The Keeper's Vow (27 page)

“I’m a werewolf, but I promise I won’t
bite.” She shook his hand and he gave her a firm but soft jerk.
“How do you do, Miss. Watts?” He had an English accent and sounded
much older than he looked. His hair was the color of ditch-water,
and his chin covered in stubble.

“I’m fine thank-you,” Katie said, clearing
her throat. She sat down in the only chair in the tiny room. A
tiny, frail-looking, window behind Mr. Carver’s desk let in a
little sun—dusk particles floated in the rays. All of his office
looked like that frail window—seconds from falling apart. The walls
bulged a little; his desk was wood, but flimsy; and the books
stacked up to the ceiling, looked older than her.

“It’s a bit warm in here. No—maybe it’s just
me,” Mr. Carver laughed. “Let’s get started then. Katie, we’ll give
you about five minutes to find your center, and then I want you to
imagine power right there in your core. You’ll know when you are
ready, at that time just hold out your hand, palm down.” There was
an eerie silence sitting in the room with them. “Is everything
clear, Katie?” he asked.

She nodded.

“Then begin.”

She closed her eyes and followed the same
breathing patterns she did when moving herself into Tristan’s mind,
but instead of thinking about Tristan, she imagined a small circle
in her stomach. It glowed like an ember. First a dull green, a
violent orange, a fiery blue, and finally a blazing silver. It had
come too easy, like it was there all along waiting for her to see
it. It moved, a flickering flame in her mind, and then throughout
her body.

She tingled with excitement because she had
never felt anything as magnified as this. She felt suspended in the
air. Was this what it felt like? She held out her hand palm down.
But soon, she started to feel overwhelmed. The fire was growing
with no where to go, getting bigger and bigger as if it would blow
her body to bits.

There was pressure against the back of her
hand followed by a deep growl.

A gust of icy wind slapped her face as she
jumped out of the chair. Her head was going to explode.

Slowly, the sensation subsided and she was
left breathing hard backed up against one of the bulging walls. Mr.
Reynolds held his hand to his chest, letting out a string of
curses. Books had fallen from a stack and pages floated to the
ground. Confused and shaking, she look at Mr. Carver. He was
standing over the window, frozen. Wind filled the room with cold
air.

“What happened?” Katie said, looking from
Mr. Carver to Mr. Reynolds.

“That’s a good question.” Mr. Carver said
with his eyebrows raised. He still held onto the window. He looked
from the books on the floor, to her, and to Mr. Reynolds.

“I’ll tell you,” Mr. Reynolds said with a
laugh. “That girl nearly seared my bloody hand off. You have a
nasty bite, Miss. Watts. And that’s coming from me.”

“Here, John. Put some of this on it,” Mr
Carver said, handing him a tube of ointment from his desk drawer.
“That was extraordinary, Katie. You did it in less than a minute. I
thought Tristan was remarkable. I kind of expected it from him
though, he’s a transfer, but you…”

“What do you mean?” Katie couldn’t take her
eyes of Mr. Reynolds. He didn’t look angry, but she felt terrible.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to—do whatever I did.” But she did,
didn’t she? Wasn’t she supposed to do what she did, or else get her
memory taken?

“Well actually you did. This,” he held out
his hand with an angry red scar, “Isn’t exactly what I signed up
for, but Carver here didn’t tell me these were advanced
evaluations. I thought these were base-line evaluations.”

“They aren’t. I mean they
were
supposed
to be base-line. I didn’t expect Katie to be able
to—I had no idea you’d be this focused. Considering—well you’re new
and all.” Mr. Carver laughed. “You really did a number to his
hand.”

She felt all the blood rush to her checks.
Katie apologized over and over.

“Oh, are you proud now, Carver?” Mr.
Reynolds said, approaching Katie. Hesitantly, he put his hand on
her shoulder. She was embarrassed for smiling a little, and even
more so for being consoled by a stranger. He was making her cheeks
burn worse. “Don’t worry. My hand doesn’t hurt all that much,” he
said, patting her shoulder.

“I guess we’re all done then. We’ve got a
starting mark for you. You can go now.” Mr. Carver said.

