Duplicity (Spellbound #2) (24 page)

Gray turned herself invisible. At least that didn’t cause her to wobble. Well, maybe a little, but that had more to do with being in a room with two naked men. Her heart changed tempo too fast, like a horse switching from a walk to a canter.

Then Nolan woke up.

He sat up as though cold water had been flung over his face. It was much like the way Gray had woken in his bed after the ill-fated switch. The blankets slipped off his torso as he sat upright, blinking rapidly.

It wasn’t until Adrian spoke that Nolan noticed him. “Hello, sweetheart.”

A look of horror crossed Nolan’s face. “Who are you? How did you get in here?” His voice cracked.

Adrian propped his elbow on his pillow, rested his head on his hand, and stared at Nolan lovingly. The warlock went so far as to bat his lashes. “Don’t tell me you haven’t noticed me, because all I’ve done these past months is notice you with those big, beautiful eyes and that gorgeous hair.” Adrian reached out with his free hand and stroked it.

Nolan instantly drew back.

Gray’s heart rate evened out once the show was underway, though she gripped her wrist in her hand and squeezed so tight the skin pinched under her grasp.

Nolan inched his way to the side of the bed and was just swinging his leg over the edge when he stopped. Panic crossed his face. “Why am I wearing no clothes?”

“So many questions.” Adrian chuckled. “You weren’t this inquisitive earlier.”

Nolan snapped and leapt out of bed. Now fully clothed, he glared at Adrian. “Who are you?”

All traces of playfulness vanished from Adrian’s voice. “I, my boy, am Adrian Hedrick Montez, but you can call me Adrian the Avenger.” Then Adrian swept out of bed, the sheets gliding off his body much like an artist unveiling his sculpture for the first time. His naked sculpture!

This time, Gray missed her chance to close her eyes. It was just a quick flash. She barely saw anything at all. No need to ever think about it ever again.

It took Nolan a moment to recover. Then he shouted. “Put your clothes back on and get out of my house!”

“No.”

Nolan looked at the pile of clothing on the floor and snapped, presumably to dress Adrian, but instead his own clothes vanished.

Gray groaned silently. Maybe it was better not to watch.

Laughter filled the room. “Much better,” Adrian said.

Nolan quickly snapped and his clothes reappeared. “Why are you doing this?”

To Nolan’s credit, he wasn’t breaking down. His voice was angry and firm. Only his eyes betrayed him, wide in a way that spelled one thing: terror.

Adrian strutted over to the dresser, precariously close to Gray. She had to move quickly before any part of Adrian brushed against her. Unfortunately, moving meant angling closer to Nolan. She now stood between the two warlocks—not a good position to take, directly in the line of fire. If she crouched down, Nolan might rush at Adrian and she wouldn’t have time to move out of the way.

Adrian flattened his palm on the dresser. “I am here on behalf of Graylee Perez.”

Nolan’s look of confusion was replaced by repulsion. “Graylee Perez? She’s dead.”

Gray wanted to deck him right then. If anyone ought to feel disgust and loathing it was she.

Adrian betrayed no emotion, nor was he squeamish about being naked in Nolan’s room. “I take requests from the great beyond. Apparently my reputation has exceeded this realm.”

“You can contact the dead?” Nolan’s mouth hung open.

Gray gnashed her teeth. It was time to go back to the part where Nolan was quaking under his covers, not regarding Adrian in awe.

“One of many, many talents.” Adrian swept his arms in a wide circle, crossing wrists at his torso and ending in a double snap with both hands raised in the air. His clothes appeared.

Nolan had the audacity to chuckle. “Oh, man, you really got me.”

“I aim to please.” Adrian took a slight bow.

Seriously?
Gray wanted to scream. She almost had to put a hand over her mouth to smother the mangled screech rising up her throat.

“No really, good job, thanks for stopping by.” There was no fear in Nolan’s voice, only indignant self-assurance with a hint of annoyance.

Adrian’s face changed as quickly as his clothes.

Yes! There was the dark, menacing warlock Gray wanted to turn on Nolan Knapp.

“I’m afraid we’re not done here. You see, Graylee Perez requested my premium vengeance package. I call it the full works.”

