03 Saints

by Lynnie Purcell

  When Elizabeth finished talking, the others started. Preacher overrode the others. He had words of caution.

  “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves,” Preacher said. “One mission gone wrong doesn’t mean there’s a spy.”

  “No one knew I was there!” Elizabeth said.

  “That reinforces Preacher’s point,” River said. “If no one here knew, how could they have told anyone?”

  “Someone found out!” Elizabeth was adamant.

  “Maybe one of your people talked,” Jackson suggested. “The other two with you…They might have said something to the wrong person.”

  Elizabeth glared at Jackson, but I knew it was only because the death of the girl was still fresh in her mind. “Don’t talk about things you don’t know about,” she said.

  “I’m with Liz,” Grace said. “We should look into the possibility. To be safe, at least.”

  “We will be cautious,” Reaper said. “In the meantime, I do not want the others to panic. Suspicion between us makes us weak. Preacher, I think we need to have the girl’s funeral soon. Sara, Shawn, gather those who aren’t on important missions and bring them back. Let’s honor our friend.”

  “Right,” Sara agreed.

  She disappeared. A second later, Shawn did as well.

  “We will meet in the morning to discuss our options,” Reaper said dismissing the group.

  I started to leave, but Daniel stopped me. He and Reaper had exchanged a meaningful glance I hadn’t noticed. After everyone was gone, with many curious looks from Reaper’s people as to why Daniel and I were even there to begin with, Reaper shut the door again.

  “I can’t neglect Elizabeth’s concerns,” Reaper said. “I can’t afford to. We’ve managed to keep our real purpose buried from the others, but it’s possible we have been discovered and a spy placed here. But I also can’t look like I am accusing my people of anything. I wasn’t lying when I said suspicion makes us weak.”

  “What are you suggesting?” Daniel asked.

  “I was hoping you would keep your eyes open,” Reaper said.

  “And here I thought this place was going to be peaceful,” I said dryly.

  “I understand…” Reaper said, taking my words as a refusal.

  “Clare’s just being a smart ass,” Daniel said. “We’ll keep our eyes open.”

  Reaper nodded. “That’s all I ask…I wanted to talk about your parents before you left.”

  “Did you find something out?” Daniel asked eagerly.

  “No, I had a thought, though,” Reaper said.

  “Yay,” I said dryly.

  “I have a guy who might know something. He’s a creep and a bottom-feeder, but if you’re looking for information, he’s your man,” Reaper said.

  “Sounds like a great place to get information,” I said.

  “It’s not the best, but he will know where Marcus has taken two elite scientists. Trust me,” Reaper said.

  “How will he know?” I asked.

  “He’s a supplier. Deals weapons, information, whatever you need. He knows everyone in our world,” Reaper said.

  “Not Sevier?” Daniel asked.

  “You know him?” Reaper asked.

  “Yeah, I know him…He probably wouldn’t be happy to talk with me. We had a slight…disagreement, and I may or may not have stuck a knife into his side at one point,” Daniel replied. His boyish smile was tainted with a hint of naughtiness.

  “I’ll go,” Reaper said.

  “Can I come, too?” I asked.

  Reaper eyed me carefully then turned his eyes to Daniel for an answer. Daniel was thoughtful. His eyes weren’t happy, but he was thinking beyond his own emotions on the subject.

  “Actually, you should probably take Clare and Alex. Sevier likes certain types of girls.”

  “Types?” I asked. “Like AB negative?”

  “Humans,” Reaper said. “Young ones.”

  “Oh…” I said.

  “Jackson goes,” Daniel said. “Margaret, too. And I wait in the car in case of emergency.”

  “Alright,” Reaper said.

  Reaper went to the door and opened it. Alex was waiting just outside, her face expectant. Reaper took a step back when he saw her, something about her expression throwing him off guard. She raised an eyebrow, annoyed she had been left out. I stepped around Reaper and grabbed her arm, to make her walk with me.

