by M.C. Moore
Chapter 14…
The rest of that evening was fairly normal. The family had dinner together. Taggart and their father evaluated all of the surveillance equipment that had been installed. Meckenzie finished her homework and was able to catch a little TV. Kellan had been quiet most of the evening, but she hadn’t been overly glum, or started any fights.
Isabel took Kellan aside after dinner for what Meckenzie could only assume was a pep talk. Kellan had come back upstairs smiling and laughing with Isabel. Meckenzie hoped that this was a turning point for Kellan. With their birthday less than four weeks away, the trips needed to do as much training as possible and still maintain their school work. The end of the school year was just around the corner, and it was hard to say what would happen after their graduation.
Meckenzie headed to bed, wishing she was supposed to meet Morgan in her dreams this evening. She would love to ask her more questions. There was so much she wanted to know about Aquanis, her mother, and the Morrigan. Meckenzie hadn’t told Kellan about her vision this evening. She really hadn’t talked to Kellan about anything. Taggart was so distracted with all the spy stuff going on, that Meckenzie never really even saw him except at dinner. She didn’t think that she should bring up her inter-world communication at the dinner table. Her father was one more revelation away from a heart attack.
Meckenzie decided that it would be best to clear her head of all thoughts as she fell asleep. She didn’t want to accidently end up talking to Morgan or even worse to Ty in her dreams.
The next morning came without any dream interruptions. Meckenzie had slept terrifically and was ready for her day. She was not ready to face Ty and tell him that her father had agreed to meet him at seven this evening for a face to face. Over breakfast Meckenzie was given the run down over how the evening should go from Taggart and Isabel. It seemed that there was a monitor set up in her father’s office, as well as in the kitchen. Plus, and this was what Taggart seemed to love the most, they had tied the DVR system into the theater system on the third floor. So you could view any camera on the big screen. Taggart had spent part of last night watching the cameras. Since there was one over the front door, you could get a pretty clear shot of the street and the park.
Kellan failed to make an appearance at breakfast, but Isabel said she had grabbed something before heading off to school to work out. Jones the security guy had walked her in about an hour ago. So Taggart and Meckenzie headed off to school together after breakfast. The security guy nodded at them as they exited the door and dropped in behind them as they began their walk. Meckenzie couldn’t help but sneak a peek over her shoulder to see what he was wearing today. He was still in a suit, and today his tie matched the grey color of his eyes.
“Have you talked to Kellan?” Taggart asked.
“No. I really haven’t seen her, I figured she just needed some space. I’m not sure what is going on. I mean yesterday when we were in the equipment closet; she and I had a nice heart to heart talk. When we got home, she was like a totally different person. I think her mood swings are getting worse. Maybe it is a side effect of her powers, like my headaches and your growing weak after healing someone.”
“Kellan has always been moody, maybe she is just frustrated and its coming off as really moody. I wouldn’t call her moody to her face though, she might go all She-Hulk on you.” Taggart laughed.
“I think you are the one that needs to worry. She did knock you out yesterday and you were the one that laughed at her in the equipment closet.”
“Yeah, I should probably lay off of her huh?”
“I think so, unless you want to eat your meals through a straw.” Meckenzie actually cracked herself up with that one.
They reached first period and Kellan was already in her seat. She seemed to be concentrating on her book and didn’t even look up when her siblings sat down.
“How goes it lil sis?” Taggart ventured to break the ice.
“Good.” Kellan replied, but never looked up.
Kellan was going to be a pain to deal with today, Meckenzie could already tell. If this was any indication as to how well the talk with Isabel went, Meckenzie could not figure out for the life of her what they had been laughing about. Meckenzie decided that she would not let Kellan’s mood affect her day. She was already going to have to deal with giving Ty the “good” news. She really was dreading his entrance this morning.
As if Meckenzie had beckoned him with her thoughts, Ty smugly strolled into class. He smiled as he met Meckenzie’s eyes and headed straight for her. Kellan, as if sensing Meckenzie’s discomfort, moved to the end of the table vacating the seat between them for Ty.
As he slid into his newly appointed seat, he gave Kellan a pat on the back and turned to face Meckenzie.
“So how was the conversation with your dad? Are we good to go for my meeting him tonight?”
Meckenzie shifted uneasily in her chair to face Ty. “Yes, he said you should come over around seven, if that was okay with your parents.”
“Yeah, my parents are never really home, so it won’t be a problem. I’m very excited about tomorrow night. Is there some particular kind of food that you enjoy?” Ty licked his lips as he said this. To Meckenzie it brought to mind someone getting ready to consume a big meal. She hoped she wasn’t the big meal that Ty was hoping to consume.
