FORBIDDEN

by Curd, Megan

  Clay laughed, and patted me on the back. “You have an interesting situation, guarding Hannah. There will always be a scene. As for today, I say get her into the crowd, and wait for them to come.”

  This didn’t sound like a good plan to me. “You’re saying use her as bait?”

  “That’s really the only option you have. Put her in the crowd, and be on the lookout. I’ll be there too, and when they swoop in – ”

  “ – Take them out,” I finished for him.

  Clay nodded. Hannah was silent, but I could tell she was thinking something. She eyed Clay, then asked the question that should have been on my mind. “Clay, will you be able to take out Owen? He’s your son.”

  Crap. Why did I not think of that? Of course it could become an issue. If I were faced with the necessity to hurt Ethan, I wasn’t sure if I could do it. He wasn’t even family. Unable to look at Clay, I waited to hear his answer.

  Clay cleared his throat uncomfortably. “If that is what it comes down to, we’ll cross that bridge. I would prefer you to handle Owen, though, Levi. If you don’t mind, of course. Reina and I have a score to settle, anyway.”

  “Sounds good.”

  The school’s music was blaring. We weren’t far away now, and the reverberations of the bass could be felt. Must be some homecoming. Too bad people were about to get more of a party than they bargained for.

  Hannah took my hand. It surprised me. She leaned over to whisper in my ear, pulling me closer to her. “Look, I’m sorry about everything. I trust you, for what it’s worth.”

  I laughed. Against everything in me, I pulled my hand from hers. It just wasn’t worth hurting her more. That was what would happen in the long run, if we continued down this road. “I’m just doing my job, Hannah.”

  She exhaled loudly, but then nodded resolutely. She must have understood what I meant. I could tell she was struggling, too. “I’m glad you’re doing your job.”

  My only hope was that I could do it well for the rest of the day.

  THIRTY-TWO

  When we got to the school grounds, Clay led Hannah into the gym. He pretended to be a chaperone, and leaned casually against a far wall to remain in the shadows. He stayed visible to the humans, while I went quiet and made my rounds, trying not to step on people and incite a panic.

  I didn’t see Owen or Reina anywhere, but that didn’t mean they weren’t here. I kept jumping at the slightest thing, panic rising into my chest, then dissipating when it became apparent that nothing was wrong. People kept squealing with delight about seeing friends, which threw my judgment off. I was paranoid that we would mistake Hannah’s scream for someone excited.

  Clay looked comfortable with the situation from across the gym. He smiled easily and really looked like he was having a good time. I couldn’t figure out how he was staying so calm. Maybe it was the centuries of practice. I kept jumping like there were firecrackers under my feet. My senses were on high alert. Nothing I could do would calm my nerves. There probably wasn’t anything in this world that would prepare me for the inevitable meeting that was surely about to happen.

  Music and people swirled around me, and I watched as every unsuspecting human had a great time. I wondered if I would have enjoyed this evening, had it been under different circumstances. Hannah tried to look as happy as she could, but her smile was visibly strained. Her friends didn’t seem to notice.

  I wondered what it would be like to be human again. How was Ethan? Where was Angie? My brain was going about a thousand miles a minute, all the while still concentrating on Hannah and the threat just waiting to make itself known.

  God, I wished they’d just show up. My muscles were tensed for a fight that wasn’t happening. I clenched my fists and continued to wait. It had to happen soon; the dance was almost over.

  The rest of the night went off without a hitch. I was confused. Hannah met up with Clay and I at the gym entrance, a quizzical look playing across her face. I shrugged. There wasn’t any rhyme or reason for Owen to quit chasing her. He would come, of that there was no doubt.

  Before Hannah could say anything, Clay cut her off and extended a hand. “Just be thankful they weren’t here. It’s better that your classmates aren’t brought into the fray.”

  He was right, but it felt like he was more relieved than either Hannah or I. It was understandable, considering that his son would be in the fight, and he may have to fight him. But everyone had their choices to make, and Owen had made his. He ended up where he did, and Clay was on the other – the better – side of the fence. There was nothing that could change those decisions. I wondered what it was like to have that permanent fate. How had I become so lucky as to have the opportunity to rectify my mistakes? I’d never take that for granted again.

