Saint of Sinners (2 page)

The teacher looked impressed and nodded thoughtfully. “That’s a very interesting reason, and an unusual insight. Your homework for next week,” he said, looking around at the class, “for all of you, is to write a two-page paper on who you think the greatest American author is and why.”

Inevitable groans all around. I shrugged. I’d been writing papers for years. My tutors had been prepping me for Harvard, so I learned papers and reports and essays at an early age. I could knock out a two-page paper in less than an hour, including proofreading and printing. I’d probably do it tonight to get it over with.

At lunch I picked an empty table and read another chapter of my cosmology book. I wasn’t using it to impress teachers anymore; I was just reading it for myself. Reading about the science of the universe is a strange and interesting thing when you’re a half god (well, demon) and you’ve seen things like the chariot of the sun and played board games in the underworld. The universe is made of many different layers and dimensions, and sometimes it hurts my head to think about it. Other times I think it’s beautiful.

In the hall that afternoon, I saw my first incident of bullying. Some skinny kid was getting shoved by one of the jocks I’d had lunch with yesterday. I’d seen this plenty of times on TV and movies and I knew the script. Jock picks on unpopular type, making unpopular type’s life miserable. The kid turned a little, trying to get away from the bully, and I recognized the emo kid from yesterday.

The bullying alone was enough to make me mad, but seeing who was getting picked on pissed me off. I’m not sure why it made that much of a difference. I didn’t know him; I’d only seen him the one time and barely spoken to him. But somehow he still felt like… one of mine. I had to take a deep breath and remind myself that extreme magical violence was not the way this should be handled. I was playing normal, so I’d try something non-magical first.

I marched down the hall. All the other kids were passing by as quickly as they could, avoiding trouble. “Hey,” I called from a few feet away. “Leave him alone.”

The jock whirled, his face set in a way that told me he was planning to tell me to mind my own business and get lost. Then he recognized me and his expression turned uncertain.

“Leave him alone,” I repeated.

“I’m not hurting him. Just having a little fun with a freshman.”

The emo kid gave me a pleading look. I locked eyes with the jock, who was taller than me. “He doesn’t look like he’s having fun. So quit picking on him.”

The jock took a half step back. I checked to make sure I wasn’t giving off heat. Nope, still under control, still normal temperature.

“He your friend or something?” the jock asked.

“I guess he is now. And I don’t think you want to find out what happens to people who pick on my friends.”

The jock tried to rally. “Is that a threat?”

I gave him a slow smile. “Yes.”

“You better watch yourself,” the jock said, but he was backing away.

“Whatever.” I stared at him until he walked away.

When he was out of sight, the emo kid looked at me and said, “Thanks.”

“No problem. You let me know if he picks on you again.”

“Man, who
are
you?”

“Alex,” I said, offering my hand. I knew that wasn’t quite what he was asking, but it was the easiest answer.

He looked at my hand for a moment before taking it. “I’m Casey.”

“Nice to meet you, Casey.”

He looked like he wanted to say something else, but he grabbed a book and closed his locker. “Guess I should get to class.”

Chapter 2

Word got around, because at the end of the day a bunch of jocks tried to corner me. Half of them put on a tough face, the rest of them didn’t look so sure. They backed me down a hall and I let them because I had to figure out what I was going to do. I didn’t want to have to move and go to another school, so I had to stay away from the drastic stuff. Fighting would be satisfying, but getting into trouble was bad. I didn’t want anyone in authority looking too closely at me.

“Think you can come in here and do whatever you want?” the lead jock said, the one I’d made back down earlier.

“And what about you? You guys think this school belongs to you? Is that what it is? Same old boring story. Stereotypical jocks running the school.” I rolled my eyes. Maybe it would be worth it to put these guys in their place.

“This
is
our school. You don’t belong here,” another one said. Smaller than his friend, but he looked meaner.

“I’m enrolled, the same as you. We all belong here.”

The big guy snickered. “Maybe we should all have a big hug.”

Ugh. This stuff was bad enough on TV. It was even worse in real life. “Okay, here’s the deal. I don’t want any trouble, but I can’t fucking stand bullies. If I hear any of you picked on anyone in this school, you’ll be sorry.”

