Page 40

Kerry

On Tuesday morning, Hank told me the Council of Wardens had dropped the investigation into Reilly Argaud’s activities.

That pissed me off.

I mean, I knew they wouldn’t take my word for what had happened with the harpy and, even though Jax and John had seen Argaud, too, they hadn’t heard anything. Still, I thought the Council had enough evidence to at least have some doubts.

When I told Hank that, he said it helped that Argaud’s stepfather was some big-time politician in the human world and his mother’s family was one of the richest in the world.

“What about that conversation we overheard at the hospital?” I crossed my arms and scowled.

“Peale explained it.” Hank shrugged. “Argaud and the dead girl, Aspen Abernathy, had been dating. He’d given her a valuable necklace that had been in his family for years. When she died, he’d feared he’d get in trouble at home, so he’d sent Peale after it before Aspen was buried. Nothing suspicious there.”

Everyone at school had been talking about the girl’s death, and her locker in the sophomore hallway had been turned into a small shrine. It hit Maddy especially hard. She’d walked around in a fog the last two days, her eyes red from crying. She kept saying she couldn’t believe Aspen was gone.

“How’d she die?” I hadn’t asked that earlier and realized I should have.

“Suicide. She’s the reason Gemma was at the hospital when the shrouder patient was brought in. August took her to see if she could save Aspen.”

“ Gemma couldn’t save someone?”

I knew she wasn’t all-powerful, but for Miss Level 10 Healer to be stumped, Aspen had to have planned that out pretty well.

“Shot herself through the mouth. Bullet sent bone fragments into her spinal cord. If her aim had been a little truer, she wouldn’t have even made it to the hospital.”

“Then why call Gemma? Sounds like Aspen was dead, but her brain didn’t know it yet. Why didn’t the ER healers just let her go?”

“They can’t help themselves. As long as they think the soul’s still there, healers keep trying. Sometimes long after they should. Remember that.” Hank gave me a narrow-eyed look. “We all need saving from ourselves at times, even healers. Like you said, sometimes you have to let them go.”

I nodded, then sank into my thoughts while he puttered around the kitchen.

“Why didn’t he go get the necklace himself? Argaud, I mean.”

That made me even more suspicious. No way I’d send someone else to do that. I’d take care of it myself.

“According to Peale, Argaud couldn’t bear to see his girl dead.” Hank sighed. “I can understand that. I don’t know if I’d want to see Gina after she died, either. It might overwhelm the happier memories, and I’d want them more.”

I grunted as his words hit me square in the chest. If Gemma died…

If Gemma died, I would want to see her body. After I finished destroying her killer, that is. Seeing her body was the only way I’d believe she was really gone.

And as for Hank’s happy memory theory? Even if I had a century’s worth, they wouldn’t bring me comfort. Not that it mattered. I wouldn’t survive her by much. One way or the other, her death would be the wound that killed me.

Hank did have some good news, though. He and some of his buddies had started a search for thralls. I asked him if Clem was part of his team, and he gave me a funny look, like he was deciding whether or not to tell me something

“He has duties that take him afield too often,” he said at last. “Plus, he’s looking into your case. Last week, I showed him the drawing you did of your mother’s killer, and he recognized the guy. He’s got five hundred years of faces to sift through, though, so it might take some time before he remembers a name.”

The cold rage came back and froze the marrow of my bones.

“You tell me when he finds him,” I growled. “You tell me, Hank.”

He promised he would, then steered the conversation back to thralls. Trying to find one was a slow process because, unlike him, other wardens had many students assigned to them. I musta looked confused because he grinned.

“You don’t think you’re high maintenance enough to need a warden all to yourself?” He laughed when I flipped him off. “There’s an entire valley of nephilim, including the college campus. It’s going to take some time.”

I wasn’t happy, but at least Hank and his friends were looking into the thrall thing. I couldn’t figure out why Argaud had hooked up with a harpy—or how—and I spent most of first period going over it all in my mind. It was only when Gemma tugged on my sleeve that I came back to the here and now to see everyone was heading toward the door.

Well, the mystery’s in Hank’s hands now, I guess.

As we walked in the hall, I noticed Gemma wasn’t her usually chatty self. A little bubble of panic flared up in my chest. Had I done something to upset her? I mean, I’d been pretty distracted during class, but she had been hard at work translating an assignment with Gigi and Chessie.

“Gemma? You mad at me?”

“Hmm? Oh. No. I’m thinking about something. Why aren’t there more attacks on the Sanctuary?”

Okay. Not what I was prepared for.

“Are you thinking about the harpy on Halloween?”

“Yes. In a lot of books and movies, places like the Sanctuary are usually attacked all the time by the enemies trying to overrun the place and take prisoners or suck the people dry or whatever.”

“Well, there are seven billion people on the planet.” I half smiled. “Demons have plenty to choose from outside the small number of nephs at sanctuaries.”

