“Aidan!”
He laughed. “I’m sorry.”
“No, you’re not.”
“You’re right,” he said, still laughing. “I couldn’t resist.”
I shook my head. “How did you do that?”
“Do what? You obviously weren’t paying very close attention, and your window is open.”
“Uh huh.”
“You give me too much credit.” He shrugged his shoulders and sat back down beside me. “So…promise me you’ll sleep tonight, Jane.”
“I’m promising nothing.” I looked away from him, staring out my window at the gray sky.
“Yeah…should have guessed as much from you.”
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I snapped, bringing my eyes back to his.
“Exactly what I said,” he answered, smiling. “I wasn’t insulting you.”
“Mm hmm.”
He smiled again and put his arm around me, pulling me into his chest. I couldn’t decide why I was letting him so close to me, why I trusted him after what had happened.
“If you don’t mind,” he started, “I would like to know some things about you.”
“Such as?”
“Such as…your mother.”
“Okay. My mother, Carol, is very attached to me. She’s the type of person my dad fell in love with when they were young. The problem was Ethan grew up—my mother didn’t.”
“Kid at heart?”
“You could put it that way. She’s crazy in my opinion. She relieves stress with extreme things like sky diving and parasailing.”
He laughed. “Not your thing.”
I let out a long sigh and chuckled. “Definitely not.”
“And your dad. Why did he come here?”
“He actually grew up here. My grandparents lived here. That’s how I met Rudy and Becky. I had been out visiting my grandparents every summer. After they died and my parents divorced, my dad moved back here, so I still saw my old friends every summer. Now that I live here, I see them more often than I thought I would. I hated this place at first, but it seems I fit in better here than I did in California. I didn’t have many friends there. Everyone I’ve ever truly cared about besides my mother lives here.”
“Well then it worked out for the better.”
I smiled. “Yeah…I guess it did. People still stare at me like I’m an alien, but I'm getting used to it.”
“You notice that?”
“Of course I notice it. I’m the new girl at North Bend High—the average and reclusive girl that nobody can get any type of answers from. You’re the only one I’ve told things to that involve my life, except maybe Becky and Rudy.”
“Well, then I should return the favor, right?”
I nodded. “Sure. I’d love to know about the mysterious Aidan Summers. You’re famous at school, you know. People make up stories about you.”
He laughed. “Infamous more like it.”
“So, what about your mother?”
“My mother was…crazy,” he said. “Not crazy in the good way like your mother. She was a little off her nut if you know what I mean. Both of my parents are dead.”
“Oh my gosh, Aidan. I’m sorry.”
“No, it’s really all right. I live with my uncle Walter, who is a professor and a genius.”
“How did your parents die?”
“They were murdered.” He seemed to be able to talk about it without a problem. “My father’s business partner was a thief and destroyed my father’s wealth before he killed him and my mother. I came home to find them dead.”
I remembered he mentioned his father was the one in the car behind us. I decided not to mention it yet. I stared at him.
“Not really a good time for sob stories,” he said and forced a synthetic smile. “You’ll hear all about it later. I promise.”
I pulled my lips to one side and narrowed my eyes.
He laughed. “Take your moments. I’ll wait.”
I nodded and grabbed a towel and my pajamas to take into the bathroom with me.
“I’ll be right back.”
“Take your time,” he said. “Ethan won’t see me. I promise.”
I did what he said and took my time. I washed up then stood there, letting the water hit my face. I had the feeling that his not talking about things meant that he had lied to me about more than his knowledge of The Sevren, like the fact that he was one of them. I shook off the bad thoughts, reminding myself that he would explain everything to me soon. I changed into a nightgown my mother had given to me one year for Christmas. It was silky, white, sleeveless, almost see through but not enough to be indecent. Aidan was in my room; I wouldn’t be caught in something ridiculous.
When I walked in, he was there, still in the same exact place I remembered as though he were a statue. When he saw me, he smiled and lightly blushed, which I had never before seen him do. I sat beside him.
“Are you going to sleep tonight?” he asked.
“Mm hmm.”
He smiled. “Good.”
“I have one condition.”
“Of course you do.”
“You have to lie with me.”
He nodded, smiling. He moved closer and touched my shoulder. Those feelings and thoughts came rushing back to me—the feelings of nervousness and fear, the thoughts that I shouldn’t trust him, that I hardly knew him. He stopped when I locked my gaze onto his. With those beautiful green eyes of his, I could clearly see the truth behind his previous words he had spoken before.
“You’re beautiful,” he whispered.
Coming from the boy who was looking at his shoes when speaking so softly, so hesitantly, it wasn’t the most flattering of compliments, especially when every glance he had passed my direction had revealed to me his thoughts long before now. Yet I could not help but tremble, and my heartbeat sped up. I leaned in closer and ran my fingertips across his cheeks. I couldn’t stand being so close to him without touching him. There was this hungry desperation for him that frightened me. My hands were quaking, and my face was hot.
“Are you afraid?” he asked.
“I don’t know.”
And this was the truth, of course. I had never even thought of feeling this way, and that was only the half of it. I had no idea who or what he was.
