by Dana Faletti
“In other words, girlie, you need to go.” Jules laughed her throaty laugh and lit up a cigarette.
Without thinking, I stomped over to her and yanked the cigarette right out of her big pouty lips. I’d had enough of her “leetle girliness,” her screeching temper tantrums, her total disrespect for propriety when it came to wardrobe (I mean today she showed up in a black leather corset top that barely laced her boobs in.) and most of all I’d had it with the stink of her cigarette smoke or whatever kind of smoke it was.
“No more smoking in my house.” I spoke evenly, looking down at her as if she were a rebellious teenager and I was the Mom.
“Touchy touchy.” She muttered and disappeared. Good riddance.
“And you,” I marched over to Silas and got right in his face. “Quit telling me what to do.” I sputtered because I really didn’t have anything to yell at him for in the first place. Jules had knocked my temper right over the edge and I wanted somebody to yell at. Silas was just there. “You are so not the boss of me.”
“Actually...”
“Shut it.” Thick just didn’t do his ignorance justice. Plopping myself onto the bed and resting my head in my hands, I stared at the floor. “What if Mihm is there?”
“Hmmm, good question.”
Okay… waiting. Nope, that was all Silas had for me. Yeah, it was a good question, but he didn’t have the answer to it. Figures.
“Calliope, we are going to start doing some more combat training with you soon, so you will eventually be more ready to fight Raysers like him and others. I highly doubt Mihm will be at this party. He doesn’t usually do groups. He preys on solitary souls, much like the boy from the other night who was using illegal drugs.”
“Well, that’s a relief.”
“So that’s that then.”
“Whatta you gonna wear, Callie?” Jules was back and with attitude, making a show of her use of my actual name.
“Welcome back Jules. I was actually thinking of asking you for a wardrobe consult”
Oh crap –she thought I was serious –she totally lit up. No way.
“I’d be thrilled to dress you!”
As if.
“Thanks Jules.” I’d figure out how to get out of that one later.
And so, I’d told Joshua I’d had a change of heart and mentioned to Mila that I might be going to Gina’s party. She had already made plans to catch a ride with a couple of Rugby guy. I’d wiggled into some jeans, a tee shirt and my awesome boots – not only great for drop kicking demons but also screaming with fashion – and met Josh at my front door.
Joshua was talking his head off in the car, something about secrets and surprises. For once, I couldn’t focus on his melodic voice, his archangel face. In my head was a mental movie featuring me going completely local on a bunch of invisible demons while like a million other kids I knew were standing around watching. I knew they’d forget or maybe they wouldn’t even notice, but I hoped I’d be able to shake the performance anxiety in the face of however many Raysers showed up for this shindig.
“You okay Callie?” Joshua’s voice sifted through the rest of the noise in my head.
“Yeah. Sorry. I was just thinking.”
He flashed that lopsided grin at me that grabbed my attention with ease. Reality shifted, priorities melted. Okay... sweating already over here. How does he do that?
“Thinking about what?”
Wait a minute, I can’t remember… Oh, yeah…I was thinking about twisting the heads off of a bunch of mangy stinky pieces of… “Your lips.” The words tumbled out of my mouth like fizzy soda overflowing from a shaken bottle.
Really? Joshua’s presence really turned down the volume on my inhibition control. Either that or he just stupefied me most of the time. How was I supposed to navigate my way through this night? Not only was I freaked out by the thought of fighting Raysers in the midst of a high school party with people I knew all around me, but I had these crazy strong feelings to push aside at the same time. When Josh and I were together, the rest of the world quieted. I didn’t know how that would work in the face of the demons. Would I even be able to hear their whispers over the music Joshua played in my head?
But then he slowed down and pulled over into a grassy area on the side of the road, parking the car under a patch of trees. We were only a minute away from Gina’s house. I could hear kids yelling and laughing and even their loud music playing in the distance, but my head was full of its own songs when he turned and put his eyes on me.
“Callie.” He put his hand on mine leaning in close.
I couldn’t move. I couldn’t breathe. I couldn’t say a word.
Time stopped ticking. The world stopped spinning. All that was left was us in that small, dark space under the pine trees.
Heat.
Music.
His fingertips, tracing my lips.
Our eyes, searching each other.
“Callie Evans.” He broke the silence again, shook that gorgeous head of hair and looked down at our hands, laced together. “I just can’t believe I found you.”
And I couldn’t help myself, really. Never in my sixteen years of life had I felt desire so strong. I took his face in my hands, stole a look into his beautiful dark eyes. There was something there I didn’t know… and yet I knew. I couldn’t explain the feeling, really. It was like the memory of a dream or déjà vu. I let my fingers dance their way up and down the side of his face long enough to just take in the look of him, until I couldn’t wait any longer.
Never breaking eye contact with him, I slowly pulled Joshua’s face to my own. His soft lips tasted like mint and strawberries. His arms pulled me gently closer. I couldn’t be close enough to him. Ever. The brick on my chest was heavier now, and I felt like his breath was the only thing sustaining me, his lips slow dancing on mine… they were all I needed to exist.
