Dark Angel (Anak Trilogy) (20 page)

“Aahhh, yeaaah,” Kate drawled out the words in true southern belle tradition.

“On Friday after we left school, Zell flew us to his private island.  Not on a plane, he simply sprouted wings and flew us there,” I whispered flapping my arms. “He has spent hundreds of years building and perfecting everything on the island just for me. It is beautiful. It’s full of flowers and waterfalls. Then, he cooked for me, and we ate in front of the fire in his stone cottage. He sang to me for hours. We spent the night there and swam with dolphins the next day on his private beach. On Saturday, we flew home literally flying through the air via Zell’s wings. You know about the cookout, but what you don’t know is that I was attacked by a vampire on Lauren’s beach. Zell fought him off, and I killed the dirty vamp with an umbrella pole through his back.” I demonstrated with an imaginary pole in my hand. “Then, Zell shows up at my house on Sunday morning, meets my father and goes to church with me where we play tug of war with my hand all during my dad’s sermon. On Sunday afternoon, we went to the Artsy District downtown, had coffee, went to the zoo, but we were attacked. Luckily, Zell is six thousand years old and always carries a few swords on him. He fought off all the bad guys, and we headed home. Honestly, that’s all we did.”

Kate’s eyes
widened, and her mouth dropped open. She just sat and stared at me for several seconds. With her mouth still gaping, she looked over at Zell who flashed his fabulous smile and nodded in agreement.

“Seriously, Annie you are mental,” she complained. “What did you really do?”

“We just went to a movie?” I guessed.

“Annie, I love you, but y
our social calendar is so lame. The movie I believe.”

I was saved from any further conversation because Kate bought the just went
to a movie version. Dr. Patty had walked in the classroom and started roll call.  I looked over at Zell, shrugged my shoulders, and smiled.

“Kate thinks the n
ews is trite. She never watches or listens to the news. Besides, if she ever figured it out, she would never betray me,” I whispered to Zell smiling.

Zell returned my smile, and I felt the warmth from it begin to spread throughout my body. Thoughts from the weekend cluttered my head. One
second I would be smiling to myself thinking about the time we spent together on the island. The next my brow would be furrowed as I recalled the events of last night. I could feel Zell watching me. I was relieved when the bell rang, and I could get up.

S
everal people crowded around to introduce themselves, mostly girls, of course. Zell dazzled them with his impeccable manners, his charm, and his incomparable good looks. Then, there was his smile. I wasn’t the only one who was captivated by that smile. Savanna, Leeann, Lauren, Holly, Rylee, Connor, they all audibly would sigh when he turned his smile toward them. Sickening. Just sickening. Was I a little jealous?  I really didn’t know why I should be. I told myself that he was just being polite.               

When class ended
my classmates pressed forward to speak to Zell, and I was pushed further and further to the outskirts of the circle.  I finally gave up and huffed off to class. I had already paired up with Matthew when Zell came in the classroom.  Zell strolled over to our lab table and leaned against it.

“Hey, I’m new around here, Zell Starr,” he introduced himself
all friendly-like extending his hand to shake Matthew’s.

“Matthew Cavitt,” Matthew replied shaking Zell’s hand in return. “We met at Lauren’s the other night.”

“Oh yes, I remember. Look, I need to speak to Annie. Do you think I could be her partner today?” Zell asked sliding a folded one hundred-dollar bill under Matthew’s other hand that was resting on the table. Matthew looked down at the bill and hopped up at once.

“Sure thing,” he gushed.

I gave both an exasperated look.

“I’ll give you a hundred to stay put,” I huffed giving Zell a nasty loo
k.

“Two hundred,” Zell locked on my eyes.

“Two ten,” I ground out desperately searching my memory to see if I had that much left in my trust fund account. I did do a lot of shoe shopping this month.

“Five hundred
dollars,” Zell stated coolly. “Give up Annie. You can’t win the money game with me.”

“You’re ridiculous,” I snorted.

Zell slid onto the stool next to me. He slid his hand in his pocket and pulled out neatly folded bills. He slid them under Matthew’s hand.

