Blessed (Book 2, The Watchers Trilogy; Young Adult Paranormal Romance) (4 page)

“What is that supposed to mean?” I asked, Brand’s words not reassuring me at all.

“Malcolm and I are just going to have a little talk. But, you need to know if he does anything like that again after we talk, he won’t be welcomed into my home again. I’ve been trying my best to be civil to him for your sake, but disrespecting you like that in my own home is something I cannot let slide by unpunished.”

I wasn’t sure what type of punishment he was talking about. For all I knew, angels couldn’t be killed, but I honestly didn’t know. And now wasn’t the time to ask just how angels could be hurt. I didn’t want to give Brand any more ideas than what he was already thinking.

The rest of the ride was mostly in silence. I just kept worrying about what Brand was going to do, and I think he was mentally running through his plans for Malcolm. When we got back into town, Brand pulled out his cell phone to call someone.

“Hey, are you still at Lilly’s apartment?” I assumed he was talking to Will. “Can you go back there and look after her for me? I need to have a private talk with Malcolm.” Brand looked over at me. “Lilly can tell you why if she wants. We’ll be there in a few minutes.”

He ended the call and put his phone back in his pocket.

“Please don’t make me regret telling you the truth,” I begged, wishing I had been able to keep this morning’s events a secret. “I need you both.”

“Don’t worry so much about Malcolm, Lilly. He can take care of himself. He doesn’t need you to defend him.”

“It’s my fault you found out.”

“Did he tell you to keep it from me?”

If it were possible, I think the mere idea of that made Brand even angrier.

“No. In fact, he wanted to gloat about it to you.”

Brand snorted. “That certainly sounds more like him.”

We pulled into my apartment complex’s parking lot. By the time we got all the food in that Utha Mae made us bring back, I saw Will’s Honda Civic park right beside Brand’s car.

Brand leaned down and gave me a quick kiss.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Stay close to Will.” And he phased.

“What’s going on?” Will asked, coming to stand by me.

“Can angels kill each other?”

“Not exactly. Why?”

“What does ‘not exactly’ mean?”

“Well, it depends on which angels you’re talking about. Watchers can rip each other apart, but that doesn’t kill them. They can reattach the pieces or regenerate new ones. Fallen angels like me can have the body die, but then all we have to do is take over another one. What’s going on?”

“They can rip each other’s limbs off?” I asked in disbelief.

“Sure. What’s going on, Lilly?”

“I think Brand’s going to rip something off of Malcolm,” I said, resigned to the fate of my friend. “He said it wouldn’t be permanent.”

“What did Malcolm do?”

“Saw me get out of the shower naked this morning.” I regretted telling Will this small bit of information as soon as the words left my mouth.

“He
what
?”

“He was just checking up on me is all,” I tried to defend, but knew Malcolm’s voyeurism wasn’t defendable.

“Listen, I know you like Malcolm and, from all my talks with him this past week, I agree he’s not as bad as I originally thought he was. However, he wants you, Lilly. If you give him even the slightest show of interest, he’ll take it as you wanting him, too.”

“Malcolm knows I love Brand. I think I’ve made it pretty clear.”

“Yeah, I guess you have.”

When I saw the look of hurt on Will’s face, I instantly regretted proclaiming my love for Brand without considering how Will would be affected by it.

“I’m sorry,” I said, remembering the declaration of love Will had made to me, only a couple of weeks ago.

“No, don’t be sorry because you found someone who can love you the way you deserve to be. He may not be my first choice for you but you could have done worse, I guess.”

“Well, thanks, I think.” It seemed like a backwards compliment but that was better than resentment.

“At least he was smarter than me, and didn’t try to keep himself distanced from you the way I did.” The look of regret and loss on Will’s face made me feel sad for him. I’d seen that same look on my own face a hundred times when I was pining for Will to return my love for him. To see it on his face brought back the memories of my own heartache.

“Why did you do that, Will? Would it have been so bad for us to be together?”

“I was scared, Lilly,” he admitted. “I didn’t feel like you should settle for something like me. You deserved better.”

It made me wonder how my life would have turned out if Will had found the courage to tell me he loved me after that first kiss. Would we still be together? Would we be engaged, or possibly even married by now?

