“Hey, Bristol,” I heard someone call out as I made my way to class.
Turning around, I saw Maggie and Toby marching up to me, hand in hand. It was still a little strange seeing them together. Not because I didn’t think it was wonderful, but because he was so large and shy and she was so small and so not shy. Toby was dressed in simple blue jeans and a white polo shirt. Maggie wore a neon outfit with nearly every color of the rainbow.
“What’s up?” I asked them.
“My dad wanted me to tell you that the puppies are ready go home,” Toby said. “I can bring the one you picked by your place, if you like. Dad said I could have one, too.”
“Toby’s a big animal lover,” Maggie said. “Although he mostly has cats.”
“Cool.” I pictured Toby petting a teeny tiny kitten. “When?”
“Tomorrow around noon?” Toby asked.
“Sounds good. I’ll see you then.” As the bell rang, we made our way into class. Maggie and I had science lab together.
“I am so totally in love with Toby. And I think he loves me. He’s just shy. I mean, when he met my parents, he wouldn’t stop blushing the entire time. My dad was telling me that when he saw Toby coming up the driveway, he was shocked. I mean, Toby could bench press our couch with me, Mom, and Dad sitting on it. Yet he was so quiet and sweet. Mom adores him. You realize that if I marry Toby and you marry Payne, we’ll be like in-laws.”
I tried to picture what a Maggie wedding would look like. Just the thought of the bridesmaids’ dresses was so loud it gave me a headache.
“All right,” Our teacher said. “For today we are going to split into pairs and examine the slides that we’ve been studying the last month and see which team can label them all correctly. Everyone come up to the front and pull out a number. Then go to the microscope with the corresponding number. No choosing your own partners.”
There was a collective protest which Mr. Riley ignored. He made us all form a line to one side and come up and take a number, warning us not to switch. My guess was that this was the schools latest effort to try and get the students to talk to people outside of their own clicks. I approved of the effort. I just wish I didn’t have to be a part of it.
Maggie pouted that we weren’t going to be able to work together, but her face lit up when she realized she’d be partnering with Cassie. I pulled out the number twenty two, which was the microscope in the back of the classroom where I found my partner waiting for me.
Priscilla didn’t smile as she realized who was going to be working with her, but she didn’t sneer either. I suppose that was progress considering this time last year, she and I were bitter enemies and not too long ago, I’d found her making out with Payne while they’d both been ‘mind pushed’ by a member of my family who was trying to get us to break up. We’d seemed to have made an unofficial peace pact since speaking about it and she confided in me that she believed someone had drugged her.
“You know,” Priscilla said, as I sat down next to her, “you aren’t the first girl to become a mother before graduating high school, but you are the first person to do it by adoption.”
“I’m not old enough to adopt Seth,” I said. “Right now, my uncle and Payne’s aunt are fostering him. Seth and I are just very close.”
“It’s more than that,” Priscilla said. I was surprised when I didn’t hear sarcasm in her voice. “I saw you the other day at the mall, clothes shopping with him and Payne. Kid looked to you every five seconds. Whenever someone new came into the store, he’d get scared and move a little closer to your side. I felt bad for him.”
I gave Priscilla the arched eyebrow look.
“Not because of you,” Priscilla clarified. “He’s so frightened. I don’t even want to imagine what happened to him.”
I fiddled with the microscope, grateful that Priscilla wasn’t asking for details.
“I don’t really want to talk about it,” I said.
“I understand. He shouldn’t have his business broadcast throughout this town. I heard that they haven’t caught everyone who was responsible,” She paused. “Are you worried about someone coming for him? Trying to get custody or something?”
I shrugged.
“Or something,” I said. “They’re not getting anywhere near him.”
Priscilla considered me as we worked in silence for a few moments. I’d put a slide onto the microscope, take a look and write down what I thought it was on my worksheet, then pass it to Priscilla. She’d do the same and then we’d compare answers to verify that we agreed. Halfway through the pile of slides, there had been no disagreements on identifying the slides. Or anything else for that matter.