They puffed themselves up and tried to back me farther down the hall. I stood where I was until the lead jock was inches from me. “What are you gonna do, take on all of us?” He got several chuckles.

“I could.” I gave him my best I-will-fuck-you-up stare.

He took a step back before he caught himself and glared down at me. “You’re full of shit.” Then he took a swing at me.

I ducked and he completely missed, almost sending himself off balance. With a growl he swung again and I sidestepped. Another miss, and from the look on his face he wasn’t going to stop trying. I could keep playing duck and dodge, but even if I tapped into my inhuman speed I didn’t have much space to move in, and either he or one of his pals would eventually get lucky and land a hit.

“Fuck it,” I muttered. I’d fought Satan and won. I wasn’t going to let a bunch of jock assholes push me around. When the lead jock swung at me again, I ducked under his fist and punched him in the gut. Not hard enough to do any permanent damage, just enough to knock the wind out of him. Gasping, he doubled over. I kneed him in the jaw, sending him slumping into the wall.

One of his pals came for me. I grabbed his fist and pulled, throwing him into the wall behind me. When he staggered back I tripped him, knocking him to the floor. Calm. I had to stay calm and not let my powers leak out. I wanted to beat these guys enough to make them leave me alone, not kill them.

Lucky numbers three and four came at me at the same time. I shifted away from one and gave the other guy, who was just a little taller than me, a solid punch to the jaw. He went down and I turned to give an uppercut to his buddy. His teeth clicked as they knocked together and he stumbled away, dazed.

Two more left. One of them helped the dazed guy out of the way while number five rushed me like he was going for a tackle. I let him hit me. He drove me back into the wall, almost stumbling over one of the other guys. It hurt, but I’d been taking beatings most of my life, so it didn’t faze me. I grabbed him in a headlock and kneed him twice in the gut. He grunted and sagged, and I tossed him aside.

The one fresh guy and dazed jock number four ran at me. The dazed guy I just grabbed and shoved hard at the far wall. The last guy I gave a sloppy but effective roundhouse kick to the face. He went crashing on top of one of his friends.

It took maybe two minutes for me to lay out six guys, all of them bigger than me. Some wide-eyed kids stood a safe distance away. Just as I was about to get the hell out of there, a few adults pushed their way through.

“What’s going on here?” one of the school security guards asked.

I glanced at the jocks around me—dazed, coughing, or passed out. “They were picking on me.”

***

We all got three days of suspension for fighting. First week of school, and I was already in trouble. The principal gave me a big lecture and I sat there and took it, on my best behavior. As annoying as it was, it was way the fuck better than what I’d had to deal with at home. I even apologized.

Of course I missed the bus, so I used my shiny new prepaid cell phone to call a cab. I’d never had a cell phone before, and it made me feel like a real modern teen. I even had numbers on there—my demigod friends. No more having to send messages through animals or hop through Gates at cemeteries. I could just call them.

When the cab dropped me off, I called Stefan to see what he was doing that weekend. He’d started his first year of college a few weeks before and had made a few friends, so I thought he might be busy. He wasn’t though, and he suggested we all get together tomorrow. So we made a round of calls and got everybody to agree to come over to my place on Saturday so we could hang out.

Mew-Mew and I had dinner and then I practiced my teleporting. I’d been practicing several of my powers since leaving home, not just because they were awesome, but also because I knew I had to be ready when the devil came back for me. I didn’t know how long Joshua’s protection would last and I didn’t know if I could keep casting Satan out.

Besides, eventually I didn’t want to have to cast him out at all. I didn’t want him to come after me, period. In the back of my mind, I wondered if he’d ever really leave me alone or if I’d have to kill him. Kill the devil? Was that even possible?

I could try, at least. My sword, Animus, had done some serious damage to him. I asked Mew-Mew if he’d made me a sword that could kill Satan, but he didn’t know. His intent was to make me a strong weapon, with as much power as he could get from the animals and ghosts. I still wasn’t sure what exactly my sword was capable of.

