Tainted Energy (The Energy Series Book 1) (10 page)

Lena

T
he screeching alarm wasn't
necessary. My eyes stayed wide open the entire night.

A shoe
took care of the nagging beep, but my butt stayed planted on the floor. Things
went from confusing to terrifying, and on to plain nuts in a matter of days.
That someone wanted me dead had me all conspiracy-theory crazy. Oh, and
Him
was real and had a name. Tarek.

My legs
agreed the floor was the best place to hang out for about forever. My eyes
drooped as the inner voice banging in my brain told me to get off the damn
ground. Sleep. Escape. That was all I wanted…

"Lena,
breakfast!" Mom's voice broke through my self-pity. She sounded vibrant,
happy.

Something
wasn't right.

I
fumbled for the doorknob and pulled myself up. The walk down the short hallway
felt like a march toward the gas chamber.

Last
night should've been impossible to forget. Mom and Dad smiling while she
scrambled eggs trumped all the crazy shit. I tried to swallow the anger, cover
the shock, fake happiness. "What the hell's going on?"

I've
never been good at faking anything.

Both of
them looked away from each other as though it were the most difficult thing to
do and focused on me. "What do you mean, peanut?"

I
ignored him, watching my mother for any sign of comprehension. Her face, blank
and empty except for that hollow smile, showed nothing. "Mom?"

A glimmer
of understanding cleared her eyes, but as soon as Dad stood to touch her
shoulder, the vacant stare returned. "Everything's fine, honey. Hungry?"

My dad's
hands no longer shook, and his eyes were clear and lucid. "Mom's been
touched by God, peanut. Isn't it wonderful?"

∞ ∞ ∞

When the
bus chugged to a stop, I stayed in the back of the line, waiting for the ten
kids ahead to take their sweet-ass time climbing the steps. The thought of
facing Zander made me glad I'd skipped food. I couldn't deal with him, didn't
want to.

Nope, school
was the last place I needed to go.

The last
three people before me made their way on the bus, and I slid behind the collage
of mailboxes. As soon as the thing huffed down the road, I jogged into the
woods, not stopping until I reached the place near the stream where the
potheads congregated for their nightly high.

For a
bunch of jackasses, the area had a comfortable setup. A semi-circle of old lawn
chairs surrounded a burn pit. They even cleared all the brush and rocks for
bigger gatherings that happened during summer and school vacations. It was the
spot kids went to escape, lose their virginity, or hide from drunken parents–a
trailer park paradise.

I slumped
in the middle chair, letting the tinkling stream help clear my mind. We had to
get away, and if Mom didn't snap out of it, our plans were as good as gone.

Not to
mention everything else going wrong, stuff that was too crazy to be real.
Dimensions? Wardens? Protectors? And I'm supposed to be some sort of energy
Guide–or was in a past life? I still refused to discount the idea that I might
be suffering from schizophrenia. All the symptoms were there.

And
Tarek? His image popped in my head and warmth seeped through the morning chill,
reaching my cheeks, my stomach.
Him
was real?

I
scooped a handful of pebbles and flung them into the stream. Wilma had better
come back soon. Crazy or not, I needed answers, and trying to come up with them
on my own created more questions.

One last
handful of pebbles, and I stood, stretching my muscles.

Shit.
Just, shit.

Maybe I'd
head to school, check the parking lot. If Jake wasn't there waiting for another
bag, I'd go to the theater until school ended. I didn't have anywhere else to
go. Pathetic.

Branches
snapping in the thick brush didn't bother me while I followed the path to
school. But when the sound became uniform as though someone marched across
firecrackers, fear tugged my skin
.

The fear
pissed me off, seeing as what could happen if I let it take over. But there
wasn't anything coming out of the ground, trying to pull me through. No odd
breeze or pulls interrupted the atmosphere. That assurance calmed my fear to
tolerable levels. Maybe someone else decided to take the day off, too.

I picked
up speed. The school–with people–would be the best place to go, just in case I
was wrong. The faster I walked, the quicker the branch cracking grew behind me.
I veered directions toward a clearer path and pulled off my backpack. The
muscles in my legs twitched with anticipation.

"Don't
even try." Hot breath tickled my ear, paralyzing my feet. "You could
never outrun me."

That
rich voice, like velvet, pushed through the short hair around my ear. I'd heard
it in dreams, but the reality of the sound reached deep parts of my brain,
triggering ghosts of feelings so strong, they almost buckled my knees.

I
turned, hoping he wasn't a figment of my psychotic imagination. But there he was,
all six and a half feet. His eyes shined as silver as the moon and the blond
hair brushing his shoulders was as tangible as my own skin. "You're real."

His
large palm cupped my cheek, and a smile curled the edges of his mouth. "Of
course I am."

My hand
covered his, squeezing and kneading his warm fingers. We stood there, in the
middle of the path, my hand on his, as the smell of apples and lilacs radiated
off his body. The smell made me think
home
. "How?"

Tarek
looked over my head then behind his shoulder. "Is there a place we can
talk?"

Here
would've been fine. In the middle of a desert with angry rattlesnakes
serenading us would've been fine, too. With him, I felt alive, aware. So
different from the dull, almost dissociative fugue my brain tended to have when
I was around Zander.

