Rogue Wave (The Water Keepers, Book 2) (17 page)

Rayne stood up straight. “No. You know what? I wasn’t planning to say anything, but I changed my mind. You want to talk about being a good friend? You think you’re any better than me? I know what you did, Ash. I know you sent someone to steal my Healing Water.”

“So what if I did?” Ash said coldly. “It’s not like you can’t just hop back over to your perfect little world and get more, where everyone bends over backward to do whatever you want the minute you bat your pretty eyelashes in their direction.”

Rayne’s teeth clenched. “I didn’t need that water for me. I needed it for Sadie. Did you even know that she has a condition? She’ll die if she goes more than a day without the Healing Water, two at the most. She could have died while I was gone.”

“No, I didn’t know that,” Ash said flatly. He paused only a second then folded his arms. “Oh, boo hoo. What do you want
me
to do about it? Why don’t you go cry with Hamlin a little more? He deserves to get a taste of his own medicine for once anyway.”

“What’s that supposed to mean? Why don’t you leave Hamlin out of this? He’s done nothing but sacrifice his own happiness for the good of the people his entire life.”

Ash’s upper lip curled into a menacing smile. “You know, now that I think about it, I can see why all of you are working so hard to keep Sadie to yourselves. I was admiring several of her…
qualities
when I was in her bedroom last night.”

Rayne’s patience exploded. He tore an armchair off the floor and swung it towards the TV screen.

“Go ahead. Do it,” Ash said. “I’m getting bored of this conversation anyway. There’s nothing more sad or annoying than a peasant who thinks he’s found his place among kings; when all he’ll ever be is the court jester, a buffoon playing the fool.”

Rayne stopped short and threw the chair at the floor. “Just forget it. You’re not worth the trouble.”

15. DELIRIUM

The first three periods of the day were tough, but by the time I dragged my feet into fourth period Physics, I was ready to collapse from exhaustion. I was there in body, but the inside of my head was like one of those fun houses they have at carnivals, where everything’s all distorted and confusing, and maybe even a little bit funny in a demented sort of way…and it was giving me the worst headache I’d ever had in my life.

Just as I was about to drop my forehead onto the desk, Justin Crane plopped down in the seat in front of me. “Whoa, Sade, you look like—”

I cut him off. “Like a person who should be at home, cuddled up in her bed?”

“More like one of the zombies from the movie I watched last night,” he teased.

Justin’s girlfriend, Ariana, approached just in time to hear his comment. “Babe,” she complained. “Don’t compare Sadie to the undead.”  Ariana gestured to my unkempt appearance. “Even when she’s all puffy and frizzy, she’s way too cute to be a zombie.”

“Thanks,” I laughed, letting my chin fall into my hands. “But I’m actually starting to feel like one today.”

Heather finally showed up and took the seat next to mine. “Where were you this morning?” she asked as soon as she sat down. “I waited for you by your locker.”

I sighed. “I didn’t even have time to stop at my locker. I slept a total of, like, five minutes last night. I barely made it to first period before the bell rang.”

“I think Sadie had a rough night,” Ariana explained empathetically.

Justin chuckled. “Yeah, she was busy roaming the streets, devouring the flesh off all the humans she could find.” Ariana laughed in disgust and slapped Justin’s arm.

“Anyway,” Heather said, rolling her eyes. “What happened to you?” She glanced quickly at Justin. “Actually, why don’t you tell me about it at lunch? Class is going to start in a few minutes.”

I was so tired I didn’t even care that Justin was listening. “Rayne is what happened to me,” I said to Heather in frustration. “Justin, if the offer’s still on the table, you totally have my permission to go beat him up for me now.”

“Really?” Justin said excitedly. “Nice, just give me his address.”

Ariana jumped from her chair. “Baby, no. Sadie was just teasing. We talked about this, remember?”

“I swear, I can’t keep up with you two,” Heather said. “You’re like, the perfect couple one day, then you break up for no reason at all, then you practically make-out the next day. It’s been less than twenty-four hours since the last time I talked to you, so what could have possibly gone wrong in such a short period of time?”

Mr. Reed entered the classroom, dumping a large box of equipment on the front table. There wasn’t really time to explain.

