Siphon (Siphon Chronicles, Book One) (11 page)

“Dane, please.”

“Oh, no you don’t.  You cannot reduce my name to get what you want.  You can’t just walk in there.”

Jason chuckled beside her on the deck bench. “Better take a buttload of pennies as backup.” He folded the empty pizza box over and said he’d find a trashcan.  Once alone, I slid beside her.  The moon was shining gloriously above lighting our faces in just the right way even with the deck lights in the floor.

“Why not?” she asked me and then to the useless one beside us, “What does pennies do?”  Thankfully, he never told her.

“Because they will take you the second you go in there and change you.”

She looked up at the moon making her face framed by it.  “Then I will go in acting the part.  If I’m already the evil minded robot they expect and want, then there is nothing to change.”

She doesn't see the outcome.  Before long, her charade would be found out and she'd want to leave.  He wouldn't let her if I wanted to be truthful with myself.  Unless she could prove she is not the prophecy girl. They could be mistaken.

“They will not believe it.  My father does his homework.  When he found you, though I question that now, he was elated.  He watched you for over a month before he sent me in.”

“That’s not creepy is it?” she wiggled her nose in disgust.  “Either way, they will believe that you changed me yourself.  If they think I am following your lead, back your position, and speak of your father’s belief system, they won’t have any doubt.  All you have to say is I’m your...”

She stopped.  What was she saying?  That she’d be my evil girlfriend.

“What?” I urged.

“Say she’s completely besotted under your spell and will do anything you say,” Jason surfaced and stood before us.

I was speechless.  I’d never had a girlfriend much less discussed the idea with anyone.  I felt like a wimp fifteen year kid again asking a girl to go on a date or something.  And no way had I ever seen such.

“Or not,” she moved off the bench and stood on the bow of the deck.  The boat was anchored, so I wasn’t worried where she stood.

Jason grunted aloud.

“What?” I snapped his way.

“Go to her.  She thinks you don’t want her.”

“That’s not it at all.”

“Duh. I know that, but she doesn’t.  Dude, she’s a girl.  She just offered to be your girlfriend and you turned her down.”

“No I didn’t.”

“Dimwit.  Saying nothing at all to a girl is the same as turning her down. You can’t tell me you’re that green.”

“’Effing get off my boat.  I’m tired of you.”

“NO!  Dude.  You’ve never had a girlfriend.  I can’t believe it.”  He only laughed louder.

“Shut the hell up already.  I’ve had plenty of women.”

Whether it was true or not, I wouldn’t tell another dude.  I’d screwed up once worse than the rest and it was awful.  I ended up taking ten years away from the girl.  I hated myself ever since.

“Not the same, dude.  This one’s worth it.”

I looked at where she sat now leaning her head on the rail.  “I know that.”

“Then if you don’t want me working to take her from you, get your ass over there and fix this.”

I stepped up the three-stair lift to the bow and sat beside her having no idea what I should say.  I’ve never done this.

“Lark.  I didn’t mean I didn’t agree.  I only didn’t say anything because it shocked me.”

She didn’t move nor did she look my way.  Her hands were folded around her knees up near her chin. The moon behind us, her face was dark and unreadable.

I went with the truth no matter how lame it sounded. “I’ve never had a girlfriend.”

That worked.  Her face shot up to mine landing a mere few inches from me being able to kiss her.

“Why not?” 

I wasn’t out of the clear yet.  Her lips were pressed into an even line and her guard was still up.

“Any girl I’ve ever tried to get close to, I take their years, siphon expert or not.  It’s not something I want to do for real.  I only started taking from the young for my dad.  Once I did, it wasn’t the same.  The old make me feel sick even with the gained energy to sustain our own lives  whereas the young make me stronger.  I assumed my father was right and something was wrong with me.”

Forget the part where he really didn’t take from the young as a general rule of evilness.  Forget even the part where he said it made him sick and it doesn’t when he took from me.  I focused on the part where he’d just said he’d never had a girlfriend.

I dared a look in his face and shifted my freezing hands.  I didn’t want to be rejected twice in a night.  Such a gorgeous man stood here acting nothing of the proud, arrogance he held at meeting him.

His hand covered mine over my knee. “I would be honored to stand beside you if you are still willing.”

Hands clapped behind us.  “Great kiddos.  It’s all settled then.  Now we arrange something that can be believed as evil and she complies to confirm it.  If she’s your wicked witchy girlfriend and not the enemy they see her as, they will not see it coming when we take over.”

“Tactfulness has never been his greatest quality,” I whispered to Daniel.

“And do tell what my greatest quality is my dear Lark since we have had the pleasure of knowing each other intimately for three years now.”

Daniel grabbed my hand tighter and helped me to stand.  I took the first step down giving away some of the mysterious Jasonisms.  “Jason here likes to make others think he is all bleeping tough, but my guy here writes the most beautiful poetry I’ve ever heard.”

Daniel snorted.

“Ha.  You laugh.  But Jason will be famous one day. He’ll write songs for people.  And he makes the best smoothies.”

Jason dropped his head at that.  “Every Friday he never fails to bring me one of his homemade smoothies.”

“I thought you said you didn’t know this guy very well,” Daniel squeezed my hand.

“I guess I don’t.  I’ve never been to his house.”

“That’s a relief.”

I looked at him oddly.  What did that mean?

“Let’s get our plan ready.  We have to be really great actors in this play.”

“Perfect.  Jason was in drama for all of his high school years. And since he failed to mention he was a senior last year and has now graduated, that makes him an even better actor.”

“Bleeping great!” Jason jeered knowingly.

I turned my nose up at him.

“Dare I ask why you refuse to swear properly?” Daniel teased openly.

They could both make fun of me, but I had my morals.  “You can both sleep on the water.”

