Guardian (8 page)

“What are you?” someone directed at Grace from the front door.  It was the older sister to Josie who followed me around town sometimes on my bike.  Grace was better off left in the dark on that one.  The female readily gave her body to any male who gave her attention.             

I laughed silently at Grace’s inside ability to tell the evil wards off and show her gutsiness, yet remain a kitten on the outside full of poise and just enough sting to bite back.

“Cinderella,” she said with a bit of attitude adjusting the pink lace cuffs.  I leaned closer to her feeling overly protective as we neared the party of doom.  She checked out her outfit to appear busy by moving her hands around the different parts of her.   

Laughter rang out and I stepped up to stalker girl, “She is more of a punk rock Cinderella.”  I purred my voice hoping to steel her gaze away from Grace.

“How cute,” another snotty girl said to Grace and then looked in my direction, “and she brought her hot freaky Prince.”  She looked me up and down and turned to Caylie next. “And you?” as she looked her up and down too.  Gotta wonder!

The multi-lingo sass side of Caylie didn’t let us down. 

“Your worst nightmare if you don’t let me inside to go to the restroom.  You are so whack!”  Caylie stepped inside the house and pushed the girl aside who turned to Jackie, Josie’s sister.  The nauseating she-witch motioned to me and told her something about her filthy damn wishes or worse.  I could’ve high fived Caylie when she came back with, “You are so SOL on that deal.  He’s already taken.”   You got that part right.

  She rolled her eyes at Caylie, smiled rudely at Grace, and started sizing up her next victim.  Grace’s face on the outside shivered with tension, but inside she was proud of her friend.  Next, she called me hot and noticed her friend Pam within the same second.  As much as it irked me to be usurped by her friend, I would take what I could get.

I froze when I saw who was with Pam.  David.  (Switch)  I’d checked with Pike’s surveillance on the dude and new why Kinsler hired him on.  He was a callous scoundrel like his court.  He’d glamoured himself into another face for this event.  Kinsler recruited several for tonight I see. My eyes inadvertently searched for Pike.  He was there, in the corner casing the area for the very same thing.

“David, this is Grace.  We are friends from school.”  She waved her hand back and forth between them as David inconspicuously moved closer to Grace.  If her power had grown, she’d not gained any sense for seeing danger.  Just the opposite, she embraced it and invited it in.

Neither girl saw that this was the same guy from school now in his Fey form with more hidden glamour.  He was full of surprises.

I watched Grace look him over.  A fact I’d lived with for years now since she was not really mine to be jealous over.   

“Nice to meet you,” Grace said politely and regained my confidence as she worried about his less than honorable intentions with her friend Pam. 

Grace turned to search for me feeling nervous and out of place.  Caylie had found a warm male body as she often did and I watched her from across the room invisible to the human eye.  Someone had to look out for her.  She was Grace’s friend.

Grace started to panic at not seeing me and headed away.  I stopped her fast forcing myself to appear haplessly in front of humans.  Pike snarled.  Switch berated me internally.

“Miss me?” I generated a smile to calm her.  She stared and blinked her body curved like it was directing toward the door to leave.

Oh no!  She couldn’t leave yet.  Time was crucial.  She turned towards the back of the house where the kitchen lay slowing her steps between the crowd.  When her eyes found me, her whole body relaxed ten notches on the safe side.  But her eyes.  They brightened a shade lighter and danced with an eagerness that could only mean she was glad she found me.  She looked me over unabashedly.  Brave girl! I practically glowed now, both of our emotions running wild.  She didn’t have long before she’d have to be away from here.

She closed her eyes trying to make herself forget about me so when she opened them, I had her face close enough to breathe her in.  She wanted to be brave, I could too with minutes left till forever or doomsday. I whispered lower this time only for her, “Miss me?”

She shook her head at me and headed back to the fireplace where David watched and waited. Grace willed me to follow her and so I did.  I briefly wondered if she had coerced me magically to come to her, but I would’ve have gone either way so what did it matter.

