Immortal Light: Wide Awake (36 page)

Lucy listened, her arms folded and eyes
narrowed.

“
We thought that
as they made their way south they were looking for
us
, but to be on the
safe side, I felt Kat’s invitation to the dance was a great excuse
to be near you in case it was you they wanted.”

Lucy was getting more upset with Benjamin, not
because he chose that moment to reveal everything, but because he
hadn’t done it sooner.

“
So, what you’re saying is they
were actually coming for me. I was who they wanted?” Her tone
emanated anger and frustration.

Benjamin looked her in the eyes, not wanting
her to feel that he was trying to protect her emotions. “Yes, they
were actually looking for you.”

“
But I’m not the queen!” She
yelled at him.

There was a long pregnant silence. Lucy
realized that her fear was leading her to blame Benjamin and his
brothers for the attack. But, she knew logically there was nothing
they could have known, and certainly nothing they could have done
differently.

“
So, what do we do
now?”

Lucy reached to her waist and pulled out her
sword and examined it. Recalling her moment on that same beach when
she had defeated the reaper, she felt strong and powerful again.
She wanted to fight back.

“
Those reapers, can they be killed
or destroyed?”

“
They can be
destroyed and, depending on how old they are, they can be destroyed
quite easily, but we need to prepare you out there.” Benjamin
walked up to Lucy. “Out there you don’t have a sword, you don’t
know how to use your
light
, and we need to teach you
that. Reapers aren’t who you should be focusing on right now. We
need to get you to understand how all this
works.”

Lucy returned her sword to her scabbard.
“Okay, then, let’s get started.” She began walking back to her
fallen tree.

“
This could get you killed, Lucy.
Is that what you want?”

Lucy could sense fear and concern in his tone.
A chill of fear rippled up her spine at the thought of dying, and
she stopped walking.

“
I have to do something,” she said
in a more subdued tone.

“
But, you need to learn so much
before we can even think about that.” He reflected her mood
perfectly and came up close behind her.

“
What if I can’t learn it all
before they come back?”

Benjamin placed his hands on her shoulders.
“You will, I promise. I’ll make sure of that.”

Lucy felt the weight of what was coming and
she tried to summon the courage she needed to face it, but at that
moment she felt tired. All she wanted to do was go home, and before
she knew it, they were sitting in the dark backseat of the black
sedan.

Chapter
17

In the backseat of the Camaro, Lucy sat
comfortably wrapped in Benjamin’s arms. Kat was in the passenger
seat, snuggled up in Jack’s black coat, asleep against the
window.

“
It’s weird that no one came
outside at the dance while all of that was going on,” Lucy muttered
to disrupt the flow of her own thoughts.

“
Peter took care of that,” Jack
replied from the front seat.

Lucy bent her neck to look up at
Benjamin.

“
He has special
gifts that he inherited from our father. He can manipulate
light
around him in
order to sort of ‘encourage’ people to do things.” Jack could be
heard sniggering in the front seat as Benjamin
spoke.

Lucy sat up, looking incredulously between the
brothers. “You mean he has mind control powers?” Her mouth hung
open at the thought.

Benjamin jumped in
immediately to clarify, “No, not mind control. See, we don’t take
away someone’s ability to choose. That’s what
they
do. What Peter can do is
…
”
He was stumped
as to how to finish the sentence when Jack chimed
in.

“
If he sends enough vibes of a
certain thought, it can help to change someone’s mind without
actually forcing them into it.”

“
Make sense?” Benjamin
asked.

Lucy thought for a moment.
“Yeah, I guess it makes sense. It’s like a subliminal suggestion;
he just threw
don’t come outside
vibes at the gym, and no one came
out?”

Before Benjamin could respond Jack hollered,
“Exactly!” from the front.

“
That’s pretty cool actually. Can
you guys do that?”

Benjamin laughed. “No, having one of us with
mind persuasion is enough with us all living together
now.”

“
Didn’t you always live
together?”

“
Are you kidding me? Peter can’t
live with anybody,” howled Jack again.

“
Then why are you all together
now?”

The conversation suddenly died as Jack made
eye contact with Benjamin.

“
We think we’re all together now,”
Benjamin hesitated and looked at his brother again, “because of
you.”

“
Oh,” Lucy said, beginning to
understand the bigger picture.

“
If you are the guardian, then
that means we can go home very soon,” Benjamin said
softly.

Lucy squared herself to Benjamin. “You mean
the city I saw in your haven?”

“
Yes.”

Jack was subtly shaking his head, but Lucy
took no notice of it. “How will we know who the Queen is, then? I
mean, aren’t there signs or anything that we should be looking for?
What happened with the last guardian?”

“
The last guardian, and every
previous guardian for ten thousand years has been,” Benjamin looked
again up to Jack, “a sister of the Queen.”

Lucy sat in silence. Everyone in the car knew
that Lucy didn’t have a sister. The Higgins had only one child
because Laura was unable to have any more children. Her delivery of
Lucy almost killed her.

“
As you can see, we’re sort of
treading on new ground.”

Lucy relaxed back into Benjamin’s arms. With
so much new information to chew on, she was suddenly
exhausted.

***

In the school parking lot, people were milling
around outside, seemingly oblivious to what had taken place there
less than an hour before. In the darkness, no one could see the
black stains where reapers had smoldered.

Jack pulled the Camaro around to where Lucy’s
car sat. Kat lay absolutely still in a peaceful sleep, so Jack
gently carried her over to the passenger side of the Cavalier,
reclined the seat, and set her down softly. Lucy sat down as well,
and Benjamin placed himself in the doorway.

