by Tee, Marian
~~~
Lucian was right. There was a Jacuzzi. I smiled wistfully as I let my fingers trail the smooth cold surface of the black and gold marble tiles. This was what I had envisioned an Evren lifestyle was all about. But I would give it all up just to have my family back.
Well, to have my family back and the Chevalier brothers.
When the Jacuzzi was adequately filled with warm, scented, foamy water, I took off my clothes and got in. I closed my eyes, my body relaxing gradually against the tub’s slick walls.
I remembered my conversation with The Voice and it made me smile. But soon, my memories turned ugly as I relived my encounter with the Zekan. They turned uglier still as I recalled the night I lost my parents and Davie.
Tears and not water soon wetted my cheeks.
Questions I had never dared ask myself suddenly rose to the fore.
What could I have been thinking, acting like everything in my life was normal, going to school and crushing on a tall, dark, and silent hottie? My parents were dead—no, they were murdered. My sister was in a coma. The creatures that had harmed them were still on the loose.
What was I doing to avenge them?
I grabbed a tissue from the box behind me and blew my nose. I switched off the tap, having lost pleasure in lounging around in the Jacuzzi. Without the whirling buzz of water, the bathroom was once again encased in silence. I rubbed myself dry before padding toward the bed. I was only planning to rest, but I drifted off to a dreamless sleep as soon as my head hit the pillows.
~~~
Dyvian’s loud angry voice woke me.
“Did you really think I wouldn’t have figured it out? Did you really think I was that stupid? If you thought it had taken me too long to realize what you’ve been doing, it’s only because I couldn’t believe you’d do something like that. How can you be so manipulative, dammit?”
Lucian’s reply was muffled, and I shook my head groggily, unable to completely comprehend what I was hearing.
“You’re being unfair. How long will you continue hiding this?” Incredulity and contempt underscored Dyvian’s tone, making me wonder what Lucian could have done to make Dyvian so furious. He always took perverse pleasure in irritating Lucian, but there was no hiding how much he worshiped his brother. I had never heard him speak an ill word against Lucian till now.
The fight was more than enough to waken me fully. I got off the bed in a hurry and grabbed the bathrobe hanging on the door, shrugging into it and securing it with a tightly knotted belt around my waist as I crossed the room.
I opened the bedroom door just in time to hear Lucian reply, “It’s not how you think it is, dammit. I had no bad intentions when I first did it. It took me completely by surprise and then—”
“Deli,” Dyvian sputtered, his eyes widening when he saw me in the doorway. Disconcerted surprise briefly crossed his eyes, so fast that I could have imagined it.
Lucian spun around at the sound of my name, his face pale but inscrutable.
I approached them anxiously. “What’s happening?”
“It’s nothing,” Lucian said very firmly.
“It’s not nothing,” Dyvian retorted, fury rekindling in his eyes.
“We will not talk about this in front of Deli if you know what’s good for you.” His eyes were hard on his brother’s face. “What’s good for all of us.”
“What are you guys talking about?” I burst out, the tension in the room reaching almost palpable heights.
Both of them ignored me. Dyvian stared back, his eyes just as hard. “Then I want you to explain why you did it.”
Lucian’s response was a jerky nod.
“Now.”
Lucian stiffened but he nodded all the same. He glanced at me and said with perfect politeness, “Will you excuse us for a minute, Deli?”
“I…” My voice trailed off and I ended up nodding instead, realizing that at the moment, nothing I could say would prevent them from having the face-off both of them seemed to want.
Dyvian stormed toward the balcony while Lucian followed sedately, closing the glass doors behind him. I stiffened in nervous anticipation, dreading what a dragon battle between two strong Evren like the Chevalier brothers could result in. Honestly, why couldn’t boys just learn to fight like girls and resort to subversive tactics and backstabbing?
When minutes passed and no blood was spilled, I began to relax. Maybe, those two were smarter than other members of their sex. They were certainly smart enough to keep their voices too low for me to eavesdrop, even with the benefit of Evren hearing.
