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10

11:49 PM

MEMORY FIX

The ht A fair percentage of the locals seeht dreck of unemployment TV - but this area was sparsely populated compared to Bixby The thinly sprinkled minds dotted the mental landscape like lazy fireflies

"Anybody near the tracks?"

She opened her eyes, licked her lips, and shook her head "No, Rex Nothing bigger than a squirrel"

Her old Ford was parked in the sa hump of the railroad line Melissa couldn&039;t taste any hu to worry about

Rex was al He&039;d been worried that Cassie Flinders had told her friends everything she&039;d seen last night - or worse, spilled the beans to the local news channel

Of course, Melissa had to ad up to dare "haunted" railroad tracks would be a pain It was bad enough out at the snake pit, having to crawl over frozen teenagers playing gaic rocks But this rip in the blue tierous - they didn&039;t need anyall kinds of inconvenience

As Melissa cast her mind across the contortion, she realized that she could faintly taste the rip There was so about this place, like the s She wrinkled her nose, wondering if the rip had grown since last night or if it only got bigger during eclipses

"Maybe it&039;s too soon," he said "Any rumors Cassie started haven&039;t had ain toers "Scare the hell out of them Of course, it does see every little kid anders into darkling land when all of Bixby&039;s fixing to get turned into one big buffet" She saw his fists tighten, felt the tension course through hi, Rex You know me, always happy to rescue people"

He relaxed, took a breath "Well, you rescuedabout Rex was, he&039;d never forgotten the night she&039;d walked across Bixby to find him, back when they were kids Even after all these years, all the ht-year-old, forever grateful to her for showing hihtht? Even with her new and improved skills, Melissa still couldn&039;t tease out the details sometimes Not without physical contact, anyway, and Rex had been very edgy about touching today

"Maybe Cassie hasn&039;t told anyone," he said "Maybe she really does think it was a dream"

"I don&039;t know She tasted really clever" Melissa paused, unsure if clever hat she h, and Melissa had detected a crafty streak in her that was a ht, acting very much like a kid in shock, but she&039;d listened to everything theit all The sooner Melissa rejiggered her irl"

Rex&039;s guilt washed over her, sour roaned "That&039;s all behind us, Rex No ht as a feather in there Just trust ht?"

"Okay" He looked at his watch "So what do we do for eight minutes?"

"Jeez, Loverboy, if you have to ask"

He s across the car seat But his , Loverboy? she wondered

As they kissed, she felt Rex&039;s nervous energy buzzing across his lips She ran her tongue lightly across the him closer Melissa&039;s own excite her new skills to an to build It overwhel with his arousal like two sharp tastes colliding in her loved against the accidental touch of steel, and pulled her closer She ran a hand inside his jacket, feeling her in to spin She could taste the fer transformation and wondered at its sweet electric taste, like Pop Rocks under her tongue, fizzing as it trickled down her throat

Usually when they touched, her generations of mindcaster technique ensured that Melissa kept herself under control But tonight Rex&039;s newfound confidence, the strength in hiht glih his eyes the darkling in its dance, acknowledging hi to hiuilt and anxiety ca side boil over She wondered ould be left of Cassie Flinders if that had happened

Her ancientno mindcaster had ever kissed before There were shadows in his - this was Rex, after all He was the only reason she had survived this long All through those years while her mind had been untutored and undefended, this was all she&039;d wanted: to be able to touch hiiven her, all mastery and control, and allowed herself to sink into the darkness inside his down there didn&039;t have words, just ins, a pile of bones, the s prey

There was a moment of sharp pain, and then he pulled away, his body shuddering

Melissa sat for a ht, the echoes of what she&039;d felt in hi slowly She tasted salt and wondered for a moment what sort of mind noise it was, then realized that the taste was real - blood in hera hand to her lips "I bit my lip How lame is that?"

"It wasn&039;t you" He turned away "Sorry if that eird"

"It&039;s okay, Rex" Melissa touched her wounded lip tenderly "I had some spooky stuff in me too the first few times we touched Relove He reached out, his fingertips lightly touching her h the car at that uished at once Blue light swept across the world, and against the suddenly quiet mental landscape, the visions she&039;d taken frorew clearer

She saw a piece of paper covered with the spindly syns hat had ht

Melissa squinted in the dark " Rex&039;s voice was rough

He reached into his jacket, pulling out a folded piece of paper He opened it, revealing the same scrawled syot you spooked?" She settled back onto the driver&039;s side, sighing "Ancient seer wisdom about the end of the world?"

He shook his head "Not exactly ancient Look"

She peered closer The symbols ritten on lined paper, three-hole punched, with a confettied edge fro torn out of a spiral notebook

"I don&039;t understand These are your notes?"

"I didn&039;t write that I found it on "

"Wait a second" Melissa&039;s ns, Rex"

He nodded "That&039;s right, Cowgirl A slightly odd dialect, but readable"

"And it just showed up on your kitchen table? But no one knorite the lore besides you And oh, crap" Melissa placed the nail of her ring finger between her front teeth and bit down on it furiously Her teeth slipped fro snap "Those dominoes that the Grayfoots used to cos - they had lore syht differences as this one It&039;s even signed" He pointed to the bottoe, where a cell phone nurouped by a circle "Ah-nu-gee"

"What the hell is ah-nu-gee?"

"Each lore sign usually stands for a word, but when you put a circle around the the alphabet It&039;s a way to spell out names and write about objects that didn&039;t exist a few thousand years ago"

She raised her eyebrows "And people back then didn&039;t have ah-nu-gee? I repeat: what the hell?"

He laughed softly "What they didn&039;t have back then were certain sounds It was a Stone Age language, after all &039;Ah-nu-gee&039; is as close as they could get to &039;Angie&039; "

"Angie" Melissa&039;s blood ran cold at the naie, last naents She&039;d translated the darklings&039; ht Anathea had died, and it was her - Melissa was certain - leading the party that had kidnapped Rex "She wrote to you?"

He nodded "She wants to meet me"

"Meet you? What the - ?" Melissa pressed herself back against the car seat and growled, fists tightly clenched "Is she crazy?"

Rex gave that question a shrug "More scared than crazy, sounds like The Grayfoots are up to so, and she doesn&039;t knohat She says that after Anathea died, they cut her out of the loop because she&039;s not faernails cutting into her palain!"

He shook his head "Why? The darklings can&039;t turn - spot"

"So they just want to kill you, then Spiteful little creeps Finish what they started fifty years ago"

"Melissa," he said withcal If they wanted to kill e inforot herself under control, concentrating on her heartbeat until it slowed "Okay, then, Rex, an exchange of information sounds like fun Why don&039;t you offer to ht?" She felt her lips curl back from her teeth "I&039;ll show her what scared really ht these days"

She snorted "Come on, Rex It&039;s a in situation We&039;ll know everything about the Grayfoots that she does, and she&039;ll be left a drooling vegetable"

He just stared at her, the old guilt of what they&039;d done to his father spreading through the car like a gas leak

Melissa held his gaze for a h "Sorry" She turned away "Why did you keep this a secret fro you won&039;t like"

"You are not going to meet with her, Rex," she hissed "Not unless it&039;s in the ht and I&039;m there to rip that bitch&039;s s can&039;t ie&039;s a psycho What&039;s to stop her froet back on their good side!"