Early to Death, Early to Rise

Ten

Shoe parked two houses down from his on the other side of the street, frowning at Ace’s truck still at the curb. Getting out without opening the car doors, we ran up the sidewalk, slowing as we neared. Shoe wasn’t in very good shape, even as skinny as he was. The almost full moon had finally risen, helping light the black yards. Ace’s truck was ticking as we passed it, the big engine still cooling. Maybe we were in time. Maybe nothing I’d seen in my flash forward had happened yet.

“You aren’t even breathing hard,” Shoe said, puffing.

“Yeah, well, I run a lot.” Fidgeting at the slower pace, I shivered, thinking it odd that I felt cold at all. “How long will it take to get the patch?” I asked.

Shoe glanced at me. “It will take longer to introduce you to my mom.”

The toes of my sneakers grew wet with the dew, and I glanced at Shoe’s room. The light was shifting as someone inside moved around. Ace? “Your mom thinks you’re still in your room,” I reminded him, thinking he must not go AWOL often.

Shoe immediately shifted direction. “The window it is, then.”

I couldn’t help my smile at his slight frown. He wasn’t very good at this sneaking-around thing, even if he had the car routine down. But his frown turned into anger when we got closer and we saw Ace messing around in Shoe’s top desk drawer. “What is he doing?” Shoe whispered angrily, but I was elated. We were in time.

“I don’t know. Maybe he hasn’t downloaded the virus to the hospital yet,” I said.

Shoe’s brow furrowed, and with an awkward motion he gripped the sill and swung himself up and in. “Get the hell out of my desk,” he said as he tugged his black hoodie straight.

Ace spun, his shock clear. His startled gaze shifted past Shoe to me as I came in, and his eyes narrowed. “Hey, Shoe,” he huffed, shoving the drawer shut and backing away. “You owe me a five. I was just looking for it.”

“Right,” Shoe mocked, shoving him from his desk with a single open hand. Head down, Shoe pulled the drawer open as Ace caught his balance. Shoe sifted through the clutter. His eyes widening, he looked at me as if he didn’t believe it, then tossed a laminated card to the desktop. “That’s your mom’s,” he said, and my lips parted at the hospital ID. I hadn’t seen that in my flash forward. “What are you doing, Ace?”

Instead of being angry, Ace rocked back with a satisfied expression. “Yeah, it’s my mom’s, and now it’s got your fingerprints all over it. Dumb ass.”

Shoe fisted his hands, coming forward a step. “You want to put it in the hospital? Are you crazy? Someone might get hurt. Give me the disc.”

Smirking, Ace sat on his bed, casual and infuriating in his black T-shirt, which was too thin to hide how skinny he was. “Too late. It’s already in.”

Too late? Had Ace been to the hospital already?

“You are a friggin’ idiot!” Shoe exploded, and I wished he’d tone it down. “All we wanted was the day off. Some notoriety. It’s a hospital, Ace! You’re going to kill someone! What’s wrong with you?”

Ace stood, and I took a step back at his ugly expression. “What’s wrong with me? What’s wrong with you? This is your fault. You’re ditching me, and you’re gonna take your hit like a man. It’s your computer. I don’t know nothing about it.”

Shoe shook his head, aghast. “This is because I’m going to college? What do you want me to do? Marry you? People grow up! Move away! I’m going to college, not the moon! You could go, too, if you wanted!”

I heard a soft click of heels outside the door, and I felt scared. But Shoe’s mother was walking away, letting them take care of their issues on their own. She clearly wasn’t ignorant of their friendship being on the skids.

Ace’s expression was ugly. “You ain’t going anywhere but jail, Richie Rich.”

I backed up to the window. I’d never seen so much hatred and bile in someone’s expression, and I couldn’t help but think that the idea of Nakita taking this guy’s life before he sullied his soul so far that he wouldn’t even ask for forgiveness wasn’t such a bad idea. I was thinking like a dark reaper, and I didn’t like it.

Shoe was white-faced with anger. “You were with me when I wrote it. I’ll tell them—”

“Tell them what?” Ace interrupted. “You trashed the school’s files. The disc I left in the hospital is the same program. It’s got your name on it, dude.”

Standing before Ace, Shoe started to shake. “You are an ass,” he said, and I gasped when he punched Ace. Right in the face.

