by Madi, Skyla
“I love you,” I whispered.
“I love you, too.”
A Guardian Angel
My guardian uniform was hanging from the handle of my front door. I couldn’t help but feel a little giddy. I was the only goddess in history to wear one, so this was a big deal for both me and our world. It gave me hope. If the council was willing to budge on the whole ‘goddesses don’t fight’ and ‘only gods can be a higher power’ thing, then maybe there was hope for me and Eli. Maybe one day, Eli and I could be together in public and have the freedom to kiss, hug, and go on dates like normal people.
I brought my new uniform inside and slung it over the back of the couch. I strolled over to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of water, and drank it back. I was excited about the uniform, but it wasn’t enough to trump the now guilty feeling I had for not telling Eli I had the chance to bring Hunter back. I was worried—I didn’t know how he’d react. Would he want Hunter to be saved or would he forbid me to do it? I’d never pegged Eli as a jealous guy. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and texted Eli.
Are you free? We need to talk.
I sat on the couch and waited for forty minutes before a soft knock sounded at my door. I rose to my feet and stumbled over my big guardian boots on the way to the door.
When I corrected myself and straightened my shirt, I opened the door. Eli’s oh-so-gorgeous face met my gaze. Momentarily, I changed my mind about telling him. You need to do it. I inhaled deeply, praying that this went down well.
“Hey,” he greeted me as he stepped inside.
“Hey.”
We stood there awkwardly for a little while, or at least I did. I looked everywhere except at his face. I could still feel his curious gaze burning into me, though.
“There’s something I didn’t tell you… when we were standing in the field.”
He leaned against the door and folded his arms, his gaze not easing up.
“Mr. Aleksandrov found out what the council wants with me.”
Eli straightened up and stepped closer.
“They want to use my blood to heal vampires.”
Eli’s smooth forehead creased and his brows furrowed as he stared at me for several long seconds. “That’s not possible. Vampires are dead. It isn’t a disease that can be cured.”
“I’m the only living case that couldn’t be fully turned because of my Heelian side. I was cured. The council thinks that if they extract my blood and mix it with the formula they’ve created… then we can cure vampires.”
He took a long time in replying, his eyes weighing me heavily.
“What do you want to do?” he asked.
I looked away, unable to meet his eyes. “I want to save them. I want to save Hunter.”
To my surprise, he reached out to touch my chin and tip my head back up. His gaze caught mine, allowing no escape. “You do what you need to do.”
“That’s it?”
His lips twitched. “Yes.”
Now it was my turn for my brows to furrow. “This isn’t what I expected.”
“What did you expect?”
“Well, a lot of shouting and chastising, for one.”
“Ruby, you want to give people a second chance at life. It’d be selfish of me to be angry over something so selfless.”
“And the part about saving Hunter doesn’t bother you?”
He bit his lip in thought. “It does bother me. A lot. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”
I pouted. “Why are you so nice and understanding?”
Eli chuckled. “One of us has to be.”
After our surprisingly pleasant conversation, Eli went home to shower and change. I did the same. In my reflection, I saw my cheeks were pink from my overly hot shower, so I splashed cool water on my face. The mirror showed me a girl with bloodshot eyes and small bags hanging underneath. I looked sleep-deprived. I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night for both good and bad reasons. Now I needed to be in my uniform and helping the other guardians evacuate students from the school. I’m not going to lie, I was nervous—okay, I was more than nervous. Butterflies in my stomach—what an understatement, it was more like jackhammers, and they were in my chest, mostly, threatening to come up my throat. Why was I so nervous to see the students? It wasn’t like I’d grown close to any of them. Most of them probably wouldn’t recognize me—I don’t even recognize me. I’d lost a bit of weight, nothing too drastic, and my hair was longer… on second thought, perhaps I didn’t look as different as I felt.
The uniform fitted nicely and it clung to my body perfectly—black was definitely my color.
I tucked my pants into my boots. The boots were a little heavy and I felt like I had strapped a brick to the bottom of each shoe. Ignoring that, I went outside. The midday sun shimmered in the sky and suddenly I felt out of place in my uniform. I was the first goddess to ever wear a guardian uniform—what if I wasn’t doing it properly? A few passing guardians stopped to stare at me with smiling faces. One of them was Sera. Her auburn hair glistened in the sun.
“It suits you. Welcome to the team.”
I nodded and smiled back. That was a good sign at least—I hoped the other guardians felt the same way. I stood on my porch, unsure of what to do next. I know I was supposed to go to the school and help, but was I supposed to go alone? Slowly, I stepped down onto the grass and proceeded to walk toward the school. I passed small groups of guardians, all of whom gave me approving nods and cheers. It boosted my confidence tremendously, but it wasn’t until I saw Eli that I realized his was the only approval I needed. He was standing with Xavier and Aaron in front of his house. I flushed as Xavier cheered and clapped loudly, drawing more attention to me. I focused on Eli. A hot flush spread over me. The look in his eyes made something flutter inside of me.
