No Angel (8 page)
Y
ou want me to help you do what?” Krystal stared at me in horror over the lung we were meant to be dissecting.
“Seduce Michaela,” I repeated in an undertone, leaning to peer past her shoulder. Michaela was staring at us from the far side of the room, toying with a scalpel in a rather disturbing way, but I didn’t think she could overhear us. The rest of our classmates were fully engrossed in attempting to make their animal organs fall apart into neatly labeled schematics without actually touching them. “It’s the only way to get my hands under her skirt.”
Krystal looked down at her gloved hands as if only the fact she was covered in blood to the wrists was stopping her from face-palming. “Raf, no offense, but you are the worst guardian angel
ever
.”
“No, he’s a genius.” Faith smiled at me from her lab stool, where she was perched making drawings of our offal. “It would be so much better to get rid of Michaela without hurting her. I think it’s a wonderful plan.”
“And that’s your big, red warning flag right there, Raf,” Krystal said with a sigh. “Look, leaving aside the problem of actually carrying out this idiotic idea, what makes you think we can trust the Headmistress to do her part? If she really wanted Michaela gone, she could have expelled her months ago just for the bullying.”
“My mother can’t do anything that would look like favoritism,” Faith said. “She can’t risk punishing Michaela just because of how she treats me.”
“I wasn’t talking about you,” Krystal muttered, stabbing our lung with her scalpel.
Noticing Ms. Oleander’s eyes on us, I passed Krystal another instrument. “Open up that bit next,” I said loudly. “Let’s get a closer look.” I tried to appear deeply interested in the horrible roadkill splayed out before us. “Anyway,” I said, lowering my voice again, “I have to get my hands on Michaela’s daggers, but there’s no way I can take her in a fight. I need a more subtle approach. I thought you could tell me the best way to go about it, Krystal.”
“Oh, because I’m obviously the authority on seducing girls,” Krystal snapped, slicing at the lung with such force that the whole thing collapsed with a wet fart. “You of all people shouldn’t listen to gossip, Raf. Just because I’m not obsessing like an idiot about getting a boy for the Ball doesn’t mean—”
“What are you blithering about?” I finally managed to jam a sentence edgeways into the torrent. “I meant you’re the one who told me all that stuff about Michaela in the first place, so I thought you might have some idea of what she likes. You know, what sort of approach I should take.”
“Oh.” Krystal’s indignation deflated, rather like the lung. “Right. Of course.” She frowned down at her scalpel. “Personally, I’d recommend a net and a big stick.”
“Krystal,” Faith said reproachfully. She looked at me. “I think the most important thing is to be genuine. Michaela’s smart. She’ll see through any act. But if you approach her sincerely with real feeling, I’m sure she’ll respond.”
“Uh,” I said. “Are you sure flowers and chocolates wouldn’t work better?”
“Imagine the possibilities,” Faith continued, her face brightening. “You could redeem her! Turn her to the side of light with the power of your true love!”
Krystal groaned. “Faith, there are
wood lice
with more common sense than you.”
“Yeah, I’m not going to actually fall for Michaela,” I said. Faith’s enthusiasm was starting to bug me and not just because it was patently insane. I hadn’t expected her to be wild with jealousy or anything, but . . . it would have been nice if she’d been just a
little
dismayed at the thought of me making out with another girl. “You do get that, right?”
“But it’s obviously meant to be!” Faith clapped her hands. “Just look at the way you two hate each other!”
“Could we have that again, this time in Earth logic?” I asked.
“You two are sworn enemies caught on opposing sides of the war between Heaven and Hell,” Faith said patiently. “Clearly, you’re destined to be soul mates!”
I stared at her. “You have got to be kidding me. I’m not even attracted to her!”
“Don’t be silly.” Faith gestured at Michaela. “Of course you are. Who wouldn’t be?”
“Faith, Raf isn’t going to have the hots for someone who wants to stab him in the kidneys,” Krystal said in exasperation. “Michaela’s not
that
gorgeous.”
“Well, I think she is.” Faith gazed across at Michaela wistfully. “I had the biggest crush on her when she first arrived.”
My brain hiccupped to a halt.
“She was so beautiful, so strong and confident,” Faith continued, apparently oblivious to my frozen state. “I was dazzled by her.” She sighed. “Maybe it was just her supernatural powers, but it felt so real. All I wanted was to be with her, to join our—”
Krystal snapped her fingers in front of my eyes. “Faith, I think you’ve broken Raf.”