She nodded stepping over some of the books.
She must have knocked them over when she jumped out of the chair.
She started to pick a few up but Mr. Carver waved her out of the
room.

“A
starting
mark?” Katie murmured.
She’d been freaking out this whole time and the evaluation was just
to see where her starting point was?

“Yes, what did you think—Katie, Dear girl,
you have to start
reading
the handouts I give you. This was
just too check your breathing exercises and to see if you were
giving off any fluctuating sparks. No wonder you were sweating
bullets—oh don’t go blushing on me—off you go, you know I hate it
when you kids look like I’ve been lecturing you—go on.”

Katie left, closing the office door behind
her. She couldn’t hold down the smile. She had to tell Tristan. She
did it. Something she didn’t even know existed. She was finally
better at something than everyone else. She ran out of the empty
classroom and straight into Tristan. He was like a rock.

She rubbed her head. “I did it,” she
smiled.

“I told you,” he smiled back.

They turned as they heard clacking heels
down the hall. Tristan put his arm around her shoulder. “Let’s go
hide in the library.”

“Tristan! Skipping class!” Katie smothered a
laugh as she gasped.

“There’s this girl. She’s a bad
influence.”

“A girl?” Katie laughed.

“Yeah, she’s my best-friend. Crazy though.”
Their legs were in sync with each other and she wished she were
like him. He was confident, strong, did everything deliberately,
rational, and always knew exactly what he wanted to say. He didn’t
freak out about anything really. She was the exact opposite.

“That’s not true. You’re confident in your
own way, you’re stronger than you give yourself credit for
and…well, you
are
erratic and irrational but those can be
redeeming qualities.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, ever seen,
The Gremlins
?”

She laughed despite herself, “I hate
you.”

“No you don’t,” he smiled. “You love
me.”

“Ha!” She rolled her eyes. She couldn’t
think of anything witty. She was stuck on the word
love.
“Race you the rest of the way,” she said, sprinting towards the
library, it was the only way to bury the sound of her pounding
heart.

The next time she saw Mr. Carver was in
Field Study, and this time she was happy to see him. He announced
they’d be going on a field trip. To Gray City. Katie was excited
and freaking out at the same time. What would it be like? If it was
a field trip it couldn’t be too dangerous, then again, they weren’t
in this program to live a safe life….

The field trip was tomorrow, Friday, and
apparently everyone already knew that except her.

“The flyer has been on the board for weeks,
Kay,” Allison said as they left class.

“She doesn’t read the board,” Tristan
answered. She could hear him mocking her. “Katalina, it’s not
mockery if it’s true. You don’t read anything. It’s like you’re
allergic to words.”

“I just might be!” Katie shouted. Traci
wanted her to read this and that and more of that. It was a miracle
she still had working eyes.

The next day, Katie didn’t
read
anything. It frustrated Traci, who gave her a lecture on
self-betterment, but Katie couldn’t help it. She was going to Gray
City after lunch.
The
Gray City. How could she concentrate
on anything else. A place where mystical creatures really
existed.

She was the only one who seemed to care.
Everyone else just chalked it off as a free half-day. They were
told to bring a pair of jeans to school—clean, no rips or tears and
preferably dark so they could match, because they were still
Hamilton High students.

After lunch, Mr. Carver handed out black
t-shirts with big letters in yellow print:

JG

Junior Guardians

They were walking billboards, but Katie
didn’t care as long as she wasn’t the only one wearing it. They all
changed. Except Tristan who walked out still in his uniform. He
said something to Mr. Carver and winked at her before he left. He
was up to something, and as they loaded the yellow bus she realized
he wasn’t going.

The giant pang gripping her chest was
disappointment. When had she started getting these feelings? When
did thinking about the way he smiled start making her giggle like
an idiot. Allison gave her a confused look as the bus drove
off.

The bus drove past Kat’s Ice Cream shop,
took a left at the one store that sold maps, and Katie realized
they were moving into the heart of downtown. The bus stopped at a
small restaurant and no one seemed alarmed. Was it a pit stop? Was
Gray City a small bistro called
Viva
?

