Dark Calling (54 page)

Asmoday clears his throat.  “May I speak with you?” 

Nick looks at him questioningly.  Asmoday stands and begins walking down the hall.  Nick hesitates, not sure if he should leave Keely, but Asmoday stops at the vending machines about twenty feet away.

“She needs to be left alone,” Asmoday begins as Nick comes up quickly behind him.  “She doesn’t want anyone making her feel better.”

“Did she say that?”

Asmoday looks over his shoulder and gazes at him evenly.  “She does not need to.”  He turns his attention back to the machine and purchases a bottle of water.  “
She cannot
allow herself to welcome comfort while she knows he is suffering.  I am aware it makes little sense, but that is how she feels none the less.”

“I can’t leave her alone.  She’
s in constant danger.  In case you haven’t noticed.”

“That has come to my attention,” he growls.  “You do not need to be so lite
ral.  Just sit beside her.  Do no
t touch
her.  Do no
t tell her everything is going to be all right.  Let her think.”

“Let her suffer, you mean.”

“If that i
s how you want to look at it.”  Asmoday nods his head.  “I
t’s what she wants.  S
mothering her is what
you
want.  It will do her no good.”

“I don’t trust you,” Nick admits.  “I don’t believe you really care
about
what’s good for her.”

Asmoday twists around, hands in fists
, squeezing the bottle
.  His eyes are slits of furry as he fixes them on the Guardian.  “It is all I care about.”

“Then leave her alone.  You can’t think you’re good for her?”

“No.  I do not,” Asmoday admits.
 
“
But I do not kn
ow you are either.”  He drops hi
s gaze to the bottle in his hand.  “At least I understand her.  At least I am willing to give her what she needs.”

“You’re willing to give her what she wants.  That’s not the same thing.  I’m not afraid to push her where she needs to be.”

“Perhaps you push too hard.”

“Did she say that?”

Asmoday flashes a white smile.  “She does not have to.”  He m
oves to walk around Nick, but is stopped
with a hand to his arm
.  Asmoday looks down at Nick’
s hand
and
glowers at him.

“You can’t protect her like I can.”

“I ha
ve already protected her more than you will ever be able to.”

Nick scoffs.  “Right.  Whatever, man.”

“Apophis is no longer a threat,” Asmoday says quietly.

Nick looks around them.  “You killed him?”

“No.”

Nick grunts out a laugh.  “Then he’s still a threat.”

“I pledged my allegiance to him
.  He is inhibited from causing harm to her.”

“The Hierarchy will probably not agree to this.  In fact, I can guarantee
they won’t.  If you are aligned
with Apophis, then yo
u will
be considered an enemy of the Angel.”

“I am aware.”

“Why did you do it?”

Asmoday looks back at him and laughs softly.  “Why do you think?”

Nick shakes his head. 
“
Well you just made things real easy for me.”

“That was my intention.  I was only t
hinking of how I could help you,” he spits sarcastically.

“Why didn’t you just kill him?”

“She was right there.  He had his hands on her.  Her friend was bleeding t
o death.  I did what was necessary
.”

“I still don’t trust you.”

“You will when I give you Apophis.  I may not be able to kill him, but you are.”  He shrugs and smiles
innocently
at Nick.  “And if you kill each other
in the process
, well, that will just work out perfectly.”

“You don’t have a chance.  Not even then,” Nick
says wryly.

“It does not mean I am not going to try.”  He leaves Nick to digest that and goes back to Keely.  Opens the bottle of water and hands it to her.  She looks at it as if she doesn’t have the slightest idea what to do with it.

“Drink,” he says gently.

Keely puts the bottle to her lips and sips the water.  The cold trails down her throat and sits in her
stomach, knotting it sharply.  She stares at the double doors that lead into the emergency room.
  Watches Nick approach an older couple.  The woman turns and Keely realizes they’re Bryon’s parents.
  “Why did it take you so long?”

Asmoday looks at her quickly.  “What?”

“Why did it take you so long to come for me?  If you had gotten there sooner
we could have gotten Bryon help quicker.”

Asmoday flinches at her words.  His throat feels very dry.  “I tried.  I could not get inside.
I knew you were scared
.
  I knew you were suffering in some way, but I could not get to you.”  His hands roll into fists, turning white at the knuckles.  “There was some kind of spell on the building that prohibited me from entering.  I didn’t know what to do or how to break such a spell.”  He closes his eyes.  “I went after the Grimoire.  I thought perhaps there may be something in it to counteract the spell.  That school, the Academy, it has the same spell around its grounds.
  I could not enter there either.

“
Then I felt something change.  You grew strong.  Unafraid.”  He shakes his head.  “I thought you were out of danger.  I thought
you were with your Guardian, b
ut then your fear came back and it only grew.  I went back, determined to get into that building somehow, someway.  I was readying my
self to rip it apart, but then,
there you were.  I got to you as quickly as I could.  I swear it.”  He stares at her profile, urging her silently to face him. 

“I am sorry I was not there sooner.  Please believe me.  I will always do whatever it takes to protect you.  I cannot live without you.  Without you, there is no life for me.”  Something slides down Asmoday’s cheek, warm and wet.  His fingers touch it
hesitantly.

A tear.

His first.

He stares at it in shock.  Rubs his fingers together until it dissolves into his skin.  When he looks up, Keely is watching him.  She brushes her palm across his cheek, drying the streak the tear left.

“I believe you.”

