Salvation (The Guardian Angel Series Book 3) (17 page)

“But you’re not touching me?” I wondered aloud.

“I charmed my office. It makes my guests more at home.”

I had a strange urge to feel the carpet with my face, so I lay down. The carpet was unbelievably comfortable and as soon as I was lying flat on my stomach, I was fighting off sleep. I rolled onto my back and began making snow angels in the carpet.

“Why don’t you charm things everywhere you go if you’re so good at it?” I wondered aloud again.

“I don’t play god. I don’t want to control people’s emotions all the time. It’s healthier to feel what your body wants to feel.”

I felt amazingly relaxed, so relaxed that I wasn’t even embarrassed by my immature behavior.

“Perhaps we should talk now?” Mr. Aleksandrov suggested.

I stopped swinging my arms and legs and sighed as I climbed to my feet. I admired my work from an aerial view. It didn’t look like much of a snow angel, but I was proud of it nonetheless. I fell into the comfy arm chair opposite Mr. Aleksandrov. He seemed quite intimidating behind the big oak desk. From a drawer, Mr. Aleksandrov pulled out a small box of vials, each of which was filled with a clear, off-yellow liquid.

“This is the formula. The council was nice enough to lend me a few vials. If we mix this with your blood, we—hopefully—can cure vampires and help save our species in the process.”

“Are you sure it will work?” Mila asked, sitting on the arm of my chair.

“No, but it’s worth a shot.”

Momentarily, I spaced out. The clear lines of the world disappeared and were replaced with blotches of blurry colors. A shiver rolled down my spine, accompanied by a strange warm sensation. As soon as it was over, my vision came back. I glanced around, confused.
What was that?

“Ruby?”

I blushed. It wasn’t often that I spaced out in the middle of a conversation. “What were you saying?” I asked, brushing off the strange sensation.

“I was saying that you’d have to be the one to administer the injection and we’re hoping that Hunter will give us that opportunity.”

“Hunter? You want to test it out on Hunter?”

Mr. Aleksandrov nodded.

“And what will happen if it fails?”

“There’s a good chance he’ll die, but,” he added quickly, “if it works, you’ll save his life.”

I wanted to ask a million questions and I wanted to make sure I knew every single detail about the formula, but the over-relaxed vibe of the room was making it difficult to see any negative sides to the plan—so I agreed to it.

“Excellent. Hopefully, we can do it tonight.”

“Why tonight, though? Why not next week or next month? What’s the rush?” The questions rolled out from Mila’s mouth and I wondered why I never asked them.

“After this, when are we going to get another chance to be up close and personal with a vampire? As soon as
this
is over, the council will know, and the school will be examined, and most likely renovated to make sure this type of thing doesn’t happen again. I wouldn’t be surprised if they have it bulldozed and force us to go elsewhere.”

I frowned at the thought of Sage Sanctum no longer existing. It was—
is
—my safe haven. It might not be at this precise moment, but I swore I’d claim it back.

Mr. Aleksandrov reached into his drawer again, pulling out two large vials attached to syringes. Most office people have notebooks, pens, and calculators in their desk drawers. Here, people have strange magical concoctions, guardian angel whistles, and pieces of silver to protect themselves against vampires. He rose from his chair and adjusted his long, pale green robe. It wasn’t the nicest color, unless you consider over-steamed peas a nice color. It made his skin and hair seem more washed out. He undid the belt holding his robe together and I squeezed my eyes shut, afraid to see whatever was underneath it. Mila laughed at me and nudged me hard in the shoulder, forcing me to open my eyes. I was wrong. Underneath his robe he wasn’t naked at all—thank god. He was dressed… normally. He wore classy black business pants and a white formal button-up shirt. Take away his absurdly long hair and beard and he’d look like any ordinary business man you’d see in the city. He closed his robe and tied the pea-colored fabric belt around my arm. Mila moved back over to the window.

“I don’t want to watch this,” she groaned.

Mr. Aleksandrov waited for my veins to make an appearance. When they did, he stuck the needle right in the middle of one and released the tie, filling the vial quickly. By the time the third one was filled, my head spun a little.

“All done.”

I grasped both arms of the chair and pushed myself up. Mila placed her hand on my shoulder, pushing me back down.

“Maybe you should sit for a little while…”

I didn’t argue. I was feeling too relaxed and calm in this room to want to leave, anyway.

“You girls make yourselves at home; I’m going to take these to Gwydion.”

As my body worked hard to replace the blood taken from me, I slumped backwards into my chair and played with the ends of my hair. Mila dropped herself into Mr. Aleksandrov’s chair, opposite me. She crossed her dainty feet on the table and smiled at me.

“What? He said make ourselves at home. Besides, I’m never allowed in here, so I’m going to make the most of it.”

She opened one of his drawers and pulled out a long brown wand.

“Whoa.” I stared at the wand.

She swung it wildly around her, chanting ridiculous rhymes. Every time she pointed it at me, I ducked out of the way.

“Will you be careful with that thing? I don’t want to be turned into a frog.”

Mila laughed. “Relax, I’m not a wizard, it’s nothing more than a stick, really.”

She placed the wand back in the drawer and I watched her as she searched through all of the strange things. Then her face fell and her eyes darkened.

“What is it?” I asked, sitting up and leaning closer.

She lifted a small photo frame closer to her face.

“It’s my parents.” Mila’s lips twitched slightly, as if she were going to smile.

