Authors: Melanie Matthews
She tilted her head to the side, smiling. “What things?”
He shrugged. “Stuff.”
“I want you to come.”
“I would, if I could be with you, only you,” he said softly. “But no. Being around a bunch of kids—”
“I’m a kid,” she reminded him, feeling hurt. “I’m fifteen.”
He gently took her hand. “I know, but you seem so much older. You’re so…different.”
She was confused. “Different how?”
“I can’t explain it, but I think it has to do with your time, you know, in the hospital. You had to grow up really fast.”
She didn’t like to think about that place.
“You said other girls have been in hospitals.”
“Yeah, but not as long as you. The headmaster always found them after a short time.” He let go of her hand and caressed her cheek, massaging her skin with the pad of his thumb. “You were…locked up…the longest.”
She lowered her head and his thumb stilled against her cheek. “I don’t want to talk about that.”
He lifted her chin so that their eyes met. “It’s all right. I won’t mention it again.” He nodded to the door and let go of her. “Now go on before someone sees you,” he ordered softly.
She nodded. “See you later?” she asked, hopeful.
He smiled. “Later.”
But as she opened his door, and looked down the hallway, she got scared. What if someone found her? Walking out of Colin’s room?
“Let me take you back,” he offered, standing right behind her.
She turned to face him. “Thanks. I’m scared to go back the way I came.”
He smiled. “I’m surprised you even made the attempt.”
“I had to see you.”
Hope rekindled in his brown eyes again, and he smiled, but then his face fell. He knew how she felt. She didn’t want to be with him, not like that.
“Colin—”
“Let me get you back,” he said softly, cutting her off.
With one arm, she held her present to her side, and wrapped her other arm around his chest. She could feel his strong muscles beneath his thin white T-shirt. As with the last time he had whisked her away, she assumed he had done this before, with a girl he liked, maybe loved, but she didn’t ask. This wasn’t the time for a trip down Sad Memory Lane.
He pressed his lips against her ear. “I can see if anyone is around. If they are, we’ll head back here. If not…I’ll let you go.”
It sounded like a simple drop off—“I’ll let you go”—but to Colin, it meant something else…someone he desired and couldn’t have.
She didn’t say anything, only nodding her head against his chest.
“Ready?” he asked softly.
She nodded again and held on tight, but as they vanished, she experienced something she never had before while transporting—she was calm…in Colin’s arms. They appeared outside her door, and the coast must have been clear, for he let go of her…a little too quickly, she thought.
“What’s wrong?” she asked.
“Nothing. Why?”
“You…you let go of me so quickly.”
He smirked. “If you want me to hold you again, then we’ll have to do it someplace else.”
She shook her head. “I didn’t mean that.”
“Look, away from my place, I’m going to keep my distance from you, like Lucas has been ordered to. We don’t want gossip.”
“But what about when I’m
in
your apartment?”
She was amazed by her audacious question, but she had to voice the possibility of another visit, only to talk, of course.
“That’s another story,” he said, smirking.
“You know we’re just friends, right?”
He smiled. “I know, but that’s how relationships form, don’t they?”
He vanished before she had time to answer, but she didn’t even know what she would’ve said. There was no way her and Colin would ever be together, but what he said made her think of Lucas. They had jumped head first into a relationship without really knowing each other. Now they were apart. And it seemed like it was going to stay that way, with his ability to enter her mind, and how it’d terrified the headmaster so much that he’d ordered them to stay away from each other.
She found her room deserted and sat down on her bed with the pop-up book against her chest. Music filtered up from downstairs. The concert was about to start, but before that they had to exchange their gifts. She imagined Devin at the microphone, ready to sing, waiting for everyone. As for friends turning into something more, she and Devin weren’t even friends. They were nothing. She wasn’t important enough for him to acknowledge. And maybe, just maybe, he was her next suspect since Colin had been effectively cleared.
She carefully placed his gift on her desk, then went to the bathroom mirror, and checked over her face. She brushed her hair again and applied her cherry lip gloss. And just in case Devin fantastically surprised her with a kiss, she popped in a breath mint, but it was mainly to get the taste of Colin’s tobacco and beer-flavored tongue from her mouth. She hoped that she didn’t smell like smoke, either. People would wonder who she had been with since Lucas was supposed to be out of the picture.
She looked up and down at herself in the full length bathroom mirror and noticed that she was attired in black and blue. Perhaps reflective of how she felt, as if her inner soul had been beaten down with no chance of recovery. She hated to admit it, but right now, she’d rather be with Colin, instead of packed like a sardine with most of the school, in the Commons Area, only a small distance from Lucas, who she couldn’t be with, and Devin, who didn’t want to be with her at all.
She forced a smile. “Let’s go have some fun,” she told herself in the mirror.
Well, as much as she could, considering she was hunting a possessed Leprechaun.
18
The Secret Song
Now that Colin was no longer a suspect, all she had left was Lucas and Devin. Dangerous. Cunning. Powerful. A Leprechaun with dark designs. None of it made any sense, and soon she forgot about her ancestors, and their warning, when she arrived at the Commons Area, brightly lit with red and green Christmas lights.
Someone had hooked up a stereo system and traditional music was playing. She crossed to approach Meg, Corrine, Liam, and Finn; they were standing by the tree, drinking some kind of red liquid from a clear cup, while “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer” was blaring from the speakers.
