“And your friend can keep up with us?” Seth looked doubtful. We were supernatural beings after all, and as his eyes dropped to my long, athletic legs, I blushed thinking about our stupid supernatural future together.

“Well, yes, as long as I don’t turn all Star or anything.”

“Ok, when are we leaving?” Seth asked, standing from the table and walking backward to the basement door.

“Ten minutes, does that give you enough time?” I smiled at him again. He definitely had some Fallen in him. Maybe a distant cousin or great grandfather. His eyes danced devilishly and I was convinced no regular Warrior looked as dangerous. Warriors were lesser Angels, paired with Stars to protect the universe. They weren’t the beings that served God directly, or carried out His immediate will; Warriors were the army that protected those Angels, and the last remaining planet housing life in the universe. They were the army of heaven, waging war against the forces of evil. But despite the fact that they were trained killing machines, they were usually all goodness and light, like my dad. But Seth was more than that. Or less? No, definitely…. more. I just couldn’t put my finger on it yet.

Seth nodded and then disappeared down the basement steps. I walked into the mud room, digging around for my running shoes, before joining Jupiter at the table.

“It’s not a problem if we leave, is it?” I asked Jupiter, realizing maybe I should have asked for permission first.

“Why would it be?” Jupiter mumbled from his study of the text.

“I just didn’t know if I’m supposed to ask for…. permission from you,” I mumbled, embarrassed by how awkward this conversation was becoming. “I guess I don’t get your role in my life, yet.”

“I’m just a trainer,” Jupiter responded curtly, “not a babysitter. Fly to the moon for all I care, just do not, I repeat, do not engage in anymore battles until you’ve at least been trained with a sword.”

A little taken aback, I wasn’t sure if he was joking or serious, so I replied with a simple, “Will do.”

Seth joined us upstairs a few awkward, silent minutes later in just shorts and a t-shirt. The rough Nebraska winter held temperatures in the low teens today, but I knew without a doubt Seth would not even be chilly. He might have to glow a little bit to stay warm, but somehow I doubted he would care and Tristan already knew part of the truth about who I was anyway.

What Tristan didn’t know, was that he was about to get a crash course in all the rest of it.

“Do you think my car can make it into town?” I asked on our way out the kitchen door.

“That depends….” Seth studied the crumpled passenger’s side and cringed. “How far is town?”

“If I speed, like fifteen minutes….” I answered, and then wondered if speeding would help my Jeep or hurt it.

“I’m sure it’ll be fine,” Seth decided, sticking his bottom lip out to concentrate completely on the door that seemed welded shut after last night’s impact. “If not, I can always bend it back together, right?” He tugged securely on the door handle, which abruptly ripped off the metal frame it was attached too. “Oops….” He mumbled, while tossing the damaged debris over his shoulder and prying the now loose door open. He crawled into the front seat and then had to lift the door and pull equally hard to jam the thing back into place. Not entirely sure it would hold, he gripped the arm rest tightly and decided to just hold it in place with his Warrior strength.

“Yeah, that looks about right,” I laughed, after climbing into the driver’s seat. I laughed even more when Seth started to glow with the effort to hold the heavy door against the car. “Can’t you just melt it together or something? We won’t be able to use it as an entrance or exit anymore, but I have a feeling this little darling is seeing it’s last days here on Earth.”

Seth laughed too at the solemn way I mourned my car, easily picking up on my sarcasm. Thank God he had a sense of humor! I gave him a wry smile, and turned around to back the Jeep out of the long gravel drive. Seth was still smiling at me, holding the door as casually as he could and I paused for a moment to realize how lucky I was to get Seth and his sense of humor. He seemed fun, and relatively normal, even if he ate ALL of my chocolate chip pancakes. But I had seen Warriors before so duty-driven and task-minded that the devotion of their own Star didn’t seem to have any effect on them. I knew better with Seth. Maybe the Elders had been right in having us raised on Earth, maybe it relaxed us or gave us a better perspective. I just hoped we could stay this casual for a while. A very, very, very long while.

I coaxed the Jeep to start, literally, with encouraging words and a loving tap against the steering wheel until the engine sputtered to life, protesting it’s every move. Despite the obvious fragility of the car, I thrived on excitement and adrenaline, a side-effect of being born for battle. So I naturally drove like a race car driver across the frozen gravel roads that climbed and dipped over rolling hills, the car sliding and skidding with each turn or curve in the road wildly.

After a few minutes I slowed down just a little so that Seth could admire the scenery. Even in middle of a desolate winter, the Nebraska plains stretched out under a wide open sky with nothing standing between this gravel road and the horizon. Snow covered corn fields, and patches of dense pine trees blurred in the peripheral as I raced the Jeep through the postcard countryside.