The end-of-class bell rang, shattering my contemplation of a frankly arresting mental image. “Time, my sweets!” declared Ms. Oleander. She’d become my new favorite teacher for her habit of handing out toffees as rewards for answering questions. I’d gotten one for giving the correct answer to “And what’s
your
name, my sweet?” Now she rattled the bag, smiling around at us. “You must all be ravenous after working so hard. Come and have a little something to sustain you on your way to the next lesson. Oh, and someone needs to stay behind to cut the organs into bite-sized pieces for proper disposal. Whose turn is it? Julia?”
“Faith said she’d do it for me,” Julia said without looking up from packing her bag.
Faith blanched a bit, looking around at the quivering, bloody lumps scattered over the work tops. “Yes,” she said faintly. “I’d be happy to.”
“I’ll give you a hand,” Krystal said to her. She shot me an irritated glance. “Since I suspect this isn’t the sort of thing that merits angelic intervention.”
“Sorry,” I said, already slinging my bag onto my shoulder. “Heavenly duties call.”
I distinctly heard her mutter, “More like heavenly
bodies
,” as I headed to intercept Michaela, who was loitering near the door. My palms were sweating. How was I going to start this conversation?
Hi, it’s me, the guy you want to kill! Let’s make out!
“You,” Michaela said in greeting. She dismissed her usual entourage with a flick of her wrist. “We have to talk.” She leaned in a bit closer, body curving sinuously, and dropped her voice to a throaty purr. “In private.”
Well . . . that was easy.
“I’m glad you’ve decided to stop attacking me on sight,” I said as she led me away from the crowds rushing to get to the next class. She was definitely swinging her hips a bit more than was strictly necessary . . . not that I was noticing. I made my own voice darken with a hint of smoldering passion. “I’ve been thinking about you a lot.”
“Not as much as I’ve been thinking about you,” Michaela answered. We’d reached a deserted corridor, which, from all the dust on the floor, didn’t see a lot of traffic. She opened a door to reveal a small, dim storeroom, the walls lined with shelves of obsolete computer equipment. “In here.” She licked her lips slowly, looking me up and down. “I don’t want us to be disturbed.”
“Right,” I said, the word coming out as a bit more of a squeak than I’d intended. As nonchalantly as I could, I sidled past her.
Get in, get the knives, get out
, I chanted to myself. I could do this. “So you’ve been feeling the sparks between us too, huh? I mean, you’re the queen bee here, I’m the only guy. . . . It makes sense for us to get together.”
“Save your breath.” Michaela shut the door behind her with a very solid-sounding
click
, her seductive attitude dropping away in an instant. “Your wiles won’t work on me.”
Belatedly, it occurred to me that I was in a small room, outside of shouting distance from anyone else, with my mortal enemy between me and the door.
Maybe this hadn’t been such a good idea.
From the triumphant smirk on Michaela’s face, she thought this was a
fabulous
idea. Her hand whipped around to the back of her waistband, pulling something out. “Take
this
!”
Bemused, I did. “Okay,” I said, inspecting the index card. It had a pentagram drawn on it, but not one of the eye-twisting ones. It was just lines on paper. “What am I supposed to do with it?”
“I didn’t mean literally,” Michaela snapped, plucking it out of my fingers again. She had a whole stack of the things in her other hand. With a small glare at the pentagram, as if the symbol had personally disappointed her, she tossed it aside, then flipped over the next one. “How about this?”
“Gah!”
Shelves rattled as I recoiled into them. Okay, it was still just ink, but I could have sworn the thing was about to jump off the paper and bite me. “Get it away from me!”
Michaela’s lips curved in satisfaction. “Oh, no,” she said, moving closer, the card held in front of her like a shield. I couldn’t help cringing away. “We’re going to be here for a while, and it’s going to get much worse for you than this. I’m going to go through every symbol, every possible combination until I find—”
“Rafael Angelos!”
I had never been so glad to hear my name in my life. An instant later, Ms. Wormwood wrenched Michaela away. The teacher’s red hair was practically alight with the force of her outrage. “What are you two doing in here?”
I opened my mouth, but Michaela beat me to it. “Making out,” she said coolly. The cards had disappeared under her skirt again. “We’ve got a free period.”
“You may not spend it being lewd in private!” Ms. Wormwood stabbed a shaking finger at the door. “Go to your dormitory at once, Michaela! I will be speaking to the Headmistress about this. Not you,” she added as I made a move to follow Michaela. “
You
stay.”
That left me trapped in an isolated storeroom with a cougar rather than a demon. It really wasn’t much of an improvement. “We weren’t making out,” I said quickly. “Michaela dragged me in here. She was acting really weird.”
Ms. Wormwood’s bristling hair seemed to settle back, like an animal’s fur after a scare. “I did tell you not to get mixed up with Michaela Dante, Raffi. For your own good.”
