Ungifted (33 page)

Her face was so bright with pleasure that I blushed.

“Yeah,” Ethan muttered. I couldn’t tell if he was embarrassed by his mother’s enthusiasm or just unhappy to have to introduce me. “This is Grace.”

Ethan’s mom’s eyes began to sparkle with a layer of moisture that made her laugh. “Oh, dear,” she said reaching up to wipe her tears. “I’m afraid I must be embarrassing Ethan terribly, but I am just so happy to finally meet you.”

I had no idea what to think. I couldn’t imagine Ethan has been chatting me up to his mom for the last six years. I doubt he’d told her anything but my name and the fact that my dad had hired him to be my security detail. I couldn’t fathom her emotion. “I’m sorry, ma’am, but, finally?”

“Call me Leslie, Grace. Please. I’d like to hold off that ma’am stuff as long as possible, if you don’t mind.” I nodded and Ms. Dunn was finally able to curb her excitement a little. “I’m sorry,” she said again. “It’s just Ethan’s practically moved out lately and I was worried he’d never bring you around to meet me. He doesn’t talk much when he is home and I’ve been so curious.”

“I’m sorry I’ve taken up so much of his time lately.”

“Don’t you dare be sorry about that. Ethan explained what happened the other night. It’s nothing short of a miracle that you have accepted the truth after what you went through. I’m honored that my son can help keep you safe.”

I managed to keep my jaw from hitting the ground, but I couldn’t hide my shock entirely.

Ethan’s mother laughed. “I’ve waited a very long time to meet a human that can accept us for what we are. You give me hope for this world, Grace.”

Ethan cleared his throat and his mom jumped after following his gaze to Russ. “Oh! Forgive me. I’m being so rude. And you are?”

“This is Russ Devereaux,” Ethan introduced them while Russ shook his mother’s hand. “His dad got into a bit of trouble with the council and has disappeared, so he’s sort of homeless at the moment. And Grace’s dad is out of town until Thursday, but she shouldn’t be home alone right now. Is it all right if they stay here tonight?”

“You poor soul,” Ms. Dunn pulled Russ into the house. “Of course you’re welcome. You can have the guest room after Grace’s dad comes home, and stay as long as you need. For now, the sofa in the family room pulls out into a bed. Ethan? Will you find some blankets and a pillow for Russ? I want to get Grace situated. The poor thing looks exhausted and she should really be off that foot.”

Ethan nodded and then gestured for Russ to follow him down the hall.

Ethan’s mom showed me the way to the guest room, which thankfully involved no stairs because the house was one story. It was probably still close to the same size as mine and every bit as grand, but it had a much homier feel to it.

The guest room was nicely furnished. The queen-size bed looked especially fluffy and inviting. I sunk down onto it as Ethan’s mom flittered about the room, setting clean towels and things in the attached bathroom.

“Thank you for this, Ms. Dunn. It’s very kind of you.”

“Didn’t I say to call me Leslie?”

I blushed. “I’m sorry. My father would kill me if he ever heard me address an adult by their first name.”

“Oh, all right,” Ms. Dunn said, laughing. “I suppose it’s better than ma’am, anyway. Do you have everything you need to get ready for school in the morning? Do you need an alarm clock?”

“I can use my cell phone,” I said. “I should be fine. Thank you again. I really hate to intrude like this, but Ethan insisted. He’s been a little crazy since people started trying to kill me.”

Ms. Dunn shut the door to the bedroom and then joined me on the bed, sighing heavily. “He’s been so worried about you. He hasn’t said anything of course, he’s been stoic as ever, but a mother can tell these things. I think it will be good for him to have you here while your father’s away.”

“He does need a good night’s rest,” I agreed. “I’m sorry I’ve caused him so much trouble.”

Ms. Dunn sighed again. “Don’t be. If this is what it takes for him to finally accept his destiny, then it’s good for him.”

I was so surprised by this comment that I nearly fell off the bed. “His d-destiny?” I stammered.

