Okay, he insisted on me having two other sisters; I insisted on only having one. Right now the number didn’t matter. I needed answers on why Lily and my parents were taken from me – that’s the sister that I cared about. I hesitated to ask my next question. I didn’t know if I could handle the answer, but I knew I’d regret never asking it. “My family – that night they were killed. Why was I spared when they were killed, and mutilated?”
“Most likely your parents posed a threat,” Jace said. “You didn’t appear to be a risk, a liability, or a target since you were so young. What troubles me, is how a Hunter could make the mistake between killing a human and only to spare you. Do you remember anything from that day?”
I hesitated. I definitely hesitated too long because Jace was sitting next to me a half a second later. He put his arm behind me, resting along the back of the booth. It felt like he was protecting me from the rest of the world while I spoke my confession.
“Not enough.” I thought through every detail of my vision. “I can’t even remember seeing more than one person.”
Jace sat in silence, weighing my words. His knee swayed under the table. He never brushed my leg. If I didn’t know better, he was playing with the warmth he/we/I created between us. “You act like this memory recently developed.”
“I’ve been suffering the aftermath that man instigated my whole life, but I’m recalling more every day,” I said, thinking of the vision of how he bent over Lily with the knife in hand. My eyes began to water, as - I pictured the knife, shining in the light. It was a surreal view from my vision. For the briefest moment, I thought it was my eyes that were being threatened with the knife, not my sister’s. It was like we suddenly traded places – or he decided to hurt my sister instead of me. It didn’t really matter - it felt like I was living my sister’s last second of her life, but then watching her die from another person’s viewpoint. “Take me to the house.”
“A man did this to your family?” Jace questioned. “You’re sure it wasn’t a woman?”
“Take me there,” I said, coming out of my trance. I opened my eyes and noticed my hands trembling, on the table. I immediately rested them on my lap. Jace did exactly what I hoped he wouldn’t. He reached for mine, comforting me. Tears threatened to break through my eyes. “I need to see it again.”
Jace vigilantly stroked my hair. A heat wave, trickled from his fingers onto my head and down my body, warming me from the inside out. “Kiss me, and I’ll take you.”
“Kiss me, and I’ll take a page from my sister’s book and re-break your nose.”
He busted out laughing. My ears went soft; it was like I was given a drug every time he laughed.
“I’ll take you to the house after you meet the others, I promise,” he said seriously after I squealed in a way I’d rather not admit to doing. Tickling my ear with his finger, he traced designs on my skin. “But kiss me anyway.”
He tilted my chin up. His breathing deepened, and mine soon matched. He took my hand and brought it up to his chest. His heart pounded against his chest. Mine matched his pace. His hand trembled against mine as I lowered my hand, feeling just how chiseled his chest actually was. Releasing my chin, he traced his fingertips over my eyelids. They burned like fire, but I didn’t care. He whispered that there was nothing more he’d rather give me, than my sight…I just had to give him permission. Moving his hand carefully behind my head, he leaned in, so his lips were inches from mine.
Instead of closing the gap, he began to moan words I had no understanding of, but they sounded like every promise I needed to hear. I could feel the deep vibrations trickle from his throat, flowing into my throat. Squirming while listening to the melody I didn’t understand, I couldn’t take it anymore. I had to know, I needed to know what his lips felt like.
I leaned close and then was slammed with a wave of nausea. My eyes burned like they were being doused with poison. I pulled away and pressed my hands over my face. My body shook. Jace yelled in the language I didn’t understand. His anger trickled over my skin, and ignited my body with his resentment.
“Mute yourself, Analee!” Jace demanded, pushing himself as far away from me as possible. “You’re as likely to kill her as to make her an Addict, especially with so many of us around!”
“Addicts are fun.” Zalen’s voice rippled through my ears like a sound wave.
“Thought you were positive she’s the Chronicler,” Analee said, crossing her arms.
Jace screamed, “Since her sisters are nowhere near, she’s in her human form; nevertheless, she has to be willing, before I can lay a hand on her, much less heal her!”
Zalen laughed vindictively. It shocked me. With each high pitch of his laugh, another wave of vibrations slammed my ears. Tears flowed from my eyes, distorting my gray world into a red haze. I closed my eyes and kept my hands shoved over them, so I wouldn’t have to see their shapes, even with my eyes closed. My ears were burning. I would have stood and walked away, but my legs were cramping.
“Mute yourselves!” I demanded, thinking of how Marco had kept me from getting sick at the library.
Eventually, I started to relax. I opened my eyes just long enough to see four dark shadows in my vision instead of their usual white figures. I touched my ear and drew back a liquid.
“I need a napkin,” I said. “I’m bleeding.”
From the spicy scent, I knew Marco handed me what I requested. “Is Marco the only one who had come close to me without affecting me?”
“Ability and willingness are two entirely different answers to your extremely vague inquiry,” Analee hissed. “Ask better questions.”
