Forbidden (The Seeker Saga, #2) (28 page)

Smoke started to fill my lungs, and I found it harder and harder to breath.  The flames that surrounded me didn’t seem to want to come any closer.  It was almost as if they were taunting me with the inevitability of their embrace.  But maybe suffocation was preferable to a burning death.  Asphyxiation, all of a sudden, didn’t seem like such a bad way to go.  I felt myself drift away.  My eyes shuttered to a close.  The sensation of heat against my skin began to fade. I slowly floated toward a shadowy abyss…

Something slammed into me. I felt myself being picked up.  Suddenly, I was being carried away.  I tried to open my eyes, but they would not comply.  I heard the thumping of footsteps, and the strain of labored breathing above me.  Someone had me cradled in their arms.  They were running.  The roar of the fire continued unabated. But, I felt…
safe
… in those arms.  For the first time in what seemed like ages, I could relax.  All the troubles of the world faded away as I drifted for a blissful black.

***

I came to with a gasp.  Fresh air rushed to fill my lungs, and I gulped it down hungrily.  Cool, fresh, clean
air
!  It seemed a miracle. 

It took me a second to realize I was outside.  I was lying on a firm surface. Stars twinkled in the clear night sky above me.  My hands grasped at the ground. I felt blades of grass between my fingers.  Grass!  I never thought something so simple would leave me so thrilled. I was overjoyed.  I was
outside
!  I had
survived
!  But… how?  I thought back, but couldn’t remember much.  The last thing I recalled was closing my eyes and accepting the inevitability of death…

“Tracy! You’re awake!”  My head jerked toward the voice. Rob was standing beside me.  Relief shone on his face like a beacon.  He fell to his knees, and his hands found my shoulders to help me sit up. 
Rob?
  What was he doing here?

“What… happened?” I asked.  I could remember… thinking… something about him in those last few moments before what seemed to be a certain death.  What it was exactly? I could not recall!  I looked around.  We were on a dark grassy plain on the bank of a river.  There was a road behind us. I could hear cars passing either way.  I looked to my left, and saw a footbridge going across the river to the other side, and a second one farther away.  We were shrouded in darkness. The only light came from the stars.  Surprisingly, there was no one else here.  It was just me and Rob in the night.

“There was a fire,” Rob said gravely.  “In the Owl.  The whole building burned down.  It started minutes after we got inside.”

“I remember,” I said.  I did, but my memory was unusually hazy.  “How did I… get here?”

“When we got out, none of us could find you anywhere.  Liz was the last to see you, and she thought you might still be inside.  When I heard that, I had no other choice. I ran in, and—”

“You
what
?” I exclaimed. 

“I ran in,” he repeated calmly.  “The fire was about to take the whole building, and I had to find you.  The thing went up in flames so quickly it was like it was drenched in gas.  In the commotion, in the confusion, anyone could have been left behind.  And since you weren’t outside…” he shrugged.  “Well, it’s not like I had a choice.  When I ran back in, I just followed my instincts.  It was as if… as if something led me to you.  Almost as if fate intervened.  I know it sounds crazy, but the moment I stepped foot into the building, I knew exactly where you were… and lucky for me, I found you.”

I stared at him in stupefied awe.  My mouth was hanging open.  “You risked your life for me?”  I couldn’t even find the words to describe what that meant.  “You big idiot!  Why would you do that?”

“I care about you,” he admitted.

“You
do
?”

“You didn’t know that?”  He sounded hurt.  “Why else would I have come?  Why else would I leave Oliver Academy?  My parents are paying almost their entire yearly salary to keep me there.  I’ve only known you for a few months, Tracy. But, ever since the day we met, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

I gaped in surprise.  This was a revelation. 
He
was thinking about me?  
Me
?  Why?  What was so special about
me
that deserved Rob’s attention? 
All
the girls at Oliver Academy would give an arm and a leg to spend just one evening with him, and for some senseless reason he had decided to give
me
his attention?

“But, Liz…” I began uncertainly.  “I thought we were… you know… just friends?”

“Just friends?” he chuckled.  “Tracy, the way I feel about you isn’t an accident.  The only reason I stayed friends is in the hopes that someday you might notice, and maybe… feel the same way about me back?”

The way he said that was so sweet, so innocent, so
sincere
. I couldn’t restrain myself.  I grabbed his hair and pulled him in for the greatest kiss of my life.  Our lips met. All the repressed feelings I had for him exploded into being.  I curled my fingers in his hair, sucked his breath in as mine.  Our lips moved together in perfect synchronicity.  Time seemed to stand still, and everything faded to the background of the moment.  Nothing mattered except Rob’s lips on mine.  There was no tenderness on his part, only raw and unbridled passion, unleashed for the first time.  His hand went to the small of my back, and he pulled me close to him, closer and closer, until our bodies were so tight against each other I could barely breathe.  And still he kissed me more, and I reciprocated in kind.  All the carnal tension that had been building between us, the tension I didn’t even know existed, was suddenly unleashed like fireworks exploding in the night sky.  I could climb all over him, press him to the ground and—

He let me go, and I gasped for air.  In the silence that followed, all I could hear was my heartbeat pounding in my ears.  Rob looked at me, and his lips were curled in an amused smile.  His eyes held the twinkle of a joke he wouldn’t share.

“Wow,” I finally breathed.  My heart was still fluttering like a hummingbird in my chest.  “That was…”

“Amazing?” Rob finished. 

