True Intentions (9 page)

None of these characteristics are the truth.

In reality, she would find him attractive, engaging, and persuasive. Although Satan is the Prince of Darkness, he successfully presents himself as an "angel of light." A master of misrepresentation, he is the world's greatest advertiser packaging his
product
so it's attractive and appealing. In reality, it's deathly poisonous. That's where Sam comes in.
He is the product.

He is the product the devil is selling to mankind. Samuel Perry is, in fact, one of Satan's angels.

Satan needs mankind to see his angel soldiers as good, beneficent, and trustworthy. He wants his products' abilities to appear enticing and inviting. Their ultimate goal: influence mankind toward sin and the rejection of God. The human race is completely unaware of how well Satan has been training his angels for this role.

It's as easy as taking candy from a baby.

Of course, some of them are far better at it than others. Practice makes perfect.

Many of Satan's angels have been around for multiple centuries and have found a great appreciation for what works and what doesn't.

The rest of Satan's angels, like Sam, are still fairly new at this life of deception, and are still honing their skills, like a hunter with a new weapon.

There are benefits to working under Satan—immortality being the biggest
.
Sam has been seventeen since 1798. Over the years, he's seen mankind evolve, for better and for worse. He's witnessed the creation of antibiotics, which saves lives, and nuclear weapons, which easily destroys them.

His external beauty works as his biggest advantage. For mankind is, and probably always will be, superficial. Everyone wants to be rich, beautiful, and powerful.

How easy it is to persuade someone to follow your ideas or directions when you can mesmerize them with your beauty.

Temptation is the easy part.

Rim of the World High School has been Sam's easiest assignment thus far. The majority of the students here already possess the self-centered values that make his job a cakewalk. All he has to do is throw in a simple temptation. That's it . . . . At this rate, mankind will self-destruct before long, and Satan won't need dark angels like Sam any more.

His latest quest has been pretty simple. At least before Ava's involvement. He has been influencing a predator for the last few weeks. Once inside his thoughts, Sam encouraged his desires, overwhelming his sense of right and wrong. In his late thirties, this sexually frustrated male has been continually rejected throughout his life because of his unattractive looks and poor intellect. He is the ideal candidate for Sam. Turning this frustrated reject, Walter, into a sexually deviant monster—a predator like no other—was way too easy. Walter's first experience in the woods with the waitress had given him a sense of power. Pleasure so uplifting, he was thirsty for more. The young female had a strong sense of survival and listened to Walter's demands. He needed a bigger challenge, so he decided to park his truck on the side of the road and pop the hood, pretending to have engine trouble. He waited patiently.

Sam imagined Walter's thoughts, his sick mind racing. Once the people he influences give into his carefully placed temptation, Sam can read them like an open book. When this predator finds his next victim, he'll get her into his truck and take her back to the small, isolated house he calls home—deep in the woods.

Home: where he will be able to have his way with her until his needs are fully satisfied. After that, she can be easily disposed of somewhere in the nearby woods . . . .

Never to be discovered.

Sam had been watching from a distance, the predator's mind intriguing him.

That's when he first saw her, the young, new girl from his English class.

What the hell was she doing running out here?

Anger overcame him, and he couldn't understand why.

The first day he laid eyes on her, when she sat in front of him in class, she appeared in awe of him—as have so many others. Sam smiles while he reflects at the mere thought of it. Even back then, in her mesmerized state, his demonic powers recognized something different about this average girl—a purity.

A unique purity he has not encountered before, only heard about. An ancient prophecy claims occasionally there are humans with an extraordinary ability to influence. Humans like Gandhi, Mother Teresa, and Martin Luther King.

Spiritually pure people of this nature are referred to in modern, Christian terminology as Saints, or, in Sanskrit, as
Mahatmas.
These gifted people possess special abilities to influence good, and cannot be easily turned. In fact, it's almost impossible.

