Dark Calling (9 page)

“Keely
…”

She silences him with a look and the rise of her hand.  “Just don’t.”  She walks around them.  Goes down the stairs.  The guys are left in the hallway outside her room.  They exchange a look.  Bryon shrugs.  Starts down the stairs.  Nick looks into Keely’s room.  Eyes sweep the small space quickly before he follows after Bryon.

Keely is waiting at the door, her hand on the knob.  She points.  It’s clear she wants them to leave.  Neither one blames her.

“We were only trying to help.  We thought you were in danger,” Bryon sulks.

Keely’s glare
shuts him up.  He moves onto the porch.

Nick stops in front of her.  “I just have a quick question, then I’ll go.  I promise.”  He d
oesn’t wait for her to
disagree.  “Have you been letting
Lively out?  Without putting him
on the chain I mean?”

Keely’s expression changes.  It wasn’t a question she was expecting.  The skin between her eyebrows puckers.

“It’s important.  Please,” Nick says softly.

Keely’s lips tighten into a pout.  She looks away.  Shakes her head.  “
I thought
he was inside.”

Bryon steps back into the house.  “You didn’t let him out?”

“No.”

“He’s getting out somehow,” Nick says.  His shoulders tense.

“I came home from school and he was out.”  Nick nods.  He knows this.
“I didn’t see him this morning
so I figured my mom must have let him out and forgot about him.  But I brought him in with me.  I haven’t opened a door since then.”  She hug
s her arms around herself feeling
cold.  Like bone chilling cold.  The kind of cold that only goes away after soaking in a hot bath.

“I want to take a look around.  Something is bothering me.  I know this will only make you hate me more, but I have watched your house daily f
or a long time.  Something isn’
t right.  I just can’t put my finger on it.”  Nick stares at her.  Sees the different emotions pass over her features as that sinks in.  He knows she feels it too.  He’s not guessing.  Not assuming.  He knows with the certainty of a man that has watched Keely
for a year, day in and day out
.  That has come to know her from far away.  Knows her for what she doesn’t say.

“Yeah.  O.k.  Just make it quick.  My parents should be home any time.”

Nick and Bryon spring in
to action.  They move in unison
looking at everything.  The smallest clue that something doesn’t belong.  For something missing.  For something different.  Anything.  Their eyes move up, down.  Side to side.  Nick runs his fingers over everything.  Feeling for an energy that is wrong.
 

In the family room
near the fire place, Nick feels a significant change in temperature.  It’s a good fifteen degrees cooler, but no
t breezy.  Not drafty. 
He moves his h
ands up, following the cold and
freezes.

“Keely?”

“What?  Did you find something?”  Her voice shakes.

“I’m guessing this isn’
t usually how you guys have
this?”  He points to the ornate wooden cross above the
mantel hanging upside down.  Keely gasps.  Her fingers cover her lips.  S
he s
hakes her head. 
Nick reaches up to turn it back.  Realizes it isn’t attached to the wall.  It isn’t touching anything.  T
he air around it is chilling.  He d
raws his hand back.

“How?  This house has been blessed.  It’s been anointed with holy water.  Every room.  We salted the perimeter a hundred times.  It should be a haven.  This is impossible.”
 

Bryon stares in disbelief.  “Something broke it.”  He turns to Keely.  “It isn’t safe for you here anymore.”

Keely takes a step back.  Her teeth grind together.  “I can’t just leave.  This is my home.  I have no place else to go.”  She shivers.  A chill runs down her spine.  She recalls the man from her dream. 
This is your home, Keely
.

“You have to.  You can stay with me.  I promise I will keep you safe.”  Nick steps toward
s
her.  He wants to touch her arm.  Reassure her, but he knows she doesn’t like to be touched.

“But my parents…”
 

“We’ll talk to them.  They’ll be fine with it,” Bryon says.

Keely shakes her head.  “They will not be fine with me taking off to stay at some guy’s house.  Especially a guy they don’t even know.  And I don’t even know where to begin to explain why I need to go.  I don’t even understand it.”  She gulps in a deep breath.  Her eyes burn.

“
They already know, Keely,” Bryon murmurs.

Keely steps back as if he pushed her.  Stares at him.  “Yo
u’re lying.”  She almost laughs
it’s so unbelievable.

He shakes his head.  Gives her a pitying look.  “It’s true.  How do you think w
e found out about you?  Your mom
…she’s made some mistakes, b
ut
she loves you.  S
he wan
ts you to be safe. 
There isn’t time to get into this.  I need you to pack a
bag.  Quickly.  You need to go
.”

“I’m not going anywhere until I speak to my parents.”  She glares at Bryon.  “You think
just because you say it’s true
I’m going to take your word for it?  I don’t trust you, Bryon.  You’ve been lying to me from the moment I met you.”  She sits o
n the couch.  Her back
straight.  “I want to hear it from my mom’s mouth.  If she can confirm your story, then fine.”  She shrugs.

Nick looks at Bryon.  “I’m going to go pack her bag so we can go as soon as her parents get home.”

“Don’t you dare touch my stuff,” Keely simmers as she shoots off the couch.  Puts her hands on her hips.

“Oh, shut up.”  Nick walks past a wide mouthed Keely.  Grabs her back pack from the kitchen table and heads upstairs to her room. 

In her bathroom, he opens the medicine cabinet.  Plucks the medicine bottle
out
.  Looks at it for several seconds.  Places it on the counter.  Her bag is pretty full so he guesses which toiletries are most important.  Tooth brush, hair brush, deodorant.  That’s what he would find important, but he’s not a girl.  She uses a di
fferent toothpaste than he does
so he takes that.  She probably uses some special girly soap and shampoo.  He pulls the sho
wer curtain open and jumps back
dropping the bag. 

