The 13th: Destiny Awaits (9 page)

“She... she...” Sandra stuttered, then swallowed. “She's been the one who --”

The hairs on the back of Kate's neck prickled and stood up, and somehow she doubted the feeling had anything to do with Sandra.

“You were the one raising your hand, not her.” Ethan released Sandra and forced his way past the girls to Kate's side. He rested his hand on Kate's shoulder, drawing her closer until she could feel the heat of his body as his chest touched her shoulder blade.

“But she was the one --”

“Your actions make you look bad, not her.”

Sandra, glaring at Kate, opened her mouth, then closed it and abruptly turned. She rushed away, her friends right behind her.

“That was nice: 'your actions make you look bad, not her.'”

“It's true, isn't it?” He looked down at her, his fingers sliding over her shoulder then down until they stopped on the small of her back. “Whatever you do or say shows who you are, and if you yell at somebody, it tells about your lack of restraint not that of the person you’re yelling at.”

She could feel the warmth of his hand seeping through the fabric of her hoodie and her blue tunic, which she’d gotten from Mandy. And somehow his half-embrace made her feel safe, protected, even special. He was a knight in shining armour, not that she needed one. She peeked up at him, and when their eyes almost met, she quickly averted her gaze.

“And you, what were you thinking?”

“Huh?

“You would have let her slap you.”

“It's easier that way.” It was just a physical pain, something that passed even before the bruise faded. She could deal with it easily.

He shook his head at her, but he didn't say anything.

She stepped away from him and smoothed the nape of her neck like that would chase away the feeling of dread and uneasiness that had remained even with Sandra's departure. So it was Ethan's fault. But why would Ethan make her feel uncomfortable?

“You feel it, too? Yes, of course you do.”

With her palm still against the back of her neck she looked up at him, her eyes dilated. Had he noticed? But how could he? “Huh? Feel what?”

“A Soul Eater.”

“A Soul Eater?”

“Don't you feel it?” Ethan asked, and when she just stared at him stupidly, he continued. “As if something is warning you that there's something dangerous around?”

Another stroke of her fingers against the back of her neck. “So, that’s what this prickling sensation is? A warning against Soul Eaters?” And there she had been, thinking it was his fault. “What are we going to do?”

“
We
are not going to do anything,” Ethan said. “
I
am going to take care of it.” He gave Kate's back a pat, the kind that seemed too patronizing for her taste, then wheeled around toward the exit.

“No way.” She grabbed the hem of his jacket. “Didn't you say that your powers are more for defence than anything else?”

“That doesn't mean that I'm powerless or that I can't fight.” He jerked the fabric out of her grasp and strode away.

Kate rushed behind him. There was no way she was going to miss the chance to see a Soul Eater and maybe even fight it. Anything to distract herself, right?

“Where do you think you’re going?”

“With you, where else?”

He stopped near the sliding door. “No you’re not.”

“Oh yes I am.” She crossed her arms.

He narrowed his eyes at her.

“You are my sidekick, remember?”

His eyes studied her for a short moment before he nodded. “Fine. As long as you promise that you’ll stay on the sidelines and out of my way.”

“Fine.”

He lifted his brows.

“I promise.”

“Okay.” He got hold of her hand, lacing their fingers. “Let's go, then.”

At his touch a small tremor shook her body, but she refused to show it or to be bothered by it. “What about Mandy and Tyler?”

“Don't worry. Mandy is already used to my disappearances. She’ll make an excuse for us.” And with that, he pulled her outside.

When Kate thought about Soul Eaters, she imagined something scary and dangerous-looking. But the white shape before her, wrapped around the colourful glitter of a soul, reducing it, didn't look scary at all. If anything, it reminded Kate of a white curtain that had somehow ended up tangled with the first object it encountered on a windblown flight from the clothesline.

She and Ethan went deeper into the narrow alley and she could hear the soul's cries and see it twisted in the Eater's hold.  Suddenly, it didn't seem as harmless, rather a white snake coiled around its victim.

The gloves appeared on Ethan's hands and he leaped forward. His claws ripped through the whiteness, causing it to lose its hold on the ghost.

The spirit, the tattered remains of it, sprung up from the Eater’s clutches and dissolved into nothingness.

The whiteness straightened and turned its head, which was just a white oval with two black holes for eyes; they focused on Ethan. A horizontal line appeared under its eyes, then opened into a mouth, and the thing hissed before it charged at him.

Ethan waited with his hands out and his fingers spread, the metal talons glittering in the muted moonlight filtering over the high walls between the two buildings.

The Eater's whiteness almost touched Ethan, but he evaded it at the last moment, and his claws dug into it as it swished by.

The thing howled.

Kate noticed a grin on Ethan's face as he danced around the Eater, shredding it to pieces until only a head and long ribbons remained. The Eater wailed then, and instead of attacking Ethan, it tried to run away, rising up in the air.

