Saint of Sinners (17 page)

“Fine, I’m coming,” I called so she’d stop knocking. I opened the door and froze when I saw Casey with her.

“I’m sorry,” Hayley said. “I know I promised I wouldn’t tell anyone, but after what happened… well, it’s not like it’s a secret anymore, so I told him.”

Casey was looking at me weird, and I couldn’t tell if it was admiration or fear. Maybe both. I wanted to be mad at her, but the urge was gone in a second.

“Yeah, I guess my cover’s blown.”

“What the hell
was
that?” she asked.

“That was my father. He came to school to get me.”

Both of them stared. Casey said, “The
devil
came to our school?”

I nodded. “And he ruined everything. That’s what he really wanted, to fuck up my life. Again.”

“But you fought him off. Alice said you chased him off,” Casey said.

“Exactly. Alice saw me, and lots of other kids saw it too. I attacked him in the fucking principal’s office. I can’t go back.”

Hayley blinked several times. “So you’re leaving?”

“What else can I do?” At her hurt expression, I added, “But I can come visit you guys. I can teleport, so it’s not like I’ll be
gone
gone.”

“I guess,” Casey said. He looked almost as hurt as his sister.

“Where will you go?”

I shrugged. Talking about it with them hurt even more than thinking about it. “I’ll find another city, I guess.” Anger boiled up. “I fucking hate running away.”

“Then don’t.” Hayley reached over the threshold and took my hand.

“I can’t go back to school.” That didn’t necessarily mean I had to leave the city, but couldn’t I stay in this apartment, hiding behind the spell scrolls, too afraid to walk around town. My father knew exactly where I was. Then a horrible idea occurred to me. “Oh, fuck. What if he comes back?”

“Who? The devil?” Casey asked, flicking his hair out of his eyes.

I nodded. “He knows where I live, he knows where the school is… Even if I left, he might come back and hurt people to get my attention.”

Casey turned even paler than his usual pasty self. “Oh, shit.”

“Does he know about us?” Hayley asked.

“I don’t think so. I didn’t tell him, but he might have spies around,” I said. She looked like she might be sick, or faint. I grabbed her shoulders. “Hey, I won’t let anything happen to you.” I felt a rush as fear gave way to anger. I glanced over at Casey. “I won’t let anything happen to anybody. I’m gonna be your guardian fucking angel, you and the whole fucking school.”

No, Satan wasn’t taking this away from me.

“I’m going to school tomorrow.”

Chapter 20

I didn’t take the bus to school, I teleported in front of the main doors. The first students were trickling in. Conversations stopped and everyone turned to stare at me. The administrators looked like they wanted to stop me, but they were just as frozen as the students. Only one actually had the guts to try to stop me. A big guy with a school safety badge marched up to me with a scowl. Fights at school were rare, but in the few I’d seen, this guy was always there, big enough to restrain even the largest jocks.

“Hey, you can’t come in here with that.”

I glanced down at Animus strapped to my waist. He hadn’t seen me fight with Satan, but he had to have heard about it. Or were the adults not talking to each other?

“I’m not going to use it on anyone.” Not anyone human, at least.

“You can’t bring weapons to school. I’ll have to confiscate it, or we can call the police and have them handle it.”

I held back a laugh. “I’m gonna go talk to the principal about making a special exception.” I wasn’t going to be caught without Animus again.

The big guy held out his hand. “This isn’t a joke. You can’t bring a sword to school.”

“Yes, I can.” I pushed him, gently but steadily, to the side of the hall. His eyes went wide and he glanced down at himself, then back at me. I hadn’t touched him, and I knew he was wondering how that was possible.

The kids in the hall scattered or huddled against the walls. Once I got things settled with the principal, I’d have to work on convincing everyone I wasn’t going to hurt them.

The office was a mess. The broken glass was gone, but there was yellow tape all over. The burned front desk was still there, but they weren’t using it. The carpet was soaked. A little shiver went through me, remembering the fight. If he’d really wanted to drag me to Hell, he could have. I held on to that idea as I walked through the doorless frame into the office.

The secretary was using what looked like a teacher’s desk, squeezed awkwardly into the less damaged area of the office. She pulled a little silver cross out of her shirt and held it up like a shield. So, some people had made a guess. Well, she knew I was “unnatural,” at least.

