Guardian (2 page)

“I don’t mean to complain or anything, but don’t we sort of have enough going on? That warehouse you sent us to was crawling with guys. Something’s happening there … or about to happen. We need to be here, Will. We need to watch Omega.”

“True. More than you know.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Vine pulled the Ziploc bag open and scoped it for the candy he wanted.

“The angels also informed me that Omega is pulling in several new scientists. Experts in genetics. A whole new team, in fact.”

“And those same winged dudes think we should leave?” Vine scoffed.

“Yes.”

“You sure they’re on our side?”

A deep frown cut across Will’s face. “Yes.”

“How can you be so positive?”

“Just before they arrived, heaven whispered and told me to prepare for an ocean voyage.”

Vine sucked on a Sweet Tart. “I don’t think it’s such a good idea. In case you hadn’t noticed, Mace and Raven are at each other’s throats right now.” He plopped into a kitchen chair. “Being trapped on a boat together is the last thing they need.”

“It’s exactly what they need,” Will corrected. His gaze traveled to the window and the yard beyond. “Go tell the boys. I’ll inform Nikki.”

“Man, I’m not sure which close-quarters combination will be worse. No one’s going to be happy.”

My parents are dead. My home has been emptied by the only man who is a link to my past, I’m leaving the only town I’ve ever known, and I’m still being hunted by demons.

Sometimes, Nikki went over those things, rotating them through her mind, holding on to what she knew to be her reality. Sometimes it helped. Sometimes it only made her feel crazy.

As if those little facts weren’t enough to send a seventeenyear-old over the edge, Nikki was about to climb onto a boat and sail across the ocean with multiple beings, none of which were human. Half-human counts, she decided as she crossed the gangplank. Only one week ago she’d stood in the middle of a park with those beings—Will, Mace, and Raven—on one side, and her godfather, Damon Vessler, on the other, forcing her to make a choice. Had she made the right one? Damon had left so many messages on her cell, she finally stopped listening to them and buried the phone in her suitcase. The suitcase Will bought for her because she owned, well, almost nothing now. Nikki glanced back at him. He nodded her onward to the belly of the boat. An ocean voyage. Great.

Her gaze found Will again and sought assurance. They shared a look for a brief moment, her eyes questioning, his reassuring—just like always. There’d been lots of those looks. Will kept a close eye on her and, like a mother hen, gently nudged her in whatever direction he deemed necessary at the moment. At this moment, that direction was an eighty-foot luxury sailboat. At least it wasn’t some ancient fishing vessel with a layer of sunbaked fish guts on the deck. Nikki’s stomach turned, reminding her not to think about things like dead sea creatures and their entrails.

“Don’t be nervous, Nikki,” Will said.

“Difficult not to be.”

“Find peace in the storm.” Will was always full of brilliant—albeit abstract—wisdom. “If you’re so concerned with each next breath, how will you ever be able to look ahead?”

She frowned.

“One day soon, your ability as a Seer will be tested, and you’ll be called on by the Throne. There is a purpose for you, Nikki. But as a Seer, evil is drawn to you. It’s important that you begin to understand your gifting.”

And this was supposed to help her feel better. Try again, Will. Suddenly, his encouraging look ticked her off. She’d spent time with him over the last several days and had discovered that she both loved and hated him in equal measures. No, that was unfair. She loved him. She hated this stinking situation she’d been thrown into. It was all way over the top of Mount Freak, and let’s face it, she wasn’t much of a climber.

She used to be. But that was before her parents were killed. Mace and Raven had been with her that night, and had made peace so she could concentrate on surviving the loss of her mom and dad. But in the last few days, the boys’ relationship— rocky to begin with—had eroded as they all tried to avoid each other in the big house on Pine Boulevard.

Apprehension twisted her hands into fists. Now they’d all be on a boat together. For days. And though there would be others on the yacht too, she knew she’d run out of places to hide.

Nikki would keep her promise to Vine. She’d stay away from Mace and Raven, even though there was a gaping void inside her. The two boys had once filled that empty hole. But no more. She was strong without them. She just had to keep reminding herself.

She wished the female Halflings would arrive. Vegan and Winter always made her feel like less of a freak. Hmm. Funny that she, the human, should feel like a freak. But surrounded by winged heavenly creatures, how else could one feel?