“Shoe!” I shouted, but Ace was down, having hit the bed and slipped to the floor. Standing above him, Shoe shook his hand, swearing.

“You hit me!” Ace exclaimed, propped up on an elbow as he felt his mouth. “I’m freaking bleeding!”

“Yeah, and I’ll hit you again unless you come with me to the police and tell them what you did. I wanted to trash the school’s computer system, not hurt people!”

I already knew a trip to the police wasn’t going to happen, and I pulled Shoe back when Ace got to his feet, spitting blood on Shoe’s carpet. “You’re going to rot. Who are the police going to believe? It’s all on your computer.”

Shaking, I said in frustration, “I don’t think I can stop Nakita from killing you, and you know what, Ace? I’m not even a bit sorry.” I was, though. I ached for him to make a better choice. I knew he wouldn’t. Maybe Nakita was right. The seraphs targeted only people who refused to see the light, even if you taped their eyes open and stood them in the sun.

The almost-sound of spilling broken glass slid through my awareness, and a softball-size haze of light darted into the room from the open window.

“Grace!” I exclaimed, and Shoe looked at me as if I were nuts. Either something had gone really right with Barnabas and Nakita, or it had gone really wrong.

The globe circled Ace as if getting a scent, then went to perch on Shoe’s monitor. “Grace?” I questioned, suddenly unsure.

“Guardian angel two-T-four-five taking on a new charge, you lamebrain, dark-winged dark reaper,” the light said snidely. “You lose.”

My mouth dropped open, and I turned to the window when I realized what had happened. “No!” I cried, and my anger peaked when I saw Paul, smug and satisfied, standing in the bushes, his head level with the window.

“You idiot!” I exclaimed, and both Shoe and Ace turned to the window to see him. Damn it, this was my own fault. He must have been at the school, then followed us, waiting until I gave away who the mark was before assigning an angel to Ace.

“Done and done,” Paul said snarkily. “You lose, Madison. I saved this one.”

“Saved him for what?” I asked. Angrier than I’d ever been, I lunged to the window, grabbing his tunic and dragging him in.

“Ow! Hey!” Paul exclaimed, hitting the floor in a graceless pile. From the ceiling, the guardian angel was shouting, but no one but me could probably hear it. Shoe and Ace had drawn back, and I stood over Paul, wanting to give him a good kick.

“You stupid idiot!” I said, pissed. “I told you I was taking care of this! And you come in and muck it up! Why don’t you find out the entire story before you start making choices for people! Thanks a hell of a lot, Paul!”

From outside in the hall, I heard Shoe’s mom call out, “Honey? Is everything all right?”

Oh, crap!

We froze. Paul got up off the floor, his eyes wide. Ace was standing with his head craned back as his nose bled.

“We’re fine, Mom,” he called out with just the right amount of irritation, flexing his hand, which was now swollen from having hit Ace.

“Swell, swell, we’re all good here,” the angel chimed out.

“You guys want a snack or anything?” his mother asked, clearly concerned.

My estimation of Shoe’s mom went higher. She hadn’t burst in even when things were clearly not right. She was a cool lady for letting us work this out ourselves.

“No, Mom! We’re fine!”

Fine, fine. We’re all just spiffy keen.

No one spoke as her heels clicked away. Finally the guardian angel sighed, and Shoe put his back to his door, clearly frustrated. “Okay,” he said, looking at Paul. “This is my room, and I want to know who you are and what’s going on.”

I couldn’t tell him everything, but I stood in front of the window and crossed my arms over my middle. “This idiot just gave Ace a guardian angel!” I said, furious.

“Saved your scrawny butt,” the guardian angel said, and I gave it a dark look. It sounded different from Grace, but I doubted that I’d be able to name it and break the hold Ron had put on it. Not a second time.

Ace brought his head down and sniffed back his bloody nose. “I got a guardian angel?”

“Him?” Shoe yelled. “He just framed me for crashing the hospital computers tomorrow.”

“Yeah, I know. Ironic, isn’t it?” I said, uncrossing my arms and turning to Ace. “You can’t see her, but you just got a blessing from heaven—idiot. Nothing will touch you now until your scheduled death.” Turning to Paul, I couldn’t help myself and shouted, “Thanks a lot!”

