“Haven’t you noticed how he’s disappeared a lot lately, going to these secret meetings?” My fingers curled into imaginary quotation marks as I said “meetings” sarcastically. “I’ve asked Mom about it and I don’t think she knows where he is either.”
“Yeah, like she ever cares where he is.” Dani rolled her eyes.
Dani and our mom weren’t seeing eye to eye lately. Dani had a lot of freedom because she was Dad’s favorite, and no one could rein her in. Not even me. My father drove a wedge between us a long time ago, and whereas I loved her, I felt sad because I didn’t really know her anymore.
“Why does it matter where he’s been going if he’s going to bring us in on the secret now?” She jumped up and strode to the door, throwing a “Hurry up!” over her shoulder.
I slowly stood up from my desk and grabbed my phone, shoved it into the back pocket of my jeans, and grabbed a sweatshirt. Maybe she was right, I thought. If we’re finally going to discover what the secret’s all about, it might be worth being around the old man.
I flicked my hand out and sent out a bolt to shut off my bedroom lights.
As we pulled up to the building, I looked at Dani. “This doesn’t have you concerned?” I waved my hand around pointing. Even for our screwed up father, this was kind of a crazy. I had parked on a dark street across from an old brick warehouse. There was trash lining the streets, and a few of the buildings windows had been broken out. “Are you sure this is the right address?” I glanced down at my GPS to double check. Yep, I typed it in correctly glancing at the rundown building, one of many lining this street.
“Yes. Let’s just go inside!” Dani snarled at me as she opened the door of her car.
In her eyes I was the bad guy, always questioning what our father asked us to do. I mean, I wanted to know how to use my powers, both Elemental and Mesmer, but I didn’t want to blindly follow what anyone, even my own father, asked me to do. I wanted to know why. Was that unreasonable? According to Dani, it was. She didn’t have a problem following our father’s orders, but then he always came through for her. It was only me who received his empty promises. Mentally, I shrugged and followed my sister through the dilapidated door.
I wanted to get us back on the right foot so I grabbed my sister’s arm and made a joke about the sunglasses on the guy who let us in, making her giggle in relief.
As we entered the room, I looked around. My father was seated on an ugly broken plaid couch talking to another man, who was seated in a chair facing him. He looked pretty shaken up. I didn’t recognize him, so I looked at the other guys standing around, hoping their identities would clue me in. Nope. I didn’t know any of these guys, and I wondered how I missed the memo on the dress code. They were all in white button-downs and dark slacks with sunglasses. I looked back over to the couch when the man my dad was talking to stood up abruptly, exclaiming loudly. Normally I would have totally found this interesting but something outside the window on the other side of the room caught my eye.
Is that? Yes, there was a kid around my age, with black hair and a piercing through his eyebrow staring through the window, obviously eavesdropping. We made eye contact and his head disappeared. What the hell? I raced back through the door behind me, just in time to see an old car take off down the street. Huh. Well, that was really strange, I thought.
I went back inside to see Dani watching the argument between our dad and this other man. “Have you figured out what they’re talking about?” I whispered to her.
“Nope. They have mentioned the Sentinel’s name though.” Of course, Dani being Dani, she looked excited about the drama.
At that moment, my father looked up and saw us standing by the door. “Devon, Dani, would you please come over here? There’s someone I’d like you to meet.” He put a hand on the other man’s arm and spoke quietly to him. I heard my name mentioned.
“Devon, Dani, this is Will Sullivan.” When I reached out my hand to Mr. Sullivan, I noticed the air start to stir dust across the floor. Surprised, I put out a hand and soothed the wind back down.
Something must’ve really upset this guy for him to get out of control like that, I thought. “Devon. Dani. Nice to meet you.” He shook both our hands and then collapsed back onto the chair where he had been sitting. The air swirled again, pushing past him and out the broken glass window, leaving behind a slight chill. My father gestured to two folding chairs close by asking us to take a seat. I noticed the other men in the room had moved in front of the windows and doors to the room, blocking all of the entrances–or was it our exit?
