Pulse

Chapter 44

Cian

"Who exactly are you planning to shoot?" asked Vinny as I swerved the Escalade sharply right, stomping the gas to power it up the driveway. I glanced fleetingly at the digital clock, glowing green in the darkness. Oil settled somewhere in the engine, a rhythmic tink ringing in my ears. It was near midnight. If my parents found me, they were going to kill me. I did not have time to be dead right now.

"I'm not sure yet," I answered, swinging myself out of the car and onto the pavement. "Maybe Eden. Maybe a demon. Maybe myself. All I know right now is that I need a weapon."

"Cian," called Vinny, and when I didn't reply, as I was more focused on finding a discreet way to enter the house, he said again, "Cian. Cian, stop acting like you don't hear me!"

"I hear you. I'm ignoring you."

"That's cruel."

I glimpsed him over my shoulder. I was approaching the side door, which was usually the quietest of them all, checking windows for lights as I went. Crickets chirped in the grass at my feet, the moon an orb in the sky, watching me. I wondered distantly if Lucie was seeing the same thing I was, the moon and the stars above, and drew comfort from it, if only for a moment. Hold on, muffin. I'm coming. Please hold on. The hardest part was that I didn't know where she was—but, regardless, I knew I had to start somewhere. "Look, Vinny," I said. "I know you're the prince of reason and you're going to try and get me to be rational. Here's rational: Lucie is missing. Lucie is in danger. Lucie needs our help. So I don't know what I'm doing, sure, but right now I need a gun."

"How is a gun going to locate her!" demanded Vinny, voice tinny and high as if through a telephone. He was not speaking through a telephone, however, but was rather just extremely frustrated, and his voice did strange things as a result. "Have you ever even used one before?"

I hesitated. "No. Not exactly."

"Not exactly—my God, you have lost your marbles."

"I know exactly where my marbles are," I snapped, peering in through the side door's window. The kitchen was vacant, as dark as the outside. I shivered in the wind, then searched around in my pocket for a key. Inserting it in the lock, I grinned at the satisfying click. "And don't use His name in vain."

"You're just jealous because I actually can."

"Vincent," I murmured, dropping my voice to a whisper as I turned the knob and slid myself inside. "We don't have time for this."

His mouth twisted as if he was going to protest, but he seemed to think better of it, and entered after me silently. I shut the door with ultimate caution, trying to make sure it didn't lock in the doorjamb with too much noise. I waited for a moment, half-expecting the lights to flip on and my parents to shower me with admonishments, but no such thing occurred. Heaving a sigh, I headed for my father's office, which was thankfully on the main level, beside the powder room.

"You're coming with me, right?" I whispered, glancing back at Vinny as we crept into the foyer, which was an eerie quiet in the nighttime, as everything seemed to be. It was something I was beginning to notice; at night, not just humans were asleep, but everything was, locked in a cold slumber that could only be reversed at the sunlight's touch. Even Vinny, it seemed, was stranger in the absence of light. He looked less like a boy and more like a figment of one's imagination, something barely grasped.

Vinny was looking at me like he knew just what I was thinking. "Where are we going?"

I said, "Once I'm armed, I'm going back to Eden's place. She's a chess player, like me. I get the feeling this is just another game, like she left us a clue, possibly."