FORBIDDEN (11 page)

“But you do have a weak stomach. I heard about you upchucking after meeting your first Fallen in Rome,” Ethan sneered.

“Okay, that’s enough!” I interjected before Hannah had a chance to throw another punch. It was obvious these two were going to have to grow to love one another in a different capacity. I pointed at Ethan. “Why aren’t you with Angie?”

He shrugged. “You jacked things up. She was supposed to die with Hannah in that car accident.”

Hannah shoved me. “So that’s why you didn’t want her to drive me to school!”

Ethan looked around me. “Yeah, that’s why. I still can’t figure out what Levi sees in you, but whatever. The damage is done.”

I shoved him. “Ethan, focus. So where is Angie now?”

He gestured to a nearby tree. “Don’t worry, she’s not dead.”

Angie was slumped over on herself, chin against her chest. Hannah screamed and ran over to her.

“Dude, what’d you do to her?” I asked.

“I Nyquiled her up.”

Ethan was not the brightest bulb in the box. “Why would you do that?”

He shrugged while we watched Hannah try to revive Angie. “I didn’t want to listen to her ask a million questions. She’s better when she’s sleeping. No talking involved. My kind of girl.”

“Ethan, you’re an idiot.”

“But I’m an idiot with some sense. No rules broken on purpose. No excessive talking from the Call. My brain hasn’t hemorrhaged, which is more than I can say for you.”

I walked over to Hannah and put a hand on her shoulder. “She’s going to be okay. Ethan gave her Nyquil.”

She wiped her eyes with the cuff of the hoodie she was wearing. “That guy is a jerk.”

I laughed, which earned me my first death stare from a girl. Two days in. Must be some kind of record. “He’s just not used to dealing with humans anymore.”

“You’re not a jerk.”

“I haven’t been dead as long as he has.”

That silenced her. I continued, trying to explain things. “Look, Ethan’s not a bad guy. He’s pretty much the only friend I’ve got. He’s been a Guard for over four hundred years. He’s watched a lot of people die. All he wants is to get out of hell, and he hasn’t. That has to get a little disheartening.”

“Has any Guard you’ve known gotten out?”

That stopped me. I tried to think of someone, but I couldn’t. How many of us were there? Hundreds, probably thousands. We guarded for the fact that it was the way to have a second chance. “None that I’ve known.”

Hannah nodded. “Did you ever think that it’s a lie they tell you?”

I didn’t want to admit that I had never even thought about that. She had put an idea into my head that had never been there before. Could it be true?

She continued before I could respond. “And the Fallen said something about balance and that I’d put it off. What is the balance he’s talking about?”

“Probably the amount of people on the earth or something, I don’t know,” I said, trying to ignore the questions that just meant more questions. “I don’t ask questions. I’m a grunt. I guard, keep track of humans until it’s time for them to go, then I move on to the next.”

Hannah continued to try to piece together things that I couldn’t answer. “But you don’t know if you’ll ever get where you want to go, and why you guard certain people or what it means.”

I sighed sadly. “I just want to get out.”

Ethan walked up to us and gestured at Hannah. “And you would have had a chance if you wouldn’t have been an idiot and protected this bag of bones.”

Hannah turned on him immediately. “Have
you
ever wondered why you guard certain people? Does everyone have a Guard?”

He snorted. “No, of course not. There aren’t enough of us. Some get Guardians.”

“So why are there people who get Guardians instead of Guards? What’s the difference?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know, because there’s a balance to uphold and you were one they voted to keep balance with.”

I asked the question this time. “What kind of balance?”

Ethan rolled his eyes at me. “Not you, too, dude. I don’t know, some balance of people and what not. I just do what I’m told. I’ve never asked specifics. You know what happens when people ask questions,” he turned his head to Hannah, “and
you
obviously don’t.”

She did the same head turn he did to mock him. “And what is that supposed to mean?”

“That if you knew what was good for you, you’d shut up now and again, and just accept that things are the way they are.”

She snorted. “That’s the most illogical thing I’ve ever heard.”

“Well, you wouldn’t think so if every time you questioned someone, you were killed in some horrific fashion, only to wake up the next day, ready for more should you ask more questions.”

Hannah went back to tending Angie in silence after that.

I returned my gaze to Ethan. “So what now? You broke the rule bringing Angie here. You’re not scott-free anymore.”

He sighed. “I know. Plus I pulled a plug in her car to make it not work, then offered her a drink while she waited on a make-believe tow truck I said I’d called for her. Wrapped her in a blanket so I wouldn’t touch her, but that’s the only rule you’re ahead of me on. I’m as screwed as you are now.”

I smiled. “Good to have you on my team.”

“Oh no, I never said I was on your team for this,” Ethan countered, putting up his hands and distancing himself from me. “I just said that I’m dumb enough to save your behind because you’re the only one who will double duty when I want to talk to a Guardian. I figured I owed you one.”

