Hidden (Hidden Series Book One) (15 page)

Another message popped up as I stared at the
screen.

Success!

He could hear me laughing, crying too. I
replied,
Am I a loud crier or are your ears just great?

It’s the ears. I can’t usually hear in
your room, though. It’s because we’re still alone in the house, no
other noise. And I’m right under you.
I kneeled down, wiping my
face, and knocked on the floor. My phone beeped a moment later.
Who’s there?

I laughed again. I didn’t have any
knock-knock jokes cued up, so I lowered my face to the floor and
said, “Thanks, Nate. You’re a really good friend
.”

So are you,
he replied.

He was right. I
was
his friend. I
cared about him. I enjoyed him. I fit the description of a copy
before I came here. Now … after trying, I was changing. Out of the
bed and from under the murky cloud hanging over it, I could see how
I’d made myself do things I’d never done before. Things Leah would
have never done at St. Catalina.

This couldn’t be all there was to my life –
an evil psychic who mistook herself for a witch. The end, without a
choice of writing my own future.

I
was
a copy, no doubt in my mind,
but apparently copies could do one thing. They could try. After
learning that my parents intended for me to be a murderer, I wanted
to curl up and disappear, but I’d fought those urges for years, and
I’d fight them forever, especially now.

I took the phone to my bed and stared at
Nate until I couldn’t hold my eyes open. He met me in my dream. He
lifted me up in his arms, and his lips were a lot less friendly. A
lot more illegal.

The first thing I did in the morning was rub
my lips. They were tingling like I’d actually kissed him.

I stretched in bed as I smiled at the
beautiful dream.

I sat up and screamed.

Sophia was sitting at the foot of my bed
with a knife in her hand. The knife from last night. I guessed
since they were technically her drawers, she had the right to go
through them.

“Sweetie, I understand that you may feel
that life is hopeless sometimes,” she whispered. “But I won’t let
this happen. I will watch you around the clock if necessary.”

“No, Sophia. It’s not there for that. I’m
not suicidal or hurting myself.” She sighed. “I promise.” Doubt
clouded her eyes. I glanced at my fingers. The swelling was gone,
and there was barely any evidence that I’d tested my blood last
night. Other than the knife in her hand. I just needed to explain
it in a way that didn’t require me telling her something that would
make her kick me out, maybe even run for her life. “It’s for
protection. I’m afraid of Lydia Shaw. She’s still out there looking
for me.”

Great lie. And she believed it. Slowly, her
face softened into a smile. “Oh, honey, don’t worry. She won’t find
you. I guarantee it.” She stood and slipped the knife in her dress
pocket. “I’m late for work. Call me if you need to ta-”

“I’m fine. I promise.”

She blew me a kiss and vanished.

My roommates came down together as I dug
into the ham and cheese omelet Sophia had left on the island.
Everyone spoke but Remi. She passed by like I wasn’t there. Nathan
fixed a bowl of cereal and plopped down in the seat next to me. I
couldn’t take my eyes off of his lips, remembering how they felt
pressed against mine in the dream.

“How’s your omelet,” he asked.

“Good. Want some?”

He nodded and grabbed my fork from my hand.
He sliced off a corner of the omelet and ate from the fork that had
just been in my mouth. He handed it back. I wouldn’t dream of
wiping it. It was almost like kissing him. The closest I’d get.

“That was good. Thanks, Chris,” he said,
holding out his fist for a bump, the friendliest, most unsexy
gesture in the world.

“Emma, I have to be honest. You are starting
to piss me off,” Remi said, out of nowhere, it seemed. She’d been
silent until then. Emma sighed and turned back to the stove,
filling two plates with steaming food.

“Knock it off,” Paul said. “She had a rough
day yesterday. Because of you.”

Emma gave one of the plates to Paul, and
Remi eyed it like she wanted one. “
Aw
. You remembered I hate
my eggs to touch my bacon. Thanks, Em.”

Remi grunted and slammed the refrigerator
door harder than necessary. We all ignored it.

Emma snapped her fingers, like Sophia and
unlike me, and a chair moved next to mine. “Christine, I should’ve
said this yesterday, but I was afraid to come talk to you. I’m so
sorry. I wasn’t thinking about you and your situation the other
night. I should have been. You’re hiding, and since I’m staying
here with you, I need to be more careful.”

