Adventures of Alexis Davenport Series

by West, Shay

  “Yeah, well you never know for sure, do you? Why take the chance? I’d rather be single and have my heart intact than trust it with someone who can break it.”

  Jenn reached out and gripped Alex’s elbow in sympathy. “You’ll change your mind someday.”

  “Doubt it.”

  Any further talk was interrupted as Ms. Ashton walked onto the stage in a flurry of drama. She called the students to the stage to do the second act of Rehearsal for Murder. Alex groaned. She was in the second act which meant she had to somehow remember her lines despite her turmoil of emotions.

  The afternoon passed quickly. Alex was amazed at how well she did. Her lines had somehow flowed as naturally as breathing. She relaxed and let herself get lost in the character she played. It was much the same as traveling back in time. Her spirit took over the body of another girl and she got to be a different person for a short time, though with real danger involved. On stage, the biggest danger was forgetting your lines or tripping over place markers.

  She was even able to ignore Drake. Her gut barely twisted when she had to interact with him on stage, and when he kissed his new girlfriend, she didn’t really care.

  There was a strange car in the driveway when she got home. She said good-bye to Jenn, wishing she could ask her friend to hang out but she knew her mom wouldn’t be happy about an unannounced guest. The last thing she wanted to do was be in the same house with Bruce.

  Alex walked quickly to her room and almost made it when her mom yelled at her from the kitchen. She turned and walked back down the hallway.

  “You’re on your own for dinner tonight. There’s some soup and cheese and bread to make a grilled cheese sandwich.”

  Alex gaped at her mom. She was wearing some of the new clothing from the store and had obviously spent the afternoon curling her hair. Her face was radiant as she walked Bruce to the front door. Alex followed them and peered through the front window. Bruce opened the passenger door to his car then closed it gently after her mom climbed gracefully inside.

  As she fixed herself a simple dinner, Alex wondered why her mom had left her behind. She was relieved that she wouldn’t be forced to endure an uncomfortable dinner trying to make small talk with a man she didn’t care anything about, and yet being left behind didn’t make her feel any better.

  She didn’t have any homework so she sat down to watch some TV, wondering if Sean and Gavin were in town yet or if they would arrive later tonight. They had her cell number and said they would text when they arrived at their hotel, regardless of the hour. Alex checked that her phone was on vibrate. It was against the rules for her to have her phone on at night so the last thing she needed was to have it ring in the wee hours of the morning. It would be difficult to explain to her mom the necessity of having the phone on to receive a text from two strange men.

  She checked her phone every few minutes despite the fact there was no vibration indicating an incoming text or phone call. The pair hadn’t been able to give her an estimated time of arrival since they were driving from Denver rather than flying. They planned to meet during Alex’s lunch hour. She was terrified she would get caught. That someone who knew her or her mom would see her out with Jenn and two older men and tell on her. She would be grounded for sure.

  Alex knew she had to risk it. She couldn’t do this on her own. Jenn was a good friend but Alex needed someone who had her same gift of time travel, someone who knew more than she did about how it all worked. The evil Traveler was up to something and Alex needed help to figure out what it was.

  ***

  Drifter smiled grimly as the reflection in the mirror changed back to that of his own smooth face. Part of him loved this little bit of rebellion against his Master. Drifter didn’t think he could stay away from time travel even if he wanted to. It was in his blood. He understood the danger of what he did. Mark watched him like a hawk, waiting to catch him in another one of his “episodes”. He couldn’t allow that to happen and yet he couldn’t stop himself from checking in on the man whose body he would soon be taking over.

  He sighed and rolled out of bed. While he would rebel in this small way, he would also follow Master’s orders to the letter. Drifter sat down at his computer and typed in the URL that he had memorized. He had been doing that more lately. Anything he could commit to memory, he did. The mission depended on him being able to memorize something more complicated than a website address.