Everyone wore casual clothes—mostly T-shirts, jeans, a few short skirts. But Eva noticed that Bree had to be different. She wore a red dress that hugged her curves, along with cream-colored stiletto heels that made her look like an Amazon. She chatted away excitedly with some fourth year girls, but Eva knew deep down, she was hurting from her canceled plans to go to New York, and from her deteriorating relationship with Devin.
“Drink?” Liam offered, handing Eva a full cup.
“What is it?” she asked, peering down inside the cup.
“Little bit of fruit punch, little bit of Vodka.”
“Vodka?!”
“
Little bit
,” Liam emphasized in his Texan accent.
“C’mon! Don’t be such a prude!” Corrine took a huge swig of her drink, and Liam had to pull it away from her.
“Not so fast, honey! Drink it slow.”
Corrine groaned, and then pouted her lips.
It seemed that ever since their beer session on the top of the roof all those months ago, she had taken a shine to spirits.
“You can’t get drunk before you open your present,” Meg said, clutching Finn’s hand.
“But if it’s awful, I need to be drunk to appreciate it,” Corrine reasoned.
Meg grinned. “It won’t be awful. It’s from me.”
Corrine gasped. “What did you get me?”
Meg threw a hand at her friend. “I’m not telling! You’ll find out when you open it.”
Corrine grumbled, but then smiled, and didn’t ask for another drink.
“Drink it,” Liam urged Eva.
She looked around the room, and noticed that everyone else was guzzling theirs down.
“All right.” She took a very tiny sip, instantly tasting the alcohol. “Yuck!” She scrunched her nose. “It’s awful!”
She heard someone laugh behind her and turned around to see Lucas. “Alcohol’s not for everyone. So Eva, how have you been?”
He smiled at her, but she couldn’t return it, shocked to hear him direct a question at her. They hadn’t spoken in over a week, but she was still enamored with his appearance: Converse sneakers, faded blue jeans with a torn knee, and a snug navy T-shirt that showed off his muscles. His blond hair seemed brighter, and his blue-gray eyes glowed.
She tried to contain her nerves. “Good. You?”
He nodded. “Good. Can’t wait to get started,” he said, motioning to the far end of the Commons Area, where a bunch of students were standing around.
When the crowd thinned out, she noticed a set of drums had been set up, along with two electrical guitars—one black, one green—each secured in a stand, with large speakers and amps nearby. Three microphones were on stands, and one was attached to the drum set. Devin was at the one in the front—the lead singer’s stand. He wore black boots, faded blue jeans, and a black T-shirt that showed off his toned arms and chest. His black hair was glossy and beautiful, and his emerald eyes sparkled from under the chandelier lights.
He had his red electrical guitar against the front of his body, tuning it, with the strap against his back. But he never looked up, never sought her out in the crowd, as if he were purposely avoiding her, like always.
Eva took another sip of the awful drink. It was something to do from falling apart in front of him, in front of Devin, in front of everyone. “I can’t wait,” she said to Lucas.
“Yeah, this is gonna be the best Christmas Eve rockin’ concert yet!” Liam announced loudly.
“Yeah, we got some new songs,” Finn added. “And Devin’s wrote this song…real secret,” he continued in a hushed tone, leaning in to everybody, as if he were telling them something he wasn’t supposed to.
“We don’t know what it is,” Lucas offered, “so we’re just going to let him go at the end.” He shrugged. “Just in case it sucks, we don’t want him ruining the mood in the beginning.”
“That’s not nice,” Eva said.
She was surprised that she was defending someone who didn’t give a damn about her, but someone who was pulling her in like a magnet. But he could be evil and that was his trap. Then again, she thought it could be Lucas, since how mean he had just been.
Lucas’ face fell. “Sorry. Devin’s all right. I was just joking.”
He apologized. Now she didn’t know what to think. She just nodded and took another sip of her Vodka punch.
Soon, Meg, Corrine, Liam, and Finn were all caught up in a conversation about their end of year exams. Eva remembered they had been difficult, and she anxiously awaited her grades in January. As she listened in, she felt fingertips brush against her lower back. It was Lucas. She knew his touch only too well.
He pressed his soft lips against the sensitive skin of her ear. “I miss you,” he whispered.
But when she turned to look at him, he was already walking away, heading to Devin. Her head was spinning—not from the Vodka, but from his admission, his sweet words, his touch. A part of her still loved him dearly, but as she watched him with Devin, joking around and laughing, she wondered if Lucas was being controlled by this dangerous, cunning, and powerful warlock—or if it was his best friend, Devin.
Dark designs
. Never had two words brought such fear in her mind, in her imagination, wondering, worrying, as to what sort of design, and
who
was his target?
Someone lowered the volume to the Christmas music in the CD player, and the Secret Santa exchange of gifts began. Liam and Finn helped pass them out, and when Eva’s name was called, she ran happily to them, holding out her hand.
“Here ya go,” Liam said, handing her a small red envelope.
She smiled, attempting to hide her disappointment. She noticed that everyone else receiving large gifts wrapped in pretty red and green paper.
“Thanks.” She sulked away from everyone, trying to hide her lousy gift.
Near a window that showcased the starry night, she turned her back to everyone, and all their joviality, taking in her gift more closely. Her name was written in bold black cursive ink across the front. It looked like someone had taken the time to form every curve of her short name. But that didn’t give her a clue who had written it.
Quickly, she opened it, and pulled out a
blank
index card.
What the…?!