The Fallen Sequence (59 page)

Luce couldn’t go underwater while holding on to the life preserver, and she had a bad feeling that Dawn was deeper down. She knew she shouldn’t let go of the life preserver. But she couldn’t save Dawn unless she did.

Tossing it aside, Luce filled her lungs with air, then plunged down deep, swimming hard until the surface warmth disappeared and the water became so cold it
hurt. She couldn’t see a thing, just grasped everywhere she could, hoping to reach Dawn before it was too late.

It was Dawn’s hair that Luce felt first, the thin shock of short, dark waves. Probing lower with her hand, she felt her friend’s cheek, then her neck, then her shoulder. Dawn had sunk pretty far in such a short time. Luce slipped her arms under Dawn’s armpits, then used all her strength to pull her up, kicking powerfully toward the surface.

They were far underwater, the daylight a distant shimmer.

And Dawn felt heavier than she could possibly be, like a great weight was attached to her, dragging both of them down.

At last Luce broke the surface. Dawn sputtered, spewing water out of her mouth and coughing. Her eyes were red and her hair was matted on her forehead. With one arm looped across Dawn’s chest, Luce gently paddled them both toward the life preserver.

“Luce,” Dawn whispered. In the tumbling waves, Luce couldn’t hear her, but she could read her lips. “What’s happening?”

“I don’t know.” Luce shook her head, straining to keep them both afloat.

“Swim to the lifeboat!” The call came from behind. But swimming anywhere was impossible. They could barely keep their heads above water.

The crew was lowering an inflatable life raft. Steven was inside it. As soon as the boat met the ocean, he began paddling briskly toward them. Luce closed her eyes and let the palpable relief wash over her with the next wave. If she could just hold on a little longer, they were going to be okay.

“Grab my hand,” Steven shouted to the girls. Luce’s legs felt like she’d been swimming for an hour. She pushed Dawn toward him so that Dawn could be the first one out.

Steven had stripped down to his slacks and white oxford shirt, which was wet now and clinging to his chest. His muscled arms were huge as he reached for Dawn. His face red with exertion, he grunted and heaved her up. When Dawn was draped over the gunwale, far enough that she wouldn’t fall back in, Steven turned and quickly took hold of Luce’s arms.

She felt weightless, practically soaring out of the water with his help. It was only when she felt her body slipping the rest of the way into the boat that she realized how sopping wet and freezing she was.

Except for where Steven’s fingers had been.

There the drops of water on her skin were steaming.

She sat up, moving to help Steven pull the shivering Dawn the rest of the way into the raft. Exhausted, Dawn could barely drag herself upright. Luce and Steven each had to take her by an arm and heave. She was almost all
the way inside the boat when Luce felt a shocking jerk pull Dawn back into the water.

Dawn’s dark eyes bulged and she cried out as she slipped backward. Luce was not prepared: Dawn slipped out of her wet grip, and Luce fell back against the side of the raft.

“Hold on!” Steven caught hold of Dawn’s waist just in time. He stood up, almost capsizing the raft. As he strained to lift Dawn out of the water, Luce saw the briefest flash of gold extend from his back.

His wings
.

The way they jutted out instantly, at the moment when Steven needed the most strength—it seemed to happen almost against his will. They were gleaming, the color of the kind of expensive jewelry Luce had only seen behind glass cases at department stores. They were nothing like Daniel’s wings. Daniel’s were warm and welcoming, magnificent and sexy; Steven’s were raw and intimidating, jagged and terrifying.

Steven grunted, the muscles in his arms strained, and his wings beat just once, giving him enough upward momentum to fly Dawn out of the water.

The wings stirred up enough wind to flatten Luce against the other side of the raft. As soon as Dawn was safe, Steven’s feet touched down again on the floor of the raft. His wings immediately slid back into his skin. They left two small tears in the back of his dress shirt,
the only proof that what Luce had seen had been real. His face was washed out and his hands were shaking.