Still, as I felt the cold, timid press of his lips to my cheek, I didn’t even hesitate to turn my face and meet his perfect lips with my own. I couldn’t let myself give in too strongly, and I pulled away gently, but I knew he was nowhere near finished. He placed his hand on the back of my head and pulled me close, kissing me passionately yet tenderly as he did everything else. It was no doubt the kiss I had always dreamed of and the feeling I had always tried to imagine. I felt nervous, so I wrapped my arms around him, desperate again for his touch. He returned my embrace, and I gently kissed his neck. He pulled away and stared at me, his eyes tense and focused.
“Are you okay?”
He nodded. “Lie with me.”
“I want you to kiss me again.”
He leaned forward and kissed me briefly. I held on and parted my lips, but he pulled away harshly.
“I’m sorry, but you’re testing my self-control.”
“Then let it go,” I hummed.
He chuckled quietly. “Not tonight.” He kissed my cheek. “Lie with me.”
I nodded and curled up in his arms, pressing my face into his chest. As I closed my eyes to rest, there was one thing I was sure of, the one thing I had tried to deny since the very first day I had met Aidan—I was completely, undeniably in love with him.
There was no way of turning back now. It was real, and he knew it. How could he not? I slept soundly. I didn’t know if Aidan had been sleeping, but I ran my fingers through his hair, and he smiled. I touched his cheeks, and he opened his eyes.
“Morning,” he whispered. He twisted my hair around his fingers. “I didn’t know you had curly hair.”
“I don’t,” I answered, tucking the ringlet behind my ear. �
��You mistake my tangles for curls.”
He smiled and shook his head.
“What?”
“Nothing,” he said. “You act so modest.”
“Do I?”
He raised his eyebrows at me, still smiling. He was undeniably adorable.
I blushed and turned away.
“It’s tomorrow,” he said, “and I promised to explain.”
I nodded.
“I need you to believe me. I need you in general—that simple.”
“You need me?”
He nodded. “Yes. And I would rather you not go to school today simply because it would make me feel better for you to stay within my sight at least for a day.
“I tell you I need you, and if I ever want you to need me in return, you deserve to know the truth.”
“You lied to me?”
“Yes, Jane, and I’m sorry. I understand that it’s going to be hard to believe anything I say now, but that’s what I need you to do—believe me.”
“Okay.”
“It seems like a very long time ago, yet I still remember it as clearly as possible. I was young and still lived with my mother and father. My father was a very skilled surgeon and was very wealthy. His fortune, however, was beginning to diminish thanks to his partner, Matthias Castlebar. Castlebar was a thief, but at the time, my family trusted and respected him.
“It was late one night when I was still at work preparing to close when I found myself getting into deep conversation with a man who said he was a science professor at some big university—said he was planning to discover the secrets of life and death and how they can not only be created but be reversed. I was fascinated. We talked until the streetlights at the corner went out. We both noticed it immediately, and that’s when he realized he needed to be getting home.
“‘Before you leave,’ I asked him, ‘are you teaching a class right now—about your theories on life and death?’
“He smiled. I could tell he was pleased by my interest. He told me he wasn’t but that he would never turn down a young person willing to learn.
“Those words led to a very good friendship. Walter Redline was his name, and he was truly a genius. I told him about my desire to learn about life, since my mother had always been a little mad. She was convinced that I was photosensitive as a child, thought the sun is harsh to my fair skin. She kept me concealed inside always, and the only time I was able to work was evening shifts when the sun was hardly out. At the time, I had believed her, yet I still knew her to be mad, and I thought that Walter might be able to help her. For months, I studied with Professor Redline, and he really had some incredible things to teach me. He said I was gifted and if anybody could find a cure for death, it was me.
“I continued my studies, inspired by the story of Frankenstein and other books about scientific wonders. I could cure death—how miraculous. I knew I was close. I could feel it in my blood and my bones. My studies were almost at an end.
“I was out one night on my way to work. It was dark, and I cut through an alleyway as a shortcut to the restaurant. A man stopped me and held a knife to my throat. I offered him my wallet and anything else he wanted. I tried to step back from him, but he pushed me against the wall and pressed the knife harder against my neck. My limbs were shaking, and my teeth were chattering. Before I could even take another breath to speak, I passed out in the darkness. When I woke, I was sweating, the heat intense. I couldn’t open my eyes at first, but I knew I was not alone. I felt the presence of another.
“I heard a woman’s voice asking me if I was all right. I opened my eyes only to be horror stricken by the sight of the sun! I started screaming at her to get me out of the sun and covered my head with my arms.
“‘You’re ill,’ I heard her say.
“I began sobbing into my hands and whimpering ‘the sun, the sun’ over and over. Again, I lost consciousness. When I came to, the first thing my eyes met was a beautiful face, the face of a woman. She had round, brown eyes and dark, shiny hair. She looked kind and innocent. My vision was blurry, and my eyes closed again.
“‘Where am I?’ I asked. ‘And why am I here?’
“‘You were screaming,’ she said.
