“Guys, we are going to find the Triplex. We will not let Atourum, the Akons or even the Council stop us from what we came here to do. But as far as Emmy and I go, I run my love life. Not my team, not The Council and not you,” he says accusingly to the Sage.
“I like Emmy. I think she is a great human. She has faced difficult times in the past few months and, I dare say, others in her place would not fair as well.”
“Then why can’t Marcus and I be together?” I ask.
“You are looking for fairness and justice in a place that does not offer either. The fact of the matter is things have just gotten extremely difficult for you and the Guardians. The Akons are stronger, The Hun is back and Julian is nowhere near ready to share what he knows. Why complicate that by starting a relationship? Especially one that will doom this mission?” The Sage implores.
“How do we doom this mission? I want details.” I ask.
“Would it change your mind? If I told you how you will fail, will you stop trying?”
“I love him.”
“And that shall be the beginning of the end of your mission,” The Sage says sadly.
He goes over to one of the side tables and picks up a small box. He opens it and displays the contents for us all to see. There are five flat remote control looking devices. They are the length of my pinky finger.
“The Council wanted to thank you for going to protect the Witness. So they gave you two things as a gesture of their gratitude. These are Trackers.”
“A device that locates the whereabouts of every evil being on the planet,” the twins say in unison. From their voices, I get the feeling they are very impressed with the small devices.
“Yes, but it will not tell you where Hun is, as he is literally untraceable. It also won’t tell you the whereabouts of Atourum. But it will tell you where every Akon and demon is at all times. You simply think of the being you seek and the device will tell you approximately how far from them you are at the moment.”
“That’s hot,” Jay adds.
“So, what, no more running after Akons? That’s my cardio,” Miku jokes.
“Yes, no more running around chasing them. You will know where they are at all times,” The Sage says.
“Let me try,” Rio says. He closes his eyes then presses the only button on the tracker. Then an image of Frenzy appears before us. On the bottom of the image are the numbers.
“The numbers on the bottom indicate how far away from Rio Frenzy is at the moment?” I ask.
“Yes. But I also had the Council ask the Paras to make a slight modification with these Trackers. Not only can it track evil, it can locate every member of your team.”
“Why’d you do that?” Marcus asks.
“Well, it seems you’ve been having great difficulty in keeping track of your members. Yet another detour we don’t have time for,” The Sage says with a sweet smile.
“So now we’ll be able to keep track of each other.”
“Yes, Ameana, you will able to track the team and the team will be able to track you,” he adds.
“What is the second thing they gave us?” Marcus inquires.
“The second thing is perhaps the most important. They have given you the date they hid the Triplex on earth.”
“Why would they tell us such an important clue?” Miku asks.
“Because they understand how difficult things will become now that The Hun is back,” The Sage explains.
“Okay, what’s the date?” the Twins ask.
“June eighteenth, sixteen years ago,” he says.
“Does that ring a bell to anybody?” Marcus asks us.
We all say no.
“We can Google it and see what we come up with,” Rio says.
“Now we know when the Triplex was placed here,” Marcus says to himself.
“And we know it’s in New York because that’s where The Sage is,” Ameana adds.
“Also wherever it is, it has to be able to contain both good and evil.” Jay says.
“Where is this Witness?” Marcus asks.
“I have never met him but Arden’s job is to watch over him. Go find her, she would know where he is.”
“We gotta go see Arden?” Rio asks.
“Yo, that chick is fire, son. I love her!” Jay exclaims with a goofy smile.
“Who’s Arden?” I ask.
“Do you remember the Para who took Reese’s body to Dife when he died?” The Sage asks.
“Yes, her name is Rahell,” I say recalling the flowing haired Angel whose job it was to transport fallen angels to the house of fire.
“Arden is her sister. Find her and she will tell you where the Witness is.”
“If she’s a Para, how do we find her?” I inquire.
“Find a party; find Arden,” Jay says.
“I didn’t know Paras partied.”
“Arden isn’t your every day Para,” Rio says mischievously.
“She’s reckless,” Ameana says with great disapproval.
“Some beings are like that; they don’t make the best decisions. In fact, often their choices are dangerous and utterly foolish.” The Sage looks her dead in her face.
And yet again I see something in Ameana that I have never seen before. But it goes away too quickly for me to really gauge what that emotion maybe be. Fear? No, not fear…guilt.
“Rio and Miku get online and find out what you can about the eighteenth of June sixteen years ago. It’s already morning. We won’t be able to get to Arden until nightfall. She only comes out at night,” Marcus says.
“Like a Vampire?” I ask.
“Like a club girl,” Rio says. He and Jay exchange juvenile looks of lust and admiration.
“Boys,” Miku says under her breath.
“Go find Arden. Protect the witness and use the date given to you to narrow the search for the Triplex. And remember, there is no single weapon greater than the Hun. He will find the Witness and kill him even after he gets the info he wants. If he believes that you or anyone is in his way, he will take you out as well.”