The three of them collapsed inside the raft. Dawn had noticed nothing, and Luce wondered whether anyone watching from the boat had either. Steven looked at Luce as if she’d just seen him naked. She wanted to tell him it had been startling to see his wings; she hadn’t known until then that even the dark side of the fallen angels could be so breathtaking.

She reached for Dawn, partly expecting to see blood somewhere on her skin. It really felt like
something
had taken her in its jaws. But there was no sign of any wound.

“Are you okay?” Luce finally whispered.

Dawn shook her head, sending droplets of water flying off her hair. “I can swim, Luce. I’m a good swimmer. Something had me—something—”

“Is still down there,” Steven finished, picking up the paddle and hauling them back toward the yacht.

“What did it feel like?” Luce asked. “A shark or—”

Dawn shuddered. “Hands.”

“
Hands?
”

“Luce!” Steven barked.

She turned to him: He seemed like a different being than the one she’d been talking to minutes earlier on the deck. There was a hardness in his eyes she’d never seen before.

“What you did today was—” He broke off. His dripping face looked savage. Luce held her breath, waiting for it.
Reckless. Stupid. Dangerous
. “Very brave,” he finally said, his cheeks and forehead relaxing into their usual expression.

Luce exhaled, having a hard time even finding the voice to say thank you. She couldn’t take her eyes off Dawn’s trembling legs. And the rising thin red marks that looped around her ankles. Marks that looked like they’d been left by fingers.

“I’m sure you girls are scared,” Steven said quietly. “But there’s no reason to bring a general hysteria upon the whole school. Let me have a talk with Francesca. Until you hear from me: Not a word about this to anyone else. Dawn?”

The girl nodded, looking terrified.

“Luce?”

Her face twitched. She wasn’t sure about keeping this secret. Dawn had almost died.

“Luce.” Steven gripped her shoulder, removed his square-framed glasses, and stared into Luce’s hazel eyes with his own dark brown ones. As the life raft was winched up to the main deck, where the rest of the school waited, his breath was hot in her ear. “Not a word. To anyone. It’s for your own protection.”

SEVEN

TWELVE DAYS

“I
don’t get why you’re being so weird,” Shelby said to Luce the next morning. “You’ve been here, what, six days? And you’re Shoreline’s biggest hero. Maybe you’re going to live up to your reputation after all.”

The Sunday-morning sky was dotted with cumulus clouds. Luce and Shelby were walking along Shoreline’s tiny beach, sharing an orange and a thermos of chai. A strong wind carried the earthy scent of old redwoods down from the woods. The tide was rough
and high, kicking up long swaths of knotted black seaweed, jellyfish, and rotting driftwood into the girls’ path.

“It was nothing,” Luce muttered, which wasn’t exactly true. Jumping into that icy water after Dawn had certainly been
something
. But Steven—the severity of his tone, the force of his grip on her arm—had put a fear into Luce about
ever
speaking of Dawn’s rescue.

She eyed the salty foam left in the wake of a receding wave. She was trying not to look out at the deep, dark water beyond—so she wouldn’t have to think about
hands
down in its icy depths.
For your own protection
. Steven must have meant
your
in its plural form. As in, it’s for all the students’ protection. Otherwise, if he only meant Luce …

“Dawn’s okay,” she said. “That’s all that matters.”

“Um,
yeah
, because of you, Baywatch.”

“Do not start calling me Baywatch.”

“You prefer to think of yourself as a jack-of-all-trades kind of savior?” Shelby had the most deadpan way of teasing. “Frankie says some mystery creep’s been lurking around the school grounds the past two nights. You should give him what for—”

“What?” Luce almost spat out her chai. “Who is it?”

“I repeat:
Mystery
creep. They dunno.” Shelby took a seat on a weathered flat of limestone, skipping a few stones expertly into the ocean. “Just some dude. I
overheard Frankie talking to Kramer about it on the boat yesterday after all the hoopla.”

Luce sat down next to Shelby and began to root around in the sand for stones.

Someone was sneaking around Shoreline. What if it was Daniel?

