The Second Heart (24 page)

Meredith searched his face, wondering if it
was one that she would come to love. He was beautiful, with rich
brown skin and soulful eyes. He had dimples in his cheeks when he
smiled, and a crease between his eyebrows when he concentrated. His
hair was thick and wavy, and Meredith loved the way it slid between
her fingers when they kissed. In a low voice, she said, “I do want
you to know me, Miguel.”

Miguel pulled her hand to his mouth and gave
it a small peck. “Good.”

Nate huffed impatiently in the front seat.
“Okay, the police station it is.”

“We can’t go to the police, Nate,” she said,
annoyed at his intrusion. She turned her attention to the front
seat reluctantly, glad that Miguel still held her hand. “I don’t
even know what we would tell them.”

“Why don’t you tell me?” Nate suggested,
glancing at her in the rear-view mirror. He took the overpass to
switch freeways, heading into Tempe.

Meredith rolled her eyes. “So you can post
our story online for the whole world to see? I don’t think so.”

“You can either tell me or tell the police,”
he negotiated. “Which one will it be?”

“Fine,” Meredith growled. “Can we go
somewhere to talk?” She hoped that by delaying their conversation
she could use the time to think of an alternate plan, having no
intention of telling Nate Dowering a thing.

“Yeah,” he said. “I’ll take you to my place.
Your buddy back there could probably use a change of clothes, and I
think my roommate is around his same size.”

Miguel spoke to Nate for the first time.
“Thanks, man.”

The two men exchanged a glance in the mirror,
and then Nate was quiet for a few moments as he watched the road.
“Yeah, no problem,” he said finally. His voice sounded distracted,
as his private thoughts commanded his attention.

For the rest of the drive, Meredith watched
Nate’s face closely, wondering whether he was a man they could
trust.

* * *

Nate pulled into his apartment complex and
waited for the gate to open before navigating to his covered
parking space. It was late morning, and most of his neighbors were
at work. At least Miguel wouldn’t have too many curious eyes
following him up the stairs in his hospital gown.

As they all climbed out of the car, Miguel
looked around warily, clearly feeling exposed in his flimsy attire.
Nate ushered them up the stairs and unlocked the door to his
apartment, leading them inside.

The apartment Nate shared with his roommate
was sparsely furnished, with only a couch that his parents had
given him and a bookcase crammed full of books. A closed laptop sat
on the oak coffee table in front of the couch, Nate’s primary
workspace. Off to the left, a small but clean kitchen held a bistro
table and two chairs that served as the eating area. Nate’s
roommate travelled most of the time for work, and Nate spent a
large portion of his hours at the office as well, so the simple but
serviceable apartment was all he wanted or needed.

Now that he had guests scrutinizing his
living space however, Nate noticed that the couch had worn a hole
in the corner, and the overhead light had a bulb out. Shrugging off
his concerns, he shut the door behind Miguel and Meredith and
suggested that Meredith wait in the living room while he and Miguel
rooted through his roommate’s closet for some clothes.

After Nate helped Miguel find an outfit, he
returned to the living room while the other man changed.

Meredith had seated herself on the sofa, and
her eyes roved the room curiously, taking in the spare living
space. She stood and walked over to the bookcase. “Don’t spend much
time here, do you?” she asked conversationally, running a finger
through the thick layer of dust on one of the shelves.

“Not really,” Nate admitted. “Both my
roommate and I are pretty focused on our careers right now.” As
soon as the words left his mouth, Nate could have kicked himself.
He watched her expression turn wary as she kept her eyes focused on
his book collection.

“Of course,” she murmured.

Nate watched her eyes dart back and forth as
she read the titles on the shelf in front of her. Her clear blue
eyes were alight with intelligence and curiosity. Nate took a step
forward and faced the books with her, considering how to recover
from his mistake. “Do you like to read?” he asked.

“Isn’t that kind of like asking whether I
like to eat?” she asked, with a slight note of derision in her
voice.

“You’d be surprised,” Nate countered. “I have
some old friends from high school who haven’t picked up a book
since graduation.”

