Spirit (4 page)

A
million and one worries should have been clouding Hunter’s brain.

Instead, he spent all of fourth period texting with Kate.

And most of fifth period, too.

After World History, he’d been ready to finish their conversation live—but she slipped out the door without even looking at him. He’d stood in the hallway and watched her cut through the crowds of students, somewhat dumbfounded. Had he misread all those text messages? Maybe she hadn’t been flirting at all. Had she just been killing time?

Then his phone had buzzed in his hand.

Again with the staring?

He’d never met a girl who could send his heart tripping with a few words on a screen.

Now he was headed for the cafeteria with a shadow of a smile on his lips—and a shadow of doubt coiled in his chest. He’d sent her a text:

Want to stare at each other over a table at lunch?

But she hadn’t responded.

Maybe it was better if she didn’t want to sit with him. He could confront Becca or the Merricks and get them to carry some of the weight of Calla’s threats.

He checked his phone while he waited to grab a tray for the line.

Blank.

Hunter sighed and slid it into his pocket, taking an apple, a plate of grilled chicken and greens, and a bowl of vegetable soup. He didn’t have to wait for any of it—there was never a line for this stuff. But over by the tater tots, you’d think they were giving food away.

When he turned away from the register, Calla was suddenly there, in front of him. She had a soda in one hand and a wicked look in her eye.

He scowled and moved to step past her.

But she ran her shoulder into his and shrieked, stumbling back and dropping her soda. “Don’t
threaten me,
Hunter!”

One of the assistant football coaches was on cafeteria duty and headed their way. “What’s going on?”

Hunter gritted his teeth and backed away from her. “Nothing.”

“He shoved me!”

“I didn’t
touch
her!”

The coach put a restraining hand on Hunter’s shoulder—even though he hadn’t moved an inch. “Just keep walking. Cool off.”

Calla dissolved into tears. People were staring. Another girl from the volleyball team came up and pulled Calla away, whispering reassurances while throwing a murderous glance at Hunter.

It had taken Calla less than three seconds to completely derail his day. Again.

Hunter sighed through clenched teeth and turned to head for the back of the cafeteria.

Only to meet Kate’s eyes from twenty feet away.

One look at her expression said she’d seen the whole thing.

Well, definitely not the
whole
thing. Just enough to leave her staring with judgment on her face.

There went that.

At least she’d found a cure for his staring. He couldn’t meet her eyes knowing she thought he was a guy like . . . like
that
. He faced forward and kept walking, his hands gripping his tray so hard the surface of the soup was trembling.

His insides felt like a coiled spring, one rotation away from snapping. He kept his movement measured and even, but in his brain, every step was a prelude to a lethal strike. He’d never been one of those guys to hit the gym in the middle of the day, but right now he’d kill for a pair of wraps and a heavy bag.

He forced himself to take a long breath, letting it out slowly, forcing his hands to relax while he walked.

“Hey, Jackass. Hungry?” A hand hit the edge of the tray and flipped it up.

Hunter jerked back. The chicken and salad missed him.

The soup didn’t. Hot liquid hit him square in the chest.

That spring snapped. Hunter whirled and threw a fist.

Gabriel Merrick hit him back.

Hunter stepped into the punch, using his opponent’s momentum to trap his arm and send a knee into his gut.

Then they were being dragged apart. Too soon. Hunter tasted blood on his lip—but he let himself be dragged.

That assistant football coach got between them, and he was talking, though Hunter wasn’t really listening. Something about fighting and the guidance office and . . . Hunter didn’t give a crap.

His eyes were on Kate, standing there among the gathered crowd, next to Nick Merrick, Gabriel’s twin.

Nick was talking, his tone full of an almost resigned exasperation. “So now you’ve met my other brother, Gabriel . . .”

Hunter wasn’t listening to him, either.

He was staring at Kate. Or more precisely, her hand.

And the way it was resting on Nick Merrick’s arm.

Hunter slouched in the chair in the guidance office and stared at the corner of Vickers’s desk. His shirt was wet and tacky from the soup, and somehow it had turned ice cold on the walk down here. He didn’t want to give Gabriel the satisfaction of hearing him complain about it.

