Angel Star (11 page)

“Teagan, why don’t you go home.”

“If she can find her way back.” Sage snorted under her breath.

“Claire obviously wants to spend some
quality
time with her friends,” Emily added.

Ryan’s words stung me more than those of the other two. I was being dismissed. Without Claire. But I couldn’t look him in the eye any longer. I was shaking.

I slowly looked each one in the face, searching for a way out of this—searching for anything. My eyes finally met Lauren’s. She was the newest to their group, therefore wouldn’t she be the weakest? Her honey-blonde curls framed her face and her blue eyes shone back at me. Yes! It was there, a connection. I pleaded with her in silence, afraid Brynn or Ryan would catch on but they didn’t.

“Don’t you think that’s for Claire to decide?” I asked softly, more for Lauren.

As soon as my words left my lips, the acknowledging light in Lauren’s eyes paled. Our connection severed. I was dizzy with fear, wondering if the blasting music had finally taken its toll; that if, indeed, I was seeing straight.

Slowly and deliberately, I studied each face before me. Each one stood stock still, glaring at me, while I shivered in front of them. My breath streamed out of my lungs, hung in the air in front of me, then dissipated.

Just. My. Breath.

My eyes frantically scanned each one again. Were they even breathing?

Sage…

Emily…

Sharply, I turned to Brynn and Ryan.

When my eyes rested on Claire’s face, I could feel threatening tears sting the back of my throat. This time I didn’t have the dim light of the car to make me question myself. I could see just fine.

“Claire? Please, let’s just go back,” I whispered. My voice was raspy and desperate.

Claire’s beautiful pale face looked only at Ryan and I watched Brynn’s fingers tighten around Claire’s arm, forcing her to decide. Without another word, they turned and proceeded to walk to the line with Claire in tow. I hardly noticed Lauren trailing behind them. She lingered long enough to catch my eye, then she blew me a kiss, her breath dancing faintly in the night before turning to catch up with the others.

As I attempted to control the flood of emotions within me, I heard a twig snap behind me. With a little shriek, I jumped. There was Garreth, his face full of relief. I threw my arms around his neck and buried my face into his devastatingly warm skin, breathing the scent of him deep into my lungs. I pressed myself closer to his chest, thawing myself against him with a need for warmth I’d never felt before.

“Claire. She went with them. I think she’s in some sort of trouble,” I explained urgently.

Fear and anger raged through me like a vicious cocktail as I weighed my chances of following Claire, unseen, to keep an eye on her. But, in my head, I saw only Ryan’s dark eyes. I felt Garreth’s warm grasp pull me away from the clearing.

“Let her go, Teagan. She’s made her choice,” Garreth said softly.

But I couldn’t. I wanted to race up the steps, grab my friend, and take her home. Yet, in the same moment, I wanted to turn and run away from the eeriness of it all. As soon as one thought formed, my anger answered and interrupted it until they created their own tiny circle that rotated tightly inside my head. My decision was made for me when I saw them fading into the mass of music and bodies.

Garreth took my hand and pulled me with him into the dark tent of trees. I couldn’t help turning around once more for a glimpse of the friend I was leaving behind, but she was long gone. They all seemed to know that in some choreographed way Claire would betray our friendship tonight when, in truth, I was the one being left behind.

Then why was I the one to feel guilty?

“I’ll take you home, you’re tired.”

“I’m not tired” My voice sounded weary, even to me.

“Liar. Come here.”

With one amazing sweep, he picked me up, cradling me close to him like never before. His arms felt so warm, so comfortable, they made me sleepy. I couldn’t resist closing my eyes just for a second. I heard a soft rustling around us and felt his shirt billow as I leaned in closer to him.

“I think the wind’s picking up a bit,” I whispered and then all went black.

In a matter of minutes we were at his car; the same clearing on the highway where Claire had parked hers. It felt as though we had descended somehow, his feet landing on the gravel with a slight crunch. He managed to open the door for me without setting me down and had me inside and buckled up by the time I opened my eyes. He gestured to a large cup of coffee in the cup holder, still steaming through the little opening in the black dome lid.

“I thought you could use this.”

“How did you know I was…?”

“Just drink.”

