Angelfire
Page 69

I walked to the bathroom near the little kitchen to brush my teeth. As soon as I opened the door, I froze in my tracks. Kate and Landon leaped apart from each other and Kate yanked a towel off the rack to cover her bra. Landon bumped into the sink and knocked over a few things. Both their faces were twisted in shock. I looked from Kate to Landon to Kate's shirt lying on the floor.
"Oh, man," I said in a smal voice. I promptly spun on my heels and headed back toward my room, letting the bathroom door shut behind me. I didn't need to brush my teeth that badly.
Looked like Landon was over me.
"El ie, wait!" Kate cal ed out in a hushed voice. I stopped and turned back to her as she tugged her shirt over her head and raced down the hal toward me. Her expression was mortified. "Oh God, El ie, I am so sorry. It just happened! Do you hate me? I swear we didn't do anything. We just made out."
"That's fine," I said honestly. "It's cool. I don't care. I'm not into Landon, remember?"
She slumped. "I know, but I didn't want it to get weird. I'm kind of drunk and I'm in a real y good mood and he was just there and he's cuter than Chris. I don't know what I'm thinking."
Landon left the bathroom, said nothing, and disappeared into the bedroom he'd chosen, shutting the door behind him.
"Kate, it's cool," I assured her. "He's al yours."
"You sure?" She looked worried but happy, if that was even possible. Maybe she was faking the worried face.
"Definitely," I said with a firm nod. "'Night." I turned briskly, without learning if she went into that room with Landon or back to her own bedroom. I didn't want to know. I closed the door and sat on the bed. Wel , that was a shocker. Maybe if Landon got preoccupied with Kate, he'd get over me for good. Then again, if they started going out, I could never hang out with them. I'd be like a third wheel. I certainly didn't want to watch them make out al the time. Oh God, please just let this be a fling.
A soft knock came at the door. "Come in," I said. Wil entered. "I'm going to go out and keep watch."
"Okay," I said. "Do you real y think someone might attack the house?"
"It's always a possibility," he noted. "Good night." He smiled and turned to leave.
"Wait--Wil ?"
He turned back. "Yeah."
"Stay with me?" I asked. "Please? Just until I fal asleep."
"As you wish," he said. He stood motionlessly.
I climbed into the bed. The quilts were cool at first, but they warmed up quickly. Wil walked over and sat down on the floor with his back against the bed. I inched closer to him so that I could lay my head down by his face. He stil smel ed wonderful despite having been at the party al night. I assumed I hadn't fared as wel .
He let out a long, low breath and rested his head against the edge of the bed.
"Thank you," I whispered. "For staying."
"I wil do anything you ask of me," he said.
I giggled. "Better not say that. I might ask you to do some pretty wild stuff."
"It's not like you haven't in the past."
I was intrigued enough to almost forget the thought of Landon and Kate hooking up on the other side of the wal . Almost. I had to think of something else before I lost my mind.
"Distract me."
"What?"
"I'm desperate. Distract me."
"How?"
"What's the craziest thing I've ever asked you to do?"
He thought a moment. "This may not be the craziest, but once we chased a reaper and he jumped off a bridge. You asked me to go in after him while you ran downriver."
I laughed. "No way. I asked you to jump off a bridge?"
"We were pretty desperate for that one," he said.
"Wil you tel me the story?"
"Because you asked, I wil . It was in the eighteen eighties, Texas. A reaper had been terrorizing a smal town. He had a taste for children."
My stomach churned. "That's awful."
He nodded. "The locals thought it was just coyotes dragging the kids off in the night, or the nearby Kiowa tribe stealing them for slaves or some other nonsense, but we knew better when we picked up the lead. The first night we arrived in town, you decided to use yourself as bait. I tried to talk you out of it, but you were determined to catch him before he hurt any more children. You dressed in a little girl's dress and waited at the edge of the town, pretending to play with a dol . It was one of the darkest nights I can remember. It was the dark of the moon and the town didn't have electricity yet, so we only had a handful of stars to see our way with."
As he spoke, I found myself picturing the scene in my mind, as if I were right there. Was I remembering? I fought harder to remember as he told me the story, and flashes of images streaked across my mind. I knew they had to be real.
"The reaper didn't take long to show himself and attack you. He got real y close, and I remember being horribly scared for you, but you acted like he wasn't even there. I'd never seen you act so cool before. By the time he realized you were the Preliator, I was running from my hiding spot, swinging my sword. I didn't land a solid blow before he took off into the darkness. We gave chase, fol owing him through the forest at the end of a field. He was a lupine reaper, so he was fast and more agile than we were. When he got to the river beyond the trees, he ran out onto the bridge and jumped. He let the river take him. I guess he thought he could lose us in the water. You yel ed for me to jump in too, and you ran alongside the river in case he climbed out. I swam as fast as I could, and when I final y caught up to him, he fought back hard. He tore me open, but he was fighting so hard, he stopped paying attention to you, and that's when you jumped into the river. We got him that night."