The Cupid War Page 15

  “Hah!” Susan shouted. “Boy, did you two pick a bad time to … ”

  Her jaw dropped as the army of Cupids arrived and formed ranks in front of the house. Then she trembled visibly.

  “G … get them!” she cried, and the Suicides surged forward.

  “Shield!” Jada shouted, and she and Fallon projected a solid Love wall that knocked all the dark ones—Susan included—backward.

  “Now charge!” Jada cried, and the Cupids marched forward and fired their Love. A dozen Suicides fell immediately, and several more dropped in the moments that followed. Suicides have no projectile weaponry, Fallon realized. They have to get up close to do damage, and we aren’t going to let them!

  Susan straightened up and looked at her army in horrified disbelief. Fallon had to smile. This is what losing looks like, he thought at her.

  Then Susan saw something beyond her dark army that grabbed her attention. She turned and ran off down the street, leaving her army to fend for itself.

  “She’s running away!” Jada said.

  “I don’t think so,” Fallon replied, looking through the fog of Love and darkness to see what Susan was after.

  It was Trina, Cynthia, and Lucy, returning from the restaurant at the worst time possible. He’d hoped they would finish Susan off before the girls got back, but it was too late for that now.

  Trina froze, then blocked her two friends. She could see the war going on, but all they could see was Susan running toward them.

  Fallon ran, forgetting his shield and charging through the battle.

  “Fallon! Come back!” Jada called.

  Fallon ignored her and kept running, blasting aside any Suicide that got in his way. Susan had a head start, and could reduce all three teens to a near-lifeless state in seconds. He ran faster and prayed he’d be in time.

  29

  Run!” Trina told her friends. “Turn around, get out of here, go!”

  Though he was still three house-lengths away, Fallon heard her voice as clearly as if she’d spoken beside him. Sadly, her friends saw no threat in Susan, who raised her hands as she closed the distance. Fallon felt waves of depression—Trina’s, not his—as Susan’s power reached out and engulfed them.

  Our link is a little too strong, Fallon thought. Then it hit him that the soul link might work both ways. He focused his Love reserves into his soul and thought, shield.

  Trina’s hands went out, and suddenly she was projecting a shield of Love in front of her. Susan walked straight into it and rebounded onto her butt. She looked up at Trina with shock and outrage—Fallon could see it clearly in his mind. He also felt Trina’s puzzlement as she looked at her hands in wonder. Then she looked up at him, and their eyes met. Wow, Fallon thought, as he and Trina shared a moment of perfect bliss. There was no other on Heaven or Earth for either of them.

  “Trina?” asked Cynthia. “Are you having one of your moments?”

  “And what happened to Susan?” asked Lucy. “What’s going … ”

  Susan threw both hands forward and soaked the three teens in misery. Trina got the shield back up again, but not before absorbing enough sadness to drive her to her knees. Her two friends collapsed, barely able to breathe. The only reason Trina wasn’t on the pavement with them, Fallon knew, was that her soul was mixed with his. The assault had knocked the wind out of his sails, too, but he managed to stay upright and moving.

  Trina was weakening. No problem, Fallon thought, projecting a shield of his own. It knocked Susan flat on her face, and Fallon walked right up to her and kept projecting, pinning her down.

  “I need … ” he began.

  “ … a mirror!” Trina finished, and she started going through her friends’ purses.

  Wow, Fallon thought, now we’re finishing each others’ sentences …

  A Suicide broadsided him, knocking him over and filling his soul with despair. Fallon dropped his shield but raised another, then he pushed the Suicide away so he could blast it.

  Susan got back up. Before Fallon could deal with her she stepped in him, and the depression soaked him.

  Trina, back on her feet and with a mirror in hand, slammed her shoulder into Susan and knocked her out of Fallon. Susan recovered quickly and grabbed Trina by the wrist, and Fallon could feel the life pouring out of her. He got back to his knees but she stepped in him again, and Fallon knew it was over.

  Source, he thought, help …

  An electric blast hit Susan in the back, and Trina broke free. Fallon saw Jada running toward them and smiled weakly. Trina opened the compact and held the mirror in front of Susan’s face, and Fallon thrust his hand into her heart and fired.

  Susan’s eyes went wide. Then she screamed. The crushing flow of sadness stopped, and Trina and Fallon collapsed at her feet. Susan looked down at them, horrified.

  “What … who … what am … ” she said. Then she crumpled into a ball and cried.

  “Yeah, you’re darn right you feel bad,” Jada said as she arrived. “And you, Fallon, need to learn to listen to orders. I said I’m not losing anyone else.”

  “H … help them … ” Fallon said weakly, waving a hand at the three teenagers. “ … need Love … ”

  “They’ll get it,” Jada said. “Trina, right? Can you still hold that thing?”