“Okay everyone, please move in your
pairs—Katie, Allison? Why don’t you two pair up since both your
partners are out sick.”

Sick?
Tristan sick? Katie rolled her
eyes and smiled. She wondered what he was doing now….

“Admit it already,” Allison said, opening
the door of the Bistro. Olive oil and balsamic vinegar filled
Katie’s nose. Her mouth watered.

“Admit what?” Katie said, hoping she hadn’t
spent the last minute ignoring everything Allison said. Mr. Carver
was leading them all into a private room.

“That you’re crushing. Hard.”

Katie blushed. Was it that obvious? What if
Tristan knew? How could he not. He was in her head all the time.
But she was careful around him. And who said she was even
crushing?

Mr. Carver cleared his throat. “Okay four at
a time. Wait at the bottom.” He opened a door and Katie and Allison
were the first to go in followed by two others, Michael and Ethan.
They were in an elevator, but the number panel was different. It
was a keypad. Mr. Carver punched in a series of numbers while
everyone pretended not to look. It must have been a secret. Katie
couldn’t remember the numbers anyway, and from the look of
Michael’s smile, it wasn’t as big of a secret as she thought.

He left the elevator, and as soon as the
doors closed they were falling. Her feet never left the ground, but
her stomach rose into her chest.

She was glad when it was over. Her feet felt
oddly light, and her stomach tumbled when it got the memo that she
was planted on the ground again. The elevator door opened and they
were in a quiet lobby. It was a decent looking hotel with a large
seating area and bar. A man behind the bar eyed them until he saw
their shirts. He nodded.

Allison dragged Katie to a couch. “Don’t
tell me you aren’t, it’s written all over your face.”

“Aren’t what?” Katie said as a woman walked
through the outside doors. The outside was lit-up like Downtown at
night. Katie pretended not to know what Allison was talking about,
but she was genuinely interested in what lay beyond that door.

The elevator chimed. Four more people got
out and moved towards them.

“Kay, Tristan isn’t the only one who can
read you like a book. You’re always staring at him like—like that.
That goofy look you get when you hear his name.” Allison smiled.
“You two are pathetic. It’s so cute it makes me gag.”

“What do you mean,
you two.”
Katie
waited. Butterflies took off with her innards—stomach, guts, and
all. Did Allison think he liked her too? Not,
too.
She
didn’t like him. Not Tristan. Not like that. He was—the person who
was making her smile right now.

Fiddle-sticks.

The elevator chimed again. “You both get
that same look when you see each other. I’m totally jealous.
Someone needs to look at me like that.” Allison sighed.

Did he?

The elevator chimed again and again, and
Allison went on talking about someones ugly shoes, but Katie didn’t
hear a word. Not until Mr. Carver was herding them out into the
City.

It was the moment Katie had been waiting
for.

She took her first step out into Gray City
and stopped. It was—normal.

A city.

People walked up and down the illuminated
streets. Cars drove by and stopped at red lights. Chatter and city
noise filled the night air. The only strange thing was it was
dark.

Everyone drifted off into their groups and
even Allison lagged behind with Adam, who’d beaten Katie in the
preliminaries. It turned out he
was
nice, but she still
never talked to him much.

Katie tried to stay close to Mr. Carver. He
didn’t seem to notice that everyone else was ignoring him as he
played their tour guide. He pointed out the hospital and historical
homes belonging to well known vampire families. The city, he
explained, had been around for over a hundred years now, one of the
newest underground cities to be built.

To the left, down 8
^th
street was the werewolf district. Many
werewolves owned restaurants and a few were notable among the
underground cities of America. “I sometimes find the meat a little
too raw though.” Mr. Carver chuckled.

Katie shrugged. Maybe it was supposed to be
a joke? As they crossed the street she caught a glimpse of a sign:
The Pub.
It was a bar. Apparently werewolves were
a
little too
unoriginal too.

“Here,” Mr. Carver said directly to her—now
that he realized she was the only one next to him, “Down
12
^th
street is called Shadow
District. This street, specifically, is the fashion district. A
little SoHo if you will.”