Then Brand’s sweet words came back to me about how he thought our meeting wasn’t just by chance. That God had planned for us to meet and love one another for a purpose. I hoped he was right. I prayed God had a hand in our finding each other because, if He did, then our love was meant to be and blessed by someone we desperately needed on our side right now. But whether God brought us together or not, I was thankful Brand hadn’t decided to follow the same path as Will and stayed away from me because he thought it was the right thing to do for my sake. At least Brand had the courage to fight for our love.

“Utha Mae sent some leftovers from lunch. You better get in the apartment before Tara eats them all up,” I told him, breaking the serious turn our conversation had taken.

After Tara and Will ate, Tara went to her bedroom for a nap and Will sat me down in the living room to begin my first lesson in phasing.

“Ok, you need to clear your mind of everything around you. Phasing is more of a psychic ability than a physical one. Once you clear your mind, think of where you want to go, like your bedroom. But don’t just picture it. You have to convince yourself that you can feel the room around you. You’re folding the molecules of space between where you are and where you want to go. You’ll need to start thinking of the world as being fluid and bendable.”

I tried to clear my mind. Once I had it cleared, I did what Will said and tried to visualize myself in my bedroom. I’m not sure how long I sat there trying to phase two feet behind me to the other side of the wall, but I finally just gave up.

“I can’t do this,” I said, feeling defeated. “Maybe it was just a fluke that I did it the first time.”

“No, you can do it. It’s just going to take some practice to stop thinking of the world as structured and start thinking of it as pliable.”

“Why do you think I can phase? Do you think I’m part angel?”

“I’m not sure. That’s why we want to do those tests.”

“Can all offspring of angels phase?”

“No, that’s what’s odd. None of the Watcher children have any of the abilities their fathers do. And angels like me can’t get a human woman pregnant.”

“Why? You’re inside a regular human body.”

“When we take over a body, we mutate the DNA slightly. It’s enough to cause a significant enough difference and make mating with a human impossible.”

I looked at the clock on the cable box below the TV, and saw it was already 5:00PM. Brand had been gone for at least an hour.

“What could be taking him so long?” I asked worriedly. “You’re positive they can’t kill each other?”

“Don’t worry about Brand. He can take care of himself. Trust me.”

As if he heard us talking about him, Brand suddenly appeared in the living room, startling me.

“I’m sorry, Lilly,” he said, seeing me jump slightly. “I wasn’t thinking.”

I stood up and went to Brand. He quickly enveloped me inside his warm embrace. As far as I could tell, he was still in one piece.

“Did you give that jerk what he deserved?” Will asked, still sitting on the futon.

“He won’t be appearing unannounced inside my house or Lilly’s apartment anymore,” Brand replied. “I told him if he needed to see her, he could knock on the front door like everyone else.”

“You didn’t tear any of his limbs off, did you?” I asked, looking up at my over- protective angel.

“Nothing he’ll miss,” Brand said cryptically.

I didn’t want to know what that meant. As long as he was willing to let Malcolm continue to be a part of my life, I wasn’t going to worry too much about it.

Tara came out of her bedroom, yawning loudly.

“So, you give the big guy an ass-whoopin’?” she asked Brand.

I had to tell her why Brand wasn’t with me earlier. She wasn’t exactly pleased with Malcolm either. I was sure she’d make her feelings known clearly, the next time she saw him.

“He won’t be seeing Lilly in a compromising position again,” Brand promised. “I think he understands the consequences of doing that now. If you two don’t mind,” Brand said to my friends, “I’d like some alone time with Lilly. It’s been a busy day for both of us.”

“Just have her back at a decent hour. We’ve got school tomorrow, and Lilly’s got a lot of catching up to do,” Tara said.

“Brand,” I said, looking up at him, “I need to speak with Tara for a minute.”

“All right,” he said before giving me a quick kiss. “Don’t take long, please,” he whispered in my ear.

I knew what he was thinking. I desperately wanted to be alone with him, too. But Tara needed to understand some things first.

I motioned for her to follow me into my bedroom.

“What’s up, girl?” she said sitting on my bed.

I sat down beside her. “Listen, I know you’re trying to protect me and I love you for it, but you’re going to have to understand that I intend to spend a lot of my nights with Brand.”

“But…”

I held up my hand to stop her from saying another word in protest.