“Well, well, well, look who’s officially a guardian,” Xavier cheered, slinging an arm over my shoulder.
I smiled sheepishly.
He ignored me. “What do you think, Eli? Does she reach guardian standards?”
His sexy gaze bore down on me, saying more than words ever could.
“She surpasses it.” He cleared his throat and averted his gaze.
“Aaron?” Xavier prompted.
“Xavier, this isn’t a fashion show,” I muttered.
Aaron answered anyway. “You look fantastic in your uniform. You are officially one of us now. Congratulations.”
“Thank you.”
Xavier clasped his hands together enthusiastically. “Shall we go evacuate the students?”
The student campus was a lot quieter than I expected it to be. There was no screaming or crying… nobody was running around screaming for dear life, in fact, there was no one there at all.
“Where is everyone?” I asked.
“It’s lunch time, they’re gathered in the hall,” Aaron replied.
“What about the evacuation?”
“They’ll continue it after lunch. You can’t evacuate a school on an empty stomach. Let’s go.”
I fell behind the three boys as they walked. I really didn’t want to go into the dining hall. I had better chances of avoiding the school’s student body hiding out in Mila’s room. Aaron and Xavier entered the hall, but I stopped on the steps.
“Ruby? Are you coming?” Eli asked.
The jackhammers pounded away in my chest relentlessly. “Yeah, I just need some more air.”
“You’re worried about the students?”
“No, not really… I mean, yeah, I guess so. It’s been awhile, that’s all. I’m a little embarrassed, god knows how many times I’ve disappeared and then just showed up out of the blue.”
“You have nothing to be embarrassed about. You’re the head guardian and you’re years younger than our student senior
guardians… look at how much you’ve accomplished.”
I chewed the inside of my bottom lip. “Will you stay close to me?”
“As close as I can without being banished for it.” He winked at me and I laughed.
I joined Eli at the top of the stairs and we entered the dining hall.
All the students sat together, eating and socializing, faces alight with whatever current gossip was circulating around the school. As soon as my shoes touched the wooden surface of the dining hall’s floor, the loud buzz of conversation stopped instantly, like someone had hit the mute button. I stopped and stared back at the hundreds of eyes that watched me. Eli nudged my elbow and I forced myself to walk. One foot in front of the other—that’s all. I kept my gaze fixated on Mr. Aleksandrov by the teachers’ table. Hopefully, once I got there, the meaningless gossip between the students would resume… boy, was I wrong. The students continued to stare and whisper as I sat at the table, between Eli and Xavier.
“Tough crowd,” Xavier murmured.
I glowered sideways at him. Mr. Aleksandrov cleared his throat and stood up, drawing everyone’s attention.
“Good afternoon, students. Many of you are probably confused as to why Miss Moore is wearing a guardian uniform and sitting at our table.” He paused and surveyed the whole room. “She is officially a head guardian—” an eruption of chatter interrupted Mr. Aleksandrov’s speech. He tapped his spoon on his plate and the students quieted. “And you will treat her with the same respect as you would a teacher or any other guardian at this school. Is that clear?”
The students nodded and mumbled in agreement. Mr. Aleksandrov sat back down and the sound of voices filled the room again. The kitchen staff brought out plates of roast chicken and vegetables for us. My stomach groaned happily as the scent filled my nostrils. As I ate, I looked around the room, hoping to spot Mila. I saw her, sitting by herself at the back of the room. I grabbed my plate and made my way over to her, ignoring the whispers and stares.
“Hello, you!” I greeted and slid into the space in front of her. “How’s your tattoo?”
She placed her fork on the table and rubbed the bandage. “It’s a little itchy, but other than that, I think it’s okay.” She glanced over my shoulder. “Rylan is staring at the back of your head.”
I shrugged and secretly prayed he wouldn’t come over. “Are you excited to be moving back into your house?”
“Not really, I like staying on campus. It’s fun and I don’t have to walk as far.”
It was a bit of a hike to and from Mila’s house, but at least she’d be safe. Loud giggles erupted from the pack of girls sitting at the end of our table. I turned my head toward them—of course it was Raina and her posse. It always was. As Mila had said, the newest addition to the clan was pretty, dark-skinned Ava. Ava glanced nervously at me.
“You’re glowering. You aren’t going to start a fight, are you?” Mila asked.
I brought my attention back to Mila. “Nope. It’s not worth it, besides, I can’t complain now that I get all your awesomeness to myself.”
Mila laughed. “You really are my best friend.”
“I know.”
Mila reached out and grabbed my wrist. “Cute bracelet! Where’d you get it?”
I pulled my wrist out of her grasp and into my lap.
“It’s a really long story.”
“Well, we’re stuck in here for another twenty minutes… is that enough time?”
I sighed and gave in. “Last night when a vampire got into the school, it was Hunter.”
Mila gasped dramatically and covered her mouth.
“He came to my house and—” I waved my wrist in front of me and lowered my voice. “Strapped this stupid thing to my wrist.”