I pulled
his hand down, not letting go, and led him to the burn pit. When we sat, he
slid his chair so close to mine the armrests overlapped. He kept his eyes on
the stream and his hand on mine, massaging each finger.

"Tarek?"
I said his name, testing it on my tongue. It came as natural as breathing.

His eyes
closed. "I've waited years to hear you say my name again."

Thinking
I knew him and having him say it...the whole idea was beyond odd.

Terrifying.

Exhilarating.

I took back
my hand. The weight of everything crashed on top of my head, bringing tears to
my eyes and a moan from deep inside my throat. My hands covered my face when
all the emotions collided to form one big sense of loss. Tarek sat right beside
me, rubbing my back in gentle circles until the last ounce of water leaked from
my face.

Sniffling,
my body still wracked with involuntary sobs, I wiped my eyes and nose with the
sleeves of my sweatshirt. "I'm sorry. It's...I have no idea how to process
this. One day I'm normal and the next I'm some sort of freak." The
laughing started. "Oh, yeah, and there's different worlds with tree-climbing
squid and Protectors and Guides. And let's not forget the Energy Wardens."

I
rambled on for about twenty minutes, throwing my hands in the air. Crying,
laughing...and crying again. I kicked at rocks surrounding the fire pit, threw
chairs, stood up, and sat down, anything to release the panic squeezing my
chest.

All the
while, he sat in his chair, arms resting on leather-clad knees, saying nothing,
just giving me his undivided attention. His strong face was so calm I had to
wonder if he found my psychotic break a bit boring. When I quieted, he picked
my chair up from where I'd thrown it and sat back down.

When I
remained standing, he wrapped a gentle hand around my wrist, urging me to sit.

"What
do you want to know?" The warm pressure of his fingers helped my frayed
nerves.

Wasn't
that the million-dollar question?

"Everything."

His
smile created deep dimples on each cheek–like I knew it would. "That
narrows things down." He let go of my wrist to trace my jawline, that
amazing smell of lilacs and apples lingering on his fingers. "Your color
is fading."

Oh,
right. Jessica Rabbit…

I
touched my lips "Good. Looking like a cartoon character drew a lot of
attention."

He
reclaimed my hand, focusing on massaging my palm. "It's a side effect of
spending time in Arcus. Corporeal forms tend to...ah...catch the colors for a
while."

"You
know this from personal experience?"

"Unfortunately."

The
stiff tone of his voice said not to push the subject, and so I let it drop. I
needed to know things more important anyway. "Do you know who's trying to
kill me?"

The
muscles in his jaw stayed tense. "It could be anyone. Maybe Casimir, Arcus's
Warden. But it's not death, Lena. At least not the way you know it to be."

"Is
there any other kind?"

He
opened and closed his mouth a couple of times, before pursing his lips. Silence
wafted between us. Only the singing of the woods, the tinkling stream,
squirrels scuttling along the branches, and the woodpeckers pounding away in
search of food kept us company. The whole time, his fingers refused to free my
hand.

After a
while, his deep voice interrupted nature's free concert. "Energy, what
drives us, what...
is
us, never dies. Our forms die, but our energy...it
goes on. Just like the trees, the animals, it's all energy and it gets
recycled."

"Wilma
said something like that."

"Did
she tell you there are levels of energy, different kinds?" He kept his
voice neutral.

"She
said I was some sort of...energy Guide?"

"Right,
but there is energy that is human, energy that is animal, plant…" He
shrugged his shoulders. "You understand, right?"

Sure,
why not, it was so easy
.

"I...I
think so." I shifted so his concentration had to switch from my hand to my
face. "What's so important about mine?"

"Your
energy, my energy, is strong, powerful in its raw form."

"So,
why does he want me? There has to be millions of people like me for him to
terrorize."

His jaw
clenched and his lips pursed again, but his hand continued to massage mine. "Our
kind isn't easy to find. Guides are shielded by their Protector," he
pointed to himself, "ah…like me, when active. And if we chose to end our
service on Exemplar," he paused, "or are forced to end our services,
wherever our energy chooses or is forced to go, the abilities are not gone, just
completely forgotten. But if someone found you and told him…Well, you're an
easy target now."

"So
even though I can't remember how the whole Guide thing works, this Casimir guy
might want me?"

He
sighed. "The energy, the power, it's still there, Lena."

"So
how'd he find me?"

The
forest hunkered down, the inhabitants shutting their doors and locking their
windows, when anger steamed off his body. "I don't know, but we're not
going to stop until we've figured it out."

"What
happens now?" I stood, a new resolve giving me back some strength.

"I
make sure you're safe until Wilma finds some answers." A secret smile
skittered across his face.

"Okay,
spill it. Why the smile?"

He shook
his head. "She's looking through your notes, all your research, trying to figure
this mess out."

"Ah,
my what?"

"In
your next cycle, I hope to show you."

"Why
not show me now. Protectors can cross dimensions, right?"

A frown
shadowed his face, covering his smile for a second. "You'll have to
wait...until this cycle is over."

"My
cycle? What about you? You immortal or something?"