“
Oh, no,” Lucy whined.

“
What’s the matter?”

Holding up her cell phone
she said, “My dad called—oh my gosh—37 times. What is wrong with
that man?
”
Lucy
pressed down on the button to see the exact time of each
call.
“
It was
like every two minutes. The last one was ten minutes
ago.
”

In exasperation, she listened to the first few
messages and her heart stopped. She inhaled sharply, sticking her
hand to her lips. Benjamin became immediately alert.

From the other car, Jack
called out, “Ben, check your phone—right now.
”

Benjamin pulled out his phone and
read a text message from Peter.

PETER: Reapers hit
library;

on my way to Higgins’

“
Benjamin, the library!” Lucy
cried from her car.

“
I know. Peter’s on his way to
your parents’ house. I want you to get to Kat’s house and stay
there; we’ll follow. Don’t get out of that car until we signal you.
Go!”

Lucy slammed the door and sped out of the lot,
her mind racing with questions. Dance attendees all stared as the
two cars tore away from the school.

The jerking motion of the first turn jolted
Kat awake. “Lucy, what’s going on?”

“
Those things attacked the
library. Mrs. Breen is in the hospital and Kenny’s
missing.”

“
Oh my gosh, when?”

“
It must have happened right after
I left at five. Mrs. Breen told me to leave so I could help you get
ready. I just left her there.” Lucy’s voice was panicky and full of
guilt.

“
What did they want?” Before the
words were out, it hit her. “They were looking for you?”

Lucy shot a quick look of affirmation at her
friend.

“
What are we going to
do?”

“
Jack and Benjamin are behind us,
and Peter is going to my house, but they want me to go to your
house for some reason.”

As Lucy pulled into the driveway, she saw that
it was empty. She looked to Kat for an explanation.

“
They’re out with friends. Should
we stay here, then?”

“
They said to wait for a
signal.”

Benjamin jumped out of the Camaro as it pulled
in behind the Cavalier.

Sword in hand, he walked around the right side
of the house while Jack faded into the shadows around the left. Kat
and Lucy watched them, hearts pounding. Both men disappeared for a
few moments, and the silence around the Cavalier became deafening.
All Lucy could hear was the blood pounding in her ears and Kat’s
labored breathing. The heat of their collective breath began to fog
up the windows, so Lucy cranked up the heater and defroster. The
hum of the fan was a welcome sound compared to the cold, dark
silence.

It was a good couple of minutes before either
Jack or Benjamin was seen coming back around the house. Benjamin,
still in his suit pants, shirt, and tie, came first, his sword held
firmly in front of him. Jack followed immediately behind. Benjamin
approached the driver door of the Cavalier and Jack the
passenger.

Quietly, they ushered the girls from the car
and headed for the house. The four entered together and Benjamin
locked the door behind them.

“
Any word from Peter?” Lucy asked
Benjamin.

He looked at his phone and shook his head.
“You two should get some sleep, we’ll camp out here, out of sight,
just in case.”

“
Okay,” Lucy responded and reached
out for Benjamin, embracing his strong figure. “But you need sleep,
too.”

Benjamin smiled down at her, “We have ways of
getting around that.”

Lucy snuggled into his chest then reached up
and kissed him on the cheek. She pulled away to head upstairs as
Benjamin smiled and winked the familial tick.

Kat stood facing Jack, fidgeting with her hair
as he stood like a giant over her. Kat slipped out of the black
jacket she had been loaned, her red satin dress revealing her
athletic yet perfectly feminine frame, and handed it back to him.
He just held it for a second, looking into her eyes. Kat brought
her hands up to her arms and rubbed them in an attempt to keep
herself warm. Jack immediately swung the jacket back over her
shoulders, gently wrapping her in it by folding one lapel over the
other.

“
How about you hang onto this and
I’ll get it later.”

He winked at her and she couldn’t contain her
elation as she flashed him back a beautiful white smile. With a
flirtatious shoulder nudge, she connected with Jack’s muscular
arm.

“
Well, it is rather cold in here,
and with my feeble, tender build, a girl like me might need
something big and durable to wrap up in,” she said, then shot a
sultry wink back at him as she turned to walk upstairs.

Jack’s eyes shot open.

Benjamin could only respond with a silent
mouthed “Wow!”

Lucy just shook her head and
laughed.

“
I’ve never seen him get such a
taste of his own medicine,” Benjamin whispered.

Kat stopped at the base of the stairs and
looked over her shoulder again at Jack before
disappearing.

Jack ran his hands through his surfer-boy hair
and blew a mouthful of air forcefully through his lips while he
stared in Kat’s direction. When he noticed Lucy and Benjamin
staring at him in awkward silence, he composed himself with a cough
and headed for the front door.

“
I’ll be outside checking the tree
line again.”

As soon as the door clicked shut, the two of
them laughed out loud.

“
That was truly
amazing. Jack’s usually the one melting his dates, but that
…
”
He
couldn
’
t help but
laugh.

Lucy’s smile melted into a
gaze and Benjamin returned it. She remembered the moment when they
had kissed in his
haven
, and it seemed to be happening again, but this time it was
real. Lucy closed her eyes and felt his hand on her cheek,
his
light
gently
flowing to her. The moment she had been waiting for was imminent.
Benjamin’s warmth was close, she could feel it, and when there
could have been nothing to stop their collision, the buzzing
vibration of Benjamin’s cell phone interrupted them. Lucy waited
for the kiss, but she felt Benjamin retreat. He was staring at the
display on his smartphone. Lucy waited, but the wait never seemed
to end.