“Just because you don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t there,” he said.
“Yeah, whatever,” I said impatiently. “Just tell me already!”
“Well, I’ll need to do some underlining,” he said. I stared at him completely clueless, which only made his smile become broader. I was glad we were past his furious and killing part, but now I was the one who might get furious if he didn’t stop playing with me.
“Underlining, huh?”
“Yeah, if you underline the right letters, you’ll get the hidden meaning,” he said.
“Yeah, right,” I said skeptically. “That way you can underline whatever you want and get a hidden meaning in any book you take.”
“Not if you underline every sixth letter.”
“Why sixth?” I frowned.
“That’s a secret.” He smiled. “You’ll see.”
“Fine, I’ll see,” I said. He was crazy if he thought I was going to forget about it. But now I just wanted to get him out of my room, so I reached for the key and went to unlock the door. When he was gone, I picked up my mobile phone to call Michael. I needed someone less complicated to talk to. Someone I trusted completely, and that could only be him.
I wasn’t even a tiny bit surprised when I saw the Council’s building again… on the TV, of course. Apparently, all the news were talking about someone breaking into one of the offices with classified information, which had happened exactly during a commotion on the party for very important people. One of their theories was that someone from the attendees had caused the commotion on purpose to steal some important information, but ended up stealing the journal by mistake.
Another theory was that everything had been organized by leaders of the Magic Disease Carriers Association, an organization that fought for rights of the magic disease carriers. The press thought that the journal had been stolen just because it belonged to a person who had had the magic disease and because of some weird political reason that I couldn’t quite understand. But no one ever mentioned whom did the journal belong to exactly and why was it so important. Maybe it wasn’t important, but it still seemed suspicious.
And while they fought about who and why had done what, they only mentioned a mysterious blond woman as a possible suspect. Great, I just hoped no one would recognize me. But if I was lucky, none of these people should ever see me again in their lives anyway. Besides, they didn’t even have a picture of the woman since the cameras had gone off. There were absolutely no proofs against me even if someone came to suspect me one day. At least that was what I thought.
“Why would someone steal some stupid journal?” said Paula, taking a bite of her sandwich. She, Michael and I were sitting together at lunch. I had no idea where Adrian was, and Paula hadn't said anything about him. On the other hand, Michael made me feel guilty because he kept apologizing for not coming to the dinner.
“Politics.” Michael shrugged. “MDCA just wanted to prove they could get inside the Council's building and steal something.”
“But why?” Paula said. “That’s stupid.”
“The Council probably refused to give them some classified info they wanted to use for their cause,” Michael said. “Who knows?”
“Well, that’s still stupid,” Paula said and looked at me. “How is the studying going?”
“Umm, fine,” I lied. “Just there’s too much of it.”
“Tell me about it.” Paula sighed. “I don’t even have time to be with my boyfriend!”
And it was better like that, but I couldn’t have said that to her.
“Yeah, studying is taking over our lives,” Michael said, turning to Paula. “I didn’t even make it to the dinner last night! Completely forgot about the time. And it robbed me some precious minutes with my gorgeous girlfriend.”
He kissed me then and the world seemed a better place, but only for a moment because elements started raining down on me. I moved away abruptly, and Michael seemed confused. Damn, it looked like I would have to forget on kissing in public. There were just too many emotions in that small act. I wasn’t sure whose control was slipping, but it didn’t really matter.
“I don’t want people to stare at us,” I said in an attempt to make things better.
“Why not? Let them stare.” Michael smiled. “We’re in love. No one can hold that against us.”
I smiled at him, but he didn’t try to kiss me again. Paula gave me a suspicious look, and I just shrugged. My mobile phone vibrated in the pocket of my jeans, startling me. I got up and both Michael and Paula turned to look at me.
“I need to… get back to studying,” I said, giving Michael a kiss on the cheek and getting out of there before someone started asking questions. I flipped open my mobile phone and saw an unknown number.
“Yes?” I said.
“Ria.” I recognized my brother’s voice even though it sounded like he spoke through something.
“Oliver?” I said. “What’s up?”
“It will take me more time to come to visit you than I thought,” he said. “Are you ok?”
“Umm, yeah, why wouldn’t I be?” I said. “You don’t have to visit me if you…”
“I’ll come,” he said. “Have to go now. Bye, sis.”
And with that he hung up. What the hell? This conversation was even more awkward than the first one. Not to mention that this was probably a record of the time we had spent talking in a year. He obviously wanted to tell me something, but didn’t want to do it over the phone. Huh, maybe he went mad and thought some spies were following him. It wouldn’t be the first time in our family history. And for all I knew he could have been in some kind of an institution and not really in school like my parents had told me.
Actually, at this point of my life, anything was possible, even the craziest ideas. I went to my room and locked the door, determined to learn at least a few more pages for the exam despite the constant buzzing of elements in the back of my mind.
