Tainted Energy (The Energy Series Book 1) (17 page)

His
friend sat behind a plain desk with one personal adornment, a hologram of
Kendal smiling, brushing hair away from her face. His woman was pretty, in an
innocent way. No wonder the guy had a hard time getting over her.

Other
than the picture, the office had the essentials: a computer system, a bookcase
full of research books, the desk, and two chairs. Tarek sat, not bothering to
hide his smile.

Mateusz
smiled, too, though tension crinkled the corners of his eyes. "So you've
seen her?"

Tarek
slouched in the chair, hands folded on his chest. "Yes." He shot a
thumb toward the door. "So you managed to get Farren."

"Hmm?
Oh, yes, the big redhead. He's quite the character." Mateusz took off his
glasses and rubbed his eyes.

"I'd
say he's managed to keep his humanity longer than most."

The
older man laughed. "That's another way to describe him, yes." He slid
his glasses up his nose. "What brings you here?"

Tarek
leaned forward. "We found something."

All
traces of humor left Mateusz's face. "Tell me."

"Wilma's
been looking through Lena's stuff and found some names."

"You
let her read Lena's notes." Mateusz smiled, though it looked strained. "I've
asked to take her research dozens of times. Why the change?"

"You
could have looked anytime, not
take
." Tarek stood, dragging a hand
through his hair. "Anyway, I think I have a lead on someone who might
point us to one of those names on some lists we found."

Mateusz
steepled his fingers and looked up. "And that someone would be..."

"We
think a Guide might have found Lena. An active Guide."

"What
proof is there?" A line of sweat trailed down ridged plains of the older
man's temple.

"It's
more of a hunch, really, an idea. But I need your help. If we find the Guide,
we find the Protector screwing with Lena."

"Could
be the Guide is working alone. Could be the Guide is the rogue."

"No
chance. With everything that's happened to her there's no way a Guide could
pull that off without Protector abilities. And…we're pretty sure Casimir's
involved."

Mateusz
sat quietly for a moment, his fingers still steepled. "I wouldn't discount
the possibility that Casimir has a superior energy. And if you want my advice,
I'd take out the Guide. Easy enough remedy, then Casimir could be handled."

"Kill
the–are you crazy? If I'm wrong, I'd get a Tainted. No way will I chance that
without knowing for sure. And how Lena punched through the lines, there's no
doubt the energy he has is pretty weak. Probably some dumb shit new energy who
got too curious and ended up dead in Arcus. No, someone else besides the Guide
and Casimir are in on it."

Why did
the guy's face get all red? If he didn't know any better, he'd have to say
Mateusz was beyond pissed right now.

Mateusz
clenched and unclenched his fists. "I'd make sure you wouldn't get a
Tainted, but fine, do what you want. Why don't I go out to your place, help
Wilma read through Lena's notes? Maybe together we could find something."

"Not
necessary, what I need from you is verification." Tarek leaned on the
desk. "I need you to find a name."

Mateusz
stared at him, his Adam's apple bobbing a few times.

"I
know what I'm asking, but...it's important. Look–"

"What's
the name?"

"Wilma
said his full name is Alexander Klein. I need the name of his Protector."

"It's
not familiar." Mateusz moved his gaze to the picture of Kendal, not
bothering to write the name. "Give me a few days. I'll find something."

Lena

S
taying at Jake's house all weekend
waiting for the blond giant to climb down from his stalk and stop sulking was
as enjoyable as a stomach virus.

The
couch had my butt planted on it most of that time, playing board games with
Mom, watching reruns on television, avoiding any questions. By Sunday, I was
ready to throw Monopoly out the window. When the alarm went off Monday morning,
I had no problem jumping off the couch.

The
bruise on my cheek looked pretty bad, but all the Arcus color faded, making it
less noticeable with a little makeup magic. My side took the worst abuse, and a
shirt camouflaged that, which would help me avoid the million questions from
any do-gooder teachers.

When I
slung my bag over the back of my homeroom seat, the day got better. Zander's
desk sat empty. One more thing I didn't have to deal with today.

A cocoon
of inane chatter surrounded me as I studied Belva like a science experiment.
She dressed in jeans and a hoodie that covered her dark hair–still not wearing
the usual stylish uniform, and definitely no white pants. A few people threw
dumbass comments at her back, but her red face stayed focused on her phone.

