Wings of the Wicked (22 page)

“Where did everyone go?” I asked, turning around to look at Brian. Turning made my mind swim, and I let my head sag heavily to the side.

“Just downstairs,” he said. “They’ll be right back.”

I moved away from him, but he stopped me. His hand rubbed my side and swept down my waist, tugging me closer to him. My head felt immensely heavy and his shoulder was there, so I laid my cheek on it. For some reason, the cotton of his shirt felt extra cool compared to the air of the stuffy room, and I played with the soft collar. The cotton felt amazing to the touch. I tried to avoid looking up at him.

“How old are you again?” he asked, his hand now grasping around my bare thigh. I felt very self-conscious in that skirt suddenly.

“Seventeen.” I looked around for Will, but the room spun like a tornado and my eyes bulged as nausea flooded over me. I pushed myself away from Brian as I remembered that Will was nowhere near, because I had told him I was going to this party without him. I had a sudden strange feeling, like a hole had been ripped inside me.

I was lying on my back, but I had no idea how that had happened. I couldn’t remember. The bed was incredibly soft and cool, and my body felt like it was burning up. Brian’s body on top of me didn’t help at all.

He kissed my neck and nibbled on my earlobe, but it only annoyed me. I felt no little warm shock in my nerves like the ones Will gave me with the slightest touch.

“You’re really hot,” Brian breathed into my ear. Beer smell blasted my cheek.

I grimaced and turned my face away. “Thanks.”

He leaned over me, pushing his chest into me as he sucked on my neck sloppily. His mouth moved and his lips shoved against mine. I jerked my face away and pushed at him, but he was so heavy. Whatever he was doing was kind of gross, like a dog slobbering all over me.

“Don’t do that,” I said with a grunt. “Brian, no.”

He pushed me deeper into the bed. I shoved my hand into his shoulder, but I didn’t have the strength to do much. The effort made me so tired, and I relaxed. His hands covered both of my breasts, and I lashed out in fear and shock.

“Okay, Brian,” I said, almost suffocating beneath his weight. “That’s enough. I said no. Get off me!”

One hand squeezed my hip and played with the bottom of my skirt, his fingers treading dangerously north. I squeezed my knees together and brushed at his hand to move it away, but he pushed his thigh between both of mine, parting them, and his hand kept going. A burning hot finger hooked around the elastic of my underwear.

“Brian,
stop
!” I shoved my hands at his uselessly as tears budded in my eyes. This was getting bad. So, so bad. If my head hadn’t been spinning so much, I could have stopped this, but it was impossible to summon my powers.

When his mouth pressed against mine again, my body locked up and I twisted my face around. My power surged weakly, and he startled at the zap against his skin, but his confused pause only lasted an instant before his hand grabbed my chin and forced my head straight and he kissed me harder. I couldn’t focus enough to shove him away. Panic was sapping my strength.

I heard two loud, consecutive bangs, and then Brian flew off me. Confused, I opened one eye. Will had plucked Brian up by the back of his shirt. I blinked hard, certain I’d only imagined what I saw. Will tossed him—gently, by reaper standards—across the room, and he slammed into the far wall. The drywall caved, and Brian’s body tore off a couple posters and knocked empty bottles off a shelf above him onto the ground. He hit the carpet and swore at the top of his lungs as he staggered to his feet.

“You son of a—” Brian swung at Will, and Will shoved a hand into the human boy’s chest, swatting him like a fly, and he crashed to the wall again. As Brian picked himself up off the floor, they stared at each other for way too long, and even though I could see only the back of Will’s head, I imagined he was trying to kill Brian with his eyes since he couldn’t do it with his hands. The anger in Brian’s face was replaced by fear, and he scuttled out of the room. No one gave a look that could kill like my centuries-old Guardian. Will definitely had the intimidation face down pat.

