Awaking (The Naturals, #1)

by Freeman, Madeline

  He shook his head. “That’s not what I mean. I know she disappeared of her own volition. She left to protect you.”

  “What?” Morgan’s heartbeat pounded in her ears, and she felt her fingertips trembling. “Who are you? What do you know about my mom?”

  He didn’t respond, his body going stiff. He turned his head just slightly before standing up in one quick movement. “This isn’t the time or place. Meet me tomorrow, and I’ll tell you everything I know.”

  Morgan stood too, taking hold of his arm. “You can’t just say something like that about my mom and then leave. I don’t even know your name.”

  “Meet me tomorrow morning—nine o’clock. There’s a coffee house a few miles from here called the Daily Grind. You know it?”

  Morgan nodded.

  He removed her hand from his arm and began backing away. “Nine o’clock,” he called back in a voice just loud enough for her to hear. “And my name is Kellen.” He turned around then and disappeared amid a crowd entering the yard through the back door.

  Chapter Two

  Nine o’clock the next morning couldn’t come fast enough.

  Despite the fact that Ris had kept her out until after midnight, Morgan still woke with the sun. She attempted to distract herself by cruising Tumblr, but it didn’t help. When her dad got up for work and found her making pancakes and bacon, to say he was surprised would be an understatement.

  She had already cleaned up the breakfast dishes and was in the middle of vacuuming the living room when nine o’clock finally approached. She was careful not to speed as she made her way to the Daily Grind, a coffee house she had passed numerous times but had never stopped at.

  A tinny bell clanged as Morgan pushed open the door to the Daily Grind. She immediately took in her surroundings. The lighting was dim, but not enough to make things seem cave-like. The seating looked worn-in and comfortable, but not in a broken-down way. There was a group of twenty-somethings occupying a set of couches in the front corner, deep in conversation. A few other tables were occupied by singles or couples, most of whom were reading, studying, or working on computers. But no Kellen.

  She surveyed the room once more, in case she missed him. Pulling her phone out of her back pocket, she checked the time. It was still a few minutes until nine. He just wasn’t here yet.

  Morgan suddenly felt self-conscious. She must look strange, just standing there in front of the door. She moved toward the counter to place an order. The barista’s back was turned to her, and she took the opportunity to peruse the menu.

  The barista finished up what he was doing and walked to his place behind the register. “What can I get for you?”

  Morgan pulled her attention on the menu board though she still had no idea. She studied the barista for a moment. He was tall, with wavy hair so dark it almost looked black. He looked familiar. “You go to my school, right?”

  He nodded. “ABC. You’re Morgan Abbey, psychic to all, friend to one.”

  Morgan squared her shoulders, preparing to be insulted, but the guy smiled.

  “I do have more than one friend, you know,” Morgan said, her posture relaxing. “You’re Lucas, right? Lucas… Kenrick. We were in Spanish together.”

  “Both years,” Lucas confirmed. “And English. Last year.”

  “And freshman year,” Morgan added, not to be outdone.

  Lucas smiled. He seemed pleased that Morgan remembered their shared freshman class.

  “So,” Lucas repeated, “what can I get you?”

  Morgan realized she still hadn’t made a decision, so she equivocated. “What do you think is good?”

  “Hot or cold?”

  Morgan shrugged. “Hot?”

  Lucas smiled. Without another word, he went to the espresso machine and set to work. Moments later, the machine was hissing and humming. Morgan cast a dubious glance in Lucas’s direction, but he wasn’t paying attention to her.

  A few minutes later, Lucas set an oversized mug down in front Morgan. “For you, a white chocolate cocoa with a shot of raspberry.”

  Morgan took a sip and smiled broadly. “Lucas, this is fabulous. How'd you know I'd like it?”

  Lucas shrugged. “I have a good sense of the drinks people’ll like. It’s my special talent.”

