Hidden (Hidden Series Book One) (41 page)

“I shouldn’t have lied to you.”

“I get why you did. I wouldn’t be too eager
to tell you something that could’ve changed everything.”

That stung more than I think he’d meant it
to. Telling him what I was had completely ruined something that
seemed so perfect before. Maybe it wasn’t. We only dated for a few
days. It wasn’t like our ten-year marriage ended. I was sure there
were bigger heartaches and way more depressing love stories than
this. At least that was what I needed to think until he left and …
then I’d break down.

“I’m not a copy, by the way. My parents
really loved me,” I said, like it was fact, not shaky like before.
“My powers were an accident.” I wasn’t sure how I knew that, but it
felt amazingly accurate. “Oh, yeah. Sophia knew my mom when she was
a teenager. They didn’t get along, but she wasn’t a killer. Neither
am I. I was just going through something that made me think awful
things about myself. None of it was true.”

“I’m sorry, Chris. I really am. When Sophia
found me, she just shook her head at me. Then Emma and Paul too. I
knew that I’d made a huge mistake. I think I knew that while I was
saying those awful things to you. When Emma told me you said hi, I
wanted to call, but I was afraid to.”

“What would you have said?” I asked, turning
away from him and back to the pictures on the wall.

“I was thinking of begging … all animal puns
intended.” He laughed. I smiled, but he couldn’t see. “Then I
would’ve said what I should have said when you told me the truth,
which was, ‘Okay, baby. Thanks for telling me, but it doesn’t
matter’ … then more begging.” I walked over to the vase of flowers
on the white nightstand, yet another random pop of color in the
room. I brought one of the pink roses to my nose in the silence,
proud of my performance. I was going for aloof. “You can hear my
thoughts right now, can’t you?”

I shook my head. “I think you’re immune to
people like me.”

“Oh. How?” I hunched my shoulders. “Sorry.
You just found out about all of this. I remember.” At least he
believed me now. “If I’d called you, what would you have said?”

I dropped the rose in the vase and looked at
him dead on, right into those amazing eyes. And I crumbled. “I
would’ve apologized again for lying. I would’ve told you how much I
missed you. I would’ve begged you to forgive me.”

“I guess I should’ve called.” He smiled but
twisted it away in the next second. “Is it too late for me to
beg?”

“No,” I said. He crossed the room in a
moment and kissed me, reminding me of every reason I couldn’t live
without him. I didn’t care how much I sounded like CC. I didn’t
care about anything. The things he’d said to me, being trapped by
Remi, and some other dull ache that didn’t have a name. None of it
mattered. I just wanted to finally kiss him without holding some
huge secret and wondering if he’d still love me.

“I’m sorry. It’s okay that you’re human. It
doesn’t matter. It never did. I was just insecure and an idiot.
Even Paul called me a jerk and said he’d replace me as your
boyfriend.” He leaned in for another kiss. It lasted a while, a
good while. “I love you. I’m sorry. Can
I
replace me as your
boyfriend?”

“Yes.” Just when I thought I’d cry, he
turned into my goofy best friend and tickled me.

“Can we talk about the red lipstick and
heels now?” he asked. I smacked his shoulder, embarrassed.

“I wanted to look sexy,” I said.

“Mission accomplished.” Somehow, we made it
to the bed while we were kissing and laughing. It was like no time
had passed at all, like nothing had ever happened between us. We
healed as quickly as his spine. “Do you still have the
lipstick?”

“Um … no.” I spaced out for a moment, trying
to think about where I’d gotten it. “Oh, it was for Lydia Shaw.
Like …
the
Lydia Shaw.” He looked at me like I was on fire.
“Sophia works for her. And she … didn’t want me to be alone in New
Orleans … so she … brought me to work with her in Paris … I
think.”

Nathan babbled his disbelief for a minute.
He thought Lydia had saved us by coincidence, but Sophia had sent
her. He eventually stopped shivering because she was the reason he
could walk right now.

“What time do you think you’ll wake up?” I
shrugged my shoulders. “I wanted to know what time I could stop by
to see you tomorrow.”

I pushed on his chest so he’d unpin me from
the bed. “Where are you going?”

“I don’t know yet. Somewhere. But you’ll see
me every day. I promise.”

