“Take my hand.” His voice is so tender all I can do is comply, and I slip my hand into his. He pulls me up and looks over my face. “She hurt you.”
I don’t reply as he gently places his fingers on my nose. The sting along with the tight feeling eases, and before I can say anything, I watch as he leans down and traces the bruise forming on my shin with his fingers. The bruise disappears in an instant, and he stands back up, towering over me as usual, but this time with a soft smile and kindness in every feature.
“I have to go,” he whispers.
“Take me with you.” I barely manage to squeak the words, but still, he hears them. Looking between the door and me, he considers his choices. I quickly grab his hand again. “Please,” I beg softly.
Nodding, he lifts me into his arms as soft blue wings spread from his back, and then we’re flying.
“Where are we going?” I ask as we sail across the sky.
No one seems to notice us. It’s like we’re invisible.
He looks down at me as though I’m his whole world, and I wish, just for a second, that the real Jacobi felt the same way about me.
“Where do you want to go?” he questions.
“What are my choices?”
“Good or bad.”
I smile. “Good, always good.”
He nods and looks away from me as we continue flying. We don’t speak, but I take in the sun setting across the London skyline until he tilts and starts lowering us down onto a rooftop.
“Where are we?” I ask him.
“On top of Great Ormond Street hospital.”
My breath catches in my chest. “What are we here to do?”
He captures my hand. “Come and see.”
Silently, I follow him, our hands joined. No one seems to notice either of us. It’s as though we’re ghosts. We stop outside a room. The door’s closed, and I wonder how we’re going to get inside, but Jacobi drags me through the solid door as though it’s air. I have the weirdest feeling that I’ve been here before, but I can’t pin it down. Inside the room, it’s bright with happy colours and pictures covering the walls. There are personal belongings and a pretty blanket laid across the small body in the bed.
“Hello there,” Jacobi coos down at the figure.
The little boy’s eyes open, and he stares at us. His blue eyes are dull and sunken, his skin ashen, and both the hair on his head and his eyebrows have disappeared.
“Have you come to take me?” he questions, looking directly into Jacobi’s eyes, not a sliver of fear in him.
“Is that what you want?” Jacobi asks the little boy.
“Well, my mum has just gone to talk to the doctor, and I think she would be sad to see me die, so maybe now is the best time,” the boy replies.
“What’s your name?” I ask him.
“Tommy… well, it’s Thomas, but Mummy and Daddy call me Tommy,” he confirms.
I smile down at him. “How old are you, Tommy?”
“Eight, I’ll be nine in two months,” he says, holding up eight fingers, then he pauses and frowns down at his hand. “I would have been nine.”
I look at Jacobi. “He’s so smart and grown up.”
“Those who are dying see the world differently from the rest of us. It’s a very special thing and yet terribly sad,” he murmurs before moving to the bed and seating himself on the edge, still not letting go of my hand. “Tommy, I’m going to place my hand on your head, is that okay?”
Tommy nods, and his eyes dart to the door. For the first time, I see a sliver of fear in them. Jacobi places his palm on Tommy’s head, and I watch as a blue aura flows from Jacobi’s fingers into the little boy. Tommy closes his eyes, and his head drops to one side when Jacobi pulls his hand away.
“What happened?” I ask.
“Watch,” Jacobi replies as we stand in the corner.
Suddenly, Tommy’s machines start going crazy and beeping like he’s dying. My fingers tense in Jacobi’s, but he squeezes them offering me comfort as two nurses, a doctor, and a woman, who I assume is Tommy’s mum, run into the room. The mum is screaming, and the nurses are shouting at each other while the doctor is barking orders. They haul Tommy around, trying to do multiple things at once, and I want to go to his mum. I want to hold her as the tears riding down her cheekbones match my own. Then, as though the clouds open and sunlight beams down on the little boy, he sits up, he breathes, and he smiles. The nurses and doctor look at each other confused, but the mum, she’s the person I keep my eyes on, she collects her little boy in her arms and thanks God over and over again as she rocks his frail body.
“Come on. Time to go,” Jacobi tells me.
“Will he be okay?” I ask and Jacobi nods, settling my emotions slightly. As he drags me through the corridors and back up onto the roof, I look around me. “There are so many more you could save.”
He looks down at me, sadness in his eyes. “I can’t save everyone.”
His words repeat over and over in my head as we fly through the ever darkening sky until he lands on my balcony. “You’re dropping me off?” I question, and he shakes his head. “You want to come in?”
He nods, and I open the balcony door to save us ghosting through it. “You want anything?” I ask.
He shakes his head again. “Can I lay down? Rest on your sofa?”
“Of… of course.” My voice is rough, full of emotion from the events of tonight. “Will you remember this when you wake?”
“I always remember you, Juniper. You’re all I do remember.” With that parting shot, he finally lets go of my hand, and within seconds of lying on the sofa, he’s asleep.
Determined to do anything I can to help, I open the document he sent me and start reading it again, trying to understand what’s happening.
Typically, a Guardian shouldn’t be in pain when they change, and they can remember what they’ve done, where they’ve gone, and they’re able to choose between killing and saving the people they visit. I scroll through the words, trying to absorb everything. It seems when the person is in Guardian form, they are unbiased and never make choices based on their own emotions, because when they’re in Guardian form…they have none.
I read that last part over and over, tapping my bottom lip with my nail in confusion. Jacobi wasn’t cold, and he didn’t behave like he had no emotion. Maybe that’s why he’s different? But there has to be more to it than that. I walk out onto my balcony and watch as the stars become clearer in the sky. It’s a chilly night, but it’s also a calm one. Why did the hospital seem so familiar? I was adopted when I was eight, and something in my gut tells me that if I was a patient in that hospital, it must have been before I was adopted.
Jacobi murmurs something in his sleep, and I wander back inside. He’s physically back to normal now, but his dark hair, tanned skin, and sharp features all seem softer in sleep. The long eyelashes which help to frame his pretty, blue eyes now lie softly against his cheeks, and I want to touch him, but I don’t. It’s not what he really wants. No. I do have to help him, though, so maybe I need to find something to distract me from my feelings for him. Maybe I should find someone to date? Lucas or any other of Jacobi’s friends are completely out of the question, but I do need a distraction while I’m helping him discover the truth in this mess.