The Keeper's Vow (10 page)

Her life.

If she wanted to, she could go back to the
way things were. He would be a nobody to her and she could be an
underachiever slipping under the radar.

The bell rang and Katie thanked Traci for
the notebook again before leaving. It was a relief to be out of the
library, but not for long.

“Why, exactly, do you strive to be
mediocre?”

What bothered her most wasn’t what he said,
but how he walked next to her. Like he was pretending
not
to
walk next to her.

“Why are you here?” She said, checking her
syllabus. She was headed to a new class with a teacher she’d never
had before; but history, whether it was “Natural” or American was
still bound to be boring.

“Because we have the same class,” Tristan
said.

“No, why are you
here
. Bothering me,
at my school, why do you exist? What is the point of you?”

He was silent and Katie found that more
aggravating than his banter.

They walked together, and yet apart, to the
classroom. She scanned the room curious to see who was in it. She
didn’t expect a greeting of gaping mouths.
New students must be
a rarity
. She knew a lot of people in her grade, and apparently
most of them were normal, because she only recognized two people.
Christi Taylor and Ethan Brown.

She cursed. She hated Christi and she only
knew Ethan because he stalked Allison all last year. The only other
person she knew was Tristan—
and he’s annoying like Christi and
just as much of a stalker as Ethan. Great.
She frowned, looking
at his face wondering if he heard what she had thought. If he had,
he didn’t show it.

“Hello, Katalina? Tristan?” Mrs. Barnes
said. Katie only knew of Mrs. Barnes because Brian would point her
out and complain about her hard to past test last year.

“Katie,” she responded. Mrs. Barnes nodded,
smiling behind a wall of make-up. Mrs. Barnes’ face reminded Katie
of her clay pots: blotches of bright paint here and there with no
sign of artistry. She wore a fluffy bun on the top of her round
head.

“I’ll remember that, Katie,” she winked.
“You will take the desk there—in the back next to…Christi—Christi
raise your hand—okay, and Tristan you can take the next one over.
I’ll go get your books before class starts.” She gestured for them
to take a seat and went into a tiny office.

Katie moved to the seat next to Christi. She
contemplated smiling at her. An offering of a silent truce. The
last thing she needed, in her increasingly complicated life, was
another problem with Christi. Katie laughed at her luck. Of course
Mrs. Barnes would make her sit next to Christi.

Time to be the bigger person.
When
Katie turned to face Christi, she was staring at Tristan.

“Hi, I’m Christi. And you’re Tristan?”

Tristan turned slightly in his chair and
looked at her.

“I’ve never seen you before, are you
new?”

“That’s generally what it’s called,” he
said, shifting back to his original posture.

“Well I’m the president of the Junior
Guardian Honors Society. We only let a select few people in. That
is,” she paused and glanced at Katie, “We don’t allow just
anything
in. You should come to one of our meetings.”

Katie cursed herself for ever thinking she’d
smile at that snot-nosed pig. She wanted to punch her in her face
and break her pig nose, but Mrs. Barnes walked in and handed Katie
and Tristan their new books.

“Christi can you show them the two chapters
we’ve already gone over in class? Thank you.” Mrs. Barnes didn’t
wait for a reply.

Katie glanced over her book. It looked like
a regular textbook—heavy with glossy, boring pages.

“Don’t worry Katie there are plenty of
pictures in it. You’ll be able to understand at least a few
things,” Christi said loud enough for the back of the class to
hear.

Katie snatched up her book ready to swing.
She didn’t care that she’d get kicked out of class and probably
suspended for a week. She got a thrill out of seeing Christi
flinch—but she stopped. A hand grasped her wrist. It was firm,
like it could break her bone with a little added pressure. A chill
went down her body because she knew the hand belonged to
Tristan.

“You’ve got to work on that temper,” he
said, letting go as soon as she put the book down. Katie choked on
a response.

“She’s obviously unstable,” Christi
said.

“You have a death wish?
”
Katie spat
back.

“How about both of you shut up?” Tristan
said, back in his lax position.

