Earth/Sky (Earth/Sky Trilogy) (30 page)

He kissed me, and for moments all of these happenings were brushed away. I put my hand to his chest and forgot about anything but him. Then someone called his name outside the door and everything came back like a hammer blow. His lips pressed to my forehead in goodbye, and he left with a command to lock the door behind him. I snapped the button and picked up my suitcase. Should I put my clothes away or just dig around for them in the suitcase as necessary? A dresser sat in the tiny closet, and it had three empty drawers.

I didn’t want to fill them.
Filling the closet would kill time, which I had to spare, yet I wanted to be ready to leave on short notice. Setting the suitcase on the bed, I unzipped it and chaos fluffed out. Kishi left an unmistakable trail wherever she went. One of my sweatshirts was right on top. Since the room was cold, I pulled it on. She had stuffed in practically every stitch I owned. Had she brought my school things? I rooted around and discovered my backpack at the bottom, along with my laptop and a variety of shoes.

The front door closed and the house was silent except for one pair of pattering feet.
I shoved my suitcase on top of the dresser and went to the window to peek out. No one was in the backyard, which had no fence to demarcate it from the woods. A greenhouse was on the grass.

Someone tapped on the door and I called,
“Who is it?”

“It’s me,” Lotus
said. “They told me that you know. You don’t have to unlock the door if you’re afraid.”

I opened it.
“Don’t be ridiculous.”

She looked up to me
with old eyes, and I stopped seeing the preteen girl that she appeared to be. Until now, I had seen what she wanted me to see and not looked any more deeply. That lovely, earthy scent was exuding from her just like it did from Zakia and Neala.

Sighing
, Lotus said, “You shouldn’t have been told, but since you know, please be assured that we’re safe. The four of us take our medication regularly, and it keeps us from changing.”

“You and Zakia, Neala and . . .” I
trailed away.

“Barney.”

My grandfather went
fishing
with him! “What about all of your family in other states? Are there more like you?” Her lips pursed and I hastened to add, “I’m not meaning to be rude or nosy. Do you want to come in?”

“No, I have some tinctures
that need my attention,” Lotus said. “There are about two dozen of us. We rotate among the Cooper properties, and yes, we are all monitored by Kreeling hunters.”

Hating how everything had changed between us, I said, “I wasn’t worried about that, and I’m not going to tell.”

“We shall see,” Lotus said appraisingly, pushing her dark braid over her shoulder. The knees of her jeans were stained with dirt, and more was under her fingernails like she had been gardening.

“How did this happen to all of you?”
It was out of my mouth before I could filter it for politeness. “I’m sorry. Forget I asked.”

She softened a little, although it was clear that she did not want to talk about it.
“We were attacked at a family party long ago.”

“I’m sorry,” I repeated.

“Don’t be. It is what happened, and we have been very lucky to find a way to survive it. Please excuse me; I have to go.”

When she
walked away, I closed the door but left the lock undone. She would hear the sound of it snapping, and take it to mean that I was scared after all. Returning to the window, I watched her walk over the grass to the greenhouse and go inside. Her head moved back and forth through the opaque glass.

I looked up to the trees in the woods, searching for fallen angels.
Then I sat on the foot of the bed, wondering what in the world I was supposed to do now.

Chapter Thirteen: The Wait

I never thought that I would be so glad to see dreary old Spooner High. Waving in gratitude to Neala for the ride, I walked into school with a skip in my step on Monday. From Bellangame High to Spooner High to an underground compound . . . my life was on a declining plane of accommodations. My phone call to check up with Grandpa Jack had been convincing on Saturday night; the fisherman took the bait, hook, line, and sinker. He wished me well on the botany project and reminded me to keep an eye out for poison oak.

London and Savannah ran over when I got to my locker, wanting to know what had happened to me in Seataw.
They’d looked everywhere, and their only clue that I might have left was one of Kitts’ friends saying that she thought she saw Adriel’s car leaving the square with a screech.

Expecting these quest
ions, Adriel and I had worked out a story in advance. I made my eyes round with shock and said, “You will never believe whom I ran into up there!”

“Who was it?” Savannah asked.

“An old boyfriend of mine from Bellangame, all the way back in freshman year,” I said. “We only ever went on two or three dates since he started getting weird. Then he moved to northern California somewhere and I never heard from him again. I haven’t even thought about the guy in years! And he was right there at the park, sitting with a bunch of his friends.”

Fascinated by this silly tale, London said, “But why did you leave?”