I almost pouted and whined, but I knew
Nathan well. He didn’t want to go. He just didn’t want to be the
kind of person who needed to stay with his girlfriend, especially
after running out on her. I’d have to convince him to stay. I
twisted my fingers in his hair, not interested in playing fair.

“Nathan, would you really let me stay in
this big house all by myself after we escaped from a hunter?” He
didn’t answer, but he sniffed me. I’d won already. “You’ll be here
all day anyway. And didn’t you say you sleep better with me?”

He nodded and kicked his shoes off,
surrendering with ease.

We caught each other up on the last few days
we’d been apart. He’d been at Sophia’s, sharing a room with Paul. I
didn’t have much to tell. I’d been asleep mostly. I told him about
the movies I’d watched in Paris. He wasn’t looking forward to the
movie marathon I had planned for tomorrow.

Fighting sleep, I told him everything I knew
about my parents – the love story, the tragic ending caused by the
man we heard Kamon’s followers worship, and that their spirits
floated around the house in New Orleans. He apologized with tears
in his sleepy eyes for yelling at me and implying that I was
disgusting and horrible. With his arms wrapped around me in bed, I
felt anything but disgusting and horrible.

“I hate myself for saying that,” he said. I
was too tired to kiss him to show him I was over it, so I stuck my
finger in his ear to make him laugh. And he tried to make me
confess to tasting my own earwax as a child until we both fell
asleep.

Kamon’s prison smelled like mold and urine
in my dream. I ran from cell to cell, opening the doors, freeing
all the prisoners – witches and vampires and copies with bloody
faces. I wanted to bring them to Lydia Shaw, but I didn’t know
where to find her. I’d get close, running into random houses, one
with a laundry room I swore I’d been in, but she was never
there.

The helpless people followed me, hoping I
would be the one to save them, to end this. I knew I couldn’t. I
wanted to find the real hero. I wanted to meet her and tell her I’d
worn her lipstick. The next door I came to felt like the one. I
straightened my clothes, wanting to make a good impression. I
opened it and a single orange rolled through the door and stopped
at my feet.

“You two had better have on clothes under
there,” Sophia said, shaking my shoulder. “Up. Up. Up. I see we’ll
need to set new ground rules.”

Nathan scrambled out of bed, fully clothed
of course. “We just slept together,” he said. Sophia gasped, and I
laughed. “Literally slept!”

I got out of bed to show my clothes too.
Sophia tossed Nathan his duffle bag.

“Breakfast is ready. You have five minutes
to get your butts to the kitchen before I come back up here to get
you.”

We laughed when she left, and he chased me
into the bathroom for a smelly kiss. I grabbed my toothbrush first.
“It’s going to have to happen eventually,” he said.

“Gross,” I said, cringing at the thought of
him tasting my morning breath.

Nate sniffed under his arms, his toothbrush
hanging out of his mouth. “I’m still good. I took a hobo bath last
night before I woke you up.”

I laughed and made him describe the
specifics of a hobo bath. It shouldn’t be called a bath at all.

“So … show me your powers,” he said.

In our allotted five minutes, I moved two
towels from the cabinet to us, showed him the fire, and then
brought us downstairs. I was in serious need of a nap now.

Emma ran to me when we landed. “Chris! I was
so worried!”

Her thoughts echoed that. I heard them
immediately when she hugged me.

“I was worried too,” I said … because I
wasn’t a creep who couldn’t hold a conversation anymore. Whitney
would like Christine way better than Leah.

“Can I, dude?” Paul asked Nathan, nodding to
me.

“Go ahead,” Nate said. Paul picked me up and
hugged me too. This time, he wasn’t thinking about my bra. He was
just glad to be alive. “That’s enough,” Nate said.

We met Sophia in the dining room. Emma
pulled me to the seat next to her, across from Nate. There was an
empty chair with a full plate at the opposite end of the table from
Sophia. She was expecting someone else, I guessed. I hoped it was
Remi.

“First, Christine, everyone wanted to thank
you again for being so brave,” Sophia said. I looked down at my
plate, uncomfortable with the attention. “And Paul and Emma have
something to ask you.”

Emma grabbed my hand. “Please, please,
please, please, let us stay here. We’ll pay,” she said.

“I’ll do all the chores. Cut the grass.
Anything you ask. Please,” Paul said. “I gotta get out of the house
with my grandfather. He smells like mint and wrinkles.”

“Watch your mouth,” Sophia said, pointing
her fork at him.