Kate and Nick. How had that happened? Wasn’t Nick dating Becca’s friend, Quinn?

The air felt tight and scratchy against his skin, like a wool sweater that didn’t fit right.

Ms. Vickers was tapping her pen against her desk blotter. “Twice in one day, Hunter.”

He wanted to ask if she could just give him detention or whatever so he could get the hell out of this room.

But he bit back the words. Becca’s father’s parting comment kept ricocheting around his brain, adding to the headache.
You made your bed, kid. Now you lie in it.

It sounded so much like something his father would have said.

Ms. Vickers shifted in her chair. The fluorescent light in the ceiling was buzzing with a tiny flicker. “And Gabriel Merrick. I’d hoped your recent brush with the law would keep you out of my office for a while.”

“I’m happy to leave.”

She didn’t crack a smile. “You know we don’t take physical altercations lightly here. Who wants to tell me what happened?”

Hunter didn’t lift his eyes from the corner of her desk, waiting for Gabriel to sell him out.

But Gabriel didn’t say anything, either.

Ms. Vickers sighed. “All right, Hunter, what happened with Calla Dean? Coach Taylor says you had a run-in in the lunch line.”

Hunter felt his hands form fists. “I didn’t do anything.”

“She says—”

“She’s lying.
I didn’t touch her
.”

Ms. Vickers pursed her lips. “I asked you to stay away from her entirely. If I don’t think you can do that, you’re going to force me to suspend you.”

This was ridiculous. “I’m trying!”

“You didn’t make it through lunch. I’m not sure that qualifies as trying very hard.”

Hunter almost came out of his chair. His hands were ready to snap the plastic armrests clean off. “I didn’t—”

“Hey.” Gabriel’s voice was sharp.

Hunter rounded on him, ready to finish what he’d started in the cafeteria. “What?”

Gabriel didn’t flinch from his look. “Dial it back a notch.” He glanced up.

And then Hunter realized that the overhead light was buzzing more frantically, making loud clicks within the tube. The air in the room had to have dropped ten degrees.

He’d always been able to sense the elements, and
control
was a newer talent, but he’d never affected anything to this extent.

Hunter closed his eyes and took a slow breath. In through his nose, out through his mouth. Then another. His hands unclenched, and he dropped back into the chair.

“Very zen,” said Gabriel. “Should I light a candle?”

Hunter’s eyes snapped open. “Fuck you.”

“Gentlemen,”
said Vickers.

Damn. Everyone was managing to burrow under his skin today.

“I’m sorry,” Hunter bit out. “I’ll stay away from Calla.”

“Three strikes and you’re out, Hunter.” She shivered and pulled a cardigan off the back of her chair, then forced her arms into the sleeves. “If we have this conversation again, you’ll be looking at a three-day suspension. Do you understand?”

“Yes.”

Her eyes shifted to Gabriel. “The same goes for you, Mr. Merrick.”

“Roger.” He mock-saluted her.

“Can the two of you make it to next period without fighting? Or should someone stay with me?”

Hunter shot out of his chair. “I’m good.”

Gabriel followed him into the hall. Hunter ignored him, though he wanted to slam him into the bank of lockers. The bell hadn’t rung yet, and the halls were still empty.

“Nice shirt,” said Gabriel.

“Go away.”

“What, you’re not still tracking me so you can report back to your keeper?”

Hunter ignored him and kept walking.

Gabriel kept after him. “Don’t like being called a traitor?”

“I’m not a traitor.”

“Did you turn on your dad, too? Is that what you feel so guilty ab—”

Hunter spun. Gabriel caught his wrist before he could throw a punch.

“Don’t be an idiot,” he snapped. “Do you
want
to get suspended?”

Hunter jerked free. “I want you to leave me alone.”

“Oh, it’s okay for you to follow
me
around—”

“I wasn’t following you around!” God, Hunter would pay good money for a handful of ibuprofen. “And you know what? Why don’t you cut the martyr act?”

Gabriel looked incredulous. “Me. The martyr act.”

