Common Ground (The Common Ground Trilogy Book 1) (23 page)

“Don’t move, or I’ll shoot them, I swear to God I will,” he stuttered.

“God can’t help you now,” he whispered as a maniacal smile spread across his face. My heart was racing so fast, it was about to burst through my chest.

Everything happened all at once. There was a loud scream, the gunman disappeared into the darkness and a single gunshot rang out into the silent night, fulfilling my worst dreams.

Chapter 10:  An Hour Early

The clouds that had been covering the beauty of the night had dissipated, and slowly, stars began to shine. I inhaled deeply and focused my eyes on a small cluster that had broken through the grayness. My body was rigid and stiff but for some reason, I couldn’t remember exactly why I was on the ground staring up at the clearing night.

My senses seemed to be the only part of me that was working properly. The rankness of the garbage lining the ground all around me burned my nostrils. A slight rustling and muffled yell was coming from somewhere nearby. After another moment, I saw Liam’s face calmly emerge from the shadows, looking stoic as he bent down to check on Annie’s motionless body. The star cluster that had taken my gaze was covered up again by clouds. It ended up wakening me from my trance; everything that had happened suddenly came back to me as my body regained composure.

“Annie!” I startled, sitting up at once. Her motionless body lied curled up in a fetus position as I quickly crawled over to her on my hands and knees. “Liam, is she alright?” 

We were both leaning over her body and with each passing second, she looked worse and worse. Her face had gone white and when I grabbed her hand, she was as cold as ice. Liam, whose eyes had returned to their customary deep black, sat across from me, staring blankly at Annie. His sturdy hand then began to caress her face smoothly.

“Is she?” I choked up again, barely able to mutter the words.

“She’s not dead,” he said shortly, not looking over at me.

“What happened to her?” I asked, panicked.

“The gunshot must have shocked her because she passed out and hit her head on the concrete.”

“Then we need to get her to the hospital now!”

“No, that’s the last place we should go.”

“What? Why? She’s hurt you idiot! She needs a doctor!”

“She’ll be fine,” he snapped, “but we need to get out of here immediately.”

Carefully scooping up Annie’s limp body in his strong arms, Liam scanned the alley behind us. After a few seconds, he slowly turned back around and strode out of the alley towards civilization, leaving me behind. I quickly pulled myself up against one of the big trash bins and dusted off.

While I was cleaning my shirt, one of my fingers got stuck in a penny sized hole that had developed by my stomach. The odd thing was that there were no markings, bruises or blood and I didn’t feel any pain. If Annie was okay like Liam had said, I started to realize that she wasn’t the one who had actually been struck by the bullet. A dreadful feeling overtook me while I ran to catch up with Liam.

“Let’s go!” he barked from the sidewalk, still carrying Annie’s body in his arms.

He was already more than half way to Atlantis before I finally caught up to him. Liam sounded very confident that Annie would be okay, but her complexion hadn’t changed at all while we walked. More and more people started to come into focus the closer we got to the hotel and many of them gave the three of us alarming looks when we passed. It would be difficult to blame their suspicions, especially given the picture in front of them; a guy carrying a lifeless girl’s body while walking next to a girl who was dirty and had a bullet hole carved in her blouse. I continued to walk next to them as questions built in my head.

“Liam, I have some-” I started.

“Not now,” he cut me off, not pulling his gaze away from the path in front of him.

The power and finality in his voice was unlike any time I’d ever heard him speak. I remained silent, but the questions in my head persisted. More and more people continued to stare at us when we finally reached the hotel and passed straight by the front entrance. It took another few minutes to get back to Annie’s car.

“Get her keys out of the purse,” he commanded as we approached the car.

“Where’s your truck?” I asked while opening up Annie’s purse.

“I didn’t need it.”

“Then how’d you get here?” I retorted.

“That’s not important. Right now, the only thing that matters is getting Annie home safely.”