“Did you have to do that?” I asked Zell.

“What?”

“Buy him off with money,” I answered.

“Like I said, I’ll never be able to spend all the money I have. I enjoy giving it away.”

“Hey, man,” Matthew interrupted, “
I can’t take your money.” Matthew slid all the money back across the table.

“Seriously, keep it, pass it forward, do whatever you want with it.”

“Nah man, I wouldn’t feel right taking your money.”

“Really, I want you to have it, please. Just keep it on the down low OK?
” Zell whispered looking around.

Matthew’s jaw hung open. Slowly, he looked from Zell to me and back at Zell.
After a few, long, awkward seconds, he walked away looking puzzled.

“
Matt’s a good guy. He would have moved without the payoff.”

“True, but now he can take his girlfriend out to dinner Saturday night.”

“Give me a break,” I replied turning my back on him.

“We could double-date on Saturday
. That way I could pay for all our dinners, and Matthew could keep his money.”

I didn’t answer as I listened to Dr. Patty’s instructions for the lab.

“Class, today you are going to identify the parts of an egg and examine how the egg has adapted to suppo
rt the embryo,” Dr. Patty began. “Your materials and lab instructions are beside the hand lens on your lab tables. Please begin.”

I picked up the lab sheet and began reading.

“First, crack and open the egg carefully placing it in a Petri dish,” I read. “Be my guest,” I remarked as I slid the egg and Petri dish toward Zell. Zell accommodated cracking open the egg and letting the contents slide into the Petri dish.

“Disgusting
.“ I was not an egg fan. “Second, draw a diagram of the egg, identifying and labeling the main structures of the egg.”

“Just read. I’ll do the rest,” Zell ordered, and he began to draw the diagram on our lab sheet.

“Locate the germinal disk. This is usually a white dot in the center of the yolk. Use a ruler to measure the diameter of the germinal disk. Gross,” I grumbled picking up the ruler, holding it daintily between two fingers, and dangling it in front of Zell until he took it from me.

“Locate the Chalazae, the two dense, chord like white structures.”

“I’ve got them,” Zell answered pointing toward the Chalazae for me with the end of his pencil.

“Revolting, I’ll never eat eggs again,” I complained reading on. “
Note the consistency of the albumin. What is the major constituent of the albumin?” I dropped the lab sheet.  “I’m seriously going to vomit.”

Zell looked at me strangely. “Egg white or albumin contains approximately 40 different proteins. Sixty-four percent is ovalbumin. There is nothing really revolting about it.” Zell answered as he wrote it down. “You’ll be OK, or should I kiss you here in the middle of Biology Lab to settle your stomach?” Zell asked wickedly.

“What part of the egg acts as the placenta in mammals?” I continued ignoring his remark. Zell wrote furiously keeping up with my questions.

“Last question. What will the germinal disk develop into?”

“A baby chick,” Zell answered drawing a baby chick rather than writing down the words.

“Cute,” I moaned feeling rather nauseated. I looked around and noticed we were the first ones to finish. I laid my head down on the lab table with a thud.

Dr. Patty came around to check on us not believing we were already finished. Zell held out our lab sheet for his inspection. It was unbelievable. It looked professionally done.

“I see. Good work.” Dr. Patty congratulated us looking at our work, or Zell’s work, in amazement. I closed my eyes and didn’t lift my head the rest of class. When the bell rang, we made our way through the throng of girls wai
ting to talk to Zell to English class.

In English
, we were still studying Zell’s now-deceased buddy, Shakespeare. I was bored to tears, but Zell got into the class discussion with gusto. I sat back and watched him with interest. He was marvelous. He regaled the class with humorous stories of Shakespeare indicating they were common knowledge in Europe.  I knew better. They were most likely personal experiences with Shakespeare. Before I knew it, the bell rang for lunch. Everyone stood and gave Zell a standing ovation. Despite myself, I too, stood and clapped. Zell was an amazing story teller. Of course, if I could believe his wild story, he had about six thousand years to perfect his abilities.