  Morgan paid and thanked Lucas before turning her attention back to the coffee shop’s customers. She moved to the left side of the room to get a better look at some of the overstuffed couches, but she still didn’t see Kellen. She pulled out her phone to check the time again. It was now decidedly after nine o’clock, and Morgan started to wonder if this whole thing wasn’t some kind of sick joke. She wouldn’t put something like this past Lynna’s minions, but she refused to believe Lynna herself would stoop to such a level.

  “I’m glad you came.”

  Morgan jumped, some of her drink sloshing over the side of her mug. Kellen stood before her, looking just as relaxed and nonchalant as he had the previous night.

  “Didn’t mean to startle you,” he said, a half smile tugging at the corner of his mouth. “Come with me.”

  He turned and started toward a hallway at the back of the room. The sign above the arch indicated they were moving in the direction of the bathrooms. They entered the hallway and passed the women’s room door on the right. She was about to tell him that she would, on no uncertain terms, to into the men’s bathroom when he turned to the left, indicating a closed door labeled Employees Only.

  She raised an eyebrow at him. “You work here?”

  He let out a short laugh. “No.” He pushed open the door to reveal a room that looked like it should be an extension of the area they’d just come from. There were two couches forming an L in the corner and a small coffee table loaded down with an old television against the nearby wall. Against the only remaining wall were three high-top tables surrounded by stools.

  Kellen made a sweeping motion with his arm toward the couches and Morgan took that to mean he wanted her to sit there. As she moved to take a seat, Kellen closed the door behind them. She watched him as he crossed the room, struck by his appearance. The dim light last night hadn’t done him justice. He was possibly the single most handsome guy she’d ever seen in real life. His jaw was strong and angular, but pleasingly so, and his hazel eyes held flecks of green and gold. So overwhelming were his looks that she momentarily forgot why she was here. But as he sat on the couch beside her, her mind snapped back to reality. She took in a breath and faced him.

  “You said you knew things about my mom. You said she left on her own and she did it to protect me?”

  Kellen nodded. “But before I tell you why, there are some other things you need to know.”

  She shook her head. “I don’t care about other things, I only care about my mom. How do you know this stuff about her? What were you, like, ten when she disappeared? Do you know where she is?”

  He didn’t respond right away, the look on his face indicating he was considering something. “Nine.”

  “What, are you speaking German or something?”

  He shook his head. “She’s been gone almost ten years. I would’ve been nine. But, yes, I suppose if we were speaking German it would’ve been the answer to your other question too. I don’t know where she is.”

  Morgan stared at him. The perfection of his face juxtaposed against the imperfection of his information was maddening. “What exactly do you know then?”

  “You’ve gotta let me start at the beginning, otherwise nothing’s gonna make sense, okay?”

  She considered this for a moment. She still wasn’t sure this wasn’t some elaborate prank—perpetrated, perhaps, by someone who had received a fortune she didn’t like. But, if there was even the slightest chance he could be on the level, she had to hear him out. She nodded.

  Kellen took in a breath and released it slowly. He drummed his fingers on the coffee table in front of him for a few measures before turning his attention to Morgan. “The world is divided up into two basic groups. The fi
rst group is the one you already know about—the one you deal with every day. The one you probably think is the only one. But then there’s the other group. There are people who can calm you down when you’re upset or make you happy when you’re sad. And there are people who can know things he’s not supposed to know about things that haven’t happened yet.” He paused, glancing back down at the coffee table. He rested his right hand on it, palm toward Morgan’s drink, which was about a foot away. Morgan watched as the glass slid easily across the table until it rested against Kellen’s palm. “And there are people like me.”

  Morgan opened her mouth to say something, but she couldn’t form the words. Had she really just seen that happen? Had he made a glass move across the table? Or were there some smoke and mirrors somewhere that she couldn’t see?

  “Not a trick,” he said, answering Morgan’s unvoiced question.

  Morgan looked into Kellen’s eyes. “Which group do I fall in?”

  Kellen smiled. “Suffice it to say that if you were in the latter category, we wouldn’t be having this conversation. But you… you’re special.”

