Beautiful Dead 02 - Arizona Read online

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  BEAUTIFUL DEAD

  1. Jonas

  3. Summer

  4. Phoenix

  Other titles published by Hodder Children's Books

  NIGHT WORLD

  Volume I: Secret Vampire, Daughters of Darkness and Enchantress

  Volume I : Dark Angel, The Chosen and Soulmate

  Volume I I: Huntress, Black Dawn and Witchlight

  L. J. Smith

  DARKE ACADEMY

  Secret Lives

  Blood Ties

  Gabriel e Poole

  BOOK 2 ARIZONA

  Eden Maguire

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  AMA$

  4

  Copyright © 2009 Eden Maguire

  First published in Great Britain in 2009 by Hodder Children's Books

  This E-book edition published in 2010

  The right of Eden Maguire to be identified as the Author of this Work has been asserted by them in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act in

  1988.

  Al rights reserved. Apart from any use permitted under UK copyright law, this publication may only be reproduced, stored or transmitted, in any form, or by any

  means with prior permission in writing from the publishers or in the case of reprographic production in accordance with the terms of licences issued by the 5

  Copyright Licensing Agency and may not be otherwise circulated in any form of binding or cover other than that in which it is published and without a similar

  condition being imposed on the subsequent purchaser.

  Al characters in this publication are fictitious and any resemblance to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.

  A Catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

  ISBN 978 1 844 56989 2

  Hachette Children's Books

  a division of Hachette Children's Books

  338 Euston Road, London NW 1 3BH

  An Hachette UK company

  www.hachette.co.uk

  6

  For m y two beautiful daughters

  Phoenix Rohr changed me. He exploded into my life like a bright shooting 7

  star out of a big, dark sky and lit up my world. Before I met Phoenix I was a half-person unfinished and scared. Afterwards, for a few short weeks, I was whole.

  He and I did it for each other. We held together against the rough world, my hand in his, his arm around my shoulder.

  The truth is, people in my world have a habit of losing their lives -

  four kids from our school in one year. It makes for intensity every day you grasp what you've got and live it. Love and sex, sharing each moment. I held on to Phoenix like he was my saviour.

  And then it shattered. I lost him three smal words. He was in a fight and he died.

  I looked for him everywhere. I drove my car out of town through the 8

  shaking aspens and tal redwoods to where the jagged hil s joined the sky. 'Phoenix. 'I whispered it a thousand times. His name was al I had.

  Phoenix the fourth on a rol -cal of students who would never return. One two - three - four hits to the heart and the last one was the worst by a mil ion miles. 'Phoenix. '

  I clung to memories. His kisses, his touch midsummer days when we swam in Deer Creek, evenings of him turning up the sound system in my car and driving us out to Hartmann Lake, me resting my head on his shoulder and trying to count the stars. For a time I was scared that Id forget.

  Then the wings of angels, ghosts, spirits in limbo whatever you want to cal them began to beat. And Phoenix came back.

  9

  I don't want to talk with anyone. I need to be alone.

  OK, so everything worked out for Jonas - and that was partly down to

  me. But I stil hold the fate of three Beautiful Dead in my hands. It's true

  - I do. Arizona, Summer and Phoenix. Arizona, Summer, Phoenix. In that order the names run in my head like a mantra.

  'Darina, I wish you would stay home more. We could do stuff have a pedicure, go shopping.' This is Laura, my mom.

  'Darina, you have to quit driving the convertible. It eats gas.' My stepdad, Jim.

  You get the picture.

  'Meet us at the mal . Lucas and Christian wil be there.' Jordan and Hannah. Chirpy-chirpy-cheep-cheep chickadees.

  And Logan Lavel e. 'Darina, why don't you hang at my place like we used to? I have a cool new DVD we can watch.'

  Back offàl of you. Leave me alone. My body language ought to have done it, but these guys are too thick-skinned to read it. Or maybe they care about me.

  I drive the car anyway, way out through Centennial, always in the

  same direction towards Foxton. Into the mountains, rising sheer on each side of the freeway, blocking out the blue sky.

