Shattered (19 page)

It took her a few seconds to realize what
was happening, and when she did, they kissed like the world depended on them kissing.
It was the strangest thing I’d ever seen. I covered my mouth so I wouldn’t
scream and ruin the moment. It was impossible to decipher if they were kissing
from love or hate or some awful mix of the two. It was the complete opposite of
every kiss I’d ever had with Nate. We had easy kisses, sweet and filled with
uncomplicated love. Their kiss was more than complicated.

 
It didn’t get gross until Mom lost her
balance and Dad pulled her closer while still attacking her face.

He pulled away first and pressed his
forehead against hers.

“That was a mistake,” he said. “It won’t
happen again.”

“Okay,” she breathed.

 
“And you’re going to agree with me moving
her to Puerto Rico and keeping that creep away from her.”

“Okay.”

“Don’t talk to her about him. Respect my
wishes.”

“Okay.”

Mom looked drunk, and Dad was
manipulating her into going along with his wishes. It looked like I didn’t have
a chance in hell to win her over and beg her to bring me to Nate. God, I hoped
Gregory had gotten my email. My powers were my only hope.

“Just,” Mom said, their lips still inches
apart. “…give Sophia some time to protect the new place. Old place. Whatever
you’re calling it. Can you give her a few days?”

“Okay,” he said.

He finally backed away, and they both
rubbed their lips. Dad left the room, and she kicked her shoes off and climbed
in bed. She lay there for the remaining minutes before her meeting, rubbing my
hair, as I continued to pretend to sleep.

Later that day, after hours of sitting in
bed and hoping Gregory would come or I’d get another chance to check my email,
my bedroom door opened. For once, it wasn’t Sophia.

Emma walked in and tossed a huge purse on
my bed. Without speaking to me, she walked to my dad and handed him her phone.
“As promised,” she said.

“Thank you, Emma. I trust that you
understand why I have to watch you two.”

“Of course. I brought my laptop. I’m
hoping that’s okay. Nathan doesn’t have email or anything. I promise.”

He nodded, allowing the laptop, and Emma
finally looked at me.

“Good lord, look at your eyebrows!” she
said. “You’re in serious need of me, young lady.”

I laughed and tackled her as soon as she hopped
on my bed. Emma would understand what I was going through better than anyone
else. I finally had someone to talk to and scheme with.

But of course Sheriff Dad didn’t leave.

She opened her laptop and turned on music.
It was the same song she used to blast in her room all the time. She’d called
it a classic, something that was
in
when we were kids. But in my world, when I was young, hymns were in.

“Paul sends his love,” she said.

“Where is he?”

“At home.
You know who
and Paul were secretly dating. He’s not taking his
disappearance well.”

“
You
know who
and I are in love. I’m also not taking it well.”

Dad cleared his throat and said, “Change
the subject.”

Emma winked and opened a blank document
on her screen.

Why
didn’t you tell us about Nathan?
She
typed.

I replied:
Sorry. I was afraid.

She squeezed my hand. I thought we were
going to continue our secret conversation about Nate, but she typed:
Gregory sent me.

????

Sophia’s
in Sydney with your mother. He’ll be here soon.

!!!!!!

First,
I have to knock your father out.

!!!!!!!!!!

When
I say your name, go sit on his lap.

She closed the laptop before I could
react and pulled a vial of blue powder out of her pocket. She dumped the
contents into her hand and traced a five-point star on her palm. Then, she blew
it into my face. It made tears well in my eyes and quickly
spill
down my cheeks.

“Aww. Don’t cry, Christine!” she said.
She bulged her eyes at me, and I remembered I was supposed to go sit on my
dad’s lap for some reason.

“Honey?” Dad said. I walked to him with a
face full of fake tears and curled into a ball on his lap. He squeezed me and
tucked my head under his chin. “It’s okay. We’ll get through this. Heartache
doesn’t last forever. You’ll get over him.”

I wanted to say that I was in no way
broken up with Nathan so there was nothing to get over, but I decided against
it. Emma was up to something.

She rubbed my back and pretended to
console me. “Chris,” she said. “Here’s a tissue.” She held it to my nose and
pinched it shut. I peeked up at her, and she winked. She brought her free hand
to her lips and blew a gust of yellow powder into my dad’s face.

A second later, he started snoring.

“Hurry,” she said. “Get dressed. Gregory
seemed to think meeting with you was urgent.”

I’d say it was a matter of life and
death. I had to find my boyfriend. If anyone had told Nate what he’d done, he
would be a mess. He needed me now more than ever.

I threw on a pair of jeans and a t-shirt.
When I came out of my closet, Dad was still asleep in the chair, Emma was gone,
and Gregory Ewing was sitting on my bed with a plate in his hands.

“Hi, love,” he said. “I got your email.”

I smiled. “Thanks for coming.”

“Of course. Anytime Christine Gavin wants
to talk about power, I will promptly clear my schedule. I’m hoping you were
serious.” I nodded and sat next to him. The plate he was carrying had a slimy
egg jiggling on top of toast on it. “Good. Shall I assume this has something to
do with Nathan?”

“It does. I want to find him.”

“And you are aware that he is immune to
psychic powers?” I nodded. “And you are also aware that he doesn’t want to
speak with you?”

“Nathan will always want to speak with
me.”

He frowned and gave me the plate in his hands.
“Persistent,” he said. “I can’t say that I blame you. We’re all very torn up
about this. If I knew where he was, I would tell you, but I don’t.”

I fought the sudden urge to cry. I missed
Nate more than I ever thought was possible.

“I can help you with your powers,” he
said. “But I’m afraid I must ask a favor for this favor.”

