The Naturals Trilogy

by Madeline Freeman

  Morgan let out a humorless laugh. “I will not,” she insisted. “I’m not going to suck the life out of unsuspecting people. I don’t care how powerful it’ll make me. If that’s what I’ve got to do, count me out.”

  “Come on now, Morgan. It’s really not as bad as you’re making it out to be. You’ll see—tomorrow, your friend will be as good as new. And ask yourself this: if it were a random stranger in here with me, not your best friend, would this still be your reaction?”

  “Of course it would.” The air in the room suddenly seemed oppressive, and she realized she needed to get out. She stood. Her first instinct was to stalk out of the room, but then there was Ris to consider. She hesitated, and in that moment of indecision, Kellen pounced.

  He was on his feet and standing in front of her almost before she could blink. He placed a hand on either of her shoulders, holding her in place. “You’re not going to tell anyone about this. Especially not Corbin or Lucas. Especially not Ris. You’re going to keep this to yourself.”

  Morgan felt her mind fighting against these plans, actively making plans to send text messages to Corbin, to Lucas, to get them to come save her and Ris. But even as these plans formed, Morgan began to question the wisdom of them. There was really no need to concern the guys with this. Kellen said Ris was okay. And when he’d taken the power before, Ris had been fine afterward—she’d just needed a little extra sleep. Ris would be okay, so there was no need to make a big deal over this. In fact, Kellen’s point made sense—

  It doesn’t make sense. The Veneret are already more powerful than regular people. Why do they need more power?

  —the common weren’t using the power for anything, so why not take it? Put it to the use it was meant for? It was logical. It was fair.

  It was right.

  By the time Kellen released Morgan from his grip, Morgan felt completely calm. In fact, she couldn’t put her finger on what exactly had been her qualm to begin with. When she glanced at Ris, she saw that her jaw was not slack anymore, and she seemed moderately more lucid, though she still wasn’t focusing on Morgan.

  She looked back at Kellen, convinced he’d just said something to her. After a moment, she thought she remembered what he’d said, so she replied, “Yeah, I should go find the bathroom.”

  Kellen shrugged and turned back to the couch.

  Morgan left the room, continuing her search for the ladies’ room.

  ***

  Two hours later, Ris was snuggled up next to Corbin in the backseat of Kellen’s car. “Don’t know why I’m so tired,” she muttered almost incoherently, her eyes closing.

  Corbin put an arm around her, smiling.

  Morgan exchanged glances with Lucas, who sat on Corbin’s other side, and rolled her eyes as she turned forward in the passenger seat.

  “So, how’d you all enjoy the party?” Kellen asked as he merged onto the freeway.

  “It was… something else,” Lucas offered.

  Kellen gave a short laugh. “It’s a little overwhelming, I imagine. I mean, we’re all so used to it—and we’re so not used to Naturals. It’s hard to know exactly how to interact with you.”

  Corbin sighed. “I’m pretty beat. I mean, it’s a lot of work, tuning out all the noise, you know? All those people just… pressing at your mind. Tiring.”

  “I wonder if that’s why Ris is so beat,” Lucas said.

  “Maybe,” Corbin agreed. “I mean, maybe she was subconsciously aware of all that stuff and it wore her out? You think so, Kellen?”

  Kellen shrugged. “Not sure. Can’t say I really know how the common deal with high-ability situations. I mean, they don’t usually come to our parties.”

  Morgan didn’t feel the need to point out that the servers were all common. Nor did she think it important to mention what had happened between Kellen and Ris. Instead, she stared off into the sky, attention fixed on a particularly bright star.

  Morgan and Ris were the first to be dropped off. Corbin got out of the car to help walk Ris to the door. Ris seemed awake enough to stay unsteadily upright, but Morgan was unsure whether her friend could have found her way to the front door unassisted.

  Kellen called his goodbye from the car, but Lucas got out to walk with Morgan to the door. They followed a few steps behind Corbin and Ris.

  “You okay?” Lucas asked.

  Morgan glanced at him. “What d’you mean?”

  Lucas shrugged. “Dunno. You just seem… distant, maybe?”

