Destine (The Watcher's Trilogy) (43 page)

“Yes,
it
’s
the phone’s fault you never charge it,” he countered
.
“Come on, we’ll go home and call from the house.”

“Wh
at about the rest of the school
day?”

“It’s the last day before winter break, no one will care, and things are fine here
.
Look around, when was the last time everyone looked this happy?
”

I scanned the halls, and he was right
.
People were talking in the halls, smiling, laughing
.
It looked like a normal high school and not the apex of the apocalypse
.
“Okay, let
’s
go make that call,” I shrugged
.
They clearly didn’t need our help, best to focus on the problem at hand
.

We went back to Gabriel’s, walking right out the front entrance and straight down the sidewalk all the way home
.
No one said anything, no one tried to stop us,
and we
just left
.
Upon entering the front door, I flung my bag down in the entryway and ran directly to the phone
.
I dialed Cami’s phone again, and this time she picked up immediately
.

“Oh thank God,” she whispered
.
“When the phone cut out I thought something had happened to you
.
I thought he had gotten you.
”

“No, no
.
Nothing like that, my phone actually
just died
.
I forgot to charge it,” I replied sheepishly
.

“Yeah
,
that was my second guess, you’ve always been terrible about that,” Cami laughed
.

As I hung up the phone I felt slightly better
.
We would use some of the money I had saved from my father’s life insurance, and we would fly out to Colorado
and spend break with Cami, my aunt, and my m
om
.
We had figured there was no reason to stay away now
.
If Alex and Principal Black were already on the
ir
way there, then we had to be there
,
too
.
If they had simply disappeared, then there was no reason to worry
.
Looked like I would be spending the holidays with family after all, even better I got to spend it with family and Gabriel
.

Chapter 23

Song of Solomon 8: 6-7 “Set me as a seal upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm, for love is strong as death, jealousy is fierce as the grave
.
Its flashes are flashed of fire, the very flame of the Lord
.
Many waters cannot quench love
, neither can floods drown it.”

I sat in
an uncomfortable folding chair in the middle of the football field with the hot sun
practically
baking
me
.
I sat in a long
, black
polyester robe wishing that polyester
were
a more breathable fabric
.
A trick
le of sweat rolled down my face
from under my graduation cap
.
I reached up and attempted to wipe a strand of hair from where it was plastered to my face
.
I suppose this weather was better than rain, but to sit a
redhead
in the sun for two
hours to roast while politicians and administrators prattled on just seemed unfair
.
I was glad to have made it to graduation, and not for the usual academic reasons
.
I honestly thought that I might
never see this day, that I wouldn’t live long enough to graduate, but here I sat
.

I turned in my seat and looked behind me
.
It wasn’t hard to spot Gabriel’s piercing eyes through the crowd
.
He made eye contact and then gave me a full watt smile
.
He was quite pleased with himself
.
He said he
h
ad done a lot in his
existence
, but never graduated high school
.
Guess there is a first time for everything
after all
.

I had been on guard for months after the Winter Solstice Dance, but Alex and Principal Black seemed to have disappeared completely
.
Gabriel and I had flown out to Colorado and spent winter
break with Cami and my family
.
It had been nice, but incredibly hard to come home
.

When it had become clear that Alex and Principal Black weren’t coming back
I had tried to get Cami and my m
other to come home, but neither wanted to
.
My mother was doing much better,
she had even gotten a part time job at a small, local bo
okstore; it was the
first time in years that she had held a job
.
Cami had enrolled in a vocational school and was currently taking cosmetology classes
.
She would be done in a few more months, as long as she passed her certification test
.
She had called her parents after the holidays, and explained that she was in Colorado and attending school
.
They had been confused, but they hadn’t demanded she come home
.
Her parents seemed too busy with their jobs a
nd their lives to worry
about what Cami was off doing
.
I had never realized before h
ow dismissive Cami’s parents were of her
.
I had looked up to her family as the picture of normalcy, the perfect family
.
While I had looked at my own as
a
dirty little secret to keep hidden
.
I had never realized that maybe Cami needed me as much as I needed her
.
We were sisters, she was family but
by choice not blood;
it didn’t make the bond any less strong
.

