by T. L. Clarke
I leaned over him curiously. It was that guy from the plane—the real angry one. What was his name—Justice?
"Um, excuse me," I whispered.
He didn’t move. Jeez, it was like he wasn’t even breathing. "Are you okay?" I reached down to gently tap him on the shoulder.
His eyelids suddenly snapped open, revealing angry light gray eyes. I jumped back, startled.
"Well I was until you woke me up," he retorted grumpily. "So, what do you want?" He unfurled his tall, lanky body, quickly sitting up, rubbing his hands briskly through his chocolate brown hair that flopped across his eyes as he stretched and yawned. "Well, first leveler?"
I was taken aback by his hostility. Jeez, why did he have to be so rude? I jammed my hands on my narrow hips irately.
"Okay, so what’s your problem? I was only going to ask you where I could get something to eat, but forget it now."
His eyes narrowed. "Is that why you were practically breathing down my neck?"
I was trying to get myself under control, but he was making me mad. And he knew it. "Breathing down your neck? Uh, I don’t think so. I tapped you, and barely at that, so don’t even get crazy with me."
He quickly stood up. Involuntarily, I took quick step back. He was taller than I thought, and had to be over six foot three. In comparison to my petite frame, he was like a giant forcing me to look up—all the way up—at him as he towered over me menacingly. His skin looked pale against the black T-shirt that hugged his leanly muscular chest.
"I’m not afraid of you, so you better back off, umm, whatever your name is, because I am not the one to play with," I shouted heatedly. Of course I knew his name, but I wanted him to think that I didn’t.
He laughed gruffly. "So you think you can take me down, first leveler?"
He had a tough swagger written all over him, and warning bells were ringing in my head to back off. But of course, my stupid pride wouldn’t let me.
"Maybe I can’t, but I’ll definitely do some major damage trying." I was thinking one swift kick to the knee would give me plenty of time to run, and fast.
His eyes widened with shock, then narrowed with amusement. "I doubt that very much, but I do like a dreamer." He pointed to the narrow hallway that was tucked against the wall. "The kitchen is that way, first leveler."
I rolled my eyes dramatically before storming off in that direction.
"Justice."
I stopped midstride, forcing myself not to give him the satisfaction of looking back at him. "What?"
"My name’s Justice."
I scoffed. Now he was mocking me for pretending that I didn’t already know who he was. "Whatever."
His husky, mocking laughter followed me all the way to the kitchen. So, by the time I reached it, I was fuming. Seriously, he was so rude. I looked around the huge area that looked like it could fit perfectly in a celebrity chef’s house with its pristine stainless steel appliances and marble countertops. I stomped over to the stainless refrigerator and jerked it open, practically ripping the door off the hinges. But my anger was almost completely wiped away when I saw that the inside of the refrigerator was stocked to the hilt with all of my favorites.
Pulling out a neatly wrapped turkey and American cheese sub and a huge bottle of soda, I slammed the door shut. I was looking around for a napkin when Brooklyn strolled in with her lover boy, Dylan, in tow. They were laughing and making eyes at each other like two lovesick puppies. They stopped cold when they saw the thunderous look on my face.
Brooklyn pursed her lips delicately. "So what’s the problem, girl? You look like you’re ready to kick some major butt."
I looked around the kitchen, avoiding eye contact. "No comment. Are there any chips around here?"
Brooklyn looked at me with amusement before strolling over to the mahogany cabinet and pulling it open slowly. It was packed with snacks. I had died and gone to junk food heaven. Yes.
She gestured widely with her hand. "Here you go, angry girl. Help yourself."
I snatched a big bag of chips huffily. I didn’t know why I had let Justice get under my skin like that. It was just something about him that brought out my temper—in the worst kind of way.
Dylan’s eyes widened curiously on me before winking at Brooklyn. "I think you two should have a little girl talk. Brook, same time, same place tomorrow night?"
She smiled coyly at him. "Maybe."
"Okay. Sure. Maybe." He winked at her before strolling out of the kitchen whistling happily.
Brooklyn collapsed against the stainless steel refrigerator in a mock faint. "His awesomeness is way too exhausting."
