Talia hopped from boy to boy so often I lost count months ago. But recently, her behavior had gotten worse. The change had started after our parents disappeared with our baby sister.
“You plan to manipulate the pictures so she wouldn’t recognize you before posting them all over social media,” Wes said.
“Grrr, stay out of my head, you snake. Lana, tell him to stay the hell away from my thoughts.”
I ignored her. They were so much alike I tended to ignore their silly fights.
“Give me the phone, Talia,” Wes said.
“Bite me.” Talia hid it behind her.
“Talia,” he warned.
“You can’t delete them. Lana, tell him he can’t remove my picture.”
“These are Mortals you’re messing with,” Wes said. “We are supposed to look out for them, guide and lead them by example, not punish them for silly things.”
Talia laughed. “Quit parroting Mom and Dad when it suits you, you hypocrite. Your idea of example is to sleep with as many of them as you can. Young and old. Have you seduced Mrs. Lisenbee yet?”
Wes’s eyes narrowed. “Did you suggest that shit to me?”
Her grin said she had. “I warned you to stay out of my head or face my wrath.”
He growled and reached for her. Talia ducked behind me. “Don’t let him get me.”
I sighed. Was I the only person with siblings from hell? “When you two get done, let me know because there’s a reason I called you in here.”
“I had three options when that bitch went feral on me. Engage my runes and body slam her, which would have landed her sorry ass in the hospital. Make her strip and run around the school, which would have landed her in a psych ward and we know how terrible those places are. Or play by Mortal rules. That means smartphones and social media. Our family motto says no to runes and yes to modern technology.”
Wes shook his head. “You are an idiot.”
“And you are a cesspool of every germ known to mankind, man-whore,” she shot back.
Things were going to escalate fast.
“Stop it. Both of you.” I gave Wes a look that said I expected better from him, and he made a face. Sighing, I turned to face Talia. “Someone is going to get hurt, Talia, and it’s not going to be you. Please, delete the photos or be ready to explain to Mom and Dad, when they come back, why some Mortal committed suicide.”
She made a face. “Suicide? That’s a bit extreme.”
“You don’t know how Doug’s girlfriend will react.”
Talia sighed and deleted the selfies. “Sucky siblings,” she grumbled. “No fun at all. So why are we in here?”
“Two Grimnirs came to see me,” I said. “They were asking for Mom and Dad.”
“That means they’re alive, right?” Talia asked. Her eyes volleyed between Wes and me. “I mean, the Grimnirs wouldn’t be looking for them if they’ve reaped their souls.”
“That’s true,” I said.
“Then where are they?” Talia ground out. “It’s been weeks, and we’ve tried everything to locate them with little results.”
I couldn’t answer her because I didn’t know. Portals fizzled whenever we attempted to create one. I was seriously beginning to worry.
“What did the Grimnirs want?” Wes asked, not masking his mistrust of reapers. He hated them. His best friend had died last year when a reaper could have saved him.
“They wanted to know why we’re not in the Immortal Registry.”
Wes cursed, and Talia went pale.
“They want our names, address, when and where we were adopted.”
“Why?” Wes ground out.
I shrugged and held my tongue about the school Syn had mentioned. For starters, they’d want our papers before considering us. We didn’t have them. Our parents had destroyed them and erased any record of our existence from every group home and institution we’d ever lived in.
“I wanted to give you guys a heads-up in case they approached you.” I checked my watch. “And to warn you not to make plans for this evening with your friends or go anywhere after school. We’re going straight home.”
“Does that mean we can’t go for a run today either?” Wes asked.
I nodded, and they both groaned. Running was the only form of exercise we had left since Talia dropped cheerleading and Wes quit wrestling. It was the price they paid for accepting runes. I never tried sports after my swim lessons in first grade when the people in the pool had turned on each other. The instructor had started it by calling a kid a brat with zero swim skills. It had dissolved into chaos as parents watching the lessons rushed to the pool to get their children. After it had happened several times, my parents realized I was the only one who was not affected. That was the beginning of my weird existence.
