The Paragon Element (Book 1)

by Jeff Hale

  “Serena, man. It’s so obvious how she feels about you. How can you honestly not see it?” He shook his head and gave me a quizzical look. He was older than me by a year and sometimes acted like it gave him wisdom he didn’t really have.

  “She’s been like a sister to me for a long time, she’s just, I dunno, confused I guess.” I shrugged.

  “No, dude, I think you’re the one confused. You weren’t in any hurry to let her hand go, and Nina saw how you looked at her. I didn’t see it, but then again I guess girls pick up on this stuff a lot easier. Nina said that you look at Serena the same way I look at Nina. Not only that, but you’re the one who was talking about that kiss you had over the Christmas break.”

  “No way. I don’t feel that way about her. I just don’t. That kiss was a mistake. A big one. Granted it wasn’t the first, but I think when we were younger we were just, I dunno, messing around.”

  “Dude! How can you not? She’s a really nice girl, easy to get along with, willing to do anything for the one she wants to be with, and damn she’s gorgeous! Not to mention that rack she’s got goin’ on.” I glared at him and he just shrugged and gave me a sheepish smile. “What the hell’s wrong with you? How could you not want her?”

  “I just can’t think that way about someone I have thought of as a sister for this long is all. I know all that about her, believe me I do, and I see it. I just can’t think about her like that. It’s too weird.”

  “Like I said, you’re the one confused. Man, I swear if I were you, I would get with her in a heartbeat.” He gave me a quick pat on the back before quickening his pace so he could catch up with the group.

  I hung back, thinking about what he said, and thinking about how I really felt. Sure, Dave was right, and I would be a complete idiot to turn Serena down. Then again, if she really were my sister, would I think about her like that? Of course not, but there again, she wasn’t my sister. Not really. We were really good friends, and it seemed that now that we were getting older, it might be growing into something more, something deeper.

  I shook my head, trying to chase away those thoughts, but I couldn’t. Dave was definitely right about one thing, there was no doubt that Serena knew what she wanted. I was the confused one. I looked up and saw Serena looking back at me, and then she stopped and waited for me.

  “What’s wrong, Rick? Ya look upset,” Serena said as she took my hand again.

  I shook her loose. “Nothing, just thinking is all. I’ll catch up in a minute,” I mumbled.

  Serena looked hurt as she headed back towards the group. “Okay, Rick, but I just don’t understand why ya don’t talk ta me anymore,” she said over her shoulder. “I just feel like ya don’t want me around sometimes, and that’s when you come ta visit me even.”

  “Wait, Serena. Of course I want you around. I just… I just don’t want to give you the wrong idea about you and me, and I don’t know what to say or do around you anymore.”

  “Wrong idea about what? We’re just friends, right?”

  “Yeah, right. Guess I worried over nothing.”

  “Yeah, which ya do a lot. I know that ya thought I still wanted ta be with ya, but I gave that up last year. Not like ya’ll’d ever want me anyway.” With that she hurried her pace and caught up to Nina.

  “Yeah… right,” I muttered to myself. I was somehow extremely hurt by what she said, and I wasn’t sure if it was because I knew I had hurt her, or if the fact that she had given up on me hurt.

  I finally caught up as everyone was piling into the car. I got the right side of the backseat, with Serena wedged in next to me, and Dave on the other side of her. It was Nina’s brother’s car and he was driving, so I would just have to put up with the motion sickness. Nina turned up the stereo as Madonna’s “Material Girl” came on. Serena and Nina both sang along to it, dancing in their seats. I ignored it and stared out the window, lost in thought the entire trip home.

  When we got to my house, I helped Serena collect her luggage and carry it into the spare bedroom that I had set up for her, and showed her around. She seemed upset when I showed her the room, but I ignored it; I knew that she had wanted to stay in my room with me.

  My house, or rather my parents’ house that I had inherited, was a typical suburban house. It was a corner lot, and the front yard had lava rock in it held in by red stone edging. There was a small planter box made of brick on the left side as you approached the door.