“Or twenty,” I corrected.

“Fine. Or twenty. But I’m keeping count, so nineteen to go.”

I nodded and smiled. “So what’s next? You’ve been around longer than me.”

Ethan sighed. “If you managed to take down a Fallen even after he was commanded to come for your human, you’ve got more skills than I gave you credit for.”

I rolled my eyes. “Uh, thanks, I think.”

“That’s not a compliment,” Ethan said. “Quite the contrary. Now you’re going to get to meet some of the fun things that the boss has up his sleeve. Things that will make a Fallen look like a puppy with a red ribbon around its neck.”

“I’m allergic to dogs,” Hannah commented, absentmindedly scratching her leg.

Ethan chuckled darkly. “You’re gonna be a lot more than allergic to these things, trust me.”

THIRTEEN

“No way, dude, there’s no way I’m touching her,” Ethan said. “I’m not jacking up every rule possible just to see if the boss creates a crater to swallow me whole right here, right now.”

I rolled my eyes as I hefted Angie’s limp body over my shoulder. Hannah clucked her tongue distastefully behind me, but hey, I was the one doing the lifting. I’d carry her like a sack of potatoes if I wanted to. It was easier this way. I smirked at Ethan as he jumped and dodged me like I had leprosy. “You know, they’re not contagious.”

“Easy for you to say. You’ve already let that human touch you.”

Hannah sighed. “I have a name, you know.”

Ethan laughed. “Yup, and it’s Bag ‘O Bones to me. You’re human. You live, you die. Well, you were supposed to have already died, but Rambo here decided to tempt fate. You know what? I’ll just call you Bob for short. How’s that?”

“Will you two please shut up?” I’d had it with their incessant bickering. It was like they were an old married couple.

Ethan stayed a good distance away from both the girls, leading our unlikely quartet through the cornfield we’d been trudging in for twenty minutes. Southern Ohio was basically fields of corn as far as the eye could see. That and cows. There were some well-fed people in this part of America, that’s for sure.

“My legs hurt,” Hannah complained. “Can’t we fly?”

“No,” Ethan called from ahead. “Levi the Great tried that one, remember? A Fallen was on you guys faster than you could count to ten.”

I shook my head. “So where can we take them? There’s nowhere that’s really safe.”

“You’re right, there’s nowhere that’s even remotely safe,” Ethan said.

I repositioned Angie. The girl was taking forever to come to. “So what do we do? Run forever? And how much Nyquil did you give this girl?”

“Only slightly over the recommended amount.”

His indifference was almost hilarious. Hannah ran up to him and cut him off. He jumped back about ten feet to avoid touching her. “You do know that there is a recommended amount for a reason, right? What if she overdosed?”

“Oh, put a sock in it, Bob. She didn’t overdose. See her chest? Still rising and falling like a good little human. Soon enough she’ll be a jabbering mess like you, and I’ll need earplugs.”

Ethan closed his eyes for a moment and seconds later his massive, black wings shredded the white t-shirt he’d been wearing. He always was one for shock value. The blood that dripped from conjuring his wings congealed quickly, but not before Hannah saw it. “Oh my god! Levi, do you bleed when you get wings?”

I looked at Ethan. “Thanks, E.”

He smiled angelically. “No problem. I’m gonna go find us a car. Be right back.”

Hannah turned to me. “So you bleed every time you pull out your wings?”

“Well, yeah. Not for long, though. It’s just a little bit.”

“Then why do you use them?”

“It’s kind of convenient at times. I usually prefer to run, but Ethan is more for the theatrics.”

“But aren’t you supposed to be dead? Why do you bleed?”

I sighed. “Because we’re tormented. We can feel pain. It’s an everyday occurrence. We bleed. The freedom of flight is the one gift we’re given, but we’re continually reminded when we use it that it really isn’t a gift.”

She looked horrified. “You don’t feel happiness? Pleasure? Anything good?”

“I hadn’t since I died,” I said.

“You hadn’t? What do you mean by that?”

“I hadn’t before you.”

She was silent. Her thoughtful, pursed lips made me laugh. “Don’t give yourself an aneurism, Hannah.”

She puckered her lips and punched me. “Whatever. So you feel good things now?”

Once again I repositioned Angie. She really was getting heavy. She moaned in her sleep, which I was hoping meant she was coming to. “All I know is after I saved you in Rome, I needed to be closer to you. Well, to be honest, even before that I wondered if I was too attached to you. There’s really no explanation for it. I wish there was. But yeah, I saved you in Rome, then the two Fallen came for you in the airport, so Ethan and I had to fight them off.”

“Ethan fought off Fallen for me?”

“Well, your time hadn’t come yet, so technically he didn’t have a problem with that one,” I explained. “Plus, one came for Angie. So it was in his call of duty.”