Scars and Songs (17 page)

Grace drank a shot and slammed the empty glass back on the bar. She and Lea sat on two barstools, both of them watching me. I couldn
ʼt see where Conner was,
traitor
. I hoped he was puking in the bathroom; this was a horrible idea.

The blonde grabbed my hand and pulled me to the dance floor. Grace watched every step I took. Still she showed no emotion that I could see.

The girl’s hands were all over me. I tried to dance with her, but really all she was trying to do was rub her ass all over me and dry hump my leg.  It reminded me of my grandmother’s dog when it was in heat.

Grace continued to take in our show and her face slowly started changing. I knew because I never looked once at the girl I was dancing with, I only looked at Grace. She downed four more shots sitting there. I wanted to tell her to stop, but I wanted to see her reaction to this too. So far, I liked what I was seeing.

Conner came back and he and Lea started a conversation. Grace glanced at them once, jumped off the stool and headed for the bathroom again. As she passed me, she shook her head and smiled. It was torn, it didnʼt reach her eyes, and I knew that I must have meant something to her. I watched her walk away into the back hall and I saw her stop short. A dark shadow seemed to wrap its arms around her and yank her away.
What the?

I threw the blonde off me, “Thanks for the dance. I have to go!”

The girl whined and stood there with a look as if I had just ripped her heart out.
It was one freaking dance!

I yelled for Conner and Lea to get Marty, the bouncer. I didn
ʼt know exactly what I saw, but I knew something wasnʼt right. Lea collided with me and we both drunkenly stumbled onto the floor.

“What happened? You looked scared, where
ʼs Grace?” She was freaking out.

I got up and dragged her up with me. “I saw her go down the hall and I think I saw something, I don
ʼt know. Letʼs just find her!” I couldnʼt explain that I just knew, for sure, that something was wrong.  Maybe I still had remnants of left over angel abilities, I didn’t know, all I knew was that
I knew
, deep in my soul, she needed
me
.

Lea screamed her name and ran into the bathroom. “Shane she
ʼs not in here!” I tried all the doors, closet, storage room, men’s room. The last storage room was locked. Boozer never locks that door, the wait staff needs to be able to get to all the supplies in there.

My skin crawled.  “Grace!” Lea pounded her fists on the door. I shoved her out of the way. Backing all the way up, I rammed a front lunge kick right next to the locked doorknob. The door burst inward, the frame shot splinters of wood around me. A guy almost the size of Ethan was hunched over in front of Grace. There were splatters of bright red blood all over the floor and all over Grace
ʼs hands. “Get the hell off her!” I yelled, yanking the guy away from her. I didnʼt even think, I pounded the guys face over and over. I had fought in angelic wars; we knew no mercy.  I wouldn’t stop until I heard his last breath of life.

Then I heard Grace exhale. That
ʼs all it took to make me stop. I needed to know if she was hurt. But the minute I turned my head and looked at her, I felt a sharp pain in my chest, above my heart.  The guy stabbed the blade of a knife into my shoulder and yanked it right back out to do it again. He advanced towards me once more, and I easily brushed the weapon away and slammed him in the chest full force.
I was done fighting like I was just human
. The guy flew across the small room, slammed up against the wall and collapsed to the floor, out cold.  I grabbed for her.  I took her beautiful face in my hands, but she kept looking at my shoulder. Her eyes were wide, but she showed no other emotion. “Grace, are you okay? Did he hurt you? He had blood all over him when I came in. Where are you hurt?”

She clawed at my shoulder, found the puncture wound and held it down hard, putting pressure to it. Then she met my eyes with hers and smiled.
I wanted to die right there in her arms
. “It was his blood, Shane. He didnʼt hurt me.”

I looked at the huge monster of a man lying on the floor.
His blood?
I was in complete awe of her.
What did he want from her?
Rage boiled my blood. “Did he touch you? I swear to God, Grace, Iʼll kill him right now.”

She gently placed her hand on my cheek, and my body calmed instantly. “He never got the chance, you came.”

Relief.
Pure raw relief
surged through my shoulders. I looked at her beautiful eyes, welling with her beautiful tears and my heart stirred. It was too overwhelming, too awe inspiring. All I wanted was to tell her that I was falling for her, but I couldnʼt. I was stuck in Shaneʼs body and she seemed to know how much of a jerk he had been. I had no idea how I could change her thoughts about him. “Grace, I just got stabbed to save you. Can I at least have a kiss as a reward?” I wiggled my eyebrows up and down to make her laugh.

She brought her plump pink lips to my forehead and gave me a small sweet lingering kiss.

I busted out laughing, “Wow. A peck on the forehead is the equivalent to being stabbed to you? No way! Iʼm going to milk this one! You owe me, big time!”

Slapping at my arm, she teased, “Shane, you could take your blonde bimbo home or me, and you wouldn
ʼt know the difference. But, I do owe you, so Iʼll think of something where I get to keep my clothes on.”

There were a ton of people in the small room all of a sudden and my head started spinning. The stab wound was nothing much, I could feel that it didn
ʼt hit anything important. It looked a hell of a lot worse than it felt, because blood was everywhere.  And unfortunately, I was all of a sudden completely sober.

Grace slid my arm around her shoulders and helped me up. All I could do was smile
and look at her. What girl in their right mind would pick up a bleeding guy off the floor without flinching? 
Someone like Grace
. This only endeared me more to her.
Shit
.

Conner had called 911 and the police were just coming in. An ambulance was pulling up just as Grace walked me outside.

I tried like crazy to refuse going to the hospital, but no one listened to me. Conner and a few of the other regulars at the bar shoved me into the back of the ambulance. Before they closed the back doors on me, the blonde girl I was talking to at the bar and dancing with climbed in.
Why is she here?

