The Healer: A Young Adult Romantic Fantasy (The Healer Series Book 1) (10 page)

Is this headache mine?

I put one hand on the floor and gingerly pushed myself up into a standing position. The movement caused the agony I was feeling to morph into nauseating dizziness. I could feel myself sinking to the ground again and braced for impact.

It never came.

Instead of hitting the hard linoleum floor, I felt two hands grab me under my arms and lift me to my feet. It wasn’t done roughly, but my nausea couldn’t tell the difference.

“You all right? Are you sick?”

I nodded as the dizziness I suffered from ebbed away. Two more deep breaths and the nausea vanished as well. I opened my eyes and saw a fuzzy image of colors and patterns across the shirt of a nicely formed young man. I focused in on the shirt in front of me, thinking if I followed the patterns of blue and gray swirls on the guy’s chest I’d be able to look up without getting dizzy again.

“I’m not sick. I never get sick,” I protested.

“Well, that‘s a relief. This is a new shirt, and I’d hate for you to throw up on it.”

His voice was playful and soothing. It helped me gain control of myself. Slowly, the patterns on his shirt came into focus. I felt my own life force correct whatever it was that had happened to my body and nearly cried in relief. The warmth of his hands resting on either side of my waist confused me.

Why didn’t contact with him allow me immediate access to his life force as it had the others? I decided to be grateful that my gift had behaved normally for a change.

I looked up hesitantly, feeling embarrassed for drawing so much attention to myself. The eyes that met mine were startlingly familiar. They reminded me of Tie’s, but where his were cold and intimidating, these eyes were warm and inviting. I explored the rest of his face which was open and unassuming. He had jet black hair that hung just below his ears. It was so black that parts of it looked as if it had been streaked with purple. His six foot frame towered over me. He looked like some kind of gladiator who’d decided to borrow some clothes from a high school preppy. His friendly eyes were almond shaped, and his facial features hinted of Asian ancestry.

“I’ve never seen you around here before. Are you new?”

I wanted to smack myself on the forehead. Out of all the things I could have said to try and fix this messy first impression I’d given him, stating the obvious wasn’t the most brilliant way to go about it. His smile spread slowly across his face and lighted his beautiful brown eyes. His grip around my waist tightened, and I could feel the strength in his hands as they continued their firm, almost possessive hold on me. I kind of liked it.

“I’m new,” he agreed softly.

“Oh.”

Face palm.

Oh? Seriously? I am so stinking articulate
.

I was definitely doing some mental cringing on my own behalf. I watched in fascination as the warm smile that had been there moments before straightened out into this strange look of longing…or was it hunger or maybe it was even euphoria? I couldn’t tell for sure, but I was definitely the focus of these intense emotions that flashed in quick succession across his face.

“Is it really you?” he asked almost desperately.

It’s me if you’re interested.

I was so happy I hadn’t said that out loud. Not only were my thoughts a shock to me, but they were bordering on that fine line between embarrassing and humiliating.

“Were you looking for someone in particular?” I asked, hoping to cover my social awkwardness.

“You guys know you’re blocking the doorway, right?” a fellow student threw over his shoulder as he continued on into the classroom.

I glanced up at the mysterious newcomer again only to find he was still watching me. It was like he was afraid I might disappear.

“Well, I should probably get to class,” I said, feeling a bit reluctant to leave him standing there. “Thank you for helping me. I’m not usually so fragile.” I turned to enter the classroom, but stopped when I felt his hand touch my shoulder.

“I’m in this class too. Do you mind if I sit by you? I don’t usually make friends that easily.”

I highly doubt that.

The guy looked like a well-muscled Abercrombie model, and for some strange reason he was still talking to me.

“Of course you can sit by me.” I caught myself grinning up at him like an idiot. I turned around and led the way into the classroom, heading for the back where it would be easier to find two empty desks next to each other. “What’s your name?”

“I’m Victor.” He sat down in the desk next to mine and continued his unflinching stare.

I was certain there was nothing that interesting about me.

“I’m Hope.” I reached my hand out to shake his.

His warm hand closed firmly over mine, but instead of releasing it like any normal human being he simply held onto it.

“I know who you are, Hope.”

His statement resonated within me. Somehow he really did know who I was. I got the feeling he knew more about me than I did. Just one more thing to add to my list of strange and crazy. I tried covering my surprise with some flirtatious teasing. Something I had absolutely no experience in.

“You know, you’re the second new guy who’s said that to me today? Did you two get together and come up with the same pick-up lines?”

Victor’s hand tightened on mine, and his face became very serious.

“Someone else just moved here recently?” I could tell the euphoria he’d been feeling was being replaced by an emotion not nearly so pleasant.

“His name is Tie,” I said trying to appear as if I hadn’t noticed the change in his demeanor. “Apparently, he lives across the street from my best friend’s house. He seemed to know who I was as well.” With every word I spoke the look in his eyes became stormier. The tension he exuded at the mention of Tie’s name was palpable. Victor still had my hand in his, but it was obvious that his thoughts were somewhere else. “Victor? You okay? Do you have some kind of bad history with this guy?”

My questions seemed to jar him from his angry thoughts, but the smile that he tried to plaster on his face didn’t reach his eyes.

“You could say that.” His reply was cryptic. “Tie is my cousin. I knew he intended to move here. I just didn’t know he’d manage to do it before I did.”

I had no idea how to respond to such a strange statement. If I had a cousin and knew I would be moving to the same place that he was moving to, I was pretty sure I would’ve been thrilled. I was also pretty sure I’d know whether or not my cousin had actually made the move in the first place. And what was with the competition? Was Victor really upset about not moving here first?

