The Soul Healer (21 page)

Oh yes, I know just how much Charles wanted to become the director…

“He wouldn’t kill your family,” Philip continued. “Or hurt them or anything like that, I swear it. I won’t let him, either.”

“What, you’re going to move in and become my protector?” I joked.

Philip didn’t respond.

“You’re serious!” I gasped. “Phil, no, you can’t—”

“Until he agrees to leave you alone, I can and I will,” Philip said.

“No, you won’t.” This was worse than Rafe’s protective streak—this was downright suffocation! Not to mention the fact that I’d be plucking Philip from the life he’d always known and forcing him to start all over again. And how would he do that, anyway? Dad wasn’t about to let a total stranger move in, and there was no way in hell Charles would send him any money… Visions of Philip camping out in my backyard sprung to mind and I grimaced. This was ridiculous!

“Hold on, hold on.” Kain stepped in between us (we were doing some major glaring at each other at the moment) and held up his hands. “Has everyone forgotten Rafe Fitzgerald?
Gabiella’s
boyfriend
, who also happens to be a highly skilled hunter? Wouldn’t he be the one doing the protecting?”

“
Thank you
,” I said loudly. At least someone in the room was using his brain.

“I can protect her, too,” Philip said stubbornly.

“Don’t you think you’d be better off here, convincing your dad to leave her alone?” Kain asked. “And I don’t mean by threatening him, although that
would
be entertaining to watch.”

Philip
refused to back down. “Then how? He doesn’t listen to me, in case you haven’t noticed.”

“By showing him this.” Kain waved the book in the air. “And anything else we can find. We’ll show him that there is a very good chance Gabiella
will die and convince him to back off.”

“Will that work?” I asked. I looked from determined Kain to uncertain Philip to scared Nina. They exchanged glances, and it was Philip who nodded.

“It’s worth a shot. I mean, it’s better than being a fugitive, although that would have been fun too, right, Gabi?” Philip grinned at me.

The vision of Philip in my backyard was replaced by us speeding across the country in a beat-up car. “
That’s
what you had in mind!”

His face reddened. “What? We would have had a good time!”

I buried my face in my hands. “Oh, Phil…”

“This is why I suggested we come up with a plan,” Kain said with a smug smile. “Philip has an overactive imagination
, as he just demonstrated.”

“Shut
up
,” Philip growled, turning even redder.

I began laughing.
I was tense and scared, and our plan sorta sucked (no, it really sucked), but I couldn’t help myself. It felt good to laugh. It reminded me that if you pushed the Sight and the very likely chance that I was a Soul Healer aside, I was still a normal teenage girl.

I held out my hand, making a fist. When no one moved, I glared at them, each in turn. After much groaning and eye rolling, they placed their hands on top of mine, making a stack. “Let’s break out of HQ, guys,” I told them. “And get me the hell home.”

“To Gabi!” Philip yelled. No one echoed him, and he grimaced. “You guys suck, you know that?” Kain laughed and pounded Philip on the back, good-naturedly. Philip, in turn, did a
horrible
job of disguising how much he enjoyed the physical contact, brief as it was.

After they pulled their hands away, I brought my fist up to my heart, where I whispered, “To me.”

We were getting out of HQ.

I was going home.

Chapter Thirty-three

“I have something for you,” Rafe said, reaching into the backseat and handing me a wrist corsage, still in its plastic case.

Three white roses
nestled amongst baby breath gleamed in the moonlight. “They’re beautiful.” I started thinking about the roses in my garden, and how I couldn’t wait for it to be spring so I could smell their beautiful fragrance in the air. I made to open the case, but Rafe took it from me so he could pull the corsage out and slide it on my wrist. He looked oddly nervous, his eyes glued to the roses as if he expected them to blow up or something. “Rafe? What’s the matter?”

“I put a spell on the roses,” he said, still staring at them.

My stomach dropped. “You
what
?” I held my wrist away from my body, wondering if the flowers were moments away from exploding. “Why the heck would you do that?”

“Relax!” He pushed my wrist down into my lap, keeping his hand on my arm as he gently stroked his thumb back and forth. “It’s not bad, just a tracking spell.”

“Why, are you planning on losing me?” I joked.

“Gabi.” Rafe gave me a deadly serious look. “The last dance we went to, you got punched in the face by a demon. If you think I’m going to let something like that happen again…”

Scary, fiercely protective Rafe was back, and I swallowed hard. I would not let him ruin our night, however. “That’s not going to happen, Rafe. I’m not going to let you leave my side, not when I went through all this trouble to look this good.”

He smiled, and the hardness in his eyes faded away. “Have I mentioned yet how beautiful you look tonight?”

“Nope, and you better fix that mistake or else—” He cut me off by leaning forward and kissing me, making me forget whatever it was I was about to say.

“Or else what?” he asked when we pulled apart.

“Huh?”

Rafe laughed. “That’s what I thought.”

I hesitantly touched the corsage. “So there’s really a spell on this?”

“Yep. It’s pretty basic, nothing fancy—I was never as skilled as Evan, but I can do some spells. This one, after I cast a quick spell on my end, lets me know where you are. There’s a connection between me and the corsage, and the closer I get to it, the stronger it is.”

“And what happens if I drop the corsage?” I asked. “Then you’d find it, and not me, right?”

“Why would you drop it?” Rafe gave me a sad face, complete with an exaggerated pout. “Don’t you like it?”

“I love it, you dummy.” I swatted him on the arm, and we both laughed. “I just… I hope you don’t need to use the spell.”

“Me too, but…” Rafe cleared his throat. “It was good practice. I haven’t cast it in a long time, and I’m happy I still remembered what to do.
I didn’t even have to ask Evan.”