  I blast music into the quiet air. I put my foot on the gas.

  Speed is the key to lifting the weight from my shoulders, leaving everyone behind. Drive, baby, drive! I'm in amongst the burn-out area. Miles of forest-fire have left black, twisted stumps, fal en trunks, grey earth. In ten years maybe green stuff wil start to grow.

  I'm out of the tree carnage, pushing higher into the mountains and the redwoods are green again against the pink rock, and I'm shedding my heavy secret, it's sliding from my shoulders because out here nobody can pressure me. I'm safe.

  The beat of the music pounds my eardrums. Guitars whine. I yel the

  lyrics as I grip the steering wheel and lean forward in my seat. Lipgloss-

  red bodywork and creamy beige leather, with silver trim. Brandon Rohr showed expensive taste when he found me this car. I pass Turkey Shoot Ridge, ten minutes from Foxton. Thirty minutes from the Beautiful Dead. 10

  I guess I'm fixated. I know I am. Every moment, every breath I take, I long for Phoenix, his eyes reading what's in my head and heart, his arms around me. Why can't I be with him twenty-four seven, I want to know.

  Here's Foxton - a straggle of wooden houses, a general store with boarded windows, a junction without a traffic sign. I take the side road, past the fishermen's cabins overlooking the racing water where Bob Jonson final y took revenge for Jonas's death - forced Matt Fortune off the track and they both smashed against the rocks and drowned. They took Matt's Harley back to Charlie Fortune and he fixed it up for himself to ride. I shudder when I think about that. Don't think about it, Darina. Drive on.

  I'm clear of the houses and the track has turned to dirt. There's

  nothing beyond this point, so I need to get out of the car and go by foot along the path the mule deer have made when they head for the stand of aspens on the ridge. This is the fifth, maybe sixth time I've driven up here since Jonas left, and always I meet silence and emptiness. The wind blows through the aspens but there are no wings beating, no force field

  tel ing far-siders like me to back off.

  Phoenix, it's me. Where are you? I need to see you. When he holds me in his arms my heart steadies. It's the only time I feel I'm home. If I carry your secret much longer, I '11 fal apart. Tel Hunter, tel the others, I can 't do this alone.

  I climb to the ridge and I'm out of breath as I stand in the shade of the rusting water tower. You can look through the trees down into the next val ey and never see the old barn. The aspen leaves shake and rustle - like wings? It's beautiful, real y beautiful - the aspens and the sloping

  hil side, yel ow spikes of Indian tobacco plant standing proud of the silvery meadow grass. And the big, big sky.

  But no, I'm stil not hearing the sound of beating wings - only the thump of my own heartbeat and the rasp of my breath, and I get no sense of Phoenix and the Beautiful Dead. I look for him as I stride down the

  slope, look so hard that
maybe I miss the obvious and fail to spot his tal , 11

  stil figure by the barn door, turned to me and waiting. He wil be there, if wishing and longing can make it happen.

  My legs swish through the grass. I crouch and crawl under the razor-

  wire fence. And I can see straight into the barn because the door is swinging open like always. 'Phoenix?' I say out loud as I step into the darkness. There's the dust smel in my nostrils and the stal partitions

  rotting and leaning at crazy angles. Ancient horse tack is hanging from

  hooks, cobwebs trail from rafter to rafter. 'Please!'

  Let's get this straight. This is where the Beautiful Dead hang out. They don't let you see them unless they want to. In fact, they need to be secret, to keep out people from the far side - that's you and me - or else they're ... I was about to say 'dead', but that would be weird. I mean, Phoenix, Hunter, Arizona, Summer and the rest are history already. They're revenants, come back from the dead.

  The barn was empty - I checked every inch, even the hayloft, where narrow shafts of sunlight fel across the rotting floor. This was where I'd first glimpsed Phoenix, in the centre of a chanting circle - the Beautiful Dead and their overlord welcoming him back from limbo. Bar! - my mind exploded. By the time I gathered the pieces, my dead boyfriend was part of Hunter's gang and he had his death mark to prove it. An angel-wing tattoo between his shoulder blades, where the knife went through.

