The Nexis Secret Read online

  “Only because she won’t do cool pranks like switch places.” Lenny had a lower voice than I expected, especially compared to Laura.

  “Like I want anyone to mistake me for a boy.” She shrugged off his comment and scooted out the chair beside her. “Come sit by me. What are you looking for?”

  “I’m not really sure.” I slid into the wooden chair. “Bryan said I might need some extra help to ace Harlixton’s class.”

  “Is that what you said?” Tony tilted back his chair back and kicked up his feet. “Nice.”

  “Don’t listen to him. He’s always giving Bryan a hard time.” Laura snapped her book shut. “What’d you cover in your last class?”

  “We spent the whole first part of this week on Creation and the first ancient civilization. It was kind of strange, actually …” Not as strange as his random question. I unzipped my bag and fished out a notebook. “But if that’s what Ivy League schools want their applicants to know, who am I to argue? I think we’ll be covering the flood next week. You know, get all of the Bible stuff out of the way.”

  Everyone stopped cold and zeroed in on me, eyes wide.

  “So soon.” Bryan eased himself into the chair beside me. “That’s faster than usual.”

  “Maybe she can’t wait.” Lenny whispered to Bryan, but his eyes never left me. Creepy. “Maybe she needs to know before it’s too late.”

  “He’s certainly not backing off.” Tony’s gaze flew over my head, straight to Bryan like I wasn’t even there. Hello, could he be any ruder?

  Bryan closed his eyes, fingers rubbing a hole in the collar of his gray t-shirt. “I don’t know. I think there’s still time.”

  An ache crept up the back of my head. Were they really talking about me? More like they were talking above or even around me—and it really burned me up. “This is getting ridiculous. What’s going on, guys?”

  I tried to stare them down, but no one would meet my eyes. Except Brooke, who peered at me from behind her wide-rimmed glasses. Her small smile released the tension in my shoulders I hadn’t even realized I’d tightened.

  “I think Bryan’s right.” Felicia crossed the room, perching on the chair opposite me. “There’s still time.”

  I couldn’t take much more of this. If they were talking about me like I was invisible, I might as well leave the room.

  “I think I should go now.” I stuffed my notebook in my bag and slung it over my shoulder.

  “No, Lucy, don’t go.” Bryan’s hand reached for mine, his fingers soft on my skin. A scratchy current in his voice betrayed a hint of desperation that hit me in the pit of my stomach.

  I released my grip on my bag.

  “Thank you.” Those aqua eyes turned on me full force, begging me to stay.

  If I were just any gullible girl, I would’ve melted into a puddle on the floor. But could I really believe any of this guy’s mixed signals? And what about his friends?

  I folded my arms across my chest. Then I met his gaze. “What’s going on here?”

  He flinched but didn’t look away. “I’m sorry. I’m being rude. There are things that go on at this school that most people don’t know about. We don’t want to scare you or anything.”

  “Too late.” I crinkled my eyes until the image of him narrowed. “What kinds of things?”

  “Secret societies.” Lenny’s low voice carried those words louder than his whisper.

  “Lenny, hush.” Laura elbowed his ribs. “You can’t spring something like that on a person. That’s not how it works.”

  He elbowed her back. “Well then, how does it work? She has a right to know.”

  I nodded at him. Finally, someone who was being honest, even if it all sounded like some kind of practical joke.

  No one cracked a smile, let alone a laugh. Every face held grave expressions, which could only mean one thing. “You can’t be serious. You’re telling me Montrose has secret societies, like the Skulls or something crazy? Wait, are you talking about Nexis?”

  Bryan gritted his teeth and glared at his friend. “You just have to be careful about who you make friends with, what groups you join. That kind of thing.”

  “You can’t tell me what to do.” Goosebumps peaked on my arms. James would never lead any sort of secret society. No way would my parents approve of that, let alone practically force me to join.

  He narrowed his eyes at me. “Hey, I’m not telling you what to do. Obviously, you can fend for yourself. You should’ve seen the way she told Will off earlier.”

