Grey Eyes (Book One, The Forever Trilogy) Page 13

  Duncan eyed me closely as he perched himself in the doorway. There was no joy in his face, and his eyes bore into me with such fierceness that there was little doubt in my mind that he knew. My eyes shot over to Darren and I saw that he’d noticed Duncan’s accusing eyes too. He looked worried.

  ********************

  I was spending the night at the clinic again. Dr. Roberts was able to pull me aside to suggest that I be around just in case my mother’s condition regressed. I wasn’t sure if I could repeat whatever it was I’d done, but as my grandmother didn’t have any problem with it this time, I was certainly willing to make myself available. I’d managed to avoid Duncan’s eyes until he and everyone else headed home, and the big hug Darren gave me just before we parted had the Elder Witches giggling.

  It was late. After checking up on my mother for the fifteenth time, I headed back into the examination room, laid out on the bed, and ordered myself to stay put. Dr. Roberts would be spending the tonight too, to monitor my mother’s recovery. I didn’t want to keep interrupting him. On my last visit, he’d said that the venom having cleared from her heart was a great sign. Once he placed a transfusion line into the large vein leading up to it, he could almost guarantee that it would remain uncompromised. The fact that things were continuing to go so well kept me in good enough spirits to push back my worries to the periphery of my brain. And on occasion, when they did streak out into the center of my thoughts, I had two ready-made worry dampeners to fend them off. First, I reminded myself that if Duncan truly wanted to bust me, he’d had the perfect opportunity with the Elder witches assembled right there in the waiting room. Secondly, I decided that if Gregori could keep his being a conjurer a secret, then why couldn’t I? Getting myself drunk was a non-issue for me; I’d never even tasted alcohol and honestly, the threat of a gruesome death? Well, that ensured I never would. The fact that I was some kind of super witch, practically capable of bringing my mother back from the dead (well, there was no practically about it), actually felt kind of badass the more that I thought about it—

  “Oh my god!” I shouted into the darkness.

  A realization struck me like lightning and I sat up in the examination bed. Tristan’s story didn’t seem so farfetched anymore. I mean, if I could bring my mother back from the other side… then why couldn’t I bring myself back?

  Goosebumps sprouted across my body and my heart began to thump in my chest, pounding against my rib cage. It was all real, the emotions, the explanation for it, everything fit. The only thing that had stopped me from believing was how outrageous it sounded. I now knew that I was perfectly capable of outrageous. I reached under the pillow and grabbed Darren’s card, holding it up to my chest. Guilt stirred inside of me. Crap.

  Morning came fast, and I woke up smiling. I had dreamed that my mother had come to and that she’d heard all the things I’d said to her while she was out. Suddenly, all those memories I feared I’d miss out on began to play out like mini-movies. She was there to walk me down the aisle, and she was there with me when I was having my first child. What’s more, Darren was there too.

  Unfortunately, as soon as I leaned up in bed, it all immediately felt like a lie. I suddenly found myself missing Tristan terribly. His scent, those eyes. It was as if my heart was punishing my brain for dreaming about the wrong boy.

  I found Dr. Roberts working with my mother. His eyes were red and huge bags puffed out beneath them. He’d been up with her up all night. Half of me wanted to tell him to get some sleep, while the other half was scared that if he did, something might happen while he was gone. I decided not to say anything. Instead, I took up a seat in one of the chairs beside the bed and watched him work for a little while. He had set up the device below her heart and though the black streaks still webbed across her lower extremities, they were much fainter now.

  Try as I might to stay in the present, my thoughts kept drifting to Tristan. He was coming back tonight to tell me the rest of the story and it was going to be bad. Did I really want to hear bad? Then there was the fact that I wouldn’t see him again after that. It was the last thing he’d said to me and conveniently, the part I thought about the least. Even knowing this, I found myself eager to meet with him, to feel those intense emotions again.