“Listen, if for no other reason, I need him to protect me, at least until I can figure out how to phase on my own whenever I need to. He can get me out of harm’s way a lot faster than I can myself right now. Plus, I had a lot of time to think about things while I was away. Life’s too short, Tara. I’m going to squeeze as much time as I can out of my life, and I want to be with Brand for most of it. I hope you can understand that. And you don’t have to worry about us doing anything physical other than kissing. I’ve already told him I don’t want to make love until we’re married, and I don’t intend to get married until I’m out of school. And, sometimes, I might want to stay over at Brand’s, like tonight. You’re just going to have to trust me to do what’s right.”

“Well, I can’t say I like it, but I can understand where you’re coming from. I won’t hound you too much about it anymore. You’re a grown woman.”

It seemed like people kept saying that to me. If I was so grown, why did they still feel the need to protect me like I was a child?

“Thanks,” I said, hugging her.

I packed a small overnight bag and went back out into the living room. I said goodbye to my friends, and Brand and I got into his car and headed to his house.

“What are we going to do?” I asked.

“Well, my plan was to kiss you until you fell asleep.”

“Sounds like an excellent plan to me.”

Brand took one of my hands in his when we stopped at a stoplight on the highway and, before I knew it, we were in his driveway.

“I’m not sure I’ll ever get used to traveling like that,” I told him.

“It gets old after a while. You miss a lot of what’s going on around you. Sometimes it’s more fun to do it the slow way, but I’m too impatient and selfish when it comes to our alone time. I can’t justify driving ten minutes when we could be doing this.”

With his last word, he phased us to his bedroom, and helped me forget all my troubles, at least for one night.

CHAPTER THREE

When I woke up the next morning, I found Brand sitting casually in a chair beside the bed, watching me.

“Why are you sitting way over there?” I asked. The last thing I remembered was falling asleep in his arms the night before.

“I thought it was more appropriate. Lying next to you all night could have caused a problem.”

“What problem?”

Brand grinned like he wasn’t sure how to explain what he was thinking. “It’s hard enough to just kiss you without taking things further, Lilly. Trust me. Your chastity is much safer if I don’t stay in bed with you all night every night.”

“Oh.” Now I understood and felt a slight thrill, knowing the effect I had on him.

Brand drove me back to my apartment so I could get ready for school. Tara didn’t say anything or look at me funnily when we walked into the apartment together. Apparently, she’d accepted what I told her the previous night about wanting to spend as much time as I could with Brand far more easily than I’d thought she would. She’d always been my protector, and now she was willing to hand that job over to Brand, at least partly. I think she was secretly relieved I had him to watch over me. It was highly unlikely anything would happen to me while in his presence.

I wasn’t looking forward to going to my classes. I was sure everyone would be looking at me strangely, thinking I was a scarlet woman for having spent a week with a man like Malcolm in Las Vegas. And, to be honest, if I were them, I would probably be thinking the same thing. I tried not to worry about what other people thought but, even though you want to pretend it doesn’t matter what strangers think of you, there is always that small voice inside your head, yearning to be accepted by all. No matter how hard I tried, the butterflies in my stomach would not abate their fluttering.

Thankfully, my first class was with Brand. As long as I was with him, I could handle anything life put in my way, including a room full of curious stares and quiet gossiping.

When Dr. Floyd entered the room, I could see he was making an effort not to stare at me directly, but I did see him shake his head a bit as he handed out a set of papers to the class. When I looked at the papers, I realized it was a test. My heart began to pound inside my chest. Obviously, I hadn’t studied or prepared to take the test at all. I did read the chapters he’d assigned, but I wasn’t sure I could remember enough detail to answer the questions lain out before me in perfect type.

Everyone else around me was busily answering the questions, while I looked down at the test in front of me with a despondent heart. I felt a lot like you do when you dream you’ve shown up to class without any clothes on, except I had shown up without enough knowledge inside my head. Great, I really was going to be the bottom of the bell curve now. So much for Brand’s grand idea that I was going to ace my first test in this class. I looked over at Brand and he nodded his head as if saying ‘Come on, you can do it’. He began answering his own test questions with unimaginable speed.

I decided answering at least part of the questions I knew was better than not answering anything at all. I took a deep breath and read the first question.