A sharp
pull of guilt tugged at my conscience. No doubt Wilma was the reason Belva had
to hide her face every day. When the bell rang, I pulled my eyes away from her
with a sigh and headed to Gym.

The
first thing I did when I walked into the locker room was search for the new
track team list. My happy dance kind of…happened. Odd looks and dance critiques
did nothing to slow my awkward hip gyrating. Guess whose name graced the top? Seeing
my name on that list for the past few years made every mile I ran in the bitter
winter cold or sweltering summer heat count.

Outside,
we all sat on the lower bleachers for the usual attendance routine. Stump didn't
give me crap about not being dressed for class. Guess I still looked pretty
bad, and it didn't hurt Mom wrote a note about my unfortunate bout with the
flu. When everyone stumbled to the field, I reached into my bag for Othello…and
noticed Belva sitting a few bleachers down.

Damn.

I hiked
up my bag and moved to sit beside her.

"What
do you want?" She didn't even bother to look up from her phone, but the
pounding sounds coming from her earbuds quieted.

I
cleared my throat. "You okay?'

"Why
wouldn't I be?" Her flat and disinterested tone sounded all too familiar.
I practically had the copyright on it.

"They're
not worth it, you know. They're idiots."

She
pulled out her buds to scrutinize my face, her hazel eyes still as pretty as
ever. "You look like shit."

I rubbed
the faded bruise on my cheek and smiled. "Thanks. You, too."

"Guess
we make quite a pair." A shadow of a grin curved her lips as she stuffed
her phone in her bag.

I looked
across the field at the small groups of cliques and a few straggling loners all
puttering around, doing half-ass exercises while waiting for Stump to blow the
end-of-class whistle. "It's a shame, really. Everyone taking up the same
space but being so separate." I turned to my beautiful predator, tamed by
the betrayal of her pack. "Could you imagine what people could gain by
saying hello to each other?"

She
searched my face but no snide comment or insult came out of her mouth. Instead,
she gazed across the fog-covered field, hugging herself against the cold, and
nodded. "That'd be something."

"Listen,
about what happened, I–"

"No,
don't. Let's not talk about it, okay?"

"Yeah,
sure. Okay."

She kept her eyes on the field, the
hair sneaking out of her hoodie flapping with a warm gust. "So where's
your sidekick?"

A stronger gush of warm air rippled
through the stadium, causing her hood to fly back. It took a minute to
concentrate on what Belva said, the contrast of warm air with the frosty
morning freaking me out a bit.

"Ah, hello? Lena? You still in
there?"

My attention drifted back to her. "What'd
you say?"

She rolled her eyes as she shifted
her body toward me. "Zander. Where is he?"

"Don't know. Don't care,
really."

"Hmm, trouble in paradise?"

"Yeah, something like that."

Slow drops of fat, warm rain
plopped down on us like water bombs. She pulled her hood up, and said, "He's
kinda weird. I mean, even weirder than you, no offense."

The different temperatures had my
danger sensors vibrating. "He's not weird, just…intense." Strange. I'd
swear the dollops of rain were falling in perfect ten second intervals in the
exact same places. I moved to the side, where the bench was still dry.

Belva didn't seem to notice. "Nice
word. But seriously, you ever notice how he doesn't talk to anyone but you?
Plenty of people have tried, but he only sees you. And…since he came here, you
don't talk to anyone else either. Not even those three…ah, girls, I guess?"

Even when she wasn't trying, she
managed to insult my friends. "Huh, weird, 'cause the way I see it is I've
had a target on my back since I started here. None of you exactly threw a
welcoming party. Oh, except for those three girls. And yeah, they have vaginas,
Belva. Not cool."

Her cheeks flushed as she looked at
her tennis shoes. "Yeah, well…sorry."

"Don't worry about it."

"There's always time for
change, right?"

I found Stump looking up and
scrunching his fuzzy eyebrows. He moved to the side and shook his head as he
held out a hand. The rain didn't fall in his new spot.

"Am I boring you?"

I turned. The nervous look on her
face didn't match the sarcasm in her voice.

"No, of course not. It's
just…does the rain feel odd to you?"

She inspected her sweatshirt. One
sleeve was wet, along with the pant leg on the same side, and the other
completely dry. "That's definitely different."