I rolled my eyes with exasperation. "Yeah. Okay. Napkins?"
Brooklyn opened a drawer, pulled one out, and waved it in my face playfully. "Okay, so what’s the problem? What are you so grumpy about?"
I snatched it from her fingers, nearly ripping it in half. "Don’t want to talk about it, all right?"
Unfortunately, not to be discouraged, Brooklyn looped her arm through mine, tugging it gently. "Oh, you’re going talk about it right now. Into the lounge we go."
I backed away nervously. Just the thought of bumping into Justice again was way too nerve-racking. "Is there anywhere else to eat?"
Brooklyn looked at me questioningly. "Uh, yeah, there’s the dining room, or better yet, we can go out to the balcony. It’s not cold tonight."
I sagged with relief. "Okay, that sounds good."
She pulled me out of the kitchen and through a side hallway that led out into a huge balcony with wide carved stone benches. Sitting down quickly, Brooklyn crossed her legs comfortably, then grabbed my bag of chips, tore it open, and shoved a handful into her mouth. "So? Spill." Chip bits spilled out of her mouth messily.
I crossed my legs, looking at her ashamedly. "It’s nothing; I guess I’m madder at myself for letting him get under my skin that way."
Brooklyn gestured with her hands impatiently. "Okay, so you have to give me just a little bit more than that. Like who’s ‘he’?"
I bit furiously into my sandwich, chewing quickly. "Oh, just some guy named Justice."
Brooklyn sputtered, choking on a mouthful of chips. "I’m sorry. Did you say Justice?"
I took a huge swig of her soda. "Yes, at least that’s what he said his name was. Why?"
She looked at me with wide-open eyes. "Well, only because he’s bad boy extraordinaire." She made a huge, exaggerated X with her fingers like warding off evil. "Seriously, he’s bad news in every type of way. He got in a fight with an NA end leveler the last week and broke his arm. Last month he was sparring with a fellow NA middle leveler and got so mad at him that he hauled off and cracked his ribs." She quickly pulled more chips from the bag as she worked herself into frenzy. "The problem is that he’s super gorgeous and he knows it. Combined with his bad-boy reputation, that puts him firmly on the Ares hottie list. He’s got all of the NCs drooling over him and following him around like little puppies. It’s pretty pathetic, really."
I rolled my eyes with exasperation. "Why? I mean, he isn’t tragic looking, but he isn’t rock-star gorgeous either." All lies. I was lying to myself for some reason. She was right. He was super gorgeous.
Brooklyn looked at me like I had lost my mind. "Well, number one, two, and three. He’s absolutely, ridiculously rock-star gorgeous. Stop playing, girl. You know this."
Yeah. I did. I pursed my lips with irritation. "Well, he’s arrogant enough to love all the attention." I was grasping at straws.
Brooklyn giggled. "Well the rumor is that he’s been with a lot of NCs. And I mean a lot. No girlfriend, though. He doesn’t keep them around for long. But that only makes the competition for him even fiercer." She wiggled her eyebrows playfully. "Even super CVV Calleis has been hovering around him like a vulture lately. Seriously, they’re like cats trying to tear each other’s eyes out. Believe me; it’s hilarious to watch all the drama that goes on around here."
I couldn’t help the giggle that escaped my lips. "Wha
t in the world is a super CVV?"
Brooklyn giggled. "Super conceited, vain, and vindictive." She ticked off each word on her fingers. "That’s what we call Calleis behind her back. She’s also the president of the Horae Society."
"Well they all can have him because I’m not interested." I jammed the rest of my sandwich into my mouth, chewing furiously. Well, I wasn’t.
Brooklyn giggled, jabbing me in my side playfully. "Are you trying to convince me or yourself?"
That was a real good question that I did not want to explore, not now, maybe never. "Talking about convincing, what’s the deal with you and Dylan?"
This was my pathetic distraction tactic. I was hoping she bit on it and moved off the topic of Justice, and fast.
Brooklyn poked out her full lips in thought. "Dylan? He’s complicated. And I absolutely love it." She got a real dreamy look in her eyes. "Nothing serious or anything—we flirt, but that’s it. But you’ll learn very quickly that everyone flirts. It’s like flirt central around here." She nudged me with her elbow. "Anyway, so is there a boyfriend back in Normal land?"