Katie spent the next twenty minutes on the
same page in her book, not hearing a word of what Mrs. Barnes said
about Louis the Great, a Guardian who stopped a war between
vampires and werewolves in the fifteen hundreds. She tried to shut
out the chill that ran down her spin when Tristan touched her. It
was an electric pulse she’d felt in her bones.

“And this leads us to the rise of the
Fates,” Mrs. Barnes said, walking towards Katie. “Page eighty-nine,
Dear. Who can tell me where they came from?” A boy three seats in
front of Katie raised his hand. “Yes, Michael.”

“No one knows. Most people think they came
from the fae, but that’s not a fact.”
Could it be?
Michael
Heckler sitting three seats in front of her.
And knowing it all,
what a surprise….
She hadn’t seen him when she walked
in
.

“Very good, Michael. Someone read ahead,”
Mrs. Barnes smiled. “The fates showed up in Europe and Asia around
the same time, and helped kill many high profile people. They were
used as trackers. Anyone know how?”

This time it was a girl in the first row who
raised her hand. “All they need is to see the person they’re
tracking. It doesn’t matter where in the world the person is, they
find them.”

“Correct, Jennifer. That’s exactly how they
got their name. Louis the Great was quoted saying,
‘Once he have
seen thy face, thy thread of life has been cut.’
He was
referring to the Greek Fates of course, but as time went on they
became the embodiment of the word.
”

“Is it true they have fangs with venom?”

“Yes, Michael. Depending on how much is
taken into the body it can cause permeant paralysis.”

“Are fates involved with the recent
sightings of D-Ranges?” Michael said.

“We are not discussing current events and
crack-pot theories.”

“But my dad said an increase in the D-Range
population only means one thing. A pure blood is building an army
to over take another coven and they always use fates to take out
major players. My dad says pure bloods are the only ones with
enough money to pay for their service.”

“Enough Michael.” Mrs. Barnes rolled her
eyes.

“He said even the vampires and werewolves
are scared of them.”

“Michael!”

“I heard the omitters are fates,” a boy
sitting next to Michael said. Like a pot of boiling water, the
classroom erupted into chaos.

“There’s evidence fates have been stalking
the streets in Gray City.”

“I heard they sent a message to headquarters
demanding Guardian allegiance.”

“I heard they’re getting inside help which
is why no one is reporting the increase in D-Range population.”

“Quiet!” Mrs. Barnes shouted red in the
face. “Enough. All of these rumors are ridiculous. Turn to page
one-hundred.”

After forcing everyone to read silently,
Mrs. Barnes ended class with a three-page paper on fate behavior
and their impact on the Holy Roman empire.

Katie sighed, stuffing her text book in her
book-bag.
This is more work than regular History.
Happy to
escape Mrs. Barnes’ squinty eyes, Katie went to the cafeteria in
search of food and Allison.

Tristan didn’t follow her. She wasn’t
relieved or sorry. As she waited in line for her food she wondered
what Brian was doing. She missed him in English and in the hall
between classes. They always joked around like they were the only
people in the world that could laugh. Swapping lunch with Brian and
eating off of each others lunch tray was the best part of her
day.

“Looks like it’s lunch with me and the Track
team,” Allison said as Katie paid for her tray of taco salad.
How could Brian miss Taco Salad Day?

“You make it sound like a punishment?” Katie
said, feeling like it was. Katie loved Allison, but all she did
during lunch was study.

Allison looked around the cafeteria and
Katie knew the question before Allison could form it.

“I don’t know where he is, and I’m not sure
I care.” Katie said not sure if the last part was true. Her eyes
darted to the door every few seconds since she’d walked into the
cafeteria.

“Kay, he’s new. He needs friends. Everyone
needs friends.” Allison said, looking between the crowds of
bodies.

“He looked real friendly in the library when
you asked him to sit with you.”

“So he’s a little aloof. He’s new. All new
kids act weird at first.” Allison swung her lunchbox back and forth
as she crossed her hands.

After lunch, Katie walked with Allison to
her new Field Study class. On the way Allison explained that it was
an internship class. They took field trips and had job training.
When Katie walked in Tristan was already there, pretending he
hadn’t seen her walk through the door.

