by G. P. Ching
She reached across the table and laid her hand on Dane’s arm. “You can take care of yourself, Dane. You may not be a Soulkeeper, but you are one tough dude and you make up the difference in heart.”
It was Jacob’s turn to roll his eyes and stare out the window. But Dane was quick to show he appreciated the sentiment. “Thanks, Malini. I needed to hear that.”
His voice held a twinge of belligerence, a tangle of things unsaid that left all of them silent and looking in opposite directions.
Malini attempted to rescue the conversation. “So, what’s this big news you were trying to tell me at lunch, anyway?”
Jacob leaned into the table, bracing himself on his elbows and looking from side to side. Malini and Dane checked over their shoulders and leaned in as well.
“There’s a Watcher in Paris again,” Jacob said.
Dane paled. “Who? Where?”
“We don’t know but we think it’s influenced Katrina. When I came home yesterday there was a knife sunk into my bed.”
Malini’s hand went to her heart. “What?”
“She’s been acting really odd. We don’t actually know if she wielded the knife but Dr. Silva sensed Watcher all over her. It’s definitely close.”
“Dr. Silva came over? What about the Laudners?”
“She had Mara stop time so that we could investigate.”
“You mean, so that Mara could investigate—”
“No, we held hands and everything else stopped but us.”
Malini squelched a tide of jealousy that rose from the pit of her stomach. Dr. Silva and Lillian were undoubtedly part of the handholding. She was sure it wasn’t romantic. “So, what did you find?”
“We couldn’t tell for sure if Katrina tried to kill me or if it was the Watcher. All we know is that a Watcher has come to Paris, Katrina is influenced, and they’ve targeted me.”
Malini swallowed hard. “What did Dr. Silva say we should do about that?”
“We’re going to wait and watch Katrina. Eventually she’ll have to lead us to it.”
“You’ll have to stay with me then. We can’t have her stabbing you in your sleep,” Malini said.
“The Watchers know who I am, Malini. The fact that they tried to stab me means it’s me they’re after. I can’t lead them to you.”
Malini squeezed Jacob’s hand and turned in the booth to face him full on. “That’s a chance I’m willing to take.”
He pulled away from her, pressing his back against the window. “It’s not one I’m willing to take. I was the one who killed Mordechai. I’m the one they want. They don’t know who you are, Malini, and we intend to keep it that way.”
“We?”
“Dr. Silva and Gideon are going to take turns keeping watch over you until we kill this thing.”
“And where will you be? Hey … where did you stay last night?”
“I stayed at Dr. Silva’s.”
“With Mara.”
“Yes with Mara. Dr. Silva’s house is enchanted. A Watcher can’t enter without being invited. I’ll be safe there.”
“Safe? Who’s going to keep you safe from Mara?”
“What’s that supposed to mean?”
“It means that she’s had trouble keeping her hands off of you, is all.”
“Malini, we talked about this. I’m not interested in Mara.”
Dane whistled loudly through his teeth. “Stop fighting, you two. Malini, everyone at this table knows that Jacob is in love with you. For Christ’s sake, he just about took my head off for suggesting I take you to prom.”
Malini straightened in her seat and looked down at the table.
“Yeah, and let’s not pretend any of us are going to get our way against Dr. Silva and Gideon. If they say you need protection, you get protection,” Jacob added.
“And to be perfectly honest, if they were offering, I’d take some protection, too. Let’s all remember what we’re dealing with here.” Dane pulled the sleeve of his shirt up, revealing the scar where the bone had ripped through skin, a reminder of the beating he’d taken from the Watcher who’d influenced him—Auriel. “She’s still out there somewhere, maybe closer than we think. And I’m not exactly on her list of BFFs.”
Malini covered her face with her hands. Jacob’s arm wrapped around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. With a deep breath, she calmed her nerves and lowered her hands to the table.
“You’re right. We all need to make sacrifices. This is bigger than all of us,” she murmured. She stood and turned for the door.
“Malini?”