  “But I can’t do any of the things you just mentioned—”

  “Really?” He sounded unconvinced. “So you’re saying you’ve never… guessed that something was going to happen before it did? Or known something about someone that you shouldn’t have known?”

  Morgan considered this. How many times had someone found her after a reading and told her that her prediction had been right? How many people had run up to her, the week’s horoscope in hand, and asked how she’d been able to know what was going to happen? “Well, yeah, but… I’m just… lucky. I mean, I’m more logical than most people. My brain works differently—”

  Kellen chuckled softly. “Got it in one.”

  Morgan looked at him. “Are you saying there’s something wrong with my brain?”

  He shook his head. “To the contrary; there’s something very right with it.”

  “So, I’m… like you? Can I move things with my mind? Because, let me tell you, that’s never happened.”

  “Maybe one day you’ll be able to—with training. But even as you are, without training, even among my people, you’re special.”

  “Your people?”

  “That second group of people? We’ve been around since the dawn of humanity—maybe before. We’re called the Veneret. And you, you’re what’s called a Natural— a person who doesn’t have Veneret parents, but who possesses our powers.”

  “So, these… abilities… just kind of… pop up in people?”

  “No,” Kellen said firmly. “If we could trace your genealogy back, we’d certainly find a member of the Veneret in your family tree. Generations ago, in order to blend in, lots of the Veneret started marrying in with common people.”

  “Why’d they need to blend in?”

  Kellen smiled. “Suffice it to say that not all common people are so accepting of our abilities. They’re scared by what they don’t understand. You’ve heard about witch hunts and all that, right? Well, some of those people were Veneret. The common started believing that our abilities were somehow unnatural, evil even. To survive, we’ve had to keep our abilities a secret.”

  Morgan allowed the information to sink in. “What does all this have to do with my mom?”

  “She’s a Natural too. A Knower—someone who can see things that haven’t happened yet. And she saw something in your future that made her think that her presence in your life would endanger you. So she left.”

  “How could you possibly know that? Like you said, you were nine when she disappeared.”

  He offered a smile. “Psychic, remember?”

  Morgan opened her mouth to respond, but the door they had entered through opened to reveal two guys: One had jet black hair that fell in waves to his shoulders; the dark blond hair of the other was spiked up in a faux-hawk. They both appeared to be around Kellen’s age. She shifted uncomfortably at the sight of them. Did they work here? Were they going to be mad that she and Kellen were invading their staff only room?

  Kellen didn’t seem bothered. He stood and crossed to the guys. “Just in time.”

  Morgan stood too, following him. “Just in time for what?”

  “At the risk of sounding like a Disney movie, we’re about to show you a whole new world.”

  Chapter Three

  Morgan allowed herself to be led to a car by Kellen and the two strangers. As she climbed into the back seat of the white Aston Martin, Morgan tried not to think about what her dad would say if he ever found out what she was doing.

  Kellen sat in the back seat beside her, and the black-haired guy put the car in gear and started out of the parking lot before the blond cleared his throat.

  “Ah, manners,” Kellen said. “Tesin and Wen,” he said, indicating the black-haired and blond-haired guys respectively.

  “Tesin and Wen?” Morgan asked. “Not to be rude, but what kind of names are those?”

  The blond, Wen, looked back at her and smiled. “Well, Wen’s short for Wendell.” He pulled a face. Then he indicated the black-haired guy with his thumb. “Tesin’s mom just had the good drugs when he was born.”

  “Don’t listen to him. Tesin’s a family name. And it’s a helluva lot better than Wendell.”

  Morgan smiled, not sure what else to do. “So… where are we going?”

  Tesin gave a short laugh. “Nowhere.”

  Morgan looked out the window as the scenery whipped by. The road they were on, she knew, had a speed limit of thirty-five. Morgan didn’t have to be able to see the speedometer to know they were probably approaching double that.

  “Um, Tesin,” Morgan ventured tentatively. “We’re coming up on a police station. You might wanna slow down.”

  Tesin shifted gears, but if anything the car sped up.

  Morgan looked at Kellen, but his face was unreadable, passive even. She gripped the seat in front of her, positive they were going to crash at any moment.