The full works. Now he was talking. Gray wasn’t sure what that meant. They hadn’t exactly gotten this far while strategizing. Gray had mostly made suggestions after the initial plan of Adrian crawling into bed with Nolan. Her favorite idea was to duct tape Nolan naked to the flagpole outside McKinley High. Adrian said he wanted to play things by ear.

Nolan’s eyes narrowed. He swept his hands from his nightstand to Adrian. Gray ducked just in time to avoid the piece of furniture hurled across the room. Adrian didn’t so much as flinch as the nightstand headed toward him. A foot away from ramming him it bounced backwards, as though making contact with a rubber mat, and flew back at Nolan. Gray sidestepped the nightstand this time. Nolan wasn’t so lucky. The furniture knocked him down like a bowling ball.

Nolan was quickly on his feet. His teeth clenched, and he looked more angry than frightened. He spread his arms and chanted, “hear me, wise ones, old ones; above, below. Bring forth fire, make it glow.”

It usually wasn’t a good thing when a warlock started chanting. Again, Adrian looked unconcerned. At the conclusion of Nolan’s chant, Nolan’s own shirt burst into flames. Nolan screamed, threw himself on his bed, and rolled around.

The scent of burning cotton filled Gray’s nostrils. Luckily, Nolan was able to smother the flames pretty quickly.

He pushed off his bed, back onto his feet, and patted down his arms just to make sure. The shirt now bore ragged holes and char marks.

Adrian grinned. “You might want to take that off.”

Flashes, like veins inside an arm, streaked around Nolan’s irises. Apparently, he’d given up on magic and decided to charge Adrian instead. Once more, a foot away, Nolan ran into a transparent blockade and fell backwards, making contact with the floor. He punched the carpet with his fist and cursed before picking himself up.

Nolan crossed his arms over his chest and took a good look at Adrian for the first time. Adrian’s lips quirked up in response.

“You are very powerful,” Nolan said.

“Cat’s out of the bag.”

“I don’t know why you would help out Graylee Perez. She’s a tease.”

Adrian’s brow rose.

“A whore.” Nolan’s voice rose. “She tried to use me, play me, all while throwing herself at another warlock.”

Adrian’s eyes narrowed. “Who was this warlock?”

Gray’s heart sank. Adrian wasn’t smiling anymore.

“A half Indian by the name of Raj McKenna. Thinks he’s above everyone else. Meanwhile, Gray convinced me we were working together. I was doing everything in my power to help her. I went out of my way to consult with a warlock whose powers far exceeded mine. On the day I’d arranged to take her to my contact, I found her with Raj.” Nolan’s lips curled back.

Gray wanted to shut Nolan up, but at the same time, she felt paralyzed. Adrian’s face looked dark beneath the shadows of the room.

“They were going at it in plain sight.” Nolan spit the words out as though they left a disgusting taste on his tongue. “He had her backed against a tree in her front yard. As I was driving by, I saw McKenna under her skirt doing the dirty, like I said, right in public. And she was enjoying it, too. Had her legs wrapped all around him.”

Gray felt the familiar pinpricks of pain when her eyes sparked. When she’d woken up beside Nolan in his bed the year before, she’d thought nothing could be worse. Hearing him talk about her this way was just as bad. Filthy, dirty lies.

“Liar!” Gray screeched. She filled herself in and lunged for Nolan’s throat. They fell onto his bed. Her fingers tightened around his windpipe.

Nolan’s eyes widened. Once the initial shock had passed, he grabbed her hair and pulled. Gray’s hands flew to her head as she screamed. Before Nolan could push her off, she kneed him in the groin—his turn to screech.

Gray began punching him on the shoulders and chest. Not the wisest course of action. While her powers were strong, her brute force left something to be desired. Each hit bounced off Nolan like hail leaping off the ground in a hailstorm.

Nolan grabbed both her arms and flipped her on her back.

Meanwhile, Adrian stood back, doing nothing to stop him.

Much like Raj’s healing method, Shay Baxter didn’t touch Lee as she probed her brain. Not at first.