I ignored her and went into the principal’s office. His door had been repaired and I closed it behind me. When he saw me, he almost fell out of his chair. “Relax, I just want to talk.” I pulled out a chair and sat down. “Have a seat.”

“I… I’ll call the police.” Just like the big guy in the hall. The principal reached for the phone.

With a thought, I knocked it onto the floor. “We don’t need to involve them. This is between us.”

“What
are
you?” He huddled against the wall, shaking a little.

“I’ll tell you if you sit down. And don’t freak out.”

The principal stayed where he was.

“Sit down,” I repeated.

Swallowing, he slowly lowered himself into his chair.

“The man who came in here the other day was the devil, and I’m his son.”

“You…” His expression wavered between disbelief and horror.

“Just listen. I just want to go to school, and he wanted to fuck that up. You saw what he did.” Really, what
we
did, but he started it by coming here. “That’s only a hint of what he’s capable of. What I’m worried about is him coming back here and hurting someone to get my attention. Maybe one of the kids, maybe a teacher… maybe you. He might attack whether I’m here or not, so it’s better if I’m here to fight him off.”

He blinked and I could practically see the gears turning in his head. “What are you talking about?”

“Protecting you. Protecting the school. That’s why I have this.” I patted Animus. “I didn’t have her with me last time and that made me vulnerable.”

“You can’t bring a samurai sword to school.”

“Animus is a katana.” I touched the end of her hilt, the warm pulse of her energy soothing. “I won’t use it on any students or staff, but she’s coming with me everywhere. I need to be ready if my father shows up again.”

He sat up a little straighter and cleared his throat. “Young man, there are no exceptions, and… and after the damage you caused to this school, you are
expelled
.”

I tilted my head. I’d heard about this, but it was kind of amazing to watch it happen. He was convincing himself, piece by piece, that nothing supernatural had happened. Denying what he’d seen with his own eyes, even with the evidence that was still all around him. Given enough time, he might actually succeed. I wasn’t going to give him the chance. “And who’s going to make me leave?” I rattled his desk for emphasis.

Maybe I should join the drama club. He paled. “I’ll call the police.”

“You threatened that already.” I looked at the phone, sitting on the floor where I’d knocked it earlier. “Now, Mr. Carlton, I don’t want any trouble, really. I just want to go to class and get treated like anyone else. I only have one special request, and that’s to keep my sword with me. I don’t think that’s much to ask in exchange for protecting your school from the devil.”

“You’re not human.”

“Yeah, I told you that.” I sighed. I was trying to play nice. Well, a little bit at least, but this was taking too long. I leaned on the desk and he flinched. “Here’s the deal. I’m going to stay in school, and you’re not going to stop me. No one is. I’m gonna carry my sword, and unless my father shows up, there won’t be
any
trouble, okay?” I leaned even closer. The whole office stank of fear. “And no one else has to know about this—no police, no reporters, no school board. Nobody.”

I stood up. “Now, I’m going to class.” I turned toward the door and paused. “I mean it, Mr. Carlton. I’m not fucking around.” To put an extra stamp on it, I teleported out.

I appeared in the hallway, which was much more crowded. First period would start in a few minutes and everyone was either hurrying to grab their stuff before class or loitering to chat with their friends. That stopped when I showed up. A huge circle emptied around me as kids tried to get away.

“Relax, I’m not gonna hurt anyone.” They kept staring, and it started to piss me off, so I turned away. I went down the hall and students parted like the fucking Red Sea. Murmurs followed along behind me.

I walked into homeroom, which was World History this semester. Everything stopped when I walked in. I took my usual seat next to Jayson. He stared at me like everyone else. Chair legs scraped against the floor as kids slid their desks away. Even the teacher was staring at me.

“All right,” I said. “Everybody knock it off. I’ve been going to school with you for months. If I was going to hurt you, I’d have done it already.”

“What are you?” Jayson asked. So I guess Casey and Hayley hadn’t told everyone.

