Page 15

Kerry

On Sunday, Hank wanted to go over what he called life skills. We started with telling time on a clock, which I mastered pretty quick. I didn’t have a problem with numbers.

At lunch, he took me into the kitchen and showed me how things were organized, then explained how the stove worked and had me boil macaroni noodles and drain them. I squeezed on the cheese packet and stirred it while he watched, then took a giant bite.

“It’s good!” I raised my eyebrows, surprised.

“So now you can at least make mac-n-cheese if you want.” He smiled. “Since I moved back to my own place, you seemed to be living on sandwiches. Then I started thinking maybe you needed help learning how to use the kitchen. Sorry it took so long to dawn on me.”

“Don’t worry about it.” I spoke around another big spoonful. “Anything to eat is good.”

We spent the afternoon watching football. I think I mighta enjoyed playing, especially tackling. I mean, it was like fighting in a way and I loved to fight. But then I’d risk being tackled, too, which was definitely not a good idea. Right now, if someone tried to take me down, I’d straight up murder them.

And I didn’t think the refs had a penalty flag for that.

Later, we planned out what other easy meals I could make myself and ended the day with a quick lesson on microwaving, then we ate a bag of popcorn as Hank wrote out a grocery list for the next week.

All in all, it was a great weekend. One of the best in a long time.

Which was good, because the next week brought a new kind of trial. Monday morning, I overheard Gemma telling Gigi that Reilly Argaud was bothering her in math class.

The animal in me woke up, eager to hunt, and I went to class with her the rest of the week.

I hoped she appreciated the sacrifice I was making. The class was right before lunch, the teacher’s personality could put anyone to sleep, and there was no way I’d ever be able to understand the difficult problems, meaning I had little reason to pay attention.

When I first walked in the classroom on Tuesday, I locked eyes with Argaud, but he looked away almost instantly.

How disappointing.

Still, I used the time to study my prey, and I learned two things. One, Blondie had a lot of scarring on his arms and hid it under long sleeves. Two, he smelled of something very familiar.

I doubted anyone with lesser power could have picked it up, but the scent went right up my nose, and my brain filed it away for future reference.

So he’s playing around with something Diabolical. Now that is interesting.

Everything was tame until Friday. I just started to drift off when I heard Gemma make a little noise, and I cracked one eye open and looked at her. Her cheeks were pink, but I was getting used to her blushing over every little thing and didn’t think anything of it.

She made the sound again, and I woke up for real this time, looked over, and saw a paper football laying on her desk. She used the eraser of her pencil to push it off the desk, and I saw three were already on the floor by her shoe.

I glanced over my shoulder at Argaud, who sat two rows back. When he flipped me off and grinned, I took the invitation and stood up.

And Gemma grabbed my wrist.

“Don’t. It’s nothing, really. Please try to stay calm. I don’t want you to get into trouble because of me.”

But Argaud was standing now, too, and I balanced on the balls of my feet, ready to go.

Then Mr. Hall got between us, spread his arms, and pushed out with his power. He talked to us, but not too many words got past the buzzing in my ears. My blood sung with the need to hurt someone and hey, look at that! A guy I hated happened to be standing right there.

But I held back for one reason: Gemma still held onto me. If I leaked a single spark of power, it would hurt her. Not to mention I was so adrenaline-jacked, if I pulled away now, I’d probably break her fingers.

“What are you going to do, demon taint?” Argaud taunted.

I know what I wanted to do, but I didn’t reply. Instead, I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth, trying to stay calm like she’d asked.

“Yeah, that’s what I thought.” Argaud wasn’t the kind to stop, though. “I can’t understand why everyone’s afraid of you. You reek of taint, so I get why you disgust people, but you’re about as frightening as she is.”

He jerked his head toward Gemma.

“Don’t look at her,” I warned him. “Don’t talk to her or about her. She doesn’t exist in your world.”

“You don’t control me any more than you scare me, Harker.”

Mr. Hall’s power pushed Argaud toward the door while holding me in place. Gemma musta thought things were cooling off because she dropped my wrist and eased back in her chair. I kept my eyes locked on Blondie, though, turning my head to keep track of him until he was at the door.

Good thing I did.

Before he went through the door, he spun around and threw out a hand. A blue spike of power flew straight at Gemma, and I moved . Hurling myself in front of her, I took the hit myself, then climbed onto a desk and launched myself forward.

My shoulder caught him in the gut, and we sailed through the open doorway to crash into the metal lockers with a boom! that drew people out of classrooms to see what had exploded.

To attack her in front of me? This prick’s either crazy, dumb, or has balls of steel.

He really musta thought I’d do nothing because he had zero defense, which made it all the easier for me to dig my fingers into his clothes, roll him belly-down on the floor, and slam my fist into his ribs. When he tried to squirm outta my hold, I covered myself in needle-like spikes that stabbed into him and held him down.

I couldn’t see through the blood sheeting down my face and had to swipe my forehead with my sleeve. That gave him the chance to let loose a couple more attacks. Power ricocheted off the lockers, and my ear suddenly burned like a mother.

