The Watchers (32 page)

“Is it a life threatening, ‘angels are out to
get you,’ kind of question? Because I’m hanging those up
tonight.”

“No. I was wondering what you wanted to do
for our project in literature.”

I made a face. “I don’t know. Whatever you
want to do. I’m not thrilled with the topic she gave us, so it
doesn’t really matter…”

“You don’t like Romeo and Juliet?”

“I don’t think I could hate a play more.”

“Why?” he demanded.

I answered without thinking. “I just hate the
hype that surrounds the story. Everyone gets all moony-eyed about
two people who, in my opinion, didn’t really know each other that
well. And once they knew their love was forbidden, they got all
dramatic. As soon as you forbid people things, especially kids,
they find a way to do exactly what you don’t want them to do. It’s
human nature. I’ve done it. I still do it.” Daniel made a funny
sound of agreement. I ignored him. “Their drama felt ridiculous,
though. I think the strongest thing a person can do is live on
after the person they truly love is dead. The strongest thing
anyone can do is to live past that heartbreak and endure. If you
can do that, you honor the memory of the person you loved. You
honor their life. Plus…suicide? I’d rather go out fighting for a
cause. Fighting for the person I loved.”

Daniel’s eyes were wide. “I think if I live a
million years I will never be able to predict the things you
say.”

“I hope you don’t,” I said smugly.

“I think you may be overthinking the play.
Shakespeare was just trying to prove that love is worth dying for.
The length of time they knew each other doesn’t matter.”

“I suppose so,” I replied. “I just prefer
scary stories. Poe or Stephen King. They have morals to their
lessons but are less preachy about it.”

“You just like to be scared,” he said.

“That too.”

“Freak,” he teased.

“Most days,” I agreed.

“I don’t think you’ve ever really seen
scary.” He paused then added, “Not the real kind.” He was talking
about the other Watchers, and the deaths and murders he had
witnessed and taken part in.

“Your face is scary enough,” I joked.

I knew reality was scary. I knew plenty.

Daniel rolled over so his body pinned mine
and looked into my eyes. “Really? So, you don’t want me to kiss you
then?”

“Absolutely not.”

He kissed me anyway. I didn’t want him to
stop, but he did. He rested his forehead on mine for a moment. His
body trembling almost as much as mine he rolled away and we both
stared at the ceiling. There was another moment of silence then,
less peaceful silence. Why was he so scared of kissing me like
that? To break that tension filled silence, I asked the first
question that popped into my head. It was a question I had been
curious about for a month.

“Daniel?”

“Mhhh?”

“Why did you run down that street naked…you
know, that time when the nuns saw you?”

He grinned sheepishly. “I lost a bet to
Jackson.”

“Oh…What was the bet?”

“You know…I don’t even remember.”

For some reason, I found this hilarious. I
started laughing at him. When he shushed me, to keep Ellen from
hearing us, I started laughing harder. The more exasperated his
face got, the harder I laughed. Giving up, he started laughing as
well, the bed creaking with our poorly concealed chuckles. We kept
shushing each other, and each time we did, we laughed even harder.
Our laughter led to other stories of his past, other funny moments,
and I felt my fears relax. There would be time enough to worry
later. The world stopped as our laughter and our stories became the
only real thing in the world.

Chapter 16

“I don’t like this. I don’t like this one
bit,” I said pacing in nervous agitation in front of the cabin.

“Will someone please shut her up?” Margaret
said from where she was lounging lazily on the back of her black
motorcycle.

I stopped pacing and glared at her, not
caring how dangerous that was. “Sorry for having emotions. I
forgot…you don’t like them.”

She looked away from the woods and stared me
down. As our glares met, her irises turned completely black. It was
like seeing the wild woman from my shared memory. It was enough to
send a shiver down my spine. The air around us hissed and crackled
with electricity. All the hairs on my arm and neck rose at the
alive feeling in the air.

“Margaret.” Jackson chided her. He didn’t
seem worried or upset, just bored as he leaned against Daniel’s
black Audi. At the sound of his voice, Margaret’s eyes cleared, and
she went back to staring at the woods, her eyebrows furrowed in
concentration. I started pacing again, too worked up to be worried
about what could have happened. Jackson moved so he was blocking
me. “I’d be a little careful about making Margaret angry.”

