Halo (36 page)

I felt a sudden lump stick in my throat. Jake had threatened Xavier. His vendetta was no longer against me alone. I clutched Xavier’s arm. I could feel the muscles there beneath my fingers—but it was still only human strength.

“Is that proof enough for you?” Xavier asked in a low voice.

“That is a poem and nothing more,” Gabriel said. “Listen, I believe that Jake is behind the murder and all of the accidents. I believe that he means to wreak havoc, but I need
concrete
evidence before I can act—the laws of the Kingdom demand it.”

“And then what will you do?” Xavier wanted to know.

“Whatever is necessary to keep the peace,” Gabriel said.

“Even if it means killing him?” Xavier spoke plainly.

“Yes,” was Gabriel’s icy response. “For if he is what we suspect him to be, then taking his human life will send him back where he came from.”

Xavier considered this for a moment and then nodded. “But what does he want with Beth? What can she give him?”

“Beth turned him down,” Gabriel replied. “Someone like Jake Thorn is used to getting what he wants. Right now his vanity is wounded.”

I shuffled my feet uncomfortably. “He said he’d been looking for me for centuries. . . .”

“He said
what
?” Xavier exploded. “What does that mean?”

Gabriel and Ivy exchanged worried looks.

“Demons often search for a human to make their own,” Ivy said. “It’s their twisted version of love, I suppose. They lure the human to the underworld, and they’re forced to stay there forever. Over time they’re corrupted and even start to develop feelings for their oppressor.”

“But what’s the point of it?” Xavier asked. “Can demons even have feelings?”

“It’s mainly done to spite Our Father,” Ivy said. “The corruption of His creations causes Him great anguish.”

“But I’m not even a real human!” I said.

“Exactly,” Gabriel replied. “What better prize than an angel in human form? Capturing one of us would be the ultimate victory.”

“Is Beth in danger?” Xavier moved closer to me.

“I think we may all be in danger,” said Gabriel. “Just have patience. Our Father will reveal our path to us in due course.”

I insisted that Xavier stay the night with us, and after Jake’s message, Ivy and Gabriel did not object. Although they didn’t say as much, I knew they were worried about Xavier’s safety. Jake was unpredictable, like a firework that could go off at any moment.

Xavier called his parents and told them he was staying the night at a friend’s place so they could finish studying for an exam the next day. There was no way his mother would have allowed him to stay if she’d known he was at my house—Bernie was far too conservative for that. She and Gabriel would have gotten along famously.

We said good night to Ivy and Gabriel and climbed the stairs to my bedroom. Xavier stood on the balcony while I took my shower and brushed my teeth. I didn’t ask what he was thinking or if he was as frightened as I was. I knew he would never admit it, at least not to me. To sleep, he stripped down to a pair of boxer shorts that said, “Don’t sweat it!” across the back and a white tank that he had on under his shirt. I put on a pair of leggings and a loose T-shirt.

We didn’t say much to each other that night. I lay still and listened to the sound of his steady breathing, felt the rise and fall of his chest. With his body curved around mine, his arms protectively wrapped around me, I felt safe and cocooned. Even though Xavier was only human, it seemed he could protect me from anything and everything. I wouldn’t have been worried if a fire-breathing dragon had torn off the roof, because I knew that Xavier was there. I wondered fleetingly if I was expecting too much of him but dismissed the idea.

I woke in the middle of the night, frightened by a dream I couldn’t remember. Xavier lay beside me. He looked so beautiful when he was asleep, his perfect lips slightly parted, his hair tousled on the pillow, his smooth, tanned chest rising and falling gently as he breathed. My anxiety got the better of me and I reached out to him. He woke easily, and his eyes were startlingly blue even in the moonlight.

“What’s that?” I whispered, suddenly aware of shadows. “Over there, do you see that?”

Leaving his arm around me, Xavier sat up and looked around the room. “Where?” he asked, his voice thick with sleep. I gestured toward the far right corner of the room. Xavier swung himself out of the bed and walked across to where I was pointing.

“Here?” he asked when he reached the spot. “I’m fairly sure this is a coatrack.” I nodded then remembered he couldn’t see me in the dark.

“I thought I saw someone standing there,” I said. “A man in a long coat and a hat.” Spoken aloud it sounded ridiculous.