“We got it,” Marcus says, as the others get ready to file out.
“I really do like you kids. Yes, you try me sometimes but you’re all so much more fun then the last group. But then again the last group found the Triplex,” The Sage says almost to himself.
“We’ll find it. We have our issues but we won’t fail,” Marcus says with conviction.
“It is past the time to be kind in your attempts to get Julian to talk. You will have to break one of them. The father or the daughter,” he says sincerely.
So what are you suggesting, Sage? He should drug me? Beat me? Torture me? How exactly is he supposed to get me to talk to the man that raped my mother?
“He could start by telling you the truth: We no longer have time to wait for you to grow up.” The Sage suggests out loud.
“C’mon Emmy, let’s go,” Marcus holds the door for me and we walk out.
As we pile out into the street, the cold air hits my face. Thankfully, it’s no longer raining.
Ameana walks ahead of me. I make a beeline for her.
“Hey.” I say lamely.
She remains perfectly still. My heart is beating so loudly, I think half of New York hears it. I rub my hands together and blow into them. She watches me while I shift my weight back and fourth.
“I just wanted to say thank you for saving my life.”
“Okay,” she says and heads down the street. I run after her.
“Ameana, wait.” She turns to face me.
“What?”
“I didn’t mean to say how I feel about Marcus in front of everyone. I know it hurt you and—”
“Hurt? You act as if you just took my junior high crush from me. Don’t you understand what you did? He’s just some guy to you, some guy with nice eyes and a good body. But he was the only love I have ever known.”
She takes a moment then continues.
“My mother murdered me. I never got a chance to say
goodbye to my Dad. And I am down here risking my soul for you. But none of that mattered because I had Marcus. He made it better. Then you come and…”
Her own mother killed her?
“I’m truly sorry, Ameana. We weren’t trying to hurt you”
She laughs sardonically.
“You know what’s funny about this whole thing? You took him but you can never really have him.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You had a date tonight. How’d that go?”
“If the Akons didn’t—“
“—Please. No one supports this ‘relationship’ of yours. Not the team, not The Sage, no one. And the icing on top of your selfish cake is this: Marcus will never accept you.”
“That’s not true. You’re being mean-spirited and spiteful.”
“Yes, I do have a mean streak in me. Death can make you that way. But I’m not lying when I tell you that Marcus will never truly let you in his life. You’re just a passing fad for him. Maybe he’s charmed by the damsel-in-distress or maybe he has a thing for the fashion-deprived. But what you and he have isn’t real. And it’s only a matter of time before he sees that.”
“You’re wrong. It is real. He has feelings for me just like I do for him.”
“Has he said he loves you?”
I can’t bring myself to look at her.
“Okay, has he told you his Core?”
“No but—“
“—Has he even tried to kiss you?”
“Not that it’s any of your business, but he kissed my hand earlier today.”
“He is certainly creative. Too bad that’s as close as he’ll ever get,” she says with a smirk.
“What does that mean?” I ask.
“You’ll find out,” and with no further explanations, she takes off into the sky.
Marcus calls out for me just then.
“Hey, it’s almost daylight. We need to get you home.”
“Yeah, okay.”
He takes off his jacket and puts it on me.
“It should be a little drier now,” he says as we take off.
Once in the air I stay close to him. But I don’t look at his face. It’s too easy to be distracted by his looks. I need to think clearly. There’s so much to go over in my head. It’s all too much. This night hasn’t gone the way I thought it would. But what did I really think would happen?
Maybe we see a movie or fly to Paris. Whatever we did, we’d end up talking and maybe kissing here and there. That’s it. That’s all I thought would happen.
But alas it was a night filled with Akons, fire, revelations and guilt. So much guilt. And then there’s the conversation with his ex. She was right. Marcus hadn’t really let me in on anything in his life. But that’s because of everything going on around us right?
And why did Ameana say kissing my hand was as close as Marcus would ever get to kiss me? Is there some unwritten rule about kissing humans?
“Emmy.”
“Huh?”
“You’re home.”
I look around and sure enough we are in the hallway of my building.
“You have been quiet the whole trip. Are you worried about your mom grounding you? I had Jay convince her that she saw you get in and go to bed.”
“Oh, great. Thanks.” I fidget with the zipper of the coat he lent me.
“What is it?”
I look at him as if to say, “Do I really need to say it out loud?”
“I know the meeting was…uncomfortable. I’m sorry about that,” he says sincerely.
“Miku is so angry with me.”
“She’s not exactly on my side these days either.”
“Marcus, why haven’t you pushed me to talk to Julian?”
“Emmy, I see how hard you’re working not to lose it. The guy who raped your mom wants to be your best friend all of a sudden. And if you don’t agree to talk to him people will die. That’s a lot of pressure for a girl who a few months ago only had to worry about a date for Friday night and a math test.”
“None of that matters. I should have talked to Julian. The Sage is right.”
“Yes, he is. You will have to talk to Julian and it will have to be soon. I was just hoping before you had to face him, you had one normal night. That’s all I wanted to give you.”
