Muse (Descended From Myth) (10 page)

My throat felt like it might be closing up a little bit, I was definitely having some difficulty breathing. I parked Anna's sunshine yellow VW bug in a small private parking lot behind her neat, wood-sided apartment building and sucked in another lungful of air.

“It's just a couple of people. There's no reason to be worried,” Anna whispered conspiratorially in my ear. “I prom
ise, my friends will love you.”

Yeah, right. Anna's faith might have been misplaced there. I never went to a normal school and I'd never had a group of friends like Anna's. I just had competitors at Palaestra, our version of a training academy. I wished I'd called Kaitlyn to get her advice before I came here. She's far more social than I am, but then she actually
attends a regular high school.

I slowly released Anna from the passenger side of the car, holding the door open for her and retrieving her bags from the backseat. She'd told me all about her friends during our many, many conversations. I knew what to expect, but I was still wor
ried, despite her reassurances.

I trudged along behind her, admiring the view, as she climbed a flight of stairs to her second story apartment.

“Dad bought this unit when Stacey was a sophomore. She had a terrible roommate in the dorm and was almost ready to drop out over it. He swooped in and made everything better for her, just like he always does. Still, it was nice for me to have it waiting when it was my turn. Samantha was supposed to be my roommate, but her parents insisted that she stay in the dorm her first year, so for now it's just me,” Anna explained as she unlocked the heavy steel door. At least her dad had picked a unit that would be easier to keep secure.

“Smile!” Anna nudged me with her shoulder as the door swung open
and a chorus of voices cheered.

“Anna! Welcome back! Oh my God, we were soooo worried about you!” A girl with elaborate braids wrapped around her head squealed as she folded Anna into a full body hug. Her wild outfit clued me in that she must be
the fashion designer, Frankie.

The entire group clustered around us, but no one had acknowledged my presence yet. I felt awkward, just standing in the open doorway lurking. Anna pulled away from yet another smothering hug, laughing and smiling. At least I had a good reason to b
e here, the best reason really.

“Everybody, I'm sure you've all seen the video, but now you get to meet my hero in person! This is Daniel,” she announced, pulling me forward by the hem of my shirt. “If it wasn't for
him, I wouldn't be here today.”

Evidently, that was all it took for most of the group to welcome me into the fold. The girls all took turns giving me hugs and doling out praise that I wasn't quite sure how to take. I really didn't need to h
ear anyone else call me a hero.

“I'm just glad she's
okay,” I kept answering lamely.

A few pizzas later, the crowd had dwindled down to Anna's core group of friends, the people I really needed to win over
; Brian, Samantha, and Frankie.

Ann
a was convinced that her friend Brian was madly in love with Samantha, the girl who constantly had a camera strapped around her neck, but I had my doubts. He'd been hanging back, watching me from across the room most of the night and keeping close tabs on Anna. Maybe he was just being a protective friend, but the jealousy burning in the pit of my stomach didn't really agree.

I walked into the kitchen where Brian was busy grabbing drinks for the girls, trying to
get a better feel for the guy.

“Anythi
ng I can help you with?”

Brian kind of stiffened up, pausing halfway into the fridge. “Nah, I'm good, man. Thanks,” he answered, but there wasn'
t any real warmth in his voice.

“Anna tells me that you two go way back,” I tried again. Maybe he just needed a chance to adjust to the idea that there was going to be another guy in the group now. Even if he did have a crush on Anna, I couldn't really blame the guy. I could get past it as long as
he didn't try anything. Maybe.

“Yeah, we do. She hasn't mentioned you much at all, though. How long are you planning on staying on campus?” Brian kept his tone pleasant, but I didn't have to be an expert in body language to pick up o
n the tension behind his words.

“I'm a transfer. I'll be starting classes next semester since I'm a little late now, but Anna is going to show me around and help me get everything set up. She's got the extra room so I'm just going to stay with her unt
il we make other arrangements.”