  She nodded, and held the compact up to her face. Jada fired Love into her, and Trina sat up and smiled.

  “That was groovy,” she said.

  “Come on, let’s do your friends,” Jada said.

  Moments later, Cynthia and Lucy were full of Love and recovering. Fallon envied them—he couldn’t get his healing dose until he got back to the Cupid Center.

  “Trina,” Lucy asked, “what just happened?”

  “What did Susan do to us?” asked Cynthia. “Hey, what’s wrong with her?”

  “I’ll tell you all about it,” Trina said, “but first I have to help my friend.” She moved next to Fallon, who smiled up at her.

  “Hey, babe,” he said.

  Trina smiled back, and held the mirror in front of his face. Then she reached into his heart and gave him a shot of his own Love.

  “Whoa … ” Fallon said as self-love replaced the crippling despair. Trina put down the compact, but she let her hand linger in Fallon’s heart a moment longer.

  “I figured I owed you one,” she said, and smiled that perfect smile of hers.

  “Not as much as I owe you,” Fallon said, and he sat up and kissed her.

  The assembled Cupids gasped. So did Trina’s friends.

  “Look!” said Lucy. “Can you see … a sort of ghostlike thing?”

  “She’s kissing a ghost,” Cynthia replied. “And he’s pretty good.”

  “How is that possible?” a Cupid asked.

  “I guess anything’s possible,” Jada replied, smiling down at them. “Hey, get a room, you two!”

  The kiss ended, eventually. Most of the Cupids returned to their duties, but Fallon and Jada stayed to clean up. There was work to be done.

  “Your friend will have to help us, if she’s willing,” Jada said. “We need her to hold the mirror. Are you even listening to me?”

  “Hmm?” Fallon said. He’d been watching as Trina filled her friends in on the world they couldn’t see. They sat near Susan, who still lay crying on the sidewalk.

  “We have to help Susan’s victims,” Jada said. “And we need to get her home. She’s our responsibility.”

  “She’s her own responsibility,” Fallon said. “But I agree, we should get her home.”

  He walked over and talked to Trina, and a few minutes later they were all walking back the way Susan had come. Cynthia and Lucy helped Susan walk; she did not look happy about it, but she had no strength to protest.

  “No, no, not this way,” she said. �
�I’m sorry, so very sorry … ”

  “Shut up,” Fallon told her. It was mean, he knew—Susan seemed completely different now, and yelling at her was like kicking a wounded puppy. However, changed or not, Fallon wasn’t ready to forgive her just yet.

  It didn’t take long to find the first few victims. A man sat by the sidewalk, his hands on his face. In the street, the police were dealing with the aftermath of one of the Susan-inspired car crashes.

  “Let’s get started,” Trina said, and she crouched beside the man and touched his shoulder gently. He looked up, saw his reflection, and Jada shot some Love into him.

  “You’ll be all right now, sir,” Trina said, noting the change on his face.

  They moved on, healing those they could. Jada sensed a summons and returned to the Cupid Center, leaving Fallon to continue the healing in her place. Cynthia and Lucy went on ahead—Fallon guessed the weirdness was freaking them out. That, and they probably wanted to be rid of Susan. Her crying and apologizing were getting on everyone’s nerves.

  Trina and Fallon came to the first three victims: the three mean, popular girls. Three Suicides were hovering around them, feeding on their pain.

  “Back off, you!” Fallon said, blasting one with his Love. It ran off and so did one of the others, but the third turned to look at them. It seemed to recognize them, and its face was eerily familiar …

  “Ricky,” the Suicide said.

  Fallon, who’d raised a hand to blast it, stopped. It couldn’t be!

  The Suicide fired a shock that struck Fallon in the chest and knocked him on his rear. When he recovered, the Suicide was gone.

  “Are you all right?” Trina asked, kneeling beside him.

  “No. Not exactly,” Fallon replied, staring at the spot where his former boss had been.

  • • •

  “Jada!” Fallon called as he hurried across the Cupid Center. “Jada, where are you?”

  He had to tell her what he’d seen. He was about to steal some Love to draw her attention, but then he saw her walking toward him with a young-looking Cupid girl beside her.

  “Jada!” he said. “You have to know … ”

  “Fallon, this is Sandra Baker,” Jada said. “She was Louis’s daughter.”

  Fallon’s mouth dropped open. Sandra shuffled her feet and looked at the floor.

  “She was a Suicide,” Jada said. “Now she’s been sent to us. Louis must have made a really good deal to get her out.”

  “Yeah,” Fallon said, an uneasy feeling running through him. “He sure did.”

  30

  A lot changed over the weeks that followed. Jada called upon Fallon and Owen for support in her role as leader, and worked with them to restructure the organization. Many changes were necessary to reverse the harm Louis had left as his legacy.