  “Let’s get you home,” Clay said. He put his arm around Hannah and walked alongside us, navigating through the throngs of people. The rainbow of glitter, sparkles, dresses and suits blurred past my eyes. Nothing mattered except getting Hannah home safely. We could manage to protect her there. Being in these crowds made me nervous.

  Hannah seemed to calm down now that we were out of the mass of people. She looked over to me anxiously, but her eyes weren’t quite as scared as they’d seemed in the gym. Suddenly her questions came out in rapid fire. “How’s Ethan? Where is he? How’s Angie?”

  “Um,” I began. I had no answers for these questions.

  Luckily Clay headed me off. “They’re both okay. Angie is good. Ethan saved her today. She owes him her life.”

  I wished I understood more, but knew explanations would have to wait until we were finished here. Before I could stop myself, words came out. “Why don’t we just take Hannah away from here? Why can’t we take her somewhere far away, so they don’t know where she is?”

  Clay smiled sadly. “Do you not think they could find her? It’d only stop them for a human’s breath of a moment. It doesn’t matter where she is, she’s going to be hunted. It’s better to leave her with her family and we’ll protect her here.”

  “We’ll protect her?” I repeated.

  “Yes, we’ll protect her. I’m as invested in this human as you are now. For very different reasons, of course.” Clay’s eyes twinkled.

  I didn’t respond. Even Clay told me it was better to be distant. Hannah snuck a glance my way. I deliberately avoided her line of sight. My insides hurt from ignoring her, but this was the only way I could keep her safe, the only way I could be objective.

  “Care to do the honors of taking Hannah home?” Clay asked, unwrapping her from under his arm. “I’ll go ahead and make sure things are all clear.”

  “Sure, sure,” I said. I opened my arms to Hannah, and she gladly filled the space. Warmth filled my body, and I tried to hold in the sigh of contentment that came from having her close to me. We were two halves of a whole. It was obvious why we weren’t supposed to interact with our humans. We got attached. I was attached.

  Clay shot off into the dark and I spread my wings to take off as well. Hannah wrapped her arms around my neck and pulled herself closer to my chest. “You know, I never would have imagined this could all be possible,” she murmured into my chest, “But I like it.”

  “You like being chased by otherworldlies and potentially dying on a daily basis?”

  “I like that I’ve gotten an extra week of life because I have someone protecting me from those otherworldlies,” she replied simply.

  I didn’t say anything after that, but we carried on our conversation silently. Her hands roved and she intertwined her fingers in my hair. Her breath was a gentle breeze against my neck. It was hard to focus on anything with her close like this. How was I supposed to keep her safe when I couldn’t even think straight? She was making it hard on me to stay true to my decision to stay away.

  My mind wandered. How different would it be if I were human? There’s no way I’d let her out of my arms. She’d be mine, and I wouldn’t ever take it for granted. There was no way I could give her what she needed now,
except to be her Guardian. That was all I could give, but I would do it to the best of my ability.

  “You’re too hard on yourself,” Hannah said out of the blue. “I can see something’s going on in your head, and that usually means you’re beating yourself up over one thing or another. Stop it. Everything is going to be fine.”

  “You’re a horrible liar.”

  She laughed. “I would never dream of lying to a Guardian.”

  I followed her cue and teased her back. “I’d hope not. I think that’s some sort of offense in the logbook of life.”

  She looked into my eyes with a mixture of what seemed like hope and hesitation at the same time. “Is kissing a Guardian an offense?”

  Ah, crap. I didn’t want to do this. Well, to be honest, I did, but I knew it was not going to end well. Problem was, the girl had a hold on me. My insides warred between the two decisions: stay distant, like a Guardian should, or let the hormone-ridden human part have its way. The irrational, hormone-ridden human part of me that was left won out. “It is, but we’ve already broken about a million rules and I’m already condemned. Might as well add this onto it.”