“I know that anger is bad for us. We lose
control. Daniel told me. It’s just…”

Jackson cut me off. “It’s a little more than
that.” Even though his face was serious, his voice was laced with
laughter, which made it hard to take him seriously. The next words
he spoke, though, I took very seriously. “The last person she got
really mad at was hit by a lightning bolt on a perfectly clear
day.” His hands enacted someone blowing up. I felt my eyes widen.
“Didn’t Daniel tell you what her particular gift is?” he asked.

I shook my head.

“She can control the weather.”

I remembered Daniel mentioning talking to a
person who controlled weather. It was the first day we worked on
cars together. I also remembered the way Margaret’s thoughts had
reminded me of a storm raging out of control. Suddenly, it made
sense.

“What can the others do?” I asked as I looked
around the dilapidated cabin we were waiting in front of, searching
for Daniel. He had promised to be right back, but that was ten
minutes ago. I was definitely in need of a distraction

“Well, Daniel can see the future. He can’t
see it all the time, which is kind of annoying, and he can only see
a couple of minutes into the future with any certainty.” I rolled
my eyes. Jackson knew I knew what Daniel could do. “Beatrice can
control people. She can get a whole army to waddle like a duck or
kill each other, though she doesn’t like to do that. It works best
on humans, because they don’t know how to block us out. Han can
control energy. He has to have an energy source like a fire or a
generator, but he can take that energy and do really cool things.
He can cause power surges or kill people with pure energy
overload.”

I shivered, realizing how often Jackson came
back to killing people. Watchers really were geared towards murder
and mayhem. I wondered what my talent would be. Would my power be
just as destructive? It seemed inevitable it would be.

“What about you?” I asked.

“I never get mad.”

“Ever?” I asked.

“Not enough to lose control like the
others.”

“So, you never have to worry about turning?”
I asked.

Jackson shook his head and glanced at
Margaret. He didn’t have to worry about turning, but I knew he
worried about her. It was obvious she was a lot to worry about as
far as that was concerned.

“He warned us to back off.” Daniel said as
walked out of the woods with his hands tucked in his pockets.

I breathed a sigh of relief. When we had
arrived at Amanda’s house after school, we had found it deserted.
Even the dogs were gone. Once we’d arrived, Daniel had gotten a
vision of the brown-haired Seeker coming to intercept us. He had
left to meet him, aware that it would be better for everyone if the
Seeker didn’t see me.

Daniel smiled at my sigh, but he was
preoccupied with the news he had brought. “He said, and I quote,
‘Back off, and we will spare your family. We respect your strength,
but if you do not back away from our mission, you will force our
hand. You have been warned.’ Then he left.” Daniel’s jaw tightened.
A vein throbbed in his temple.

“Sounds rather old-fashioned,” Jackson said.
“‘You have been warned!’ What a jackass.”

I ignored Jackson. “He didn’t say anything
about what their mission was?”

“No. But, I definitely think something has
changed. They’re not trying subterfuge anymore.”

“They must really want you,” Jackson said to
me.

“Or they have something else planned.
Something I can’t see.” Daniel said.

“What?” Jackson, Margaret and I asked in
unison.

Daniel’s mouth twitched with a smile at our
demanding tone. “I keep getting blocked from seeing what they have
planned. It’s like the plan is somehow…” he gestured with his hands
looking for the word, “malleable.”

“A plan is malleable?” I was skeptical.

“Good point. It’s probably the person
orchestrating all this.”

“The blonde woman…Cassandra?”

Daniel lifted one shoulder. “I can’t
tell.”

“Why can’t we just kill ‘em all and let God
sort ‘em out?” Jackson asked.

“Because we need answers,” Daniel said.

“I think it’s a good solution,” Jackson
replied. “We know they’re a threat. And it’s not just because of
Clare anymore. The others have been hungering for a while now to
get us out of the picture. We scare them. Maybe, this is an attempt
to do that, and they’re using Clare as an excuse.”

