FORBIDDEN (19 page)

Her green eyes smoldered as she locked onto mine. It was impossible to look away. God, she was beautiful. I had to hand it to Ethan; he did have good taste. But, this wasn’t what I wanted. How was I supposed to let her down without her turning me into a thousand bits of dust or something?

She didn’t give me the chance to speak. Instead, she put her finger to my lips. “Don’t say a word. I’m not going to do anything to make you uncomfortable. I’m just letting you know that if you tire of the human’s fickle ways, you have an equal partner waiting on you.”

Since her finger was still on my lips, I nodded. She smiled and traced the shape of my lips before stepping away. “Go. Get to school and watch after your Call like you’re supposed to be doing. I’ll pick you up from school. The story will be that I’m your aunt. Deal?”

“Deal.”

Reina smiled broadly, revealing almost all of her perfect teeth. There was no denying her beauty. It dumbfounded me. For some reason though, it just made me miss Hannah more. I coughed and shuffled backward, shaking my wings restlessly. “I need to get going, Reina,” I said lamely. It sounded as stupid as it seemed in my head. “Hannah needs me.”

“That she does,” Reina agreed, never losing the smile that had taken over her face. “Serve her well. I’ll see you later.”

With that, she kissed me on the forehead and disappeared. Girls were insanely frustrating.

NINETEEN

“Wait a second,” Ethan said with closed eyes, clearly in pain from my story. “You’re telling me Reina flat out gave you the go ahead and you turned her down for Bob? Have you seriously lost your mind?”

I’d made it to school before lunch, which unfortunately meant that Ethan had me corralled in a corner of the weight room. He leaned against the side of the weight bench while I lifted the bar off the handles. “I’m not out of my mind,” I grunted between reps, “It’s just that Hannah is what I want.”

“You are aware she doesn’t want you like that, right? That complicates things.”

The bar clanged loudly against the rack. “She never said she didn’t want me. She just needs time to think.”

“Which, for those who haven’t been declined in the past two hundred years, means they don’t want you.”

I rolled my eyes, grabbed my shirt off the leg press machine nearby, and headed for the door. “I don’t have time for this. Besides, I didn’t think anyone said no to you, Romeo.”

“Oh no, they don’t. It’s just I’ve watched my share of poor souls crash and burn. I’m just trying to save you whatever sanity you have left,” Ethan said smoothly as he slid in front of me and flexed in the mirror. “Do you really think anyone could say no to this dark, handsome, and mysterious fellow? Not a chance.”

“Uh, yeah, they can,” Angie’s amused voice said from the doorway. “I do every day by reminding myself that you’re overcompensating for nothing going on upstairs.”

Ethan pretended to pull a knife from his back. “Harsh words from a girl who still doesn’t have a date for homecoming. That’s only a week away, you know.”

Angie stuck her tongue out at Ethan and pointed at me. “You. We need to talk.”

Ethan mocked her and pointed at me as well. “You. You’re on a short leash if you let any random human drag you around. Don’t embarrass me like that, Levi. I’ve taught you better.”

Choosing to ignore Ethan’s incessant talk, I pushed him aside and met Angie in the doorway. “Let’s talk then.”

As we walked away, Ethan shouted something about me loving humans too much, but I ignored him. Angie led us outside and sat down on the steps that led to the student parking lot. Wet leaves stuck to the blacktop, an occasional one flitting past before sticking to the side of a car or window. It was chilly, but not terrible. Angie rubbed her arms without thinking. She smiled as she looked at me through the corner of her eye. “No hoodie?”

I smiled. “Left it inside in my locker.”

She nodded and looked away, thoughtful. She put her arms on her knees and supported her chin with one hand, while the other played with a loose strand of hair. She had it pulled back in a braid of some sort. She turned to me and gave me an amused look, as she caught me evaluating her. “Look, Levi. I don’t like to get into peoples’ business, but Hannah is my best friend. Today she’s been quiet and won’t talk to me about anything that happened yesterday when you two got home. All she says is it’s better if you’re not around for a little bit. What did you do?”

Even though the question was accusatory, it didn’t feel like it. Instead, Angie seemed genuinely concerned about what happened. Her kind soul was showing through. I shrugged, not sure how to begin. “It’s complicated.”

“Sure it is. Nothing is ever easy,” she said as she leaned back and propped herself up with her arms behind her. A smile crept across her face. “Plus, it doesn’t help when the guy you’re interested in is dead. That usually means you’re a little messed up in the head.”

I rolled my eyes. “Generally speaking, that’s probably true.”

She continued, even though I hadn’t given her much to go on. “But, like I was telling Hannah, you deserve a chance, even if it doesn’t seem like it right now,” her hazel eyes were clear and true when she looked at me again. “I think Hannah agrees, she just doesn’t know how to deal with everything going on. I told her to give you a shot. Don’t make me regret telling her that.”

“I wasn’t planning on it.”

Angie nodded thoughtfully. “So, what
did
you do to make her freak out? She’s usually pretty level headed, so I’m assuming you’re like a serial killer or something.” Her wan smile made me feel at ease.