Nikki’d never sailed before. Not a lot of opportunity to do that in southern Missouri. She stopped on deck to look up at the giant mast puncturing a cloudless blue sky. While she’d meant to look over the ship, her eyes were drawn to the blue expanse above. She’d flown with Will to the South Carolina launch site while the Halfling boys flew themselves—one advantage of having wings—and though the group left Missouri at the same time, she’d lost track of Mace, Raven, and Vine almost as quickly as they hit the air. Any chance Nikki got to see them in flight drew her full attention and caused that fluttery thing in her chest. Moth to a flame. Which, she knew, never ended well for the moth.

How often in a lifetime could someone watch three hot teenage boys sail through the air like eagles? Dipping and soaring on the thermal currents …

Off to one side of the mast, she spotted a seagull. It dove for the water, and Nikki couldn’t stop herself from running to the edge of the rail to see what it was after. The bird took flight as she halted and grabbed the railing. A thin fish wiggled in the bird’s beak.

“Likely to see dolphin later.” The voice, heavy with an Australian accent, made her jump.

Nikki turned to find herself face-to-face with yet another hot teenage guy. His eyes were the blue of the sky and his skin was deeply tanned.

“What?” Way to impress him with your witty repartee.

He nodded toward the cobalt expanse of rolling waves beyond the marina. “If you think a seagull finding breakfast is entertaining, wait until we run across a family of dolphin. Babies and all, jumping right outta the water.” His last word came out wah-duh. Accents were so cool. She ran across very few of them in Missouri—which made them even more captivating. Then the guy smiled. Wow. A row of perfect white teeth. He had to be a Halfling. That cute, that tall, and that …

A voice from above interrupted her thoughts. “Not as entertaining as the school of amberjack we found last week.”

Nikki squinted, head tilted back, and tried to get a fix on the voice. She gasped when she saw him suspended there. One hand wrapped around a loose rope while the other tied something. He wore long shorts, a white tank, and his bare feet dangled precariously a good thirty feet above her. His partially obstructed view of her must have caused him to push off the wooden post, because in a moment’s time he was sailing in a high arc like an acrobat. Nikki lifted a hand to her head to block the sun’s glare from her view of the boy who flew through the air with the greatest of ease.

He tipped an imaginary hat to her.

Nikki waved.

The Aussie said, “Yeah, I’d agree the amberjack were cool, but—”

“Everyone’s seen dolphin, brother. It’s not that big of a deal.” Again, the boy swung past. He was as tan as the first, but with darker brown hair laced with golden streaks, the kind reserved for surfers and, apparently, acrobatic sailors.

He released the rope and plummeted to the ground. Nikki screamed, clamping her hand over her mouth. He landed at her feet in that felinelike way Halflings had, balls of his feet absorbing the impact and knees deeply bent. The boy straightened slowly and held a hand out in greeting.

When she stood there motionless, he plucked her hand from her mouth, inserted his palm into hers, and pumped several times, jolting her out of her shock.

“You must be Nikki? Right? Is it Nikki? We’ve met the other females. So you must be …”

“Nikki,” the older one finished for him with an exhale. “Excuse my brother. He’s had too much caffeine this morning.”

Okay, there were so many things she needed to say. First of all, how could they be Halflings and be brothers? She didn’t think that was possible. Will told her Halflings had only one offspring. And there was the other thing he’d said. Yes, she definitely needed to deal with that first. “Oh, I’m not a female.”

His eyes blinked in an unspoken question, brows rising to peaks on his forehead.

She shook her head. “I mean I am, but I’m not a female.”

He continued to hold her hand and glanced downward over her body. It was a quick look, but still it set her cheeks on fire.

“He’s not great with the ladies,” the older boy said, then clamped his hands over theirs and broke the hold. “My name’s Sky. It’s great to meet you, Nikki.”

An Aussie sky. I’ve always wanted to see one of those. “You too, Sky. I meant that I’m not a …” Her words trailed. What if they weren’t Halflings? Should she even say the word Halfling? Maybe she’d blow their cover. If, of course, there was a cover. She really should have questioned Will more about this trip. At least she wouldn’t forget his name; Aussie Sky, eyes like this cloudless afternoon.

Sky’s smile brightened. “You’re not a Halfling. We get it. But you are a Seer, so forgive us for our excitement. We don’t come in contact with a lot of Seers.”

