The girl answered me, but I’m going to skip over what she said since it was like 90 percent profanity and didn’t really answer my question anyway.

David had to have made her. Paladins could only be created when one died, passing his or her power on to another person via this kind of creepy kiss thing. Or, if you had an extra-superpowered-up Oracle—which David was—then the Oracle could make them. David had done that back in the fall, turning a bunch of girls into jacked-up ninja debutantes, but he’d then drained that power from all of them except Bee (she’d been kidnapped before David could get to her).

It was the only thing that made sense. And if David had created this girl, then she knew where he was. Maybe he was even close. He’d have to be. After all, when I’d been David’s Paladin, being too far away from him had physically hurt. So David couldn’t be far.

The thought made something in my throat go tight. “Tell me!” I demanded, giving the girl a shake. My fingers were so tight around her arm, it’s a wonder they weren’t touching. I could practically feel bones grinding, and the girl gave a little whimper of pain.

And then, all at once, it was like the strength went out of my grip. I actually felt it go out of me, like someone had opened a drain. One moment, I was all Paladin Triumphant, and the next, I was just a regular girl, the pain in my head seeming to multiply by about a thousand.

I couldn’t help but stagger a bit, and the girl in my grip must’ve felt it because she twisted away immediately, and then before I could so much as think, her foot was shooting out, catching me right in the thigh.

It was a good move, and one I’d used myself. Hit just the right spot, and the whole leg goes numb, knocking the person to their knees. It certainly worked on me now, and as I crumpled to the gross changing room carpet, a cold sweat broke out over my entire body.

For almost a year now, I’d had Paladin powers, and I’d started taking them for granted. I’d been in a lot of scary situations, but I’d always—always—known I was going to be okay. How could I not when I was basically a superhero? But being a regular girl facing someone with those powers?

The girl kicked again, and while I reached out automatically to deflect it, it was basically like a butterfly batting at a Rottweiler. My fingers glanced ineffectually off her ankle, and the kick hit me high in the chest, making me bite my tongue in agony.

Dropping to her knees, the girl grabbed my braid, yanking my head up, and I had a dizzying, sickening moment of realizing that she was going to kill me. She’d either cut my throat or snap my neck or something, but I was going to die in a matter of seconds. The last time I’d been this close to someone murdering me, I’d been able to stab him with the heel of my shoe. Tonight, I was wearing flip-flops, and one of those had gone flying off in the middle of all of this.

Still, I fought. I twisted in her grip even though the movement scraped my cheek against the carpet and made me feel like I was about three seconds away from losing a whole chunk of hair. I might not have my Paladin strength at the moment, but that didn’t mean I was going out easy.

But the girl just held on tighter, her knee coming to rest painfully against my ribs as she leaned closer. “Once I’m done with you,” she whispered, “your friend is next. I’ll be the only one. That’s what he wants.”

The words barely penetrated as I thought of Bee, waiting on me out in her car. I yanked my head again, trying to get the girl to let me go, my scalp burning, my face stinging. Had David told her about Bee? How else could she know?

But then the last thing she’d said hit me. That’s what he wants.

“David sent you after me?” The thought hurt almost more than the grip she had on my hair.

The girl was leaning closer now, her breath warm on my face, smelling like Juicy Fruit gum. “You didn’t think he could just leave you here, right?” she asked. “Not when you’re the one who wants to kill him.”

My head was swimming, both with pain and confusion, and I tried to twist in her grip again. “I would never hurt him,” I heard myself say, but the words sounded weak, breathless.

The girl snorted, and I grimaced as her knee dug into my back. “He said you’d say that.”

I tried to roll over, but she was still holding me too tight, her powers in full force, and mine . . . gone, it seemed like, so I stayed where I was, fingers digging into the grubby carpet.

“You talked to him?” I asked, and she shifted slightly. I got the impression she was reaching for something and, while that was worrying, I wanted to keep her talking.

“That’s not how it works,” she said. “It’s more like—”

“Like you just know,” I finished for her. I understood that. It was the same way I would feel when David was in danger. Orders didn’t have to be issued; you just knew what to do.

And now David was ordering this girl to kill me? I couldn’t believe that.

Something cold pressed against my neck, and I felt like my muscles turned to water, my breath sawing in and out of my lungs so quickly I was almost wheezing.

This couldn’t be how I died. Not on the floor of the changing room at the local pool, cut down when I was helpless and scared.

I was just starting to coil some kind of strength together when the girl was suddenly off me, and I realized another person had come into the changing room.

Bee.

Chapter 3

NOW MY FEAR was all for Bee, and as I heard the gasps and thunks of Bee fighting with the girl, I suddenly found the strength to move. Still weak, I crawled for the door, wanting to hit the lights, but unable to get to my feet just yet. It felt pathetic, shuffling over the carpet, my whole body aching, my throat raw, but lights would help Bee, and that’s all I wanted to do right now.

I shrieked as something hit me hard in the side, and then I was flat on the ground as something fell on top of me. No, over me. In the dark, either Bee or the girl hadn’t seen me and had backed right up onto me and tripped.

“Bee?” I cried out as I heard the sickening thwack of a head rapping against the lockers.

“I’m okay!” she replied, and while she sounded out of breath, she didn’t sound hurt. I pushed myself to my feet and lurched for the wall.

I heard a cry of pain and whirled around. “Bee!” I called again, but she was close to me now, her voice winded.

“That was her,” she said, “but I didn’t touch her.”

The girl cried out again, and I fumbled at the wall. What the heck was going on?

But before my fingers could hit the light switch, there was a movement off to my right, and someone shoved past me and out into the night. When I’d been fighting as a Paladin, I couldn’t stop fighting until someone was dead. How could she have just taken off like that?

The lights flared into life, and when I turned around, Bee was standing near me, breathing hard. The terry-cloth cover-up she’d thrown on over her bathing suit was ripped at the neck, nearly hanging off one shoulder, but other than that, she looked okay.

From the way she was staring at me, I guessed I looked a lot less okay.

Raising one shaking hand to my head, I felt my hair. “Did she tear any out?” I asked, a sudden image of myself half scalped coming to mind.

Bee shook her head. “No. It’s a mess, but I think it’s all there.”