All Wounds (10 page)

“A what?”

“A helper,” he said again. “Someone who isn’t a part of the Otherworlds, but helps you in the mortal realm. For instance, there will be times when you aren’t going to be able to make it to school, and so on. When I first met Martha, she had a helper called Loughman.”

“I remember Mr. Loughman. He used to live next door,” Rebecca said.

“He was her helper for many years,” Syd replied. “Until he died. Helpers are hard to find because it has to be someone you can trust implicitly, as they’ll have to keep your secrets, but who also has the strength of spirit to be able to participate in your world. For instance, they may have to assist in holding down a werewolf while you administer medicine, or feed a healing herb to a goblin. You should at least begin to think about someone you could ask.”

“Well, there is...someone. She’d be perfect. She can definitely keep a secret,” Rebecca said. “She’s been helping me...um...keep the secret about Nana for more than a year now. Sometimes when I have to stay home because. .something’s happened.. Robin hands in notes to the principal’s office excusing me. She’s gotten really good at forging Nana’s signature.”

“So Ryan has said,” Syd replied. “And speaking of missing school, you’re going to if you don’t hurry.”

With that, Syd gave Rebecca a little push toward the door and disappeared from the foyer.

Rebecca didn’t have time to think as she sprinted to the bus stop half a block away and just barely made it. She found a seat near the middle and flopped down in it with a deep sigh.

Robin was waiting at the school door—her bus always seemed to get there before Rebecca’s, even though it had farther to go and more people to pick up.

Before Rebecca was even off the bus, Robin was shaking her head.

“Look at your hair! And is that the same pair of pants you wore yesterday?” Robin clucked her tongue. “Another bad morning, huh? You want a soda or something?”

It had been a morning all right. Rebecca wasn’t quite sure if it she’d consider it “bad.” All Rebecca could do was nod, and reached for her backpack to get out change for the vending machine.

Robin didn’t bother waiting for Rebecca to give her quarters as she went to the Coke machine and fed it a handful of coins from her purse.

“Thanks,” Rebecca mumbled as Robin opened the bottle and handed to her. Rebecca took a deep drink of the soda before offering it back to Robin. “Will it ruin your diet to share it with me?” Robin rolled her eyes and took the bottle. “Off the diet,” Robin replied before taking a long sip. “Bryan broke up with me.”

“Oh, Ro, I’m so sorry!” Rebecca said. “I know you really liked him.

What a jerk, breaking up with you! Why?”

“Marla Thompson,” Robin said with a grimace. “I really hate that skinny blonde bitch. Just because she has big
—
” The warning bell cut off what Robin was about to say. She looked at Rebecca and smiled.

“So a few sugar calories won’t kill me,” she went on. “Neither will the caffeine.”

Rebecca held up a finger and dug into her bag, coming up quick with a bag of small candies. She offered them to Robin with a smile. “Chocolate cures all wounds.”

“Oh, Beck, you’re the best!” Robin squealed, hugging Rebecca hard.

“This is truly the noblest sacrifice a girl can make! Giving up her chocolate!”

“It’s a worthy cause,” Rebecca said. “Though I suppose if we want to risk detention again we could toilet paper Bryan’s car between classes. I could get to like this ‘delinquent’ rep we seem to be working on.” She eyed the group of popular girls heading toward entering the school. “Your adoring fans have arrived. Thanks for the Coke.”

Robin halted her with a hand on her arm and looked at her seriously. “I know it seems stupid to be upset about a guy dumping me when you have...

bigger issues than I do, but thanks for understanding and letting me whine,” Robin said, also glancing at the flock of girls heading her way. “Not one of them would do anything like that for me, or even understand why I care that Bryan dumped me—leaves me free for someone better, you know?—and that’s why you’re a better friend than that entire herd. And you can bet not one of them would give up their chocolate either, no matter who’d dumped me!”
As if those skeletons even ate chocolate
, Rebecca thought. She smiled and nodded as though Robin had asked to borrow her biology notes or something. She didn’t want to cause Robin any more grief than she already did.

Those girls always gave Robin a hard enough time just for talking to Rebecca, saying it was bad for her image. Now with word of their mutual detention circulating, it was just going to get worse.

As Mr. Bradley called roll in her homeroom, Rebecca thought about how Ryan wouldn’t answer when his teacher called his name. His teacher would probably just figure that he’d cut class again. It’s not like the school wasn’t used to Ryan’s absences.

