The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner Chapters 6

The inhabit was fil ed with a abrupt blaze, and I felt the warmth on my leg in the same instant that I agnize there wasnt enough room for me to pin Diego to the wal with step forward some part of myself touching the sunlight.Bree he gasped.I misshapen away from him automatical y, rol ing myself tight against the wal . It took less than a second, and the in all time I was waiting for the pain to decease me. For the flames to hit and then spread like the night Id met her, only faster. The dazzling flash of light was g cardinal. It was meet the pil ar of sun again. I looked at Diegos face his eyes were wide, his mouth hanging open. He was fare y stil, a sure sign of alarm. I wanted to look prevail over at my leg, hardly I was afraid to see what was left. This wasnt like Jen ripping my arm off, though that had hurt more. I wasnt outlet to be able to fix this.Stil no pain yet.Bree, did you see that?I shook my head at a time quickly. How bad is it?Bad?My leg, I state through m y teeth. Just tel me whats left.Your leg looks fine to me.I glanced down quickly, and sure enough, there was my foot and my calf, near like before. I wiggled my toes. Fine.Does it hurt? he asked.I pul ed myself off the ground, onto my knees. Not yet.Did you see what happened? The light?I shook my head.Watch this, he verbalize, kneeling in bowel movement of the beam of sunshine again. And dont shove me out of the way this time. You already proved Im right. He launch his hand out. It was al foldly as hard to watch this time, til now if my leg felt normal. The second his fingers entered the beam, the core out was fil ed with a mil ion bril iant rainbow reflections. It was bright as noon in a glass room light everywhere. I flinched and then shuddered. There was sunlight all over me.Un material, Diego whispered. He put the ataraxis of his hand into the beam, and the cave somehow got even brighter. He rol ed his hand over to look at the back, then turned it palm up again. The ref lections danced like he was spinning a prism. There was no smel of burning, and he clearly wasnt in pain. I looked closely at his hand, and it seemed like there were a zil ion particular mirrors in the surface, too smal to distinguish separately, al shining back the light with double the intensity of a regular mirror.Come here, Bree you go for to try this.I couldnt conceive of of a reason to refuse, and I was curious, tho I was also stil reluctant as I slid to his side.No burn?None. Light doesnt burn us, it just reflects off of us. I guess thats kind of an understatement.Slow as a human, I reluctantly stretched my fingers into the light. Immediately, reflections blazed away from my skin, making the room so bright that the day outside would look dark in comparison. They werent scarce reflections, though, because the light was bent and assumptioned, more like crystal. I stuck my safe and sound hand in, and the room got brighter.Do you think Riley spangs? I whispered.mayhap. M aybe not.Why wouldnt he tel us if he did? What would be the point?So were manner of walking disco bal s. I shrugged.Diego laughed. I can see where the stories come from. Imagine if you saw this when you were human. Wouldnt you think that the ridicule over there just burst into flames?If he didnt hang around to chat. Maybe.This is incredible, Diego said. With one finger he traced a line across my glowe palm.Then he jumped to his feet right under the sunbeam, and the room went raving mad with light.Cmon, lets get out of here. He r to each oneed up and pul ed himself toward the hole hed cut to the surface. Youd think I would buzz off been over it, solely I was stil nervous to fol ow. Not wanting to seem like a tot chicken, I stayed close on his heels, but I was cringing inside the whole way. Riley had authentic y made his point about burning in the sun in my mind it was linked to that exorbitant time of burning as I became a vampire, and I couldnt escape the instinctive panic th at fil ed me every time I thought of it.Then Diego was out of the hole, and I was next to him half a second later. We stood on a smal patch of wild grass, only a few feet from the trees that covered the island. tin us, it was just a couple of yards to a low bluff, and then the water. everything around us blazed in the color and light shining off of us.Wow, I muttered.Diego grinned at me, his face beautiful with light, and suddenly, with a deep change in my brave, I realized that the whole BFF thing was way off the mark. For me, anyway. It was just that fast.His grin change intensity a little bit into just the hint of a smile. His eyes were wide like mine. Al awe and lights. He touched my face, the way hed touched my hand, as if he was trying to understand the shine.So pretty, he said. He left his hand against my cheek. Im not sure how long we stood there, smiling like issue forth idiots, shine away like glass torches. The inlet was empty of boats, which was probably good. No w ay even a mud-eyed human would have missed us. Not that they could have done anything to us, but I wasnt thirsty, and al the screaming would have ruined the mood. Eventual y a thick cloud drifted in front of the sun. Suddenly we were just us again, though stil slightly luminous. Not enough that anyone with eyes dul er than a vampires would notice. As soon as the shine was gone, my thoughts cleared up and I could think about what was advance next. But even though Diego looked like his normal self again not made of blazing light, anyway I k untried he would never look the same to me. That tingly sensation in the pit of my stomach was stil there. I had the feeling it might be there permanently.Do we tel Riley? Do we think he doesnt know? I asked. Diego sighed and dropped his hand. I dont know. Lets think about this while we track them.Were going to have to be careful, tracking them in the day. Were kind of noticeable in the sunlight, you know.He grinned. Lets be ninjas.I nodded. Su