The Nexis Secret Page 10

  “I don’t know.” Laura peeled off one glove and reached over to pat my hand. Warmth seeped from her soft touch, warmth I needed desperately. “I know this is a lot to take in, let alone believe. We’re only here to help.”

  I exhaled the breath I’d sucked in for too long. In some strange way what they were saying was starting to make sense. James wouldn’t abandon me like he did unless he had no choice. But the idea wasn’t as comforting as I thought it’d be.

  Clip-clomps of heavy feet pounded from the hallway, one by one, until a dark figure filled the doorway.

  “And we’re also here to protect you.” Tony’s deep voice echoed like a gong in the quiet room. That boy could win a James Dean lookalike contest. All he needed was a leather jacket over that blue and gold Montrose Soccer uniform.

  “Is that why you guys call yourselves the Guardians? What is there to protect us firstborn descendants, or whatever you call us, from?”

  “From Will and his family’s stupidity, but most of all from Nexis.” He straddled the back of a chair next to Bryan. The Montrose logo on his jersey peeked between the slats. “They have big plans. If they think you’re the Seer or you have an equally powerful gift, they’ll need you to complete their mission.”

  “The Seer. Is that what you call this one supposedly special relative of mine?” It sounded like a Lord of the Rings character. Yet it clicked right into place. Did that mean my hallucinations were part of this unseen reality? Could I actually be the Seer? No way, not in a million years. It didn’t add up. Except it did explain my visions—and proved I wasn’t crazy.

  Maybe I could trust these people. The smallest flutter of courage rose from my gut. I opened my mouth.

  “It’s insane.” Tony’s words cut me off. “It’s too early in the century for a Seer to come along.”

  Scratch that, at least someone would think I’m crazy, and he’d probably be right. Maybe they were the crazies, not me. Yet I couldn’t deny the things I’d seen. Not any more.

  “Nexis and the Guardians have been fighting over the Seer for centuries. The Seer could come along early, if Nexis has really big plans this time around.” Bryan’s eyes softened. “After all, only God controls his own covenant. Still, it’s unlikely.”

  “Just think of it like this.” Laura bumped her shoulder against mine, a smile lighting up her face. “Either way, you will have some kind of gift in two years, one that will help you out in a lot of ways. Whatever it is.”

  “I know it’s a lot to take in. We just wanted to prepare you, especially since Nexis is after you, too.” Bryan’s hand brushed over mine. “You don’t have to understand it all right now, or even believe. Promise me you’ll reserve any judgment for a week or two. I’m here if you have any questions. It’s kind of my job to help newbies figure things out. Feel free to do your own research, too, whatever you need.”

  Those words punched me in the gut. “If it’s your job and everything.”

  If I thought I was confused before this conversation, I was dead wrong. I’d reached the epitome of confusion. Even so, their words held a ring of truth. This biblical legend could explain my strange visions. Until I knew for sure, I couldn’t reveal them to anyone. After all, I wasn’t eighteen, or even the firstborn. It had be some kind of fluke—or some kind of lesser gift.

  “I’ve got a lot to think about.” I must’ve stood up and started walking, because Bryan followed me to the door.

  “Take all the time you need.”

  I wandered down the hall, opening the front door with a creak. Crisp night air hit me in the face, like everything else at this school.

  My goals at Montrose were simple, start over and make my own mark, apart from my family. Now I couldn’t get away from them, even here, like my destiny was already planned out. The claws of fate had their hooks in me—a fate I’d never asked for, never planned for. All I wanted to do was run away.

  Chapter 11

  A pillar of afternoon sun striped across the foot of my bed. I slipped my bookmark into the conjugation page of my French book and tiptoed to the window. Washes of feathery white smeared across the blue sky. I could almost hear the birds chirping. I found the lever at the bottom and cranked the creaky handle with my fingertips until the window jutted open.

  Something banged behind me so loudly I jumped. My elbow hit the crank.

  “Ow.” The sore spot smarted as I rubbed it.

  “Sorry, I knocked.” Mindy hovered among the butterfly chairs, eyelashes quivering. “Can we talk? I think you deserve an explanation about last week.”