“What kind of favor?” I asked.

“I need your help with something. Today
if possible. I’ve been waiting on the email you sent me for almost a month. At
first, I was sending the quotes to help you, but then … I started sending them
for another reason. I’m sorry that these were the circumstances of you
answering me, but I’m afraid I have to use it to my advantage.”

“I will do anything for a chance to find
him,” I said.

He smiled and gave me a fork.

I swallowed the nausea back. The poached
egg looked disgusting. Only a few sprinkles of pepper would be between that
slimy thing and my tongue.

“Go on, dear. Give it a try. Everyone
loves my eggs.”

I jabbed the egg with the fork. My
stomach twisted as yoke spilled over the bread and oozed to the plate. He
tapped my hand, smiling, urging me to continue.

I regretted my dramatics after the first
bite. Once I got over the weird texture, it was actually pretty good. On my
third bite he said, “Allow me, dear.” He brushed my hair away from my ears and
gently pushed in earplugs.

“What are you doing?” I asked.

“The eggs contain the antidote to-”

A harsh mix of sounds interrupted him. He
took the plate out of my hands, and I slammed them against my ears. I heard a
train rushing down tracks, loud enough to be in my bathroom. Then a plane
sending a mayday signal. Then hundreds of screams, people howling in pain.

I screamed with them, and he met me on
the floor. I hadn’t realized I was on my knees.

His mouth was moving, but the screaming
drowned out his voice. He cupped my face in his hands and smiled. Eventually I
heard him say, “Find my voice and nothing else. Nod when you can hear me.” I
nodded. “I gave you the antidote to the potion.”

The noise was more menacing than I
remembered, like nails against a chalkboard, nails inside my brain. “Please
undo it,” I said. “I can’t handle it!”

“You can. I tell all of my kids that they
can do anything they put their minds to, but for you, that’s literally true.
Hear only what you desire.” I decided to only hear his voice. As soon as I
thought it, the noise vanished. Silence rushed into the room and soothed my
racing heart. “Control grows with your powers, love. Don’t be afraid of them.
We need them today.”

So he needed a psychic favor, something
magic couldn’t do or something he couldn’t get my mother to do. Interesting.

We stood from the floor slowly, and he
made me finish the rest of the egg. “A train, a plane, and screaming,” I said.

He rubbed the back of my hand and
frowned. “The world is full of danger, my dear.”

“Is someone going to help those people?”

“It won’t be you.” I started to protest,
but he shushed me. “Everyone in your life has come to expect the worst of you where
your powers are concerned. Would you say that is a fair assumption?”

I didn’t have to answer. There were too
many moments to count that proved that very thing.

“Then why do you think I should have
powers?” I asked.

“You want an honest answer?” I nodded.
“Because you’re Lydia Shaw’s daughter. You can do things no one else can do in
a time when we need someone who is both powerful and kind.”

He winked, and a blue velvet bag appeared
in his hand. He emptied it, and shiny red rings tumbled onto my comforter. They
sparkled in the natural light floating in through the curtains. Each had a
symbol etched in the center of what had to be real rubies.

“Put those on. One on each finger. Not
the thumbs.” I slipped them on. They bobbled on my boney fingers, a few sizes
too big. “For the favor, I’m bringing you to the Magical Council’s
headquarters.” He chuckled at the confused expression on my face. “You need special
access, so you can’t be yourself.”

He turned each ring around so that they
faced the wrong direction and sparkled inside of my palm. My hands ballooned as
I stared at them. Soon, the rings squeezed against my new, manly fingers.

“I have hair on my knuckles!” I yelled,
but it wasn’t my voice. I ran to the mirror in my bathroom and screamed. I was
a dude, a pale one with ice-cold skin. Twenty-something and flawless. Too
flawless. “Gregory!”

“I think I would like it better if you
called me Pop like my other grandchildren.”

“Fine, Pop! What the hell?!” I looked
down at the tailored gray suit I was wearing all of a sudden. I touched my
frigid cheek and gasped. “Am I a vampire?”

“Technically, you are a mirage of a
vampire. The rings are only visible to you once you’ve changed. You will need
to keep them all on for the rest of our time together today. Are we clear?”

I ran out of the bathroom and
dramatically gestured around my fake body. “No. We are not clear!”

I checked the chair. My father was still
knocked out even though I was screaming.

“Then let me explain, little one. Come
sit.” He patted the space next to him on my bed, and I sat, still staring at
the foreign arms and legs attached to me. “I took the rings from a box my wife
found in the attic of your home in New Orleans. They are expensive toys for
witches and wizards or the humans who know them.”

I stretched my hands in front of me and
studied the symbols in the rubies. A star, a moon, a lion, a fox, a sword, a
shield, a heart, and flames.

“I knew what they were as soon as I saw
them,” he said. “And I knew who they belonged to. Your grandfather.” I lifted
my strange and cold fingers to my lips and kissed the rare artifacts from my
broken family. “He was an ally to magical kind in his later life. Those rings
got him in and out of our meetings unnoticed for years. He revealed himself to
a friend of mine when he wanted his memory erased.”

I remembered reading my mom’s diary,
before I knew who she was, and learning the tragic story of Vincent and Cecilia
Shaw. They’d died because of Julian’s obsession with their daughter. Before
then, my grandfather had their memories erased of Mom to keep her safe.

“Vincent Shaw was an interesting man,” he
said. “He was oddly caring, but deadly, and crazy as a loon … like your
mother.” I laughed, rubbing the rings like they were extensions of him, shiny
bits of my grandfather. “Before he quit, he was one of the most influential
hunters of his time. Rich, powerful. He gave it up to have a family. Like your
mother was going to do.”