FEARLESS: The King Series, Book One (12 page)

“Ah, so now you’re a superhero?”

I knew he was teasing me, but I wanted to be serious. “No. But if someone is given a gift, aren’t they meant to use it for good?”

Michael considered that as we left his locker. “I guess I can see that. But I don’t want you to make yourself crazy over this, whatever it is.”

“I won’t.  I’ll just take a little glance at Nell’s mind this afternoon—” I made a face, “—and see if I can figure anything out. I don’t like doing that on purpose, but I call these extenuating circumstances.”

“The ends justify the means?”

“Not exactly, but I just want to make sure Amber isn’t getting herself into something really dangerous.”

We were in the thick of the crowd by now, and Michael leaned over to speak softly in my ear. “I really don’t think Nell is into anything dangerous. Mean, maybe. Cruel. That’s her thing.”

I shrugged. “We’ll see.” We had reached my classroom, and I turned to face Michael. “Wish me luck.”

He leaned into me again, brushing my cheek with his lips. “Good luck. See you at my car?”

I nodded with a smile and gave him a quick wave as I went into Histor
y
.

I’ve heard some dark thoughts before. It’s just one of the delightful little benefits to my particular talent. Usually, I can’t isolate whose mind is thinking these disturbing things; it happens in a crowd, or on a busy highway, with thoughts flying at me from all the people in the vicinity.

Today I knew exactly where the creepy feelings came from, and it wasn’t making it any easier.

I slid into my desk, which was a row over and two back from where Nell was sitting. History was one of my favorite classes, and I was annoyed that Nell was ruining it for me.

We were scheduled to have a lecture on the early battles of the Civil War, which I realized would be an excellent cover for picking Nell’s brain. She didn’t spend much time paying attention in this class as a rule, and Mr. Frame’s lectures bored her silly. Her mind would wander, and with luck, it would move toward Amber and whatever she was doing to scare the poor girl.

Mr. Frame put up the first slide and began to speak. I took some cursory notes, scribbled down his outline points and slid my eyes toward Nell. She was doodling on her notebook and twirling a lock of her dark hair. Slowly and carefully I let down the wall that blocked my mind from probing hers.

It wasn’t the sweet relaxation that came when I was alone with Michael. Instead it was like an assault, as the random mind meanderings of twenty-seven high school juniors hit me full force. I tensed, and then concentrated on narrowing down to find Nell.

It was something odd that finally caught my inner ear. It was almost like a chant. My mom had a CD of Gregorian monks doing meditative chants, and this sounded vaguely like it, although I was pretty sure I wasn’t hearing Latin. It wasn’t English, and though I wasn’t completely fluent in French, it didn’t sound like that either. Perhaps slightly Germanic? No, too melodious for that. I couldn’t be sure.

I was thinking that maybe I wasn’t tuned into Nell yet, since she didn’t seem like the chant type, when there was an abrupt change in the direction and tone of what I was hearing. Suddenly the darkness I had associated with Nell was there in full force. And while I wasn’t hearing concrete words, I began to have flashes of images.

This doesn’t happen often. As I’d told Michael, the largest component of my talent is hearing thoughts. The feelings I can detect are also fairly common and harder to block. And every now and then, instead of hearing fully formed thoughts in words, I get flashes of images. It’s harder to understand and interpret these images, since often they are impressions or memories, frequently out of context.

That’s what I was getting from Nell. I saw a group of girls, sitting outside in the dark. I couldn’t see individual faces, but I felt familiarity. I couldn’t get a grip on what the girls were doing, but I could feel what Nell was feeling—a mix of cynical pride and odd excitement. Whatever this was, Nell was the originator of the plan, and she saw herself as the one in control.

There was a shift, and I perceived that what I had seen before was memory, while now it was moving to a future image, possibly a plan. It was just slightly less defined; the same girls were there, in the same circle, but this time, someone else was present. I could see her face clearly. With a jolt of dread I realized Nell was thinking of Amber. And she wasn’t thinking of her with warm, fuzzy feelings.