Satan and his servants go into the world effectively deadening the voice of God within the hearts of those who have hardened their hearts against the truth, and they accept Satan's attractive alternative. Someone with purity can overcome Satan and his soldiers'

evil powers,
if
given the chance.

It is crucial:
any
human who has this gift must be swiftly destroyed—no exceptions.

That Tuesday morning, Sam had sat with the perfect vantage point watching this pure girl run directly into the trap he had helped create—straight toward his predator.

Satan would have been so very pleased.

But that's exactly why Sam is furious at himself. This entire situation is all her fault—whether she likes it or not.

Why the hell did he make such an idiotic mistake? He knew better.

When he was watching her head directly into Walter's path, strange feelings overwhelmed him. Feelings of empathy, compassion. A desire to protect her, and her pure beauty, had clouded his sense of judgment. Before he had a moment to second-guess himself, he leapt out from his great viewpoint in the woods and approached her, sending her back down the rural road the way she came.

Why?

Why had he been so stupid and not destroyed her when he had the perfect chance?

There's nothing he can do about his indiscretion now, but he is bound and determined not to let her cause another act of carelessness anytime soon.

There's only one problem. He feels regret for rejecting her.

It really is for her "own good,"
he reminds himself.

Today, she actually had been easier to influence than he had anticipated. While she spoke about the absurd idea of assaulting her, he unconsciously thought of his hidden desire to kiss her, to see what her pureness tasted like. Even in this life, Sam still has typical male desires, even though he not kissed a girl since becoming an angel of darkness. It's strictly against Lucifer's rules, for Sam anyway. Sexual intimacy, even kissing, can cause emotions within a soldier he or she may not be able to control. It is common practice to be in this role for four centuries or more before being trained to be intimate humans. This is especially important in Sam's case since he has never encountered intimacy—beyond a kiss—even when he had actually been alive and of free will.

It's easy to understand now why that rule is enforced. He is completely in awe of this stubborn girl. It's irrational. Why can't he even contemplate the idea of destroying her? Why did l he prevent her from being destroyed by the evil he had easily created when it had been ready to take her?

It is as though she has some sort of strange power over him, one Sam has never experienced before. And the terrible thing; part of him desires to be close to her and wants to discover why she is so different from the rest of humanity. She brings out strange emotions he never thought existed. At least there is a tiny piece of common sense somewhere inside that foresees the danger of his curiosity. He knows better than to let this continue. It's imperative he stay away from her. Others may be watching and may realize what she is—a
Mahatma
.

He can trust absolutely no one. Not even Kate, his angel of darkness sister, who knows more about him than anyone else on the planet. She is more than three hundred years older than Sam in this immortal life. Yet she has never spoken to him about having this sort of emotional connection with a human, and she has been intimate with numerous human males—way too many to keep track.

If Lucifer finds out about Ava, she
will
be destroyed, and Sam will be unable to protect or save her—regardless of his feelings.

Chapter Ten - Avoidance

I've avoided Sam Perry over the last few weeks like he's the latest epidemic, and he appears to feel the same toward me. I'm bound and determined not to make eye contact with him in English or during the rare times our paths cross in the hallways.

Instead of obsessing, sulking, or thinking about his comment, I've kept busy with other things. Sara and I talked her dad into allowing us to meet with some of the elementary school principals in Los Angeles, and we started a chapter of Safe Play at two of the local, inner-city schools there. We have recruited eleven volunteers to help us train the staff at these schools, and just recently, we began discussions with a nearby principal who heard about our newly started programs and is interested in learning more.

At least that's keeping me busy and helping repair my self-worth.

With spring break quickly approaching, I'm in the process of pleading with my mom to let me fly back to Chicago to spend seven days with Mallory and her family. At first, she was reluctant even to consider the idea. But the more I press—which is at least one thousand times a day
—
the more willing she seems to reconsider. Aiden really knew what he was doing with the "bugging someone until they gave in" act of his.

She can tell something is going on since I've been much quieter than usual.