  “I’ll fill you in,” I told her.

  Daniel and Reaper followed us much slower, talking in low tones. As we walked, I shared Reaper’s words with Alex. She listened carefully to my thoughts, but didn’t have much to say. I knew she would keep her eyes open as well.

  The halls had filled with people during our talk with Reaper. There was a buzz of quiet conversation, conversation that questioned what had happened and how it had happened. They were conversations that mirrored my thoughts – only I was weighted down by the blood that drenched my shirt. The memory of the girl. We passed a large group on the ground floor and went upstairs. The kids were waiting for us.

  “What’s all the fuss?” Ethan asked.

  “A girl died during a mission,” Alex said.

  “Oh…” Ethan said.

  “That’s awful,” Cora added.

  “Did Reaper talk to you guys yet?” I asked the kids, putting my arm around Twitch’s shoulders.

  “Yeah. He said he wants us to start going out and stealing tomorrow,” Spider said.

  “Great…” I said feeling even more worried than normal. The risks felt like they were higher now. “Just be careful.”

  “Always,” Spider said with a grin.

  “Who’s hungry?” Alex asked the group.

  All of the kids raised their hands as one.

  Alex put her arm around Sprint’s waist, herding them downstairs to the kitchen, to fix them food. It was obvious she wanted a distraction from the darkness we had just witnessed. Daniel pulled me into our room and shut the door again. He paused for a moment, his hand on the door. Then he turned to me, his green eyes flashing in the dark.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t here when you woke up,” he said quietly. “I didn’t think you’d be up for a while.”

  “It’s fine,” I said.

  “No, it’s not…it will never happen again,” he promised.

  I smiled and tucked my hands into my pockets, to keep them from where they wanted to be. Why was it so hard to keep my hands to myself? The tension of my attraction had only increased with the awareness of how sweet being with him could be.

  “If you say so,” I said.

  He eyed the guitar I had left on the bed. He picked it up, sat on the bed, and started playing. His fingers were a lot more certain over the strings than mine had been, as he played a classical piece beyond my ability. I sat opposite from him in comfortable silence and listened to his playing in wonder. It was the first time he had ever played for me.

  “They’re going to have the girl’s funeral in ten minutes,” Daniel finally said.

  “That’s quick,” I said.

  “The possibility she might come back sort of necessitates a fast send off,” he replied.

  “Oh, right,” I said, having forgot about our propensity to ‘go zombie,’ if our bodies weren’t taken care of properly.

  His fingers hesitated on the strings. “Reaper asked me to go out with him tonight.”

  “Did you tell him you were already dating someone?” I asked.

  “On a mission,” he clarified starting to play the guitar again. “He asked me while you were sleeping.”

  “What are you going to be doing?” I asked.

  He stopped playing again and touched my hand.

  Reaper got some intelligence of a…shipment of Watchers headed for Darian’s. We’re going to look into it.

  Define ‘look into.’

  See what we see, he said vaguely.

  And if you see what you think you’re going to see?

  He removed his hand from mine with a meaningful look. I d
idn’t need the words to know there would be a fight.

  “Jackson’s coming with me,” he promised. “But I won’t go if you don’t want me to.”

  I sighed, and stopped him from playing with a hand on the strings.

  “We’re here for a reason. I know that we’re both…wary,” It was a better word than ‘terrified,’ “of losing each other again, but we also can’t bury our heads in the sand hoping the tide won’t come in. If you feel it’s important to go…you should go. That’s all there is to it.”

  “If you say so,” Daniel said with small smile.

  “Have you and Jackson patched things up?” I asked after a minute.

  “Patched things up?” he asked, thoughtfully tapping on the guitar with his finger.

  “I saw that you two had a fight,” I said.

  “It’s not the first time we’ve fought,” Daniel said. “He knows I didn’t mean it.”

  “Does he?” I asked.

  Daniel set the guitar down and stood, pulling me up after him. “Fair enough. I’ll talk to him, if you talk to Alex.”

