The Inner Circle, Book 3 of the Glass Wall ( A YA Urban Fantasy Romance ) (4 page)

It was time I dealt with this supernatural
stuff head-on.

After all, I was powerful.

I was a human!

The thought made me smile a little. I’d
always assumed that magical creatures, if they did exist, would
undoubtedly be superior. Humans just wouldn’t make that ‘special’
list.

But maybe that was wrong.

We had the power to dream, and to use those
dreams to forge our own destiny. And I was learning first-hand that
human thoughts were powerful things in the second dimension.

Just maybe they were in this dimension,
too.

“What is it, kiddo?” Al asked. Apparently,
he’d been watching me.

I met his keen gaze. He could be very useful,
and maybe Jack, too. Especially if I could nudge them more onto the
supernatural path and away from government conspiracies. But I was
going to have to be careful. I couldn’t endanger them.

Trying to look nonchalant, I asked, “What do
you think happened here?”

“Weeeell,” he began, drawing the word out and
looking around the garage. “Betty must’ve been real tired, to sleep
through this. But it’s obvious what happened, kiddo.” His blue eyes
sparkled. “And it’s highly out of the ordinary!”

With Al, you never really knew what
conclusion he’d come to, but I already liked the direction he was
heading. ‘Out of the ordinary’ sounded promising.

Hunching forward conspiratorially, he
continued, “Marquis found out I had his top-secret equipment here,
and he came back to get it.” He paused and scratched his bald head.
“Though I can’t figure out why he took the door.”

He was certainly right about Marquis. “Maybe
it’s more supernatural,” I suggested. “Maybe like telekinesis.”

I couldn’t really push more than that,
because he chose that moment to stand up and stretch. But he said
with a grin, “That’s what I like about you, Sydney. You think
out-of-the-box. But it’s getting late, so let’s get the report
written up and get this evidence locked down.”

‘Locked down’ meant filed away in a shoebox
with slips of paper separating and grouping the samples by color:
beige, black, and orange.

Al was meticulous. He faithfully inspected
each bagged hair with the flashlight to verify its color.

We’d gone through only half of them when
Tigger waddled into the kitchen and laid down in front of the
refrigerator. Dropping his nose between his paws, he gave a sigh of
deep contentment.

With a chuckle, Al leaned down and scratched
the bloodhound’s ears.

A wave of peace washed over me, and it was
then that I recognized what it was.

I’d never had a father.

Somehow, I’d come to see Al in that role.

In just the short time I’d been there, Al and
Betty had become my parents more than my own mother, Maya, ever had
been.

In some strange way, I’d grown to love them.
And that thought filled me with a strong resolve.

I wasn’t about to let my new family be turned
into Mesmer playthings.

I watched Al flip through the pages of his
Neighborhood Watch notebook and stop on a page titled ‘Citizen’s
Arrest’. Wetting the tip of his pencil with his tongue, he began
filling out the details.

I had to take action.

I’d figure out what the lizard people and the
Inner Circle were up to myself. But I had to make sure none of us
could be mesmerized again first. I wasn’t sure Jareth’s rune could
protect all of us.

Leaving Al in the kitchen, I headed towards
Betty’s computer, and sitting down in her white plastic chair, I
typed my question into the search engine.

How do you protect yourself from mind
control?

I found lots of articles that stated the best
way to prevent yourself from being brainwashed was to first
recognize that someone was trying to control you. Apparently, you
should look out for people who tried to isolate you from friends
and who actively tried to scare you about things.

I knew there was something to be learned
there, about not letting myself be scared, so I made a note and
kept searching.

One article was a long one about fluoride
that claimed it was designed to make people submissive to
governmental control.

I tapped my fingers on the tabletop, and
after deciding that I didn’t feel particularly in danger from my
toothpaste, I moved on.

In the kitchen, I could hear Al talking on
the phone. I held my breath to listen and when I heard the name
‘Jack’, I unabashedly got up to eavesdrop.

Finding a nice vantage point behind Betty’s
mountain of Ebay boxes, I peered into the kitchen to see Al pacing
excitedly in circles, almost tripping over Tigger each time he
looped around.