  First and foremost, all Cupids were required to meditate for at least one hour every day. Alexander led classes to teach them how. Fallon started a class to teach Cupids to project shields.

  Another big change, suggested by Fallon, involved the Love cubes. He pointed out that he would not have been able to do half the things he’d done if he hadn’t stolen Love from other Cupids’ cubes. Fallon suggested that the distribution of Love should be equal for all Cupids, so that newer ones like himself need never be without a steady supply. Owen said that Cupids would slack off if they always had Love available. Jada ignored him and put the plan into practice.

  Jada created an office for herself so that Cupids had a place to go when they needed her. She also made a pledge, at Fallon’s insistence, to look into the fates of those Cupids stuck in Limbo. Owen said that some were in there for a good reason.

  “You thought I was put in there for a good reason,” Fallon pointed out, and Owen fell silent.

  “I’ll review all the cases,” Jada assured them both. “Thanks for your input. Now, get back out there and do your jobs, you two! That Love ain’t gonna make itself.”

  “Yes, ma’am!” Owen said, tossing off a salute before turning and leaving Jada’s office. Fallon followed, but Jada called him back.

  “How’s Sandra working out?” she asked.

  “She’s still a bit freaked,” Fallon told her. “Post-traumatic stress, I guess. Couldn’t have been easy being a Suicide. She’s got promise, though. And she united her second couple yesterday.”

  “Good,” Jada said. “Keep me posted. Now”—she held up a hand—“back to work, or else!” She snapped her fingers and a bolt of energy crackled around them.

  “Yikes!” Fallon said, hopping in mock fear. “I’ll get right to it!”

  They laughed, then Fallon turned and left the office.

  “Are we going back to the school again?” Sandra asked as she and Fallon approached the portals.

  “We might,” Fallon replied.

  “Come on. We’re going to visit your girlfriend, aren’t we?”

  “Yes,” Fallon admitted. “But only for a few minutes. Then we’ll try the corporate building a few blocks away, stir up some office romances.”

  “Just a few minutes, huh?” Sandra said. “I’ll believe that when I see it.”

  Fallon smiled and said nothing. His relationship with Trina was all he could think about sometimes. And not just because he’d gotten a lot better at physical interactions, either.

  But he wasn’t letting that get in the way of Sandra’s training. He’d asked Jada to let him be her mentor, and he took the responsibility seriously.

  She hadn’t taken the news about her father at all well.

  “Everything he did, he did to protect you,” Fallon had told her, and he believed it to be true. He hoped he didn’t run into Louis when Sandra was around, though. She’d have trouble dealing with that.

  Fallon and Sandra stepped through the portal into the main lobby of Guildwood Mills High School. It was full of bustling students; classes had just let out. Fallon knew he didn’t have much time if he was going to visit Trina.

  “I’ll meet you back here,” Sandra said. “You go have your fun.”

  “Thanks,” Fallon said. “Oh, Sandra, remember … ”

  “ … to keep my shield up and my wits about me,” Sandra finished for him. “I won’t forget.”

  Fallon knew she wouldn’t. Still, the thought of her facing a Suicide left him anxious. He hoped it didn’t show that much.

  “Stop worrying about me!” Sandra called over her shoulder as she headed into the nearest classroom.

  Fallon smiled and waved, and then he spotted the time on the wall clock. If he didn’t hurry …

  He waited. He was sure this was the right spot, and Trina was often the last one to …

  In front of him, the door of Trina’s locker opened. Trina stood there, clad only in a towel, dripping wet from the shower. Behind her, the rest of the girls’ changing room was empty.

  “Oh!” Trina cried, jumping in surprise. The motion knocked the towel loose and it fell to the floor. Her hands flashed across her chest as she glared at Fallon with outrage.

  Fallon burst out laughing. A moment later, Trina joined him.

  “I’m gonna get you for this!” she said, punching through his chest.

  “You’ve already got me,” he replied, taking her face in his hands.

  “Pretty corny, Fallon,” Trina said.

  “Ricky,” Fallon said. “Call me Ricky.”

  Their lips met, and Ricky Fallon had never felt so alive.

  The End

  About the Author

  Timothy Carter was born in England during the week of the final lunar mission, and he turned thirteen on Friday the 13th. He still thinks those two things are pretty cool.

  Timothy grew up in Canada’s National Capital Region and studied Dramatic Arts at Algonquin College. His YA novels include Evil?, E
poch, Attack of the Intergalactic Soul Hunters, and Closets. He has also written the adult-themed novel Section K. Timothy lives and writes in Toronto, Canada, with his wife and two cats. To learn more about him, visit www.timothycarterworld.com.