If the cans in Brian's hands hadn't been unopened, he probably would have crushed them as that little piece of info landed. It wasn't very mature of me, I know, and probably a bit too alpha male to just throw my claim out there, but I hadn't started this pissing match either. I wasn't about to lose the fragile connection I had with Anna beca
use of this guy's bad attitude.

A warm hand snaked around my waist as Anna walked up and pressed herself into my side. “How are you two getting along?” she asked sweetly, glancing back and forth between the two
of us.

“Isn't your dad going to freak if he's living here?” Brian demanded, ignoring her question completely. “Are you crazy?”

“
Dad
doesn't know, but my mom is cool with it. They got to know Daniel pretty well while I was at home. It'll be fine, don't worry so much,” Anna calmly retorted, plucking one of the cans out of his grasp. “Stop being such a prude and get back in the living room. Sam was just saying how much she wants to see the new Nicholas Sparks movie. You should ask her to go before she talks Frankie into it!” She lightly shoved him out of the kitchen, toward the other girls.

“I swear, he's never going to make a move,” she sighed dramatically. “Maybe I should push the issue.”

“Right. You can try,” I smirked dryly.

“You don't think I can do it?” she demanded, poking me in the chest. “I thought you were the one saying how much stronger I am now?”

“He'd have to
want
to do it first, Anna. If you really look, I think you'll see that Sam is not the girl he's trying to catch.” I breathed softly on her neck, making sure it tickled the right spot.

“What? Oh...
oh
.” Anna sounded confused, maybe even a little disappointed as she watched her friends with her newly enhanced senses. I wished for maybe the thousandth time that I could see things the way she could, but I could only imagine the golden cords of light she said connected everyone. Whatever she was seeing, I could tell from the expression on her face that it changed the way she thought about each of them in some way.

“Well, this could make things a bit more uncomfortable,” she sighed again, taking me by the hand and leading me back to the group.

Anna might not have been able to fix up her friends' love lives the way she'd have liked, but she found plenty of other ways to channel her energy on campus. I was amazed by how dedicated she was to her studies, especially the classes she considered “humanitarian.” Since it was mid-semester I wasn't able to take classes, but I did audit several of hers. I studied Anna more than anything. Her level of Influence was unlike anyone's I'd seen before, and as much as I didn't want to admit it to myself, there were facts that I simply couldn't keep ignoring. One afternoon, we were rushing across the quad from one of her classes to another when she slammed on the brakes right in front of me. I almost tripped over the top of her, but she spun around on the sidewalk before I smacked into her back.

“Give me a minute; I've got to fix something,” she gasped, practically sprinting in the other direction. She grabbed the sleeve of a kid wearing a dark hoodie, even though the sun was shining and it was pretty warm out. He pulled one earbud out and scowled at her over the
rims of his scratched glasses.

“Evan, right? You write for the paper, don't you? I recognize you from your headshot.” Anna smiled brightly, like she couldn't believe her luck. “I loved your last article. How did you come up with the idea?”

The tension on the kid's face slowly eased as he chitchatted with Anna, completely oblivious to the fevered energy she was pouring into him. Even from five feet away, it had every hair on my arms and neck prickling. After about five minutes, Anna finally released her hold on his arm and he walked off.  Anna grinned in my direction, looking a little tired but satisfied.

“What was that all about?” I slung her bag over my shoulder to ease some of her burden
as she recovered her strength.

Anna shrugged delicately. “He was going to kill himself. Somehow I could tell. I think he was planning to take other people out with him. I just gave him something else to focus on.”

It wasn't the first time she'd shocked me with her intervention, and it sure wasn't the last. She spread inspiration through campus like it was wildfire. Her professors were astounded that suddenly everyone in their classes were doing much better than they had been just two weeks earlier and that attendance had skyrocketed, too. People felt
good
after they'd gone to class. Sitting next to her in the classroom or on the shuttle bus was like getting a shot of endorphins that lasted for hours. I had to face it. Anna wasn't just a Talent any more, if she ever had been. She was a Muse. I was going to need time to figure out just what I should do about that, if there was anything I could do.