  Phoenix, come back! I pleaded.

  I left the barn and walked across the yard, hope draining from me. 'Hunter!' I yel ed. This is you doing this. I hate you!'

  The zombie overlord kept them invisible. He wasn't ready for me to see the Beautiful Dead again. He would take his time, let them gather their strength after the Jonas thing. And you should also know that they have no free wil and Hunter rules every single thing they do. Even though he stayed invisible, he heard me saying I hated him, right there and then. That's another seriously useful superpower he has.

  I decided to appeal to his softer side, though I knew he didn't have one.

  'Hunter, Please. I miss Phoenix. It hurts like hel .' 12

  No answer as I stood by the flatbed of the rusty truck. Stil no answer

  as I stepped on to the house porch and peered through the grimy window. I made out the rocking-chair by the kitchen range, the table covered in a hundred years of dust. I turned the handle and shoved with my shoulder against the locked door. 'Hunter, I hate you,' I murmured.

  A month earlier I would have walked away and told myself that the whole zombie thing was crazy. It was what grief was doing to my fevered brain making me see things that weren't there. I mean, how else do you cope when the person you love most in your life gets stabbed in a fight and dies? Loss doesn't cover that feeling. You need to cry and hit out at the same time, you fal down the deepest, darkest hole and the sides are smooth and there's nothing to cling on to. According to Kim Reiss, the therapist Laura sent me to see, this is when the brain is most likely to play cruel tricks.

  But that was four weeks back. Since then, I'd time travel ed and come up with the answer to the mystery of Jonas Jonson's death, and I was a true believer. So I knew Hunter the zombie overlord was definitely holding out on me and stopping me from seeing Phoenix. He was choosing to stay away.

  'If you keep on like this, I won't come back,' I threatened. I sounded like a wuss, even to myself. You need me. I'm your link with the far side.'

  Silence and space nothing else.

  'Arizona needs me,' I insisted. It was close to a year since she'd drowned in Hartmann Lake. 'Her time is starting to run out.'

  The wind blew along the porch, lifting a loose board in the roof. I'd tried every trick I knew to make the Beautiful Dead come back, and al for nothing. Stil I stayed for the whole morning, sitting in the cab of the ancient truck, staring up at Angel Rock.

  Final y I climbed down. 'OK, you win,' I muttered, setting off up the hil . 'Anyhow, I have a funeral to go to.'

  It wasn't Bob Jonson's actual funeral. After four in one year, I don't go any more. So I went along afterwards to the wake.

  Al the old bikers were there in their fringed leathers, with their goatee 13

  beards and their wild grey hair. The Harleys were parked in a half circle

  outside Bob's favourite bar. I was underage, so I hung out in the parking

  lot with Jordan, Lucas and Logan.

  'This is too sad.' There were tears in Jordan's eyes. A lock of wavy dark hair fel over her face. I was waiting for shy-boy Lucas to put an arm around her shoulder and comfort her.

  The guy didn't make a move so I stepped in and handed Jordan a Kleenex.

  'You were there, Darina,' she said. You saw him ride over the cliff.'

  I nodded. 'It wasn't an accident. Bob forced Matt to skid over the edge, then he revved his engine and rode after him. He definitely wanted it to end.'

  'It's stil too tragic,' Jordan insisted. 'The guy had his revenge. He didn't have to die.'

  'Yes, he did.' Logan spoke, not looking at Jordan, but right at me. 'There was nothing else for Bob, not after Jonas was kil ed. Life was hol ow. He was always at my place, drinking with my dad. I personal y watched the guy fal apart. Right, Darina?'

  I nodded again. 'Did Jonas's mom make the trip from Chicago?' I asked him.

  'Yeah. She flew down with her sister. They're inside with the guys.'

  'How did she look?' Jordan asked.

  You can lose your son then split with your husband because he's crazy with grief, but you can stil care. And the proof is she came to the wake. 'How do you guess she would look?' I asked.