Instead there was an intensity of hate, resentment and… envy? Before I could delve deeper into that idea, I could see Nell imagining herself. In her own mind, Nell was even taller, more strikingly beautiful and—powerful. The power of her mind was so intense that for that moment, I was
there
, in the circle, with the other girls. I felt a mixture of excitement and terror as I gazed at Amber’s face. And then Nell was behind Amber, both of them facing the girls… and me. It was with a shock of horror that I realized Nell was holding a long and deadly looking knife. As she drew closer to Amber, she raised the knife and. . .

I shrieked, and in that moment I was back in my seat, in History class. My head was spinning. With real effort, I pulled my mind away from Nell’s and threw up my mental wall to protect myself.

The room was still tilting, and I gripped the desk. The buzzing I was hearing wasn’t an influx of group thoughts; it was the blood pounding in my ears. I realized vaguely that Mr. Frame had stopped lecturing and that all the students sitting nearby were turned in their seats, staring at me.

“Miss Vaughn! Are you all right?” Mr. Frame’s voice seemed to be coming from far away, even though I was dimly aware that he had left the front of the room and was moving toward my seat. I couldn’t answer him yet; I was still concentrating on staying upright.

Then I felt a cool hand gentle on my neck. “Put your head down on your knees,” the voice belonging to the hand instructed calmly. I followed directions mutely, and soon the room had stilled, although I was still shaking and terrified.

I ventured a glance up and recognized my new friend as a girl who was in a couple of my classes. I knew she was in my French class, but since the teacher insisted upon calling us by our French names in that class, I wasn’t sure what her real name was. On the bright side, I was fairly certain that she wasn’t one of Nell’s followers.

At the thought of Nell, I sucked in another fast breath and tried to raise my head.

“Take it slow,” my friend advised. I met her warm brown eyes, full of compassion and concern. I nodded and breathed slowly.

The entire room was focused on me, and I was feeling better enough to be completely mortified by that fact.

“I’m okay, really,” I assured everyone, slowly sitting up.  I scanned the room quickly to see if anyone believed me. My gaze tripped over Nell’s and stuttered there. She was staring intently at me, and it wasn’t concern I saw on her face.  Suspicion and curiosity narrowed her eyes. I tore myself away as Mr. Frame spoke.

“Miss Pryce, would you please escort Miss Vaughn to the nurse’s office? She’s still looking a little green around the gills.”

I realized Miss Pryce must be the girl kneeling next to me, who had taken care of me and kept me from fainting dead away. She stood and put her hand under my elbow, helping me stand.

“Sure, no problem.” She turned to me. “Can you walk it, do you think?”

I nodded and tried to stand slowly. “Really, I think I’m okay. It was just—I got a little dizzy. I’ll be fine. I don’t think I need to go to the nurse.”

Mr. Frame was already shaking his head. “No, better safe than sorry. Go ahead.”

We moved out of the room and I breathed in the fresh air gratefully. Humid it might be, but at least I was away from Nell.

“Okay?” my escort questioned me.

I nodded again. “Sure. Just enjoying the air.” I glanced at her. “I’m really sorry, I don’t know your name. I’m new and I’m still figuring everyone out.”

She laughed. “That’s okay. I was new last year. I know what you mean. I called one girl Melissa for months, and then I found out her name was Miranda. I was so embarrassed! My name’s Cara Pryce.”

I nodded, smiling faintly. “Good to meet you. I’m Tasmyn Vaughn.”

“Yeah, I know. We have French together, too.”

“I thought so. Well, thanks for rescuing me. I don’t know what happened. One minute it was all battles and the next I was going down.”

She shrugged. “It happens. I volunteer at the hospital, in the blood bank area, so I deal with a lot of fainting. You might have a virus or something.”

“Maybe,” I replied. Cara paused beside an opened door.  The inside was like a mini-doctor’s office, with a cot, a scale and a vision chart. A red-haired woman was seated at the desk along the far wall.

“Can I help you ladies?” she asked.

Cara took charge. “Tasmyn kind of passed out during our History lecture and Mr. Frame asked me to bring her to you.” She followed me inside and closed the door behind us. “Tasmyn Vaughn, Mrs. Heiger, our school nurse.”