Giggles, giggles and more giggling. “I bet you never had sex in the back of an ambulance before,” she giggled even more and slithered her hands up my leg.

What the hell is wrong with this girl? 
“Um...well, no, I can honestly say that I have not had sex in the back of an ambulance.” I stopped her hands. “And, honestly, I
never
will. If you haven’t noticed the reason we’re sitting here, well, I got STABBED tonight!  So, Iʼm not really in the mood. Do you kind of understand that?”

She licked her lips slow and sensual. “I bet I can get you in the mood,” she moaned. “Then I can go home with you and take care of you for as long as it will take. I can be your own personal nurse. I’ll even dress up.” She giggled
way
more than was freaking necessary.

Ah, no. No thank you, you psycho skank
. “Well, even though that sounds really tempting, I think Iʼm going to pass. But, thanks, really.”

“Let me at least give you a...”

The doors opened before she could finish and I launched myself past her and through them. The EMTs walked me into an almost empty emergency room, up to the front desk and right into triage. I was quickly seen, poked, and prodded. Two police officers came a few minutes after I arrived and questioned me about the incident.

I had no information to give them though. I had never seen the guy before. I just saw something come up behind Grace in the darkness of the hallway and I ran to her. I didn
ʼt think. I just wanted her to be safe.

“So tell us what happened when you ran back into the hallway,” one of the officers said.

“I tried every room. I ran into the menʼs bathroom. Lea tried the womenʼs room. I tried the storage closets. When I tried the last storage room, it was locked.”

The officer asking me all the questions was writing down all my answers. The other officer kept looking through the curtain of my little area.

“I heard them scuffling behind the door and I kicked it in. It swung right open and the guy was trying to attack Grace. I grabbed him off her and started hitting him. All I was really concerned about was Grace and if she was hurt. There was blood everywhere so I figured he hurt her pretty bad. When I went to her, the asshole stabbed me. I never even saw he had a knife on him until it was in me.”

“We have two other officers speaking to your friends in the waiting room right now. Grace is the blonde or the brunette in the waiting room?”

I couldnʼt hide my smile.
Grace was waiting for me?
“Grace is the one with the jet black hair and light gray eyes.”

The officer shook his head. “A beautiful girl like that, the guy probably tried to pick her up and she turned him down. It
ʼs a good thing you were there.”

After a while, someone came in and stitched me up, smiling that no major organs were punctured. He wanted to give me something to kill the pain, but I said no. I never took anything stronger than over the counter medicine, I didn
ʼt trust Shaneʼs body to not get addicted to anything again. Besides, twenty-one stitches are like a paper cut compared to having your wings ripped from your body.  I didnʼt even flinch.

I hesitated in the doorway to the waiting area and watched Grace for a minute before anyone noticed I was there. Worry lines creased her forehead and she sat staring at her feet, biting down on her bottom lip.
Was she upset about what sheʼd been through tonight? Was any of that worry for me?

I quietly sat down next to her and leaned my elbow on her shoulder, “Were you worried sick about me?”

She rolled those beautiful bedroom eyes, but gave me a dazzling smile. “No, Shane. I knew your big fat ego would block the knife somehow.”

Looking at me for a few silent seconds, her expression spoke everything to me.
Thank you. I need you. I want you, but I canʼt. I wonʼt. But, my God, I want to
.

It hurt like hell.

We shared a cab with Conner and Lea; nobody said a word the entire ride. Conner and I had the driver drop the girls off in front of their apartment.

When the driver pulled up, Grace looked over to me with a sad look, “Oh, Shane. I forgot to mention it, but Brianna wanted me to tell you to call her. We made her call a cab, sorry.” She looked to Conner and Lea, “We thought it would be longer, and well, she was annoying to look at really.”

“Whoʼs Brianna?” I asked. Oh, was that the blonde girl’s name? I hadn’t even wondered where she went.

Grace looked even sadder and stepped out of the cab. I watched her walk up her front steps and the thought of not spending the rest of the night with her made me feel like half a man.

The cab pulled away and I wondered why I felt such intense feelings for someone that I just met. Someone I knew almost nothing about. Was it just because she looked so much like my lost love that I wanted to be with her to fill that ache in my heart?

“Hey, you sure you’re okay, man?” Conner asked.

“Yeah, bro. Golden.” Less than five minutes later, Conner and I were back in our apartment. He patted me on the back and trudged to his room. “Night, knock if you need me,” he said.  Before he got there, I heard him telling Ethan everything about my ER visit, and then Ethan telling him everything he knew about Alex.

I locked my door and threw myself onto my bed. I took out my phone and called Grace. There was no way I wanted to call it a night with her. Her phone rang a few times and then went to voicemail; her sweet voice echoing through the line.
Iʼm not near the phone, leave a message and Iʼll call you back.
Thousands of poetic stanzas ran through my mind. What message could I leave that would make her call me back? Probably nothing.
This is Grace Iʼm calling, nothing in the world would make that beautiful creature want to call me back, unless I annoyed
her enough
. “Grace, itʼs Shane. Give me a call back tonight, doesnʼt matter what time. Call me or I swear Iʼll ring this phone all night.”
Whoa, great going, Casanova, that was awful
.

Okay, I definitely needed to leave another message way better than that idiotic one. Like the freaking stalker that I was quickly becoming, I called her again. Her cell rang and rang.
What could I quote into her voicemail? What words of long ago would move her?
She had looked so sad when we dropped her off in front of her apartment; I wanted to make those beautiful lips smile. What had she been sad about? Was it because of the attack? Shouldnʼt she have been scared? She wasnʼt though. She was brave and strong. What had she said when she walked out of the cab?