  She didn’t need to be told twice. She wound both hands in my hair, and stopped me in mid-flight with the most amazing kiss I’d ever had in my life. Her lips were so soft. I had to focus to keep us from plummeting to the ground. My arms held her tight against me, and I felt every inch of her already warm body heat up. I ran my hands across the bare skin of her back, and was thankful her dress provided this small wonder. My whole body was on fire. Nothing could top this feeling. Humans may have been created fragile, but they were amazing, nonetheless.

  What was I thinking, assuming I could ever stay away from her? I didn’t know how to make it work – make us work – but she had me wrapped around her finger. I was hers, and she would be mine any way I could have her.

  Just then I got rocked from the right side. It felt like every bone in my body had been crushed, and I felt blasts of sharp pain wrack my wing. It crumpled against my will. Hannah and I started to fall, spiraling in a circle as I attempted weakly to keep us from hurtling to the ground.

  Hannah’s screams filled my ears, and I searched frantically for the attacker. How had I been so stupid as to think we could have a stolen moment of time for ourselves?

  “It’s Reina!” Hannah screamed, pointing upward into the sky.

  Sure enough, Reina was gunning for us like a possessed demon. Her hands were extended, reaching forward toward us in expectation.

  I closed my good wing to shield Hannah, but Reina still got a hold on her shoulder. Hannah cried out in pain, and we dropped faster toward the ground, Reina wrapped up in our tussle as well. I jerked hard to the right, hoping to lose Reina. It worked.

  The ground was close. There was no way it was going to be a smooth landing, so I turned over and hoped to catch the weight of the fall on my back. At least Hannah wouldn’t connect with the hard ground. I shut my eyes tight and braced myself for the impact.

  My body slowed to a halt just inches before it connected with the ground. Then, as quickly as I’d stopped, I dropped the last three inches with a small thud. Reina screamed in frustration as she had to pull out of her dive to avoid plowing into the ground.

  I looked around for an explanation. Clay stood there, watching the skies as Reina circled, coming back for another round. “Let me have her, Levi. Owen is at her house. Ethan is there to head him off, but get there and take care of him before things get out of hand. Ethan can’t handle Owen on his own. I can keep Hannah safe and dispose of Reina.”

  It was hard to know what to do. I didn’t want to leave Hannah, but this had to be resolved. I trusted Clay, but with Hannah? I wasn’t sure.

  He seemed to feel the war going on in me. “I can protect her,” he reassured me. “Just take care of Owen.”

  Finally I agreed. Hannah made a small fight out of letting go of me, but I took her shoulders gently in my hands and held her at an arm’s length. “Hannah, let us take care of you. There will be two less people hunting you after tonight. Trust me.”

  Her eyes were frantic. She had a cut on her forehead, and her shoulder bled freely. I chastised myself once more for causing so many problems. “I’ll be back for you,” I promised, then gave her no other option. I looked at Clay quickly. “So help me God –”

  “I know. I won’t let anything happen to her,” he said. “Now go!”

  I attempted to leap into the air, but then quickly realized there would be no flight for me. My wing was ruined. It would take time to heal this. There was no other option available but to run. Determined to fix things, I took off toward her house. It wasn’t hard to miss. I heard clangs and shouts coming from about a mile out, and knew Ethan was trying his best to keep things to a dull roar.

  No time to figure out if her family was home. It sounded as though things were coming from the kitchen, so I bolted for the kitchen door. It was blasted off the hinges. Ethan stood on the table, wielding a butcher knife in one hand and a cutting board in the other. He looked like a disheveled knight. I couldn’t figure out why he resorted to such weapons, but I didn’t have time to ask. Owen was bearing down on him, an evil smile splayed across his face.

  I took the opportunity to take him off guard. I sprinted forward and tackled him to the ground, his wild growls filling my ears. He rolled me onto my back, and began to throw blow after blow. He was stronger than me. His livid, red eyes were alight with hate, and he grinned to reveal bloody teeth. “You won’t win this fight, Guardian,” he said. “You’re broken and weak. Your friend is pathetic and human. Why would you even attempt to fight?”