  Other kids from El erton High were showing up. Someone turned up the CD player in his car and began blasting out Bob Dylan from way back. A track cal ed 'Knock- knock- knocking on Heaven's Door'.

  'Bob Jonson would be cool with this,' Logan said.

  The bleak words to the songs made me want to cry but I'd handed Jordan my last Kleenex. Instead, I stared at the shiny metal tubes and tanks of the motorcycles and tried to remember how total y happy Jonas and Zoey had been.

  'Why are you smiling?' Jordan asked impatiently. 'You're weird, Darina.' She walked away, with Lucas trailing behind.

  'No, you're not,' Logan assured me, trying to stick a Band Aid on 14

  what he supposed would be my shredded ego. 'I know where you're coming from.'

  I stared at him. You think you do, Logan, but you don't!'

  There's back story here between me and Logan, which means I push him away whenever he tries to get close. To be fair on myself though, he definitely trades on me knowing him since kindergarten, living on the

  next street and him buying me a white orchid corsage and taking me to

  our first prom - like we're always going to be that close, Disney

  bluebirds in the trees and wedding bel s in the distance. Not!

  I caught the hurt look in his eyes, the hand running uncertainly through his curly brown hair. Then he went into damage limitation.

  'Wel , no one knows exactly how another person is feeling - obviously.

  But no way are you weird.'

  'Thanks,' I mumbled, spotting Zoey's mom dropping Zoey off in the parking lot. Zoey was stil in a wheelchair, but her hair was styled and coloured and she was looking good. I went right across to talk with her.

  'Hey,' she said softly.

  I tried to pinpoint the way she smiled at me and scraped up the word

  .

  wan'. I must have read it somewhere. 'Hey, Zoey,' I replied. She looked

  smal and fragile in the wheelchair beside the monster Dynas and

  Softtails. 'I guess this is hard for you?'

  She nodded. 'I came because of Jonas.'

  'Have you stil got his Harley buckle?' I asked. With Zoey, there was no ice to break. We just jumped right in to the stuff that mattered.

  Raising her sweatshirt, she showed me that she was wearing it on her

  belt.

  'What do you
think, Darina - that Jonas and his dad are together now?'

  'Big question!' I shrugged. 'It depends what you believe.'

  There was a long silence. A couple of long-haired, badge-wearing, Bud-toting guys came out of the bar and sat astride their bikes. Two women wearing tailored black jackets and black trousers stood just inside the door. I recognized the fair, petite one as Jonas's mom.

  'What do you believe?' Zoey wanted to know.

  What did I do now? Did I shrug the question off, or did I give her what 15

  she wanted to hear? 'I guess they are,' I mumbled.

  'Together,' she repeated with a sigh. 'You're not just saying that?'

  I was side-stepping here. I knew for certain that Jonas had split from the group of Beautiful Dead the day his dad died - next stop freedom and

  peace for them both. That was the way Phoenix had explained it. But I

  couldn't breathe a word to Zoey. 'I believe it,' I said through clenched teeth.

  Did you ever have a secret so big that it screamed to get out every time you opened your mouth? I pictured myself jumping up on to the saddle of one of the Harleys, stretching my arms wide and yel ing, 'Listen to this, al of you! Jonas and his dad are cool. They're free. They got the peace they wanted. Be happy for them!'

  'Darina are you OK?' Zoey asked. 'I'm good,' I lied.

  Luckily she moved on. 'There's Mrs Jonson. Shal I speak to her? What do you think, Darina?'

  'I say yes. Do you want me to tel her hel o, get her to come over

  here?'

  Zoey shook her head. After multiple surgeries to fuse her spine in the places where it was broken in the Jonas crash, it was stil an effort for her to raise herself out of her wheelchair and take slow, unsteady steps towards the door of the bar.

  The kids in the parking lot did the decent thing and tried not to stare. One of the grey-haired bikers straddling his Dyna put down his beer, went up to her and said, 'Hey, let me help.' Together they went up the single step into the doorway.

  Haley Jonson flinched when she saw Zoey, then set her face in a

  smile. ' Zoey, look at You!'