Wings of the Wicked

30





BEING THE SUBJECT OF MOST GOSSIP IN SCHOOL made me long for open campus during lunch hours. That was always the worst part of my day. It was finally May, but the storm still had not quelled. In the hallways, as students were all rushing to get to their next classes or swarming around lockers talking about the upcoming prom, I went mostly unnoticed. But at lunch, we always sat near the corner, and the entire cafeteria looked only in one very obvious direction: right at me.

“Ellie.” Kate’s fingers snapped in my face. “Ignore them,” she said, loudly enough that the surrounding tables heard her very easily. “They’re idiots, and they’re just jealous because you’re pretty.”

I wanted to hide under the table. “I don’t think the second part is all that true.”

Rachel gave me a sad look. “I think you’re pretty.”

I smiled weakly at her. “Thanks, Rach.”

“It’s been over two months,” Landon growled. “They ought to just ignore you and concentrate on the downtown hysteria.”

I nodded but was thinking otherwise. Landon was referring to my final and very public fight with Orek. The media storm surrounding the incident had only gotten worse since it had happened, and on top of the gossip at school, I lived in fear every day of someone connecting me or Will to the grainy cell phone videos taken that night.

“Speaking of,” Chris began, fluttering with excitement. “Did you hear that special effects expert they had on CNN last night ruled out animatronics? He said we don’t have the technology to make something that big and that complex. Something about the way it moved. I can’t remember exactly what he said.”

Landon huffed. “That’s because it was aliens, dude.”

“It wasn’t aliens, man,” Evan grumbled and folded his arms across his chest. “It was probably some brand-new 3-D technology, something so good it was like a hologram.”

Chris gave them both reproachful looks. “Anyway, they also had a witness on who said he saw a girl jump off the roof into the explosion. You know, the one that made the monster disappear? But she disappeared too, and so did the guy with wings.”

My heart pounded like a hammer against my rib cage.

“That’s why I’m thinking it wasn’t even real,” Kate chimed in. “Everything just disappeared afterward. Maybe that expert last night was in on the hoax and was just trying to cover it up.”

“I wonder if the people behind it will go to jail,” Rachel said, looking out the window.

I swallowed hard. “See, now this is way more exciting gossip for people to concentrate on than me.”

“Exactly,” Landon said. “You’d think they’d get over what happened to you.”

I’d already accepted that I’d have to endure this until, at the very least, graduation. If I wasn’t so determined, I’d have begged Nana to homeschool me for the last couple months of school, but I wasn’t a wimp and I was determined to be normal. As normal as possible for me, anyway.

Chris laughed. “Not going to happen. I can’t believe people were saying you were in rehab while you were gone.”

“Why are there so many psychos in this school?” Kate grumbled. Then she suddenly perked up and stared directly at me. “I have to pee.”

“Uh, okay,” I said, eyeing her. “Thanks for the memo, but I’m not changing your Depends.”

She shot to her feet and grabbed my hand. “Come with me, Ellie Bean.”

She dragged me away from the table as I looked back at the rest of my friends pleadingly; they didn’t even move to save me. They knew better than to get between Kate and Kate’s mission. She shoved through the door to the girls’ restroom, let me go, and proceeded to kick open each of the stalls until she came to one that was locked.

“Get out,” she ordered as she pounded on the door. “You’ve got five seconds. The toilet’s for pissing, not for loitering.”

The girl in the stall made small, frightened noises as she finished her business and flushed. She appeared—she had to be a freshman, the poor thing—her eyes wide and terrified, and she skirted around Kate to get to the sink.

“Did you piss on your hands or something?” Kate barked sharply. “Get out of here! There are Purell dispensers in every hallway. Keep your pee fingers off the faucet.”

The girl whimpered as she darted from the restroom, letting the door slam shut behind her.

“Kate, really?” I asked, giving her a disparaging look. “That was mean.”

She shrugged. “What? We only have fifteen minutes left of lunch, and we need to talk.”

