I was given a full wing of the house, which was bigger than my old house. My bedroom suite included a room for sleeping, a closet the size of my bedroom at home, a dressing room, a bathroom with a jetted tub and separate shower worthy of Cribs—you could seriously fit eight people in there—a sitting area in the bedroom, a sitting room outside of the bedroom, a workout room, a library, an office, and a kitchenette with a small dining table. In addition to the large closet, there were seven additional closets within the suite. My cherubs took residence down the hall.
I had servants of the Order of Lesser Angels. Yeah, we had a class system too. Cerin was placed in charge of the care of me and my “overall well-being.” And managed a staff of four. That is exactly what she said when we met: “And you needn’t worry about housekeeping, wardrobe, textiles, meals, or entertainment. Mr. Vault has made ample preparation for your care.” She was as serious as a Frenchman on Bastille Day.
It was hard not to be taken in with the new living arrangements, but I couldn’t help thinking of the events that led me there. The good thing is wings heal fast and the pain didn’t last long. The embarrassment and betrayal, however, was an entirely different story.
***
The Lesser Angels busied themselves about my suite. Unable to form as anything other than shadows, they ironed, hung, and fluffed whatever required it. They seemed to enjoy tending to the new celebrity resident at Kheiron, Gavin’s personal pet, whistling while they worked.
Over the next few hours, they brought me clothes, patterns, and furniture catalogues and asked for my preferences on meal choices, music, wall color, fabrics, and materials. All of this, they said, was required of them by Gavin, who had not had the nerve to show his face since his performance downstairs.
He’d been so convincing. His protruding fangs ready to pierce my neck, to kill me, to let his “family” kill me. They could have easily snapped my cherubs in two, then killed Remi and me. But Gavin stopped them. Why? Had it all been an act? Perhaps Gavin had done all of that to save my life—mine and Remi’s. It must have been the only way to get the others to agree to let me live at Kheiron and finally call off the hit on me. Had it worked, or had it only bought me more time?
Turned around, disoriented, and unsure of my own feelings, I wondered if Remi had been in on it from the beginning. If he and Gavin had cooked up this whole rivalry thing just so they could pull off that stunt to save my life. I didn’t care. I was still furious with the both of them.
I must have fallen asleep, because when I heard the soft knock at the door, I sat straight up, startled. My eyes felt like they’d been plastered together, but I managed to pry them open, place one foot in front of the other, and find the door.
“Hi, I’m Olivia, otherwise known as LJ, knife wielder and unofficial welcome committee,” said the lanky girl standing in the doorway. She was still in the same blue princess dress she’d worn to the party.
I stepped back into the room, unsure of how to respond to her visit. She’d pulled a knife on me less than six hours ago, and I think she would have succeeded in using it had Tyler not interceded.
LJ shook her head from right to left, which changed her outfit to dark jeans and a long-sleeved scoop neck t-shirt.
For crying out loud. “Uh, hi,” I may have mumbled, kind of pissed that she just made light of the whole almost killing me thing by trying to impress me with a magical change in wardrobe.
“Oh come on, Grace. I wasn’t going to kill you. But you show up, with cherubs and then your brother? How can we trust you?” She looked past me while she spoke, seemingly talking to no one in particular. LJ plopped down on the ottoman as if not expecting a reply and began flipping through a home design magazine.
“So you had no intention of hurting me, yet you lunged at me with a six-inch blade. Is that right?” I stood over her certain my disgust was showing.
She peered from behind the page she had fixated on. “Look, Grace, Remi crashed what was supposed to be your welcome home slash birthday party. We had no idea if it was a ruse for the two of you and the cherubs to attack us or not. We had to be sure. No hard feelings?” LJ resumed her fixation on a white velvet sofa sprawled across the page of the magazine as if my response didn’t matter and the issue was settled. “Oh, this would look great in here, don’t you think?” She shoved the magazine at me, but I could say nothing of the couch or the room. Her eyes were full of fire and her smile actually twinkled. “So let’s get the couch.”
