Soul Thief (7 page)

Leander stayed quiet for a minute. He stopped walking. “Want to do something fun?”

“Not sure if we have the same definition of fun, but what did you have in mind?”

“How about a little trip through the sky?”

My jaw dropped to the floor, and before I could stop myself I smiled from ear to ear. “You mean flying?”

“Yes.”

“Duh! What do I do?”

“Hold on tight.” Leander opened up his arms.

My cheeks must've blushed about ten thousand shades of red. I stepped into his arms and grabbed him tightly around the waist. He held on to me as well. Fire soared through my body where he touched me.

“I said hold on tight, not strangle me to death.”

I loosened up a little. “Sorry.”

“That's okay. You ready?”

“Definitely.”

He spread his wings, and I whispered, “Wow!” They were magnificent, large and black, with hundreds of feathers. They ran the length of his body, surrounded by the same ethereal glow as he was. My breath got stuck in my throat and seconds later we floated above the earth.

I held on tighter as the ground became tinier and tinier below us. “Oh my God,” I whispered. It seemed like the kind of moment that required whispers, not talking out loud, for the risk of ruining it.

Fairhaven stretched below us, a miniscule version of itself, as if I'd gone to Legoland to see miniature buildings. Thousands of tiny lights glistened from the streets below. Wind rushed around us.

“This is amazing.” Tears welled up in my eyes. Now I finally knew what freedom tasted like. “Can I see my house?”

“It's not dark enough yet. We're safe here above the forest, but I don't want to risk anyone seeing us when we enter civilization.”

“I get that.” I was barely able to hide my disappointment. “God, this is breathtaking. Can we fly to the stars?”

“We'd be too exhausted to reach the stars. Our powers would be drained before we'd make it halfway.”

I turned to face Leander. My face was only inches away from his and when he breathed out, his breath tickled my skin. “Thanks for this.”

“You're welcome.” He smiled the kind of smile that lit up his entire face. “I'll take you home now.”

“Yeah.” I gazed at the world below one last time, and wished I could stay here forever, floating in the sky, where everyday problems didn't exist and I didn't have to come face to face with the dad who wasn't my dad, and the mom who cheated on him even before I was born.

“What's wrong? You were smiling one minute ago, and now you look as if your pet cat just died.” There was no humor in Leander's voice, just concern.

“Nothing. I just… this is amazing.”

“I can read your thoughts, you know, so you can't hide anything from me.”

“Well, then pretend that you can't. These are my problems,” I snapped, “and I'll solve them myself.”

His lips turned into a grim line. “Very well.”

With that, we descended back to earth and I felt lonelier than ever.

MY SOUR MOOD HADN'T
improved by the time I got home. Leander had offered to drive me home but I refused, which I regretted as soon as the words had left my lips. Dreary raindrops created puddles in front of my feet and clouds gathered in the darkened sky. A storm was brewing and I raced the last few blocks to get home before the storm broke loose.

I fumbled with the key of the front door, my hair damp and my clothes as wet as if I'd taken a shower in them. When I finally managed to get the door open, I let out a sigh of relief. Before I could take my shoes off, Cassie appeared in the kitchen doorway. “You're late.” She crossed her arms in front of her small frame.

“Who are you? My governess?” I rolled my eyes at her and kicked my sneakers in the corner.

“What's a governess?” Cassie frowned at me.

“Forget it.” I waved my hand at her. “Where's Mom and Dad?”

“I'm in here, honey,” Mom replied from inside the kitchen.

I gritted my teeth and forced myself to remain calm. Ever since I heard about Mom and the Angel, just hearing her voice put me on edge. Part of me wanted to confront her, but the other part didn't want any additional drama right now.

I walked into the kitchen.

Cassie tagged along behind me, glancing at me as if she was a police officer checking out a suspect.

“Hey,” I said, dropping my backpack on an empty chair.

Mom put a plate on the table and looked up at me. Tears blinked in her eyes and red streaks on her cheeks revealed she'd been crying.

“What's wrong?” My anger at her was immediately replaced by worry. “Is something wrong with Dad? Gran?”

“No, no, don't worry.” She shook her head. “You remember Dan, your Dad's co-worker?”

