Hidden (Hidden Series Book One) (20 page)

He carried me around the yard until we saw
her. She was crouched on two legs by the gate … with a camera in
her hands.

“What are you doing?” he asked. She stood
and pointed the camera at us. The light flashed, and I ducked
behind Nate’s back. “Stop.”

She chuckled. I peaked over his shoulder.
She wiped her sweaty face with the ends of her shirt, flashing her
bra at us. At him.

“You don’t like having your picture taken,
hottie?” She raised the camera again and snapped another shot. I
didn’t have time to duck again. “What about you, Leah? Don’t you
want the world to have a better picture of you than the one they’re
showing on the news?”

My muscles tensed. This girl could get under
my skin faster than anyone I’d ever known, Sienna included. Nathan
snatched her camera, and I jumped down from his back.

“Don’t be stupid, Remi,” he said.

She laughed and grabbed for her camera. He
held it out of her reach. “I’m not going to do anything with the
pictures, asshole. I’m just making memories. I’ll be out of here
soon, and I doubt I’ll ever stay somewhere this nice. I want to
remember this.” He turned her camera around, looking at the screen.
“That’s personal. Give it back!”

She grunted, and I stepped back in case she
was about to shift into a panther.

“I’m deleting the pictures of Chris. Just in
case.”

“Give it to me now, Sparky! Or I’ll tell
Sophia about the tongue wrestling you two were doing. I’m sure
she’ll let your little girlfriend stay here since Lydia Shaw would
kill her if she found Leah. But you’ll be out on your ass. You
think Ms. Rich and Perfect is going to want you when you smell like
a hobo again?”

My temper erupted in a second. My eyes flew
to the fragile joints in her arm then to the veins in her neck.
Nate had told me copies killed in savage and monstrous ways. I'd
imagined horrible deaths for the girls at St. Catalina, but none of
them had anything on what my wired brain wanted to do to Remi.

I shivered and saw myself hurling over the
trashcan with Sophia, remembering how it felt to be evil. To be
ashamed of myself. I wouldn't enjoy hurting her. Not for more than
a moment. And even though I'd only had him for a short time, losing
him that way, in the wake of killing a shifter, would be entirely
too much to bear.

He flung the camera at her face, and she
caught it. She ran into the house. The back of her gray shirt and
pants were drenched. It wasn’t hot out here.

He pulled me into his arms and out of my
rage. His calming effect was instant. I felt silly for letting her
get to me. Nathan made me feel amazingly normal. The irrational
reactions of a copy were laughable in his arms.

Would he believe that?

“Baby,” he said. “I can assure you that my
hobo smell isn’t that bad.” We laughed, and I squeezed him, feeling
like she’d hurt him more than he let on. “I deleted the pictures,
but do you want to tell Sophia that she took some of you?”

“I don’t want to get her kicked out. That
would only make her mad, and she knows too much to be my enemy.” As
I said that, my chest filled with dread. I felt trapped by her,
like she could do anything to me, and I couldn’t react. Or she’d
expose me.

“Don’t worry about it. She’ll be gone soon.
The house will certainly smell better.” I chuckled and pushed that
worry aside, along with all the others, and enjoyed being in my
boyfriend’s arms. “You think Emma will go with her?”

“I hope not,” I said.

He pulled out of our hug and grabbed my
hand. We walked to a tree close to the gate where Remi had been. He
sat down underneath it and opened his arms. I wanted to take a
picture of that moment – him, gorgeous and mine, under a canopy of
moss.

“I don’t think she will,” he said as I
settled in his lap. “Remi wasn’t lying when she said Emma liked
Paul. When he gets close to her, it smells like someone is tossing
bags of powdered sugar into the air.”

“Really? You smell different when you’re
around someone you like?” I felt him nod against my cheek.
“Wow.”

“Yeah. So you can imagine how confused I was
when you didn’t kiss me back the other night. Your scent was
practically begging for it.” I turned around to see his face. He
smiled, and I plucked his nose. Laughing, he sniffed my wrist. “My
nose is going to make me the best boyfriend of all time. I know
everything about you. I know what you like. I know what you hate. I
know what frightens you. All from your scent.”

I leaned into him, my forehead against his
cheek, ready to confess so he would know me like he thought he
did.

