03 Saints

by Lynnie Purcell

  “A priest took him in, gave him shelter; gave him a new life. He was grateful, so grateful he decided a conversion wasn’t out of the question.”

  “So, why are you upset?” Reaper asked. “That sounds like more than most of our friends on the streets got.”

  Daniel paused; it was a pause I recognized too well. Something had happened that he felt guilty about.

  “I found him in his church. I was young, foolish; I told him my secret, thinking I could trust an old friend. His reaction was the opposite of what I had thought it would be. He called me ‘demon’ ‘soulless’ ‘creature.’ Our friendship was as wind blowing through the desert. He went crazy with his accusations. I started to leave, upset, and angry his memory was so short... He attacked me as I tried to leave. I pushed him away. That’s all. A simple push. But it was too hard. I was still new to my strength. He flew back and cracked his skull on the wall. His death was immediate…”

  Reaper sighed knowingly. “That’s unfortunate. I’ve run across a few I thought I could trust. It can be lonely being us, can’t it?”

  “Yes,” Daniel admitted.

  “You blame yourself?” Reaper asked.

  “Of course,” Daniel said.

  “You shouldn’t. Isra was a stupid, bigoted, religious nut,” Reaper said. “He always was. I’m not saying he deserved to die, but he did a lot of stupid things, things without thinking. He chose to attack, and you reacted. You are not to blame.”

  “Words!” Daniel scoffed.

  “Truth,” Reaper replied.

  They were silent for a moment, both considering what Daniel had just said. I was doing my own thinking. I suddenly understood the tattoo on Daniel’s arm, the name written in Arabic, and knew ‘Isra’ had been his first kill. His first kill had been an accident, one he still carried around with him. I also knew there was no one better to tell Daniel it wasn’t his fault than the man who had known them both in their youth. Reaper would help Daniel let go of a past Daniel couldn’t change. And if there was anything I knew about Daniel, it was the fact that he needed to learn to let go. He carried too much of his guilt around with him, never letting it rest as he should.

  I backed away from the door, as they started sharing stories about Isra. I went to the window to stare up at the stars, lost in what Daniel had said. The warmth of our time together filled me up with happiness, despite the gravity of his story. The stars glittering in the dark, the happiness circling my heart, I decided to do something I hadn’t done in a long time. It was something I would have never done two weeks ago.

  I picked up the guitar Daniel had bought me and tuned it. I strummed it once, to make sure it sounded the way I wanted, loving its rich sound after going so long without it. Then, I started playing, softly, so I wouldn’t disturb anyone. My smile of excitement and happiness changed into a more peaceful smile as my fingers introduced themselves to the strings again after so long apart. It was my own version of letting go – of finding a way to unburden the sins I carried in my chest. Despite my attempt to be quiet, my playing did not go unnoticed.

  A soft knock sounded from the door. Alex appeared in my door, her face obscured by the darkness in my room. The only hint of light was in her blonde hair.

  “Daniel said you were asleep.”

  “I was,” I said.

  She moved through the door and sat next to me on the bed.

  “Reaper is going to let me help with some organizational things. I wanted to go out like the others, but he said the Saints wouldn’t trust me until I proved myself...and I told him I wouldn’t steal from other people, even if those people are bad.”

  “At least you have a job,” I said over my playing. “It’s better than nothing.”

  “I know...I’m not complaining. It’s exciting what we’re doing. I don’t think I’ve been this excited in a long time,” she said.

  “It doesn’t hurt there are a lot of cute boys hanging around either, does it?” I teased her.

  “Oh, goodness, no.” I felt her eyes rake my face in the darkness. “Why do you keep grinning like an idiot?”

  My embarrassed, though truthful, reply was cut short. A car horn sounded from the front of the school, loud against the more muted sounds of the night. I set the guitar down, and Alex and I went to the window to investigate the source of the noise. The horn sounded again and a woman stepped out from behind the wheel. Her brown hair and voice were familiar. She had been at the original poker game I had witnessed during my first day at the school, though I didn’t know her name.