Her expression became confused. “He broke into Sage to give you a gift?”
I scoffed. “Some gift. It blocks my Heelian power.”
Her blue eyes narrowed in on me. “You’re not serious?”
“Dead serious.”
“It doesn’t sound like something Hunter would do… intentionally hurt you, I mean,” Mila said as she twirled a lock of her long blonde hair around her index finger.
I shrugged. “He isn’t himself anymore. It isn’t his fault entirely, though. He’s trapped in some kind of sire-master bond thing with Lucian and he does everything Lucian asks of him. He also seems to think we’ll run away together once Lucian takes me away from here.”
“So he’s a vampire and he’s delusional? There’s no way Eli would let Hunter, or Lucian, take off with you. Neither would any of the other guardians here.”
I shrugged again. “Sometimes it’s better to cut your losses and stop any further damage.”
I focused on a small scratch that ran across the otherwise perfect varnish of the table. Hunter ruined my only chance of staying alive and I worried that if my blood couldn’t cure vampires, then maybe they’d leave me for dead.
After lunch, it was time to evacuate the dorms. I waited as Mila and the students poured from the hall. When the crowd dispersed, I exited the hall and stepped out onto the cracked pavement.
“Why am I not surprised?” a deep voice growled at me. I turned around and met Gabriel’s sullen face. He still had the same blond hair and light splattering of freckles across both cheeks.
“Excuse me?”
“You show up and the next minute the school is being evacuated. What’d you do this time?”
I turned away from him and walked in the direction of the girls’ dorms. His hand pulled me to a stop, twirling me around. Our eyes were level and his were angry.
“I’m not finished talking to you.”
“No? Well, I’m finished talking to you.” I tried to turn away, but his hand squeezed my shoulder, preventing me from turning fully. I shrugged his arm off. “Don’t touch me.”
“What, you think because you have that guardian uniform on, you’re better than everyone else?”
“No.”
“Tell me. What’d you do? Who died for you this time?”
“Nobody,” I growled.
“Why’d you come back? Things were back to normal, then you show up and as always, there’s someone after you. Wherever you go you bring nothing but pain and death.”
Greif rolled through me, jamming at the base of my throat. I wasn’t going to contest him… not when everything he said was true. I’ve caused death since the night my mother was murdered. I tried not to cry because Aaron was standing behind Gabriel, arms folded, looking as scary as ever, and also because it was my first day as a guardian. I wasn’t going to ruin it by crying.
“That’s enough,” Aaron barked.
Gabriel didn’t turn around. He kept his blue, angry eyes focused on me. “Too many people have died and yet the cause still lives. You tell me how that’s fair.”
He pushed past me, nudging my shoulder.
“Don’t listen to him,” Aaron mumbled, uncomfortably. “In our world, people die all the time. That’s just the way it is.”
I nodded, even though I agreed with every word Gabriel said.
“C’mon, we’re going to the girls’ dorms,” he added.
I followed Aaron, fighting back tears the whole way. In the lobby of the girls’ dorms, Mrs. Ploit sat behind her desk, sipping on a cup of tea. “Ahh, Mr. Foley. If you could supervise rooms 108 to—” She cut off her words as she saw me step out from behind Aaron.
“Miss Moore, what a pleasant surprise.” I could tell by the tone of her voice she really meant horrible surprise.
“Likewise,” I replied, thick with attitude.
“Rooms 108 through to 123 need to be supervised.”
Aaron nodded and headed in that direction. I turned away from her glowering eyes and narrowed brows and followed Aaron.
“The school is being evacuated,” she said, keeping her tone low enough for only me to hear. “I should have known you’d pop up somewhere.”
I ignored her. I didn’t want my anger getting the better of me. I assumed it’d reflect pretty badly on Mr. Aleksandrov and the whole guardian team if I punched a semi-old lady regardless of how much of a bitch she was.
We waited in the halls, supervising as students jammed their belongings into boxes and suitcases. Unfortunately for me, I didn’t get to supervise Mila’s room. Instead—as luck would have it—I was stuck staring into the girly depths of Raina’s room. She glanced at me occasionally as she folded her pretty dresses and over-decorated shoes into her suitcase. Awkwardly, I skimmed my gaze up and down the hallway. I hadn’t seen Raina since I first discovered my Heelian power and gave her a rather bad case of sunburn. Looking at her now, I still didn’t feel sorry for her—I still hated her for being the reason Eli was sent away and for pitting Rylan and Hunter against each other. In fact, she was technically at fault for this whole mess. I tightened my ponytail, placed my hands on my hips, and watched as Raina struggled to close the lid of her bright pink suitcase.
“Can you help me?” she asked sheepishly.
I stared blankly around the hallway, processing what she’d asked me. I studied her curiously. She watched, appearing uncomfortable under my stare.
“Nothing is going to jump out and kill me, is it?” I asked.
“I should be more worried about you killing me.”
My lips twitched. “Touché.”