I stood so close to her I felt her warm body radiating heat from the largely crowded room.  The air stirred, but there were too many bodies in one house.  I jumped away when my leg hit the iron fireplace screen helped out by my good friend David the winter court crony of Kinsler, i.e. college guy date to Pam.  He was so kind to his enemies. 

Grace fell towards me so I caught her ignoring the burn from the iron that singed the hair and skin of my leg.  It was worth it to keep Grace from any worse dangers.
 

“Are you okay?  Let me see your leg?”  She moved to sit down on the chair arm by us and saw that it was full of rather inebriated girls who wouldn’t budge.  She gritted her teeth, “Fine!  Crowded!  Let’s move around to the sofa.”  I gave up and pulled her to leave the room. 

“See you later, Pam.  Nice to meet you David,” she told them both. 

When Grace sloped against me landing on my feet, flew forward, and splayed her hands against my chest, I nearly kissed her then pain and all. Her soft skin touched me in several places rubbing against me with urgency.  She wanted it too. 

“Sorry!” she said moving away taking her velvety touch with her. I wanted to say something, but afraid of saying too much rang my heart with fear.  The truth, I told myself, would damage us both too soon. When she finally dropped her eyes I felt like a failure.  Letting her down was the worst thing in the world and I seemed, well, skilled in it.  Still, she didn’t complain and that gave me hope. 

“Is your foot okay?” she sputtered out.  I smiled and nodded a yes as I reached my head back to find Pike eavesdropping.  Of course.

I heard her friends in the kitchen with the distant hearing.  The rest of the house was getting plastered.  Costumes were abundantly falling away from bodies.  Half the kids in the house had other agendas and were already in the act of carrying them out.  I needed to get Grace out of here.   I was ignored by Caylie when I glared at her for getting it on with a stranger and had not one care that Mike was here.  So was her other recent pastime.  Unfortunately, she was accepted this way.  She had no self-worth.  I hated that I ever used women in that way.

“Thank you!”  Grace told Caylie when she came up for air and wiped her mouth embarrassed only because it was Grace.

“For what?”

“You know, at the door.”

“No prob!  You had it covered Wonder Woman.  I just lit another match in the book of Grace.”  Caylie had a way with words.

We all sat down around the little table crowded with twice as many people that should fit.  Grace shifted towards Caylie to put distance between the two of us.  When she turned to see what I would do about it I simply smiled to calm her.  “Well aren’t we all just the sight to see.  Cornered in a strange kitchen with a bunch of drunks and no food or drinks of our own to chase our blues away.” Everyone laughed including Grace to ease the tension.

Josie walked into the room. The pressure in the air closed in on Grace telling me she was going to wither away from me. 

Josie had very little on giving little to the imagination.  Didn’t she have any respect for herself?  No, I told myself.  Many of these human girls seemed to not have much respect for themselves.  They thought that’s what they had to do to acquire a guy’s attention.  Without the ability to simply tell her that a guy will want a girl more when she hides what might belong to him someday, I simply tried to be nice to her. 

She walked right beside me, put her blasted arm across my shoulder, and leaned down to me.  Her breath was seasoned with cheap beer and her touch gave me hives. I wanted to flick her off me. I knew Grace didn’t hear her say, “Ditch the punk girl and hang with me.”  

Grace was a brick beside me.  She really didn’t try to hide her jealousy.  At least not well.    I definitely liked that.

I nodded a no and didn’t bother watching her walk away.  Grace and Caylie did that meticulously for me. 

“Oww!” Grace scowled at Caylie and rubbed her leg under the table. 

“Cool it!” she mouthed at Grace. 

Under the table girl logic never escaped my attention when it involved Grace, but I would never tell.

“What did Josie have to say?” she asked me trying to appear like she didn’t care.  I knew better. 