“If I somehow get addicted to you crazies because you didn’t Mute yourselves, you can find someone else to play this sick game of hide-and-seek,” I said through clenched teeth. “I’m not going to let anyone do anything with me. Consider my permission for Jace to heal me, revoked, on a semi- permanent basis.”
CHAPTER TEN
I woke on the wrong side of the bed the next morning. I went through the motions in my classes, trying not to get called on for failing pop-quizzes. My algebra teacher threatened to give me in-school suspension if I didn’t change my attitude and answer his questions, without chiming in with a snide remark. My third-period teacher excused me a minute early, so I didn’t have to wander the halls, but I highly suspected she was sick of putting up with me. I was sick of myself too.
I sank into my fourth period seat, despising my headache that began to ease the moment I got into the room. It smelled like Jace. I glanced around the room. No one, not even the teacher, was here yet. Could I have been so in tune to his scent, that I smelled him because he usually sat behind me?
Students trickled in, distracting my thoughts. Jace walked in with Bree, moments before the bell rang. She giggled at his joke, but I wasn’t paying attention to their conversation. I didn’t care if she flirted with him, because for the first time all day, I didn’t feel like crawling out of my own skin. My body warmed, and my head cleared. His proximity was incredibly soothing.
“Good morning, dearest.”
Since I didn’t have the patience or ability to respond without coming off like a complete nut-case, I didn’t respond. He studied me for a half a second before cursing obscenities in whatever language he preferred to speak when he was aggravated. He slammed his books down on the desk behind me, and took a seat.
“I apologize for how last night ended,” he whispered once the teacher started lecturing. “I have no wish for you to feel the obsessive lust an Addict craves, which is what you are experiencing now - the Craves. They aren’t permanent and will pass, if I don’t string you along. It probably happened, because Analee and Zalen showed up in their true form. Analee is mad, because you won’t do what she wants, and was simply throwing a fit. Knowing that you are acting of your own free will is imperative to me, Gwyneth.”
Bree coughed, as if to ask what he was referring to. I pretended not to notice her blatant inquiry. Her irksome eaves-dr
opping habit was making me weary.
After the bell rang, signaling the end of class, Jace rested his hand on my shoulder. He said that there was something important I needed to know. After packing up her backpack, Bree said that she was meeting Ryker for lunch, and that us four, should meet up later. He had been missing school to visit a few colleges about scholarships, which was why he hadn’t been around. Pity, that my own problems were getting out of hand, so that I couldn’t enjoy my Ryker-free moments. Jace removed his hand from my shoulder only to pick up my backpack.
“Holding my stuff hostage so you can talk to me?”
He sighed but made no indication he was going to give me my backpack back. I didn’t care; I started to walk out of the room. “You can stop with this little act of yours anytime now, Gwyneth. You hate the thought of being away from me, especially now.”
“I know! I know! I want you, so I should just turn my brain off and trust that you have nothing but good intentions, but I can’t, because I actually have a brain, and nothing you people say makes any sense!” I said and turned around. I expected him to be a few feet away, instead of directly behind me.
“You make it very difficult for me to show you my true intentions,” he said and handed me my backpack back. “Courting was so much easier, when a girl knew how to act like a lady.”
I took the bag from him and was careful not to touch any part of him. He said nothing as we walked through the noisy hallway. Locker doors slammed shut, while students hurried to get to lunch.
“You want answers, I get that. Trust me, Gwyneth, I get that,” Jace acknowledged, and stopped in front of my locker. He leaned against the wall of lockers while I stuffed my backpack into mine. “I’ll make you a deal.”
Another deal – this should be good. I closed my locker door. “I’m listening.”
“I need to give Analee a politically acceptable reason to stay,” Jace said. “She’s furious that I haven’t given you your sight, and she thinks my investigation is a waste of time, especially if others are hunting you. If I can prove that you’re one of us, I think it’ll cool her jets for the time being.”
“She’s in charge,” I thought out loud. “She needs me but is livid because I’m not playing by her rules.”
“Analee rarely has anyone stand up to her, and she always found you particularly irritating. Help me out. I’ll make sure you get the answers you’re looking for, and make sure you’re safe,” Jace said anxiously. “All of our kind knows that I’ve been looking for the Chronicler for years – which puts you in jeopardy even if you aren’t her. There’re people who want the Chronicler for themselves, and won’t hesitate to kill anyone who gets in their way. They prefer it actually…as ludicrous as that sounds.”
“You’re trying to scare me.”
“I’m trying to tell you as much of the truth as I can without attracting unwanted attention.”
I thought about the vision where the skeleton girl crawled from the ground. “Unwanted attention, from the Scavengers?”
He clamped his hand over my mouth and waited. Only the sound of the clock ticking interrupted the otherwise quiet hall. After a full minute, the tension in Jace’s shoulders eased. “It would be wise never to utter their name, not even you. They may not recognize you.”