“About … ?”

“Are you ever going to tell me what happened?” she asked. “Or where you’ve been?”

I had strategically avoided this conversation for months because I didn’t want to lie to her anymore and I didn’t know how to be honest without dragging her into my mess of a life. “I stayed with Will and a friend of ours. That’s where I was. It was safe there.”

Safe. As soon as I said it, I realized how untrue that really was. Merodach and Kelaeno had found us and killed Nathaniel.

Kate nodded, her gaze gentle and forgiving. “I’m glad you were with him. I was so worried you were alone all that time, but your grandma kept telling me you were all right.”

I shrugged. “Sort of. I wasn’t exactly civil for a while.” She didn’t laugh. “No one can blame you for that. I can’t even imagine what you went through. I just wish you’d have let me be there for you.”

“I missed you,” I told her. “But I just couldn’t deal … I blamed myself for everything and I was so lost. I felt like my world had ended and kept dragging on like it didn’t get the memo.”

When Kate pulled me into her arms and squeezed me tight, I lost it. I wrapped my arms around her and cried into her shoulder. I had missed her so much. As she held me, I realized what a mistake it had been to shut her out. She was like my sister, and I’d just lost my parents. I needed an anchor to my humanity, and I’d practically cut the rope and allowed myself to drift away.

“I’m so sorry,” I said between sobs against her sweater.

“It’s okay,” she murmured back. “I’m glad you’re going to be all right.”

I pulled away, forcing a smile as I wiped at my face and then wiped her shoulder. “I got drool all over your sweater,” I said with a small laugh.

She smiled back and shrugged. “I’ll just get it dry-cleaned, so it’s somebody else’s problem.”

“You’re horrible,” I said with a loud sniffle. “I love you.”

“Love you too.”

I leaned heavily against the counter, folding my arms over my chest, and I stared at the floor. We fell into silence for some time until I spoke at last. “My dad didn’t kill my mom,” I said. “I know that for sure. Whoever killed her killed them both.”

Kate stepped closer to me, her voice hushed. “Ellie, do you know something? If you know something, then you have to go to the police.”

“I …” I trailed off and shook my head. “I don’t know anything that would help the police, but I do know they’ll never catch who did it.”

“Don’t think that,” she said. “The cops are good. It’s their job to solve crimes.”

They’d never solve this one, though. “I know,” I said. I couldn’t bear arguing with her about it.

“How are you and Will?” she asked, changing the subject. “Are you okay yet?”

I nodded and shrugged at the same time. “Yeah. It’s just hard. He … lost his best friend not long after my mom died—the friend we had been staying with.”

She frowned. “Wow. What are the odds that you both would go through that at the same time?”

I huffed. What were the odds? For normal people, sure, it was pretty crazy. But not for me or Will. Death surrounded us.

Her phone buzzed and she slipped it out of her purse. Then she grinned. “Marcus just texted me and says he has a surprise. It’s probably another cupcake. This boy is going to make me fat.”

“It’s still really sweet that he surprises you at school,” I said longingly. I couldn’t help feeling a twinge of jealousy at this, but I knew it wasn’t right to feel that way. I was happy for Kate and Marcus, though I didn’t approve of Marcus keeping his secrets from her. But then again, it wasn’t like he could exactly tell her that he wasn’t human. Ugh. That was a conundrum for someone else to solve.

She took my hand. “Come with me to see him before we go back to class?”

I nodded and followed her out of the restroom and toward the front doors of the school. Marcus was standing in front of a sleek black Maserati. Kate squealed and skipped up to him before launching herself into his arms. They kissed briefly, politely, since I was standing there.

“Nice car,” I said, eyeing him.

“Thanks,” he replied. “I let Ava use it sometimes, so if you see her in it, she didn’t steal it. She’s not a car person. She doesn’t know how to appreciate a fine machine like this.”

The suggestive way he said that made me wonder whether he was talking about the car or himself. I chose not to ask.