“That day at the mall,” she said. “I watched the way he looked at you. How much he loves you. I’ll never get him to look at me that way.”
I blinked at Priscilla.
“Would you want Seth to look at you that way?”
Priscilla rolled her eyes.
“Not him. Payne. Do you even realize how much his face lights up when he sees you?”
“Gee,” I said. “That almost sounds like a compliment.”
She shrugged, gesturing to Maggie and Cassie, who were giggling about something a few desks away. “How those two landed McKnight boys, I have no idea. I’m still trying to figure out how you got Payne.”
I smiled. “I still wonder about that myself sometimes,” I said. “I just know that I love him and he loves me. We’re best friends. We’re there for each other.”
Priscilla became quiet. I could tell there was more she wanted to say, but hadn’t quite worked up the nerve to say it.
Finally, she put her pencil down. “I guess you two really do belong together. Any idiot can see that. Even me.”
She didn’t look at me when she said that.
“Thank you,” I said. “I mean it.”
She glanced up. I could see she felt uncomfortable, but she apparently had more to say.
“Yeah, well.” Her eyes focused on her pencil, as if she expected it to get up and do a dance. “I kinda owed you. You believed me when I told you that I had been drugged. And you stood up for me when people were saying nasty things about me. I don’t think I would have done the same for you. And I guess there’s a part of me that’s jealous. I wish some guy would look at me the way Payne looks at you.”
Now I was glad that Priscilla wasn’t looking at me. My mouth was hanging open. When I was able to close it, I reached out and put my on hers.
“You will,” I said.
Priscilla froze for a moment. I withdrew my hand and we went back to work.
“Just do me a favor,” she said, looking up again. “Don’t set me up like you did with Archer. Okay? I can get my own men. And besides,” she glanced at Cassie and Maggie, “you have this annoying habit of seeing the wonderful person inside and not paying attention to what’s outside. I care a lot about the outside.”
I laughed.
“Got it,” I said. I realized that if I did try to fix her up, I’d have to be much more subtle about it.
When class ended, Maggie caught up with me.
“I’m so sorry you got stuck with Princess P.”
I glanced back at Priscilla, who was heading in the other direction. “She was fine. And stop calling her that.”
“Why?” Maggie asked.
“Because it’s not nice. It isn’t nice when she calls us names, and it isn’t nice for us to do it to her. Okay?”
Maggie shrugged. “Fine.”
Over the last few weeks, Payne and I had gotten so accustomed to taking care of Seth that we felt weird taking time for ourselves. However, we figured it be nice to go have some time to ourselves and our friends, and made arrangements to go see a movie.
After the movie, we were all hungry, and we faced the dilemma of where to go. Should we choose Frank’s, where they had the best onion rings, or the dinner in the mall for milkshake? We voted, but it came up a tie. Payne flipped a coin and we ended up at the mall.
By nine o’clock, everyone started to go their own ways. As we got into his car, Payne asked if I wanted to go home. I checked my phone. No texts.
“Let me call home,” I said. “See how Seth is doing.”
The phone rang once before Zack answered.
“Zack’s Pizza,” he said “We deliver.”
“Give me fifty-seven pizzas with pineapple, spinach and live worms,” I said. “And don’t be chintzy with the worms. I want to see them wiggle.”
“That’s disgusting,” Zack said. “Who puts spinach on pizza? Hold on, here’s Dad.”
I heard the phone being passed around, dropped, searched for and finally found.
“Bristol,” Uncle Mark said. “Everything okay?”
“Yeah, I was just checking in. How’s Seth?”
“He’s good,” Uncle Mark said. “We’re about to watch the first of the Harry Potter movies. Seth just finished the book. You want us to wait for you?”
“Maybe,” I said. “Can I speak to Seth?”
“Sure,” He said.
The phone got passed again, then dropped again.
“Hey, Bristol,” Seth finally said, sounding excited. “What’s the matter? Tired of smooching?”