“I know,” I said wholeheartedly. I really wished I
could
take Ms. Wormwood’s advice. “Sorry, miss. Can I go now?”
“I think we need to discuss this at greater length. In more . . . congenial surroundings.” Ms. Wormwood regarded me for a moment. “You still have a detention outstanding, don’t you, Raffi?” I nodded, and she smiled, looking unnervingly like a cat with a mouse under her paw. “Then you can do it with me, this evening, between dinner and Peer Assessment.” Opening the door, she cast me a last glance over her shoulder, a sly smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “Don’t even think of running out on me this time.”
“No, miss,” I croaked to the closed door. I sagged down the wall, feeling like I was under attack from all sides.
I was doing my best to be Faith’s guardian angel. Now who was going to be mine?
K
rystal was still laughing as the two of us entered the sixth-year common room for that evening’s Peer Assessment session. “Oh, shut up already,” I growled, flopping down onto a chair next to Faith. “It wasn’t that funny.”
“Yes it was.” Krystal nudged Faith, grinning ear to ear. “You should have tried to get a last-minute detention too. Totally worth it. You know how Ms. Wormwood likes to set lines as punishment? Guess what she made Raf copy from. Go on, guess.”
“I don’t know.” Faith was obviously not in the mood for guessing games. She looked like a little kid waiting for a dentist appointment, huddled in her chair with her arms around her knees. She flinched as another group of sixth-year girls entered the room, pointedly ignoring her as they found seats. “What?”
“The K-k-kama S-sutra!” Krystal dissolved into laughter again.
“The woman is a sadist as well as a nympho,” I muttered.
Faith mustered a weak smile, though it didn’t really shift her drawn, anxious air. “Ms. Wormwood’s a good teacher, Raffi. I’m sure she didn’t mean anything by it.”
“Yeah, right.” I glared at Krystal, who was still helpless with mirth. “If Krystal hadn’t been there, Ms. Wormwood would have been chasing me around the desks.”
“You are so full of it,” Krystal said. She wiped tears of laughter from her eyes, smudging her makeup. “Faith’s right, Raf. Ms. Wormwood
is
a good teacher. Oh my God, she’s an utter genius. Talk about effective punishment. You’re going to be following every school rule to the letter now, aren’t you?”
“Damn straight.” I folded my arms, scowling. “Which is not going to make it any easier to thwart the forces of darkness.”
“Speak of the devil,” Krystal said as Michaela swept into the common room, surrounded by her usual cronies. She was as cool and collected as ever, but the other girls were talking in overloud voices, a distinct undercurrent of tension in their exaggerated gestures. The whole room had the nervous, electric energy of a locker room before a big match. Krystal stood up again, shouldering her bag. “And that’s my cue to leave.”
“I thought this thing was compulsory,” I said.
“It is.” Krystal shrugged. “And if it’s a choice between an F minus for not showing up, and a D for sitting under a steaming shower of crap, I’ll take the former, thanks.” She looked at Faith. “You sure I can’t persuade you to join me?”
Faith shook her head. “I have to try. Maybe Raffi will make a difference.”
“Don’t let the bastards grind you down.” Krystal squeezed her shoulder, then punched mine. “You do your job, Halo Boy.”
“Uh, what exactly were you hoping I would do?” I said to Faith as Krystal left.
“Help me get a good grade.” Faith swallowed, squaring her shoulders. “We’ve only got a few weeks left before the Ball, Raffi. Time’s running out. I
have
to meet my true love there. Or else Michaela wins.”
I still didn’t see how a kiss could close the Hellgate, but I wasn’t going to argue with someone who looked on the verge of vomiting with nerves. “Okay,” I said a little dubiously. “But I really don’t see how I can help with your popularity. I mean, this is girl stuff. Not exactly my domain.”
“You don’t have to do anything.” Faith wiggled her fingers by her forehead, as if to indicate a halo. “Just let your angelic light shine out, banishing the demons’ darkness and filling everyone’s hearts with peace and love.”
While I was still trying to work out how to do
that
, Ms. Hellebore ducked through the door, followed by a little old lady in a fraying cardigan. The room instantly fell silent, all the girls freezing under the old woman’s vague, clouded gaze like mice in front of a snake. “Good evening, girls,” she said in a creaking but kindly voice.
As a nervous-sounding chorus of, “Good evening, Ms. Henbane,” filled the air, I leaned over to whisper to Faith. “Why’s Ms. Hellebore here?”
“Anger Management exercises,” Faith replied under her breath. “And also to break up fights.”