I knew these roads intimately, having grown up on them. My dad had been letting me drive since I was big enough to reach the pedals and see over the steering wheel, and on Tristan’s farm I had grown up driving his dad’s tractors or racing Tristan and his brothers on four-wheelers. This land was my home. I gunned the engine, whispering sweet encouragement to the groaning Jeep until just seconds before I needed to turn, then I would expertly pump the brakes until I rounded the country roads with the skill of a NASCAR driver, staying just out of danger, but flirting with the slippery edge none the less.

Why I couldn’t do that in the middle of a night with a deer standing in the road was beyond me. But everything felt clearer in the light of day.

After fifteen minutes exactly, we came upon what seemed to be the edge of town, until after passing a bank, we turned right, drove two blocks and turned into the high school. Seth looked around at all the empty space, even beyond the vacant parking lot and I watched as he realized this wasn’t the outskirts of town, this was the town.

Welcome to Mead, Nebraska; population 571.

Tristan’s truck sat idling near the school building and when I shut off my Jeep, so did Tristan. I gave Seth a quick glance and reassuring smile, before jumping from my car and racing across the parking lot. I didn’t stop to make sure Seth followed me, although I hoped he did, but my eyes were glued on one thing and one thing only.

Tristan Shields stepped out of his white ’98 Chevy Silverado and ran a hand over his closely shaved head. His full lips twisted upward on one side and then his arms opened for the most important girl in his life: me.

I crashed into him with my lightning speed and threw my arms around his neck. I wasn’t sure when we started this tradition, but for as long as I could remember I always ran to Tristan’s arms, even if I just saw him twelve hours ago, even if there was someone else watching.

Tristan reciprocated the hug, holding me close to his body. I was warm, hot even, despite the bitter cold of the day. He dipped his head, so that his face rested in the curve of my neck and I shivered from the tickling breath that danced across her skin.

“Who’s your friend?” Tristan mumbled, lifting his eyes to meet the Angel Warrior standing behind me.

I cleared my throat, saying a quick prayer that the two most significant boys in my life would become best friends too and turned around to Seth. “Tristan, this is Seth. He’s…. he’s my Counterpart.”

Chapter Four

“Nice to meet you, Seth,” Tristan stepped around me, releasing me immediately from his hold and stuck out his hand for the Angel Warrior standing in front of him. “So you’ll be…. uh…. taking care of my girl, is that right?”

I cringed noticing the little possession Tristan let slip into his phrasing. I had explained the whole super-natural relationship thing to him before, but I had also explained how we weren’t supposed to meet for years yet. Maybe I should have warned him that I was bringing Seth….

“Your girl, huh?” Seth shot me a sideways glance before shaking Tristan’s hand. The two boys did their best version of a passive-aggressive manly handshake before taking a step back to size one another up.

I twirled the end of a lose hair tightly around my fingertip nervously. I cut off the blood flow and the tip of my pointer bulged red before I realized it and let the hair go. This wasn’t going quite how I had imagined it should. For some reason I wasn’t picking up the vibe that they would be immediate and life-long best friends.

“So, are you two a…. thing?” Seth asked, his eyes narrowing infinitesimally. I bristled a little at the question, right now the only right he had with me was to protect me from everything evil; a human boyfriend, whether acceptable to the Elders or not, was technically none of his business. Still, it wasn’t like Tristan was just any regular person…. I mean, with every muscle on his body cut to perfection, his tall, lanky frame and his breath-taking smile I knew he could be intimidating. Although Seth was an actual Angel…. no reason to have a superiority complex.

“If by thing, you mean best friends, then yes, we are. Tristan is more like my brother than anything else,” I explained lightly, grabbing onto Tristan’s bicep and shaking it playfully. I looked up at Tristan, craning my neck so I could see him clearly expecting a reassuring smile, the same smile I got every time I explained we were not a couple, but this time the only expression I got in return was a clenched jaw and narrowed eyes.

“So why are you here?” Tristan asked bluntly. “I thought you weren’t supposed to meet until you both turned twenty-five or something?”

“Oh, that’s what I have to talk to you about!” I rushed forward into the conversation, hoping the severity of my situation would distract both boys from whatever weirdness was happening between them. “But you have to be freezing! Let’s go inside, and I’ll explain everything.”

When neither boy made an attempt to move, I decided they would follow me if I took the initiative. I led the way around the building to the back of the school where the locker rooms led out onto the football field. Finding the window that led downward into the boy’s locker room, I jimmied the lock, like I had done for years now and removed the rectangle glass from its frame. I leaned it against the building and then turned to smile at Seth and Tristan who had followed me, although by the scowls on their faces I assumed a bit reluctantly.

“I’ll go first and help you down,” Tristan volunteered. “And you too, Seth, if you need it,” he finished with a challenge.

“I doubt either Stella or I will need your help,” Seth countered, full of confidence.