We walked to lunch with a huge group of people. Zell asked what I would like to eat, and I decided I would like a baked potato and salad. He told me to sit, and he would return shortly with my lunch. Within five minutes, he made his way back to our table holding two trays with baked potatoes, salad, and iced tea.

The tables were full, but everyone made room for Zell. I watched Zell eating while he talked and laughed with Matthew and Christopher. He seemed to be totally enjoying himself. I was glad. Zell always seemed so lonely, so friendless, so forsaken. It warmed my heart to see him laughing and joking with other people.

The lunch room was buzzing with news of the would-be carjacking. The girls were afraid there was a monster on the loose. The boys were hoping that there was. Several people were making plans to go to the zoo this weekend and look for what had killed the
carjackers. I wanted to tell them not to bother. I wasn’t going near downtown, and if I didn’t go, there would not be any action. Trouble followed me. Therefore, trouble would be wherever I was, not at the zoo.

Speaking
of trouble, here it came. Jon walked through the door of the lunchroom with a smoldering scowl on his face. He saw me and headed straight for our table.  Zell was talking with Matthew and Holly, but he must have sensed the atmosphere of the lunch room change. His head snapped up, and he turned to face Jon.

“I need
to see you now, outside,” Jon commanded.

“Annie, goes nowhere without me,” Zell butted in.

Jon took a step toward Zell, and he rose from his seat to meet him.

“Since when does
Annie need a guard dog?” Jon remarked insultingly.

Zell towered over him silently glaring at him.

“I’ll go see what he wants,” I said calmly stepping between them.

“Fine, let’s go,” Zell replied firmly.

“You’re not invited,” Jon growled.

“Please Zell,
I’ll be right outside the door.”

“No,” he said emphatically, “I go where you go.”

The lunchroom became dead silent. Everyone was listening. Heads were bouncing back and forth watching the exchange between Zell, Jon, and me. I didn’t know what to do. Neither of them was going to give an inch. Jon moved forward and shoved Zell attempting to push him back down into his seat. Dr. Patty was sitting at the table with Ms. Howard eating lunch. Both turned around when they heard the commotion. Dr. Patty started to get up when he saw Jon shove Zell.

Zell d
idn’t budge. It was as if Jon hit a brick wall. When Zell didn’t move, Jon swung at Zell’s face. Zell stood still allowing Jon’s fist to crunch into his chin. Jon screamed and dropped to his knees holding his fist. Zell never even blinked.

“You
broke my fingers,” he screamed.

“
I did nothing to harm you,” Zell replied as if bored with Jon’s drama. “Come, Annie, it’s time for class.” Zell put his arm around me and stepped over Jon, who was still in the floor holding his hand sobbing like a baby. Snickers broke out at first and then full-blown laughter. Jon, the school football hero, and as I was beginning to discern, bully, was humiliated. With a dark look at the laughing crowd seated at the tables, he jumped to his feet and stomped out of the building. Dr. Patty sat back down and resumed eating his lunch. Evidently, Jon wasn’t too popular with the teachers because neither moved to see if he was hurt. Ms. Howard smirked and returned to her lunch too.

“That scene looked like something out of
Superman,” I whispered to Zell.

Zell and I walked
the rest of the way in silence to Civics.

“I’m sorry, Annie. I didn’t mean to help that idiot make a scene. I just remember what happened last time I let you go off with him at the lake. I was almost too late. J
on can’t keep you safe from what hunts you.”

I knew what Zell said was true, but it sent chills down my spine.

“What am I going to do? What are we going to do?” I said as my voice quivered.

“We go on as if nothing is wrong. If an attack comes or when an attack comes, I will protect you. Now that you have taken a stand on the side of good, I expect your time will come fairly quickly. I think this weekend that I will teach you how to use a sword. I don’t think you would have the strength to
kill a Dark One. Unless of course, its back was turned,” Zell laughed, but you may be able to hold one off for a while though, if for some reason, we are ever separated.” Zell seemed to be mentally making plans already. We took our seats near the back of the classroom. Students began filing in and sweeping the room for a look at Zell. Matthew, Christopher, and Austin came forward to congratulate Zell.