When he pulled back, I felt myself sag a little, like a part of me had deflated. His eyes still bore into mine, questioning me, but I had no answer for him. I didn’t even know what he was asking, and yet… something deep down was trying to swim to the surface. There was an itch in my consciousness, and I couldn’t reach to scratch it. I felt like I was balancing on a ledge between two different realities, one in which I knew the players and the rules. The other was clouded, still obscure but changing.
Joshua leaned in again and kissed my forehead, holding my head to his lips for just a moment before releasing me and starting up the car. I never took my eyes away from him, trying to figure him out, trying to figure myself out… How could I possibly want him so much? How could these feelings be so strong when I’d only met him about two minutes ago?
“Guess we should get to that party.” I murmured in between kisses. I could tell he was just as content as I was here on this planet of us. Part of me worried that we’d go too far if given the opportunity. Part of me wasn’t worried at all. In the back of my mind was my mother’s voice, warning me, protecting me. It was ultimately her words in my head that urged me forward. If we stayed here under the protection of darkness and pine trees, I was pretty sure we’d end up doing things I might regret. I didn’t want to mess this up. I so wanted Joshua Pride in every way imaginable, but I wanted to take it slow… and I wanted it to last a long time.
I peered up at him. He was running his fingers up and down my face again, looking lazily into my eyes when suddenly his face changed. From lazy and content to alert, on edge.
He gritted his teeth visibly and let out a groan that was just loud enough to hear. Okay that was weird.
“What’s up, Joshua?”
He didn’t answer me. Instead he put one hand on my knee and the other on the gas pedal.
“Here we go.” He said matter of factly. Okay, then…and I thought we were having moment there.
So off we went. From our little patch of heaven to what was surely going to be a page right out of hell.
17
JOSHUA PRIDE
If there was ever any doubt in
my mind that Callie Evans was the epitome of awesome, that doubt was gone forever. This girl could slay. I mean she was kicking ass without blinking, stealing a glance at me or anyone else, maybe without even breathing. I couldn’t be sure. She worked so fast, I couldn’t even keep track of how many Rasyers she’d already done in. She was a machine, twisting a neck with one hand, slicing a throat with the other, smashing heads together, blowing a dozen Raysers to bits in a matter of seconds with a totally rad machine gun. She’d had to have gotten that piece from Jules. Silas was definitely not cool enough to handle heavy artillery. And Callie, she was made for it. She slung it around... well… like it was her job. They never even smelled her coming, and in minutes, she’d decimated them while I’d stood hidden and watching from a few feet away.
Her focus was so intense, it was mesmerizing. Her whole head had gone from social butterfly to warrior princess the moment she discovered the demons. She never wavered and wasted no time. Originally, I thought she might need back up. I was way off the mark on that one. She had only four or five left to pop, and she hadn’t even broken a sweat.
I had first heard the whispering tonight when we were still in my car, and I’d known Callie had her work cut out for her. I mean, the windows had been down, and we were close to the girl’s house, but still, for the noise to travel like that had to mean there were a lot of them. I’d known somebody was in deep trouble and that we had to get to that freakin party… fast. It had taken every ounce of inhuman strength I had in me to pull myself away from Callie and do what was right. Even though I knew that we literally had all the time in the world, I hated taking my lips off of hers, even for a minute.
But those damn Raysers… It had sounded like they were having their own personal party in there, their whispers coming fast, excited, all worked up. Something ugly was going down, and Callie was supposed to be the one to handle it.
And handle it she had.
There was quite a mess now– slime and gore all over the walls and floors, dead Rayser bodies lying on top of each other, heaps of saggy grey flesh, some oozing with blood. Lifeless yellow eyes still staring dumbly in death and rotten sulfur souring the once perfumed air. This was the scene in Gina Jones’s bedroom.
Gina was huddled in a corner of her walk in closet, against the wall. She was shivering and sobbing, pulling a blanket around her mostly naked skin. Her black lace bra peeked out from above the blanket, revealing a torn strap at her shoulder and a fresh bruise that was turning purpler by the second. The half dozen kids around her were only slightly conscious, having been either drop kicked or upper cut by Callie. Two of the four boys had their pants partially down... One of the two girls was still conscious but bleeding from her nose where Callie had punched her. She was holding a sharp letter opener in her hand. I didn’t want to think about what she had used it for before we’d arrived.
“Gina.” I watched Callie run over to her crumpled form. Gina, who was usually totally put together at school with her long bleached blonde hair and too much make up, was… well she was just a mess. Wet mascara had painted streaks on her face. Her painted lips were swollen and bleeding a color that wasn’t lipstick. Her hair was matted with dried blood and sweat, and when Callie attempted to pull her gently to her feet, I noticed the pool of blood on the ground, where she had been crouched. When Callie saw it, she laid Gina back down, realizing the girl wasn’t going to be able to walk. She needed a doctor fast.
“Why did they do this to me, Callie?” she wailed, having difficulty articulating her words. Callie cradled the girl’s head in her hands, tears in her own eyes.
