Sweet Peril

by Wendy Higgins

  Before Kaidan could speak, the girl shook her head, stepping up to her boyfriend and insisting with a shaking voice that Kaidan was just a dumb boy. He was just being nice, that’s all. He had a girlfriend around there somewhere. She asked if they could leave now. The guy backhanded her across the cheek and I covered my mouth. Her pink bear dropped to the ground.

  “You think I’m stupid?” he asked her in Spanish. “You think I’m blind?”

  Kaidan stood a little taller and his face went hard. His hand slipped into his pocket, and so did the hands of the other five guys. An eerie smile grew across the leader’s scarred face.

  This couldn’t go any further. I sprinted through the crowd, dodging people until I got closer. I happened a quick glance down the game alley and didn’t see the whisperer anywhere. Hopefully he was on his way to the summit now. Slowing, I cleared my throat and walked up behind the guys. Kaidan saw me and flicked his free hand in a tight motion, telling me to go away. I gave a defiant shake of my head and approached. His nostrils flared.

  I squeezed through the group to stand next to Kai, and the gang guys regarded me with surprise. I didn’t want to swap words with these guys. I liked to give all people the benefit of the doubt, but menace rolled off them like thunderclouds.

  Using my strong, willful voice, I said, “Do not take out your weapons. You will not try to harm us. You will let us leave right now.”

  Their guardian angels used the opportunity to whisper to them, trying to calm them and make my words sink in.

  All five of them stiffened as Kaidan and I stepped back, preparing to run. The scarred leader twitched. He so did not want to cooperate with peaceful orders. In what looked to be a great effort, he grunted a command to the guy next to him, who broke from his trance after a moment of hesitation and grasped my shoulder.

  Without thought, fifteen months of drilled reactions kicked in. In two swift moves I grabbed the place where his shoulders met his neck, yanked him toward me, and drove my knee straight up into his groin. He crumpled in agony, and I didn’t stop to admire my handiwork.

  I grabbed Kaidan’s arm and tugged. We’d taken two running steps when a clear, metallic click halted our feet. Kaidan squeezed my hand and we slowly turned. Dread crept up the back of my neck and I was breathing as if I’d run a marathon.

  The leader had a gun pointed at us, trembling with the effort. “I ain’t takin’ no orders from a little bruja.” He glanced down at his writhing friend and said to me, “You gonna pay for that. And you—” He looked at Kai over the barrel. “Nobody touches my girl ’cept me.”

  Kai slowly sidestepped to partially block me from him.

  The guardian angels exchanged glances and stayed attentive, as if prepared to act, even though they weren’t allowed to do anything more than whisper. Adrenaline flooded my system, but I didn’t know what to do. I was too afraid to say anything else out loud, so I attempted to will a silent order: “Put the gun down.”

  The leader wiped sweat from his forehead with his spare hand, and his forehead crinkled as if in pain, but he didn’t put the gun down. My hand began to sweat in Kaidan’s grip.

  “Please,” I whispered.

  “Shut your mouth!” the shortest guy shouted, breaking out of the original trance. He bounced his shoulders a little, working himself up. He whipped a switchblade from his pocket and moved toward me, but was stopped by a knife at his own neck, forcing him to look up at Kaidan. It all happened so fast. I never saw Kai pull his knife, and the events that followed went even faster. I had no time to be as terrified as the moment warranted.

  “Lay a finger on her, mate, and you’re dead.” Kaidan’s knife gleamed, large and sharp in comparison to the small, tainted blade in the gang member’s hand. The guy’s eyes glinted with fear, but before he could react, a beam of severely bright light broke through the already sunny sky, shining straight down on the scarred leader, who still pointed his gun at Kai. None of the humans noticed, but I sensed Kaidan’s attention shift.

  In a split second the leader’s guardian angel, still bathed in that brilliant light, touched a shimmering finger to the gun barrel just before the leader squeezed the trigger and the deafening sound of a gunshot rang out, followed by cries of pain. Someone shrieked in my ear, which I’d later realize was my own scream paired with those of the two other girls.

