Page 16

Kerry

As usual, Gemma and Gigi met me Monday morning outside Ms. Weatherbee’s class. Giving them a little wave, I realized I was happy.

Seeing Gemma made me happy.

Yeah, Gigi was drop-dead gorgeous and her accent was hilarious, but Gemma? I went to bed thinking about her and woke up thinking about her and spent a good part of every hour of every everloving day thinking about her.

When I asked how their weekend had been, they said they’d gone shopping on Saturday afternoon while Jax checked out a new video game. On Sunday, the three of them had played football with Tara, Maddy, and Morgen, then crashed in Jax’s room to watch a movie.

“What about you?” Gemma tilted her head and smiled at me. “What did you do?”

“We went for a hike on Sunday and found a great place. It’s too far to go in an hour, but someday you have to come see it with me. You and Jax, too, Gigi. It follows a river up into the mountains and ends at a waterfall. It was amazing.”

“Ooh, I’d love to see that!” Gemma’s eyes were bright as she looked up at me.

“Me, too!” Gigi smiled. “We should plan an excursion one weekend before the weather gets too cold. Otherwise, we’ll have to wait until spring.”

Their excitement for something I’d enjoyed made me smile—at least until we entered the classroom. Seeing Argaud’s warden in Ms. Weatherbee’s place was a kick in the balls.

After the bell sounded, he introduced himself as Garrett Park and passed out packets.

“Ms. Weatherbee has left an assignment that is due at the end of this class. She said it will count as a quiz grade and you may work with a partner or in small groups. Get started and keep the noise down.”

While the packets were being handed out, I looked around the room. Something was different…

Ah. There was a new girl at the desk across from Gemma. I looked her over, noting she seemed short, was a little on the thick side, and had long blonde hair. I couldn’t see much of her face because she wore big shades with solid black lenses.

Gigi turned her chair around and slid three packets onto my desk. Gemma wrote something on the top of one and turned it toward me. Looking at it, I was pretty sure it was my name. She’d drawn a little smiley face in the tail of the y, which made the good side of my mouth go up.

“Hello,” I heard her say and glanced up to see her talking to the new girl. “I’m Gemma Shepherd. These are my friends, Kerry Harker and Bridget Carnahan, who everyone calls Gigi.”

The girl turned her head. I guessed she was looking at us, but her sunglasses were so dark, I couldn’t see even a shadow of her eyes.

“I’m Chessie,” she half-whispered.

“Want to work with us?” Gigi asked.

The girl nodded and turned her chair to join us.

Not much on conversation, is she?

Sitting back, I crossed my arms over my chest and watched them scribble away. Chessie’s face turned toward me from time to time, and I guessed she was wondering why I wasn’t writing anything. Or maybe she was able to sense the taint and was afraid to be so close to me.

Either way, I thought it was better to ignore her.

They worked on the assignment, and I actually helped at one point, sketching out a symbol from Ms. Weatherbee’s lecture last week. The new girl didn’t say much beyond a few quiet words, even though both Gemma and Gigi worked hard to make her feel like part of the group. Neither asked her any personal questions, which I thought was strange. They’d interrogated me on my first day.

About twenty minutes into class, Chessie went shock-still. Glancing at her from the corner of my eye, I saw a funny look cross her face before she leaned closer to Gemma and Gigi.

“Sorry, but do either of you have a pad or tampon?” she whispered. “I’m pretty sure my period just started. It’s early and I’m not prepared.”

I scooped up the stupid packet and pretended to read it.

Hanging out with girls was way different than chilling with boys. For one, girls were kinder and softer and gentler. At least, Gemma and Gigi were, and I appreciated that. My fists were still too ready to throw down at any sign of a challenge. For another, what girls talked about was far outside my comfort zone.

My demon had had only one use for girls, and it didn’t involve much talking.

I tried to not pay attention, or at least look like I wasn’t paying attention, when Gemma reached down into her backpack and took out a pencil pouch. Chessie took it with a nearly silent thank you, then asked Mr. Park if she could go to the restroom.

He said no.

“Um, I mean, it’s an emergency.” Chessie’s cheeks went pink.

“ Um , I mean ,” he mocked her, “still no.”

“I have my period.” Her face flared brighter red and her lips trembled, but she held her head up. “I need to use the restroom.”

“You’ll survive until the end of class.” Park snapped his newspaper at her. “Do your work.”

Anger rolled right over me and I stood up, too agitated to stay in my seat.