  Red and blue lights flashed through the car’s rear window and Morgan sighed with relief. She’d never been so happy for a cop to pull a car over for speeding.

  But Tesin didn’t slow. He wove the car in and out of the lanes, dodging law-abiding citizens in cars traveling at half their speed. When he zipped through a light that turned red before their arrival, Morgan shook Tesin’s seat with as much force as she could muster. “Stop!”

  Tesin downshifted and pulled the car into a church parking lot. Seconds elapsed before the police car pulled in after them.

  Morgan glanced back at the police car and then looked at Kellen. “Is your friend insane?”

  Kellen leaned back in his seat, his arms crossed over his chest. He waggled his eyebrows and grinned. “All part of the show. Just watch.”

  Morgan checked out the rear window again and saw the officer, a slim, broad-shouldered man, approaching their car. Tesin rolled down his window.

  “License and registration.” The officer removed his sunglasses, hooking them on his shirt pocket by the ear piece.

  From her place directly behind the driver’s seat, Morgan could see that Tesin was making no move to comply.

  “Yeah, I don’t think so,” Tesin said.

  The officer took a step closer, resting his forearm at the top of the doorframe and leaning down so that he was nearly level with Tesin. “Son, do you have any idea how fast you were going? Now, I’m sure you wanted to impress your friends here, but, let me tell you, talking back to me is only going to end badly. I recommend you hand over your license and registration.”

  Tesin laughed—a full, round sound. Morgan made eye contact with the officer, trying to communicate with her eyes that she had no idea what was going on here.

  The officer straightened and took a step back. “I’m going to have to ask you to step out of the vehicle, please.”

  “Yeah, not gonna do that either,” Tesin said. “But what I’m gonna do is ask you to leave now.”

  Morgan looked from
the back of Tesin’s head to Wen to Kellen. All she could think about was how she was about to be arrested and how disappointed her father would be that she had gotten into a car with virtual strangers.

  The officer spoke again. “I think I’ll be leaving now. Is there anything else I can help you with today, sir?”

  Morgan stared at the officer, sure she hadn’t heard him correctly. She then glanced surreptitiously into the seat in front of her, searching for Tesin’s hands to be sure he hadn’t pulled a gun. But Tesin was still sitting just as calmly as he had been during the entire interaction, his hands resting lightly on the steering wheel.

  “I think that’ll be all for today, officer,” Tesin said, his voice easy. “I thank you for your assistance. Actually—you know what? There is just one more thing I’d like you to do for me. How about you spin like a ballerina in a pink tutu until I’m out of sight?”

  Without missing a beat, the policeman began spinning on the spot, his arms lifted above his head in a graceful arc.

  Chuckling, Tesin rolled up his window and started the car back up. He took his time in exiting the parking lot, making sure to get a view of the officer from every angle.

  Morgan was transfixed on the man’s twirling figure and could focus on nothing else until he was out of sight. Once Tesin pulled back out onto the road—thankfully setting his speed closer to the limit this time—Morgan turned to Kellen.

  “Did he just hypnotize that guy?”

  It was Kellen’s turn to chuckle. “Hypnosis? Really? What do you take us for? Some kind of Vegas act?”

  Wen shifted in his seat so he could see Morgan. “It’s called Pushing. It’s one of the abilities the Veneret have—one you could have once you fully manifest.”

  “When I…?”

  “Manifest,” Wen repeated. “When you fully come into your abilities.”

  Morgan nodded, not because she understood what he meant, but because she couldn’t figure out how to respond. Instead, she stared out the window. They were in an area she recognized as being mere miles from her school.

  Tesin pulled the car into the parking lot of a rather nondescript restaurant. Even its name was unremarkable: Restaurant: American Cuisine. Tesin angled the car across three spaces in the back of the lot before cutting the engine. He climbed out of the car and then moved his seat forward so Morgan could exit. He offered her his hand for balance and when she was firmly on the asphalt, she didn’t release her grip. He looked down at her, a question in his eyes.