Dark Nebula (The Chronicles of Kerrigan) (16 page)

“
We believe
Anna’s brother
is involved
.
He’s the one
with the tatù
. Very dangerous.
Those involved with
HOC
are scheming to do something big.
It isn’t just against those who are
tatùed
, but against the British population
, possibly
Europe
,
or even bigger
.

Devon
punched his knee.
“I
never saw him wh-when I
was
w
ith Anna
.” He flinched slightly, as if expecting Rae to throw something at him.
Too busy staring at
her
ass?

“
The brother was never around
…”
Devon
trailed off lamely, letting the explanation hang in the air.

Carter mumbled something under his breath before continuing in an oddly normal tone.
“
—
We believe he
may have
tortured his sister to get information.”

Devon
blanched. “About me?”
The horror on his face was evident, and it twisted the knife in Rae’s heart to see it.
Devon
lurched to his feet.
“We need to get her out of that situation
!
She needs to be protected.”

Rae covered her ears
and closed her eyes
.
She didn’t want to hear
any more
of this conversation, or
Devon
’s voice.
She
twitched
when
gentle
hands squeezed her shoulders.
A tremor of a tatù ran through her and then died down.

“Rae, dear,”
Carter
’
s
breath brushed
warm and minty
against her face.
“I know you don’t want to hear the
se
awful things
.
” She opened her eyes when he paused. “Th-
The
things
your father
created
and set out to do
.
” His eyes
showed gentle
understanding
, even though she knew he understood nothing
. “T
hose involved in
HOC
might
come after you, as
Lanford
did, and force you to finish what he started.
A
s much as your tatù is wonder
ful, it
’
s also a danger
.
Not everyone in
our world thinks as
we
do
--
they have their own agenda
s
.”

Rae stole a look at
Devon
after
Carter
s
poke
the last line.
Devon
had the decency to drop his gaze to the floor.
Screw him
.
Maybe he’s not who I thought he was
.
That thought alone almost shook her more than the revelation of
Anna
. She wanted to get as far away from Carter and
Devon
as she could, sooner rather than later.
“I’m pretty sure
I can
take care of myself.
It seems like it’s best to trust my instincts.
I can protect myself better than anyone else
c
an
, tatù or no tatù.”
She shifted so
Carter’s
hands dropped away from her shoulders.
Thank goodness he didn’t try using his tatù on her now. With his ability to see into the past of the person he touched,
he
could be
a danger to her relationship with
Devon
.
O
r rather, he
might have
been, when there
had been
one, which there no longer was
.
She’d gotten his tatù the previous year.
At the time, she had
thought t
hat he was the enemy.
S
he
had
never even tried to use his
tatù.
I’ll
have to
test it out
. I’d try it on
Devon
, but it seems I’m already learning all his secrets.
She shot him a dirty look then glanced back to Carter still angry.
“I appreciate your concern
.
I
f I feel I’m in any danger, I’ll come to you
…
right away.”
She blew her bangs away from her forehead.
“Can I go now?
It seems you and
Devon
have more to discuss, and it doesn’t involve me.”

Carter
nodded and gave her
a small smile.
“
This is all upsetting. I understand.
We’ll talk more, later
.
” He
moved around the room like an agile athlete
. “
Devon
,
you go
as well.
Get in touch with
your
contact personnel
,
and see if there is anything else.
H
e wants you an
d Julian
on a mission. T
hey’
re setting the ground work for your next assignment.”

“
Yes, sir
.”
Devon
stood and strode to the office door.
He held it open for Rae.

She
had a q
u
ick
thought about
mentioning
Devon
’s weird
tatù dying
outside, just before they
came
in
.
Screw
it
!
If he’s worried, he can
tell
Carter
himself.
She barged past him
,
down the narrow hallway
, anxious
to
leave
the Oratory.

Last year she would have raced back to her dorm and avoided any confrontation.
Well, I’m not that same scared little girl anymore.
She turned
and
opened her mouth to hiss at him, but
Devon
put a finger to his lips and pointed to
Carter’s
door. He then pointed towards the exit.