Jason threw his hands up, “Not I.  I have things to do.”

I pointed my finger down below, perturbed at the fact that they were ganging up on me.  I didn’t like being made fun of.  And I still needed to get my way on the meeting the Siphon Council.  I just knew, danger or not, it was the only way to find out more about my parents.

“Alright.  Alright.  No waterbeds needed.  I concede.”  Jason mumbled while Daniel laughed but then fell over the bench cutting his wrist.  Daniel ignored it, but I took him below to where I thought a first aid kit might be located.

He called me on the hospital/nurse ruse with my inability to bandage properly.  I had no desire to be a nurse.  I just wanted to keep from taking from the young and that was the only route to take and end up at a nursing home.

The night on the boat was memorable after the two boys let up on their teaming up behavior.  Jason left early on and said he’d be back by morning.  I didn’t get his weirdness factor, but he seemed okay with leaving.  Daniel and I stayed up till midnight plotting my attitude and presentation.  With redundant insistence, he reminded me that I couldn’t falter in the rudeness department.  If I came off as the least bit too “nice”, his father would second-guess us both.  I hated to meet the man who sounded like Satan’s kinfolk.

Daniel drove me home  to get a bag packed. I settled on telling my parents, whom I've always wondered how they were related to my mother and will question further when the time is right, I would be at Sam’s for the rest of the weekend.  It was not uncommon between the two of us.  Sam was reluctant to vouch for me saying things related to teen pregnancy and such.  I assured her I had no intentions of losing any virtues.  The only way I could get her off the line was a rash, not very thought out, decision to put Daniel on the phone.  Whatever she asked, it was bad because he turned the color of bleached rice after assuring her my body was off limits in the naked department.  I myself blanched at hearing him say the words and refused to look his way when he handed the phone back to me.  I had half a mind to tell her off in front of him, but I didn’t want to embarrass myself more than I already was.

I snuck into my balcony room and packed a few clothes for the road trip that would vastly resemble nothing like what I would wear at Sam's, then followed Daniel to park my car behind her house.  Her absentminded mom would never notice it anyway.

Once in the Jeep, we followed the GPS to Jason’s address.  I’d never seen his house, so I didn’t expect an apartment.  He’d moved out of his stepparent’s house six months ago.

He was waiting for us with a single banana smoothie just for me after we parked.

“What, no love for me too?” Daniel held his hands out like he was hurt being left out.

Jason scowled,  “We can talk when you return what is rightfully mine.”

“You had your chance.”

“Perhaps being the only honorable one, I’d intended to wait till certain timelines ended one era from another.  May isn’t that far away,” Jason proclaimed awfully grumpily.

I was lost as a goose in the conversation.  With the way they sneered at one another, I figured it best to stay out.  Maybe the two just weren’t meant to be best buds.  People do clash sometimes.

“Maybe life hands us new plans that don’t always land the way we intended,” Daniel got up in Jason’s face.

“Maybe it was an unwanted interruption.”

“Maybe you should butt out and go your own way,” Daniel pressed closer.  I noticed his hands fisted and started to rise.

That was my cue.  I shoved in between the two taking a great risk, but I didn’t want to see them offer up so much hate at the start of this journey.

“I think it’s time you two backed off.  I don’t know what this is all about, but it’s not worth a fight.”

Jason moved my hair off my shoulder to see Daniel’s face around mine, “Oh, we both know she’s worth it.”

That made me flinch.  Did he mean me?  Did Jason like me like that?  I tried like anything to flirt with him for over a year, but he always shrugged it off like he didn’t get that I was practically throwing myself at him.  Then last year, he said he had a girlfriend and that was that.  For now, I didn’t want to go there.  They were severe opposites.  Jason and I are world apart and always have been.  Daniel was like my very own survival first aid kit.  I can’t go on without him.  Daniel seemed to read me like a book.  I thrived off the feeling it make.  We drove in silence across two states before any of us said anything.   I faked sleep for much of it, but I was too wired to even doze off.

Rhode Island seemed like a world away.  We ate halfway, but kept going.  The guys actually took turns driving.  At one point I closed my eyes and actually slept. I wasn't even going to ask about a hotel.  When I woke, they were whispering.   Who
wouldn't
listen?

"Do you freeze up when she sings?"  This was Daniel's whispered voice.

"Like a hallucination or something worse.   I can see her, but I can't move.  Afterward, it's like I am seriously under some spell.   It wigged me out the first time so bad she tried to feed me soup from the kitchen at the home. Nasty stuff, but she fed it to me.  Wouldn't tell her no for anything."

Daniel huffed but said back as if in the direction of where I lay in the backseat, "I know the feeling."

Jason's serious voice deepened like had been doing over the last couple of years, "Don't hurt her."

"Can you tell if all can hear her?" Daniel ignored Jason's comment.  I was faking sleep or otherwise I'd call him on it.

"Can you not?"  Jason inquired louder than he was before. I hoped then I was not a snorer or my cover was blown.

"I...I can't.  She and I...something is different."

Different how?

A whistle moved through the car.  Jason finished his slow tune and said rather suggestively, "Ahhh, you already kissed her?"

I held back the gasp to here Daniel's reaction.  He coughed before saying, "Yes."

"And?"

And what?

"We don't take from each other.  It's only a give."

Wow! He was trusting Jason.

"Wow! Seriously?"

No more was said.  I waited for a good five minutes before I stirred.  Even then, I felt guilty.  They never discussed if it meant anything or if they knew anything about the subject.  And they never shared what varied conclusions each came to.

Regardless of the scenery and landmarks found on the way, I learned twenty minutes before we arrived that the entire headquarters was underground.  Spooked by the idea of never returning to blue skies, I asked how long we would intend to stay.  No one answered me.