Talia left first while Wes lingered.
“What are you not telling us?” he asked.
“Stay out of my head,” I warned him, and he grinned, unrepentant. His gift was invasive.
“I didn’t get inside your head,” he protested. “You have ‘tells,’ and I’ve memorized them.”
“Yeah, right. I’m worried about the Grimnirs. What if they find out what Mom and Dad did?” The second I voiced my fears, regret followed. I was the oldest, and I was supposed to keep it together when shit like this went down. Mom and Dad expected that from me even though they’d never said it.
Wes laughed. “Relax. No one will ever know our secret. They’d have to make one of us talk first, and we both know that would never happen. We watch each other’s backs. Besides, Talia is our delete button when forgetful runes fail. If only she weren’t such a brat.”
“That brat saved us from a life of misery in the foster system,” I reminded him.
“I haven’t forgotten. It’s the only thing stopping me from killing her while she sleeps.”
Chapter 4
When school ended, I headed to our SUV and waited for Wes and Talia. I had a clear view of the school entrance in case the Grimnirs tried to corner them.
To save money, Wes wasn’t driving his car to school anymore. Our parents had left us with enough money to last us a couple of weeks, but they’d been gone for three now, and we were running low on funds. If my job applications didn’t pan out, we might have to resort to some seriously drastic measures to make ends meet.
Wes left the school building first. As usual, his former teammates, their girlfriends, and a few unattached females vied for his attention. Tall, buff, and more confident than guys his age, he was a chic magnet. I’d seen them make fools of themselves over him. To hear him say it, it wasn’t easy on him. He heard their thoughts and fantasies about him but had to act normal. Mom and Dad had no idea how to help him control his gift any more than they knew how to help me. But they’d sworn our gifts would fade with time as we relied more on runes.
I really shouldn’t be calling our abilities gifts. They were more like a curse. They were the reason we’d landed in institutions when we were young. I’d lost my parents in a road accident while Wes’s mother had believed he was a violent schizophrenic and hadn’t wanted to deal with him. They made dating tricky for us, too. Not that I’d ever had a chance to be with anyone. My gift made that impossible. Now that we were Immortals, we had another reason not to fall for Mortals out of fear of revealing our secret. We’d met mixed couples, and their relationships were often doomed from the start.
So even though Wes rolled with the popular crowd in every school we’d ever attended before or after the Longhorns had adopted us, he never committed to a single girl, no matter how much he was into her. He slept around, though, shamelessly using his gift to find women who were into him, which made him a total asshat. Unfortunately, each girl often thought she could change him until they realized they couldn’t. Some grew to despise him while others became his booty calls. He’d been messing with girls and grown women since he’d turned fifteen.
Wes continued to chat with his friends. As usual, Talia took her time. When she finally le
ft the building, she had an arm around one guy, and another carried her backpack. She had no problem using her gifts on people, something I’d vowed never to do after I lost my parents.
Talia slid in the back seat of the SUV and thanked her admirers, kissing each on the cheek. “I’ll see you tomorrow morning.”
“More conquests?” I teased once she closed the door.
“Guys are so easy. It’s ridiculous. I don’t even have to suggest anything.”
“Would you be happier dating an Immortal guy?” I asked her. She and I had never discussed dating, but since Syn mentioned the school, I couldn’t help wondering.
Talia made a face. “As long as I’m not serious or thinking about marriage, I don’t care if a guy is Mortal or Immortal.” Her expression grew pensive. “But I can’t allow myself to fall in love with a Mortal. I refuse to watch them grow old while I stay young.”
“So you’d only become serious with an Immortal?”
“I guess so. I haven’t thought much about it. But when I’m ready to get married, I’d choose an Immortal.” She rolled down the window and yelled at Wes, “Hey, lover boy. We need to go.”