“Yeah. You.” Hunter glared at him. “Like I screwed
you
over. You didn’t even give me a chance to explain—”

“All right.” Gabriel stopped walking. “Explain.”

Hunter took a breath—and had nothing to say.

“Yeah, whatever.” Gabriel moved away.

“Can you blame him?” called Hunter.

Gabriel hesitated, but didn’t turn. “Blame who?”

“Bill. Becca’s dad. Can you blame him for thinking you’d cause trouble? I didn’t drag you to that first fire.”

Gabriel laughed low, under his breath, but not like it was really funny. He turned and walked back to Hunter. “No, jackass. I blame you. Where’d you learn how to be a friend, anyway?”

Hunter stared at him. “What does that mean?”

“It means you need to pick a fucking side.”

Then the bell rang and people flooded the hallway, separating them until Hunter lost Gabriel in the sea of students.

A
t the end of the school day, Kate burst into the afternoon sunlight with the other students.

Then she got a glimpse of the roadway in front of the school and sighed.

Silver was waiting for her, leaning up against his truck, one hand hooked into a pocket. The sun caught the lighter strands in his hair and turned them gold, and the black T-shirt he wore didn’t leave a whole lot to the imagination.

She wasn’t the only one appreciating it, if the number of giggling girls passing close to the truck were any indication. But Silver was only looking at Kate.

She sighed and pulled her sunglasses from her bag, slipping them onto her face along with a bored expression, before looking both ways to cross the street.

For a moment, she wished she’d asked Nick Merrick for a ride home, just to get under Silver’s skin, but at lunch she’d met Quinn.

“Nick’s
girlfriend
,” the other girl had emphasized, her voice full of steel daggers.

Kate had picked up one of Nick’s fries—he’d offered—and smiled back sweetly. “Sounds like paradise.”

Then Nick had smiled that wicked way and said, “See? I knew you’d have no trouble making friends.”

Kate crossed the street with a bored expression on her face. “Haven’t you ever seen
Sixteen Candles
?”

That threw him. Silver tilted his head to the side. “I’m sorry?”

“It’s a classic. All you need is the red sports car. Come on,
Jake
, I’m hungry.”

But as she moved to walk past him, he caught her around the waist and drew her into his body. She gasped, and he caught her breath, pressing his lips against hers. Despite the shock, he was one
hell
of a good kisser. She made a small sound, her body softening against his automatically, enjoying the feel of his hands sliding under her leather jacket to warm the skin at her waist.

Her power sparked with his, pulling heat from the sunlight and kicking the air into little whirlwinds around them.

Silver pulled back, lifting a hand to push her sunglasses up onto her forehead.

She stared up at him, feeling a bit dazed, though she didn’t want him to know that. “Missed me, did you?” she said, mocking his accent.

“Not at all.” He kissed the end of her nose. “Just setting a story so we have a reason to be seen together. Get in the car.”

Then he smacked her on the ass and stepped back.

Kate’s hand formed a fist, but before she could get past her shock and
move
, Silver glanced over. “Hit me and I’ll hit you back.”

He was smiling, but the glint of danger in his eyes said he wasn’t kidding. She couldn’t let him see that he’d gotten to her. She pulled her sunglasses back into place and drew a slim tube of lip gloss from her bag, deliberately moving slowly though her fingers were shaky with adrenaline. “Is that a promise or a threat?”

“Both. Did you mention you were hungry?”

Silver took her to the Pizza Hut near the school, a place with sticky tables, a sticky floor, and sticky toddlers screaming over the ancient jukebox in the corner.

It probably had sticky buttons. She didn’t want to find out.

Kate raised her eyebrows at him when the waitress brought thick plastic cups of soda. “Really. I say I’m hungry and this is where you take me.”

He ignored her. “What did you learn today?”

She took a sip of her soda and cast a glance around the room. Harried mothers, tired servers, bored busboys. Silver looked completely out of place in the red vinyl booth. But then, she probably did, too.

She shrugged and swirled the straw in her glass. “They’re boys. One of them got in a fight right in front of me and was stopped by a teacher.” She rolled her eyes. “We could probably go back and take them out right now.”