The day seemed to drag on longer than usual, and Rebecca couldn’t help glancing at the clock on the wall far too often. She couldn’t believe how grateful she was when lunch came and she headed into the cafeteria with everybody else. For some reason she was hungrier than she usually was.

Famished, in fact. Even the cafeteria’s macaroni and cheese that looked more like yellow paste than anything edible sounded wonderful, and she couldn’t wait to at least attempt to eat it.

She was even more grateful to find an empty table near the back wall of the cafeteria and smiled as she remembered it had been the one Ryan had been sitting at yesterday in detention. She set her tray down, slid onto the bench seat and picked up her fork.

“No wonder you have skin problems, Spot,” came a familiar mocking voice as Rebecca sat down. “With what you eat, it’s a miracle that huge zit on your neck hasn’t taken over the rest of your face.” Gah. Marla Thompson and her gaggle of brainless bimbos were sitting at the table in front of her. How could she have not noticed them?

Her stomach growled in reply. That’s why she didn’t notice them. She was more focused on her food than anything else.

Why was she so hungry today?

“I swear, Spot. If I had that gross thing attached to me, I’d get three jobs and save every penny I could just to have it removed. At least a scar might make you interesting enough to get you a date.” She ignored Marla and the giggles of the other girls at that table. What was Marla doing in the cafeteria anyway? She usually went out somewhere.

Marla’s next overly loud comment answered that. “It will be nice when my car is fixed and I can actually eat somewhere I don’t have to look at things that kill my appetite.”

As if you have an appetite to kill
, Rebecca thought. She wished she were brave enough to say it to Marla’s face.

“No sack lunch today, Spot?” Marla asked. “Grandma too busy playing Bingo to pack one for you?”

Rebecca concentrated on her food, though she’d lost her own appetite.

Instead of trying to take another bite of her macaroni paste, she opened her milk and took a sip.

“Did you and Robin have a good time in detention with the rest of the lowlifes?” Marla continued.

Rebecca picked up her fork, deliberately ignoring Marla.

“As far as I’m concerned, you and Robin both deserve—”

“Why are you bugging me and not hanging out with your new
boyfriend
?” Rebecca interrupted Marla’s next question. Marla could pick on her all she wanted, but she was not about to say anything bad about Robin! “You know...

the one you had to steal from
Robin
.”

Marla’s eyes narrowed. The skinny girl stood up.

Rebecca instantly regretted her smart mouth. Why oh why hadn’t she just ignored her like she’d been doing? Now Marla was mad.

She walked to Rebecca’s table. “Not that it’s any of your business, but Bryan is at the dentist.”

Must have gotten a cavity from how sweet you are
, Rebecca thought with disdain as she stabbed her fork into what passed for macaroni and cheese.

“And I didn’t
steal
him from anyone,” Marla hissed as she put both hands on the table, leaning down so that only Rebecca could hear her. “Bryan has his own mind and Robin is a self-centered bitch. She only hangs out with you to make herself look good, which is hilarious since
you’re
the one who made her look like a dork in front of the whole school, getting her in trouble yesterday! Bryan dumped her because of that. Because of
you
! Way to go, charity case, screwing over the only person you could remotely consider a friend. I hope whatever you did was worth it.”

Rebecca stood up and shoved her tray away. She ran from the table as fast as she could, biting her bottom lip to keep from crying.

“When will you realize that all you ever do is mess stuff up? Stay out of other people’s lives, Spot!” Marla called after her.

Rebecca heard loud giggling behind her as she made it to the cafeteria doors and out into the hallway.

She choked back a sob. It wasn’t true! She wasn’t the reason Bryan dumped Robin!

Was she?

The bathroom she raced to was blessedly empty. Rebecca ran to the last stall and locked herself in it. She sat down on the toilet and pul ed up her feet so no one would notice her in there. She took breaths as deep as she could, trying to make as little noise as possible, swallowing hard in an attempt to keep the lump in her throat from forcing her tears out in an uncontrollable flood. Marla was
not
going to make her cry!

It wasn’t true. It wasn’t! Robin would have said something...wouldn’t she have? Not just...asked about her morning and bought her a soda and...

Robin wouldn’t lie to her! She said Marla Thompson was the reason Bryan broke up with her, and that’s what Rebecca would believe.

