Angelfire
Page 39

My face scrunched again. "I'm not going out with a guy to see if I end up liking him. That seems wrong. I don't want to lead him on."
"Yeah, when you put it like that . . ." She trailed off. I eyed her with suspicion. "Why are you his champion al of a sudden? Do you like him?"
"Oh God, no. Did he ask you out?"
"Sort of. I didn't get a chance to answer him."
She perked up. "What if he asks you again?"
My heart sank. "I don't know. I'l have to tel him no. It's not like I can do anything else."
"True."
"It's just, with Wil , I've only known him for a few days, but I feel like I've known him forever. I feel safe around him. It's nice."
She grinned. "Oh, honey, we al want a white knight. It's programmed into us girls."
My smile was genuine this time. "He is kind of like a white knight."
"Yeah, a stone-cold fox, too. Do you think he wants to go out with you?"
"I don't know. We're just sort of hanging out right now, so no 'going' of any kind. I don't think he likes me that way."
Kate rol ed her eyes. "Okay, hanging out to me means something entirely different from what I know you're used to. Please don't tel me you've hooked up with him already."
"No, no!" I said quickly. "It's not like that."
"Have you kissed him at least?"
"No."
"Do you want to?"
"I don't know." I blushed again, thinking about it.
"El ie, you know within five seconds of meeting a boy if you want to kiss him or not. Do you, or don't you?"
Did I? It didn't repulse me, but I had no idea how Wil even felt about me. We'd had something of a moment only minutes before, but as soon as he opened up to me, he shut me right back out. He could be real y charming and then get so moody. He was my Guardian. Saving my ass was probably just like a job to him. He had protected me for hundreds of years, and what I would have given just to remember any of that . . . I was beginning to doubt that the entirety of my memory would ever come back to me. It helped to think about Wil , but it also drove me crazy. He drove me crazy. I just wanted to understand him and I wanted to know his secrets. W h a t was Wil ? What was I? My reincarnation, his immortality, our superhuman abilities, the reapers . . . And the Enshi--what could that be? Could Wil be one of the angels he had told me about?
"El ?" Kate cocked an eyebrow at me.
I sighed. "I'm about to fal asleep."
Kate smiled weakly. "Okay."
We both climbed into my bed and found sleep quickly. 14
THE BROKEN WINDOWS IN MY LIVING ROOM LEFT gaping holes out onto the patio, and they were covered with a rather unsightly tarp and tape until the window company could deliver and instal the replacement glass. I'd be relieved when I didn't have to look at it again.
At school--the only time in the next three weeks of my grounding when I was al owed out of the house--Kate tried not to bring the window incident up, and Landon stil seemed clueless about what exactly had happened to him. I hoped and prayed he would never remember that I was the one who had thrown him to the ground, even if it was to save his life. If he did remember, he kept his mouth shut, which was probably for the better. I couldn't explain anything to him. I had hurt him, and I couldn't even apologize for it. It made me sick to my stomach.
Being grounded, however, didn't stop me from sneaking out the back door of my house at night so that Wil and I could patrol for reapers. We either trained or hunted every night, and I was getting better. I learned to strike for the head or the heart to bring the reapers down quickly and avoid getting injured as much as possible. Wil worked with me patiently and tirelessly, and my memory was returning little by little. It was a constant comfort to know he was always there somewhere, completely in tune with me. I knew he had the strength to protect me, even if I didn't know I had the strength to protect myself.
The dark new world I suddenly found myself fal ing into was becoming the norm. Every night or two there was another reaper in my path. I was getting better, more fluid, more precise in fighting them. Techniques that had once been second nature to me in past lives were returning. It wasn't quite like riding a bike, but I was getting there. I was grateful to be able to give Wil a break from his Guardian duties while I was in school. Reapers didn't normal y come out during the day, so Wil was able to spend the time at Nathaniel's house, where he showered, ate, and did Wil things. If I were attacked, as unlikely as that would be while I was in class, he'd know instantly and come to my side. He needed some time to himself, and I needed to have a normal day. Getting out of the world of reapers for just a few hours during the day helped me stay sane. Perhaps he needed that to stay sane also.
However, the deeper I got into that world, the further away my old world of friends, family, and school drifted. The police had a suspect in custody for the murder of Mr. Meyer. Even though I knew the man was innocent of that crime, he was wanted for questioning for two other violent murders in the Detroit area, with evidence stacked heavily against him. I tried to believe that some good would come from Mr. Meyer's brutal death. It didn't, however, make me feel any better, since I knew that every one of the reapers' victims was in Hel , including Mr. Meyer.
When I got my lit paper back, I couldn't believe I'd done so poorly. I couldn't figure out how to balance my focus between school and my duties as the Preliator. My teacher, Mr. Levine, asked to see me after school so we could discuss the paper. I dreaded the meeting, but it was better than failing the class altogether. If I was real y lucky, he'd let me redo it. Unfortunately, I wasn't lucky very often. After the final bel rang that day, I stopped by Mr. Levine's classroom to talk to him about my paper. As I'd suspected, he wouldn't al ow me to rewrite it, but he went over some of it with me, and I left with a better sense of what I was supposed to be learning. I wasn't going to be able to get any extra credit either, but Mr. Levine was very wil ing to help me get a passing grade.