The Keeper's Vow (28 page)

Despite it’s name, it was not any darker or
ominous looking than Main street on a Saturday afternoon.
How—odd.

“Mr. Carver?” Allison said behind them.
“Have you ever been to SoHo?”

Mr. Carver shook his head and Allison gave
him a five-minute speech on why 12
^th
street was not a little SoHo.

Katie still couldn’t believe it. It was all
so grossly
normal
. People passed by her. Vampire? Werewolf?
She couldn’t tell. For all she knew she wasn’t even
underground.

Mr. Carver stopped the group as a man walked
up to him. The man pointed up and down the streets as they talked.
Katie looked around. They were across the street from a club that
pumped indie music.

“Oh! Remember that night Brian got
plastered?” Michael said to Ethan and Christi. They were staring at
the same bar. Katie had gotten used to ignoring their existence
even more so now that Brian wasn’t with them—but now, she leaned in
as they spoke.

“I wonder if his puke is still on that
mailbox,” Ethan laughed, pointing across the street. Three cars
sped by.

Maybe they don’t have speed limits in Gray
City.

Katie leaned closer but they eyed her and
dropped their voices.

Whatever.

“They’re just allowed to go out like that?
Into clubs and drink?” Katie asked Allison.

“No, but they don’t really card down here,”
Adam said. He looked bashful that he’d said anything. Maybe he
thought Katie still held a grudge from the preliminaries—or her
horrible attitude early this year. She smiled.

“How many times have you been down here?”
she asked him.

“Unsupervised? Ten—fifteen?”

Katie nodded. This entire time she’d been
thinking Gray City was some uber shady place with dark alleys and
rampant gun men.

Adam said something and Allison laughed.

Katie wished Tristan was standing next to
her. Of course he saw this place differently.
He’d
been here
more than ten or fifteen times. He knew the nooks and crannies.

Then again, he promised her he wouldn’t come
down here anymore. Maybe that’s why he skipped out on the field
trip. He was keeping a promise. Katie smiled again. She felt so
stupid and happy and in…

No. Definitely not that.

Mr. Carver finished the tour up with showing
them more popular destinations, and guardian hubs. There was a
guardian hub on every major street. Hotels, bars, restaurants,
trinket shops. People owned actual stores down here and—even a
blood shop, where Lucinda must have bought blood for Tristan. And,
to everyones disappointment, they spent half an hour in a “Getting
To Know The New You!” community center—where Mr. Carver mentioned
extra credits for weekend volunteer work.

On the way back to the “topside” as Mr.
Craver called it, Katie tried to stay engaged with Adam and Allison
as they talked about studying for midterms, restaurants they’d been
to with their mentors, and people they’d met down here. She
couldn’t. She looked up and down the streets for Tristan.

Katie knew he wasn’t there, and yet, he was
on the face of everyone she walked by. He was in the windows of the
shops they walked by, maybe that guy looking for hats, or that guy
boarding a bus. He was everywhere.

“Kay. Kay? She’s gone again,” Allison
said.

“What?” Katie turned around. She’d walked
past the hotel everyone was walking into. “Oh.”

The ride up the elevator wasn’t as bad as
the ride down, but the drive back to the school was long. Love
song’s played on the radio and she hid her face in the window every
time Allison looked at her. Was it that obvious? Why was she
thinking about him like this? Katie knew from experience that
friendships are better left at just that. What if she kissed
Tristan and it turned out to be like kissing a fish? No. Not with
lips like his—full, never dry, probably soft.

No.

No.

No
.

The bus pulled into the school. The thoughts
had to stop. She was only thinking them because—it didn’t matter
why,
they just needed to stop. Her life was complicated and
awkward enough with out him hearing
those
thoughts.

“What thoughts?”

Katie jumped and smacked against her locker.
What was he doing there?
When
had he got there?!

Her heart pounded.
Good grief
.

“What are you hiding?” His voice drifted
from behind her locker door. She couldn’t look at him. Not now.
God. Not right now. “Katalina,” he sang, holding out the ‘ahhhh.’
Why did that make her smile.

Her locker began to swing closed and there
he was. Smiling from ear to ear. “How was the field trip?”

“It was fun.” She fidgeted with her mouth,
trying to suppress a smile.

“What am I not supposed to hear?” He said,
moving closer to her. She caught a whiff of his hair. Bar Soap.
Clean. He bent down to her eye level. Blue. They were so blue
today. Blue and unblinking. His nose was very close to hers.

It was coming back.

No.

Tristan smiled bigger. “What did you do? You
are acting
very
suspicious.” His eyebrows were bouncing.
What an idiot. A cute—

His eyes got bigger.

“NO!”

“You think my eyebrows are cute? I get them
from my mother you know,” he winked.

Katie laughed and pushed him. To her
surprise, he lost balance and fell backwards.

She laughed.

Tristan squinted his eyes and smiled, “I’m
giving you a five-second head start.”

She took off running with him hot on her
trail.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN

Snow blanketed
the ground around them as Tristan went over Lucinda’s mini boot
camp for the Christmas holiday. They had to get more serious about
their training ever since Lucinda caught them throwing mud at each
other and called them clowns, but they still used any opportunity
when she was distracted to goof around.

Katie didn’t mind boot camp though. She
loved training; the dull burn she felt every morning when she
stretched her muscles and running with Tristan shouting out,
“Detour!” every time they got close to Lucinda’s house.

She didn’t have so many bruises now, she was
getting faster and faster everyday. She
felt
stronger and
lighter. Even now, after a long morning practice she felt
fresh—except the hole in her stomach that wanted to consume all of
the cookies Lucinda was making. She could smell the sugar cookies
now—mixing in with the thick cold wet outside—they were probably
right out of the oven.

