Falling From Grace (Grace Series)
Page 32
I must have focused more energy in looking like I was concentrating than actually concentrating because soon, I was shaking with the vibrations from Sam’s laughter. It was annoying.
“You are definitely an interesting girl.” The way he said “interesting” sounded very insulting.
I tried not to look as exasperated as I felt, and realizing that it was practically impossible, I gave up. “Why am I an interesting girl?”
The smile on his face turned wry. “You just are. I wouldn’t have ever expected you to be the type that Rob would choose, but you are definitely unique in your own way.”
“How can someone just be interesting? Something has to make someone interesting. Like, being funny, smart, witty, or talented at something,” I responded.
He shrugged his shoulders. “You’re interesting because you are.”
“And you, Sam, are absolutely un-interesting. For an angel, you are quite boring.”
Again, he started laughing, throwing his head back and allowing his voice to carry out. And yet it was unremarkable. How is it that someone so beautiful could be so…blah?
Not wanting to turn this into a who was more interesting contest, I decided to change the subject. “So, you’re Robert’s adopted brother. How? He’s never mentioned you before.”
“In your world, he would be known as my protégé, my pupil if you will. In ours, I’m his big brother. It is a title of familiarity, and so joins us, binds us to each other in the way that blood can’t,” he answered.
I thought about that for a bit. It seemed a bit ridiculous that the title alone would be enough to make them brothers. But the fact that an angel couldn’t lie could not be ignored either. He had said that Robert was his brother. Lark and Robert had as well. “So, you’re a part of the Robert package then?”
He nodded, smiling as he understood what I meant. “Yes. I am.”
There was nothing for it. I was going to have to get used to the idea of Sam if I had any hope of Robert getting used to the idea of me. “Well then, Sam, I’m Grace. Nice to meet you,” I took a step back and held out my hand.
Laughing once more, he took it and shook it, forcefully. “Pleased to make your acquaintance, Grace.”
Unsure now how to proceed after such a sterile greeting, we both stared at each other in the middle of the dance floor while bodies moved around us in an organized jumble of limbs, skirts, and the occasional coattail. He smiled, seemingly pleased at how utterly confounded I was. “Would you like to continue our dance?” he asked, and smiled again when he knew that I would answer in the negative.
I started to walk away, the need to bathe on the forefront of my mind, when a strong, yet gentle set of hands pulled me into an unnatural spin, away from Sam, away from the crowd, and away from the dance floor. I saw a blur of black in my movement, felt the back of my hand scrape against something rough, but couldn’t see who it was that had decided to be my savior until a few moments after I was allowed to sit down and hold my head still.
“Lark!” I wheezed. It was very difficult to focus on anything other than my feet, but I knew it was her by the color of her dress. “Aren’t you supposed to wear a darker color than the bride?” I muttered, not exactly pleased with her near nausea inducing antics.
She snorted. “Like I’m supposed to take fashion advice from someone who needed her boyfriend to pick out her dress?”
I shook my head. “He’s not my boyfriend.”
That seemed to surprise Lark, because instead of her usual snort, she…she did nothing.
“I don’t know what he is. I don’t know what we are,” I sighed.
“But isn’t this a date? I could have sworn I kept hearing that in his head.” Lark seemed puzzled. “You know, none of his other girlfriends ever seemed to have any doubt as to where their relationships stood with Robert. I think perhaps you should ask him what you two are.”
I groaned. It was a very loud groan. Sheepish, too. “He asked me that yesterday.”
“And…”
I looked at her, and then glanced away quickly when I started speaking, ashamed. “I told him that we were good friends.”
As if it were a trend to start laughing at me, Lark did just that. “Oh Grace, you are an idiot. Robert cares a great deal for you, and he already views you as his girlfriend. You’re the one who labeled yourself. Or, should I say you’re the one who failed to label yourself.”
I scowled at her. I knew that I’d end up with one permanent crease in my forehead as a result, and I’d gladly name it Lark to remind me who put it there, because I had no other expression at my disposal to use.
She laughed again. “Don’t get angry, Grace. Look, if it makes you feel better, you’re the first person that Robert’s ever introduced to the whole family.”
I looked at her quizzically. “What do you mean, the whole family? You mean you, your mother, and Sam? Meeting you and your mother—okay, meeting your mother was nice—you and I obviously worked our way around our first meeting—but trying to make me feel better by saying that I’m the first person to meet Sam almost sounds like an insult.”
I should have kept my mouth shut, because Lark starting laughing once again. She gripped her sides, as though it would somehow help contain her laughter. Fat chance. I waited impatiently before finally allowing some of her humor creep into me.
“I see that smile, Grace Shelley,” she teased. She came towards me, and instinctually I flinched. “Oh please, haven’t you learned to trust me yet?” Without appearing to have moved at all, she was by my side, her arm wrapped around my waist, squeezing me like a girlfriend would. “You know what? I’ve met every single girl that Robert’s ever dallied with, dated, flirted with, and so on. But with the exception of Ellie, who already knew our secret, he’s never told anyone of the others what he was. He’s never dared.
