Taking Angels (The Angel Crusades) (6 page)

“What’s the big change that caused the fatalities
in this hospital to drop off so significantly in the last few
weeks?” the reporter asked.

“We feel that things run in cycles, and we must be
in the good part of that cycle right now,” the doctor
reasoned.

This didn’t satisfy the reporter and he put a hand
to his square chin, furrowing his brow over his dark
brown eyes.

“Has anything changed in the past few weeks to
explain this?” the reporter pressed.
“No, I don’t believe so,” the doctor said catching
my eye as I skirted behind the news crew and gave me a
smile. “Unless you count some outstanding volunteers
joining us,” he chuckled.
“Who would that be?” the reporter said taking
hold of the idea and running with it.
“No, I’m just joking. I stand by the idea that it is
just a good place to be right now.”
I hurried past the scene before someone saw that I
was a volunteer and started asking me questions. After
gathering my volunteer vest and not wanting go back to
the ER while the news crew still mulled around, I headed
up to the long-term care unit to find it empty. No patients
today had me going to the cafeteria to grab an early Diet
Coke before trying to get back into the ER.
I sat at a table looking out the large windows at
the manicured lawn as it stretched out before the wooded
lot surrounding the hospital. I thought back to the first
day my nightmare killer took Jessica and how he hadn’t
come to my dreams since. What was the connection
between him and me?
The chair beside me slid out and Allister sat down
beside me.
“Hi,” I said, surprised.
“You’ve been a busy girl,” Allister said, his tone
low and disapproving.
“What do you mean?” I asked, hoping he wasn’t
taking about the murders.
“You need to be more discriminating of who you
heal, and you definitely need to stay away from places
like hospitals.”
“What are you talking about?” I feigned
ignorance.
“Britt, I know you’re healing patients That will
bring unwanted attention and could cost people their
lives.” He reached over and took hold of my arm, forcing
me to look him in the eye.
“I, I…I didn’t know.”
“I know. I take full responsibility, but you need to
stop coming here and doing this…at least for a while
until the attention settles down.”
“If you’d tell me what’s going on I could avoid
doing something like this again and…” I trailed off as he
shook his head.
“All I can tell you is I can’t tell you anything, not
now,” Allister said flatly. He stood and stormed off.
I watched him weave through the tables and hurry
out the door. I needed some answers, but the person who
held those answers wasn’t talking. I stood, took off my
volunteer vest, and slunk to the lobby where I dropped it
off at the front counter on my way out; thankful the
elderly woman wasn’t there to guilt me into staying.
The rest of that last week before school started, I
spent hanging with the girls and trying to ignore the
glows I saw around people. I got good at staring past
them except when I saw a dull glow surrounding
someone. Jotting down their names, if I knew them, or
descriptions in a notebook I kept under my mattress,
hoping to see them again when Allister gave me the okay.
Eventually, I could turn the appearance of the glow off
like a switch in my head.
The bad dreams were absent for that entire week.
I prayed my good luck continued, looking forward to
more positive days, and nights, ahead.
The three amigos and I cruised past the old Miller
house all week, trying to catch a glimpse of the new
owners. The house appeared lived in, the flowers
bloomed on the large porch, but we never saw anyone
tending them.
The first day of school I stood in front of a small
oak tree in our backyard, the one I planted from an acorn,
posing for the obligatory ‘first day of school picture.’ I
rolled my eyes as Mom ushered me out to fulfill this
yearly tradition.
“I’m going to be late,” I complained.
“No, you’re not,” she assured, snapping another
picture.
“The girls will be by any minute,” I told her.
The familiar honk of the Wrangler’s horn alerted
us to the arrival of my ride and I rushed past Mom as she
checked to see how her latest memory saved on her
camera.
I ran into the house, grabbed my backpack, and
hurried to the Jeep in the driveway, mortified to see Mom
taking pictures of the girls out front.
“Mom, you’re kidding, right?” I sighed.
“It’s not every day your only daughter begins her
senior year of high school.” She choked up.
I reached out, pausing to give her a hug and kiss
on the cheek before tossing my backpack to Elisa in the
back and hopping in the front.
“I’ll be home after school,” I said.
We sped away and I glanced back to see Mom
wiping away tears. I wiped a few of my own from my
cheek and looked sheepishly to Trish in the driver’s seat.
