Love lines (19 page)

“Did you sleep well?” suddenly asked Evan.

“Yes, even better than usual. I was dreaming about the
lake again.”

Evan raised his eyebrow questionably.

“No, it wasn’t a nightmare. On the contrary. I was there
alone, and I felt so good and so calm. And I heard the man’s voice again.”

“He doesn’t scare you anymore?”

“No. He reassures me, just as...”

“Christian,” finished for me, Evan. “Eileen, of course,
I understand that this is not my business, but you two really need to talk. You
can’t be far away from each other. Remember what I said about the bond?”

“Evan, I know. But not now, not today. I need some time
to recover. I still don’t understand why he didn’t say anything about Vanessa.”

“What would you have said if he did?”

“I don’t know. But I think that I wouldn’t have felt
like such a complete fool yesterday, receiving attention from a guy, who
belonged to someone else.”

Evan smiled shaking his head.

“Trust me, Eileen, if someone felt like a complete fool
yesterday, it was Vanessa. After all, Christian followed us at once. I saw him
last night, and he was very upset with the way things turned out. Vanessa is
just such a self centered person. When Christian said that she accepted their
breaking up so easily, I immediately said that this wasn’t the end. He should
have expected such an outcome.”

“Okay, let's not discuss this topic. I will deal with
that later. By the way, I wanted to go to town to escape such talks today.”

“Deal!” Evan nodded.

“So why are you going to Gloster?” I wondered.

“I need to see a friend of mine there, and don’t look at
me like that. She is really
just a friend
. Tara and I had been studying
together until I moved to the department of Wizardy. She is one of Ventura and
can see the future really good. I wanted to ask her some questions. About you
too. It may even be better if you go there with me. She will be able to give
more detailed answers.”

“What exactly are you going to ask her about me?”

“I wanted to know if she could see the experiences
mentioned by Darcy. If it wasn’t just a fortune-telling, Tara could help to
predict something. We would know more precisely what to expect.”

“So, you still think that we really will have some kind
of experience?”

“I have known Darcy for many years, her predictions are
always true. In this case, though, she couldn’t say exactly what to expect,
unfortunately. But we want to be sure about something, right?” smiling, said
Evan.

“Yeah. That would be great.”

We drove another few miles when Evan told me to stop at
one of the houses. It was very beautiful, with lots of flowers and many other
plants around it. It wasn’t very big, but its snow-white color created an
illusion of pure shining light. Bright red and yellow roses were decorating the
entrance and there were some exotic purple flowers hanging over the windows.

“She had some additional classes at Embry,” Evan
explained, seeing my surprise.

We rang the doorbell and a few seconds later a girl a
few years older than me appeared on the threshold.

“Evan! Good to see you again,” she said, hugging her old
friend.

“Still amazing,” noted Evan, looking at her from head to
toe.

“Oh, you're an incorrigible flatterer! And you're not
alone?” she said wonderingly, looking at me.

“This is Eileen Clark. Eileen, this is Tara McKenzie,”
he introduced us to each other.

“Nice to meet you, Eileen. Come on in. Let’s drink some
tea.”

“Your favorite, I hope,” said Evan.

“Of course,” Tara replied winking.

We went into quite a spacious living room, furnished in
traditional British style, with lots of live and dried flowers all around. Tara
brought a tray of tea with a wonderful fruity aroma.

“Mixture of cherry, raspberry and strawberry,” she said.
“Hope you will like it.”

“I already like the aroma,” I said. “You have a very
beautiful house, Tara.”

“Thank you, Eileen. It’s always a pleasure to hear such
things from visitors.”

“So my compliments are not as nice anymore?” Evan asked surprised.

“Time changes everything, sweetheart. But I'm always
glad to see you.”

Judging by their conversation, in the past they were
more than
just friends
. Tara was a beautiful young lady. She had long
light-brown hair and incredibly expressive gray-blue eyes. It seemed that they
really could see right through you. Judging by their color, she wasn’t a direct
descendant of the Ventura.

“I understand that your companion, Evan, has some
questions too,” she said.

“Haven’t you seen that I won’t come alone?” laughing,
replied Evan.

“You are right. Because I don’t know Eileen, I couldn’t
understand why she was coming with you.”

“I do really have a few questions, Tara. Only you can
answer them, and some of them are related to Eileen,” explained Evan.

“That was clear from the very beginning,” smiling she
said. “So go ahead, ask what you want to know.”

I blankly stared at Tara, who sat in a chair in front of
us.

“In order to see the future, I don’t need any special
equipment, Eileen,” she said to my surprise. “I simply concentrate on what I
need to know.”

“Tara, we would like to know what is waiting for Eileen
in the near future,” said Evan, looking at me worriedly.

She stared into my eyes and after a few seconds, she
said:

“I see a woman and a man. They don’t wish you any good.
They are weaving a plot, because of which you may lose what is most precious to
you in this world. And yet... I see two other men. They are trying to help and
protect you. One of them is a dark-haired man, who is very close to you. I see
also a girl, and your bond with her is very strong, but not as much as it
should be. She wants to help you, but doesn’t know how. And... Evan, your
protection is also very important. Eileen needs you and you'll always be there
for her, no matter what happens. She will need your help very soon.”

“Tara, can you see exactly what is going to happen?” I
asked.