  “My friend is better than you could ever be,” I countered, “And she’s the catalyst for you going back to where you belong!”

  He coughed a low laugh, and pulled back to assail me once more. When he shifted his weight to bring down the blow, I moved just in time and caught his bloody, black wing. I threw him away from me and into the nearby wall. The wall buckled under his weight, and he went crashing into the living room, drywall and wood splinters flying everywhere.

  “You’ll pay for that!” he hissed.

  Angie’s voice filled my ears. “No, you’ll pay for messing with my friends!”

  She sprinted with inhuman speed from the open front door and tackled Owen once more. Hadn’t Clay claimed she was human? There was no way humans had speed like that. She was manhandling Owen, too. She made me look like a weakling. I watched in awe. She was a formidable creature.

  “What are you waiting for, Sherlock? The end of times?” Shouted Ethan. He shook his knife and cutting board at me wildly as he hopped off his table perch. “If you are, then they’re coming pretty freaking fast if you don’t stop Owen!”

  I didn’t hesitate any longer. I ran forward to where Angie was wrestling with Owen. She smiled casually as she laid another elbow into the middle of his back. “Come to learn a few moves?”

  She was something else. I shook my head and grabbed Owen’s wings to pin them against his back. “Something like that! Do you know how to finish him?”

  “Nope, but you can do the honors!”

  Just then Clay ran through the door with Hannah. They both stopped and stared at the carnage in the living room. Clay’s eyes filled with tears. “Stop! Stop! That’s my son!”

  Angie stopped, but didn’t release her vice-like hold on Owen. He wasn’t going anywhere. Still, he thrashed and yelled wildly, stopping at nothing to free himself. She lowered one last strong elbow to the base of his neck and knocked him out cold.

  Clay ran forward, his eyes on Owen. They sparkled with tears and a pain that only a father could experience. I felt for him, but there was no way I could allow Owen to remain alive. I looked at Clay sympathetically. “You know he’ll hunt us until we’re all dead.”

  “Is there no chance for redemption? Look at you! You were like him.”

  “I was never like him,” I said coldly. “I never tormented others or murdered for
sport like him.”

  Clay’s eyes sparkled with tears. “But you know the lows that he’s been through. Are we not able to give him an opportunity to be redeemed?”

  Ethan came and stood by Clay. “Our choices are our own. You know this, Clay. You’ve watched it all, seen it all. You know Owen won’t change. He doesn’t want to change. Levi wanted to change. You knew I wanted to change. Owen is different. Redemption isn’t something he would even understand.”

  Owen was starting to stir, and Angie pushed all her weight down to keep him on the ground. She looked at Clay expectantly. “Did you get rid of Reina, Clay?”

  “Of course I did.”

  “Then why can’t we do the same here? What’s the difference? Why didn’t you show mercy for her?”

  Angie had a point. The tension was so thick, you could cut it with a knife. We were all on pins and needles. Here Owen lay, ready to be eliminated, yet part of me felt horrible for doing so. Clay said we were similar. How so? Would he ever change? I doubted it. I wished we could have finished him before Clay got here.

  Hannah was hiding behind Clay until this point, but she emerged and stepped toward Angie. Her eyes were resolute. “Let him go.”

  Angie looked at her, shocked. “Are you serious? This evil thing has been hunting you for God knows how long, and now that we can end him, you say let him go? He ruined my life, Hannah. You forget I’m invested in this, too.”

  “You’re a kind soul, remember?” Hannah asked. “Don’t forget what you are, just because you may have changed a bit.”

  I was stunned. Owen’s legs were starting to rustle, and his groans were becoming louder. It wouldn’t be long before he was competent again. Our time was running out.

  Hannah never missed a beat. “Let him go. We all need to have the chance to redeem ourselves. Owen isn’t an exception. He will have to live with the fact that he owes us. That’s not a small debt. He’s a victim of circumstance. Angie chose to fight being a Hunter. Maybe we can help him see there’s another way, too. Clay doesn’t need to lose his son tonight, no matter what the circumstances.”