Lively
’s lying
in the tub.  Nick reaches his hand out slowly, his pulse racing.  “Lively?”  His fingers brush the dog’s fur.  Lively looks up at him sleepily.  “How’d you get up here, boy?” 
Nick notices goose bumps prickling
his arm
.  H
e grabs the
bottles and i
gnores the fear.  He needs to get this done so they can get the hell out of here.
 

There are several tubes and sticks on the counter.  Make-up.  He takes the things he can identify, then decides to just take it all.  He reluctantly adds the pill bottle.  Moves out of the bathroom and back to her bedroom.  The back pack is full now.  He zips it up and hopes Keely owns
a suitcase
.  Opening her closet, he decides h
e’s never
seen so much black in one place
.  On the floor is a gym bag.  He snatches it up and hesitates in front of the clothes.  He doesn’t know what he should take
, so he spreads his hands and takes an arm full.  Shoves them into the bag, hangers and
all.  At the dresser, Nick take
s severa
l undergarments
.  Jams them inside the bag.  Riffles through the other drawers and yanks out a few tank tops and shorts.  He can only zip the gym bag half way. 

He bounds down the stairs, dropping both bags by the front door.  He glances at the clock.  It’s after six.  Keely’s parents are always home by now.

“Did you get my phone charger?” Keely asks without looking at him as he enters the room.

“No.”  Of course she would think of the one thing he forgot.

“I need it.  And my phone.  It’s on my night stand.  And…my medicine in the cabinet in the bathroom.”

“
I got that,
”
he says.
She finally looks at him.  There are tears in her eyes. 

“I’ll get your phone,” Bryon sooths. 
He gives Nick a look as he passes him.  Nick can’t interpret this look, but knows it isn’t good.

“They got them, didn’t they?”  Keely is so quiet, Nick can barely make out her words in the silent house.  When he doesn’t
answer, Keely adds, “The ones
that are after me, they did something to my mom and dad.”

“I don’t know.”

“I do.  I can feel it.  It’s a hollow feeling here.”  She puts her
hand over her chest.  “I
feel empty.”  She stares at
the
seat in front of her
unblinking.

Bryon pounds down the stairs.  Keely walks to the door, picks up her bags.  Nick take
s them from her.  “I’ve got it
,” he whispers.  She nods.  Follows Bryon out the front door.  Nick
looks back at the
cross above the fireplace.  Feels the hairs on the back of his neck raise.
  “You can’t have her,” he calls out
.  Pu
lls Keely’s keys from the hook and c
loses
the door behind him.

Keely sits in the passenger seat of her own car as Bryon drives her to Nick’s.  She’s in a daze.  Worried more about the fact that she isn’t driving—
nobody drives her car—than
the fact that she’s on her way to stay at a guy
’
s house she doesn’t really know.  Doesn’t really trust.  Her mind refusing to wrap around the crucial fact that her parents are missing.

“I didn’t call them.”

Bryon eyes her.  Expression one of confusion.  “You didn’t call, who?”

“My parents.  Where’s my phone?”
  Bryon leans back so he can fit his hand into his pocket.  P
ulls out the slim cell phone, but d
oesn’t hand it over.  She moves as if to take it.  Bryon closes his hand tightly
around it and pulls it into his chest
.

“Can you wait until we get to Nick’s?”

Keely squints at him accusingly.  “Why?”

Bryon rubs his eye with the back of the hand gripping her phone
, the other hand on the wheel
.  “Because, Keely.  We don’t know who will be on the other end of the line.  Nick’s your Guardian.  He should hear the conversation.”  He holds out the phone.  “O.k.?”

Keely takes it.  “My Guardian.”  It sounds so strange.  Feels foreign on her lips.  “Bryon?”  She looks out the window instead of at him.  “What’s a Guardian exactly?”

“He’s your protector.  Like a body guard.”

Keely sighs heavily.  “I got that much.  I mean, what is he?  Why do I need to be protected?”  Her voice shakes.  “Where was he two years ago?”

Bryon is quiet for too long.  She looks at him.  Turns her whole body to face him.  He is struggling with something.  With the decision to tell her.  She seizes the opportunity
.  Takes advantage that they are alone.  That he wants to tell her somewhere deep down inside.

“Bryon, please.  I want—no, I
need
to know.”

He hesitates a second more, looking in her eyes.  Finds something there that makes him forge ahead.
 

“Nick isn’t a what.  He’s a person like—well, not
exactly
like you, but he’s human.  He just has an exceptional heritage.  We didn’
t grow up like you.  We were training while you were in grade school.  When you were playing wi
th Barbie dolls, we were learning how to assemble our weapons.”  He smiles like this is a fond memory.  Shakes his head.  “You want to know why he needs to prote
ct you?  It’s because you’re special.”  He shrugs his
shoulders.  Smirks at her.  Ac
ts as if he complimented her.  He t
urns serious again.  “And as for wondering where he was two years ago…”  He n
arrows his eyes.  “Keely, he didn’t even know about you then.  None of us did.  It wasn’t until after…”

He doesn’t need to finish the sentence. 
Keely sighs again.  She’s been sighing a lot today.  “You know, you didn’t really answer my questions. 
You pretty much just made me think of new ones.”

Bryon laughs.  “Like what?”

“Like, what’s Nick’s heritage?  Where did you learn about weapons?  Who taught you?  What kind of weapons?  And exa
ctly
who
did you mean when you said
none
of us?”  She stares at Bryon wide eyed and expectant.