Ms. Dunn gave me a smile so knowing it was almost a rebuke. “You’re a very special young lady aren’t you, Grace?” she said as she softly pushed my hair off my face and combed its length with her fingers. It was a very motherly gesture and a show of affection I haven’t received since my mom died.

My eyes fell shut and a few rogue tears escaped down my cheeks. Ms. Dunn reached up to wipe them away, and when her fingers grazed my cheek she gasped. At first she pulled away from me, but then reached up and cupped my face in both of her hands. “Very, very special,” she whispered after a moment. “I always knew you would be.”

“I’m different,” I said. “I’m not so sure about special, though.”

“Oh, yes you are,” Ms. Dunn said, pulling back so that I could look in her eyes. She took my hands in hers and squeezed them. “Ethan is special, too. Just like you. I’m so glad that you’ve finally found each other.”

I pulled my hands out of Ms. Dunn’s. “Oh no! I’m sorry if you thought…I mean, Ethan and I aren’t…”

I couldn’t manage to finish the sentence, but luckily I didn’t have to. Ethan was standing in the doorway, watching us. “How long have you known?” he asked his mom.

I tried to gauge how upset he was, but I couldn’t. His mom had called him stoic, and that was really the perfect description of him right then.

It took Ms. Dunn a minute to respond, but when she did I could hear the relief in her voice. She was glad to finally have the secret out in the open. “I’ve suspected it for years,” she admitted. “What teenage boy spends all his time and energy training to be a warrior and has no interest in dating?”

Ethan’s eyes widened and then quickly darted to the ground.

His mother drudged on relentlessly. “You never talk about girls. You never go to any of the dances. You’re almost seventeen and you’ve never been on a single date. You’ve never kissed anyone. You never even seem to care.”

I gasped in disbelief, and then wished I hadn’t when Ethan turned bright red and began kicking the carpet with his foot. To make matters worse, Russ was behind him and laughed. “Dude, for real?”

Ethan shrugged, still refusing to look up.

“But you’re so gorgeous!” I blurted without thinking. “You’re smart and popular. Every girl at school would kill to go out with you and you know it.”

“I just didn’t feel like it,” Ethan grumbled. He looked like he didn’t understand it any more than I did.

“It’s part of the bond,” Ms. Dunn explained.

The tone in her voice suggested she was about to teach us all a lesson. Ethan sank to the floor and looked up at her expectantly. Russ took a seat too, excited to hear the lecture.

Ms. Dunn looked at all our desperate faces and smiled. “In a true warrior, the drive to protect is so strong it pushes aside all other needs.”

For the first time since all of this started, I felt truly sorry for Ethan. “Are you saying Ethan will never be able to love anyone?” I asked.

I risked a glance at Ethan and he was watching his mom, just as curious of her answer as I was.

“It won’t always be that way,” Ms. Dunn reassured her son. She took on a distant quality in her face as she smiled at him. “When a warrior falls in love, his love is as fierce as his loyalty. Warriors are some of the happiest creatures in existence.”

Her eyes came back into focus and she smiled another very knowing smile at me. “Don’t worry, Grace. Ethan’s time will come.”

Something about the way she looked at me made me uneasy. “So,” I asked, desperate to move the conversation along, “it doesn’t bother you that I’m only human?”

“Only human?” Ms. Dunn asked, startled. “Of course it doesn’t bother me.” She stopped then and frowned at her son. “Is that why you never told me?”

“I never told anybody,” Ethan said, speaking up in anger. “How could I? The clan shunned you for loving a human. They barely tolerate me. If they found out I’m bonded to a human, they’d be angry and they’d blame you. They’d say it was because my father was human.”

I felt my eyebrows shoot up to my hairline. Ethan’s father was human? He’d failed to mention that. I glanced at Russ, and he looked every bit as astonished as I was.

“They’d throw me out of the clan completely and the guilt would kill you,” Ethan continued.

“It wouldn’t.”

“It already does. I can see it in your eyes every time I talk about the clan. You feel guilty for the way they treat me.”

“No!” Ms. Dunn said fiercely. “I am angry at the clan for the way they treat you, but I don’t feel guilty about anything I’ve done. I love your father, and I love you. No matter what the clan does or says, I would never change any of it.”

