Seers (18 page)

Next to the torn couch was a small and broken bookshelf. It held a few books—mostly Patrick’s school stuff, I realized with a quick glance. It was easy to recognize those things, because I had the very same stash on my bedroom floor in a corner.

It was easy to see why they’d picked this room to be their living space, because the four windows that lined the back wall were still intact, though extremely dirty. Also, there were two doors on both the left and right walls, leading to smaller offices, or rooms. All were closed, except one on our left. Patrick hurried in that direction, shutting it before I could get a good look. I spied the end of a mattress, but that was all before I was just staring at a closed door.

He offered a somewhat embarrassed smile. “That’s just my bedroom. Trust me, not much to see.” I glanced around the room again, spying a microwave in the corner, sitting on a stool. One of those really small fridges hummed next to it. “You have electricity?” I asked, surprised.

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“Yeah. We try to avoid using lights in here though—the windows would make it obvious he were here,” he added in simple explanation. “But Terrence set us up pretty nicely as far as utilities go. Everything works, but we’re pretty off-grid, which fits our needs of lying low. We don’t exactly want Demons knowing where we sleep—or humans, for that matter.”

“Terrence?” I asked, stepping toward the windows.

“He’s a Guardian, but instead of Demon hunting and human protecting he specializes in getting the Guardians in this area set up. You know, find them low places to live, help get them settled, that sort of thing. There are quite a few like him, positioned in all the corners of the world. We call them Overseers, or Supervisors.

He’s a really nice guy—I’m sure you’ll meet him sometime.”

“So not all Guardians are like you and Toni?”

“Is that relief I hear?” He almost laughed. He stayed near his door, leaning against the wall with folded arms. He watched me as I stood next to the couch and looked out the window. I got a nice view of the building next to us—shattered windows and all.

“Great view,” I told him anyway, craning my neck up to see if I could catch a glimpse of the sky.

He laughed again, and I tried to memorize the sound. It was beautiful, and relaxing. It made my body tingle, and I wished he’d do it again. “Yeah, basically this place is the Ritz.” I turned around and resumed the conversation—my mind still struggling to wrap around everything about my new world.

“So Terence helps you Guardians, who protect Seers, who are supposed to help you hunt Demons, to protect the Humans?” He nodded once, fingering the black bracelet on his wrist.

“It’s confusing, I know. It’s all pretty complicated. All you need to know for now is that there are Guardians everywhere, and with the help of Seers, we keep humans safe from the Demons.” I nodded once, showing that I understood that part. And really, it did sort of make sense. Some Guardians worked to support the other Guardians who did the actual guarding work. Still, I knew I

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had lots of questions about how the whole network operated.

Patrick suddenly leaned away from the wall, and his arms dropped to his sides. “I don’t know what we’ve got, but do you want something to drink? Or eat?”

“Immortal people eat, then?” I asked, forcing my deepening thoughts to a lighter but still intriguing topic.

“Ha ha.” He opened the fridge long enough for a foul smell to escape, then quickly closed it, pulling a sour face. “Sorry about that.” He straightened abruptly, and though he still looked perfectly at ease I got the impression that he was somehow nervous.

“Um, yeah, we can eat. I mean, we don’t have to. We never actually feel hunger, but eating is fun. It doesn’t ever effect us negatively.” I looked at all the pizza boxes. “Obviously.”

“Toni enjoys it more than others, quite frankly. If I’d have remembered it was this bad, I wouldn’t have invited you over.”

“Don’t worry about it, really,” I assured him, seeing that despite his joking tone, he was actually feared I might be offended by the place. “In a weird way, it’s exactly what I expected. I mean, minus the glamorous mansion and fancy furniture part.”

“Thanks,” he grinned. “At least this stuff was all free.”

“I think you still paid too much for the couch.”

“It’s comfortable,” he defended.

My phone vibrated, and it was loud in the sudden silence. I pulled it out quickly, and saw that it was Lee calling. Back to reality, it seemed.

I answered it quickly, hoping that Toni hadn’t stranded her or something. “Lee, what’s up?” I asked, staring at the floor and all the while feeling Patrick’s eyes on my face.