“Nothing important!”  I couldn’t help but watch her kitten ways snag at me with what I wanted more than anything in her world or mine.  She hated anyone coming near me and had the last few years.  The feeling was mutual.

She steamed though I hadn’t looked at her yet.   When I did, she’d held her breath and pulled her eyes together.  I couldn’t stop the laugh.  She was angrier than ever.

I slid my hand on hers under the table, squeezed, and let go.  Her heart jolted sky high.  Wow!  Then I sank when she called me heartless but not loud enough for me to have heard if I was human.  I am not.

Caylie came to the rescue without knowing. She asked, “Name your worst Halloween?”

Everyone jumped in then and starting talking at once, except for me and Grace.  They talked, she ignored me.  Caylie stretched a previous year’s Halloween story that would end up having Kinsler as the finale.  They always did.   He’d embraced the human holiday with a fervent belief that the humans wanted a good scare.  Caylie shared yet another year including the part of when Kinsler dressed as Pumpkinhead one year.  I sat up looking for his back up knowing he and his posse were close.  Grace stiffened beside me.  It was unsettling sometimes the way she could do that and not even know she was doing it.  I didn’t think she knew.

The rest were laughing, eating, and telling scary stories about their Halloween dress ups of the past when Kinsler and Switch (not David) walked in through the back door.  The entire room went extremely still.  Selfish and compulsive, I covered her face not letting her make eye contact. I had her mind blocked instantly. 

She outstretched to dodge my hand off, so I laid it across the table in front of us.

To most humans Kinsler left their minds in a state of confusion just so he could feel all powerful.  He didn’t have any power I didn’t have.  Shielding Grace from that was proving exhausting.  At the sight of Kinsler sighting Grace and playing his mind games, I grabbed Grace’s arm and yanked her away from the table.  Grace grabbed Caylie’s arm, and we headed towards the living room.  Grace lost Caylie in the shuffle as I pulled her harder towards the front door. Grace has no idea what that moron had planned.

Her skirt caught on the door frame in the hallway and ripped to shreds.  I wasn’t stopping but I did make sure she was still clothed.  She winced like she was in pain.  I searched for her pain finding a cut on her leg.

“Oww!” she was mad. “What is wrong?  Why are you afraid of him?”  

“I’m not,” I growled hating that she didn’t have a clue, “but I need air.  Let’s go outside for a minute.” I teetered on the edge and ran all the way to first space alone with her.  Needed to go.  I hoped she’d go. 

Grace’s thought centered on danger.  David, the supposed college guy was coming our way too. Him and his many faces never ceased to show up around every corner for the last twenty-four hours. I jerked around and sent
David
a nice word or two about where he could go. When his head was good and confused, I escaped the thick air surrounding us.

“I’m worried about you, Ian.” She said my name again for the second time today.  I counted how many times she said my name each day.  It was a sad existence waiting around for a girl.

“Will you please tell me what is going on with you lately?”

“Are you sure you want to know?”  I gripped her tighter.

”Yes.” 

She said yes.

I stopped and looked back at the house checking for the icy waves of Kinsler and his crew.  I ducked us both around the corner of the tree line by the road.  Switch was heading one way while Kinsler the other. c

She was scared to be alone with me.  “About time!” I said aloud.

“Time for what?”  She started to visibly shake. 

I looked at her, down her length, “I’m sorry about your skirt.” She stared at me.  Still scared.  I wanted to smooth out her worry.  Hold her. When I bit my lip hoping pain would force a decision, only it deepened when she watched me do it.  Unhinged by her haunting eyes, I just gaped at her, silent.  She reached for her leg realizing her cut had healed. 

“What is going on here, Ian?” 

“Walk with me,” I took her soft hand in mine and moved through the dark shadows.   Her eyes were wide with wonder at our hands twisted and together.  I wanted to tangle myself around
her
.

The old abandoned church at the end of Mendon Street was close by. Kinsler was closer.  I moved faster.