Fallen 2. Torment(85)

And even though Luce wasn't certain exactly what everyone was talking about, she knew

it had to do with Daniel coming back around.

"It's Daniel," she said softly. "The angel who can tip the scales is Daniel."

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It explained the agony he carried all the time, like a two-ton suitcase. It explained

why he'd been away from her so long. The only thing it didn't explain was why there

seemed to be some question in Arriane's mind about which side the scales would tip onto.

Which side would win the war.

Arriane opened her mouth, but instead of answering, she attacked Luce's plate

again. " Can I get some freaking hot sauce over here? " she yelled.

A shadow fell over their table. "I'll give you something fiery. "

Luce looked behind her and recoiled at the sight: A very tall boy in a long brown

trench coat, unbuttoned so that Luce could see a flash of something silver tucked inside

his belt. He had a shaved head, a slim, straight nose, a mouthful of perfect teeth.

And white eyes. Eyes utterly empty of color. No irises, no pupils, none at all.

His strange, vacant expression reminded Luce of the Outcast girl. Though Luce

hadn't seen that girl closely enough to figure out what was wrong with her eyes, she now

had a pretty good guess.

Shelby looked at the boy, swallowed hard, and tucked into her breakfast.

"Nothing to do with me," she mumbled.

"Save it," Arriane said to the boy. "You can put it on the fist sandwich I'm about

to serve you." Luce watched wide-eyed as tiny Arriane stood up and wiped her hands on

her jeans. "BRB, guys. Oh, and Luce, remind me to berate you for this when I get back."

Before Luce could ask what this guy had to do with her, Arriane had grabbed him by the

earlobe, twisted hard, and slammed his head down on the glass display counter near the

bar.

The noise shattered the lazy, late-night quiet of the restaurant. The guy yelped like

a child as Arriane twisted his ear the other way and climbed on top of him. Bellowing in

pain, he started bucking his lean body until he'd flung Arriane off and onto the glass case.

She rolled along its length and came to a stop at the end, knocking over a

towering lemon meringue pie, then leaped to her feet on the bar. She somersaulted back

toward him and caught him in a headlock with her legs, then set to work pounding his

face with her small fists.

"Arriane!" the waitress shrieked. "Not my pies! I try to be tolerant! But I have my

livelihood to look after!"

"Aw, fine!" Arriane shouted. "We'll take it to the kitchen." She released the guy,

slid to the floor, and booted him with her platform heel. He blindly stumbled toward the

door that led to the diner's kitchen. "Come on, you three," she called to their table. "Might

as well learn something."

Miles and Shelby threw down their napkins, reminding Luce of the way kids at

Dover used to drop everything and run screaming through the halls yelling "Fight!

Fight!" anytime there was the slightest rumor of a scuffle.

Luce followed behind, a little more hesitantly. If Arriane was suggesting that this

guy had showed up because of her, it raised a lot of other hairy questions. What about the

people who'd taken Dawn? And that arrow-shooting Outcast girl Cam had killed at Noyo

Point?

A loud slam sounded from inside the kitchen and three terrified men in dirty

aprons rushed out. By the time Luce made it past them through the swinging door,

Arriane was holding down the boy with her foot on his head while Miles and Shelby tied

him up with the kind of twine used to secure a tenderloin. His empty eyes stared up at

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Luce, but also through her.

They'd gagged him with a kitchen rag, so when Arriane taunted, "You want to

chill out for a little bit? In the meat cooler?" the boy could only groan. He'd stopped

putting up any kind of fight.

Grabbing him by the collar, Arriane dragged him across the floor and into the

walk-in refrigerator, gave him a few more kicks for good measure, then calmly shut the

door. She dusted off her hands and turned to Luce with a ticked-off look on her face.

"Who's after me, Arriane?" Luce's voice was shaking.

"A lot of people, babe."

"Was that"--Luce thought back to her meeting with Cam--"an Outcast?"

Arriane cleared her throat. Shelby coughed.

"Daniel said he couldn't be with me because he attracted too much attention. He

said I'd be safe at Shoreline, but they came there, too--"

"Only because they traced you leaving campus. You attract attention too, Luce.

And when you're out in the world tearing up casinos and the like, we can sense it. That

goes for the bad guys, too. That's why you're at that school in the first place."