  “What about?” I asked, wondering if I had somehow made her mad.

  “Eli,” he said. “The funeral is about to start.”

  I sighed and walked out of the room with him at my side.

  Everyone was already there when we arrived at the room. The halls were filled with more people than I had seen inside at one time. It was another clue to the extraordinary number of people Reaper had under his command. As we joined the group, which was quiet in their mourning, a low voice started to sing. The crowd shifted and parted as the body of the girl, now wrapped in a white sheet, was brought out of the room on the arms of Ghost, King, Grace and Elizabeth. Preacher walked behind them, his voice lifted in song.

  “…Swing low sweet chariot, coming forth to carry me home…”

  They walked down the hall and out of the back doors of the school. The crowd followed. I watched as the girl’s body was carried to the back of the building, where a large stack of wood had been formed into a pyre. They carefully lowered the body to the wood, as Preacher continued his song. Others started singing, joining Preacher’s dirge, the sound rich and melodic. The night air was a chorus of sorrow.

  Elizabeth stepped forward as the song drew to a close and took out a silver lighter from her pocket. She touched the lighter to the wood. A flame crawled up the wood, slowly engulfing the girl’s body. The group watched in silence as the body was consumed by the fire. Then, in pairs and in groups, people left.

  Elizabeth stayed to watch the girl burn, her face angry and sad. It was obvious she wasn’t going to let go of her guilt anytime soon; not until she found the person responsible. From the expression on her face, I pitied the person who had pulled the trigger. There would be no mercy when she found them.

  As I turned away from the burning body, to follow the others inside, I noticed a movement from a room on the second floor. It caught my eye, and I looked up. A woman with blazing red hair stared down at the fire. Her vivid, red hair was nothing compared to the red of her eyes. They were the color of a Nightstalker’s only more intense, more crimson. Her eyes were the eyes of a killer consumed by purpose…yet her face was soft and full of mourning as she looked down. She turned away when she noticed me looking and disappeared from sight.

  Daniel had noticed the woman as well. He shrugged at me when our eyes met, not understanding either why the woman would mourn a member of the group from such a distance, and held his hand out for me to take. I took it, feeling comforted by the feel of his skin on mine.

  Behind me, the body burned. A sad trail of smoke reached up to touch the heavens for a girl I had never known, but one I would always remember. She would become a symbol of the day that I realized no haven, even those that were heavily fortified, was truly safe from the storm.

  The war, and its consequences, was everywhere. There was no escape – only a growing purpose to end the suffering.

  Chapter 12

  The common area was full of people when Daniel and I got there. People had bottles in their hands and were going around the room making toasts before they drank. Reaper was making one as we entered.

  “K.J’s sacrifice and bravery will be remembered. Her name will be traced into our memories forever, for the hero she was. For K.J!”

  It was simple, but poignant, the mark of a good speech.

  “K.J.!” the others intoned sadly, raising their drinks in a salute. As one, they drank from their cups.

  The memorial lasted an hour, and included lots of drinking, loud music and sad conversations remembering the one they called ‘K.J.’

  After the memorial, people left again, necessity forcing them back to the jobs they had to do in the name of the Saints. When the room had half cleared, and only those without serious jobs were left, Reaper came over to where Daniel, Alex and I had claimed a couch. I saw Spider in the corner talking with some shady-looking characters and the kids hanging out at a table close by. Margaret had left on a mystery mission I wasn’t curious enough to ask about, around my sadness.

  “Are you ready?” Reaper asked Daniel.

  “Yeah. I’ll be back soon,” Daniel promised me.

  “Don’t say that,” I said with a pained expression. “It’s bad luck.”

  “What should I say?” he asked.

  “Something else that couldn’t potentially be ironic,” I said.

  “You make life complicated,” Daniel told me.

  “Yep,” I agreed.

  He kissed me on my neck and whispered in my ear, “Be safe,” before he stood and walked off with Reaper.