  “Maybe I’m still all walled up from the party.”

  Lucas didn’t look convinced, but he nodded. By that time, Corbin and Ris had made it to the front door. Corbin stood unsurely on the porch, waiting, presumably, for Morgan to take possession of Ris, to open the door, something.

  Morgan obliged and went to the front door to unlock it. When she turned to relieve Corbin of Ris, she saw that he was holding her so that she faced him, looking down at her. He leaned down to kiss her on the cheek, but Ris twisted her face toward him just before his lips made contact and Morgan felt her stomach drop as she watched her best friend locked in a kiss with Corbin Starling.

  Instinctively, Morgan looked over at Lucas. Lucas looked just as uncomfortable as she felt. He shifted awkwardly beside her.

  When Corbin and Ris separated, Morgan swooped in to usher Ris toward the door. Ris smiled benignly over her shoulder at Corbin and even aimed a lazy wave in Lucas’s direction. Morgan helped Ris into the house and leaned her up against the wall before turning back to the guys.

  Corbin looked a bit dazed, his eyebrows furrowed slightly. Morgan turned to Lucas who took a step forward and put his arms around her in a clumsy hug. Morgan returned it, her movements just as awkward. When the two parted, Lucas shrugged as if to say, Seemed like the thing to do.

  Following suit, Corbin stepped into the spot Lucas had vacated and hugged Morgan, too. She had to admit, it was a good hug, and she felt herself conforming to the shape of his body before she caught herself. He’d just been kissing her best friend, after all.

  Guiding Corbin away from her by his shoulders, Morgan offered a smile. “Goodnight, Corbin.”

  “’Night, Morgan,” he said absently.

  Morgan nodded toward Lucas, who nodded back and offered a small half-wave as he turned toward Kellen’s car. Morgan turned and walked into her house, closing and locking the door behind her and draping Ris’s arm around her own shoulder as she led the way toward her bedroom.

  “That was a good party,” Ris said dreamily.

  Morgan jostled them into her room. “Yeah, the best,” she agreed flatly.

  Chapter Thirteen

  “Morgan, are you even paying attention?”

  Morgan looked up from the checkerboard before her into the light blue eyes of Lucas. He looked mildly annoyed. “Yeah, Lucas—I’m paying attention.”

  He cocked an eyebrow at her. Leaning back into the cushions of what he had claimed was his favorite armchair in the Daily Grind, he asked, “Oh, really then? What was I saying?”

  Stalling for time, Morgan glanced around the coffee house. “Um…” she said after a few moments. “Something important?”

  Lucas sighed, sounding slightly exasperated. “What’s up with you? You’ve seemed a little out of it since the party last night.”

  “Out of it how?”

  “Just… distracted, I guess.”

  She immediately felt a pang of guilt. When Lucas called her this morning, he seemed more excited than she could recall him ever being and now she wasn’t giving him her full attention.

  “Okay,” she said, sitting up a little straighter. “I’m one hundred percent focused. What were you saying?”

  “It’s Orrick. I’ve been doing a little research. I mean, I already knew who he was, but I guess I never knew how he got to be a billionaire.”

  “Don’t keep me in suspense.”

  “Well, there’s the stock market, of course. He’s apparently got a knack for buying up stocks when they’re really cheap,
just before they start making lots and lots of money. Like, he’ll buy a ton of shares of something at, like, two dollars apiece, and then a week later they’ll be trading for hundreds.”

  “Sounds like he’s got a little inside knowledge.”

  “Or a little future knowledge. He’s never been wrong. If he’s a Knower or if he knows a Knower, that’ll be why.”

  “So, that’s it? He became a billionaire playing the stock market?”

  Lucas shook his head. “Not even close. He did some time in real estate. From what I could find out, he constantly bought these really, really nice, expensive houses way below market value.”

  Morgan shrugged. “Well, the economy’s been bad—”

  “No—since before then. And, like, millionaires selling million-dollar homes for a fraction of the cost. Then Orrick would turn around and sell the homes for millions of dollars again.”

  “So… he could convince people to sell their houses for far under what they were worth? Sounds like a Pusher to me.”