She’d never hurt Robin. Marla was right in that Robin was the only person Rebecca could call a friend, even if they had a strange relationship only they understood. She trusted Robin.. Robin would have said something, or been angry with her, or...or something if Rebecca had hurt her, even if not on purpose!

Right?

Unless Robin was lying to her, and Rebecca refused to believe that.

She heard the bathroom door open. Rebecca held her breath and stayed very still, hoping someone was just in the bathroom to fix their hair.

“Rebecca?” she heard Robin’s worried voice call. “Rebecca, come on.

I know you’re in here, and I know you’re upset. Come out here.” Rebecca didn’t want to. She didn’t want to see anyone right now. She should just go home. Make up another excuse note or just take the heat when the school called her nana about her missing classes. She didn’t care.

She just didn’t want to be here.

A few moments passed. Rebecca watched Robin’s shoes come closer, stall by stall, until they stopped at hers. The handle rattled and Rebecca heard a sigh.

“I know you’re in there,” Robin said. “Come on out or I’ll come in there and get you.”

“Go away! I’ll just mess up your life more!” Rebecca protested. Ugh, her voice gave her away. It was thick with tears.

“Don’t be stupid,” Robin said. “I’m going to count to three then I’m going to crawl under this door.”

Rebecca sighed. She knew Robin wouldn’t give up or leave until she at least saw her, so Rebecca stood up and opened the stall door.

Robin smiled at her. “Come with me. We’ll go somewhere and you’ll feel a lot better.”

“Are you crazy?” Rebecca said, shaking her head with a wry smile.

“You can’t leave school. Haven’t I gotten you in enough trouble this week?

Marla’s right. Just leave me alone, Ro. You shouldn’t be hanging around me.” Robin just smiled and held an arm out.

Rebecca shook her head and went to her friend, giving her a warm hug.

Robin didn’t hug her back. In fact, she flinched and pulled away. Rebecca leaned back a little, then dropped her embrace in complete horror.

What she saw wasn’t anything like the pretty friend she’d just hugged.

It was a...a thing.

A
big
thing that seemed to grow taller by the second.

Huge gray-green wings rose over its head and shoulders matched the color of its face. Glowing green eyes, like the color of the toxic waste always shown on TV—
radioactive green
, Rebecca thought insanely—raked over her, making her shiver again. Pointed ears stretched up into long black hair that was neatly separated by two short, curved, shiny black horns growing from the top of its head, making it look even taller. Gray fangs rested upon its gray lips.

Rebecca had never seen anything so disgustingly ugly, yet strangely beautiful. It wasn’t slimy or grotesque...just...ugly.

“Even immature, your power bleeds from you,” said the creature. It clamped a gray-skinned, black-clawed hand around her wrist.

Something inside her moved and leapt, infusing her limbs with warmth, and she knew what the creature was.

A demon. Syd had said demons kidnapped Healers.

Just as the thought entered her mind, the demon tugged her toward the row of mirrors above the sinks lining the opposite wall. “Come.” Rebecca tried to pull away and couldn’t extract herself from the being’s tight hold.

“No! Let me go!” she screamed.

“Go?” said the creature. “Where? Are you not unwelcome here? Unwanted? I have come to take you to a place where you will be more than appreciated, just like you want. You do want that, do you not?”

“What? No!” She fought to free her wrist. “Leave me alone!” The demon looked down at her with a sneer. “You are alone, are you not? And you wish me to leave you here, like this, when there are so many waiting for you?”

Rebecca felt whatever was inside her leap again and crash into her ribcage. She closed her eyes and gasped as images behind them filled her mind.

They wanted her. The demons. Unlike anyone here. How nice, to be wanted
somewhere by someone for a change. Yes...there were many waiting for her. Waiting to
—

She screamed and her eyes flew open. She didn’t want to be a queen of demons! Her free hand pried at the demon’s fingers around her wrist. “No!” The menacing being glared down at her and released her wrist, only to clamp the same hand around her throat and lift her from the floor without effort.“You will come whether or not I must force your consent,” said the demon. “You will come away from here, where you’ll be celebrated. Among us, you will be appreciated beyond imagination. Not like here. We will lay worlds at your feet, but you must part from this one.” She shook her head and managed to force words out. “Get off!” The demon released her and she fell hard to the floor.