Earth Angel (The Kamlyn Paige Novels) (13 page)

“You’re the white figure that told me how to stop
Alli,” I said slowly as realization washed over me.

He nodded his head once, never taking his eyes off
mine.

“Stopping evil is in your blood. It’s what you were
born to do,” Sari said, drawing me in closer with his gaze. “I can show you how
to harness what’s inside of you.”

I felt my knees weaken as his fingertips reached
out slightly towards me. He stopped just a few inches short of brushing them
against my face before he paused, lowered his hand, and let it return to his
side. He turned his back to me, releasing me from his transfixion.

“So get some sleep, because you’ve got a big day
tomorrow,” he said as he headed for the door, pulling it open swiftly.

“Wait. Where are you going?” I asked.

For some reason, the sight of him leaving made my
stomach feel empty and achy. I had to get a grip. I couldn’t let myself get
attached, especially since he was already in danger just by knowing me.

“I’m going to tell the head watcher that you’re not
what we’re looking for,” he responded as if I should have known all along that
was where he was going.

He must have seen my face fall inadvertently in
disappointment. I tried to mask my feelings, but he was perceptive.

“Don’t worry. I’ll be back by the time you wake
up.”

He took another step towards the parking lot. I
opened my mouth to speak, letting my overwhelming feelings take over my
rational thought.

“You shouldn’t come back. It’s too dangerous. I’ll
be fine. I can defend myself,” I babbled on as he stood frozen in the doorway.

He turned his head to look over his shoulder. His
amber eyes blazed passionately.

“I
am
coming back for you.”

After he shut the door I smiled to myself, pleased
by his persistence to keep me safe. My thoughts conflicted for the rest of the
evening as I readied myself for a sleepless night. I knew I should leave; just
pack my things right then and there and start driving. But the damage was
already being done. He was on his way to lie for my life and there was nothing
I could do to stop him. I wasn’t sure what he knew about me that would make
what he was doing worth it, but he said he knew me better than I knew myself.

As I lay in bed, trying to will myself into
unconsciousness, Sari’s face filled my head. It was stupid, I knew that. He was
going to teach me and that was it. He would be allowed back home and I would
never see him again. But I couldn’t forget the fact that he admitted he’d had
feelings for humans at one time. Underneath my hopes for those same feelings to
be happening again for me, I felt jealousy for the woman who caused him to fall
in the first place. I had to restrain myself, though. I wasn’t sure I could
take anymore disappointment or pain in my life and that could be the only
result from letting my underlying feelings surface for him. I wasn’t going to
let that happen.

I jumped out of bed, pulling on a pair of jeans.
How was I so sure he wasn’t lying to me instead of them? Maybe he was on his
way right now to tell the others about me and I was just going to sit here like
a mouse in a trap, I lied to myself as I justified my impulse to run. I grabbed
my bags, which still had all my belongings in them, and left the motel.

“Something has to make you run. I
don’t know why I didn’t come.”

  –Norah Jones

I drove straight through the night, arguing
silently with myself. A few times I turned around to go back to the motel so
Sari would never know I left, but I always ended up turning back around to head
away from him. It was the right thing to do I kept telling myself. No matter
how much I wanted to be near him, I had to stay away. Even if there was the
slightest chance that he could want me in the same way I wanted him, how would
it even work? I pondered uselessly.

I saw a sign for an exit to the Presque Isle State
Park when I suddenly realized I had no idea where I had driven to. The sky was
still dark, but a subtle blue glow gave hint to dawn approaching. I turned onto
the long barren road that stretched out into the clouded waters of Lake Eerie.
The icy blue water lapped against the jagged, rocky edges of the road’s
foundation. The drive seemed immeasurable. I rolled down the windows, welcoming
the frigid breeze as it cooled my flustered face and cleared my head. Just as I
became entranced by the endless passing of the road beneath me, a thundering
boom crashed from the bed of my truck, awakening my mind with a jolt. Before my
reflexes could jump into action, I saw my passenger door fly open. My eyes
widened in fear until I saw Sari swiftly pull himself into the cab of the
truck.