  A breeze wafted across my face, smelling sweet and crisp with a late-September chill. I pulled on my sweater. “Let’s sit.”

  Mindy plunked down in the chair opposite me and clasped her hands in her lap. “I didn’t mean to accuse you of anything. Especially at lunch like that, in front of all your friends. I’m really sorry.”

  “It was kind of weird.” I couldn’t see her eyes through the sandy fringe she’d let fall across her face. “I didn’t even know you had a sister, let alone that she knew my brother. Are you guys close?”

  Silence shrouded the air—even the birds stopped chirping to hear what Mindy said next. “Maria and I were close, until she died two years ago.”

  Tears rolled down that Miss America face, smudging her mascara, streaking her makeup.

  “I’m so sorry. I had no idea.” I palmed the tissue box, nudging it against her knee. Any words of comfort I could fathom got stuck on the tip of my tongue. She wouldn’t glance up, yet I had to ask. “How did she die?”

  She sniffed and dabbed her face. “It was here at Montrose. They found her in the river.”

  “Ohmigosh!” The screech escaped before I had a chance to check it. Horrible images floated in my mind. “That’s so awful.”

  She wailed into the Kleenex, blowing her nose with a loud honk. “I always thought James knew more than he let on. I don’t know what I was thinking. I’m totally irrational sometimes.” She balled up her tissue, her pageant face completely gone now, her red nose splotchy, eyes puffy.

  Tears welled up just looking at her, but a seething pulse drummed into my ears. I wanted to scream. How could she accuse James of being involved? Could either one of us be rational here?

  “I don’t understand why James would know anything.”

  She yanked out more tissues, wiping off the streaks of black eye makeup. “They were dating at the time,and some people said they were about to break up, just rumors of course. I wish I knew the truth, though.”

  Her head bobbed back and forth as another sob racked her shoulders. “According to Colleen and Monica, he was the last one to see her alive.”

  Her words buzzed like a live wire, as if she’d just slapped me in the face. They electrocuted my brain with a life of their own, lacing the air with resentment, bitterness, betrayal.

  And then the room started to spin.

  Her splotchy face, once backlit by afternoon sunlight, was now fading into deep shadows, twisting and twirling around me.

  My dorm room merged into a mish-mosh of colors swirling together in one fuzzy blur. Like it was supposed to be that way all along.

  I gave in to the spinning. Who was I to say no, to stop what needed to stay in motion?

  I let the whirlwind take me wherever it wanted to go, into a chasm. I was falling into an abyss, unknown, unseen, cloaked by mist. A hand reached out.

  Somehow it was James I saw in the fog.

  He clawed at the mist, searching for me, trying to show me the way. But I fell too far, too fast, too deep. He was gone, and nothing but gray surrounded me.

  Just like that I was back in my dorm, staring at my suitemate, her face clouded with confusion. How long had I been out this time?

  Mindy mouthed goodbye and slipped out of the room.

  I didn’t want to move, but I had to. I had to find a way out, or something bad would happen, as if the fate of the whole world depended on me. I picked up my keys and headed out the door.<
br />
  One thing I knew for certain, Colleen and Monica were just plain wrong. I had to get to the bottom of this.

  * * *

  “One hour! The countdown is one hour.” Shanda screeched at me as soon as I opened the door. “You should be getting ready.”

  I rubbed my eyes and set my books down on my bed. Had I really been in the library all afternoon? I’d read about angels and Nephilim, those infamous half angels that everyone had theories about, as if they even existed. I came back more confused than ever. Surprise, the Bible doesn’t say much about angels, at least not a whole lot of specifics. You really have to dig for it, but I guess I dug around a little too long.

  Lucky for me, this dorm party was only one floor down. I hopped in for a quick shower and when I stepped out of the bathroom, the sickly sweet smells of hairspray and perfume hovered in the air. How was my roomie almost all primped up and ready to go?

  I dragged the brush through my hair as I blow-dried, then flat-ironed a cute flip on the ends. Not a huge departure from my usual straight style, but a definite improvement. More casual, and it brought out the copper highlights in my walnut hair.

