The Wanderers Beginning: The Wanderers, Reborn, & Unforgiven (86 page)

             
“With all due respect sir, he just took down half my men.”

Gabe looked at them confused. I guess he thought the scuffle was because of me until he noticed the young man to my right. “I would hope so. After all I did train him,” Gabe smiled.

              The guardians backed off, but remained with strange looks on their faces. I turned to face the person behind all this chaos. “Billy, what are you doing here?” He looked at me funny. Basically he was wearing the same expression as everyone else. “What…do I like have something on my face?”

             
“Ella, you’re glowing,” he said.

             
I looked down and saw a silvery blue light illuminating my skin. “What is it?” I asked.

             
“I don’t know, but it’s beautiful,” Dixon said, joining us. “Hey Billy.”

             
“Hey Dixon,” he said casually.

             
I could feel everyone’s eyes on me. “How do I make it stop?” I asked a little panicked.

             
“Ella, Billy, you two come with me,” Gabe said.

             
“I’m coming too,” Dixon said following us.

             
The guardians followed and kept close as we walked over to the teachers’ dorms while I lit the way.

Chapter eighteen

Gabe took us straight to the teachers’ dorms and knocked on one of the doors. Ms. Kraft answered. “Hello Sylvia. I’m sorry to disturb you, but we seem to have a bit of a problem,” Gabe said, stepping out of the way.

              “Oh dear, Ella, you’re glowing,” she said.

             
“Yeah, how do I make it stop?” I asked.

             
She pulled me inside and over to one of the couches. “Give me your hands.” I did as she said. “Now close your eyes, breathe deeply, and imagine yourself letting go.”

             
“Letting go of what exactly?”

             
“Your anger. Think calm thoughts, and release it.”

             
The first thing I saw was his eyes, deep, dark blues that I always seemed to get lost in. Then came his messy black hair and cocky smile. I put everything together and waited for Tristan to come into focus. Only, it wasn’t Tristan who I thought I was picturing. It was Roman. I stiffened at the image. “Ella, you need to relax,” I heard Ms. Kraft say.

             
I let out a breath and tried again, but every time I tried to clear my head Roman would pop in, making me agitated. “Ella, whatever you are holding on to, you need to let it go,” Ms. Kraft said, guiding me. “Listen to your heart. Let it lead you to where it belongs.”

             
Not knowing what else to do, I let myself go. I opened my heart and my mind, allowing it to take me to where I belong. At first I got flashes; a sexy smile, twinkling, dark blue eyes, strong hands running through silky, black hair. When the images came into focus again, I opened my eyes. “Roman,” I whispered. His name brushed like soft air across my lips.

             
I looked up to see Dixon’s smirking face and I knew he heard me. I avoided his eyes and turned back to a smiling Ms. Kraft. I looked down to see the glow was gone. I sighed relieved, until I saw the goofy grin on Ms. Kraft’s face. ”What is it?” I asked.

She pulled me up off the couch and over to a mirror. I now understood why she was looking at me funny. I had another blue streak in my hair. This one was in the same spot as the other just on the opposite side. I sighed.
Great, now I have two.
“I think it’s wonderful,” Ms. Kraft said.

             
“Thanks,” I said, forcing a smile. I turned back around and noticed Dixon was the only one left. “Where are Gabe and Billy?”

             
“Gabe took him down to the office. They have some things to sort out. Billy caused quite a stir,” Dixon said, still looking at me in awe.

             
“Ms. Kraft, thank you for helping me out, but do you mind. I’d like to check on my friend.”

             
“Of course, but I would like you to come back. I want to talk to you about this new power.”

             
“How about this weekend?” I asked.

             
“This weekend will be perfect,” she smiled.

             
I thanked her again and headed down to the office with Dixon. “Why are you looking at me like that?” I asked Dixon.

             
“You do realize that you were just glowing a few minutes ago, like as in you looked like a divine being,” he said in amazement. “It was the freakin’ coolest thing I have ever seen.”