“Because he was almost stalking me when we lived down in Bellangame! We’d had fun going to the movies a few times. Big group dates, not even solo. We were only fourteen years old. But he started calling and texting all the time, like incessantly. Even at two in the morning, wanting to know where I was and what I was doing. Where did he really think I’d be at two in the morning? I would look out my bedroom window and he always happened to be riding his bike by my house. He lived clear across the city. It was giving me the creeps, so I hit the brakes on everything straight away.” Both girls nodded fervently. “So Adriel and I were walking across the last bridge and headed to Pirri’s, and Jeffrey was there at the picnic table. I didn’t even have time to turn around and sneak away before he looked up. He was all excited and wanted me to hang out, come over to his house up in Hightree. Minus Adriel. He was
way
too excited, you know? Wanting my number, my address, my school . . . I didn’t tell him that I live in Spooner now, and I whispered to Adriel that I wanted to go back home that instant.”

“Of course you did!” London exclaimed.
She pulled off her sweater. It was early in the day yet unseasonably warm. “What a creep! That’s what I would have done.”

“As
we were driving, I looked back and saw him in the car behind us,” I continued, feeling like a jerk for stringing them along like this.

“Did you call the cops?” Savannah cried.

“All he had to say was that he was driving down to San Francisco, if he’d been pulled over,” I said, throwing up my hands in mock frustration. “So I was freaking out by that point. I don’t want him to know where my grandfather’s house is! Adriel drove me down to the Gap. We were trying to lose him.” The fireball had obliterated Adriel’s silver car so completely that nothing was left in the rest area but a little unidentifiable scrap metal. He was going to tell anyone who asked about his car that he’d sold it and was getting a new one.

“And did you?
Did you lose him?” Savannah asked. We pressed closer to the lockers for students moving past. I spotted Adriel farther down the hallway. He was giving me space to tell this story, but standing guard over me just the same. The burn on his cheek was almost healed, making him look like he’d just gotten a bit too much sun.

“It was crazy,” I said.
“He just kept coming after us on Sutter and down into the Gap. We didn’t know what to do. Then Adriel sped up and jerked off the road to hide the car behind some trees. We saw Jeffrey drive by. Five minutes later, he drove back more slowly. Hunting for the car. We sat there for an hour, even though he only did one more circuit and didn’t reappear.”

“This is like something from
television
,” London said. I suspected that she was filing away the details in order to spread them around to everyone.

“Did you see him again on the way home?” Savannah asked.

“No.” That I was staying at the Coopers’ was a secret, just so it didn’t innocently get out from well meaning but loose lips. “Don’t call me at home this week, okay? We don’t have caller ID, so I won’t be picking up the phone. And don’t drop by for anything. Trust me, this guy is really weird, and you don’t want him to know who you are. He might just follow you home.”

“I can’t believe you dated him!” London exclaimed as the bell rang.
“What were you thinking?”

Savannah shook her head and said knowingly
while we walked around the corner, “Some guys can hold it together for a while. My dad taught me that from being a cop. They look normal on the surface, even if there’s something majorly screwy in their heads. He once had this great conversation with a guy in the station about sports and television shows, and found out later the guy had just been picked up for killing a woman somewhere in the Napa area.”

“That’s what he’s like,” I agreed.
“You think he’s totally normal at first. Smart and funny and charming, and he’s so good-looking. The weirdness doesn’t come out until later. I was
so
relieved when he moved away from Bellangame.”

“And now you’ve fallen right into his lap!” London said.
“What does he look like? We should watch out for him.”

“Well, he’s
really our age but he looks a little older, like in his early twenties,” I said. Rapidly, I gave them a quick description similar to Japheem. Then I ran for first period and braced myself to shake Mr. Rogers’ hand.

Students whispered about the strange fires they had seen in the sky
on Saturday. A boy in the back said authoritatively that it was a military exercise. The article in the paper hadn’t known what to make of it. Since no one had been injured or killed, and no properties damaged or destroyed, it was a rather small article. The students behind me were blaming fireworks, which weren’t allowed in the Spooner area due to risk of sparking a forest fire. Class began and I was so joyful to be sitting there, even with the passing in of homework that I didn’t have completed. My mind hadn’t been on my studies over the weekend. But to be
here
and not hiding in some dark, grim compound!

All of the Coopers had been very nice to me, even if Lotus was somewhat reserved.
She did let me borrow some of her paperbacks, since I didn’t feel safe outside and there wasn’t much to do indoors. We’d had lunch together on Sunday, and she made reference to the angelic belief that she lacked a soul. That she found insulting, feeling she was the same person before the attack as she was afterwards. I didn’t ask for details, although I was extremely curious. Our friendship was too precarious for that. Nor did I ask Zakia, who visited the house for a shower and to raid the fridge. We had watched sitcoms together for hours throughout the afternoon, passing a bowl of popcorn back and forth between us. His only mention of their background was that I couldn’t catch it from sharing food, so not to freak out on him. It was awful how the two were almost braced for me to treat them like lepers of olden days.

Adriel
came over to check on me Sunday evening, with the report that neither the Kreelings nor the Graystones had spotted hide or hair or feather of the Rippers. That was good to hear. Every day they weren’t seen around, it seemed safer to assume that they had moved on to some new home.