The only sound was
the squeak from
Rae’s sneakers on the marble floor.
Each step
made
her clench her jaw tighter.
She sq
ueezed her hands into fists, fighting the urge
not to turn around and
deck him
.
When they reached the Grand Hall, Rae stepped to the side,
waiting for
Devon
to walk in front of her.
He tried to put an arm around her shoulders, but she shook
it off
and
stomped outside
.

She clenched her hands tight
er, her nails digging into the palms of her hands
. In anger or to stop herself from using a tatù, she didn’t know.
It took all her
willpower
not to blow her top before the door
finally
clicked shut.

Chapter 8

Hidden

H
e brushed by her the mome
n
t they stepped outside.
“What the hell?
” Rae quickened her pace to keep up with
Devon
’s long strides.
She tried to make it sound like a question, but it came out as an accusation.

Devon
slowed his gait but only slightly.

“Don’t
ignore
me, Devon Wardell
!
You’ve purposely left out some information about what you
did
this summer.
You’re an ass!
You should be ashamed of yourself
!
”
She scoffed, “Ha! The dean’s son–what would your father say?”

“It’s not as bad as
it sounds
.”
Devon
stopped. Still trying to keep up with him, Rae
slammed
into his back.
He turned and caught her just before she fell.

“Let go of me! I can take care of myself!” She pushed his hands away.

Devon
huffed.
“
I’m not
allowed
to talk about what we do for the Privy Council.
I didn’t know
Carter
would mention it in front of you.” His voice
hardened
as he spoke.

“So you mean; if he hadn’t mentioned it
,
you wouldn’t have told me?” She glared at him.

He stood quietly for a moment, fingers pressed against his temple, eyes squeezed shut, his body-language filled with tension. Rae waited, impatiently
.
When he finally looked into her eyes, his face softened
.
“Nothing happened this summer.”

“Nothing
!
?
You just start
ed
dating some Anna-chick and
didn’t
bother to mention it?
We may not
have
been
together that
long, but you owe me honesty.
And any normal person would at least
explain to the girlfriend
ahead of time
what the job
requires
.
”
Your sorry ass is not so perfect,
Devon
Wardell.
“
After everything, y
ou’
re
the one person I trust
ed above all others
. Then you
go and
lie to me?
What else are you hiding?
”

“Nothing!”
Devon
’s shoulders
dropped
.
“
I didn’t want to
lie
. But what was I going to say to the Privy Council? Uh, sorry, I can’t take this mission because the one gal you want me to protect, the one gal I care for and am secretly dating probably won’t agree?
” He rubbed his fingers along his eyebrows. “
I didn’t know what to do.”

Rae said nothing, just pressed her lips tight
.
Make them assign someone else? Make up any excuse… or how about simply tell me yourself
,
so I don’t
get the news from some third party?
She wanted to scream all her thoughts to him. And worse, she wanted to cry.
H
e had
hurt her feelings.

Devon
punched his leg. “Ahhh, s
crew the Privy Council and their rules.”
He
stared
at her, his
expression
open and honest.
“It’s bad enough we have to lie about our relationship.
I don’t want lies between us.”

Now you don’t want lies? Little late, don’tchya think?
Ra
e waited, hands on her hips and her
chin
slightly out.

“
I didn’t lie…exactly.” H
e
ran
a
hand through his hair
. Rae
didn’t miss the
exasperation in his
tone
.

“Exactly? How ‘exact’ does the lie have to be to
make it
a lie?” Rae started stomping in the general direction of
Aumbry
House.

“I
wouldn’t
lie to you.
”
Devon
pleaded with her.

“You DID lie to me
Devon
! I didn’t hear from you most of the summer. You didn’t tell me what you did ‘exactly’, ergo, you lied!” Rae
spat out, her heart
sick with betrayal.