“Thanks, but I think ‘normal’ is pretty much dead.”
“Yeah, I guess so. Are you sorry?”
“About what?”
“About us. About the Guardians coming into your life and turning it upside down.”
“I’m sorry about a lot of things but not Guardians. Not you.”
“Are you sure? You can tell me. I would understand.”
I smile sadly and brush a stray hair away from his face. He reaches up and takes my hand in his.
I lean into him. He wraps his arms around me. His embrace is enough to ward off almost every fear I have.
“Marcus?”
“Yeah?”
I look up into his flawless face and ask the second most important question.
“Is the Hun really that bad?”
“In many ways he is more evil than Atourum.”
“How’s that?”
“Atourum’s evil was learned throughout centuries. But Hun was born evil. Hun…he’s an evil that even The Council can not contain.”
“Should I be afraid?”
“Never.”
“Because of The Guardians?”
“Because of me.”
He takes my face in his hand and looks deep into my eyes.
“I will not lose you,” he vows.
“I didn’t mean to blurt out the whole ‘I love you’ thing.”
“Did you mean it?”
“Well…” I did. I meant it with every fiber of my being. But I need you to say that you feel the same way. Please say you feel the same way.
“Emmy?”
“Huh?”
“Did you mean it when you said what you said?”
“The Sage was just getting on my nerves. You know, talking about me like I wasn’t there and stuff.”
“So you didn’t mean it?”
“No,” I lie.
“I understand. The Sage can be a pain.”
“Hey, we didn’t get to go on a real date but we can have a real date ending.”
“How’s that?”
“Well, you could lean in and say, ‘Emmy, I had a good time’ and then kiss me.”
He leans in toward me.
“Emmy, I had a good time fighting evil with you.”
“Me too,” I laugh.
He goes in to kiss me. My heart stops. I close my eyes and await him. He kisses me on the forehead.
That’s it, a forehead kiss? I got dumped into a trash bin, I almost carved myself open, went six rounds with his ex, all for a forehead kiss?
I get that he wants to take things slow. That’s nice and all but we don’t have that kind of time. Every time we see each other could be the last time. Shouldn’t he be all over me? Shouldn’t I be the one trying to keep things from getting too hot?
“You’re doing it again,” he says.
“Doing what?”
“Spacing out. What’s on your mind?”
“You and me,” I say softly as I lean in to him. Maybe he wants me to make the first move. Maybe it’s an Angel thing. Maybe I should give him a little help.
I reach up on my tiptoe and go in for a kiss.
He traces my lips with his thumb.
“You are so beautiful,” he says.
“Stop talking,” I instruct him as I go in for the kiss again.
“Emmy, no” he says.
“What?”
“I can’t kiss you.”
“Oh, of course not, I’ve been in the trash. I probably smell awful.” Embarrassed, I sniff my clothes and hair. I back away from him and give him space.
“No, you smell fine. Great, in fact,” he says.
“Then what’s the problem?”
“Th
ere’s no problem. We just can’t kiss...I can’t kiss you.”
“Because of Ameana?”
“Yes.”
He never really liked me. He’s just been playing me all along. Oh no! I am going to die right here on this very spot.
“Emmy, you’re hyperventilating, breathe.”
I walk away from him and head for my apartment where I can die in peace.
He follows me. Then takes both of my hands and holds them firmly.
“I didn’t say that I don’t want to kiss you. I said I can’t.”
“You’re going back to her.”
“No.”
“Marcus, I’m freaking out here. I know I’m supposed to play cool but I don’t have time for these B.S. games. Stop being so damn cryptic and tell me why you can’t kiss me.”
“I told you Ameana and I put our Rah in the mountains before we came here on this mission,” he explains.
“Yeah, you two were married in like Angel terms, right?”
“Yeah, well we haven’t gone to get our Rah back.”
“So?”
“So, she and I both need to make that journey to get it back. Once that happens, we are both free to be with whoever we want.”
“So you don’t want to kiss me because she still has your Rah?”
“I can’t kiss you so long as my Rah is connected to Ameana.”
“So Ameana can’t kiss anyone else either?”
“I’m the one who broke it off. That means I have to wait until she is willing to give me my heart back. She can do whatever she wants. She didn’t break the union; I did.”
“But I kissed you before.”
“Yes, in the car without my permission. I never kissed you back. But had I tried to, it would not have worked.”
“So what, there’s a force field around your lips?”
“In a way.”
“That’s idiotic. Marcus, kiss me.”
There is something in his stare. He looks at my lips like they are something he has been wanting, needing for some time. And when he grabs hold of me he is careful but firm.
He strokes my jaw line, outlines my lips with his thumb, and leans in to kiss me.
Suddenly I’m being catapulted across the hallway by a blinding ray of light. It flips me in the air and slams me down, hard. Marcus quickly comes to my side.
“What happened?” I ask.
“You kissed an Angel who doesn’t officially belong to you—yet.”