  “Where are you right now?” asked Dr. Roberts, laughing as he waved a hand in front of my face, disrupting my daydream.

  I’m with a vampire, who is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen, and who I’ve apparently loved for lifetimes already. Only, he’s changed his mind for some reason, maybe because I don’t remember him, or maybe because the current me doesn’t stack up to the old ones. “Nowhere,” was what I actually said.

  The hours seemed to crawl by, with not much change in my mother’s progress. So when my grandmother arrived with the younger woman from before, I found myself almost overjoyed for the break in the monotony.

  “Bringing people back from the dead? Aren’t we full of surprises?”

  I nearly panicked but then I realized the voice I was hearing was London.

  “Where are you?” I thought as she stepped into the room. She rolled her eyes at me and I remembered that she was still pretending to hate me. As to why this was, I had no idea. Still, seeing her triggered even more thoughts about Tristan and as she undoubtedly saw the images flash in my mind, she almost let a smile slip.

  “Ana, I want you to meet the woman who will be replacing me soon as your chief adviser. After you turn twenty-five, of course. This is Bethany McArthur.”

  The younger woman smiled and reached out her hand. “Let’s hope it’s not for awhile though, your grandmother’s in excellent health.”

  I took her hand and she nodded for London to come closer. “You’ve already met my youngest daughter, but London here tells me that you two didn’t get a chance to meet on your first day of school.”

  I shook my head. “You’re really committed to this, aren’t you?”

  She laughed inside her head. “You’ll understand soon enough.”

  I couldn’t believe the easy way in which we conversed. Albeit telepathically. The fact that she now knew two of my biggest secrets and hadn’t immediately tried to blackmail me, or do something else, made it concrete. She was really someone I could trust.

  After listening to her mother and my grandmother flatter one another for another ten minutes, with London doing her best to make it as obvious as possible that she hated being here, they got to the point of the visit.

  “Here it comes,” London thought as her mother turned to address me.

  “Ana, since you’re new here, you probably don’t have a lot of friends. I was thinking that maybe London could kind of show you around a bit. Help you get to know some people. She has some community service activities happening tonight. I’m sure she’d love for you to join her.”

  London stared blankly at her mother. Her mother cleared her throat. London rolled her eyes again. “I would really like, super duper love it, if you could come, it would totally make my entire year.”

  The sarcasm was not lost on anyone. My grandmother looked uncomfortable, while her mother looked to be on the verge of losing it.

  “Say yes. We are not going anywhere near the food bank, I can assure you.”

  “Sounds like fun,” I answered.

  Relief spread across Mrs. McArthur’s face. “Alright then, she’ll pick you up around seven!”

  I glanced at Dr. Roberts. He nodded and then said, “Have some fun. It’s just a waiting game now.”

  ********************

  Darren’s truck was flashy, but it was nothing compared to the shiny silver convertible moving down the driveway. I’d come home to take a shower and to get some clothes and was now standing next to the thin driveway that wound back to the side of the house near the ballroom. While I was up in my room, I found myself constantly checking the balcony for Tristan’s arrival. I’d stalled an extra ten minutes while getting dressed to see if he’d show up. No luck. As I watched London ski
d to a stop in front of me, I couldn’t help but hope that she was facilitating tonight’s meeting.

  She hopped out, her light brown hair tied back into a ponytail. She wore a pair of fitted khakis, though not nearly as tight as the ones she wore on the first day of school, and a white short sleeved button-up. “Sorry,” she said in a sweet voice. “Sometimes I get a little excited.”

  My grandmother eyed her curiously. “I take it I do not have to tell a girl with your reputation about behavior, so I’ll just say that she needs to be back by no later than ten—eleven o’clock.”

  “Don’t worry, Mrs. Adams. I’ll have her back in plenty of time.”

  My grandmother smiled, seemingly satisfied with that response, and turned for the house.

