Falling Darkness: The second book in the Falling Awake Series (33 page)

“Yes?” Caleb said in a classically patronizing tone.

“Why?” I demanded. “Why did you just let them go? You could have asked for my dad to get better. You should have made that fucking horrible witch give my dad his memories back.” I thrust my finger toward him, wishing it was a weapon instead of just skin and bone. “And you should have wanted him to give you back your heart. You were supposed to want to let me back in.” I could see my finger shaking in front of me and my vison become waterlogged.

NO, NO, NO, I was not going to cry. Not now. I grabbed a fistful of cutlery from a canister on the countertop and threw them at him, knives and all. He was smiling as he brought his arm up to shield his face.

“Whoa.” Caleb ducked out of the way and in one ridiculously quick motion, put one hand on the counter and hoisted his body up and over it, landing square in front of me. “Calm down,” he said, trapping my arms by my sides. “You’re acting crazy.”

“You make me crazy,” I screamed. The tears were loose and free, and in that moment I cursed myself for not being as strong as I knew I should be.

“My life is a fucking nightmare,” I said through my tears. “And you are the biggest haunt of all.”

Caleb looked me square in the eye. “You think I wouldn’t have asked for those things if I needed to?”

“Huh?” I sniffled.

“The minute I thought Sabre might take you from me, no spell or curse could have kept me away. I was free of the dark vice as soon as I saw you tied up in that chair. It took all my strength not to just get you out of there, and blow the whole thing.”

“You don’t hate me anymore?”

“I’m only sorry I ever did.”

“What about my dad?” I asked, my tone softening and the anger slowly ebbing. Caleb didn’t hate me anymore.

“I would never ask Sabre or the Witch doctor for anything. Never. But your dad’s getting better. He spoke Friday morning just after you left for Neah Bay.”

My heard hurtled to a stop. “He did?”

“He’s going to wake up soon. You’ll see.” Caleb let my wrists go and instead, slipped his hands around my waist, pulling me towards his chest. “I’m not coming out of this a loser. I don’t know about you but I’m doing this our way and I’m not backing down for anyone.”

“Our way,” I said, daring a small smile of hope. Caleb’s wolf smile was back and he bowed his head, resting his forehead against mine. His hair just brushed the side of my face and I sighed in pleasure. “Our way,” He murmured, his lips braising my skin lightly.

T
he day before Christmas Eve, I was walking to the library during lunch break when I was slammed into the wall, right before I got a chance to get through the double doors. Tamara stood in front of me, and if she got any angrier, steam would be coming from her flared nostrils.

“What do you think you’re doing?” I shoved her off me. “Back off.”

“This isn’t over,” She growled in my face. “You won’t get away with this.”

“Get away with what? You’re insane.” I started to walk away. I didn’t have time for this rubbish. I had last minute studying I had to cram in before Christmas break.

“Caleb was mine. It was your fault we broke up.” I stopped and turned back around when it sounded as though she was about to start crying. “Mine,” Tamara said. “We were happy and I don’t know how, but you managed to ruin it, and you’ll pay.”

“I don’t know what you think you and Caleb had together, but him not seeing you anymore has nothing to do with me. I don’t control him. I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed this, but he does what he wants, not what other people tell him.”

“It was your fault, and I want you to hear this first.” She stuck her bitchy nose in my face, prodding me in the chest with her long, pink fingernail. “I will get him back and you will be left alone, once again. I always get what I want and I’m not gonna let some freak who doesn’t know how to act like a girl because her silly mother would rather die than have to raise someone like you-”

My hand shot out, connecting with her cheek before her lips could utter another sound. “Don’t ever,” I breathed, “Mention my mom again. I will hit you a hell of a lot harder than that if you dare speak about her to me.” I shoved my backpack securely onto my shoulder and glared at Tamara. “Now I’m going to study, and if I were you, I would stay out of my way.”

Tamara was holding her cheek, shooting me daggers of ice. “Bitch,” she spat, and then flounced off.

The library was almost empty. It looked like me and around five others were interested in school work before the holidays, and after scanning the designated shelves, I grabbed whatever relative books I could find and checked them out. I had intended to stay in the Library, so I had some quiet, but I was too worked up. Tamara had set every one of my defensive fibers into overload.

I pushed the double doors open with my shoulder, whilst I struggled with stuffing the oversized books into my bag. I burst through them and right into someone else.

“Sorry,” I said, looking up into a pair of eyes more beautiful than any others I had ever seen. “Caleb,” I said with a smile. I couldn’t really go anywhere now without him more than a few steps behind me. He wasn’t enrolled in school, but he was everywhere else that I was. He took my bag from me and slung it easily over his shoulder.