“And yes, he’s never brought any of them to meet Sam either, who, for some ridiculous notion, he loves like an actual brother, so you should feel honored, rather than disgusted. But—I totally support your disgust, and will stand side by side with you in disgustdom. Together, we shall rule with absolute disgustation!”
It was my turn to laugh loudly, understanding now why one needs to hold onto their sides while doing so. It took a moment before I was able to speak, but when I started it was with a slightly less amused tone, “I don’t get it, Lark. Sam is beautiful, the vision that I would have had pop into my head when asked what I thought an angel would have looked like before I met your brother…”
“So why does he give you the creeps?” Lark finished.
I nodded, “Yeah! Why?”
“Unfortunately I can’t answer that question for you. Only he can. But, Sam received the call over two millennia ago, so he’s rarely ever around, which means you’ll probably only see him during special occasions. Be glad for it. The human sense of time is much slower than ours. For you, a month is like a day for us.”
I stared at Lark, my face totally deadpanned. “That’s it? That’s all I get?”
She shrugged her shoulders. “What? You act as though I can read minds or something.”
I did it before I could stop myself. I knew I shouldn’t have done it, but it happened, and in the split second that it took for me to swing my arm back a bit and punch Lark in the arm, much like I had Graham, much like I had even Stacy, I had brought the entire wedding party to a standstill.
Lark’s face was one of shock. The exact same expression was on every face that had turned to stare at the two of us, human and angel alike. I looked at her, my lip trembling, and sagged in relief as I realized that she knew that I had not done it because I had wanted to hurt her.
“I think I’m actually flattered that you regard our relationship with such ease and familiarity,” she said, a strained smile on her face. “How is your hand?”
I shrugged, “My hand? It’s fi—holy crap!”
My hand looked like it should hurt. No. It looked like it should be completely numb and dead, hanging off
of my arm, useless. It was completely covered in purplish bruises, the pinky looking distorted a bit, and the nail on my index finger was missing. “What the hell happened to my hand?” I shrieked, panic bubbling up within me.
A gasp erupted among the crowd, and I didn’t know if it was because of what I had done to Lark, or because of how my hand looked. I looked at her face, trying to see if this was completely normal. She was stoic, inspecting my hand with surgical precision, turning it by minute degrees, her eyes moving so quickly I felt dizzy just watching her. I shook my head and knew that if my hand didn’t hurt, and if she wasn’t shocked by the way it looked, then the crowd that had now surrounded us were doing so because I had probably committed some heinous crime and were about to descend upon me like some angelic plague.
I heard a loud woosh, and in one astounding moment, the crowd of people that had seemed so heavenly and menacing at the same time parted, ironically, like the red sea. But they soon gathered once again, converging upon me like a swarm of beautiful bees. Only when they were close could I see that it wasn’t anger or fear that they were feeling, but rather curiosity. Of course they were curious. I was the oddity, after all.
I really was a superfreak. I had just punched someone who could kill me before anyone would have noticed. “Oh, I’m such an idiot.” I mumbled, resting my head in my free hand.
“You’re not an idiot, Grace,” the soft voice that I had wanted to hear—but at the same time didn’t—whispered in my ear. He brushed my hair out of my face, and forced me to look at him. “Your human instincts might be a novelty to some of those who are here in normal situations, but knowing what you know, and yet seeing that you still did…that—it is very interesting to them, especially the electus patronus who would never dream of doing such a thing.”
He took my hand away from Lark, who was still examining the myriad of hues ranging from one shade of blue to the deepest purple. “The pattern is interesting, isn’t it? Like a honeycomb. Fascinating…”
He nodded, and splayed my fingers, wincing as he did so. Robert’s head jerked up as his face turned towards me. “You didn’t scream,” he gasped. The crowd surrounding us murmured their shock.
I stared at him. “Was I supposed to? I will if it’ll make you feel better.” I opened my mouth, practicing the motions I would use to produce one.
A pair of identical creases formed at the corners of his eyebrows, framing a deeper indentation between them. “With bruising like this, you should be experiencing extreme pain, Grace. Look at your hand.” He dangled my hand in front of me like a carrot, waiting for the horse of shock to lead me forward towards recognition.
“It doesn’t hurt,” I said simply.
His mouth took on the shape of a beautiful grimace. He groaned when he heard my thoughts. And he groaned when he realized that I knew he wasn’t pleased. Well, it did look beautiful!
“Grace, do you understand how seriously strange this is?” Robert snapped.
The tone in his voice caused me to shrink back a bit, pulling my hand with me. “Strange is a relative term, don’t you think? I mean, I’m standing in the middle of a wedding party for people who work for mythical creatures that aren’t even supposed to exist. I’ve been hit by a car and left for dead, yet here I am, alive and well-”
“With a purple hand,” Robert held my wrist back up, as if to emphasize his point.
I snatched it back and continued, “-alive and well and in a dress. In my world, that last fact is the epitome of strange. It beats a purple hand any day of the week, so no, I don’t understand how strange that is because right now, the only thing that seems strange to me is why you’re just staring at it instead of healing it.”
