The Tainted (The Tainted Series Book 1) (7 page)

“Why are you boys sitting in the dark?” Etain asked as they walked into the room.

The boy with dreadlocks looked up at them, “Aedan got a little too angry when he lost again last round.”

“I wouldn’t have lost if it hadn’t been for that stupid sharp corner at the end!” Aedan said without looking up, completely engrossed in the game.

The other boy pressed a button on his controller and the video paused, causing Aedan to jump back and growl heavily in protest. Aeden stopped quickly, however, once he turned and looked up at Etain.

She stood with her hands on her hips, glaring down at him, “Aedan, you better hope there are more light bulbs hidden somewhere in this house, or you’ll be buying the new ones. This is the third room you’ve done this too since we’ve arrived!”

Aedan put on an overly innocent face, “I’m sorry. It won’t happen again.”

Etain rolled her eyes, and then addressed them both, “Boys, I want you to meet our newest member. This is Rebecca.”

Both boys stood up from the couch and walked over to the girls. They were quite a bit taller than her, about the same height as Maverick, and Rebecca felt herself leaning back slightly to look up at them as they approached.

“Well, you already heard my name as I was getting told off,” Aedan said as he shook her hand.

“And I’m Owen,” the boy with dreadlocks said as he stepped forward to shake her hand as well.

“Owen, Maverick told me about you. You can manipulate plants.”

Owen laughed, “I’m guessing he also told you I’m not always so subtle with my gift.”

“We’re working on that,” Etain cut in, raising an eyebrow at him.

“You have a gift too?” Rebecca asked, looking over at Aedan.

Aedan smirked down at her, but didn’t say anything. Suddenly the TV behind her went completely dark, and a loud buzzing sound came from the broken light bulbs above them.

“
Please
tell me you didn’t just break the TV…” Etain said exasperated. “I don’t even want to think about how much that thing costs.”

“No, just turned the power off. The light bulbs buzzing was a mistake,” Aedan said while gazing up at the ceiling.

Etain sighed and looked over at Rebecca, “Aeden can manipulate electricity. It’s a very unusual gift. I’ve never heard of anyone else like him, and as such we’ve been struggling a bit to get him under control.”

“He’s got a bit of a temper at times, but we love him anyway,” Owen laughed as he rubbed his hand playfully hard into Aedan’s perfect hair. Aeden irritably pulled away and instantly went to work fixing the mess.

“Boys, we’re going to start training in a couple hours. Don’t be late.”

After a few nonchalant promises to be there, the boys climbed back over the couch and started up the TV again.

Etain laced her arm back through Rebecca’s and guided her out of the room.

“They seem nice,” Rebecca said as they headed down toward the far end of the house.

“Yes, but don’t let them fool you, they’re a handful and a half, those two. Especially when they’re together, and they’re rarely apart.”

Etain stopped in front of the last door at the end of the hallway. She reached out and opened it, revealing, to Rebecca’s great surprise, a beautifully landscaped back garden. It had myriad winding, gravel paths that weaved through the array of green plant life. Short Chinese maple trees hung their long branches over lush, moss-covered ground, which was dotted with several different spiny, wild-looking grasses. Bushy shrubs, in every shade of green, were trimmed into perfect spheres, while big-leafed ferns jutted out of the earth in completely random patterns. The garden seemed liked a semi-tamed wilderness, almost like a contained crazy.

“This house sure has a lot of character, nearly as much as the elderly couple who owns it.” Etain said as they began walking along one of the small, cobbled paths that wound through the strange garden.

“So you don’t own this house?”

“No way,” Etain laughed. “We can barely afford a hotel room, let alone a house like this.”

“How did you get it then?” Rebecca paused, looking over at Etain slightly worried. “You didn’t steal it did you? I mean, the elderly couple isn’t…” Her voice trailed off slowly.

“Heavens no!” Etain exclaimed once she realized what Rebecca was getting at. “We’re not monsters! No, the couple is on a beautiful extended cruise across Europe for the next three months.”

“Oh, then how did you get such free reign of their house?”

“All it takes is a little persuasion to nudge people in the right direction,” Etain winked at Rebecca as a mischievous grin lit up her face.