“That’s sad.” Meredith drew her attention
away from the books and looked at Nate levelly. “Thank you for
giving us a ride from the hospital.”

“You’re welcome,” he said automatically,
taken aback by her direct gratitude. Nate had expected her to take
a more hostile attitude toward him. Nate held her gaze, waiting to
see if she would say more.

After a moment, Meredith’s eyes flicked over
Nate’s shoulder, where Miguel was emerging from the back bedroom.
Nate turned around and looked. Miguel wore a plain black V-neck tee
shirt, blue jeans, and a pair of flip-flops that were one size too
big.

“Hey,” Miguel said with a crooked smile,
self-conscious from the two sets of eyes that rested on him.

“Hey,” Meredith repeated softly. Her voice
held a gentle note that had been absent when she was speaking to
Nate.

Nate walked to the kitchen to give them a few
moments together, grabbing three sodas from the fridge and a box of
crackers from the pantry. He came back to the living room and
dumped his offering onto the coffee table.

Meredith picked up a soda and cracked it open
as she sat down onto the sofa. Miguel followed suit while Nate
brought a chair over from the dining table for himself. He situated
the chair facing the couch and sat down, remaining silent while
Meredith and Miguel ate some crackers and sipped their sodas.

While he waited for them to slow their pace,
Nate considered how to approach the discussion with them. Nate
could tell from the way the Meredith carried herself that she
didn’t trust him and didn’t plan to tell him any more than she had
to. As much as he wanted to break a big story for his career, he
also realized that Meredith was in some real trouble and needed
help.

Nate cleared his throat. “I know you don’t
want to tell me anything, so instead I’ll tell you some things.
Then we can go from there. Sound okay to you?”

They both nodded while Miguel stuffed another
cracker into his mouth. Meredith set her soda down on the coffee
table and then folded her arms over her chest.

Nate inhaled deeply and said to Meredith,
“During the storm the other night, Lenny and I followed you after
you left the hospital.”

Meredith’s eyes widened in surprise, and her
mouth opened as if she wanted to protest. Realizing it was
pointless, her teeth clacked together as she pressed her lips into
a thin line.

“While you and your friend were running in
the storm, we saw a tree fall on you.” Nate paused, trying to
decide how to describe what he saw next. He wasn’t sure how much
Miguel knew about Meredith’s abilities, and he didn’t want to say
too much. However, he wanted to make it clear that he knew that
Meredith was different.

Meredith spared him the effort. “You mean the
tree fell
next
to us.”

“No,” Nate corrected gently, drawing out the
word. “We saw the tree fall
on
you, and then we saw you push
the tree up and out of the way.”

“I think I would remember picking up a tree,”
Meredith said defensively.

Nate pressed further. “We also saw something
unusual with you when it happened.” As he paused on the word
unusual, her eyes met his, curiosity and defiance reflected in
their cool depths. Suppressing a smile, Nate went on, “I’ll tell
you what I saw if you tell me what it means.”

Meredith looked away angrily and scoffed,
“You are unrelenting!”

Nate frowned. “Obviously there is something
big going on with you, and I’ll admit that I am insanely curious
about it. But more than that, I want to help you. It seems like you
are really in over your head here. I promise I won’t publish
anything unless you tell me it’s okay. Just let me help.”

Miguel cleared his throat, and Nate looked at
him with surprise. He had been so caught up in his conversation
with Meredith that he had forgotten that Miguel was even there.

“Mere,” Miguel said tentatively. “I’d really
like to know what’s going on, too. I put a lot of trust in you,
skipping out on that surgery, but now I need you to tell me
why.”

“In front of him?” Meredith asked
incredulously, flipping a hand in Nate’s direction.

“He promised that he wouldn’t publish
anything without our okay, and I trust him. Reporters who want long
careers don’t piss off their informants.” Miguel gave Nate a
meaningful stare. “Why don’t you start by telling us the ‘unusual’
thing you saw?”

“Fair enough,” Nate agreed. “After you pushed
the tree off of you, you were glowing.”

“Glowing,” Meredith repeated. “Are we talking
pregnant glow or radioactive glow?”

