Dark Nebula (The Chronicles of Kerrigan) (11 page)

Rae stumbled
,
and Julian caught her
, his hair falling forward to hide the smirk on his face. “Molls is right, Dev
,” he said chuckling. “
Maybe I can borrow the Lotus sometime.”

“Julian!” Molly tsked. “You drive a Por
s
che
,
and you’re hot. You don’t need any help!
” She
pulled Rae’s hand
to
drag her towards
Aumbry
House.
“We
were
supposed to meet the newbies, like, half an hour ago.”
Glancing over her shoulder, she hollered
,
“We’ll see you guys
later
.
F
ind out what movies are playing
.”

Rae and Mo
lly
race-
walked
back to
Aumbry
and
straight to
the Games Room
.
Both struggled to get through the door at the same time and then laughed when they fell through and landed on the floor
.
Lying on their stomachs, Molly grabbed Rae’s arm and whispered, “Is Madame Elpis here?”

“
Not at the moment.
She’s looking for you,” a sultry voice
spoke from the couch
.

Rae sat up. T
wo girls
sat
on the leather couch
;
one rigid
with tension,
the other with a graceful arm stretched out
comfortably
along the back of the couch
.
One was
thin
with
chocolate brown hair
and
matching eyes
.
C
learly nervous
.
The other
could easily have been a model in a glamour magazine. Her slender, but curvy body, jet-black hair, sultry lips and bright blue eyes made her stand out.
Even dressed in simple clothes, she looked extremely feminine.
To trust
,
or not to trust…
t
hat is the question.
Rae had learned the previous year that not all tatù people were nice. However,
she had
also learned the importance of keeping her friends close and her enemies
at least
within
eyesight
.
“Enemy” might be overkill, just a bit…
maybe…
we’ll see.

Molly stepped forward and held her hand out. “Hi, I’m Molly.
”

Model
girl nodded. “
I’m Desiree.”
Her arm twitched
,
and she jerked
her hand
back
from
Molly’s.

“
Oops.” Molly
gasped
. “
My fault
.
I did that.
” She flicked her fingers. “I sometimes forget when I’m excited.”

That’s puttin’ it mild
ly
.
Rae smiled.
Leave
it to Molly to break the ice.
“Sorry,
we’re a bit late.
”

“
Got distracted chatting with the
guys
over lunch
.
” She shrugged in typical Molly fashion. “
T
his is Rae
Kerrigan,” Molly’s gaze never left Desiree’s face
.
“
You sixteen or seventeen
?”

With raised eyebrows,
Desiree
shot a quick
look
a
t Rae
,
and then
back to Molly.
“
I t
urned six
teen last year.
My brother
attended
Guilder
.
But I got the tatù, not him
.”

“Cool for you
.
Bummer
for your brother
.
”

Molly!
“Did h
e ha
ve
to change schools
?
”
Rae thought of her uncle and how
he had
left the school when her mom
had turned sixteen and gotten the tatù instead of him
.

“Yeah,
but he’s actually pretty okay with it. H
e’s at
Oxford
now.”

Desiree’s voice made Rae wish
she would
talk more.
That’s w
eird.

Molly turned to the silent girl still sitting in the same
painfully still
position on the couch,
and held her hand out.
“I won’t shock you. I promise.”

The girl gave a small smile.
“I’m Alecia
. Oh, and
seventeen
.”
Her gazed dropped down to the floor.

“
Wow.
They got you in here
late.
Sorry you had to get
your
tatù
on your own. We’re always around if you have any questions.
”
Molly turned and l
ifted her shirt to show
her
lightning
bolt tatù.
“I
work with electricity.
What’
s your
tatù
?”

Desiree
stood and
held the sides of
her
shirt in her fists, as if worried Molly might lift it.
Don’t blame you one bit.
“
Mine’s
kind of
…
unique.
”

Rae heard the “Oh!” escape from her mouth before she could stop herself.
Desiree
—
Desire.
Molly said
one of girls had a
special
ability.

“
—
I can create a type o
f–how do I
say this
properly
–
yearning
.”

“You make people horny?”

Rae
’s face heated
at Molly’s bluntness.

Desiree
’s laugh bounced with lightness and seduction.
“You could say that.
Howev
er,
I
’m
try
ing
not to think of it that way. I like to think I add
music
to the
dance of life
.
”

Molly gave her a blank look. “Sure, whatever.
Call it what you want.
I
want
you to try it out on
the
guy I’m dating!”

“Molls!” Rae hissed, horrified.
The
“
adding the
music to the dance
”
sounded romantic. A guy
with this kinda tatù
would just use it to his advantage all the time. Maybe it’s good
that
Desiree got it instead of her brother.
Rae swallowed guiltily.
She had
never even met him and
yet
she had
just judged him.
Of all people, I should know better.

“I heard about you
,”
Alecia said quietly,
shifting her eyes from
the
floor
to Rae.
She stared at Rae with piercing eyes.

“Yeah, I get that a lot.” Rae smiled, hoping the girl would
stop
wanting to disappear.
It made her feel oddly self-conscious.

“
Y
our tatù’
s unique, one-of-a-kind.
Is
it
true?”

“
—Go on, s
how them
,
”
Molly butt in
. “
It’s
amazing.
We had
a
dance last spring
,
and
I picked out this perfect dress for Rae to show
her tatù off
. All set to
unintentionally
reveal it. A
ll the girls from
Roe
Hampton
Boarding School
saw
it, and
thought
she’d gotten this t
r
amp stamp
tattoo and couldn’t stop talking about it during the entire dance.
They
said
it looked disgusting
,
but they were all totally jealous.
Rae
’s
tatù is
gorgeous!”

Rae frowned at the mention of the dance, for different reasons than Molly’s explanation, but said nothing.
S
he
remembered what it
had
felt like
the previous year
, to be the new girl
and constantly singled out.
Except
,
f
or her, it
had
been because of her father
.
B
ut still, it sucked being new
.
T
he dance had turned into an ugly nightmare
,
and she had
nearly go
tten
killed.
The tide of emotion she had been hiding threatened to overwhelm her
.
She needed to calm herself back down quickly.
Drop the drama, girl. New year, which is going to be a quiet one.
She
glanced at poor Alecia
,
whose eyes
could not
get any bigger.
She’s safe.
“It’s not really a big deal.” Rae
swallowed and
turned
to
lift her shirt to show
the
Celtic Fairy.

She closed her eyes and pictured the tatù in her head.
Larger
than o
ther girl
s
’
tatùs
,
hers
spread across most of her
lower
back.
Against her pale skin
,
the beautiful, unique fairy watched with secret eyes.
Dressed
in hues of pink,
purple,
and green, with glittery sparkles on its dress and wings
, the fairy posed
coyly
.
Below the
fairy,
an ornate design with Celtic detail spread across
the
back
of her hips
.
Rae opened her
eyes and
pressed
her
lip
s tight
,
half expecting the newbies
to
run out of the room screaming.
At least it’s not some horrific warlock like my father
’
s.

Desiree
sucked in a loud breath.
“
It
’
s
totally cool
!
I wish m
ine
looked like that
.
It
seems
more
like a porn star
now
compared to your
s
.”
Desiree
raised
her shirt to show a voluptuous girl, with large breasts and hips, dressed in a short, tight red dress.
The
tatù
girl
lean
ed
forward, blowing a kiss. It
reminded Rae
of a
biker’s
tattoo
she had
seen in a movie once
.
Don’t ju
dge
a book by its cover.

Alecia got off the couch and pulled her button shirt out of her skirt. “You’re not seriously complaining about the design of yours, are you
,
Desiree?”