“I see the lake. Oh, yes, the one on the border of Dever
- the Black Lake. And a golden medallion, but the vision is not clear, so I can
see only that it’s oval or round. A month... Everything is going to happen
during this month. Be careful, Eileen, don’t go to the lake alone. It's
dangerous.”

“You have just answered all my other questions, Tara,”
smiling sadly, said Evan.

“I wish I could tell you more.”

“Thank you, darling, you have already helped a lot.”

“Don’t you want to know something about yourself, Evan?”

“Not unless you see something good.”

“It
is
good,” Tara smiled. “You will finally find
her.”

Who exactly Tara was talking about, I didn’t understand,
but Evan seemed to know perfectly well.

“Good news,” he said at last, becoming the old,
carefree, Evan.

Tara nodded.

“I always knew that this would happen,” she said,
looking straight into Evan’s eyes.

“May God grant it!” he said. “Well, we need to go, cause
I’ve made Eileen take me with her, so it's time for me to be tortured by her
shopping or anything else you were planning to do today,” he added, looking at
me. “I was glad to see you Tara,” he said, hugging the girl goodbye.

I saw the warmth and tenderness between them. I wondered
why they had broken up. The fact that once there was something serious between
them was quite clear.

“It was nice to meet you, Eileen,” said Tara. “If you
need any help, I will be here for you.”

She hugged me goodbye as if we were old friends.

“It was good to meet you too, Tara. Goodbye.”

Evan and I got into the car and left. We were driving in
silence, passing by some buildings and people, walking down the streets. I
wondered if I should ask Evan about Tara, but he talked first.

“You know, she was the first and so far the only girl
who managed to really get my attention,” he mused.

“So what happened?”

“She didn’t see our future together,” chuckled Evan.
“And no matter how hard I tried to talk her out of it, nothing worked.”

“Do you still love her?”

“I do, but not the way I used to. Now we're just
friends. It was a long time ago, my former feelings are gone, so now I just
feel tenderness for her. She is a wonderful person; I haven’t met anyone like
her. No, scratch that,
I have
actually met...”

“Really? And who is this lucky?” I was curious.

“I won’t tell you everything,” he added cheerfully.

We stopped at the shopping center and decided to start
with a visit to the cafe.

“What would you like to drink?” Evan asked.

“Only juice, orange.”

“Then two orange juices please, and two sandwiches with
ham,” he said to the waitress.

“You know, I think that Tara hasn’t found her soul mate
yet,” I started, watching Evan’s reaction. “Her eyes are sad, though they are
very beautiful.”

“You're right,” he said thoughtfully. “After our break
up, I never heard her mentioning any other guy. I know that she broke up with
me more because of me. She blindly believes everything she sees, and even more
- what she doesn’t see. She couldn’t see us together and she didn’t want to be
a barrier to me. I suffered for a long time, and then...”

“Then you decided finally, to take advantage of the
attention that other girls were giving you,” laughing, I suggested.

“Something of the sort,” with a smile replied Evan.

“Frankly, I was surprised by what she had said.
Especially about
a month
.”

“Me too. And I had more questions. For example, who are
all these people, weaving a plot and who are those, who want to help you. If
there was someone among us, Tara would see it.”

“I think the girl who doesn’t know how to help me - it's
Amanda,” I suggested.

“I think so too. And a dark-haired young man...”

“That is Christian.”

“How about what
is most precious to you
in this
life?”

“It could be anything in fact. There are so many things
that I love and value. So there’s no single answer to this question.”

“I’m glad that I can help you in the end,” said Evan.

I smiled.

“Yes, this is really good news. So, after all I will
find a way out of this mess. And you know what? I still think about one more
event... There’s my birthday in less than a month. And full age can change a
lot. Maybe this will be the main reason for my experiences.”

“That’s something I haven’t thought about. Your birthday
is on the third of October, right?”

“Aha.”

“So after that day you must be very careful, Eileen. Pay
attention to everything that seems strange or unusual. And we'll all be there
to help.”

“We must warn Christian too,” I added.

“The sooner the better,” pointed Evan. “So that’s enough
worry about Vanessa, I can deal with her myself, but you two need to make
peace. She can’t ruin all our plans. Speaking about the lake… Christian said
that you wanted to go there alone, but
that
is exactly what you can’t
do. You heard what Tara had said.”

“Okay, I got it, Evan. Do you think we can figure out
who are all the other people she mentioned?”

“I can only say that we will try to find it out.”

The rest of the day was spent walking around the mall.
Despite the fact that discussing our problems was left for later, I never
stopped for a moment thinking about Christian. All his emotions were inside of
me as well. He was worried, he was sorry about the party and he was desperate
to do something. Maybe to talk to me.

“Judging by the colors of your aura, you don’t follow
your own advice to leave the problems for later,” Evan admitted, realizing that
I missed his last joke.

“Sorry, I can’t stop thinking about
him
. Again
and again, everything goes back to my bond with Christian. I don’t want him to
risk his life for me, but I know that he won’t sit still and do nothing.”

“Just like you.”

“You're right, I would also like to do at least
something.”

“Besides, Christian hasn’t taken any risks... Yet. He is
trying to find answers to his concerns. All of his questions are about you,
just like yours - about him.”

“It has become normal. That’s nothing surprising,” I
said smiling.

“If the number of packages that I am carrying is enough
to improve your mood a little, maybe we should go back?”

“Man! Sorry, Evan. I haven’t noticed,” I replied, trying
to take at least a few purchases.