I smiled back at her, not exactly sure why. There was something about her that I couldn’t resist. Besides, I needed a friend at Kheiron.
LJ turned back to the magazine, apparently satisfied that she’d achieved her goal, whatever it was.
“OK, well, we should get this place looking like something, don’t you think? I mean don’t you humans have a phrase about life being short? Gavin is going to expect you to have it finished by the time he gets back, and you’re gonna need more than a couch.” She inspected me quickly.
Then she was in the bedroom, assessing the needs for paint, furniture, and decorations while I was pondering Gavin’s absence and the answer to her other questions. I followed her into the bedroom. “Gavin’s gone?”
“Keep up, Grace.” The impatience in her voice was not as harsh as I imagine it could have been. “What you don’t know, you pick up from our minds; what you want to know, that is. We shouldn’t have to tell you everything. This … politeness you have, that humans have, it’s useless in the context of Kheiron. And Grace, you have got to keep your mind out of the gutter. This constant pining away for Gavin and ‘oh if he looks at me or touches me’ crap is kind of annoying and particularly gross. We shouldn’t have to listen to it. If you haven’t figured out how to close your mind to others yet, you’re as good as dead.”
Heat rushed from my chest to my neck, then to my cheeks. She’d heard everything I’d thought about since I’d arrived. Everyone had. “I—I—I’m sorry.” I didn’t know what else to say.
LJ’s smile was like the sun: warm and comforting. Then again, too much exposure to the sun could kill you. Still, it was easy to forget she was Fallen. Light shone beneath her milk chocolate skin. She didn’t look downtrodden and forlorn like the others. I wished I could trust her. I wished I’d believed what she’d said earlier. I wished we’d had more in common than a love of white velvet couches.
“You’re one of us now, Grace. You and me, we’re the same.” LJ’s voice was sharp.
I realized then I had still failed to block her from my mind. “I just want someone to be straight with me for once, to tell me what the heck is going on in plain English. Not ancient text, not Latin, but English.”
“Are you done, Grace?” She looked at me sideways, clearly bored and not at all impressed with my monologue or my outfit. When she reached my red Converse All Stars, she rolled her eyes and shook her head.
“Yes.”
“Good. Let’s go horseback riding, then. I promised Gavin I would keep you out of trouble.”
“So you aren’t here to help me decorate, or to apologize, but to babysit me?”
“You don’t need me to help you decorate. You have more household staff than anyone here. Think it, and they’ll pick it from your brain, and one day it will just be as you wish. That’s how it works now. Got it? Now, let’s go riding and, Grace, please don’t ask me how we’re going to get down there.” LJ pointed to the stables in the distance beneath the window.
“Ok. Right.” My voice was nearly a whisper, my pride completely nonexistent. Considering I’d never before been on a horse, I was sure the humiliation I’d already experienced was only the beginning.
Beneath the window were two beautiful black horses flanked by four white horses with huge dark gray wings. The larger black horse was covered in a black saddle that had a deep red cover with Kheiron’s crest embroidered in the middle. LJ saw it had caught my eye. I could have sworn the horse was looking up at me and smiling.
“A gift to you from
Gavin,” she noted as she handed me a card. “I’ll meet you down there. I think you’ll enjoy riding at night.”
I wanted to tell her how appreciative I was of her kindness, but when I opened my mouth to speak, she was gone. I opened Gavin’s note slowly, overwhelmed by his gesture. He had thought of me: Strong, beautiful, stubborn … she reminded me of you. A smile assaulted my face, and my heart thumped loudly in my chest.
Cerin returned holding a complete riding ensemble. Cerin could not have been more than five feet tall, and that was being generous. Despite her shadowy figure, I could make out faint freckles on her face, across the bridge of her nose. They seemed to dance when she smiled.
Back in my dressing room, I decided to change my hair color to something I thought was more me, something fiery and defiant. I imagined the color; I’d seen it before on a Garnier Nutrisse ad. I ran my hand through my hair, and fervently willed it to change. Deep Burgundy. Nice. Shiny. Purple tones. I loved it. I pulled my hair into a ponytail and tucked it up under my riding helmet.