He turned his back and ducked into his car for a moment before returning with a small white box in his hand. He presented it to Kate. She flashed me a knowing look and then beamed and squealed at him as she tore open the box to find—of course—a cupcake with pink frosting. She danced and threw an arm around his neck and kissed him again.

“I’ve even got one for you, too, Ellie,” he said, untangling himself from Kate, and he took a second small box from inside the car. He handed it to me, and inside was another cupcake.

“Wow, thank you, Marcus.” I was kind of surprised that he would have gotten one for me, too, but I wasn’t going to argue with him.

“The second one was supposed to be mine,” he admitted with a shrug. “But since I don’t want to look like a jackass, I’ll give it to you. See what a nice guy I am?”

I rolled my eyes at him. “God, Marcus, you’re the sweetest guy ever.”

He grinned stupidly. “Actually, that’s not true. I got it for you to begin with, because you two are attached at the hip and I figured you’d show up together. You’re so predictable.”

“And you’re not?” Kate shot back, shoving his shoulder playfully. “You show up here again with yet another cupcake?”

He scoffed. “I’m not being predictable. It’s self-preservation. I know you love these.”

“Whatever you say,” I grumbled, and marveled at the treat I was aching to devour. My day was about to get a billion times better.

“We’ve got to run or we’ll be tardy,” Kate said to him with a pout. “See you soon?”

“Of course.” He smiled and kissed her good-bye.

She waved to him, and we headed back inside for our lockers as he drove away. “I think I love him,” she said. We walked down the hallway, and she took a bite out of her cupcake.

I raised my eyebrows. “Oh? As of just now?” I took a bite of my own. It was sugar and deliciousness and so good.

“No,” she said thoughtfully. “I think I have for a while, but I was just in denial. I’ve never actually loved a boy before. They’re hard to love, you know? At least Marcus doesn’t smell. I think that’s why I love him. And because of the cupcakes.”

“So I guess you’re sleeping with him now?”

“For a few weeks,” she replied. “He’s marvelous, by the way. Thanks for asking.”

I frowned, unsurprised. Marcus had two hundred years of practice with that. Then, of course, my thoughts went to Will…. “It was a simple yes-or-no question. I didn’t need details.”

“Oh, I won’t go into details while we’re at school,” she said. “I’ll tell you more later. You’ve missed a lot since you’ve been gone and then busy catching up in classes.”

“I’m sure,” I said. “We need to have a heart-to-heart all-nighter.”

“What are you doing tonight?” she asked, nudging my shoulder and frowning as we walked down the hall. “You should come over. Maybe stay the night Friday or Saturday.”

“I can’t,” I said honestly. “I’m sorry. I’ll let you know about this weekend, though. Tonight is a me-and-Will thing.”

“Can’t skip it for me?”

“It’s his birthday, actually,” I said. “He doesn’t know I’m planning anything, but I wanted to do something sweet for him.”

Kate nodded. “He needs it. And so do you. Did you get him anything?”

“He wouldn’t like a present if I got him one,” I said. “The celebration will be enough for him. Probably too much.”

“He’ll love it,” she said, grinning. “Even if he doesn’t freak out or anything—which of course he won’t, because he thinks he’s too cool to let anyone know he likes something—he’ll still love it. I think it’s a great idea.”

I smiled, mostly to myself. It would make him happy, and I wanted him to be happy. “Yeah. I’m pretty sure it’ll embarrass him, but oh, well. It’s funny when he’s embarrassed.”

“We’re really mean to boys.”

“They’re mean back.”

I bought a plain white cake at the grocery store after school, and as soon as I got home, I realized I didn’t want tonight to be just Will and me. I wanted all of his friends there, so he knew that he still had them, that he hadn’t lost everything but me. I called up Lauren, Marcus, and even Ava and made sure they’d be at my grandmother’s house. Lauren, thankfully, volunteered to come over and hang out with me before the party.

