Spiral (Spiral Series) (18 page)

“Luckily,” I said, “I don’t need help.”

With a sharp intake of breath Eric sprang forward. As he moved he reached a hand into his belt and pulled out a set of tiny black beads, flinging them in my direction.

I moved so fast that Eric was forced to take a step back in order to keep his eyes on me. Going towards him, I swept out of the way of the black beads just as they flew past my face. The beads hit the ground with a loud bang and a cloud of smoke. They were filled with acid and would have burned clear through me if I hadn’t moved.

“You’re supposed to use your hele to stop them,” Eric admonished me, whipping away so that I couldn’t move to strike at him. “It defeats the purpose if you use your agility to fend off the attack.”

“Why work harder than I have to?” I asked with a grin.

Eric tried to hide how angry my jab made him, but fury shone in his eyes. The more weapons I had at my disposal the better, including the supreme physical condition I was in. Eric was no match for me. Not that Watchfuls didn’t work out, but Eric didn’t have a lifetime of hatred to motivate him. He would have had to use extreme cunning to beat me.

Before I could continue hurling sarcasm like bags of sand, Eric threw another set of marbles at me. This time they exploded in my face and I barely had time to blink my eyes shut as the deadly clouds of acid flew towards me. Quickly I reached my hand up, ordering the cloud to dissipate.

In a matter of seconds I opened my eyes, but it was too late.

Eric was on me, pounding me into the ground. He had drawn two knives of the kind that the Watchfuls usually carried for up-close protection.

I tried to stumble away, but Eric slashed at me viciously. I felt the front of my shirt rip and the spring air flow through the gap and onto my chest.

Knowing that I would never win if all I did was defend, I quickly got my balance back, all the while dodging another series of attacks.

Eric was no longer kidding. He was angry.

I watched his movements. The pattern of his swings with the knives made it very hard to find any sort of opening in which to attack him, but I knew he was right-handed, and from the way he moved I could tell that he was a little slower with his left hand. He was having a harder time protecting that side of his body.

There was my opening.

I launched myself forward, hele first. Unicorns are primarily pure beings, but I had been a bit corrupted by the brutal murder of my family. It meant that the power I sent surging before me was a little darker than that of the average unicorn.

No one had ever accused me of being pure.

I wasn’t, and Eric should have known it.

When I called to my hele it slammed forward, fixing the air in front of me so that Eric went flying backwards, unable to defend against such a powerful push of power.

He gave a cry as he went thudding to the ground, but I was only mildly surprised when he sprang to his feet again, still clutching both knives. He was breathing hard, and his eyes had taken on a crazy quality as he scanned me frantically. He must have seen that even though only a second before it had appeared that he was winning, I was now set and no longer vulnerable in any way that he could see.

Refusing to admit defeat, he snarled and attacked again, throwing the knife in his left hand. Well, it was expendable; he wasn’t very good with it anyway.

Jar would have told me not to point that out at the moment; it would probably just make Eric angrier.

I held up my gloved hand, concentrating on the knife flying towards my heart. My eyes followed the rotation of the knife as it got closer to plunging through my chest. Eric had perfect aim, and from the look on his face he had lost all control of himself. He wanted the knife to hit me.

I was now fighting for my life.

Eric’s eyes brightened and he panted with excitement. This wasn’t the first time a Watchful had lost control fighting a Silve, but I was still alive and I could take care of myself, especially against a Watchful like Eric. Jar tried to kill me at least once a week, not to mention Gretchen, who I was sure spent half her time devising intricate methods for inflicting pain on me. I could handle myself.

I smiled grimly. All in a day’s work, I thought, reaching up and catching the knife by the hilt. Without another thought I slammed it to the ground, burying it up to the hilt in the just-thawed earth.

Eric yelled his frustration, readying for a fresh attack, but I had had enough. I could feel the sweat beading on the back of my neck and trickling down my forehead. He had given me a good workout, but I had no patience with people who lost their temper, or themselves, in a battle.

It was always about control. Without control, how could I protect the one person who I had promised to always keep safe?

Becoming reckless, Eric dropped his shoulder and, still holding the second knife, darted toward me. I was ready. I crouched low, and as he tried to spear me again with the remaining knife I used the leverage from my legs to push upwards, hitting my Watchful hard in the stomach. I felt a crunch and heard him cry out as the air left his lungs.

Deep inside me there was a bit of steely satisfaction as I flipped him easily over my shoulder and he went tumbling to the ground, landing hard on his back. The knife went flying and landed too far away for either of us to get to it quickly.

For a second Eric tried to get to the other knife, the one I had slammed into the ground, but it was buried too deep. All the strength had been knocked out of him.

Looking at the unusual scene before me, I realized what an odd sight this would have been to a stranger: two people doing battle in the backyard of their home, framed by clear blue skies and a fragrant wind . . . one man trying to kill another.

Well, unusual was how the unicorns had always done it.

And I was a Silve unicorn through and through.