I’d taken her out for some practice, too, far away from any people just in case. I’d found a really nice clearing in the woods in one of the national parks for testing some of my powers, and another place out in the desert to test stuff that might kill the trees.

That evening I went out to the desert so I could work on both my fire and ice powers. First, I called up an image of the place and pulled on whatever power inside me let me teleport. I had to try it a few times, but it finally worked. I’d gotten a lot better at teleporting in the last few months, but I still wasn’t as good as Stefan. My goal was to get better than him before spring and to get wherever I wanted by next year. Just like a full god.

The desert was blazing hot and it took me a few minutes to get used to it. Late afternoon in the desert is not the most comfortable time, but it did present a nice challenge for my ice powers. I’d gotten pretty good at them but I wanted to get even better. Everything had to be in top form if I wanted to fight my father. So making it snow in the desert on a late afternoon in September? That was a nice challenge.

I pulled on the force inside me, thinking of cold, and the air around me immediately changed. It got first cool and then cold, and I kept pulling on it. After a few seconds, I could see my breath and I got a little shiver. A few seconds more and the sand grew a light coating of frost. It took a minute or two, but then a flake drifted in front of my eyes, and another and another. Snow in the desert.

I laughed and held out my hand. The snow came out of the air a few feet above my head, out of nothing. Nice fat flakes that melted in my palm. The first time I’d done this a few months ago it had been an accident in my mother’s dining room. Now I could control it. I enjoyed the snow for a little while before getting serious. Snow wasn’t going to do anything against my father.

Icicles could do damage, though. Thick, sharp ones thrown through the air like knives. Or my new trick, pulling them up out of the ground like spikes. After half an hour practicing that, I shifted to fire.

Fire was easiest for me, the most natural. Fireballs and streams of fire, rings of flame that built a barrier around me, walls of fire, fire whips, and fire built into a crashing wave. I had serious intent, but it was also tons of fun. By the time I finished, the sun was sinking on the horizon. Time to go home and spend some quality time with TV and the Internet.

Saturday was for hanging out with my friends, but Sunday I was going to try flying.

Chapter 3

I went to the cemetery to pick up my friends. Stefan could teleport and he was bringing Elliot with him. Emily and Colin would take the Gates from their cemetery to the one near my apartment. One by one they showed up. This was the way we’d gotten together for over a year now, ever since we’d first met.

Only two months ago we’d saved the world, not once but three times. Things had changed between us. Sometimes it felt like we were closer, like these were my real friends and not just people I hung out with, but once in a while there was this vibe like something was between us.

Elliot was the most changed. It always took a lot of coaxing to get him to come with us. He’d always been the nervous type, but it had been worse lately. I guess I didn’t blame him after my dad almost killed him. Elliot wasn’t a fighter, despite his dad being the war god, Ares.

Sometimes I worried that he’d stop hanging out with us. Part of me thought,
Well, good riddance, we don’t need a weakling.
But the other part of me felt fiercely protective and I wanted to help him get braver somehow.

“So how was your first week?” Emily asked after everyone arrived.

I sighed. “Well, I got suspended.” I told them about the bullies.

“Way to lay low, Alex,” Stefan said.

I rolled my eyes. “Hey, I didn’t kill anybody. No divine powers, either.” Just a little extra speed and strength that I always had.

Colin laughed. “I guess for you, that is restraint.”

I shoved him. “On the other hand, I made a friend. I think.” I told them about Casey.

Stefan chuckled. “Defender of the world, protector of the weak.”

I tucked my hands in my pockets. “I know, seriously. They’re gonna revoke my Evil card.”

After a week playing human, it felt so good to be myself. We walked around the park while the sun went down and messed around in the playground for a while since there weren’t any kids around. Stefan told us about his new college friends and how he was struggling a little with the homework and studying.

I wondered if I wanted to give college a try. Some place not too fancy. Definitely not Harvard. That was where my parents had planned to send me because it would look really good when I started my political career. My networking was supposed to start there, rubbing shoulders with the kids of the rich and powerful. Barf. But that didn’t totally put me off the idea of college. Although, considering how my first week of high school had gone, it might not be a good idea.