Arianna Rose: The Gathering (Part 3) (26 page)

“Oh my god,” she whispered.  “I can’t believe it.”

“I know.  But you have to go to school, Arianna.  Things have to appear normal,” he brought their conversation full-circle. 

“Desmond, things are anything but normal,” she joined her brows with concern.  “And you dad’s deranged groupies are going to be gunning for me.  We did kill two of their friends last night.”

“
Jess and Josh are gone.  Their car is gone, too.  How could they know for sure it was you?  I’m dead, remember?  So I had nothing to do with it,” he attempted to lighten the mood.  But Arianna’s face was etched in stone and she did not even smirk.

“I will be with you.  I will not
leave your side, I promise,” he assured her. 

“That’s all well and good, but you’re forgetting one key p
iece of information.  They have George.  With George, I am powerless.”

While the thought of sending Arianna anywhere powerless terrified Desmond, he knew he’d be close by, and that whoever this George was, he felt confident he could get him alone and take him down. 

“I am not going,” she said and he heard the nervous tremor in her voice.  “No way.”

“But if you don’t, they will know it was you who killed their friends.”

“Didn’t you just say they couldn’t know
for sure
?”

“Yes, but I was just trying to lighten the mood.  Arianna,
if you don’t go to school, they will naturally assume it was you.  You’re the only other supernatural being they’ve come across here.  They’ll come for you anyway.”

He did not want to scare her more, but the facts remained.  “At least if you show up today with me shadowing you, we will have the element of surprise on our side.  We’ll have an advantage.  My father thinks I’m dead and they think you’re going to join them and their cause.”

“I will never join them,” she said and leveled a resolute gaze at him.

“I never doubted you, Arianna,” he said and meant it.  “I just don’t understand why everyone, past and present, believes you will.”

“Me neither,” she said softly.  “But they are just predictions, right? Nothing is finite.  I still have free will.”

Arianna had a point and Desmond wondered whether anyone had ever considered it.  Free will, the very ability to make unconstrained choices, was inherent in her as she still retained humanity.  She was a hybrid of sorts.  She did not unquestioningly
yield to the demands of her energy.  She used discretion.  Every oracle throughout their long history had referred to the Sola as a being enslaved by her power.  But Arianna was not.  She questioned her powers, questioned her destiny, and even railed against it. 

“Ugh,” she groaned and sagged against her headboard.  “The thought of going to school and seeing Scott and the others makes my skin crawl.”

“I know, and I’m so sorry.”

“You didn’t see them the other night.  You didn’t see the sick joy in their
faces as they manipulated those poor people at the party like they were toys for their amusement.  It was twisted,” she said and he could feel the turbulent rise of her energy, feel the shift in its flow.  “Scott made a girl bludgeon the others to death then slit her own wrists,” she said and wrapped both arms around her waist.

The actions of Scott and the others made her shudder with disgust, genuine disgust. 
She was telling the truth, not that he’d ever doubted her.  If she’d wanted to join in with them as the prophecy suggested she could have, she would have done it then at the party.  But she had not.  She had been repulsed by their abuse of power, by the atrocities her fellow brethren had committed against human beings.  That much was plain. 

“I will be with you
today, watching you always.  I won’t let anything happen to you.  If you need me, I will be there, a heartbeat away,” he promised her. 

“What if they know that
I killed Josh and Jess?  What if they just
know
?”

“I doubt they do.  But if by some slim chance they do know, I will take them out myself.”

She eyed him for a long while as if weighing the risk.

“Well then, I guess
it’s settled. I’m going to school,” she gave him a quick peck on his lips.  “I’d better get ready.  We need to keep dear old dad in the dark about his son being alive,” she said and stood. 

The comforter fell away from her and he watched with his mouth partially agape as she passed him, naked, on her way to the bathroom, a smirk playing across her lips. 

“Whoa, hold on a second, maybe school
is
a bad idea after all,” he reached for her, but she sidestepped him.  “We have time.  Come back!”

“Nope, gotta do what I gotta do,” she quipped as she closed the bathroom door.  “The Sola’s work is never done.”

He flopped back onto the bed and heaved a sigh.  The day ahead promised to be a challenging one, yet all he could think about were the soft curves of Arianna’s body, and how in love with her he truly was.

Chapter 17

Leaden clouds
raced like a fleet of warships and quickly invaded a picture-perfect morning.  Snow was coming.  Arianna could smell it in the air, heavy and unmistakable.  Though the advancing clouds had not yet overrun the sky completely, there was a distinct frostiness to the air unique to snow.  She supposed she should be excited like the rest of the student body undoubtedly was.  Snow early in the school day typically meant an early dismissal.  But Arianna couldn’t care less about early dismissals today.  She was worried about making it in the front door, as well as getting out that very same door in one piece.

Thoughts of survival swirled in her head, a dizzying churn of deadly faces, as she
pulled into the parking lot of her school.  She circled the front lot several times, determined to steer clear of the rear lot, searching for a parking space.  After her second tour, she found one in the row closest to the building and directed her car into it.  She was about to breathe a sigh of relief at her good fortune, but her breath caught in her throat before she could complete the act. 

The first car she spotted was
a Jeep Cherokee,
Scott’s
Jeep Cherokee. She swore under her breath as a rush of nervous energy seized her.  She trembled and her hands felt cold despite the heat being placed on the warmest setting in her car.  The fact that one of the few available spots left in the front lot was two cars from his felt less like an unfortunate coincidence and more like cosmic punishment.  Staying where she was would mean that seeing him at some point would be unavoidable.  She had not deluded herself into thinking she would be able to dodge all of them all day, but she’d hoped to limit her time with them to the actual school day inside the actual school.  More witnesses meant less possibility for supernatural power use.  Out in the open, in the parking lot, she was vulnerable.  Desmond was vulnerable.