Ethan flipped his wrist, palms down, and a narrow scarlet rectangle, which looked like a piece of thin red glass or plastic, materialized under his feet. With it, he started to ascend high above Kate's head, and with his legs half-bent, he looked as if he were skateboarding.

What was she supposed to do now? Kate frowned as she crossed her arms, her gaze following him until he became a little dot. Her fingers glided over the small bag that hung across her chest that held her purse and her phone. She played with the idea of calling Tyler to ask him where they were and if she could join them on their way home. Or she could just take a long stroll; it was only a thirty-minute walk to her house. She decided on the latter, glad that she had worn tennis shoes and not high heels as she had first intended.

She zipped up her hoodie and started toward the entrance of the alley, disappointment slumping her shoulders. Why? It wasn’t like she had expected them to hold hands and for him to walk her to the door and kiss her goodbye. She snorted. Yeah right, especially when they had met in the city, and she had arrived there with Tyler and he with Mandy. No, no, this was a perfect end for a fake date.

She heard a swishing noise behind her, and she wheeled around just in time to see Ethan nearing at high speed, white dots right behind him.

He needed help. Kate closed her eyes and concentrated on her scythe. It appeared in her hand.

Ethan slowed down as he swung past her. He grabbed her arm and pulled her onto his board. “You fool!”

Kate staggered on the board, which widened underneath her. Her flapping arms wrapped around the first thing available, Ethan's waist, the scythe pressing against his side. “Me? I'm the fool?”

“Yes, you. You materialized the scythe, alerting them to your power. So stupid. They wouldn't have noticed you.” Ethan put his arm around her shoulder.

Them
probably meant the Soul Eaters flying behind them. Gaining on them. “Ethan!”

“I know! If you were only a little lighter.”

They flew out of the alley, crossed the street -- which was half-deserted, and Kate hoped nobody saw them -- and found themselves in another narrow, deserted alley, this time a longer one.

“Are you calling me fat?” Kate dug her fingers into his hip.

“I wouldn't dare.”

“I just wanted to help you.”

“Maybe you can.” Ethan wrapped his hand around Kate's, the one that held the scythe. A reddish light glazed over the blade and snath, then the scythe shrank until it disappeared between their intertwined hands. Light spread from their hands, enveloping them both in a violet glow. “Great. It's working.”

The speed of the board accelerated and they rose up. Soon they were flying over rooftops.

Kate pressed herself closer against Ethan's side, trying not to look down where the people visible between buildings looked like ants. She secured her hold around Ethan's waist and turned her hand around, admiring the light that covered it. “What's that?”

“Our powers' symbiosis.” Ethan glanced over his shoulder at their pursuers. “I didn't know if I could pull it off or not, since you still haven't mastered your abilities.”

“I can materialize the scythe.”

“I’ve already told you, that’s not all you can do,” Ethan said. “Materializing your tool was just a first step, and it only means you managed to focus your spirit energy into a singular point instead of releasing it randomly as you did before.”

“Yeah, yeah. You already told me all that.” But there was still more that he hadn’t told her. Kate remembered what he had said to her just a few days ago. “Where's the handbook?”

“We’re being chased and you’re asking me about the handbook? Hold on.” Ethan lowered himself, grabbed the front of the board and curved its end up.

They soared up and over a large chimney in the middle of a roof.

Kate glanced at the white forms behind them which, luckily, couldn't keep up with their speed. “We lost them.”

“Good.” Ethan nodded.

“Is it always like this?”

“Sometimes.”

“Ah.”

“This is the first time I’ve stumbled over such a large group, though,” Ethan said. “I better tell Nanael about them.” He lifted his hand and from the tip of his finger, a shape rose up: a small yellow butterfly.

“What...?” Kate couldn't take her eyes off it as it soared up and melted with the darkness. “How?”

“Cool, isn't it? That's how I communicate with Nanael.” Ethan readjusted his grip on her and slowed down. “It's part of my spirit energy. I just have to think about what I want to communicate to Nanael and it appears. It's like spiritual voice mail but without a phone and without having to say anything out loud. It's another thing on my 'things that Kate needs to learn' list. Don't worry, it's not that hard.”

“But the other end... how does she know what the message is?”

“Because it becomes part of you and you can hear the message in your mind. I can't explain it; you’ll have to experience it on your own.”

“When you said we could call her, I thought you meant calling her on the phone.”

“I did mean the phone -- you can't use butterflies, can you?”

She frowned and wanted to ask more about the butterflies, but then the phone rang. Her phone. With one arm still tightly around Ethan, she pulled it out of her small bag and glanced at its display.

“Do you have to?”

“Yes. It's Tyler.” She grabbed Ethan's belt for a better hold as she clumsily lifted her phone to her ear. “Yeah?”

“Where are you?”