She still didn’t feel too good about this date. Meckenzie knew that there was information that needed to be gathered. The situation with Ty was weird at best. His proximity to her always brought on the headaches and buzzing that was slightly driving her mad. Meckenzie hoped that it wouldn’t happen all throughout their date. The buzzing would make it almost impossible for her to concentrate.
“I like Thai food a lot but I am also fond of Indian food. I had Italian last night, so I probably won’t want that. You pick something, I’m sure I love it.” Meckenzie was trying her hand at flirting. She coyly smiled at Ty, letting her eyes move down to her hands were she was tracing an outline of nothing in particular on her jeans.
Meckenzie didn’t know if it was working, but she heard Taggart giggle a little behind her. She was sure Taggart was getting great amusement out of the situation. Any instance that made Meckenzie uneasy was always a great pleasure to Taggart. She could only imagine the amount of teasing she would take from him later in the day.
Just then the bell rang and Mr. Humphries started class. Meckenzie turned her focus to the front of the room; she just wanted this class to be over. It used to be her favorite class of the day. It was the only class that the trips had together and usually they enjoyed sitting in the back of the room, just being. But now with Kellan in such a foul mood and Ty taking up residence at their table, there was a black cloud hanging over the table.
Meckenzie felt like she had never focused so much in her life. She threw herself into today’s lecture, taking clear notes, participating whenever possible, and reading along in the book with Mr. Humphries. As soon as the bell rang, Meckenzie was ready to go. She left class barely acknowledging Kellan, giving a brief goodbye to Ty, and punching Taggart in the shoulder as she raced past him to the door.
Meckenzie spent the rest of her classes focused in much the same manner. She learned after about the third class that the day seemed to fly when she threw herself into her school work. Meckenzie had always been able to get A’s with only half listening. If she finished out the school year this way, she might even make the honor roll.
As Meckenzie headed down the steps after school, she caught sight of Jones, the body guard, who waited to walk the siblings home. Meckenzie had not thought to ask Taggart or Kellan if they would be leaving as soon as school was out. She hoped they had communicated this information to the guard.
Meckenzie walked right up to him, which was not the normal way of communicating with him. Normally she just nodded and headed towards the house, knowing he would follow.
“Your sister said she would be working out late when I walked her in this morning. Your brother found me a little while ago and said he would be in the lab until 4:30.”
“Can I ask you a question?” Meckenzie wanted to get some information from this guy. She thought he might have some helpful tips on determining if someone was being honest or trying to pull the wool over her eyes. She assumed Jones had been military at some point. He had that look about him. Jones was about 6’2” probably weighed about 180 pounds, he looked ready for anything. His arms were not only muscular, but very tan, which indicated that he probably spent a lot of time outside. His brown hair was cut close to his head and he always had sunglasses handy. She assumed it was so he could look wherever he wanted without anyone knowing he was looking at them.
“I guess,” Jones responded, “within reason.”
“Okay, well I’ll ask and then you can answer if you want. Let’s say there’s this guy and you haven’t known him for very long. He seems okay, polite, clean cut, and attractive. No real defects on the outside.”
“Ma’am, I’m going to stop you. If you are asking me a dating question, I’m not the person to ask. I’ve been married and divorced, and have not had a lot of luck with picking ladies who were not after something other than my wallet.” He laughed at his own joke. Meckenzie thought for a second, because it was sort of a dating question. She was going on a date with him, but it was really more of a ‘Can I trust this guy enough to not think he is going to kidnap or kill me question?’
“Okay, it is sort of a dating question; it is sort of a personal security question.”
“Continue then.”
“Well, this guy asked me out on a date. I think he might be up to something no good. Maybe even a safety risk. How can I find out?” Meckenzie ended her question with a shrug of her shoulders. She was really wanting to find out what this guy would do.
“I’d run a background check. Anyone can run them now with the internet. If he is in High School, I’d check out where he says he’s from and see if he is really from there. Google him. Anyone with a history has a history on the internet.”
“Can you show me how to run a background check?”
“Sure, you wanna do it now since I have an hour before I have to come back and get your brother.”
“That would be great if you don’t mind. I’m Meckenzie by the way; I don’t think I ever got your first name.” Meckenzie had been wondering since yesterday when he introduced himself what his first name was. She still had the image of his mother calling him Jones in her mind.
“Jeff Jones.” He held out his hand as he said his totally all American name.
“Really, Jeff Jones. It seems so, I don’t know. It just doesn’t seem like it fits you.” Meckenzie giggled. “I expected Butch or Duke, something rough and tough.”