“But how can you feel that way after everything that’s happened? How can you love him? He knocked you up and took off!”

Ms. Dunn’s eyes filled with tears. When she could finally compose herself she said, “I wish you had told me about this, Ethan. I wish you’d come to me when it first happened. You could have been spared so many years of heartache.”

Ms. Dunn reached beneath the collar of her shirt and lifted a chain over her head. There was a small medallion hanging from it. She held the necklace out to Ethan.

“What is it?” Ethan asked, making no effort to take the trinket from her.

“It’s yours. It’s your family crest. Your father had it specially made to match his when you were born. He asked me to give it to you and explain everything once you came into your bond.”

Ethan was on his feet now and slowly took the chain from his mother. “Explain what? How could my father even know about warrior bonds? He was human.”

More tears escaped Ms. Dunn’s eyes as she shook her head. “I’ve wanted to tell you for so long, but I wasn’t ever sure you’d really bonded with someone, and your father made me promise. He said warriors weren’t supposed to know their destiny beforehand, that it could affect the bonding process.”

Ethan was so overwhelmed by this news he couldn’t decide whether to be excited or angry. He’d long since forgotten that Russ and I were in the room. I hated to interrupt him, but he looked as if he were on the verge of collapsing, so I scrambled off the bed and hobbled over next to Russ so that Ethan could sit down next to his mom.

“He wasn’t human?” he asked, sitting down in a daze. “Why…?”

“I couldn’t tell the clan. They’d have been too proud of you. They’d never be able to keep it secret and your father assured me you couldn’t know before it happened. So when I ended up pregnant and wouldn’t name the father, the clan assumed I was too ashamed. They assumed he was human. It was an easy explanation, so I let them keep assuming it. I had no idea they’d shun me and banish me from the clan, but I don’t regret it Ethan. Not one bit. I never have.”

“And you knew this would happen someday? You knew I’d be a warrior?”

Ms. Dunn smiled proudly. “Yes. It’s what you were born for.”

Ethan frowned, unable to take his eyes off the medallion in his hand. “This is no nephilim crest.”

“No,” Ms. Dunn agreed proudly. “It’s Angelic.”

Next to me Russ sucked in a quiet breath, and Ethan’s eyes flashed up to his mother’s, meeting her in a fierce stare.

“Your father is not human, Ethan,” Ms. Dunn said warily. “But he’s not nephilim, either.”

“An angel,” Ethan whispered.

“Impossible,” Russ breathed.

“Uncommon,” Ms. Dunn corrected Russ. “Since the first nephilim were born, there have only been a handful of warriors ever created.”

Ethan fingered the jewelry in his hand reverently. “My father was really an angel?”

“Yes. It’s the only way a nephilim can become a warrior. The warrior’s bond is an angelic power. Regular nephilim don’t have enough angel blood in them to sustain such a powerful connection.”

“But I thought real angels couldn’t come to Earth,” Russ said.

Ms. Dunn’s smile turned sad. “They don’t come often. Angels are too divine for this world. The longer they stay the more their glory fades, and eventually their entire being will fade from existence. They can come for brief periods of time without being affected, but the consequences of such visits can easily be very grave—as the first angels to visit this world learned—so they only come when they absolutely must. It’s why there have only ever been a handful of warriors ever to exist. The cost of such a blessing can be a very high price. The Creator hates to ask it of anyone.”

Ethan’s mom sounded so somber I half expected her to tell us she was dying. I didn’t like the idea that some price had been made on my behalf. “All of that just to protect
me
?”

I’d muttered it to myself, or at least I thought I had, but everyone looked at me. Ethan’s frown was as big as mine. Obviously he agreed with my skepticism.

“Humans are the Creator’s children, too,” Ms. Dunn told me. “You have your own strengths. You specifically, Grace, are important enough to warrant the sacrifice I was asked to make. I don’t know the Creator’s plan, but I am honored to have had my part in it. My son is destined to protect you. I couldn’t be more proud of him or more thrilled with you. I have no regrets. I mean that.”