“Don’t worry, Cassie cried like a baby before we
got her away from her mom and they’ll see each other at
school,” Trish smirked.
I looked back at Cassie sitting behind Trish as she
gave me a hopeless shrug and we broke into laughter.
We pulled into a parking spot at the same time a black
Camaro slid into the spot opposite us. As Allister looked
over at me our eyes locked and I felt the same connection
as when we first met in the hospital cafeteria. Excitement
at seeing him again mixed with the fear of his
disapproval, paralyzing me in my seat.The girls gasped as
they caught the direction of his gaze.
No one moved for a long moment and then the
passenger in the Camaro, who I hadn’t noticed until then,
got out of the car.
Her long golden hair nearly touched her waist and
she glared at me with vivid blue eyes. She slammed the
door and stormed away, shaking the rest of us from our
stupor.
Allister quickly got out and rushed after the girl.
I turned to find the amigos looking at me,
shocked.
“What the hell was that?” Trish asked.
“What was what?” I stammered.
“Don’t give us that,” Elisa laughed. “The
electricity between you nearly zapped us. He definitely
likes you.”
“Oh, does he?”
“Come on, Britt. You two connected and
connected hard,” Cassie said.
“He’s just interesting. You know, the new kid.”
“Bullshit.” Trish put her hand on my shoulder and
gave me a shove, nearly toppling me from the Jeep.
I grabbed the side of the vehicle to steady myself
and then eased out onto the blacktop of the parking lot.
How could I tell them I believed he was the angel who
saved my life? I didn’t have any proof…just a feeling,
and one I couldn’t be certain of. If he really saved me at
the river, did that mean the girl with him was the other
angel. She still seemed to be angry with me…but why?
The girls jumped out of the Jeep and we headed
into school, me lost in thought, and them staring at me
uncertainly. I tried not to notice, but I did.
I felt relieved to have my girls with me as I
walked into school for the first time in over a year. Using
tutors during my absence helped keep me on track to
graduate though the social part of school was
overwhelming, even with their support.
The looks the other students gave us were
priceless. It felt like everyone stopped to stare as we
passed. I was so happy to be back, I fought back tears as
we reached Elisa’s locker.
“I’m going to drop my stuff at my locker and head
to class,” I told them as Elisa pushed her books into the
tiny space.
“See you at lunch,” Cassie said as I turned to
leave.
“Yeah, save me a seat.” I smiled as I walked away.
I found my locker, took the books I didn’t need
until after lunch, shoved them in and headed to first
period. I tried to ignore the looks, yet found it hard not to
notice. I didn’t even care why they stared at me; because
the cancer was gone or I looked so different, it just felt
good to be noticed for a reason other than being bald or
sick.
I slid into my seat for first period and worked at
pushing the glows around each person out of my mind.
When I saw Mr. Kinsley, my first period math teacher,
my breath caught in my chest. He glowed so dull he
needed to be in the hospital. I stared. I couldn’t help
myself. Turning away as much as possible as he lectured,
I doodled in my notebook to keep my mind busy.
So caught up in the glow, or lack thereof, around
Mr. Kinsley and trying to escape it as soon as the bell
rang, I rushed from the room into the hallway, never
noticing the person walking in front of me until colliding
with him. We fell into a pile of tangled legs and arms.
Strong hands took hold of my upper arms and
helped me to my feet. I looked up into the eyes of Allister
Parks. He bent to retrieve my books strewn across the
floor before the other students could trample them and
handed them to me grinning, his blue eyes sparkling. I
gazed, dumbfounded at him, and he visibly fought back a
laugh.
“Hello,” he said first.
“Hi,” I said, a frog in my throat, then turned away,
blushed, and cleared my throat.
“Haven’t been visiting the hospital anymore I
hope?”
“No!” I shouted and then looked around as
everyone stared at my outburst.
He handed back my books. “Good. I think things
will settle down if we don’t do anything else to draw
attention.”
“Whose attention are you afraid of drawing?” I
took them quickly, waiting to be enlightened.
“We need to talk, but not here, not now,” Allister
said abruptly.
“That’s such a convenient answer when you don’t
want to tell me something.” I glared at him as we walked.
He looked up at the room number over the next
classroom and stopped. I walked another step and paused,
looking back at him.
“This is me.” He motioned with his head to the
classroom. “Talk to you later?”
“Yeah, later.” I sighed and rolled my eyes before
continuing down the hall to my next class.