She turned the frame around so I could see it. Mila was an only child, by the looks of it. Her parents were gorgeous, her mum more beautiful than any goddess I’d ever seen. A waterfall of platinum blonde hair draped from her head down past her shoulders, straight and shiny. She had blue eyes like Mila, and if it weren’t for the obvious age gap, I’d swear they were twins. Her dad’s hair had more of a golden edge to it, like baked bread. He was tall, handsome, and held a happy glint in his green eyes.

“Now I see where you got your freakish beauty from,” I pointed out.

Mila chuckled. “Yeah, they were very beautiful people, inside and out.”

I glanced at her, her eyes were glazed over like she was reliving some distant memory.

“How’d you end up in your uncle’s care?”

It was my indirect way of asking ‘how did your parents die.’

“One night, when my parents went out to dinner, they were jumped and killed by vampires in a parking lot. Their death was one of those ‘wrong place at the wrong time’ kind of stories.” She shrugged. “I was being babysat by my uncle when we received the news. From that night on, he became my legal guardian.”

“How come Ivan is a wizard, yet neither of your parents were?”

“My grandmother found him when he was little—abandoned. She tried her hardest to find a place for him, but no one was allowed to take him. After months and months of discussions with higher authorities, she was granted an adoption certificate and that’s how he became my mother’s brother and my uncle.”

“What a story.” I exhaled.

“Believe it or not, Mr. Aleksandrov is actually younger than my mother. He’s only thirty-five now.”

“You’re lying!”

“Seriously, ask him yourself. Wizards look older than they are, their bodies’ age faster than ours.”

I stared at the photo again. It was impossible. Mila’s mother looked at least twenty.

“My mother was twenty-seven there. If she were alive now, she’d be thirty-eight.”

I shook my head in disbelief. “That’s crazy.”

“Yep,” Mila agreed.

Mila and I jumped as Mr. Aleksandrov came back into the room. Immediately, I lobbed the photo frame back over to Mila, who cringed apologetically at Mr. Aleksandrov. She jammed it back into the drawer and slammed it shut.

“I see you took my
make yourself at home
statement quite literally.”

“Sorry,” Mila whispered under her breath.

I was feeling a lot better. I stood up and my vision swayed slightly, but after a split second, it righted itself.

“Gwydion is mixing the vials together. It should be ready this afternoon. If they come tonight, you will only have
one
shot at curing them. The window for that one shot will be small, and if you fail, well, there’s a high chance we’ll never see you again.”

I knew what he meant. If I failed, I’d be captured by Lucian and whisked away to his next secret hide-out.

“I won’t fail.”

With a polite nod, Mr. Aleksandrov stepped aside and we left the room.

“Don’t lose hope,” he called after us down the hallway. “You’re still our secret weapon, Ruby.”

I smiled back at him.

“What does that even mean?” Mila wondered aloud.

“I have no idea.”

Maybe it had something to do with Hunter’s infatuation with me. Since leaving the office a few seconds ago, my calm feelings slipped away and were replaced by those stinking jackhammers and sorrow. I didn’t have the brain power to decipher Mr. Aleksandrov’s cryptic message right now. Instead, I focused on ways I could lure Hunter in and stab him with the cure. No pressure or anything.

Aftermath

T
he day dragged on and everyone felt it. If Mila stopped moving, she fell asleep, so right before lunch, she left me to go home and have a nap—which I was grateful for. Now that I wasn’t a screaming mess, I wanted time alone to think about everything rationally, and boy, was that difficult. Everything I thought about led back to Eli. I pictured him holding strong against the vampires and getting his ass beaten. I thought about them feeding on him and torturing him. A few times I convinced myself he was dead, but I didn’t have Mila’s tattoo here to confirm it.

I tapped my index finger nervously on the arm of my couch. My gaze was fixated on the clock, willing it to tick faster. I needed nightfall to come and I needed it to come
now
. But it didn’t. It was still lunch time. I sighed and hopped to my feet. I needed to occupy my mind with something other than the thought of losing Eli.

I didn’t want to eat, my stomach could barely hold down its own acid, so I went to the dining hall to help with the injured.

Guardians filtered in and out of the hall, some patched up and healing, others in need of medical assistance. It was hard to think that only yesterday I was sitting down here having lunch. The polished wooden floors were stained with dark patches of blood and bits of fabric. I winced at the sobs of guardians in pain and the familiar feeling of grief jammed at the base of my throat. I’ve never been good with pain or death, but who is, really? It sucks. Pain and death are things that make you feel like shit no matter what side of the spectrum you’re on.

“Good, we need more hands,” a tall female guardian said, shoving pure alcohol and a few bandages in my hand. I took a moment to admire her beauty. Even with the dried blood on her face and her long dark hair tied into a messy bun, she was beautiful.

“Wait, are you injured?” she asked, blinding me with a small torch light.

I had been so caught up in admiring her that I must’ve looked like I had a concussion. I swatted her torch away. “I’m fine.”

“Start with the cut guardians in the far left corner.” Her voice was fast and husky. “Pour alcohol into the cut, layer it with gauze, bandage it, and send them on their way. Judge who to help first by the pain in their screams.”

How insensitive
. She turned away from me.

“You’re not serious?”

“Left corner, now,” she called over her shoulder.

I squeezed in between guardians and stretchers, making my way over to the far left corner. Luckily for me, there were only three people there. Two guardian angels I didn’t know and Xavier. He smiled sympathetically at me as I approached. I smiled back.