Five (Elemental Enmity Series Book I) (28 page)

I impatiently waited for him to hand me my first burger. He put the straw into the shake. I yanked it away from him. My sense of smell was heightened. The mixture of savory and sweet was heady. I didn’t remember much after the first bite. When I finally finished, I looked over at Zach.

He gave me a wary smile and handed me a napkin. “I would like to say that seeing you devour that much food in less than two minutes was hot, but no. I could do without ever witnessing that again.”

I ignored his disgusted expression. “Are you going to finish yours?” I asked, wiping ketchup from my chin.

He got out of the way. By the time I finished the second large fry, I was feeling a little better.

“What’s wrong with me?” I said around a gulp of chocolate shake then I turned my attention to the last of Zach’s burger.

He looked sad. “Mortal food will never satisfy you again.”

I stopped mid-bite. “Like in
ever
?”

He moved to the window. “I should have warned you about trolls last night when you mentioned you had one, but I thought I could get rid of him before he did any harm.”

And here I thought the thing sounded sort of cute. “What does this have to do with trolls?”

He rested his arm on the window frame, gazing out the glass. “They are horrible creatures. They will serve whoever has the most coin at the moment.”

I brightened at my current thought. “Cassie has never acted like this, and she has eaten fae food.”

“What!” He whirled around. “When was that?”

“A long time ago. A brownie took Cassie to her home—”

He waved a dismissive hand, pacing in front of me. “That’s different. Fae food eaten in the otherworld is harmless. When it is consumed in the human realm, it has disastrous consequences.”

My thoughts were swirling. Had the troll left that candy for Cassie or for me? “Why would a troll want me to eat fae food?”

“Forget about him.” His voice was clipped with barely controlled furor. “You need to worry about whoever hired him. Eventually, you will be so uncomfortable that you will beg one of the lords to take you.”

“Oh, fantastic. Could things get any worse for me?”

He held a wry expression when he faced me. “You think.”

“How am I supposed to avoid fae traps if I don’t even know they exist?”

A light rapping erupted at the door. Natalie waited on the other side. She looked worried. Even her freckles were two shades paler. She kept glancing down the hall as though she expected something sinister to round the corner.

“Hey, Rayla,” she said, sailing past me. She plopped onto my bed. “Do you mind if I crash here?”

I immediately loved the idea. I had been dreading spending the night in my room without Cassie again. “Sure. Is something wrong?”

“I’d just prefer that a certain guy not know where I am tonight.”

“Are you and Sam fighting?”

One corner of her mouth shot up in a lopsided smile, but it didn’t touch her eyes. “Something like that.”

I got the impression that she didn’t want to say anything until Zach was gone. As if on cue, he rose from the couch and kissed me lightly on the cheek.

He was to the door before I could say anything. Why was he in such a hurry to leave me?

“It’s nice to see you again, Natalie. I’ll be here later to take you to work, Rayla.” The pictures on the wall shook when the door thudded closed.

“I’m sorry if I ruined your time with him,” said Natalie softly.

I was fighting the urge to drop to the floor. I needed that candy. I was just glad that Zach hadn’t thought to flush the rest of them down the toilet. “What’s going on?” I asked distractedly.

Her look was tortured. “Have you ever thought you knew someone and realized later that you had no clue who you fell in love with?”

I spotted a piece of candy by the sofa. How was I going to get to it without Natalie seeing? “Kind of.”

“I trusted him.” She rolled quickly onto her side cupping her head in her hand. The bunk-bed squeaked in protest of her jerky movements. “I shouldn’t get you involved in this, but I have to tell somebody.”

Having her problems to mull over sounded quite refreshing at the moment. “I don’t mind.”

Her features constricted tightly. She played with the buttons on the underside of Cassie’s mattress. “I’m in big trouble, and I can’t get a hold of my normal resources. It’s like my calls are being blocked or something.”

I knew the feeling, but what did Natalie have to do with the fae? “Go on.”

“Here I thought I had finally found someone that was close to the inside, but not part of it. They’ve told him to kill me. Can you believe it?”

I was so confused. “Hang on. You’re talking about Sam, right?” She couldn’t be. I couldn’t imagine Sam offing anyone, let alone her.

“Yeah, the Judas. I thought he loved me. Man, have I been stupid!”

I walked over to the couch and sat on the floor in front of the succulent morsel that was begging me to eat it. “Why would someone order Sam to kill you?”

She smiled arrogantly, as though she was proud of having a price on her head. “Are you sure you want to know all of this. It’s complicated. ”

I shouldn’t have felt a small sort of satisfaction at knowing I wasn’t the only one with an absurd life. “Of course.” It wasn’t like I could be in more danger than I already was.

She smirked. “So, I’m undercover. I can’t believe I actually signed up for this crap. You’d think I would have had enough of college the first time around.”

I sat there, slack-jawed, hugging my knees. What was she saying? “If you aren’t a student, what are you?”

“A journalist. I’ve been freelancing for a few years, trying to break into the biz. I stumbled across this story a year ago. It’s a lot harder to create a fake identity than I thought it would be.”

I rubbed my temples. “Okay, I’m going to pretend you haven’t totally lost it for a few minutes. What is it that you have been working on?”

She sat up, brushing her curls out of her face. “Do you have all night?”

Not really. But I was interested. I had a few hours until I had to be to work. I wasn’t sure if I should go, but it was too late to call in sick now. Besides it was too public a place for the lords to get to me. I shrugged.