Lip reading wasn’t one of my talents either, forcing me to make my own conclusions based on what I could see. Dyvian was speaking in a furious rush, pacing in an agitated fashion, his hands clenched at his sides. Lucian, however, looked as calm as he always did, but his mouth was tight, biting out each word he spoke.
“Well?” I demanded when they walked back into the living room.
“Were you worried, little sister?” Dyvian flashed me his usual charming smile.
I couldn’t make myself smile back just yet. “Is everything okay now?”
“Of course it is. Big bro and I just had a little misunderstanding. But it’s all okay now.” He winked at Lucian. “Isn’t it?”
Lucian didn’t answer as he reclaimed his seat on the sofa.
“Aww, come on. Don’t be such a spoilsport. Everything’s okay now, isn’t it?”
Lucian stared at him. As the seconds ticked by, my trepidation increased. Didn’t Dyvian know he was skating on very thin ice? Why was he so bent on provoking Lucian when he was in this kind of mood?
When Lucian finally spoke, I expected him to bite Dyvian’s head off, but all he said was, “Yes. It’s okay. Satisfied?”
My jaw dropped. Lucian’s voice was colder than usual, true, but it was the only indication he showed of his displeasure. Lucian never let Dyvian have the upper hand in their arguments, so why was he giving in to Dyvian now?
Something smelled fishy here, and it stirred up my protective instincts. I took an aggressive step forward to Dyvian, tiptoeing so I could look him in the eye. “Are you blackmailing your brother?”
He choked. “What?”
“You heard me.”
“Unbelievable.”
Lucian cleared his throat. “Deli—”
“It’s okay, Lucian. I’ll handle this.” I flashed him a reassuring smile, and when he returned it, my heart did its stupid fluttering dance and my protective instincts swelled up. I tore my gaze from Lucian to give Dyvian the most ferocious scowl I could muster. “Are you blackmailing him?”
He huffed. “Why do you assume I’m the one blackmailing him and not the other way around?”
“Because Lucian would never do that.” I turned to beam at Lucian. “Right, Lucian?”
“Well,” he deflected in all modesty.
“See?”
“He just said ‘well’!”
“Lucian is honorable. He’s always fair and honest, unlike some people.” Lucian coughed behind me and I turned to him in concern. “Lucian?”
“Dyvian’s—ah, not that bad and he wasn’t really blackmailing me.” He avoided my gaze.
I snorted. “You don’t need to defend him.”
“You’re being unfair.” Dyvian’s twinkling eyes made it obvious he wasn’t taking any of this seriously. “I can be nice, too. In fact, I was actually arguing with Lucian out of concern for you.”
“For me?”
“Dyvian,” Lucian hissed at the same time.
My eyes flitted back and forth between the two brothers. “What, exactly, were you arguing about?”
“The Voice,” Dyvian intoned, letting the words fall from his tongue like they held the key to the universe’s secrets.
“For God’s sake,” Lucian muttered.
I blinked several times. “The Voice? You mean, like The Voice Lucian and I can hear and you can’t?”
A strangely ironic smile played on Dyvian’s lips.
“Got it in one, Deli. Since he’s so much older and experienced than you are, I wanted to make sure he’d educate you properly about The Voice.”
“How?”
He sat on the other end of the sofa and extended his arms on the back. “Like the fact that The Voice shouldn’t listen to your thoughts all the time.”
I frowned. “Shouldn’t listen—”
“He means hear,” Lucian stepped in quickly. “The Voice may not be able to hear you all the time. We know so little about it that it would be foolish to rely on it too much.”
“In fact, I think you should tell me everything The Voice says,” Dyvian suggested. “Sometimes, you need an outside perspective, and though Lucian here is smarter than I am, he could have been brainwashed—” Dyvian ignored the choking sound coming from Lucian, “—by The Voice.”
“The Voice,” he continued in an oddly careful tone, “just isn’t something you should fully trust at this stage.”