After winter break school had quickly gotten back to normal in the absence of Principal Black and Alex
.
It was as if they had never existed, and no one missed them, or ever questioned their absence
.
There were days that I had a hard time believing it had ever really happened at all, but then I would glance down at my arm where the scythe and sword were
permanently tattooed to my skin
.
It had happened and it wasn’t over yet
.

I snapped back to reality with a jolt
.
Vice
Principal
/ Acting Principal Andrews was calling
the
graduate
’
s names
.
It did
n’t take him long to reach the
C
’s
.
I heard him
call Michelle
Cross, and
his voice echoed out across the stadium
.
There was a moment as I approached the podium to a
ccept my diploma that I was sad;
I had no one in the stands to cheer me on, to celebrate this day
.
Then I heard a loud wh
ooping cheer from the behind me.
I glanced back to see Gabriel on his feet
,
cheering with fervor
.
I couldn’t help but smile
.

I focused on climbing the shaky aluminum stairs to the portable stage that held Vice-Principal Andrews and a few other faculty members
.
I was careful to not trip on my robe
.
I didn’t want to go from social nobody to
infamous, simply
because I was clums
y
.
I glanced over at the faculty members that were seated along the back of the stage, I caught Mrs. Still’s eye and she gave me
a bright smile
.
I then glanced at Mr. Brown who was seated to the left of Mrs. Still; he enthusiastically gave me the thumbs up
.
I was wrong, I had plenty of people cheering me on
.
I accepted my diploma and went to return to my seat, when I saw a flash of white from the parking lot
.

My heartbeat hiked up a notch and I felt my whole body go on edge
.
I watched as a white Lincoln Navigator pulled out of the parking lot, not the white Escal
ade I had grown paranoid of
.
It was to the point that I would tense at the
sight of any white SUV I saw
.
I was constantly scanning parking lots and side streets in search of Alex’s car
.
Of course, there was more than one white Escalade in New Jersey, and I often found myself waiting and watching to see whom the vehicles belonged to
.

The rest of graduation went
off without a hitch
.
No Horsemen, no Antichrist, no demons of h
ell, just a high school graduation
.
I thought
,
as my graduation
cap floated back to the ground
, if you had told me this is where my li
fe would lead me my senior year
I never would have believed you
.
I had started the school year as a socially irrelevant nobody, and while I was still socially irrelevant I was somebody
.
I was the defender of humanity, the
human vessel of the Archangel Michael, I was in love with a Watcher, and he was in love with me
.

Later that day I stood in
Gabriel’s
driveway
.
I was sweating through my tank top as I threw the last bag in the car
.
It was hot, the hottest I could remember
this early in June
.
The slowly
setting
sun did little to
cool
the
suffocating
hot air around me
.
I wiped my hands on my jeans
,
att
empting to dry my sweaty palms
.
The question of where Principal Black and Alex had gone ate at my conscience
.
I had no idea where they had gone
.
It was as if they had vanished
completely
.
I was sure of one thing, no matter where they were
,
they
were regrouping and planning
.
And that was why we were loading the ca
r
.

My parent’s house had sold and Gabriel and I
were
financially set for some
time
.
The money really should have been going to college, but c
ollege
seemed like a fantasy right now
.
I had more imp
ortant things to worry about tha
n orientations and frat parties
.
I
definitely wasn’t
going to s
it around and wa
it for Alex and Principal Black to find me
.
No, t
his time
I
was
going to
go and find them
.
And when I
found them I was
going to kill them and end
all
of this
.
If I had learned anything it was
that even heaven
couldn’t
lay before me a destiny
.
I
have a choice, I have free will, and I don’t know yet where it all leads but I know I am ready for whatever lies before me
.

I climbed into the passengers seat and Gabriel c
ranked the engine
.
Johnny Cash’
s voice blared out of the speakers singing “Ring of
Fire” and I hit the button to
lower the top
.
We had “borrowed” Scarlett’s c
ar, her red mustang convertible, since no one had ever claimed it from the school parking lot
.
The spoils of war
, I had told myself. S
omehow I thought she would appreciate that
philosophy
.