“Let’s start with the likes.” He sniffed
from my wrist up to the crease of my elbow. “When I kiss you while
holding your face is a top one, but you’re simple. Kissing has
nothing on just holding you.” He slid the tip of his nose up my arm
to my neck. “You hate … Remi. You don’t show it, but you smell
different when she’s around. I think you hate the way she talks to
you. Since you told me about your bullies … I understand why.”

He kissed my neck and brought his hand to my
heart. “Nate…”

“One more category. It’s the biggest one. I
know what scares you. Obvious things like hunters and Lydia Shaw,
but since Sophia’s meeting, I’ve smelled how terrified you get when
you have to talk about yourself. Nothing scares you more than
you
.”

“Nate…”

“I don’t understand why. You’re so kind, so
beautiful, so sweet. Last night, you told me you used to pray for
your enemies every day, Chris.”

I regretted being so honest last night. I’d
told him Leah’s story, everything that had been true before the
blood test. I didn’t mean for him to view me as some kind of saint.
I was far from it.

“I hate that you think being angry with
people who encouraged you to
kill
yourself makes you a bad
person. I’d want to use my magic to hurt them too, but you think
that makes you the devil. I wish you could smell yourself.”

“It’s not that simple, Nate. There’s more to
it than that, and I’m worried that our relationship could fall
apart because of it. It could be over as fast as it started.”

He sighed and rested his head on the tree.
“So I guess we’re about to talk about the ridiculously huge problem
we have that neither of us has mentioned yet.” He closed his eyes
and twisted his mouth.

“What are you talking about?” I asked. He
couldn’t know what I was, or else he would’ve had a bigger
reaction. He thought copies were too dangerous to exist, let alone
cuddle with under trees.

“Oh … you know … the fact that one of us
hates magic, ignores that she has it, is currently a famous
human
, is dating someone who can’t hide his magic as well,
someone who can’t live as a human with her unless he gets
purged.”

“What? Purged?”

His eyes opened wide, huge green circles
that were beautiful and shocked. “You don’t know?” I shook my head.
“It’s some creepy way some hunters remove powers. It’s science I
think. Makes you very sick, but if you survive it, you’d be
human.”

My chest pounded. He heard it and rubbed my
cheek to calm me. “There’s a way to be human?” I asked.

“Jesus, I’ve been worrying about it and you
didn’t even know. Don’t get any ideas. I would never want you
around the kind of hunters who do that, the horrible ones, ones who
might have copies roaming around. And I can’t handle the idea of
you not making it. I thought you’d want me to do it because you
hate magic.”

My heart burned for two reasons: the mention
of copies and the sadness in his voice. He’d been worried I would
hate something about him. We had the same problem, and we needed
the same solution – unconditional acceptance. He had mine.

“I would never ask you to change yourself
for me. You’re perfect the way you are.”

He smiled, and I tightened my arms around
him. My heart trembled, hoping he would feel the same way about me.
He flipped me over to the grass and tickled me, changing the mood
in an instant. I laughed, trying to get away … until he kissed me
and I couldn’t get close enough.

“Any clue of what I like?” he asked. I shook
my head. I didn’t have a nose like his, and besides his middle
name, my powers hadn’t pulled anything from him. “When you kiss me
first.”

We chuckled, and I kissed him, because he
liked that. “And you hate?” I asked.

“Remi and anyone who hurts your
feelings.”

“Fear?” I whispered.

“You going back to school or worse. Losing
you. I’m sorry if that’s weird. I know you probably think I’m
clingy. I’ve been smothering you since we met.”

“You’re not. I like you around.”

He smiled slightly, then his lips tightened.
“Life sucked before you, Chris. I think I’m just afraid of anything
that could … ruin this.” He rolled over to his back, pulling me
with him. He clutched me like speaking his fear had made it too
real. Like he didn’t want to let go.

Neither did I. And I didn’t want to sour
this moment.

Later. There would be plenty of time for the
truth later.

When we were finally able to pull away, I
helped him with his chore – polishing the expensive trinkets around
the house. They belonged to me since they had belonged to Catherine
and Raymond.

“Mr. and Mrs. Grant had good taste,” he said
as he lifted me up to the top of a bookshelf he couldn’t reach. I
hadn’t thought of them as a Mr. and Mrs., a normal married couple.
Odds were, they weren’t. Christine – no,
I
– wanted them to
be.