I also bought some icing tubes to scribble all over Will’s birthday cake, but once I got to decorating, I decided I didn’t want to make some boring cake. I wanted to create something that would make him laugh. Lauren sat across from me at the kitchen table as I kinda drew snarling stick reapers with angry eyes and sharp, gaping mouths on their bubble heads and outspread wings, all surrounding a figure in the middle who was supposed to be Will. I stopped in the middle of the icing drawing and frowned disapprovingly. The stick Will didn’t look much like real Will, so I dabbed on a pair of green eyes, outlined him a pair of wings, and painted a sword in his hand that wasn’t quite as fancy as the real thing. Then I took the red icing tube and splattered the whole cake with it until it was a freaking massacre of frosting stick reapers. I even smeared red on the sword and wrote HAPPY BIRTHDAY WILL across the top in the drippy red icing. Nana glared at me and cleared her throat noticeably as she passed the table, and Lauren looked up at her apologetically. Regular cakes are no fun. This one was awesome.

At seven, Nana left to go play poker with her girl friends. (Or I should say she went to go destroy her girl friends at poker. Since she was psychic, it was sort of cheating.) I called Will to come over. Everyone arrived a few minutes before he did and went into the kitchen. It would have been impossible to truly surprise Will, since he’d notice Marcus’s and Lauren’s cars parked in the driveway—which of course he did—but he came inside very confused. I had on a ridiculous grin as I led him through the house toward the kitchen.

As soon as Will saw the cake, he burst out laughing and shook his head, running a hand through his hair. His cheeks were beginning to buzz with red and my heart lifted. “Ellie, what is this?”

I kissed his cheek. “Happy birthday, old man. I didn’t put all the candles on your cake, because it’d end up being a bonfire in my nana’s kitchen. And I know you don’t like cake, but I like cake and I’m pretty sure Lauren does too.”

Marcus raised a hand. “I like cake.”

Ava frowned at the sugary mountain of stick-reaper murder. “I do not.”

“Well.” I huffed and poked Will’s chest. “You and Ava can go pout in the corner and be losers together.”

He laughed again and pulled me toward him, but I wriggled away, fighting a smile.

“Don’t even try it,” I warned him. “I slaved over this cake! I waited for probably five minutes in line at the grocery store for it, and then you don’t even want to know how many hours I spent slaving over the frosting art. And Lauren watched. She knows what’s up.”

“I sure did,” Lauren said. “She squirted all that red frosting on there by herself, if you can believe that.”

I waved a dismissive hand at him. “This masterpiece puts Michelangelo to shame, and you don’t even want to eat it.” I turned to Lauren. “I should be a professional cake decorator, shouldn’t I?”

She nodded firmly, keeping a straight face. “Definitely.”

He took my hand and pulled me back to him. “Fine, fine.” He laughed. “I’ll have a piece. You pick it.”

I lifted the knife and a plate. “I’m going to give you a corner piece so all that frosting makes you sick. That’s what you get for your initial rejection.”

He stepped up close behind me and buried his face in the bend of my neck. I could feel his smile against my skin, and his happiness melted into me. “You’re very spiteful to me.”

I chose a corner piece that had a decapitated stick-reaper head on it and plopped the piece onto the plate. I turned around and shoved it at him. “It’s not spite; it’s vengeance. Shut up and eat your cake.”

He took the plate and picked up a fork. He took a big bite and smiled at me. “Delicious.”

“Duh,” I grumbled, and began serving the others. Even Ava accepted a plate with a small sliver of cake and minimal icing. We all sat around the kitchen and laughed and joked, reminiscing about good times we’d had, and about Nathaniel.

Later that evening, after everyone had left, I was cleaning dishes and Will came up behind me. He bent over to kiss my shoulder and said, “Thank you.” He moved around to help me by lifting clean dishes and drying them with a towel.

“I didn’t embarrass you, did I?” I asked.

“Just a lot.”

“Are you happy?”

“Yes,” he said, and his eyes fell over every inch of my face. “You made a mess, too.”

