His head bent slightly forward, studying me; a modest smile formed at the corners of his mouth. He looked familiar. I couldn’t place him.
My sword landed in the dirt a few yards away. I knew I should scramble to pick it up, but I ignored the warning inside my head because I was mesmerized by this manifestation of leather and steel.
Out of the corner of my eye, I spied the swift movement of the Stunner -circling overhead. He made a strange rattling sound...but my alarms were turned off.
I was easy prey.
My eyes took in every inch of this Warrior Slayer. His strong shoulders...accentuated by the tight fit of his leather. Down his chest plate, ripples of muscles sculpted in seamless precision. He stood tall, formidable. His fingers gripped the hilt of his heavy broad sword firmly and yet with an ease of confidence as if he knew he would never fail.
No.
Never.
I was under his spell...a fawn frozen in headlamps. I watched hypnotically as he moved with incredible speed to end the life of the vampire demon.
The Stunner came at me fast. I only had time to duck my head. His claws tore into my armor and sliced my shoulder open. Pain. Blinding pain. I yelled out before collapsing, and wondered if my arm had been completely torn from its socket.
Trails of blood oozed down my back. My vision blurred briefly, and I bent to vomit, closing my eyes tightly fighting the weakness that sought to drain my strength. Not from my injury…from my stupid fear…medical stuff, doctors, needles, scalpels all equaled pain and fear. Just the thought caused the same reaction, nausea.
I opened my eyes seeing the Stunner’s bloodthirsty smile flash with delight. He has me. He knows it.
In the split second that it took him to lunge, something silver flashed in front of my eyes. I blinked. It was a sword.
My sword.
The Stunner squealed as the metal cut into his chest; brown blood sprayed like a sprinkler system. The demon dissolved in mid-fall.
An outstretched hand reached down to help me up.
“You okay, Shonna?” He held my surplus army bag and his lips were saying my name like we were old friends. Who the heck is he?
I hesitated a second before taking his hand and letting him pull me up.
Brushing the dirt from my clothes, I struggled to recall where I’d seen this unbelievably cute guy before but nothing came together in my brain.
The shifting of my armor caused the wound in my shoulder to open. I winced as I felt another trail of blood trickle down. I grabbed my bag from his hand, frantically searching, finally finding a large square bandage. I struggled to open it. He hovered close, watching me. Making my heart beat ridiculously fast, like I wasn’t light-headed enough.
“Let me help you do that,” he said softly.
Before I could object, he had the bandage. I reluctantly twisted my hair into my barrette. I felt him pull the loose neckline of my shirt over my shoulder. His warm breath on my back caused a shudder. The moment his fingers connected with the coolness of my skin, a curious weakness drained me. My brain was floating into a dreamy fog.
I could feel him cleaning the blood off with his shirt or mine, I wasn’t sure. He gently pressed the sticky pad to my skin. “That should stop the bleeding,” he whispered. Then he unclipped my barrette and ran his fingers through my hair to fix it. Odd. Do guys really do that? I was still going all fuzzy in the head…the effect of his fingers didn’t help any, when just like that, I knew who he was. I turned to face him.
“You’re Jake Hannaford?”
He smiled and nodded, handing me my brown barrette.
Well what do you know, Jefferson High’s captain of the basketball team, popular with all the girls, was a Slayer. I would never have guessed. Not in a million years!
“How do you know me?” I asked.
“Sam Wells. He was your father, right?” said Jake.
“You knew my dad?” I took a step back.
“Not exactly. I heard he was somewhat of a hero…an expert in Triune power. Maybe even the best.”
“My dad?” My eyebrows shot up. “My dad…was a Slayer?”
I could hardly believe those words were coming out of my own mouth, let alone his. Yet, I read it on his face. Jake was serious. How? How did he know about dad, and not me? Anger flashed like a match striking phosphorus. Why didn’t Ariel tell me? This is pretty important stuff! It was too important for him to leave me in the dark all these years? Now, I wondered just how many other things my trainer had kept from me.
Of course, when I thought about it, it all made perfect sense, dad had been fascinated with demons; those Sunday night lessons… teaching me about armor and how to fight. I was beginning to realize that all of the secrecy concerning his death had been more front-page news in the spiritual community than I could even imagine.
Jake’s gaze dropped down to his black Chucks. He nervously kicked at pebbles. “Look, I’m… sorry. I…I thought you knew.” He stumbled over his words. “You must take after him, because you’re a really good fighter, you know.”
I frowned at him. I wasn’t sure if he meant that as a real compliment or did he just feel the need to say something nice since he’d left me stunned and completely shocked.
“You’re not a bad fighter yourself.” I managed.
“You think so?” he said, smiling. “I guess that’s because I’ve been at it a little longer than you.”
“Seriously?” I asked squinting. “Aren’t you my age?”
“When did you get your powers?” he asked.
I thought for a minute, “Four years ago. I had a visit from-”
“Ariel,” he cut in. “Six years for me.” He raised his head with a slight air of superiority. Give me a break! Did he think this was a competition? Okay so you won buddy, end of story. I rolled my eyes and turned to leave.
