Captivate Me (Book One: The Captivated Series) (12 page)

“Piper, get her some water, please,”
Iris ordered, kneeling in front of me again and clasping my hands
in her own.

“Yes, Iris,” a tiny female voice
answered.

“I’m fine…” I said in protest, my eyes
still on him. I didn’t want to be fussed over.

Iris followed my line of sight to see
his eyes on me as well. When she turned back to me, a secret smile
played on her lips. “Kat,” she said again to regain my
attention.

I didn’t want to, but I refocused on
her.

“I know all of this might seem odd to
you, but-”

Interrupting her, a dainty arm
appeared with a homemade clay mug filled with water. I took the mug
into my hands, and my eyes traveled up to the girl who had given it
to me. What had Iris called her? Piper? As she gave me a friendly
smile, her hazel eyes shining, I determined she looked about my
age. She wore her black hair in a stylish pixie cut. Very cute and
complementary to her heart-shaped face. Pixie cut – Piper. That
would be easy enough to remember. “Hey, Kat,” she said.

Confused, I replied. “Hey.” How did
everyone know my name?

Iris shifted to sit beside
me on the bench, the hem of her velvety dress whooshing over the
dead leaves and pine straw. She brought with her the smell of
lavender and rosewood. The nurse rested beside her.
“Everyone,
please
,” she groaned, swatting at my audience, “give her some space
for goodness sake.” The dove squeaked to seemingly echo her
request.

Everyone backed up again, except my
dream guy. He wasn’t budging, watching every breath I took and move
I made. I couldn’t decide if it unnerved or flattered me. Oh, who
was I kidding… it flattered me.

Iris nudged my chin to look at her
instead, and I gave a rueful smile. My shameless staring at him was
just as obvious. I took a sip of water, and Iris started in. “I
know this might seem odd to you, Kat, but let me know when you’re
ready for me to explain who we are and why we’re here.”

I swallowed. “And how everyone knows
my name?”

Iris barked out a laugh, but I hadn’t
meant it to be funny. “Yes, all of this I can explain. And I also
want you to know that you aren’t in danger. You looked pretty
frightened when you first arrived.”

I nodded in agreement. ‘Frightened’
was a good word to describe how I’d felt. I had come to find my
dream visitor, not really believing I’d get the opportunity, and I
had gotten so much more than I’d bargained for. But I had to admit,
if this wasn’t a dream, finding this mob of people in the woods was
pretty cool. Now that I knew I wasn’t in danger.
Theoretically.

I allowed my eyes to sweep over the
rest of the small crowd, and I counted. Including Iris, the nurse
and my dream guy, there were eight of them – Piper and the boy she
had moved to stand beside. He had tied his coppery hair back,
exposing his striking face with its neatly trimmed scruff. He and
Piper held hands and were the exact same height. They must be a
couple and looked perfect together – both attractive and
slender.

My eyes moved to another couple beside
them, also attractive. They looked the same age as me, as well. The
boy reminded me of Ronnie – a tall beast with short dark hair and a
strong jaw, but his lips were thinner, his eyebrows bushier, and he
didn’t seem as cordial. The girl his arm hung around was a classic
beauty with flourishing auburn curls, long lashes and a killer
figure. A figure I would die for.

Everyone here was gorgeous. I suddenly
felt inadequate with my big forehead and flat butt.

The last of the group was a boy, also
around my age, who stood alone next to the beast and auburn Barbie.
I could tell he wasn’t short by any means, but next to beast-boy he
looked that way. His blond hair was almost brassy compared to Iris’
but shimmered in the firelight, and his facial features had a
feminine quality – round eyes with dark lashes, high cheekbones and
full lips. He seemed too pretty to be a boy, but like Levi, I
imagined most girls would swoon for him.

And then there was my dream guy in
front of all of them. My breath caught when my eyes rested on him
again. They could stay there forever.

Iris cleared her throat
pointedly.

I shook my head and took
another small sip.
Focus.
When my eyes refocused on her glowing face, I
realized that although she was beautiful – probably the most
beautiful of everyone here – she and the nurse were also the oldest
of the group. In their early thirties maybe? “So who are you guys?”
I asked, my voice shockingly small. I
felt
small in the midst of these
gods and goddesses.

“Well, Kat,” she said, looking to the
nurse for confirmation. He gave a terse nod of approval. “We’re
like you.”

A nervous giggle
escaped.
Hardly.
I was hardly like any of these people.

She disregarded it and motioned for
the nurse to hand her something. “What I mean is,” she said,
wrapping her fingers around the vial of blood he placed in her
palm, “we all come from the same origins as you. A divine
origin.”

It wasn’t clicking.

She offered a knowing smile, leaning
closer. “Angels, Kat. God’s army.”

Astonishment seeped into my
expression.

“You didn’t know?” she asked,
misinterpreting the meaning behind my gaped jaw.

“No, I… I kind of knew. My mom used to
be an angel. I just didn’t know there were others.”

“Not many. But there are.”

“How did you know about
me, though?”
It couldn’t be on looks
alone,
I mused
.
I didn’t look like an angel, or at
least as stunning as everyone here.
They
all looked divine, like ethereal royalty.

She again looked to the nurse, and he
nodded his agreement. “Are you aware of what an aura is?” she
asked, focusing back on me.

All too aware. That’s why I was at
this school… I was scouted out because of my aura.
“Yes.”

“Good. Well you must know, then, that
your aura is different from most.”

“Yes. But I was told it was because I
was gifted. Nobody ever said it had anything to do with
this.”

She rested her hand on my arm. “Yes, I
figured since this was a school for the gifted that you were as
well. But what most aura-readers don’t know is that part-human,
part-angel auras have an additional quality. Right, Kai?” she said
to the nurse.