Thirty-Five
:

She isn’t sure what draws her down this hallway until she stops in front of the door.  The numbers blur in front of her as she recalls overhearing Nick tell Bryon the room number in which Dustin had been moved to.  She pushes on the slightly opened door.  It swings soundlessly inward and she steps inside the lightly illuminated room.
  He lies on his side, hand tucked under his sleeping head.  Gauze is taped thickly over one eye and Keely shivers.  What he’s been through, she can’t even begin to imagine.
 

She doesn’t know why she’
s come here.  She must be the last person in the world he would want to see.  Rocking back on her heels, she turns to leave when something catches her eye.  Blood drops on his blanket near the end of the bed
.  Six of them, side-by-side like a trail.  H
er eyes follow the drops off the bed and onto the floor.  Her feet thrust her forward trying to piece it together in her head.  They stop at the bathroom door.  Keely’s hand shakes as she reaches for the knob. 

“What are you doing here?” Dustin asks in a husky voice.

Keely whirls
around
, her hand flying to her heart.  “You scared me.”  Edging toward the bed, she licks her lips nervously.  “I…I just came to tell you how sorry I am.”

Dustin’s face goes white with fear as he gets a better look at
her
, at the blood on her clothing.  “What happened?  Is Lila-
”

“She’s fine.  It’s Bryon’s.  He’s in the emergency room.  His
parents are
giving blood right now.  Apparently he has a very rare type and it’s quicker just to get it from them.”

Dustin raises a brow.  “Yeah, Watcher blood.  We don’t have types like humans do,” he says coolly.
  “It’s nice to have a Guard
ian
on
the hospital
staff to avoid that
awkward moment when you have to explain why your blood doesn
’t match any of the known
types in the world.”

“Oh, right.”  Keely scra
tches her arm uncomfortably.  “They say he’s going to be o.k.
”

“Great.”

“I really am sorry.”

Dustin looks at th
e blanket.  “You ruined my life
and all you have to say is you’re sorry?”  He laughs bitterly.

Keely takes a step away.  “I don’t know what else to say.
  I didn’t want to tell them.  I tried not to.”

“Yet somehow you did.  I suppo
se I can’t blame you.  It wasn’
t personal against you.  I was just trying to save her.”

Keely nods.  “I know.”

“I mean, the only reason we were there in the first place was because of you.  If you hadn’t insisted on going, Apophis would never have gotten a hold of Lila to begin with.  I never would have been faced with that decision.”  His hands curl into the blanket.  “I never would have been tortured by
your
brother.  I would still have both of my eyes.  I would still have my girlfriend.”

The room has gone very cold.  Goosebumps raise the hairs on Keely’s arm
s
.  She takes a deep breath, ready to apologize again.  She pauses.  Inhales again.  She picks up the distinct scent of vanilla, and underneath, lavender.  Keely squint
s at Dustin, studying him for
several seconds.  She turns abruptly and moves to the bathroom door quickly, pulling it open.  There is a small puddle of fresh blood on the floor.  Several wrappers from bandages.  A small bloody handprint
on the sink.

Keely glares at Dustin.  “Who was here?”

“I don’t get many visitors as you can imagine.”

“Then it shouldn’t be that hard to narrow it down.”

“I thought you came to apologize.  Not interrogate.  My mom was the only one here.  She cut her finger.”

Keely glances around.  “On what?”

“A box.  She brings me dinner
.  I don’t like the hospital
’
s
food
,” he explains. 

Keely stares at him.  He answered rather quickly.  She co
uldn’t lie that fast, but she i
sn’t
much of a liar.  She doesn’t
know what to think.

“As nice as this has been, and it really has been
wonderful, I am tired.  If you’re done pestering me, I’
d like to get back to my lonely existence.”  He rolls back to his side.

“I know you don’t believe me, but I truly am sorry for all of it.  I never meant any of it to happen,” she says quietly. 

Dustin continues to ignore her as she leaves.

Outside in the hall, the world moves faster.  Seems brighter, warmer.  She can’t help but feel bad for Dustin.  Everything he said was absolutely true.  Every single last thing that happened to him, to Lila, to Bryon, to Nick, to her parents—it was all her fault.  Her parents were kidnapped.  Dustin lost his eye.  Nick was attacked
in his own home. 
And Bryon.  Poor Bryon.  He
suffered a Leech Demon, got kidnapped and locked in a cell in darkness for days, just to get ambushed by more Demons.  And if it weren’t for her, none of it would have ever happened.

Suddenly, Keely can’
t breathe.  She gasps for air and choke
s
.  Gags.  Her heart slams against her tightening chest.  She runs, pushing past a nurse hurrying down the hall. 

Keely doesn’t stop.  She bursts through the door to the stair well and continues running.  Her feet skip a step and she nearly falls.  Still she runs.  Out the door, down another hallway.  Out of the building.  Her legs pump, faster and faster.  Her feet pad rhythmically on the asphalt as she pushes herself forward.  Her hair whips behind her and she feels as though she is flying.  It
doesn’t occur to her where she’
s going
until she i
s nearly home.  It
does
occur
to her
,
as her house comes into view
,
that it probably wasn’t the brightest idea to leave
the hospital alone.  I
t’s too late now.

Keely uses the spare key to let herself into the house and takes the steps two at a time up to her room.  She slams the door and begins stripping her
clothes off.  They are stiff from the dried blood.  Her skin is st
ained a vivid red as if she’s
sun burnt.