Angelfire
Page 62

"What about your shoulder?"
"I'm fine."
"You were impaled."
"Geir was worse off than I was when we got the hel out of there, and he'l be back to his old self in minutes."
"But you're not Geir."
"But you're not Geir."
He glanced at me. His eyes had returned to their normal soft green. "Our powers are not al that different."
"Did you see what he did with his hands?" I asked, holding my own up. "He practical y transformed right before our eyes."
"That isn't exactly uncommon among vir," he said.
"Shape-shifting is a trait many of us share."
"Can you change your hands into claws like that, too?"
"No," he said.
"What can you do, then?"
"I'm nothing like him."
"Oh." I wondered about his strange eyes. The colors of his and Geir's eyes seemed to intensify as they got stronger and angrier. They didn't exactly change color, but the hues grew brighter, almost glowing. Maybe that was Wil 's ability. At least he didn't transform into a monster.
I nodded and stared ahead. "Are we going back to the library?"
"Of course not," he said, his voice void of worry.
"Bastian's vir wil expect us to take the sarcophagus to Nathaniel, since he is the only one I know who might be able to read the inscriptions. They'l be trying to locate him next. They'l learn he's working at the library very soon."
"Nathaniel's not there right now, is he?" I asked, my voice quaking. "What if they find him? He'l be kil ed!"
"He's fine," Wil said. "Don't worry. He's at the warehouse."
"Our warehouse?"
"Yeah. Bastian can't know about that location yet. We'l keep the Enshi there, too, for now."
"What if Geir fol ows us?" I had a terrible vision of him blasting through the wal and kil ing us al .
"He'l try," he said without fear. "But we're too far ahead. The trail wil be cold by the time he gets free. The vir may be stronger than other reapers, but our tracking abilities aren't as good. We don't have the nose that a lupine has, for instance."
His words were a smal comfort, but I couldn't help thinking about what had happened to me when I'd fought Geir one-on-one. I'd slipped into a state in which I didn't know anything but the fight and nothing else mattered to me. The same thing had threatened to happen during our last fight against Ragnuk. I'd been horribly angry and felt wrong. What had happened frightened me more than Geir did, because he was something that could be defeated. The darkness I felt overtaking me wasn't something I could fight. What if I had lost control completely and hurt someone I cared about, like Wil ? Dark spidery things had appeared on my face on my birthday, after months of awful nightmares, and now this. I didn't know if I was becoming something as demonic as the reapers I battled--if I was becoming one of them.
"Wil ," I said, my voice smal , "what happened to me back there? Why did you stop me? Did you know something?"
"Your purpose is to fight," he said. "It's what you were designed for. Sometimes it gets a little intense and you don't think straight."
"Is that why you stopped me? Because I was going to lose control?"
"You could have. When you reach that level, you aren't able to fight with a clear head, and it makes a battle even more dangerous. We can fight Geir another day."
"Couldn't it be a good thing?" I offered. "I lost al my fear then. You said that makes me stronger."
"It does make you stronger, but you also lost yourself along with that fear. It's not safe for you to lose your head like that, no matter what advantage it gives you."
"You mean I can hurt someone I don't mean to."
"Yes."
"Have I hurt you?"
When he didn't answer, a heaviness settled on me and I didn't want to know any more. His silence said everything. I had lost control before and hurt him. That sent an unmatched ache through my heart. How could I have let something like that happen?
Wil 's hand lay on mine in a comforting gesture as if he sensed my unease. I looked up to meet his eyes. "Hey," he said with a smal smile. "It'l be okay."
We reached the warehouse and Wil pul ed into the overgrown al ey. Nathaniel was standing at the end, his arms crossed over his chest. He let out a low breath when we hopped out of the truck and he saw our torn, bloody clothes.
"I figured you'd run into some trouble," he said. "Who ambushed you?"
"Geir," Wil said as he pul ed open the back of the van.
"And a weaker vir, but El ie took care of him easily. The weaker one must have mentioned his new find to the wrong reaper. Word got back to Bastian, and he sent Geir to retrieve it."
"If only we had gotten there just five minutes sooner," I said, frowning. "We could have missed Geir completely."
"It's fine," Wil said. "We both made it out alive, and we have the Enshi. That was the original plan, wasn't it?"
I looked at him sadly. I'd already told him what was bothering me, so it was meaningless to repeat myself to him. I hated how badly he got hurt every time we ran into a reaper, and I hated anyone to shed any blood for me. It made knowing al my previous Guardians were dead al too real.