“What Jeff isn’t rough enough for you? I mean it is really Jeffrey. Does that make it better?”
Meckenzie was actually laughing now. “Jeffrey fits even less.”
They started walking towards the house with Meckenzie laughing and saying Jeffrey every few minutes. Every time she would say it she would laugh a little more. She had created an image for super scary security guy, and the name Jeffrey didn’t really fit the image. She hoped she wasn’t offending him by laughing at his name. She caught him smiling out of the corner of her eye and knew that he was okay with her laughing.
When they got to the house, Meckenzie headed up to her dad’s office so they could use his computer. Meckenzie’s laptop was in her room and though it could be moved anywhere in the house, she thought it better to do this in her dad’s office so any information she found she could leave it up for her dad to see.
As Meckenzie sat down to start her first attempt at spy work, Jeff took off his sunglasses and pulled up a chair beside her. She was mesmerized by his grey eyes. Meckenzie found herself staring at him blankly wishing she could reach out and touch his hair or his face. Jeff smiled a dazzling smile that sent shivers down her spin. Meckenzie snapped herself back to reality; this was not what she was here for.
Jeff thought it might be better for her to start with Google since this was the easiest. So Meckenzie typed in Tynan Rabe in the search engine and let it do its work. There were several results, but none where Tynan and Rabe were the individual’s full name. She then used Ty Rabe and came up with a director at Hewlett Packard and some guy in Massachusetts who was too old to be the Ty in her class. After clicking several links, Jeff suggested that they search for his school record. Unfortunately, Meckenzie didn’t know where he went to school prior to moving here.
That had hit a road block, because Meckenzie also didn’t have enough information to run a background check either.
“He’s coming over tonight to meet my dad. Do you think you could give my dad a list of questions that would help us be able to run a background check?”
“Maybe. I mean if we have his birthday and his name, I can probably find something out. Do you think you should go out with this guy if you’re having this much of a bad feeling about him?” Jeff said.
“No, but we need to find out who he is, it’s a long story. I don’t know what my dad told you about what’s going on, but I am just feeling extra cautious lately.” Meckenzie paused wondering how much her dad had actually told Jeff. “Okay, let’s say hypothetically that we are long lost royalty from a war torn country. Let’s say the faction of this war that is against the royalty has decided to seek them out and kill them or something in that nature. So, we find out only this week that we are long lost royalty, the same day this kid shows up in my class. Then he asks me out within days of moving to the school. Coincidence? I just want to protect my family and it seems like finding out who this guy is, whether by the internet or by going on a date with him is something that would help.”
“Hypothetically, the date sounds like a horrible idea. If you just want information there are other ways of getting it. If you are determined to go on this date though, maybe I should go on it with you. We could tell him that your father has a big business deal going on and he thought it best to protect you.”
Meckenzie had actually already considered the possibility of Jeff coming with her on her date. “I think we should just run it by my father when he gets home. It might be worth it for you to be here tonight when Ty comes over to meet my dad.”
“I can pull some of the stills off the video equipment and call in a favor or two. We might be able to find something out before you actually have to go out with him.” Jeff seemed more than a little concerned at this point.
“May I ask you a personal question?” Meckenzie was starting to really like Jeff. She didn’t want to put him in danger. She really wanted to know how much experience he had.
“Maybe, ask and we’ll see if I can answer it.” Jeff smiled.
“How long have you been doing this?” Meckenzie started small.
“Two years.” Sadness flashed into Jeff’s eyes. It was as if something horrible had happened and it was buried behind those beautiful eyes. “I served in the Marines for six years. I was deployed overseas; I can’t really tell you where. Let’s just say after six years, I determined that I would rather be protecting people before the danger occurred. So a friend of mine had that gotten out a year before me got a job with a security firm here in New York. He wrote me a few times and told me I should come join him. The pay was excellent and the damage was minimal. Mostly we just do security for movie stars and the such when they come to town or have to go somewhere.”
“Really, so have you met anyone really famous?” Meckenzie decided a light change of subject was in order.
“Yes, but I can’t discuss our client list. Let’s just say I have shown up in the background of many tabloid photos.” Jeff
laughed at this. He had a good laugh, a strong laugh that came from deep inside. Meckenzie had to be careful, she was very attracted to her body guard and he was at least ten years older than her.
“Well, I should probably do my homework, or work out. Hopefully you’ll be able to help us out tonight, and thank you Jeff for all your help this afternoon.” Meckenzie excused herself and headed downstairs to find Isabel. She knew that nothing could ever come of her crush, so she would just put it out of her mind.
Isabel was setting up a training dummy in the gym. She didn’t even turn around as Meckenzie came down the stairs, she just laughed.