“Goodness, girl, where are you? Toni and I just got back to the house, and we wanted to watch a movie.” Her voice turned teasingly suggestive. “Are you with Aaron?”

“No,” I answered quickly—too quickly. I wanted to hit myself.

I couldn’t tell her the truth, and Aaron would have been the best excuse.

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Luckily she wasn’t really listening. “Well, bring him over too.

I don’t know what we’re watching yet, but I just stuck a pizza in.

See you in five?”

“Make it ten.”

“Gotcha. See you then.” She hung up without waiting for my goodbye, and I closed my phone slowly, looking at it like it was some kind of strange device.

“What’s wrong?” Patrick asked, mistaking the consternation on my face for panic.

“I guess Toni and Lee are having a movie night at her house.

She wants me there—with Aaron.” I immediately regretted mentioning my boyfriend’s name out loud, because some of the easiness that I’d been getting used to faded from Patrick’s face the instant I said it.

“Oh.” He unconsciously pushed a hand into his hair; a nervous habit, I guessed. “Well, you should go. Sorry I kept you as long as I did. Probably not exactly the way you wanted to spend your day.”

“Actually, I’m just glad to understand it all. Sort of.” My weak joke tugged a small smile from him, but I had a feeling I wasn’t going to hear that wonderful laugh again.

“So,” I began slowly, unsure of how to continue. He gave me an encouraging nod, and I found my voice. “We just pretend everything’s normal, right? I mean, we go back to school, do what we always do . . . that sort of thing?” He nodded for real now. “Yes. And let me know if you see anything unusual. Call me night or day, whenever. I’ll have a talk with Toni, and make sure he doesn’t steal the car again.”

“The car—is that courtesy of Terrence, too?” He smiled. “Yes, why do you ask?”

“Well, I was hoping you hadn’t picked that out, too,” I teased, gesturing toward the couch with a small wave of my hand.

“Yes, it actually runs,” he assured me, taking the joke in stride.

“Come on,” he said suddenly, and I knew that my time with him was over. For tonight, anyway. “I’ll walk you to your car.”

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Sixteen

Once I’d puled back onto a main street I called Aaron. He was more than happy to meet me at Lee’s for a movie, though I warned him her date was really bizarre.

It felt a little strange for me to drive away from the warehouse, and leave Patrick standing in that deserted courtyard. It almost felt like I was abandoning him, after everything we’d gone through that afternoon. But what else could I have done? It was time to try and return to my regular life, no matter how weird it felt. He’d said that was what we needed to do.

Aaron and I pulled up to Lee’s house at virtually the same time, and he greeted me with a happy kiss in her driveway. I couldn’t help but wonder what it would feel like to kiss Patrick, since his mere touch had filled me more than Aaron’s kisses ever had. Of course, I regretted that thought instantly, and refused to visit it again the rest of the night. (We’d see how long that resolution lasted.) There was another car in the driveway, but I was too distracted to notice much about it, other than the fact that it was blue. Aaron pulled me up onto the porch, and I took a deep breath, trying desperately to calm my racing thoughts. I needed to concentrate. No one could know that there was anything different about me. I mean, Patrick had said as much, but what was more I didn’t want my friends to know that I wasn’t normal anymore.

Toni opened the door for us, and though he gave me a knowing grin, he didn’t say anything other than a natural ‘hi’. He didn’t

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single me out any more than Aaron, and I was grateful to him even though I still considered him to be a little creep. A little creep that was also an immortal Guardian.

Lee was in the back of the house, and I wandered back there to help her, leaving Aaron and Toni to introduce themselves and pick a movie. As soon as I stepped into the kitchen Lee started talking about how wonderful Toni was, and how he was the fun-niest guy she’d ever met.

“He’s a freshman over at the college,” she continued, as she opened the oven to check the pizza. A short second later she was closing the door and resetting the timer for three minutes. She turned back toward me, watching as I opened a cupboard and lifted down four plates. As soon as I’d set them down on the counter, she was speaking again. “Isn’t he hot? I mean, I still can’t believe he singled me out like that.”