I smiled. “Nice to meet you.”

“Same here, although I’m sorry you’re feeling bad. Why don’t you go lie down on the cot? I’ll take your blood pressure and see how you’re doing.” She turned to Cara. “Thanks for bringing the patient. You need a pass to get back to your classroom?”

Cara shook her head. “No, thanks, I’ll just go right back and it should be fine. Anything else I can do for you?” she asked me.

I shook my head, and then something occurred to me. “Oh, wait, maybe.” Perching on the cot, I turned to Mrs. Heiger. “Are you going to let me go back to class or are you going to send me home?”

“Our general protocol with fainting is to send you home. If you’re going to be passing out, we want it to be in the comfort of your own home, where you’re not a law suit waiting to happen. If you have a big test or something you don’t want to miss this afternoon, we can see how you feel after you lie down. I might be willing to negotiate.”

This was a first; I was upset
not
to have a test that might keep me in school. “No, I only have a Math class left today—and it’s just another lecture.”

“Then I foresee a trip home. Do you have a parent who can pick you up?”

I nodded. “My mom works at home.” I turned back to Cara. “Is there any way you could let Michael Sawyer know I’m going home early? He’ll be waiting to drive me. He’s in English right now, in building three.”

Mrs. Heiger seemed amenable. “Go ahead, Cara. Take this pass and get the message to Miss Vaughn’s ride.” Her voice was wry, and I flushed.

I felt stupid sitting there on the cot as Mrs. Heiger bustled around me. She took my blood pressure, pronounced it borderline low but not dangerous and decided my malady was either hormonal or viral. While I rested, she telephoned my mother and assured her that I was fine but in need of a ride home.

As I waited for my mom to arrive, my mind wandered back to Nell and what I had seen and heard in the scary place that was her head. I shivered and hoped Michael would be sufficiently concerned about me to come by the house after school. I needed to talk about this with someone, and he was my favorite candidat
e
.

My mom is not the type to freak out about little stuff. She was very calm when she picked me up at the nurse’s office, and she didn’t say much on the ride home. But after we parked in the driveway, she turned to me.

“Anything you care to share with me?”

I opened wide and innocent eyes. “What do you mean?”

“You’ve never been the fainting type or the faking type. The nurse says you don’t have a fever, and you said you’re not feeling sick. Is there… something else going on, something I should know about?”

I wasn’t trying to hear my mom think, but I did pick up a few of her stray theories. “Mom! No! How could you think that?” My face was burning with embarrassment.

My mother had the good grace to look slightly abashed, even as she defended herself. “Tas, I trust you… but you have a boyfriend now. I think you and Michael are responsible, but you’re still… teenagers. Who fancy themselves in love. It’s not that far-fetched to follow that line of thinking to a logical if unpleasant conclusion.”

I barely contained an eye-roll that would have gotten me in serious trouble. “I can assure you that this had nothing to do with Michael. And I’m not—we don’t—really, Mom!”

She shrugged. “Okay, okay. Well, then, what was it? What made you pass out—or nearly?”

I squirmed a little in my seat. “I was picking up some nasty vibes from a girl who sits near me, and I think it was just too much.” That was true, and right now it was all I wanted to share.

“What kind of nasty vibes? Are we talking dangerous stuff or teenage girl petty stuff?”

“I’m not sure,” I replied slowly. “I think just mean girl type of stuff. You know, picking on other kids.”

She eyed me. “You’d tell me if it were something more?”

“If it were an emergency situation, and you could do something, I would definitely tell you. I promise.” That much was true. I knew my mother was imagining school shootings or girl gang warfare. What I had seen would really freak her out, and I couldn’t imagine anything she could do to prevent it.

“Okay,” she sighed. “But remember, Tas—no listening to people. No matter how tempting it might be—it’s not the right thing to do.”

I nodded, and we went inside, to the cool of the house. I was relieved to be safely home.

“Why don’t you lie down for a while and see if you feel better afterwards?” my mother suggested.

I hesitated. If Michael came by and I was asleep, I knew my mom would send him home. On the other hand, I was pretty exhausted by the afternoon.