“I couldn’t answer. Suddenly, I heard her gasp loudly, and she asked what happened to me. I was afraid of how I must have looked. I knew from what my mother had told me that my skin was black and shriveled. I felt her touch my neck and was surprised at a sudden sting in my skin. That’s when she mentioned I was cut. She said she was surprised I was alive—that my throat wasn’t slit.
“I felt the cut where the mugger’s knife had begun to rush through me before I lost consciousness. That’s when I remembered Professor Redline and how I had to get home to him. I was only months away from my discovery. I had to get home to finish working.
“‘I have to go!’ I yelled out.
“‘You’re sick,’ she said.
“I tried to yell, but my voice seemed caught in my throat. I tried telling her she didn’t understand, that it didn’t matter. Sickness would mean nothing, and that’s why I had to get home.
“‘What are you talking about?’ she yelled, the concern in her voice almost tangible. ‘You need to get to a doctor. You have an intense fever.’
“I argued saying I had to get to Professor Redline. I had to discover it! I had to uncover the secret to immortality.
“I tried again to lift myself but kept falling back down. Lights were turning on in my head, and I was suddenly understanding things about life and death, and I was desperate to get home so I could tell these things to Walter. I was sick, and I realize now that the things I was saying must have sounded like the ravings of a madman.
“She begged me to stay with her. ‘If you won’t let me take you to a doctor, at least let me take care of you.’
“I couldn’t answer her. Her name was Vivian Black. I told her my name was Clement Thortan, which at the time was true.
“She took me to her home and laid me gently on a bed with a wrought iron frame. I couldn’t leave even though I urgently needed to. I was too sick and weak. Vivian was kind. She patched the wound on my neck and cooked for me. It rained that night, and my generous friend had lit a fire in the hearth across from my bed. I reached into the pocket of my jeans and pulled out the notebook I had used to jot down notes and write down discoveries I had found when working with Walter. Because of my delirium, I couldn’t understand them. I squeezed the tiny notebook in my hand and, with a growl of fury, cast it into the fireplace and wept.
“Vivian came in and sat beside me on the bed. She asked me why I was crying. I tried telling her she wouldn’t believe me. She said I was still sick and needed rest. I said to her, ‘I need to get home. I need to tell Walter of my discovery. If I don’t, I am going to die.’
“‘Who is this Walter you rave about?’ she asked. ‘You call his name in your sleep, and you talk about…well…about death.’
“I told her again that she wouldn’t believe me. I told her I wasn’t crazy, desperate for her to believe me.
“‘These ravings about scientific discovery and the things I had said about reversing the curse of mortality—it is all quite true.’
“She smiled and left the room.
“Before I slept that night, Vivian prepared a warm bath for me and helped me stumble into the bathroom. She shut the door to give me my privacy but stayed close by to make sure I was all right. She washed my clothes and gave me some new things to wear. She mentioned something about her brother being close to my size.
“The next morning, it was the sun that woke me. The curtains were open, and sun was shining into the room. With a groan and every ounce of strength and energy I could muster, I rolled myself out of bed. I hit the floor with a thud and groaned again. I crawled toward the window and opened it. I didn’t feel pain. There was no burning, no blistering flesh, no pain. Redline was right. I remembered his comment about my mother being ‘just a crazy old woman.’ So she was just a crazy old woman
after all. I started crying out in joy. It was the most miraculous thing I had ever seen. It was as if the Earth was swallowed up in this ball of radiant light and warmth. It was like the entire universe was filled with a sudden beauty that had never been known before now. My entire life, I had been deprived of something so simple and ordinary as the everyday light of the sun. I was overwhelmed with joy. It was a miracle! I was on my knees now, throwing my hands into the air. I was screaming out that it was a miracle.
“She tried to get me to go back to bed. I began clapping my hands and yelling nonsensical things, telling her I was a genius, that I had discovered some divine power. I was laughing uncontrollably. It could have easily turned to a complete fit of hysteria. I was mad with joy, but undeniably, I was mad.
“I yelled for Walter, telling him that I had discovered the secret of Victor Frankenstein. Of course, I was still delirious and didn’t realize that these secrets consisted of patterns, intricate patterns in the world’s design that change and shift, and now my recordings were ashes in Vivian’s fireplace. My gift had been destroyed by the flames.
“I was mad for many more weeks, and Vivian cared for me. She nurtured me the way a mother would nurture a son, and by the time I was well again, I knew I owed her my life.
“I told her I wanted to tell her my story.
“She sat beside me. She said, ‘I barely know you, Clem, and yet I have become very fond of you. If you want to tell me what happened to you to cause your brain fever, I am willing to listen.’
“I told her everything, starting with Walter Redline and his teachings. I tried to explain to her that I had unlocked the secrets of nature and discovered things I was never intended to and then destroyed those discoveries in her fireplace. I would have to start from the beginning with Walter again. She didn’t speak a word until I was finally finished with my story.
“‘You don’t believe me, do you?’
“She assured me she did but believed it was my illness that caused me to believe it. I tried to convince her, but it was hopeless. She thought I was crazy, and I couldn’t blame her.
Summers' Deceit (Hunters Trilogy Book 1) Page 12