It would be just like him. So stubborn about keeping his own promise not to see her, but unable to stay away. The thought of him made her yearn for him that much more. She could feel herself almost on the brink of tears, which was crazy. Odds were the mystery creep wasn’t even Daniel. It could be Cam. It could be anyone. It could be an Outcast.

“Did Francesca seem worried?” she asked Shelby.

“Wouldn’t you be?”

“Wait a minute. Is that why you didn’t sneak out last night?” It was the first night Luce hadn’t been woken up by Shelby coming in through the window.

“No.” Shelby’s skipping arm was toned from all her yoga. Her next stone skipped six times in a wide arc, coming almost all the way back to them, like a boomerang.

“Where do you go every night, anyway?”

Shelby stuffed her hands in the pockets of her puffy red ski vest. She was staring at the gray waves so intensely that it was clear she’d either seen something out there—or she was avoiding the question. Luce followed
her gaze, almost relieved to see nothing in the water but gray-and-white waves all the way to the horizon.

“Shelby.”

“What? I don’t go anywhere.”

Luce started to stand up, annoyed that Shelby felt she couldn’t tell her anything. Luce was brushing damp sand from the backs of her legs when Shelby’s hand tugged her back down onto the rock.

“Okay, I
used
to go see my sorry-ass boyfriend.” Shelby sighed heavily, pitching a rock artlessly into the water, nearly pelting a fat seagull swooping down for a fish. “Before he became my sorry-ass ex-boyfriend.”

“Oh. Shel, I’m sorry.” Luce chewed on her lip. “I didn’t even know you had a boyfriend.”

“I had to start keeping him at arm’s length. He got way too into the fact that I had a new roommate. Kept bugging me to let him come over late at night. Wanted to meet you. I don’t know
what
kind of girl he thinks I am. No offense, but three’s a crowd in my book.”

“Who is he?” Luce asked. “Does he go here?”

“Phillip Aves. He’s a senior in the main school.”

Luce didn’t think she knew him.

“That pale kid with the bleached-blond hair?” Shelby said. “Kind of looks like an albino David Bowie? You can’t really miss him.” Her mouth twitched. “Unfortunately.”

“Why didn’t you tell me you broke up?”

“I prefer downloading Vampire Weekend songs that I lip-sync to when you’re not around. Better for my chakras. Besides”—she pointed a stubby finger at Luce—“you’re the one being all moody and weird today. Daniel treating you wrong or something?”

Luce leaned back on her elbows. “That would require us actually seeing each other, which apparently we aren’t allowed to do.”

If Luce closed her eyes, she could let the sound of the waves take her back to the very first night she’d kissed Daniel. In this lifetime. The humid tangle of their bodies on that languishing Savannah boardwalk. The hungry pressure of his hands pulling her in. Everything seemed possible then. She opened her eyes. She was so far away from all of that now.

“So your sorry-ass ex-boyfriend—”

“No.” Shelby made a zip-it motion with her fingers. “I don’t want to talk about SAEB any more than I guess you want to talk about Daniel. Next.”

That was fair. But it wasn’t exactly that Luce didn’t want to talk about Daniel. It was more like, if she
started
talking about Daniel, she might not be able to shut up. She already sounded like a broken record in her own mind—cycling on repeat through the total of oh, four physical experiences she’d had with him in this life. (She chose only to start counting once he stopped pretending she didn’t exist.) Imagine how quickly she would bore
Shelby, who’d probably had tons of boyfriends, tons of experience. Compared to Luce’s next to none.

One kiss she could barely remember with a boy who’d burst into flames. A handful of very hot moments with Daniel. That just about summed it up. Luce was certainly no expert when it came to love.

Again she felt the unfairness of her situation: Daniel had all these great memories of them together to fall back on when things got rough. She had nothing.

Until she looked up at her roommate.

“Shelby?”

Shelby had her puffy red hood pulled over her head and was poking a stick into the wet sand. “I told you I don’t want to talk about him.”