  “River!” the woman yelled. “I need you!”

  People started running out the front doors to join her at the front of the school. I turned away from the window and hurried to join them, pulling Alex after me. Reaper and Daniel met us in the hall, their eyes concerned. With them in front, we ran to the first floor. People jumped out of the way at Reaper’s approach, his fierce look enough of a battering ram to clear the hall.

  “What’s going on?” Reaper asked when we reached the car.

  “We were ambushed!” the woman said.

  She opened the door to the backseat, and I saw two people, a man and woman, covered in silver blood; their own blood. The man held his wounds, while the woman appeared to have passed out from her injuries. As I watched, the man shut his eyes and stopped moving. It was startling – I had never seen two Watchers bleed that much without dying. I had never seen the veil between life and death so closed-in for their kind….it was more human than I was expecting.

  “Where’s River?” Reaper asked, moving to look at their wounds.

  “Here! I’m here,” she said fighting her way through the growing crowd.

  She leaned over the backseat and started working on the pair, her hands moving to check wounds and survey the extent of the damage. Daniel went to the other side of the car, his face full of purpose. He looked more certain than River as he looked at the girl’s wounds, which wasn’t a good thing for the girl. His eyes reflected his worry; worry based in knowledge. River looked at him looking at the girl, her face reflecting her curiosity. She was obviously wondering what he was doing stepping in on her unofficial role within the Saints.

  Daniel didn’t notice. He was too focused on the task at hand.

  “Do you have medical training?” Daniel asked River from his side of the car.

  “Just what I’ve read,” she admitted.

  “Alright then, this is what we need to do…”

  He listed what they needed, his certainty bringing some order to the chaos. River ran off the get supplies, while Daniel picked up the girl and Reaper picked up the guy. They carried the pair inside as quickly as they could. Daniel went in to the first room off the entranceway and placed the girl on an abandoned desk. Reaper put the guy on a desk next to her. The crowd followed them, to be near their friends, but Daniel wasn’t eager for the distraction of an audience.

  Without looking away from the girl’s wounds he said, “Reaper?”

  It was enough of a clue to what he wanted.

  “Everyone out,” Reaper said. “Go on, he needs his space to work. We’ll keep you updated.”

  Everyone left, except for the woman who had driven the car. Her eyes were mad as she paced far enough away from the tables to not bother Daniel. She was the most normal looking Watcher I had seen. She was modern, sophisticated, but simple. Her grace was not as obvious. I sensed it was on purpose.

  “Someone told them we would be there, Reaper. There’s no other way they could have known,” she said, biting her nail as she paced.

  “We’ll talk about it later, Elizabeth, I promise,” Reaper said. “Right now it’s important you get rid of that car. Can you do that?”

  She was reluctant but didn’t argue with his question. “Yeah. I’ll take care of it.”

  She moved back out into the hall, where the onlookers were gathered as close to the door as they dared. River passed her on her way in, compassion in her eyes. The woman, Elizabeth, didn’t seem to register the comp
assion; she was too lost in her anger.

  River’s arms were full of bandages and medical tools; some looked old and well-used but I knew their condition wouldn’t matter to Daniel.

  “Clare, come here,” Daniel commanded as River joined him. “Put your hands here and hold this. I need to look at the other one.”

  He forced me to press my hands against a gaping gunshot wound. I did as he asked, his command making me move before thinking. Silver blood drenched my hands in seconds as I pressed them against her skin. I cringed away from the blood but kept my hands in place. I knew a life depended on it. I had never felt so immediately and intimately responsible for a life.

  “River, help me with this,” Daniel commanded.

  Daniel cut away the man’s shirt to get a better look at his wounds. As he worked, he made River clean the tools she had brought down with whiskey stolen from an unwitting Watcher’s room. His green eyes were full of knowledge as he surveyed the man’s gunshots, categorizing things I couldn’t begin to understand. When River was done sanitizing the tools, Daniel picked a scalpel up and cut in to the man without hesitation.

