Earth Angel (The Kamlyn Paige Novels) (23 page)

“If you’ll be safe once you quit then I want you to
quit now. I’ll take care of Lamia. You and Sari should go now and find a safe
place,” he begged, his eyes wide and pleading.

“You know I can’t do that, Don…”

He heaved a deep sigh and closed his eyes.

“Yea, I know…”

I put my hand on his shoulder, trying to console
his fears of me being hurt or killed. I knew no matter what, he was going to
worry about me but it killed me to see how much this was hurting him.

“I’ll be alright,” I promised him.

I knew he wasn’t convinced. His eyes remained
closed as he continued to take deep breaths to settle his nerves.

“Kamlyn, what’s going on? Are you two alright?”

I nearly jumped out of my skin at the sight of Sari
standing next to my window. I opened my door and invited him into my seat as I
scooted over to the middle next to Don.

“I told you not to transfer yourself unless you
absolutely
had
to,” Sari said, looking at me with a stone cold face.

“I did have to,” I tried to explain. “Don needed to
see what I could do so he knew I was serious about what I was.”

Sari smiled at me despite his efforts to fight it.

“You’re going to kill me with all this worrying,
you know that right?” he laughed as he leaned in to kiss me on the forehead.

“I know what you mean,” Don chimed in, putting the
car into drive. “Are you joining us now?” he asked Sari, not seeming pleased
with the idea of spending hours in the car with the two of us.

“Look, Don…I know you don’t completely trust me and
you’re not too thrilled with the fact that I’m with Kamlyn, but we
are
together and that’s not going to change,” Sari responded in a matter-of-fact tone.

Don turned to look Sari in the eye, his own burning
with fury.

“How do you know how I feel about you? Were you
spying on us? Listening to our conversations?” Don challenged, taking no note
that I was caught in the middle of them. “How can you trust someone that spies
on your every move, Kamlyn? He’s bad news!”

“That’s it!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.
“Stop questioning Sari because everything he has ever done has been to protect
me. You should be thanking him, not arguing with him!”

Don let what I say sink in and lowered his gaze in
shame. He knew I was right; he was just too stubborn to admit it openly. Sari
smiled at his victory, like a younger brother reveling in his older brother’s
punishment.

“And you!” I turned my gaze to Sari to continue the
scolding. “Stop challenging Don and start getting along with him because he
will always be a part of my life. Get used to it.”

I lowered my voice when I saw a wounded look
overtake Sari’s once smiling face. It was hard for me to stay mad at him, no
matter how angry I started out.

“I’ll accept you two are together now,” Don stepped
up, as if wanting to show he was the bigger man. “But if you ever hurt her in
any way, trust me, you
will
regret it.”

I glared at him, silently reminding him of what I
had just said. He cracked a wide, slightly fake smile to show he was willing to
play ball.

“Let’s get this show on the road then,” he said in
a pleasant voice as he drove away from the shoulder and onto the road again.

The sun was beginning to make its first appearance
before us as the snow started to let up. It would only be a few hours before I
was in the same city as Lamia. The thought of being so close to her made my
whole body tingle from a mixture of nerves and excitement. I looked over at
Sari who was pretending to sleep so he wouldn’t have to make any more
conversation with Don the rest of the way. I thought about the risks I would be
taking by challenging a powerful demon goddess. I knew the odds of me coming
out alive. They were not good, to say the least. I was inexperienced with my
abilities and far too emotionally invested, but I felt there was no one else
who could do it. It had to be me.

I leaned my head against Sari’s chest as he put his
arm around me, pulling me in closer. His smell stimulated the memory of our
first kiss. I nuzzled my nose deeper into his chest, wanting to take in as much
of him as I could. His thick, long sleeved shirt cushioned my head as it moved
up and down with his deep soft breaths. I closed my eyes, letting his rhythmic
breathing carry me swiftly to sleep.

*

“Hi, baby boy,” I greeted as Danny emerged from
behind the double swinging doors of his old elementary school.