“Yes.” Dan had come by our house a few times before, and every six months or so our families met up and had dinner. He had a daughter my age, Tara, and when we gathered for dinner we always chatted and gossiped. “What about him?”

“His daughter, Tara.” Mom bit her lower lip. “She passed away last night.”

“What?” I clenched the table with both hands. “How? What happened? Was there an accident?”

“No.” Mom ran a hand through her hair. “She had a heart attack.”

I sniffed and breathed out. “Poor Tara. I'm so sorry for her and her parents.” I still couldn't quite grasp it, couldn't understand that the bubbly, funny girl I didn't really know that well, but knew well enough to like, had died.

Mom patted me on the head. “I know. The funeral is this weekend. Your dad went over there to talk to them.”

This put things in perspective though. If a sixteen year old girl could die from a heart attack, then my issues about being an Angel of Death and about Dad not being my real dad sounded ridiculous in comparison.

Tears burned behind my eyes. “I didn't know her that well, but she was nice and she had a great sense of humor.” I paused and looked down at the table. “Her parents must be in shock.”

“They are. She never had any heart troubles before, seemed perfectly healthy. She even had a checkup last week.” Mom sat down next to me and dabbed her eyes with a tissue. “When I heard about what happened to her, it brought back all the fear I'd bottled up when I heard you were in the accident.” She put her hand on mine.

She may have made a terrible mistake once, but she was still my Mom. I squeezed her hand.

“When the hospital called and told us you had been in an accident, the entire world vanished from under my feet. Honey, I'm so glad you're okay.” She opened up her arms and I let her hug me.

“You two are being cheesy.” Cassie sniffed her nose at both of us. “If you're going to hug, I want a hug too. I knew Tara too you know.”

“Did you know already?” My voice raised an octave and I immediately let go of Mom.

“Dad told me before he left.” Cassie walked toward us as if nothing was wrong. “He told me Tara went to see the Angels in Heaven, and that they'll love her and will take care of her.” She narrowed her eyes at me. “He was telling the truth, right?”

I nodded, unsure of what to say.

“Well, then we should be happy for her. Heaven is a happy place, right?”

“It is, sweetie,” Mom said through her tears.

“Can I have a hug now?”

“Come here.” I spread my arms so she could squeeze in. The three of us hugged each other and I fought against the tears.

It took forever until we let go. Cassie was the first one to wiggle away out of the hug. She sniffed her nose at me. “You smell weird.”

“Weird like how?”

“Like trees and forests.”

“You're dreaming.” I gave her a kiss on her forehead.

* * *

Dad didn't come home until late. I was still up when I heard the front door open. Minutes later hushed tones filled the hallway.

I'd tried to study but my mind had wandered back to Tara. Guilt rushed over me because I'd never taken the time to get to know her well. During the obligatory family dinners we talked like old friends, but I never found the time to talk to her otherwise. She'd texted me a few weeks ago to ask if I wanted to go to a party with her, but I lied and told her I already had plans. Truth was I was free that night, but I felt dead tired and too lazy to go out. I should've texted her and set up another date, but I never did. I was happy with keeping her in that box reserved for family dinners, not for real friendship.

“I'm sorry, Tara,” I whispered, as I looked down at my Spanish textbook. The words were gibberish through my tears.

With everything that had happened lately, I half-expected her to show up as an evil spirit looking for vengeance, but that didn't happen.

I threw the Spanish textbook back in my backpack and dug up my math book. In the middle of sketching a matrix, the skin on the back of my neck began to tingle.

I ignored the tingling, but the longer I ignored it, the more aggressive it became. I glanced behind me a few times.

“Just your imagination,” I told myself out loud as I turned back to my homework.

I hadn't even picked up my pencil when a swooshing sound came from behind me. I jumped up, kicking the chair on the ground, and ducked just in time to avoid being hit in the head with a textbook.

“What the hell?”

Leander had appeared next to my bed. He smiled as if he hadn't just thrown a textbook at me. “You've got some fast moves, Riley Scott.”

