Carnelian (16 page)

Somehow I slept
through the night peacefully. I would have
expected to at least have a nightmare or two after my experience,
but instead, it was all sleep. It might have had to do with the
nice fuzzies I felt the whole night. As I slowly opened my eyes and
rubbed the sleep out of them, I realized the fuzzies were gone and
Seth was also. A note was on the pillow next to
me.

Your clothes are on the window seat. Miller
will make you anything for breakfast. Feel free to look around. You
are the only person here with Miller. I’ll be back after the game,
and we’ll talk about everything.

The game? I forgot completely about the
football game. No wonder Seth was grumpy about me not sleeping.
Seth managed to protect me, made sure I could sleep, and still made
it to his football game. He was beginning to seem a bit more
surreal, not to mention the miracle healing abilities. Mr. Perfect.
Maybe a little too perfect.

I sat up and looked around the room. It was
completely devoid of anything personal. A desk sat by the window
with a laptop computer on it. Two nightstands were on the sides of
the bed. The bookshelves that lined the wall across from the bed
were filled with books, but not a single picture anywhere. It was
if I had stumbled into a perfectly posed room, but no personality.
I stood up and walked to the bookshelves. Reading over the titles,
I still didn’t get any sense of who lived here. The books were
random from boats to cooking, novels both fiction and non-fiction
all mixed together. Seth Sangre was even more of a mystery.

My stomach growled as I looked around for a
clock. It was eleven-fifteen; only fifteen minutes away from
kickoff. I was tempted to leave for a little bit. I would have time
to go to the dorms and back, but somehow I knew that it would upset
Seth if I left. Even without him in the house, I got the feeling I
was to stay. Besides, he was promising to tell me the truth
finally, and that was worth waiting around for.

I picked up my clothes, and they were
freshly laundered. Even the tear in my shirt was fixed without a
mark. I needed a Miller. Life would be much easier. My stomach
growled again, and I’d need to look for food if I didn’t want to
listen to that noise all day. I dressed hurriedly and snuck out of
the room. There wasn’t any reason for me to try to be quiet, but I
was in someone else’s house, which felt weird. As I passed room
after room, I found I was really alone like Seth had mentioned. I
traced my way back down the stairs to the kitchen. No one was
around, but someone had been cooking. There were a variety of
breakfast foods sitting out. I didn’t have time to even look what
was all there as someone noisily entered the room.

“Oh, you’re finally awake. Here I was all
worried that I’d have to tell Seth you never woke up. I know Prince
Charming would have gladly kissed you awake and all, but if I
didn’t at least feed you before he came back, he might not be happy
with me.” Dressed completely in blue and white Morton college
clothes, Miller pranced into the room excitedly. “Now I don’t have
to watch the game alone.”

Miller grabbed my arm and hauled me through
the house to the attached garage and obviously his apartment. On
the coffee table in front of the large screen TV sat an assortment
of game food that looked as good as the cold breakfast we just left
in the kitchen. Appetizers, chips, dips, and more were all spread
out. It was quite the feast for just one person, or now two.

“I watch the game every weekend,” Miller
explain, waving to all the food.

“By yourself?” I asked.

“Most of the time, but
today I have you. I hope you’re hungry. The boys are always hungry.
I’m used to making more than less for food. Have a seat. Kick-off
should be in a few minutes.
Gotta love
local channels that love football
.
Anywhere else a small team like this wouldn’t be broadcasted, but
here it is.” Miller waved to the large couch.

“You don’t go to the game?” I asked. He was
obviously a fan. I sat down on one side of the couch.

“No. I have too much to get done here on the
weekend. Three completely helpless young men are enough to keep
anyone busy.” Miller hoped onto the couch next to me. He had to be
at least in his late twenties, but he acted like he was a teenager
excited to watch the game.

“Seth didn’t do as well last week. He better
play better today,” Miller added, grabbing a chip and popping it in
his mouth.

“He didn’t?” I asked. Three touch-down
passes seemed like a good game to me.