For a moment, I was filled with so much relief that I wanted to throw myself into Will’s arms, but then I remembered I was supposed to be mad at him and I frowned up at the ceiling. I lay on the bed, furious with Will for following me out here when I had told him not to. If things had gotten really out of hand, I could have kicked the crap out of that guy. I didn’t need or want Will to save me.

“Ellie? Are you okay?” Will whispered, leaning over me, his voice feather soft, his hands politely smoothing my clothes back into place. His presence was all over me, so incredibly close, and I inhaled his scent. I wanted to grab onto him, but I couldn’t give in.

I threw a hand over my face to block out the harsh light from above. “Go away, Will.”

“Nope” was all he said as he wrapped an arm under my back and the other under my knees. He lifted me up and carried me through the house.

“Put me down,” I growled, and tried to wriggle free.

“Nope.”

“I’m going to bite you if you don’t put me down.”

“Go ahead.”

All right then. I turned my head into his chest and chomped down on air and a little bit of cloth. “You suck.”

“I know.”

I glanced at the gaping hole where the doorknob had smashed through the wall. On the other side of the door frame, the wood had shattered where the door had been busted open.

“What are you doing?” asked a voice. “Where are you taking her?”

I peeked to see that Jay had stopped us. He looked pissed.

“Who are you? You can’t just take her out of here, man.”

Will stared him down the way he had with Brian. “She’s mine.”

I snarled and ground my knuckles into his chest, but it had no effect. “I am
not
yours, you caveman!”

Will ignored me. “And she’s in high school.”

Oh, great. Just tell everyone about the drunk high school skank at the college party, getting carried out.

Jay didn’t protest anymore, and Will stormed past him and outside. He opened a car door and set me down on the cloth seat. I recognized the interior of Lauren’s car.

Will touched my face gently, and his eyes found mine. His expression was a strange mixture of anger and concern. “Where’s Kate?” he asked firmly. “I’m getting her out, too.”

I waved a hand, motioning back to the house, and I pressed both my hands to my forehead. The car spun around me and I pushed my face into the seat to try and make the world stop, but it didn’t work. When I looked, Will was gone.

I heard voices outside the car, and I sat up a little to see out the window. Kate was arguing with Will, but I couldn’t understand what she said.

“But I
can’t
,” Will growled, just loud enough for me to hear. “It’s a lot more complicated than you could ever imagine. You have no right to judge me, Kate.”

Her face twisted in anger. She said something else and went back into the house. Will opened my door and leaned over me to buckle me in.

“What did she say to you?” I demanded.

“Nothing important.”

“Well, it was enough to make both of you angry.” I was so tired, but I struggled to stay awake. He couldn’t take me back to my own house. I was supposed to be with Kate at her house, flipping through
Cosmo
, not wasted and with a boy. And especially not with Will.

“Yeah,” said a third voice. “It was this random right here.” It took me a second to recognize Brian’s voice.

Will’s eyes flashed and he drew away, his face twisting into a snarl.

Not good.

“Wait, Will!” I clamored, reaching for him uselessly. “Just forget about them. They don’t matter. Please don’t do this!”

As he disappeared around the back of the car, I struggled with my seat belt until it sprang free, and I climbed out of my seat. My legs wobbled, but I pressed my body against the car and found enough balance to drag myself around.

“Ellie, get back in the car.” The anger in Will’s voice shocked me. It made me stop in my tracks and stare after him.

Brian stomped up to Will, flanked by Jay and Rob. “He sucker punched me back in the house. Kicked my door right off the damn hinges, too. You’re going to pay for that, asshole.”

“You have no idea how glad I am that you want to fight me,” Will said to the guys starting to circle him. I could see his power simmering the air around him like a hot sun on black pavement, but the humans couldn’t see anything at all. They couldn’t see what they were really trying to pick a fight with.

Brian stepped forward. “I’m going to mess you up, man.”