  A strong hand yanked my arm.

  “Come on!” Kaidan’s voice.

  My feet obeyed before my mind could comprehend what had happened. Kaidan pulled me until we were both sprinting against hordes of people running to see what was going on. I glanced back to the gang leader on the ground next to his friend, holding his bloody face while the girls crouched above him, screaming. The other guys were gone. And then the scene was swallowed up by mass chaos.

  We ran out of the carnival, shoving past people until we came to the exit to the beach. I searched the area, frantic, certain the other guys would be right behind us.

  “What happened?” I panted.

  “The gun backfired.” Kaidan bent and rested his hands on his knees for a quick breather. “We’ve got to get out of here.”

  A high-pitched revving noise sped toward our backs, and I spun, prepared to fight. I reached to my pocket out of habit, and berated myself for not bringing a knife. The squeal of tires pierced the air as Blake slid sideways to stop mere feet from us on his bike.

  “Get on.” His command was directed at me, and Kaidan gave the small of my back a shove. I didn’t want to leave him, but there was no time to argue. I threw a leg over the back of the seat, wrapping my arms around Blake. I shot a glance at the carnival and my heart pounded. The four unharmed gang members were running from a side exit, looking around.

  “They’re coming!” I hissed.

  “Go!” Kaidan shouted at us before he took off toward the crowded beach.

  I pressed the side of my face to Blake’s back and he peeled out, popping an unnecessary wheelie that was met with cheers from all around and a scream from me. Somehow he managed to keep breathing the whole mile back to his house despite the death grip I had around his rib cage.

  I closed my eyes, once again, and begged for Kaidan’s safety.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN

  BREAKDOWN

  Blake parked in his garage and wrenched my stiff arms from around his waist.

  “A gang?” he asked.

  “Yeah.” My voice was as shaky as my limbs as I climbed off the bike after him.

  He tweaked my chin, but his voice was tight. “No worries, girl. It’s all good now.”

  I followed as Blake jogged to the back deck to watch for Kai. We stood along the railing. The sick knot in my stomach would not settle, along with the too-fast beats of my heart. I was too shaken to concentrate on pushing out my sight.

  “Do you see him?” I asked.

  “Yeah, he’s fine. He’ll be here soon.”

  I exhaled. “Are they following him?”

  “Doesn’t look like it.”

  During those few minutes heavy thoughts battered my mind. I would never again pressure Kai to be with me or tell me how he felt. His actions showed he cared, and that would have to be enough. I don’t think I’d fully understood what a danger we were to each other until today. We’d been careless, and that must never happen again.

  Reality was harsh. I could not stay here with them. I felt like I’d been slapped and my senses were finally clear.

  I would leave Kaidan and Blake today as allies, adding the moment on the Ferris wheel to the few other precious memories I had of Kai. But it would be the last addition to my Kaidan collection. My heart seized and faltered in my chest as the dream I’d held on to for two years crumbled.

  I hugged myself around the ribs as I paced. Adrenaline still lingered in my system.

  I thought about Dad. He’d need to know what happened. I texted him A411, our code that I had information. He responded right away with Later. Busy. I dropped the phone into a chair and thought about what happened at the
carnival.

  “One of the angels intervened today,” I told Blake. “He made the gun backfire when the guy tried to shoot us. I didn’t think they were allowed to do that.”

  He kept his face toward the beach, twisting his eyebrow bar when he answered. “They only intervene when they’re told to. The angel must’ve got a message.”

  The light. Someone above had been communicating. We’d been saved. Again. I shivered in the warm breeze and gripped myself tighter.

  “Here he comes,” Blake said.

  When Kaidan climbed the steps to the deck he came straight for me, his hair slicked back with sweat from running. He took my face in his hands, breathing hard, lips tight, eyes like blue blazes.

  “Don’t ever do that again,” he ground out.

  It took a second to process his words and remember what exactly I wasn’t supposed to do again. Then I recalled interfering.