“Yes, but we have power and Divine blood to lure them.” She stopped walking, so I did, too.

“There probably are small attacks all the time, but the wards on this place are crazy strong. Remember I told you about that hike with Warden up into the mountains and we saw the waterfall? He showed me some of what they got surrounding the valley and, trust me, nothing outside of a few greater demons working together could get through them.”

“But what if they do work together?” She seemed really worried about this.

“Never happen, angel.” I touched my knuckles to her cheek. “Do you know why?”

Her face scrunching up, she stared into the distance before she refocused and met my eyes.

“Demons are enemies with each other?”

“Good girl!”

“I’m not a puppy.” She glared, which made me grin. I hadn’t meant to bait her, but I’d enjoy the sparks in her eyes all the same. “So they fight amongst themselves too much to band together?”

“Yeah, and even if a few made a truce or something, it wouldn’t last long enough to organize an attack on the scale you’re talking about.”

She seemed happier after that, and we got moving again. Tara and Maddy met us outside the gym, and Tara asked us to go swimming. Gemma’s face brightened—until she glanced up at me.

“Um, no thanks. Maybe next time.”

Grr. I don’t want her to give up something she wants to do because of me, but did it have to be swimming ?

“We can go if you want to, angel.” I wasn’t thrilled, but I could do it. “I can survive anything for an hour. I’ve never been swimming in my life, though, and I don’t have any trunks.”

“You can borrow some from John,” Tara said. “I know he has a few pairs. Ask him when you get in the locker room.”

“Come on, Gemma!” Maddy grabbed her arm and started pulling her away. “Let’s get our suits on. See you poolside, Kerry!”

Gemma gave me a worried look over her shoulder as the two girls dragged her along, so I forced a smile and waved. As soon as the locker room door closed behind them, I let out a deep breath.

I may have been lying when I told her I could survive this.

“What’s up, Kerry?” Jax jogged up. “You look sick, bro.”

“Swimming. We’re going swimming .”

“Relax.” Jax opened the door and herded me over to our lockers. “Swimming’s fun! You need a pair of trunks?”

“Please tell me you have something that’s not totally ridiculous I can borrow.”

I was almost afraid to look at whatever he was going to pull out of his locker.

“Oh, I have the perfect thing!” he crowed, and I knew I was in trouble.

Suddenly, a wadded-up ball of red came out of nowhere and hit me on the chest. I caught it instinctively.

“Use those,” John called out. “Otherwise, Jax’ll have you in a thong.”

Relieved, I dug around in my backpack, found a plain t-shirt on the very bottom, and headed to a shower stall to change. John’s board trunks reached almost to my knees, which made me happy, but I had to wrestle into the too-tight shirt, the shoulder seams straining.

Proof I’ve gained weight at least .

Well, it would have to do. I wrapped my clothes around my loafers, grabbed a towel from the shower cupboard, and went back to the others.

“Hey, Kerry, I’ve been wanting to ask about the new ink on your arm.” John threw a striped towel over his shoulder. “I noticed it yesterday. When did you get it?”

“It’s a ward, not a tat. Chessie made it for me. I told you about it, remember? She thought branding it into my skin would help make it last longer.”

They stared at me, and even John’s flat eyes showed surprise.

“What?”

“Didn’t that hurt?” Jax came closer to get a look at it.

“I guess.” I pulled up my sleeve up past the dragon tat so they could see the ward better. “But it works, so who cares?”

“What does it do?” John wanted to know. “Keep you from spiking up? I haven’t seen you do that in a while.”

“Nah. That’s because my control’s better. Now that I’m getting a full night’s sleep, every little thing isn’t pissing me off anymore.”

“It helps you sleep?” Jax reached out with a finger, and I jerked away, yanking my sleeve back down.

“Yeah.” I was cautious at first, but it was only Jax and John, so I shrugged away the instinct to keep weaknesses a secret. “Keeps nightmares away.”

Jax wiggled his eyebrows, and I knew something stupid was about to come out of his mouth.

“Wait until Gemma sees how ripped you’re getting,”

“She saw me without a shirt at the dance.” I rolled my eyes.

“You were covered in blood! She wasn’t paying attention to your six-pack. You’re jacked up, bro! Can I punch your stomach?”

He took a step closer with his hand bunched in a fist, and I skipped outta reach.

“Stay away from me!”

“Guess it won’t matter. You’ll be too busy drooling over her bikini to notice her staring at you, anyway.”

“Her what ?” I choked a little and had to clear my throat.

“We’re going swimming. What else would a girl wear?”

“Uh, I don’t know. Maybe a one-piece?” John rolled his eyes and smacked him upside the head. “Stop being an idiot and come on.”

#

Gemma

“What’s wrong with him, Jax? Did something happen in the locker room? I know he didn’t want to go swimming, but he’s way too tense for it to be just that.”

