Guardian (16 page)

And yet despite all of this, I still found myself heading to the park every day. I knew, way back in the deepest, most secret part of my mind, that I was hoping Rafael would reappear as suddenly as he had left, but I never would have admitted it. It was a habit now, and soon the weather would change and Grace and Colton would be cooped up inside all the time. They needed to go out while they could.

For weeks, life was a monotonous repetition of the same thing over and over. Every time my phone buzzed, I’m embarrassed to say that I dived for it, hoping it was Rafael. Any time I felt the hairs on the back of my neck rise up with the eerie feeling of being watched, I looked around wildly to see if I could catch a glimpse of him. I often felt as though I was being watched, and wondered if Rafael was still here, trying to keep an eye on me. But four days after he left, I knew for sure that Rafael was well and truly gone.

I knew it for sure the day my dad came home drunk, and I was barely able to get Colton and Grace and myself to the bedroom in time. We had to stay there and listen as he took his anger out on my mom. No one to help us, no escape. After that, I wasn’t just angry at Rafael. I felt dangerously close to hating him. For making me trust him. And I renewed my promise to myself that I would not need to rely on anyone in this world. I could get along all by myself. But despite promising this, I still showed up at the park, every single day, for three whole weeks after Rafael left.

On Friday, October 21
st
, I walked Colton and Grace to Natalie’s house so her mom could drive them to a sleepover to which they had both been invited. Natalie was struggling through an English paper she had been putting off, so I didn’t linger. Instead, as was my solid routine, I headed for the park bench. I arrived there at four twenty-two on the dot, and at five-oh-three, my life changed forever.

I was just struggling through the latest set of calculus problems, having an inward conversation with God about the evils of math and its purpose in society, when I heard someone clear their throat. I looked up, surprised to see anyone in this area of the park, and was so shocked by what I saw that I didn’t even notice when my large textbook slid off my lap onto the ground.

Because Rafael stood before me.

Larger than life, dressed in bad boy black with his leather jacket, just as real and solid and achingly wonderful to behold as ever. He was here. He had come back. It had been nearly a month, without word or sign of him, and yet here he was, real as… well, myself.

“Rafael?” My voice sounded ridiculously quiet and afraid.

He cleared his throat, looking a little uncomfortable. “Hello, Lyla.”

His voice. It surrounded me, made the hairs on my arms stand up, filled me so completely that any ounce of fear I’d suffered while he had been gone disappeared as if it had never existed. I wished he would talk more, just so I could close my eyes and hear the sound of his voice. I could be content with just that.

“Where,” my voice cracked and I coughed a little and started over. “Where have you been?”

He shrugged, still slightly avoiding my eyes. “Traveling, for a bit.”

I didn’t understand why he looked so incredibly uneasy until the chestnut haired man I had once seen talking to Rafael burst around the corner of the hedge into our little sanctuary. He had Rafael’s same strange, unconventional beauty; not good-looking in the human, shallow way, but something so much deeper. And his eyes, though a light fawn color, held the same timelessness as Rafael’s.

“Well?” the stranger asked, breathless. “What did she say? Will she help us?”

I looked from the new man to Rafael, frowning.

Rafael looked extremely annoyed. “I don’t know. I haven’t yet had a chance to ask her.”

The stranger looked at me, his whole face pleading for assistance. “Please, help us. Please! You’re our only chance of getting her back!”

I looked to Rafael, bewildered. “What’s going on?”

Rafael gripped the other man’s jacket and pulled him backward, stepping toward me in the same motion. “There’s been an accident,” he said tersely. “There will be time for questions and more explanations later, but right now, all you need to know is that Matthias’s little girl, Naomi, has been kidnapped, and that you are the only one, and I do mean the
only
one who can help us. Will you do it, Lyla?”

I stared into Rafael’s perfect face, seeing the truth and desperation there. How could I say no? He had saved me so many times, and if Grace was in any sort of trouble that I couldn’t get her out of, wouldn’t I be on my knees, begging Rafael to help me?

“What do you want me to do?”