“Boot camp, Katalina. No Christmas cookies
for you,” he said, poking at her stomach.

She jumped at the touch and laughed,
slapping his hand out of the way. They sat down on the porch and
stretched.

“Grinch. I’m eating at least six. Even if I
have to fight you for it.”

“Is that a challenge?” he said, throwing a
light punch. She dodged it and punched him in the arm, harder than
she meant to. He grabbed his arm. “You’re getting good. Really
good.”

“Got that right.” She flexed her arm. Her
muscles were defined. She
was
good. “You really think I’ve
gotten good?”

“Doesn’t matter what I think. You’ve got
less bruises to prove it,” he said.

Yeah, but what do you think of me.

He studied her. She blushed under his gaze.
It was like the one from a few days ago, long and contemplative.
She’d caught him looking at her legs. What she would give to know
what he was thinking.

He smiled. “That I have to start pumping
more iron to keep up with you.”

It snowed every day leading to Christmas
Eve. Lucinda went crazy putting up decorations in any space she
could find. Will hid from Lucinda after she made him rehang the
stockings on the living room fireplace. Brian was making more of an
appearance, but he left early and stayed out late—everyday before
practice, she’d hear Will yelling at him.

Katie made Tristan help put up—even
more—Christmas lights in the front yard. His face was dark against
the mounds of snow on the ground and his pink lips and blue eyes
popped more than usual.

She couldn’t help but laugh as he attempted
to make the lights look nice. They’d always droop where they were
supposed to hang and hang there they were supposed to be in a line.
“Have you
ever
put up Christmas lights before?” She pointed
at a sad little cluster of red.

“No,” he said stiffly.

She brushed hair out of her face.
“Seriously?”

“Never.” He wore his crooked smile, but it
didn’t fool her.

“Didn’t you celebrate Christmas?”

“I don’t like to remember.” His face harden
and he looked at her. She felt The Black Void brooding under the
surface, and she was glad he let her feel it—glad he didn’t mind
being exposed in front of her.

She focused on fixing her sections in
silence. As they worked, The Void eased away, but there was still a
stark loneliness around him. It was in the blanket of untouched
snow and in his footprints when he’d disappear around the
corner.

The Andersons had their Christmas Eve party
that evening. Every year people came dressed in their best. They’d
always gape at the majestical winter wonderland that was once yard;
they’d admire Lucinda’s modern, yet traditional color scheme—red
and green with gold metal works—and gasp at the transformation of
the house into a ballroom fit for a gala; and Lucinda would
modestly deflect admiration for her custom-made gown onto the
catering company or hired entertainment.

This year was no exception. Katie looked
forward to it every year. Even more now that her dad was not only
invited, but also agreed to go. It would be awkward, but she knew
she’d at least enjoy the pumpkin bars and Tristan’s disapproval as
she stuffed as many down as she could.

This year, she wanted to dress-up and be
pretty. She didn’t dare let herself say why because she knew it was
stupid. Tristan never treated her like more than just a
friend—except yesterday when he snuck up behind her and tousled her
hair. His fingers had moved through her hair slowly, but quick
enough as not be be considered anything more than just that—a
friendly hair tousle.

Katie got dressed with Allison at Lucinda’s
house after helping with the last of the preparations. Allison
loaned her a pretty dress. None of Katie’s old dresses fit properly
anymore, they were loose and baggy. This dress was a red a-line
with a cut-out back. She loved everything about it except that the
top of the dress fit tightly around her breast. It was too
much.

“I’m falling out everywhere,” Katie said,
looking at herself in the mirror. Allison fixed Katie’s hair in a
decorative bun and finished placing a jade-green butterfly comb on
the side of it. Her breast were not only visible but accentuated by
the dress. So was her necklace, the green and gold turtle matched
perfectly with the comb. Maybe she should take it off? It looked
kiddish next to the dress.

In the room, she felt pretty—maybe sexy—but
if she left the room, it was too much.

“You aren’t eight anymore. You’re seventeen.
It’s okay to be semi-sexy. Besides, you think anything short of a
turtle neck shows off your tiny boobs. You’re so paranoid.” Allison
wore a dark green curvy dress, her hair pulled up with spiral
curls, and a smile that could stop traffic. A chic red-headed elf.
She wished she could be as confident as her. Allison could wear a
paper bag and be bold and beautiful.

Katie was torn between practicing an
over-the-shoulder glance she could use on Tristan, and finding a
nice sweat shirt to throw over her body, but Allison pushed her out
of the room and she focused on making it down the hall and to the
stairs without somehow messing up her makeup or hair.

Every one must have been at the party
already because the house was full of moving bodies laughing and
hugging. Katie prayed she wouldn’t trip going down the stairs and
have a wardrobe malfunction. The last thing she wanted was a room
full of people staring at her boobs.
Even if they are
small—thanks Allison.
The thought of that alone made her sway a
little before she got to the bottom step. She sighed, relieved when
Will walked up with his drink.

“Merry Christmas. Take a sip. Just don’t
tell Lucy.” Will passed them his glass of eggnog. She tasted it and
wrinkled her nose, passing it to Allison. The smell of alcohol
always made her dizzy. They gave him back his glass and he winked,
leaving them to enjoy the party.

Katie and Allison moved through the room
saying hello to old, familiar faces and new ones. Mr. Reynolds and
Mr. Carver laughed loudly with a group of men by the fireplace. Mr.
Reynolds, searching around the room, locked eyes with her. She
blushed. The last time she saw him he was cursing about his hand.
He probably thought she was crazy. He raised his glass to her
before directing his attention back to the group.