  Jackson materialized from the crowd and joined them silently, his bulk moving people out of his way. I watched Daniel walk out of the room with a scowl I couldn’t resist. Though what he was doing was important, I knew that I wouldn’t be able to tolerate watching him leave again. It felt like a knife to the chest. It made me feel as helpless as when I was holding K.J.’s chest together, without the knowledge of how to put her back together again.

  I made a decision as I watched him walk away. Despite my injury, I would go with Daniel on his next mission. Watching him walk into danger was too difficult…especially now that I was fully aware of results should something go wrong. There was no reason the both of us couldn’t contribute.

  “This group is an interesting little study in psychology,” Alex said lightly from the other end of the sofa. I could tell she sensed my agitation and was only talking to stop me from following Daniel.

  “How do you mean?” I asked.

  “They’re used to violence, they’ve been raised in it, and yet they can’t seem to come to accept the fact that their group isn’t always successful. They think of themselves as indestructible, but they know they aren’t. It’s a curious lie.”

  “Perhaps, it’s a lie they tell themselves, so they can keep on doing what they need to do,” I suggested.

  “That’s one reason,” she agreed.

  My eyes strayed back to the kids. They were the brightest lights in the room and helped me maintain my seat. Twitch, Cora and Ethan were laughing at Sprint, who was showing off for the group by telling jokes and stories. Cora and Ethan kept blushing when they caught each other’s eyes, the mutual crush they shared only having grown during the months I had been away; they only lacked the words to express the feelings they shared. I knew they would get around to it eventually. Then, my attention moved to Spider, who was still chatting with the shady-looking Watchers in the corner. They were talking about moving some stolen merchandise and the kinds of fees Spider expected for his help. Watching him was like watching a tiger shark move among baby sharks searching for a meal. Though Spider’s friends were Watchers, they didn’t have his keen intelligence and sharp intuitive sense.

  As I sat watching them, trying to sort out right and wrong, one of the men I had been introduced to by Reaper, one of his ‘generals’ approached the table and bent down between Twitch and Cora. I searched for his name in my m
emory bank, instantly tense. He was a stranger and the expression on his face was far from kind. The name came to me: he was the one Reaper had called Quinn. He was the one who had abandoned the poker game, after Spider had joined it. Behind him were two very large men, who carried themselves like bodyguards. Quinn started talking in a low, angry hiss. Over the chattering voices and music playing, I heard his words.

  “This common area is for Watchers only,” he said.

  The laughter died from the kids’ faces in an instant. I heard their thoughts switch from comfortable to defensive. They had faced many bullies during their time on the streets, and all of the kids were thinking about likely outcomes of the confrontation in front of them. Cora and Twitch were visibly frightened; their proximity to Quinn didn’t help their fear. Quinn’s smug expression at seeing their reactions, and the laughs from his flunkies, had anger burning through my body.

  “Where’s it say that?” Sprint asked, indignant at his words.

  “We’ll go,” Ethan said, aware that this breed of bully was a lot more dangerous than the kind they were used to.

  I was already out of my seat. I moved through the tables and couches as quickly as I could. Alex followed on my heels, not hearing what I had heard but aware of the tension in the air. I reached the table just as Ethan was standing. I put a hand on Ethan’s shoulder, to make him keep his seat. There was no way I was going to let Quinn bully them into leaving. We had been invited. We had as much right to be in the common area as Quinn did. Ethan’s eyes widened when he saw my expression.

  “There a problem here?” I asked Quinn, staring into his dark, brown eyes with unflinching resolve.

  Quinn refocused on me. “I don’t like insects crawling around my home,” he said. “My experience is that bugs in the house make for messy living.”

  “And what school of stupid did you graduate from exactly?” I asked.

  “Clare…” Alex warned glancing around the suddenly quiet room.

  The other Watchers had broken off from their conversations to listen in. I sensed them hoping for a fight. They assumed Quinn would win.