FORBIDDEN (20 page)

Hannah looked at me seriously. “Don’t make me regret this.”

I nodded solemnly. “You won’t.”

* * *

At the end of the day, I walked Hannah to Angie’s car. Angie was already there with the engine on, ready to go. Hannah allowed me to hold her hand, which I was thankful for. When we reached the car, she smiled reluctantly. “This doesn’t mean anything changes, Levi. You know that, right?”

“I know,” I admitted. “I just think if you give me the chance to explain, you’ll understand.”

“I hope so.”

Justin stood across the lot, watching Hannah intently. It didn’t go unnoticed, as Hannah shifted awkwardly when she caught his gaze and turned her back on him. It bothered me more than it should that he was still prowling around her. “All you need to do is give me the word,” I said.

“No, it’s fine,” Hannah said, quicker than I would have expected. “Look, just come over around four or so. I’ll leave the window open.”

“Am I not allowed to come over like a normal guy would?”

Hannah avoided the question. “You’re not a normal guy, are you?”

There was an obvious coolness in her voice, but I understood why it was there. I nodded. “You’re right, and I’m sorry. I wish that weren’t the case.”

She readjusted the book bag on her shoulder. I took it from her and held it. Her eyes were glued to the blacktop, now feigning interest in the orange leaf plastered to the ground. “Hannah, listen. You mean more to me than you could ever imagine. I would do anything for you. You know that, right?”

I put my hand under her chin and gently pulled her eyes to mine. “I would do anything for you,” I repeated, then took her into an embrace. She didn’t fight it. Instead, she burrowed her head into my shoulder and I felt her tears soak through my t-shirt.

“Oh, Levi! There you are!”

Hannah pulled away to look for the source of the voice. Unfortunately, it wasn’t hard to find.

Reina had pulled up in a candy apple red Corvette Stingray. She hadn’t gone unnoticed by every other male in the school population, that was for sure. Whether it was because of the car or her was left to assumption. My money was most of the gazes were because of her. She smiled her million-dollar smile, jumped out of the car without opening the door, and left the engine purring. “I’ve been looking for you. I found a place for us nearby. It’ll be great. You’ll finally have a place and I can show you the ropes,” she said warmly. Maybe a little too warmly for my tastes.

It was evident that Hannah heard the warmth in her voice as well. I could heart her heart stutter and her breathing change. There was a hiccup in it, which I knew Reina had to hear as well. Reina’s smiled broadened, but opened her arms to give Hannah a hug. “Hannah! How are you feeling? I hope things are healing up for you. Levi and I will be busy later, so if you need anything, let Ethan know and he’ll know where to find us.”

Hannah looked pleadingly at me, confused from Reina’s talk. I opened my mouth to speak, but Reina once again took over the conversation. “I’ll be teaching Levi a lot of things in the next week or so,” she continued, eyeing me like a piece of meat. “So don’t worry if he’s a bit preoccupied.” She put her hand on my shoulder, then rested her chin on the other one. “He’ll have loads to think about.”

Angie finally shut the engine off and got out of the car to join the conversation. “What’s the hold up? I thought you were going to talk to Levi in a little bit?”

“No, it looks like there’s been a change of plans,” Hannah said coldly. “He apparently has plans with Reina tonight he didn’t mention.”

Angie’s wide, accusatory eyes bore holes into me. There was no way I could refute that without making Reina mad, and I needed her on my side if she was going to help me figure out how to protect Hannah. It didn’t seem like there was going to be much love lost between the girls though, and if I had to pick one, it would be Hannah every time.

If only I knew how to do that without getting us both killed in the process.

* * *

The silence in the car was deafening as Reina sped away from the high school. The wind whipped at my face. I was still getting used to feeling things like my skin stinging as the misty raindrops pelted against my face.

“Is there a reason you have the top down on such a crummy day?”

Reina laughed. “It’s just a car, Levi. They come and go.”

“This is a classic.”

“And so it can be restored. Just like you’re becoming a Guardian.”

I sat in silence the rest of the way. Any references to my “restoration” made me ill, especially coming from her after the display she’d just put on in front of Hannah. What was she playing at, anyway? It bothered me, and I finally called her on it. “What were you trying to do back there? You really hurt Hannah.”

Reina kept her eyes on the road, but her eyebrows shot upward. “What do you mean?”

“You know exactly what I mean. You’ve never acted like that before.”

She sighed. “I just thought maybe Hannah would respond to some friendly competition. Sometimes human girls don’t miss something until it’s gone. I was trying to help.”

“You told me a few days ago you were waiting on me to get over her.”

I could see her fighting to keep a grin off her face. She laughed in spite of herself. “You really think I wouldn’t be able to have you if I wanted you? Levi, if I wanted to be with you, it would happen. I don’t take no for an answer.”

“Overconfident much?”

“No, just well versed in what it takes to make a guy interested.”

I rolled my eyes. “So you aren’t interested in me?”

“I never said that, I’m just not interested enough to move in for the kill,” she teased. “Sometimes I like to watch and learn beforehand for a while.”