“Huh? What the hell are you doing here? Why are you in my room?” I lowered my voice to a whisper. “If my parents find you here, they're going to freak out. And why would you think it's okay to appear in the middle of my room?”

“Relax. I just wanted to prove something to you.”

“Prove what?”

“That you have powers. You can move faster than humans — you just did. You can sense me. All you needed was to be endangered, even if it was by a flying book, and your powers activated.”

I took a deep breath and let my hands drop to my hips. “You came here just to prove to me that I have powers?”

“Yep.” He grinned. “And it worked.”

I nodded and licked my lips. Anger flared up inside of me and rage ran through my veins. I took a step toward him, raised a finger and said, as slow and low as I could, “I don't care if you're a Guardian Angel or the Pope, for that matter. You
don't
come into my room unannounced or uninvited. You don't startle me. You nearly gave me a heart attack and I'm not in the mood for games. I played your little game in the forest, I'm willing to learn to control my powers, but I need my privacy.”

To my surprise, Leander smirked. “You certainly have a lot of guts, threatening someone who's probably ten times as strong as you are. But I get your point.” His smile faltered and he shrugged. “I just wanted to cheer you up. I'm not good with… this.”

I looked at him, waiting for him to continue.

“It's been a long time since I communicated with humans. They act completely different than Angels. It hurt me when you told me your troubles were none of my business.” He sighed and struggled for words. “It's a Guardian thing — I always want to help people. So I took it out on you and then I felt bad. This was me trying to make up and being very stupid about it.”

I sighed and gave him a half-smile. “It's okay. I had the longest day ever, so I'm not exactly in a good mood either.”

“I know. A girl you knew died.”

I frowned. “How do you know?”

“Sorry, your mind was practically screaming it.”

I put my hand over my face. “Yeah, I'm still not used to the whole mindreading thing. And I feel bad about what happened to Tara.” I paused, and a sickening feeling spread through my bones. “You weren't… you weren't the one who had to collect her soul, right?”

“No, wasn't me. I cleared up my schedule so I could spend more time training you, so I gave some of my duties to Diane, like deciding who gets to collect whose soul. Tara's soul… I'm not sure who had to collect her, but I didn't do it.”

I nodded. “Thanks. I… just thinking about it…” The words choked in my throat. “I'd like to be alone for a while.”

Leander nodded. “I'll go now. Sorry for coming over here uninvited. It's been a few centuries since I befriended humans and I forgot how uptight you are about privacy.”

“Wait.” I grabbed his arm. “Thanks. You may have been clumsy about it, but you tried to cheer me up and I appreciate the effort.”

He smiled, his entire face lighting up.

My heart skipped a beat and a hot blush crept up my face. I tried to keep my thoughts in check.
Don't think about how handsome he looks, Riley.

If he read my thoughts, he didn't comment on them. “Goodnight, Riley.”

“Goodnight.”

Seconds later, he'd vanished from my room. I stumbled back onto my bed, smiling and trying to keep from crying at the same time.

DURING THE NEXT FEW
DAYS
, Leander and I spent countless hours building a protective mental wall in my mind, brick by brick. It was a tiring and annoying job, but the sooner I got that wall in place, the sooner nobody would be able to read my mind.

“Very powerful empaths, like Archangels, will still be able to read your thoughts though,” Leander said when I started about it again.

We were sitting in classroom 217, which had become our private sanctuary during school hours. He kept me busy most of the day and my grades were suffering as a result. Some teachers gave me a break because of the accident. Not Mr. O'Toole though, the dreaded math teacher. Of course math was the one subject at which I was exceedingly horrible.

“I know, and I don't care. I'll be glad if the rest of you can't read my thoughts anymore.” I kept my eyes shut, picturing a brick dropping on top of the nearly-finished wall.

“Humans and privacy… I'll never get it.” Leander sighed. “Fine, but after we build this wall, we'll do something fun with your powers for a change.”

“Like what?”

“Maybe we could go collect a soul.”

My blood froze in my veins. I opened up my eyes and stared at him. “No.”

“What, no? This is what we do, Riley. Sooner or later, you'll have to start collecting souls.”