“It’s almost six. I’ve got to go, Jacob. I’m not even supposed to be here.”
With both of them staring after her, she left, feeling drained of everything but her will to get beyond this. She stomped to her car and slipped behind the wheel, but didn’t start the engine. Instead, she allowed the tinted windows to shield her from the outside world and permitted herself to feel what she couldn’t in front of Jacob and Dane.
The tears came then. A few slipping down her cheeks before growing into face-drenching sobs. There was a hole inside of her. The binding that held her together had cracked and the stuff she’d always counted on to glue her pieces back in place was leaking uselessly into her blood stream. Fizz … pop … bang. She could feel her chemistry changing.
“Tell me what I’m supposed to do,” she screamed to Heaven. It wasn’t a prayer. It was a tantrum. Her fists hit the steering wheel in a rage that seemed to blossom from the inside out. “What am I supposed to be?” The question bounced off the windshield. “What’s the big secret?” Her fists pounded hard enough to leave bruises. “If you want me for your team of Soulkeepers, bring me on, but stop messing with my life!”
She closed her eyes and rested her forehead against her fists on the steering wheel. When that position became uncomfortable, she leaned back and allowed her eyes to wander down the row of main street businesses. They settled on the sign for Laudner’s Flowers and Gifts.
In her rearview mirror she saw Jacob and Dane emerge from McNaulty’s. She wiped her eyes, worried they’d want to talk again when they saw her car was still there. But they didn’t turn toward her. Dane walked in the direction of Westcott’s grocery and Jacob crossed the street toward his uncle’s shop.
“Where are you going, Jacob? We don’t work today?” Malini wondered out loud, then remembered. “Paycheck.”
She wiped her face off with a Kleenex from her glove compartment. Maybe if she hurried she could catch up with Jacob and get hers, too. It was a perfect excuse to explain why she was running late to her father.
Chapter 13
Breakthrough
Jacob entered Laudner’s Flowers and Gifts wanting nothing more than to grab his paycheck and get out of there. He was worried about Malini and needed to talk to Dr. Silva about what was going on.
“Mom? John?” he called toward the back room. Odd, there was no one at the front counter. Usually when the door opened and the bell chimed, someone came running. Jacob walked past the display of tulips and the cooler of cut arrangements. Whoever was working today must be preoccupied. He pushed open the swinging door to the back room.
What he saw behind the door made him stop so fast his sneakers squeaked against the marble. An icy prickle climbed his spine. On the stainless steel worktable, his mom was unconscious, bound, and gagged.
“Mom!” Jacob rushed forward but he didn’t make it to her. A knife stabbed into his left shoulder from behind. He screamed and turned toward his attacker, tearing himself free from the blade. Blood soaked his shirt and dripped to the carved stone floor. He reached out with his power and called the water to him. There was plenty. It exploded out of the vases and ran to his right hand, just in time to shield him from his attacker’s next blow.
The knife careened off the disc of ice that formed in front of him. “Katrina! Stop! What are you doing?” he yelled as her face came into view behind the knife.
“I’m killing you, Jacob,�
� she said. Her voice sounded raspy and her face was so pale she looked like a walking corpse. “Now hold still so I can finish the job.” She dove forward but Jacob transformed the shield into a blade and swept her arm up, deflecting the blow.
“Why are you doing this?”
“You killed Mordechai. Did you think you’d get away with it forever? The Dark Star is coming and when he does, there will be one less Soulkeeper to get in the way.”
She stabbed at his stomach. He brought his good arm down to block her thrust. His left shoulder protested. Blood loss was making him woozy and sweat broke out on his upper lip, but he forced himself to remain standing.
He circled left, toward his mom. Was she even still alive? “Katrina, this isn’t you. You’re not a killer. You’re being influenced by a Watcher, a fallen angel. Once you stop taking whatever it’s feeding you, you’re going to regret this.”
Her mouth twisted into a sneer and a hollow laugh bubbled up her throat. “Stupid Horseman. Everyone’s a killer. It’s just a matter of what’s worth killing for.”