“It’s going to be okay, Gina. We just need to get you some help.” She ran her hands through Gina’s hair. She was so gentle with this girl. I could see the genuine care in her eyes and in the way she handled her. Interesting when just hours ago she’d expressed a pretty strong dislike for her.
“You probably think I deserved this.” Gina’s voice was small and wavering. She was getting weaker.
“Gina, nobody deserves this.” Callie took Gina’s face in her hands and brought it close to her own. “You did not deserve this. You were created expressly for wonderful things, not for this, Gina. You have a beautiful soul, and I can see it in there, screaming for attention, screaming for love.” Callie smiled at her, and stars lit up the darkness of the scene in that closet. Even through her tears, her smile was genuine. The love she was showing to Gina Jones set my own heart racing. Here was a girl so spoiled by the bad reputation that preceded her, too blinded by the pace and action of her life to realize how utterly broken she was. So emptied out of life, of the bits of herself she’d given away too freely and now of the pieces that had been taken so savagely from her.
I watched as Callie took that empty vessel and filled it with love, watched her whisper sweet words to Gina while she traced hearts on the palms of the girl’s hands. So tender. So totally what this girl needed. I noticed Gina smile and nod weakly as Callie pulled out her cell phone.
“I’ll stay with you, Gina. I’m not leaving.”
The other kids in the closet who were conscious looked scared as hell. Whether they were worried about being busted by the cops that were now arriving or scared shitless of Super Callie, I would never know. Sad thing was these kids who’d brutally assaulted Gina Jones were just pawns in battle. Sure, their assailants were dead – seriously smashed up, smacked down dead thanks to Callie, but the enemy was still out there, breathing new armies to life by the minute, on the lookout for new pawns to whisper dirty rotten thoughts to, to influence secretly and over time. He was the ultimate sneak lurking in wait for warm bodies to take the fall for him on the battlefield of his ugly war.
While the police cuffed the kids and led them out of the room, I rounded the corner and acted surprised to see Callie who was mostly covered with Rayser gore but also splattered with some human blood.
“Joshua.” She threw her arms around me and buried her head in the crook of my neck. Dear God, even covered in gross, this girl was perfect.
“You okay?” Her breathing was heavy and shallow. She seemed more afraid now than she had been in battle. It was like she’d turned it off to get the job done, and now the overflow was coming.
“Can we get out of here?” Those blue green eyes could ask me for anything, and I’d deliver, no questions asked.
“Sure thing. Let’s roll.” I grabbed her hand, and we turned our backs from the carnage I wasn’t supposed to be able to see. I wanted so much to cheer for her, to celebrate the amazing job she’d done on those demons, to tell her how completely insane I was for her after watching her fight. I couldn’t wait much longer to tell her… Had to happen tonight.
We headed down the stairs and towards the back door in the kitchen. Callie had left her jacket and purse out back by the pool when she’d picked up on the whispering and disappeared. We’d grab her stuff and be on our merry way. I was planning on driving straight back to that patch of pine trees. Something had resonated in both of us there earlier. It was the perfect place to lay it all on her, to let the truth be told.
Wait a minute.
I paused when Callie came to a dead halt, obviously listening to the same thing I was. What the hell? Was it hissing or whispering? Laughter? All three. And it was too close for my comfort.
Suddenly I heard the fluttering snip snap of wings, flying and then coming to a screeching halt in a pile of fallen angels at our feet.
Jixer on top of Jules on top of Silas.
“Please. Get. Off. Now. This suit cost a fortune and is one hundred percent silk.”
“Dude, she’s holding onto me. Would you be trying to wriggle free of this set of wings?” Jixer grinned sideways and let out a throaty chuckle while Jules smirked at him.
“Silas, you were reeped off. That suit is polyester. Eet’s making me eetch.” Jules scratched the back of her bare legs with her red Elvira fingernails.
“Well, if you’d show a little less skin and cover up a little more…” Silas’s
muted whine echoed from under her until Jixer interjected.
“No way man. Just cuz you’re not interested… Jules, Baby, you look great, and I mean great.”
And then Jixer and Jules were all over each other pawing and kissing while that puny Silas tried to wriggle free from the bottom of the pain in the ass pile. This crap was a scene right out of WWF Friday night Smackdown for fairies.
Unbelievable bunch of freak show Micros they were.
Callie was speechless, wide eyed and frozen with what looked like fear and maybe even pain. Oh well, now was as good a time as any, I guess. Wouldn’t be as romantic as the pine trees under the stars, but I was pretty sure it would be memorable none the less.
“What the hell is going on?” I roared at them, grabbing their attentions simultaneously. Silas had finally made his escape and was furiously brushing off his silk polywhatever suit. He almost jumped out of his white patent leather shoes when I screamed at them. Jules just rolled her eyes at me, and Jixer hopped off of her, looking guilty and a little too serious for my liking.
“Silas, what the hell are you three doing here?”
He opened his mouth to explain, but Callie beat him to the stage, breaking her silence.
“Wait a minute.” Callie spoke firmly, looking from me to each of the Micro Angels and then back at me, her face reeling with confusion. She rubbed her temples and squinted her eyes. I didn’t know if she was in pain or just totally shocked out of her head.