“Here you go, here are some jeans; I only wore them a few times.” Nina plopped the pair into my lap, distracting me from my daydreams. “Are you ready to see your room? It’s just down the hallway.”
“Nina,” I asked suddenly. “Do you know Rafe? Rafe Fitzgerald?”
“Rafe?” She wrinkled her nose. “Yeah, he used to be a hunter here, but then he moved away. Why?”
“He’s my boyfriend.” I watched as her eyes widened. “I need—I need to speak to him. Can I borrow you phone—”
Nina was already shaking her head. “Oh no. No, no, no.” She held up her arms, making an “X” across her body. “No can do. Director Adler would be furious.”
“Please,” I said, knowing I sounded desperate and not caring. “I really need to—”
“I can’t!” she shouted. “Please stop asking me, because I can’t. Now come on, let me show you to your room.” Without watching to see if I followed, Nina opened the door and stepped into the hallway.
I blew out a long, disappointed breath. Dammit, and I had thought she would help me, too. After taking a quick peek around the room to see if she had maybe left her cell phone lying around and I could swipe it (she hadn’t), I got up off the bed and followed her.
But I wasn’t giving up that easily. No way. I didn’t care what I’d promised Charles. I was getting the hell out of here, the first chance I got.
Chapter Fourteen
“Here’s your room,” Nina mumbled, unlocking another door. It was in the same hallway as hers, but two doors down and on the opposite side. She flicked on the lights, revealing a stark room that contained only a bed and a dresser.
At least they weren’t pink.
I expected Nina to follow me in, but she remained in the hallway, staring at the floor, her mouth twisted into an unhappy line. I sighed. “Look, Nina, I’m sorry about before.” Total lie; I wasn’t sorry for asking. She was the one who should be sorry—for not helping me!
“I’m going to see about getting you some food,” Nina replied, completely ignoring my apology. My eyes narrowed, but instead of calling her out for being rude, I just shrugged.
“It’s okay, I’m not hungry.” Another lie; I was starving.
“Oh.” She paused, looking momentarily confused. “I’ll bring you food anyway, since Director Adler told me to. It’s up to you whether you eat it or not. I’ll be back in a bit!”
Rolling my eyes, I watched her dash away, her flip-flops clomping against the floor as her bracelets and necklaces clinked together musically. Yes, because heaven forbid we don’t do what Director Adler tells us. What would happen then, Nina? What would happen if all of you stupid hunters stood up to your fearless leader and told him he was completely out of his mind and needed to retire immediately?
I sighed. That was a wonderful fantasy, but that’s all it was. It was clear everyone was happy with Charles, or else they would have revolted a long, long time ago. Like Rafe and Evan had. Well, just Rafe now.
Rafe, Rafe, Rafe. Why did I keep torturing myself by thinking about him? Still, I couldn’t help but wonder what he was doing right now, at this exact moment. There was a deep ache in my chest. Was he hurting because of me and the stupid things I had said last night?
Had it really been only last night? I shut my eyes. So much had happened since then that it felt like years, not hours. A deep weariness settled over me. I wondered if they would let me sleep, or if I would be forced to meet with Charles, or maybe even Alexandra, as they tested my powers.
First thing first. I opened the door to the adjoining bedroom and turned on the sink’s faucet. I scrubbed at my hands, washing away Jonathan’s blood that still stained my fingers after my failed attempt to heal him. I wondered, briefly, if he had recovered, but found myself unable to care, either way. Once my hands were blood-free, I changed into the clothes Nina had lent me, pulling Philip’s hoodie back on, over the sweater.
Exiting the bathroom, I parted the curtains from the room’s only window to reveal a quiet residential block. Hmm, that was surprising. I figured HQ would be smack dab in the middle of skyscrapers so tall their tops were hidden by clouds, as taxis honked their way down the street and pedestrians rushed along the sidewalks. I wasn’t expecting a view of brownstones, in various shades of red, no taller than five or six floors, stretching from one side of the block to the other. Quite a few of the windows were decorated for the holidays, as were the trees that lined the block, their bare branches and trunks draped with tiny, twinkling white lights. No one was out walking, but there were cars parked in every available spot.