“You live near here?” he asked, his fingers brushing my arm, causing me a slight shudder. I vaguely gestured toward my neighborhood, “Spring Street.”
“I’ll walk you home.”
“I don’t need any help getting home.” Exactly why I said that was strange even to me. I couldn’t understand my own arrogance. I was beginning to have one of those “be sweet…don’t go playing all offended” arguments with myself. After all, I had this perfect and wonderful opportunity to talk with another Slayer, which, I had hoped would be a girl. Not this really cute, popular guy from school. I might as well face it. I was going to lose this argument. Sure enough, I caved the instant he shrugged his shoulders and smiled at me. “I’m heading the same way,” he said.
“I guess that would be kind of nice. Thanks.” We started to walk. I glanced over at him noticing he still wore that smug little smile.
“You never answered my question,” I said.
“Which one?”
I waved my hand back toward the empty field. “What were you doing here?”
“I like to walk,” he said. “It gives me time to think. I saw the demons, watched you fighting, and thought you could use some help.” He bent his head to the side to look me in the eyes. “Was that a random attack or were you defending an innocent?”
I heard his question, but I was busy studying the tiny dot just under his right eye, it was a perfect circle. A beauty mark, that’s what mom called them, and for the first time I had to agree with her. His eyes were an incredible shade of light gold with teeny flecks of cinnamon.
“Are you okay?” he asked.
“Um…sorry.” Crap! “Yeah, um…he was a death contract.”
Jake stopped walking. “Belial had a claim. You could have been killed. There might have been hundreds of demons here tonight. I guess it’s a good thing I came along when I did.”
“I was doing alright.”
“Without your sword?”
I scowled at him and turned to leave.
He reached for me. “Wait! I’m sorry. That was uncalled for. I really meant what I said before. You have your father’s talent. Seeing you in action, I have no doubt you would ha
ve done some real damage. Look, we seem to be getting off to a bad start here, can we change the subject?”
“Okay,” I said. “I see you at school. You’re a junior, right?”
“Senior,” he corrected.
I shifted nervously watching his eyes explore me from head to toe. Why do guys do that? “Any others...like us...at school?” I asked to get his focus off my body and onto my face.
“A few,” he said. “Nate and David Cross. You know, we sit together at lunch, you should join us.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah, It’s good strategy to stick together.”
“Sounds like you’re recruiting an army.” I said.
He gave me a sidelong glance then flashed his pearly whites. “Not a bad idea.”
When he wasn’t acting all smug, there was something overtly charming about him. I watched his eyes glanced back toward the empty field; he was nervously pushing his hair from his face. I wondered, did he feel like it was his responsibility to carry on our conversation. Our feet shifted in the dirt, but we didn’t move to leave.
“This thing we do for Yesher, it’s a pretty big sacrifice,” I said. “Do you ever wonder if we do any real permanent damage to the Underworld?”
Jake shoved his hands in his pockets and let out a deep breath. “Sure, I wonder about that all the time. I think the risks we take are worth it, don’t you?” His brow furrowed. “It’s not always about us. You knew that, right?”
Great! Now he thinks I’m worried about myself. I groaned inside but smiled at him. “Totally worth it,” I said. I am so pathetic!
I thought about my dream and the demon I saw in the cemetery. I considered telling him but, no, I wouldn’t want to risk him thinking I was completely bonkers. Besides, in spite of the bad moments, I was enjoying our one-on-one.
He moved closer, real close, inches from my face; his brown eyes sparkling in the moonlight. “Shonna,” he said giving me an evocative look that suggested perhaps we could be more than just brother-and-sister friends. “It’s important to stay close. We need each other...as a group...not just strength in numbers, but iron sharpening iron.”
I nodded weakly. He’d entered my personal space, standing much too close for someone way too good-looking to ignore. This intimate toe-to-toe contact had a strange compelling effect on my body. I should have stepped back, but my feet refused. I struggled to hide my feelings. Really, the idea of melting into a puddle at his feet seemed like a quick and painless way to go. I think he knew how utterly powerless I was feeling, because he smiled, a self-satisfied grin, kind of smug, not in an arrogant way.
“Come on,” he said, taking my hand.
The warmth of his fingers entwined in mine sent love messages to my brain. It was all so wonderful and yet so weird. After all, we’d only just met, even if he’d seen me at school. We had never really spoken until tonight.
We climbed the small embankment that led up to my street. Mom’s jeep was not in the driveway. Except for the porch light, my house was dark…empty. She was still out on her date. I did not want to think about her love life, not while I was holding Jake’s hand.
It started to rain. By the time I got inside, I was drenched. My thoughts returned to Jake as I climbed into bed; the way his eyes studied me…I could still feel the touch of his fingers on my skin. I was completely surprised by his behavior…did he like me?
I had thought he might, until we said goodnight. Then there was this horrible awkward moment in the driveway when I thought he was going to kiss me and I had closed my eyes. Did I lean too? Ugh! I hope not. He was only bending over to pick up my stupid barrette that had fallen from my pocket.
* * *
Chapter 3