I heard a few murmurs of approval in the audience that surrounded us, and I waited, dangling my hand in his face this time. “Are you going to help me out, or do I have to ask your Mom to do it? I know she can heal a little, and if I’m not screaming in pain, it can’t be that bad.”
“Maybe he forgot how?” a voice I recognized as Sam’s said quietly.
Perhaps it was because it was Sam that had said it, perhaps it was because it was said in front of so many people, but I began to feel quite guilty in making Robert the object of ridicule when it was my own foolishness that had caused me to be in this mess in the first place. I looked up at him, not wanting to see embarrassment, or hurt in his eyes—or worse…nothing at all. Instead, they were liquid, flowing, and he was smiling.
I snap at you and you’re concerned about how I’m feeling. I don’t think I deserve to have you in my life, Grace, but I’m ever grateful for it.
I held my hand out to him, nicely this time. “Could you fix my hand, please?” I held my breath as he kissed it, starting at the tips of my fingers, and moving to the grape-like objects that could only be my knuckles. He turned my hand over and blew into my palm. His warm breath caused me to shiver, and I thought that to be a strange reaction. Strange indeed.
He closed my hand, and I watched amazed as the colors seemed to wash away, like paint, from my hand. It was like looking at a kaleidoscope, the changing shapes, patterns, and colors swirling beneath my skin. When the last of the purple had finally faded away, an eruption of applause surrounded us. The grins and praise from everyone around us were a testament to the gift that he possessed.
I looked at Robert, sure that he’d be pleased with the reaction of the crowd, but instead, he looked upset. Panicky even. “Robert, what’s wrong?”
He pulled me to him, and dragged me towards something. Or was it someone? No. It was both. It was a wheelchair.
“Ellie, Grace and I have to leave now. I came to tell you goodbye, but before that, I wanted to tell you that you have impacted my life in so many ways. You were my first true human friend. You have given me something that I couldn’t have been able to gain on my own, and I will always be grateful to have known an incredible person like you.”
He got down on both knees, leaned in and kissed her. I turned away, the moment being too private for me to witness. He was saying goodbye to her, and I knew what that meant. Whatever it was that they needed to share now, I couldn’t take that away from them with my feelings of jealousy or inadequacy. I would have hated myself for it.
It was only when I felt Robert’s hand squeeze mine did I turn around to say my own farewell. And the tears that I did not know were there, did not expect, suddenly started to spill over. “Thank you, Ellie, for taking care of Robert all this time.” I didn’t know what else to say.
She reached her arms up for me, and I went into them, allowing her to embrace me, comfort me. If I did not know that she was looking forward to her fate, I would have found the situation to be quite ironic, but I knew better. Instead, I felt the selfish sadness that I would never get to hear the thousands of stories of her time with Robert that I knew she had stored in her sharp mind.
“Thank you, Grace, for ensuring me that Robert has finally found his home,” she whispered into my ear, her voice so soft, I strained to hear it, but knew that even if I had not, each word had somehow burned itself into my mind, the imprint of the first memory as she had called it.
She kissed my forehead, like a grandmother would, and then let me go. She looked at Robert, who was still kneeling on the ground, and smiled, “So Sam’s taking me home?”
He nodded, smiling sadly. “Yes. You don’t have anything to worry about tonight.”
She nodded, her face peaceful. “That’s good. I’m done with worrying. Especially about you. You be happy, Robbie. And you take care of this one. She’s special. I can tell just by looking at her.”
When she winked at me, I couldn’t help but smile and wink back. It was exactly what she wanted, and she beamed at me, her blue eyes twinkling like sapphire stars in her face. “Goodbye, Grace. May life always bring you unexpected happiness.”
Puzzled, I asked her why.
She waved as Robert pulled me away, her voice trailing behind me, “Because that’s exactly what love is dear.”
As we approached the gravel parking lot, Robert’s pace slowed. He searched among the cars for the one that had brought us here, and, finding it, tapped on the glass. A movement could be seen in the front cab, and I realized that the driver had fallen asleep.
“Why didn’t he come and join the party?” I asked, shocked that he could have been left out intentionally.
Robert smiled knowingly, “Because he used to date Hannah, and that would have been quite awkward, don’t you think?”
I nodded my head. “Quite.”
The driver, who I later learned was named Thomas, emerged from the driver’s side door and opened the rear passenger side door for us. I thanked him and slid in, muttering to myself about how unnecessary it was, having someone else open the door for you when you had two—no—four perfectly useful hands that could have done it themselves.
As soon as the door was shut and the driver was inside, we were moving, leaving. To me, it felt like we were running away. I didn’t like that. I had been doing that for too long now, and I knew that the problems only followed you where you went.
“Robert, why did we have to leave?” I looked at the clock on the dashboard console, noticing that it read fifteen minutes after ten. “We still have over an hour…”
His face looked so composed, I thought I’d get some feedback that would have helped to lead the way to answering some of the remaining questions that I had. Instead, what I got was, “Thank you for your input, Captain Obvious.”