I had no idea where I was. I had always lived in upstate New York, and the last time I had been to Manhattan had been back in the ninth grade for a field trip to see The Lion King on Broadway. But we had been in the bus the entire time—bus to the theater, bus to the restaurant, and bus back home. Uptown, downtown, the East Side, the West Side—it was all foreign to me. And forget the subway. I’d probably get on the wrong train and end up in Queens or something without even realizing it.
So even if I managed to get myself out of HQ, I’d be lost within two seconds of hitting the pavement.
It is pretty, though, I thought wistfully. Even the overcast winter sky did little to dispel the charm of the apartment buildings that surrounded HQ. I squinted. If the buildings surrounding HQ weren’t towering skyscrapers, did that mean I was downtown? Who knew? I could be on the moon for all I knew. I was hopelessly lost.
Still… I rested my palm on the cold glass. I wish I could have come here with Rafe. Not HQ, but the city itself. Exploring the busy streets, seeing the world he had grown up in. Visiting his favorite restaurants, his favorite shops. It would have been nice, normal.
Normal? I laughed bitterly. The moment that demon had walked into the Corral, normal had disappeared from my life forever.
***
“Do you want to go to winter formal with me?” Rafe asked suddenly.
I paused the corny holiday movie we were watching (his idea, not mine. I had wanted to watch a slasher movie, but he said that wasn’t exactly festive and was instead forcing me to sit through an hour of singing clay reindeers and snowmen) in my living room and stared at him. “Excuse me?”
He nervously played with the tassels on one of the couch pillows. “The winter formal. At my school. Did you… Do you want to go with me?”
Aww, he was nervous. Why, though? It wasn’t like it was our first school dance together. We had done Halloween—wait. I narrowed my eyes. “Rafe, after the disaster that was the last dance, why do you want to go to another one?”
He squirmed. “I doubt we’ll see another demon at this one.”
“Really.”
“Yes, really.” Rafe nudged me with his shoulder, laughing. “Our luck isn’t that horrible, Gabi. We won’t see another demon at another dance. I’m positive.”
“Um, in case you’ve forgotten, the universe seems to hate it when I wear something nice when I’m with you. It’s like, ‘I don’t think so, Gabi, Rafe can’t see you in that dress without staining you with blood or punch or GREEN DEMON ICK.’” I threw my hands up in the air. “I don’t know why I even bother. I should just wear a garbage bag over my entire body, with a hole for my head to stick out.”
Rafe spit out the soda he had just taken a sip of, his face turning red as he half-choked, half-laughed. I pounded him on the back, laughing myself.
When he finally recovered, I gave him a mock glare. “Instead of laughing, Rafe, you were supposed to tell me I would look super hot in a garbage bag.” I shook my head. “Haven’t I taught you anything?”
“Oh please,” he said, pulling me into his lap. I snuggled closer to him, sighing in contentment. “I tell you I think you look good and you bite my head off for having an old lady fetish.”
“Well, you do!”
Rafe trailed his hand up and down my arm and hummed noncommittally. “You haven’t answered my question, you know. Do you want to go to the dance with me?”
“Yeah, I was going to ask Evan to be my date,” he responded sarcastically. “Think he’ll wear a dress?”
I groaned. “Actually, I think he probably would. Especially if you paid him. In cigarettes.”
“The sad thing is, you’re absolutely right,” Rafe said. “Come on, Gabi, spare me the humiliation of going with Evan and say yes. Please?”
“When you put it that way, I guess I have no choice but to say yes.” I smiled. “I’m such a good girlfriend, you know?”
He tilted my head up to kiss me. “The absolute best…”
***
Dammit. Was I going to dream about Rafe every single time? I rubbed at my eyes, trying to stop the tears before they really started flowing. I may have been the girl who hated the thought of spending a week away from her boyfriend, but I refused to be the girl who gave up and just sat around crying when things went bad.
No, I would be the girl who did something about it.
