The Cupid War (14 page)

26

W
ow,” Fallon said, looking at their joined hands. “That's … wow. How do I feel?”

“Kinda tingly,” Trina said. “Like I'm holding energy. It's nice.”

She stared up into his eyes, and Fallon's mind cleared of questions. He leaned in toward her, and she closed her eyes and pursed her lips. Fallon brought his mouth down to hers …

… and passed right through it. He retracted his head and tried again, but fared no better.

“It … isn't working,” Fallon told her.

“Oh,” she said, her eyes popping open. “Um … well.”

“Look,” Fallon said. “I … ah … ”

“I know,” Trina said, letting his hand go. “You've got to get back. I should go too. I‘ve got to come up with an excuse for skipping school before my parents come home.”

“Right, yeah.” Fallon watched as she walked up the driveway to her house. “I'll … ” Call you? “ … see you around?”

“I hope so,” she said, flashing him a smile before disappearing inside her home.

Fallon waved and smiled back, but wished the moment hadn't been broken. He longed to talk to her about wha
t was happening between them, but now obviously wasn't the time. He turned and summoned a portal, and returned to the Cupid Center.

Fallon went straight to Alexander's Healing Chamber. He suspected he would find Jada and Caleb there, and he was right. They sat on separate slabs, and both were deep in meditation. Owen was there, too; Fallon offered him a curt nod and a cold shoulder. Owen may have ended up on the right side, but that didn't mean Fallon was ready to like him.

“How are they doing?” he asked Alexander.

“They'll be fine,” Alexander replied. “Jada's wounds were minimal, Caleb's more severe. There was little I could do for loss of life force before, but now … ”

“Where'd you learn that stuff?” Owen wanted to know. “And for that matter, how'd you escape from Limbo?”

“Yes, I'd like to know that as well,” Alexander said. “When I heard Louis had sent you there, well, I thought you were done for.”

“The Source,” Fallon said. “That's the answer. I communed with the Source, and … ”

“The what?” Owen asked.

“I'll tell you later,” Fallon said. “Right now we need to figure out what to do about Susan Sides. Caleb, Jada, can you hear me?”

Caleb and Jada continued to meditate, showing no sign that they had.

“That would be a no,” Alexander said. “I know you won't like it, but we really should call Louis here to … ”

“Louis isn't coming back,” Fallon said. He didn't know how he suddenly knew this, but he was certain of it. “Besides, he wouldn't help us even if he was here. Listen … ” And Fallon filled Alexander and Owen in on what he, Jada, and Caleb had learned.

“Whoa,” Owen said. “Aw, man … ”

“I suspected something of that nature had taken place,” Alexander said, “but I never dreamed Louis would take it that far. I pity him.”

“I don't,” Fallon said.

“Me neither,” Owen added. “He used to be my hero, man! I'd have done anything for him after he rescued me.”

“You did,” Fallon reminded him.

“I said I was sorry.”

“Don't be so quick to judge him,” Alexander said. “If you'd been in his place, with someone you cared for threatened with torment … ”

“ … I wouldn't put others in danger,” Fallon said. “He did. I'll judge him all I want. I'm going to go eat some Love, then finish my own healing,” he told them. “Come find me when these two wake up.”

Fallon sat before his Love cube, meditating once more. It seemed the best way to pass the time. He'd really wanted to talk to someone about what had happened between him and Trina, but the only people he cared to talk to were in the Healing Chamber. Jada and Caleb were meditating, and Alexander … well, he could talk to Alexander, but not with Owen there.

The thought suddenly entered his head that he could talk to the Source. And it didn't take a genius to figure out where the thought had come from.

“Hello, Source,” he said in his mind. “You'd think I'd be used to talking with you by now. This takes a lot of getting used to.”

The thought that entered his head next told him that
this was all right and hardly unexpected.