“If I do go to sleep, you’ve got to promise to wake me up if Michael stops by. Okay? I really need to talk to him.”

My mom’s eyes flashed brief hurt. It wasn’t hard for her to guess that I wanted to talk to Michael about what I’d heard and seen this afternoon, and she was feeling left out. I gave her a reassuring smile. “I just want to make sure he knows I’m okay.”

“All right, I promise,” she said at last.

I opened my eyes and felt a moment of disorientation. My room was nearly dark, with just the faintest late afternoon light coming through the closed wooden shutters. I was lethargic with sleep, and with a sigh, I rolled over and eyed the clock.

Five twenty-three! I bolted upright on the bed, giving myself a momentary flashback to the afternoon’s dizziness. I shook it off. Now I was annoyed, either at Michael for not coming over to check on me or at my mother for breaking her promise to wake me.

Before I could work up too much of a mad, though, my door opened and I saw my mom’s inquisitive face.

“Oh, good, you’re awake!” she exclaimed. “How are you feeling?”

“Much better, just fine,” I assured her. “Didn’t Michael come by?” I was risking getting a load of mom-sympathy if he hadn’t even called.

“Yes, he came by,” she began. And as I started to interrupt, she raised her hand between us. “And yes, I tried to wake you up. As a matter of fact, both Michael and I tried. But you were out like a light.”

I tried not to be disappointed. I couldn’t be mad at anyone, it turned out… except for Nell, who had such an evil mind that it apparently sapped all of my energy.

“But I knew you wanted to see him, and he was very worried about you, so I took pity on you both and invited him for dinner. He should be here any—” the doorbell rang, and she raised her eyebrows. “That would probably be him now.”

“I’ll get it!” I bounded off the bed.

“Hey! Slowly there, kiddo. Don’t forget you were an invalid this afternoon.”

I rolled my eyes and waved her off. “It was nothing. I’m fine.”

I dashed to the door and opened it. Michael was standing on the porch, looking off down the block. I had a moment to take him in before he turned to me, and for just a second, I felt weak at the knees again. He was simply gorgeous, and once again, I was amazed that it was me he had chosen.

When his eyes met mine, I could feel the worry he had been experiencing all afternoon. Without a word, he reached out and pulled me into him. I felt very safe and very grateful.

He leaned back, still holding me. His fingers grazed over my forehead and along my cheek as his eyes searched my face.

“Are you okay?” he demanded. “No bruises, no cuts or scrapes…”

“I was sitting down when it happened, and I never actually went under. It was a second of faintness, and everyone is making much more out of it than it was.”

He pulled me close again. “I am so sorry. It’s my fault. I’ve felt horrible all afternoon.”

“What do you mean, your fault? You had nothing to do with it.”

“I was the one who suggested you listen to Nell. It was something to do with her that knocked you out, wasn’t it? When that girl from your class came in to tell me you had passed out and were going home—” He closed his eyes and laid his cheek on the top of my head, stroking my back. “I knew it had to be something to do with Nell.”

I leaned back slightly and held up my hand. “Hold on just a minute. I don’t want to get into this here.”

Opening the front door, I leaned inside. “Mom! How long til dinner?”

She appeared in the hallway that led to the kitchen. “About half an hour. Why?”

“Would it be okay if Michael and I went for a quick walk before we eat? I want to get out in the air a little bit.”

“Do you think that’s a good idea after today?”

“Mom, Michael will be with me the whole time. I promise, if I get even the tiniest bit dizzy, he’ll throw me over his shoulder and bring me home.”

She smiled. “Okay. Be careful, and be back in half an hour.”

“I promise.”

I closed the door behind me and offered Michael my hand. “Shall we?”

We turned down the sidewalk. “First of all, it wasn’t your fault. It was a good idea, and I would have done it anyway. And it’s not your fault or mine that Nell is evil.”

“Evil?” he asked, surprised.

I filled him in on what had transpired that afternoon in History class. I watched his face carefully and was relieved to see not a hint of disbelief there.

“A knife? Are you sure it was a knife?”

“Positive. A big and nasty knife.”

He was very serious now. “I don’t know what to make of it. Could it be just Nell—I don’t know, fantasizing or something?”