I stuck my tongue out at him. “It’s not that bad. There isn’t much to clean up at all.”

He grinned. “I meant on your face.”

I jumped and wiped at my cheeks. “Are you serious? There’s cake on my face?”

His grin widened.

I gasped at him and shoved him while he laughed. “I can’t believe you knew it was there all night and didn’t say anything to me!”

He shrugged and gave a playful, smug look. “It’s not spite; it’s vengeance.”

“You’re such a jerk!”

“No, I’m not,” he said. “I’ll even help you clean it up.” He leaned forward and slowly kissed the smudge of frosting on my cheek, sending a mix of shivers and heat straight to my toes. I wobbled and had to lean against the counter for support.

It was hard for me to gather enough breath in order to speak. “That didn’t help at all.”

“Forgive me,” he whispered very unconvincingly, and kissed my lips without any hurry, as if he had all the time in the world.

“That’s not frosting,” I scolded him, very aware that his lips still brushed mine.

“Tastes like it.” He didn’t wait for me to respond before he opened his mouth against mine and pressed himself into me. My hands were still wet from washing dishes, but I couldn’t stop myself from putting them all over him. He didn’t seem to mind as he tugged me as close as possible to his body and kissed me thoroughly. I made a little noise as I smiled against his kiss and his mouth moved south to my jaw and neck. His hands slid down my sides to my hips as his lips and teeth grazed my throat. His fingers were hot as they slipped just under my shirt, brushing my belly.

“We should go upstairs,” he whispered hotly, and his lips found mine again.

Heat flushed through me. “Upstairs?”

“Or we should stay right here.” His hands smoothed lower over my hips, and his fingers dipped into my jeans. His teeth nipped my bottom lip as he kissed me.

The spinning through my body made me dizzy, and I was about to faint. “My grandmother will be home soon.”

“Or we should go someplace that’s not here.”

I bounced the idea around inside my head, but it was very difficult to think with him kissing me the way he was. I wanted to say yes to him, to agree to anything that he suggested, but something other than desire made me question what I really wanted. I wasn’t afraid of having sex with him—that wasn’t what it was. I just … it wasn’t right yet. It wasn’t the right time. I wasn’t ready yet.

“I don’t …” I started, and felt him tense immediately. “No, Will.”

He studied my face, his green eyes gentle and not full of anger or annoyance. “Okay.”

I could feel the scarlet rushing into my cheeks. “Just for right now.”

He gave me a genuine smile and pulled his hands out away from my skin. “Of course.” He kissed me sweetly and made a real attempt at cleaning up the frosting on my cheek with his thumb. “How did you even get this on your face? Were you shoving the whole piece into your mouth?”

“No,” I grumbled at him, feeling the awkwardness wash away. He made me feel completely at ease. “I think it had a whole reaper body on it, so there was a lot of frosting. Don’t judge me.”

“I never judge you.”

“You’re judging me right now,” I retorted. “You’d better be nice to me or I’ll never make you another root beer float again, which means no more root beer float kisses.”

He laughed. “That’s a little harsh.”

“What was your favorite food before root beer floats were invented?” I asked curiously.

He gave me a weird look and shrugged. “I don’t know. Food was terrible before people started putting lots of chemicals and artificial flavors into it to make it taste better. I guess I’ve always like carrots a lot.”

“Carrots?” I blurted out, gaping at him. “Your other favorite food is carrots? What is wrong with you?”

“Hey now, you were just getting mad at me for being judgmental. Don’t be a hypocrite. Besides, carrots have a very pleasant taste when they aren’t sour.”

I ignored that remark. “Please tell me there is some other food that you like more than carrots.”

“I suppose I like strawberries a lot, too,” he offered.

I rolled my eyes. “I will never understand you.”

“I know what your favorite food is,” he challenged.

“Oh?”

“Cold Stone,” he said with a grin. “Cold Stone anything.”

My grin matched his, and I slipped my arms around his waist. “You know me too well.”