My problems had nothing to do with student/teacher ratios.
Ignoring other students’ curious stares, I left everything in my locker, including my backpack. I wasn’t going to do homework anyway, so why bother? I slipped my jacket on over my purse so it would stay dry and headed to the front doors of the school. Before I made it outside, Zak texted telling me he’d had a great time last night. I replied that I’d had a blast and couldn’t wait to see him again. Grinning, I slipped my phone back under my jacket into my purse before braving the carpool line.
Rainy days were the worst. The line was always long, and it took more time for people to load into cars. The rain hammered on the corrugated aluminum overhang, drowning out everyone’s voices as they waited to dash to the cars pulling into the drive.
“Help me.”
It didn’t drown out Bogeybaby, though.
Alden’s gray Audi pulled up in front of the covered area. “No. Go away!” I shouted at the ghost, shoving my way through the students to get to the front of the group. Alden got out and walked around the front of his car through the downpour to open my door. I sprinted through the cold, stinging rain and ducked into the car.
Drenched, Alden slipped into the driver’s seat and stared at my face for what seemed like an eternity.
“You feel troubled. You okay?” he asked.
Nodding was the only safe response. Why, I wondered, did being around Alden turn me into a member of the Moron Club? I slid my shoes off and pushed my feet closer to the warm air coming out of the vent at the base of the dash.
It was an awkward silence as he pulled onto the freeway. I would have made small talk, but there was nothing we could talk about that was small.
I couldn’t help but sneak glances at him. He was beautiful. His hair was soaked and stuck to his neck and cheek.
Turning off the freeway, we entered West University. The streets were lined with ancient oak trees whose branches met in the middle of the street, forming a living tunnel.
We parked in front of a large house that looked like it would be more at home in New England than Texas. It was gorgeous, with large, dark green shutters framing banks of French windows. I slipped back into my cold, soggy shoes.
Water seeped through the neck of the jacket as I dashed after Alden to the front porch. I tugged the collar up, and cold raindrops slithered down my back between my shoulder blades. The small overhang forced me to stand so close that I could feel his warmth as he unlocked the door. I resisted the urge to lean into him.
We stepped inside, and I followed Alden to the kitchen, where he took my coat and hung it on a hook by the back door. We were both dripping on the hardwood floor.
“We’re a mess,” he remarked as he pitched me a kitchen towel. I rubbed it around with my foot to sop up the water that had dripped off of my jacket. A small dog with a long face and wiry hair trotted in and barked happily at him. “Hey, Spook!” He reached down and scratched her behind the ear. “Let’s get out of these wet clothes. I’m sure I’ve got something that’ll fit you, Lenzi.”
I felt too awkward to say anything, so I nodded. Full Moron Club membership with benefits. I followed him up the stairs to the first room on the right.
“Welcome to your minion’s domain,” Alden said, opening the top drawer of a tall dresser.
I peeked in from the doorway. The furniture was dark and formal. Not the room of a typical seventeen-year-old boy.
“Not my taste, necessarily,” he said as he threw some clothes on the bed. “Mom used it as a guest room while I was away at school. This is my first year back.”
I wandered over to his desk. This was more like it. Untidy stacks of papers were piled up on the edges. In the center of the desk was a stack of black files. The top one had a seal with the letters
IC
in gold. The bookshelves above the desk were stuffed with classical literature and books about paranormal phenomena. I picked up a small, ragged teddy bear from the bottom shelf.
“Ah, that’s Joe Bear,” Alden said. “We were inseparable through second grade. He likes milk and animal cookies.”
I smiled and put the bear back.
He passed me some dry clothes. Warm-up pants and a T-shirt. “There’s a bathroom right across the hallway. Make yourself at home.”
The little dog, Spook, growled at a door at the end of the hallway that had a bright pink letter
E
painted on it, then followed me into a pink and purple bathroom with princess accents. I squatted down and rubbed the dog’s neck. I’d always wanted a dog, but Mom said that it would be too much trouble. Spook tilted her head and leaned into my scratching. “Hey, there, sweetie.”
She lay down on a purple rug with pink hearts around the edge, put her head between her paws, and watched me slip into Alden’s warm, soft clothes. The warm-ups had a drawstring, so they stayed up even though they were way too long. The thick, oversized shirt smelled like Alden and was so loose that it didn’t rub against my cut. I couldn’t help but smile as I pulled the collar up to my nose and inhaled.
Mmm.
I closed my eyes and remembered the way he had kissed Rose—the passion I’d seen on that roof while hell raged around them.
I dropped my wet things in the sink and found a brush in the top drawer. After towel drying my hair, I stepped into the hallway barefooted.
“Alden?”
“Down here. I’m in the kitchen.”
Spook gave the door at the end of the hall a parting growl before bouncing down the stairs ahead of me. Alden was stirring something in a pot on the stove.
“Hot chocolate,” he announced. “The real kind. The powdered stuff is disgusting.”
His hair was still wet, and he was in a black long-sleeved T-shirt and tattered blue jeans. His feet were bare. Casual. Comfortable. Gorgeous.
I hadn’t felt this calm in ages. My body almost hummed with peace.
“You’re better,” he said as he handed me a cup of chocolate.
I took the cup and wrapped my fingers around it, knocking off the last bit of chill. “Yeah, I feel a lot better. Bogeybaby was hassling me when you pulled up.”
He smiled and put the pot in the sink. “Ah, that explains it. I thought maybe you were having boyfriend troubles.”
“No, we’re fine. Fantastic, in fact.”
His smile faded. “Glad to hear it.”
I took a sip of chocolate. It was rich and delicious. He was right—compared to this, the powdered stuff Mom and I made at home was disgusting. “Is that your Cinderella hairbrush in the bathroom?”