  Drifter grabbed his notepad from the hidden compartment in his desk. He hated to have physical evidence of his mission but the only way to know for certain that he had memorized the research article was to write it out. He switched to a blank sheet and wrote what he remembered from the article. He got most of the way through the introduction before needing to look at the paper again. He read the three paragraphs he couldn’t remember and tried again from the beginning, the only sound in the silent room was that of his pencil scratching on the paper.

  CHAPTER 12

  ALEX AWOKE to the blaring of the alarm, her mind fuzzy from lack of sleep. Her dreams had been plagued by nightmares and whirling thoughts. Her nightmares were a strange combination of time travel and Bruce cutting her mom into little pieces. She had gotten to bed later than usual since she waited up for her mom to get home. Part of her wanted to sit with her mom and ask her about her date.

  Alex gasped and grabbed her phone off the nightstand. The icon indicating she had a text waiting flashed on the top of the phone. She checked her texts and breathed a sigh of relief when she saw one from Sean indicating they had arrived and would see her at 11:30 the following morning.

  She dragged herself into her bathroom and turned on the water, brushing her teeth. Her mom was in the kitchen rushing through breakfast. It wasn’t like her mom to oversleep.

  Alex fought the urge to pick a fight. Today was a big day and she didn’t want to start out on a sour note. She opened her mouth and was surprised to find herself about to spill her guts about everything, the time travel, the Traveler, Sean and Gavin.

  What the hell’s wrong with you?

  She shook her head, blaming her almost-lapse-in-judgment on her exhaustion. Rather than pick a fight or tell her mom her big secret, she filled the time with chit-chat about the upcoming theater show. Her mom nodded and gave her daughter single-word answers, barely looking at Alex when she left for the store.

  Alex watched her mom leave, eyes stinging with tears. Her mom had never given her the brush-off quite like that before. Alex knew when her mom was angry and this morning she wasn’t angry. More like indifferent.

  She brushed at her eyes and finished breakfast even though her stomach was threatening to eject everything she had just eaten. She grabbed her bag and waited for Jenn.

  Jenn showed up almost half-an-hour early, which was fine with Alex. She didn’t want to sit in the house.

  “What time did they get in last night?” Jenn asked.

  “More like this morning, about two. We’re supposed to meet them at 11:30 out at the Village Inn on Horizon Drive.”

  “Sounds good. Are you nervous?”

  “I don’t know what I feel. I’m sort of numb.” Alex filled in her best friend about her mom’s strange behavior that morning.

  “Maybe she had a super awesome date and was replaying it in her mind. Sounds like she was distracted, not mad.”

  “Yeah, I guess.” Alex couldn’t explain it but she thought there was something more to it than that.

  The morning crawled at a snail’s pace. Alex fidgeted so much she was certain her teachers would ask her to leave class, perhaps visit the nurse to see if she had something contagious. Jenn hissed at her to sit still during their pop quiz in Spanish class. Her constant motion was responsible for her desk creaking like a rusty hinge. The other students glared at her. Alex blushed and willed her muscles to behave. She took a deep breath, trying to remember how to put together a simple sentence in Spanish, but her brain was shrouded in fog. The words eluded her.

  The teacher came by
to pick up the quizzes and Alex turned hers upside down, hoping the teacher wouldn’t notice that she hadn’t even answered all the questions.

  When the bell rang, Alex glanced at Jenn and they shared a nervous grin. They jumped up and grabbed their books, shoving them into their bags. Alex followed Jenn to the door.

  “Alex, can I see you for a minute?”

  Alex gulped and turned to face her teacher. She glanced at her watch.

  “It won’t be long.”

  “Go ahead, I’ll meet you at the car,” Alex told Jenn.

  “I’d like to chat with you about your quiz. I don’t think I’ve ever seen you not answer every question before. And you seem anxious and out of sorts. Everything okay?”

  Alex took a deep breath. She was used to her teachers noticing when she didn’t perform to certain standards. Sometimes being smart sucks. She had never been ashamed of her brain power but the minute she lapsed, even a little, her teachers swooped down, ready to pry into her personal life, certain she was about to have a nervous breakdown.