His dodge pickup was waiting in the parking lot.

“I have my car,” I said to him.

“I’ll tail you.” I unlocked the car and Caleb dropped in my backpack.

When we got to Caleb’s, everyone was there, barr Mellissa who was visiting her grandparents for Christmas and wouldn’t be back until the day before New Year. Leah was sitting on the arm of the sofa next to Ressler and Drake was on the floor, control pad in hand playing grand theft auto on the PlayStation.

“Hey,” I said, positioning myself next to Ressler.

He nudged me in the arm. “Hey, how was school?”

“I slapped Tamara.”

He gave me a sideways look that demanded more explanation. “She deserved it.”

“I don’t doubt that,” he said, grinning.

Caleb walked through into the kitchen, totally silent. Ressler glanced up at him as he passed. “What’s up?” he asked him. I heard Caleb’s keys rattle in the empty fruit bowl and he came back into the living room, dropping down into the other sofa.

“It’s Christmas in two days,” he said, looking at the animated game on the ginormous T.V.

“So?” Drake said, shooting at someone with full concentration, like it was really life or death and not a dumb game. Didn’t he get enough violence in real life that he didn’t have to go finding it in videogames?

“So we should do something?” Caleb said, leaving the question open.

Drake paused the game and everyone seemed to turn to Caleb at once. Leah looked the most horrified. “Like what?” she said, totally taken aback.

“I don’t know. Cook dinner or something.”

“Uh, why?” Leah asked, her face contorting even more.

“Because Pria is here, and it’s Christmas. I’m also pretty sure dinner is what normal people do.”

“You are not normal people,” Leah promptly reminded him.

“I like dinner,” Ressler said, shrugging. “I think it’s a good idea.”

“And who’s cooking this dinner?” Drake asked, getting in on this weird yet mildly amusing conversation.

“I know,” I said, raising my hand a little. I felt like I was a kid back in school. When everyone turned to look at me, I put my hand down, embarrassed. “We could invite Gracey. She cooks and she already invited me to her house. I’m sure she wouldn’t mind if we all went.”

“What about Gabriel?” Ressler asked Caleb.

“Oh, right. We can’t leave him alone,” I said, feeling guilty that I had even forgot about him for a second.

“Then Gracey comes here,” Caleb said. The smile on my face was the biggest it had been in a long time and I jumped up, wrapping my arms around Caleb’s neck. “Thank you.”

“Whatever makes you happy.
It is
Christmas.”

“I’m gonna go call her right now and tell her.” I was higher than cloud nine. Christmas was shaping up to be pretty damn perfect, against all the odds. Just as I suspected, Gracey was more than happy to spend Christmas with us, and I was looking forward to having her here. I knew how much she was missing my dad, and having her here would be like having another piece of home.

I changed into a pair of jean shorts and an old grey Minnie mouse sweater. Caleb and Leah were sitting at the kitchen counter, but Drake and Ressler were gone. I sat down in one of the stools, next to Leah. “I was thinking,” I said, watching for their reactions, “That, maybe we could get a tree?” It wasn’t supposed to be a question, but I was too worried about what they would say to be more firm. I was taking over with my humanity, and I was worried it was all a bit much for them.

“Go cut one down,” Leah said. “This island is filled with them.”

“Okay,” I said. That was a no, then. “I checked out some books today from the school library on the lance.”

“There aint nothin’ in those books that we can’t tell you,” Leah said, helpfully. “You won’t find anything in there that we don’t already know.”

“I just wanted to understand it a little better.”

“Ignore Leah. She’s bitter and resentful. It’s good that you’re trying to find out more about it,” Caleb said with a reassuring smile.

“What was my mom doing with the holy lance? I don’t get it.”

It was Caleb who answered me. “Sabre said she was the keeper. Depending on where you go, there is a Lance in safe keeping and that country believes it is the original, but there can only be one. Who’s to say Savannah didn’t have it? Sabre wouldn’t pursue this if he didn’t believe it was the truth.”

“I saw her with it in my dream. She was holding it. It was the only reason I knew it even existed.”

“Maybe she’s trying to tell you something.” Caleb look serious enough.

I sighed. “Maybe.”

“If Sabre knew Savannah had the lance, then she had it,” Leah said. “We can’t assume otherwise. And you,” she spun around to face me, “need to find it. You know more than you think you do.”

“Easy for you to say,” I grumbled.

“You were lucky this time. That witch doctor is summoning dead fallen angels from hell, god knows what else he is doing, or is capable of.”

“His name is Emanuel by the way,” Caleb said.