Alden laughed. “No. That belongs to my sister, Elizabeth. She’s four.” He walked into the next room and plopped down on a sofa.
I followed him and sat in an overstuffed chair. “Where’s she?”
He set his cup down on the coffee table. “Early learning center.”
I looked around the large family room. It could have been the cover shot for an interior design magazine. The back of the room was a wall of French doors accented with floral drapes that puddled into folds of fabric on the floor. No doubt his parents were loaded. “This is a great house. What do your parents do?” I asked.
“Doctors. Mom’s an oncologist, and Dad’s a general surgeon.” He put his feet up on the coffee table. “I won the parent lottery this time.” Spook jumped in his lap. “I hope it’s okay I brought you here instead of your house. When this storm stops, I’ll take you home.”
“No. This is fine.”
Alden scratched the dog behind the ear, and she made an
oof oof
sound.
“Spook is a funny name,” I said.
“Yeah. She senses Hindered. Spooks drive her nuts. I got her when I was away at school.”
I put my feet on the coffee table too. I figured since he was doing it, it was okay. “Where did you go to school?”
“Wilkingham Military Academy. It’s actually just a cover for a Protector training facility that’s run by the Intercessor Council.” Spook climbed off his lap and padded in circles on the sofa cushion next to him and settled down with her head on his thigh. “When I was fourteen years old, I got a letter telling me I’d earned a scholarship, and my parents let me go. The brochure was slick, and they bought into it completely. I knew exactly what it was, of course. I’d already begun having memories of my past lives.”
I finished off my chocolate and set the cup on the coffee table. “So if I were normal . . . or rather appropriately abnormal, I would have started having past life memories when I was younger?”
He nodded.
“I wish I could remember. This is driving me crazy.”
“You and me both.” Spook grumbled when Alden stood and picked up our cups.
I followed him into the kitchen. “Do Speakers go to school?”
“No. Speakers go through an apprenticeship their first few cycles under an experienced mentor. From then on, their job pretty much stays the same generation after generation. It’s not affected by technology like my job is.” He set the cups in the sink and ran water into them.
I leaned on the granite counter next to him. “What kind of technology?”
“Medicine is totally different each cycle. Things were pretty rough before antibiotics and sterilization. My past life memories don’t help me with that. School gets me up to speed with the era’s advances. Laws change too. I can’t just run around with a sword strapped to my hip anymore, much as I’d like to.” He winked and pulled out a sponge from under the sink.
“So, are you going back there?”
He squirted soap on the sponge and scrubbed the cups and pan. “No. I’ve been released for duty. Now my parents think I’m so brilliant, the school has allowed me to do a correspondence course by computer.” He rinsed the dishes and set them in a drain rack next to the sink.
“So, the academy is where you learned to be Ghost Boy.”
He smiled. “Yes, Ghost Boy and Doctor Boy. Let me see your stitches.”
I put my hands over my abdomen. “Why?”
He groaned. “Come on, Lenzi. . . . I put them there. Get over it. I need to be sure there isn’t an infection starting up. It’s just your stomach. It’s not like I haven’t seen it before.”
That last little bit irked me. How much of my—No. How much of
Rose’s
body had he seen, and in what context?
He groaned again.
“Fine.” If he wanted to play doctor, I could go with that. I had to lift my shirt almost to my bra to expose the scratches because they extended so high on my abdomen.
He leaned closer, running his fingers along either side of the sutures. His gentle touch caused my heart to race and the cut to ache. I winced. He pulled my shirt down and straightened up. “It’s a little red. You need some antibiotics, and I need to treat it. I’ll be right back, okay?”
“Okay.” I gripped the edge of the counter. Treat it how? I’d always been terrified of all things medical and this home-doctoring routine was no exception. His emotion-feeling stuff must have kicked in because he stopped at the base of the stairs.
“Lenzi, it’ll be fine. I know what I’m doing. You need to trust me.”
I nodded.
He returned from upstairs with a cardboard pack of giant pills and a small vial of clear liquid. After punching the first two capsules through the foil on the bottom of the pack, he placed them in my hand. “Here, take both of these antibiotics now and follow the schedule on the inside for the rest.” He pulled a bottle of water out of the fridge and led me to the sofa in the family room.
I took a swig from my water bottle and swallowed the pills. He shifted the sofa cushions and had me lie down. When he sat next to me and began to pull up the bottom of my shirt, I inhaled sharply, one step short of a gasp.
“Trust me,” he said, opening the top of the vial full of clear liquid. “That thing was demonic.”
I nodded. He sprinkled the liquid from the vial over the wound. A small area bubbled like it was hydrogen peroxide, but it had no odor. He pulled my shirt back down and moved away.
“What was that stuff?”
“It was holy water. The antibiotics will fight infections with earthly causes. The holy water will kill off infections caused by evil. The Malevolent you dealt with was evil. Its wound can infect not just your body, but your soul.”
I bit my lower lip. “Am I going to get sick?”
“Not a chance.”
I stood. “Alden, I’m really not cut out for this kind of thing. I’m not made for bogeymen and stitches and evil spirits and—”
He placed his hands on my shoulders. “Stop! We had a deal. You said you’d give it a try. Just once, remember?”
Tears filled my eyes, and I trembled. Alden pulled me into his arms and held me against his chest. “Just once, Lenzi. You can do this.”
He smelled delicious, like rain and chocolate, and his embrace was so right. I wrapped my arms around him and closed my eyes. I wasn’t addicted to Xanax, but I could certainly become addicted to Alden.
Still clinging to him, I drew a ragged breath. “I’d better let Mom know where I am, though. She’ll freak if I’m not home when she calls to check on me.”