  “Everything’s fine. Just dealing with some stuff at home,” Alex said.

  Mrs. Rodriguez narrowed her eyes. “Whatever this thing, it isn’t going to distract you for a long period of time, is it?”

  Alex shook her head. “No.” She glanced at her watch and switched her weight from her left foot to her right. “Can I go now? I sorta have somewhere to be.”

  “Of course. If there’s anything you need to talk about, we have excellent counselors here.”

  “I know. And if I need to, I’ll look them up,” Alex said as she walked out of the classroom.

  She trotted out to the parking lot, trying to remember where Jenn had parked that morning. She heard a horn honking from somewhere near the middle. She spotted Jenn’s Pontiac pulling out of the space. Alex ran toward the car and shrieked as the speeding car came to a halt mere inches from hitting her knees.

  “What are you trying to do, kill me?” Alex shouted as she flung open the passenger door.

  “I thought I’d save some time and meet you in the middle,” Jenn hollered over the music blaring from the stereo.

  “We only have a few minutes so hit it.” Alex couldn’t believe she was giving her best friend permission to drive even crazier than she usually did.

  “I’m on it.”

  Alex gasped as her body was pushed back against the seat from the force of acceleration. Her heart beat wildly, in time to the rock music. Normally her friend’s driving terrified her but today, all she felt was exhilaration.

  Jenn swerved into the parking lot of Village Inn, hitting the curb with the front tires, forcing Alex’s body into the seat belt.

  “Told you I was on it,” Jenn said with a grin.

  Rather than answer, Alex grabbed her bag from the back seat and exited the car on wobbly legs. She didn’t know if it was from the ride or the prospect of meeting Sean and Gavin in person.

  In her time.

  Jenn was ahead of her and opened the door to the restaurant. Alex burst into laughter, more from nerves than because anything was particular amusing.

  “What’s so funny?”

  “You going first. Do you even know what they look like?”

  Jenn sputtered. “Well, no, but...”

  “It’s fine. I’m just giving you a hard time.”

  Alex told the hostess that they were meeting some people and the woman told them to take a look around. Jenn stayed strained to see the customers despite not having a clue about what they looked like. Alex pursed her lips to hold back another hysterical giggle. She wracked her brain to remember the picture of the two of them she had seen on their website.

  Suddenly a pair of older gentlemen stood from the corner table and stared her way. Alex couldn’t breathe. It was so strange seeing Sean as someone so much older. She remembered him as an awkward gangly kid when she visited him in the past. The man standing next to the booth was old, maybe in his forties with dark hair just barely showing some grey at the temples. Gavin, on the other hand, was super old, like maybe older than sixty.

  “Is that them? That’s gotta be them, right?” Jenn gripped her arm so hard Alex feared she would lose circulation in her hand.

  Alex walked toward the men on wooden legs so stuff she feared she would pitch right over on her face. Sean was smoothing his clothing and bouncing on the balls of his feet as though he wanted to run away.

  “Alex?” Gavin said as he held out his hand.

  Alex nodded, throat clenched tight against the sob that was trying to escape. She wanted to fall into his arms like she should have been able to do with her father, if he was still around. His face was warm and inviting and oozed sympathy, all of the things she so desperately needed and didn’t quite know it until this very moment.

  She took a deep breath and held out her hand. “Yeah, it’s me.”

  “And who is this?” he looked behind Alex.

  “This is my best friend, Jenn. I told you about her.”

  “Ah, yes, I do recall. Please, sit.” Gavin motioned the girls to sit in the booth. Alex and Jenn scootched around, letting the men sit on the outside.

  “What can I bring you two?”

  Alex glanced at the waitress and didn’t like what she saw in the woman’s eyes. They were hard and accusing, as though wondering what two teenage girls were doing with much older men.

  “Can we have a shake, Grandpa?” Alex gave Gavin a pointed look.

  “Oh, pleasepleaseplease!” Jenn really laid it on thick, holding her hands under her chin.