“Yeah,” I sighed.  Suddenly I remembered what my last thoughts had been when I thought I would die in the fire.  They were about
Rob
, about the connection that I missed.  There was no uncertainty about its existence now.  Rob had pulled me out of the fire. He had given me a second lease on life.  I would not make the mistake of keeping my feelings suppressed again.  “Did you really mean what you said earlier?” I asked, as if the kiss hadn’t been proof enough.  “About how you couldn’t stop thinking about me?”

“I meant every word,” he laughed. He tenderly pushed aside a strand of my hair. 

“And you risked your life in the fire for me?”

“I would rather die,” he answered quite matter-of-factly, “than lose you.”

“You idiot,” I said.  “You don’t even know me.  How can you say that?”

“Sometimes,” he answered, “there’s just no logic to our feelings.”  He bent down to kiss me again.

This time, there wasn’t quite the same passion, but it was still absolutely electric.  The first kiss, well… that had been something.   I wrapped my hands around his neck and clung onto him long after our lips had parted. 

For a while, we just sat there, staring into the night.  I sighed contently.  Rob had saved me
twice
, and risked his life doing so.  He admitted his thoughts turned to me when he was alone.  Why had I been so dumb that I couldn’t see it earlier?  Now that I knew how he felt, everything made sense.  Why he returned to my room after imprisoning the attacker, why he spent the night.  Why he left Oliver Academy to come with us on this crazy journey –
without even knowing what it was about! 
I cursed myself for being so stupid.  How much had I missed by being too thick to see what was clearly in front of my eyes the entire time?  How many blissful days could I have spent in Rob’s arms, how many nights in his bed, had I not been so utterly
blind
?  I promised myself never to make that mistake again.  I promised to myself, here and now, that I would never let him go.

It was only when my heart stopped beating as if I had run a marathon that my thoughts returned to the fire.  The fire, the aftermath, the red crystal… all of it left questions in my mind.  I hated to break the moment with Rob, but now that our feelings were out in the open, I was sure we would have plenty more time together.  “Hey,” I asked softly, “what happened to the others after the fire?”

“Hmm?” Rob seemed just as content in his own thoughts as I was in mine.  He turned his head and looked down.  “Oh.  They’re all safe.  All of them got out.  The girls went back to the hotel to meet John.  After I got you, the police arrived, and they started asking questions about the fire.  Apparently, our group stood out from other people at the party, for whatever reason.  They were asking questions directly about us, and we thought it was best… well, because of everything that’s happened… to avoid attracting attention.  I brought you here, and the others slipped back to the room.”

“And Arthur?” I asked.  “Do you know what happened to him?”

Rob frowned.  “Was he there?”

“He was,” I confirmed.  I still remembered the terrifying way he looked at me, the way his eyes pierced into my skull.  “I…uh… spoke to him, right before the fire started.”

I felt Rob tense beside me.  “You did?”

“Nothing happened,” I said hastily.  “Except… he knew about what I could do.”

“You told him?”

“No.  He just knew, somehow.  I didn’t say anything.  He had another crystal.  A red one.  He took me to a back room and asked me what I could feel.  I touched it, and… and the next thing I knew, I came to on the floor, with the fire raging around me.”

“If he put you in any danger…” Rob started to say with deadly intensity.

“No, no,” I defended quickly.  “At least, I don’t think so.  There was something about the crystal he had that drew my attention.  It was…
different
from the ones that the girls and I know.”

“You know, I’ve been thinking about that.”

“About what?”

“The crystals.  What you told me about them.  About why their power might be so coveted.  And maybe why you’ve been targeted.”

“What do you mean?” I asked, puzzled.

“Well, it’s like a puzzle in my head.  All the pieces need to fit together for it to make sense, and we don’t know everything yet.  But… you said Chris mentioned something about ruling the world?”

“That’s right,” I said.  “But he was clearly not well.  Mentally, something happened to him.  I think he just lost it when he went on about that.”

“I don’t know.  If he was devious enough to lure you into the caves under the island –
specifically
you – he may be smarter than you give him credit.”

“What do you mean?” I asked.

“I see it like this,” Rob began.  “He said the crystals can grant the power to rule the world.  But what does that really mean?  I don’t think they’re just empty words.  I think he sees something in them that’s inherently powerful.  More powerful than you girls might realize.  But what does ruling the world actually mean?  Is it money, or influence?  Something else?”

“Both, probably,” I said.  “If we’re thinking rationally…”

“Right,” Rob confirmed.  “I was thinking about that, and then I remembered what you did in the hotel room with the knives.  How you were able to heat them up and melt them.  You created energy out of
nothing
to do that—”

“Well, not really,” I corrected.  “I just shifted it from one place to another.”

“Right.  But that by itself is crazy to think about!  What if there was some way to harness what you could do?  What if the ability you have could be controlled, amplified, or somehow exploited?  Governments and people spend billions on energy and electricity every day.  Wars have been fought for oil fields.  If someone figures out a way to create energy – electricity – more cheaply than anyone else, well, then that person can become very rich.  But what you do with the crystals… it’s even better.  You basically
create
energy out of nothing!

“Now, think on it this way: in our world, whoever controls the cheapest energy source wins.  With the power of the crystals, if it can somehow be amplified, you have something that can displace oil, coal, nuclear – whatever.  No other energy source can compete with it.  Think about it.  With the crystals, there’s no pollution, no environmental regulations to deal with.  There’s no political backlash over drilling for oil fields or building power plants.  If the crystals can be properly harnessed, you have cheap, plentiful energy… for
free
.  And whoever controls the crystals controls that.  You said Chris’s dad was in on it – that’s obvious.  I think maybe their goal is to achieve something like that.  If they can give the world plentiful energy, and it’s cheaper than anything else,
and
it’s controlled by them… well, they create a stranglehold over the incumbent national powers.  What are the richest companies in the world?”