Twisted (9 page)

Just how long had she chased the man in the black coat?
Had they run two miles? Three miles? More than that? Every second of the run had been at a dead sprint. Add in a badly bruised knee and a shoulder that just might be dislocated, and Gaia felt like crap.
Tired, abused crap.

Finally Gaia pushed her scraped hands onto the pavement and stood up shakily. She'd only been out for seconds, but it felt like an eternity to her.

“I think you really are going to live,” said the girl.

Gaia licked her lips. “You sound surprised,” she said in a harsh voice.

The girl shrugged. “Well, I've seen a lot of things, but I've never seen anybody kick ass one second and go into a coma the next. What are you on, anyway?”

Gaia started to laugh at
the absurdity of the question,
but it turned into a cough. A harsh, racking cough.

“You sure you don't want to go to the hospital?” the girl asked, reaching for Gaia's arm. “St. Vincent's is right down the street.”

“No.” Gaia shook her head. “I'll be all right. Really.”

“Whatever you say,” the girl said, eyeing her with disbelief.

Gaia turned her head and had to fight down a fresh wave of dizziness. “Where is he?”

“The guy who was after my purse?”

Gaia nodded.

“Don't know,” said the girl. “He ran off. The way you hit him, I'd be surprised if he's not on his way to the nearest emergency room with a half-dozen cracked ribs.”

All the systems in Gaia's body were coming back into action like a computer being booted up after a long sleep.
Unfortunately, her nerves were waking up along with her muscles.
There was pain everywhere.

Gaia thought she heard something behind her and turned quickly. Nothing was there, but the head rush that overtook her was so overpowering, she momentarily stumbled. The red-haired girl
reached out for her.

“I've got . . . oof!” The slim girl stood in close and held Gaia with both arms. “Damn, girl. You're solid.”

Solid. That was a nice way to say she weighed as much as a water buffalo.

“I'll be okay,” she said. “Just go on. Let me sit here a little longer, and I'll be fine.”

“Nope. If you're not going to let me take you to the hospital, you at least have to let me buy you a cup of coffee,” the girl said. “Not that you need to add caffeine to whatever
weird substance
you've got running through your veins.”

Gaia closed her eyes. “I don't think—”

The girl shook her head. “Come on. A double latte is the next best thing to surgery.”

Gaia started to laugh, but it was still a bad idea. It made too many things hurt too much. Maybe sitting and sipping would be the best things for her right now. Besides, if Shadow Man came back, she couldn't be sure she could defend herself.

“All right,” Gaia agreed. “Coffee.”

HE WATCHED FROM THE BEST
darkness he could find. Sweat poured down from his temples. His back. His underarms. His lungs felt like they'd been roasted over an open flame. Bent at the waist, holding his hands above his knees, he fought for breath. She was good. He had to give her that. But the scene in front of him made his pulse race faster than any sprint ever could.

She was also down
. And she wasn't getting up. Couldn't, apparently. Not without help.

It was all he could do to keep from laughing through his gasps. How pathetic. How perfectly pathetic.

A skinny girl with tangly red hair was aiding
the one
. The target. The ultimate trophy.

His eyes narrowed into slits as his breath started to slow. He could take them both. Two for the price of one. He could practically smell them from here. The fear would smell even better. He licked his lips. He could almost taste it.

As the girls shuffled off, he straightened his back. There would be
no satisfaction
in taking her now. Not when she couldn't even walk on her own. The side dish wasn't enough to sweeten the deal.

He wanted a fight.

He would have what he wanted.

But there were too many cops around. Too many pissants. There would be no more girls in the park tonight.

Unless, of course, he dragged one there.

Once
,
when Gaia was a baby, she was playing in a sandbox in Central Park. It was a sunny day in early spring. I remember because Katia was picking buttercups and tickling Gaia's chin with them.