“If we take out one, we have to take out all. We can’t risk collateral damage.”

“Say ‘collateral damage’ again. That sounded sexy.”

He didn’t smile. “Are you not taking this seriously, Kathryn?”

His voice was low and dangerous, but she was still smarting from his treatment in the parking lot. It made her long for the easy banter of the text messages she’d exchanged with that boy with the piercings and tattoos.
Hunter.
How quickly he’d defended her this morning, standing up to those idiots in the school office.

She wondered what kind of kisser
he
was.

Then she squashed the thought. She had a purpose here. She couldn’t let Silver catch her being distracted.

And that boy, Hunter, had shoved a girl in the cafeteria. He’d picked a fight with Gabriel Merrick. He’d seemed so collected, so controlled.

Then she’d seen it all go to hell in less than a minute.

She pushed Hunter and his text messages out of her mind. “I don’t understand all this caution. They’re not organized. There are only four of them.”

“Every Guide who has come to destroy them has disappeared. That begs caution. Don’t let your age make you impetuous.”

“My age.” She glared at him. “You’re not that much older than me. How did
you
get assigned to this?”

“I’m twenty-one. And I followed orders.”

“You followed orders.”

He didn’t say anything. Just looked at her.

She narrowed her eyes. “Well, that’s not too impressive.”

“Perhaps not.” He leaned in. “But I do it well.”

His voice was full of the promise of danger, lending more weight to the words than they’d carry on their own. She quickly took a sip of soda and glanced away.

Time to change the topic.

“I sat with Nick and Chris at lunch today. They were nice.”

“Nice?”

It was the wrong thing to say. She could hear the judgment in his voice. What the hell had made her say
that
?

They were
nice
? The people they were here to
kill
?

Was she insane?

She quickly added, “They bought my story. I should be able to work an invite back to their house by the weekend.”

She’d thought Silver would be pleased, but his expression darkened. “I don’t like you going there alone.”

“Jealous?”

“It’s a risk.” A little part of her wondered at the thought of him worrying about her—but then he crushed it. “Surrounded by all of them, you may give yourself away. And if they kill off my decoy, I’ll have to start from square one.”

“Stop it. You’re getting me all hot and bothered.”

“You may be talented, but you aren’t strong enough to take all of them by yourself, Kathryn.”

Just like before, it was an insult and a compliment all rolled into one. She took another sip of her soda. “I can take care of myself.”

Silver regarded her silently for a moment. “Find another way to spend time around them. We’ll figure out a way I can monitor the situation.”

He was making her feel like she was about twelve years old. “What did
you
learn today?”

“I sat outside the school and read police reports on the recent arson cases.”

“You sat in the truck
all day
? Why?”

“I didn’t just sit in the truck.” He hadn’t touched his soda, but now he ran a finger around the rim of the glass. “And I wasn’t sure whether you’d need help.”

“They have laws against stalking high school students.”

“No one saw me.” He paused. “They arrested a boy for these arson attacks, and the fires have stopped. But from what I can see, this Ryan Stacey has no connection to Elementals. The police are chalking up the pentagram patterns at the arson locations to simple cult obsession.”

Kate snorted and took another sip of her soda. “Idiots.”

“According to the police reports, Gabriel Merrick was arrested and released. He was never charged with the crimes. In one article, it’s claimed that he and another boy—” Silver checked his phone. “—a Hunter Garrity, rescued students from the fire in the school library—”

Kate choked on her soda.

Silver raised his eyebrows. “Problems?”

“I met him. Today. Hunter Garrity. He’s the one who fought with Gabriel Merrick in the cafeteria.”

“The plot thickens.”

Kate wiped at her mouth with the napkin. “It does? Why?”

“One of the first Guides sent to take care of our friends the Merricks was named John Garrity. He never made it. While I believe in coincidence, that strikes a bit too close to home, does it not?”

Kate froze. She remembered the way the air went still around Hunter in the school office.

“Can you get close to him?” said Silver.

She nodded, thinking of those text messages.

“Find out what really happened to his father.”

“What else?”

“Find out whether he had something to do with it. It concerns me,” said Silver, leaning in, “that there may be more Elementals at play here than we realize.”