“Dyvian—”
But Dyvian went on, ignoring Lucian’s interruption. “It’s just not safe for you to completely believe what it’s saying, even if it never wants to hurt you.”
The amount of concern Dyvian was exhibiting unnerved me, and I blurted out, “So when it told me I’m the girl Lucian cares most about, The Voice could have misunderstood things?” I clapped my hands over my mouth right after, embarrassed at the sort of beans I had spilled.
Dyvian’s eyes gleamed. “It said that?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
“It was lying,” Lucian gritted.
“It wasn’t,” Dyvian countered.
“Lucian?” I appealed, hurt by his words.
For a second there, I thought Lucian would be stubborn—and cruel—enough to maintain his stony silence, but in the end, he just shrugged.
I took that as a yes and nearly jumped in happiness. “Then it’s true,” I enthused. “I am the girl you care about most!”
“Like a little sister,” he snarled.
I opened my mouth to argue but Dyvian forestalled with a shake of his head. “Give the poor guy a break, Deli.”
I grinned. “Poor guy indeed.” I sent Lucian a look of sham sympathy. “I’ve noticed how hard it is for him to acknowledge his true feelings.”
Lucian snatched a magazine from the coffee table, held it up until it covered his entire face, and began to flip through it.
“You’re reading Vogue?”
“Whatever,” he muttered, completely focused on page flipping.
I stepped close to Dyvian and nudged him with my foot to gain his attention. “That’s really what you guys were talking about?”
“In a nutshell,” he answered with a lazy shrug.
“Lucian?”
Lucian grunted.
But somehow, I still wasn’t completely convinced. “I don’t think you guys are telling me the truth, but I’ll let it go for now.”
“How magnanimous of you.” Lucian lowered the magazine long enough to snarl.
“True,” I replied airily while promising myself to Google what magnani-something meant. Davie had never used that with me.
Dyvian grinned. “Admit it, Deli. You just don’t know what—”
“Anyway,” I interrupted him, “I’ve been doing some thinking and I have a little announcement to make.”
“The floor’s yours.” Dyvian waved a negligent hand.
I took a deep breath. “I want you two to teach me everything there is to know about Evren powers.” My announcement took them by surprise, which I expected.
“That’s a sensible decision to make,” Lucian began.
“Especially when the last time we tried to teach you those things, you told us you only wanted to learn the easiest and coolest stuff,” Dyvian ended.
“Well, I’ve changed my mind.”
Lucian’s eyes settled on me in steady contemplation. “What is this for?”
Another deep breath. “I need to learn everything because I want to kill my parents’ murderers.”
Chapter Nine
My task list for my third day in school—second day, technically, considering the little mishap the day before—was slightly unique. Catch up with homework, catch up with Audrey, practice becoming the toughest Evren chick in town, and maybe, if I was lucky, get Lucian to flirt with me.
But first, I had to get past the bullies. Beautiful, sexy, and blonde, but you know how bullies come in all shapes and sizes.
“And here I was thinking you had chickened out when you didn’t show up for school yesterday.”
If Queen Melissa thought I was still going to play nice, she was wrong. Suicidally wrong. I hadn’t slept a wink last night. Whether I had my eyes open or closed, the images I saw in my mind stayed the same—Zekans murdering my parents, Zekans after me, and Zekans after Davie.
Needless to say, thoughts of Zekans didn’t put me in a good mood.
“Don’t draw attention to yourself,” the Voice spoke inside my head just as I opened my mouth to let small-town Barbie know exactly what I was capable of. And I wasn’t even talking about my Evren powers.
“You’re going to endanger everyone—yourself and even your sister.”
I snapped my mouth shut and pasted a smile on my face. “We just had things to do in Vegas.”
“Whatever.” Melissa’s fingers made a talking motion.
And that was it.
Gaping as she flounced off with the rest of her entourage, I stayed rooted to my spot, unable to believe that was the end to today’s bullying session.