“You’re not giving yourself enough credit,” I told her honestly.

She blew out her breath loudly and moved for the cups.

“Maybe. But honestly, doesn’t he just crack you up?” Her question was obviously rhetorical.

“So what else did you guys do?” I asked. Though I was gathering dinner supplies in Lee’s kitchen, my mind was still in an abandoned warehouse, firmly captivated by a pair of perfect blue eyes.

“Well, after we ate we window shopped for a while, and then we went driving in his car. I just still can’t believe that a college guy would go for me, you know?”

“Do you want me to make some punch or something?” For the life of me, I couldn’t focus on the conversation Lee was trying to have. Not that she really noticed. She was walking on sunshine, far above me.

She kept craning her neck around me, trying to look into the living room.

I finally rolled my eyes and grabbed her arm, pulling her toward the door. “Just go—I’ll manage this.”

“You sure?” She asked, looking at me for really the first time,

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though she was still glancing past me with more frequency than would normally be considered polite.

“I’m sure.”

With a wordless grin, she was out the door, and I was alone.

For a while.

I was searching the pantry when I heard someone step up behind me. “Need a hand?” Aaron asked.

I turned around, forcing a smile. I really needed to stop thinking about Patrick. But that was impossible after everything I’d learned today. About him, and me, and the world in general. Still, I needed to try.

“Yeah—maybe you can see the napkins somewhere.” Just then the timer sounded, and I left the pantry conquer-ing to Aaron so I could tend to dinner. I pulled out the pizza, switched off the oven, and started to hunt a pitcher down.

“Found them,” Aaron suddenly declared, emerging from the tiny pantry with a small stack of napkins clutched victoriously in a raised hand. He set them down next to the plates and cups, and then moved to lean against the counter next to me, watching as I filled a clear pitcher with water.

As I made punch, Aaron made conversation. He told me about swim practice, and how he only managed to be getting slower and slower with the backstroke. “I’m going to have to really improve if coach is gonna let me compete. I’ll probably be in the pool more this week than out of it, just trying to get my speed back.” I nodded, but didn’t comment. I was staring at the punch I was stirring. I’d subconsciously picked blue, not that it was the right shade for his eyes. Not even close.

“So what did you do today?” Aaron asked.

I continued to stir, but I threw a quick smile in his direction.

“Not much. Lee and I pretty much wasted the whole day, then we went by the mall to pick up some new shirts for her Goth look.”

“Sounds like a relaxing day.”

“Yeah . . . It was.” Despite everything . . .

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He stuck his thumb out toward the pizza. “Want me to cut that?”

“Sure.” I mentally shook myself. “The cutter should be in that second drawer—the one by the fridge.” As Aaron ambled across the kitchen Toni and Lee suddenly stepped inside. They were each holding two movies, and they needed help narrowing the choices down. We started eating our pizza while we argued about which movie to watch. Once we’d finally decided, we moved with the rest of our food into the living room, where we all crashed onto the long couch.

Of course, I use the term ‘we’ very loosely. I was pretty quiet, and I remained very distracted the entire night. I think Aaron noticed that something was bothering me, but he was so used to my weird moods by now that he didn’t say anything. Toni and Lee, well, they didn’t notice much of anything besides each other.

As soon as the movie was over Aaron was ready to leave. I hated to think I’d ruined the evening for him, but I knew that I hadn’t fulfilled his expectations very well. He kissed me goodbye, and then thanked Lee a bit too loudly for a great evening. Clearly, he was trying to send a message to Toni, who slowly got the point of my boyfriend’s lingering.

Toni said his goodbyes to Lee, and to me—adding a wink that clearly signified he knew where I’d been, though I wasn’t sure how—and then the boys were gone.

Long after Lee had fallen asleep I remained staring around the dark room. It would be a long time before I found sleep, and even when I did my brain continued to work throughout my dreams.

s

Monday morning found me in American Lit, several minutes before the warning bell would sound. I wasn’t alone, though. Patrick was already seated at his desk, ready and waiting for me. I took my usual seat next to him, my small smile somewhat embarrassing, but impossible to stop.