As soon as the words came out of
her mouth, the sky opened and the bloated drops turned into a slanted downpour.
The danger sensors turned into screaming alarms. Stump blew the whistle and
hollered at the class.

"We need to get inside."

"It's just a little rain. Don't–holy
shit. Look over there!"

I followed her finger to the patch
of woods that led to the trailer park. Vibrant purple saturated a slice of the
sky in a creamy line as if someone took a paint roller and swiped the foggy
gray. All the rain dumping on us came from that angry patch of violet, leaping
over all the trees.

I pulled Belva up by her armpit and
shoved her toward the locker rooms. "Get inside. Now!"

She didn't need any more coaxing as
she gathered her stuff and scrambled after the rest of the class.

Then the squealing started.

It was distant, echoing, but that
sound was something I'd never forget. I shoved Belva harder as we raced down
the stairs, the rain stinging with both its intensity and the rising
temperature. The squealing grew louder the closer we got to the doors.

When we finally slipped through the
locker room entrance, Stump urging everyone to move faster, the rain stopped
attacking the field.

"What the hell was that?"
Belva, wet hair clinging to her cheeks, moved beside me as we watched the last
smears of purple disappear.

What could I tell her? The truth
was definitely out. I shrugged and shut the door. "Come on, we're gonna be
late for class."

∞ ∞ ∞

By the
time I made it back to Jake's, my nerves were ready to eat the outer layer of
my skin. Of course, there was a lot of rationalizing going on about the sudden
storm. Most people blamed global warming.

Oops!
Try again!

All I
knew was that Arcus was leaking into Earth. I had no idea how. But if Tarek
didn't get his ass here soon…well, at least Wilma would know if I got sucked in
again.

I threw
my bag on the couch, still damp like my clothes, and went into the bathroom to
change into sweats. When I came out, I noticed Jake sitting at the kitchen
table, huddled over coffee. I sat across from him, doing my best to make eye
contact. We hadn't had a chance to talk alone all weekend, due to me finding every
possible way to avoid it.

"Hey,"
I said.

He
looked up from his cup with eyes so red they could've been stop signs. "Hey."

"No
sleep?" I'd keep this conversation up as long as he'd let me.

"What's
going on, Lena?"

Crap.

I gave a
loose string on my sleeve my full attention. "I'm not sure, really."

He
reached over and stilled my busy hand. "Let's try that again."

"You
sure you wanna know?"

"Positive."

With a
sigh, the story tumbled out, ending with the super storm this morning. When I
finished, he looked past me and out the kitchen window, toying with the gold
cross hanging from a chain around his neck. "And you believe this...this
story? Christ, it sounds like a children's fairy tale. Well, the kind meant to
scare kids."

I shrugged.
"I've seen this stuff, Jake. I know it's real. And the whole gym class saw
the sky turn purple and the rain fall on us like a uniformed army."

"It's
just so..." He still didn't quite believe me, the evidence clear in his
nervous laugh.

"Crazy?
Surreal? You name it, that's what it is." I hesitated a second. "But
whatever it is, it's real, and probably not a good thing for people to find
out." I pulled at the string. "It's not like anybody would believe
us, anyway."

Jake stretched
with a half-assed yell. "So, what now? I mean, what happens with you and
your mom?"

"Mom
doesn't need to know any more than what she already does. She hasn't even
asked. Besides, I don't think she'd handle it well." I grabbed his mug and
sipped. "And Tarek and Wilma will figure things out eventually. Until
then, I have my angry giant shadowing me."

"Yeah?
Where's the giant now?"

Face
flushed and warm, I took another sip. Man, I hated black coffee. "He went
to Exemplar to talk to Wilma."

Jake's
eyebrow shot up to almost his hairline.

"What?"

He
leaned back in his chair, arms crossed over his chest. "Look, this...it's
crazy, but I'm not going anywhere. You guys can stay here until everything gets
straightened out."

God, I
loved him. "Thanks, but you've done enough. I'll get our things up to the
apartment in a couple days."

"I
guess I wasn't clear." He gave me his famous stubborn face as he rolled
his shoulders, putting his elbows on the table. "You two will stay here
until this shit clears up."

I
smiled, liking that idea a lot. "Well, if you insist..."

"I
do."

I stood
and wrapped my arms around his back. "I guess you have some new roommates."