Guardians (Seers Trilogy) (11 page)

“It’s okay,” Kate broke in suddenly, reaching out a hand to place on the other girl’s arm. I would never quite understand the care—almost love—a woman could feel so quickly for another woman. They were strangers, yet they were strangely bonded together by a single shared incident. Kate brushed her hand up and down, rubbing gently. “He’s a jerk. He doesn’t have any right to treat you like that.”

The girl nodded quickly, barely holding back tears. “I know. I just didn’t know what to do. I’ve never gone through anything like that. I wasn’t thinking clearly. I didn’t know how to react.” Loud music began to play, and the girl dug into her pocket quickly, sniffling loudly. She pressed a button that ended the rather annoying ringtone, and then she held the flat phone to her ear. “Derek? Yeah, I’m okay. Where are you? . . . I’m just around the building. No, I’ll be right there.”

She closed the phone, ending the call. “My brother,” she told us. She pursed her lips and then spoke quickly, focusing almost exclusively on me. “I’m not sure how to thank you.”

I shook my head quickly. “No thanks is necessary. I’ve been wanting to do that for a while now.”

She cracked a thin smile, as if my words were perfectly sane, then glanced toward Kate. “Maybe I’ll see you guys around.” She gave me a last timid smile before turning and walking back toward the front of the bowling alley.

As soon as her footsteps faded Kate swiveled to look at me, her eyes wide. “Well. That was a perfectly normal end to the evening.”

“I’m sorry,” I responded, though my heart wasn’t in the apology.

She tilted her head at me in a way that was uniquely hers. “You don’t look very sorry.”

I shrugged a single shoulder. “I might have enjoyed teaching him a lesson.”

“Yeah. I’m getting that vibe.” Her eyebrows drew together in sudden worry. “Are you all right?”

The corner of my mouth lifted and I stepped toward her, fingers tightening around her purse. “As a matter of fact, I’m quite capable of handling a high school jock. A Guardian doesn’t always need his Seer, you know.”
But I’ll always need you,
I finished mentally.

She gave an expansive nod. “Uh-
huh
. Is this a macho side to you I didn’t know existed?” she asked rather rhetorically.

I held out her bag. “Sorry. I may have gotten some dirt on it.”

She took it slowly, gaze still locked with me. “You’re in a funny mood tonight.”

“Funny?”

“Well . . . different. Are you sure you’re okay?”

I decided to be truthful. I habitually shoved my hands into my pockets, keeping my tone light despite the seriousness my words inflected. “It just feels really good to finally do something, after a month of absolutely nothing but worrying. Even if it was only giving that Grimshaw a taste of humble pie.”

“I don’t know how effective that is when it’s forcefully fed, . . . but I’m glad you were around to help her out. She looked pretty green in the bathroom.”

“Green?” I could hear the low alarm in my voice. “She was ill?”

“Oh, no. No, I meant her aura,” she was quick to clarify. “It had a lot of green in it. She was uneasy. I kind of feel bad I didn’t ask her what was wrong. We might have avoided this whole thing . . .”

I reached for her hand, which she surrendered at once. We walked directly beside each other, the short walk to the waiting car giving me just enough time to dig out the keys from my pocket. I pressed the button, which released the power locks, then I moved to get the door for her.

I picked up the conversation then, my voice sounding highly philosophical, even to me. “You can’t talk to everyone who has an uneasy aura, Kate. There’s no way you can help every person you come in contact with.”

She tossed me an easy smile. “Probably not. But there’s this story I heard once, about an old man on a beach. He was walking the length of the ocean, tossing starfish back into the water that had been beached. You know, when the tide went out.”

She paused her narrative while she lowered herself into the car, and I took the opportunity to make an irrelevant comment, my fingers drumming lightly on the roof of the car. “I love how we went from talking about green auras to men on beaches. This really is the best date I’ve ever been on.” She sent me a wry look over her shoulder, but I just grinned and closed the door.