“Hardy har har,” I said. “I just wanted to see how you were doing.”
“I’m fine,” He said. “I just—”
Seth stopped talking so suddenly, I thought maybe I had lost the connection, but before I could look at the phone to check I felt my world shift.
I gasped at what I saw. It was over nearly as quickly as it had begun.
“Bristol!” Seth yelled. The panic in his voice broke my heart.
“I’m on my way,” I told him. “It’s going to be okay, I promise. Put Uncle Mark on.” As he ran to give the phone to my Uncle, I looked over at Payne. He already had the car in gear. We were speeding towards my house.
“Bristol?” My uncle got on the phone. “What happened?”
“Agent Williams,” I said. “He’s dead. So are two other agents. Jack escaped. I think it just happened.”
“You’re on your way?” he asked.
“Yeah,” I said. “Five minutes.”
“I’ll make phone calls,” Uncle Mark said.
“Uncle Mark,” I said. “He wasn’t alone. The rest of his family came for him. They’re all together.”
“Damn,” Uncle Mark said.
He clicked off.
“You heard?” I said to Payne. “Jack’s out and he’s not alone.”
“Yeah,” Payne said. “That’s just fine. Neither are we.”
Payne hit a button on the steering wheel which activated the blue tooth connection to his cell.
“Call Granddad,” Payne said. As the cell began to ring, Payne took my hand. “They’re about to learn they’re messing with the wrong two families. Nobody is going to lay a hand on Seth.”
Chapter Fourteen
Face To Face With Shadows
I had barely walked in the door when Seth launched himself into my arms. I could feel him shaking. There were tears in his eyes and his face was ghostly-white.
“Where’s Payne?” Aunt Breanne asked.
“In the car,” I answered. “He was making phone calls.”
Aunt Breanne nodded.
“So are Gregory and Mark,” She said. “Well, your uncle is. He’s on the house phone. Your Grandpa’s having a few difficulties.”
Grandpa was in the corner of the room, scowling at Uncle Mark’s cell phone.
“What is wrong with this contraption?” he yelled. “I dialed the number. Nothing’s happening.”
“Grandpa,” Zack said. “You need to hit connect.”
“Connect?” Grandpa said, looking at the keypad.
“No,” Zack said, pulling the phone away. “Just this green button.” Zack pressed it and handed it back.
Grandpa put the phone to his ear. He nodded which I assumed meant it was ringing. When someone answered, he brought the phone away from his ear and held it to his mouth.
“Hello,” he yelled. “Can you hear me, Bill?”
“Grandpa,” Zack grabbed the phone again. “Like this.” Zack put the phone to his ear. “Hello, Uncle Bill? Yes, this is Zack. Grandpa needs to talk to you, hold on.” He held it out to Grandpa again. “Here.”
“Don’t go nowhere, kid,” Grandpa said. “Bill, we have a problem...”
Payne came in.
“My grandfather will be here later. He’s making calls and putting things in place.”
Payne then went around me and knelt down in front of Seth.
“Seth, my grandfather has had security around the house since we got back. Four agents. They’ll be twelve more here within thirty minutes, all heavily armed. Some of my cousins are on their way here, too: Archer, Toby, Chase, Hunter, Ian and a few of my older cousins that you haven’t met yet.”
“But Payne,” Seth said. “They have powers.”
“So do we,” Payne answered. “Seth, listen to me. You will be protected. We’ve got this. I swear.”
Seth tried to calm down, but he couldn’t stop shaking. I sat down on the couch with him. He was glued to me again.
The doorbell rang. Payne told us to wait there, and went to answer it. Seth stopped breathing.
“Relax,” I said. “I doubt they’d ring the bell.”
Payne returned with Archer, who ran over to us right away, speaking to Seth first.
“Seth, you doing okay?”
I felt Seth start to breathe. He looked up at Archer with tears in his eyes and managed a small, frightened nod. This scene repeated itself over and over again for the next hour and the house was quickly filled with members of both families. I started to wonder how I’d ever gotten used to having so many people in my life.
