Guardian (7 page)

I begged her with my eyes to hold on just a little longer without explanation.   Her parents were completely ignoring us.  She checked to see if they’d caught any of our little display then settled her pretty face back on me.   

“I guess it wasn’t as bad as you thought.” I hoped she would just move on.  She was more intelligent than that, but maybe...just maybe she would do this,
for me
.

She didn’t believe for one minute that she wasn’t cut, but she returned to dinner. She always seemed to just trust me without a single ounce of persuading her magically.

We cleaned up and I offered my usual ice cream outing (not a date) to finish our homework supposedly, but I always took her to the Burger Giant where all the teens go so she wouldn’t starve.  Dumplings were neither of our favorite. And she was always excited to climb on the Shadow with me. 

Caylie ate a plate of cheese fries and waved us in as she finished off the last of it.   

We waited for the busboy to clean up the table.  Of course, he was no ordinary busboy.  Pike yelled profanities in screaming silence as he glamoured his dagger sticking out of the top on his jeans.  I thought the cussing out was at me but after Pike lowered his inner screaming voice to talk to me, I realized it was intended toward the arse in the corner glaring at both of us.  There wasn’t another empty table in the place where everyone in the dang high school had their groups in place like a zoo, so of course he was here too.

Pike held the dagger in the palm of his hand at the ready.  I shifted to reassure myself that my own weapons were in place. 

Caylie and some other guy were leaving making a nice distraction for Pike and I to assert the situation. I was glad she was a good friend to Grace, because she was not the best influence in choices in life.  Grace was the kind you fought for.   She whispered to Grace in passing, “cruising this weekend or else.”  She slid her finger across her neck imitating death.  Not a possibility for my girl.   Not an option.

“Delusional!”

“Meaning?” Caylie asked rolling her bedeviled eyes.

“Google it!”

“Not the definition, dork.  The reason.”

Grace shrugged and left her standing there without a yes or no again.  We both heard her mumbling something about my bike and riding on something.  With Grace’s severity of the purple that showed across her entire face, I pretended to ignore it.  For her.

Grace ate almost every bite.             

“Four o’clock.”  I told her without looking up.  She snapped her head up in the exact direction to see Ben coming into the restaurant.

“I’ll be good!  Give the boy the benefit of the burger joint he followed you to just to talk to you.”  I wouldn’t let this pass since I knew for a fact that she didn’t like the boy at all.  Otherwise, I’d pummel him.

“Hello, Grace.  Ian.”  Ben, the skateboard dude, who kept time with the goth crowd, stopped directly in front of the table and never looked once at me. 

“Hello!” she squeaked out at him.

“You mind if I sit with you?” He was brave.  I’ll give him that.

She had a half-eaten burger left and I could tell she didn’t want to even leave that bite, but must be desperate because she looked to me for help. 

“We were just leaving.  Maybe next time.”  I tried to make my tone nice.  Maybe too nice.  She called me an idiot.  Well!  I’ll collect on that little comment one day.   

“Maybe I’ll meet you here this Saturday?” he said to her only.

“I can’t,” she said with a nervous smile, “I have to help with the house this weekend.”

“Okay.  I’ll see you Monday at school then.  See ya!”  He looked severely disappointed.  When he was out the door, she slammed her fist into my arm not one, but two times.

“Ow, woman!”

“Woman me!  No help from the peanut gallery.  You’re full of perpetual comments that lead to no end and yet you’re speechless tonight.  What’s up with that?” she widened her eyes at me.

Just like that, she reminds me that girls never say what they really mean.

“Perhaps it’s the audience I’m trying to acquire.  Ben’s not the one I’m trying to get my voice heard.”  I made my stare long.  She eyed me questioningly but curious too.  She didn’t even realize how close she shifted towards me.

Caylie returned in time to see the intensity of the scene. Why the hell did she come back?   Her eyes said too much and her mouth was worse, “You know Grace I think you need a boyfriend.  You’re spending way too much time with Ian here.  He’s cramping your style.” 

I growled like a dang dog.  Stupid, yes.  Accurate with the way I feel, yes.  Grace stared wide-eyed at me and when my lip curled upward, she blew out a breath of hot air at me. 

She told her friend, “Caylie mind your own damn busin—

“Wait for it,” Caylie told her.   And she was gone holding the finger in the air.

“Let’s get outta here.  Loverboy is long gone by now.”  I took a serious tone ushering to leave the booth and head towards the door again wanting away from all the human junk.  She wouldn’t budge.

She tilted her head and squinted her eyes at me with this last comment.  Suddenly her mind twisted back to the dinner at her house, “What happened tonight in the kitchen?”

I paused putting on the charm, “I held your hand and helped you.”

I hated lying, but hated more the thought of losing her because of a dumb move.

“Be serious, Ian.  My hand was cut.”  She held up her hand to show no sign of any injury.  “There is nothing there now.”  When I thought she would ignore the fact that I had just commented about holding her hand, she dared me internally to be honest with how I felt about her.  I wish! 