And then it happened.

Just like the phasing I’d been able to do to get out of the prison Justin kept me in, I instantly knew the answer to the question like I had known it all my life. Without knowing why or how, I realized I knew all of the answers to every question.

It only took me half the class period to finish the test, and I knew I had done well on it. Almost at the same time, I noticed Brand look up from his work. We ended up turning our papers in together.

As we walked hand in hand out the door, Brand asked, “How did you do?”

“I think I aced it,” I answered. “It was like the answers just came to me out of nowhere but, at the same time, it was like I had known the information forever. Does that make any sense?”

“Not really,” he said, not being able to hide his worry over my new-found talent.

“It’s not an angel trait?” I asked, having already assumed that was the reason and finding it troubling that my conclusion was false.

“No, not that I know of; we only know so much because we’ve lived so long. Having total recall about something you’ve never actually known is not something I’ve ever known anyone to be able to do.”

“So, what can angels do besides phase?”

“Well, we’re incredibly strong and agile.”

“Hmm, I don’t think I’m either one of those. I’m about as agile as a slug.” I thought about fact for a minute. “Will said phasing was more of a mental ability than a physical one. Maybe my abilities are more mental than physical. Is that possible?”

“I think anything is possible with you, my love.”

I smiled up at him and hugged his arm close. “That’s the first time you’ve called me that.”

He stopped me on the sidewalk and turned me so I was facing him. He looked deep into my eyes, as if making sure I fully heard his next words to me.

“You are my love,” he said, bringing me in closer to his body and kissing me lightly on the lips, “and my life. It’s hard for me to explain to you how dark my world was before we found each other. I need you so much, it scares me sometimes. I don’t think I can tell you with words how much I love you, but I’ll try my best to show you.”

“You sure do make it hard on a girl,” I said, ready to throw my books down and ravish him on the spot, not caring how such a scene might lower my already-tarnished reputation.

Brand’s lips stretched into a roguish smile and his grey eyes lit up with joy.

“Well, I certainly hope I do,” he said. “Otherwise, I would be concerned I was doing something wrong.”

Brand walked me to my English Composition class. He couldn’t go in with me, but he stayed outside the door. All I had to do was yell if something happened.

“I don’t think they would try to snatch you in front of so many witnesses, especially since they wouldn’t be able to slip in and out without you making a scene. It’s an unspoken code among the other Watchers that exposing our existence is unforgivable,” Brand tried to reassure me.

When I entered the classroom, I went to sit beside Tara at our usual desks.

Ever since the whole Michelle incident, Nora kept as far away from Tara and me as she could get. She now sat at the front of the classroom, close to Ms. Conner’s desk. Being the best friend of a psychopath had a tremendously adverse effect on Nora’s popularity. She pretty much kept to herself nowadays, from what I understood. I’d heard a few of my classmates say she was just trying to get through the semester here, and planned to transfer to a different college in January.

I pretty much got the same reception in my English class that I had in Biology. People stared at me and whispered quietly to each other, but didn’t say much directly to Tara or me. Of course, it helped to have Tara sitting beside me like a guard dog, ready to rip into the first person who even thought about making a snide remark directly to me or stare for too long.

After class, Ms. Conner asked that I stay behind to give me an extra assignment to make up for the week I was out. Apparently, I had missed a pop quiz, so I had to take that in front of her, too. Luckily, I had finished reading
Taming of the Shrew
and passed the quiz without much trouble.

“Ms. Nightingale,” Ms. Conner said hesitantly while handing me back my graded quiz. “I’m not sure what happened to you last week, but you don’t seem like the type of girl who would just run off with a man to Las Vegas and not tell your friends or family. I know it’s none of my business, but if you ever need to talk with someone, I’m here for you.”

I wasn’t sure what to say. Not even my mom had thought to disbelieve Malcolm’s lie. Why did a veritable stranger understand me better than my own mother?

“Thank you, Ms. Conner. I appreciate that.”

“I don’t presume to know you but, from reading your journal, I think I have a fair idea of the type of person you are. I just wanted you to know how I felt.”

I thanked her again and walked out of the room feeling a little better about the day.

Brand walked me to my chemistry class and afterward took me off campus for lunch so I wouldn’t have to endure any more stares.