As soon as I was settled into the driver’s seat, Kate resumed her story; her passion for a simple parable was almost comical. “So this man walked the beach, throwing these starfish back into the ocean so they wouldn’t die. And this other guy, a younger guy, comes along, and he sees this beach is practically covered in starfish. And he says to the old man trying to save the starfish, ‘There are so many, you can’t possibly make a difference.’ ” She hesitated for dramatic effect, her face glowing from the lights on the dash. “And do you know what the old man said?”

“ ‘Mind your own business?’ ” I guessed.

She actually slapped my arm, but the familiarity that small action attested to warmed my heart, so it wasn’t really a viable reprimand. She was fighting to keep a straight face. “No, that’s not what he said at all. He just picked up another starfish and chucked it in the water. Then he turned to the other man and said, ‘It made a difference to that one.’ ”

I nodded slowly. “So . . . are you saying you want to chuck starfish on our next date?”

She rolled her eyes and reached for her seat belt. “Patrick O’Donnell, you are completely—”

“Hopeless?”

Her mouth twitched. “Close. I was going to say
wonderful
.”

“You were not.”

“Maybe I was.”

I blinked. “Really?”

Her words appeared sincere, but her expression was teasing. “You’ll never know, because you interrupted me.”

I let my eyes carefully caress her beautiful face, before turning my attention to driving her safely home.

We didn’t talk much while I drove, but the quiet wasn’t empty. Silence could be peaceful, when shared with someone you care about. Kate reached for my fingers, and I helped balance our hands on the middle armrest while I navigated carefully through the traffic. Her house wasn’t far, but I almost wished it was.

The radio played softly, and occasionally Kate would start humming unconsciously along with the music—sometimes making up her own harmonies. A part of me wanted to join her, but I was afraid that if I drew attention to the instinctive counterpart she might stop the impromptu performance. I contented myself with just listening to her voice, trying to commit it to memory, though I had every intention of hearing her voice every day of our time together. I may not get her forever, but I wasn’t going to waste a moment of the time we had.

And I certainly wasn’t going to let fate rob us of the precious amount of time allotted to us. I would see Kate grow old, no matter what it took. I would protect her so her hair could become gray with age, keep her safe so I could smooth the wrinkles on her face. I may not be able to grow old with her—destiny had stolen that from us already, though I knew I had no right to complain. Without my immortality, we never would have met. Still—I was going to live every second I could with her. Every second she would give me, I was going to take as greedily as a starving man gropes for food. Gorge myself now, before the famine came and stripped me of everything that mattered.

I twisted my fingers with hers and her thumb caressed the back of my hand in response. I don’t know that I’d ever lived a better moment than this. But then, that’s what I thought every time I was with her.

I
fought the invading
sunlight by closing my eyes more tightly. I tried to cling to the sleep that was leisurely slipping from my body, but my efforts were in vain. I was awake now, though still extremely tired. I rolled onto my back, stretched my legs out, and reluctantly blinked until my eyes were wide open against the morning light. The night had been way too short. I still felt stiff and my mind remained cloudy. Scattered fragments of dreams—including one involving Far Darrig—slowly disappeared, and soon the only thing I could remember from my night was the look on Sean’s face when I stabbed him in the heart.

I stared at my ceiling, twisting my arms out and above my head to take the kinks out. I yawned in a huge, unladylike fashion, then burrowed back under my sheets, turning on my side and curling into a ball. I stared at my closed door, mentally going over what today promised to hold.

After Patrick had walked me to the porch last night, just before he’d stolen my breath with one of his deep and amazing kisses, I’d remembered to tell him about the missed call he’d had from Terence. He’d seemed a little surprised by the late notice, but there was a new tension to the set of his shoulders that made me worry Terence’s visit might concern some bad news. I don’t know what I thought of his visit, but I knew from past experience that a Guardian overseer only came around if there was something serious going on. Did he know about the wanted poster?

For some reason, the thought of Terence knowing I had a reward on my head made me wince. It wasn’t that I didn’t trust Terence, but I was worried about how he’d react to the revelation that a bunch of Demons knew where I lived. I mean, obviously they hadn’t been too worried about that possibility, because they hadn’t relocated me after the funeral even though Selena, Far Darrig, and pretty much any other dangerous servant of the Demon Lord knew where my house was. So either they thought moving me would do no good—they’d just find me again—or the Guardians believed they could protect me. Would that change if Terence knew about the bounty hunting Demons, though?