“Yeah, well, that's not on top of my ‘to do' list.” I let go of his hands and dusted off my jacket. “Can't we skip the whole ‘collecting a soul' thing? It's almost the weekend. I don't want any other emotional ordeals before I get a few days' rest.”

Leander opened up his mouth as if he was going to say something, and then shut it again.

“What?”

“It's that girl's funeral, right? Tara?”

Way to ruin my good mood. “Yeah. That'll be enough emotional turmoil to last the entire weekend.”

“All right, then. We'll wait until after the weekend to collect a soul.”

“Thanks.” I smiled at him, and when he smiled back an army of butterflies gathered in my stomach.

Keep it together, Riley. He's your mentor. This is like falling for your teacher. Not done.

“You know, I will miss reading your thoughts,” Leander teased. “especially when you're thinking about me.”

“Do you have to be so obnoxious? You probably hear about how handsome you are every day.” I ignored the warmth rising to my cheeks and turned away from him, focusing on the floor instead.

“It's been a while. Besides, I'm just joking around.”

“How come we can't hear human thoughts?” I tried to change the subject.

“Smooth move, Scott.” He winked at me. “Humans think on a different frequency than we do. Think ultra-violet rays or radio frequencies.”

“And this counts for all supernatural creatures?”

“More or less. We're not all on the same frequency, but the frequencies are closer to each other. For example, an Angel with powerful empathy may be able to read the thoughts of a demon, or the other way around. But if your empathy isn't all that powerful, it won't work. But not all supernatural creatures can read minds. Witches aren't good at it in general and only a few of them can make it work.”

“So we've already established that Angels, demons, and witches exist. What about vampires?”

Leander leaned closer to me and whispered. “Think of every possible supernatural creature you can imagine. They're probably all real. Except for slime monsters… those are completely fake.”

I laughed. “Okay, I'll bite. Can vampires read each other's thoughts?”

“Vampires are the most gifted empaths. Because they used to be human, they can read human thoughts as well. The most powerful ones among them can do even more damage — they can order their victims to do something, or alter someone's thoughts completely. Make them forget all about who they were or about the people they loved. Vampires are some of the most dangerous supernaturals out there. Not at all like in that movie — what's it called again?”

“Twilight?” I snorted and shook my head. “If you want to stay up to date with the world's current affairs, you ought to remember what's hot and what's not.”

“Whatever. Vampires don't sparkle and they certainly aren't nice. In the scale of all things evil, they rank the highest.”

“Higher than demons?”

“Oh yeah.” Leander got up and wiped the dust off his pants. He offered me a hand and pulled me up.

“Why?”

“On the scale of all things curious, you also rank the highest.” He frowned. “Why all the questions about vampires?”

I shrugged. “It's not that I care about vampires in particular. I just want to find out more about all of this.”

“Okay then. Let's grab a bite and I'll tell you all about vampires and the lot. No pun intended.” He put his jacket on and looked at me expectantly.

I pursed my lips. “You, me, and food? If we run into anyone from school, that'll be the town's main gossip for the next few weeks. Besides, school isn't even officially over yet.” I pointed at the clock on the wall.

“Trust me, there won't be any kids from your school where I plan to take you. And I don't care whether school is over or not, I'm starving and I'm in the mood for some decent food.”

“My God, you are such a snob.” I loosened up my ponytail and let my hair fall in waves against my face.

“Maybe, but that's not what I meant. The place I had in mind is rather low-key. It's a little Italian restaurant downtown.”

“What's it called? My parents, Cassie, and I go downtown all the time to have dinner. There's not an Italian restaurant I'm
not
familiar with. It's my favorite food.”

“I'm willing to bet a lot of money you don't know this one. You could say that it's… difficult to spot.”

I arched an eyebrow and stared at him. “And by that, you mean…?”

“It's for our kind. Supernatural beings. Non-humans.” He smiled at me, as if it was no big deal. “So we'll combine two fun things: having dinner and guessing the monster.”

“If that's your idea of a fun time, then you're wrong. Why is it always all work and no play with you?” I grunted to state my point.

“This is play. It'll be fun, you'll see.” He grabbed his car keys and winked at me.

I rolled my eyes at him. Tonight was going to be hell.