“Basically,” I said to Heather between yawns. “Rayne gave me a bunch of reasons why we should get back together. Then right when I was about to agree with him, I found out he’d been lying to me about a bunch of stuff.”

“What a prick,” Justin said. “I knew that guy was full of crap.”

I felt suddenly defensive. “No he’s not.”

“
Justin
, you’re just making things worse,” Heather complained.

I looked at both of them, exhausted, and whimpered, “Is it time to go home yet? All I want to do is
sleep
.”

Everyone finally turned their attention away from my messy hair and pathetic life to face the front of the room. Mr. Reed set out a bunch of random objects on display on the front table, and with a voice more jovial than usual, announced to the class that today was
liquid nitrogen day
. There were a few cheers and laughs around the room, excited for a fun activity rather than a lecture, but despite the upbeat atmosphere, my brain couldn’t hold out any longer. Mr. Reed’s explanation of safety procedures lulled me quickly to sleep.

My mind slipped into a dream. I was sitting in a swing on a playground in the middle of a park, twisting the seat happily in circles beneath me and singing the song
Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
, just like I did as a child. Across the park, a figure emerged from behind a tree and moved in a blur across the grass, disappearing behind the next tree over.

Feeling nervous, I called out. “Diamond-eyes, is that you?”

The shadowy figure zipped out into the field, this time laughing callously before hiding again.

“Rayne?” I said loudly, glancing back and forth around the playground. I wanted to jump from the swing and chase after the shadow to find out who it was, thinking it was probably Rayne, but I’d spun around so many times that the chains on the swing were tangled together. I squirmed and pulled at the metal links, trying to free myself, but it just seemed to tangle them more and more.

“Rayne,” I called again. “Help me. I’m stuck.”

Finally, Rayne appeared near me on the playground with a calm smile on his face. But he didn’t come from behind the trees in the field; he was on the other side of me near the slide. A dark feeling spread through my limbs. If Rayne was behind the slide, then who was out there in the shadows behind the trees?

“Rayne, be careful,” I cried. “Something’s out there.”

Rayne reached over his head and pulled a long, shiny knife from a sheath slung behind his back. It looked like a machete. He didn’t speak, but his smile disappeared, replaced by concentration. He clasped the handle of the weapon with two hands and lifted the blade, aiming it right at my head. In that moment, I wasn’t sure if I was more frightened of the shadow figure or of Rayne.

I screamed out in a panic. “Wait! What are you doing? Don’t hurt me.”

I tried again to untangle myself from the knotted chains surrounding me as Rayne swung the machete in my direction. I closed my eyes and flinched. Metal pierced across metal and the twist of links severed apart, freeing me instantly, causing me to crash to the ground beneath a pile of chains.

As I tried to remove myself from the pile, the dark figure I had seen behind the trees sprang forward from out of nowhere and attacked Rayne. They wrestled back and forth at my feet, but Rayne couldn’t hold him off. The dark figure lifted Rayne like he was nothing more than a toy and threw him across the playground.

“No!” I cried.

When I looked back from Rayne’s lifeless body, stunned in terror, I saw that the figure wasn’t a shadow at all. It was Ash.

“What did you do?” I said with dread.

Ash’s bright blue eyes turned black as night. “He tried to kill my father,” Ash snarled. “I had to do it.” Ash shot a worried glance in Rayne’s direction where his body lay in a heap on the ground. Ash clenched his fists, and turned back to me, a new wave of anger pulsing through his face. “I had to do it. He tried to
kill
my father.”

I took a step back. Ash’s eyes were fiery and filled with hate. I moved quicker, taking two more steps, and then flipped around completely to run away. But when I turned, I stopped cold in place. My mother was there, sitting in a swing, pumping her legs forward and back, innocent and unaware. I ran to her side. I had to get her out of there. But before I could move another inch, the barrel of a gun pointed at my mom a few feet away, and it wasn’t Ash on the other end… It was his father, Voss.

A bang crashed, causing me to scream. I jumped back to reality.  Confused, I stared for a moment around the classroom, trying to catch my breath. I realized I was back in my desk and the entire physics class was laughing at me. Justin stood at the front of the room, high-fiving another boy in the class. Even Heather was practically in tears of laughter. There were little blue chunks scattered on the floor all around my feet.

“What just happened,” I whispered to Heather, trying to gain my composure.