Cerin helped me into the remaining pieces of my ensemble. She brought me hot tea as I dressed. The tea set was the same one Gavin had used to serve me when I was last in Kheiron. The memory brought a smile to my face. “Thank you, Cerin.”
“You are very kind.” She bowed before exiting the room, slower this time, though I’m guessing still faster than most humans would have been able to detect. I was saddened by how little gratitude servants experienced at Kheiron and intended to mention it to Gavin. We may not have been entirely human, but that wasn’t a reason to act like animals.
As Cerin exited, Caius and Arcturus entered, bubbling with the excitement of young boys. It reminded me of Remi and his friends. “What’s gotten you two so worked up?” I wondered. Reading the mind of cherubim was a lot harder since they were Warrior Angels. They only opened their minds when absolutely necessary, or to share combat information between soldiers or with their commanding officers.
Caius couldn’t seem to control himself, and I had to check my own emotions as I listened to him. He seemed so innocent at times. “This place is awesome! We each have our own Wii, and there’s an arcade room with PacMan and Space Invaders and a bowling alley and movie theater, and Tyler says we can hang out in the recording studio any time we want! John Lennon was in there just now. And, Grace.” He paused and waited for my full attention. “Skyrim!”
“Well, try not to have too much fun while I’m gone, okay?”
“Oh no, Grace.” Caius’s expression changed. He looked suspiciously behind himself. “If you’re leaving, we’re going with you. Wii can wait.”
***
Cerin whisked us quickly through the corridors, down several flights of stairs, past what I recognized as Gavin’s quarters, and through several more darkened hallways, bends, turns, and more stairs and nooks before we finally ended up in the parlor where Tyler was talking with LJ.
“My, you are human. It took you long enough,” LJ quipped in my direction with a smirk on her face.
So much for friendship. Flanked by the cherubs and with Cerin exactly three feet behind me to the right, I felt like I could take her if I had to. But Tyler’s disapproving nod was enough to put us both in our respective places.
“But it was certainly worth the wait.” Tyler directed a smile my way. “LJ, why don’t you ready the mares? Grace will be out in a just a minute.” It sounded more like an order than a suggestion. LJ slinked away and out the door, head down in defeat, before he’d even finished his sentence.
I started to leave as well, but Tyler placed his hand on the door handle to stop me from going. “Grace.” Tyler stepped directly in front of me. “I hope you know I want what’s best for Gavin.”
“And?” First LJ, now Tyler. I removed his hand from the door handle and opened the door to let myself out. I walked briskly toward the stables, refusing to be influenced by him. He’d proven his loyalties. He’d held my brother against his will and embarrassed him in front of everyone.
“I apologize for the handling of … the situation with Remi. My charge is Gavin, and I hope you can appreciate that I would give my life to protect him,” he said while he tried to keep up with me. In hindsight, I could see that even that, his pretending to lag behind, was a lie. It was all part of his plan.
“Your charge is Gavin? Who commands you? Who do you answer to? No one. No one! You make your own rules. You protect Gavin because it gives you status.” I hadn’t realized how angry I’d become until I heard the echo of my raised voice. I stopped walking and faced Tyler head on. I was inches from his face, wings outstretched and carrying on like a crazed half-human. It was no wonder they didn’t want me around.
“Please, Grace, I believe in you, as Gavin does. Whatever you may think of me, please consider me a friend. I’ve always thought … fondly of you.” A strange look crossed his face, and then, as if embarrassed, he lowered his head and walked briskly away, wings lit like a firefly in the night.
I waved Arcturus and Caius over. Their presence calmed me. As we walked, delicate, dark red flowers grew between the cracks in the stone. It was beautiful and bizarre all at once.
***
I swear they must have had eye-rolling contests at Kheiron. “What’s her name?” I asked, but LJ rolled her eyes, shook her head and refused to respond. Instead she mounted her horse and took off as if we were racing instead of going for a late night ride.