I didn’t take a seat, instead turning instead back towards my father, trying to gauge his mood. “What’s going on Dad?” Dani was sitting in one of the chairs twisting her hair around her index finger while looking curiously around the room, waiting to do our fathers bidding like a dutiful daughter, I suppressed a sigh.
“Will has news about the Sentinel’s daughter being found in Dover.” My father’s serious tone had Dani and I exchanging glances.
“His daughter? You mean.” I stopped myself from saying the rest of the sentence. Since Mathis had come back and was now Sentinel of the Committee no one talked openly about the prophecy. At least not to us kids.
“Yes, apparently his wife has died and his daughter Avery has shown up in Dover, where her aunt is living.” As my father spoke, I looked at Mr. Sullivan. He had his elbows on his knees and his hands were combing through his hair. He was wrecked.
“She showed up a month ago, but my son, Cole, only told me about her last week.” He exchanged a look with my father and continued, “It’s true what they are saying; I’ve seen it for myself. Her powers have already started manifesting and she’s not even sixteen yet!” At that news, Dani sat up on the couch, looking excited and even I jerked in interest.
“Devon, Dani, we are going to enroll you in Dover High. We want you to keep an eye on things and gather more information.” My father put his hand on Dani’s shoulder and looked me in the eye. “If her powers are manifesting, we may need you close so you can contain her.” Dani looked way too excited about this information. I however, had my doubts.
“Contain her? You mean restrict her powers somehow?” I asked carefully.
“We’ll see, but there’s a strong possibility that the situation may be even more dire.” I could see my father squeezing Dani’s shoulder to keep her in her seat.
“Awesome, finally, a mission that will give us the chance to show what we can do, Devon!” Dani had moved out from under my father’s grasp and moved towards me, stopping in front of me. Energy was coming off of her in waves and I could see the water in the glasses start to sway gently.
“Get control of yourself,” I whispered harshly to her. I turned back towards my father, trying to make eye contact with him, but he pulled out a pair of sunglasses and put them on before facing me.
“Come on, Dad! You really think I’m going to try to mesmerize you? I just want some answers! This whole thing seems kind of drastic. What do you mean by containing her? Are you talking about killing her? Are you nuts?” Yes, my father and I didn’t see eye to eye, but this seemed really out of character! And what was he thinking with the glasses? I would never abuse my Mesmer powers. I felt hurt that he’d think I’d use those powers against him.
As an Elemental, I was trained in both defense and offense, but Elementals were meant to protect, not destroy. Many of us became Guardians, which was what I was hoping to do after I got out of school, not kill young girls! With a sinking pit in my stomach, I realized my father was serious.
Mr. Sullivan answered before my father could. “It’s just a precaution, Devon. Cole is already in place as her Guardian, but I think he’s becoming emotionally involved. If we need to make a tough decision, I’m not sure he’ll be able to keep his emotions out of it.”
“Well, that won’t be a problem for us, will it, Devon.” Dani stated as she bounced on her toes excitedly.
I frowned at her. “No. No problem,” I ans
wered sarcastically, looking at my father as he nodded in approval.
“Glad to hear it, son.”
Chapter 12
Avery
I was sitting next to Summer in first period English, twisted around in my seat, so I could talk to both Ana and her at the same time. We were going over our notes because Mr. Newsome had just announced we were having a pop quiz. I stole a glance behind Ana to where Cole was sitting. He had earbuds in and his fingers were tapping the top of the desk. He caught my eye and gave me a small smile. The door to the classroom opened behind me and I heard Ana give a small gasp. I noticed Cole reach up to pull the earbuds out of his ears as he straightened up in his seat, looking forward. I turned around in my seat to see why everyone had reacted so strongly.
Standing in front of Mr. Newsome’s desk was a very good-looking guy. He was tall, about 5′10″, with blonde hair, wearing jeans and a blue t-shirt. I felt a warm current run through the air and he turned his head and looked over his shoulder directly into my eyes. His were glowing a bright blue. As Mr. Newsome cleared his throat, the boy slowly turned his head until he was facing the class, his eyes still holding mine.