Tigger wasn’t threatened. His droopy face
rested comfortably on his paws as he watched Al’s every move with
worshipful eyes. And each time Al’s foot came within an inch of his
nose, he wagged the tip of his tail before heaving a huge sigh as
if the effort had completely exhausted him. Maybe it did.

“Good point, Jack,” Al was saying as he
furrowed his brows. “Good point.”

There was a long stretch of silence as Al
paused before the counter and furiously scribbled in his
notebook.

Apparently, Jack had a lot to say.

“I see.” Al nodded his head. “Noted. Good
point. Noted. Roger.”

I scowled. I wasn’t learning very much.

And then I heard Al ask, “And missing
time?”

I caught my breath as Jack’s voice
buzzed.

So, Al was more receptive to the supernatural
than he appeared. That was good.

But then Al’s frown deepened and he was
telling Jack goodbye.

I scrambled back into the shadows as he
passed by me and then craned my neck around Betty’s boxes to watch
him disappear into the family room where Betty was still resting on
the couch.

It was then that the doorbell rang and Tigger
began to bark. Or as much as Tigger barked, anyway. It was more of
a dog comment that there was a stranger at the door that served the
dual purpose of being a greeting, just in case they had a hot dog.
Tigger clearly kept his options open.

“Is that the UPS man?” Betty called.

I hesitated, but not for long. If it was a
Mesmer, I knew I was the best one in the family to deal with
it.

“I’ll handle it,” I called back.

Taking a deep breath, I turned the knob and
opened the door.

To my surprise and relief, it really was the
UPS man. They were working late shifts for the holiday season. I
signed for the boxes and had just lugged the last one inside when I
glanced across the street to see Rafael’s tall form slouched
against the side of his house, just inside the circle of his front
porch light.

I held still.

I couldn’t see his face. It was too dark. But
then he stood straight, and I could feel his eyes on me. He lifted
his chin in acknowledgement.

I was going to have to confront him. But not
yet. Not until I’d come up with a plan. Sticking my hands in my
pockets, I backed through the door when I bumped into something
furry.

With a yelp, I whirled to see Ajax’s dark
eyes staring at me, his pointed ears on high alert.

I locked eyes with the shiny black
Doberman.

“What are you doing here?” I asked. I wasn’t
about to keep Rafael’s spy in the house. “Go home, Ajax,” I
ordered, pointing across the street. “You can’t stay here.”

Ajax flattened his ears against his skull and
growled in protest.

A cold draft of air blew through the door and
I shivered, not entirely just from the cold. I had previously felt
safe from Mesmers with Ajax around. But I couldn’t let him
stay.

“How can I trust you?” I asked and then
insisted. “Go home! I have Tigger. He’ll protect me.”

Ajax’s lip curled back in displeasure,
revealing a row of pointed white teeth. But I wasn’t scared of him
anymore. Adamantly, I advanced, and he knew I meant business.
Chastened, he backed away.

“Now!” I snapped.

But ditching Ajax was harder than it looked.
He plainly didn’t feel compelled to take any orders from me. He
kept sidestepping me, and he was so sleek, there wasn’t anything to
grab onto. His tail was the size of a Twinkie and kept slipping
through my fingers.

It was only when Rafael whistled from across
the street that he finally left, but at the edge of the yard, he
stopped to send silent waves of reproach my way.

Rafael was staring at me too.

I stared back, growing angrier with each
passing moment.

What did they expect?

I’d just found out Rafael wasn’t a
particularly nice guy. I certainly wasn’t going to keep company
with his dog.

We probably would have glared at each other
all night if Grace hadn’t come home, pulling up the driveway in
Ellison’s Volkswagen Beetle.

Rolling down the window, Ellison poked out
his shaved head and waved cheerfully. “I’ll pick you up for work
tomorrow,” he offered. “We’ve almost got the same shifts.”

I just had time to nod before he was backing
out, and Grace bounded up to the porch, lugging a bag of groceries.
And as Ellison zoomed away, I glanced across the street.

Rafael was gone.

Grace pushed past me to dump the groceries
onto the countertop.

“Sorry I’m late,” she said apologetically.
“We went to a fancy restaurant.”