“Come on in, everyone. Come on in.” A man
wearing brown plaid dress pants and a yellow polo shirt walked up
to Katie. Mr. Carver. Everyone knew who he was. Checkerboard
Carver. “Katalina?—Oh Katie? I’ll try to remember that. So your
partner is Tristan am I right?—That’s what the paper says. Because
you two are a little behind on the partner thing, I’m going to send
you home with some projects that Lucinda will have to sign off on.
But I see Tristan is a transfer student so you’ve got an
experienced partner if you have questions. Great relationship
building opportunity—Michael! How many times to I have to tell you
not to touch those. Good grief, kid—anyway Katalina—no Katie, see I
caught myself. Why don’t you go on over there with Tristan, I’ve
made you two a worksheet. We’re reviewing some material today so
you’re not missing out on much.” Mr Carver handed Katie a small
packet of papers and pointed to a door at the back of the room.
“You and Tristan can use that training room. Just don’t touch any
of the buttons or you’ll end up somewhere completely
different—MICHAEL, STOP TOUCHING THAT!”

Mr. Carver walked off and was gone. Katie
had heard about half of what he said and, yet again, was left with
a packet of papers. Was a Packet of papers suppose to prepare her
for Fates and Lycans and Vampires and who knew what else? Allison
grabbed the papers from Katie and looked them over.

“Oh,” she said with a hint of caution. “It’s
a team building worksheet.” Allison handed it back.

“What?” Katie looked through the worksheet.
It was a questionnaire with questions like:
What is your
partner’s favorite food? What is your partner’s favorite weapon
type? What challenge do you set for your partner?

The final bell rang and Katie looked around
for Tristan and saw the door Mr. Carver pointed at, cracked
open.

“Hello Partner,” she said, walking into the
room and closing the door behind her. The room was bigger than she
expected. And quiet except for a slight hum from the florescent
light. Tristan sat on the floor with his legs crossed and flipped
through the worksheet. He looked like boy. A regular boy.

He looked at her.

“Stop doing that,” she said, blushing.

“Doing what?” He went back to the
worksheet.

“Are you ever going to tell me why you can
read my mind?”

Tristan sighed and stared at the worksheet.
“What’s your favorite color?”

“You’re just going to ignore my
question?”

“How about saddest memory?”

“Why are you like this?”

“My favorite color is yellow. No, maybe red.
Write down both.”

Katie stared at him.

“Are you going to write that down?” he
said.

Katie sat down and pulled a pen out of her
book-bag. “If I write it down will you answer my questions?”

“Sure. As long as they’re on that
worksheet.” His blue eyes mocked her. And a smile creeped across
his face when she thought how nice they were—or could have been if
he wasn’t annoying.

They spent the rest of class filling out the
worksheet. Tristan gave Katie a challenge of studying harder and
she wrote that he should be honest and straight forward; especially
after his saddest memory was when he found out titanic was one of
the top grossing movies ever.

Katie laid on the floor and stared at the
ceiling. She had two more periods to go and she was already
exhausted.

“It’s because you don’t fuel your body
correctly.” Tristan stood up.

“Blah, Blah, I know,
‘food pyramid,
protein, exercise’
and all that crap they feed you in
elementary school about health.” She yawned and stretched.

Tristan stood over her and cast a shadow
over her body. His gaze made her aware of how much she didn’t know
about him. “Are you really half-vampire?”

“Yes.” He grimaced.

An honest answer. “Your parents?”

“Murdered.”

Any other questions she had stopped in her
throat. “S-Sorry.”

He offered her a hand and she hesitated
before she took it. He pulled her up with ease and she almost lost
her balance. His grip steadied her. It was firm, yet violently
electric. Her body was betraying her, urging her to know something
and he knew it. She could see it in his eyes—they too were urging
her to know something. It wasn’t anger she’d seen in his eyes, it
was a type of desperation.

She pulled her hand away and cleared her
throat. There was a split second where she wondered if she imagined
it all—the way he looked into her—but his stiffness told the
truth.