“Class, it looks like we have a new student. Devon, why don’t you introduce yourself?” Devon glanced around at the class, his gaze stopping on someone behind me briefly, and then coming back to rest on me. Our eyes caught and held, as he addressed the room and my breath caught in my throat.
“My name is Devon Finn. My family just moved here from Northern California and I have a twin sister Dani, who’s also starting school here today.” His voice was low and husky and the class seemed to be motionless. I know I was. As he motioned to an empty desk in the back of the room, I fought to close my eyes. Why was I having trouble focusing? I blinked and opened them to see Mr. Newsome nodding to his unasked question.
He started moving down the aisle toward the open seat in the back of the class. As he passed by me, the pencil I had been holding jerked out of my hand and hit the floor in front of him. I looked down in astonishment as he paused and knelt down on the ground to pick it up, maintaining eye contact with me the entire time. I felt a blush work its way up my throat when I heard a throat clearing behind me, and I knew it was Cole trying to gain Devon’s attention. Devon glanced over at Cole and stood up, holding the pencil out towards me with his left hand and a small smile on his face.
My eyes were caught by the glint of light off a silver ring he wore. It had initials engraved on the top, and I twisted my head to try to read them. Without thinking I reached out a finger to touch it and felt my own ring start to tingle. I pulled my hand back and grabbed my pencil, a breeze lifted my hair across my lips. I felt the ground rumble slightly as I carefully put the pencil back on my desk, and I tucked my hair behind my ears to get it to stay still, my fingers shaking. His lips tilted up slightly and he continued to walk to the back of the room. My eyes followed him until he sat down, giving me a smile when he saw that I was still looking at him.
Guiltily, my eyes flew to Cole, who was watching Devon walk away. Cole wore a slight frown on his face and his hands gripped the book in front of him tightly. I exchanged looks with Ana who looked mildly interested in what just happened. She raised her eyebrows at me and I noticed the freckles on her skin were swirling, as if trying to decide if there was a threat in the room. I looked over at Summer, who shrugged and gave me a “what was that?” look. Uncomfortable, I shrugged back and reached forward automatically to take the quiz that was being passed back to me.
After class was over I started to get out of my seat and grabbed my backpack off the floor to put my books inside. I looked for Devon in the back of the room and noticed he was gone already. I shrugged off my disappointment and looked at Cole as he and Ben walked up to Summer, Ana, and I.
“There’s something funny about that guy showing up right now.” Cole said to Ben. I noticed his eyes scanning the room and wondered what he was looking for.
“Did you notice that ring he was wearing?” I asked them, remembering the initials, “It’s almost exactly like the one I wear, but silver, instead of gold.” I didn’t know if our rings looking similar had any significance, but I agreed with Cole. With my birthday coming up, I wasn’t leaving anything to chance, Devon showing up right before my birthday seemed like more than accidental timing.
“My ring tingled slightly when he handed me my pencil and that wasn’t the only strange thing. I didn’t drop my pencil, it was like it was yanked out of my hand.” I exchanged a look with Summer, “And that eye contact!” I shivered remembering his piercing blue eyes.
“Sugar, maybe he just thought you were cute!” Summer teased.
I shrugged. I didn’t think that was it. There was chemistry, but what I felt was something different. I am definitely putting him into the questionable category, even with his all-American good looks.
Cole looked at the clock, “We need to get to second period, but I’ll see you at lunch.” He looked at Ana, “Both of you keep an eye out for his twin sister. He mentioned her name was Dani?” I nodded as Summer, Ben, and Cole moved off down the hall to their classes. Ana and I walked towards Biology and I asked her about our biology homework, knowing the excitement of that class would distract her. Sure enough, Ana bubbled with enthusiasm as she told me her thoughts.
