03 Saints (28 page)

He nodded, appreciating my honesty, and shut his eyes again.

I left the room, wishing I had something better to say. Maybe I would get Alex to talk to him…she always knew the right things to say.

Distracted by his story – and more determined than ever to find the spy – I tucked my hands into my pants pockets and headed for the common area. I knew the population was always fluid through there; there was always some kind of happening. It was the reason I had avoided it during my initial stay. It would be more than a distraction – it would be homework.

I picked a table in the corner, so I could watch the door and the room, and focused on learning more about the people around me. I witnessed lots of drama, lots of fake fights meant to dispel pent up energy and aggression. I witnessed a couple of real fights, but nothing serious enough to warrant the still-illusive fighting arena. There was a lot of flirting and talking, usually between the younger Watchers, and more than a lot of bragging and ego-stroking as everyone competed for the ‘Most Awesome Watcher of the Year’ award.

After only a few minutes of watching, it was obvious who was serious about being in the Saints and who was just passing through from one safe haven to the next. The ones passing through were usually loners, content to hole up in a corner and mind their own business. I found myself fascinated by the loners, though I knew the members of the Saints were where I should be focused. They were the most likely to have pulled the trigger.

I sat there, watching the Watchers, until well after midnight. The crowd increased as the night wore on and darker dealings swirled around the room as much as the music. Around two, Daniel came back. People swarmed around Daniel and Reaper as they walked into the common area, clapping and throwing compliments at them for a job ‘well done.’

Behind the pair was a large group of Watchers. Some looked terrified, others grateful. More than a few of the newcomers were curious about the group they had fallen in with. Though the crowd was substantial, I only had eyes for one person. Daniel didn’t notice me at first, the people around him masking me from view. The voices swirled around Daniel and Reaper in a din of noise.

“Ten people!” one man exclaimed over the others voices. “How’d you do it?”

“It was all Daniel,” Reaper said clapping Daniel on the back.

“Tell us!” several voices demanded at once.

“Have Reaper tell you. He’s better at stories,” Daniel said.

“Always modest,” Reaper said.

“If it suits me,” Daniel said with a grin.

The crowd parted as people shifted to get a better position near Reaper, to hear his story, and Daniel finally saw me sitting at the table. I smiled at him, relieved he was okay. He excused himself, giving Reaper the glory of the spotlight, and made his way over to me. People melted out of his way with increased respect, his place in the group sealed in a single night. I was jealous around my happiness. All I was known for was being ‘that girl King hung out with.’

“You never have trouble fitting in, do you?” I teased as he sat next to me.

“You’re the only person I know who gives me a hard time,” he said.

“That’s because your head would swell to the size of New Mexico if I didn’t,” I said.

“True.” He grinned and looked at the Watchers he had rescued. “I’ve never saved ten at once before. I mean, I’ve save quite a few over the years, but never so many at once.”

“I suppose Reaper’s contacts help with that,” I said.

“He’s certainly got quite a few,” Daniel said. He leaned back in his chair, his boyish smile irrepressible. “It feels good to do good again…for the right reasons.”

“I’m glad,” I said a bit tartly.

He had the luxury to do good for the right reasons. I had nothing beyond a night full of worry and startling revelations. He was too wrapped up in his happiness to notice my irritation.

He leaned forward again, closing the distance between us. The electricity he always generated buzzed around us at his closeness. I felt my heart beat faster, despite my irritation. His eyes caught the light from above and changed it into a mischievous sparkle I knew too well.

“I keep thinking about earlier,” he said, lacing his fingers through mine.

I put on a confused expression, though it was hard to mask my attraction. “What happened earlier?”

He looked at my lips, his boyish grin changing into a seductive half smile I couldn’t help but be affected by. My heart was thumping so hard it was making my ears ring. He heard my heart, and his eyes started to dance with a warm fire. We shared a long moment where our thoughts were as transparent as glass – we didn’t need touch to know what the other was thinking.

I blinked to clear my mind of the visuals, figuring a crowded common area wasn’t the best place to act them out, and focused on the people Daniel had saved. They had taken to hiding in the corner of the room, clumped together as far from the crowd as possible. I wondered if I had shown that much terror on my face when I had been rescued. I imaged it was worse.

As I saw them and their terror, which was impossible to look at and not feel moved, I realized I couldn’t keep what I was feeling from Daniel any longer.

“We need to talk,” I said to him.

His half smile was cocky. He thought I was still lost in my attraction for him.

“Oh, yeah?” he asked.

I controlled my emotions, particularly my attraction, and focused on my irritation. I clasped my hands in front of me, so he couldn’t take my hand and persuade me to get distracted again.

“I know you asked Reaper to lock me down tighter than Sing-Sing, but I’ve had enough of prisons. I want to be out there with you. I want to what you’re doing. My shoulder is healed enough, to where I can hold my own. There’s no reason I can’t join you.”

“I don’t…” he started to say.

I cut his reply short. “It’s dangerous, risky, yada-freakin’-yada! Will you get it through your thick skull that I know it’s dangerous?! I accept the risk!” Heat filled my face as my emotions overrode my words. “I have to help people, Daniel! It’s important. Your reason for helping them isn’t any less valid than my reason for helping them, only you get to be all high and mighty about it, because you’re Superman and know everything!”

“I see things are back to being normal between you and Ms. Stubborn,” Jackson said calmly to Daniel, sitting down in a chair opposite us.

Daniel grimaced. “Almost,” he said. “I’ve yet to give in to her demands.”

“Will you hurry up?” Jackson asked with his normal, amused smile in place. “I need someone to go four-wheeling with me, and you’re wasting time pretending like you’re not going to give her what she wants.”