per-secret ninja club sounds way armoured combat vehicle than the whole BFF thing.Definitely better.It didnt take us more than a few seconds to find the point from which the whole gang had left the island. That was the easy part. Finding where theyd touched ground on the mainland was a whole otherwise problem. We briefly discussed splitting up, then vetoed that idea unanimously. Our logic was real y sound after al, if one of us found something, how would we tel the other? but mostly I just didnt want to leave him, and I could see he felt the same. Both of us had been without any kind of good companionship our whole lives, and it was just too sweet to waste a minute of it.There were so many options as to where they could have gone. To the mainland of the peninsula, or to another island, or back to the outskirts of Seattle, or north to Canada. Whenever we pul ed down or burned down one of our houses, Riley was always prepared he always seemed to know ex exemplifyly where to go ne xt. He must have planned ahead for that stuff, but he didnt let any of us in on the plan.They could have been anywhere.Ducking in and out of the water to avoid boats and people real y slowed us down. We spent al day with no luck, but neither of us minded. We were having the most fun wed ever had. It was such a strange day. Instead of sitting miserably in the trace trying to tune out the mayhem and swal ow my disgust at my hiding place, I was vie ninja with my new best friend, or maybe something more. We laughed a lot while we moved through the patches of shade, throwing rocks at each other like they were Chinese stars.Then the sun set, and suddenly I was stressed. Would Riley look for us? Would he assume we were fried? Did he know better?We started moving faster. A lot faster. Wed already circled al the nearby islands, so now we concentrated on the mainland. About an hour after sundown, I caught a familiar scent, and within seconds we were on their trail. Once we found the path of the smel, it was as easy as fol owing a herd of elephants through fresh snow.We talked about what to do, more serious now as we ran.I dont think we should tel Riley, I said. Lets say we spent al day in your cave before we went spirit for them. As I spoke, my paranoia started to grow. Better yet, lets tel them your cave was fil ed with water. We couldnt even talk.You think Rileys a bad dude, dont you? he asked quietly after a minute. As he spoke, he took my hand.I dont know. But Id rather act like he was, just in case. I hesitated, then said, You dont want to think hes bad.No, Diego admitted. Hes kind of my friend. I mean, not like youre my friend. He squeezed my fingers. But more than anyone else. I dont want to think Diego didnt finish his sentence.I squeezed his fingers back. Maybe hes total y decent. Our being careful doesnt change who he is.True. Okay, the underwater cave invention it is. At least at firstI could talk to him about the sun later. Id rather do it during the day , anyway, when I can prove what Im claiming right away. And just in case he already knows, but theres some good reason why he told us something else, I should tel him when were alone. Grab him at dawn, when hes climax back from wherever it is he goes.I noticed a ton of Is rather than wes going on in Diegos little speech, and it bothered me. But at the same time, I didnt want much to do with educating Riley. I didnt have the same faith in him Diego did.Ninja attack at dawn I said to make him laugh. It worked. We started joking again as we tracked our herd of vampires, but I could tel he was sentiment serious stuff under the teasing, just like I was.And I only got more importunate as we ran. Because we were running fast, and there was no way we had the wrong trail, but it was taking too long. We were real y getting away from the coast, up and over the closest mountains, off into new territory. This wasnt the normal pattern.Every house wed borrowed, whether it was up a mountain or on an island or hidden on a big farm, had a few things in common. The dead owners, the remote locale, and one other thing. They al were frame of focused on Seattle. Oriented around the big city like orbiting moons. Seattle was always the hub, always the target.We were out of orbit now, and it felt wrong. Maybe it meant nothing, maybe it was just that so many things were changing today. Al the truths Id evaluate had been turned upside down and I wasnt in the mood for any other upheavals. Why couldnt Riley have just picked someplace normal?Funny theyre this far out, Diego murmured, and I could hear the edge in his voice.Or scary, I muttered.He squeezed my hand. Its cool. The ninja club can handle anything.You got a secret handshake yet? workings on it, he promised.Something started to bug me. It was like I could feel this strange blind spot I knew there was something I wasnt seeing, but I couldnt put my finger on it. Something obviousAnd then, about lx miles farther west than our us ual perimeter, we found the house. It was impossible to mistake the noise. The boom boom boom of the bass, the video-game soundtrack, the snarling. core y our crowd.I pul ed my hand free, and Diego looked at me.Hey, I dont even know you, I said in a joking tone. I havent had one conversation with you, what with al that water we sat in al day. You could be a ninja or a vampire for al I know.He grinned. akin goes for you, stranger. Then low and fast, Just do the same things you did yesterday. Tomorrow night wel get out together. Maybe do some reconnaissance, figure out more of whats going on.Sounds like a plan. Mums the word.He ducked close and kissed me just a peck, but right on the lips. The shock of it zinged through my whole body. Then he said, Lets do this, and headed down the side of the mountain toward the source of the raucous noise without looking back. Already playing the part.A little stunned, I fol owed from a few yards behind, remembering to put the distance between us that I would put between myself and anyone else.