We turned our backs on Gaia for one moment. Just to clean up our picnic before retrieving her and heading for home.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, a crazed pit bull came charging at Gaia. She was two. Only two. Sweet. Small. Seemingly helpless.

Before I could blink, the pit bull was bearing down on Gaia and her playmate. With the attack instinct of an animal, my lovely daughter leaped at the wild dog and sank her baby teeth into the dog's hind leg.

That was when we knew we had a very special girl on our hands.

There was a distinct possibility she could like this girl.

GAIA'S ARM WAS FLUNG AROUND THE
red-haired girl's shoulders as they stumbled their way across the winding pathways. The muscles in Gaia's knee felt like they had been stomped flat,
stripped raw,
and rubbed in coarse salt.

They neared the entrance of the park and found a young policeman with an unlikely handlebar mustache standing guard over the end of the pathway. Gaia made an effort to stand up straighter, putting less of her weight on her smaller companion. The last thing she wanted was for the cop to think she was drunk or on some kind of drugs.

“What do you two think you're doing in there
?” the policeman called as they approached.

“Just taking a walk,” the red-haired girl said.

The cop gave a snort. “You picked a bad place for a walk. Didn't you hear what happened in the park last night?”

“They're only slicing up blonds,” the girl replied. “It's in all the papers.”

“I wouldn't be too sure about that.” He paused and looked them over. “Besides, your . . .
friend
is about as blond as they come.”

There was something about the way he said
friend
that caught Gaia's ear. Maybe it was because she was so tired, but it took her a moment to put the idea together.
Two girls. Walking alone. Arms around each other.

This guy thought they were lesbians.

Gaia leaned harder on her companion and smiled. Might as well give him a show. His already ruddy face darkened, and there was a spark of interest in his eyes.

Men.
So predictable.
He quickly glanced away.

“We're leaving the park now,” Gaia said. “So we'll be okay.”

When the policeman looked at them again, he seemed a little irritated. “Be careful,” he said. “If you have to come back this way, go around the outside of the park.”

“Sure,” said the girl. “Thanks for the
profound advice.”

They moved away and turned down Sullivan Street toward a row of cafes. Tired as she was, Gaia watched the stream of people moving in and out of the buildings with interest. Living in the city that never slept certainly had its high points. Getting coffee and doughnuts at any hour of the day or night was
civilization at its peak.

Now that there were other people around, Gaia thought again about her weakness. She pulled her arm away from the red-haired girl's shoulders. “I can make it on my own now.”

“You sure?” The girl kept her arm at Gaia's waist for a few steps, as if measuring her steadiness, then let
her go. “For someone who was unconscious five minutes ago, you've made a miraculous recovery.”

“I heal fast,”
said Gaia.

“Let's hope so.” The girl stopped by a narrow building with a red door and a long list of coffees displayed in the window. “Come on—I'm buying.”

Inside, the place showed signs of being in the middle of a theme change. There was a blackboard over the counter that read Coffee Cannes and a big-screen TV stood in a corner playing some film with subtitles, but the framed movie posters had all been taken down and stacked in a corner. In the front half of the shop the tables had been removed along both walls, and even though it was after eleven at night, workmen were busily installing computers and workstations in their place.

The red-haired girl found a table
as far from the chaos
as possible—which wasn't very far—and dropped her slim body into a cane-bottomed chair.

“I'm going to stop coming to this place when they're finished with the remodeling,” she said. “It was cool to get my coffee with a Bergman flick. Caffeine and data is not my mix.”

Gaia carefully bent her swollen, tender knee and eased herself into a chair across from the girl. “You don't have to buy,” she said. “I've got cash.”

“Save it.” The girl slid her purse from her shoulder and dropped it in the center of the table. “If it weren't
for you, I wouldn't have any money to pay for this, anyway. The least I can do is buy you a cup.”

Gaia looked up at the board above the counter. Coffee and milk appeared in every possible combination. “Coffee,” she said.
“Just coffee.
Nothing fancy.”