“He didn’t help?”

Rafe shook his head emphatically. “No way. Can you imagine that? He would have asked a million questions and been a total pain in the butt and probably intruded on our date and—no. I was doing this my way, by myself.”

“Amen to that,” I said. Who needed Evan tagging along on yet another one of our dates? Not me. “And congrats on the successful spell casting. I’m happy for you.” I beamed my brightest smile at him, which made Rafe flush and turn away, so he was facing the windshield.

He cleared his throat a couple of times. “I-I guess we should get going. To the—to the dance, I mean,” he corrected himself as he pulled the car away from the curb.

Aww, I had embarrassed him! I poked him on the shoulder. “What, did you have something else in mind?” I teased. “A naughty game of hide-and-seek where you use your spell to find me, and then have your way with me?”

“Have my
what
with you?” he sputtered, nearly crashing into my neighbor’s mailbox.

I burst out laughing.

“Gabi!”
Even in the moonlight I could see him blushing fiercely.

Oh Rafe, you
are just way too cute…

***

“Gabi, wake up.” Nina shook me until I moaned in response. “It’s almost midnight. We need to get ready.”

I pushed back the covers and sat up, brushing strands of hair out of my face. When Nina had told me to try and get some sleep before our mission to get me the hell out of HQ, I had scoffed. I was too keyed up, too nervous and excited,
with my heart racing so hard I was afraid it was going to burst from my chest and the only place I’d be escaping to was the hospital. But, surprisingly, I had managed to sleep, and got to see Rafe in my dreams once more. I hoped that was the conclusion of the winter formal dreams. The next time I saw Rafe, it would be in person.

Rafe! My heart began
pounding again. After our initial plans in the autopsy room, Nina, Philip, and I had returned to Nina’s rooms, while Kain had headed off to the library do to some more research after promising he’d meet up with us tonight. Once I had a moment to process what we had planned, doubts had started to creep in. Big, freaking doubts, like, “OH MY GOD WHAT THE HECK AM I DOING!” I wanted to believe what Philip had said about Charles only bluffing when he said he would hurt my dad and sister if I didn’t behave, but… How could I risk their lives like that? But on the other hand, how could I stay here? I was being given the chance to leave. Of course I’d run straight out that open door without looking back!

But my dad a
nd sister were still in Vermont and would remain there until after New Year’s, giving us almost a week to figure out what we were going to do. First I would contact Rafe, tell him what a giant idiot I was, and hopefully between all of us, we’d come up with a solid plan. I knew Rafe. He would
never
let Charles hurt my family. I hoped Charles would back off once he learned I was a potential ticking time bomb with only a limited amount of healings left, but what about his dead wife? He’d already killed his supposed best friend to become the freaking director, so what would stop him from forcing the annoying teenage girl to sacrifice her life for his wife?

I kept my fears quiet, though. Like I said, I wanted—no,
needed
to leave HQ. The rest of the stuff? I agreed with Philip. We’d figure it out later.

And hope for the best.

Yeah, I know. World’s crappiest plan. But what choice did I have? I wasn’t going to sit around and wait to die. Me and HQ? We were through.

I climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom to splash some cold water on my face. After brushing my fingers through my hair, I braided it quickly and rejoined Nina in her room. I took the scarf and coat she handed me, winding the blue-and-white fabric around my neck before pulling on the dark coat and zipping it up to my chin. We weren’t bothering with bags; Philip had enough money to buy us train tickets, and if we wanted any food, we’d get it at Penn Station. I already knew I wouldn’t be able to eat, my stomach a mess of knots that made me both nauseous and dizzy. I wish
ed I had Philip’s confidence, but doubts kept creeping back, like weeds in my mother’s garden. I pulled and pulled, but more and more sprung back up.

But, again. I was leaving. It was a good start. Now we just needed to make sure everything worked out, with a happy ending for me, my family, and my friends.

“Gabi.” Nina put her hands on my shoulders, staring into my eyes. “It’s going to be okay. You’ll be fine.” She blinked a few times, but her voice remained steady.

I shook out my ice-cold fingers and nodded. “You’re right.” My voice betrayed me by wavering all over the place.

She gave me a small smile (it was unusual seeing Nina so nervous) and pointed her chin toward the door. “Ready?”

I sucked in a deep breath. “Let’s do this.”

Chapter Thirty-four

Dressed in a black fleece winter coat, Philip was pacing in front of the elevator, which wasn’t suspicious
at all
. I scowled at him and he came to a halt, jabbing a thumb at the down button on the elevator. “You’re good?” he asked.

I nodded, afraid if I spoke, I’d throw up all over his sneakers.

God, I was so nervous!

As planned, Nina got in the elevator first; she was going to leave HQ and meet us outside, a block away. Philip had the more difficult task of breaking me out. Truthfully, I was glad I was going with him. Silly pink obsession aside, Nina had definitely proven herself to be a friend, but there was something about Philip that almost made me grateful for being brought here against my will. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have met him. It had only been a few days, but I felt like I had known him for much longer than that.

Now he stood in front of me, his hands shoved in the pockets of his coat as he bounced on the balls of his feet. “You remember what I said?”

“Stick close to you,” I replied. “Really, Phil, you think I’m going to go wandering on my own, so I can get lost in Manhattan? I already told you I don’t know where to go!”

He flashed me a crooked grin. “I keep forgetting that you’re a country girl. You live on a farm, right? With pigs and sheep?”

“No!” I shoved him. “I live in the suburbs, thank you very much, and no one has pigs! We have malls and buses and normal streets that aren’t confusing—”

“How are numbered streets and avenues confusing?” Philip shot back. “When this whole mess is over, I’m so taking you all over Manhattan so you can see how simple it is!”