Rage of Vendetta (The Vendetta Series #2)

Chapter 18

Chapter 18

"Oh my god! My face!"

Hot, crimson blood is gushing out our attacker's nose like a running faucet. As he inhales, wheezy noises squeeze out his throat. I probably broke something.

Oh, well. His fault.

"Let's bounce," I hiss, barely grabbing Jesse's sleeve.

"People are staring," he whispers, obediently following along. "I think they've called security."

"Good. Walk faster."

We head towards a pharmacy, with a lot of violent hand gesturing as to how we can walk in and attract the least attention. Ironically, we practically stumble in, and not one person glances over.

I shove my elbow into Jesse's ribs, annoyed. He shoves me back, but then immediately winces when it pulls on his arm's bullet graze wound.

"Careful!" I chide.

"You pushed me!"

Two minutes later and forty dollars less, we have a roll of bandages and two baseball caps.

"Bathroom, bathroom, bathroom. Quick, quick, quick," I mutter.

"Calm down," Jesse says.

I slant him a murderous glare, but it falls fast when I hear my name being called by an unfamiliar voice.

"Who is it?" I whisper to Jesse, unmoving.

"Ariel?" it comes again, questioning.

"I don't recognize him," Jesse says. His eyes narrow. "He's human. Our age."

Slowly I lift my head, and take in the sandy blond-haired boy coming our way.

Deep in the crevices of my memory, I remember it's dyed, that he used to have dark hair similar to his olive skin. Other useless facts rush in while I stare at him blankly, before I finally recall this boy was in my AP Biology class.

"It is you," he says, smiling. I guess I have changed appearance-wise. Well, this is awkward. I can't even remember his name.

"Where have you been?" he asks curiously.

"Oh, me?" I manage to cough out. "Uhm. I've been around."

"Yeah?" he says. Was it Devdan? Durai? It was something beginning with D and exotic sounding, but I just can't recall. "Some people have been spectating you're working for the government," he jokes.

I still. Thankfully, Jesse jumps in. "Yeah, we're CIA agents," he says monotonously. I stomp on his foot, but he keeps going. "We're on a mission and in a hurry. Nice meeting you, dude."

Suddenly, his name clicks in.

"Dhaval," I say. "It's great to see you again, really. But we gotta go."

Dhaval frowns, but we don't stick around. I push right past and keep going.

"Bye!" I call cheerfully, waving. I can only hope he doesn't really tell my Biology class I'm a CIA agent. At least no one is going to care much. The hot topic of the week at my high school is probably who hooked up with who last weekend.

"CIA agents?" I repeat once Dhaval is out of sight.

Jesse smiles, pleased with himself.

The people in the mall are decreasing as the sky outside gets darker. We pick up our pace, intent on getting out of here before we run into more humans wanting to sell us, or reconcile.