He swung, but Will stepped aside with ease and Brian staggered past him. Will’s blurred movement was too fast for the drunken boy. Each punch clumsily passed Will’s head, and as Brian stumbled around swinging, Will tapped his back, and he hit the snow-covered ground hard. Brian rolled around, swearing at the top of his lungs. A crowd of people piled out the front door to watch the fight.

“All right, Will!” I yelled. “You’ve established that you can kick their asses. Let’s just go!” My head hurt, and I fell back against the hood of the car.

He looked back at me for only a fraction of a second as I fell, and Brian shot to his feet and lunged at Will. He caught Will off guard, and his fist barreled into Will’s jaw, snapping his head to the side. Brian swung again, but Will caught the motion, wrapping his entire hand around Brian’s fist with ease. He squeezed and Brian moaned in agony, his knees buckling until Will was practically holding him up by his fist.

“I want to break your neck for what you did to her,” he snarled with so much malice that his words sent tremors of fear through even me. “You’re lucky you’re human. Otherwise there wouldn’t be enough of you left for fertilizer after I finished tearing you apart.”

“What are you?” Brian sputtered, his eyes wide with fear.

Will said nothing and smashed his elbow across Brian’s face. Brian went limp instantly, and Will tossed the boy to the ground. Blood trickled from Brian’s mouth and dotted the snow around him, but he was alive. Just very, very knocked out. Perhaps minus one tooth. Or two, or three.

Jay and Rob launched themselves at Will on either side, but Will’s power slammed into Jay and threw him across the lawn. Will kicked into Rob’s chest and sent him flying in the other direction.

“Will, stop!” I cried. “I
order
you to stop.”

He halted and straightened, staring at the boys as they rolled around on the ground and groaned.

“Think about what you’re doing,” I pleaded, amazed that my words had stopped him. “You’ll kill them!”

He turned to me, the brightness in his eyes fading as he realized that I was right. He blinked, looking around him at the crowd of shocked and terrified people, and an overwhelming look of shame filled his face.

Kate pushed her way through the crowd gathered on the front porch. Her hand covered her mouth when she saw the fight. “What the—?”

Another girl appeared right behind Kate, cell phone up to her ear. “I’m calling the cops!”

Will was close to me in a heartbeat and threw me over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

“You son of a bitch!” I yelled, and beat my fist into his back. “Don’t carry me like this!” I kicked and struggled, but he only held me tighter. In seconds, I realized that flailing was doing me no good. I gave up and sagged, making my body dead weight.

“Jackass,” I growled as he set me back into the passenger seat and helped buckle my seatbelt.

“Stop calling me names.”

“I can’t believe you’re doing this to me.”

He stomped around the car, back to the driver’s seat, and started the engine.

“You don’t own me.”

“You’re right,” he said. “I don’t. But it’s my job to protect you, and that’s what I’m doing right now. It’s not safe for you here.”

I made an ugly noise and stared out my window at the world rushing past me. It made me a thousand times dizzier, but I didn’t care. I was too tired to keep my eyes open any longer. If I just closed them for a moment, then I’d feel so much better. Just for a moment …

17

I MUST HAVE FALLEN ASLEEP IN THE CAR BECAUSE I was abruptly aware that it had stopped and Will was climbing out. A moment later, he had my door open and was lifting me into his arms. He carried me into the house and up a flight of stairs. I tensed and swiveled my head around as he pushed open the door to a room. I took a deep breath and realized instantly that the room smelled like Will. The rich scent made me giddy, and I buried my face in his chest so he wouldn’t see my involuntary smile.

When Will put me down on the bed and pulled away, I sat up dizzily. I felt better after sleeping on the drive home, but I was still drunk. I watched Will return with a tank top and cotton shorts. He laid them down beside me and purposely avoided my gaze. The thick tension between us practically fogged my vision.

“These are Lauren’s,” he said. “She doesn’t mind you borrowing them tonight. There’s an extra toothbrush in the bathroom if you want it.”