Mmm. Caramel Macchiato
.

The bitter liquid burned the raw lining of my throat on its way down but that didn’t stop me from taking huge gulps. I couldn’t resist its warmth. I was chilled to the bone and my nerves were ripped to shreds.

The inside of the Jeep was toasty, as though it had sat idling with the heater blowing while Garreth combed the woods in search of me. My muscles began to unclench as my body slowly reheated itself. Garreth smiled at me as I sipped my coffee with trembling hands, and listened to the precious silence.

Then it dawned on me how quickly we had made it to his car. My trek with the others had taken much, much longer. I was sure of it.

“How did we get here so fast?”

“You fell asleep.”

“You carried me the whole way back?”

I was horrified at the thought of my dead weight in his arms. There wasn’t much Garreth couldn’t do. His angelic abilities never ceased to amaze me, despite how he claimed he would soon be losing them. I didn’t want to think about that right now so I thought of how it had taken a lot for me to navigate my way to the rave, fully alert. I felt guilty about using up the precious warm light he had given me, though a lot of good it had done me tonight. The mental picture of me tripping like an idiot mortified me so I shoved the thought out of my head.

“How on earth did you manage, walking through pitch black woods carrying me? I’m not exactly light.”

“Who said we walked?”

Disbelief must have sparkled across my face and he laughed in response to my ability to once again be dumbfounded.

Hesitantly, I found my voice. “Would you…would you show me sometime?”

Garreth cocked his head to the side, as if reading me.

“I meant, would you show me how we got here so quickly?”

“I would show you anything.”

My heart pounded in my chest at the sound of his voice. We passed Claire’s little white car parked on the side of the turnoff. It made my chest squeeze tighter and I felt the dry lump forming in my throat.

“She’ll be all right, won’t she?”

“That depends.” Garreth’s voice was soft but I could tell he was holding back.

“I don’t understand.”

“Remember when I said things were already set in motion? When a person starts behaving in an unexplainable or uncharacteristic manner than their normal personality, it usually signifies that their Guardian has been…corrupted.”

I thought back to how staggeringly different Claire had been this evening—the hair, the clothes, the music. Even the extreme alterations to the stereo and the disregard for her brother were most definitely not typical of the Claire I knew.

“She wasn’t herself at all. It was like
Invasion of the Body Snatchers
but…real.” I sighed heavily.

The way Claire was adopting Ryan’s interests wasn’t right; in fact, it was border-line unhealthy. I thought of the icy temperature change I had just experienced. That, paired with the whole no-breathing thing, was way over the top. I just didn’t want to go there.

“It’s as if she’s lost her identity.” I stared out the window, letting the motion of the car numb me. “All along, I thought Ryan was a nice guy. I never even knew he hung around Brynn.”

“Exactly. Like I said before, uncharacteristic behavior.” Garreth sighed, as we drove into more civilized territory. I could see the lights of an Exxon station a few miles down the road and I instantly felt more at ease, although the headache I had been brewing at the rave was in full swing now. And something occurred to me.

“Garreth, what is Hadrian like?”

He slowed the car to a stop and looked at me intently. “Well, he’s very…dignified, if you can believe that. There’s a certain aura about Hadrian when someone is in his presence. That person is awed by him…almost mesmerized.”

I had a disturbing feeling that I just couldn’t make clear. My thoughts kept switching from the vexing evening I was now trying to forget, to the dark wings that fluttered in my room on occasion. Something was there…here. Something to be pieced together, only all the pieces weren’t available…or perhaps they were, but they just weren’t cooperating yet.

I struggled with asking the bizarre. There was something about Ryan, some link to Hadrian I wasn’t getting. All I could think of was how I felt when Ryan was sizing me up. It was definitely some psychological game he had played with me but I felt more demoralized, more threatened than humbled by him. No. The puzzle I was toying with in my head wasn’t fitting together. Ryan and Hadrian couldn’t possibly be one and the same. But, if…

Take the key. Fit into lock. Turn. Bingo.

“Garreth, do you think Hadrian is manipulating Ryan?”

My heart was pounding and I couldn’t take my eyes off his face. I was afraid to miss even the slightest reaction to my suggestion.