I looked at her sheepishly. "I didn’t date at all. I had lots of ‘friends’ that wanted to take it there—but dancing was more important. Now I guess this is more important." I gestured to everything around us. The truth was that there were never any guys I thought were interesting enough to make me want to focus on them.
"I can tell you right now that all of the NAs are buzzing like crazy." She did air quotes. "‘Absolutely hot,’ that’s what they’re saying about you. So watch for the games to begin. Neophyte Ares love a challenge."
I smiled cheekily. "Seriously, I’m not interested in dating anyone right now. And besides, from what I’ve seen so far, the best thing they could do is stay away from me."
Brooklyn giggled. "Famous last words—not interested. That’s what I said when I got here, and then Dylan roped me in with his baby blues." She blinked her eyes sweetly. "And the rest is Brooklyn history."
She was absolutely hilarious. We broke out in a fit of giggles, stopping only when we heard the loud commotion down in the C-Yard. Rushing over, we peeked over the stone balcony ledge only to see throngs of men and women striding across excitedly. My eyes widened with surprise when I spotted a familiar-looking stick-thin woman with flowing, shiny chocolate brown hair jammed in the middle of the throng of people striding across the courtyard. "Isn’t that the big mega-actress from that big summer action movie?"
Brooklyn’s mouth fell open. She gushed, "Oh my goodness, yes, that’s so totally her."
I scanned the rest of the crowd curiously. "For real? She’s an Eternal? Wow, that’s really crazy!" I screamed excitedly.
Brooklyn popped another chip into her mouth. "There are tons of famous and powerful Eternals."
I was amazed at the famous faces spotted in the crowd, all of them looking as if they had a purpose. But something in the shadows stirred, quickly grabbing my attention. I knew immediately that something was wrong when I felt that familiar chill go down my spine. Squinting, I tried to make out the shape of the tall, darkly cloaked figure, with a hood firmly in place, skirting around in the fringes of the crowd. I swallowed anxiously.
Let me see your face, just one glimpse of your face, I silently repeated over and over like I was in some sort of crazy trance.
The faceless whispers started again, tickling my ears. The figure ducked behind a large pillar, looking promptly up at me. Our eyes locked, and instantly I knew that it was a woman under the cloak. And her eyes were very familiar. I racked my brain. Where had I seen them before?
The woman’s eyes narrowed frostily, and I was overcome with a very woozy feeling. My thoughts became very foggy, dazed. Something warned me to quickly break eye contact with this woman, but her eyes compelled me to remain locked with hers. Abruptly my thoughts froze, giving me just enough time to look away and clear my mind. I shook my head, then quickly looked back toward the woman, but she had already escaped into the shadows. I knew those eyes, but I couldn’t quite place them.
Brooklyn tapped on my shoulder urgently. "Uh, Gabi, what’s up with you? I’ve been calling your name for eons. What’s up with the goofy look on your face?"
Confused, I quickly turned to look at her. "Huh? What? I thought I saw someone that I knew in the crowd."
Brooklyn laughed. "Uh, you probably did. It’s like a combination of the movie and music awards down there."
No, it wasn’t that. It was something else, like something wicked wrong. And I could feel it deep inside my guts. Like something bad was going to happen. The smell of death lingered nastily in the air.
"Brook, tell me something. What do you know about this whole immortal stuff? I mean, do you think that it’s possible for us to truly die?"
Brooklyn lightly pushed me. "Will you get out of my head? See, that’s the exact question I asked one of the Circles. You know, when that end leveler went poof? So, I asked if we have all this immortal stuff running through our blood, then how did she die? The answer is that we don’t get a live-forever pass. Don’t get me wrong, we do live, like, for a very long time, but eventually we die—poof—back to the earth as dust."
She popped another chip into her mouth. "But the Elementi— that’s a whole different story. They live forever. Well, that’s if they don’t get"—she made a knife-cutting-the-throat gesture—"axed by some stinky Daemon or Banished. But that’s our job, right, to make sure that we protect them?" She pouted thoughtfully.