Dressed in gray sweats and with her black
hair pulled back into a severe ponytail, she looked as if she’d
just come from the gym. But then, Grace was such a tomboy, she
didn’t care to dress up. It was one of the things I liked about
her. She was comfortable in her own skin.

Al came into the kitchen then, and as they
began to chat, I suddenly wanted to be alone and escaped to my
room.

Kicking my shoes off, I leaned against my
dresser and stuck my hand into Jerry’s cage. I gave the mouse a
fond poke in the belly and filled his dish with seeds.

As I opened my top drawer, my eyes fell on
the small metal hand mirror that Rafael had given me. Clenching my
jaw, I grabbed it and tossed it in the trash, but in less than
fifteen minutes, I was digging it back out.

Looking into the mirror, I said, “You’re such
a jerk, Rafael. I want you to know that.”

I hoped he’d get the message somehow.

Irritated, I shoved the mirror into the back
of my drawer. I could always throw it away later.

My eyes fell on my Fae bracelet then. I still
couldn’t get the darn thing off. I was getting so used to it that I
barely noticed it anymore. I knew it only worked in Avalon. Or at
least I hoped that was true. But regardless, I couldn’t do anything
about it.

Leaning my forehead against Jerry’s cage, I
muttered under my breath, “Just when I thought I’d met someone
nice, he turns out to be a first-rate jerk, Jerry.”

Jerk was an understatement. He was more like
an apprentice evil mastermind.

To my surprise, Jerry sat up on his haunches
and lifted his pink nose in my direction. His little dark eyes
stared into mine, looking so ageless and wise.

“And I was falling in love with him,” I
confessed in a whisper. For some reason, it actually felt good to
admit that, even though it hurt.

I took Jerry out of his cage, and holding him
close, kissed his little pink nose. I could feel his tiny heart
beating against my fingers.

“I love you,” I whispered in his ear.

At least Jerry was stable. I could rely on
him. He didn’t judge me or turn out to be something that he
wasn’t.

Putting him safely back in his cage, I dug
out one of my school notebooks, and throwing myself down upon the
bed, began to write down the things I knew I had to do.

First and foremost, I had to figure out how
to protect Al, Betty, and Grace from the Mesmers. Next, I needed to
find out what the Inner Circle was up to and what Marquis had meant
that I’d been a help to them in their cause.

Did they need me for something?

Could I turn that against them?

And what of the lizard people? I began
doodling on the page, wondering how I could really fight back
against them. I knew they fed off fear. But how could I get the
entire Earth to quit feeding them?

A soft knock on my door interrupted my
thoughts.

It was Betty, holding out the phone. “It’s
your mother, honey.”

I looked at her. I’d called
her
‘Mom’
just a few hours before. And I had never meant it more. Part of me
wanted her to know that.

“Are you ok?” she asked with a soft smile in
her brown eyes.

“Sydney? Sydney?” I heard Maya’s voice coming
out of the receiver.

Shaking my head, I mumbled, “Yeah, thanks,
Betty,” and taking the phone, I sat down on the edge of the bed as
Betty left, shutting the door behind her.

The conversation with Maya was a short one.
She was getting out of rehab soon. And as usual, she wanted to
move.

I stared at the phone long after she had hung
up.

“Move,” I said out loud.

A squeaking sound drew my attention to Jerry
happily running in his wheel.

Move?

Maya wanted me to go with her.

That meant leaving Al and Betty behind.

And Jerry would have to leave his cage, too.
Maya didn’t know about him. I’d always kept him a secret from her.
She would not understand my having a mouse for a pet. She’d make me
get rid of him immediately.

“What’s up?” Grace asked, popping her head
through the door. “Are you ok?” She entered my room, absently
tugging her ponytail. “You look a little sick.”

“I’m fine,” I replied warily. I didn’t want
to tell her about Maya. Or Rafael. Or the Mesmers.

Maybe it would be best for everyone if I
did
just leave.

“Ok,” she said, but I could tell she didn’t
believe me. “Don’t forget that Ellison’s going to give you a ride
tomorrow.”

There was something in the way that she said
his name that caught my attention. “You like him,” I said. For some
reason, it felt relaxing just to focus on that and to forget about
everything else for the moment.