Starbright (The Starbright Series) (11 page)

             
“Yeah, that looks about right,”
I
laughed, after clim
bing into the driver’s seat. I
laughed even more when Seth started to glow with the effort to hold the heavy door against the car. “Can’t you just melt it together or something? We won’t be able to use it as an entrance or exit anymore, but I have a feeling this
little darling
is seeing it’s last days here on
E
arth.”

             
Seth laughed to
o
at the solemn way
I
mourned
my car, easily picking up on my sarcasm
.
Thank God he had a sense of humor!
I
gave him a wry smile, and
turned around to back the Jeep out of the long gravel drive
.
Seth was still smiling at me, holding the door as casually as he could and I paused for a moment to realize how lucky I was to get Seth
and
his sense of humor
.
H
e seemed fun,
and relatively normal, even if
he
ate ALL of my
chocolate chip pancakes. But
I
had seen
Warriors
before so duty-driven and task-minded that the devotion of their own
Star
didn’t seem to have any effect on them.
I
knew better with S
eth
. Maybe the Elders had been right in having
us
raised on
E
arth
, maybe it relaxed us or gave us a better perspective
.
I just hoped we could stay this casual for a while. A very, very, very long while.

             
I
coaxed the
J
eep to start, literally, with encouraging words and a loving tap against the steering wheel until the engine sputtered to life, protesting it’s every move. Despite the obvious fragility of the car,
I
thrived on excitement
and adrenaline
, a side-effect of being born for battle
. So I naturally
drove like a race car driver across the frozen gravel roads that climbed and dipped over rolling hills
, the car sliding and skidding with each turn or curve in the road wildly
.

After a few minutes I slowed down just a little so that Seth could admire the scenery.
E
ven in middle of a desolate winter, the Nebraska plains stretched out under a wide open sky with nothing standing between this gravel road and the horizon. Snow covered corn fields, and patches of dense pine trees blurred in
the peripheral
as
I raced the Jeep through the postcard countryside
.

             
I
knew these roads intimately
, having grown up on them
.
My dad had been letting me drive since I was big enough to reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel, and on Tristan’s farm I had grown up driving his dad’s tractors or racing Tristan and his brothers on four-wheelers. This land was my home.
I
gunned the engine, whispering sweet encouragement to the groaning
J
eep
until just seconds before
I
needed
to turn, then
I
would expertly pump the brakes until
I
rounded the country roads with the skill of a NASCAR driver, staying just out of danger, but flirting with the slippery edge none the less.

             
Why I couldn’t do that in the middle of a night with a deer standing in the road was beyond me. But everything felt clearer in the light of day.
  

 
             
After fifteen minutes exactly,
we
came upon what
seemed to be
the edge of town, until after passing a bank,
we
turned right, drove two blocks and turned into the high school. Seth looked around at all the empty space, even beyond the vacant parking lot and
I watched as he
realized this wasn’t the outskirts of town, this
was
the town.

             
Welcome to Mead, Nebraska; population 571.

             
Tristan’s truck
sat idling near the school building and when
I shut off my Jeep, so did Tristan
.
I
gave Seth a quick glance and reassuring smile, before jumping from
my
car and racing across the parking lot.
I
didn’t stop to make sure Seth followed
me
, although
I
hoped he did, but
my
eyes were glued on one thing and one thing only.

             
Tristan Shields stepped out of his white ’98 Chevy Silverado and ran a hand over his closely shaved head. His full lips twisted upward on one side and then his arms opened for the
most important girl in his life: me.

             
I
crashed into him with
my
lightning speed and threw
my
arms around his neck.
I
wasn’
t sure when
we
started this tradition, but for as lon
g as
I
could remember
I
always r
a
n to Tristan’
s arms, even if
I
just saw
him twelve hours ago, even if there was someone else watching.

             
Tristan reciprocated
the
hug, holding
me
close to his body.
I
was warm, hot even, despite the bitter cold of the day. He dipped his head, so that his face rested in the curve of
my
neck and
I
shivered from the tickling breath that danced across her skin.

             
“Who’s your friend?” Tristan mumbled, lifting his eyes to meet the Angel Warrior standing behind
me
.

             
I
cleared
my
throat, saying a quick prayer that the two most
significant
boys in
my
life would become best friends too and turned around to Seth. “Tristan, this is Seth. He’s…. he’s my Counterpart.”