I stared at her, but didn’t have a chance to ask what she meant by that. Ms. Henbane was addressing the class, a warm, grandmotherly smile on her wrinkled face. “Let’s start with a little self-esteem exercise before we begin the feedback sessions, shall we? I call this ‘Honest Admiration.’” She waved a stopwatch. “I want everyone to mingle for the next five minutes, with two constraints—tell the truth and only express admiration. Off you go!”
“I used to like this game,” Faith said miserably, as girls started to mill around, a buzz of conversation rising up. “But now no one ever talks to me.”
“Well, I will,” I said, edging a little closer to her. I would have deployed one of my practiced smiles, but something about Faith made all my rehearsed moves fly out of my head. “I think you’re pretty great.”
Pretty great?
Oh yeah, Raf, you silver-tongued devil. That’ll really wow her.
From the way Faith was looking at me, though, you’d think I’d just extemporized a sonnet. “Really?”
“Um, yeah, actually. In fact, I—”
“Raffiiii,” trilled a girl, inserting her knockout curves between us. “I wanted to tell you that you are just sooooo good-looking.”
I blinked. “Okay. Um. Thanks?”
“No, no, not like that, Rafael.” Ms. Henbane had snuck up on us, like a geriatric ninja. “You need to echo the compliment.”
“What, like, give one back?” I said, eyeing the girl. Unfortunately, the first compliment that sprang to mind was likely to get me slapped.
“No, no,” Ms. Henbane said. “This is a self-esteem-building exercise. You have to repeat Debbie’s compliment.”
“Uh, okay. Thanks, Debbie. I am indeed good-looking.” And now I felt like a massive dork. This was supposed to raise my self-esteem?
“Good, good.” Ms. Henbane patted my arm and wobbled off, leaving Debbie still grinning up at me. Behind her, Faith was making her radiating-goodness-and-light gesture again, her eyes imploring. With a mental sigh, I stared hard at the girl, trying to visualize angelic power beaming out from me.
“Raffi, are you all right?” Debbie said in concern. “You’re looking kind of constipated.” She slapped her hand over her mouth. “Oops. That wasn’t actually meant to be a compliment. Let me try again. Is it true that you’re a male model? Because you totally could be.”
“Thank you,” I said dutifully. “I could indeed be a model.” Then I remembered the lies Suzanne had been spreading. “I’m not, though.”
“None of that rumor is true,” Faith said quickly. “We’re just friends.”
“Really?” Debbie’s eyes flicked from her to Michaela—who was staring at us across the room—and back again. She bit her lower lip for a second. “You know, Faith, I’ve always really admired your . . . hair.”
Faith’s face lit up like a fireworks display. “Oh, thank you. My hair
is
beautiful. And I love your sense of fun, Debbie. I’ve really missed hanging out with you.”
“That’s right. I am a lot of fun.” Debbie winked at me. “Maybe we could
all
hang out sometime?”
“Raffi, it’s working!” Faith clutched my sleeve as Debbie sashayed away. On the far side of the room, Michaela’s hands were twitching by her thighs like a gunslinger longing to draw. “Keep doing it!”
I had no idea what I
was
doing, but it certainly seemed to be working. As if Debbie had breached some invisible wall, Faith and I found ourselves surrounded by eager well-wishers. Most of the compliments were directed at me, but even the few halfhearted overtures dropped in Faith’s direction had her practically glowing with joy. And it was all down to me. I was saving Faith. I could already picture her gratitude—
A hand closed like a vise on my arm, yanking me around. “I can’t say what I admire about you,” Michaela growled. Before I could jerk away, she’d grabbed my chin, forcing my face down to hers. “So I’ll show you.”
“Yes, yes.” Ms. Henbane’s testy voice was barely audible over the chorus of cheers and whistles. “This is meant to be a
verbal
exercise, Michaela.”
Michaela released my mouth. “You were right,” she murmured, her breath warm on my lips. Her eyes gleamed as she stepped back. “It does make sense for us to get together.”
And here I’d been thinking Operation Demon Seduction had crashed and burned. I stared after Michaela in confusion, head spinning with more than just the passionate kiss. Surely, Faith couldn’t be right about Michaela and me being soul mates? The demon had to be up to something. Even for someone who’d just made out with me, she was looking a little
too
pleased.
“Time to begin the assessments,” Ms. Henbane announced. Behind her, Ms. Hellebore was now openly dozing. “We’ll go in reverse order tonight.” She consulted a tablet computer. “That means you first please, Faith.”