“Right,” he replied.

“He’s our aura-reader,”
she explained, her smile stretching further, “that’s
his
gift.”

I craned my neck around
her to look at him.
He’s gifted
too?

“Most half-breeds, or what we
sometimes call ‘hybrids,’ have gifts,” she added. “Not all, but
most. Which might also explain why you have a gift.”

Hmm. I’d always thought it
was because of my father.
“So does that
mean that everyone at the school has angel in them?”

“Oh, no, child…” she chuckled, patting
my arm, “most gifted’s bloodlines come from human genes, I’m
sure.”

“So mine could have come from either.
My mom is an angel, my dad a gifted.”

Her perfectly groomed eyebrows sprang
up in surprise. “Then, yes… I suppose being gifted was definitely
your fate. Do you have more than one gift?”

“I’m not sure,” I said
timidly, my eyes drawing down to my mug, “I know I have
telekinisis.”
And possibly the gift of
prophecy.
Well, seeing as how my dream guy
was real, I suppose I did have the gift of prophecy… it just hadn’t
fully registered yet.

Kai studied me again, but I noticed
this time as his eyes raked me over, that there was more warmth
inside them now. His demeanor from yesterday had shifted. He was
still all business, but friendlier. “Makes sense,” he said. “Both
the purity in her aura and the silver threads are
strong.”

“Silver threads?” I repeated, sliding
him a curious glance.

“Yes,” he replied. “Half-breeds have
silver threads woven throughout their auras. Yours does
too.”

My memory of us in the nurses’ station
flashed through my mind, how his eyes raked over and around me.
Uncomfortably so. He’d been reading my aura.

“Oh.”

It also dawned on me how everyone
already knew my name. I’d given it to him yesterday.
Duh.

With care, she popped open the top of
the vial and motioned for me to hand her my mug, and I complied.
“There’s also another quality half-breeds possess – our blood is
different.”

This was new. “Different?”

“Yes. This is the vial of your blood
Kai took yesterday. Watch this,” she said, tilting the vial over
the water. A drip rolled into it. I expected it to disperse into
wispy curls and dilute, but it didn’t. The drop sank to the bottom
in a perfect red bead.

What?
“How…”

“This is what the blood of a
half-breed looks like,” she said proudly.

“The properties are different,” Kai
explained. “Your blood is more potent. Resilient.”

I’d never noticed. My entire life. How
did I never know my blood would do that when in contact with water?
But then again, I’d never tested it out. Why would I? At a loss for
words, I only nodded like a half-wit.

“I am a real nurse,” Kai added. “In
case you were wondering. I didn’t just pretend to know what I was
doing yesterday.”

If he hadn’t known what he was doing,
he could have fooled me. I’d never questioned it. I knew I had
other questions churning, but I couldn’t seem to summon them all.
One made its way forward. “So were there others’ blood you tested?
Are there more half-breeds here?”

He hesitated, looking to Iris, and
they exchanged a secret look.

What? Was my question
moronic? It seemed reasonable to
me
. If half-breeds had a tendency to
have gifts, there might be more here.

“No,” he finally answered, but I
noticed his words lacked conviction. “Not that I’ve found. Your
blood sample was the only one I was interested in. I haven’t seen
any other half-breed auras here.”

Another question formed. “So you
already knew about my aura before you took a sample?”

He and Iris exchanged another look,
and Iris nodded her consent. These two were a well-oiled machine.
“Yes,” he replied. We are… ever watchful.”

Vague, much?
“Watchful?”

He hesitated again, and Iris clasped
his hand lovingly, moving her gaze to me. “Yes, Kat. We’ve been
watching you since your first day here.”

My eyes slid to my dream boy for a
slice of a second. “Oh?” I wanted to say, “Would ‘watching’ have
anything to do with bringing me flowers during the night and
watching me at games?” But something told me to keep my mouth
shut.

“There are many things to learn about
us and our way of life,” she continued. “For instance, I’m sure you
remember how we all suddenly appeared when you arrived
tonight?”

I swallowed.
Yeah, it freaked me out.
“Yes.”

She raised her hand, her lips moving
with a whispered prayer. Her fingers snapped, and white tents
appeared throughout the woods ahead. The snorts of horses made me
squint through the darkness to search for them. I counted eight,
and they were all tied to trees, their saddles aligned on low-lying
branches. They lived out here. But not permanently, I assumed.
Half-breed nomads?

Iris moved her hand from Kai’s
shoulder to mine. “We’re good at concealment. We can hide ourselves
and our entire lifestyle with a simple spell. Others only see us
when we allow them to.”

‘Ever watchful’ made sense now.
Meaning, they had been walking around campus this entire time, and
nobody would ever have known. But why, though? I was part angel, so
what? I already knew that. Why all of this trouble with the spying
and the blood samples? “So why all this trouble?” I
asked.

Iris squinted in confusion.

“I mean with the blood samples and the
spying and revealing yourselves to me?”

“Well,” she said pensively. “I wasn’t
expecting to do this tonight; I would have approached you in the
next few days in a somewhat less traumatizing manner. But you
showed up, and we had already tested your sample, so I figured
tonight was as good a night as any.” She smoothed her hair behind
her ears as she thought. “What brought you to the woods tonight
anyhow?”

I fought the urge to look
at
him
again, but
from the corner of my eye I saw him shift nervously on his
feet.
Uh oh.
Iris
must not have known I was here the other night or that he had given
me flowers. I was glad I’d kept my mouth shut
earlier
.
“I just
needed to get out,” I said feebly.

She nodded, but didn’t seem to really
buy it. “I see. But all the ‘trouble,’ Kat, is what I’m about to
get into. There is a point to all of this.”