Taking Angels (The Angel Crusades) (11 page)

I recognized him instantly, the nurse’s assistant.
The connection felt like a cable, linking us together.
His eyes twinkled in amusement and a smile touched his
lips, and I knew his name.
“Kendal,” I whispered. “He’s here.”
“What?” Allister hissed. “Are you sure?”
“He’s by the back fence, staring at me.”
Allister looked across the yard and his hands
flexed on my waist as his body went rigid.
“What do we do?” I asked.
“We’re sunk,” Allister sighed.
“How do you mean?”
“He knows what you are. He knows you’re not a
natural Eternal. He will betray us.”
“Why would he do that when he’s the one killing
angels? Wouldn’t he be punished for
his
crime?”
“It’s his word against ours on that, but you, on the
other hand, can be identified by any Eternal.”
I turned to stare at him. “Why didn’t you tell me
this before?” I whispered.
“As long as Angelina and I kept your secret, it
didn’t matter. Now that another Eternal has seen you, my
crime is going to be seen as greater than his, and more
easily proven.”
“What do we do?”
“We stop him,” he answered.
Without waiting for him, I raced for the stairs,
leaping down to the yard and running for the back fence.
Everyone turned and watched in shock as I ran
through the people mingling in the yard.
Allister suddenly appeared behind a large pine
tree and sped ahead of me.
Kendal stood motionless until Allister reached for
him. Then he turned, jumped over the fence, and ran
down the alley with Allister in close pursuit.
I ran to the fence, stopping against it with my hands
in front of me as the fence rattled with my impact, trying
to see down the alley as first Kendal, then Allister,
shimmered out of sight.
A hush hung over the yard as the guests stared at the
fence where Kendal and Allister disappeared. All eyes
turned to me as I stood, balancing myself against the
fence, my equilibrium returning once Kendal was gone. I
looked at their harsh, questioning stares and then raced
from the yard.
I ran to the front of the house, sliding to a stop in
the middle of the street, uncertain where to go. A feeling
filled me and I raced down the street, somehow knowing
that it was the right direction. I couldn’t tell for sure if I
zeroed in on Allister or Kendal or both, but I felt them
ahead of me.
As if on cue, Kendal bolted out in front of me onto
the street and then ground to a stop as he faced me. He
smiled as our eyes met, recognition filling his deep brown
orbs.
Allister burst from the trees lining a yard and
stopped, hesitating when he saw me and Kendal facing
off.
Kendal smirked, gave me a wink, and then
shimmered.
Allister sprinted to where Kendal stood,
shimmering instantly out of sight when he reached the
spot.
I stared at the empty space where two immortals
holding my fate stood seconds ago. When they didn’t
reappear after a few moments, I walked, defeated, back to
Cassie’s house.
As I came up the front sidewalk six hands collected
me, ushering me into the house.
I sat down on a chair in the kitchen as the girls
looked at me, their faces filled with worry.
“What the hell was that?” Trish asked crouching
down to look at me.
“Uh, I don’t know.” I shook my head.
“Bullshit,” Cassie said sharply, out of character.
“You know more than you’re telling us,” Elisa
said. “Spill it.”
I looked from Elisa to Cassie and then back at
Trish as she put her hands on my knees and stared hard
into my eyes.
“Britt, we know something is up and your
boyfriend just ran across Cassie’s backyard like a gazelle,
leaping a fence and chasing a guy I’ve never seen before.
What’s going on?”
“I can’t tell you,” I whispered.
“You can’t or you won’t?” Elisa accused.
“I want to, I really do, but if I tell, something bad
might happen to you and I couldn’t live with myself if it
did.” I looked to them all in turn. They weren’t buying it.
“Come on Britt,” Cassie shouted, throwing her
hands up. “You show up at my house with Mr. Dreamy
and he races off after some random guy and you can’t tell
us what’s going on?” She spun away in disgust.
Allister said it was dangerous if they knew too
much, and now with Kendal knowing about me, that
knowledge could be even more dangerous.
The screen door slammed behind them as we
looked up to see Allister standing in the kitchen, his
expression so fierce, I gasped. He glared at the girls for
an instant and then his features softened.
“Sorry to cause a scene,” Allister said.
The girls stared at him in disbelief.
“Are you alright?” he asked me, causing my friends
heads to spin my way.
“Yeah, you?”
“Couldn’t catch up to Kendal.” Allister sighed and
then looked at Trish who stood nearest to him. “He used
to date my sister. I told him the next time I saw him…”
“A protective brother excuse, at least you’re
original.” Trish scowled.