She pounced, connecting with his right arm and sweeping his weapon above his head. Her body slammed into him. He rolled backward, meaning to somersault onto his feet, but she clung like a parasite. Searing pain blasted through his torso as he smacked the marble under her weight. Katrina’s knife was at his throat. The black blade pressed under his Adam’s apple. Sharp. Cold.
Her face inched forward, until their noses almost touched. “This knife is obsidian, Horseman. You do know what happens to a Soulkeeper killed with an obsidian knife?”
“No. What?”
“No Heaven. No Hell. Obsidian kills you and your soul.”
Jacob didn’t have time to consider the possibility. The door chimed. Katrina’s head snapped up and Jacob smashed the heel of his hand into her nose as hard as he could. Even in his weakened state, the force should have incapacitated her, but it did nothing more than temporarily dislodge the knife from his neck. The small shift in power was enough. He punched the hilt and the blade skidded across the floor. Wedged beneath her, he grabbed her wrists and yelled, “Get out! Whoever you are—run!”
Katrina broke free of his grip. Her hands shot around his throat, choking the words off. He pulled at her wrists but she was so strong, stronger than she should have been, and he was tired. Tired enough to give in to the darkness that was pressing in all around him. There was blood everywhere. He was bleeding out. He was dying.
Glass shattered against Katrina’s temple, and water, blessed water, washed over Jacob’s face.
“Get off of him!” he heard Malini yell.
Jacob tried to force Katrina back but he was pinned under her. Worse, he was helpless as Katrina’s hand shot out and grabbed Malini by the ankle, yanking her off balance. He expected Malini to tumble backward, but instead, she folded forward, screaming, and caught her weight on Katrina’s shoulders.
Malini’s scream morphed into a howl of pain. Katrina joined in with equal intensity. From the place where Malini’s palms met the bare skin inside Katrina’s collar, smoke billowed. The smell of burning flesh filled the room. For a moment, the two stared at each other, as if the skin contact was torture. Then Katrina’s body fell forward, face first onto the marble, breaking contact with Malini’s hands.
Oily black tar bubbled up from Katrina’s back. It dripped from her spine to the floor, twisting into a humanoid shape, until finally solidifying into a boy with a pierced nose and black spiky hair. The leathery black wings that extended from his back left no room for error. He was a Watcher and he had been inside Katrina.
“You!” he hissed and backed away. His shoulders were torched. Black scaly flesh hung in flaps from the muscle. The illusion of the boy flickered in and out, revealing the scaly black skin of the Watcher underneath.
Katrina rolled to her side. “Cord?” she mumbled. She passed out.
Jacob tried to move. He tried to call the water to his aid, but he was too weak. His whole body was icy cold. He’d lost too much blood.
Malini looked in shock. Her hands were charred, covered in black and red blisters. She fell to her knees on the stone floor. The Watcher in front of her was squinting, searching her face like it was memorizing every feature. Cord. Katrina had called him Cord. Circling one hand in the air in front of her, Cord captured Malini’s image inside a ring of magic. The outer circle glowed purple in the air before the image collapsed into his taloned hand.
“Until we meet again, Healer,” Cord said. And then he folded into a ripple and disappeared.
Malini’s weeping intensified. She was losing it. Jacob needed to do something to snap her out of her panic. Katrina and his mom were as good as dead and he might pass out at any moment from loss of blood. She was their only hope.
“Malini, you’ve got to call Dr. Silva,” he managed. “Call now, before the Watcher comes back!”
She turned wild eyes toward him, her entire body trembling.
“Now, Malini!” he commanded with what little of himself he had left. And then he let go of his tenuous grip on consciousness and slipped into the impending darkness.
Chapter 14
The Messenger
The sun on Malini’s face woke her, the bright warmth soaking through her eyelids. She’d made it to the phone and dialed Dr. Silva’s number before passing out from fear and exhaustion. The call must have been answered because there was something soft beneath her and the feel of sheets against her skin. She rolled onto her back and opened her eyes.