“Don’t cry. I’m not mad,” I said.

I reached her a napkin for her eyes that I
hadn’t used. I wanted to make her feel better, be nice, maybe try
to prove myself wrong about being a copy. But I’d never been more
certain about anything in my life.

“I know what I did was wrong. I used dark
magic, but, thankfully, he wasn’t a hunter. Sophie took care of
everything, but, Christine, I’m so sorry. If someone found you
because of me, I would never forgive myself. I can’t imagine living
by myself with humans. I don’t want you to have to go back.”

The kitchen was quiet as she cried; no one
spoke. Her breakdown made me feel too important, too powerful. Like
something she needed to fear. I shivered at the truth in that. If
agents and hunters were stronger than them, and I was one naturally
– or unnaturally – it would make me the strongest thing in this
house. And their enemy. God, I didn’t want to be.

“I’m not that kind of person usually,” Emma
said, catching her breath then losing it again. “I was scared.
Sophie has been so different lately, and I knew if we got in
trouble, she wouldn’t let us come back.”

“I think I found a job,” Remi said, loud, a
purposeful subject change. “Pay sucks, but it’ll be enough to leave
this fairytale land that drips honey covered goodness.”

“You’re leaving?” Emma asked.

Remi speared her knife through a sausage
link on her plate. “When did
we
stop being a we?” she spat.
She pointed her knife at Paul. “When you met back up with your
childhood buddy that you’re hopelessly, sickeningly in love with?
And stupidly since you’re obviously not his type?”

Emma’s face turned three shades of red. God,
Remi was awful – a Sienna in magical skin and sharpened, unpolished
claws.

“I’m not in love with you,” she said,
looking at Paul. “I swear.”

“Don’t worry about it, Em. We would’ve been
married and divorced by now if that were true,” Paul said. Nate
laughed and I melted. There couldn’t be a better sound than that
laugh. I closed my eyes, savoring the moment, memorizing how it
felt to enjoy something. I thought it would help me try to change
my default setting: numb, humorless, and easily angered.

“And we are still a
we
, Remi. I just
prefer to stay with Sophie and do things her way. Find a proper
job. Live a proper life.”

“And Sophia’s house is so nice,” Nathan
said. “I don’t understand why you wouldn’t stay here as long as she
lets you.”

Remi grabbed her plate off the island and
prowled to the door. “Shut it, Sparky. It isn’t even her
house.”

She slammed the patio door and kicked her
feet up on the table out there. Nathan looked at me, eyebrows high
and confused. I hunched my shoulders, just as confused as he was.
“Is that true?” I asked for us both.

Paul and Emma nodded. “You didn’t know? I
mean … Nana’s a maid. She’s been working for the same family for
years and makes pretty good money, but she couldn’t afford a house
like this. She and my grandfather live in
Texas
,” he said,
sounding like a cowboy. “She doesn’t even sleep here. You’d think
so, you know, to make sure we’re following the rules, but she
doesn’t. She wouldn’t dare live away from my grandfather. My mom
almost didn’t let me move here because of that, said I’d be living
wild and free.”

Nate dropped his spoon and stood from his
chair. “No, I’ve seen her go in there in a nightgown,” he said.

He walked out of the kitchen, and we
followed him to a room on the first floor that Sophia had shown me
during my tour. Now that I thought about it, she didn’t say it was
hers. She didn’t say any of them were. He opened the door to the
room that was half the size of mine. Nate opened the closet. Empty.
Emma pulled out the drawers. They were empty too.

“Told you,” she said. “She lives with
Gregory.”

“Whose house is this then?” Nathan asked.
Emma and Paul looked puzzled, like they hadn’t thought about that.
“Maybe a friend of hers? I’d like to know who I’m living off
of.”

And I’d like to know why I had the grandest
room in this person’s house. And why Sophia rifled through their
drawers.

Paul clicked his tongue and pointed at Emma.
“Revelations. Salt or sugar?”

“Sugar. No … it’s salt,” she said.