“More than you can handle?” said Kate.

“Never.” He laughed, low, under his breath. “I’m worried, my dear, that they’re more than
you
can handle.”

“I can do this,” she said, losing any trace of humor. “I can.”

“Good,” he said. “Then prove it.”

Hunter found his mother and his grandparents sitting in silence when he walked in.

Then he stopped short.

His gun was on the kitchen table between them. His two knives were laid out beside it. And the spare magazine, plus the box of bullets.

They’d searched his room.

Casper nosed at his hands, begging to be petted, but for the first time, Hunter couldn’t even acknowledge his dog. His emotions were wildly vacillating between fury and fear, and they couldn’t decide where to settle. His heart felt like it was beating a path out of his chest.

His mother looked like she’d been crying—but that seemed to be a daily occurrence, so Hunter didn’t read too much into it. His grandmother looked disappointed, as usual.

And his grandfather looked like he wanted to load the gun and use it.

Hunter was tempted to go for it first.

He cleared his throat, and his voice didn’t want to work. “What’s going on?”

His mother opened her mouth, but his grandmother put a hand over hers and squeezed—hard, it looked like.

His grandfather’s eyes were like steel, solid and unwavering. “You tell us,” he said.

Hunter bristled. “No, you tell
me
. You searched my room?”

“A good thing, too, considering what we found.”

Hunter glanced at his mother. She wasn’t looking at him now. “Those are Dad’s,” he said, his voice low. “You knew I had them.”

She didn’t answer. His grandfather did: “I don’t care whose they were. Look at me.”

Hunter dragged his eyes back to his grandfather.

The man gestured to the table. “You think it’s appropriate for a fifteen-year-old boy to have access to these kinds of weapons?”

“I’m sixteen.”

“Don’t get smart with me, kid.”

Hunter gritted his teeth. “I’m not getting smart. I
drove
here, for god’s sake—”

“Cut the attitude.” His grandfather was suddenly on his feet. “You’re
this close
to being on the street.”

Hunter was so sick of the empty threats. Especially today. He moved to brush past him, to go to his room, to burrow under the covers until he had to wake up and start another day.

His grandfather grabbed his arm. “Don’t you walk out of here. You’ve got friends breaking in here at all hours of the night, you’re in trouble at school for roughing up your girlfriend, and now we find weapons in your bedroom.”

So Vickers had called the house. Great.

Hunter kept his voice even. “Let me go.”

“You’re not walking out of here until you apologize to your mother.”

Hunter looked at his mom again, wondering how she’d turned into this unraveled mess of a woman who had to be held together by her parents.

He didn’t even know what he was supposed to be apologizing for, but she was looking at him for the first time in days, and the disappointment there was more painful than anything his grandfather could say.

“I’m sorry,” he said.

Her eyes filled and she swiped at them quickly.

Hunter swallowed—but then his grandfather shook him. “You’re selfish, putting her through this stress when she’s already going through a difficult time.”

Hunter felt guilty and resentful all at once. He couldn’t look at his mother anymore, but he didn’t want to look at his grandfather, either. “Just let me go.”

“You’re not staying under this roof until you tell us what you’re going to change.”

“Fine. I’ll sleep in the car.”

His grandfather let him go with enough of a shove to make Hunter fall back a step. “Good,” he said. “You’re already packed.”

Whoa.

Wait.

“What are you talking about?”

His grandfather pointed. “Come back with a new attitude.”

Hunter looked. Two duffel bags—
his
duffel bags—were by the baker’s rack, stuffed full of what looked like clothes.

He couldn’t breathe. It felt like he’d swallowed hot tar.

He glanced at his mother. She wouldn’t look at him now.

“You’re throwing me out?” His voice almost cracked and he didn’t care.

“You’re not going to break the law and live here,” said his grandfather.

“I’m not breaking the law!”

“
Something
is going on with you, boy, and I’m sick of it. Do you understand me? I don’t know how your father raised you—”

“Don’t.” Hunter had to take a deep breath, and it shook. “Don’t you talk about my father.”

“What do you think he’d say about you hitting women?”