His unwavering reassurance that Annie was going to be okay lessened my worries a bit, and for the first time, I actually agreed with him. I opened the passenger side door where Liam softly put Annie down and buckled her seatbelt. My body squeezed into the back seat while Liam sat down in the driver’s spot. Instead of starting the car and leaving, he turned and put both hands on Annie’s temple. Slowly, he bowed his head towards hers until their foreheads barely touched together. He shut his eyes and began to inaudibly mumble under his breath.

“What are you doing?” I bellowed, unable to withdraw my gaze.

Again, Liam didn’t respond. After a minute, he opened his eyes and gingerly guided Annie’s body back to her seat. I glanced in stunned silence as her face started to regain color. She didn’t look dead anymore, but instead appeared to be sleeping peacefully.

“What the hell did you just do to her?” I demanded again.

“Relax,” he answered, civility slowly coming back to his voice. “She’s fine. Luckily, she won’t remember anything that happened tonight.”

Without warning, he turned the key in the ignition and the car instantly roared to life. He burned out of the parking space and flew away from the lot, not stopping for anything or anyone, including a valet worker who had to jump out of the way before getting killed.

“What do you mean she won’t remember anything from tonight? How could she forget it? We almost died!”

My patience continued to wane with the vagueness of his answers. Instead of talking, he focused solely on the road. He zigzagged through traffic for a minute before we finally turned off the Strip and flew down the same back roads that Liam had taken on our double date. The Strip quickly dissipated behind us before he finally started answering my questions.

“Forget about it,” he responded.

“Forget about it?” I repeated hysterically.

“Yeah, forget about it. I told you she is going to be fine, that should be enough. Besides, I’d think you’d be worried more about what happened to you tonight.”

“For someone who supposedly knows a lot about me, you really are stupid,” I jeered. “How dare you say that? What else could be more important?”

“Why don’t you explain to me how you survived that little incident back there,” he said, his eyes studying me through the rearview mirror. Subconsciously, my fingers started running through the bullet hole that was left in my shirt while I tried to think of a reasonable answer.

“I don’t know, all I remember was the gun being pointed at me right before it went off. The next thing I saw was you coming away from the garbage bin. He must have missed me,” I said, looking back at him through the mirror.

“No, I don’t think he did, unless you bought that shirt with a hole in it already?”

“Fine, do you have a better idea?” I rolled my eyes.

“I’ve got a thought,” he said keenly. “But I’m not sure you’d want to hear what I think.”

“I can’t believe I’m saying this but yeah, I do want to hear what you think,” I said.

He glared back at me with narrowed eyes and an ardent look on his face. I shuffled uncomfortably in my seat as his penetrating glare studied me closely.

“You’re one of Woodward’s special students.”

It took a minute for my brain to process exactly what he’d said. Professor Woodward was the furthest thing from my mind that night, but the sound of his name sparked the memory about the day he told me all about his supernatural world of angels and demons.

“Woodward,” I gasped.

“Yes, him.”

“What do you mean one of his special students?” I barely replied back.

“I’d heard he told you already,” he chuckled, looking and sounding rather amused at the situation. “Either I heard wrong or you’re not as smart as I thought.”

“First of all,” I sneered, my anger slowly getting the best of me. “You have no idea what we’ve talked about. Secondly, if it’s what I think you’re referring to, that’s absurd. There’s just no logical way it could be true.”

“Alright, then how do you explain that I knew exactly where to find and save you guys tonight? There are lots of dark alleys in Vegas. You think I randomly picked one and hoped that you’d be getting mugged in it?”

“I dunno,” I shot back, “maybe you were following us?”

“Okay, let’s go with that,” he mocked me. “You still haven’t explained to me how you survived getting shot. Most people are in a lot of pain and bleeding when they get shot, some even die. But you, well you’re sitting here talking like nothing even happened. Surviving that doesn’t seem very human to me.”

