Spiral (Spiral Series) (7 page)

Prospect threw up his hands and rolled his eyes expressively. “Well, mostly I want to not be having this conversation, but since that’s out of the question I want you not to do anything stupid. This is an assignment. You are to protect her and keep her safe and under NO circumstances, and I’m afraid we must be very clear about this, are you to piss of the Visioners any more than they already are. They haven’t sent anyone lethal yet, but it’s only a matter of time. Natalie must understand what she is up against before that happens, because we will get nowhere without her cooperation.”

“Oh, I’m sure she’ll cooperate,” I said easily. I wasn’t even worried about that. Once Natalie had had everything explained to her, I was certain she’d understand. I just kept thinking about how her face would look when I told her about us. She had heard every word before, and at the romance slam it had even looked like some of it sounded familiar to her.

Prospect shook his head. “My lad, if you think she will cooperate you don’t know women.”

Eleanor gave Prospect a glare for that, making Prospect’s grin widen.

“I can leave today?” I asked, not even bothering to hide the hope in my voice.

“You can and you will. In fact, you should leave right now,” Prospect said, pouring himself another glass of wine. “I’m tired of this and of you.”

“One last thing, Pierce,” said Timon. I was halfway out of my chair, but I lowered myself back down when he stopped me. “Be careful. The Visioners are no longer messing around. They want Natalie and it’s entirely possible we cannot even begin to understand why. You will have your own Watchful with you, and you will have to blend into a world you cannot possibly entirely understand. This will require an amount of tact that has heretofore been missing from your behavior.”

I ignored his jab and let him finish.

“We cannot lose you, whereas we never had Natalie. You must remember that. Go.”

I didn’t entirely understand his last words, but they sounded ominously like a threat. When I had more time I would have to think about them. Now, it was time for me to leave. Without another word I got up and went to pack.

After my nightmare I tossed and turned for the rest of the night. Every time I thought I was about to get some rest, the Snake Man would appear again behind my closed eyes and a shot of fear would spear me in the chest.

Even though my dreams happened every year, since they always got worse I was never able to build up defenses to get past the fear. This year a new element, the girl sacrificing herself for me, was added. If I ever fell asleep again who knows what nightmares I would have.

When I finally pushed the covers away, I wasn’t sure if I had slept again at all. It was spring break and technically way too early for me to be up, but I knew it was no use trying to rest any more. Besides, it was Friday, with only a couple of days of break left, and I hadn’t even started my homework.

First I checked my phone and saw that there was nothing from Jackson. We were barely talking at this point, and I still didn’t know why. It was a far cry from all of our other breaks; since seventh grade we had made it a tradition to spend as much time together as possible over vacations, usually watching movies. Jackson was a fan of action, anything Bruce Willis and he was there, while I liked the romantic comedies. As the mature twelve year olds we had once been, we worked out a fair compromise. We watched two romantic comedies for every action movie.

I grabbed my phone and sent him a text.

Want to hang out today? - Nat

Hey, Natty - Sorry - Skydiving.

I didn’t know you were leaving town? Why didn’t you tell me? - Nat

Last minute thing.

As a texter Jackson wasn’t much, but as a guy texter he was practically a novelist. Today, though, he was just an ordinary guy texter.

Jackson was always taking unnecessary risks. When I was twelve I had walked onto the playground one day and found him perched at the top of the slide. Instead of sliding down he had jumped off, snapping both of his ankles like twigs. While other kids scattered, I went to see if he was okay. The instant I put my hand on his shoulder he had stopped writhing in pain. He looked up at me in wonder, sure - however weird it seemed - that I had healed him. From that day forward we had formed a bond: he was the only one who knew my secret, and from then on I told him everything. Every birthday, when yet another thing changed about me, I told Jackson and only Jackson. He always understood and I was always relieved to get the secret off of my chest.

Now I had to figure out what to do with my day, since it was clear that I wouldn’t be seeing Jackson. Given the exhausted feeling that had seeped into my bones, I wasn’t sure there was any point to attempting calculus that day, but I didn’t know what else to do. Maxie and Jill were both at work all day, so hanging out with them wasn’t an option.

It didn’t matter, I had plenty to do - like unpack. But before I could start on that there was a soft tap on my door that made me groan, because it could only be my dad. Falling back into the pillows that covered my bed I mumbled, “Come in,” and waited for him to push the door open. It was so early he hadn’t even left for work, and here I was, awake before noon, on my vacation no less. Epic fail for a senior in high school, that was for sure.

“Hey, honey,” said Dad as he came in. He was wearing dress pants and a button down white shirt, pretty much what he wore every day, except on the days where he mixed it up a bit and really went crazy wearing blue. My dad was very solid and normal. There was nothing unusual about him. He went to work and took care of his family. That’s how I knew Pierce’s story couldn’t possibly have been about me. I knew my dad. The Natalie in the story wouldn’t have known who hers was.

Ever since my mother had died, my dad had been the most important person in my life. Even when I was having a tough time at school - my appearance made me an easy target for bullies - he always encouraged me and would tell me that it was the bullies’ insecurities that made them mean, and that there was absolutely nothing wrong with me - I was wonderful. Of course, most parents thought their kids were wonderful, but it was nice that he believed it.