I grabbed some chips, chomping them enthusiastically. "This whole thing sounds like some sort of wicked scientific project gone horribly wrong."
"I know, right? Especially when you know that we wouldn’t even be here if it wasn’t for the Elementi creating us like some sort of genetic mutation. So it’s a good thing that Elementi guys are smoking hot." She wagged her eyebrows.
I rolled my eyes. "Okay, why does everything you say always end up being about hottie Elementi and Eternals? The world can rock on without them, you know. How about the hottie Normals?"
She rolled her eyes. "Normals? Yuck, so not a worthwhile endeavor, my friend. Besides, the fact that Elementi are hot makes this whole deal about needing them genetically to keep the Eternals’ population from dying just a little easier to deal with, don’t you think?"
She was right. In a worse scenario, the Eternals could have been stuck making out with shriveled, ugly toad-looking Elementi. I would take a race of gorgeous Elementi hotties any day. But what I didn’t hear in the equation was the fact that the Elementi needed us just as much as we did them. We were bred to be their protectors, their Warriors. Well, didn’t that count for something?
We both walked back to the stone bench and sat down tiredly.
I looked at her curiously. "So spill, what are your parents like?"
Brooklyn stared up at the stars. "My mother is a very successful singer living out in Los Angeles with her gorgeous Ares mate."
"What about your dad?"
She looked at me blankly. "You mean my Elementi genetic donor," she spat nastily. "He lives in New York. We don’t speak much. But that’s how it is sometimes with the Elementi. I’m not delusional. My father only had me because of his misplaced duty to keep the Eternal society going."
I could feel her sadness seeping out.
Brooklyn smiled slightly. "Look, I can deal with it. You know, with the whole duty and survival thing."
I took a sip of soda. "I guess someday that’s going to be us. You know, being sucked into the whole Eternal duty and survival thing."
Brooklyn wagged her eyebrows suggestively. "Let’s hope. I wouldn’t mind having a hot Elementi as my soul mate. The cool thing is that things are not as uptight as they were when my grandmother was a girl. Now Elementi and Eternals date each other like crazy and get married with no problem. But according to my grandmother, centuries ago, that was a big no-no. But still for the Eternals, their first priority is the blood oath."
I grimaced. There it was again, Eleme
nti first, Eternals second.
"My mom absolutely loves her mate, and he absolutely loves her too. In fact, they’re nauseatingly in love." She made a puking sound. "And he’s fiercely protective of her. Not that she needs protecting."
She got a real dreamy look in her eyes. "My mom told me that when they met, it was like bam! She knew instantly that he was her soul mate."
I scoffed, "The soul mate thing sounds real serious."
She sighed. "The soul mate thing is majorly huge. They say that when you imprint with your soul mate, there’s this pull, like everything stops when the person is around." She smiled cheekily. "So…what’s up with your parents?"
I wanted to spill everything, but I knew that I shouldn’t or, like, couldn’t. So I went with the next best thing, the fuzzy truth. "Well, my mom and dad died. My Grandma Celeste pretty much raised me."
Brooklyn patted my shoulder consolingly. "No, she didn’t die; she was transformed in Hallowed Eternity. I like that a whole lot better. It just sounds a lot more magical, you know?"
I smiled gratefully, then looked up at the stars soulfully, letting the wave of sadness roll over me. I asked wistfully, "Sometimes, don’t you miss just being a Normal?"
She looked at me like I had two heads. "Uh, nope, I mean, what’s so special about being a Normal? In high school, I was that rich biracial girl that everyone wanted to hang out with because I was the ultimate party girl. But the truth is that I was always living in constant fear of someone finding out that I was different. You know, because I could do things that no one else could. I was absolutely exhausted from pretending to be normal by hiding my gift. But here, it’s totally different. Here I actually belong, and I don’t fear being different."
A slow smile spread across my face because it suddenly hit me that I, too, had spent so much of my time trying to fit in, too much of my time just being angry—angry that my mother was not around, angry that I didn’t really understand who I was, and angry that I felt different than everyone around me. But now, honestly, I could just let that go, because in this world, this Eternal world, I was just Gabrielle, Neophyte. Nothing more, nothing less, and I was totally cool with that.