“What is wrong with you?” I glared down at him.

“Don’t challenge me, boy. Sit down and shut up.” He swiveled his eyes to Chessie. “And for disrupting class, I’ll see you in detention this afternoon.”

“D— Detention?” She sounded shocked. “But I’ve never been in any kind of trouble at school before!”

Okay, that’s it. Power trip’s over.

I bent down to whisper in Gemma’s ear.

“Stay with Gigi and don’t walk alone.”

I didn’t give her time to answer. I went over to Chessie, grabbed her elbow, and pulled her to her feet. As I dropped her arm, she looked up at me and, despite her sunglasses, I could tell she was close to crying.

I guess I’d better get used to crybabies. I seem to be attracting them like magnets.

“Come on.” I jerked my head toward the door. “Let’s go.”

“If you walk out that door, demon taint, you’ll regret it!” Park shouted. “I’ll make sure of it!”

I turned and gave him a bored look. I’d been threatened by much worse things than him.

“You do what you gotta do. I’ll do the same.”

As I took Chessie into the hallway, someone behind us started clapping, but I didn’t look back as I led her to the bathrooms at the end of the hall.

“I’m sorry if you get in trouble because of me, but thanks.” She didn’t look at me before she fled into the girls’ room.

I leaned one shoulder on the wall and let out a heavy breath. I wondered what punishment Park might dream up for me and snorted at how ridiculous it all was.

Soft footsteps came from behind me and it took me less than a second to identify them as Hank’s.

“Wow,” he said. “You made it nearly half an hour with Garrett and didn’t kill him or explode. I’m impressed.”

I clunked my head back against the wall.

“He needs someone to kick his―”

“I can’t stand him, either. We can be civil if we have to, but otherwise, we avoid each other.”

“What’re you doing here?” I rolled my head over and looked at him.

“When Ms. Weatherbee told me she would be out today and Garrett was her substitute, I thought I should level the playing field.”

“You’re too late. I already pissed him off, but he started it.” I rolled my head back toward the bathroom. “He embarrassed this little girl for no reason, then tried to push me. He’s lucky I walked out. What I wanted to do would have been painful. And messy.”

“Can’t say I’d blame you,” he snickered. “I take it ‘this little girl’ isn’t Gemma, or you wouldn’t have been able to walk away.”

I snarled at him. It was true, but I didn’t need him to say it out loud like that.

“Her name’s Chessie. I dunno her, but she needed help, so I helped her.”

The way he stared at me made me feel weird, so I looked away right as the girl stuck her head around the corner. Her eyes darted from me to Hank and back.

“Um, I have a problem.” She lowered her face, and I could see she was on the edge of breaking down again.

“Got here too late? If that motherf—”

“Language, Kerry,” Hank cut me off. “Walk her back to her dorm, and I’ll go get both of your bags from the classroom.”

He left while I was pulling off my hoodie.

“Here.” I held it out to her. “Put this on. Good thing it was cold this morning or I wouldn’t have grabbed it.”

“I can’t take that.”

“I know it’s too big. You’re nearly as short as Gemma, so it’ll probably reach to your knees.”

“No, really, I can’t.”

“You won’t catch any taint from it!” Anger flared in my belly.

“It’s not that.” A tear rolled out from under her glasses.

“Oh.”

I could only imagine her embarrassment, especially since I was a boy, and a stranger. The thought made it easier to be nice instead of impatient.

“It’s black. It doesn’t matter. Just take it.”

She did and went back into the bathroom. When she came out, she had it wrapped around her waist.

“This has been the worst first day of school in my life.” Her smile was brittle.

“Yeah. It pretty much sucked.” Not so comforting, I know, but what else could I say? “Come on. Let’s go.”

As we walked out of the main building and started toward the dorms, I asked her if Chessie was short for something.

“Franchesca. Franchesca Catt with two ts.”

“Franchesca Catt.” I tried it out. “Chessie Catt.”

“I know, right? I now have no sense of humor left.”

Even though she wasn’t smiling, I thought she might be joking, but I didn’t get it, so I left it alone.

“I’m Kerry Harker, although you probably know that.” A little bitterness welled up in my throat. “Everyone knows all about me.”

“I don’t.”

“Oh, you’ll find out.” I rolled my shoulders. “People will fill your ears up quick.”

“Nobody talks to me.”

I raised my eyebrows. She didn’t sound sorry for herself, just resigned to it.

“What’s your talent?”

“I’m a transitionist.”