However, I've relentlessly kept her in the dark for the most part, at least about my interactions and feelings toward Sam. For all she knows, I'm just struggling with typical teenage stuff like fitting in at my new school.

Mallory, on the other hand, knows a lot more about my situation. She saw right through my masquerade— through email! I've confided my feelings toward my Mr.

Mysterious and about the kiss. I left out the weird warning he gave me while jogging.

That alone may be enough to creep her out.

Sara also knows about the rejection when I kissed him, and my desire to avoid Sam Perry at all costs. She knows about me trying to kiss him, but I conveniently left out his comment about "saving my life" and "wishing he wouldn't have."

We've been hanging out with Jack and his friends at lunch. I'm cautious around Jack—just in case. I'm afraid to be "too friendly," fearing he'll get the wrong idea. I'm still having trouble reading if Jack has the same feelings for Sara as she does for him.

Plus, I'm still nervous. What if he likes me? Maybe there's a part of me that actually wants him to be into me, so at least I know
one
boy likes me at this stupid school.

There's still a big part of me that wants to hide in a black hole. I wish I had never met my Mr. Mysterious, Samuel Perry. Life was so much simpler before I knew he existed, especially before my self-esteem was crushed. The only thing that could have made it worse was if he'd rejected me in front of the entire high school, like at a pep rally or something.

For now, as long as I avoid him, the emotional pain is manageable. Not pleasant, by any means, but manageable. I'm able to think coherently
as long
as I stay away from him. I know it's irrational for me to think a guy like Sam would ever be interested in me. I've wasted so much time and effort trying to rationalize my feelings for him—
him
of all people!

I do occasionally find myself getting caught in the web of curiosity when I hear someone mention his name, but I quickly remind myself he's nothing more than an arrogant, California jerk.

It's Tuesday night, and I am sitting cross-legged on my full-size bed at my grandparents listening to my iPod and working on my homework. With the music blaring in my earphones, I never heard a knock on the door. But when I look up, my mom's face is peeking in the crack in the doorway.

"Hey Av . . . . Got a minute?"

"Sure," I answer dryly. I'm not really in the mood to talk, but it's not like I have much choice.

"I got some great news, I put an offer on a house in Blue Jay, and they've accepted," she says, sounding completely ecstatic and full of hope.

The smirk on her face lights up the entire room.

"That's great, Mom," I manage to spit out, once again faking a smile. I know the inevitable result of this burst of happiness. An offer means we're definitely staying in California. No hope of leaving this place.

Great . . . .

Planting our roots here with a home purchase is something I've secretly dreaded since our arrival. I've prayed she'd eventually change her mind. The acceptance of her offer definitely ends any remaining ounce of hope I've had to leave this town—at least until I graduate from high school.

My expression must give me away.

My mom's eyes miss nothing.

She sees past my façade and immediately attempts to cheer me up.

"I think it would be great for you to go to Chicago for spring break," she says in a normal, nonchalant tone.

My attention shifts from my iPod to her comment.

"Are you serious?" I exclaim, jumping ecstatically on my bed. I could be mistaken for a 5 year old.

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

My bed squeaks from my erratic movements. I can't believe she is going to let me go.

"Ava, I love you and am more proud of you than you will ever know. Go to Chicago and catch up with your friends. Maybe I'll get us moved into our new place by the time you return."

I stop jumping and rush to her side.

"Mom, you're the best," I say, cheering hysterically as I grab her and give her a rib-crushing hug. As soon as I let go, I run to grab my cell phone off the charger and call Mallory.

Of course, Mallory is just as elated as I am. We chat for over an hour about all we want to do during the short week I'll be home. It's only been two months since I left Chicago for California, yet it seems like the longest two months of my life. I'm way ready for a change in scenery, even if it will only last one week. Before I know it, the school year will be over, and I won't have to see Sam Perry in English every day. If God would grant my wish, Sam would relocate to Mars, and then I could honestly think of him as not being the most handsome on earth . . . .