  “I know it was dangerous,” I admitted, “but there were five of them—”

  “I can bloody well handle myself, Anna!” His hands flung away from my face.

  “Maybe if there were only a couple, but there were five pissed-off psychos with weapons! I couldn’t just stand there and watch!”

  Kaidan, exasperated, pivoted like he was going to walk away, raked his fingers through his hair, and turned to me again.

  “What did you think you could do?” he asked. “You got in a lucky shot when you racked him, but what if it hadn’t worked? As you saw today your mind powers don’t always work!”

  Ah. He had no idea what I was capable of now. I held a hand out. “Give me your knife.”

  His eyebrows went together. “What?”

  “Just give it to me.” I stepped closer, feeling edgy.

  “No, Anna, I don’t know what you’re trying to do, but this is ridic—”

  My movements were fast as I went for him full force, using all my body weight and strength to hook a foot behind his knee and slam my palm into his shoulder. He landed on his back with a surprised oof and I crouched over him.

  “Give me your knife,” I said again.

  “Holy . . .” Blake let out a long whistle from where he watched at the rail.

  Kaidan lay there with a whimsical sort of look and said, “God, that was hot.”

  I held out my hand. This time he fished the knife from his waistband and placed the onyx handle in my palm. From my crouched position I momentarily eyed a wooden bird statue perched at the top of the deck rail twenty feet away, then let the cool metal fly from my fingers. It spun through the air with a sound like rapid wing beats, then a whump as it stuck into the side of the bird’s head.

  “Dude!” Blake yelled.

  Beneath me, where Kaidan lay, burst a vivid cloud of red so brief I wondered if I’d imagined it. I stared down at him in shock.

  “You showed your colors!” I said.

  “Did not.” He pushed himself up and we both stood.

  “You totally let ’em out, brah,” Blake told him with a grin.

  “Shut up.”

  When he peered down at me I said, “I’ve been training. I’m not completely helpless anymore.”

  “I can see that,” he murmured.

  We stood there, facing each other. Too much was between us, pulling us together at the same time as it pushed us apart. Our need for each other would always be in constant battle with our need to keep the other safe.

  “I get it now, okay? Everything you’ve always tried to warn me about, I get. Today was . . .” I cleared my throat. “I came here and said what I needed to say. Now I have to go. I mean it this time.”

  He dropped his hands and nodded, working his jaw side to side. He appeared resigned, like me, that this was how it had to be. Blake stepped over.

  “What are you gonna do the rest of today and tomorrow?” he asked me.

  “I’ll switch to an earlier flight.”

  Blake frowned. “Just ’cause of some punks at a carnival? You’re safe now.”

  “It wasn’t just those sods,” Kai told him. “You must not have heard the part prior to that when we had the pleasure of a whisperer’s company on the Ferris wheel.”

  “For real?” His eyes widened and he paled. “I just heard the tail end with the Spanish brahs so I headed over. What happened?”

  Kaidan kept his eyes away from me when he answered. “He found it suspicious that we were . . . together. We handled it, but it’s still best if she goes.” He looked at me, and I nodded my painful agreement. Blake made a ticked-off sound of disappointment.

  I couldn’t waste any more time pondering. I used to think of our time together as stolen freedom, but now, every minute near the guys was another minute we could all be caught. I couldn’t live with myself if anything happened to them because of me.

  Inside the bungalow I found my bag, taking out my itinerary and calling the airlines. They had seats available on the next flight out of Santa Barbara Municipal. Agreeing to the service charges, I changed the flight. A wall of protection stacked itself around my heart. I could no longer afford to cling to the past. My job was to focus on getting rid of the demons. Any hopes for happiness would have to be sacrificed. It would all be worth it someday. I had to believe that or I’d go crazy.

  Time to go.

  Feeling stronger than I would have thought possible, I walked to the front of the house with the guys behind me. I hugged Blake and then looked at Kai. His hands rested on his hips. He didn’t appear happy or approachable, but I knew if I didn’t hug him, I’d regret it forever. With a final scan of the clear skies I stepped to him and slowly slid my arms around his waist.