             
“To you yes, but to everyone else I’m sure I now qualify as the school freak again,” I said, mortified at having to explain to everyone what the hell just happened when I didn’t even know.

             
Dixon stopped and stood in front of me with his hands on my shoulders. “Ella, when are you going to realize that you are an incredibly amazing person? You are original. One of a kind. There is no one else like you and that is what makes you so special and being friends with me definitely helps,” he said, giving me a wink. “When you stop caring so much about what everyone else thinks you can get past this whole bullshit of thinking you are a freak.”

             
If I could just convince myself, this would be a whole lot easier. I didn’t used to care what people thought and I had no idea why all of sudden I cared now.  I stood up straighter. “You’re right Dixon,” I said.

             
“Well of course I am,” he said, dusting pretend lint off his shoulder. I stifled an eye roll and thanked him for the pep talk and gave him a hug. Then I braced myself before I opened the door to the office.

There was a lot yelling going on inside Aidan’s office. I didn’t
even bother to knock. I just let myself in. “Ella, what are you doing here?” Aidan asked, clearly upset at the interruption.

             
I stepped forward to address him. “Billy is my friend.”

             
“Well, your friend here caused a lot of issues for us,” he said, glaring at Billy.

             
“I told you. None of this would have happened if they would have just let me in in the first place,” Billy said.

             
“And like the guardians told you at the gate we cannot let you in without proper identification or stating your business of why you are here.”

             
“I did,” Billy growled, irritated.

             
“Regardless, actions must be taken,” Aidan said.

             
“For what?” Billy asked.

             
Gabe stepped forward. “Surely you can see how this was a misunderstanding and something that can be overlooked.”

             
“You think taking out half the guardians on campus and causing a riot is acceptable? That we’re just going to let this go?”

             
“You are,” I said stepping in.

             
“You are out of line Ella,” Aidan snapped, and then quickly recoiled, regretting raising his voice at me.

I tried not to let my irritation show. I held my head high and spoke with a strong voice. “No, I am not. As you said so yourself, Billy has taken out half of the guardians on campus which makes him quite the warrior. Someone like him would make a great asset in assisting the guardians, don’t you think?”

“While I do agree with you on that, I still can’t just let what happened go. Some of our best men are laid up in the infirmary right now.”

I looked over to see Billy smiling, proud of what he had done. “I will take responsibility for that. You can punish me.”

“I appreciate you being loyal to your friend, but I cannot and will not do that. I’m sorry but you are going to have to leave the campus immediately.” He made a motion for the guardians to take him out.

I stepped in front of them to block them. “You can’t make him leave,” I said.

“Yes I can,” Aidan said, gesturing for the guardians to proceed.

“Wait, he can’t!” I yelled. I was grasping at straws trying to come up with a logical explanation of how to keep him here.

“I’m sure it will be fine. Clearly he can take care of himself,” Aidan said. He gestured to the other two guardians standing by the door. “Would you please escort him out?”

“No, he’s…he’s my guardian!” They stopped and Aidan looked at me confused.

“No, Gabe is your guardian,” he said, straightening up.

“Yes he is, well was,” I started and turned to Gabe pleading with my eyes for him to go along with this. “With everything that Gabe has on his plate right now I thought it would be easier on him if I relieved him of his duty and called Billy.”

“Is that true?” he asked Gabe.

“Yes it is. I apologize for the inconvenience. I’ve been very busy as Ella has mentioned and I’m afraid the date of his arrival had slipped my mind.”

Aidan looked us both over. “If that’s true then why didn’t you just say that instead of trying to break in,” Aidan questioned Billy.

“I wanted to see how easy it was to get in here if I was an intruder. As you can see it was far too easy. I think the only one you should be mad at is the idiot who hired those goons.” I elbowed Billy letting him know to shut it. His last comment made Aidan narrow his eyes at him indicating he was the idiot.

I spoke up quickly to diffuse the tension. “It is obvious as to why I called Billy to temporarily take Gabe’s place, that part is clear. I can assure you from this moment on there will be no more issues…or surprises,” I said.