Heather leaned over through her chuckles. “You were totally, like, dead asleep, and Mr. Reed picked Justin of all people to demonstrate what liquid nitrogen does to a racquetball. Apparently, frozen rubber shatters when it’s chucked across the room.”

Justin sauntered triumphantly back to his seat. “Have a nice nap, Sadie?”

I shook my head, but I had to laugh a little. “Very funny, Justin. You almost gave me a heart attack.”

I managed to stay half-awake for the rest of class, thanks to Justin shocking a bunch of adrenalin into my bloodstream. Plus, the dream I had was more than a little disturbing, causing me to feel uneasy. The image of Voss’s deadly eyes and the gun pointed directly at my mother’s head, left me on edge. I just wanted to be home in my bed, but I was almost too scared to go there by myself.

“My brain hurts,” I said to Heather as we walked outside to the lunch tables. “I can’t compute any more thoughts today. I think I’m just going to call my mom and see if she’ll excuse me from my last two classes.”

Heather looked me up and down. “Yeah, you should probably go home and sleep. You’re kind of a mess.”

“Do you want to come with me?” I added hopefully. “We could watch a movie or something.”

Heather frowned. “I totally would, but I can’t. I have a math test next period. You should see if Nicole wants to go with you.”

“Yeah, maybe,” I said.

Heather stopped a couple yards away from our table. “Or maybe not,” she said, smiling mischievously. “Who’s the gorgeous new-guy talking to Nicole? He’s totally flirting with her.” Heather grabbed my arm and spoke in a hushed tone near my ear. “Oh my gosh, did you see that? He’s totally checking her out. His eyes are practically glued to her chest.”

“He better not be checking her out,” I said with a chuckle. “That’s Nicole’s cousin.”

Heather turned to me with a surprised look. “Really?” Then her face wrinkled. “Eww. Gross. Are you messing with me?”

“No, I’m serious. I’ve met him before. He isn’t new. He goes to UCLA. I wonder what he’s doing here.”

“Nice. A college man,” Heather said. “You’re single now. You should go talk to him. He’s kind of hot.”

I hesitated. “I don’t know. We’ve talked before, and I don’t think he’s really my type.”

“Oh, come on,” Heather said, dragging me forward. “It’s not like you have to marry him or anything. Just talk to him. Who knows, maybe he has some cute college friends he could introduce us to.”

“Hey guys,” Nicole greeted as we approached, bubbly as usual. I glanced up at her cousin’s shiny white smile, searching my sleepy head to remember his name.

Heather nodded at Nicole’s cousin with a grin. “So, who’s this?”

“Oh duh,” Nicole said, laughing at herself. “Heather, this is my cousin, Derrick. Derrick, this is Heather.” Nicole turned toward me. “And you remember Sadie, right? You guys met at the yogurt shop the other day.”

Derrick looked at me with a strange, almost satisfied expression. His eyes followed up and down the length of my body. “Yep. I remember.”

I laughed nervously and hugged my bag closer around my shoulder.

“So, you look like a college guy. Where do you go to school?” Heather said to him, pretending she had no idea.

“UCLA,” Derrick said.

“Really?” Heather cooed. “That’s where Sadie and I are going in the fall. Maybe we should come up sometime and you could show us around?”

I kept my eyes pointed in Heather’s direction as she spoke, but I could feel Derrick’s gaze staring at my face. “Sure, sounds like fun,” he replied. “So, what about today? I’m meeting up with a friend later, but I have a few hours to kill if any of you ladies are interested in hanging out. Maybe some lunch somewhere a little nicer than the school cafeteria?”

“Sorry, I have a math test next hour,” Heather said, taking the lead. “But Sadie was just telling me how she was totally ready to ditch the rest of her classes today.”

I gave Heather a betrayed glance, but she smiled back at me triumphantly. As if she had just handed me the hugest favor of my life.

I paused and forced a smile back at Derrick. “Well, I was just going to ask Nicole if she wanted to watch a movie over at my house. Nothing exciting.”

Derrick shrugged. “A movie at your place could be fun. I have nothing better to do.”

“Oh my gosh,” Nicole said. “I totally want to come with you guys, but if I get caught ditching again, my dad’s going to ground me for the rest of my life.”

Derrick raised his eyebrows at me. “Well, I guess it’s just the two of us.”