  Being against Kai was nothing like being against Blake. His muscles under my hands, my temple against his collarbone, the explosion of emotion when his arms encircled me—this was not friendship. I loved this boy. I loved him enough to pull away and leave him, which is exactly what I did, our fingers lingering together one final moment before parting. I met his eyes one last time, but it was too much. I could’ve sworn those blue depths were begging me to stay, so I backed away and forced myself to climb into the stifling hot rental car.

  They stood on the edge of the pavement and watched as I drove away. I did not allow myself to wallow or yearn. I sped away from the mansion, along the cliffs above the sea, without looking back.

  So, that wall I’d built around my heart? As I sat in the airport, awaiting the boarding announcement, something inside me cracked, gouging a deep crevice in my soul that filled with a roaring pain. The hurt was so palpable I could hardly breathe. I must have looked like a mess, because people gave me worried glances.

  I wanted Patti. I wanted Dad. Most of all I wanted Kaidan.

  I’d called Patti when I got to the airport to let her know I was coming home early. She didn’t ask any questions, but I could hear the sadness and disappointment in her voice when she realized things hadn’t gone well.

  I knew I should get up and find the restroom so I wouldn’t make a public scene, but my body did not want to cooperate. For more than a year I hadn’t been able to cry. Now I could feel tears building like my own personal tsunami. Maybe it was the small comfort of knowing the Dukes and whisperers were all at the summit. But to my shock and embarrassment, tears sprung free, gushing down my face. I couldn’t hold them back. And the sounds of mourning that unwillingly dragged themselves up from my throat? Humiliating.

  “I’m okay,” I choked out to the old woman next to me who put a hand on my arm. All around me concerned faces witnessed my breakdown. I curled forward, burying my face in my arms and legs, wishing I could disappear.

  “Maybe someone died,” I heard a man whisper.

  “Is it a young man?” the woman next to me asked in a low voice. I managed to nod and she patted my back. “It always is,” she murmured.

  A man across from me touched my shoulder and handed me a crisp handkerchief, telling me in a gentle tone that I could keep it. Their kindness only made me cry harder. I forced myself to sit up and use the hanky to
wipe my face and dab my nose. A hush fell when a preboarding announcement was made.

  “Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen. In a few minutes we’ll begin boarding flight four twenty-eight. . . .”

  A murmur of voices and noises filled the air as everyone collected their belongings and checked for their boarding passes. I hiccuped, then sniffed and pulled my boarding pass from my backpack. Through the shuffle of noise I heard a voice that made my ears perk up.

  “Anna!”

  I hiccuped again, and froze at the sound of that English accent. My head whipped around.

  My body clenched—if he was really here something had to be wrong.

  The hanky fell to my lap at the sight of Kaidan jogging up the middle of the terminal, stopping at the end of our row of chairs. Holy crap . . . my legs went numb. People halted their shuffling at the presence of this disheveled young man with wild blue eyes. He stood there, hair falling in his face, staring at me with a bizarre expression of euphoria. All eyes went from him to me and back again. A wide path was cleared down the aisle.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked. I knew I should stand but it was like my body had gone into shock.

  “I—Nothing.” He peered around the area, harried, as if scouting for possible danger.

  “How did you get through security?” I asked.

  “I bought a ticket.” He looked out of his element and more handsome than ever in his board shorts, dirty T-shirt, and flip-flops. Just as I’d left him.

  “You . . . you’re going on this flight?” I was so confused.

  “No,” he said, “but those buggers wouldn’t page you. And your phone is off.”

  I became acutely aware of our audience as whispers and awws filled the air.

  Finally feeling stable, I stood and moved toward him down the path my fellow passengers had made, afraid to let myself hope for what this might mean. I didn’t stop until we were face-to-face.

  “I . . .” he began, then lowered his voice so only I could hear. “I just . . .” He kept starting and stopping, moving his hands, then hooking his thumbs in his pockets. And then he exhaled a great huffing breath.