  “Where’d you learn all this?” River asked as he cut. His steady hand and expression gave away his experience.

  “Harvard,” he replied.

  “He lost a bet and had to go to medical school,” I added, trying to keep my eyes focused on them, instead of the blood pooling around my hands. At least they were doing something proactive. All I could do was waste time as the woman slowly died in my hands.

  “You are full of surprises, old friend,” Reaper as he took up Elizabeth’s pacing.

  I sensed him dwelling on Elizabeth’s words around his worry for his fighters. Even in a moment of worry he was forced to think of politics, of possible betrayal and what it meant for him and his group. It was his business; a business I did not envy.

  “Can I help?” Alex asked as she leaned against the wall to avoid his pacing.

  Daniel pulled a bullet from the man’s chest and put it on to a silver tray. He handed the scalpel to River.

  “I’ve got the more serious bullet out. Come here and stem the bleeding, while River gets the second bullet out. I need to look at the girl again,” he told Alex.

  He took Alex’s hands and showed her where to place them. Alex looked sick at the sight of the blood, but her hands were steady as she pressed against the man’s chest.

  Daniel ghosted to my side, as if he had suddenly sprouted wings, his purposeful grace carrying him across the space silently.

  “I need to open her up, to get the bullet and make sure there’s no internal bleeding. Hand me what I need when I ask for it, okay?” he asked.

  “Okay,” I agreed.

  He went to work, cutting her shirt away and digging out the bullets in her chest. I kept my hands pressed against the wounds he wasn’t working on. What if I let go and she suffered for it? What if I messed it up somehow? Daniel was calm, though, focused in a way I had never seen him before. His hands were confident, his eyes reflecting years of applied practice. Every movement meant something. It gave me confidence.

  Even his steady calm and practiced skill was not enough to save the girl.

  I watched helplessly as her life slowly drained from her body with every passing second. I saw the subtle shift of emotions in Daniel’s face as he did everything he could to retrieve the multiple bullets in her body and stop the internal bleeding. Hope finally disappeared from his eyes.

  She stopped breathing, the pain leaving her face as she took her last breath.

  “That’s it,” he said quietly closing her eyes.

  “But…” I started to protest.

  “She’s gone,” he said.

  I backed away from the girl, feeling stunned. Daniel didn’t have time to feel stunned. He moved over to the man, taking over for River, who had managed to get one bullet out of the man and was working on another. Alex backed away as he approached, the blood on her hands a gruesome tribute to the violence of the attack. Reaper stopped pacing and approached the girl.

  “I’m sorry,” Reaper said to her, taking her hand gently.

  When he took her hand I saw that the girl had painted her nails an ice blue. It was a color I had at the house; a color I loved. For some reason, it made me feel connected to her. Alex approached the girl as well, her eyes sad at the death. She stepped beside Reaper and put her hand on the girl’s arm. Reaper dropped the girl’s hand, when he felt Alex next to him, and backed away. His eyes full of sorrow – and darker, purposeful thoughts of what the attack meant – he left the room to tell his people the news.

  It was clear that Reaper’s world was a lot more dangerous than I had thought. I had known danger lurked everywhere, but this was the first death I had witnessed, without it being the heat of battle. Even this haven was not immune to the brutal nature of our existence.

  “What do you think that girl meant that it was an ambush?” Alex asked me after a moment.

  “Exactly what it sounds like,” I said, not taking my eyes off the girl.

  “You think someone-”

  “Don’t talk about this here,” River said abruptly, cutting Alex’s words short.

  Alex nodded, and we watched as they pulled another bullet out of the man.

  “That’s the last one. He got lucky, nothing hit his heart. The silver will make his healing slower, but I think he’ll be okay,” Daniel said.

  River’s relief was tainted by her sadness at losing the girl. Daniel glanced at the dead girl then looked at River again.

  “I’ve got this, if you want to let Reaper know this man is going to live,” he told her gently.

