The Keeper's Vow (32 page)

“Yeah?” she said, arching one of her perfect
eyebrows. Why didn’t Katie have eyebrows like that.

“Thanks. For that night—uh, for showing me
what a werewolf looked like.” Katie shifted her eyes towards
Allison.

Mercedes took another sip of her coffee and
left. Both Katie and Allison watched her walk across the street and
disappear out of view.

Katie got up to get another hot chocolate. A
tall man bumped into her nearly spilling coffee on her sweater.

“My apologies,” he said, staring at her
raising an eyebrow. He was handsome for an old guy. What? Could he
see the look of utter defeat on her face? Katie nodded and moved
past him back to her table.

Allison looked at Katie with a little pity.
“I’m pretty sure they’re just friends.”

Katie hated that Allison knew what she was
thinking. “She said he stopped seeing her. It was around the time
you guys got pretty chummy right?” Allison said.

Katie glanced around the coffee shop, trying
to hide from Allison’s gaze. The man who’d nearly seared her with
coffee was looking at her again. Even from here she could see how
his leering eyes were watching her.
Do I look that
pathetic?

“You’ll never guess who just walked in.”
Allison said.

Katie turned around but snapped right back
around when she saw Tristan. “He can sit here if he wants. I’m not
talking to him.”

“Even if he apologizes ten more times?”

“Whose side are you on?”

“What? I said he was jerk, but you can’t say
you didn’t know that from the beginning.”

She heard a chair scoot against the floor
behind her. Allison shrugged and Katie took a peek. He was siting
behind her, as if he hadn’t noticed she was there. He was reading
the book she got him for Christmas. He’d have to do better than
that. She rolled her eyes at Allison and sipped more of her
cocoa.

Something soft hit the back of her head. She
ignored it. Again she felt a soft projectile smack against her
hair. A tiny sugar packet hit the ground. Gripping the cup, she
thought of all the ways she could beat him up without causing a
scene.

Another packet hit her head, but this time
it snagged onto her hair. That was it. She’d give him what he
wanted. She’d say something to him. Something witty that would make
him feel stupid. Another packet smacked the top of her head.

She turn around and faced him. “You know
what. You’re gonna have to pay for those packets you wasted. This
is a coffee shop. People use those.”

He threw a packet at her forehead. “That
wasn’t witty.”

She stared him down, mad that she’d said
something so stupid. He smiled that crooked smile she hated. He
smiled bigger.

“I hate you,” she mumbled.

“Don’t say that.”

“I hate you.”

“Think of what the divorce will do to the
kids. Think of the kids, Katalina,” he said, scrunching up his
eyebrows.

Allison stood up. “I’d love to stay and
watch this, but it’s kind of uncomfortable.”

Katie eyed her as walked off toward the
counter. So much for being on her side.

“Katalina.”

She turned back to him. Trying to keep a
straight face. Trying to keep her mind quiet. But his eyes kept
probing her and she missed that stupid smile that was easing onto
his face right now.

“I knew you missed me.”

“Almost as much as I miss school.”

“Don’t be cruel.” He pulled the sugar packet
from one of the curls in her hair. She’d forgotten it was there.
“Do you really hate me?” He fiddled with it in his hands, turning
it over and over. When she didn’t say anything he looked up at her,
eyes wide like the world wouldn’t continue to spin without her
answer.

“No.”

“Then you forgive me?”

“Do I have a choice?”

“Nope,” he said, staring at his sugar
packet.

“Then I guess we’re friends again,” she
slapped his arm, because that’s what friends do, not girls who are
still a little angry at a giant idiot of a guy.

“You guys kiss and make up?” Allison said,
walking up to the table. Katie shot Allison an evil eye.

“I’ll make it up to you,” Tristan stood up.
“How about we ditch practice?” He smiled. “Let’s all go to a movie
instead?”

“Oh, I want to see the one about the
zombies,” Allison said way too excited. Whose side
was
she
on?

“Come on, Katalina. I’ll meet you there at
six.” He stood up not even waiting for her answer. “Six!” he smiled
again and left. She couldn’t help but watch him until he
disappeared from view. She would have preferred he’d stayed than go
wherever he was going.