  “No way.” Brooke gasped and all eyes turned to her. She looked at her canvas shoes, red splotches dotting her cheeks. “What? He can be so scary. It’s cool that she stood up to him.”

  “It was pretty cool.” Bryan squared his shoulders and angled toward me. “Come talk to me if something weird happens. Especially if it involves a campus group. Promise?”

  “You mean like whatever this is? Sure, you got it.” I shrugged, but I couldn’t help rolling my eyes at these people. Just because some guy with gorgeous eyes asked me to go against my parents … didn’t mean I had to listen. “I’ll figure this out for myself, you know, whatever it is.”

  “It’s a deal then.” He pulled a pen out of his pocket and grabbed my hand.

  “What’re you doing?” I wiggled and tried to pull my hand away, but he wouldn’t let go. He marked my palm with his digits.

  Then those dangerous eyes returned to me. “Promise you’ll call me first if you run into any trouble.”

  He brought my palm closer and blew on the wet ink. Tingles shot up my arm.

  “Yeah, right.” I turned away from him.

  “I hope you do.” He let go of my hand.

  Somehow, it suddenly felt cold without his warmth.

  I raced out of the library, down the hall, and pushed open the heavy front door. I tilted my face to the moon and the stars, but my hand still tingled where Bryan had etched his number into my palm.

  * * *

  So soon. Even the next day, Bryan’s words echoed in my mind as I elbowed my way past the Trenton Hall crowd. I found my usual seat in Western Civ on the third row next to Mindy. The whole class sat clumped up front and center with their notebooks out, pens ready to write. Did everyone but me think the whole world hinged on what Harlixton was going to teach today?

  Long, horizontal windows on the back wall framed the clouds outside. Rays of light and shadow dappled the lecture stage. Damp air hung above the classroom almost like the smell of spring—freshness about to burst into something new.

  Mr. Harlixton uncapped a black marker and scribbled, “The Flood” on the white board. “Alright everyone. Open your books to chapter three on the flood. Those of you with Bibles, turn to Genesis, chapter six.”

  I blinked but pulled out the heavy textbook from my bag. Mindy opened her pink leather Bible, as did the girl next to me. All over the room, people cracked open the good book. Every student had one today. Apparently I was the only one who didn’t have a Bible for this class. Weird. I couldn’t remember Mr. Harlixton saying it was a requirement. And it definitely wasn’t in the syllabus. It seemed like an odd addition to a history class.

  He smoothed down the fuzzy hair fringing the edges of his bald spot. “Today we’ll discuss the precursors to the flood and theorize what made God angry enough to drown the entire Earth in water.”

  He paused. A hush filled the room.

  I glanced at Mindy if only to gauge her reaction, but her eyes were glued to the man behind the podium.

  “There are basically two camps who interpret Genesis six differently. As you see, it talks about the Nephilim, a creature who was said to be half man and half angel. Most scholars conclude that ‘sons of God’ means the godly line of Adam’s son, Seth. But some scholars argue it means angels, or fallen angels, actually demons. They are one and the same, don’t forget that part.”

  I’d never noticed the part about angels marrying women. How did I miss that? The flood story I’d heard in Sunday school was
about Noah’s ark and all the animals.

  I tapped Mindy’s shoulder. “Can I borrow that?”

  She nodded and slid the Bible into my lap.

  I scanned the passage again, and there it was in Genesis chapter six, verse four, all about these Nephilim creatures. Still, it didn’t make any sense.

  Murmurs buzzed behind me, but I tuned them out to hear Mr. Harlixton. “One camp contends that God sent the flood because of the Nephilim. This camp is further divided into many different sects, but for our purposes, I’ve lumped them all together. We’ll go into more detail in a minute.”

  The girl on my left whispered to her friend. “Or just go join Nexis.”

  “Shut up.” Her friend hissed at her.

  What did that mean? Maybe these girls were some of the cult-people Will had been talking about.

  “The other camp takes the passage literally and believes that God sent the flood to destroy all men. Because it was mankind who was so sinful. It had nothing to do with the Nephilim. This camp makes up most of Christendom. But as I alluded to before, there are certain sects in Christianity that hold to some form of the first camp’s view. Some more adamantly than others.”

