Sun Kissed (The Guardian Angel Series Book 2) (8 page)

Something didn’t feel right in my stomach;
If Eli had run to find me, it had to be serious. I gestured for him to sit down
next to me and he did.

“It’s the higher power.”

I gripped Eli’s arm. Please, no. I didn’t
want them to take him away again.

“Mr Aleksandrov received a phone call, the
higher power is coming to Sage. He’ll be here by nightfall and he wants to meet
with you.”

My stomach sank; it was a feeling I had become
terribly familiar with in the last year or so. I exhaled and fought back the
urge to break down into a panicking cry.

“Wh- what? Why?”

Eli’s face reflected the my horror.

“I don’t know, but I know it’s about us. I
thought I threw his suspicions off, but I mustn’t have. Ruby, I need you to
tell him everything I did to you when he asks. Don’t protect me; it’ll be worse
for you. You have to tell him I took advantage of you.”

“No, I won’t.”

“Don’t be stupid!” Eli snapped.

I flinched at his words, he exhaled and his
urgently calm façade returned.

“Please, Ruby; I need you to do this. If
you don’t, his minions will take whatever he wants by force. I’ve seen it, and believe
me, it’s something you don’t want.”

I thought long and hard about his words.
There was no way I was going to throw Eli in the deep end to save myself. It
wasn’t his fault we ended up like this, it was mine.

I nodded in agreement to make him happy,
but I wasn’t going to follow through with it. There was no way.

The Higher Power

Night was approaching quickly and Mila was
pacing our room nervously.

“What if it’s because he knows you’re
trying to help me and Gabriel?”

“I doubt it.”

She collapsed on the bed in defeat and looked
down at me. I was lying on my back on the floor. The fluffy purple rug was
ridiculously comfy, it made me feel safe. The fan pushed a warm breeze around
the room, cooling my burning skin.

“What if —”

“Mila, stop stressing yourself out, it’s
making me more nauseous. I’m sure it’s nothing, or at least it has nothing to
do with you. Relax.”

My tone was a little harsh, I suppose. I
didn’t mean to be frustrated with her, but I was trying to control my thoughts
and emotions. If the higher power started questioning me, the last thing I
needed was for my emotions to work against me.  

“I can’t relax. The higher power doesn’t
just leave his secret hiding place to visit a random school in the middle of
nowhere. Something is wrong.”

I closed my eyes as I felt my nerves
twisting around my stomach and making their way up my throat. My muscles tensed
as I tried to swallow my throat-burning anxiety.

“Ruby, look!” Mila whispered urgently.

I opened my eyes. All around me, tiny balls
of water from Mila’s glass of water floated above me. All the anger,
nervousness, and love I had felt the last few months were sucked out of me and
replaced with awe and pride. Finally, I had managed to conjure water balls.
They were small, but I still did it.

I sat up abruptly to get a closer look; my
thoughts were interrupted and the little balls of water fell onto me. My skin
and clothes quickly absorbed them. I felt a proud smile spread across my face.

“Let’s try again.” 

I stood up, grabbed Mila’s cup and ran to
the bathroom. The cold clear water gushed into the cup and I grew more and more
excited. It took my mind off the whole higher power thing.

When I entered the room, Mila had laid a
waterproof table cloth on the fluffy rug to protect it from getting too wet. I
glanced out the window. Only a portion of the sun was visible over the horizon.
I didn’t know what was going to happen to me later, but for now I was content.

I raised my hand above the cup and thought
about a calming, deep blue ocean and palm trees. A beach with no waves was a
perfect beach.

I opened my eyes slowly, and underneath my
hand floated a clear ball. I kept the calm, watery thoughts in my mind. I
wanted to stare at it for as long as I could. I was doing it. The water ball
collapsed with a splash over the cup, wetting our legs.

I repeated it again and again, each time
needing less and less concentration.

I swept my eyes from the cup to the window;
there was no light now, unless I counted the light from the foggy light posts
outside. Mila let out a small squeal as a knock thundered on the door.

I stood up, straightening my track suit and
tightening my ponytail.

“I’ll be back soon.”

“Ruby?” Mila mumbled.

I turned to face her and she leapt at me,
pulling me into a tight embrace. Jeez, anyone would think she thought she’d
never see me again.

I opened the door and met Eli’s face on the
other side. His full lips were pursed into a straight line and his beautiful
green eyes burnt into mine. He was wearing his guardian get-up, the big combat
boots, and the baggy black cargo pants that were tucked into his shoes. The
tight black t-shirt he was wearing was tucked into his pants, making it tight
around his upper body, leaving nothing to the imagination. I swooned over every
line of his muscle remembering last night, when he held it against me. I
dropped my eyes to the floor rapidly, trying to keep my composure. I needed to
act and believe it never happened. It was the only way to save our lives, if it
came to that point.

“Let’s go, Ruby,” said Mr Aleksandrov, who
was also standing in the hallway.

I stepped out into the corridor. The door
to my room creaked loudly as I closed it. I couldn’t help but imagine being
locked in a cell, big cast iron doors being slammed behind me as I rocked
myself helplessly in the corner. The thought must have stopped me in my tracks
because Eli and Mr Aleksandrov’s expressions reflected my worry.

“It will be okay,” Mr Aleksandrov assured
me. “You’re a student of Sage Sanctum, my school. I won’t let any harm come to
you.”

It meant a lot to hear Mr Aleksandrov say
that. I had thought he didn’t actually care.

“Thank you,” I mumbled.