There wasn’t much to say to that, and Reina was a little scary to say the least. I left it alone and went back to riding in silence, all the while trying to wrap my head around what she’d said.

We reached the outskirts of the little town and came upon a red farmhouse, complete with a barn. She pulled into the gravel driveway and stretched out her arms. “Welcome home.”

It wasn’t a bad looking place. The front deck was concrete and had a swing hanging from the ceiling. It was two stories and the open windows gave way to a warm, inviting scent. The thing was, it looked like my house that I had lived in with my mother and father.

It made me ill.

Reina noticed my trepidation. “What’s wrong? I thought you’d like it better than that double wide.”

“This looks just like – ”

“Your old house. I know. I wanted to make sure you felt at home – felt human. We Guardians like to empathize with our Calls, something that might be new to you,” her smile was warm and it reached her core.

She was genuinely trying to make things better. She wanted me to be happy, I could tell. There was no way to tell her how much disgust I still held for the house I grew up in as a human. A forced smile inched its way across my face, and I made sure it was believable. “Yeah, it’s great. Thanks, Reina.”

I grabbed my bag from the back and edged my way out of the convertible. “Look, I really need to talk to Hannah. You understand, right? I need to explain things and she was willing to talk to me today. I don’t want to mess that up.”

Reina nodded. “That’s fine. Good luck with Hannah. I’ll see you a little later then?”

“Sure,” was all I managed before sprinting out of there and back toward town.

I made it to Hannah’s in ten minutes. Just as I mentioned to Hannah earlier, I rang the doorbell and waited expectantly like any normal guy would. Hannah’s father answered the door. His smile was warm and he extended his hand to shake mine. “Hey there, Levi. I was wondering if we’d scared you off on game night.”

“No, Sir, you didn’t, it’s just been a pretty busy week.”

“Yes, I’m sure. Hannah is upstairs studying with a friend, but let me tell her you’re here.”

An uneasy feeling settled into the pit of my stomach. Who was over? I’m sure he would have said it was Angie if it were her. “Okay, thank you, Sir.”

He was gone for a moment, but then I heard movement on the stairs. Mr. Gordon rounded the corner with Hannah and Justin in tow. Hannah looked embarrassed, Justin triumphant. A smug grin was plastered all over his face. It was all that I could do to not smack it right off his face. Hannah didn’t like him, she’d told him that before anything had happened between us. What was this?

“I didn’t think you were coming over, Levi,” Hannah mumbled lamely, looking anywhere but at me.

Mr. Gordon looked at me apologetically, then addressed Hannah. It didn’t seem like he was overly excited about Justin, either. He nudged Hannah’s shoulder, and a small smile played across his face. “I told her you’d come around again, didn’t I, Hannah?”

Justin shifted uncomfortably, becoming aware that no one really wanted him there. He coughed, then pulled his bag from the hook on the coat rack they were standing next to. “Uh, well, I’ll just see you at school tomorrow, okay? It was good to talk to you,” he added, throwing a wink my way. I was going to give him something to wink about if he wasn’t careful.

“Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow,” Hannah said, blushing the whole time.

Justin let himself out of the house, leaving Mr. Gordon to stand between us. It was the most awkward moment I’d experienced in all the years I’d existed on this earth. I swayed on the spot, trying to find something to do with my hands. Hannah never looked up, but I looked at Mr. Gordon for permission to cross the room to his daughter. He nodded and I took that as a go-ahead. Two strides later I wrapped Hannah in my arms.

“Well, I’m just going to go fix that uh, thing I have out in the uh, garage. You know what I’m talking about, right Hannah?”

Hannah mumbled unintelligibly, but it was probably something along the lines of begging Mr. Gordon to leave. I didn’t blame her.

“Yeah, I’m gonna be going now. Things to fix, you know,” he nodded once more to me, as if to acknowledge the gift he was giving me. I nodded my thanks back. He smiled and left the room.

I pushed Hannah an arms length away from me to look in her eyes. “Hannah, what was he doing here?”

“Nothing,” she dodged defensively. “He was just coming over to see what I was up to is all.”

I snorted. “Right. He just wanted to see how the paint on your walls was drying, that’s it.”

“Look, Levi, it doesn’t matter why he was over here. You were pretty wrapped up in Reina earlier, weren’t you?”

“No, not really. Reina is on some kick that involves apparently ‘learning’ about me, according to her. Nothing is going to happen with her. I want you.”

Tears wound their way down Hannah’s eyes. It was painful to see how much she was hurting. I held her close to me again. “What can I do to fix this?”

“Nothing. Everything’s changed, hasn’t it? Things will never be the same. You’ve come into my life and turned it upside down.”

“I’m taking that as a bad thing.”

She laughed, but it was shaky. “Well, before you I didn’t have strange, otherworldly things coming after me and trying to kill me. I didn’t have a death sentence looming over my head. Those aren’t exactly nice things.”

“You’re right, they’re not,” I agreed, “But you have me, and I swear I will keep all of those things at bay, so help me God.”