  “Your mother will kill me, but what the heck. Chocolate shakes all around!” Gavin included the whole table with his gesture.

  The waitress visibly relaxed and smiled for the first time since arriving at their table. “I’ll be back to get your order after I get those shakes started.”

  “Quick thinking, Alex. It never even crossed my mind that folks would think something strange was up,” Sean said.

  “The last thing we need is for people to pay too much attention to us. Now they think we’re just a family out for some lunch,” Alex said.

  “We just have to hope no one recognizes them,” Jenn said.

  “What do you mean?”

  “They are famous authors, Alex. Grand Junction may not be California but there are people here who read fantasy novels.”

  Alex turned white and glanced around the restaurant, certain a gaggle of fans was about to descend on their table.

  “Not to worry. We’ve been here for half an hour and no one has given us a second look. Most people don’t expect to see someone famous at a local diner. So even if they thought they recognized us, they’d brush it off as coincidence,” Gavin said.

  The waitress returned, halting all talk at the table. The four hurriedly glanced at their menus and ordered lunch. Alex glanced at her watch, hoping they could get their food and finish eating before she and Jenn had to be back at school.

  “What time do you have to be back?” Gavin asked, reading Alex’s nervous gestures.

  “A little over an hour. And we have a quiz so we can’t be late.”

  “We will make sure to be done by then. Let’s get down to business then, shall we?” Sean said.

  Alex was grateful for Sean’s bluntness, and yet she wasn’t ready to spill her guts. It was so surreal, sitting in a Village Inn with a Master and his time traveling pupil, seeing them in her own time. Her head felt like it was floating off her shoulders.

  “Alex needs your help. Big time,” Jenn said, ignoring Alex’s glare.

  “I figured as much by the cryptic message you sent. Very clever, by the way. You have a good head on your shoulders. Kind of important for someone with your special abilities,” Gavin said. “Spill it, Alex. What’s going on?”

  Alex took a deep breath and glanced to the nearby booths, making sure no one was paying attention to them. She told Sean and Gavin about the last trip through the mirror, only spending a few seconds in the body of the Mongol girl befor
e ending up back in the void and yanked back to her body, the nurse appearing in the mirror, and yet without the urge to touch the mirror. By the time she finished, the waitress was back with their lunch.

  When she left, Gavin spoke softly, “I think I know what happened to you with the Mongol girl. If something happens to disturb a Traveler, being awakened before they can finish their merging, the Protector is also yanked back to their own body. They will only return to the past when the Traveler returns. The fact that you haven’t yet and that you are seeing someone new means that this guy you are dealing with has other plans.”

  “So why haven’t I had the urge to touch the mirror? That’s never happened before.”

  “I would imagine it’s because he isn’t going back in time yet. There seems to be a connection between you two that doesn’t exist between anyone else, at least not that I’ve ever heard of or even read in the Master’s tome. Maybe you only travel back in time once he does. But this connection is giving you a hint as to his plans. If you can figure out when he’s going back to, you can take steps to protect yourself.”

  “All I know is that she’s a nurse. I got a look at her uniform but haven’t had a chance to look anything up on the Internet yet.”

  “This man worries me. We are clearly dealing with someone with a nefarious plan.”

  “What is his plan? He’s been all over the place. There’s nothing connecting all of the people I’ve saved.”

  Gavin took a huge bite out of his burger. “I’ve been thinking about that. The excursions you have taken thus far almost seem like practice. Or...” He glanced at Sean.

  “Or what?” Alex said, stomach clenching at the shared look.

  “He’s been traveling back in time to random points with the sole purpose of killing you.”

  CHAPTER 13

  ALEX SWALLOWED HARD. “You really think his only mission in life is to kill me?”

  Gavin shook his head as he wiped his mouth with a napkin. “I don’t believe it’s his only purpose, no. But after defeating him twice, he must have known he was dealing with someone special. If he is to carry out his mission, whatever that may be, he needs to be free and clear to do so. And that means taking you out of the picture.”