I groaned. I knew I was gonna get asked that all fucking day. There had to be a better way than answering that a hundred different times. I needed a way to tell everybody at once and get it over with. “I’ll tell everyone after school today, in the auditorium.” It was going to be a performance of sorts, so why not have it on a stage? A little louder, I said, “Did everybody hear that?”

Several murmurs of “yes.”

“Good.” Word about it would spread.

The bell rang, and the teacher didn’t do anything. I sighed. The whole day was going to be like this, wasn’t it? “Can we start class now, Mrs. Gertz? I’m here to learn, seriously.”

She pulled out her class list, and with her voice shaking a little, she took attendance.

This was gonna be a long day.

***

After second period, a few kids started following me through the hall. They kept a few feet back, like they were still afraid of me, but they were definitely following me. Hayley came around the corner and waved at me. She glanced down at Animus. “I kinda didn’t think you were serious.”

“Oh, I was serious.”

“And they’re just letting you walk around with a magical sword?”

“I didn’t really give them a choice.”

Her eyebrows shot up. “What did you do?”

“I pretty much told the principal he can’t stop me.”

“Alex—”

“Hey, if my dad shows up again, you’re gonna be fucking happy I’m here.”

She glared at me.

“I’m sorry. I know I probably could’ve handled it better.”

“I’m just worried about you. I don’t want you to get kicked out or go to jail.”

I shook my head. Behind her, I noticed a few kids lingering, watching us with wary interest. “Nobody can make me leave or arrest me. I’d like to see them try.”

She crossed her arms. “Would you?”

I sighed. “Not really. I want things to go back to the way they were before, but that’s not gonna happen.”

“We should go before we’re late for class.”

We went down the hall for a while. At the stairs we split up; she went up and I turned down another hall. A few kids trailed in my wake.

After third period was lunch, and there were more kids following me now, including one of the jocks I’d beat up at the beginning of the year. Hayley and Casey were both waiting for me outside the lunchroom. As we got in line for food, I’d never heard the lunchroom so quiet. People whispered, shifted in their seats, and either stared at me or tried very hard not to look at me at all. We got our food in near silence, Hayley in front of me, Casey behind, and behind him was my trail of followers like the mice after the Pied fucking Piper.

I did my best to ignore it until we got to our usual table and half my friends were missing. I set my tray down louder than I needed to and turned to face the room. “Goddamn it, stop whispering!”

The room got even quieter.

“I’m not going to hurt anybody, so stop your fucking tiptoeing and staring and avoiding me in the halls.”

The jock who’d been following me inched closer. “Are you like, a superhero or something?”

“Or something,” I muttered. “Makes you feel better about me kicking your ass, huh?”

“You could’ve killed me. All of us. But you didn’t.”

“Nope.” We looked at each other for a moment. I nodded to the spot next to me where Jayson sometimes sat. He was nowhere to be seen. “You wanna have a seat?”

He blinked. “Uh… okay.”

Hayley sat next to me like usual, Casey on the other side, and I was relieved to see Lucia hadn’t disappeared. “Hey.” I smiled at her.

“Hey.” She smiled back, although she looked nervous. “Hayley says she knows what you are, but she won’t tell me.”

“I’m telling everyone after school. I don’t want to explain it a million times.” I looked at my lunch, trying to decide if I was hungry or not.

“People said you threw fireballs and ice and fought some kind of like, supervillain or something.”

“Auditorium, after school.”

Casey looked like he was going to explode.

“Don’t say anything. You can keep quiet for a few more hours.” I picked up my fork. If I didn’t eat now I’d regret it.

My next class was gym and it wasn’t even worth trying. I didn’t change clothes or anything, just walked into the gym and sat against the wall. “You can give me a zero for the day,” I told the teacher. “I’ll just sit here and read.” The rest of the class had a halfhearted game of basketball. I could feel them watching me the whole time.

It was a long day, and more and more kids started following me in the halls. A few were brave enough to ask questions, but I kept repeating that I’d explain everything after school.

The last bell rang and I grabbed what I needed from my locker, just like a normal day, except this time I planned to teleport home after my little performance. A whole crowd of kids followed me down to the auditorium, and there was already a line when we reached it. I went in through one of the doors closest to the stage, students moving out of the way when they saw me coming. Inside, the seats were a third full and filling up fast. Even the teachers were there.