I looked down at him and frowned as that
thought crashed into me, and he raised his eyebrows. “Do you think
… people who are married … do you think they … I don’t know … have
to love each other? Or can you get married for other reasons?”

Like to breed killers.

“I suppose anyone can get married for
whatever reason they wanted, but typically, I think it’s for love.
Are you wondering about your parents?” I nodded. “It doesn’t
matter, you know? The past is … the past. Whoever they were or if
they loved each other or not doesn’t change who you are. I only saw
John and Theresa sit in cold silence, and I think I’m a pretty good
boyfriend so far.”

I wiggled down to his lips and kissed him.
“You’re a
great
boyfriend. And I hope you’re right about the
past not mattering because-”

Paul cleared his throat behind us. “Nana’s
in the kitchen,” he whispered. Nate put me down just as Sophia
called for him, Paul, and Emma to meet her in there. I tagged along
with my boyfriend, dropping his hand just before walking in.
Plastic bags were piled over her arms with hangers poking out of
them.

“Remi said she’d come down in a minute,”
Emma said. Sophia rolled her eyes and gave a bag to each of them,
two to Emma. There wasn’t one for me.

“I have wonderful news,” Sophia said. Emma
unzipped her bag and pulled out a pale pink gown. It sparkled at
the top. Nate and Paul unzipped their bags. Fancy tuxedoes. I
assumed the other bag on Emma’s arm was for Remi. “I have pulled
some strings to get you into the Magical Council’s ball tonight.
Think of the connections you could make. Think of the jobs. Think
of you
not
embarrassing me!”

Emma twirled around, making her dress sway
and dance. “A ball! This is wonderful, Sophie. Thank you.”

“You’re welcome. And Christine, don’t feel
left out. Missing people can’t attend balls. Especially people who
pretend to be little Catholic schoolgirls. You and I are going to
have fun here all on our own,” she said, winking at me.

“Sophie, you have to come with us!” Emma
said. “I won’t know what to say or who to talk to.
Please
.”

“I’ll stay here with her,” Nathan said. “I
don’t have to go.”

“Good. It’s settled,” Emma said. “Sophie, do
you have a gown? I can try to whip one up.”

“No, Nathan you have to go, and Emma, I have
to stay,” Sophia said.

Nathan, Sophia, and Emma went back and forth
for a while. I finally interjected. “I don’t need a baby sitter,” I
said. “I’ll be fine here.”

Sophia must have really wanted to go. Her
face lit up and she asked, “Are you sure, my love?” I told her yes,
once then, and the three times she asked after. Then she sent them
all to get dressed and disappeared to do the same.

I refused to get upset about spending the
evening alone. I just needed to plan it out. One hour at a time. I
could do work. I could watch TV. If all else failed, I had the sock
game.

“Christine,” Emma said, at my door. She
looked beautiful in her pink gown, except for her tousled hair. “I
asked Remi to pin my hair back, and she told me no. Would you
mind?”

I let her in. I dragged the chair from my
closet to the bathroom, and she sat in front of the mirror.

“Sorry we’re leaving you. Are you mad?” she
asked.

“No, I’ll be fine here. A magical ball is
the last place I need to be,” I said, telling more of the truth
than necessary.

I pulled the comb, with ease, through her
silky hair. When I touched her head with my other hand, I could
feel and hear what I couldn’t before. I didn’t understand much of
what she was thinking today because I wasn’t fluent in French, but
I could feel how nervous she was, so nervous that my own hands
shook.

“Are you excited?” I asked. I knew the
answer before she said anything. She was terrified.

“No, these people are so important. I’m
afraid they’ll see me and see my sister. Maybe scream at me to get
out.”

I wondered what her sister did to be so
infamous, and in that moment, I knew, like I’d always known. Her
sister was heavily into dark magic, and she was afraid to admit to
herself how many people Edith killed before she was sentenced to
death by the Council she’d meet tonight.

She chuckled and I smiled at her, but
nothing was funny. I could feel what she felt about her sister – an
awful concoction of guilt and grief. I had to start the bun over,
my shaking hands had made it messy. She closed her eyes as a
memory, that I could see as clearly as she could, swept both of us
up.