“Hi, mommy! Look what I did today!” he smiled as he
handed me a finger painting.

“That’s great, sweetheart,” I said, causing a proud
grin to take over his face. “Is this us?”

“Yep,” he answered, pointing to the picture.
“That’s me, that’s you…and that’s the lady.”

A dark figure stood in the distance behind a happy
colorful stick figure of me and Danny. It was Lamia, watching….waiting.

“Are you still going to stop her, mommy?” Danny
asked, questioning my memory of the promise I’d made him.

“Of course I am. I’m on my way right now to do it,
so don’t you worry okay?”

I smiled at him and picked him up in my arms. I squeezed
him tightly to me and spun him around. His high-pitched giggles filled my head
and echoed throughout the parking lot of the school. I set him down and
immediately he attached himself to my leg, not showing any signs of letting go.

“I’m going to miss you, mommy,” he said, hugging my
leg tighter.

I pulled him from my body and knelt down to his eye
level, confused by what he had just said.

“What do you mean, Danny?”

He took one of his little hands and brushed a piece
of my hair that had fallen out of my ponytail behind my ear and smiled. It
never ceased to amaze me how different he was from other children; more of a
little adult than a child.

“Once she’s gone, I’ll finally be allowed to nap,”
he said, smiling.

I knew exactly what he meant by this. Once Lamia
was destroyed, Danny would be free to move on and I would never see him again.
I hugged him tightly, tears streaming down my face. I didn’t know if I’d ever
see him again.

“I love you,” I said as the vision of my dream
faded away and I woke up.

“However short or long our lives
are going to be, I will live in you or you will live in me…until we disappear
together in a dream.”

– Wilco

I blinked several times to clear the sleep from my
eyes. Sari still had his arm around me while the fingers of his other hand ran
through my hair. I sat up and looked out the window just as we pulled into the
jam-packed parking lot of a busy college campus. There were thousands of
students it seemed, walking from one tall building to another, backpacks thrown
over one shoulder as they rushed to their next class. How was I supposed to
find Lamia in this mess? Dive right on in and just do it, like everything else
of course. What other choice did I have?

“Looks like Sleeping Beauty is finally awake,” Don
laughed to Sari as he parked the car in the only available spot he could find.

I was glad to see the two of them were on speaking
terms at least. Now for the hard part…there was no time to waste.

“Don, I don’t want you to get upset or fight me on
this,” I began hesitantly. “But I don’t want you to come with me to find Lamia.”

He was looking at me in response just as I thought
he would; a shocked face masked by a stern ‘are you crazy’ glare.

“It’s just…she’s very dangerous and I don’t want
anything to happen to you and I feel it’s something I have to do on my own,” I
rambled all my reasons off as I tried to clear the look on his face.

After a minute of silence and consideration, Don
turned to me with heavy eyes, as if agreeing out loud would have been too much
for him to handle. I knew he had given in, though. I wrapped my arms around his
neck, squeezing tightly. Who knows if I’d ever see him again after this. I
wanted to make sure there were no regrets in our possible goodbye.

“Thank you so much for everything you’ve done for
me. You mean so much to me, you have no idea…” I breathed into the collar of
his shirt.

I could hear little sniffles in my ear as Don tried
his best to fight back the tears. Unable to speak, he held onto me tightly. We
parted slowly as I smiled at him through misty eyes. Sari opened the door and
we both got out of the car. The engine rumbled softly as Don started it up and
backed out of the parking space. I watched as he drove away until I couldn’t
see him anymore. I hoped this ended well so I could see Don again. I knew if I
didn’t return it would tear him apart. He’d had enough pain in his life.

Sari took my hand in his as we walked forward into
the jungle of campus life. We strolled hand in hand, keeping our eyes and ears
open for any possible lead on who Lamia could be posing as. She could have
disguised herself as any of the girls there; the stressed red-head running past
us because she was late for a class, the flirty leggy blonde leaning on the
bike rack as she chatted up a few boys at once, the hippie chick sitting under
a tree while reading an anti-political book for pleasure. I didn’t know what
tell tale trait was going to give her away, but I knew there was going to be
one and I had to keep myself alert.