Wes scowled at her, but he said goodbye to his friends and hopped in the front passenger seat. From his unclear aura, something was wrong.
“What’s going on?” I asked, easing off the curb.
“Coach wants me back on the team,” he mumbled. “Some recruiter saw videos of my fight from last year at regionals and state, and wants to see me in action. Live.”
“I’m sorry,” I mumbled.
“Not your fault.” He slouched in his seat and stared at the passing scenery. “I’ll tell Coach Firestone I lost interest.”
Except he hadn’t. Wes loved wrestling, but he couldn’t participate anymore. The second he’d started using runes last summer after his sixteenth birthday, our parents had insisted he drop out of all sports. They believed it was easy to engage runes to edge out a competitor or unintentionally hurt one in contact sports. He’d tried to explain to them that he would never cheat, but they’d made that a condition for having runes. Then there was Talia and her love of cheerleading. Maybe a special school for Immortals was the answer.
Since that annoying Grimnir had planted the idea in my head, I couldn’t stop thinking about it. It might be our only chance at leading a semi-normal life. There was only one problem. We couldn’t attend it without registering as Immortals, an act that would expose our parents and what they’d done.
We drove in silence, lost in thought. Talia was on her phone. She loved social media and acted like any Mortal teenager. From her bright pink aura, Talia wasn’t worried about anything. She rarely worried. She lived for the moment, bending people to her will whenever it suited her. Mom and Dad didn’t know she used her ability on Mortals.
“How off is your gift, Talia?” I asked.
She shrugged.
“Meaning?”
“Sometimes they’re on and sometimes off, but that’s okay. I have runes now.” She buried her nose in her phone. It was her way of saying she didn’t want to talk.
Her aura was still clear. The only time I’d seen it murky was when our parents brought home the new addition to our family. Hannah.
I glanced at Wes. His yellow-green aura was murky, and bloodred tinted the inner zone closer to his body, indicating anger.
The second I parked the car, Talia jumped down and disappeared inside the house. Wes stayed with me.
“You’re angry,” I said.
“Pissed off is more like it,” he grounded out. “I thought it would be cool to be an Immortal, but what’s the point when we can’t enjoy the things we love? Maybe I should join an underground wrestling club.”
My stomach dropped. “Not with runes.”
Wes shot me a mutinous glance. “The old man will understand. He knows I have to let out steam somehow. Usually, I wrestle or box with him, but with him gone, I don’t know what to do.” He twisted in his seat to face me. “I’m tired of not doing things I love because it’s too dangerous, Lana. I can’t even play ball with my friends because I could hurt them. The explanation I give them for quitting wrestling or shooting hoops is getting old. Talia stopped cheerleading at the same time. And you cover every part of your body and wear gloves. We are ‘the weird’ family, and I’m okay with that, but some shit’s gotta give.”
“We run,” I protested, trying to understand his frustration.
“Yeah, up the mountains where no one can see us pull The Flash, and you can’t leave your truth serum on anything. I need an outlet, or I’m going to go crazy.”
“Would you be better off at a school with other Immortals?” I asked.
He laughed. “If one exists, hell yeah. But that’s never going to happen.” He threw me another glance. “I saw the balance in the family bank account.”
The switch in topic threw me off. “Quit eavesdropping on my thoughts, Wes. It’s not funny.”
He raised his hands in mock surrender. “I’m not. I swear, but last night I couldn’t help but hear you. You were worrying about it and ended up screaming in your head. Unless Mom and Dad come home soon, we’ll be eating out of the neighbors’ garbage cans. We need money.”
“I know. I’ll get a job. I’ve already applied for a few.”
Wes’s jaw dropped. “You? Get a regular job?”
I punched his arm. “I’m not planning to work with people, bonehead. I’ve applied to companies that clean offices after hours. I’ll make sure I don’t leave prints or sweat on anything.”