Chapter Four

             
“
Nice to meet you, Seth,” Tristan stepped around
me
, releasing
me
immediately from his hold and stuck out his hand for the Angel Warrior standing in front of him. “So you’ll be…. uh…. taking care of my girl, is that right?”

I cringed noticing the
little possession
Tristan let
slip into his phrasing.
I had explained the
whole super-natural
relationship
thing
to him before
, but
I had also explained how we weren’t supposed to meet for years yet
.
Maybe I should have warned him that I was bringing Seth….

             
“Your girl, huh?” Seth shot
me
a sideways glance before
sh
aking Tristan’s hand. The two boys did their best version of a passive-aggressive manly handshake before taking a step back to size one another up.

             
I twirled the end of a lose hair tightly around my fingertip nervously. I cut off the blood flow and the tip of my pointer bulged red before I realized it and let the hair go
. This wasn’t going quite how
I
had imagined
it should
.
For some reason
I wasn’t picking up the vibe that they would be
immed
iate and life-long best friends.

             
“So, are you two a…. thing?” Seth asked, his eyes narrowing infinitesimally.
I bristled a little at the question, right now t
he only right he had with
me
was to protect
me
from everything evil
;
a human boyfriend, whether acceptable to the Elders or not, was technically none of his business.
Still, it wasn’t like Tristan was just any regular person…. I mean, with every muscle on his body cut to perfection, his tall, lanky frame and his breath-taking smile I knew he could be intimidating. Although Seth was an
actual
A
ngel…. no reason to have a superiority complex.

             
“If by thing, you mean best friends, then yes, we are. Tristan is more like my brother than anything else,”
I
explained
lightly
, grabbing onto Tristan’s bicep and shaking it playfully.
I looked up at Tristan, craning my neck so I could see him clearly
expecting a reassuring smile, the same smile
I
got
every time
I
explained
we
were not a couple, but this time the only
expression
I
got
in return
was a clenched jaw and narrowed eyes.

             
“So why are you here?” Tristan asked bluntly. “I thought you weren’t supposed to meet until you both turned twenty-five or something?”

             
“Oh, that’s what I have to talk to you about!”
I
rushed forward
into the conversation
, hoping the severity of
my
situation would distract both boys from whatever weirdness was happening between them. “But you have to be freezing! Let’s go inside, and I’ll explain
everything
.”

             
When neither boy made an attempt to move,
I
decided they would follow
me
if
I
took the
initiative
.
I
led the way around the building to the back of the school where the locker rooms led out onto the football field. Finding the window that led downward into the
boy’s
locker room,
I
jimmied the lock, like
I
had done for years now and removed the rectangle glass from its frame.
I
leaned it against the building and then turned to smile at
Seth and Tristan who had followed me
, although by the scowls on their faces
I
assumed a bit reluctantly.

             
“I’ll go first and help you down,”
Tristan volunteered. “And you too, Seth, if you need it,” he finished with a challenge.

             
“I doubt either Stella or I will need
your help
,” Seth countered, full of confidence.

             
Tristan faltered a little, realizing after all these years that
I
probably didn’t need his help. I
could fly. Actually fly. Probably jumping a few feet to a cement floor wasn’t a trial for
me
.
But he had never seemed concerned about that before and I didn’t mind if he wanted to be chivalrous.

             
“You’ve
never needed my help, have you?
” Tristan confronted
me
gently
;
searching for the truth he knew
I
was incapable of hiding from him
.
My eyes glistened against the sun as I looked up at him and I blinked rapidly hoping to keep my Star instincts at bay. Glowing eyes could be unsettling.
At his direct question
though
, emotion flared beneath
my
skin, causing it to warm ever so slightly, glowi
ng right along with the rest of me despite my effort to stay completely normal
.

             
“No, I’ve never needed it,”
I
admitted, reaching out for Tristan’s fingers with
my
own. “But I’ve always appreciated it.”
I
gave him my most charming smile
, hoping to distract his sour mood.
I
loved Tristan like a brother and
I
hated that he felt disappointed. He was used to human girls, raised to be
gentlemanly. And I
hadn’t lied to him, even if
I
had an arsenal of super-human abilities, it was still nice to be treated like a lady.