Chapter 19
I failed the exam, which wasn’t surprising to me, but it was to everyone else. Michael and Paula were the first ones to ask what had happened and whether I needed help. My parents got all worried and kept asking should they send me something or should they come to visit me. I was half-annoyed after all that, and there was only one person that could help me get it back together… well, only to prevent me from choking someone to death. Besides, I was curious what he had done with that journal so far.
I knocked on the door of his room, and when no one opened, I turned the knob. It was unlocked, and I peered inside. He was nowhere to be seen, but the bathroom door was closed. Oh, well. I could wait. I went inside and sat down on the bed, looking around for the journal. Of course, it wasn’t anywhere I could see it, so I just waited for Adrian to appear.
My mouth fell open when he came out of the bathroom because he was only wearing a towel. I tried to say something, but the words just wouldn’t come out. Maybe I could understand better all those girls who were running after him because, damn, he looked hot. His jet black hair was wet, nearly covering his eyes. Drops of water were gliding down the smooth skin of his muscular chest… I bit my lip, trying to look away, but I didn’t.
“Would you like me to drop the towel?” he said teasingly, his gray-blue eyes sparkling with amusement.
“No,” I said, reminding myself that I didn’t want to be one of those silly girls who got fooled by his good looks. Michael was just as gorgeous as he was, maybe even more… only I couldn’t really touch him or I risked killing him, so maybe… I blinked. No, I hadn’t just considered having casual sex with Adrian just because I couldn’t do it with Michael. No, no and no!
“I know you want me,” he said, “so you may as well stop pretending you don’t.”
“You’re so full of yourself,” I said and finally managed to concentrate solely on his icy blue eyes.
“Maybe.” He smiled. “But that’s not the point.”
“No, that’s not the point,” I said. “What did you do w
ith the journal?”
“I discovered some… things,” he hesitated, and I frowned. Maybe I was just pessimistic, or there was really something bad. It was hard to tell.
“What things?”
“Can I get dressed first or you’re still hoping the towel will fall off?” he asked.
“Get dressed.” I rolled my eyes, getting up from the bed and walking to the window. “I’ll wait.”
He gathered his things and went back into the bathroom. A few minutes later, he was back, his hair still a bit damp, and he locked the door before getting the journal out of his black backpack. We sat down on the bed, and he opened one page. I looked at the underlined letters and realized it really did make sense.
“Being with Elisabeth helps me stay in control, but it also makes me weaker,” I read out loud and looked at Adrian. “What’s that supposed to mean? And who’s Elisabeth?”
“My mother,” he said. “It is explained later on. It means that when we are together, we help each other to stay in control… like you have already seen. But, according to my father, the more time we spend together, the harder it will be to stay in control when we are away from each other.”
“Oh,” was the only thing I managed to say.
“I think that’s why people with the magic disease tend not to get attached to anyone,” he said. “It is very helpful, but you also become dependent on that person.”
“Great. Then we should just stay around people with no element,” I said gloomily. I definitely didn’t want to become dependent on Adrian. That would be some creepy nightmare material.
“Not exactly,” he said. “People aren’t really born without an element. It is just too weak for the person to use it. And it’s the same with those who give up on it. The element is weak, but it stays there.”
“And how exactly did your father know all that?”
“It says here that he read it in reports from different scientists,” he said. “They did all kinds of research on the topic.”
“Impossible,” I said. “We would have known about it. Well, maybe not us, but Paula certainly would, and there were no books, no research, no nothing about that.”
“I know,” he said. “The government must be hiding it from all of us. My father mentions that all the documents are stored in Pandora’s Box, and I have no idea what that means.”
“Ah, great,” I said sarcastically. “Like hiding the true meaning of words in the journal wasn’t enough, now we have cryptic names too.”
“I don’t know. Maybe it means something to someone, just not to us.” He shrugged. That was actually a good point, but we couldn’t ask anyone without revealing too much.
“Ok, we have one mystery place to…” I suddenly remembered something Paula had said to me, “…discover.”
“What are you thinking?” Adrian gave me a curious look.
“Paula mentioned some secret place with tons of security,” I said. “She read about it in some dusty, old books, but she couldn’t figure it out where exactly it was… just that it was near here. All info about the magic disease from all over the world is supposed to be kept in that place.”
“And you didn't mention this to me before because…?” He raised an eyebrow at me.
“Well, why would I? We have no idea where that place is,” I said. “I thought it might be the Council's building, but we had seen the security there, so I don’t think that’s it. The Council's building probably keeps less important things and they make everyone believe the opposite.”
“Yeah,” he agreed. “We would have never gotten the journal if they thought it was important.”
“True, but they still didn’t want to simply hand it over to you.”
“Right.” He sighed. “I guess I’ll have to do some more underlining. That’s such a boring task.”
“I could help you,” I said. “If you are willing to tell me how you know it’s every sixth letter we have to underline.”