  I followed London to her car and the interior floored me. It looked like the inside of a space ship. So many knobs and buttons, and the seats hugged me like a giant teddy bear. Without warning, the car jerked forward, tires screeching from the sudden acceleration. I turned just in time to see my grandmother’s head whip around.

  London was beaming by the time we’d turned onto the highway. “Wednesday nights—the only time I get some freedom!” She threw up both her hands. “WOOOO!” The car nearly veered into oncoming traffic but she corrected herself and thought the whole thing a hoot.

  “Oh come on, loosen up!” she said turning to me. “You’ve got a lifetime to be stuck in this awful town, live a little while you can!”

  Despite fearing for my life, I tried to give her a big smile to show I was having a good time.

  She laughed. “You forget I can read your thoughts.”

  I did forget, but thankfully, she did drive more carefully.

  I did my best to resist the impulse to ask her if she was taking me to meet Tristan. I was pretty sure she could hear my wanting to ask her, but she didn’t say anything. Then again, once her favorite song came on, she’d turned up the radio so loud that I could barely hear my own thoughts.

  When the car slowed and we turned into the parking lot of a Big Buy department store, I couldn’t help but wonder if he was here somewhere. I felt my heart race when we pulled into a parking space as far from the store as was possible. We were definitely not going inside.

  London hopped out and pulled the tie from around her ponytail, letting her hair fall down her back. Next, she opened the trunk and pulled out two large shopping bags. She threw one to me. Inside was a stretch t-shirt and the smallest shorts I’d ever seen; they could easily pass as underwear. By the time I’d turned to see what she’d bought for herself, she’d already removed her top in broad daylight and in full view of anyone passing by. I could hear car horns honking from the highway, and I was sure that I heard someone yell, “Got milk?”

  I was in shock. “London, what are you doing?!”

  She tilted her head and sighed. “Honestly, you are way too young to be so uptight. It’s not like I don’t have a bra on.”

  “But—“

  “But nothing. They’re just breasts. Every girl has ‘em. We keep them covered up as if it’s some kind of secret. Girls have breasts, big deal. Why is it that a guy can go topless and it’s nothing, but the minute a girl pulls off her shirt, everybody acts like it’s the end of the friggin’ world?”

  I didn’t answer. I just took another look inside the bag. I didn’t have anywhere near the kind of gall necessary to wear something this revealing. Or the curves for that matter.

  London got back into the driver’s seat, visibly disappointed that I hadn’t agreed to be her twin as far being overly sexy goes. Feeling as if I’d let her down, I didn’t bother asking about Tristan. There was, however, one thing I did know about our destination as we passed the city limits sign a minute later. It was not in Brighton.

  “So what’s up with you and Darren?” she asked.

  “Oh, uh, we’re just friends,” I said.

  “But you wanna be friends with benefits?” she asked next.

  I felt my face flush. “Um, no not like that…”

  “So let me get this straight, you have feelings for him, but you don’t want to nail him? You know, he already has a sister.”

  I couldn’t believe how casually she talked about sex. “Have you done it before?”

  “Uh yeah,” she said, “with Darren.”

  That hurt to hear. I knew he had a past with her, but it still hurt to hear the specifics.

  “Don’t fall for that “I’m so into you…you’re the one…” act he’s trying to put over on you. It’s seriously not anything I, or the girl before me hasn’t already heard. Besides, he’s more interested in your title than anything else.”

  Even though, I knew she was putting down Darren, it was my feelings that were getting trampled. Surely sensing this, she’d back off a little. Nope.

