by Belle Malory
Something above the surface caught her attention. She looked up, seeing someone’s tall frame crouching over the water. Ripples stilled, allowing her to linger on the black eyes that studied her, on the soft crease between them leading down into the straight line of his elegant nose. Her eyes wandered over the shape of his mouth, curved up on one side in an almost-smile.
She knew that face. Adored that face.
He spoke to her, but his voice was muted. She read his lips. Come up, he urged. She started to say something back, bubbles escaping her lips in place of words.
Using the balls of her feet, she pushed herself towards the surface. Crashing through, she gulped in air, gasping for breath as if her lungs had never tasted it before. As if she couldn’t get enough of it.
When her chest was no longer heaving, she slung a lank arm across the edge of the pool, water sloshing the ground. A pair of hands gripped her waist, and lifted her out.
Water dripped from her skin and from the dress she wore, staining dark gray puddles in the surrounding cement. Unmoving, she lay there on the edge.
She stared up at the stars and space through the skylights, and felt a strange combination of weariness and invigoration. Her breathing slowed, until finally her heartbeat fell back into a normal rhythm.
Strong arms came around her head, caging her between them. She looked up at his beautiful face, only inches from hers, his smile still there, tugging at the corners of his mouth. “Hello, beautiful.”
“Hello, yourself.”
“You’re fully dressed.”
She looked down at her sopping white gown indecently clinging to her damp skin, hugging every curve. “Impulse,” she explained sheepishly. “Didn’t think to change.”
“You were under there for a long time.”
Was she? Time seemed to move differently under water, almost putting her in a trance-like state.
“How do you do it?”
She answered with a small shrug. She had no idea.
“Doesn’t it hurt, not breathing?”
“Yes.” It did hurt, but it also felt powerful.
“Then why do you do it?”
“To see how long I can last.”
He considered her answer. Dark lashes skimmed over his cheekbones as he blinked. She watched, captivated by them and by the way his lips moved when he talked. “Aren’t you afraid of drowning?”
Her answer came easily. “No. I fear nothing.” She lifted her hand to his face, brushed back blonde tufts of hair dangling across his forehead. “Well, apart from losing you. I would be afraid to lose you.”
His arms, still surrounding her, tensed. His dark eyes tried to read her, to see if she meant what she said.
She meant every word.
But words could only do so much. She needed to show him.
She hooked her fingers beneath the collar of his shirt and pulled him towards her. He didn’t protest.
She pulled him closer. Until he was a breath away.
“Kiss me.” There was an unmistakable plea in her voice, one she’d tried to hide.
He stared at her for one agonizing moment before his head lowered.
His lips didn’t meet hers at first. Instead, they softly brushed against the hollow of her neck. Her pulse quickened at the touch.
Tiny rivulets of water streamed down her skin. He kissed every single one, trailing a path towards the spot behind her ear. She shivered despite the warmth his lips left behind.
He reached for one of her hands, and she let him take it, watched him interlock his fingers through hers. Slowly, very slowly, he lifted her hand and placed it behind her head. She arched her neck, aching to feel his mouth on hers.
His lips traced her jawline, and then finally, feather-light, rested on hers. They teased her mouth, gently pulling and prodding it open. His hot tongue touched hers, innocently at first, sweetly, and then more urgently. Her whole body began to warm, every brush of skin burned with fire.
He drew back, staring down at her. She whispered his name. Phoenix. That one word sparked a hidden realization.
A secret.
Loud, echoing crunches resounded from up above. Phoenix pulled away from her at the sound. She tried not to show her disappointment but couldn’t help it.
A movement caught her eye. Overhead, black cracks split and tore at the ceiling. They spread ferociously, branching out, racing to reach the walls.
Her gaze traveled back to his.
“Kennedy,” he whispered, as if he were only just realizing who she was. His eyes rounded with fear.