Faith took the tablet eagerly, holding it, screen out, in front of her and flashing me a confident smile. Ms. Henbane shepherded the rest of us into a single-file line. I was a little way back from the front of the queue, but I could still make out the
POSITIVE
and
NEGATIVE
buttons displayed on the tablet’s screen. It was clear that we were all going to take turns scoring Faith. I was still worrying about Michaela’s newfound passion for me, so I wasn’t really paying attention as the girl at the front of the line stepped forward. Then Faith’s clear voice cut through my preoccupation. “Thank you. I am indeed conceited and self-centered.”
“You what?” I said aloud. Debbie half turned at my outburst, casting me a questioning look. At the front of the room, Faith had her smile fixed on her face like a shield as another girl advanced on her. I didn’t hear what she said, but I saw Faith flinch. Then, “Thank you,” she said, with apparent sincerity. “I am indeed lucky that my mother is the Headmistress.” Ms. Henbane said something to her, and Faith closed her eyes for an instant before continuing, “Because that’s the only reason I’m here rather than in a mental institution.”
“They’re insulting Faith to her face? In front of a
teacher
?” I said in disbelief, as Faith agreed that she should indeed eat a sandwich once in a while. “A second ago they were sucking up to her!”
“A second ago we all thought you were single,” Debbie said, shrugging one shoulder. “Now there’s no incentive to risk going against Michaela.”
Up ahead, Michaela glanced over her shoulder to give me a small, secret smirk. My fists clenched as she strode up to Faith, who for the first time lost her desperately eager-to-please expression. For a second, the two girls faced each other, eyes locked. Then Michaela said something, and for one heart-stopping instant I thought that Faith was about to take a swing at her. Ms. Hellebore even jerked out of her upright catatonia—but Faith took a deep breath, stepping back from Michaela. “Thank you,” she said with only the barest tremble in her voice. “I am indeed wasting my life, just like my father did.”
I realized Ms. Hellebore, with a teacher’s unerring instinct for sensing trouble, was now scrutinizing me. I forced my fists to unclench. “You’re not going to join in with this, are you?” I hissed at Debbie, remembering how she’d snapped at Suzanne in History of Art. She avoided my eyes. “Don’t
any
of you have the balls to stand up to Michaela?”
Debbie huffed out a humorless breath of laughter. “Raffi, everyone knows how loaded her family is. And she’s promised that her very closest friend will get ‘something special’ at the Ball. Half the girls here would happily
eat
the other half for the chance to win the mystery prize.” We’d reached the front of the line. “If Michaela hates Faith, the rest of us have to as well.” To Faith, she said, “Look, you’re never going to make any friends here.” The tablet made a rude buzz as Debbie touched the screen, giving Faith a negative score. “Your life would be a heck of a lot easier if you’d just accept that and leave.”
Faith’s smile twisted slightly. “Thank you,” she said in return, for once sounding in wholehearted agreement. “It would indeed.”
“Raffi?” Ms. Henbane prompted me.
It took a lot of effort to make myself step forward. If Krystal had handed me a sword in that moment, I would happily have stabbed Michaela then and there.
Something special.
Oh yes, the chosen girl would get something special all right. Cold, black tentacles wrapping around her, a gaping maw opening to latch onto her soul like a monstrous leech . . . If Michaela succeeded in opening the Hellgate, she’d need bodies for her demonic buddies to possess. And here she had her pick of girls, all desperate to impress her, all willing to agree to do anything, no matter how strange or wrong it sounded.
The stupid,
stupid
cows were competing for the honor of becoming a demon’s human hand puppet. And they were turning on the one person who was trying to save them.
Faith read my expression, and her own slid into outright alarm. “Don’t, Raffi!” she whispered urgently. Behind her, Ms. Hellebore and Ms. Henbane had their heads together, their eyes fixed on me as they conferred. At the far side of the room, Michaela’s air of studied indifference dropped away, every muscle abruptly taut and ready as she too stared at me. “I’m fine. Don’t make a scene!”
It was excellent advice. Which I completely failed to follow, as the instant my hand closed on the metal body of the tablet, the device burst into flame.
Faith shrieked, dropping the tablet, which immediately set fire to the carpet. I jumped back from the spreading blaze, instinctively grabbing Faith and yanking her away too. The entire room erupted into pandemonium.
“Raffi, this way!” Faith linked her hand in mine, hauling me after her as she bolted for the door. Behind us, Ms. Hellebore was stamping out the fire with her enormous boots, barking at the screaming, ricocheting girls to stop panicking. The white flames were already dying down, but Faith didn’t pause. She pulled me right out of the classroom and down the hallway.
“Faith!” I yelped as she ushered me into a bathroom. “I can’t be in here!”
Ignoring my protests, Faith locked the door behind us, slumping against it. Her shoulders heaved as she panted. “Have to. Halo.”