“You’re pissing me off!” I snapped.

“No, Kerry! Stop!”

But Argaud was still moving, still fighting. That meant the job wasn’t finished yet. I hammered my fists into him until cool fingers touched the back of my neck and the world … slowed … down …

“Oh, no!” Gemma’s voice came from far away as I slid to the floor. “I dosed you with too much sedative. I’m sorry! Hang on and I’ll fix it.”

Her words made it to my ears, but my brain couldn’t process them. The power went silent and the spikes dropped from my skin. I wanted to shake my head to clear it, but was too weak for even that. I could only watch as she knelt next to me and placed two fingers against my wrist, a trickle of her power hitting my veins.

Then Argaud rose up behind her. He grabbed a handful of her hair and threw her to the side.

Rage exploded inside me, but I couldn’t fight my own lead limbs, let alone him. He took advantage of that and kicked me in the stomach, the air whooshing out of my lungs, and I couldn’t even curl into a protective ball.

“Go away, Reilly!” Gemma got between us and spread out her arms. “Leave us alone!”

Don’t she got any sense at all?! He could kill her!

He took a swing at her, but she ducked and hit him with a golden bolt of her power. His eyes rolled back in his head as he dropped, and I gave up trying to stand.

Wardens and teachers were everywhere by then. Hank suddenly crouched next to me, and Gemma dropped to her knees, too, seeping power into me again and cradling my head in her lap.

“Looks like he lost some of his ear, too.” Hank frowned at me. “What happened?”

She told the tale while she cleaned my face, healed the gash, and regrew the tip of my ear, which stung more than I woulda thought.

I knocked my knuckles against Hank’s knee.

“Call Jax,” I managed to get out. Even my freaking tongue was numb! “Get her outta here.”

I didn’t want her involved anymore than she already was. I’d take all the punishment on my own shoulders. And she didn’t need to hear them telling me that my tainted nature made me too unstable to come to school anymore. She’d find out that I was expelled soon enough.

Hank had warned me from the first there were those who would be watching and waiting to jump on any excuse to toss me out. And not just out of school. Several wardens wanted me gone from the Sanctuary all together.

I can’t go now. I won’t leave her with Argaud running around loose!

I could tell she had picked up on my panic because she flooded me with something that stung like wasps, but cooled my mind. Calmer, I looked around and saw the rest of the corridor had been cleared. At the door of the classroom, Mr. Hall was talking to Ms. Chapman. Another warden, one I didn’t know, was crouched next to Argaud.

I looked up at Gemma.

“How bad did he hurt you?”

“Don’t worry. I’m fine.” She tried to smile, but I could see the bright red spots on her cheeks, and her fingers trembled as she stroked my hair.

I’d seen her fight before, but as a healer, she probably hated it. Went against all of her instincts. And she was Gemma . The girl who sang in the choir and tried to save demon-possessed homeless boys in the middle of the night. Yeah, we were about as opposite as two people could get.

The warden who was hunched over Argaud suddenly stood and stalked toward us.

I should get up . Facing an enemy on my back ain’t smart.

But my eyelids were heavy, Gemma’s fingers felt too good in my hair, and whatever she’d pumped into me kept me pretty mellow. I felt half-awake now instead of drugged outta my mind.

“Lock him back up, Hank!” the warden hissed. “He’s a menace. I told you we should have terminated him when we had the chance. He’ll never be able to function in society. He’s a monster!”

“Shut up!” Gemma shouted.

I slit my eyes open and looked at the warden, but he was no threat. Guy like that was all mouth. And Hank was there. I had almost decided I could trust Hank.

“What do you mean, terminate?” Gemma’s hands fisted up in my hair. “ Kill him? Is that what you do to people who need help? If that’s true, then you are more of a monster than he ever was! If you try to hurt him, I’ll — I’ll — I’ll put you in a coma for the next hundred years!”

“Whoa!” That was a familiar voice. “Who upset Gems enough to have her make threats?”

Jax hunkered down beside her and slipped an arm around her shoulders, and relief filled me. No one would hurt her now, not with both Hank and Jax there.

“Calm down,” Jax said. “It’s going to be okay. No one is terminating anyone. Right, Hank?”

“Right.” Hank stood and glared at the other warden. “Garrett’s just being a pompous windbag as usual.”

“Gigi’s coming,” Jax murmured, and I figured he was talking to Gemma. “She’ll walk with you to the cafeteria while I help Hank get Kerry back to the cottage.”

“He needs to face the consequences of his actions!” demanded Argaud’s warden.

“What consequences?” Hank sounded pissed, and I realized these two were not friends. “Argaud threatened Gemma, knowing Kerry would react by attacking. Then he drew first blood, which sparked Kerry’s kill-or-be-killed response. Finally, after Gemma took Kerry out of the fight, Argaud tried to keep it going. Kerry bears no blame here, Garrett.”

“Harker went too far. If the girl hadn’t intervened, he would have killed Reilly!”

