Salvation (The Guardian Angel Series Book 3) (13 page)

“Friends don’t sign each other’s death sentence.”

“He doesn’t have full control over himself. You can’t blame him entirely,” I replied quietly.

Mr. Aleksandrov leaned closer to my ear. “You’re more foolish than I thought.”

I ignored him. “Please, sir, let me prove it to you. If I can stand up against Eli, or any guardian of your choosing, will you let me fight?”

Mr. Aleksandrov tapped his lip in thought. “You want me to arrange a fight between you and a guardian just so you can prove you’re capable of killing a vampire?”

I didn’t need to prove anything. I was under the impression that I’d proven myself already. I was capable of killing a vampire. I’d killed loads of them, more than most guardians. Granted, most of them were killed with my Heelian power, but I’d staked and burned vampires as well. I didn’t repeat my thoughts to Aleksandrov. Instead, I nodded.

“No.”

“No?” I repeated.

“No.”

I blew the air out I’d been holding in my cheeks and slumped down. I was sulking and I hated sulking, but it enraged me to think that Lucian was coming for me and I couldn’t do anything to help.

“We’re done,” said The Shar, and like last time, the tattooed man packed up all his things and left in a hurry.

Mr. Aleksandrov rose to his feet and straightened his gray robe. Mila walked over to us, caressing her bandaged wrist.

“Now that’s done, we all have work to tend to. Lyric and Eli, if you could take Mila to her dorm to help her pack her things and bring them back here, that’d be much appreciated. Aaron and Xavier, go help the others with the students. Ruby, stay with me. There are a few things we need to discuss.”

“I’ll see you soon, right?” Mila asked me, squeezing my arm gently.

“Yeah, I’ll catch up.”

Mila, Eli, and Lyric headed off, followed by Aaron and Xavier. When they disappeared out the door Mr. Aleksandrov stepped closer to me, his voice low and urgent.

“I know what the council wants with you.” I leaned in closer, afraid to miss anything. “They want to use your Heelian powers to cure vampires…”

I was almost speechless. Almost. Mr. Aleksandrov fell silent and watched me intently as I thought it through.

“Is… is that even possible?” I stammered, thinking about all the lives I could save … not the just the lives of strangers, but Hunter’s life, too.

“The council’s research team has been working on a cure for many years. They developed a formula they thought worked, but it only disoriented the vampire. It couldn’t tell if it was human or vampire, even though all the signs pointed to vampire. When they discovered you couldn’t be fully turned because you literally had the sun coursing through your veins, they became fixated on the idea that you were the key and they wanted to test their theory… They’ve asked me to take some of your blood and send it to them for tests.”

“If I give them my blood and it works, what does that mean for me? Will I be strapped into a chair and be a test subject? Will I need to donate blood every day, week, or month for the rest of my life? What do
you
want me to do?” I asked Mr. Aleksandrov.

He smiled sympathetically at me. He was as conflicted as I was. “I want you to do what you think is right. It’s your body—your blood. I’m not forcing you to answer right now.”

Subconsciously, I rubbed the thick metal bracelet locked on my wrist.

“I can fix that,” Gwydion said, pointing to my bracelet.

“You can fix it? How? Hunter said Lucian killed the witch that made the binding spell.”

“Binding spells are hard to break, but not impossible. I’m one of the oldest wizards in the world. Over the years, I have acquired some helpful and powerful spells.”

“Not yet. We need to be smart. Play this out to our advantage.”

I stared at him, wide-eyed. “Are you kidding me? If I get my powers back, this will give us the upper hand! I can help—you know I can.”

Mr. Aleksandrov put his hand on my shoulder, calming me instantly. I shuddered. Mr. Aleksandrov hadn’t used his empathic powers on me since I first arrived at Sage and it felt funny.

“The council made me the higher power because you trust me and they trust me to protect you. Let us handle it. All I need you to do is stay here with Mila.”

My mood turned peaceful. I became agreeable and nodded my head slowly. Mr. Aleksandrov turned on his heel and exited the room with Gwydion in tow. Seconds later, the uneasy, angry feeling crept back into my chest and I was filled with the urge to fight again.

I stormed from the house muttering curse words under my breath. My emotions were all over the place. I felt hard done by and weak. What happened to me being so bad ass that they made me a head guardian? Was that all a ruse to force me to stay here so I could be experimented with? I didn’t like the council. They’d been nothing but an inconvenience—as for trusting them—no way. They were secretive and sneaky. If they wanted me to help, they should have asked instead of going through the trouble of breaking traditions and making secret plans behind everyone’s back.

I stopped in the middle of the field and tugged on my bracelet. I pulled so hard that my chest and stomach began to hurt. I could feel heat rising in my cheeks and there was no doubt my face was turning as red as a tomato. I screamed in frustration and grabbed my knees, bending over to catch my breath.

“Don’t give yourself a hernia.” Eli chuckled, approaching me from the side.

I straightened up and scowled at him, but that scowl turned into a smile. It wasn’t his fault I was a walking vampire antidote.

He folded his arms as his green eyes narrowed in on me. “I hope you aren’t going to claim that’s a real smile.”

I shrugged. “It’s all I can do right now. Aren’t you supposed to be helping Mila?”

“She has Lyric, she’ll be okay.” He sighed. “Is everything okay with you?”