I rolled out of bed, glancing out the window to see it was nighttime. Hard to tell, with the city lit up with lights; even the sky was still bright, not a star in sight. Back home, the night sky shone with thousands of sparkling diamonds; I couldn’t believe I had ever taken such a breathtaking view for granted.
I missed the stars.
Heading for the door, I skirted around the tray of half-eaten food Nina had brought me earlier. A buttered roll, some soup, and a banana. No dessert whatsoever. I guess they wanted to kill me after all. My door was unlocked, just like Nina said. I figured I’d explore the floor, see if she was telling the truth about the elevator and stairwell also being locked. I was too keyed up, too saddened by my dream about Rafe to even attempt going back to sleep.
Holding my breath, I stepped out into the hallway, waiting for an alarm to go off or maybe for Charles to pop out and start screaming at me.
When nothing happened, I exhaled in relief and began my exploration of the darkened corridors.
Chapter Fifteen
Door after door. Wow, HQ was so exciting. Except that it wasn’t. And now I was lost. I smacked my hand against my forehead, wishing I had bothered to remember what number my room was. Might as well keep going. The elevator has to be around here somewhere.
I turned a corner and yep, there it was. I rushed over, smashing the down button a billion times (because that makes it come up faster), but nothing happened. Frustrated, I kicked the door a couple of times, which was equally useless. And now my toes were throbbing. Argh! I pulled at my hair, opened my mouth, but decided at the last moment not to scream. Screaming would make the hunters come running, and I really, really didn’t want to see them tonight.
Actually, if I could avoid ever seeing them again, that would be perfect.
With the elevator ruled out, I decided to check out the stairs. Maybe someone had forgotten to lock them tonight. Yeah, like it would be that easy…
The hallways were deserted, quiet, which was odd; I wondered if most of the hunters lived on other floors. I mean, every single room couldn’t possibly be occupied, could it? I could totally picture Nina being the only one living on the sixth floor. Although, if that were the case, then wouldn’t she have painted the whole damn floor pink? I shuddered at that horrible mental image and turned the corner, passing by an open door.
Hold on. I backtracked on tiptoes and peeked in to see Philip in the middle of undressing. I froze, feeling like a pervert as I watched him shimmy out of a sweaty t-shirt and grab another one from a pile on his bed. He dressed quickly, but not before I saw a large scar on his left shoulder that looked like it hurt a lot. Was it from demon hunting? Still, how could I ask him about it? “Hi, I saw you undressing the other night—where’s that scar from?” Realizing that I didn’t want to be caught staring, I inched away, but the floor decided at that moment to creak, giving me away.
Philip paused, looking up. “Gabiella?”
Whoa. He remembered my name. My correct name. I knew I liked this guy for a reason. Even if he was currently staring at me oddly. Oh yeah, because I had been watching him undress. “Uh, hi. I’m not creepy, I swear.”
“What?” Philip let out a surprised bark of laughter. “Oh, because you saw me change?” He laughed again. “It’s okay. I’m flattered, but I guess I should tell you what Scott said earlier is true. I like guys.” He ducked his head slightly, watching me through his eyelashes as he waited for my reaction. Like he was expecting me to denounce him on the spot and run away screaming before I caught his gay cooties.
Instead, I hopped into the room (geez, I was turning into Nina) and chirped, “Me too! What a crazy coincidence! No wonder we’re best friends!”
His worried expression melted into pure relief. “Yeah, definitely.” Clearing a spot from his bed, he gestured for me to sit down. “So, what’s up?” he asked as I snuck a few glances around the room. It was cozy, Philip’s room. And not pink. Thank the universe it wasn’t pink. There were a few sports posters hanging on the walls, and instead of books on his bookshelf, it was crammed with weights. No wonder he’s so built, I thought. Dirty clothes were strewn everywhere—typical of every teenage boy that wasn’t Rafe the neat freak—and Philip hurried to pick them all up, stuffing them into a laundry bag.
“I was sleeping and then I woke up and…” I hesitated. Tossing the full laundry bag into a corner, Philip settled down on the bed next to me, sitting cross-legged. His expression was earnest, and I couldn’t help but be honest with him. “I was trying to find a way to escape.”