  “Listen, I’m not trying to be mean, but it’s all part of the game here, and your coming back has shaken everything up. Take my mom for instance—she’s been kissing your grandmother’s butt for years to become her choice for Chief Advisor/Head of the Council of Elders. You think she meant what she said about hoping your grandmother keeps her health? Yeah right, she would like nothing better than for her to drop dead today. I’ve heard the thoughts in her mind. Before you came back, it would have meant she could run Brighton like an heir. But seeing as you have come back, she’s decided to use me to get in good with you. Because, who knows? When your mother fully recovers, you might decide she’s best suited to be your Chief Advisor. And Darren, well he’s always cherished the Chief Guardian command. Of course, it’s little Nathan’s inheritance, and the only way he could obtain it is if he had your backing. It’s all a game here Ana, with everyone fighting and backstabbing one another to get to the top. My mother could write a book on the subject. The only one with nothing to worry about is you—unless you let it slip that you’re a conjurer.”

  It took a moment for all of that to sink in. Despite what she’d said about her mom and Darren, it was her remark about being a conjurer that I wanted to discuss further. “But you’re one too, right? It’s how we can both read minds?”

  “Yeah, but that’s the most that I can do. You’re an heir, it’s your affinity. Soon there will be nothing you can’t do. You can cheat death for goodness sakes—bringing people back from the other side… bringing yourself back. That’s insane.”

  “Yeah, I guess so.” It was quiet for a while after that.

  “I wouldn’t worry,” she added. “Whatever he has to tell you, it can’t be that bad.”

  Seriously? I was starting to find her ability more than a little annoying and didn’t care if she knew. I didn’t appreciate having my mind raided whenever she saw fit. With her, there was no such thing as privacy. You didn’t even have to be thinking about something for her to know it, I’d just discovered. I had been doing my very best not to think about what it was he was going to tell me tonight, and yet she’d plucked it out of my head like it was a piece of fruit or something. For all I knew, she could have my whole life story locked away in her brain somewhere. Confirming that she was in fact aware of my irritation with her, she turned up the radio and didn’t say anything else. At least until we pulled up in front of a building. Club Redd blinked on the exterior in neon lighting.

  “Where are we?” I asked, feeling tremendously out of my element. There was a couple sitting in the jeep next to us that looked like they were glued to one another. It wasn’t hard to guess what they were doing.

  “Boston, Mass,” she replied. “Now get out, so you can shake your …”

  Chapter 19

  Aiden

  “Is Tristan here?” I asked desperately. Surely, there had to be some reason she would bring me out here. She had access to my thoughts so she had to know how uncomfortable I was right now.

  “Not really Tristan’s scene,” she answered. “But an hour here and I’ll take you to him. I promise.”

  I weighed my options. I didn’t see that I had much of a choice. I could either sit in the car for an
hour, risk her being too mad to take me, or suck it up and go inside.

  “Oh come on,” she pleaded. “It’s not like you wore the outfit I picked out for you.”

  “Fine,” I said, slamming the door behind me. I really did not want to be here. Unfortunately, London didn’t seem to care all that much.

  There was a line outside but London went straight for the door, ignoring the shouts she was getting from both guys and girls. Music blared from inside. An enormous man was standing out front holding a clipboard, and his face lit up with recognition as we approached.

  “Hey!” he shouted. “We missed you last week. What happened?”

  London smiled back. “Got sick, but I’m better now! I’m back to show my friend here a good time.”

  He frowned at me. “What is she? Twelve? Come on now. No way can I let her in here.”

  “Not even for me?” London asked sweetly.

  He eyed us over, and London gave him what I supposed was her “puppy dog” face. He started to crack. “Alright, but you keep an eye on your little sister. Anything happens to her in there, not our fault.”

  “No worries, our guys are already inside.”

  Feeling insulted and uneasy, my body suddenly tensed. Did she say guys with an “s”? Before I could say anything, she had me by the arm, pulling me into the madness that was this club. It was almost pitch black, with violent red bulbs flashing overhead. She kept us the near the wall, and I was thankful. I could easily see myself drowning in the sea of gyrating bodies at the club’s center.

  London was leading us toward a door with steps beyond it, I could tell that much. Unfortunately, there was a group of men in our way who looked a little too excited to see us coming. The biggest of the four, a balding man whose belly was spilling out from underneath his t-shirt, put his hand up to stop us.