The red-haired girl grinned. “I know exactly what you need.” She twisted in her seat and shouted to the man behind the counter. “Hey, Bill, bring two cups over here. And none of that weak-assed Colombian. Bring the
stuff.
”

The man behind the counter gave a tired nod and turned to a row of gleaming steel machines. A few moments later he
dropped
two huge mugs on the table, then turned without a word and went back to his post.

The coffee in the mugs produced tall plumes of steam, but that didn't stop the red-haired girl from lifting her mug and taking a long gulp. She shivered as she lowered her coffee. “Ahhh, as long as there's coffee, life goes on.”

Gaia took a tentative sip. It was strong, bitter, and blazingly hot. It also seemed to carry a caffeine kick that rivaled espresso.
Gaia could almost feel the coffee circulating in her veins.
Perfect.

The girl reached a small hand across the table. “I'm Mary,” she said.

Gaia took the hand. “Gaia.”

“Gaia.” The girl squeezed her fingers for a moment before releasing them. “Cool. Like the goddess.”

Gaia blinked. Was it just her, or were people around here getting smarter? “Hardly a goddess.”

“Well, you were certainly a powerful force of nature tonight,” said Mary. She lifted her cup and took another slug of hot coffee, then she planted her elbows on the table and looked at Gaia.
“Wait a minute—I know you.”

Gaia's shoulders tensed.

“You do?”

Mary nodded. “I saw you at a party. You were there with Ed Fargo.” She stopped and grinned. “Heather Gannis
went nuclear
on your ass.”

Gaia rolled her eyes. It figured. “Yeah, that was me.”

“Cool,” said Mary. “So, you know Ed?”

Gaia nodded. She suddenly felt even more self-conscious. Ed was one of the few people who had seen her in the middle of a postfight collapse. Pretty soon the two of them would be
sharing stories.

“Uh,” Gaia mumbled. “Can I ask a favor?”

“You don't have to ask,” said Mary. She made a dramatic sweep of her hand. “As an ass-kicking goddess, anything you want is yours.”

“Cool. I mean, okay.” She took a breath. “Could you please not talk about what happened tonight?”

“Not even with Ed?”

“Especially not with Ed,”
said Gaia.

Mary looked disappointed. “Well, all right.” A mischievous smile crossed her face. “It would make a hell of a good story, though. The way you hit that guy, I thought—” She shook her head. “I don't know what I thought.”

Gaia took another careful sip of the hot brew and studied the girl across the table. She was tall, at least as tall as Gaia, ridiculously thin. But her features weren't “elegant.” Mary had a short, narrow nose set above full lips. Her eyes seemed almost too large for her head and were colored an intense green, with hardly any traces or flecks of other colors. Her skin was pale and freckled, yet there was something exotic about the angle of her big eyes. But the feature that really caught the attention was the hair. Surrounding Mary's face and tumbling down her back was a tangled mass of curls, curls, and more curls. She kept pushing them out of her face, and they would bounce right back.

She was oddly beautiful.

“Where did you come from, anyway?” Mary asked. “What were you doing in the park?”

Chasing a supersonic serial killer.

“I was just out for a run,” Gaia lied. “I heard you yell and thought maybe I could help.”

Mary nodded, a smile on her lips. “You definitely helped. You probably saved my life.”

“I didn't save your life.”

“How do you know?”

Gaia shook her head. “That guy you were fighting was just an ancient hippie. He probably wanted some money for drugs.”

“That guy was an ancient hippie with a
gun,
” Mary said.

“Gun?” Gaia frowned and tried to think back. “I didn't see any gun.”

“It was there,” said Mary. “He had it in one hand and pulled on my purse with the other. I thought he was going to kill me.”

“Why didn't you let go of the purse?” asked Gaia. She hated the question as soon as it was out of her mouth. People were always saying that. Sit still. Don't fight.
Give the bad man your purse like a good victim.