The remainder of the morning flew by. Thankfully
I didn’t see any more people like Mr. Kingsley before
lunch, but Allister worried me more than any glow could.
I sat down next to Cassie after she waved me over
in the crowded lunchroom. Elisa and Trish weren’t there
yet so we waited, watching for their arrival.
“How’d it go?” Cassie asked, searching the crowd
for the girls.
“So far, so good,” I shrugged.
Twelve hundred students and four lunch periods
made it easy miss someone if you weren’t looking for
them. As we searched, Cassie gasped and I turned to
follow her gaze to the far side of the lunch room. When
my eyes saw her I froze, unable to blink or move. Seeing
her more clearly than this morning, my reaction was ten
times stronger.
She looked so perfect, I felt ugly. Her eyes were
ravishing, piercing blue. Her long golden hair flowed
around her shoulders down her back. She turned to me as
she walked past and I realized I’d stopped breathing. I
gasped, lungs spasming uncontrollably causing the air to
rush into my lungs noisily as she sat down at a nearby
table by herself.
A figure passed between us, breaking my focus,
and then sat down right next to her. My lips thinned and
sweat beaded on my forehead when our eyes met again. I
couldn’t put my finger on it; he gave me this foreign,
indescribable tingly feeling when I saw him.
He held my eyes with his and smiled, turning
back to the girl next to him. I glanced at her again. She
stared at me and then leaned close to him, saying
something. They both looked back to me, her look
disapproving, and his curious.
The lunchroom began to fill up and soon several
students sat down with Allister and his sister, started a
conversation with them. I wanted to go over and talk to
him again, except his sister looked at me with such anger.
I couldn’t build up the courage so I sat eating my chicken
sandwich in defeat.
I noticed something about the glow around them I
never noticed about Allister in our other encounters. They
didn’t have one. Not a shimmer, a glimmer, nothing. I
frowned, confused.
“OMG,” Elisa said sitting down next to me,
following my stare to the table across the room.
“The Parks,” Cassie confirmed. “Angelina and
Allister.”
“So, do you know them?” Trish asked sitting
across from us.
“Not from before,” I sighed, “I ran into him a few
times volunteering at the hospital and today, literally.
“Really? How embarrassing,” Cassie
commiserated with me.
“Tell me about it,” I said, grimacing.
“You should introduce us,” Trish went on boldly.
“I can’t.” I panicked, looking back at her, terror
threatening to erupt.
“Easy.” Trish put a comforting hand on my arm.
“I didn’t mean right now.”
“You’re really into him, aren’t you?” Elisa asked,
serious.
“I don’t know.” I frowned in thought. Was I? I
wasn’t too sure. The prospect of what he’d done to me
and what I was doing now; what it meant made me
uncertain how to act.
“That’s pretty fast.” Elisa raised an eyebrow.
“Wow, if Elisa thinks it’s fast, it must be,” Trish
laughed. “She gives a cheetah whiplash the way she
jumps from one guy to another.”
“Hey, don’t mock the system.” Elisa glared.
I pulled my gaze from Allister, with difficulty, to
look at Trish and Elisa. “What system?”
“Oh, Elisa uses a system to read when it’s time to
move on,” Trish sighed.
“I developed it over the years and it works very
well.” Elisa shot Trish a glare. Her face softened as she
turned back to me. “You see, Britt, all relationships have
stages. During these stages, the connection between two
people is at different levels.”
I took a bite of my sandwich and shook my head.
“I don’t follow.”
“The first stage is the honeymoon stage. Both
people trying to please each other. The next stage, I call
the transitional stage. If it’s good, both people will be
fighting to hang on to the honeymoon stage for all their
worth. The next stage…”
“The dump-them-stage, Cassie and I call it,” Trish
interrupted, getting a daggered look from Elisa and a nod
of agreement from Cassie.
“The couple stage,” Elisa emphasized, “is too
comfortable for me. When two people start to take each
other for granted. And as you know, I should never be
taken for granted.” She pushed out her chest and flicked
her auburn hair with a flourish.
“So how long do you stay with a guy?” I asked.
“Each guy goes through the stages at a different
rate. So far, Tommy is still in the honeymoon stage. But
Billy Jasper went through the honeymoon stage in a week
and the transitional stage in a day, so…”
“You only went out a week?” I gaped.
“Hey, you have to know when to get out.” She
shrugged, taking a drink of juice.