I shrugged and leaned back into the booth across from her putting the distance back in place, “It wasn’t that bad, so why worry.” 

The waitress was suddenly there giving us the look over, “Burger okay?” She was staring at the half-eaten one.

“A little intense.”  Grace blew out a breath I was sure she didn’t know she was holding.

The waitress gave a confused look, “Maybe I’ll try one for luck.  You seem to have a lot of it.”  The estranged human female looked at me, averted her eyes to Ben who had since returned, and now made a point to glance at someone else I didn’t see but had a pretty good idea.  Grace hid her nervous thoughts with a giggle, but wouldn’t look at me. 

We stood saying goodbye to friends when Pike slammed his hand into my back.  “Excuse me!” he said in his best badass tone keeping his eyes on Grace but throwing me a wink in the middle to unplug my pinned up anger overload.  Grace watched him with equal interest which only made my blood boil to a warm temperature of when hell freezes over.  When Grace’s thought shifted to analyzing his
dark, deep voice
Pike played on it completely.  He moved to another table and began singing some stupid song that I knew she played on the mp3 all the time.  He knew this.  I knew this. 

Whatever order I placed the events of the night in order of importance, I would be eternally grateful to Kinsler for making his entrance at that precise time.  The ins and outs of everyone coming and going today should have struck my girl as odd, but her mind never went there.

I held my hand out for her to leave when Kinsler quickened his pace towards my girl.  She saw him and tried to duck her head behind me.  Once outside the first glass door she asked me, “Did that Christian guy from school say something to you?” 

“No, why?” I asked snipping at her.  No way was I telling her about that.

She didn’t believe me.

“Nothing, I just noticed he winked at you.  And since you are a guy, I thought that to be a bit odd.”  Was she trying to be funny?  I straightened my shoulders a bit and let the bull take charge.  I was no pansy ass.

“He owed me a favor,” I shrugged putting one hand in my jeans and one on her back.  It was a risk, but nothing, and I mean nothing would hurt her.

“Was he paying you back?” she asked me.  There was no way I was offering up information like
that
.  She tried to figure out if I knew him outside of school.  

“He did and we are not.” I kept my glare on Kinsler, then realized I’d also traded death stares with Pike and even Ben within seconds of looking back into the restaurant.

Confused she asked,
“What?  Which one?”

I realized my idiocy.
“
Out the door now!”  I’d answered her thoughts.

I watched any direction that something could hurt her.  She was thinking
I
was dark and dangerous.  I could be if anyone steps one more foot closer to her.  I sighed inwardly when she wanted to refuse talking to Kinsler.   One small step towards peace.

We headed back to her house and I said good night right inside the door answering Ginera’s reminder to be on time for the Halloween party.  Grace stood close enough for me to catch her lavender scent.  She had so many, but it was my favorite.  Sometimes I wondered if she changed it often to keep me guessing.

I gathered myself together from yet more distractions that always involved her and related to Ginera, “I wouldn’t miss this for anything”.  It was meant for both of them.  I thanked Ginera for always being so kind and reassured her that Grace will be safe with me.   I know it sounded like I was saying goodbye more than “thank you,” but I patted Ginera’s back to reassure her and walked Grace back to the door.  As daring as I’d been, I didn’t pull her close to me like her mind begged me to do.

I texted the HOME and waited for her reply. CU LTR returned.  I listened to her dream.  Safe!

Pop!  I heard a noise. I searched the grounds around her house.  Nothing.  I was so uptight I was hearing every noise and assuming the worst.

I chuckled at listening to Grace argue with her mom about getting ready for tonight.  Ginera was as nervous as the rest of us if not more because it pertained to her daughter. 

“...don’t forget your arm pocket purse under your sleeve.  I’ll pack it with a few things you might need,” Ginera told Grace.  I had asked for a few items to be put in the bag for safekeeping.  She had on the amulet I gave her years ago, but she’d need more than one if the situation presented itself.

I jerked my head with the sound of branches moving.  Nothing.  I found nothing.

The next argument within the house involved the brush I’d given her.  She couldn’t find it and it agitated her to lose it.   My heart swelled even if she didn’t know it to be me who gave it to her.

Grrr!
  She growled like a kitten on the loose among wolves. 

I left her long enough to go check the perimeter of the house.

“You are so whipped man!”

“Shut the h—

“Now, now.   Grace wouldn’t care for your language dear sir.  How ‘bout you clean up that filthy mouth a little before you rest it on her sweet lips.” 

He was baiting me, but for what.  Did he want me to rearrange his face? 

I snapped. 

I laid my fist onto his jaw.  I’d never punched someone that hard before.  I was riveting with the pent up emotional rage that came with trying to protect one girl.  The one girl who made me loose all focus and light up on an old friend.  Rival!