“You can manipulate human minds, can’t you?” Rebecca said, finally understanding how their group could get such a luxury. “You use your gift to convince people to go on trips so you can stay in their empty house for free. That’s pretty clever.”

Etain began walking again, “We only do it to those who can afford it, usually an older couple who could use a fun vacation together anyway. I tell them that for a small fee we’ll happily look over their house until they return. Pays for our food, no one comes to any harm, and both sides gain something.”

Rebecca laughed, “Well I guess there are worse ways to live.”

They came to the edge of the garden, where it blended right into the woods, but Etain didn’t stop walking. They were about a hundred meters into the pine trees before Rebecca saw a large boulder ahead, with what appeared to be someone sitting on top of it.

As they approached the large rock, the figure on top tilted their head slightly but didn’t turn around to great them.

“Anything interesting going on Faolan?” Etain asked, stopping a few feet back from the boulder.

The girl on the rock answered without turning around, “There’s a pack of deer about three hundred yards to the east, with a couple foals in it. I also caught a whiff of a skunk not too long ago, so I’d warn the others not to leave any food outside the house tonight. Nothing worth worrying about though.”

Rebecca sniffed around but couldn’t smell anything except the strong scent of pine needles, and as far as she could tell, there wasn’t a single sound in the forest besides a few birds chirping.

“You’ve got someone with you. They step lighter than you Etain.” Faolan finally turned around on the rock and looked down at them. Her face was extremely striking, almost wolf-like in its appearance. It was long and lean, with sharp, high cheekbones, and eyes so crystal-blue they seemed to emit their own light. Her silvery blonde hair hung loose around her face, and her body, while long and lean, looked to be pure muscle.

In a swift movement that only added to her lupin features, Faolan leapt off the rock and landed gracefully next to them. She was about Rebecca’s height, and for a brief moment they stared silently at each other. It wasn’t in a menacing way, in fact, something about the silence suddenly drew Rebecca to Faolan. Without being able to explain how, Rebecca knew instantly she could trust Faolan with her life.

“It’s good to have someone new around here,” Faolan said finally, with a small tilt of her head.

“Thanks. It’s nice to meet you Faolan, my name is Rebecca.”

“I know, I read your file on Maverick’s desk.” Faolan turned and addressed Etain, “I won’t make it to training today. I’m headed out into the woods to make sure we haven’t got any unwanted visitors.”

“Alright. Stay safe out there.”

Faolan nodded at them both and then turned to head off into the forest. But Etain spoke again, stopping her.

“You haven’t, by any chance, heard Trysten anywhere have you?”

Faolan turned back around and, for the first time, a small smile parted her lips. “He’s been stalking you since you arrived,” and, without another word, she sped off into the woods at a blisteringly fast pace.

Rebecca watched her disappear and then turned around to ask Etain what she’d meant by ‘heard Trysten,’ but stopped instantly when she caught sight of what Etain was doing. She was hunched low, slowly moving forward while swinging her arms wide, intensely searching for something. Rebecca stifled a laugh as she watched Etain’s strange behavior.

“Ok Trysten, we know you’re here, now come on out and show yourself.” Etain continued to move around strangely, though Rebecca still couldn’t understand why.

Suddenly, Etain’s hand somehow ran into something solid, even though the area she was now groping at appeared empty. Like a lightening bolt she pounced forward. If Rebecca had thought seeing her hunched over had looked odd, this was by far much weirder. Etain was clinging tightly to thin air, and struggling quite hard to do so. While continuing to grip tightly with one hand onto whatever she was holding, she brought her other hand down and began to tickle it.

“Stop! Stop! That’s not fair!” laughed a voice that seemed to come from nowhere.

A strange ripple coursed through the air around Etain and then, without warning, a young boy appeared, clasped in her arms.

“Gotcha!” Etain laughed as she began to tickle the boy even more.

He looked to be no more than ten years old, but was putting up a good fight. His shaggy, light brown hair was thrown about as he struggled against her grasp, slowly wriggling himself free.

In one last swift push, he wrenched himself away from Etain, jolted to an upright position, and slammed hard into Rebecca as he made to run off.