“Yes, I do. I believe Hadrian is actively targeting the Guardians of those closest to you, to get to you.”

I suddenly felt very sick.

“How? How would he do that?”

Garreth turned to face me in the tiny quarters of the Jeep, giving me his full attention.

“This is a game for Hadrian, one he will do anything to win. The Guardians are not human. We have deep emotions, but our basic structure is
thin
. How do I explain this? Like a living soul that bounces between forms. Hadrian can take Guardians when they are in their weakest state, when they are occupied with their human charge. Whether it’s protecting or swaying a decision…changing fate.”

“I would assume that’s when a Guardian would be at its strongest,” I interjected.

“Quite the opposite. It’s the most vulnerable state.”

I chewed on this for a moment. Garreth was vulnerable right now just by being with me. It was
I
who was putting
him
in danger.

“Then what happens to the person whose Guardian falls into that sort of predicament?”

Garreth gazed at me reluctantly, and then began.

“There is an immediate change to the human the moment a Guardian is corrupted. A change so significant, both physically and mentally, that the only thing it can really be compared to is like a soul leaving a dying body.” He gauged my reaction and kept going. “Their body temperature even drops slightly as the protective warmth of their Guardian leaves them. It is replaced by something cold and malicious.”

“Is that why you feel so warm when I touch you? Like when you gave me some of your internal light?”

He nodded. “I don’t share the same composition as you. A Guardian appears substantial, even feels like flesh and blood to the touch, and runs several degrees warmer than a human does.”

Garreth studied me intently. His expression was soft, but there was pain in his eyes. He took my hand in his.

“Imagine the little spark of life deep inside you that convinces you what is right and what is wrong—what saves you from making poor decisions—saves you from danger. Imagine it suddenly ripped from you. The indecision and emptiness left behind would be much like a void so intolerable, so inconceivable it would drive the human insane.”

I couldn’t imagine Garreth being ripped from me like that. I couldn’t even imagine words for what that would do to me. Garreth was so much a part of me, it would truly be like slicing myself in half.

As if hearing my tormented thoughts unraveling themselves, Garreth placed his hand on my cheek and I leaned against its warmth.

“Once the Guardian is removed, the human becomes the perfect puppet,” he whispered, staring out the window. “Without the life-light of the Guardian, that person is free to be molded into whatever Hadrian wants them to be.”

He didn’t need to say any more. I knew what I had witnessed in Claire’s car and in the woods. It seemed as if it were too late for them now, with the exception of Lauren, perhaps. If it happened to the others, it would probably happen to her too. My only hope for any of them at this point was that things could somehow be restored, though how to go about that, I had no idea. Hadrian would soon be in control and we were all powerless to stop him.

Garreth shifted into Drive and the car was moving once again. In the silence, I played the night over and over again, trying to make sense of what I had seen, of what it meant. I pulled Garreth’s warm hand into my own, cradling it in my lap, as if keeping a hold on him. I wouldn’t let Hadrian claim him. I wouldn’t let Hadrian rip my Guardian away from me. My fingers found their way to the lines embedded in his palm. His mark.

“Hadrian’s is different.”

“Excuse me?”

Garreth looked over at me. “Hadrian’s mark. It’s different. It’s shaped like two squares overlapping.”

Thanks to my curiosity and research on the computer earlier, I knew exactly what Garreth was describing to me, as though I was meant to know all along. If I remembered correctly, the double-squared star stood for separation and conflict, not only representing Hadrian for the type of Guardian he chose to be, but more importantly…his intentions.

My street was just around the bend and I put my head on Garreth’s shoulder. It was finally sinking in. If Hadrian was indeed in control of Ryan’s Guardian then he had been watching me longer than I realized.

And I had just left my best friend defenseless in the hands of something darker than she would ever know.

I
was too worried to sleep but I couldn’t help closing my eyes as Garreth drove me home. Drifting off to a place far from the middle of the dark forest was inviting. But it wasn’t enough to shut out the dark faces and angry words plaguing me. Needless to say, to enter the world of sleep and escape would be a gift. Cradling against the hollow of his shoulder, I let the soothing scent of incense from Garreth’s presence fill my lungs, sustaining me as if he were the only air I would ever need.