Dark Nebula (The Chronicles of Kerrigan) (18 page)

Kraigan stood by Rae, murmuring some of the kid’s abilities and
, surprisingly,
being right
on most of them
.
She stared at him
in amazement.

He
must have
realized she was listening
. He laughed
. “In the orphanage, you spend a lot of time watching
other people
. That, and Carter’s helped me out a bit on noticing others.” T
hen
he teased
her
.
“
I’ve heard about what you can do.
C
an
you
sen
se their tatùs
as well
?”
He sounded genuinely
impressed
, as well as curious.

She grinned and
glanced around at her
classmates
.
“I’ve kind of been doing
the same thing as you
throughout the summer.
People watching
,
that is.
I didn’t have much else to do
in
New York
.
”

He
pointed to Desiree in another group. “She’s got some intense feeling-thing going on.
Do you know it?
”

Nicholas
piped into the conversation.
“Oh
dude!
I don’t have a clue what you guys can detect
,
but I
heard
about her tatù.
She’s got some sex-drive
tatù
. It
make
s
people
randy
.”

Rae
punched
him in the
bicep
.

“Nice one
.” Kraigan gave
Nicholas
a high five
, th
e
n
turned and raised an eyebrow at Rae. “What about you?
Can you sense someone’s tatù
in more detail than that -
without knowing what they’re capable of?”

His intense stare
irked
her
for some reason
.
It’s like he’s trying to see inside me.
S
hrugging her shoulders, s
he
searched
the faces in the room
, looking for anyone with a tatù she hadn’t already mimicked. She didn’t find anyone
.
Fight fire with fir
e
.
“
Sorry, dingleberry
, but
I
basically
know everyone’s
tatù
.
I’d be chea
ting if I pretended to guess.”

Nic
’s eyebrows creased in confusion
.
“What’s a dingleberry?”

“Butt-fluff.” Rae couldn’t hold back her grin when Kraigan
tried
scowl
ing
at her.

A
deep belly laugh
erupted from Nicholas
.
“
Nice one!
You haven’
t seen Kraigan’s tatù in action
.”

Kraigan
straight
ened
and
shot
Nicholas
a look.
A dirty
one
?
He crossed his arms over his chest and exhaled loudly through his nose.
“
Neither have you Nic.
Try me, Kerrigan.
Can you see inside me?”
He stared at her but didn’t move.

“
Do y
ou want me to try?”

“Why not?
” Kraigan
flicked his gaze upward
. “
You haven’t touched me to steal my gift
. L
et’s see if you can figure it out
.
”
He
closed his mouth, his lips set in a tight,
straight line.

Steal?
Rae took a step back.
That’s some chip you got there on your shoulder
.
She closed her eyes to focus on her inner vibrations and a
llowed herself to sense
Nicholas
nearby.
Once she picked
up on the feel of Nic’s tatù,
she opened her eyes
to
focus on
Kraigan.
The
corner
s
of his
eyes twitched
,
and he chewed on his lower lip.
She let her vision blur
when
his nervousness became distracting.
She inhaled slow
ly
and began to
feel the light sensation of the hum of
his
tatù
.
She made contact with the
vibrations
.
T
he
y wer
e intense
—
and extremely confusing.

One moment she
swore
she
felt
Nicholas
’ gift, the next a different pull, followed by another and then something else.
She scratched her head, letting her eyes refocus on him.

“Any luck?”
Nicholas
asked.

“I’m not sure. I’ve never really done this before, to be honest. I’ve always had the tatù inside me to figure out how to use it.”

Kraigan
smiled reassuringly
. “If you figure anything out, please let
me
know
.
It’d save extra tutoring sessions with Carter or whoever he dumps me off on.”

“
I can’t get anything clear.
”
It felt l
ike pulling on guitar strings. “I
keep
getting different feelings
and
sensations.
I
could feel Nic, but I think it’s because I have his ability.
” S
he
shrugged
,
looking at Nicholas
.

“Probably based on his camouflage
--
maybe
the tatù
hides itself
,”
Nicholas
suggested.

“You’re probably right
, Nic.
”
Kraigan laughed and winked at Rae.
“Unless you just need to practice on the skill a bit more, Kerrigan.”

The buzzer
signaling the end of class
sav
ed
Rae from having to
come back with a funny reply. Deep down, she
didn’t think her skills were lacking
.
I
t
might have
something to do with Kraigan’s
tatù
.

Chapter 9

Pizza

T
here’s something…off…about the new guy’s tatù
.
”
Rae paced in
Devon
’s study.
She had vowed
never to
mimic someone’s tatù without their permission, but the curiosity
of trying
to figure out how Kraigan’s worked was killing her.

Devon
sat behind his desk, his feet resting on the corner.
Putting his hands behind his head,
he
laughed.
“Rae
, n
othing’
s wrong.
He’s new. H
e’s some orphan
,
and he’s trying to impress the super-girl in his class.
Stop being so paranoid. He didn’t do anything weird or
e
ee-
vil
, right?”
His voice dropped dramatically on the word evil.

She folded her arms.
“I’m not talking about him. I totally get what it’s like being the newbie
.
What I don’t get
,
is his tatù.”
S
taring at
Devon
, s
he couldn’t get
the image of his
“job-girlfriend
”
out of her head.
Pursing her lips, she
forced the issue
into a mental drawer,
to deal with at a later date. S
he needed to
ignore the entire Anna situation
and focus on current stuff.
Plus,
she thought,
grinning
,
I’ll show
Devon
, in my own way, that I can make him forget about th
at
girl.
I
f he even still
thought
about her.
The girl was like a thorn in Rae’s side.
Speaking of thorns
—

Reminded again of Kraigan, s
he stopped pacing to
stare directly
in
to
Devon
’s
eyes.
Placing her
hands on her hip
s
,
she
let
out
an exasperated breath.
“
You’re right.
He didn’t do anything
bad
.
I’d love to see how his tatù works. He’s trying to figure it out on his own
,
and I promise
d
not to interfere. The guy isn’t bad --
a bit
cockier
than I expected, but he’s probably just
trying to show off.
”

“He’s crushin’ on you.”