This just wasn’t my day. Here I was supposed to be impressing the seraphs that dark and light reapers could work together to save the lost, and I had failed spectacularly. At least Barnabas could make everyone forget the last twenty-four hours. If he was okay, that was. The guardian angel buzzed me, and I wasn’t surprised as her wings came to a halt with the soft sound of sliding glass.

“You’re not a dark reaper,” she said. “You’re the dark timekeeper! You’re Madison? I heard about you! You gave Grace a name!”

I nodded, not wanting to say anything aloud and make Shoe or Ace any more aware of what was going on than they already were. Barnabas was a reaper, not a miracle worker.

“Just as well,” the chiming ball of light said. “She wasn’t very good at it.”

A soft sound of affront slipped from me, and I stared at her.

Paul had gotten to his feet, and he stood next to Ace as if not quite knowing what to do. “You wanted him dead,” he said, but he sounded unsure. “Ron was right.”

I began to pace between the desk and the open window. “Ron is a shortsighted idiot,” I muttered. Spinning, I pointed to Ace, now smiling as he dabbed at his nose with the hem of his shirt. “Do you know what that fine piece of work does now that you’ve given him a get-out-of-death-free card? He’s going to go on and do it again, deluded and thinking it’s a kick. He thinks it’s his only way to make a mark on the world. He’s dead, Paul,” I said. “You may have saved his life, but his life is worthless. I had a chance to get him to change, but now he never will.”

Edging away from Ace, Paul said, “You don’t know that.”

I arched my eyebrows at him. “I do. I saw it. Congratulations. You did real well on your scythe prevention. Saved him and everything.” What was the difference between this scythe and my last one, where I had saved Susan on the boat, the first time I’d met Nakita? I’d changed her future with nothing more than showing her a near-death, and it hadn’t even been hers. She had been marked because she was going to live her life distorting the truth to ruin people’s lives just for the sensationalism. Seeing the reality of how precious life was and the tragedy of it being cut short had shown her what really mattered, and she had changed. But Ace…he knew his actions were going to end lives—and he didn’t care. Except for what he could gain from it.

Ace was laughing, pulling out more tissue from the box by the bed. Making a happy sigh, he fell back onto the pillows. “I’ve got a guardian angel? Cool!” he said to the ceiling.

His guardian angel didn’t seem very happy, if the gray blob on the mirror was any indication. I was pacing again; I couldn’t help it. I was not going to let things end like this.

Paul was edging to the window, and Shoe was trying to wipe his fingerprints off the hospital entrance card. “You were going to end his life,” Paul said slowly, and I glanced at Ace.

“I was trying to save it. But why, I don’t have a clue.”

Shoe had turned his back on us, and his fingers clicked over the keys. Rummaging for a blank disc, he slid it into the burner and clicked a button. “I’m not taking the blame for the hospital,” he said emphatically.

Ace laughed from the bed. “You can’t stop me. I just got me a guardian angel.”

From the mirror, the ball of light sighed.

My temper was cooling. Shoe was probably burning a patch. Clearly he was having the same thoughts I was, since the hospital entrance card was now shoved into his back pocket. We could break in and upload the patch. There was just the lingering problem of Ace. The moment we left, Ace would call someone.

I turned to Paul, the beginnings of a plan in me. “You guys never stick around to find out what the people you save do after you bless them, do you?” I said sourly. What was done was done. Fate, I thought, wondering if I was wrong about choice being stronger than seraph vision. Paul was still looking at me, and I snapped, “Just leave, okay? You did your thing. I’ve got work to do.”

Paul’s expression became worried, and he looked at Ace. “What are you going to do?” he asked. “He’s got a guardian angel.”

“The people at the hospital don’t,” I said. “And you call me a murderer? Open your eyes!” I turned to Shoe, glad to see a determined slant to his expression as he popped the disc out of his computer and glared at Ace. “Is that the patch?” I asked, and he nodded. From the bed, Ace sat up.

“What are you doing?”

Shoe handed it to me, saying, “She’s going to put the patch in for me while you and I sit here and play some WoW. If you want to call the cops, go ahead, but I’ll break your fingers if you try it before that patch is in place. I’m not going down with lives on my conscience.”