“Are you crazy? What do you think you’re doing?” I
yelled, still feeling an adrenaline rush from seeing someone hop into a fast
moving vehicle with ease.

He glared at me with dark eyes full of fury,
causing me to clamp my mouth shut mid outrage. I should have figured he would
be able to find me. As usual, my common sense was left in the dust when I made
the plan to run from him. His intense eyes locked onto mine, forbidding me to
look away.

“Pull over,” he ordered in a low growl.

Without another thought, I stomped my foot on the
brake. The truck came to a screeching jerky halt. I sat frozen with my hands
clamped tightly on the steering wheel. My knuckles started to turn white from
the pressure of my grip. Not sure what was going to happen, I glanced toward
him from the corner of my eye. The silence was deafening as he continued to
glare. Anxiety rushed through my body. I couldn’t continue to sit there,
waiting for him to say something. I opened the door as quickly as I could, got
out, and slammed it shut. I heard the passenger door close quietly as I made my
way around the cab in anger.

“You know, I didn’t ask for any of this!” I exploded.
I breathed heavily, waiting for him to blow up in a fit of rage at me. “Maybe I
don’t want to learn any of your special abilities and maybe I don’t want to be
watched over!”

 I listened to my voice echo loudly all around us.
His appearance changed as if I had struck him across the face with my bare
hand. Immediately, I regretted what I had said. I couldn’t stand to see him
wounded because of me.

“I’m sorry,” I said softly, taking a step
backwards. “I’m still overwhelmed by all of this, I guess.”

I reluctantly lifted my head to apologetically look
into his disappointed face only to find it filled with understanding.

“No, you’re right,” he said, slumping against the
side of the truck. “I can’t force you into any of this. It is completely up to
you whether you want to learn anything or not.”

“Of all people,
you
should have known it’s
dangerous to be around me,” I said as he smiled and laughed to himself.

“
You’re
worried about
me
?” As the
words escaped his lips he laughed louder, echoing through the emptiness
surrounding us. I looked at him with confusion, not sure what to think about
his change in attitude. “Ever since I met you, I’ve been trying desperately to
keep you alive and
you
are worried about
me
,” he answered between
chuckles. “You really are trouble,” he added in a mutter as if speaking only to
himself.

“Finally, you agree with me,” I responded, leaning
against the truck next to him.

My body was suddenly exhausted from the unexpected
burst of anger. I felt emotionally spent. It could have been from the lack of
sleep as well, though. Faster than my eyes could follow, Sari’s back was off
the truck and he was standing in front of me.

“Whoa,” were the only words my lips could seem to
form.

“You heard what I said?” he asked, ignoring my
amazed and questioning face.

My forehead wrinkled while I tried to force myself
to understand what he was asking. “Of course I heard you, you said it out
loud.”

He smiled at me as if I’d just told him an amusing
joke. He shoved his hands deeper into his pockets and closed his eyes. Raising
his face up towards the sky, he heaved a deep, blissful sigh.

“You’re never going to cease to amaze me, are you?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer so I just shrugged my
shoulders and stared down at the pavement.

“Tell me something, what are you feeling right
now?” he asked inconsequentially, taking a step closer and smiling.

“Uh…confusion?” I responded. I had questions of my
own I wanted answers to, like where was this conversation going? And what had I
done to peak his interest?

“No, I mean, do you feel like something is going to
happen?”

I looked away as he placed his hand on my shoulder
gently. This was the moment I feared and hoped for. I couldn’t let it happen. I
had to say something to stop it, anything at all.

“It’s going to rain,” I said, rolling my eyes.