Nate smiled. “Definitely radioactive. It was
only for a second, but both Lenny and I saw it.”

Meredith nodded slowly, taking in the
information. She seemed a little dazed, but not all that surprised,
almost like she had received bad medical news that was long in
coming. She was desperate to have a more detailed account of what
Nate had seen, but she knew she couldn’t ask questions without
divulging some of what she knew herself.

As if he had read her mind, Miguel asked, “So
what does you glowing have to do with me not getting a
surgery?”

“I think a lot, actually,” Meredith admitted.
She still had reservations about revealing anything to Nate, but at
the same time, her own curiosity about what he had seen burned
bright inside of her. She also knew that she was eventually going
to have to take a chance and tell someone what was happening… and
Nate had already helped them quite a bit. She would just have to go
for it and hope he wouldn’t betray them.

“I guess I should explain,” Meredith said
cautiously. She watched Nate’s face carefully, which was open and
curious. She saw nothing malicious in the depths of his honey
colored eyes. Satisfied, she spent the next twenty minutes
explaining about how magic had been re-released into the world,
causing previously dormant magicians to grow a second heart. It was
the growth of that new organ that caused the severe stomach pains
that Miguel had experienced. The second heart was what allowed
magicians to use magic, and without it, they died.

Nate had suspected that there was something
very weird going on, but hearing it spoken about in such a
matter-of-fact manner was hard for him to believe. He listened with
an open mind, however, because of what he had seen for himself
during the storm.

Meredith had turned her body and was facing
Miguel on the couch. “Dr. Wells had told me that there was another
patient with my same condition that she intended to operate on.
When I learned the truth about everything, I knew I had to go find
that person and save them from having the surgery. I had no idea it
was you,” she concluded. She laid a hand on Miguel’s knee and
waited for him to respond.

“That’s one hell of a coincidence,” he said
quietly.

“I know,” Meredith said. “I’ve been thinking
about that, too. I wonder if maybe we were initially drawn to each
other because of our potential to emerge as magicians. Like, on a
subconscious level.”

“And all this time I thought it was because
of my charming personality,” Miguel said dryly.

“You know what I mean.”

Miguel sat for a moment with his eyebrows
drawn together and lips pursed, thinking over everything that
Meredith had said. He filled his cheeks with air and let it out
slowly on a long sigh. “I know you said that this nurse that helped
you showed you proof, but I really need to see it for myself. I
just can’t believe this is really happening.”

“I don’t know how, Miguel, or I would. But I
swear--”

“Got any spare trees?” Miguel asked Nate
jokingly.

Nate smiled tightly, thinking about something
else. “What about all the other emerging magicians?”

“What?” Meredith asked.

“Well, I’m assuming that this is happening
all over the place. Not just in Phoenix, right?”

“I suppose so,” Meredith said slowly,
understanding where Nate was going with his line of thought.

“So your plan is to just let them all have
the life-ending surgery?” He frowned, disappointed that she
wouldn’t want to save everyone that she could. Did she want to be
the only one with these new abilities? To hell with everyone
else?

The color drained from Meredith’s cheeks,
causing the small dusting of freckles on her cheeks to stand out in
stark contrast to the rest of her pale skin. “No, that’s not my
plan,” she replied angrily. “It’s more complicated than that.”

“Then please, explain,” Nate said slowly,
with exaggerated patience.

Miguel took Meredith hand and looked at her
earnestly. “We’re in this together, Mere, and you need to tell me
everything.”

Meredith looked at Nate pointedly.

“Forget about him, Mere. Just look at
me
. Tell
me
.” Miguel brushed a hair out of Meredith’s
face, holding her gaze.

Meredith took a deep breath. “The nurse who
helped me told me that there is someone who is hunting down
magicians and killing them for their abilities. We have to hide if
we want to survive, and we are already on their radar because we
were admitted to the hospital with the growth of our Second
Hearts.” Meredith briefly told Miguel about the history with
Aleric, the ancient magician, and the likelihood of his having
chosen a protégé who would follow his actions.