“We’re not buying it,” Elisa said, putting her hands
on her hips.
“Are you and Britt going to come clean, or are you
going to insist on lying to us?” Cassie crossed her arms.
Allister looked at me, his eyes pleading me to call
them off, but I held no power over them when they got
like this.
“I’m sorry,” Allister said, his words sounding
sincere. “If I felt confident about the results of telling you
the truth, I wouldn’t have any problem doing so. It’s too
tenuous right now to take that chance.”
“You make it sound so perilous.” Trish made a face.
“It is,” Allister assured her.
“Quit being so dramatic,” Cassie chimed in. “It isn’t
like life or death.”
“Is it?” Elisa asked, reading the expression on my
face.
“It could be, let’s leave it at that,” Allister said,
taking me by the hand and helping me to my feet. He
swung his arm around my waist and ushered me towards
the door.
The three girls sprung ahead of us, blocking our
exit. Allister and I looked questioningly at them.
“We won’t let you hurt our girl,” Elisa said, glaring
up at Allister.
“I will do everything in my power to see that no
harm befalls her,” he said.
“We don’t know you, and I for one don’t trust you.”
Trish stuck a finger in Allister’s muscular chest.
“I understand your concern for Britt and let me
assure you again, she is the most important thing in the
world to me. I would never let any harm come to her.”
“But a guy we don’t know, that you felt compelled
to chase, was only feet from her in my backyard. How is
that protecting her?” Cassie pressed.
Allister raised his hands defensively before him as
the girls hit him with their angry stares.
“You don’t know the whole story, and we don’t
have time to go through it now.” He backed away, pulling
me with him around the corner, out of site.
He leaned down, whispering in my ear, “Hold on.”
I tingled all over and we stood next to his car.
Shouts erupted from inside the house and the screen door
burst open as the girls raced onto the deck. Cassie saw us
first as we climbed into the Camaro. She jumped from the
bottom deck stairs, running and screaming across the yard
with Elisa and Trish close behind.
“Stop,” she cried, as the car squealed away from the
curb and roared down the street.
I turned, watching the three amigos stagger into the
middle of the road as they disappeared from my view.

We raced across town, my thoughts so twisted up I
couldn’t form a coherent sentence. We screeched to a stop
in front of Allister’s house before I finally spoke. “What
are we going to do about them?”

“Your friends are too smart for their own good.
Let’s hope they keep their mouths shut. We may be able
to go back and make them agree to keep quiet. Otherwise,
it won’t be good.”

I stared at Allister, fear for my friends making my
heart pound and my blood race through my veins. How
could I get them into something like this?

“We have to speak to my parents. I can’t put it off
any longer.”
He got out, ran around the car and opened my door,
extending his hand to help me out. We hurried up the
sidewalk to his porch where I stopped. He took a couple
more steps before realizing I wasn’t right behind him.
“What is it?”
“This is the first time I’m meeting your parents, I’m
kind of nervous. If they don’t like me, it will be a long
forever.”
“How can they not like you?” he smiled.
“Uh, because you created me. Because you did
something forbidden to create me. I could see how that
might make them not like me.” I looked at him, worried.
“Britt, they will understand this is my doing. They
will know you are innocent in this just by seeing and
sensing you,” he reassured me, putting an arm around my
shoulders.
“You keep saying that, but what is so different
about me that you sense?” I shrugged his arm off.
“It’s hard to describe. It’s a kind of… purity, it’s
sweet to my senses. Your smell, your touch, the way you
look, all set you apart from any Eternal I have ever met.
Angelina can feel it too. It is almost like there is
something about you that tugs at our inner emotions, our
greatest desires.”
“How is that possible?”
“I don’t know, but Angelina and I tried to keep
you away from our parents for that very reason.
Unfortunately, now that Kendal saw you, we need to tell
them and I need to face the consequences.”
He pulled me into a reassuring hug, leaning down
to touch his lips to mine. My heart raced and the fear
disappeared for a second. When he held me I felt so safe,
so at peace. He pulled back from our kiss, sucking the air
from my lungs as his lips released mine. I gasped,
breaking our kiss leaving me jerked from unadulterated
bliss.
We turned together and he opened the door. Upon
entering the foyer, a large man stood staring. He twisted
the hair of his neatly trimmed beard, which matched the
long dark hair on his head. His dark brown eyes held not
judgment, merely mild curiosity.
“Your parents are waiting for you in the study.”
The man nodded, opening the door for us to enter.