“Your emotions will either help you or hurt you, but for sure, they amplify your thought transmission.”
Meckenzie blushed. She had been thinking about the way Jeff’s shirt hugged his chest and arms, and how strong he must be, plus what a wonderful smile he had.
“What’s on the agenda today?” She said.
“Well, so no one gets hurt, I thought we might take a few hits at the dummy. I think for you this will be easier for training purposes. I think for Kellan, it will make sure she doesn’t accidently kill someone.”
“Oh, Ty is coming over tonight to meet dad. I was hoping that you and Jeff could get a look at him. Jeff’s going to run a background check on him.”
“Jeff?” Isabel questioned, already knowing the answer.
“Yes, the body guard that dad hired. I asked him how we could find out about Ty and determine if he is who he says he is.”
“Not a bad idea. You know if he means you any ill will, the gnome hearts will let us know as soon as he enters the house.”
Meckenzie had almost forgotten about the magical alarm system that had been armed around all the entrances to their home. She hoped all the precautions she was taking would lead her to some answers regarding the effect Ty had on her.
Meckenzie decided to throw herself into her workout and started putting on her gear. She would learn as much as she could about fighting. Frankly, anything would be more than her current knowledge.
Isabel showed Meckenzie how to get the most power from her punches by using her body. She also taught her how to do a leg sweep and to break free from someone if they caught her from behind. Isabel was an excellent trainer; she was patient and had a ton of knowledge about the subject. Meckenzie could only imagine that somewhere in Aquanis there was a facility training fairies in hand to hand combat.
“Actually,” Isabel interrupted her thought, “there are several training facilities in Aquanis. One for hand to hand combat, one for magical combat, one for weapons combat, and one for espionage. At least those are the ones I was trained at. We should actually work on you protecting your thoughts while trying to fight. It seems the more concentrated you get on one subject, the more your thoughts seem to transmit. Try building the wall around your thoughts again, then think about one thing very hard. I will see if I can pick it out of your brain.”
Meckenzie starting putting up her mental wall. She decided she would think about her mother and the conversation she was going to have with Morgan tonight. It would be nice to hear news from her mother. To know what was going on. She was very excited. As she went through her punches she tried to determine what she might want to ask of her mother. What questions did she have? Almost everything she came up with didn’t seem relevant to the battles at hand.
“Good.” Isabel interrupted her thought process. “I can’t hear anything.”
“Did you send word to my mom about the conversation with Morgan?” Meckenzie had been so excited about the possibility of talking to Morgan again, that she hadn’t even thought that she might not get to.
“Yes. We haven’t received any word back from them. So in this instance, no news is good news. I gave a password that Morgan should give you at the beginning of the conversation that tells you that it is alright to talk with her. We should go through a list of things that it might be important for them to know.”
Meckenzie had gotten distracted by her thoughts and the conversation with Isabel, so when she threw her last punch and it ricocheted off the dummy and the glove came back and hit her in the mouth, she was completely surprised. It was also unfortunate that Meckenzie had not put in her mouth piece, because the force of the glove off the dummy had cut her lip on her teeth. She tasted the cooper taste of blood as it started to pour out of her lip.
“Oh.” Isabel hurried to Meckenzie and began inspecting her mouth. “You got yourself pretty good. I think you should go wash your mouth out in the bathroom and get some ice on it before it begins to swell.”
Isabel started unlacing Meckenzie’s gloves. Just then Taggart came down the stairs and headed over to where Meckenzie was now pretty bloody.
“Oh crap.” Taggart exclaimed. “Did the dummy beat you up?”
“No, I can do that all on my own.” Meckenzie laughed at herself.
“Well as long as you got some punches in on someone.” Taggart was never going to let Meckenzie live this one down. She was a bit embarrassed by the whole thing, but she wouldn’t let that deter her from throwing herself right back into training.
“Meckenzie can you check the chicken I have in the oven when you go up? Make sure it isn’t getting too dry. Just be sure to wash up before you go handling the food.” Isabel was trying to rescue Meckenzie from Taggart’s mockery, because Isabel then threw a pair of gloves at Taggart and tossed him his mouth piece. “It’s your turn big boy. Let’s see what you got.”
Meckenzie left the gym and headed upstairs to take care of her busted lip. It had already begun to throb with pain, so she decided to hit the pain reliever drawer their dad had in the kitchen. With a pack of frozen peas and a couple of ibuprofen, Meckenzie checked on dinner and then headed up to her room. She decided to knock out her homework and jump in the shower before dinner. It was going to be a long night and she didn’t want any loose ends that needed to be tied up.