Dust and pebbles tumbled from the ceiling and sprang from the walls, clicking against the floor and splashing inside the pool. An uncomfortable pressure seized Kennedy’s head. She swayed, trying to stand. “What’s going on?”
Phoenix helped her up, then took her face between his hands. “Kennedy,” he whispered again. There was an unparalleled depth of emotion coming from his voice, startling her.
Whatever she knew about him, she knew all of this—him kissing her, touching her as if she were precious—it was an anomaly.
But why?
“We’re not really here together.”
Icy tingles needled down her spine, turning her blood cold. Slowly, she looked around, seeing everything differently. The room was unfamiliar. She’d never been there before.
The glass windows and skylights shattered. Kennedy jumped.
“What do you mean?” She strangled out the question, terror lacing her voice. Only moments earlier, his hands had felt so warm against her cheeks. Now she could barely feel them.
Phoenix faded, the color in his skin growing fainter by the second. Tears blurred her vision. “Why are you disappearing?”
“I’m not,” he said. “You are.”
She looked down at her body, seeing the proof in his words.
“Is this an illusion?”
This couldn’t not be real. The feel of his lips on hers, the way she melted at his touch. It couldn’t not be real.
“Listen to me carefully, Kennedy. We don’t have much time.”
The desperation in his voice made her flinch. “Okay.”
“This is a dream.”
Oh God.
The cracks grew louder, shaking the building. She latched on to Phoenix, afraid he would disappear forever.
He yelled over the noise. “I’m lost, and I have no idea where I am, but you have to find me.”
“Lost?”
That word, it didn’t sound right. It didn’t fit with what she knew about him.
“Stuck somewhere between Poseidon and Hephaestus,” he said, expecting her to understand what that meant. “Kennedy, if you don’t find me, I’ll die. We will all die.”
Kennedy shook her head. No, that wasn’t right.
She thought back to her life outside of here, trying to remember something. A television. A television with Phoenix’s face on it.
“You’re not lost,” she said, and knew those words were true. “And you’re not dying. I just saw you…on TV.”
Phoenix stared at her, brows drawn together as if trying to solve a complicated riddle. “TV,” he echoed. “Wait, are you saying…have we met yet?”
The walls came crashing down around them, muffling his voice. Giant rocks roared as they tumbled to the ground. Phoenix screamed, but she couldn’t make out what he was saying.
Kennedy bolted upright in her bed. Her thumping heartbeat pulsated in her ears as if she’d sprinted a mile. She looked around, adjusting her eyes to the dark, and seeing the roof was intact overhead. Nothing was crumbling or falling from it.
Moonlight softly glowed from the window. Across the room, she heard the hum of Reagan’s snores.
It was only a dream.
Weakly, she touched her mouth where Phoenix kissed her. She still felt his lips there, still remembered the taste of them.
She lay back against her pillows, feeling her rapid breathing slow.
There was no immediate danger. The roof was not c
ollapsing. And Phoenix Jorgensen didn’t go around randomly kissing her.
Kennedy closed her eyes.
Knowing it wasn’t real was almost…regrettable.
~ ~
Kennedy cornered Hunter as soon as she saw him at school. “Do you have another appointment at the Medi-Care center?”
“No. Why would I?”
She bit her lower lip and looked around the school’s main hall, wondering if any other students were scheduled follow-ups.
“Did you get called back?” he asked.
Kennedy nodded. “Yeah, for today. My mom’s picking me up early.”
“Probably no big deal. It could have something to do with your reaction. Or maybe your blood sample was contaminated.”
The way Hunter spoke, easy and unconcerned, made it sound like she shouldn’t be worried. The look in his eyes, however, told her what he was really thinking. He thought it was strange too.
“Yeah, maybe.”
Kennedy spent the rest of the day surveying her friends on whether or not they received follow-up vaccination appointments. Out of all the people she’d asked, none of them had been called back. Just her.
It bothered her, being the only one. Maybe her paranoia stemmed from Hunter’s psychobabble talk about keepers. Or maybe it was the thought of facing more needles. She wasn’t sure why, but it definitely bothered her.