  I dabbed on my last coat of lip gloss. Mid-lip, I flinched at a creaking sound to my left as the door slammed shut. Did Shanda leave without me? I tiptoed to the door and peeked down the hall. She was long gone.

  “Someone’s overeager to hang out with boys.” Probably a certain surfer boy.

  “Not me.” Mindy popped out of her room, yanking Brooke down the hall. She gave a meek little wave. “See you down there.”

  “See ya.” I couldn’t look at Mindy, so I glanced at Brooke instead. Bryan’s sister couldn’t be more unlike him, a mousy dishwater-blond girl with thick bangs but seriously cute glasses. If anyone could get that girl to open up, it’d be Mindy. My heart still ached for her loss, in spite of her obviously misplaced anger issues.

  Tonight I couldn’t focus on what she’d said to me. I needed to shove it deep into the furthest corners of my mind.

  I padded back to the mirror for a quick double check. My blue jersey skirt flared with a hint of flirty, like the purple shadow on my eyelids. Not half bad.

  “Time to blow off a little steam.” I raced down the hall, almost crashing into the lobby door. “Great. Exactly what I need, the imprint of a door on my face.” I flung it open and scurried down the stairs.

  When I reached the lobby, a silver balloon bonked my forehead. Miss Sherry had rearranged the room into clumps of couches and chairs with board games on every coffee table. There wasn’t an empty seat in the crowded lobby. Guess we were kind of starved for entertainment in Riverdale.

  “Lucy,” Shanda called out from her spot on the couch between Bryan and Kevin. “There you are. Get over here.”

  “Hi, Lucy.” Bryan stood, motioning to a spot on the couch next to him. “You had a chance to look into things?”

  “Sort of.” I wriggled in next to Bryan. Good thing I spent extra time primping. Might’ve given it another five minutes if I’d known I’d be crammed so close to one of my McDreamies. “I’m not really sure what I’m looking for though.”

  “I could help you sometime, if you want.” His gaze burned into me. I shrugged and kept my mouth shut.

  “The Midwesterners here taught us a great game.” Shanda pointed at the twins as they organized homemade cards on the coffee table. Mindy and Brooke sat on the opposite couch with them.

  “Everywhere’s the Midwest to you.” I laughed. “It’s like there’s the East coast then the West coast, and everything in between is the Midwest.”

  “Good one.” A familiar voice filtered down from above my head as a hand pounded into the back of the couch behind me. I whirled around, coming face to face with Will’s gray eyes. “Nice to see you, Lucy.”

  “Hi, Will.” My face was inches from his half-smiling, half dare-you-to-move expression. It never wavered, that grin and those eyes almost laughing at me. Was this a game to him? Probably. I couldn’t stand it any more and turned around. “You win.”

  “Okay, they’re from Kansas.” Shanda huffed on Bryan’s other side. “Will, why don’t you join us?”

  He pulled up a chair close to my side of the couch. “So what are we playing?”

  I felt Bryan bristle next to me. When I stole a glance at him, a muscle in his jawline twitched. How cute was that? On a whim, I reached over and patted his shoulder. The twitch stopped.

  “Mafia.” Shanda handed me two cards, and I passed one to Will. “We’re starting a new game.”

  Not at all like McAllen family game night. It was a piece of cardstock with a drawing of a red-headed kid labeled townsperson.

  “We made the cards ourselves.” Laura’s little-girl face beamed with pride and she fanned them out on the table with her tiny hands. “Cute, huh?”

  My head bobbed. “I don’t get it.”

  Bryan came close, like that wouldn’t distract me. “A few cards say Mafia, everyone else is a townsperson.”

  “There’s also a sheriff and a doctor,” Lenny chimed in. I still had to swallow a laugh at his deep voice, especially right after Laura’s high pitch.

  “The point is to figure out who the Mafia are and vote them out. Make sense?”

  I lost the rest of Bryan’s explanation in those blue wonders. If eyes really were a window into someone’s soul, I would never need to worry about this guy.

  All of a sudden he paused.

  Right, my turn to say something, anything. “I’ll pick it up once we start.”

  “Everyone, close your eyes and wait for my instructions,” Laura announced.