“Alright.” He laughed. “My father started writing the journal when my mom got pregnant. I was the reason he wanted to find out everything about the magic disease… to make it easier for me. But he knew he couldn’t write it just like that, so he found a way to hide it. And my name is the key to it.”
I looked at him, trying to figure it out.
“Ah, your name has six letters,” I said, and he nodded. “So your dad started to write it when they knew they were going to have a baby boy?”
“Not exactly. He started it earlier.” He smiled. “They just agreed on six letters in the name no matter was it a boy or a girl.”
“Aah, but what about those numbers in the corner of the page?” I asked. “They also come to six.”
“Yes, but for a completely different reason,” he said with a hint of sadness in his voice. “Number zero represents the time from when he started it to the time when I had my first birthday. So each number represents my age at the time he was writing it. It comes only to six because… he died right before my seventh birthday.”
“Wow, he’d been writing it for years,” I said, surprised. “I’d expect a lot bigger journal for all those years, but I guess it’s difficult to find what to write so that every sixth letter has a meaning.”
Actually, I was sure that if I tried, I would fail. I couldn’t even come up with a normal journal and especially not one with a secret meaning inside.
“Yeah, it is difficult,” he said.
“How were they?” I suddenly said, and he looked at me in surprise. “Your parents?”
“Why?”
“I was just wondering.”
“They were the best parents in the whole world.” He smiled sadly. “My mother… she was… she was beautiful. She had a long dark brown hair and light blue eyes. She was nice, gentle, smart… And she worked as an architect.”
I had probably seen a picture of her in the newspapers, but that had happened a long time ago. Her eyes must have been the same as Adrian’s. I could remember Adrian’s father a little bit better. He’d had the same hair color as Adrian and he’d been a very successful company owner. As far as I knew, the company sold furniture and it was now in Adrian’s hands.
“You must have loved them a lot,” I said.
“Still do,” he said, focusing on some point on the wall. Well, he probably saw them differently because it was a little bit hard to imagine two people who were all over the news for various murders as nice people. I always imagined them as cold, heartless monsters. But according to the popular belief, I was a heartless monster now too.
“How did they meet?” I asked. He gave me a look that wasn’t even a bit friendly. It was probably hard for him to talk about it, but I was curious. Besides, he didn’t have to tell me if he didn’t want to.
“During a project,” he said. “Mom was supposed to design the building and dad was supposed to get the furniture. It was a very important project, so they were both present at the meeting. Of course, they immediately discovered the secret that could ruin both of their lives… and soon they fell in love.”
“Someone could discover me like that,” I said.
“Yeah, but we all like to keep a low profile,” he said, touching my hand. “And I don’t think anyone else except me is a known magic disease carrier.”
“Right. So even if someone saw me, we could make a deal not to say to anyone about each other,” I said, hoping that I wouldn’t accidentally run into another person with the disease. I mean, how many of us could be out there? Probably more than everyone thought, but why would they be near here?
“Yeah,” he said. “Or find a way to make sure that person never talks.”
“What?” I glared at him. “You’d kill someone?”
“Don’t look so shocked,” he said. “You wanted all magic disease carriers dead, didn’t you? Besides, how can you trust a murderer?”
“Umm, that’s a bit complicated.” I swallowed. “It’s true I wanted everyone with the magic disease dead, but now…”
“No
w you don’t want that the same rule applies to you.” He smiled bitterly. “It’s alright when it happens to someone else, but when it happens to you… suddenly it’s different. Why, Ria? Why?”
“I didn’t understand it before,” I said. “Now I see everyone needs a chance to prove their innocence. But I’m still not sure what would I think if I ended up killing someone. It seems so unreal.”
“You didn’t understand because you didn’t want to. Paula understands and she doesn’t have the disease,” he said.
“Hey, don’t blame me!” I said, getting upset. “You were the one who said you’d kill another magic disease carrier to shut him up!”
“Survival is a completely different thing,” he argued.
“Survival? Well, that’s what I was talking about when I wanted all magic disease carriers dead!” I yelled. “They were a danger for me!”
“Really?” he said. “Did you really feel so threatened by me?”
“No, but…”
“There are dangerous magic disease carriers who go around killing people, but not everyone is like that,” he said. “And you’d just sentence them all to death even though not everyone was a threat to you or anyone else! But now that you belong in that dangerous group…”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever!” I said, got up from the bed and went for the door. I knew it wasn’t smart to go outside angry, but I didn’t want to stay there near him. And I wasn’t used to being told I cared only when I was concerned. Deep down inside of me I knew he was right. Not that I would ever admit it to anyone, especially not to him. He didn’t try to stop me or anything as I stormed out of the room.
Chapter 20
I was sitting in Paula’s room one Friday when she suddenly took my hands into hers.
“So, what are you and Michael planning for the next week?” she said cheerfully, and I blinked at her in surprise.
“I’m not following you,” I said, wondering had I said yes automatically to something she had said without realizing.
Dangerous (Element Preservers Series, Book 1) Page 17