“Hey,” I said, sitting up a bit in bed and dragging a sweatshirt over my t-shirt. Spring mornings were still cold enough to merit a second layer of clothing.

“I’ll be off to work soon, so will Olivia, but Andrew is going to be around,” he said cheerfully. “Maybe he can help you unpack.”

I grunted a response.

“You have all day before you go out tonight,” said my dad sternly. “You should be able to get a lot done. I would tell you to get Maxie over here, but I know she’s busy.”

“Why not Jill, too?” I asked. My dad was wary of Jill. He was too straight-laced to trust anyone who wore combat boots in the summer.

My dad had just gotten married to a woman named Olivia, a lawyer. He hadn’t been dating her for very long, just a year, so it had been sort of a whirlwind courtship, and I had suddenly found myself not only with a new stepmother, but moving into her house. I had also found myself the new stepsister of Andrew Michaelson, quarterback, basketball point guard, baseball pitcher, and all around teenage boy extraordinaire, while I was a cast out, white-haired freak of Blueberry high school who just had the same three friends I had had all my life: Jill, Jackson, and Maxie.

It had been a massive social shift when it became clear that Andrew and I would become family. Jill had reveled in the shock that went around the high school, while Maxie had sternly ordered her to be pleasant.

Andrew had always been nice to me. For years, every time he saw me in the halls he would say hi, and no one would have dreamed of being mean to me when Andrew was around. I had had no idea that he had a single mother until my dad started dating Olivia. All these years my dad had never dated. He was too old to date, I had informed him indignantly the night he told me! He had laughed for a week.

Once Andrew found out about our parents, he made an even huger effort to be kind. Given how prickly his mother was, I was surprised. For a while I hadn’t trusted that his intentions were pure, so I had answered his questions politely and then scurried off as fast as I could, while my friends stood looking on in wonder at how spectacularly awkward I was. Jill had finally taken pity on him and started inviting him to eat lunch with us.

But everything had changed when a girl named Haley showed up at school. She had moved to Blueberry and started school in the late fall of senior year, and ever since then my life had gone from bad to worse.

Everyone in school thought I was odd; well, I was seventeen and had white hair and silver eyes, so my appearance didn’t exactly scream normal. But it was such a small town that pretty much everyone was used to me by the time senior year rolled around. They just left me alone, so that I was cocooned in my own little world with my own group of friends.

But Haley made it clear from the beginning that she had no intention of leaving me alone. Each time she saw me she made insulting me a ritual, until it got to the point where if I saw her walking down the hall I would turn in the opposite direction. It didn’t matter if she was standing in front of my classroom door, I would wait a safe distance away until she moved away so I could slip past without being hassled. My friends told me that I should confront her, but I thought it was better to just to let it go. I figured that she would get tired of being an evil little witch eventually.

Besides, what I couldn’t tell my friends was that Haley made me uncomfortable, like, physically uncomfortable. I couldn’t exactly describe the sensations that crawled over my skin whenever I saw her, except that there was something familiar about it. Jill and Maxie had a lot of tolerance for my odd ways, but even they would have thought that sounded crazy.

What I really worried about was pushing Haley too far. Sometimes the things she said seemed crazy, and I was worried that she might, just might, resort to physical violence.

Just a few days before break I had rounded a corner and there was Haley, all blond ponytail and nasty blue eyes. I had taken in a sharp breath and tried to turn around and run, but it had been way too late for that. Instead, Haley had seen me and said, with an evil set to her jaw, “Well, well, well, if it isn’t little Miss Freak.”

I had heard that before, ever since my hair had turned white, but I had somehow managed to push it away. Haley’s insults, though, were somehow more biting and more painful, and her voice grated on my ears as she continued, “Off to find your little friends today? Where are they when you need them to hide behind? Really, I had no idea you were sooooo pathetic.”

I tried to glare at Haley, but all I really wanted to do was disappear. Haley was right, I needed my friends.

“You walk around here trying to be invisible,” Haley spat as she came closer. “You aren’t invisible to me.”

She gave me a cold smile as I stood there paralyzed. Later on, after this scene had played out a million times in my mind, I would come up with some impressive comeback, some mean remark to Haley that put her in her place. But unfortunately, there was never any sign of that happening in time for it to actually mean anything.

“What’s going on?” Andrew asked, jogging up to us. I had to admit it, Andrew was good-looking. He had blue eyes and blond hair and was absurdly athletic. He grinned at me, slipping an arm around my shoulders.

“How’s it going?” he asked. Relief flooded me at the sight of him.

“Fine,” I mumbled. “Just being held up by Crazy here.”

Andrew glanced at Haley, who scowled. “That’s an interesting nickname for the new girl,” said Andrew. The grin on his face said that he liked it.

Haley tossed her hair. “Not one I really appreciate, for the record.” She fluttered her lashes at Andrew. Haley was nice to pretty much everyone but me, but Andrew wasn’t buying it. I liked him immensely for that.

“Well, I promise not to call you by it then,” said Andrew. The words sounded nice enough, but there was something hard and insincere to his tone that made Haley huff.