“Not to make this all about me, but I don’t
think so,” I said. “There’s something about me they want. Something
I have. Maybe, it’s tied into the time when Ellen was attacked.
They took her…my blood when she was pregnant with me.” Everyone
looked at me in shock, but I ignored them. “Or maybe it’s tied to
this!” I said as I picked up my necklace. “The way it acted around
that demon…it could be a weapon!”

Daniel shook his head. “That doesn’t make
sense. We don’t need the aid of a weapon. ” He held up his hands.
“These are dangerous enough.”

He shook his head again in frustration and
started pacing. He clasped his hands behind his back as he paced,
and walked the length of the cabin several times. With his serious
expression and purposeful walk, he looked very much like an old
scholar trying to solve a physics problem. All that was missing was
the pipe and tweed jacket.

“What are you thinking Danny?” Jackson
asked.

“I think Clare’s ability to read minds has
something to do with all this. If someone looks too hard to
capture, or kill, they don’t get this excited. And they certainly
don’t study one two years before the change. The longest I’ve known
them to track a young one was three months. Remember the girl in
Jersey? She had already changed too…It has to be connected
somehow.”

What they were discussing was serious, but I
couldn’t help but ogle Daniel a little bit. He was radiating such
an aura of command. He looked completely different than the boy I
had encountered on my first day here. The dark brooding face I had
come to love wasn’t any different, but I felt the shields, he had
kept up for so long that he wasn’t even aware of them anymore, were
gradually sliding away. This was Daniel without the filter. The
power, the grace, and the intensity were almost frightening. But, I
knew humor was just as large a part of his personality. He loved to
laugh. There were so many sides to him – sides I wanted to know
better. Refocusing, I slid back into the conversation.

“How does the attack on her mother relate to
now?” Margaret asked.

“It could be the same people,” I said. “Ellen
said my father scared them off before they could do anything
else….then he left us.”

Margaret spoke to Daniel as if he had been
the one talking. “But, what could be so important about her blood?
And why didn’t they follow her sooner? With her father gone, they
would have an easy time of it.”

“If I had those answers, I wouldn’t be
standing here asking you,” Daniel growled.

“It’s not my fault you picked one with so
much baggage,” Margaret said, her voice rising a little.

“No, you’ve made your opinion very clear
about how you think I should run my life,” Daniel snapped back.
“Sorry, but some of us can’t live like humanity doesn’t exist.”

“I’ve protected just as many humans as you
have!”

“Yeah, and how many more have you
killed?”

I stepped between them before the darkness I
saw in their eyes could spread to a fight. I couldn’t imagine how
horrible it had to be to worry about a silly argument getting out
of control, but I saw how close both of them were. I knew Daniel
would never forgive himself if they fought and he hurt her.

“We’re getting off point here,” I said,
holding up my hands for peace. “Fighting each other isn’t solving
our problems. It’s just wasting time we really don’t have.”

Margaret’s eyes went to rake the ground,
annoyed I was right. Jackson eyed me differently, something
impressing him. Perhaps, it was the fact that I had stepped between
two angry Watchers…or maybe, he liked my shoes. It was hard to tell
with him.

Daniel looked at me in apology. “Sorry…I’m
just trying to understand. Why your mom? Why you?”

“Does there have to be a point?” I asked.

“What do you mean?”

“Maybe, they think I have something. Maybe,
they think I’m different. Maybe, they don’t like the way I look.” I
shrugged. “It all boils down to the fact that they’re after
me.”

“Most things do have a point, though,” Daniel
contested. “I feel like this does. Everything just fits together
too perfectly.”

“You’re probably right.” I looked past him
towards the cabin that was ominously empty. I pointed at it,
focusing on a question we could actually answer. “But where are
they? What happened to them?”

“I don’t know. They left on foot, but I
didn’t have time to track them.”

Jackson rolled his shoulders. “I’m on
it.”

He grabbed Margaret, and kissed her with
gusto. When he released her, she put her hand to his cheek, and I
knew they were communicating. Jackson smiled at her in parting then
ran swiftly into the forest.