And less than ten minutes later, I found myself, of all places, before the St. Joseph Cathedral in downtown Columbus. Rafael had gripped my arm and started off at a trot away from the park. A quick glance behind us assured me that Matthias – at least, I assumed he was Matthias – had picked up my belongings. Then he unfurled a pair of large brown wings and took off into the sky.

Rafael, seeing this, made an annoyed sound in his throat. “And he tells
me
to be more discreet!”

“He, he just-” I began to babble, but Rafael pulled on my arm.

“No time!” he urged. “Come!”

We ran through the streets, dodging cars and people alike. And to my intense surprise, we stopped across the street from the large stone building of the Cathedral. Matthias had gotten there before us and stood with a group of people, all waiting. A pretty woman with long, straight brown hair was clutching Matthias’s arm, and I assumed she was the mother of the missing child.

“Why are we at the Cathedral?” I asked, my voice bobbing with each foot that hit the pavement.

“Naomi is trapped inside,” Rafael said shortly. We finally stopped running, waiting at the crosswalk.

“Why is she trapped? Why can’t you go inside and get her yourself?” I pressed a hand to my chest, trying to catch my breath.

“She’s in the
Cathedral
, Lyla,” Rafael said impatiently.

“Yes, but-” I stopped, realization dawning. A church. Rafael wasn’t allowed in churches. The Cathedral was most certainly a church. “None of you can go in? Are you positive?” I asked. “Why not?”

The instant we reached the other side of the street, Rafael stopped walking and turned to me, placing his hands on my shoulders. “Lyla, if any one of us steps across the threshold of that building, or any other holy place, we will die. Do you understand? We will simply cease to exist.”

“Got it,” I said, though shakily. “Then how is Naomi in there? Is she, is she different than-”

“She is not one of us,” Rafael said, as calmly as if we were discussing the weather. He pulled me along to the group of people.

“Please,” said the brown haired woman clinging to Matthias. Her soft brown eyes were bright with tears. “Please, bring me my baby back,
please
, I’m begging you.” Matthias pulled her back, where she collapsed into his embrace and wept in earnest.

“That’s Rachel,” Rafael said quietly. “Naomi’s mother and Matthias’ wife.”

Seeing Rachel, so desperate for help, made my nerve steel up once again. If there was one thing I understood, it was the worry and protection a mother carried for her children.

“Please, Lyla,” Matthias said, his voice only fractionally stronger than Rachel’s.

“I’ll help you,” I said, looking from Rafael to Matthias to Rachel, and then back again. “But what do I need to do? Who has Naomi trapped in there?”

Rafael signaled to one of the other group members, a blond haired, blue-eyed man, and they both took me slightly aside. I caught Rafael’s mutter of “she knows nothing” to the new man. I wondered what, exactly, I knew nothing about, and if I wanted it to stay that way or lose my blissful ignorance.

“This is Daniel,” Rafael said, performing hasty introductions. I didn’t miss the urgency in his voice, or the tension emanating from all of them. It was making me nervous, anxious that I would mess up or be unable to rescue Naomi from whatever was keeping her inside. My hands started to quiver.

“For now,” Rafael told me quietly, speaking quickly, “its better you don’t know what took Naomi into the Cathedral.”

“But are you sure they won’t-” Daniel began, but Rafael cut him off.

“They won’t,” he said flatly. “Wait and see. You’ll never believe it.”

“But won’t I have to get Naomi away from them?” I asked nervously. “Will I have to fight them?”

“No,” Rafael said firmly. “Naomi is not trapped in there by something inside the church. They are outside the church, to keep us from getting too close.”

“Then why can’t Naomi walk out on her own?” I asked, feeling so confused. It was as though I was playing a game where I learned the rules as I went.

Rafael hesitated. “They will catch her,” he said, “unless she is with you.”

“I really-” I began, having severe second thoughts about this.

He cut me off yet again. “Lyla, trust me. Would I ever put you in danger? You have to trust me. All you have to do is walk into that church, find Naomi, and bring her safely back to us. No one and nothing will harm you on the way. I give you my word.”

That was how I found myself walking toward the Cathedral’s large doors, walking as carefully as though I carried a bomb. I wasn’t sure if I imagined it or not, but twice my hair blew lightly away from my face in the windless evening, and I was positive I felt hot, panting breath on my arm. Each time, I began a terrified Hail Mary and fought to remain calm.
It’s all in your head
, I told myself firmly.