She closed her eyes for the briefest of seconds and thought about Desmond.  Desmond was the reason she was here.  Desmond was the reason she worried as she did.  Hers was not the only life at stake.  His was as well.  And she valued his life more than hers.  She had lost him once already or at least she’d spent a day truly believing she’d lost him.  She did not intend to lose him again.  Still, s
he did not want to be there and worried what awaited her.  She knew that George, for one thing, awaited her and loomed like dread incarnate.  She could see him, practically attached to Scott’s hip, making his way to the main entrance.  She contemplated shifting the car into reverse and hauling ass out of there, but for the sake of upholding Desmond’s supposed death, she did not.  Now, as she sat and stubbed out the third cigarette she’d smoked on the way, she began to regret her decision. 

A coven,
recently diminished by two and at her hand no less, was not likely to accept the lie she intended to tell them.  Lying was not her strong suit.  She knew Scott and the others would suspect her.  How could they not?  She was the only one among them at the party who had not approved of what they’d been doing.  She’d screamed and cursed and tried to invoke her powers to stop them.  If George hadn’t been there, she would have used any means necessary to stop them, and they knew that. 

Her stomach quivered nervously despite Desmond’s presence.  She could not
see him, but felt the steady hum of his energy nearby, and even that did not calm her. 

“
I am here
,” she heard Desmond’s voice whisper through her mind as frothy and light as wisps wafting on a lazy summer breeze.  The sound of his velvety voice in her heard raised goose bumps over her skin.  The fact that he was there and willing to sacrifice his life for her only made matters worse.  If George were capable of suppressing their powers simultaneously, neither of them stood a chance at protecting one another.  She did not know whether George was capable of such a feat, but the possibility chilled her to her core. 

She
combed her hand through her hair and waited.  She watched as Scott and George went inside before gathering her books and sliding out of her car.  She walked on unsteady legs, looking over her shoulder every so often, until she made it to the front entrance.  After taking a deep breath, she opened the front door and stepped inside.

To her relief, the hallways were almost empty. Few people stood by their lockers, none of whom were Scott, George, Paul,
Chris, Meg or Kit.  She did see Beth, however.  The petite girl with the black hair, black lipstick and heavy black eyeliner, eyed her.  But for the first time, Beth did not watch her with annoyance or disgust.  Arianna nodded to her, a kind of half-assed greeting, and Beth actually smiled, sort of.  It was more of a smirk, but it was something. 

Inspire
d, Arianna said a quick, “Hey,” to test the waters.  After all, she had nothing to lose.  Today could very well be her last day on Earth.  When Beth replied to her, she became convinced it was her last day on Earth, or at least that hell had frozen over.  Either way, she was floored.

“Hey, Arianna,” Beth said and smiled. 

Had Arianna not been so consumed by worry for Desmond’s life as well as her own, she would have felt as if she’d made definite progress with Beth.  Sure, another lesbian comment was likely to come, but she did not care. 

“Holy shit, no lesbian comment today?” Arianna could not help but comment and figured now was as good a time as any to push the envelope.

“Ha!  No, not today,” Beth laughed and Arianna swore she felt the faintest pulse of energy radiate from Beth.  “I know you’re not into me.  I mean, if you liked girls, I wouldn’t blame you for being into me.  I
am
hot.”

Beth smirked
, her face a mask of self-satisfaction and confidence, and Arianna realized she actually did like her.  She wished things had been different, that Beth had been open and easygoing three days earlier.  Befriending Beth would have been a far better choice than the group she’d become entangled with. 

“Yes, and modesty doesn’t seem to be an issue for you either.  You’re the whole package,” Arianna teased.

“I am, aren’t I,” Beth laughed.  “How about you, what’s your deal?  I mean, clearly this is not your first new school experience.  You seem to have all the bullshit down pat.”

“Yeah, you could say that.  I’ve done this once or twice, or six times before,” Arianna nodded.

“Shit, that sucks for you, huh?”

“Yeah, well, it is what it is, right?”

“No really,” Beth said sincerely and reached out a hand.  Her fingertips grazed Arianna’s forearm and she felt as if electricity crackled through her skin.  “I know how awful it can be.”

Arianna was about to open her mouth and ask Beth a question she already knew the answer to but Beth’s eyes left her and look
ed to her left, over her shoulder.  Her face had gone blank, as if every bit of emotion had been drained from it.  Arianna glanced over her shoulder and saw what Beth had seen.  Her stomach plummeted to her feet as she saw Scott and George just a few steps from her.  She looked to Beth again and the dour look had returned.

“Beat it freak,” Scott ordere
d her in a casual tone. 

“Fuck you, douchebag,” Beth replied in the same casual tone.  She then turned on her heels and walked away, but not before erecting her middle finger at him.

Arianna wanted to laugh out loud, but figured it would not be in her best interest, especially not with George burrowing a hole in her head with his creepy eyes.

“
Where are they?” Scott did not waste time asking as soon as Beth was out of earshot.  

“Where are who?” Arianna asked and pretended she did not know he was talking about Jess and Josh.

“You know goddamn well who I’m talking about,” Scott growled through his teeth.

“No, I don’t having a fucking clue who you’re talking about actually,” she fired back indignantly. 

Scott glowered at her with such focused intensity he looked as if he were trying to peer into her brain.  All the while, George stared at her, his expression unreadable, his eyes dead.

“Well?” she asked impatiently.  “Are you going to tell me what the hell you’re talking about or do I have to guess?”