I decided it was better not to speculate. For one thing, it hurt my head. For the other, Patrick had lifted his hand to my cheek at that moment to gently stroke my skin with his attentive fingertips.

He’d offered to pick me up around eleven thirty for the meeting, but I asked him if he wanted to come over earlier and hang out at the house. My arguments were simple. “The twins will be home, and I don’t want to suffer alone with Toni.”

He’d smiled and nodded once. “I would love to.”

In my room, I glanced up at my alarm clock on the nightstand. It was almost nine. Patrick would be over around ten, so I couldn’t really procrastinate getting out of bed for much longer. But before I left my room, I decided to set up a game plan.

Since I’d intended to tell Patrick about the wanted poster today, and since Terence might be coming about that very thing, I decided to wait and bring up the reward later. If Terence knew about the danger, then he could warn us and I wouldn’t have to tell Patrick I’d gone to Clyde’s the other day. A win-win, unless Terence insisted on relocating my family. The twins had gone through enough already—they didn’t need to lose all their friends, their home, and reality as they knew it. I understood that someday they would have to learn the truth about Guardians and Seers; it was inevitable, since Patrick didn’t age. They were bound to learn there was something weird with us, but I wanted them to remain as sheltered as possible for as long as possible. Ignorance really was bliss, as long as you didn’t know things were being kept from you.

So I would keep quiet about the wanted poster until I heard what Terence had come to say. That plan was good enough for me—I slipped out of bed and started getting ready for the day.

The twins were already done with breakfast by the time I came down, and Grandma was out grocery shopping. The twins didn’t know it, but she hadn’t gone alone. Making some silent observations, it was easy to conclude that Toni had accompanied her, since Jack had been on night duty and Claire was currently in the kitchen.

She was most likely invisible, though the twins were upstairs, and she was sitting at the table, thumbing casually through a small paperback. She had the silver aura that marked her as a Guardian, and it only enhanced her ethereal beauty. She was the prettiest person I’d ever seen in my life—a different kind of beautiful compared to Selena Avalos. While Selena was mature and exotic, Clair was small and pixie-like. She had a thin but muscular body, and she was barely five feet tall—if that. Every feature was perfect and miniature, her nose, her chin, her cheekbones. She had long golden-blonde hair that she usually wore up in some way. She was very fairy-tale-princesslike, and her voice was beautiful with its rich French accent. While Patrick and Toni’s accents had seemed to fade a little over time, hers seemed unerringly strong.

I didn’t know much about her life, only that she’d been born in France in 1430 and apparently didn’t really care for men. She seemed to like nice clothes, because I often saw her wearing a dress or an especially classy blouse. She wasn’t talkative, and I hadn’t had many opportunities to be left alone with her, thank heavens. I was grateful for everything she’d done for me and everything she was doing still. But her cool eyes had a way of biting into me, and I got the feeling that even when I wasn’t speaking, I was somehow annoying her.

Claire glanced up from her book when I opened a cupboard in search of a bowl. “Good morning,” she said, her tone making it clear she was just trying to keep it polite.

I gave her a thankful smile. “Have you been here long?”

“My shift started at seven.” She watched me as I crossed the room to the pantry, where I started searching for cereal. Nothing sounded great, but I finally settled on some Cheerios.

After I’d gotten my spoon and taken my seat across from her, Claire spoke again, her voice easy and her light brown eyes still firmly on me. “What do you hope to get from your relationship with Patrick?”

The milk I was pouring splashed onto the table, and I quickly ended the flow by jerking the gallon back. I blinked at the Guardian sitting opposite me, a little surprised to see she wasn’t blushing. In fact, she didn’t seem to find her question rude or invasive at all.

“Uh . . . what do you mean?” I asked at last, hesitating a second too long.

She straightened in her chair, her beautiful nails drumming absently on the closed book cover. “I’m just curious. Obviously there are some large issues you’ll face, and I was wondering what you intend to get from him.”