  He chugged a glass of water, leaning against his desk. “So let’s go back to the first view. Some theorize that the Nephilim were the top dogs in Noah’s world. About the only thing this chapter says about Nephilim is that ‘they were the heroes of old, men of renown.’ As you can imagine, there are some sects who worship the Nephilim, and others who say they were the beings who corrupted mankind. Any thoughts?”

  A wave of mumbles swept around the room. The girl next to me shot her hand up. “Do the Nephilim still exist?”

  Mr. Harlixton’s eyebrows waggled. “Great question, Cora. The only other mention of these creatures is not direct, but a mere allusion to them in the book of Revelation. So it is possible they do exist now. Or they could exist again.”

  Her hand shot back up. “If they do exist, then it would involve angels marrying humans, right?”

  “Yes, indeed.” Mr. Harlixton pushed up his glasses. “That would be a scary idea to consider.”

  “Why is that so scary?” Cora asked.

  “Because angels are said to be ten times more powerful than we are. And any angel who would come to earth, marry humans, and have half-human children would have to be a fallen angel, that is, a demon. Which is why people theorize that God wiped them out with the flood. Even the Nephilim, these half-angels, were more powerful and more prone to evil, allegedly.”

  The murmurs grew louder now, as spurts of arguments broke out behind me. But some strange fascination kept my eyes on the balding man in the front of the room like my life depended on what he had to say.

  A guy in the front row raised his hand. “What about Noah? God said he was all right.”

  “Not merely all right. God said Noah was blameless, the only righteous man.” Mr. Harlixton grabbed his marker and scrawled Blameless on the board.

  I squinted, zeroing in on the word.

  I concentrated so hard on that one little word that it melted into a black and white puddle, swirling circles on the whiteboard. The puddle fizzled into a great beam of light that focused on a man. A middle-aged bearded man in funny clothing. “Blameless,” boomed through my mind. “I will establish my covenant with you.”

  The booming voice came from a beam of pure white light that surrounded the bearded man. Holding a glowing purple stone in his hands, he nodded and bowed his head. With his eyes still closed, he turned to me. Then he opened them in a flash. From his eyes swirls of floating light and shadow streamed straight at me.

  One man, called out above the rest.

  To save the world.

  To regenerate it.

  And somehow I felt unworthy, like I didn’t deserve such an honor. And it wasn’t even about me. These were ancient words, from a thousand centuries ago, right?

  Somehow they rang true in my heart. In my mind. In every part of my being. I could feel it in my bones.

  Who am I?

  I couldn’t take it any more and clamped my eyes shut. The images danced in the darkness, then dimmed.

  I lifted my eyelids, slowly.

  The swirls of light morphed once again into the classroom. My back slammed against the chair and I couldn’t focus on reality. I blinked several times to make sure the vision truly disappeared.

  How long had I spaced out? Not long enough to fall asleep and dream something weird. Maybe this was some kind of literal daydream. Or I had one creepy, overactive imagination. Maybe it was my head injury, side effects that the doctor forgot to tell me about. Or else I was going nuts.

  That felt more like some kind of vision than the aftermath of a car wreck. It wasn’t like my head hurt at all. My mind waded through every plausible scenario that could make what I just saw okay. Nothing made sense.

  “Heavy stuff, huh?” Mindy whispered to me. “You okay?”

  “I’m not sure. I guess I don’t really understand any of this.” Definitely an understatement.

  Mr. Harlixton cleared his throat. “Do you have something to add, Miss McAllen?”

  I shook my head. The odd vision still lurked in the corners of my mind, threatening to overtake me again.

  “Are you sure? Now don’t be shy, ask anything you want.”

  “Well.” I gnawed on my lip. “I have to admit, I’ve never heard any of this before, especially the fallen angels marrying humans part. It’s a lot to take in.”

  A collective gasp rippled across the room, as if I’d just prophesied that the world would end tomorrow. Even Mindy jerked back like I’d jolted her with a taser.