My chest grew heavy as all of the events from the last year bore down on me.
You’re not going to cry. Don’t do it.
I pressed my tongue to the roof of my mouth and pinched the bridge of my nose. I managed to fight back the tears.

“Uh, yeah. I’m over-reacting.”

Eli took a step toward me, but didn’t touch me. I bit my lip in disappointment. Even though we had sex, we still couldn’t be in love in public.

“You’re not over-reacting. Last night—”

“Why do people keep talking about last night?” I interrupted. “I’m fine! Last night had no effect on me.”

“A vampire got into the school. The one place where you were meant to be safe is now under threat. That has no effect on you?”

I pursed my lips together and shook my head.

“You’re lying.”

“What do you want me to say?”

“I just want you to be honest with yourself. Let your heart feel pain, it makes you stronger.”

A single tear rolled down my cheek. He was right. I was so conflicted about everything. After my year as a vampire, Sage took me in and changed my life. Sage Sanctum became my home, the one place I could be safe away from the monsters that hunted me. Now that’s gone, what was I supposed to do? Where were we supposed to go?

“I’m scared.”

Eli stroked my arm with his index finger. “I know, but I’m not going to let anything happen to you. I promised you that when we were in the cells when you first arrived, remember?”

I nodded. His warm finger brushed along my jaw line and then under my chin, tilting my face upward. I stared into his eyes. In the sun, they glistened like a lake on a lazy afternoon. He didn’t care that we were standing in the middle of the field outside of the higher power’s house and neither did I. I rubbed his arm.

“I love you,” I whispered.

“I love you, too.”

A Guardian Angel

M
y guardian uniform was hanging from the handle of my front door. I couldn’t help but feel a little giddy. I was the only goddess in history to wear one, so this was a big deal for both me and our world. It gave me hope. If the council was willing to budge on the whole ‘goddesses don’t fight’ and ‘only gods can be a higher power’ thing, then maybe there was hope for me and Eli. Maybe one day, Eli and I could be together in public and have the freedom to kiss, hug, and go on dates like normal people.

I brought my new uniform inside and slung it over the back of the couch. I strolled over to the fridge, pulled out a bottle of water, and drank it back. I was excited about the uniform, but it wasn’t enough to trump the now guilty feeling I had for not telling Eli I had the chance to bring Hunter back. I was worried—I didn’t know how he’d react. Would he want Hunter to be saved or would he forbid me to do it? I’d never pegged Eli as a jealous guy. I pulled my phone out of my pocket and texted Eli.

Are you free? We need to talk.

I sat on the couch and waited for forty minutes before a soft knock sounded at my door. I rose to my feet and stumbled over my big guardian boots on the way to the door.

When I corrected myself and straightened my shirt, I opened the door. Eli’s oh-so-gorgeous face met my gaze. Momentarily, I changed my mind about telling him.
You need to do it.
I inhaled deeply, praying that this went down well.

“Hey,” he greeted me as he stepped inside.

“Hey.”

We stood there awkwardly for a little while, or at least I did. I looked everywhere except at his face. I could still feel his curious gaze burning into me, though.

“There’s something I didn’t tell you… when we were standing in the field.”

He leaned against the door and folded his arms, his gaze not easing up.

“Mr. Aleksandrov found out what the council wants with me.”

Eli straightened up and stepped closer.

“They want to use my blood to heal vampires.”

Eli’s smooth forehead creased and his brows furrowed as he stared at me for several long seconds. “That’s not possible. Vampires are dead. It isn’t a disease that can be cured.”

“I’m the only living case that couldn’t be fully turned because of my Heelian side. I
was
cured. The council thinks that if they extract my blood and mix it with the formula they’ve created… then we can cure vampires.”

He took a long time in replying, his eyes weighing me heavily.

“What do you want to do?” he asked.

I looked away, unable to meet his eyes. “I want to save them. I want to save Hunter.”

To my surprise, he reached out to touch my chin and tip my head back up. His gaze caught mine, allowing no escape. “You do what you need to do.”

“That’s it?”

His lips twitched. “Yes.”

Now it was my turn for my brows to furrow. “This isn’t what I expected.”

“What did you expect?”

“Well, a lot of shouting and chastising, for one.”

“Ruby, you want to give people a second chance at life. It’d be selfish of me to be angry over something so selfless.”

“And the part about saving Hunter doesn’t bother you?”

He bit his lip in thought. “It does bother me. A lot. But we’ll cross that bridge when we come to it.”

I pouted. “Why are you so nice and understanding?”

Eli chuckled. “One of us has to be.”

After our surprisingly pleasant conversation, Eli went home to shower and change. I did the same. In my reflection, I saw my cheeks were pink from my overly hot shower, so I splashed cool water on my face. The mirror showed me a girl with bloodshot eyes and small bags hanging underneath. I looked sleep-deprived. I hadn’t gotten much sleep last night for both good
and
bad reasons. Now I needed to be in my uniform and helping the other guardians evacuate students from the school. I’m not going to lie, I was nervous—okay, I was more than nervous. Butterflies in my stomach—what an understatement, it was more like jackhammers, and they were in my chest, mostly, threatening to come up my throat. Why was I so nervous to see the students? It wasn’t like I’d grown close to any of them. Most of them probably wouldn’t recognize me—I don’t even recognize me. I’d lost a bit of weight, nothing too drastic, and my hair was longer… on second thought, perhaps I didn’t look as different as I felt.