Maybe I was distracted by her progress, maybe I missed some warning signs. I just know that as we were walking across campus, I suddenly felt like we were being followed. I kept hearing something that sounded like footsteps trailing behind us. We were crossing between the library and Prius Hall, where the sound echoed and distorted, but I was convinced that I had heard something. Anna read the tension on my face and slipped her arm through mine, looking puzzled. I slipped us into an alcove on the side of the building, waiting, but no one ever came past. When Anna finally complained about being cold, we star
ted back towards the apartment.

We'd taken a few steps when something slammed into my back, knocking me off balance and I lost my grip on Anna's arm. Anna screamed as three figures in black attacked when I faltered. I whirled, swinging wildly, my training completely forgotten as terror washed over me.

“Anna!” I screamed, trying to find her past the cluster of masked faces who tore at me, trying to grab my arms. My panic intensified when I didn't hear her response. A fist hammered into my face and blood gushed out of my lower lip. The pain snapped me out of my hysteria, narrowing my vision down to the guy in black who'd just tried to take me out. Target number one. I snatched the guy's outstretched arm and pulled him towards me, knocking him off balance while I twisted and forced his shoulder out of socket with a satisfying wet pop. I dropped him shrieking on the ground, viciously kicking him in the ribs as I rounded on the next target.

Facing the other two, I finally spotted Anna sprawled on the ground, a piece of duct tape slapped over her mouth and a length of it twisted around her wrists from behind. One of the guys in black struggled with her, trying to drag her by her hair and arm farther away from me. Rage tinted my vision red, as I went for the tactical blade I kept concealed in my boot. Tumbling forward, I hit the second guy in the chest with my shoulder. Before he broke away out of my grasp, I twisted, jabbing with my blade just under the edge of the Kevlar vest he was wearing under his black hoodie. Panting and bloodied, I stalked after my last target, the one who was hurting Anna.

Screeching tires announced the arrival of a black SUV that jumped the curb and peeled up beside our attackers. Kill this guy, or go for Anna? He needed to pay for hurting her, but I had no way of knowing how many more of them were coming. I barely got to Anna before our assailants could, scooping her up by her arms and forcing her into a run. I had such a tight grip on her upper arm that I probably left bruises, but I couldn't risk her losing her balance and falling. She whimpered and wheezed as I hauled her, half carrying her stumbling body. We barely managed to reach a public entrance to the library ahead of the men pursuing us as we slammed through the doors. I jammed my bloody knife back inside my dark jacket, hiding it before anyone could see and screamed for the library clerk to call 911. Ripping the tape away from Anna's lips, I ran my bloodied hands over her, checking everywhere.

“Are you okay? Anna? Are you okay?” I was almost ro
ugh with her, I was so frantic.

“Who was that?” Anna panted, her eyes wide with fear. I gently unwound the tape from her wrists, kissed her forehead, and held her. She was shaking, but I was, too. This had been too organized, too professional of an attack for it to be a random act of violence. I'd suspected that before I felt the body armor they wore under their clothes, but that confirmed my fears completel
y.

“I don't know. But I
will
find out,” I promised. My heart was still pounding at a frantic pace, and as I replayed the incident in my mind, guilt ate at me. Six months ago I could have taken on three guys without breaking a sweat, but the panic I felt when I couldn't see Anna made me sloppy.

The Guardians train in a mixture of martial arts, loosely based
on Krav Maga, a form used by the Israeli Defense Forces, and Brazilian JiuJitsu techniques. I'd been training since I could walk, and I'd never lost a fight once I turned thirteen. The circumstances now were completely different. I couldn't focus, couldn't zero in on my opponents properly. I was totally unprepared for the emotions that came along with Anna being in danger. I couldn't let that happen again. Next time I might not get so lucky.