  “You’re telling me you’ve never heard of the Nephilim?” She whispered the last word so softly I had to read her lips. “Not even from your family? Or your brother?”

  “My family?” I searched her face. Totally serious, but she had to be kidding, right? “What would my family or James have to do with any of this?”

  “You’re joking, right?” She hissed at me with a glare that said don’t-mess-with-me.

  I met her glare, until the corners of her eyes softened. Did she know James when he was here? Maybe they had dated or something and things ended badly. She definitely fit his usual girlfriend type, perky brunette and all, but a little young for him.

  “I think that’s enough on this line of discussion for now.” Mr. Harlixton’s voice rose to a firm tone. The mumbling silenced. “Now let’s talk about the second camp.”

  I slunk down in my chair. That’s what I got for speaking up. The next part of his lecture droned on about the Sunday School version of the flood, so I tuned out.

  When the bell rang, Mr. Harlixton stopped me at the door. “I’m sorry I put you on the spot today. I had no idea you knew so little on the subject.”

  I swallowed the lump in my throat. Dad would not be happy about this. “Am I too far behind to catch up?”

  He motioned me to a far corner of the room, away from the loiterers glommed up by the door. “It’s not that. I’m afraid I’ve put you in a very dangerous spot.”

  “Dangerous? What do you mean?” My old goosebump buddies prickled my skin.

  “I don’t have time to explain now,” he whispered. “Come by my office after class Monday. Be careful this weekend, and choose your friends wisely.”

  I nodded. What an odd, almost Bryan-like kind of warning.

  Somehow my feet found their way out of the room and down the hall toward the front door. But my mind still lingered in that classroom. Mr. Harlixton couldn’t really mean dangerous, but the way he said it made things seem scarier by the second.

  What could Mindy possibly know about my family that I didn’t know? I raced up the steps to catch up with her, but she sprinted down the hall with those long legs like some crazed bad guy was chasing her. Did she think I was the bad guy?

  Chapter 6

  “Mindy, wait up.” The rubber soles of my flats squeaked across the marble. Her question about
my family blared like a foghorn in my mind.

  Suddenly she stopped at the door of Trenton Hall, holding it open. What’s so special about my family? I almost asked, but it was as if my mouth was glued shut. The question hung in the air with the rest of today’s uncertainties.

  I caught up with her and we descended the stairs together. A gust of wind whipped my hair across my face. I brushed the dark tendrils away, raising my face to the sky. Sure enough, gray clouds chewed their way through the horizon.

  Splat. A drop of rain pelted my face. “Better run for it.”

  “I can’t get wet or it’s bye-bye sleek hair, hello frizzy mess.” Mindy smoothed down her stick-straight golden brown locks, hoisting her bag over her head.

  We sprinted down the cobblestone path as raindrops pelted the sidewalk around us. I pedaled my legs as fast as they could go, but she reached the cafeteria first.

  “Wow, girl.” I huffed in the thick air. It took way longer than usual for me to catch my breath. “You should be a track star.”

  We reached the overhang as rain showered the quad behind her. “Anything to save my hair.”

  “Don’t worry. It’s still perfect.”

  She curled up those pouty lips as we scurried inside the cafeteria to a mess of food smells. My stomach gurgled, probably because I’d neglected it since breakfast. The sharp sting of pepperoni hit me first. It simmered in the pizza oven on the back wall. Then the meaty smell of boiling hot dogs mixed with the greasy goodness of fried chicken. Montrose spared no expense to ensure all the regions of the country were represented in the cafeteria. But pepperoni couldn’t cover up the damp odor of wet teens streaming inside from the rain.

  “That could’ve been us.” She handed me a tray and headed for the salad bar.

  I followed her, adding a small salad to my plate. Mom would be proud of that, at least. She’d probably hate the self-serve sandwich station, saying I put too much cheese or mayo on my turkey and rye or something ridiculous. Sometimes Mom could be an uber-health nut, if it suited her.

  Mindy topped her salad with piles of veggies. I loaded up my sandwich with the final touch, honey mustard, and scanned the tables for Shanda. No luck. The crowd pushed me to the checkout line, separating me from Mindy.