That didn’t stop me from pulling open the door of the Cathedral and flying inside. The last glimpse I caught of the outside world was Rafael. His hands were clasped before his chest, and his head was bent. He was praying. I realized, just as the door closed and blocked him from view, that this was the first time I had ever seen him do so.

I turned around in the large entryway of the Cathedral, gathering my bearings. Here, any panicked feelings totally left me. It may as well have been a normal day, and I had decided to go to church and pray. I dipped my fingers into the bowl of holy water and crossed myself, feeling eerily calm and collected. Slowly, I made my way down the rows of pews until I found what I was looking for: a small, brown haired lump curled up in a pew.

I smiled just a little, and genuflected before entering the pew, and knelt in prayer next to the girl.
Please, Lord,
I begged,
let her be safe and unharmed
. I heard a stirring beside me, but ignored it until I felt a touch on my arm, a slight tugging on my SEEK HOLINESS bracelet.

“Rafael wears one of these.”

I looked down and saw a little girl of about seven standing next to me, her head barely topping the pew.

“Yes,” I agreed. “I gave it to him. My name is Lyla.”

“I’m Naomi.”

I noted with some mild surprise that Naomi’s features clearly bore some Asian heritage. Either Rachel or Matthias was not her true, biological parent. “Rafael, Daniel, and your parents sent me in here to get you,” I explained to her. “You’ll be safe with me, they said.”

Naomi clutched tightly to her stuffed bear, which was costumed as an angel, with a white gown, wings, and halo. “I’m scared,” she confided in a terrified whisper. “I don’t want them to take me again.”

I pulled my rosary from the pocket of my plaid jumper, holding it up between Naomi and me. “Maybe we could pray and ask God and Mary and all the angels to help keep us safe first?” I suggested.

Naomi accepted the rosary, her squinty brown eyes widening in gratitude. She whispered, “Oh yes, please! Especially to all the angels.”

With Naomi leading in her small voice, we whispered a decade of the rosary in the empty church. After we had finished, I took her into my arms, allowing her own arms and legs to wrap around me, monkey-like.

“Are you ready?” I asked her, pausing before I opened the door once again.

“I think so,” came the muffled reply.

I took a deep breath, picturing another easy trip like the one I’d had into the cathedral. I opened the door, crossed the threshold, and barely restrained a scream.

Demons.

There was no other word for them. A dozen little hunchbacked, horned demons were crowding around the front steps of the church, waiting for us. I was instantly reminded of the
thing
that had burst from Austin’s chest during his fight with Rafael. Had one of these things actually been
inside
him? And not only were they visible to me now, but I could hear them talking as well. It was just a lot of excited mutterings at first, which grew louder and more frenzied the longer I stood there without moving.

“Pretty, pretty girl… The things I could make you do… Condemn lots of young men to us with this one… So very pretty! Take her for myself, I think.”

I gave a strangled cry at this comment, for the one saying it reached out and caressed my leg. That one touch made sanity leave my head, and I wondered how Rafael could stand by and let this happen. He had sent me to my death. He had promised nothing bad would happen!

The demons’ cries, all about the evil things they could do to or with me, rose to a fever pitch. I clutched Naomi as tightly as I could and closed my eyes as they all rushed at me. And a moment later, there was… nothing. Nothing but blessed, pure silence. I slowly opened my eyes and looked down at the steps. All of the horrible little beasts were lying down or attempting to sit up. Many were rubbing their horned heads, or scratching their warty, fleshy-colored skin as though they had all run into each other.

A particularly tough one was already on its feet. Baring long, needle-pointed teeth at me, it took a flying leap in my direction, plainly intent on harming me in some way. But a bare inch from impact on my hip, it simply bounced away. There was no other word for it. I watched in stupefied amazement as another one tried, with the same results.

It took me all of two seconds to realize that they could not touch me, couldn’t harm me. And when that realization hit, I flew down the stone steps of the cathedral, demons bouncing off of me in all directions. It reminded me of the old rhyme: “I am rubber, you are glue, whatever you say bounces off me and sticks on you.” I certainly felt like one giant piece of rubber.