Badlands: The Lion’s Den(29)

Krystle shook her head in disgust. “So your parents got some kind of payoff to ship you off to stay with those weird people in the middle of nowhere. And the TerraDyne people were obviously paying the Wilkinsons a fortune to keep you hidden away.”

“Not only that. If they thought they could get away with it, then somewhere out there, they’ve got a council member on their payroll,” Flora said. “And if they have a council member on their payroll, they’ll know that I came to the Badlands. That will be on record in the council’s database.”

“They won’t know where in the Badlands you are, though,” Krystle said. “The second you drive over the border, you cease to exist as far as they’re concerned.”

“I’m worried that they might come after you too, though. Have you started any fires since you’ve been here?” Flora asked. “Anything that could tip them off to your powers?”

Krystle glanced around to make sure no one was listening.

“Not a single one,” she said. “I don’t think I even have powers anymore.”

“I don’t understand. I’ve never heard of someone developing powers and then losing them.”

“They were always kind of random, even when I had them,” Krystle said. “Sometimes if I was scared, the powers would crop up. Sometimes they wouldn’t. I got in fights in school a lot, and it never happened.”

“So how many times exactly did it happen?”

“Let’s see. One time I was with my mom and some guy tried to mug us. His coat and his hair caught on fire. A couple of times it happened when my dad was beating up on my mom. The second time it happened, my dad’s fur caught on fire, and he ran out of the house and never came back. After that day in the field, though, it never happened again – and I’ve tried, believe me. There’s plenty of dirtbags around here who’d make a better barbecue than a person. Oh, stop,” she added at Flora’s scandalized look. “You know it’s true.”

“I still don’t understand why the scientists think I’m a Firestarter,” Flora said. “I don’t care what those blood tests showed. My brothers beat me up plenty when I was a kid, and nobody ever caught on fire.”

“You say that so casually,” Krystle said with dismay. “Nobody should ever get used to being treated like that. I don’t understand how you grew up to be such a decent person.”

“Well, I looked at how my family treated each other and everyone else, and I made it my mission to do the exact opposite.”

“I’d like to go back and give them a retroactive ass-whipping,” Krystle growled.

“Is that really a thing?” Flora wondered.

“I’ll make it a thing. Your family did you a favor sending you away. God, we come from some fucked-up people, don’t we?”

“Language,” Flora said primly.





Chapter Fourteen




“You sure you don’t want to dance?” the drunk lion shifter said to Flora as she wiped down a table.

“Yes, thank you anyway. I’m every bit as sure now as I was the first two times you asked me.”

He stood there for a minute, looking confused.

“Does that mean no?” he asked, swaying where he stood.

Flora turned to walk away. She felt someone slam into her right side, and a sharp elbow jabbed her in the ribs, hard.

“I saw you and that lion,” Jennifer hissed into her ear.

“You saw me turning him down?” Flora winced, stepping back as she rubbed her ribcage.

“You were all over him! In public! You don’t even deserve Finn.” Jennifer’s eyes blazed with fury. “How could you treat him with such disrespect?”

“No, I wasn’t. If Finn has a problem with me, he can tell me about it himself,” Flora said with exasperation. When was Jennifer going to give it a rest? This was getting ridiculous.

“Oh, he’ll have a problem once I tell him about how you’re slobbering all over some other guy,” Jennifer sneered. She stalked off.

“Jennifer, wait!” Flora called after her. “Why would you lie to him? That isn’t what happened.”

Had she just publicly disrespected Finn? She prayed she hadn’t. She’d spoken politely with the drunk lion who’d been hitting on her, but she hadn’t encouraged him in any way. A lot of the girls who worked here would have just slugged him when he wouldn’t take no for an answer, but Flora didn’t have it in her. She truly hated to hurt people.

A few minutes later, as she headed back to the bar to get more cleaning supplies, she felt someone tap her on the shoulder.