I looked questioningly at Allister.
“I called Angelina after losing Kendal and told her
to tell them we needed to speak to them.
“Thank you, Taylor,” Allister said, pulling me
after him as we slipped by him into the room.
I remembered the library from the morning the
girls and I confronted Allister. That day felt so distant
now. Shelves lined the walls, filled with books and a large
wooden desk sat in front of the big bay window facing
the street. Allister’s car was visible on the street. They
saw us coming.
The door closed behind us and we stood facing a
tall, slender man with vibrant blue eyes like Allister’s and
thick, short, golden brown hair. He looked at me and an
uneasy feeling of being exposed flowed through me.
I looked away from his knowing stare only to meet the
eyes of Allister’s mother. I knew it had to be her. She
looked like Angelina’s twin. Her golden hair hung to her
waist and her eyes swirled with a mix of turquoises. I felt
like an ugly duckling compared to the four Eternals.
Angelina sat in a chair off to one side, looking away from
us, though I knew she observed us just the same.
“What have you done, Allister?” his father started.
“I couldn’t help myself. She called to me, urged
me to touch her, bring her back. Can’t you feel it? Can’t
you feel her pureness? Surely what I’ve done can’t be so
wrong when this is the result.” Allister held his father’s
gaze with an urgency in his eyes. Pleading for him to see
what he saw in me. I’d never seen him like this.
“What she is is beside the point.”
“The hell it is,” Allister shot back.
“You know what you have done and you knew it
to be wrong,” his father insisted, unyielding.
“He is right,” their mother spoke up. “Allister is
right,” she clarified when the two men looked to her. “He
has created something that is a wonder and shouldn’t be
denied. I don’t care how this girl came into existence in
her current form, but she is truly an amazing creature.”
I blushed, looking down at the floor as their eyes turned
to me. I glanced at Angelina as she stared.
“Come here, my dear.” The woman extended a
gentle hand.
I looked at her and then moved closer. When I
came within reach, she touched my cheek so delicately, it
felt like nothing more than the kiss of a breeze.
“You are a wonder.” She smiled. “I am Allister’s
mother, Jennavia.”
“Britt Anderson,” I whispered, awed.
“That brooding man over there is my husband,
Victor.” She lowered her head to look into my eyes as
they turned back to the floor.
“Don’t worry about him, he knows I’m right.”
She grinned. Jennavia placed her soft hands upon my
cheeks and stared into my eyes, the turquoise seemed to
ebb and flow in her own. She gazed for a long moment,
and then let out a gasp, looking up at Victor with a start.
“What is it, what do you see?” Victor asked.
“Angelina, you say Allister touched her after she
died?” Jennavia asked, not looking away from me.
“She was dead,” Angelina insisted.
“This is strange,” Jennavia whispered. “Allister,
Angelina says you tracked the Eternal who took her
guardian. Did you actually see him take her guardian?”
“Not physically, but Angelina sensed it and I
could feel another Eternal’s touch on her.”
“May the spirits have mercy on us. Do you realize
what this girl is?” Jennavia asked no one in particular.
Her eyes opened wide as she faced me. “She still has
some of her guardian within her, only you fused it to her
soul by touching her,” Jennavia explained.
“So I’m not an Eternal?” I asked.
“Oh you are an Eternal, Allister saw to that, but
you also have the essence of an angel still inside of you,”
she spoke with wonder.
“You can’t be serious,” Victor broke his silence.
“I most certainly am,” Jennavia said defensively
spinning on him.
“What am I?” I asked turning to Allister, my
hands on my hips, desperately trying to understand.
“You are the first Eternal with a guardian angel,”
Allister said, worry heavy in his voice.
“Great, not only am I a freak, I’m the freak of the
freaks now?” I threw my hands up in disgust.
“No, my dear.” Jennavia brought my attention
back to her. “It means there is no one else on this earth
like you.”
“I could have told you that,” Allister said softly.
“It means she can be sensed by the angels, and by
the Eternals. She will bring the wrath of both down upon
us for doing such a thing,” Victor said.
“It means, we’re screwed,” Angelina said as we
spun to see her horrified look.
“We need to leave, get her away from here before
anyone comes for her,” Allister said, panic heavy in his
words.
“At least neither side has discovered her
existence,” Jennavia sighed.
Allister stiffened and Victor noticed.
“No one has seen her, have they?”
“Kendal, the Eternal who took, partially took, her
angel,” Allister said.
“When,” Victor asked.