  As you walked in there was a small entry area by the front door, with a step that led into the sunken living room. To the right a few feet was the entry to the kitchen and to the left was the hall that led to the bedrooms. Further along the right wall in the living room there was another opening that led to the dining room, which also adjoined the kitchen; the back sliding glass door was located there. The backyard actually had grass in it, which was an accomplishment in Las Vegas, and there was a hill that led up to the fence that belonged to the house behind us. The wall that separated our yard from our neighbors was a cinder block affair. At night if you stood on that cinder block wall at the top part of the hill, and looked back towards the house, you could see the lights of the Vegas skyline. Once we were done, Lee waved goodbye and drove off, leaving Nina, Dave, Serena and myself to our own devices.

  “Why don’t we go to my place and play some pool?” Dave asked. He had a pool table in his garage, and we often killed time playing.

  “Sure,” I said as I shrugged. “Sounds like a good a plan as any.” We headed across the street, and continued on down the street that ran east away from the house. Dave lived three streets down from me, so it was a short walk. When we got there, Dave unlocked and raised the garage door.

  The garage was a two and half car garage, so it was plenty spacious. Directly in the center was a worn, but well-taken care of pool table, and behind that was a couch. There were shelves hanging from the walls with various yard implements, power tools, oil, car parts and such scattered on them. On one shelf near the couch was a boombox, which we used to listen to music when we played pool.

  Dave racked and I broke, and we played several games of doubles, just making small talk. I hung back, only really speaking up when I was spoken too, or when someone missed a relevant point or piece of information about an event or situation. A few hours passed in this way, until Serena decided to walk off without warning. Dave and Nina looked at me quizzically, but I just shrugged. Serena was known for being melodramatic sometimes. I figured this was one of those times. Nina threw me a look of disgust as she walked out of the garage after her.

  “Dude, what’s going on?” Dave asked me.

  I shrugged. “I have no idea, man. She’s probably just having one of her drama fits. She does this on occasion. I don’t know why. Maybe to get attention, but it doesn’t make sense now. She was getting plenty of attention.”

  “Unless she wasn’t getting attention from who she wanted attention from.”

  “Couldn’t be. We cleared that up earlier. She said she’d given up on me last year and that we were just going to be friends.”

  “Right. That girl ain’t givin’ up on you at all. And I don’t think she plans to.”

  “Whatever, I think I’m gonna go home and get some sleep. It’s late. Tell her to not be too much longer when Nina brings her back,” I said as I looked at the clock. One in the morning was later than I usually stayed up to begin with.

  I walked home, and once I got there, I plopped on the couch and turned on the television, hoping that there might be something good on to watch while I waited for Serena to come back. I had to make sure the house was locked up, and I didn’t want to lock her out.

  About fifteen minutes later Serena opened the door slowly and quietly shut it behind her, then made her way to her room, never once saying anything. The tension was almost too much. I turned off the TV, and checked all the doors to make sure they were closed and locked, then went to bed. Sleep didn’t come easily, and I could hear her crying in the next room. I wanted to go and co
mfort her, but I wasn’t sure she wanted me to.

  I woke up the next morning, planning on cooking breakfast for Serena and myself, but when I checked in on her, she wasn’t there. I didn’t think too much of it, figuring she needed some space, and decided to make breakfast for myself. After I was done eating, I started to wonder where she could have gone. I figured back down to Dave’s to hang out. A couple more hours passed, and I decided to go make sure that was where she was.

  I got to Dave’s and noticed the back gate open, which meant that he and whoever else were back in the pool in the backyard. My suspicions were confirmed when I heard a splash, and Serena’s laughter. I headed through the gate and around the house, and stopped cold in my tracks.

  Serena was there, all right, being really friendly with some guy I didn’t know. They were both in the pool, he was in the midst of tickling her, and she was pressed up against him, squirming and giggling all the while. Nina and Dave were nearby splashing water at each other. Serena looked up at me and smiled slyly, or at least I could have sworn that was the expression that had crossed her features for the briefest of moments.