“Oh.” He nodded. “I don’t blame you. This place sucks. Sometimes I pretend when I go out those doors, I’m finally leaving, but then… I don’t.”
“Why don’t you?” I asked, even though I suspected the truth.
“I have nowhere to go.” Philip reached over to the table next to his bed and picked up a stress ball. He squeezed it tightly, the veins on his arms popping out. “No money, no house, no family…”
“I’m sorry Charles is your dad,” I said before I could stop myself.
He shook his head. “Yeah, tell me about it. If they ever gave away awards for the biggest bastard dad, he’d win every single year.” He stopped squeezing the ball to throw it up in the air, catching it when it came down. “I’m sorry he found out about you. If you really are a Soul Healer…” He trailed off, and I was actually grateful that he had. We both knew what that meant for me, and it wasn’t good.
“Who do the two of you want me to bring back to life?” I asked.
Philip grimaced. “You’re going to think I’m the worst person in the world, but the person I want to bring back is different from my dad’s choice. He wants to bring back my mom.”
I swallowed hard. Philip’s mom was dead? God, that sucked. “And you don’t?”
“She died when I was a baby,” he explained, a faraway look in his eyes as he stared across the room. “I don’t remember her at all. The only things I know about her are what my dad told me. So I mean, yeah, of course I want her to be alive, but there’s someone else, someone I actually knew, that I want to bring back…” He glanced at me. “You probably think I’m a real jerk.”
“No, I don’t. I was actually wondering if it’s better that way, to lose her before you knew her.” I clapped a hand over my mouth, turning red. “I’m sorry, that came out wrong. I’m not usually such a bitch, I swear.”
But Philip wasn’t pissed at me. “Did you lose your mom, too?”
“Actually…” I picked at a loose thread on the cuff of my borrowed hoodie. “She left when I was nine, and I haven’t seen or heard from her since.” I couldn’t believe I was telling a virtual stranger my darkest secrets, but there was something about Philip that made him so easy to talk to. I had really meant it when I said I wanted to be his friend earlier. “And it hurts, Philip, it hurts every freaking day, so maybe it’s better that you were spared that heartbreak.”
He put a hand over mine and squeezed lightly before pulling
away. “Maybe you’re right. And you can call me Phil, you know.”
I smiled shyly. “Only if you call me Gabi.”
“Deal.” We shook on it, and I laughed.
“Why are you so easy to talk to?”
“I don’t know,” he said. “I think it’s a gay thing.”
“Oh my god.” I swatted him and he grinned. “If you don’t mind me asking, who do you want me to bring back to life? If I can even do that, which I’m not saying I can,” I added quickly.
Philip immediately sobered. “Sam. Sam Chen, Alexandra’s older brother. He was my best friend and… I was in love with him.”
Chapter Sixteen
Oh. I swallowed hard. Already I could feel my cheeks burning up. Love… Wow. I hadn’t expected to hear him say something so serious. Besides Penny and Harrison, the freaks of nature who had found true love at such a young age, no one else my age was throwing that word around. Not when people hooked up and broke up in the same week. “How old are you again?” I blurted out.
Philip looked amused. “I’m nineteen now. But I was fifteen when I realized I loved Sam. We had known each other since we were babies. We grew up together, trained together, and fought together. Hunters usually fight in pairs—it’s safe, and it also helps with the cleanup process.” He paused. “You do know all the details about hunting, right?”
“I’ve seen Rafe—alone, usually—take out quite a few demons.” I began checking things off on my fingers. “You have to chop their heads off to kill them. Green blood flies everywhere and it tastes really disgusting when it gets in your mouth—”
“What!” Philip laughed. “Why were you eating it?”
“Ugh, I was actually screaming when Rafe decided to do some beheading and the nasty crap ended up in my mouth.” My stomach rolled. Talking about it made me remember what it tasted like. Nasty, nasty.
“Okay, I’m a little confused. You and Rafe are…”
The Soul Healer Page 7
