Guardian Of Fate (Fate Series) (6 page)

Caleb studied Nora. There was nothing sexual about his examination; it was more like he was trying to figure out if he knew her. The same look a person got when they ran into someone they knew from long ago and couldn't remember their name.

"Caleb," He took her hand and gently shook it. "Nice to meet you, Nora."

"Now I understand why you were lurking, Cassie," Nora said with a smirk.

"Shut up, Nora," I said with a small laugh. "Caleb and I met at school. Well actually we met at Luke's last night and then ran into each other at school today. We got to talking and he was nice enough to walk me home. What were you doing?" I asked her right back, trying to draw her away from an embarrassing conversation of what Caleb and I might have been doing at the door before she so elegantly interrupted us.

"I was checking to see if our paper came. I thought I heard the delivery guy at the door. Obviously, it was you two," she said, as if we had disappointed her in some way.

Turning back to Caleb, I said, "Well, I guess I'll see you tomorrow night then, Caleb." This time I stuck my hand out towards him in anticipation of a goodbye handshake.

He grabbed my hand, pulled it up to his lips, and lightly kissed my fingers, right below the knuckles. "I'm really looking forward to it, Cassie. Goodnight."

Enchanted, my hand drifted slowly back to my side. "Goodnight," I managed to whisper.

He nodded towards Nora. "It was a pleasure to meet you, Nora. Have a good night."

"It was good to meet you too, Caleb," Nora answered.

I stayed in the hallway listening for the front entrance door to shut with its familiar clunk. When I knew Caleb was gone, I turned towards Nora, my hands on my hips.

"Okay, what gives?" I accused her.

CHAPTER SEVEN

"
What?" she made a feeble attempt at claiming her innocence.

"What were you doing out here, Nora Hawthorne?"

"I told you, I was checking to see if our paper had come."

"Nora, I live here. We don't get a paper! Now 'fess up!" I pushed her back into the apartment and closed the door.

Avoiding me, Nora went to the cupboard and grabbed a wine glass. She held it up, raising her eyebrows, her tacit invitation for me to join her. I nodded and she grabbed another glass, along with a bottle of wine from the cabinet. She filled the glasses slowly, and I started to lose my patience.

"Well? Spill, Nora. Were you really spying on me?"

"What? No! Of course, not! I was just as surprised to see you guys at the door as you were to see me."

"C'mon, Nora. I've lived with you for two years now. I know all about your 'Nosey Neighbor' habits."

I met Nora in one of my undergrad classes when we were paired up for a psych project. We hit it off from the start. She asked me soon after we met why I disappeared so much and I told her it was a long, complicated story that I'd tell her about someday. She never asked again, accepting me with all of my absences and stand-ups without questions or complaints. I often thought about telling her, but I was too afraid of losing the only other person in my life, besides my mom, that seemed to accept me for who I was, or at least, who she thought I was. I knew people had a tendency of shying away from what they didn't understand.

"Okay, you got me!" she said, laughing. "I
was
being a 'Nosey Neighbor', but not to spy on you. I heard voices earlier coming from the empty apartment next door, so I decided to see what was up. When I got out into the hallway, the property manager was out there with this gorgeous hunk of maleness. Of course, I stuck my tail between my legs and ran back inside before they could even say, 'Hey, Nosey Neighbor'."

As talkative and outgoing as Nora usually was, she seemed to lose all sense of formative words when it came to good-looking men. Unless she was all prettied up, she lacked the confidence to initiate anything. Her shoulder-length, blond hair was piled on her head and there were no signs of makeup. She was probably at the gym earlier and just took a quick shower to freshen up. She couldn't even try to appear less than beautiful, but it was definitely not a look that would have given her the confidence to strike up a conversation with the hunk she claimed was next door.

Wait! Hunk next door looking at the empty apartment? Could it have been Hunter?
That would explain why he was at the complex. There were only two apartments open, one next door, and the other in the building next to ours.

"So when I heard voices again," Nora continued, "I planned to go out there and apologize for being such a rude potential neighbor. I didn't want to scare this one
—"

"Nora, what did he look like?"

My narrowed eyes and tightened body language must have shown how serious I was, because her normally light demeanor changed.

"I only saw him for a minute, but he was tall and muscular, not bulky muscle though, you know?  Um, short dark hair, a little messy on top. Oh! His eyes! They were the bluest I've ever seen in my life! When he turned to look at me, I nearly lost my breath!"

No doubt about it. Hunter had been next door with the property manager. So he was looking for an apartment now? And it just happened to be in my complex? This was really starting to freak me out. Maybe Caleb was right, and I should be careful. Something wasn't right about all of this. Who was this guy? I made a mental note to talk with the property manager in the morning and see if she could provide me with any more info on him.

"So what's the big deal?" Nora asked.

I wasn't ready to tell her about Hunter yet. I could see her going straight to the cops if I told her that I'd met him, as well as Caleb, at Luke's yesterday, and they both mysteriously showed up in my life today. Nora didn't like to take chances. Not that I did, but I had a little more going on in my life to relate to these coincidences. I had to find out for myself first. It was better to keep her in the dark until I knew more. I hoped the info my mom was tracking down would shed some light on all of it.