“Has this … what happened to me in Limbo, did it happen to anyone else?” The question surprised Fallon, even though he'd asked it. He'd been planning to talk about his holding hands with Trina. However, now that he'd asked, he realized he did in fact wan
t to know the answer. Something had changed in him, and he hadn't taken any time to reflect on that until now.

It is rare,
the Source told him
, but it has happened.

“Where are the ones it happened to?” Fallon asked, and he learned that they had ascended. “Oh. Neat. Sorry,” he added, feeling weird about using a word like “neat” with the Source. “Look, I … I wanted to ask about something that happened to me recently … ” Suddenly he felt awkward. Was he really going to ask the Source of Love for advice on how to touch girls?

A feeling of peace came over him, and he sensed it was all right to ask the Source about anything.

“I … made physical contact with a girl,” he said. “In the real world. I mean, alive. You know … how did that happen?”

An image of Caleb climbing stairs entered his mind's eye, followed by images of himself releasing a teen girl's heart as he arrived on the second floor of the high school.

“I don't understand,” he said. And then he did. “You mean it's the same as adjusting to another level? It's all in my mind? Oh. But then … well, supposing I want to touch her again? On purpose, not by accident?”

Once again, he saw an image of Caleb climbing stairs. Caleb had learned to control his contact with differently phased matter through practice and mental discipline. Just as Fallon still had to learn to climb stairs on his own, so too did he have to learn to touch other out-of-phase objects, including Trina.

“Thanks,” he said. “This is … well, um … is it okay to be having a relationship with Trina? I mean, this has got to be kind of unorthodox.”

Fallon understood then that it was very rare for beings on one vibrational level to be aware of those on another, let alone have relationships with them. However, whenever there is awareness, a relationship often develops.

“Oh, cool,” he said, and it was. His relationship with Trina had just received the Source's blessing. He felt happiness bordering on excitement and had to struggle to remain focused.

Enough about me, Fallon decided. Time for some important questions.

“What will happen to Louis?” he asked, and received an understanding that Louis's future was up to Louis. “Okay, how about Susan Sides? How do I deal with her?”

Fallon saw an image of Trina holding the piece of mirror in front of Ryan's face while he fired Love into his heart.

“I understand,” Fallon said, and he brought himself out of his trance.

He walked back toward the Healing Chamber to find Caleb and Jada, only to see them coming toward him. Good timing, he thought, and gave silent thanks to the Source.

“I know how to stop Susan,” he called to them.

“I'm glad to hear that,” Caleb said. “The problem may be bigger than you know. I've just been consulting with the Source.”

“Me too,” Fallon said. “She didn't tell me anything about a problem.” He didn't know why he referred to the Source as she; it just felt right.

“You have to ask the right questions,” Caleb said. “I asked what your friend Susan has the potential to become, now that she is aware of what she is.”

“And?” Fallon asked.

“She has the potential,” Caleb said, “to become a monster.”

Fallon nodded silently. He'd feared Caleb would say something like that.

“She can hurt us bad,” Owen said, filling the silence. “I never thought I'd see the day.”

“There's more,” Caleb said. “A Suicide draws power from the people they sicken. Susan can destroy a Cupid with only a few moments' contact. To the living, she may be an even greater danger.”

“You mean … she can kill people with a touch?” Fallon asked.

“I don't believe she can kill,” Caleb said. “But she might be able to inflict severe depression on the living without physical contact.”

The gravity of that statement was lost on no one.

“No wonder the Suicides wanted Louis to look the other way,” Fallon said.

“We gotta take her down,” Owen said. “Hey, Fallon, that shield thing you were doing before I … ”

“ … beat me to a pulp?”

“Yeah,” Owen said, looking sheepish. “Look, uh, you could do that thing again, right? Mush her against a wall?”

“That would kill her,” Fallon told him.

“So?” said Owen.

“That's not what we do,” Fallon said. “We're Cupids. We bring love, not death.”

“You mentioned a plan?” Caleb said, cutting Owen's next remark off.