“It’s not that bad.”

“Then what is it?”

“Well, I only killed one person. Not multiple people.”

She gasped, but then pulled herself together just as quick. “Well, that makes sense. So how did you get to transition if you killed someone?”

I shrugged. “Wish I knew. Ethan has been there longer than me and hasn’t ever had a chance. I don’t know what the difference is.”

Angie put her hand on my knee. “Levi, you’re good. You may have done bad things in the past, but they don’t have to define you. You can choose to move forward and make the future the best you can. You’re doing just that. Hannah has to respect it. Just give her time.”

It was impossible not to be blown away by Angie’s wisdom. She was only sixteen. How did she come by this insight so naturally? It still evaded me and I’d been around a lot longer than her. “You don’t want to know who I killed or why?”

She cocked her head to the side. “Does it really matter? You’ve already told me the end result. It doesn’t justify what you did either way. Like I said, just move forward.”

When she stood to go, I moved to get up as well, but she put her hand on my shoulder. “No, you stay here,” she said gently, “I feel like you need to make peace with yourself before you can move forward with Hannah.”

I smiled in spite of myself. “Thanks, Angie. You really do live up to your soul.”

She grinned. “If only I could find myself a guy who’d agree with you.”

Finding myself alone, I sat silently and just listened to the wind. I could hear Hannah’s forced laughter coming from the commons. The bell for fifth period would sound soon, which would signal the start to ceramics. That was one of Hannah’s favorite classes.

I needed to fix things with Hannah, but I had to give her time to adjust. That was the least I could do. As for making peace with myself, that was going to take some time. It hadn’t happened yet, and it would probably take another two hundred years at the rate I was going. There was no way it was going to happen overnight. I mentally made a promise to myself to try not to focus on it as much. Maybe Angie was right. Moving forward was the only way to make things better. All we were taught as Guards was to remember our place and how we’d gotten there. It was time for a change.

The bell rang and I headed inside to find Ethan standing there with my book bag and hoodie. He didn’t have much to say, but had a sour look on his face. “Your things.”

“Thanks.”

“She’s going to break you.”

“I know.”

We walked in silence after the short exchange. Ethan shook his head as he walked into the door next to mine. He had opted for photography instead of ceramics. Something told me that the Guardian who taught the class prompted the decision. Ethan was such a sucker. He stuck his head out for just a second as the bell sounded for class to start. “Just make sure she’s worth it, bro.”

* * *

I took my place across from Hannah at the table, but she didn’t look at me. Angie gave me a look of apology, then quickly shot a thumbs up of encouragement. I had to give it to her; the girl was dedicated.
Talk to her
, she mouthed. I nodded, annoyed. Of course I’d talk to her. It was just that I needed to think of something intelligent to say first.

“Levi, can you please pass the slip?” Hannah said in a short, no fuss manner. She held her hand out expectantly.

“Sure, no problem.”

She took the slip from me and began to score the handle onto the pot she was making. Hannah was gifted at the arts; give her any kind of medium and she would create worlds. It was amazing to witness. She noticed me watching. I probably looked like an idiot. She cocked her head and gave me a small smile that looked a little forced. “Do you need something?”

“Uh, no. Sorry.”

Angie let out a sigh of exasperation. “Uh, yeah you do. You need to talk to her.”

Hannah turned scarlet. “Angie, no he doesn’t. Don’t forget that we’re the only ones in this room that can see him.”

“Actually,” I said, “Everyone can see me. I choose when to be visible. Obviously coming to school made it necessary. The photography teacher is a Guardian. We’re all around you, we just don’t let it be known.”

Hannah opened and closed her mouth, frustrated by the information. “Well, whatever. Still,” she said, looking only at Angie. “Levi isn’t real.”

Angie rolled her eyes. “Yeah, he is. Or did you forget he saved you like a million times in the past week? A fake person can’t do that.”

Hannah ignored Angie and opted to score her pot with a little more force than needed. The gouges were deep and unnecessary. I took her hand and stopped her before she could ruin the piece. “This is beautiful, Hannah. Don’t ruin it over something silly.”

Her eyes stared into mine. “Are you talking about the pot?”

Angie shook her head, apparently fed up with Hannah. “I don’t think he’s talking about the pot, the sky, or unicorns. He’s talking about you two, you dummy. And he’s right.”

In all actuality, I had been talking about the pot. Leave it to a girl to come up with something romantic out of nothing. If Hannah took it, though, I’d roll with it.

Hannah’s eyes misted with tears. She pulled her hand away from mine, but only to sit the scoring tool down. She rubbed her hands against her thighs, trying to clean them. She never looked up, but finally spoke after about five minutes of trying to start a fire with her hands. “Fine. I’ll talk to you after school. You know where to find me.”

“Good. Thanks,” was all I could say.

Angie grinned, obviously proud of herself. She was currently strutting around the room gathering tools like a pigeon. She was a different girl, but I was glad she was on my team. I couldn’t imagine the terror she’d be if she were against me. Ethan had a long road ahead to win her over at this point.