“Well, yuck, even if she’s fantasizing, the girl needs help. And if I had wandered onto this image by chance, I might have thought the same thing. But adding it to what I heard from Amber today, I have to say, no, this was more of a concrete plan than wishful thinking.”

“So what do we do? Can we tell a teacher or the police or something?”

I had been mulling this over all afternoon. “I don’t think we can. We’d have to lie in order to do it. I can’t risk telling anyone exactly how I came by this information, even if I thought they might believe me. I considered telling my parents, but I’m afraid they’d overreact and pull me out of school. And then probably out of the state.”

Michael’s brow furrowed. “We definitely don’t want that. So can’t we just say we overheard Nell making these plans?”

“I don’t even know what the plans are, exactly, except they’re not good. And Nell will know that we never overheard her, because she probably never talked to anyone else about this. Whatever ‘this’ is.”

“The chanting you mentioned… that was weird. Do you think you remember any of the words? Maybe that has something to do with it.”

I wrinkled my forehead. “I don’t know. Maybe. I know I can’t tell you any of them right now, but if I heard it again, I might recognize it.”

He seemed troubled, more so than he had before.

“What? What are thinking that you don’t want to tell me?” I demanded. I could only feel an usual reticence and reluctance.

He shook his head slowly. “I don’t know. I’ve lived here all my life, and there’s been talk, but I always thought that was all it was. Like tourist hype, you know. My parents always told me it was just that. But they also won’t live in town.”

“What kind of talk? I don’t know what you’re saying.”

“I told you about how the town was started, with King bringing his carnival people here to settle. And he played up the whole mystical angle, remember?”

“Yeah, you mean like the people in town who boast about being the descendants of the bearded lady or the sword eater?”

“Right. So the town still plays up that part. You’ve seen the shops downtown, with the crystals and the books and all that stuff?”

I nodded.

“If that was it, if it was just play—well, you understand that it brings people in and makes money for the town. Whatever. But there’ve always been undercurrents—rumors and talk—that there’s more to it than that. That maybe there’s still people who take it seriously.”

I felt a chill run down my spine. “What are we talking about here? Cults?”

“The occult, definitely. Witchcraft, I guess, for lack of a better word.”

“Do you know anyone involved in this?”

He hesitated. “Not really. Like I said, it’s mostly talk.  You hear things, but you don’t always buy it.”

I blew out an exasperated breath. “I feel like you’re hedging. Like there’re things you’re not really saying.”

Michael had slowed his walk and now he stopped completely and turned to face me. He moved his hands to my shoulders and rubbed my arms.

“I’m not trying to keep anything from you. I just don’t want to say something that’s going to frighten you, because I’m not even sure it’s true.” He glanced around, seeming almost uneasy. “And call me crazy, but I don’t really want to talk about this out here.”

I glanced at my watch and sighed. “It’s time to head back for dinner anyway. But do you promise you’ll tell me more later?”

He smiled in that way he had, with his eyes and his mouth, and leaning into me, dropped the lightest of kisses on my lips. “I promise.”

My mother had been kind enough to invite Michael for dinner, but she hinted broadly after dessert that I needed an early bedtime after my rough afternoon. Michael took the hint, perhaps a tad too easily for my liking, and after offering to help with the dishes (and my mom turning him down), he made the excuse of homework and said good night.

I walked him to the door. “Homework?” I asked, one eyebrow raised.

“Actually, it’s true. I do have to finish up some Math problems.”

“But you promised to tell me more about—the town.”

He smiled and pulled me out the door with him onto the porch. “I will. But not tonight. We’ll talk tomorrow.”

“I guess I can wait.”

Michael took my face in his hands gently and leaned down to gently touch my lips with his. I moved my arms around his neck to deepen the kiss, and his hands dropped to my neck. I opened my mind to him and felt the most heartbreaking tenderness I had ever experienced. The urgency and passion I usually detected were still there, but much farther below the surface, buried under the leftover worry.

Slowly he pulled back, his hands back on my face, stroking my hair away from my eyes. “Good night, “ he whispered. “See you tomorrow.”