“We get her to love herself,” Fallon said. “It worked on Ryan, the boy Trina and I were helping. We get Susan to see herself in a mirror, I fire Love into her heart, and her Suicide aspect will be reversed.”

“You sure about that?” Jada asked.

“It came from the Source,” Fallon told her.

“Then our task is clear,” Caleb said. “Let's go.”

27

F
allon, Caleb, Jada, and Owen emerged from the portal and stood in front of Susan Sides's house. According to the Source, it was where Susan was. Fallon had been skeptical—he remembered Susan ranting to him about how “my demon mother won't let me miss a day of school, even if I'm sick!”—but he trusted the Source's accuracy.

“Let me go first,” Fallon said. “You guys can back me up.”

“We go in together,” Caleb said firmly.

“I can shield myself against her,” Fallon pointed out.

“So can I, remember?” Jada added.

“I can't,” said Owen.

“Nor I,” Caleb said. “And we haven't time to learn. If we split up, we'll be in more danger. We go in together.”

“Fine, but stay close to Jada and me,” Fallon said.

They walked two at a time through the front door, Fallon and Caleb first. Bad memories came back to Fallon straight away—all the times he'd come to this place during the last year of his life. The invitations had always been under the guise of something fun, like renting a video. When he arrived, however, she'd always say, “Mind if we just talk?” And there would go four hours of his life, sometimes six, as she dished on her latest emotional crisis. He remembered the sensation of his life draining away, and now he knew she'd literally been doing exactly that.

“Fallon?” Caleb said gently, bringing him back to the present. “Those memories won't help you.”

“I know,” Fallon replied. “But I can't stop them.”

“Focus on the here and now,” Caleb said. “And what we have to do.”

“Right,” Fallon said. “She's probably in her room. This way.”

For the first time, Fallon was grateful that Susan lived in a bungalow. Her room was at the end of a hallway that branched off from the living room and kitchen. He tried to stay focused in the present as he walked toward her room, but memories kept jarring their way back in. The bedroom door was closed; Fallon wasn't sure he could take seeing that place again.

“Do you want to wait out here?” Caleb asked.

“Yes, I do,” Fallon said, “but I'm going in with you anyway. I have to do this.”

Caleb nodded, and they both walked through the door.

Susan wasn't there. Fallon didn't know if he felt relieved or disappointed. The room was exactly the way he remembered it; messy but functional, with no trace of personality. She had a desk, covered in schoolbooks, next to her bed, which was unmade. The hamper in the corner overflowed with clothes, and the closet was packed full of all kinds of odds and ends from her seventeen years. A dim bulb cast just enough illumination to give the room its full effect.

“I feel despondent just looking at this,” Caleb said.

“She's not in here,” Fallon said. “Let's try … ”

“Hey! Over here!”

Fallon and Caleb hurried through the door and went into the room across the hallway. Owen and Jada were inside, looking at a body on the bed.

“It's her mother,” Fallon said, looking her over as best he could. She looked dead, even though Fallon could see no mark on her body. Her face bore a look of utter hopelessness, and the tears on her face were still wet.

She managed a blink. Not dead then, Fallon realized, just too depressed to move.

“Susan knows how powerful she is,” Caleb said. “And she is still here. She must be.”

“One of the other bedrooms?” Jada suggested.

“Her brother,” Fallon said, and he ran into the room next to Susan's. This bedroom was much tidier and more cheerful. And, Fallon was relieved to note, there was no body. Of course, Fallon realized, Susan's brother was still at school. Then where … ?

“Never do that again,” Caleb said as he entered. “We stay together.”

“Right, sorry,” Fallon said. “I had to make sure … ”

“We've lost enough people.”

“Okay, I get it,” Fallon said. “I'll check with the Source, see wher
e Susan is … ”

He had a vision of Susan's basement. She was sitting on the floor, her hands outstretched into darkness … no, not darkness. Suicides. She was surrounded by dozens of Suicides!