He hesitated to remove his hand from my mouth. Leisurely, he let his fingers slip from my lips.
“Why does Analee, then?” I said when I was sure I wasn’t going to babble like an idiot, because some cute guy caressed my lips.
“Because they answer to her now,” Jace said. “No, you.”
***
I’d just taken my last bite of Martha’s meatloaf when my cell rang. I excused myself and answered on the third ring. Marco’s voice came through the speaker. He told me Jace was able to set up a meeting with Analee and a few others, but it had to be tonight.
“It’s a last minute thing,” Marco said, like it happened all the time. “We aren’t exactly big planners.”
Marco told me to pretend the call was from Bree, hoping to hang out. I played along. John let me go only if I promised to help out around the house on Sunday, after the game.
“Can I come to Bree’s with you?” Elsie asked, taking my hand and leading me to the front door.
I smiled, as I tried to think of something, anything, to tell her. I must have waited too long because she mumbled “never mind,” dropped my hand, and walked away. I grabbed her hand and bit my lip. Glancing over my shoulder, I made sure Martha and John weren’t within earshot.
“I’m not going to Bree’s place. I’m meeting up with Jace, and a few of his friends.”
“With Jace? Really?” she squealed. I was beginning to think she had developed a crush on Jace, since the last time he had come over for supper.
“I’ll tell you all about it in the morning,” I added. “But only if you promise to keep it a secret.”
Marco’s spicy scent welcomed me before I even opened the door. He offered me his arm, but I didn’t exactly want to touch him, any of them. Instead I unfolded Stella, and found my way to the car. It was the similar to the one Jace had used. Marco drove fast. Either he was a bit of a mind reader, or he liked to go fast. It tempted me to roll down the windows so I could feel the wind on my skin. However, I got the inclination that tonight, I wouldn’t want my nerves on edge. Triggering visions would do just that.
“Jace didn’t want to pick me up?” I asked.
“That had to be the first question you asked?” Marco said.
“Why is it such a big deal that I asked that particular question?”I demanded.
“Because that question would have lost me money, if lover boy would have put money on the table.”
“A bet with whom?”
Marco ignored my question. I had a guess of who it was anyway. At least Jace had the intelligence not to gamble when it came to me. “What do you call yourselves, to one another, since you can’t utter a word about what you are?”
“We are familiar with each other – known each other for a few years.” Marco chuckled to himself, at his inside joke. “Most everyone in the world is a human. We aren’t. Simple.”
“But you do have names for each other – the Master, Healer, and Rippler. They’re call signs aren’t they – is yours? The Reaper?”
“Sweetness, I’m writing this one up to you having a massive case of amnesia; otherwise, I would insure that you’d never ask me that question again.”
“So why do you have a name for the Scavengers, if you can’t address them by it?”
Marco slammed on the brakes, and then threw the car into park. His spicy scent rose as he instantly changed from a dark shadow to a white figure. Just when he was bright enough to match Jace’s blaze, he vanished. A second later he re-appeared several blocks away. I called out to him, but he didn’t give any indication that he was going anywhere close to me. Why did everyone freak out when I said that word? When nothing happened, he reappeared, next to the car. He hadn’t walked over to me; he hadn’t run; he simply appeared.
“Please tell me you are not so stupid, that you just used their name,” Marco said after he’d slid back into the seat.
“Analee does.”
“So, you want to be just like Analee, is it, or are you testing the dirt crawlers’ alliance, after all these years?” Marco scoffed. His head twitched slightly, as he studied me. Without warning, he grabbed my wrist, and pulled me toward him.
Instincts took over me, and I tried struggling against him. He laughed at my attempt. I had to give him this one – it would have been like fighting Goliath. When I stopped fighting, he flicked my pinky finger.
A vision of a giant man whom I held by knife point, flashed in my mind. He kneeled before me. The blade trembled in my hand.
“I won’t allow you take me to her, at least not alive,” I said.
“It’s not for her, Ocean Eyes,” he said. He pronounced my nickname like it was a joke. “You’ll want to grant this one. Think of it as a gift.”
“A gift for whom exactly?” I asked.
“Give your sister’s voice to us, and you’ll give all of us deities a way to speak up against the Master.”
“I’m getting a headache,” I said, as soon as the vision of me holding Marco at knife point ended. I jerked my hand, but he refused to let go. Instead he flicked it again.
A flash of the old man, holding onto a bloody knife in one hand, trickled into my mind. Scarred and wrinkled, his hands dripped with deep red blood. Collapsing to his knees, the old man grinned vindictively as an impossible gift was bestowed upon him. Smoothing out like his skin was being ironed, the old man grew young. His gray hair deepened in a dark brown, curling at the ends. His insane laugh echoed in my mind.
Marcus’s snicker brought me out of the vision where the old man defied physics and gained years of his life back. “You might not know everything you used to, but you’re hiding something, behind those pretty little eyes of yours.”
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