We were never “two peas in a pod” as Grace would call it using her human lingo that I slowly acclimated to over the years but came nowhere near to having a well versed knowledge of yet.  More like unlikely allies making the exception for the sake of similar circumstances in life and the lack of anyone else who would understand or accept our unsavory choices sometimes.

Crunch!  A foot connected to my face.  Pike popped my chin next with one blow without a second of recovery from the first hit.  I couldn’t find it in me to care about what I might look like later if I didn’t heal fast.  My eyes never leaving the sweat covered hardly a heavy breath opponent across from me, I plowed into him again.  Taking him to the ground, I slammed my head into his and waited for Pike to ease up, but he didn’t.

When I brought my fist back for another go at his face, he yelled at me to, “STOP!”  My mind was a blurry, bloody mess so I drew my fist in tighter and readied my swing. 

“Don’t do this man.  You got it out now.”  He laughed while he licked his bloody lip.  He’d done this for me, to get it out before I returned to Grace.  He was giving up a lot and I never once stopped to give him credit.

Damn!

Sometimes I hated him. 

Somewhere in the back of my mind I heard him.  Pike!  He was telling me to stop but confusion harbored over my head.  Stop what though? 

I blinked my eyes a couple of times and rolled my body over away from him.  He was trying to help me.   I never told him thank you or anything, just nodded and cleaned my face up on the back of my shirt.  I checked the time and saw I had plenty of time to heal, as did Pike.

Dressed appropriate to the situation, and clean, I was dying for the night to end.  I stood outside her front door now listening and following the patterns she went through like this was a school day. They were pretty much the same routine. 

My stop was before hers on school days.  I could be to her quick in case of an emergency if she needed it. Listening now, I’d thought about how I’d moved things around in her house for weeks to make her start to be suspicious and question the “oddities” as she sometimes called them.  Laughing at myself, I recalled how the little things never seemed important before her.  Somewhere inside, I hoped she’d question me, but she never did.  I had only ever been in the living room, kitchen, and bathroom of her house.  Only once in her bedroom, to protect her dreams.  She wouldn’t think I’d done anything.  More, it was a way to be closer to her even if it was a sick way to do it. 

Danella had a habit of moving things back before Grace could figure it out, but I didn’t give up, though.  I left clues.  In the house.   In her car.  She always asked about the strange pictures I liked to draw.  I never once let anyone else see my drawings.  Ever. 

“Oh, dreaming of another place, I guess.  Like you!” and I’d cut my eyes sideways to see her reaction with her favorite crooked lazy smile blazing at her.

I knew what she liked.   Always the same reaction though.  She’d shake her head and think things like, “We are so much alike” or sometimes she just blanked out.  Like she stopped breathing.  I hoped that it was a good reaction.   She’d mentioned the flowers on occasion, but she hadn’t yet connected anything to me though she suspected.  She liked roses.  She picked one off her mother’s rose bush and put it in her hair every time we climbed on the trampoline. I watched the summer Fey part of her shine through, then silently cherished her grab hold of the flowery scent and hold it inside her, feel passion for it.  Yes, she was passionate about living things that grew out of the ground.  I liked to feed that passion as much as possible.

Picking the roses and laying them around her house was one small comfort to being a silent presence in her life.  Mostly green, but red, yellow, and pink made their way into her heart, settling a smile on her face like I thirsted for.  Being invisible had its advantages too.  Glamour.  Well, the “glamour” no doubt was invisible to humans if our people chose to hide it from them.  Many humans knew about the Fey, but their memories had been erased.

Of course, I spent more time warding off Kinsler, and even Pike than enjoying her blushing cheeks, but such was the life I’d been born too. 

And speaking of the devil...

The Unseelie prince just stood there, skulking around like an ever present shadow. Never far.

This child had never been meant for a dull human life.  She was to be crowned.  She just didn’t know it yet.  The ceremony was just nights away so my thoughts left the darkness around me and visited the hope of the future.

  She’d known this face of mine her whole life, but there was still the drowning question of whether she would accept the other one.  Once she saw the true me, would she still smile at me? Who
I
really am?  The ears.  Glowing skin that lit up with her coveted feelings.  Yes, only when we were in a high emotional state, but that was more often than not with her.  Yes, the eyes were the same, but would she see them through the rest? 

And what about when she found out I could hear her thoughts and knew her future and her past. 

Caylie would be at the party too.  I hated for her to lose Caylie.  She’d been there for her for years and she would miss her…well assuming she picked me.  It all depended on the path Grace chose?                

Halloween (the solstice) was finally here.   The three of us met at the iron gate that led up to the mansion of a house.  Filthy rich humans who never cared about their teenagers and what they were doing.  I knew I’d have Grace out of there by the time anything bad could happen, but what about the rest?  And if she chose to stay human.  The thought squeezed my gut.

I parked Grace’s mom’s car after dropping them off, and glammed my way to the front steps beside them without revealing my talents.  We walked into the house together feeling out of place but knew that most of the senior class was at this party.  That would include Kinsler.