The two girls sat several feet apart on the floor. Lee was sure Shay must be getting somewhere—her eyes looked ready to pop. Things hadn’t started this way. At first, Shay hadn’t bothered looking at Lee, but then she’d begun to make little huffs and finally instructed Lee to take a seat in front of her.

Raj watched from a corner of the room. Lee’s mom stood nearby, and Mrs. Baxter was seated on Shay’s bed. Even Max, who had been studying at Shay’s desk, swiveled around to watch when Shay had Lee sit. “This is turning into a new challenge,” Max observed.

“Well, it’s not like there’s anything in there to find,” Lee said in Shay’s defense.

Max tapped his chin. “Not in theory, but if the memory is simply blocked, it’s still in there somewhere. Now if it was completely wiped, that’s another story. I don’t know if you can wipe a memory from existence, though.”

Max looked around the room, but no one offered their opinion.

The look on Shay’s face made Lee want to laugh. She bit her tongue. Frustration was a rare emotion for Shay Baxter.

Shay reached forward and took Lee’s head in her hands. She closed her eyes. Lee felt the tingly sensation in her head again.

Shay let go suddenly and groaned.

“If you can’t do it, no one can,” Max said.

That didn’t seem to do anything for Shay. “Out,” she said. “Everyone but Lee out. It’s too crowded in here. Your collective brain waves are interfering.”

That begged for one of Raj’s wisecracks, but he obviously wasn’t in the mood. Lee looked at Raj and smiled. He had the same frown he’d been walking around with ever since learning Adrian had performed a memory wipe on his girlfriend.

Raj was the first to the door, but he waited for the rest of the gang to leave before shooting Lee one last look. Then he pulled the door shut with him as he entered the hall.

“Now,” Shay said, pushing off the floor. “Stand up.”

Lee got up and stared at Shay, arms by her sides. Lee was trying not to think too much, trying to clear her mind and give Shay access to… well, not everything. Shay had made it very clear she’d only try to unlock the events surrounding the missing gap on Friday afternoon and early evening.

Lee stood stock-still as Shay circled her.

“I can do this,” Shay said to herself. “There’s got to be something in there.” She stopped in front of Lee and searched her eyes as though looking for organisms inside a telescope. Lee tried not to blink. “I’m going to try working my way backwards instead of chronologically,” Shay said, more to herself. The circling started again.

Lee was just about to tell Shay not to worry about it when Shay asked suddenly, “were you wearing a silver-colored knit dress the evening you lost your memory?”

“Yes!” Lee had to stop herself from stepping forward. Her friend was still circling her.

Shay wrinkled her nose. “It’s tight.”

“I was trying it on for Valentine’s dinner,” Lee said defensively.

Shay lifted a hand as though to silence her. It worked. Lee closed her mouth and let her friend carry on with the probing. Shay stopped circling again. “I see him! I see Adrian.”

Lee had to turn to see Shay. She’d stopped behind her back with eyes as hollow as a jack-o’-lantern. This had to be what someone looked like when they were hypnotized.

“The two of you are in Mr. Morehouse’s living room. I see Mr. Morehouse asleep on the couch. Adrian’s looking at him. He’s asking who that is. You answer, ‘my host father.’ Adrian snorts and asks, ‘what did you do to him?’ You aren’t answering. Then Adrian says, ‘oh, Gray, you’re a force to be reckoned with.’ You answer, ‘my name is Lee now.’ Then he says, ‘all right, Lee, take a seat beside him.”

Sometime during the narration, Lee forgot to breathe. The vacant look in Shay’s eyes spooked her as did her chillingly detailed narration.

“You’ve taken a seat on the other end of the couch. Adrian’s looking at Mr. Morehouse again. He asks, ‘does he know you’re a witch?’ You say, ‘he doesn’t know anything.’ Boom! There’s a crash at the door. It sounds like a battering ram. Adrian’s startled and goes for the door at the same time you reach over to Mr. Morehouse, rip off a corner of his newspaper, grab a pencil off the couch, and write quickly over the newsprint. You stuff the scrap under the cushion as Adrian’s pulling his head back inside. You pretend to run to the stairs and Adrian makes you take a seat again. He tells you ‘nice try,’ then says it’s time to put you to sleep before you can try and cause any more mischief.”