The emphasis on the word human made me shiver. It was difficult enough to believe it from someone I actually trusted; it was another to hear it from Liam.  Even though it was something I wasn’t ready or willing to accept, the idea of being an angel would have explained a lot, especially surviving the gunshot. And Liam being a demon would have made a lot of sense, mostly with his unusual role of hero. He finally looked away from the mirror but I could still see his smug smile spread across his face. He continued to drive quickly as the comforting lights from campus came into view.

“Maybe he missed and I tore my shirt when I fell to the ground?” I said, doing everything in my power to find a rational explanation for what had happened. “There was a lot of glass scattered around. It could have very easily ripped right through.”

Liam let out a loud, demonic laugh that vibrated the entire car. Surprisingly, Annie didn’t move a muscle but instead continued to sleep peacefully in the passenger seat.

“Sure, I can buy that. I mean the whole thing adds up perfectly. I followed the two of you around the entire night without being seen and was able to sneak into an empty, quiet alley without anyone hearing me and easily dismantle a man with a gun. All the while wearing a pair of red contacts that I put in when I’m out on the town. And, to top it all off, the one shot he fired at you miraculously missed and you tore your shirt on the ground with the exact size of a bullet hole,” he said sardonically. “You’ve solved it and I’m glad you did! I’ve been thinking Woodward is just an old pinhead for over a year now. I’m glad someone else sees it too.”

“That’s not funny,” I said sternly. “It’s just not something I believe or accept. I mean come on; you’re going to tell me I survived because of some repressed magical power?”

“I didn’t say that specifically, but you’re onto something. I’d keep running with it if I were you,” he nodded from the front seat.

Even though my story seemed more logical, I could help but start to think that Professor Woodward’s ideas held some validity. Liam being a demon would have made sense and I just knew in my heart that the bullet had really hit me. Without wanting to give him the satisfaction of being right, I leaned back against the seat and folded my arms.

“Whatever,” I said distantly. “I just want to get Annie home.”

“Ask and you shall receive,” he said, coming to a complete stop.

I looked around and immediately noticed the familiar yard that we shared with Hope and Steph. Our argument had become so heated; I’d barely realized how quickly we’d gotten home. Liam opened the driver’s side door and got out. Instead of walking over and helping get Annie out, he waited while I pushed the front seat forward and climbed out.

“Do you need any help getting her out?” I asked annoyed, walking around towards the other door.

“Actually, Annie’s going to stay with me this weekend. Trust me; it’ll be a lot easier for everyone if I’m with her when she wakes up.”

“No, she should be in her own bed. I’ll take care of her,” I argued.

“That’s very noble of you, but seeing as though you don’t believe anything extraordinary happened tonight, I think it’s best that I take care of her.”

“Wait a minute-” I retorted.

“Besides, you wouldn’t know what to do when she woke up in the morning not remembering anything from tonight, including your special dinner,” he added pointedly.

His words stung. Everything I’d worked for had come unraveled and there was no way to stop it. The thought of Annie not remembering the wonderful night we shared pained me deeply. For the first time in weeks, my life had returned to normal. But Liam was sitting there telling me that all of the things Annie and I worked out were meaningless and we’d have to start over from scratch. Angrily, I ran around the back of the car and was met with a slamming car door in my face.

“What did you do to her?” I yelled through the glass.

“Ask Woodward,” his muffled voice replied.

He then quickly backed out of the driveway and sped off around the corner of the street and was gone, leaving me standing alone in the driveway. Without another thought, I sprinted up the stairs and into our apartment. My computer wouldn’t turn on fast enough as I threw my body into the chair and started shuffling through my desk, looking for the one piece of paper I needed.

After another minute, the brightness of the monitor blinded me momentarily and my computer sat there, waiting to be used. Professor Woodward’s syllabus was tucked deep into my religious studies folder, which made it harder to find. I pulled it out, opened up my email, put in his address and started typing.