“How excited are you for tonight?” Maxie asked, flopping down on my sky blue colored bed with a grin. She was surrounded by magazines, which she was absently flipping through for the latest celebrity gossip. We had come to my house after school and were busy pretending we didn’t have any homework. Since Jill’s home life was a mess and Maxie’s parents were over-protective, my house was where we usually hung out.

“Super excited,” I said sarcastically. I felt bad about being such a downer, but nothing ever went well on my birthday.

“I know you have weird superstitions about your birthday,” said Jill, “but maybe this is the year they break. You’re turning eighteen. Normal from now on.”

“Who wants to be normal?” asked Maxie, propping her chin on her hand. “Way less excitement. Fewer cute guys too.”

Jill rolled her eyes. “You need a guy to keep you in check after almost getting us killed yesterday.”

Maxie sat up with an offended cry. “Excuse me, miss I-am-so-boring-I-didn’t-want-to-go-boating, but I was trying to do something fun!”

“Yeah, and look what happened. Casey tried to kill us,” Jill pointed out, slouching in my blue desk chair.

“Pierce didn’t think it was Casey,” I said. “I kind of think he was right.”

Jill nodded. “I don’t understand why Haley is so vicious to you. You would think you stole the guy she wanted or something. The whole thing is really strange.”

“Maybe she wants Jackson,” said Maxie. “It’s obvious how close he and Nat are. Or maybe it’s Andrew. Somehow she thinks that Nat has a better shot at him, because they live together?”

“That’s ridiculous,” I said. “Jackson has no romantic interest in me at all. And as for Andrew, he’s my stepbrother. Gross.”

There was a knock at the door and Andrew stuck his head inside. “Hey, what’s going on?”

“Oh, you know,” said Jill. “The usual. Kicking ass and taking names.”

Andrew didn’t laugh. He just raised his eyebrows.

“Jill thinks she’s scary,” said Maxie, by way of explanation. “And funny. It’s unfortunate.”

“And smart and loyal and all around amazing,” Jill added.

“I just wanted to see if you guys needed anything from the store before dinner,” Andrew said. “My mom asked me to go.”

“No thanks,” I said, grabbing a pillow off the bed and hugging it to my chest.

Once Andrew was gone Maxie rounded on me. “How could you not tell him?”

I squirmed uncomfortably. “He would just go beat up Casey, which would get him in trouble, which would get ME in trouble, because the whole school would blame me for the golden boy being punished for defending me.”

“That’s a pretty complicated list of reasons,” said Jill.

“Men beating each other up for your honor is hot,” Maxie said. “I’ve already told you that.”

I shrugged. I didn’t like the idea at all. I would hate it if someone got hurt over me. I always found injuries upsetting.

“I don’t want anyone to get hurt because of me.” But I knew I would probably try to heal Andrew if anything happened to him while he fought his friend over me, but obviously I couldn’t say that out loud. “And,” I continued, “I don’t want to get between Andrew and his friend. No one should lose a friend because of me any more than he should get hurt because of me.”

“Stop being so dramatic,” Maxie moaned, flopping back down on my bed. “Fine, don’t tell him, but Pierce might.” Her eyes sparked with amusement. “He better show up tonight.”

“If he does, he might tell Andrew what happened,” Jill agreed.

“He better not,” I said. “If he comes I’ll have to tell him not to say anything.”

Maxie and Jill both looked at me in wonder.

“Can we call him dimples?” asked Maxie, grinning. “Or life-saver? Hottie-hot stuff?”

“It might scare him off,” said Jill.

“You’re talking about scaring someone off?” said Maxie. “And that boy does not look like he scares easily. It looks like he’s the one who does the scaring.”

“What I want to know is why you two have the same silver eyes,” said Jill, ignoring her friend. “Maybe you’re related.”

“Maybe she’s his Nat,” said Maxie, swooning. “So cute.”

“Here’s my issue,” said Jill, spinning around in my chair as she talked.

“You have just the one?” Maxie drawled.

Before Jill could elaborate, my phone rang and I lunged to answer it.

“It’s Jackson,” I said, feeling weird. He never called me.

“Put it on speaker,” said Jill. “Did you tell him about yesterday?”

I shook my head and answered the phone.

“Hey,” said Jackson’s warm voice. “Just wanted to say happy birthday. Didn’t get a chance to see you at school today.” For something new and different, I thought to myself a little bitterly
.

A blush crept up my cheeks. I was still happy every time he contacted me. Just the sound of his voice made my body tingle, even after all those years and even though there had never been anything but friendship between us.

“Hi,” I said, picturing his brown hair and smile. “And thanks.”

“Are you still coming tonight?” Maxie asked, letting him know she was listening.

“Hi Maxie, hi Jill,” Jackson drawled. He wasn’t surprised they were there. “Yeah, of course I’m coming. Wouldn’t miss it for the world.”

I grinned.

“By the way, Nat,” said Jackson, his voice turning softer, “How are you doing?”