Ashley showed up on time, surprisingly. Kennedy climbed inside Barney, scanning her mom’s face to see what kind of mood she was in.
Smiling. That was good. Smiling meant she hadn’t gotten into trouble with her boss.
“How was school?” Ashley asked.
“It was…school.” Kennedy shrugged. “Same as always.”
Her mom wrinkled her nose, obviously displeased with such a vague answer. “Are you okay?”
“I’m fine.”
Ashley eyed her, assessing for herself whether or not Kennedy was fine. “Everything will be all right, you know.”
“I’m fine, Mom.”
“Okay. Okay.” Ashley held her hands up, surrendering. “For Pete’s sake, I get the hint. Barney, please turn on some music. Apparently my daughter is fine, and she doesn’t feel like talking.”
“Cute, Mom. Real cute.”
Seven
Rapid clicks of high heels echoed from down the hall. Professor Robert Mason wasn’t the type of man who was easily intimidated, but the sound of those heels caused him to dart his eyes around the room in a hurry, trying to find somewhere to put out his cigar. Just as he was about to throw it in a trash bin, he heard her clear her throat. She’d done so rather loudly, too.
Damn.
Mason slowly turned to face the curvy silhouette of Dr. Lunessa Sigly standing in the light of the doorway. He held his hands up, caught red-handed.
In her very austere British accent, she chastised him. “You cannot smoke here, Professor. This is a laboratory, not a pub.” More to the point, her domain, not his.
She continued to glare at him like he was an insect until he put the cigar out and tossed it into the bin. “Honestly,” the doctor mumbled beneath her breath.
Mason stroked his short pointy white beard, pretending he hadn’t heard her. The woman had done nothing but irritate him since they arrived on Amelia Island. There was nothing in particular that she’d done, however everything about her demeanor carried a subtle condescension that managed to set him off.
Like the fact that Lunessa Sigly was a tall goddess of a woman, and yet she preferred to wear the highest high heels imaginable. Probably so she could look down her nose at people who came near her. Mason was a tall man himself, at just over six feet. Yet he still stood an inch or two shorter than the doctor, who he suspected also had a broom stuffed somewhere up her pretty arse.
“It’s definitely her,” Dr. Sigly said, getting back to business.
They both stared at the girl on the other side of the mirror, observing her. She didn’t look like much, certainly not a keeper, anyway. Then again, Mason remembered what the others were like before they were discovered. They never looked like keepers at first.
“You sure?”
He regretted the question as soon as he’d asked it.
“Of course I’m sure.” Dr. Sigly handed him the patient’s chart, with a look on her face that dared him to doubt her. “Look at the pattern of nitrogen bases. It’s nearly identical to the others.”
Mason nodded, looking the chart over. It was her, all right.
He let out a sigh of relief, one that had been a long time coming. They’d finally found her. He wondered how this last one, the twelfth, managed to elude them for so long.
On the other side of the mirror, the redhead shifted every few seconds in her seat and fidgeted with her hair. She didn’t want to be here. Mason hardly blamed her. “Let’s investigate a little further,” he said, eyes still planted on the girl. “Wait for the rest of the labs come in. Give her a few more nights as a normal teenager.”
“Do you really think that’s wise, Professor? Think of how long it’s taken to find her.” The muscles in her jaw twitched. She didn’t agree—and likely hated that the decision was in his hands. Warm little fuzzies filled Mason’s heart at the thought of her fuming inside. My domain now, woman. Not yours.
The little redhead got up from her chair.
Mason stroked his beard again, watching her try to peek through the two-way mirror. In that moment, he fully believed she was the twelfth keeper.
“Everything will be fine, Dr. Sigly. We have all her information. We know exactly where she lives.” He watched her stiffen a little more. “Have you called for Jorgensen?”
“Yes, Professor. Phoenix is on his way here as we speak.”
“Good work, Sigly.”
