9. Not her

Vald's Pov

It was a quiet ride to school. Of course, the first thing I did when we reached the school was to look for the girl. Just preparing myself again. Right.

It was embarrassing how my world suddenly seemed to be empty of everything. But her-my whole existence centered around the girl.

It was easy enough to understand, though, really; after eighty years of the same thing every day and every night, any change became a point of absorption.

She had not yet arrived, but could I hear a car engine in the distance. I leaned against the side of the car to wait.

A red car slowly came into view. It took me a few seconds to figure out that Ivory was behind the wheel.

Her eyes intent on the road and her hands tight on the wheel. She seemed anxious about something. She wore the same expression today that every human wore.

Ah, the road was slick with ice, and they were all trying to drive more carefully. I could see she was taking the added risk seriously. That seemed in line with what little I had learned of her character. I added this to my small list: she was a serious person, a responsible person.

She parked not too far from me, but she hadn't noticed me standing here yet, staring at her. I wondered what she would do when she did?

Blush and walk away?

That was my first guess, but maybe she would stare back or maybe she would come to talk to me. I took a deep breath, filling my lungs hopefully, just in case.

She got out of the car with care, testing the slick ground before she put her weight on it. She didn't look up, and that frustrated me.

Maybe I would go talk to her... No, that would be wrong.

Instead of turning toward the school, she made her way to the rear of her car. Clinging to the side not trusting her footing. It made me smile, and I felt Adriana's eyes on my face.

I didn't listen to whatever this made her think. I was having too much fun watching the girl check her snow chains. She actually looked in some danger of falling, the way her feet were sliding around. No one else was having trouble -had she parked in the worst of the ice?

She paused there, staring down with a strange expression on her face. It was...tender? As if something about the tire was making her... emotional?

Again, the curiosity ached like a thirst. It was as if I had to know what she was thinking -as if nothing else mattered.

I would go talk to her. She looked like she could use a hand anyway, at least until she was off the slick pavement.

"NO!" Adriana gasped aloud.

Startled, I looked up and notice a Sliver Toyota was coming down the parking lot in full speed. Mike van was going to hit the girl who had become the uninvited focal point of my world.

The girl, standing in the middle of the road, looked up, bewildered by the sound of the screeching tires. She looked straight into my horror- struck eyes. Then turned to watch her approaching death.

Not her! The words shouted in my head as if they belonged to someone else.

I launched myself across the lot, pushing the frozen girl. I moved so fast that everything was a streaky blur except for the object of my focus.

She didn't see me -no human eyes could have followed my flight.

I caught her around the waist, moving with too much urgency to be as gentle as she would need me to be. In the hundredth of a second between the time that I yanked her slight form out of the path of death. And the time that I crashed into the ground with her in my arms, I was vividly aware of her fragile, breakable body.

When I heard her head crack against the ice, it felt like I had turned to ice, too.

I knew that I was in the middle of a crisis. The first fear was the greatest fear as the screaming of the witnesses erupted around us. I leaned down to examined her face, to see if she was conscious -hoping fiercely that she was not bleeding anywhere.

Her eyes were open, staring in shock.

"Ivoey?" I asked urgently. "Are you all right?"

"I'm fine." She said the words automatically in a dazed voice.

Relief, so exquisite it was nearly pain, washed through me at the sound of her voice. I sucked in a breath through my teeth, and did not mind the accompanying burn in my throat. I almost welcomed it.

She struggled to sit up, but I was not ready to release her. It felt somehow...safer? Better, at least, having her tucked into my side.

"Be careful," I warned her. "I think you hit your head pretty hard."

There had been no smell of fresh blood -a mercy, that- but this did not rule out internal damage. I was abruptly anxious to get her to Jennifer  and a full compliment of radiology equipment.

"Ow," she said, her tone comically shocked as she realized I was right about her head.

"That's what I thought." Relief made it funny to me, made me almost giddy.

"How in the..." Her voice trailed off, and her eyelids fluttered. "How did you get over here so fast?"

The relief turned sour, the humor vanished. She had noticed too much.

"I was standing right next to you, Ivory." I knew from experience that if I was very confident as I lied it made any questioner less sure of the truth.

She struggled to move again, and this time I allowed it. I needed to breathe so that I could play my role correctly. I needed space from her warm-blooded heat so that it would not combine with her scent to overwhelm me.

She stared up at me, and I stared back. To look away first was a mistake only an incompetent liar would make, and I was not an incompetent liar.

My expression was smooth, benign... It seemed to confuse her.

That was good.

The accident scene was surrounded now. Mostly students, children, peering and pushing through. There was a babble of shouting and a gush of shocked thought. I scanned the thoughts once to make sure there were no suspicions yet. Then tuned it out and concentrated only on the girl.

She was distracted by the bedlam. She glanced around, her expression still stunned, and tried to get to her feet.

I put my hand lightly on her shoulder to hold her down. "Just stay put for now." She seemed alright, but should she really be moving her neck?

"But it's cold," she objected.

She had almost been crushed to death and it was the cold that worried her. A chuckle slid through my teeth before I could remember that the situation was not funny.

Ivory blinked, and then her eyes focused on my face. "You were over there."

That sobered me again.

"You were by your car."

"No, I wasn't."

"I saw you," she insisted; her voice was childlike when she was being stubborn. Her chin jutted out.

"I was walking next to you, and I pulled you out of the way."

I stared deeply into her wide eyes, trying to will her into accepting my version. The only rational version on the table.

Her jaw set. "No."

I tried to stay calm, to not panic. If only I could keep her quiet for a few moments. And undermine her story by disclosing her head injury.

"Please," I said, my voice was too intense, because I suddenly wanted her to trust me.

"Why?" she asked, still defensive.

"Trust me," I pleaded.

"Will you promise to explain everything to me later?"

It made me angry to have to lie to her again, when I so much wished that I could somehow deserve her trust. So, when I answered her, it was a retort.

"Fine."

"Fine," she echoed in the same tone.