Kerry had gone on edge the moment the boys entered the pool area. At first, I thought he was nervous about learning to swim, but he followed me into the deeper water and seemed interested as he watched and listened to my quick lesson. Now he splashed around in a doggy paddle a few yards from me.

“Travis Peale is swimming laps over there.” Jax gestured with his chin to the Olympic-size pool next to ours. “It has Kerry’s hackles up. Don’t encourage him to fire up any more than he already is, and he may settle down.”

“I encourage him to ‘fire up’?” “Not usually. Look, as long as you continue to ignore Travis and give your attention to Kerry, I think it will be okay. Unless Travis does something stupid.” He frowned for a moment, and I followed his eyes to where Travis was feverishly racing up and down a swim lane, then looked back at me. “There’s something going on with that guy. I’ve felt it for a while now.”

“What is it?”

“I don’t know, but Travis is very unhappy.”

Pity flooded me, despite Travis’ association with Reilly Argaud. When I’d asked him, August had said Travis arrived at the Sanctuary only a couple of months before Kerry and me. I wondered what his power was, and how high it ranked. Did he miss his home? Had his arrival been precipitated by a nightmare, as mine had been? Was that why he’d become friends with Reilly?

“Can I—or you—help him?” I spoke quietly now because Kerry was heading back to us. “He doesn’t torment me like the others. He never stops them, but he doesn’t participate, either.”

Jax shrugged.

“What are you two talking about?” Kerry demanded.

“Nothing!” Jax swam away with a huge grin on his face.

“Wondering if you’re having fun.” I leaned my shoulders back against the cool tiles of the pool wall.

Kerry quirked an eyebrow as he stopped swimming and stood up. He came closer, towered over me, and braced his hands on the lip of the pool, one on either side of my head, and I sucked in a breath.

“Do you know I can always tell when you’re lying?”

“What?” How was I supposed to think clearly when he was so close?

“Your face gets red. Well, it always does that, doesn’t it? But you also breathe faster and shift your eyes to the left, just a tiny bit.”

Is he teasing me?

I was having more and more trouble processing anything he was saying, losing track of the conversation as I stared up at him.

“All of that?” I managed.

“Mm-hmm.” He touched my shoulder with one finger, tracing the very faint white lines left from the wound he’d given me the night we met. “I’m glad you healed it.”

“Can we move into shallower water?” I tried to cover my knees buckling. “I’m getting tired of standing on my tiptoes.”

“I’ll help.”

When a mischievous look crossed his face, I started to protest, thinking he was going to dunk me underwater and I did not want to deal with drying my hair, but he only moved his hands to my waist and lifted me up a foot. He moved out into the middle of the pool, and I had to put my hands on his shoulders to keep my balance.

What I saw in his face made me tremble. He noticed, of course, and frowned.

“I’m not going to drown you.” His deep voice had a hurt tone to it now.

“I know.”

“Then why are you shaking?” A thundercloud of exasperation crossed his face. “If you don’t want me touching you, say something! Do you want me to move into shallow water first or let you go right here?”

“I don’t want you to let me go at all.”

I smiled and, after a few seconds, he relaxed again and started to swirl me around in a slow circle.

“I like your swimsuit. Glad it’s not a bikini.”

Face on fire, I lowered my eyes, confused by his comment.

“Wait! Did I hurt your feelings?” He sounded panicked, and my eyes flew back up to his. “I’m sorry! I didn’t mean to. I only meant, if you were in a bikini, I may not have been able to touch you like this.”

“Is that why you have a shirt on?” I tilted my head as I thought out loud. “So I can touch you, too?”

“Aw, your little hands don’t bother me anymore.” He gave me that half-smile, and my lungs seized up. “I didn’t want anyone to throw up like Gigi does.”

“Kerry—”

“No, it’s okay. Gigi has a weak stomach.”

“Kerry, it’s—”

“Don’t worry. I don’t take it personally.”

“Lab Rat! Stop!” That got him to shut up. “Seeing blood makes her nauseous. She doesn’t get sick over the sight of your scars.”

“Oh.” He stopped swirling us around and stood still, obviously processing. “Well, I guess I’ll keep it on anyway. Just in case.”

His eyes met mine and grew soft again, and my belly quivered with a thousand butterflies. When my foot brushed against his leg under the water, I trembled even more and knew my cheeks were red.

“Are you cold?”

“No.” My neck and chest were on fire now, too.

“Then why are you shaking?” He bent his head closer, his nose almost brushing my cheek, and I closed my eyes, but it didn’t help much. “Tell me, Gemma.”

“Because of the way you’re looking at me!”

“I’m scaring you?” He sounded worried, and I smiled a little.

“Yes, but probably not in the way you mean.”

As I knew it would, my response confused him, which meant he would take a while to chew on it. I had some time now to collect myself before I did something truly embarrassing.

Like lean forward and kiss him.

Then, not even realizing we were in motion, I found myself standing between Jax and John as Kerry surged out of the pool.