Rise of the Fallen 1 - My Soul to Keep (9 page)

“It’s a date.”

“Is it?”

“It is,” she said and gave me a little smile, warming me from the inside
out. “Do you see a black Cadillac waiting anywhere?”

I tore my gaze from the little smile on her lips and looked around
the parent pick-up line. Sure enough, at the head of the line sat a shiny brand
new black Cadillac Escalade with blinding chrome rims. I cocked my right eyebrow
up in surprise. Not too many families in Cedar Hills were very well off. Since the
economic landslide, even they didn’t have the money to tote around their kids in
a car that cost as much as most houses in the area. “Big, black Escalade?”

“Yup, that’s my dad,” she answered and I thought I detected a modicum
of embarrassment in her voice.

“Are you guys in the witness protection program?” I gave a little inward
groan at my own stupidity. The joke left my lips before my “don’t look like an ass”
filter stopped it.

“No. Why?”

“Just don’t see too many Escalades in the area.”

“Ah. Dad is an author. He writes some spy thriller series that’s sold
like a billion copies.”

I looked at her like she'd just stepped off a spaceship and had tentacles
instead of arms. “And you live in Cedar Hills, why?”

“My grandparents grew up here. They died before I was born. My dad
and my step-mother are getting a divorce. She got the big house, he chose to move
here and get away from Philly.”

As soon as we got within twenty feet of the SUV, the driver's side
door opened and my worst nightmare stepped out and walked around the back of the
vehicle. He stood about six and a half feet tall. His long brown hair had been pulled
back in a ponytail so tight the wind didn’t stand a chance against it. His brown
eyes lit up when he saw his daughter, but narrowed into cat like slits when he saw
her hand on my arm.

I gulped audibly, not from the venom in his gaze, but from the shimmer
of the air around him. Mr. James wasn’t human, but he appeared to be. He had an
orb on him somewhere, but I couldn’t tell where. I blinked twice and tried to see
through the shroud around him. For some reason I couldn’t see through it and I didn’t
know why.

I must have registered a fair amount of shock on my face. His narrowed
eyes travelled from his daughter’s hand on my arm straight up to my eyes. His eyebrow
cocked several inches above what my practiced in the mirror eyebrow lift could ever
hope to attain.

I saw his lips move as he spoke several words under his breath. The
light breeze that had been prevalent all week picked up and brought his words from
his lips and settled them over my skin. I heard them as they settled and every other
word ended in a soft “th” sound.

I shivered as his words tried to pull my human illusion away from me.
I could feel my wings starting to spring forth from my back.

"No," I whispered and concentrated on being human.

Whatever tried to settle over me, snapped with an audible
Pop.

I knew her dad wasn't human, but that scared me. For the life of me,
I couldn't imagine what he could be. Had he wished to be some sort of wizard? I
could see that. If I had thought about it before I wished to be one of the Fallen,
I might have chosen that. Knowing invisibility spells would be really
awesome...

Jessie tilted her head and tried to listen. “Are you okay?” She sounded
confused.

“Yes, I thought I had to sneeze but it went away.”

She giggled and pulled me forward, closing the distance between me
and her father. “Daddy, this is Connor. He’s been showing me around the school today.”

“Hello, Connor,” he said and held out a hand I had no intention of
touching.

“Hello, Mr. James,” I responded and gently picked up Jessie’s hand
from my wrist and put it in her father’s waiting hand.

Chapter 9

If the neighborhood wasn’t full of kids and other teens, I would have
gone all Fallen and flown home. After meeting Mr. James, I wanted to hide and immerse
myself in some serious PlayStation therapy. My parents always said video games are
not the answer to everything.

They lied about other things, too.