  “That’s what I was thinking, too. From real estate, he moved on to business acquisition. From what I could tell, he’d just kinda swoop in on a company that wasn’t up for sale and he’d buy it. A few people were quoted as saying he’s a ‘persuasive businessman.’”

  “If they only knew…”

  “Right?” Lucas tilted his head back, surveying the ceiling, apparently deep in thought. When he returned his gaze to Morgan, he was smiling.

  “What?”

  “I just… I guess I never pictured myself as being rich before.”

  “You are now?”

  “You’re not? I mean, I looked at the numbers. Starting salary for someone in one of Orrick’s organizations is something like a hundred grand a year.”

  “So, what? You wanna just go work for Orrick now or something?”

  “No—not necessarily. I mean, I know we could. I mean…” He lowered his voice and leaned in. “How much you wanna bet most, if not all, Orrick’s employees are Veneret? I’m sure if we wanted it, Orrick would give us a job, no problem. But… I feel like we’ve got more options than that. I mean, why just work for the man when we could become—I dunno—the next Orrick Williams?”

  “And how’re we gonna do that? I mean, can you See the future?”

  He shrugged. “I kinda thought you might be able to—what with your experience as a fortune-teller and all.”

  Morgan narrowed her eyes at him.

  “And if not,” he said with a shrug, “then maybe one of us will—what’s the word?—manifest that ability.”

  “And if we don’t?”

  “Then there are other ways to make money.”

  Morgan stared at him incredulously. “You mean like Orrick? Pushing people to sell things they don’t want to sell?”

  “Why not?”

  “It just seems really… dishonest. Immoral even, maybe. To just take something because you want it.”

  Too late, Morgan’s eyes landed on the infamous fedora from their fateful outing the night Lucas had been “activated.” Lucas’s eyes skimmed over the fedora, too, before he turned his attention back to Morgan.

  “So, I’m immoral?”

  “That’s not what I meant and you know it,” she said quickly. “That’s a hat—and you didn’t realize what you were doing.”

  Lucas shrugged. “Orrick buys houses and businesses. How are those things that much different from the fedora? That guy didn’t want to give it to me.”

  “Again, you didn’t know what you were doing.”

  “I could’ve given it back once I realized, though, and I didn’t.”

  Morgan sighed, exasperated. “Fine, you’re immoral. Is that what you wanna hear?”

  Lucas raised his eyebrows. “Just add in ‘depraved’ and I’m a happy camper.”

  She rolled her eyes. “You’re a weirdo.”

  “And you’re willingly being seen in public with me. What does that say about you?”

  She smiled. “Clearly, I’m deeply disturbed—hanging out with such a depraved, immoral individual…”

  They turned their attention back to the checkers game for a few minutes before Lucas spoke again.

  “So, you’d never, like, work for Orrick if he offered you a job?”

  Morgan considered this for a moment. She picked up a checker and began running her fingers along the edges. “Dunno. I mean, I guess it depends what the job was. But… you know what? No. I wouldn’t want to just be given a job, you know? I’d wanna earn it. I don’t think I could just work for Orrick.” She turned her attention from the checker to Lucas. “How ’bout you?”

  He shrugged. “Shoot. If Orrick gave me the opportunity to make some serious money, I can’t say I’d say no.”

  She shook her head. “Depraved, immoral…” she said, smiling.

  Lucas smiled, too, and turned his attention back to the checkerboard. “You don’t seem to have any problem with Kellen working for Orrick,” he said, eyes down as he moved one of his pieces.

  Morgan returned with a move of her own before responding. “Why would I care if Kellen worked for Orrick?”

  “Dunno. You just seem… close to him is all.”

  She sighed. “Seriously? First Kellen calls you and Corbin my boyfriends, now you’re accusing me of—”

  “Wait—I’m not accusing you of anything,” Lucas said. “But if you’d like me to...”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?”

  Lucas moved one of his checkers before responding. “You’re not exactly difficult to read—now that I know how. And when I see you with Kellen, there’s a certain—”

  “Fascination?” Morgan supplied. “Because, yes, I’ll admit, I’m a little fascinated by him. Because of his abilities—and what he knows about—” She lowered her voice and leaned toward Lucas. “—the Veneret.”

