#
Kerry
I walked through the grimy halls like I owned the place. As I predicted, everyone dodged out of the way, although one dust dealer was brave enough to try to get my attention. I cut my eyes at him, and he melted into a dark doorway. I didn’t need a mirror to know I looked as dangerous as I felt.
Then I felt a tingle of warning between my shoulder blades and spun around in time to stop the knife with my hand instead of my spine. I shouldn’t have been surprised to see the little skeleton grinning up at me. Hingealwaystried to ambush me when I came to the Market. Usually, I didn’t mind, but today it was costing me time.
“Hinge! You creepy, lil monster! You’re gonna get yourself killed doing that!”
“Aw, Kerry. No one plays with me anymore. Besides, I’m already dead.”
“Yeah, well, you can get a lot deader,” I muttered and started walking away.
“Where have you been?” He hop-skipped alongside me, obviously not getting the hint. “I haven’t seen you in a long time.”
“Around. Doing stuff you don’t need to know about.” I knew I’d have to think of something to distract him or he’dfollow me like a puppy all the way to the pens. “Hey, you wanna do a job for me?”
“What does it pay?”
“What do you want?”
Paying Hinge wasn’t always easy. He was just a kid and usually wanted stuff like toys and bikes and games, but sometimes he asked for the craziest things.
“Depends on what the job is,” he said now.
“Just an errand.” I shrugged. “Go tell the shebas to get my ride ready to pick up.”
“I don’t need paying for something that easy.”
He reached for the knife he’d tried to stab me with, and I jerked my hand up. He was trouble enough without a weapon.
“I was only playing, Kerry. Give it back!”
“No. Where’s Bit?”
“Taking a nap. Give me my knife.”
“No. How’ve you been?”
“I’m surviving.” He shrugged his bone shoulders and how he managed to look so sad when he didn’t have eyes—or skin—I didn’t know. “Just … surviving.”
I sighed. He was a kid stuck between life and death, had been for centuries, and every year his hope faded a little more.
If my angel was here, she’d—
My vision darkened.
“You want me to go over to the garage right now, Kerry?”
“Yeah, then meet me in the parking lot. I’ll give you a little something for your trouble. Gimme about thirty minutes.”
He did a little happy dance and took off.
6. Kicked in the Teeth
Mira
I woke up to hear myself whistling and my lungs laboring in short gasps. I’d had a fair few beatings in my life, but this was bad.