“You’re wondering why she’s letting you off so easily, huh?” Audrey suddenly popped in front me with a smirk.
I squealed, throwing my arms around her. “I missed you.”
She pulled away with a grimace. “Deli. It’s not as if we hadn’t seen each other in a million years. And it’s not like we’re BFF or something.” She wrinkled her nose.
I gave her my most winning smile. “But you missed me anyway, didn’t you?”
“Whatever.” She even mimicked Melissa’s expression and hand gesture, making me laugh.
I curled my arm through hers. “Anything interesting happen yesterday?” It was so nice to be with someone so…uncomplicated. I mean, not that I was belittling what happened between her and her jerk of an ex, but at least she wasn’t getting targeted by reptilian bloodsuckers right?
“Give yourself a month and you’ll know how stupid that question is.”
“Stop putting Sanger High down and show some school spirit—”
“God, I knew it.” She gave me a pained look. “You were a cheerleader in your old school, weren’t you?”
“Yeeeees, and I don’t know about here, but in my old school, cheerleaders weren’t synonymous to nose-picking, prejudiced serial killers.” That was how she made cheerleaders sound—disgusting, snooty, and evil.
She smiled grudgingly. “Fine. Maybe there are rare—really rare—exceptions.”
“I knew you could stop being cynical for five seconds.” We had about five minutes before first period started and we took our time walking to class. “So, what about yesterday? Anything interesting I missed?”
Audrey pretended to think hard. “Let me see…our lit teacher was absent because he had to hold a memorial service for his pet.”
“Aww.”
“It was a pig.”
I choked back a laugh. “But still sad.”
“Exciting, isn’t it?” Audrey drawled as we reached her room.
She probably hadn’t noticed how guys left and right had been checking us both out, but I had. Personally, I wasn’t interested—I was a one-man woman, and it was Lucian for me. But as for Audrey…I was sure a number of them would have gladly asked her out if not for Matthew’s lies.
Maybe if I was not so busy learning how to be a proper Evren, I could figure out a way to get rid of Audrey’s ugly reputation.
P.E. was another class I shared with Audrey. She was baffled when she realized how serious I was about learni
ng basketball, the sport assigned for us juniors.
“You heard what Coach said,” I told her while practicing dribbling the ball. “Basketball won’t just improve your aim and accuracy but it can also develop your speed, grace, and reflexes.” And I definitely needed all three to beat up some snakes.
Audrey’s eyes widened and she immediately checked my forehead. “You’re not running a fever.” Her eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me you’re a closet sports buff?”
“Of course not.”
“Then why all this interest in basketball? It’s not like you’ve got to be the next Michael Jordan to pass this class.”
Because I need to practice fire shooting? Tail-whipping? Flying? All honest answers but the truth wouldn’t fly right now, no pun intended.
“Well, ahh—” An image of Lucian entered my mind. He tended be the first person I thought of when I was in trouble.
Inspiration struck. “It’s Lucian,” I confided and dribbled the ball some more. “He likes it when a girl’s good at sports, and I thought basketball would be a nice sport to learn.”
“I can teach you,” a voice offered from behind.
Wesley jogged into view, his good-looking face creased with a smile. Since he was playing for the varsity team, he didn’t have to wear our P.E. uniform. He had on Sanger High’s red and gold basketball jersey instead, and it showed off his buff body to perfection.
Not as good as Lucian’s, of course, but still good.
Wesley smiled at my friend. “Audrey, right?”
I waited for Audrey to act all cool and sarcastic like she usually did and readied myself to apologize on her behalf.
My jaw slackened when Audrey’s face slowly cracked with a rare smile. “Yeah. You’re, uhh, Wesley, right?” Audrey’s voice was completely unlike her. You know, sweet, cute, and nice. Not that she wasn’t all of those, but she tended to keep such traits hidden behind her cool, cynical, badass persona.
“Yup. Glad to meet you officially,” he replied even as his eyes were embarrassingly glued to me.