It was weird. This whole day had been weird.

I wanted to ask him more questions about himself and his cousin, but Mr. Mathers decided that right about then was a good time to start class. I pulled my hand out of Victor’s, and reached into my backpack for my calculus book.

“What did he say to you?” Although the question he asked came out soft and low, the urgency in it was unmistakable.

“Who? Tie?” I sat up straight. Victor’s gaze felt like a laser beam gluing me to my seat. It was obvious my answer to his question was very important to him.

“To be honest we kind of argued.”

The surprise on Victor’s face was comical. Like arguing with Tie was unheard of.

“What?”

“Well, we were in mythology talking about deities of love and beauty. These particular deities had the power to make mortals fall in love with whomever they wanted. I said that I thought those deities were irresponsible pigs, and love is an individual choice. It’s not some crazy twist of fate or haphazard stab of Cupid’s arrow. Tie didn’t agree.”

“I can’t imagine he would,” Victor said chuckling to himself.

His comment made me feel like he knew something I didn’t. That particular feeling was becoming a more common occurrence for me as of late. It was beginning to get very annoying.

“So you argued with him? You didn’t want to go out with him? He didn’t ask you out?” He fired off his questions in rapid succession, but it was clear he wanted and needed to know every single answer. He was literally on the edge of his seat. I swear, if he’d been Angie he would’ve been biting his nails by now.

I tried not to look shaken by his comments. He seemed to think that any attraction I felt for Tie was inevitable, and I didn’t want the expression on my face to give me away and confirm his suspicions. Tie’s presence had definitely done something to me, but for some reason Victor’s opinion of me was already starting to matter, and if he didn’t like Tie then I wasn’t going to like him either.

Nope.

“Why on earth would Tie ask me out? We don’t even know each other. And no, I did
not
want to go out with him. I would’ve liked to have grabbed him around the throat and applied some pressure, though.”

The laugh that escaped Victor’s lips was filled with relief.

I may have talked a good game, but I hadn’t stopped thinking about Tie and the deliciously strange effect he’d had on me since the moment he’d sat behind me in Folklore and Mythology and boldly announced his presence. I hadn’t stopped thinking about his conversation with Ms. Mori either. This worried me.

“This is amazing,” he said in disbelief. “It changes everything.”

“You’re not making any sense. And why has it left you feeling so cheerful? You must really hate that guy.”

“You have no idea.” He gave me another warm smile. This time it reached his eyes. It was a shame they weren’t blue like Tie’s.

Stop! You are not the kind of girl to obsess, so stop it already.

I was totally disgusting myself.

“You still haven’t explained to me how you and Tie know who I am. It’s got me a little weirded out. Then again, with all of the other strange stuff that’s been happening to me lately I guess I should just be getting used to it.”

“What strange stuff?”

Now he looked worried. His mood swings were happening so quickly I was beginning to feel a bit unbalanced.

“It’s nothing I need to be boring you about. Besides, if we don’t stop talking, Mr. Mathers is probably going to kick us both out of class.”

Victor tore his gaze away from mine long enough to take note of the evil look Mr. Mathers was sending our way.

“To be continued then?” Victor raised his eyebrows as if he was unsure of himself.

Did he really think I would say no?

“Absolutely.”

He relaxed visibly and turned his attention toward Mr. Mathers.

I wasn’t sure if Victor was actually listening to anything the teacher said. I certainly couldn’t wrap my brain around Calculus at this point. Instead, my mind focused on all of the odd things that had been occurring lately. I thought about how unusual it was to have not only one but two new guys at the high school, and they both knew who I was. How did they know who I was? Why would they care so much?

As I sat there pondering all of the likely and unlikely reasons for their presence here, one possibility took hold of me and refused to let go. The same possibility that occurred to me after eavesdropping on Ms. Mori and Tie Hart.

What if they knew what I was capable of?

I tried studying Victor subtly from the corner of my eye. I was pretty sure it made me look like I needed new contact lenses. Did he look like a suspicious character? I gave myself a mental eye roll. Did I even know what a suspicious character looked like?

What if they knew that I could heal? What if they weren’t high school students at all, but some big time, undercover agents working for the FBI or the CIA?

I stopped trying to be sneaky and openly studied his profile, deciding that he definitely looked like he was in his early twenties. He was just trying to pass for a high school student. Or maybe he and Tie were independent contractors working for other countries. Someone had magically discovered I was healing people, and someone wanted to study me in order to figure out how to cure diseases like cancer or diabetes. I was the target, the new lab rat.

All of my father’s fear and paranoia about what the government would do to me if they knew about my abilities began to take over. I’d always felt like he was being way too overprotective, but now I wasn’t so sure. Of course, that didn’t explain why Victor would be worried about whether or not I had agreed to date Tie. Did agents date the people they were supposed to kidnap? Did Tie use seduction as his way to get closer to his targets?

Why couldn’t I stop thinking about him? I sat there replaying our intense conversation about gods and cherry blossoms over and over in my head. In all honesty, he’d made some valid points. Angie was exactly the kind of girl who would’ve benefited from a cherry blossom, or at the very least, an ugly guy who loved her and made her feel beautiful.

I could’ve let down my guard a bit and not been quite so confrontational, but it had felt good sparring with him like that. It had made me feel alive. There had been a kind of exciting chemistry building between us, and I realized that pushing his buttons had not only been thoroughly enjoyable, but comfortably familiar.

I was a freak!

I hadn’t realized that I’d begun to hyperventilate from the panic setting in until Victor’s hand closed over mine, effectively reminding me I should try to breathe normally.