Grass cracked and rustled under my feet. He
approached the border of the school. The ten foot stone wall surrounding the campus
had a small cast iron gate in the middle of it. Mr Aleksandrov pulled a long
stick from his robe, it was a wand. Mr Aleksandrov said he was a wizard, I
thought it meant he could do spells and charms. I had no idea he could wield a
wand. He whispered and flicked the wand slightly at the gate’s lock. The gate
creaked open. Despite my nerves, I smiled, amazed by the world I was involved
in. It was a dangerous and overwhelming world, but it was filled with so much
opportunity for adventure and beauty.

“Where are we going?” I asked when the
three of us were on the other side of the gate.

The trees were cloaked in shadows and they
creaked slightly above us. I wrapped my arms around myself, hoping it would
tone down the scariness of the bushes. It did help a little.

The trees’ thick bases and low hanging
branches made me feel claustrophobic. All of these were scary, but the one
thing that made it absolutely frightening was the silence. The sounds of any
other living creatures were absent.

“In the middle is a clearing, he has set up
camp there,” Mr Aleksandrov replied, pulling me from focusing on my fears of
the bush.

“But that’s outside of the protection
charm.”

“He didn’t want to share accommodation with
students or our faculty members. The higher power is a very strong man, capable
of fighting off a bunch of vampires without breaking a sweat,” Mr Aleksandrov
explained.

“Have you ever met him?”

“Yes. Once, and it’s not something I want
to repeat.”

“He usually sends his minions to do things
for him. You might not even see him. I didn’t,” Eli added.

I felt a little better, it would be less
intimidating if I was lying to a bunch of lowly servants than to the ruler of
our kind himself.

We pushed through the bush unflinchingly as
spider webs broke over our skin. It bothered me slightly, but in the scheme of
things, being bitten by a spider and passing out or dying seems a lot less
stressful then having my brain pried through or put under a spell which exposes
all my deepest secrets. 

When we reached the clearing, I couldn’t
believe it. Right in the middle was a giant tent; it was at least two stories
high and the same length wide. If I had a portable tent of this scale, I would
have stayed in it, too, instead of being cramped up in a high school filled
with smelly boys and high-pitched girls.

“This is Aalin. She’s here.”

I jumped and turned around; I felt Eli’s
hand rest on my shoulder, easing my racing heart. Before us stood three very
tall men with sniper rifles and night vision goggles. They wore a hard-out
stealth army outfit. Every inch of their body was covered, not one section of
skin was exposed to the cool night air.

“Send her in.” A woman’s voice came through
the walkie talkie that was strapped to Aalin’s chest.

The stealth guys grabbed me, forcing me to
stand between them.

“You aren’t coming?” I asked both Mr
Aleksandrov and Eli.

“Ruby, we —”

“The higher power has requested only you,
Ruby Moore,” the anonymous middle guy said.

They pushed past Eli and Mr Aleksandrov,
pulling me closer and closer to the tent. I couldn’t help but look back at them
as they stood watching, Eli’s eyes burning fiercely into mine. I think he had a
plan if things went south for me. At least, I hope he does.

The inside of the tent wasn’t a tent at
all. I was in a brightly lit, undistinguished room. It was like a normal open
living house. The floor was hard and a deep crimson color. It was warmer in
here, for which I was grateful. The walls were off-white and sturdy; there were
no windows or any gap for air or light to flow through, but regardless of its set
up, it still had that ‘tent’ smell. I stood in the main room; it wasn’t much
different than an actual living room and my eyes met the curious gazes of several
people. The low discussions that filled the room when I entered were gone. My
stomach dropped down into my intestines, sending my heart up into my throat. I
wasn’t surrounded by gods, goddesses, or guardian angels. I was surrounded by
vampires.

My stomach turned to ice and a cold sweat
began to form on my forehead. I tried hard to swallow the panic rising rapidly in
my throat. Vampires can smell fear; they know when your heartbeat increases, I
know because I’ve experienced it. It explained why they were staring at me,
amused and hungry. A woman sitting to the left of me rose from her chair and approached
the guard that escorted me in.

“Thank you, Aalin,” she whispered
seductively, running a long, pointy index finger along his chin.

He nodded and exited the tent, leaving me
alone with the vampires. The woman slowly walked towards me, her long pale legs
stretching out from underneath her dress. I bit the inside of my lip in hopes of
calming my nerves.

What was going on? Had vampires taken over?
I shuddered at the thought of them killing the higher power. Mr Aleksandrov
said he was strong enough to take on loads of vampires, maybe it was merely
talk.

“Aren’t you just delectable?” she growled,
licking her lips. Her fangs clicked out. I shut my eyes as images of myself as
a vampire filled my brain. I ran my tongue along my teeth to reassure myself
they were, in fact, gone. She ran her long nailed finger against the skin on
the back of my neck and I clenched my jaw as an ice cold trail followed her
touch.

“Don’t touch me,” I snapped. I couldn’t
help it, the words leapt out of my mouth before I had the chance to fight them.
There was a ghost of a smile on her lips and her eyes were alight with humor,
as if she was enjoying some kind of private joke.

“But we’re sisters.” A slight Russian
accent laced her words.

My heartbeat accelerated, it drew her eyes
to my chest and she smirked.

“Stop teasing the girl, Ludiia,” a man
snarled as he entered from a side flap in the wall.

Ludiia strolled back to her seat, but my
heart rate didn’t ease off. The man was very old, older than Ivan Aleksandrov, but
his hair was cut just above his ears and no beard occupied his face. The only
connection between the strange vampire and Aleksandrov was that the vampire
wore a long, pitch black robe that rustled as it dragged along the floor.

“Why’d you bringing her here, Lucian?
Exposing yourself puts everything you’ve worked for at risk.”

I should have guessed the strange man would
have a strange name. Lucian shot the random vampire a threatening glare and the
vampire slunk back into his seat.

“So, you are Ruby Moore?” His attention
returned to me.