“Humans have a short memory,” he told me as we drove back to campus for our Physics class. “They’ll forget about everything in a few weeks.”

“Well, to be honest, I thought I would be more upset about it than I am. It’s actually just irritating. I don’t see any reason for people I don’t even know to treat me like some pariah of society, and they’re so wishy-washy. After what happened with Michelle, I can’t tell you how many people came up to me and told me how sorry they were that I had to go through what I did. Then, I spend one week in Las Vegas with a gorgeous guy, and I might as well wear a large, red ‘A’ on my chest.”

“Do you think Malcolm is gorgeous?”

I looked at Brand and couldn’t help but grin at the concerned look on his face.

“You have nothing to worry about, Brand. You’re beyond gorgeous to me. But, yes, Malcolm is very nice to look at. I’m not going to lie to you and say he isn’t.”

“Well, as long as I’m better looking, it’s ok I guess.”

The vanity of men. Just when you think they’re indestructible, you find a chink in their armor that you wouldn’t have thought was there.

Physics went pretty well. Luckily, the week I was out, the night lab was cancelled due to the TA being sick. It was one of the few classes I wasn’t behind in.

Brand walked me to Dr. Barry’s office after class. “I have something planned for us to do Friday night.”

“Oh?” I said excitedly. “Are we going to do my blood test then?”

“No, we have to wait on that. My friend said the earliest he could see us would be this Saturday. But we’ll get it done. I promise.”

I was disappointed. I wanted to know what my DNA might be able to tell us. It made me even more curious about my father. Who had he been? But, was that all that was different about me? From what Will had said, I should either be like Abby if my father had been a Watcher, or I shouldn’t exist because angels like him, who only inhabited bodies, basically became sterile after the possession. So where did that leave me?

“Then what are we doing?” I asked, standing outside Dr. Barry’s office.

“It’s a surprise. And don’t even bother trying to get any details from me, because my lips are sealed on the subject.” He made the motion of locking his lips and throwing away the key.

I couldn’t help but laugh at him, sneaking in one more kiss before going into work.

Dr. Barry ended up being very empathetic about me missing a week of work.

“After almost being killed by that lunatic, it’s understandable you needed to get away for a while and blow off some steam,” she said. “Just try to remember to tell someone next time. Although, I can see how you forgot. That sure was a handsome man you had escort you to Las Vegas.”

When work was over, I was glad to go home.

Home. That word took on a completely different meaning for me now. It didn’t exactly represent any particular place anymore. When I lived with my mother, Utha Mae’s trailer was more a home to me than the place my possessions were actually kept. Now, home was wherever Brand was. He was my center, the very core of my happiness and future.

Will was at my apartment when we got there, waiting outside the door.

“I asked Will to come over and help you practice your phasing some more,” Brand told me. “I need to go take care of some things for our date Friday night.”

“Won’t you give me just a little hint?” I begged, doing my best to obtain just a small bit of information from him.

“No, and don’t ask anymore, my love.” With a gentle kiss, he sent me on my way. “I shouldn’t be more than a couple of hours.”

“Hey,” Will said when I walked up to him. “Any news on when Brand’s friend can do those tests?”

I unlocked the door to the apartment, with Will following me inside. “Yes, we’re supposed to go on Saturday.”

“Cool. I’d like to go with you two when the results come in. I’m really curious about what they might tell us.”

“Me and you both.” I laid my books down on the kitchen table and opened the fridge to grab a couple of sodas for us.

“Oh, hey,” I said, handing Will his soda and sitting down on the futon beside him. “I found another skill today.”

I went on to explain how I had been able to answer the questions on my Biology test so easily.

“That’s not something I’ve ever heard an angel being able to do. I always knew there was something weird about you, though,” he said with a smile.

I popped him on the arm with my fist for his little joke at my expense.

Will tried to help me with my phasing, but I ended up sitting in the same spot, not being able to phase myself anywhere an hour later.

“I just don’t understand why I can’t do it whenever I want to,” I said, frustrated by my inability to do what should just come naturally.

“Well, I’m sure you were more focused the first time, and you had a ton of adrenaline running through your system. It’s just going to take more practice. It was hard for me, too, the first time I took someone’s body over. It was like having to learn how to breathe again.”