Just as our eyes met a drop of water splashed onto
the tip of my nose. Sari flashed his perfect white teeth, extending his finger
to wipe where the rain had fallen. The moment he made contact, I felt a spark
between his warm finger and the rounded end of my nose. The sensation made my
pulse jump, shooting a tingling feeling through my veins at incredible speed.
The clouds opened up above us and water came pouring down. I ran around to the
driver’s side and scrambled to open the door. We both hopped in at the same
time, soaked all the way through.

Sari smiled avidly while the rain dripped from his
sopping wet hair down his face and onto his black pea-coat.

“Did I make that happen?” I asked with overwhelming
curiosity.

“No, of course not,” Sari answered in short. “But
you knew it was going to happen. You have the ability to see things that
haven’t happened yet. It’s amazing.”

“Amazing? Can’t you do the same?” I asked, thinking
all angels had the same abilities.

“Of course,” he said absently, turning to look out
the window in thought as the rain pounded on the hood of the truck. I sat
quietly, waiting for him to explain. “The others like you only had one ability
they could master. One could predict things, one could move faster than
lightening, one could banish evil with nothing more than their mind, but you
seem to have all of our powers.

            “But I move like everyone else…” I said more to myself than to
him. “And besides this rain is coincidence. I’ve never seen anything before it
happened.”

            He took my hand in his, squeezing it tightly in his incredible
grip.

“You just haven’t learned how to use or control any
of it yet,” he said, looking up at me through his thick lashes. How was I
supposed to reject such a tempting gaze?

“Fine…” I said, defeated. “You can come with me on
a hunt and if I decide I like what I learn, you can stay.”

I knew it was a bad idea even as I said it.

“Deal,” he agreed quickly before I could change my
mind.

As his face lit up with anticipation, I couldn’t
help but smile slightly at the sight of his grin. A shiver ran through my body
as we stared at each other. I started the truck again, letting the heater blast
on high to dry my clothes and hair. I glanced over at Sari, his hair blowing
all around while he closed his eyes in thought. He looked so divine and, well,
angelic of course. I forced myself to look forward and focus.

“So, where to?”

“I want you to close your eyes,” Sari said to my
surprise.

I decided not to argue and follow his instructions.

“Now…clear…your…mind…” he hummed in an entrancing
deep voice.

With every syllable his words drifted further and
further away.

“Let…your…mind…carry…you…”

*

By the time he spoke his last few words, they were
nothing more than a whisper. His sweet breath filled my nostrils, clearing my
head and carrying me out over the water. Beneath me, the ground passed quickly,
changing from mountains to hills to plains. The sun moved from east to west
within the same minute before the sky fell dark, shadowing the moving earth
beneath it. As soon as the last ray of sunlight disappeared behind the horizon,
my mind began to flash on an empty unlit road. With another flash, the road was
no longer empty. A woman in a flowing white dress stood in the distance. Then,
another flash. She was closer. She raised her head slowly, letting her matted,
stringy blonde hair clear her face which reflected an unseen fear. Flash. She
was just inches away from me, her face morphing from undeniable grief into pure
hatred. She narrowed her eyes and barred her teeth as she raised her foot to
close the last bit of space between us.

*

My eyes sprang open and to my surprise I was back
in the cab of my truck, staring out at the rain soaked pavement.

“What was that?” I gasped, my stomach trying to
settle itself from an invisible fall.

“Intense, isn’t it? You can travel the whole world
and never have to leave your home.”

I sat quietly, trying to grasp the concept of
visiting far off places in my mind.

“Did anything stand out to you? Maybe a sign of
where we need to go?” he asked, patiently.

“Bad Axe,” was all I muttered before doing a U-turn
in the middle of the road to drive away from Pennsylvania.

Instead of looking at me perplexed, Sari rested his
head back and closed his eyes, letting me lead the way to the hunt. The same
sights I’d seen in my head now passed by us outside the window at a much more
reasonable rate. The bleak flat land rushed passed as I sped through Ohio on my
way to Michigan. Every once in a while we would spot a small town on either
side of the road, but mostly we saw immense farmland and forests.