In the midst of all the gray institutional
buildings was a small center of different food and beverage vendors. I walked
up to a coffee stand and ordered the largest hot coffee they had, asking for
extra cream to make it sweeter. Sari and I sat down at a wrought iron table for
two and scanned the crowd of students and faculty coming in and out of the
large outdoor lounge. As I watched a young couple sit together and attempt to
study as they giggled and smiled at each other, I felt a twinge of envy. Their
lives were so simple and normal. They would finish college with a degree, go on
to work in their chosen profession, get married, have kids, watch those kids
grow up… I couldn’t help but feel like no matter how hard I tried, normal would
never be an option for me again. I wished I could be sitting across from Sari
as we were right then, but instead of watching people pass by in hopes of
finding a demon goddess, we could be discussing a reading assignment for an
interesting sociology class or something. I could feel Sari’s eyes on me as I
let my mind carry me away to another life just out of my reach.

“I know you feel like you missed out, but you’re
wrong, Kamlyn,” Sari said, putting his hand on top of mine. “You’re not out
there searching, trying to find out who you are…you already know.”

I let Sari’s voice pull me back to reality as I
focused on his warm, loving eyes.

“I couldn’t even imagine going back to that life
after all I’ve seen,” I said, letting my smile fade as I turned to look back
out at the campus.

The best thing about Sari was he knew when not to
press a subject any further. He could read me like a book because he knew me
better than anyone else. He knew the difference between the times I needed him
and the times I wanted to be left alone with my thoughts. We sat in silence,
soaking in the sun while I finished my coffee. I found it hard to concentrate
on other’s conversations as I let my previous life plans play out in my head
some more. My vision was focused on an empty table not too far from the one we
were at. Staring more through it than at it, my mind was wondering. I was
brought back again when a teacher and a student sat at the table I was using as
my empty escape.

He was clearly older than the girl was. His hair
was fully gray and he wore nice, creased slacks with a complimentary sweater
vest and button up shirt. He looked at the young girl across from him with
longing in his eyes. The girl, on the other hand, looked completely bored. She
twirled her long straight black hair around her fingers as she chewed on a
piece of gum, periodically blowing it into bubbles. Her eyes were captivating,
painted into catlike points in the corners. They drew me in and held me there.
Her lips were full, painted a flirtatious shade of pink. What was a girl like
that doing with a teacher? Well, it’s like my mom always said I guess; there is
no accounting for taste sometimes. This was obviously one of those times.

As the girl stood up to leave her compelled admirer
at the table, I was in awe by her movements. The way her hips swayed as she
walked away was mesmerizing, enhanced by the skin tight leggings she wore.

“Wait! Mia!” the teacher yelled, stopping the girl
in her tracks. “You forgot your key to the auditorium for tonight.”

Sari and I looked at each other wide-eyed. We tuned
ourselves more into the conversation by leaning in closer. The ravishingly
beautiful girl walked back to the table and bent down in front of the befuddled
teacher. He stared at her with intensity, as if she were some mythical siren
leading him to the rocks. She smiled a wickedly sensuous grin as she took the
key from his hand. The man was left staring dumbstruck, a satisfied grin on his
face as she walked off, hips swinging left and right as her high heels clicked
on the pavement.

“That’s her!” I whispered to Sari in excitement and
panic. “What do we do?”

It took every restraint I had in my body not to
chase her down and kill her right there in front of everyone. Sari scooted his
chair all the way around the table so it was right next to mine, our backs to
where Mia had walked off. He put his arm around my shoulder and smiled.

“We’re going to finish enjoying our coffees and
take a tour of the campus.”

I looked at him in shock. There was no way I was
just going to let her walk away. I started to stand up when Sari’s strong hand
pushed me back down into my seat.

“And then
tonight
we’ll meet her in the
auditorium,” he concluded as I turned to watch Mia walk around the corner and
out of sight.