The revving of an engine and a sharp honk behind me caused me to trip
and fall to my knee. I glanced over my shoulder and saw a very familiar pink bug
with a laughing blonde driver behind the wheel. I flicked her off over my shoulder
and looked down to what I was sure would be a bloody mess, torn jeans, and a good
deal of pain. I put my hands down and lifted my knee off the already cracked sidewalk
and winced. My jeans had a huge rip where my knee met the concrete, but I didn’t
see any blood. I didn’t even see a scratch, nor did I feel any pain. I shook my
knee to test it and stood, finally noticing the knee shaped, crushed section of
sidewalk.

“Cool,” I said and turned to give Claire a stern talking to.

“Come on, worm! We have work to do.”

I walked around to the passenger door and lifted the handle on the
little Bug. She hadn’t unlocked the door and she sat there staring at me. “Come
on Clari…Claire. Unlock the door.”

“What do you say?”

I knew she wanted a please. I would rather have my lower extremities
dragged naked over a five mile stretch of fish tank pebbles than give it to her.

In a tiny fit of anger I pulled with everything I had. The tiny Bug
slid the remaining six inches to the curb and the door pulled off the hinges with
a groan and a snap. Holding up the door and looking at Clarisse through the rolled
up window I watched as her face went from teasing, to rabid raccoon, and on to crazed
sociopath. I dropped the door and ran.

I heard her door open and slam close. Yup, she wanted to kick my ass.
I dipped off the sidewalk and ran past two kids with matching backpacks who seemed
to be standing still. The rapid
clip, clop
of Clarisse’s undoubtedly designer
shoes hitting the concrete not far behind me told me she was gaining.

The houses on the other side of the street backed up against woods,
separating the mall from the residential areas. I figured that would be my best
hope. I leapt over the tiny grassy patch separating the sidewalk from the street,
bolted across the road, and ducked between two houses. I passed a man grilling hamburgers
in the back yard, but he didn’t even look up as I ran past into the trees. I mistakenly
assumed the trees meant safety.

As soon as I crossed the line between grass and the brown leaf and
pine needle covered ground of the woods a rock obliterated the tree to my right.
Splinters flew from the gaping hole and hit me in the face as I sped by. I spit
out a hunk of bark and started weaving for my life. I should have saved the zigzag
pattern for an alligator attack. Clarisse caught up quickly and kicked my legs out
from underneath me. I spun a full circle before crashing against a medium sized
oak.

In a daze I saw her sprout wings, her eyes started to glow, and she
reached down and picked me up by my shirt collar.

“Stupid, worm,” she spat and threw me headfirst at a larger, sturdier
looking specimen of a North American deciduous tree. I brought up my arms to stop
my face from becoming one with the bark. The tree snapped as I hit it, and I prayed
my arms didn’t do the same thing. I landed in a pissed off heap at the base of the
tree.

Her hand closed on the back of my neck as she tried to lift me from
my comfortable spot on the ground. A surge of anger flowed through me. My wings
snapped into being and I turned around to see a look of surprise fill her face.

The thought of hitting a girl truly sickened my stomach, but Clarisse
just threw me headfirst into a tree. I pulled my knee up and kicked out to the side,
catching her in the stomach and launching her up into the highest branches of the
trees behind her. I smiled, rolled over on my stomach and picked myself up off the
ground. Hearing a cracking noise behind me, I turned to see what caused it. I caught
the foot thick tree trunk Clarisse used like a bat right in the chest. I hit the
tree behind me with my back, and the forest dimmed in my vision.

A set of claws grabbed my shirt and pinned me to the tree, stopping
me from sliding completely down to the ground again.
When did she get those?

The impact seriously rattled my brain. I could taste blood in my mouth
and the only thing I could see was Clarisse’s face filling my vision.

“Not bad, worm. Not bad at all,” she said and let go.

I slid down the tree and grabbed onto her hips with my legs, turning
to face the ground as I fell. The scissor spin flung her down to the ground on her
side and trapped her between my legs. She grabbed my knee with her talons and squeezed
with everything she had. He nails pierced my flesh and muscle. I had no choice but
to let go. As soon as I did, she scrambled to her feet and up a tree.