Wes’s lips twitched.
“I swear if you laugh, I’ll kick you.” I grabbed my backpack and got out of the car. He followed. “If I get it, I’ll be gone most evenings.”
“If I join a fight club, I could make us some money faster.”
“I’m not letting you fight in some damn club, Wes. I’d never forgive myself if someone got hurt. Not to mention Mom and Dad would never forgive me for letting you go.”
He groaned. “They won’t know if you don’t tell.”
“I’ll get a job. I promise.” Something in his expression made me stop walking. I studied him. He gave me a broad smile. “You’ve already talked to someone about this.”
“I haven’t,” he answered a little too quickly.
I pulled off my gloves and offered him my hand. He groaned again but took it.
“Have you talked to an owner of an underground fight club?” I asked, bracing myself for the truth.
“No, but I was planning on it. A guy was expecting my call tonight. We could make a boatload of money fast, Lana.” He let go of my hand.
“Don’t call him yet,” I said, removing the other glove. I never wore them at home. “The fight can be our last resort before we dumpster dive.”
He grinned. “Okay.”
I was placating him. I’d never let him fight. One, he was only seventeen. Two, he could seriously hurt a Mortal. Three, I was the oldest and needed to find a way to feed everyone.
Talia was waiting in the hallway when he opened the door connecting the garage to the house. I pressed the button to close the garage door before joining them.
“What are you two fighting about?” she asked.
“We were discussing how to make more money,” Wes said. “We’re running low. Lana wants to get a job cleaning offices, but we know how that would turn out. That office would be in chaos by ten o’clock the next day as her sweat loosened the tongues of coworkers. I offered to join a fight club in Seattle and make money faster, but she shot it down because she doesn’t want anyone to get hurt. Damn it!” He glared at me. “How long before that stupid truth serum wears off?”
Several hours. “I don’t know.”
“Rune me, please,” he begged.
“I hate them,” Talia cut in so calmly we stopped to stare at her. “I hate them for deserting us like this. And for what? The little pipsqueak. It’s her fault.” She turned and disappeared toward her bedroom, but not before I saw her trembl
ing chin.
I started after her, but Wes grabbed my arm and shook his head.
“It’s my fault she knows. I’ll talk to her.”
“If we are accepting blame, it’s mine because you are under the influence of my serum. Talia was bound to know, Wes. If we are to survive this, we must be honest with each other. And when we decide to do something, we all have to agree to it, or it’s a no-go. That includes the fight club.”
He nodded and followed her while I went to my bedroom to drop off my backpack and gloves. The hypocrisy of my statement didn’t escape me. I hadn’t told them about the school Syn had mentioned. I didn’t want to give them hope where there was none. Until our parents came back, we couldn’t do anything about the school.
I removed my jacket and sweater and sighed as air rushed across my skin. Sitting on the bed, I kicked off my boots and yanked off my skinny jeans. I changed into a skirt and grinned. Home was the only place I could be myself. Well, home and places where I couldn’t bump into anyone.
I left my room, loving the feel of hardwood on my bare feet. Sometimes I wondered if Mom and Dad used to walk around barefoot before they adopted me or if they acquired the habit to support me. Then there were deserted beaches and picnics in the middle of nowhere.
Talia’s door was ajar, and I could hear Wes’s voice rise and fall. He was great with her. Somehow she listened to him more than she did to me. Whenever I suggested anything, she tended to take it as criticism.
I went outside to check the mail.
Every day, I hoped we’d get a letter from Mom or Dad, and every day I was met with disappointment. What had happened to them? Talia blamed Hannah, but how could one blame a child just because she was gifted? We all had special abilities, but we had nothing on that baby. At six months, she could move things with her mind. At twelve, she could astral project, and that was when the problems had started. Finding her once she took off was impossible, so Mom and Dad had decided to seek help. How or where we didn’t know.
[Mystic Academy 01.0] Fated Page 3