“Just before we arrived. He appeared at Britt’s
friend’s house and I pursued him, but he shimmered
before I could reach him.”
“This is bad.” Victor lifted a hand to his chin,
“Very bad.”
“Why is it bad?” I whispered to Allister.
“Kendal will alert the council. All he knows is
you are a created Eternal. He doesn’t have mother’s
ability to see that you also have an angel. He will identify
you and they will demand we come before them for
judgment.”
“Then don’t go,” I said, feeling fear coil inside me
at the thought of him facing an angry council.
“We would have to be on the run forever if we
refused a summons from the council.” Allister shook his
head.
“How long do we have?” I asked.
“A few weeks, a month at best,” he said.
“Won’t they just shimmer here?” I raised an
eyebrow and frowned.
“Shimmering only works for short distances. We
can’t jump over and over again, it drains our strength. We
can go back and forth to a close location, but something
keeps us from going from one place to another, leap after
leap, or over great distances.” He shrugged at my
confused stare. “I don’t understand it myself, yet I must
live by the rules.”
“Kendal will travel back to Greece to inform the
council about you. They will summon us and then give us
time to reach Greece before they send out a retrieval
party to forcibly bring us to them,” Victor explained.
“We should get away from here, now,” Allister
said.
“Where would we go?” I asked.
“We can head into Canada, hide out in the
wilderness. We have a lodge on an isolated lake. No one
will find us up there,” he assured.
“No,” I said.
Allister turned to me, his eyes wide and mouth
hanging open.
“I can’t leave my family, my friends, and my
senior year with no explanation,” I told him.
“Britt, this is about life and death, yours as well as
mine.” Allister took hold of my arms just below the
shoulders. “If we don’t leave, they will find us and
eliminate every trace we were ever here.”
I looked at him doubtful and unwavering.
“That includes your friends, your parents, and
anyone in close contact with you since you changed.” He
turned away from my horrified gaze.
“It’s true.” Jennavia nodded. “If a retrieval party
comes, they will have sweepers. Eternals able to sense
close contact between you and others, similar to Angelina
and myself, only much stronger. People who know too
much will die.”
My body began to shake, my legs weakened and I
eased myself down into a nearby chair. My friends, my
family, killed because I lived. Killed because of what I
had become.
“Why did you have to change me?” I said, my
whisper catching in my throat as I stared at my feet.
“Why couldn’t you just let me die and be done
with it?”
“I’m so sorry, Britt,” Allister pleaded for my
forgiveness. “I didn’t know.”
“You didn’t know?” I repeated, coming to my feet
in a rush, my fists clenched at my sides, anger raging to
get out as I glared at him. Slapping him hard across his
face, I cried out, “Then why did you do it?”
His head snapped to the side with the force of my
blow and then he turned away bowing his head, but not
touching the reddening handprint on his cheek.
“I understand your anger,” Victor said, taking a
step closer so he interrupted my glare at Allister. “I
believe what Allister means to say is he didn’t realize his
touch would manifest itself in this manner. Kendal
destroyed the natural transfer of your soul to the
afterworld, thus leaving part of your angel inside you,
very weakened by the attack. You should have become an
empty husk destined for death, but Angelina and Allister
stopped Kendal from finishing the job. When Allister
touched you your angel fused with your soul, thus turning
you into an Eternal with a soul unlike any other.”
“He had no way of knowing the ramifications,”
Jennavia added.
It didn’t matter. I lived at my loved ones’ peril. No
rationalizing could change that.
“What do we do now?” I looked from one puzzled
face to the next, searching for a way out of this.
“Jennavia and I will try to find Kendal, hopefully
we can catch him before he reaches Greece,” Victor said.
“The three of you need to continue on until we
determine the extent of our predicament.” He looked
from one teen to the other, assuring we understood.
“Very well, Allister, make sure Britt gets home
safely. Your mother and I will leave at once.” He turned
and strode from the room.
“Goodbye, my dears,” Jennavia said, following
him.
I looked over to Allister as he stood behind the
desk staring out the window.
“I will see if I can get a fix on Kendal’s direction
to give Mother and Father an idea of where to start,”
Angelina said standing. She glanced my way with a wary
look and then left the room.
I hesitantly walked over to Allister, feeling a mix
of emotions. I wanted to hate him for what he did, except
I didn’t have the strength to do so. I stood next to him and
placed my hand lightly on his shoulder.
“I am so sorry,” he whispered.
“I know.” The only words I could think of felt so
inadequate.
“I need to take you home,” he said, turning to me.
I nodded.