“You’ve got it bad,” Allison said, digging
through her purse—that could have easily housed two families and a
dog.

“I do not.”

“Kay,” she stopped and looked at her.
“You’ve had that same dopey look on your face for almost a month
now.”

“And look where that got me.”

Allison shoveled in the purse, half her arm
consumed by it. “No one ever said you had good sense,” she said,
pulling out a stick of gum.

They walked around downtown to kill time
before the movie. It was getting late and Katie hated being out
past dark. She was always more deliberate with where she walked,
more aware of her surroundings. She took note of who was on the
street and where, like the couple arguing across the street. The
odd man sitting in his parked car looking down at—maybe a
cellphone? A weird looking boy slouched over a bike rack down the
alley they’d just passed. She saw them all.

Allison sighed. “My dad was supposed to
call, like ten minutes ago. I swear, it’s like he doesn’t even have
a daughter.”

“He’s not that bad. At least he didn’t erase
your memory.”

Allison laughed, a short,
humph
. “He
tried once.”

“What?” Katie looked at her profile, half
her face covered by her sun glasses. There was an easy smile and it
made her stomach knot. It was the smile Katie never liked. The one
Allison used to mask the part of her she never let anyone see. Not
even Katie. Katie’s eyes stayed forward on the road and she waited
for Allison to go on.

“It was last year. Right before the school
year started, he asked me over and over if I was sure about the
decision I’d made a year before. Half way through the school year I
was already the top in all my classes, Mr. Carver even asked me if
I wanted to start preparing for my entrance exams for the Elite
Force,” she glanced at Katie. “That’s a big freaking deal. I told
my dad as soon as I got home, and all he said was,
‘Carver’s
always been a teacher never a doer. I’m surprised they let him pick
the students for the exams’.
That night, after dinner, he said
if I wanted, he’d take me to an omitter. That I still had a chance
to be,
‘just a girl,’
that the Elite Fore wasn’t for
everyone.”

“Seriously?”

“No, I made it all up,” Allison frowned.

“That’s not what I meant. I just can’t
believe it.

“I can’t believe your dad erased six years
of your life.”

“I know,” Katie breathed.

Allison moved her sunglasses to the top of
her hair as they passed by the entrance of a spaghetti restaurant.
“We should eat there after the movie,” Allison said, sniffing the
air.

Katie agreed not really listening. She
wondered where Tristan went. Had he seen Mercedes before he came
in? Was he with her now? She hated herself for caring. For being
excited that he invited her to a movie. It wasn’t really a date
because he’d invited Allison too, but still it was the first time
they’d really do something outside of practice.

Tristan was waiting for them at exactly six
o’clock when they showed up at the theatre. He smiled when he saw
Katie and she pretended she didn’t see him. They stood in line for
tickets and Tristan announced that he’d pay for them all. Katie
wondered where he got the money but realized it would always be a
mystery, like his trips to the
pub
.

Tristan shot her a look and the smile
dropped of his face.

“
That’s thirty-dollars, please—excuse
me—”

Tristan tore his eye’s away from her and
paid.

As they walked toward the concession stands
a girl older than Katie approached them. “Hey, you. How’ve you
been?” she said to Tristan. She was tall, she had sweet brown eyes
and more breast than Katie could ever hope for.

Tristan looked behind him as if she could
have been talking to someone else.

“Tristan?” she said, smiling. She turned to
Katie and Allison. “Oh hi, I’m Nicole.”

Katie tried to hide how much she wanted to
die. She had no choice but she smile and introduced herself. No
wonder it creeped him out when she tried to be pretty, he was
hanging out with girls like this.

“I’m sorry, I really don’t know you.”
Tristan looked between them.

Don’t lie for my sake.
Katie excused
herself and walked off to theatre number five. She seethed and even
wanted to cry. He should have ran after her. He didn’t. Of course
he didn’t. She was the idiot still wishing for him to make some
romantic gesture.