“You wouldn’t,” Ace said, wiping his nose. Blood smeared his face and his fingers, bits of tissue sticking to them.

Smiling grimly, I pushed Paul aside as I moved to the window. “You’re a good person, Shoe. I’ll do what I can.” How was I going to do this? I didn’t know a thing about computers.

Ace threw his tissues away. “You think Shoe can keep me here?” he said, moving to sit in Shoe’s chair as if it were a throne and twisting it back and forth. “I got a guardian angel. Once that freak of a girl leaves, I’ll have your mom in here. Then I’m calling my mom. I’m telling her you hit me and stole her entry card.”

My jaw clenched, and Shoe, waiting by the door, frowned. I glanced at the guardian angel sitting on the edge of the mirror, and she made a little chirp of a sigh. “Damn it,” I muttered. Maybe if I knew how my amulet worked, I could stay and Shoe could go, but I didn’t.

Shifting nervously, Shoe said, “I didn’t know angels could swear.”

Paul made a face, looking as if he were eating something sour. “She’s not an angel.”

“I’m just dead,” I said. Frustrated, I looked at Paul. He met my gaze, his expression holding a hint—the barest whisper—of guilt. Barnabas and Nakita were nowhere to be seen. I so needed some help. I just needed to know how to use my amulet.

Use my amulet…

“Will, ah, you do me a favor?” I suddenly asked Paul, and it was hard to decide who was more surprised, the guardian angel, now a bright silver, or Paul, staring at me.

“Excuse me?”

I glanced at Ace, then back to him. “Will you just…watch him for a while?” I asked. “So Shoe and I can fix what we can?”

A curious look came into Paul’s eyes. “I don’t understand you, Madison.”

Hope zinged through me. That hadn’t been a no. The guardian angel clearly thought it was a great idea, darting about the ceiling as if she were a pixie high on a double espresso. “My dad doesn’t understand me, either,” I said, smiling. “Will you do it? Try to make up for screwing this up?”

“I didn’t screw it up. I saved his life!” he said hotly, then looked at Ace staring at us with a murderous look. “Yeah. I’ll do it,” he added. “But you owe me.”

“You think you’re tougher than me?” Ace said as he stood up, and I tensed.

Paul reached for his amulet, and I shivered as something went through me when he touched the divine. The guardian angel let out a yelp when Ace collapsed. Damn, that had been fast. “Wow,” I whispered, totally impressed.

Shoe nudged Ace in the ribs with his foot. “I’m glad I’m on your side,” he said, then pulled Ace’s truck keys from his former friend’s belt. “They have a camera on the hospital gate,” he said in explanation as he edged past Paul and toward the window. “I don’t want my car seen there.”

He slipped out the window, leaning in as he said, “Cover for me if my mom knocks, okay?”

Paul nodded, looking both scared and excited.

“Can you change memories yet?” I asked him, aware of Shoe outside the window, but I really wanted to know.

“No,” Paul admitted, looking almost chagrined, as though he’d tried and failed.

“Me neither,” I said, feeling a surge of kinship. Smiling, I sat on the sill and swung my sneakers outside. It was cooler, and I shivered. Maybe I’d failed to save Ace’s soul, but I could save the lives of some innocents. “Thanks, Paul. You’re not so bad.”

I dropped to the earth, and Shoe started across the dark grass, head down as he fumbled with Ace’s keys.

“Madison!”

It was Paul, and I turned. He was in the window, the guardian angel on his shoulder. “You flashed forward?” he asked, looking uncertain. “Saw what comes of this?”

I nodded, wincing when Ace’s music blared as Shoe started his truck. “I saw what might be,” I admitted, shivering at the memory. “He wasn’t a bit sorry about it. I think what we’re doing changes things, though.” Paul said nothing, and, jiggling on my feet, I blurted, “I gotta go.”

“Good luck!” he whispered loudly.

Smiling, I turned to run to Ace’s truck. “Don’t let Ron hear you say that,” I muttered.

It was with a much lighter heart that I scrambled into the front passenger side of Ace’s truck and buckled myself in. There were a thousand things that could go wrong, and someone was going to get in trouble even if everything went right, but Paul believed me.

And I was surprised to realize that meant a lot.