03 Saints (24 page)

I never wanted it to end.

Chapter 11

I woke to darkness so complete I felt as if I were in a world where time, and light, had ceased to have meaning. Night had fallen on the school.

Our time together had left me exhausted, the feeling of being so close to him urging my body to drown in relaxed peace. I had succumbed to the dark peace eagerly. My dreams had been full of him. My room, however, was inexplicably not.

I sat up at the realization, wondering where he had gone. It was unlike him to leave me alone after such an important moment. Figuring an empty room would offer me no answers, I started to get dressed. A smile crept over my face as I dressed. I felt goofy and full of excited happiness, despite not knowing where Daniel was. A warm feeling of contended bliss and understanding of a world I had been missing settled in my stomach. The question of where Daniel had gone was not strong enough to push away the feeling.

The happiness was too hard to ignore.

Headed for the door, humming quietly around the smile on my lips, I paused when I heard Daniel’s laugh in the air. It was the loudest thing against my alert ears, and I was immediately drawn to the sound, like a moth to flame. I focused, searching for his location from the sound, and realized he was in Reaper’s room. Daniel must have followed through on his promise to talk with Reaper. I was about to walk out my room, to join them, when I heard Reaper say something around Daniel’s laughter. Daniel’s response had me eavesdropping – a habit I hated, but one I couldn’t resist under the circumstances.

“Whatever did happen to Isra?” Reaper asked around his laughter. “I lost track of him.”

There was a long pause in which something about Daniel’s expression gave his emotions away.

“What?” Reaper asked.

“I found him when I was searching for you,” Daniel said. “He converted from Islam to Catholicism and joined the church.”

“Isra converted?” Reaper asked with a laugh. “I find that difficult to believe.”

“A priest took him in, gave him shelter; gave him a new life. He was grateful, so grateful he decided a conversion wasn’t out of the question.”

“So, why are you upset?” Reaper asked. “That sounds like more than most of our friends on the streets got.”

Daniel paused; it was a pause I recognized too well. Something had happened that he felt guilty about.

“I found him in his church. I was young, foolish; I told him my secret, thinking I could trust an old friend. His reaction was the opposite of what I had thought it would be. He called me ‘demon’ ‘soulless’ ‘creature.’ Our friendship was as wind blowing through the desert. He went crazy with his accusations. I started to leave, upset, and angry his memory was so short... He attacked me as I tried to leave. I pushed him away. That’s all. A simple push. But it was too hard. I was still new to my strength. He flew back and cracked his skull on the wall. His death was immediate…”

Reaper sighed knowingly. “That’s unfortunate. I’ve run across a few I thought I could trust. It can be lonely being us, can’t it?”

“Yes,” Daniel admitted.

“You blame yourself?” Reaper asked.

“Of course,” Daniel said.

“You shouldn’t. Isra was a stupid, bigoted, religious nut,” Reaper said. “He always was. I’m not saying he deserved to die, but he did a lot of stupid things, things without thinking. He chose to attack, and you reacted. You are not to blame.”

“Words!” Daniel scoffed.

“Truth,” Reaper replied.

They were silent for a moment, both considering what Daniel had just said. I was doing my own thinking. I suddenly understood the tattoo on Daniel’s arm, the name written in Arabic, and knew ‘Isra’ had been his first kill. His first kill had been an accident, one he still carried around with him. I also knew there was no one better to tell Daniel it wasn’t his fault than the man who had known them both in their youth. Reaper would help Daniel let go of a past Daniel couldn’t change. And if there was anything I knew about Daniel, it was the fact that he needed to learn to let go. He carried too much of his guilt around with him, never letting it rest as he should.

I backed away from the door, as they started sharing stories about Isra. I went to the window to stare up at the stars, lost in what Daniel had said. The warmth of our time together filled me up with happiness, despite the gravity of his story. The stars glittering in the dark, the happiness circling my heart, I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a long time. It was something I would have never done two weeks ago.

I picked up the guitar Daniel had bought me and tuned it. I strummed it once, to make sure it sounded the way I wanted, loving its rich sound after going so long without it. Then, I started playing, softly, so I wouldn’t disturb anyone. My smile of excitement and happiness changed into a more peaceful smile as my fingers introduced themselves to the strings again after so long apart. It was my own version of letting go – of finding a way to unburden the sins I carried in my chest. Despite my attempt to be quiet, my playing did not go unnoticed.

A soft knock sounded from the door. Alex appeared in my door, her face obscured by the darkness in my room. The only hint of light was in her blonde hair.

“Daniel said you were asleep.”

“I was,” I said.

She moved through the door and sat next to me on the bed.

“Reaper is going to let me help with some organizational things. I wanted to go out like the others, but he said the Saints wouldn’t trust me until I proved myself...and I told him I wouldn’t steal from other people, even if those people are bad.”

“At least you have a job,” I said over my playing. “It’s better than nothing.”

“I know...I’m not complaining. It’s exciting what we’re doing. I don’t think I’ve been this excited in a long time,” she said.

“It doesn’t hurt there are a lot of cute boys hanging around either, does it?” I teased her.

“Oh, goodness, no.” I felt her eyes rake my face in the darkness. “Why do you keep grinning like an idiot?”

My embarrassed, though truthful, reply was cut short. A car horn sounded from the front of the school, loud against the more muted sounds of the night. I set the guitar down, and Alex and I went to the window to investigate the source of the noise. The horn sounded again and a woman stepped out from behind the wheel. Her brown hair and voice were familiar. She had been at the original poker game I had witnessed during my first day at the school, though I didn’t know her name.

“River!” the woman yelled. “I need you!”

