Page 78 of Changeling
“Liar,” Sasha laughed. “You’d be flattered. You’re just uncomfortable around the more…outgoing. Is it so wrong to be comfortable in your own skin? It’s nice to meet someone who isn’t trying to hide anything.”
“Dude,” Nathan laughed in reply, “wedidn’tjust meet the same kid if you think that. Were you paying attention? This is high school.” He added a patronizing pat on Sasha’s shoulder and gestured with his free arm at the stage of faltering young dancers. “Everyone’s hiding something.”
“What’stheword,JesseJames?” Nathan said brightly into his cell phone as he answered his brother’s call. He was in a particularly good mood ever since Sasha allowed him to split off and do some physical digging while the incubus stuck to questioning students and faculty. He was currently on the school roof checking the area for any signs of the paranormal. So far he hadn’t found anything too incriminating, other than a few very anatomically correct pieces of graffiti.
“You sound too happy,” Jim said. “Did you kill a teenager? I know they can be annoying, but killing the people we’re trying to save could be seen as counterproductive.”
“Hardy-har,” Nathan griped. “Just enjoying the unseasonably warm weather is all.” It was forty degrees. Not exactlywarmbut better than what the weather would usually be like in the middle of January. “So didja get anything new? How’d you do with having a look at the police reports?”
“Better than I expected,” Jim said.
Nathan walked to the edge on the north side of the building. The view was pretty impressive as long as Nathan didn’t get close enough to lookdown. “Back at the hotel, then? Anything in the reports we didn’t already know?” He walked along about a foot from the edge as he went, searching for any ominous signs, symbols, or residue.
“Well, it looks like there’s even more inconsistency with the different deaths,” Jim said. “None of them happened at the same time of day. What’s really interesting though is that there was always more than one person that found the bodies.”
“That’s kinda odd.” Nathan ran a hand through his hair. “Makes me think itisone of the students and they always make sure to have someone with them when the bodies are found so no one suspects they did it.”
“The reports don’t say the names of the people who found the bodies each time though. If we knew that then we could probablynarrow things down. Assuming the killer even does the whole return to the scene of the crime cliché.”
Nathan shrugged—even if Jim couldn’t see him. “Better to go on then nothing. I’m gonna check in with Sasha again in twenty minutes or so. Maybe he knows who found the bodies. We split to cover more ground. Wait ‘til you meet this Leven kid, Jim.”
“Oh? Just like Wade?”
“More like the polar opposite.” Nathan circled back to the door that led up to the roof, having found nothing of interest. He sat on an old crate that had been left up there, just sturdy enough to hold his weight. “All right, enough chitchat. Get back to work on those files and research. Let us know if you find anything big. We’ll see you in the parking lot about a quarter to four, okay? Don’t go wasting time surfing for porn now.” Nathan grinned to himself when Jim responded with an irritated sigh.
Nathan pocketed his cell phone after Jim said very tersely, “Goodbye, Nathan,” and continued to sit on his crate. It was nice sitting up on the roof in the not too cold weather by himself for a few minutes. He was pleased Walter stayed away and let him enjoy the rare peace and quiet. Nathan really did like a good view when he wasn’t thinking about the heights. And Pittsburgh had one fine skyline.
Gingerly, he touched a fingertip to his right eyebrow. The cut was healing quickly, and Jim had already removed the stitches since they weren’t exactly pretty, but Nathan still had a red and angry wound through his eyebrow. He doubted the thin line of hair that had been sliced through would grow back once the cut scarred over. He huffed in hollow amusement to think that something so small and simple would leave a reminder when he’d suffered through so much worse.
“Hey there. Anyone ever tell you, you look sexy all alone up on a roof like this?”
“Jesus!” Nathan nearly leapt from the crate. Especially considering that the culprit for causing his alarm was a seventeen-year-old flirt with turquoise hair.
Nathan grimaced as he looked up and saw Leven standing inside the doorway that led back off the roof. “Are you stalking me now?” he accused, only half joking. “Get the jump on me like that again and you might just take a nosedive off the side of the building.”
The kid laughed as he entered fully onto the roof carrying what looked like lunch. He wasn’t barefoot anymore and had obviously changed after his morning dance practice. He had on skinny jeans that showed off his slim hips, a graphic T, and an unzipped bomber jacket.
“Youeatingup here?” Nathan asked as Leven pulled another crate up next to him. “It’s frickin’ forty degrees out.”
“Says the guy who thought this would be a nice place to relax,” Leven smirked. He pulled his feet up cross-legged on the crate and opened his bag lunch—a sandwich.
Nathan studied the kid a moment. “So you gonna tell me why you’re eating up here alone instead of with friends, or do I gotta coerce it outta you?”
A wider smirk quirked at Leven’s lips. “Coerce, huh? Does that involve—”
“Seriouslynow,” Nathan jumped in. “Can’t be for the sun,” he added with a nod at the clouded over sky.
Leven’s smirk faded, his light-hearted persona slipping the same way Nathan had seen before. “Those friends you mentioned?” he said, picking at his sandwich. “Yeah, I don’t…really have any.”
“New to the school? No, wait. Wade’s been here for years.”
Leven picked a little more at his sandwich and then set it down without taking a bite. “It’s not so bad up here. At least nobody bugs me.”
“But you’re the lead in the school play, right? Doesn’t that sorta go with being popular?”
“Uh,” Leven blinked at Nathan like he was absolutely out of his mind. “Did you even go to high school?”
Well…huh.Nathan hadn’t actually finished any kind of formal education, being on the run since he was middle school age, and he’d never really given much thought to high school politics.