“I think you’re seeing ghosts, babe.” Xavier yawned and prodded the coatrack with his foot. “Yep, definitely a coatrack.”

“Sorry,” I said when he came back to bed. I wrapped myself around his warmth.

“Don’t be scared,” he murmured. “Nobody can hurt you while I’m here.”

I trusted him and, after a while, let myself stop listening for noises and movements.

“Love you,” Xavier said just before he drifted back to sleep.

“Love you more,” I said playfully.

“Not a chance,” Xavier said, fully awake now. “I’m bigger, I can contain more love.”

“I’m smaller, therefore my love particles are more compressed, which means I can fit more in.”

Xavier laughed. “That argument makes no sense. Overruled.”

“I’m just basing it on how much I miss you when you’re not around,” I countered.

“How can you possibly know how much
I
miss
you
?” he said. “Have you got some sort of built-in miss-o-meter that can give us a reading?”

“I’m a girl; of course I have a built-in miss-o-meter.”

I drifted off to sleep reassured by the feel of his chest pressed against my back. I could feel his breath on the back of my neck. I traced the smooth skin on his arms, made golden by time outdoors. In the moonlight I could see every hair, every vein, every freckle, and I loved it all. That was my last thought before I fell asleep that night, and I found that fear had abandoned me completely.

A Friend in Need

Taylah haunted my dreams. I saw her as a faceless ghost with a pair of bloodstained white hands that grasped aimlessly at the air. Then I was inside her body, lying in a pool of sticky warm blood. I heard the dull dripping of the taps in the girls’ bathroom as she slipped into death. Then I felt the grief and overwhelming sorrow of her family. They were blaming themselves for not having noticed her depression, wondering if they could have prevented the outcome. Jake was there in the dream too, always at the edge of the frame, slightly out of focus and laughing softly.

In the morning I woke to find the covers rumpled and the place beside me empty. If I pressed my face into the pillow where his head had rested, I could still faintly catch Xavier’s scent. I rolled out of bed and opened the curtains to let golden sunlight pour into the room.

In the kitchen, it was Xavier and not Gabriel cooking breakfast. He had pulled on his jeans and T-shirt, and his hair was tousled. He looked fresh faced and beautiful as he carefully cracked eggs into the sizzling pan.

“I thought a decent breakfast was in order,” he said when he saw me.

Gabriel and Ivy were already seated at the dining table, plates heaped with scrambled eggs on sourdough toast in front of them.

“This is really good,” Ivy said between mouthfuls. “How did you learn to cook?”

“I had no choice, I had to learn,” Xavier said. “My whole family besides Mom are useless in the kitchen. When she works late at the clinic they order pizza or eat whatever they can find that says, ‘add water and stir.’ So I cook for them whenever Mom isn’t around.”

“Xavier’s a man of many skills,” I told Ivy and Gabe glowingly.

Xavier had stayed only one night yet I marveled at how easily he had become integrated into our little family. It didn’t feel like we had a guest in the house—he was just one of us now. Even Gabriel seemed to have accepted him, and found him a clean white shirt to wear to school.

I noticed we were all carefully avoiding the subject of what had happened the previous afternoon. I knew I was certainly trying to block out the memory.

“I know yesterday came as an awful shock to us all,” Ivy said eventually. “But we’re going to deal with this situation.”

“How?” I asked

“Our Father will show us the way.”

“I just hope He does it soon, before it’s too late,” Xavier muttered, but I was the only one who heard him.

A shock wave had torn through the school after the discovery of Taylah’s suicide. Although classes continued in an attempt at maintaining normality, everything seemed to be operating tentatively. Letters had gone out to parents offering grief counseling and encouraging families to support their children in any way they could. People walked around as if on eggshells, not wanting to be too loud or insensitive. Jake Thorn and his friends were notably absent.

An assembly was called mid-morning, and Dr. Chester explained to the students that the administration didn’t know exactly what had transpired, but they had placed the investigation in the hands of the police. Then his voice became less matter-of-fact.

“The loss of Taylah McIntosh is shocking and tragic. She was a great friend and student, and she will be greatly missed. If any of you would like to speak to someone about what has occurred, please book a time with Miss Hirche, our trusted school counselor.”

“I feel sorry for the doc,” said Xavier. “He’s been getting phone calls all morning. The parents are up in arms about this.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“Schools go down over incidents like this,” he said. “Everyone wants to know what happened, why the school didn’t do more to prevent it. People start to worry about their own kids.”