  She nodded and started toward the door, wiping her hands on a white rag as she went. Daniel brought the man’s skin together and placed a row of sticky strips across the wound, sealing it, so it could heal itself. When he was done, he sat on a chair as far away from the girl as he could get.

  “It’s been a long time since I’ve had to operate like that,” Daniel admitted. “Not since I worked days in an ER in Chicago.”

  “When was that?” I asked.

  “The eighties. I got bored sitting around all day. It helped me keep an eye out for unusual happenings in the city…then I’d go take care of those things at night.” He looked down at his slender, blood-soaked hands. “I’d forgotten how it felt.”

  “Good or bad?” I asked him.

  He looked up and dropped his hands. “Both.” He pointed at the man. “He needs to be moved. Do you mind getting someone to help me, Alex? He shouldn’t be jostled too much.”

  “Sure,” she agreed, heading for the door.

  When she came back, she had Preacher with her. Preacher went to the girl on the table first, and bent his head for a moment; his lips moved over a silent prayer. When he was done, he turned to help Daniel move the man. They picked his up and left in silence. Alex followed after them. I stayed with the girl. I didn’t want to leave her alone; it felt too sad. She deserved company after everything she had been through. Elizabeth found me sitting there moments later. She cursed when she saw the girl, and her eyes filled with dark fire.

  “This is wrong!” she fumed, taking up her pacing again.

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  “I don’t care if we all know this is the risk we take. She had just turned seventeen. She was so young!”

  “Yeah,” I agreed.

  Elizabeth continued on, all but ignoring me. “If I had been more careful, made them wait downstairs, while I checked out the area…”

  “You’d be here instead of her. Wouldn’t change the fact that the Saints have a problem to deal with,” I said. “Or that you have the power to fix it.”

  Elizabeth looked at me, her hands on her hips. She had stopped pacing to stare at me. “You’re right…Who are you?”

  “Clare.”

  “You just join?” she asked.

  “I guess,” I said.

  “Does Reaper have you stealing cars and causing mischief?” she
asked lightly.

  She seemed ready to write me off as inexperienced and young.

  “No. Not until I get better,” I said.

  “Better?”

  “I was shot…in the shoulder,” I admitted.

  I touched the shoulder in question. She looked at my shoulder then focused on my face. She remembered me around her anger.

  “Oh…you’re the one everyone has been talking about. The girl King is friendly with.”

  “That’s how people are describing me?” I asked.

  “He’s got a reputation here…you don’t yet,” she said with a shrug.

  “I’m not sure if that’s good or bad,” I said.

  Elizabeth was done with chatting. “I’ve got to report to Reaper,” she said.

  “Okay.”

  She looked at the girl one last time. “Bye.”

  I wasn’t sure which one of us she was saying ‘goodbye’ to.

  Daniel found me in the same spot a couple of minutes later. He had cleaned his hands off, though there was still blood on his shirt. He avoided looking at the girl.

  “Reaper is having a meeting downstairs. He wants you there.”

  “Oh…okay…” I said reluctantly.

  He helped me stand and led me out of the room. From our touch, I knew my sadness was shared.

  The rug covering the hole in the floor was already pushed back when we got there. I followed Daniel down the hole, to the silver room. Most of Reaper’s ‘generals’ were waiting. The room wasn’t large enough for all the people that were there, but we managed to squeeze in. Alex was squished in the far corner between Preacher and River, doing her best to look comfortable. Margaret and Jackson were near the door. Margaret touched Daniel on the arm, communicating with him silently. She lowered her hand as Reaper shut the door behind us.

  “Tell them,” Reaper ordered Elizabeth.

  Elizabeth repeated the same thing she had told me, her words passionate with the possibility of a spy in the organization. Reaper let her talk, motionless as her words flowed around the room. I thought he was just being polite, but then I noticed that he was watching the room; watching for reactions. Daniel’s eyes also scanned the crowd. I didn’t know what they thought they would find. Everyone’s expression was stoic as they listened. They were all good at hiding their thoughts.