“You try. You’re way better at summoning
things than I am,” Paul said. Emma snapped and a saltshaker
appeared in Paul’s hands a few seconds later. She smiled and
clapped like she’d surprised herself. I’d thought about a knife
appearing in my hand last night before it did, and when it
appeared, I wasn’t shocked. I’d always felt strong and capable of
all sorts of things. I was definitely stronger than them. Faster,
too.

Paul sprinkled salt on the black dresser in
a straight line. He stretched his neck to both sides. “This better
work. I’ve never practiced this much in my life.” He leaned over
the salt, and the ends of his hair swept through the line. “Come
on, Paul. You can do this,” he said to himself. “I’d like to see
both of these girls in nothing but foam, but first show me the
owner of this home.”

We groaned at his spell, but it worked
despite how ridiculous it was. The salt began to shift and
separate. Slowly, the letters formed, revealing the owner of the
house. I gasped, and read the name out loud.

“Cecilia Neal.”

None of them had heard the name before. Just
me. Because it was my name, the one on my shiny credit card.

They assumed Cecilia was a friend they
didn’t know and let it go.

Paul and Emma left Sophia’s fake room. Nate
looked in the empty closet again, still shocked maybe. “What did
she tell you when she brought you here?” he asked.

“That she wanted me to stay with her. I
suppose she never said at her house. And it makes sense. She’s a
maid and she asked me for money. I should’ve figured this out.”

He put his hands on my shoulders. I hadn’t
realized he was so close behind me. I didn’t jump. Nothing about
Nathan was startling.

“She never said she lived here to me either,
now that I think about it. Sophia came to the hunter’s house for
Emma. Then Emma begged her to take Remi. Then she saw me and
shelled out a few hundred in case I wasn’t just a dog. When I
shifted, she asked if I wanted to get off of the streets, and I
said yes.”

“I’m glad she did,” I said.

“Me too.” He chuckled, and I looked back at
him to see what I’d missed. He pointed at the mirror attached to
the dresser in front of us. “Have you ever avoided a mirror
before?”

I shook my head, trying not to fall in love
with the look of us together.

“I have. After I shifted the first time, I
thought I would see something weird in the mirror. Theresa told me
she’d seen a werewolf before, and I thought I was one. I thought I
would see the monster she described if I looked at my reflection.
Isn’t that terrible? Can you imagine thinking you’re something like
that?” I could more than imagine that. I nodded, at war with the
downturned corners of my mouth. “Sorry. I forgot. Last night …
sorry.”

“It’s okay, Nate.” He smiled at me in the
mirror. I could have fainted. God, he was gorgeous. And my friend.
I needed to remember that. It would be beyond horrible if I made a
nice guy like him let me down easily. That would definitely strain
our friendship.

“It’s my duty as best friend to remind you
of how good you smell when you forget. So don’t worry, you’ll never
have to avoid a mirror.” I turned around and hugged him, forcing my
hands to be still on his back like a friend would. Like he was
doing right now. He let go and walked to the door. “Have fun with
school stuff. I’m washing windows today. Sounds
so
fun. Want
to eat lunch together?”

“Of course.”

I stayed in the room alone for a while. I
sat on the bed, more confused than I was last night – the night I
found out I wasn’t a witch. I was human, well a copy of one, and
Sophia was pretending to live in a house that belonged to me.

I shivered and rubbed my arms. Bumps
sprouted all over them as a terrifying chill brushed my hand. I
turned towards the cold, my breath a thick cloud in the air. The
chill crept up my arm, and I jumped up from the bed. I ran to my
room like a spaz. Thankfully, no one from my new life saw me.

In my room, I paced in front of my bed,
trying to convince myself that I’d imagined the chill. I had bigger
problems right now. Sophia had neglected to tell me something huge,
and I needed to know why. I waited for that request to do
something, to be psychic.

Dead silence followed.

“Okay … what about Raymond and Catherine
Grant? Who were they?” Nothing still. I repeated the thought
without the words, hoping whatever creepy psychic stuff in my mind
would kick in then.

Still nothing. That made four people my
powers were useless on. Or three types – experienced witches,
beautiful shifters, and the dead.

I opened my laptop to give the great
equalizer a shot. I typed in their names and generated millions of
results in a moment. There would be no school for me today.