I tried to follow her movements, but my vision was still cloudy from
my lumber shattering impact. I gasped for breath and looked around for her. I could
hear several snaps of tiny tree limbs all around me as she circled, looking for
an opening to attack.

I felt it more than heard it. A shifting of the air behind me and I
knew she would be closing in for the kill. I didn’t turn until the very last second,
and then I did a spinning roundhouse kick just like I'd seen in every kung-fu movie
I ever watched. My foot connected with her jaw before I even saw her. The impact
sent her flying away from me and she landed on her back, twenty yards away. Not
wasting any time I scrambled over and pinned her down on the ground.

She looked up at me and scrunched her eyes like
she
was having
trouble seeing. When I pinned her wrists above her head she didn’t struggle.

“If I let you go, is this over?”

She nodded and I let her hands loose. Immediately they wrapped around
my throat and she flipped me off of her and onto my back. I should have known. I
didn’t struggle. I just lie there as she pinned me in the exact position I had her
in moments before.

“Don’t you
ever
kick me in the face again,” she snarled. Then
she bent low and locked her lips onto mine.

I'd always pictured my first kiss being a little…different.

* * *

We drove in silence to the entrance of the Cedar Hills Mall. After
the kiss, she’d let me go, stood up, and waved her hands, cleaning all remnants
of battle from our clothes and skin. She did the same to her Volkswagen Beetle while
I held the door in place. The silence in the tiny car seemed deafening and the awkward
feeling in the pit of my stomach threatened to curb my appetite. Thoughts of salty
soft pretzels drifted away with a curl of my lip.

“Why are we going to the mall?” I didn’t even look at her as I asked.
Every time I did, I blushed. I stared out the window instead.

“Training,” came her predictable response.

“Training for what?”

“You are one of the Fallen now. You have duties you need to know how
to do. I’m going to show you.”

We pulled into a spot right in front. I'd been to the mall a hundred
times in my short life, and I could have sworn the spot she pulled into was a handicapped
space yesterday. For all I knew, it could have been.

We made our way into the warmer interior of the mall. Auntie Annie’s
whispered my name sweetly, but I ignored her twisted, salty temptations and followed
Clarisse to the center courtyard where she turned left and headed toward the food
court. I caught myself staring at the designer logo on the back pocket of her jeans
and quickly focused on her hair instead. If she turned around and caught me looking
at her butt, there wouldn’t be any trees to soften the ass whipping that would be
sure to follow.

I, for some reason, thought that Clarisse wanted to eat and that's
why we were at the food court.

Apparently I was wrong.

Instead of ordering pizza, Chinese, or even a hamburger, she sat at
a table near the entrance to the movie theater. I sat down across from her and stared
at her while she looked around the mall. Her eyes settled off to the right and I
turned to look at what she saw. A geekier looking guy than me sat alone, reading
a book with a large cup of some sort of coffee beverage. My eyes slid over the paper
cup with black lid. There were tiny boxes with checkmarks in sharpie on one side.
I looked closer and saw a bunch of words that looked like gibberish. Somehow, I
knew, without a doubt, he had a caramel macchiato, extra-shot, with low fat milk,
and extra caramel. I shook my head to clear it and focused on him instead. He had
shoulder length curly black hair, a bad complexion, and wore a black hoodie with
jeans. He was reading a book by an author I'd never heard of, but made out the title
Origins
on the front cover.

“We have a vampire lover,” Clarisse said and kicked me lightly under
the table.

“How do you know?” I sat there, beyond confused.

“From the book. It’s all about vampires. Look into his head. See how
he’s hanging on every word? What do you feel?”

I ignored her and focused on the mop of unruly hair around his head.
It took a second, but I could hear his thoughts. He wanted to be like the characters
in the book. His name was Brett, and Brett wanted to be a vampire. “I can feel it.”