“What?” Leah gave him a look of disdain.

“The witch doctor…”

Leah waved her hand in dismissal. “I don’t care what his name is. He could be Lucifer himself for all I care. He’s out there right now doing whatever it takes to get you back in his possession, and the only thing you have up on him is finding that lance before he does. They left you alive, for now, but next time you might just not be so lucky.”

“Give her a break, Leah,” Caleb said.

“What? She needs to know how bad things are about to get if Sabre finds that lance before she does.”

“At least we know it’s Sabre that’s behind all this. That’s something right?” I said, trying to lighten the dampened mood. If I never saw another sinister black shadow again, it wouldn’t be soon enough.

Leah roller her eyes. Okay, maybe I wasn’t lightening it enough.

Caleb looked up at me like he didn’t want to say whatever he was going to. “Sabre is too greedy and too self-absorbed to orchestrate something like this. I think there’s someone behind him pulling the strings and he’s nothing more than a dog’s body.”

I agreed totally with the greed and self-adoration but who the hell else could be involved in this? What was worse than Sabre? “But I thought for sure it had to be him,” I said.

“Then you thought wrong. It’s time to wake up and start realizing that life can always get worse, and right now, it is.” Leah got up, almost hitting me in the face with the lilac tips of her hair. The front door burst open and Ressler was holding the tip of a fir tree.

“Is that a Christmas tree?” I asked, tailing Leah into the living room.

“Yeah,” Ressler heaved, “Leah asked us to get one.”

Leah’s back went rigid. I couldn’t see her face but it was either very red or very angry. “You have a big mouth, Ressler,” she said.

I flattened my hand over my mouth to stop from smiling. “That was nice of you, Leah.”

“Consider it your Christmas gift,” she said, turning to give me a half-baked smile. There was nothing genuine about it but she had done a nice thing and I appreciated it.

Ressler barged his way through the door with Drake carrying the tail end of the tree. The thing was huge, and upright, it almost touched the ceiling.

“Do you have decorations?” I asked Caleb. He was lounging against the archway, offering no help what so ever to Ressler or Drake, although, they hardly needed it.

“Right here,” Drake said, handing me two pink gift bags. I sat down, untying them and inside there were baubles of red, green, and gold, plus decorating ribbon.

“You guys,” I said, feeling overwhelmed. I never dreamed I could have so many people in my life that were so amazing. I didn’t ever want to have to be without any of them. Of course, one day I would have to, but I wouldn’t think about that tonight.

Leah looked like she was about to vomit. “Oh please don’t cry.”

I sat with Ressler, putting the last of the decorations on the tree. “Thank you for doing this,” I said, setting a red and gold stocking on one of the branches. The whole apartment smelled of fir tree and the outdoors. It smelled like Christmas. “And for everything.”

“Don’t mention it.” He clipped a red and brown Robin next to my stocking. “You know I would do anything for you.”

My heart was physically aching. I loved Ressler, but I could never love him enough. I could never love him as much as he deserved. “So did you go on that date?”

“What date?”

“With Minka the cheerleader.”

“That sounds like a bad porn movie,” he said with a raised eyebrow and I started to laugh.

“I guess it does.”

“I’m not interested in dating.”

“It’s not fair of you to deprive people like that,” I said jokingly, but deep down, I meant it. Someone out there was missing out.

My legs were cramping. I stood up and Ressler handed me the gold, sparkling ribbon for the top of the tree, then picked me up, heaving me onto his shoulders. I fastened the ribbon, pricking it and pulling it until it looked perfect and then the celling lights were switched off and the warm tree lights glittered to life, flashing in a sequence of their own.

Drake was standing by the light switch. “Looks good,” he said, admiring the tree. I could see he was impressed, and he had good reason. It was beautiful.

Caleb came up behind him, resting his elbow on Drake’s shoulder. Our gazes immediately locked onto each other and I was smiling like crazy. It wasn’t even Christmas yet and I already had holiday fever. “Definitely looks good,” Caleb said, looking only at me. “Real good.”

***

Christmas Eve was like one long day of waiting. I was antsy all day in anticipation for the night time to roll around. I was in my bedroom wrapping my gifts for everyone, and Ressler poked his head inside the door. “You wanna go upstairs and shoot some pool?”

“Uh, huh.” I nodded, excitedly.

“Cool. See you up there.” He closed my bedroom door behind him and I abandoned my gift wrapping in exchange for something to wear. Shortly after, I stepped into the bar in the same jeans and sweater I originally had on. No one here cared what I looked like and I was free to just be myself. I didn’t have time to do anything with my hair and it was left to its own devices. Mostly straight but with a natural wave running through it.