She nodded. “Anything else, Professor?” The words sounded painfully pronounced.
Mason almost laughed.
Good, he thought. He didn’t like working with abnormally tall, non-smoking snobs anyway.
Eight
“Hello. Earth to Kennedy.”
Aw crap. She had drifted off into space again, and not for the first time since Hunter began talking. She deflected his glare with an apologetic smile. “I know, I know, I’m a horrible friend. It’s not that the reptilian theory isn’t interesting—” Total lie, and she hoped he didn’t catch it. “—Start over again. I’ll listen this time. Promise.”
Kennedy smoothed out the skirting of her lace gown, fidgeting. She’d been doing that all week. Fidgeting. Wringing out her hands, twirling her hair, or smoothing out her clothes. Seriously, she needed to snap out of it. Sundays were supposed to be fun. Today was a family day. Not a day for anxiety and paranoia.
“Never mind about it.” Hunter handed her a plate of Jake’s renowned barbeque ribs. “Something’s wrong with you. I can tell.”
She pretended like she had no clue what he was talking about. “I’m okay.”
He arched a skeptical brow. “You didn’t even laugh when I made that crack about Reagan’s solo.”
She thought back to this morning’s choir performance. Reagan had sounded pretty terrible. Her sister excelled at most things, but singing just wasn’t one of them. Tone-deaf as she was, she’d belted her hallelujahs at the top of her lungs, and the whole church winced at the screechy high notes. Hunter pointed out that their neighbor Mrs. Peabody—a known wearer of hearing aids—had discreetly removed her earpiece when she thought no one was paying attention.
“I’m fine,” she assured Hunter.
“You sure you’re fine?”
No. “Yes,” she replied smoothly. “Just hungry. Let’s eat already.”
Half the neighborhood had packed themselves into Jake’s backyard for this cookout. People lined the freshly mown lawn as they chatted amongst each other, most of them holding paper plates piled high with Jake’s food. His place wasn’t very big, but he grilled some of the best ribs on the island.
Kennedy tucked a napkin into the collar of her dress, then dug into
the plate Hunter prepared for her. She continued pretending nothing was wrong, that nothing was on her mind.
Which was far from the truth.
He knew her pretty well though. It was annoying how easily Hunter could read her. She was anything but fine and hadn’t been ever since she came back from the Medi-Care center. Something about that whole experience seemed etched with peculiarity. The things they’d asked her to do, well, they were just…bizarre.
Like the MRI scan. Why would they ask her to take one for standard school vaccinations? She wasn’t preparing for surgery, and didn’t have any fatal diseases. Not that she knew of, anyway.
Even weirder was the water sample. They actually asked Kennedy to hold her hand in a tube of water. Of course, they made up some lie about how it was just a sanitizer for the needle, but when they weren’t looking, Kennedy licked her hand. It was water. For sure. And then the doctor labeled the tube and sent it off for testing. If it really was sanitizer, they would’ve thrown it out. Honestly, what kind of medicine did those people practice?
Kennedy watched her mom while she ate, wondering if she suspected anything too. Ashley was made up today, her dark hair curled into short, fat ringlets and her lips covered in red lipstick. She looked beautiful.
And she was laughing hysterically at something Jake said.
Kennedy rolled her eyes. Definitely a flirtation thing going on there. Cue vomiting.
Ashley excused herself from Jake and walked around the corner of his house towards the front yard. The light on her brace caught Kennedy’s eye. It was blinking rapidly.
“Be right back,” she told Hunter, jumping up to follow her mom.
Secretly, she’d been following her mom around all week She eavesdropped on her mom’s brace calls and scanned messages on the wave-reader. If those weirdo doctors from the Medi-Care center contacted them again, she wanted to know about it.
Rounding the corner, she heard her mom’s voice. Raised too, by the sound of it. Something had upset her enough to get her shouting like that.
“You people have got to be kidding me. You want me to drag my daughter down there on a Sunday?”