“
I
f the Privy Council asks something of me, I have to follow orders.
I’m
eigh
teen years old
!
I like this job
.
I want
to keep it
!
It’s some
thing I
’m
very good at.” He must
have
noticed the glare she gave him
as she continued to
sto
mp
her way across the grounds
.
“Not the lying, cheating part, but the tracking and undercover work.
The Council asked me to get close to Anna.
They
’d
been monitoring her brother.
He’s twenty and didn’t
attend
Guilder.
They were concerned he might be involved
in this
HOC
-crap your father created.
Anna’s not
tatùed
and
has no idea
about
them
.”

“
So y
ou pretended to date her?” Rae didn’t give a toss about Anna’s brother.
All she saw in her head was a tall,
dark
-haired, voluptuous model making the moves on
her
boyfriend.

“Sort of
—
yeah.
She’s actually nice and very innocent.”

The dark-
sexy
model was replaced with a blonde-haired angel, complete with halo
, and Rae wanted to rip her wings off
.
“
You must have been very good at it. You fooled me.” She crossed her arms over her chest. “
Did you kiss her?
A
re you still
pretending
to date her?”
Her lower leg muscles began to ache from the constant
stomping
; she
came to a sudden stop, whirling to face him.

“No,
honest,” he said
.
“W
e’re just friends.
I never took advantage of the situation.” He reached for her hand
after
glancing around to see if anyone
stood
nearby
.
“Rae, you’re
th
e most special thing in my life.” H
e
squeezed her fingers. “
W
e
don’t know how things
are gonna
work
out
.
You have to admit
this i
s hard
--
for both of us.
We’re going against everything the school, the P
rivy Council and
our society
agree
with.
I really care for you, but I still have a conscience
telling
me
that
w
e’re
going against everything I’ve ever been taught
to be
right and good
.
”

“So it’s just easier to date someone normal? Is that what you’re telling me?”
Could
her whole world
actually be
crumbling around her
?

“NO!”
Devon
, obviously frustrated and desperate to make her understand ran his hands through his hair, tugging on it as if trying to pull the words out of his head that would fix the situation. Rae watched him, still angry, really angry
;
but also dying for him to find those magic words
that would
make the hurt stop.

He
turned away from her, took a deep breath, let it out slowly and then turned back. “Our entire society is against us. They have been from the beginning. Despite that, we fell for each other. I fell for you
,
Rae! I fell hard! And I don’t regret that. I don’t want to give it up or lose it!
But if anyone finds out, we won’t have a choice! You’ll be ripped away from me
,
and I’ll never see you again. They’d probably lock me away.”
Devon
reached for her hands
again. T
his time
,
she let him hold them. The outpouring of emotion was overwhelming and drowning out her anger. “I do what the PC asks me to do because if I couldn’t ever see you again, or be here to protect you, I don’t know what I’d do.”

“I don’t want you to get into trouble,” she whispered, unsure if she meant the danger from his work or getting caught
being with
her.

“I won’t.
We won’t.
We’ll make this work, okay?
We’ll show them
,
and ourselves too,
that our relationship isn’t a negative, or evil thing
.” He pulled her close.
“I’m so sorry.”

Rae closed her eyes and
inhaled his musky scent.
“Sorry,
too,
” she mumbled against his chest.
She
had
missed him so much over the summer
,
and the though
t of him
kissing another girl
—

“Don’t apologize
. T
here’s no need.
I will try
to
tell you
everything
I can.
”
He kissed the top of her head before stepping back.
“
Let’s
just
keep us a secret for
the
year
--
till you graduate.
I can just imagine the mayhem
that would
erupt if my father found out.
I wouldn’t
want you to get kicked out of school.”
He grinned.

“Kicked out?”
She blinked in surprise.
“That’s what you’re worried about?”

Devon
winked, a huff escaping between his lips.
“T
rust me
,
t
hat’d be the least of our worries.
W
e’re not going to get caught.
”
A growl erupted from his stomach.
“
Are we good?”

Rae didn’t know what to say. All the
emotions that had coursed through her in the past twenty minutes
burned her mind and her heart. She
knew, instinctively,
that
he wasn’t telling her everything, and it pained her, but she desperately
wanted to believe him. “We’re good – for now.”

“
Come on
then,” he said grinning and displaying his adorable dimple. “
Let’s head back and forget about all this crazy stuff.
I’m starving.
”