She nodded, hoping the bobbing of her head would somehow force the disjointed thoughts back in line. It didn’t work.

“My brother here, the caffeine-induced jittery one, is Dash. You’ll meet Ocean later. We’re on a skeleton crew this trip since several of us got pretty banged up last voyage and are in the midplane. So don’t be surprised if we expect you to earn your keep.”

Nikki swallowed a lump that had lodged in her throat. “I don’t want to hang from the rigging.”

Sky and Dash shot a confused look to each other then laughed.

“Right.” Which sounded like roy-t. “We’ll find ground-level stuff for you. Maybe you can scrub the fish guts off the deck.”

Nikki actually felt her face turn green.

Will stepped toward the group. “Dash, Sky. Good to see you two fit to go. I heard about your run-in.”

Dash gestured to the mast. “Should have seen it, Will. I thought we were going down for sure. But we pulled out. Saved the crew aboard the titanium transport too.”

Will turned to Nikki. “An illegal shipment of titanium was making its way to the States. It was to be used for wingcuffs.”

“Wingcuffs?”

He nodded. “Titanium brackets that clamp around a Halfling’s midsection.”

Dash motioned around his ribcage. “Weakens us and makes flight impossible. The ship gave us a pretty good fight.”

“What happened to it?”

“It’s resting,” Dash said.

“At the bottom of the ocean,” Sky finished for him. “No loss of life, though. We’re pretty careful about that.”

With the whole “kill a human, spend eternity in hell” thing, she supposed all the Halflings were pretty careful about that. “But your crew was injured?”

“Yeah, all but the best.” Dash rocked back on his heels.

“All but those in bed asleep, he means.”

Nikki angled to see the owner of the deep voice. He was maybe an inch or two taller than Sky and Dash, but looked slightly older. Like the other two, his skin was gloriously darkened by the sunrays, and his eyes glinted with wisdom that seemed out of proportion with his age.

“Good to see you, Ocean,” Will said, shaking his hand.

“Your bags arrived last night. We’ll be provisioned and ready to leave by tomorrow morning, although it could be a bit rough as we’ve got some weather coming in. The boys?”

“They’re on their way. Should be here shortly. But I haven’t heard from Vegan, Winter, and Glimmer.”

“They were here, but decided to go back to get something.”

“Really?” Will’s chin dropped, punctuating his intrigue. It was that heavenly angel thing he did.

Ocean chucked a nod toward the gangplank.

They all followed his gaze.

Poor Zero. He was being half dragged, half shoved by three females who looked tired of the game. He clutched a laptop to his chest, and his words were heated—though inaudible—as the four of them approached the boat.

“Oh, this is classic,” Dash whispered.

Nikki gave him a questioning glance.

“Zero’s afraid of the water.”

Awww. The tall, thin, icy-eyed controller of the Halfling network looked as out of place as a tractor in a shopping mall. White knuckles gripped the railing as he mounted the steps that would carry him onto the ship. His other arm held the laptop even tighter. He said something and Glimmer rolled her eyes. Vegan spoke to him, and even from a distance Nikki recognized soothing words of encouragement.

Once his feet were firmly planted on the deck and he’d moved away from the railing in a kind of one-foot-forward shuffle, Zero stood in the center of the boat looking around. His eyes fell on Nikki. “Oh, you’re here?”

So much for feeling sorry for him. She’d forgotten how acerbic he could be.

Glimmer flashed a quick smile that didn’t reach her eyes.

Vegan and Winter both crossed the deck to Nikki and sort of trapped her in a surprising girl hug. She maintained her stoic position—motionless and wordless. She wasn’t a big hugger.

Zero laughed. “Get used to the sisterhood, Nikki. It appears you’ve been inducted.”

“So where are Mace and Raven?” Glimmer asked, seemingly ignoring Sky, Dash, and Ocean while her body language read her awareness of them and her golden eyes took in everything on the boat.

For some reason, her question irritated Nikki even more than the Vegan and Winter love fest. Why hadn’t Glimmer asked about Mace, Raven, and Vine?

Because she wasn’t interested in Vine. Mace and Raven … that was another story. It shouldn’t bother Nikki. It shouldn’t feel like fingernails along a chalkboard down her back. But it did. Scraping, screeching fingernails dragging along, until …