“What’s that?”

“Soul mender. Healers heal the body and some can heal the mind, but only transitionists can heal the soul.”

“Can you scrape off taint?”

“No.” She shook her head. “No one can do that. Mostly, I help souls move on or heal from trauma. Like yours. I can see the taint, of course, but also the damage left by the demon—”

“Don’t look at that!”

“Sorry. If it helps, I can’t see specific memories.”

“You won’t make any friends if you go up to people and do that.” I frowned down at her. “I told you, nobody talks to me. I’m a freak because of my eyes.”

“What do you mean? Are you blind?”

“I had to pretend to be in the Real World.”

She tugged off her glasses, and I saw her eyes were black from lid to lid. Something like stars spun in the centers where her pupils should be. It wasn’t the creepiest thing I’d ever seen, but it was pretty close.

Then her eyes suddenly shifted to normal ones with light brown irises.

“I can’t control it and I can’t hide it like most nephilim can hide their power. Even humans can see it. That’s why I wear sunglasses all the time.”

Her voice was too flat, which told me she wasn’t as emotionless about it as she wanted me to believe she was.

“I think it’s more that you can see what’s inside them,” I disagreed with her. “No one likes to have their sins and secrets out in the open. But I won’t avoid you if you promise not to look again.”

Her eyes flipped back to black galaxies.

“It’s hard not to.” She put her shades on as we started walking again. “I’ve never seen anything like what you’re carrying around. It’s fascinating, but I’ll try.”

“Good enough. That’s all I can do, too.” I took a deep breath. “But Gemma says it’ll get better.”

“Which one’s Gemma?”

“The redhead.”

“Sorry. I don’t remember which one’s which.”

“They wouldn’t have said anything if you’d asked them their names again. Gemma is the kindest, sweetest girl you will ever meet.”

She whipped her head up to stare at me again. She searched my face, but I had no idea what she was looking for or what she would see. She’d already seen too much as it was, so I looked away.

“Then you better get back to class before she gets jealous.”

“Jealous? No, it’s not like that.” My face burned. “I don’t— She doesn’t— Look, don’t go there.”

When we reached her dorm, she opened the door and held it.

“Thanks for helping me. In return, I want to make you a ward that will keep the nightmares away.”

All my walls went up and I took a step back. How could she know about them?

Well, after what she saw inside me, she’s probably gonna have nightmares, so I guess she figured it out on her own.

And one full night of sleep sounded like Heaven.

“Okay.” I didn’t know what else to say.

“It’ll take me a little while, and I wish I could do more.” She tilted her head so that her black lenses were riveted on my face. “I wish I could make something to take away the darkest memories. I can see how much it hurts you to remember all the things you were forced to do—”

“Shut up!”

My hands turned to fists as a warning growl thrummed through my chest. I leaned toward her, towering over her, and she shot off across the lobby.

I had to pull on all my willpower to be still and not chase her, no matter how bad I wanted to. Closing my eyes, I tried to breathe the way I’d been practicing with Hank.

She isn’t prey and she isn’t an enemy . You can’t kill everyone who hurts you. Control yourself. Control!

When I could unclench my fists, I opened my eyes. She stood next to the elevator with her finger ready to hit the call button.

“I’m sorry I scared you.” I held out a hand to stop her from walking back. “No! Stay there. I’m not … safe yet.”

“I’m sorry, too. I wasn’t thinking about what I was saying. I’m sure you deal with your memories enough when you close your eyes. You don’t need to hear any reminders from a stranger.”

“It’s all right. I hate that you saw it, though.”

Thankfully, Hank arrived before things got too awkward.

“Stay there and he’ll bring your stuff to you.”

He raised an eyebrow at me, but took her bag over to her.

“Chessie.” I waited until she looked at me. “Next time, don’t run. A predator like me takes it as an invitation to chase you down.”

“Like I’m a deer and you’re a—”

“Tiger,” Hank finished for her. “Think of him like a tiger. React accordingly.”

“Exactly right.” She nodded.

“I am standing right here, people.” I scowled at them both, but they only smiled at each other, then she thanked us again and headed back to the elevator.

When she was gone, Hank asked me if I wanted to go back to class.

“Uh, no . Bad things would happen if I did. I need to blow off some steam or I’m gonna explode.”

“Let’s hit the dojo then.” Hank’s grin was sly. “I’ve been wanting to see how good of a hand-to-hand fighter you really are.”

“Be careful what you wish for, Warden.” I grinned back.