Her eyes flashed open. She smiled. She raised her hands over her head, and the Suicides flew up through the ceiling.

“Incoming!” Fallon shouted as the room suddenly filled with dark entities. He heard two screams from the other room; Jada and Owen were in trouble.

And so was he. Fallon blasted two Suicides back, then threw up his shield. He turned to Caleb and expanded the shield outward, protecting his friend from the attack. He hoped Jada had the presence of mind to do the same.

The Suicides didn't flee
from the two Cupids. Rather, they hammered on the shield with gusto. It held, but Fallon didn't think it could take much more. He was rel
uctant to shoot Love at them, though—he needed it all for the shield.

Caleb was not so reluctant; he fired near constant streams of pink. For every Suicide he knocked back, however, another moved in to take its place.

“I've never seen so many in one place,” he told Fallon. “Suicides are loners by nature. Susan must have rallied them.”

“Let's get out of here,” Fallon suggested. “Make a portal and … ”

“No!” Caleb shouted, startling Fallon. “We must defeat them. It i
s our duty.”

“There's too many!” Fallon protested.

“Then help me reduce their numbers!” Caleb replied.

I hope you know what you're doing, Fallon thought, and he dropped the shield and started blasting. As he expected, the Suicides swarmed in. Fallon fought furiously, panic rising inside him. This was crazy, and Caleb was crazy, and they had to escape …

And then Fallon destroyed a Suicide and it was not replaced by another. Their numbers thinned, and many chose to flee.

“We are stronger,” Caleb said as he blasted the last of them. “We are always stronger. Let's help the others.”

They ran across the hall into the master bedroom to find another thick fog of Suicides beating on a shield encompassing Jada and Owen. Jada looked beat; Owen was blasting with one hand and trying to help her up with the other.

“Little help?” he said.

Fallon and Caleb entered the fray, and the Suicides found themselves caught between the four Cupids. A few chose to fight, and were quickly destroyed. Most fled through the walls and ceiling.

“This is more like it!” Owen said, and he charged out into the hall after two of the dark spirits.

“Owen!” Caleb shouted, running after him. “Does no one ever listen?”

Fallon helped Jada to her feet, and they were passing t
hrough the wall into the hallway when Owen screamed. They ran to the living room and saw Susan Sides, both arms buried in Owen's chest while he screamed hysterically.

Caleb slammed hard into Owen's side, jarring him free. Before he could retreat, however, Susan caught him in the same deadly grip. Fallon and Jada rushed toward him, but Caleb waved them back.

“Save Owen,” he groaned, already slumping in Susan's arms.

“No!” Fallon shouted, grabbing his hand and pulling. “Jada, help me!”

“Get Owen out … ” Caleb said, and then he fell apart.

Fallon stared in horror at the sight, and at the blissful look on Susan's face. Her legs became jelly and she fell to her knees even as she cried out. Then she giggled, her world well and truly rocked.

“That was awesome!” she said, opening her eyes. “Bet you will be, too.”

“Fallon!” Jada cried. He ignored her.

Instead, he threw up his shield and pushed forward, knocking Susan back into the kitchen. He pressed her up against the back door and gave it all he had. Susan pushed back with her hands, which took on a dark glow. Fallon felt himself becoming depressed—good God, he thought, she can do it at a distance now? He ignored the damage it was doing to him and kept pressing. One way or another …

“Fallon! I need your help!”

Jada's voice called him back. Reluctantly, he had to admit he would lose this fight—his Love was nearly drained from the earlier fight with the Suicides, while Susan's power was fresh. Plus, Jada probably did need his help. He lowered the shield and stepped back, and Susan recovered.

Then Fallon flung his shield out like a fist, swatting her against the door. She cried out and fell, and Fallon left the kitchen quickly.

Jada had a portal open and was pulling Owen in by his legs. Fallon grabbed Owen's shoulders, and together they hauled him through the portal.