People started running out the front doors to join her at the front of the school. I turned away from the window and hurried to join them, pulling Alex after me. Reaper and Daniel met us in the hall, their eyes concerned. With them in front, we ran to the first floor. People jumped out of the way at Reaper’s approach, his fierce look enough of a battering ram to clear the hall.

“What’s going on?” Reaper asked when we reached the car.

“We were ambushed!” the woman said.

She opened the door to the backseat, and I saw two people, a man and woman, covered in silver blood; their own blood. The man held his wounds, while the woman appeared to have passed out from her injuries. As I watched, the man shut his eyes and stopped moving. It was startling – I had never seen two Watchers bleed that much without dying. I had never seen the veil between life and death so closed-in for their kind….it was more human than I was expecting.

“Where’s River?” Reaper asked, moving to look at their wounds.

“Here! I’m here,” she said fighting her way through the growing crowd.

She leaned over the backseat and started working on the pair, her hands moving to check wounds and survey the extent of the damage. Daniel went to the other side of the car, his face full of purpose. He looked more certain than River as he looked at the girl’s wounds, which wasn’t a good thing for the girl. His eyes reflected his worry; worry based in knowledge. River looked at him looking at the girl, her face reflecting her curiosity. She was obviously wondering what he was doing stepping in on her unofficial role within the Saints.

Daniel didn’t notice. He was too focused on the task at hand.

“Do you have medical training?” Daniel asked River from his side of the car.

“Just what I’ve read,” she admitted.

“Alright then, this is what we need to do…”

He listed what they needed, his certainty bringing some order to the chaos. River ran off the get supplies, while Daniel picked up the girl and Reaper picked up the guy. They carried the pair inside as quickly as they could. Daniel went in to the first room off the entranceway and placed the girl on an abandoned desk. Reaper put the guy on a desk next to her. The crowd followed them, to be near their friends, but Daniel wasn’t eager for the distraction of an audience.

Without looking away from the girl’s wounds he said, “Reaper?”

It was enough of a clue to what he wanted.

“Everyone out,” Reaper said. “Go on, he needs his space to work. We’ll keep you updated.”

Everyone left, except for the woman who had driven the car. Her eyes were mad as she paced far enough away from the tables to not bother Daniel. She was the most normal looking Watcher I had seen. She was modern, sophisticated, but simple. Her grace was not as obvious. I sensed it was on purpose.

“Someone told them we would be there, Reaper. There’s no other way they could have known,” she said, biting her nail as she paced.

“We’ll talk about it later, Elizabeth, I promise,” Reaper said. “Right now it’s important you get rid of that car. Can you do that?”

She was reluctant but didn’t argue with his question. “Yeah. I’ll take care of it.”

She moved back out into the hall, where the onlookers were gathered as close to the door as they dared. River passed her on her way in, compassion in her eyes. The woman, Elizabeth, didn’t seem to register the compassion; she was too lost in her anger.

River’s arms were full of bandages and medical tools; some looked old and well-used but I knew their condition wouldn’t matter to Daniel.

“Clare, come here,” Daniel commanded as River joined him. “Put your hands here and hold this. I need to look at the other one.”

He forced me to press my hands against a gaping gunshot wound. I did as he asked, his command making me move before thinking. Silver blood drenched my hands in seconds as I pressed them against her skin. I cringed away from the blood but kept my hands in place. I knew a life depended on it. I had never felt so immediately and intimately responsible for a life.

“River, help me with this,” Daniel commanded.

Daniel cut away the man’s shirt to get a better look at his wounds. As he worked, he made River clean the tools she had brought down with whiskey stolen from an unwitting Watcher’s room. His green eyes were full of knowledge as he surveyed the man’s gunshots, categorizing things I couldn’t begin to understand. When River was done sanitizing the tools, Daniel picked a scalpel up and cut in to the man without hesitation.

“Where’d you learn all this?” River asked as he cut. His steady hand and expression gave away his experience.

“Harvard,” he replied.

“He lost a bet and had to go to medical school,” I added, trying to keep my eyes focused on them, instead of the blood pooling around my hands. At least they were doing something proactive. All I could do was waste time as the woman slowly died in my hands.

“You are full of surprises, old friend,” Reaper as he took up Elizabeth’s pacing.

I sensed him dwelling on Elizabeth’s words around his worry for his fighters. Even in a moment of worry he was forced to think of politics, of possible betrayal and what it meant for him and his group. It was his business; a business I did not envy.

“Can I help?” Alex asked as she leaned against the wall to avoid his pacing.

Daniel pulled a bullet from the man’s chest and put it on to a silver tray. He handed the scalpel to River.

“I’ve got the more serious bullet out. Come here and stem the bleeding, while River gets the second bullet out. I need to look at the girl again,” he told Alex.

He took Alex’s hands and showed her where to place them. Alex looked sick at the sight of the blood, but her hands were steady as she pressed against the man’s chest.

Daniel ghosted to my side, as if he had suddenly sprouted wings, his purposeful grace carrying him across the space silently.

“I need to open her up, to get the bullet and make sure there’s no internal bleeding. Hand me what I need when I ask for it, okay?” he asked.

“Okay,” I agreed.

He went to work, cutting her shirt away and digging out the bullets in her chest. I kept my hands pressed against the wounds he wasn’t working on. What if I let go and she suffered for it? What if I messed it up somehow? Daniel was calm, though, focused in a way I had never seen him before. His hands were confident, his eyes reflecting years of applied practice. Every movement meant something. It gave me confidence.

Even his steady calm and practiced skill was not enough to save the girl.

I watched helplessly as her life slowly drained from her body with every passing second. I saw the subtle shift of emotions in Daniel’s face as he did everything he could to retrieve the multiple bullets in her body and stop the internal bleeding. Hope finally disappeared from his eyes.