“Well...” Kate looked around. She could see a church tower a few roofs to the left and a black hole set among the buildings where small lights formed a cross -- it had to be the park -- in front of them, so that meant they were at the edge of the residential part of the city.

“Tell him that if he can take Mandy home, I will take care of you.”

Kate passed Ethan's message on to Tyler, who seemed quite pleased with the arrangement, but not so pleased that he didn’t complain that next time they should tell him before vanishing so suddenly.

After Kate slipped the phone back into her bag, they flew for a bit. She gave Ethan directions to the parking lot beside the bank where he had left his car.

With the danger passed, she had suddenly become aware of the hard body under her fingers. She could have loosened her grip on him, put some distance between them, but somehow she found herself pressing her cheek against his collarbone and deeply inhaling his scent while small flames bloomed in the pit of her stomach. He looked so amazing fighting with that first Eater, graceful and raw at the same time. “You enjoy this, don’t you?”

He buried his fingers in the hair at the back of her neck, messing up her braid. “Well, I can't say that I mind it.”

Was this another one of his jokes? She didn't dare look up. “I meant the fight.”

“Oh, that.” His touch withdrew. “I guess I do.”

They could already see the parking lot, and Ethan lowered them down behind a large billboard, which shielded them from people's eyes.

She stepped away from him. The violet light disappeared and the scythe appeared in her hand. A moment later, the glowing colours of souls surrounded them.

“I'm sorry, guys. Not today,” Ethan said. The gloves and the board faded away. Kate followed his example.

Sighs of disappointment, and then darkness after the colours vanished.

“Come.” Ethan looped his arm around Kate. “Let's get you home.” He led her to his car, opened the door for her, and pushed her inside before he closed it.

She slipped into the seat, buckled up the seat belt, and leaned back as she fumbled with the strap of her bag. She watched him as he went around the car, opened the door and slid behind the wheel.

Silence descended over them as they drove off, and Kate folded her hands in her lap, trying to not to glance at him.

He fiddled with his radio and rock music drifted from the speakers.

“What's that?” she asked.

“A song.”

“I know it's a song.”

“Yes, I guess you do.”

She didn't need to see his face to know that he was grinning at her.

“It's Dir En Grey, my favourite band,” he said, then added, “Japanese band. I'll lend you some of their albums, you'll like it.”

“And how would you know that?”

“I saw the playlist on your MP3 player. Creed, Lifehouse... you like bands with strong vocal and pronounced basses, I think. Dir En Grey has all that, and more. Next time you come to my house I'll lend you Gackt, too, and maybe MUCC.”

Next time? He was talking as if they were friends. “I don't have anything to lend you in return.” It had been ages since she bought something new, all the albums she owned were old.

“Who said you have to?”

Kate shrugged her shoulders, glad that she could already see the turn onto her street.

A few moments later Ethan stopped the car in front of Kate's house. He turned off the engine. “You thought I was going to leave you there, didn't you?”

“What?”

“In the alley.”

“No.”

“I bet that if I had come back a little later you would have been gone.”

“Maybe.” She unbuckled the seat belt.

He wrapped his hand around her wrist, preventing her from leaving the car. “You can trust me, you know.”

A small vibration that felt like an electric current sneaked under her skin, making her acutely aware of his touch. “I don't know you.”

“You can get to know me if you want to. And you should start by looking at me.”

“I do look at you.” She frowned, glancing at him before her gaze dropped down to his hand.

“Not properly. You rarely make eye contact.” His fingers tiptoed up her arm. “Please, look at me.”

She didn't want to.

“Please.” His fingers were now at her shoulder, his thumb dipping below the collar of her hoodie and caressing the skin over her collarbone.

She raised her head and got lost in the blue of his irises. A small electric current shot up her spine and she laced her fingers together to hide their trembling.

A smile lit his face, and at the radiance of it, her breath hitched and her heart started to hammer in her ears. She hated him for the effect he had on her and she could have punched him for it, right in the gut. But that wouldn't have helped her, would it? She had started to like him, despite herself, and she couldn't believe it. She liked the sarcastic and rude jerk. She felt drawn to him like all the rest of them, and she had no idea why or what she should do to erase that attraction.

He leaned over her, the movement speeding up her heart, and his hand cupped her neck.

In her mind she could already feel his mouth against hers, soft and pliable, could see herself melt against him, opening up to his caress, and she could hardly breathe. It frightened her, the happiness brought by imagining his kiss, and she set her hands against his chest. “I...” Her voice cracked and she had to clear her throat. “I... I don't kiss on the first date... not even on a fake one,” she said, her voice weak and breathless.

A frown flashed on Ethan's face, but it curled into a smile so quickly that Kate thought she had imagined it. “Who said that I was going to kiss you?” Then he quickly added, “But good to know.” He grinned.

She furrowed her brows before she pushed his hand away, then she turned and blindly grabbed the handle of the door.