“No. They said he was a little distracted.
Not that I’d know why he was distracted. I heard a certain girl
attended the game,” Miller winked at me. I blushed. After what Seth
told me last night, I kind of knew what he might have been
distracted by. It was strange. I had never been a distraction
before.

“And they’re off,” Miller cheered as the
ball was kicked to start the game. I shrugged and settled back into
the couch. Football was okay, but not something I watched on a
regular basis.

I watched with Miller as the guys played. It
was strange to see the close-up views of the guys rather than sit
in the stands. When Dee missed a crucial catch, the anger on Dee’s
face matched the disappointment in Seth’s. As halftime rolled
around, they were behind by eight. I was watching the game, but was
somewhere else mentally. I kept repeating the night before in my
mind, analyzing every detail. The door to Miller’s apartment
opened, and Miller’s squeal of delight took me right out of my
thoughts. Miller leapt across the room, hugging the guy at the
door.

“But you said you had to work today,” Miller
complained.

“I got off early,” the guy replied, leaning
down to kiss Miller on the head. I stayed in my seat, trying not to
peep at them. Soon the small peck turned into more. I turned to the
TV, not wanting to be caught gawking. Luckily half time was almost
over, and the team was back on the field, pulling Miller and his
boyfriend out of their make-out session.

“Oh, Mari, sorry about that,” Miller said,
pulling his boyfriend behind him. “I completely forgot you were
here. This is Michael, my boyfriend.” I already got that part, but
I smiled anyways. “He lives in the Twin Cities and can only get out
here every now and then to visit me.”

“Hi,” I said, standing and shaking his
outstretched hand. I began to walk away back into the house when
Miller called to me.

“There’s still another half to go,” Miller
said.

I smiled and nodded. “I know, but I’m too
distracted to watch. I think I might just go back and lie down
again. I’m still feeling tired from last night.”

“Last night?” Michael asked.

“You wouldn’t believe it. Mari was attacked
last night. The boys all came to her rescue and turns out it was
those creeps that have been targeting college girls for the past
two years. Thanks to Mari and the boys, they are now behind bars,”
Miller explained, his voice proud of the accomplishment, his pride
being completely for the three guys. I made my way over to the door
before he called to me again. “Is your ankle feeling better?”
Miller asked, now settled into the couch and Michael’s arms.

I looked at my ankle. I could barely put
weight on it yesterday and now it was fine. I didn’t even notice it
before he mentioned it.

“Yep, all better,” I replied before making
it out the door.

I traced my
way back into the house from the way we came. It
was completely silent as I walked through the kitchen and back
upstairs. I had a few more hours before the guys would be back. I
had already spent the first half of the game thinking over
everything. These guys show up at the perfect moment and save me. I
don’t even think they broke a sweat as Seth and Dee fought with
guys bigger than them. Then there was the issue of healing too
fast. I know Seth got cut by that knife, but there wasn’t even a
line left. Something was going on with these three boys. They had
no past. Where did they come from and why were they here? Seth said
he had been looking for me for three years, but what did that mean?
Three years ago, they didn’t exist. Who were the Sangre
brothers?

At the top of the stairs, I went into the
first open room. The earthy chocolate tones were a shock compared
to the beach feeling of the rest of the house. Brown walls, brown
furniture, and brown linens surrounded me. Everything melded nicely
together, yet nothing in the room stood out. I walked around the
bed and looked out the window. It would be dark soon. I went back
to the desk and the closed laptop. There were no more electronic
gadgets, just like Seth’s room. And unlike Seth’s room, there was a
large TV instead of a wall of books. I opened the closet door and
looked at the clothes. This had to be Ty’s room. He had no personal
items around and no pictures, but the clothing alone would only fit
Ty. I gave one last look around. There were no clues there as to
who the three guys were. I went to the next room.