  “Heya, Rick! This is Aaron, one of Nina’s friends. She introduced me ta him this morning,” she said, still squirming as he tickled her mercilessly. He stopped briefly enough to wave at me.

  “Get away from her…” I mumbled. Or at least I must have mumbled it at first because no one reacted. Like I wasn’t there. That tore it. First no one thought to invite me to this little get together, and then Nina went and introduced Serena to one of her sleazy guy friends. And then he had the gall to touch her.

  “Get the fuck away from her!” I growled, glaring directly at the guy, so that there was no mistake who I was talking to.

  “Rick! There’s no need for ya ta start acting like a six year old. We aren’t on the playground anymore. Ya’ll don’t need ta protect me,” Serena yelled back. Her hands were clenched, and I knew she was actually mad at me right now. I mean really mad. That was fine, so was I, and I could swear it felt like the air was getting warmer around me by the minute.

  “Hey, man, Nina said you weren’t interested in her like that. So when I asked her out, I figured it was her choice. She said yes,” Aaron said, as he took a step back away from her.

  “You just shut the fuck up and leave her alone. If I ever see you touching her again, I’ll make sure you come away with stumps instead of hands. I mean, what are you? Like twenty? She’s way too young for you anyway.” I took a step towards the pool, with every intent to leap into it to kick this guy’s ass. I wasn’t sure if I really could, he was older, and bigger than me, and he looked like he could take care of himself, but I didn’t care.

  “No, I’m seventeen. If you don’t stop yelling at me like that, I’m going to start getting pissed, and I’m gonna have to kick your ass if you can’t respect your friend’s decision,” he said as he made his way to the steps of the pool.

  “Come on then.” I moved to meet him at the steps.

  “You know what? Fuck it, you ain’t worth this, and neither is she. I don’t need this kind of shit. You can just keep her, man. Damn.” With that, Aaron got out of the pool, headed to a pile of clothing by the table and went inside after drying off. He never came back out the back door.

  “I told you this was a bad idea. You should never have had him come over,” Dave said, chuckling to himself.

  “Well I had to see for myself. Looks like I was right.” Nina shrugged.

  “What? See what? What the hell are you two babbling about over there?” I asked, still pissed, but I was starting to calm down, the overly warm feeling fading.

  “Oh, nothing,” Nina said with a knowing smile.

  “I swear, Rick. For someone who ain’t interested in me in that way, ya sure got awful jealous. I reckon ya might just love me after all,” Serena said with a slight smile. She was still mad and her accent got thicker when she was angry.

  “Well… he had no… right… touching you like that. Wasn’t right is all I’m saying,” I managed to get out. Here I was completely flustered by her presence again, of course it didn’t help that she was in a bathing suit. It was a shiny blue color, and despite it being a one piece, I was still seeing plenty from my vantage point. Maybe everyone was right, but I still couldn’t bring myself to accept it completely. It was still just too weird.

  “Don’t worry, Rick, I won’t stay mad at ya forever, but I think we need ta talk. Like we used ta.” Serena moved towards the steps.

  I took her hand and helped her out of the pool. My heart skipped a beat as I pulled her close. She was just inches away from me, and I could smell her hair and the unmistakable aroma of chlorine mixed with the scent of her skin. I looked down into her eyes, and I almost stopped breathing.

  “Serena… I… I mean, yeah, let’s talk,” I muttered as I pulled away from her. My heart was pounding in my chest now, and I swore that everyone could hear it. I led her over to the table so she could get dried off.

  “Do ya think you could ever love me?” Serena blurted out after she sat in one of the lawn chairs.

  “Uh… um… that is, no, yeah, I dunno. I’m just really confused about all this. Can we leave it at that?” I asked, looking at the ground. I couldn’t meet her eyes. I just knew I’d see her hurting when I said that.

  “It’s okay. I just want ya ta know that I love ya, and I’ll wait fer ya. You’re the only guy I could ever see myself with, and ya’ll will be the only guy for me as long as I live. Ya need time ta figure all this out, I get that. I’ve been reading a lot about this sort of thing, and I know ya’ll will figure it out when you’re ready to. Let’s just enjoy the time we have together, okay? Can we stop being mad at each other, and at least be the friends we’re supposed to be while I’m here? I really miss having fun with ya, Rick.”

