Convergence - The Last Science #2.2 - Heroes and Villains

B2: Chapter 30 - Four Days Later - VII

  "When we were bailing. That hawk came outta nowhere and distracted... uhh..." She trailed off. "Distracted the guy trying to get us."

  Natalie frowned. "I know."

  "...Know what?"

  "I know it was my dad." Natalie didn't even have trouble saying it anymore, which scared her a little. "I know he was helping Omega."

  Rika hesitated. "You do?"

  "Dad made the golems. I saw him." Natalie shook her head. "I dunno why. But someday I'm gonna go find him and figure it out."

  She smiled. "Damn, Natalie..."

  Natalie wasn't used to warmth from Rika. Every time they'd ever spoken, going all the way back to the early days of the Council when she got into fights with Rachel, Natalie was usually the annoying kid they all tolerated at best—Rika least of all. "Huh?"

  "Well." She reached into her jacket pocket on the bench and pulled out a little bottle of something. She offered it forward. Natalie took it, uncertain. "From one girl chasing down her dad to another, good hunting." Rika waved her hand upward, prompting her.

  Natalie took a sip. It tasted awful, and burned her throat as it went down. She coughed and quickly handed it back. "Ugh. Was that—"

  "Straight whiskey," said Rika, grinning. "And no, you can't have more. Not til you're older."

  "I don't want more," said Natalie. She spat out the rest into her sleeve, trying to clear the taste out of her mouth.

  "Trust me, you will." Rika took a deep gulp with a sigh. "Worth every drop. Kanpai." She took another drink, then settled back onto the bench. "So, men are the fucking worst, right?"

  Natalie shivered, pulling her coat on tighter and renewing the warming spell she'd left off earlier. The church was colder than she'd expected. "What do you mean?"

  "Your dad. My dad. Viper, Omega, the shit I've heard about Kendra's dad. Sensing a pattern yet, Jane of the Jungle?"

  "I don't..."

  Rika shrugged, and took another sip of her drink. "What I'm saying is, guys are the worst. Pretty simple."

  "Not all guys," she said, thinking about Quinn. She smiled a little, just remembering the last time they hung out.

  Rika caught it. "Oh shit, is that..." She leaned forward a little, smirking. "Natalie, don't tell me you've got a crush."

  "No," Natalie shot back, with a touch of pride. "I have a boyfriend."

  Rika's mouth fell open. A few seconds later, she burst into laughter.

  "It's not a joke," Natalie added indignantly.

  "Oh, I know," said Rika, even while a few of the Greycloaks glanced over in annoyance. She calmed down, remembering where she was. "Can't live with 'em, can't live without 'em." She took another swig of the drink. "Fuck, I'd swear off all guys if I could. But I'm an addict."

  "An addict of what?"

  She smirked. "A conversation for when you're older."

  Natalie frowned. "Is this about... sex?"

  Rika gaped at her again. "Oookay, well then. Look, Nat, you—"

  "Natalie."

  She paused. "Okay, Natalie. You're what, thirteen now?" Natalie nodded. "Right. So here's the thing: guys are a bit behind at your age, but when they catch up, they catch up. And you're gonna start looking at them different. They're gonna start looking at you different."

  "I know," she said, uncomfortable. But still, she'd never really gotten a good explanation for all of this. Her dad had gone over the basics, but he never really explained a lot. Maybe he would have when she was older, but... well, they never got that far. The talk with Cinza and Crystal in Seattle had only confused her even more, especially since she was barely able to focus on anything at the time.

  May as well be Rika, right...? At least I know her.

  "So when you're looking at a guy—or especially girls if you're like me at fourteen—and you start to feel like you want them? Like you need them? You shut that shit down."

  "Huh?"

  "Fucking hell, what is it with funerals and sex..." Rika muttered under her breath. She nodded. "Trust me. Nothing good comes out of sex that young. You don't have a clue what you're doing, neither do they, and you're just gonna fuck up any good relationships you have."

  "Is that what you did?"

  She choked on her drink, spluttering a bit. "Shit, right for the jugular Natalie."

  "...Sorry."

  Rika shrugged. "Well, you're right. That's what I did. A lot. And I fucked up every single good friendship I had, from fourteen to twenty one." She leaned forward again, realizing how loud she'd been talking. "I'm not gonna lie. I had fun at the time. It seemed like everything was gonna go great. But that's the trap."

  After another swig of her drink, Rika leaned forward again. "Gotta say, you look fucking intense. How'd you pull off all this?" Rika waved lazily to... well, all of her.

  Natalie hesitated. "...I did some rituals."

  To her relief, though not really a surprise, Rika didn't seem to care. Mostly, she was just curious. "Huh. Guess they don't set off my allergies then. What a relief." She grinned. "Looks damn good though, whatever the hell you were aiming for."

  Rika reached out, her rose-entwined hand coming toward Natalie's shoulder.

  Natalie flinched away.

  "...You okay?"

  "I'm fine," she said—too quickly.

  Rika was smarter than that. "What happened?"

  "I can't," she whispered. Natalie got to her feet and started walking away, Rika staring after her.

  "Natalie, what happened?" Rika asked again, but Natalie ignored her. Memories had been slowly coming back throughout the conversation, things she'd tried to avoid thinking about for so long. She'd been asking Rika all those questions to try and understand, without ever getting right to the heart of the problem. She wanted to know why, but Rika was a good person at heart. Natalie couldn't imagine Rika ever doing what he did.

  What he almost did.

  I...

  You got away. You stopped him.

  It didn't help. The voice couldn't get her out of that particular hole. Natalie fled back out the front door as calmly as she could. As soon as she was outside again, with the rain swallowing up the noise of the city in the distance, she found a small space at the end of the front deck. She wedged herself in between the bench and the flower bed, pulled her hood up and hugged herself tight. Percy fluttered out to the railing and took watch, understanding what she needed before she even asked.

  Natalie held very still, hands clasped around her legs, trying to force away the memories of that night. She thought of Quinn, and her friends, and her new home—but the black clouds kept coming, forcing him back into her mind, mixed in with images of lost friends, and her dad, and the gang members in the warehouse, and everything else that had gone so horribly wrong in her world.