“Yes, you can stay. Oh, Emma, Sophia has a
magazine with the perfect room for you,” I said. “It’s pink!” She
smiled, and I gave her more good news – telling her about my
collection of every predictable teen movie ever made. Nate wouldn’t
have to watch them with me after all.

I jumped when I heard the doorbell. The last
time I’d heard a doorbell, I lost my boyfriend and my world
crumbled. I could almost feel myself in pieces, too many to believe
losing Nate had caused them all.

Sophia answered the door. Emma and Paul
jumped out of their chairs when she came back with the guest – the
Honorable Lydia Shaw.

I stood too. I was the only one who
remembered to bow.

“Relax and sit down,” Sophia said. “This is
my boss. She wanted to join us for breakfast to speak with you
guys. Paul and Emma, I expect you to keep this from your parents
like you do most things.”

It was really awkward and tense as Lydia
Shaw took the empty seat. Emma and Paul were still looking like she
was about to cage them, and I … was staring at the woman I’d spent
hours looking for in my dream.

“Thanks for saving us, Lyd … uh should I
call you Your Honor?” I asked.

“Lydia will do.”

I looked away because I was smiling too
hard, like a crazed fan or something. I guessed since I’d wanted to
see her so badly last night, I wasn’t too nervous to talk to her.
How Lydia Shaw had gone from my biggest fear to an idol in my mind
was beyond me.

“On the news, you said you
knew
. Did
you mean like you knew everything about me?” I asked. She nodded
and lifted a forkful of eggs to her mouth. “And those things are …
okay? My mother giving me powers and everything?”

“It’s perfectly okay. I promise. Don’t
worry.” She smiled at me, and I just stared because she was so
pretty and so famous and … in my dining room. “The rest of you can
relax too. I swear I’m not going to do you anything,” she said.
Sophia motioned everyone to eat. “Emma, isn’t it?”

“Yes,” Emma whispered.

“I met your parents once. Nicholas and Lacy
Arnaud, correct?” she said. Emma nodded again, visibly terrified.
“Sophia said you’re a nice girl and a very talented witch.”

“Yes, ma’am. Nothing like my sister,” Emma
said, nervous and loud. Lydia chuckled, like Emma didn’t need to
offer that bit of information.

“And Paul, you’re Sophia’s youngest
grandchild?” she asked.

“Yes, ma’am.”

“I’ve known Sophia a very long time, and
oddly, I have never met your parents,” she said. Sophia laughed.
“Or any member of the Ewing family for that matter.” Sophia Ewing?
I felt entirely too close to her not to know her last name until
then. Or Paul’s. “I’m sure they’re wonderful and you too, Paul.” I
hadn’t stopped staring. I just averted my eyes each time she looked
my way only to stare again a moment later. “I wanted to talk to you
all about Kamon, what you saw, and also to make sure you understand
how incredibly dangerous it would be to ever contact Remi Vaughn
again.”

Kamon and Remi cast a dark cloud over our
star-studded breakfast. We all promised the famous woman to never
speak to Remi again. Now that she was in Kamon’s cult, she’d be our
enemy forever because of my powers and their magic. She said, in a
serious and terrifying voice, that if Kamon caught us again, even
though she promised to be there if he did, he wouldn’t waste time
blood testing and talking.

“Christine,” she said. Why was I so excited
to hear her say my name? It freaked me out. It reminded me of Remi
salivating over Kamon saying
her
name. “If you ever get
tired of having nosebleeds and want to practice your powers, let
Sophia know. She’ll work you into my schedule.”

“Really?”

“Yes, really.” I grinned at my eggs. I was
going to learn more psychic powers from the best there was. I
wouldn’t have to be afraid of Kamon or sedatives. “Nathan, you’re
awfully quiet,” she said. He stammered through an apology. “How’s
your back?”

“Fine. Thank you.” He looked at me then at
her, then back to his breakfast. “Christine and I are together,” he
blurted out. “I love her. Please don’t hurt me.”

She and Sophia laughed. Slowly, the rest of
us joined in. “I know that. I’m psychic, remember? And it’s okay.
As long as you don’t shift in public, you two will be fine.”

“Thanks,” Nathan said, his hands still
shaking.

“Speaking of public, Christine,” Lydia said.
“Since Sophia decided to
so boldly
take you from school in
the midst of a crowd, it would be a great idea if you made an
appearance to show the world you’re still alive.”