's upset and Pan's sighing, something must be terribly wrong...again.

He laughs. "Why does it have to be my fault?"

"Because you're you. It's always your fault."

Another sigh. "The deal went sour and Rowan is blaming me for the loss."

My eyebrows shoot even higher. In the entire year I've been with Pan's gang, the entire year I've been Jane Tinker officially, the entire year I remember being a real person--never once have we had a deal go south on us. Because nobody messes with us. Nobody screws with Pan. Screwing with Pan means screwing with me.

Somebody's about to get a very special visit from a very special girl.

"What did you do?" I echo myself. None of this makes any sense.

Pan runs a hand through his sandy blonde hair, a whole slew of colors prettier than my dishwater locks. I catch myself watching the motion and look away when he clasps that hand at the back of his neck. Of all the times I could be admiring my leader, this is not one of the more appropriate moments. Sometimes, though, I can't seem to help myself. He's just so beautiful. It's almost wrong how gorgeous the pale green in his eyes is.

"I punched Alexei Hale in the face," he admits.

That snaps my attention back. "You did what?"

Alexei Hale is a thug. That's the only way to describe him. The guy comes from money, but prefers slumming it with trash like us to prove he's tough enough. Really, I think he just enjoys hurting people who can't get revenge on him, enjoys the game of bullying those who won't fight back because of who he is.

I don't care about his connections or his money. Alexei Hale means less than nothing to me. The few times I've met him, he's managed to push nearly all my buttons so hard I've had to leave the meetings early. Rich kid punk. If Pan would let me, I'd take him down now.

Unfortunately, nobody messes with Alexei either. On the off chance that I did take a swipe at him, the entire population of the New York slums would be on my tail. And he knows it. And he flaunts it. Paying that boy one of my special visits would almost be worth it.

Pan blows out a long breath and stares up at the ceiling so he won't have to see my face as he explains. "Rowan and I showed up to the meeting place at the exact time we were told to. Neither of us had anything threatening on hand besides my knife, just like he said. Everything was going perfectly."

"Then why'd you punch him?" I snap.

He hesitates for a moment, then continues. "Because we waited an hour. A whole sixty minutes, Jane. This deal was supposed to go down in twenty. And still, nobody showed. I know why he did it, I know he wanted me pissed, but I also know I don't like to be played with. If he's going to waste my time with games, I won't bother coming next time, regardless of his information."