I was outraged. “But this had nothing to do with the school.”

“Well, the parents sure don’t see it that way,” Xavier said.

After the assembly, Molly caught up with me, her eyes red and puffy from crying. Xavier saw that she wanted to talk in private and excused himself to go to a water-polo meeting.

“How are you holding up?” I asked, taking her hand. Molly shook her head, and fresh tears trickled down her cheeks.

“It just feels so weird being here at the moment,” she said in a choked voice. “It’s not the same without her.”

“I know,” I said softly.

“I don’t get it,” Molly said. “I can’t believe she would do something like that. Why didn’t she talk to me? I didn’t even know she was depressed—I’m the worst friend!” She let out a sob, and I rushed forward to hug her. It seemed she might collapse if something wasn’t holding her up.

“This isn’t your fault,” I said. “Sometimes things happen that no one could’ve predicted.”

“But . . . ,” Molly began.

“No.” I cut her off. “Trust me—there was nothing you could have done to stop this.”

“I wish I could believe that,” Molly whispered. “Did you hear how they found her in all that blood? It’s like something out of a horror movie.”

“Yeah,” I mumbled. The last thing I wanted was to relive the experience. “Molly, maybe you should talk to a counselor,” I said gently. “It might help.”

“No.” Molly shook her head forcefully and then laughed. It sounded high-pitched and hysterical. “I just want to forget that it ever happened. I want to forget that she was ever here.”

“But, Molly, you can’t just pretend things are okay.”

“Watch me,” she said, her voice suddenly falsely cheerful and bright. “Something good actually happened the other day.” She smiled broadly, her eyes still shining with tears. It was frightening to watch.

“What?” I asked, wondering whether she might give up the charade if I played along.

“Well, it turns out that Jake Thorn is in my IT class.”

“Oh,” I said, amazed at how quickly the conversation was spiraling downhill. “That’s great.”

“Yeah, it really is,” Molly said. “Because he asked me out.”

“What!” I burst out, spinning around to face her.

“I know,” she said. “I couldn’t believe it either.” It was obvious the shock had messed with her head. She was grasping at any sort of distraction that would take her mind off the pain of her loss.

“What did you say?” I asked.

She laughed harshly. “Don’t be stupid, Beth. What do you think I said? We’re going out this Sunday with some of his friends. Oh, I almost forgot, are you okay with it, after what happened at the prom? Because you said you didn’t have feelings for him . . .”

“No! I mean, of course I don’t have feelings for him.”

“Then you don’t mind?”

“Molly, I do mind, but not for the reasons you think. Jake’s bad news—you can’t go out with him. And would you please quit acting like everything’s fine!” My voice had gone up an octave, and I knew I sounded stressed.

Molly looked confused. “What’s the problem? Why are you being all weird about it? I thought you’d be happy for me.”

“Oh, Molly, I would be if you were going out with anyone but him,” I cried. “You can’t trust him—surely you can see that. He’s got trouble written all over him.”

Molly got suddenly defensive.

“You just don’t like him because he made trouble for you and Xavier,” she said heatedly.

“That’s not true. I don’t trust him, and you’re not thinking straight!” I said.

“Maybe you’re jealous of his uniqueness,” Molly spit out. “He said there are some people like that.”

“What?” I spluttered. “That doesn’t make any sense.”

“Sure it does,” Molly replied. “You think that you and Xavier are the only people who deserve to be happy. I deserve to be happy too, Beth, especially now.”

“Molly, don’t be crazy,” I said. “Of course I don’t think that.”

“Then why don’t you want me to go out with him?”

“Because he scares me,” I said truthfully. “And I don’t want to see you make a huge mistake because you’re a mess over what happened to Taylah.”

But Molly didn’t seem to be listening to me anymore.

“Do you want him? Is that it? Well, you can’t have all the guys in the world, Beth, you have to leave some for the rest of us.”

“I don’t want him anywhere near me or you. . . ,” I began.

“Why not?”

“Because he killed Taylah!” I yelled.

Molly stopped and stared at me, her eyes wide. I couldn’t believe I’d spoken those words aloud, but if they got Molly to come to her senses, if they could save her from falling prey to Jake, then it would be worth it. But a moment later Molly narrowed her eyes.