“My brother graduated from Notre Dame last year. Secret groups exist within the college that the administration doesn’t know about. One of them recruits wealthy men into the New World Order.”

A chill ran up my spine. I had always thought that conspiracy theory was ridiculous. I wasn’t so sure anymore. “I—”

She held up a hand. “I’d appreciate it if you’d let me get this all out before you pass judgment.”

She was expecting quite a bit. There had to be normalcy in the world somewhere. I had assumed so much. I wouldn’t anymore. “Go on.”

“This is an ancient society, Rayla. It has been known as many things throughout history: The Illuminate is probably the most recognizable. It doesn’t matter what they call themselves; it’s still the same organization. And it’s always exclusively male. The members are always wealthy beyond imagination and extremely powerful. They control what happens in the world more than any of us would like to admit.”

My fingers slid over the round, hard surface of the candy. How was I going to get it into my mouth without having to offer her one? What if she saw me pick it up? “So what does this have to do with Sam? I didn’t think he was that rich.”

Her emerald gaze was livid. “They look for men that come from affluent families. They seem to target second sons who are ambitious to a fault. You don’t know how many times I’ve heard Sam complain that his older brother has everything. Sam was recruited by the biggest fish in the area.”

A thought hit me. “Let me guess: Roger Wayne.”

“You are more observant than I thought you’d be. He is the worst of the worst of humanity. Anyway, before I met Sam, I was told that he had spent the summer in the Caribbean with Roger. I wanted to have a way into the Wayne estate, so I targeted Sam when my attempts at Roger failed. I wasn’t disappointed. I was in the next weekend. Every time we go there, I try to find something incriminating. But I haven’t been able to locate anything useful. I never expected that I would fall in love with him. It was just supposed to be a job. Nothing more.”

The candy was calling to me. I looked longingly at my closed fist. I shut my eyes tightly. How was I going to deal with my sudden obsession? “So has Sam tried to kill you, or did he just come out and tell you he was going to?”

She shook her head. “I went to see him earlier. He wasn’t expecting me. I was ready to knock on his door when I heard him shouting at someone. Even though there was no need, I put my ear to the wood. I could have heard him down the hallway with the way he was yelling. To be fair, he refused to do it until Roger threatened his mother.”

I gasped. I had pegged Roger as unsavory, but that was too light a term to describe how vile he really was. I was suddenly grateful that Cassie was on her way back home.

A loud banging started at the door. Before I could motion for her to do it, Natalie was under my bed.

“Rayla, are you in there?” Sam called out, panic in his voice.

I hurried into the bathroom and flushed the toilet. I shoved the piece of candy into my pocket for later. Before I cracked the door open, I turned on some music. I tried to look really tired, peaking through the door with heavy-lidded eyes. “Sam?”

He pushed right past me, heading for the bathroom. He threw the shower curtain open. His chest heaved rapidly as though he was hyperventilating. “Where is she?”

“Natalie?” His contemptuous look halted the rest of what I had planned to say. “What’s wrong?”

He paced the room like a caged animal. Pure fear dominated his expression. “I have to find her. It’s a matter of life or death.”

I scoffed until he glared at me. I leveled my gaze to his. “I saw her earlier, but she went somewhere.” I wasn’t lying. He didn’t have to know she was under the bed.

He threw open the door. “Remind Cassie that Roger is expecting her to come to his party this weekend.”

I cocked my head to the side and shot him a smart look. “That will be hard for her to manage from Utah.”

His face scrunched up as though I had just told him his favorite swimsuit model was retiring. “Why is she there?”

I casually played with the buttons on my hip pocket. “Her mom insisted that she go home to heal.”

He glanced down the hallway then back at me. The blood drained from his face. “What happened to her?”

“She had an accident. I think she’ll be fine, but she was unconscious for a while.”

“I’m sorry to hear that.” His gaze traveled downward to my bed as though he suspected what hid beneath the lace fringed fabric. “Tell Natalie that I love her and my mom. She knows where to find me. I was never planning to … just tell her I need her help to figure out what to do.”

I shut the door. Natalie’s muffled crying wafted up to me after I turned off the music. “He’s gone,” I said softly. “I made sure.”

She scooted out from under the bed, her eyes red and swollen. Her face was a cast in misery.

“Do you believe what he said?” I asked.

She lowered her gaze to the floor, shoving her hands in her pockets. “How can I?”

“I don’t blame you for not trusting him, but I think he really does love you.”

She plopped onto the couch. Her bright, teary gaze locked to mine. “You have no idea how much I wish that were enough.”

Why did life have to be so complicated? Love should be the great leveler; the thing that obliterates all other emotions into the insignificant rubble they are. “What are you going to do?”

She shook her head, her gaze traveling to the door. “I’ve got to leave. I should have gone immediately, but I don’t want to. Sam is the first man I have actually loved.”

I lowered to the cushion beside her, scooting away from the glaring sunlight shining through the window. “There has to be a way. I don’t think he wants to hurt you.”

Her expression turned sour. “He may not have a choice.”

I cocked my head. “That isn’t true. There is always a choice, even if we don’t like it. He could choose you over his mom.” My words felt hollow. If the Order was involved, these two really were in trouble. I still didn’t know much about it, but an organization that had existed for centuries wouldn’t let two people just disappear.