  “I was gonna say attraction, but if you wanna call it fascination, sure.”

  Morgan threw a checker at Lucas, hitting him squarely in the chest.

  Lucas ignored her abuse. “You coming tonight?” he asked, nodding toward a flier on the community bulletin board.

  Morgan glanced at the flier, which announced a band was playing here tonight at seven. “Dreamers Often Lie… Never heard of them.”

  “It’s Corbin’s band,” Lucas supplied. “I work tonight, so I’ll be here.”

  Morgan shrugged. “Dunno. Ris might wanna come. If she wants to, I guess I’ll probably end up here.”

  “Lia might want to come, too.”

  She eyed him suspiciously. “What, we’re BFFs with Lia now?”

  “Well, no, but…” Lucas shrugged. “I mean, we weren’t friends before all this started, but now…”

  “Well, you weren’t a total bitch before all this started happening.”

  He crossed his arms over his chest and surveyed her for a moment. “Give her a chance.”

  Morgan sighed. “If you insist. But—oh, no!” She brought her hand to her mouth in mock horror. “I don’t have her number. I guess I can’t invite her…”

  “Lucky for you, I’ve got her number.” Lucas pulled his cell phone out and began scrolling through his contacts.

  Morgan pulled her phone out, too. “How do you have her number?”

  “She, Corbin, and I exchanged numbers last night. Must’ve been when you were in the bathroom.”

  Morgan felt a momentary twinge. Something shadowy danced formlessly around the edges of her mind.

  “Whoa—what just happened?”

  “Huh?”

  “You. You just… You went all fuzzy just now.”

  Morgan raised an eyebrow at him. “What did you say you were drinking?”

  Lucas ignored her. “Your energy,” he said quietly, intently. “Usually it feels a certain way, but a second ago it went all—”

  “Fuzzy?”

  “Kinda, yeah. Just… off, y’know?”

  “No.”

  “Did something happen last night?” Lucas asked, leaning for
ward.

  “What? No,” Morgan said quickly, though something inside her told her that wasn’t the truth. Last night she’d been looking for the bathroom and she’d found Kellen and Ris together… But there was nothing wrong. Kellen had said there was nothing wrong.

  Lucas eyed her dubiously. “There you go, all fuzzy again,” he said quietly. Then he sighed. “You ready for Lia’s number?”

  “Yes,” Morgan said, eager for the subject change.

  After Lucas rattled off Lia’s phone number, he shifted uneasily. “Oh—uh oh.”

  Morgan eyed him. “What, uh oh?”

  “I just noticed the time. Told my mom I’d be home about five minutes ago. We’ve got some family picnic thing to go to—”

  Morgan waved her hand dismissively. “Go, go.”

  He stood and gave an apologetic smile. “See you tonight, though?”

  She nodded, also standing. “Yeah, I’ll be here. So, be thinking of what drink you’ll be convincing me I should have tonight.”

  Lucas started toward the door. “Oh, I already know,” he said, glancing over his shoulder.

  “Oh, really?” Morgan asked following him. “Care to share?”

  Lucas opened the door and allowed Morgan to exit before him. “You’ll just have to wait and be surprised.”

  “Ooh, intrigue.” She stopped to face him, smiling.

  Lucas smiled, too, and shifted his weight from foot to foot. After a moment, he offered an awkward wave. “See you tonight, then.” With that, he headed toward his car.

  Morgan watched him for a moment before heading toward her own car. When she got in, she immediately, mechanically, pulled on her seatbelt and put her keys in the ignition. But before she started the car, she realized she had no firm plans about where to go or what to do. It wasn’t quite noon yet and she knew Ris was supposed to be shopping with her mother, which might take all day.

  Suddenly, Morgan felt it again. The twinge. She wondered briefly if Lucas were still nearby if he’d insist she’d gone fuzzy again. It was silly, though, she convinced herself. There was no reason for her to go fuzzy when she thought about Ris or Kellen.