“No!” Rae
completely missed his teasing tone
, until after
she had
shouted.
Great! Now I’m over-reacting.
“
Maybe his camouflage tatù can hide his
ability
, b
ut
I
know
he’s not interes
ted in me
.
”

Devon
grinned but said nothing
, humoring her. She decided to drop what was obviously an argument she couldn’t win, and change subjects
.
Definitely
safer.
Besides, I need his help.

“
Hey, c
an you help me with
an Oratory assignment?”

“What’s it
about?”
Devon
dropped his feet
f
rom
the desk and leaned forward.

“The Privy Council.”

“What do you need to know?”

“The
president
.”

Devon
blinked in surprise.
“
A professor
asked you to find out who the president is?”

“Not exactly. It’s a group assignment
from
Carter
class
.
”

“Carter?”
Devon
’s eyebrows went up.

“Yeah. I
figure it’
s bogus.
He
’s up to something
.” She shrugged,
tired of
the games people felt they needed to play. “He threw in a bonus p
oint
:
t
ry and
find information on
past
president
s or anything we might be able to figure out about them
.
The
actual
assignment is to determine
the importance of numbers within the council.”

“
Lanford did something similar last year. Never clued in why but it
seems pretty similar
.”
Devon
tapped his thumb against the desk. “
The number thing’
ll be easy
enough
.
Just think about
England
’s favo
rite football player when you’re searching for information with your group.
That’ll give you
a leg up over
e
vil-Kraigan
.”
He tried to keep his face serious
,
but the twitching
at
the corners of his mouth gave him away.
Rae found it cute
,
but exasperating.

“I think you’ve been hanging out with my
uncle
Argyle.”

“Huh?”
Devon
looked bewildered.
He dropped his feet off the top of the desk.

“My uncle has
a
habit of speaking in riddles
--
or as he likes to call them: proverbs of truth.”

“What the heck’s a proverb of truth?”

“Don’t ask.” Rae threw her hands up in the air.
The entire previous
year had
revolved
around
a
proverb her uncle
had
said to her before dropping her off at the airport
to come to Guilder
.
The sins of the father are the sins of the son, or in this case, daughter.
She had spent the entire year trying to prove him wrong.
Seeing
Devon
’s confus
ion
, she
figured
he
needed some sort of explanation.
“My
uncle
likes using little sayings
with layers of meaning. They can mean one thing on the surface, but it’s not until you take the time to really pick it apart that you realize the true meaning
.
It can be really annoying.”
It reminded her of Lanford and how
she had
trusted him so blindly.
Every kindness the former dean had showed her had been a calculated move, designed to bring her around to his ultimate goal, world domination.
And I fell for it. He dangled a few bits of information about my mother and like a sad little puppy I blindly followed his lead.
G
rrr
—
I hate thinking about this.

Wanting a distraction, s
he walked over to the desk and sat on top of it, her legs straddling the sides of
Devon
’s chair.
Reaching with her feet, she hooked them around the chair
, pulling
it, and
Devon
, close against the desk.
She loved the feeling of being close to him, and
if she was totally
honest,
there was a
slight
thrill
in
the possibility
that
they
might get caught.
If they didn’t have to keep their relationship a secret,
would
she be able to keep her hands off him
? Or would they actually be dating?

Devon
brought his
muscular
arms around her legs and let his hands rest on her hip
s
. She
smile
d
down at him, letting
her hair fall forward
to
tease
his face.

“Y
our hair
’
s so
soft
.” He
c
losed his eyes and
moved his head slightly
side-to-side
, letting the strands brush
against
his face
.

Rae bent forward
and inhaled
.
He
had a
n intoxicating
,
musky
scent
and she loved it. I
t
made her want to taste his skin.
Privy Council and Kraigan forgotten,
she brought both hands into his hair, letting her fingers scratch lightly against his scalp.
She closed her eyes, enjoying the pressure of his
warm
hand
s on her sides
. A
s the
y slid
up her rib
cage, she quivered with pleasure.

Eyes still shut, she felt him push the chair back to stand.
She brought her chin up and licked her lips in anticipation of the kiss.
Even knowing it was coming, she still felt the flutter of something inside of her when his soft lips met hers.

He
pull
ed
her forward, closer to him.
Their lips
met and
explore
d
each other.
She
moan
ed softly
.
Devon
’s fingers
stroked
a mysterious, hypnotic rhythm on
her back
.
Rae was
n’t
sure if his kiss or
warm hand
s
intoxicated her more
.

A
loud
pounding
on the door interrupted their interlude
.
They
jerked
apart, both breathing hard.

“Shit!”
Devon
wiped his mouth and
pushed his chair
farther
away.

She hopped off the desk and quick
ly sat down
in
the vacant chair. G
rabbing a book
, she flipped it open
.
With her free hand, she tried fanning the heat from her face and neck.

“Dude, come on
.
It’s me
,”
followed by more banging.

They looked at each
other
and laughed.
Julian
.
Devon
rolled his eyes to the ceiling and
walked to the door.

He opened it.
“What’s up?”

“Just wondering wha
—
” Julian noticed Rae
sitting by
the desk.
“Sorry
.
I didn’t realize you had company.”
He
smirked
as he stared at
Devon
’s
mouth
and then Rae’s
.
She brought her fingers to her lips and
realized
Devon
wore
some of her lipstick
.
Her face
burned
hot enough to toast marshmallows on
.