I looked out the window
during Mr. Rogers’ lecture, searching the skies for a racing streak of smoke. The morning passed without event, Adriel escorting me from class to class and sitting at my side all through lunch. The talk at the table naturally concerned the fictitious Jeffrey. Nash was full of protective pique and promised to watch for the fellow. I downplayed it a little, not wanting the boys to dog me around the school. Most likely, Jeffrey had given up. He had to go to his own school and couldn’t spend all of his time driving around this area in hopes that he might spot me. I was going to be cautious, but not neurotic. And in case they ran into my grandfather, I warned, don’t bring any of this up. He was so upset about the situation, and it wasn’t good for old people to have shocks.

That appeared to cover all of the bases, except for the boys asking Adriel why he hadn’t just pounded the guy in Seataw.
Savannah leaped to his defense. If he had slugged Jeffrey, who acted weird at the picnic tables but not aggressive, it was Adriel who would have gotten arrested. Seeing Nash shrug at this, Savannah said, “You can’t just walk around hitting people who give you the creeps! They have to
do
something first.”

“I still would have hit him,” Nash said. “Adriel is just too much of a pacifist. I mean, honestly, can you see Adriel hitting anyone for anything?”

We sat there in the growing tension. Nash grasped that he had gone too far, since he was carefully not meeting Adriel’s direct gaze. Easton said, “Dude, I bet Adriel would have hit him, had he done something.”

“
I
knew a girl who had a stalker,” London said a little competitively, so I turned my attention to her and demanded to hear all about it. The story took up the rest of the lunch period, and then I was off to computers. It was horrifically hot, and there was a line at every water fountain. I would have rather gone thirsty, since the water to come out was always lukewarm.

Some kids
had had a foodfight outside. Trash and spilled food were everywhere. Kitts caught up at the door to the classroom. She wanted a blow-by-blow of her own about the events in Seataw, which I related in whispers as Ms. Crane stalked around in search of typing felonies.

In sixth period, I exposed myself to swine flu again and sat beside Adriel in comfort at his presence.
“Have you heard anything from your family today?”

Adriel nodded.
“I used the pay phone on a restroom break last class to check up with Taurin. He hasn’t seen anything, and the Kreelings report the same.”

“Good,” I said.
“How is Drina?”

“She’s okay.
Her feathers are starting to grow back. She’ll be flying soon. How are you getting back to the Coopers . . . you shielded.”

“Zakia is driving me, since he works here in the
afternoon. I’ll just hang out in the library until he’s done,” I said. Adriel’s eyes burned. “Don’t start.”

“Keep him calm, and get away the second he acts strangely.”

“You’ve told me this,” I said testily.

“And I’ll keep telling you. I’m not going to lose you ag-” He cut himself off.

“I’m not her,” I said. “I look like her, but I’m not Annabeth.”

His shoulders sagged. “I know. I’m just worried.”

Fiddling with the controls to start a movie, Mr. Rogers said, “You know, when I ask for your attention, I’m not just speaking to the people in the front row. I’m sure whatever movie or piece of gossip that you’re discussing can wait for the bell.”

I no longer lived such a little life.
And why did it matter if we talked while he was just setting up a movie? Settling back in my seat and closing my mouth, I watched the clips and listened to his comments on characterizations between them. The room was too warm even with fans going.

Zak
ia went back and forth outside, cleaning up the food tossed willy-nilly about the concrete. His expression was placid, although I would have been furious if it had been my job to do that. Dumped popcorn, squashed sandwiches, spilled soda cans, decimated fruit cups, the only people who should have been cleaning it were the very ones who had thought to throw it. Sometimes high school felt like advanced kindergarten for taller kids. Zakia got everything back in order crumb by crumb, working without cease in the blistering heat.

I
didn’t have a very good vantage of the sky from where I was sitting. The little I could see stayed clear. Class ended and we packed up to go, with disdain radiating from Adriel out the window in Zakia’s direction. Zipping up my backpack, I said, “Stop it.”

“I’ll walk you to the locker and the library, okay?
Then I’m going to take a watch and spell Kishi-”

“She’s missing her classes for this?” I
asked in dismay.

Adriel’s
eyes were somber. “She doesn’t mind, and she’ll catch up. This is a much more serious situation than subjects she has eternity to study. What happened to Drina really angered her as well. She wants to be a part of this.” We walked out of the classroom and paused under the overhang to look up. Nothing suspicious was going on; all of the mischief happening at this school was contained to its students, two of who were engaged in stuffing popcorn down each other’s shirts. I guessed the silver lining in this was the job security for Zakia, who leaned on his broom and rolled his eyes to see the popcorn kernels hitting the concrete.

Once my locker was visited and we were outside the library, Adriel kissed me and walked away.
I sat down at a carrel to get through some homework. Soon Zakia tapped on the window and mouthed
ready to go
? I joined him outside. “I hate your job, Zakia.”