A young man in military fatigues came in next. He looked somewhat familiar, but I couldn’t quite place him. I assumed he was a McKnight by the way he gave Payne one of one of those pound hugs where they gripped right hands and gave each other a quick pat on the back with their left.
“Bristol,” the man said, walking over to me. “How are you?”
I had no idea who he was. “Um. Fine and dandy, considering the circumstances.”
He smiled at me. “I’m Phillip. Bryan’s older brother. We’ve never met.”
“Oh,” I said. I wanted to give him a hug, but Seth wouldn’t let me go. “I’m sorry. I didn’t recognize you from your pictures. And I’m so sorry about Bryan.”
Phillip nodded sadly. “I hated the fact that I couldn’t get back for the funeral, but I just got back yesterday. I told my dad not to make a big deal over it. He wanted to throw a party.”
“We should have,” I said. “How long are you back for?”
“Permanently,” he said. “I get discharged in a week.”
“Well,” I said. “I’m glad you’re back, safe and sound.”
I signaled for Payne to come over.
“How do you two know each other?” I asked.
“Skype,” Phillip said. “Payne’s been watching over my youngest brother since Bryan died. Something I can’t thank him enough for. Ben wanted to come as well, but I convinced him not to. He’s only thirteen.”
“I appreciate the fact that you’re here,” I said.
I introduced him to Seth as Archer answered the door.
“What are you doing here?” I heard Archer say.
“Same as you.”
“No way,” Archer responded. “You need to go home, Thorne.”
“I’m not going anywhere,” Thorne said as he pushed his way past his older brother. He was a small, teen boy with dark hair and a thin frame. “And you can’t make me.”
Thorne came in and sat down, crossed his arms and looked sullen. Archer followed and looked ready to toss Thorne over his shoulder and carry him out.
“How did you even find out?” Archer asked.
“Grandpa called Aunt Sapphire,” Thorne said. “She called Dad. They were on the phone, yelling at each ot
her.”
Archer crossed his arms.
“Does Dad even know that you’re here?” Archer asked.
There was an angry knock on the door which Payne answered.
“Thorne!”
“I guess he does now,” I said.
Patton came barging in without invitation and found his two sons.
“What the hell is wrong with you?” Patton yelled. “Leaving like that without a word.”
“I told you I was going,” Thorne said. “Not my fault you weren’t listening.”
“Don’t get smart with me,” Patton said, pointing to the door. “Let’s go.”
“No,” Thorne said.
“Yes,” Archer said, standing by his father’s side. “You’re leaving.”
“No,” Thorne repeated. “I’m not. I can help. I want to help.”
“You’ll do no such thing,” Patton said. “We don’t even know if this boy is a McKnight. I’m very much starting to doubt it. And if I’m right, then no McKnight has any reason to be here.”
“No reason?” Thorne said. “Bristol didn’t care that Archer was a McKnight when she saved him. If it weren’t for her, I wouldn’t have a brother anymore. So I’m staying.”
“Thorne Orion McKnight,” Patton growled. “I may not be able to do a thing about your brother who’s decided to die for this Blackburn, but so help me, if you’re not in that car in one minute, I will beat you bloody until you need to go to the hospital.”
“Patton!”
I turned and watched as Aunt Breanne came marching over, a fire in her eyes that told me that Patton had just crossed a line.
“Breanne,” Patton said. “This is between my son and I and really none of anyone else’s business.”
“Don’t,” Aunt Breanne said, pointing her finger in Patton’s face. “Don’t you dare threaten my nephew and then tell me that it’s none of my business. You have some nerve coming in this home, uninvited, in the middle of a crisis and talking like that to Thorne. Scaring Seth who is already frightened out of his mind. What is the matter with you?” Aunt Breanne said, turning Patton’s words back on him. “Making yourself look like an absolute fool as if you don’t love both of your boys, which is what you’re making everyone one here think, including them.”
Vision of Sacrifices Page 15