As we entered our Biology class, my attention was immediately caught by a small crowd of girls gathered together around one of the lab stations. A couple of the girls were on the cheerleading squad, and today being Friday, were wearing their cheerleading uniforms. They were excitedly talking to a new girl who was standing at the center of their group. She was small, probably 5′1″,” but had long blonde hair and a pair of familiar electric blue eyes. She looked up at Ana and me as we entered the room but continued talking animatedly with the other girls. We sat down at our lab station, overhearing the conversation at the table next to us. That must be Dani, I thought and pointed her out to Ana, who agreed.
“She said she was a cheerleader at the school she’s transferring from, and she’s a gymnast!” one of the cheerleaders gushed to the other.
I looked at Ana. “Didn’t one of the cheerleaders have some kind of nervous breakdown and quit a couple days ago?” Not that I paid a lot of attention to that group since they were kind of cliquish and very popular. However, a nervous breakdown isn’t that normal, and everyone had been talking about it.
The two girls continued to talk excitedly about tryouts and the game next Friday.
“It does seem kind of coincidental,” Ana said quietly, looking worried when I agreed.
Her freckles were whirling madly across her skin, making her skin tone change color between the grey of the table and chairs around us, to the beige of the walls.
Our teacher, Ms. Hollander, introduced the new student as Dani and once again we heard the same short speech her brother gave in first period. As Dani spoke she excitedly twirled her hair around her finger and tapped a foot on the ground. At a word from our teacher she started moving towards our table. Her bright blue eyes focused on me with interest. I could feel Ana fidget next to me and quickly glanced over at her. She had turned the grey of our table. Figuring one of us needed to be strong, I pat her hand and gave it a squeeze.
“Hi!” Dani whispered. She reached out a hand, which I noticed also wore a silver ring with initials on it. I’m not sure why, but I ignored Ana’s whispered “Don’t,” and reached my own hand out to shake hers. Our rings touched together as we clasped hands and the tingle I normally felt changed immediately to a jolt and an electric shock raced between us, our eyes locking together. I gasped in shock but noticed Dani only smiled happily.
Like my English class, our Biology class was in a room with windows along one side overlooking the open quad area. Even though all of the windows were closed, I felt a breeze race through the classroom, whipping papers loose from their binders to create a whirlwind. The other kids scrambled to grab onto their paperwork but gave up quickly and ran out of the cla
ssroom, yelling. Dani and I still held hands, but it had turned from a friendly hello, to something more intense. Both of our grips were strong, neither one of us loosening our grasp. My eyes narrowed on hers, not liking that crazy look in her eyes.
Against the flow of students leaving through the door in the back of the classroom, I noticed Cole out of the corner of my eye, shoving his way into the class. “Let go!” He yelled, as he ran towards us. The ground shook slightly and he stumbled.
I heard him yell, but I felt something happening inside of me that I couldn’t ignore. Energy was building up that needed some kind of release. I looked into Dani’s eyes, and saw that she no longer looked as happy and engaging as she did when we first caught sight of her, she looked at me with caution, which was rapidly turning into anger. I felt that power burn to be let go however I wasn’t sure how to do that and not hurt her. At this point, I was pretty sure I didn’t want to be her friend, but I also didn’t want to make an enemy.
I flicked my left hand out at her, while still holding her with my right. I felt a barrier go up between us ripping my hand from her grasp. Cole tugged me backwards and I fell into his chest. He wrapped an arm around me and pushed me slightly behind him, but I didn’t want his protection and moved to his side.
Through the door at the front of the classroom, I saw Devon. He had stopped just inside the room taking in everything at a glance. He focused on Dani and started moving towards her, as he did, I saw him pull something out of the pocket of his jeans and touch it to the invisible wall. I felt a small pop reverberate through my head and he reached out for his sister, asking a question, softly.
We were at a stand-off. The two of them faced Cole and I. A flurry of movement behind me made me tear my eyes away from Devon and look over my shoulder to see Summer and Ben. Ana stepped forward from the wall she had been blending into to join them behind us. I slowly breathed out unclenching my hands and shaking out my fingers.
Midnight Metamorphosis (Daughter of Prophecy Book 1) Page 8