Unexpectedly stunned by his rough, sudden contact with her, the boy stepped back and looked up at Rebecca. As their gaze met, she found herself rendered speechless by the young boy’s eyes. They shone a bright yellow-gold, like the eyes of a hawk or eagle, so intense they seemed to pierce straight through her.

Without a word, the boy smiled and winked at Rebecca. Then, as quickly as he’d appeared, he completely vanished, as if into thin air.

Etain stood up and brushed the dead pine needles off herself. “A bit of a nuisance that one, but we love him anyway. You’ll get to actually meet him at dinner. He always shows up when Maverick’s around or when he knows there’s food. Come on, I’ll show you to your room.”

As they made their way back through the garden and into the house, Etain explained a bit more about the crew and their pasts. She told Rebecca that about seven years ago, Maverick had begun looking for other Truaillithe. Etain had been the first one he’d found and approached. At first she’d brushed him off because he was younger and, she thought, possibly crazy, but when she’d tried her persuasion technique on him, it hadn’t worked. It had taken some time for her to trust him, but when he’d told her about where she’d come from and the truth behind her gift, she’d somehow known it was the truth.

She’d left the foster family she was staying with, and headed out together with him to find others like themselves. There were many Truaillithe that they approached who had been able to find happy homes and families. Though they all wanted to know where they’d come from, many didn’t want to leave the lives they’d made. The others they found, who hadn’t been so lucky in life, now lived together in different safe houses at hidden locations.

“So why did you choose certain people to stay with you both? Why have the crew?”

Etain smiled at Rebecca, “All in good time.” Changing the subject, she pointed down the hallway in front of them, “Your room will be just up here.”

Etain walked ahead down the second floor hallway. She stopped at the third door down and waited for Rebecca to catch up. “Maverick’s left your bag on the bed. Speaking of whom, I should probably go catch up with him. As silly as it is, I sure miss him when he’s gone.”

There it was again, that sickening feeling of jealously tightening Rebecca’s chest. Etain and Maverick seemed so close, she just couldn’t tell how close they actually were and, for some reason, that really disturbed her.

“Feel free to move in and make yourself at home. I’ll come get you when it’s time for training.”

“Thanks,” Rebecca said as she turned and stared into the far-too-large room.

“Hey, Rebecca,” she spun back to Etain who had a wide smile on her face, “I know it’s a lot to take in right now, trust me we’ve all been there. But you’ll get used to it, I promise. And if you need anything, anything at all, we’re all here to help.”

Rebecca smiled back and nodded in thanks, then walked into her room as Etain headed back down the hallway.

The room was so luxuriously decorated that royalty could have stayed there. A giant four-poster bed sat in the far corner next to an elegantly carved dresser and, on the other side of the room, two red velvet wingback chairs were placed on either side of a tall bookshelf filled with ancient-looking hardback books.

It was all very beautiful, but it didn’t feel like home to Rebecca. Her bag sat waiting for her on the bed, but the thought of unpacking, the idea of moving into this place, frightened her. What had she gotten herself into? Was this really her life now? These people seemed nice, but she didn’t really know them. She didn’t even know exactly where she was.

Feeling a slight panic beginning to build in her chest, Rebecca made her way over to the large bay window that projected out of the opposite wall. She sat down on the extended sill, pulling her knees to her chest as her racing thoughts took over.

It had only been a day, but she already missed Emily so much. She wanted so badly to call her, to tell her about all the crazy things she’d found out, about all the strange people she’d met. Now, more than ever, Rebecca needed her best friend’s support. And then there were Ingrid and Thomas. Had they seen the note? Were they worried about her? She’d never wanted to cause them any pain, or scare them. They’d been so wonderful to her, shown her such kindness, and she’d left without saying a proper goodbye.

Rebecca lifted a hand up to her necklace and delicately wrapped it around the silver leaf. Dropping her legs to a crossed position, she leaned forward and rested her head against the cool glass of the window. The cold temperature helped to somewhat slow her surging thoughts and pulse. She remained there for a long time, just sitting silently and staring out at the surrounding forest, trying to calm her nerves.

“Mind if I come in?”

The sudden voice shocked Rebecca back to reality, and she jumped away from the glass so quickly that she nearly fell off the ledge. Gaining control of herself, she turned to see Maverick standing in the doorway.