“You’re out of your mind,” she hissed and took a step back from me.

“Molly, wait!” I cried. “Just hear me out. . . .”

“No!” Molly interrupted. “I don’t want to hear it. You can hate Jake as much as you want, but I’m still going to see him because I
want
to. He’s the most amazing guy I’ve ever met, and I’m not going to pass up the opportunity to be with him just because you’re having a little PMS freak-out.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “And for your information, he says you’re a bitch.”

I opened my mouth to respond when a shadow fell across the pavement and a figure appeared at Molly’s side. Jake leered at me as he draped an arm around Molly’s shoulders and pulled her close. She nestled into his chest and giggled.

“Envy is a deadly sin, Bethany,” Jake purred. His eyes were completely covered by a glistening black film, so I couldn’t distinguish between pupil and iris. “You should know that. Why don’t you just congratulate Molly and be gracious?”

“Or start writing her eulogy,” I snapped.

“Now, now, that’s below the belt,” he said. “Don’t you worry; I’ll take care of your friend. It seems we have a lot in common.”

Then he turned and swept Molly away. I watched her disappear from sight, russet curls bobbing.

I spent the rest of the afternoon desperately looking for Molly so I could explain things to her in a way she might understand, but I couldn’t find her anywhere. I told Xavier what had happened and saw the muscles in his face tighten ever so slightly. Together we looked all over the school for Molly, and with every empty classroom I felt my insides twisting with anxiety. Xavier made me sit down on a bench when I began breathing loudly and erratically.

“Hey, hey,” he said, lifting up my face so we were looking eye to eye, “calm down. She’s going to be okay. Everything is.”

“How?” I asked. “He’s dangerous! He’s completely unstable! I know what he’s trying to do. He’s trying to get to me through her. He knows she’s my friend.”

Xavier sat down beside me.

“Think about it for a moment, Beth,” he said. “Jake Thorn hasn’t hurt anyone in his inner circle yet. He wants to recruit people—it’s what he does. So long as he has Molly on his side, she’ll be safe.”

“You can’t know that. He’s completely unpredictable.”

“Unpredictable or not, he still won’t hurt her,” Xavier said. “We have to keep our wits about us now; we can’t afford to lose our heads. It’s easy to overreact given what’s just happened.”

“So what do you think we should do?” I asked.

“I think Jake might have given us a clue to finding that proof Gabriel is after.”

“Really?”

“Did Molly say where he was taking her?”

“She just said it was going to be on Sunday . . . and his friends were going to be there,” I said.

Xavier nodded. “Right, well, Venus Cove isn’t that big a place—we’ll find out where they’re going and follow them.”

We relayed our concerns to Ivy and Gabriel. The problem was working out where Jake might take Molly. It could be anywhere in Venus Cove, and we couldn’t afford to miscalculate. This was our one chance to see what he was really up to, and we didn’t want to blow it.

“Where would he go?” Ivy mused. “Of course there are all the normal places in town, like the movie theater or Sweethearts, the bowling alley. . . .”

“There’s no point thinking normal,” I said. “He’s anything but that.”

“Beth’s right,” said Xavier. “Let’s try to think like him for a moment.”

Asking an angel to get inside the head of a demon was a tall order, but Gabriel and Ivy tried to mask their disgust and complied with Xavier’s request.

“It won’t be somewhere public,” Ivy said suddenly, “especially not if he plans to bring his friends along. They’re too big a group, too conspicuous.”

Gabriel agreed. “They’ll go somewhere quiet and private, a place where they won’t be interrupted.”

“Are there any abandoned houses or factories around here?” I asked. “Like the one where the after-party was held? That would suit Jake.”

Xavier shook his head. “Jake strikes me as a little more dramatic than that.”

“So let’s think exaggerated and over-the-top then,” Ivy suggested

“Exactly.” Xavier looked at me, his azure eyes sharp. “His followers . . . think about what they look like, how they dress.”

“They look like goths,” I replied.

“And what is the center of goth culture?” Gabriel said.

Ivy looked at him, her eyes wide. “Death.”

“Yes.” Xavier’s face was grim. “So where would be the best place for a bunch of weirdos obsessed with death?”

The realization hit me, and I drew a sharp breath. It was overstated, it was grim, it was dark, and it was the perfect place for Jake to stage his show.