  I looked up and she smiled at me. A warm glowing smile that spoke volumes of her feelings towards me. “Uh, okay sure. Sounds great to me. I’ll try not to let my confusion mess up our fun again, okay? And you try not to push this until I can figure it out. Deal?” I looked at her, pleading with her to just let it drop so we could go back to our friendship the way it was, though I knew then it would never be the way it was.

  “Deal! Now you’re gonna go change and get in that pool, or I’m gonna push ya in!” Serena leapt out of the chair, ran towards the pool, and dove in.

  I shook my head and headed to my house to get changed. I knew I made it to the house, and I knew that I got back and into the pool, but those memories were fading in and out. I knew that we had fun for the rest of that day.

  I knew that the days to follow were equally fun, and confusing at the same time. I remembered being close to Serena during those days, and I remembered on several occasions almost kissing her, I wanted to, so badly. I couldn’t bring myself to do it, not in front of everyone else. It would have been admitting to everyone that something was going on between her and me, and if I did that, I’d have to admit it to myself. Later in the evenings, though, was a different story. Once we were alone, I kissed her plenty, and more besides.

  Those memories were still there, in my mind somewhere. But they were vague, fuzzy now, as I woke up to the present, slowly but surely. My last memory was of Serena’s emerald green eyes as I opened mine and found myself looking into the brilliant blue eyes of my familiar.

  Where the hell was I again? Oh yeah, that’s right. This was not a good way to wake up from such pleasant memories.

  Dammit.

  ELEVEN

  “Finally! I thought you weren’t ever gonna wake up.” Talon’s voice was a psychic whisper in my head.

  “Yeah, he hit me pretty hard.” I groaned slightly as I tried to move. The first thing I noticed was the hard embrace of manacles around my wrists. I was chained to the wall behind me. Then it hit me. “Talon! You’re here?!”

  “Yeah. Against my better judgment, but it looked like if I didn’t save your sorry ass, no one was,” he said, annoyance clear in his voice.
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br />   I glanced around and saw that I was still in the same chamber, except now the altar was empty, and the lich was nowhere to be seen. I looked to my left and saw Jessie. She seemed relatively unharmed but she had been chained to the wall next to me. I was glad to see her unhurt, but I had to wonder why she was even here.

  “She’s fine. The creep left, muttering something to himself. Sounded like you disrupted a ritual to summon some undead monstrosity, and he needs new ingredients,” Talon said as he swatted a paw at my chains. To my surprise, and his, they rattled slightly as he did so.

  “Hmm, interesting. They must be enchanted to some degree,” I said hurriedly, surprised that Talon was able to affect the chains. “Quick, see if you can break them.”

  Talon nodded at me, then braced his front paws against the wall and started to chew on the chain on my right arm. He snapped it like it was a chicken bone. The links shattered and my arm was free. It had to have been held together by pure Aetheric energies, enchanted, for Talon to get through them so quickly, because normally he was either treated as incorporeal, or a regular wolf if he made himself corporeal. He quickly broke through the other one, and then started working on Jessie’s.

  Once Talon was done with her chains, I picked her up and threw her over my shoulder, wincing a little because I was still in some serious pain. I found her clothing in a pile in one corner, grabbed those up as well, and then started to head out. I could put her clothes on her later; life before propriety. As I headed past the altar, I noticed a book open on it and my daggers. How he had found them, I wasn’t sure, but I wasn’t going to wait around and ask. I grabbed my daggers, then the book as well, pilling it with Jessie’s clothing.

  As I turned away, Amar was suddenly standing in front of me. I dropped Jessie and the clothes and book as gently as I could, then ignited my daggers as he rushed me, this time more than willing to get physical.

  He swatted me with his right hand and I went reeling to the side, feeling my jaw crack a little. So much for him not being well-versed in his vampiric abilities. He was fucking strong, and his necromantic abilities were off the charts powerful. Fucking wonderful.