I didn’t know if Aidan was buying our story or not, but he sank down in his chair, looking defeated. “Fine, he can stay. There is one slight problem though. The entire guest housing is filled due to the amount of extra guardians we called in.”

“That won’t be a problem. I no longer have a roommate so he can stay with me in my room,” I said.

“That, I cannot allow,” Aidan said.

“Billy is my guardian I’m sure once everyone is aware of that it won’t be an issue. It only makes sense that he stays with me.”

“I can vouch for him,” Gabe said. “Billy was a former student of mine and I can assure you he is and will be a perfect gentleman.”

Aidan rubbed his head, showing he had enough. “Fine, but this is only temporary until a room becomes available,” he said, caving.

We all nodded in agreement. “Are we done?” I asked.

“We’re done,” Aidan said. The two guardians left with Gabe, Billy, and Dixon. “Ella, can I talk to you for a minute?” I stopped, with my hand on the door. “Can you close the door?” I didn’t want to do this now, but I knew sooner or later I would have to. I closed the door and turned to face him.

“I know you probably hate me and I don’t blame you. But you have to know that wasn’t me.”

“I don’t hate you.” He sighed, relaxing a little. “But I still don’t feel like I’m ready yet.”

“I understand. I just don’t want you to be afraid of me, because that is not who I am.”

“I know. I just…I just still need some time.”

“Take all the time you need. I just want you to know you can still come to me if you need anything. I don’t want you to feel like you can’t. I’m still here for you, as your headmaster of course.”

“Thank you, Mr. Callahan.” With that I left. I wasn’t ready, but I knew over time I would be able to forgive him. I knew we were under a spell, but the harsh memory of what could have happened was still too fresh in my mind and I couldn’t get past it. Spell or not. I knew the real person at fault and she would pay for what she did. Yes she would pay.

I found Billy at the end of the hall with Dixon waiting for me. “Well, aren’t you quite the trouble maker,” I said to Billy.

“You know how I like to make an entrance,” he smiled, giving me a big, bear hug.

“What are you doing here? I mean, not that I’m not happy to see you, but really?”

“I heard Jack was in the area,” he said, his face no longer amused.

“You heard right, but why don’t we talk about that later. You must be starving.”

“I could eat,” he said, rubbing his belly.

“I don’t care if you do or don’t. Your little show interrupted my dinner and I haven’t had a chance to eat and I’m starving.”

He laughed, throwing his arm over me. “Well, come on then.”

You could hear outside the doors that the dining hall was bustling with talk of what just happened. But as soon as Billy and I walked back in the crowd fell silent and all eyes were on us. “Is it always like this?” Billy asked.

“Well when you bust through the doors and take on five guardians –”

“Seven,” he corrected.

“Sorry, when you take on seven guardians single handedly.” He smiled and gave me a small squeeze. “Not to mention the fact that I was glowing when I stopped the fighting.”

“That was pretty cool. How’d you do that?”

“I have no idea,” I said as we stepped into the food line.

Dixon pulled another chair over for Billy and we all sat down. Everyone just stared at us. “Oh, yeah, guys this is Billy.” They all managed a hello or hey there.

“Ella your hair,” Cameron said. I half expected her to bitch me out for attacking Dean and Roman, but no, my hair is the first thing she would mention.

“Oh, yeah,” I said rolling my eyes. “I have another blue streak.” They just stared with astonishment.

“Okay, so I’m just going to say it,” Cameron started. “You know you were glowing about twenty minutes ago? And what the hell was with you going all Buffy on Dean and Roman?”

And there it is.

“Um, yeah,” was all I said.

She looked at me. “Care to explain?”

“If I understood it myself I would, but I have no idea how it happened,” I said, shrugging my shoulders. “And Dean and Roman wouldn’t let me go. I did warn them,” I added.

“I thought it was really neat,” Riley said. “The glowing part not the fighting,” she smiled sheepishly.