I snuck into the white, clean room and was
shocked again. While it was similar to the last rooms in décor with
limited items and nothing personal, this room felt it lacked even
more personality as it was not even a color. It was almost sterile
to the point of a hospital room. I would have guessed it was a
guest room, until I looked in the closet and found Dee’s clothing
there. He was still a mystery more than his brothers. He didn’t
seem to like me at all, but this room said he didn’t seem to like
anything.

Back in the hallway, I found two more closed
doors. I walked to one first, and slowly opened it. No one else was
supposed to be in the house, but it still made me nervous to just
go opening doors. The drive to find out something kept my hands
from shaking too badly. I pushed the door slightly and peered
inside the blue bedroom. I slowly entered to find a kid’s room,
completely with a bat and ball in the corner. I walked around
cautiously and found two pictures on the bed stand. One was of an
infant boy and one was of a toddler. Looking closer, I saw the
toddler was the baby, just older. I looked a bit longer at the boy
and was sure it was not one of the Sangre boys, but still, the eyes
seemed familiar. I peeked into the last, butterfly-themed room to
find even the guest room of the house had more personality than
Dee’s room, but my search led to nothing to help my cause of
finding out the truth.

I went back into Seth’s room and
lay down on the bed. The facts were confusing. Who were the Sangre
brothers? Why was Seth searching for me? How did he heal so
quickly? Was he even human? I sat up at the last thought. I wasn’t
really a believer in all the fantasy books I read; they were just
entertainment, but now my mind was racing. Seth didn’t exist beyond
the past three years, and he could heal miraculously. I got up and
went to his open computer. It was already turned on, and I decided
to borrow it. While I waited for Seth, I could make my own list of
possibilities. After one search, I was done. My mind was already
filled with options from my books. Now there were too many scary
pictures, enough to make me regret even looking for more creatures
on the Internet. I was now hoping I was wrong in my guess that they
were not human.

I sat at Seth’s desk and looked around. The
afternoon light was fading, and I was sure the game would be ending
soon. I’d get my answers from Seth hopefully. Around his room was
nothing that would help me gain any more insight than I already
had, yet I looked anyways. I opened his desk drawers to find
nothing personal. Pens, paper, tape, and notepads were it. In the
last desk drawer, I found the necklace he wore last weekend. I
looked at the red jewel and wondering if I should touch it or not.
There was something sharp on it, and I didn’t want to be pricked
again. I stared at it. The reddish, shiny main stone was just short
of an inch long. Seth had it set in a necklace that allowed you to
pick it up without touching the stone. I had grabbed the stone
before, and this time I gently touched only the metal encircling
it. I looked closer at the red stone and the faint lines within it.
I had seen this type of stone before but couldn’t remember what my
grandfather called it. I turned it over and was surprised by the
etching on the back side. It seemed like some sort of writing, but
nothing I had ever seen, and I had seen a lot with everything my
grandfather did.

“I don’t know what it says,” Seth said,
causing me to jump at his sudden appearance. He stood in the
doorway watching me. His apprehension was noticeable as he entered
the room and sat down in the window seat.

“It is nothing I’ve ever seen, and trust me,
that’s saying a lot. My grandfather brings home antique pieces all
the time. It looks like it says something, I just wonder what,” I
added, still staring at the strange scratching. It was like if I
looked long enough I’d find the hidden clue. Something vaguely told
me that I might just be able to understand what the message
was.

“Did Miller take care of you? He fed you,
right?” Seth asked.

“Oh yes, fed and fed and fed,” I replied. I
moved over to his bed and sat down facing him. It was time for him
to talk and explain it all to me. Seth stared at me, waiting for me
to talk first. I let it be silent for a few minutes, just staring
back at him. His eyes were absolutely beautiful, just like the rest
of him. The dark brown was flecked with light brown, making his
eyes almost jewel-like in appearance.

“I’ve narrowed it down to several
possibilities,” I said, breaking eye contact to speak. I couldn’t
speak while staring at him. “My first thoughts were the witness
protection program.”

“What is that?” Seth inquired.