“Patience is a virtue,” Daniel said.

“It’s a virtue I don’t have time for,” Jackson said.

Daniel refocused on me. “I was going to say that I don’t think I could keep you from doing what you think is best. A lot has changed. We’ve both grown. Denying that is impossible. Besides, I missed you tonight.”

“Awwwwwww,” Jackson teased us. “Now, are you through?”

I ignored Jackson and smiled at Daniel. The fear that we had traveled so far only to come back to square one had been worrying me all night. “Can I come tomorrow, if there’s a mission?”

“I have a condition,” Daniel said.

“Just one?” I asked dryly.

“No. You start taking daily training practices with Jackson. He said he was teaching you to fence…if you’re going to go out with me, you’re going to be the best fighter in the entire school…besides me.”

“And me,” Jackson added.

“Besides Jackson,” I agreed.

“Will you agree?” Daniel asked.

“Yeah, why not?” I said. “Any other demands?”

“No.”

“Liar,” I said.

Jackson rolled his eyes at us. “Now, can we go?”

“You whine too much,” I said to Jackson.

“It’s part of my charm.”

“No, it’s not,” I said.

Four-wheeling was a lot of fun. After we had finished tearing up the mountains and racing each other in circles, Daniel and I went back to my room. The dawn was breaking – though I wasn’t aware of it – when I heard Reaper and Jackson in the hall. Daniel I went to the door when we heard them talking in low tones. I was bit worried by what I saw. Alex was in Reaper’s arms. Her mouth was hanging open, and her body was limp. She looked unconscious…or worse.

“What did you do to her?!” I demanded.

“I didn’t do anything!” Reaper said. “She fell asleep downstairs. I thought a bed would be better to sleep on, instead of having her face melt on to my laptop.”

Jackson held Alex’s door for Reaper, and Reaper set Alex on her bed. He carefully pulled her blankets around her and met us back in the hall.

“She worked all night?” I asked.

“I didn’t realize…” Reaper started to say.

“That she sleeps, or that she’s so dedicated?” I asked.

“Both,” Reaper said.

“Hey, boss. Hey, other people,” King said joining our group.

Reaper nodded. “King. Everything go okay last night?”

King was confident. “Easy as lovin.” King playfully knocked me on the arm. “I came for my exercise buddy. You up for some working out?”

Daniel was watching him with cool eyes; eyes that weren’t happy with what they saw. He was obviously interpreting King’s playful tap a lot differently than how it was meant. His coolness didn’t transfer into his tone. He was polite, tightly controlled.

“I think Reaper, Jackson and I have some planning to do for this Sevier thing. Margaret is going to be back any minute from her surveillance of Sevier’s place, so…” Daniel said.

“Oh, I can help with planning…” I started to suggest.

“No, you promised you would train. I’m taking Jackson, so you need a, uh, substitute,” Daniel said.

He was being weird, but I knew I wanted to work out more than I wanted to plan a meeting with a creepy information broker. As long as I was in on the actual meeting, I didn’t care about the details. Besides, my exercise time with King was a lot of fun. He was an interesting character. I shrugged at Daniel and his oddness.

“Okay,” I said.

“That’s the spirit!” King said.

“Just let me change clothes,” I added.

“Met you there,” King said.

“What?” I asked Daniel, who was staring at me as if he had never seen me before.

“What?” he asked back, his expression innocent. It was the expression he used when he was trying to hide something from me. It was an expression I hated.

“I’m going to go change,” I grumbled.

I heard Reaper start talking as the trio walked away from my room. He was talking about security and planning, but all I heard was Daniel’s silence as he walked with them. The silence was more telling than a thousand words.

The only problem with my normal sanctuary was that Quinn was there as well. I wasn’t sure if he had come looking for me, or if he had always used the mornings to work out, but I noticed him the moment I stepped into the room. He was in the back corner hitting a heavy bag as his two flunkies worked out around him. He glared at me when he saw me. I glared right back, daring him to say anything to me.

King was in the center of the room, at the mats. It was obvious from his location that he was looking to spar, instead of lift weights.

“What do you say?” he asked me, making a fake jab at my head.

“You’re on,” I agreed.

We sparred for twenty minutes. King managed to knock me to the floor twice. I managed to hit him a lot more than twice, and I put him on the ground quite a few times with a throw he could never quite circumvent. I had to be careful, though, careful to not hit too hard and hurt myself against the simple strength of his body. It was irritating I had to limit myself, and that I had to bow down to the fear of hitting too hard and breaking a wrist or a foot.

My carefulness wasn’t lost on Quinn. He started making comments from his place near the bags; comments which suggested humans were weak and pathetic, that I was weak and pathetic. I finally got tired of it.

“Do you want to fight?!” I yelled over at him. The anger made my body tremble. I was definitely getting mad enough to find the strength I always found when angry.

“I don’t fight humans,” Quinn said lazily, a smug smile on his lips. “It’s too easy.”

“Make an exception,” I told him. “Come on!”

“She doesn’t mean it, Quinn. She’s just mad,” King said.

“To hell with that!” I said.

King started ushering me toward the exit, being careful not to touch me, aware perhaps unconsciously that something had changed with my anger. I was ready to tear Quinn limb from pretentious limb.

“Human!” Quinn yelled, as we headed toward the exit.

“Knock it off, man!” King yelled back, annoyed.

Quinn smirked and went back to hitting the bag. King pushed me out in to the hall.

“What are you thinking, buddy? Want to get dead?” King asked me.

“He’s an ass!” I said.

“He is, but he is also a very capable, very deadly, very smart ass, who has been in more fights and has killed more people than you’ve probably even met in your lifetime. Picking a fight with him is about the stupidest thing you could do,” King pointed out.