My nameless horse seemed to feel sorry for me as I nearly gave myself whiplash trying to catch up with LJ, but at least I looked good doing it.
LJ remained in the same outfit she’d worn earlier. Not that it was a contest. She held her dark wings close to her body, and the dim light behind them seemed trapped at her sides. It was like one of those photos of moving cars at night where the cars look like moving lines of light.
Trees blurred past us, seeming to whisper out to me as if they knew my name. The whipping wind on my face reminded me of that time Remi, Jenny, Sean, and I went to the mall and took turns in that stupid hurricane simulation chamber. Jenny’s idea. Well, it was actually a consolation prize, since she had wanted to take a skydiving class but Remi talked her out of it. Said she wouldn’t enjoy flying. I could recall many instances when Remi said something that alluded to who and what he was.
***
Someone cleared his throat loudly from behind the two-way glass.
“How much longer are we going to let this go on?”
“As long as it takes. Until we get what we need.” Sergeant Mullane’s gruff reply quieted the individual whose voice I didn’t recognize.
I was getting tired. More tired. I wanted to sleep. I picked up the cup in front of me and noticed it was full. The water inside was cold, as if recently given to me, but no one had come into the room.
“Bibe.” The voice from before whizzed around the back of my neck then landed in my ear. “Bibe, bibe.” It wanted me to drink. I would have, except the water then changed from clear to pink, to red, then dark red. Then it spilled over the sides of the cup and onto the table.
“Is everything OK in there, Grace?” It was Mom.
The dark, thick liquid seemed determined as it raced toward me, trying to get under my sleeves. I jerked my arms back behind me and stood, the scrape of the metal chair across the concrete floor echoing off the walls. Droplets fell onto the floor in front of me. The liquid drove itself toward my shoes and began to seep in through the fabric. I told the liquid to leave me alone, in Slovenian because it was the only language I could speak in at that moment. “Pustite me na miru!”
“Do you need my help?” Mom’s breath was wispy.
“No! I’m, I’m okay. It’s gone now.” My breathing was heavy as I watched the liquid gather and return to the cup, then change back to clear water. I slid down to the floor and remained there.
“Then please continue. You were telling us about the gift from Gavin, the horse?” Officer Bladen chimed in, resulting in a few snickers from the other people who’d
gathered to listen to my statement. I sat up, straightened my hair on either side. “Had Mr. Vault given you anything prior to this? A horse is a rather extravagant gift for someone you’ve just met.”
***
Arcturus and Caius were atop the escort horses, who flew in formation. Angels on pegasi in the sky. As long as I live, I will never get used to that.
Maybe I should call you Ambry, I thought. Ambry shook her head up and down in agreement. Apparently, the horse could read my mind as well.
Only that of my owner, Ambry replied telepathically.
When I caught up to LJ, she was stopped, crouched down on her horse, low, forward, like a bird of prey.
“Shh,” she ordered.
“What?”
“Shh. You want to live, don’t you? They don’t know that you’re not one of us.”
“What are you talking about? They who?”
“He’ll kill me if I let you get hurt, or worse, killed while the humans are out here hunting for … Fallen, vampires, and witches.”
“You have got to be flipping kidding me.”
“You, me, the cherubs, the horses. They’ll kill us all. Just to be on the safe side. I have no idea how they even make it onto the grounds.”
“What do we do?”
“We fight.” LJ’s eyes were filled with determination and intimidation. I dared not look away. “I need to know you’re not going to kill me yourself.”
“LJ, I would never … ” I couldn’t believe it. I was just getting settled in and now I was going to have to fight for my life, again, here in the place where Gavin assured me that I would be safe, that he would protect me. And since he was nowhere to be found, I was going to have to trust my life to the girl who’d threatened it only a few hours before.
LJ interrupted my thoughts. “I just know how much of a goody two-shoes you are. There are rules about killing humans.”
“Well, if someone’s trying to kill me or my friends, human or otherwise, the rules go out the window.”
Praefatio: A Novel Page 15