The movie was crap. That was what Allison
said. Katie didn’t watch it. She sat there ignoring how Tristan
looked at her every five minutes. Allison tried to talk through the
tension, but it didn’t work. Katie just wanted to go home.

They walked Allison home first because her
house was the closest to the theatre and she looked relieved to
leave them.

“Katalina—” Tristan said after ten minutes
of silence.

“Don’t talk to me.”

“What have I done?” Tristan spat.

Are you kidding me?

“I didn’t
do
anything. I—uuughhhh.
You drive me crazy.”

Katie got pleasure out of that.

“I didn’t even know that girl. If I did, why
is it a big deal. We’re friends.”

Katie walked faster.

He grabbed her hand and she yanked it away.
She hated it when he touched her. It made it worse. He knew that.
He had to know that.

“Katalina—”

They were at the corner of her house. “Just
go home. Leave me alone, Tristan.” His name came out weak. She
couldn’t start crying now. Not in front of him.

“Katalina—”

“Go.”

He stopped following her. “Fine,” he sounded
defeated. He was walking away she could tell. She could always feel
when he wasn’t close anymore.

A boy, who was in love with the girl who’d
just told him to leave her alone, would have followed her—forced
her to hug him. He wouldn’t have walked away.

She sat on her porch. Tristan didn’t have
the right to be upset. This was all his fault.

It was cold outside but she took off her
sweater. She wanted to feel the cold on her skin. She wanted most
to stop loving him. Because she did. That was what made her hurt
the most. The fact that she loved him, he knew it, and he didn’t
care.

She welcomed the numbness, climbing up her
body, as new snow flakes danced from the purple sky and into the
white dense fog surrounding her.

She closed her eyes and breathed. The night
was quiet and lonely…

Crunch
.

A footstep? She opened her eyes and a
bearded man stared back at her from across the yard. He smiled. The
numbness turned into sparks of fear. She didn’t move and neither
did he. Just the fog between them.

She stood up and stepped back towards the
door. She could make it inside before he came closer. This was what
she’d been waiting for. The paranoia she’d had. It was for him.

He shook his head still smiling.

She took another step and everything went
black. A bag was thrown over her head and tied around her neck.

She clawed at the fabric but pulling it
apart was useless.

“Help.” The words were muffled as a fist
smashed into her ear. Her head blossomed into pressure-filled pain
as she was hoisted up against a large body. They were running with
her and fast.

Her legs buckled under her. They burned
against snow and cement road. She was being kidnapped. She wasn’t
even on the porch anymore, she was out on the street.

“Help,” she screamed. She heard the click of
a car door. She wasn’t going to let someone take her. She kicked
her legs out, but it didn’t stop her attackers. She called on her
power but nothing came. She couldn’t concentrate. She was tossed in
the air, a free fall, until her body crashed against metal.

Doors slammed and she felt the roar of an
engine underneath her.

“Go. Go!”

“Help,” she screamed tasting blood.

A hand collided with her throat. Still, she
kicked and punched into the darkness. They weren’t going to take
her without a fight. If she was going to die she was going to take
a piece of them with her.

The van skidded forward at a high-speed.

This was it. She was going to die.

“
Hold on to something. I’m going to crash
the van,”
Tristan’s voice said in her mind. A spark of hope
spread through her like wild fire. She felt for something in the
darkness. Anything to hold onto, but it was too late. She flew,
suspended in the air, and slammed against a body.

The screeching of metal filled her ears as
she was propelled forward until jerked again, like a rag doll,
backward into another body.

She reached for the back of her neck and
pulled the bag loose ripping it off her head. She was in the back
of van that was on it side. She scrambled for doors, but was yanked
back. The bearded man squeezed her leg, and she kicked him in the
face freeing her leg.

The door wrenched open before she touched
it.

Tristan. He grabbed her arm and pulled her
out of the van.

“Behind you,” she shouted. A man the size of
a house was behind Tristan and throwing a punch. Tristan ducked it
and punched him towards the bottom of his stomach. A liver shot he
had taught Katie. The man spasmed as if having a seizure and fell
to the ground, face first.