  “Really?” I closed my eyes only because everyone else did. How stupid, until I caught a faint whiff of Bryan’s woodsy aftershave, so yummy my toes curled. I opened my eyes a crack to see Bryan’s hand inches from mine. Much too soon for PDA.

  Wait, did Shanda move?

  “Everyone, open your eyes.” Laura’s head swung around the circle. “I’m afraid the Mafia has axed someone. Will, you’re out.”

  “Darn.” With an exaggerated motion, he snapped his fingers and threw his card on the coffee table. Yeah right, didn’t fool me.

  “Who could have killed Will?” Laura eyed each of the nine people in the group. Maybe Lenny was one of the Mafia. He wore a nervous grin, like he was trying to act all innocent.

  “It was Lucy.” Shanda lunged across Bryan and jabbed her finger in my face.

  “No way.” Bryan brushed her back to her spot. “She didn’t move an inch.”

  “Me?” I scooted forward, arching my neck to face Shanda. “On my first game, I pulled a Mafia card. Yeah right.”

  “Likely story.” There was a gleam in Shanda’s eye.

  “What does everyone else think?” Laura asked the group. No one knew what to believe. “No proof, no decision, everyone go to sleep.”

  “Thanks, Bryan.” Somehow I was inches from his face. Better back up, his lips were dangerously close.

  “You’re welcome.” Those lips curved at me as he closed his eyes.

  I could feel Will’s stare burning a silver hole in the side of my head. I forced my eyes shut.

  This time Shanda didn’t move, probably still guilty.

  “The doctor has saved Lucy,” Laura burst out as I opened my eyes.

  The group erupted with shouts. Mindy and Bryan accused Shanda, but Kevin insisted I was part of the real Mafia trying to frame her. Precious, really.

  Out of the corner of my eye, I caught Will staring. His face lit up, and he nodded at Shanda. It was all the confirmation I needed. “My money’s on Shanda as the ringleader.”

  “You’re a feisty one, huh?” Kevin tsked his tongue at me.

  Bryan busted out laughing. “You got that right.”

  Bet he just wanted to make my cheeks burn. It worked, too.

  Lenny and Shanda ganged up on Brooke, who never said a word. She only rolled her eyes. The discussion ended with uncertainty.

  In the next round, Laura announced that
I died. “Guess that’s what I get for talking.”

  “The dead don’t speak.” Laura whispered behind her tiny hand. I zipped my mouth shut.

  “Keep your eyes open. I bet you were right. You’ll get ‘em next game.” Bryan’s hand brushed mine, sending a shock wave up my arm. His touch was different than Will’s. It was electric, good enough to be scary.

  Will inched his chair closer. “The dead should stick together.” Can we say creepy?

  “I guess.” His gunmetal eyes practically bored into my skull. Suddenly, I loved the arm of the couch for being my buffer between me and Will.

  I scooted closer to Bryan, but Will just propped his elbow against the couch arm. That fire in his eyes suddenly reminded me of Jake, and it was too soon. The blood curdled in my veins, I was trapped. Silver on my left, and blue on my right.

  Drastic times called for drastic measures. I couldn’t think of another way out, so I slipped my arm under Bryan’s.

  His head spun toward me, his wide eyes narrowing as they locked with mine. At least he smiled. “What’s going on?”

  I nodded toward Will and scooted next to him. “Just go with it.”

  “Only if I get to call you honey, or sweetie, or babe.” Bryan’s breath warmed my face.

  “No problem, babe.” I said out loud and silently mouthed thank you.

  Will stood up, kicking his chair back with an ear-piercing screech on the hardwood floor. Conversations lulled as all heads in the room turned to see what he would do next. His commanding tone bellowed across the silence. “Are you engaged or something?”

  “What?” I gasped so loud it bounced all around the room, probably around the world.

  And then everyone’s eyes were on me.

  I buried my head in Bryan’s shoulder, his jaw rested on my head. If I wasn’t mortified to the core, it might’ve been nice.

  Chapter 12

  “That ring’s on your engagement finger, right?” Will’s question hovered over the party like some kind of accusation, and the room buzzed with whispers. He betrayed no embarrassment at all. None.