“Gideon,” she said when she realized it was not the sun at all but the light from an angel that was hitting her face.
“Yes, it is I, Malini.”
She looked around at the antiseptic white of the walls and bed linens.
“Am I in the hospital?”
“Yes. The staff here believe you were injured when the Laudners’ shop was robbed,” he said.
She pulled her arms from under the covers and looked at her smooth, healed skin. “Did it really happen? Did a Watcher come out of Katrina?”
“Yes, Malini. And the rest of it.”
“Is Jacob okay? Lillian?”
“Both are recovering well. Jacob needed blood but they’ve patched him up and he’s feeling better today.”
“What about Katrina?”
Gideon’s face soured. “The Watcher sustained itself by eating her from the inside out. Of course to the humans here, the condition looks a lot like sepsis, so they’re treating her as such. She’s in a coma in the Intensive Care Unit. I’ve been visiting her, but the stuff that’s inside her is resistant to my healing. It’s pure evil that has tainted her veins.”
“So, since I’m not burnt anymore, can I go?”
“No, Malini. Dr. Silva has built an illusion around you to make it appear that you are still injured. You will heal slowly over the course of three days. You must stay here during that time.”
“Why? Where is Dr. Silva?”
“She would like to visit but it is uncomfortable for her to be in your presence at the moment. And until you learn to control what you are it is possibly dangerous.”
“Dangerous?”
“You’ve been called to become a Healer, Malini. A very powerful one by the looks of it. And you must remember that as reformed as we know she is, Abigail lives in the body of a fallen angel. Now that your power has awakened, physical contact will result in the burns you experienced.”
“So, it’s true, then? I’m a Healer.”
Gideon tilted his head. “Not exactly. Not yet. But you are the seed from which a Healer might grow. Actually, I suspected you were from the start but Abigail wanted to exhaust all other possibilities—”
“You knew? And you didn’t tell me?”
“We didn’t know for sure and—”
“All this time I’ve been tortured wondering what I was, if there was even a name for it, and you two knew and let me go on like that…” Her voice broke and her vision blurred. She turned her face into her pillow.
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“Malini, Healers are very rare. Abigail and I have only met one, the medicine woman from Peru.”
“Jacob told me. He went to see her last year. She gave him a red stone that he gave to me.”
“This one?” Gideon held up the necklace that Jacob had given her at Christmas.
“Yes. But, why do you have it? I’ve stored it in my jewelry box since Christmas.”
“I hope you don’t mind that I retrieved it. Being an angel does have its benefits in a pinch. Tell me, Malini, why didn’t you use this when Jacob gave it to you?”
“He said it told the future and I’ve always thought knowing the future was a bad idea.”
“Why?”
“Because you might do things differently. You know, move against God’s ultimate plan. Like, say you saw yourself falling down the stairs and so you avoided the stairs and never fell. You would go on about your life as if nothing ever happened. But what if the reason God had you fall was that when you went to the hospital, you would meet someone, someone that would change your life forever, maybe for the better. Then, by avoiding the fall, you have avoided the change. What if that person was your soul mate or the CEO of a record company that wanted to make you a famous pop star?”
Gideon chuckled in that low bass rumble that was so endearing.
“Seriously, Gideon, I know it sounds ridiculous but I think sometimes it’s better to not have control over our future. I would have never come to Paris if I had the choice but then I would have missed out on Jacob.”
The angel’s face grew serious. He took Malini’s hand in his and the warmth from his touch filled her with a kind of giddy happiness. “You are wise beyond your years to trust in God’s plan for you, Malini, but as a Healer you must lead the Soulkeepers into the future. You can no longer be a blind follower.
“This path has been laid before you and this stone has come into your hands for a reason. The medicine woman gave this to Jacob, but I don’t think it was a coincidence that he gave it to you. It’s your time, Malini. You need to discover what it means to be a Healer and I believe the key to unlocking your gift lies within this stone. Who better to train a Healer than another Healer?”