“Yeah, and Argaud hurt her, too.” Hank crossed his arms over his chest. “Did you teach him to assault women, or did he pick that up on his own?”

“Don’t get so high and mighty with me, Hank! She’s the reason they fought.”

“After Argaud threw power at her face! Garrett, boys fight to create a pecking order and establish dominance. Kerry hasn’t been a boy for ten years. He’s a tiger, and tigers don’t fight. Tigers kill.”

“Exactly! He’s a lost cause!” Garrett stepped into Hank’s space.

“Enough.”

Ms. Chapman was suddenly between the two nose-to-nose wardens . She didn’t raise a spark of power, yet they both skipped back about a yard.

“According to Mr. Hall, Mr. Argaud attacked first,” she said. “He disturbed Ms. Shepherd multiple times in class, verbally provoked Mr. Harker, and threw power around. Garrett, you will bring him to me as soon as he’s vertical so I can explain to him exactly why he’s on lockdown from now until Monday morning.”

Ms. Chapman glanced down at me, and I felt stupid lying there in a sprawl at her feet. She raised an eyebrow, then turned back to the wardens.

“Hank, Saturday detention for Mr. Harker to be served at the cottage rather than here.” My world was going dark, but I swear I heard her add, “Oh, and Garrett? A word of advice for Mr. Argaud when he wakes up. He’d do well to remember that a tiger has no off switch.”

#

I slept through most of Saturday. When I woke up in the late afternoon, I talked with Hank about Gemma getting involved in the fight.

“Why does she do that kind of thing?” I growled. “If she’d been hurt — ”

I couldn’t finish the thought without wanting to destroy something.

“She wants to help you.” Hank shrugged. “Just as you protected her, she wanted to protect you. It’s the nature of a healer.”

I could understand that, but I didn’t have to like it.

“I need to talk to her.” Scowling, I paced from one end of the living room to the other.

“You’re in detention today, remember? But you could call her.”

He handed me a slim black phone. I looked at it, then back at him.

“Here.” He poked at the screen. “It’s ringing. Talk when she says hello. I’m going to see what we have for dinner.”

I waved a hand at him as I heard Gemma’s voice.

“Hello, Hank. Is Kerry okay?”

“It’s me. I’m borrowing his phone. I’d like to talk to you, if you have time.”

“Sure. Gigi and I just came in and were thinking of ordering a pizza. Want to join us?”

“Uh, I would, but I’m in detention today. Don’t worry about it. Warden’s making something.”

She asked me why I had to borrow a phone and I told her I didn’t have one. I’d used burners before, never a smartphone, but I kept that to myself. I didn’t need to make myself look even dumber to her.

“Anyway,” I changed the subject, “I wanted to talk to you about what happened yesterday.”

“Kerry, I am so sorry! It was all my fault. You got mixed up in my trouble, then I messed everything up by trying to help you. You were hurt because of me and I—”

“Whoa!” I cut in. “Slow down. You don’t have anything to apologize for. I was the one who lost it. If you hadn’t stopped me, I woulda killed that son of a whore. I ain’t mad at you or anything like that, so don’t feel bad. I called to say thank you for helping me. It makes me feel good to know someone would try to protect me.”

“I sense a ‘but’ coming,” she sighed.

“ But I don’t want you to try to protect me again. It’s not that I don’t appreciate it, but I can take hits that you can’t. Healers aren’t designed like warriors. It’d be different if you were. So, I’m asking you, don’t get between me and whoever I’m fighting. It would be too easy for you to get hurt.”

“But if I hadn’t overdosed you with sedatives, you wouldn’t have been helpless to defend yourself,” she argued. “I made the mistake, so I had to fix it. I own my actions.”

“Well, own your actions far away from the action next time. If you get hurt because of me, or I were to hurt you , I couldn’t live with that.” Then I realized something. “I did hurt you yesterday, didn’t I? I was spiked up! There is no way it didn’t hurt when you touched me!”

“Very mild and healed in seconds. I’ve cut myself worse on a staple.”

“Ah, angel, don’t let me hurt you at all! Not even a little bit. It’s bad enough to know Argaud hurt you and there was nothing I could do.”

“All right. No more stepping in the line of fire.” She paused, which made me suspicious. “Unless your life depends on it.”

“Gemma—”

“No. You can’t ask that of me. I’m a healer. It’s what I do. I can’t not help someone in mortal peril. I promise to do what you ask as long as you’re not dying or in danger of dying. That will have to be good enough.”

Not what I wanted to hear, but all I’m gonna get.

“Okay, angel. Like I said, I appreciate it and all you’ve done for me. You’re brave and tough and smart. If you were a warrior or able to generate shields or armor or weapons, it would be different, but healers aren’t meant for combat.”

“Thank you for calling.” She sounded like she was smiling. “I was worried. See you on Monday?”

“Of course.”

We said our goodbyes, then I walked into the kitchen and gave the phone back to Hank.

“Hope hot dogs are good enough.” He slid the phone in his pocket.

“As long as they have chili sauce.”

“Of course they do! We’re not barbarians, you know.”