"Oh, nothing," I waved it off, walking over to the couch with my wine in hand. "I just saw the same guy coming out of the other building while I was in the parking lot tonight.  He must be looking at both apartments." Well, at least I hadn't lied completely. I sat down, placing my wine on the end table next to me as I picked up the remote for the TV.

"Hold up there, sister." Nora came around and sat next to me, putting her hand over mine on the remote, before I could turn it on. "Are you sure that's it? You actually looked pretty freaked out when you asked me about him. You sure you don't know him?"

Nora was good at reading me - too good. I had to tread carefully unless I wanted to tell her everything. If I told her even an ounce of it, she wouldn't be satisfied until she knew the whole thing. I hated lying to her, but as usual, when it came to my secret life, I had no choice. I wasn't proud of it, but I was pretty good at it.

"No, at least not that I know of. I only saw him from across the parking lot, so I can't be positive, but he didn't look familiar. I was just a little weirded out about seeing some guy in the complex that I'd never seen before, that's all," I explained.

Nora searched my face. "Okay, if you're sure there is nothing you want to tell me then." She left the statement as more of a question. How I longed to answer her with the truth and spill my guts to her. Ask for her take on everything. I was so close to doing it, knowing her willingness to accept anything I had to confide in her. But I just couldn't.

"There's nothing to tell, Nora. Really. That was it."

"Okay then." She removed her hand from mine and took a sip of her wine. I did the same, not out of thirst, more to hide my shame about lying to my best friend.

"Well, I
did
see this guy, and I sure wouldn't mind that eye candy living next door to us. Speaking of eye candy, what's the skinny on Caleb?" she asked with excited anticipation. "Did I hear you are actually going out on a date?"

I gave a little laugh at her high school antics and said shyly, "Yeah, we're going out to dinner tomorrow night after I get done with my shift at the hospital. It's no big deal really."

"No big deal, huh? When's the last time you were on a date, Cassie? Seriously, this guy must have
really
charmed you. I've seen you turn down the
hottest
guys. So, give it up. What's this guy got?"

I knew this was coming. There was no way she was going to let me get away with being so blasé about a date I had finally agreed to, after not doing so for eons. But just to make her squirm, I said, "So pizza and a movie tonight? I think the new "Saw" movie is available now. What number are they on again? Fifty-five?" Nora and I loved to turn out all the lights in the apartment and watch scary slasher movies to scare the crap out of us. After the things I'd seen lately, however, I'm not sure men in masks were as frightening as they used to be.

"You will get
nothing
until you bare your soul on Caleb, Cassandra Cosgrove!"

Hearing her call me Cassandra made me think of the way Hunter said my name at Luke's. It had been so sensual coming from his lips, that I felt waves of pleasure throughout my body. How could mere words create such a reaction within me?

"Heellooo," Nora tried bringing me back from my reverie, snapping her fingers in front of my face.

I came out of my trance, put my knee up on the couch, faced Nora, and sighed. "Okay, okay. What is it with people and their bribery today?" I joked.

"Huh?"

"That's how Caleb got me to go for lunch today, but I'll get to that." I proceeded to tell her how I met Caleb at Luke's last night, and worked my way through the story until she found us at the door. The only parts I left out were the ones that had anything to do with my dreams or of Hunter.

She seemed satisfied, and even a bit happy for me, with all I confessed. "So, is he taking you somewhere nice?"

"I think he mentioned something like that."

"Oh my! That means you have to get dressed up and everything for this little shindig! I'm all over that. Who knows what you'd come up with, it's been that long."

"Whatever, Nora," I gave her a nudge, blushing because I knew she was right. It had been that long. And I didn't have a clue as to what to wear. Nora was good at transforming even the plainest caterpillar into a beautiful butterfly. I had no doubt that she'd have me looking no less than perfect for my date with Caleb.

After ordering pizza, we talked about school and our jobs, simple, normal things between friends. She joked more with me about my date with Caleb. I didn't mind; she had a way of making me forget all about the abnormal things that were center stage in my life. We did get more serious about my concerns of getting involved with someone at a time when it felt like I couldn't fit anything else in my life. I told her that I just wanted to concentrate on school and my career without interference, keeping to myself all of my other responsibilities. She eased all of my concerns, telling me to just have fun on the date and stop thinking so much about where anything would need to fit in.

"If fate would have it that this guy belongs in your life, there is nothing you can do about it," she told me.

Fate. I thought about the irony of it. I controlled the fates of others, but what was my fate? Would there be someone there to help me if I were to take a wrong step? Was it possible for me to be a Guardian of my own fate? I guess I would never know any of the answers unless I took a chance.

"I guess you're right," I told her.

"Of course I am!" She laughed. "Hey! I finally got my painting back from being framed. I want you to check it out and see if you think it would look good in here. Be right back." She ran to her room. Nora was a true artist. Her paintings amazed me and every one that she created seemed ten times more beautiful than the last. We already had several of them hanging on the walls throughout the apartment.

While she was gone, the buzzer rang, announcing the pizza man was waiting at our door. I yelled to Nora that I was going to run down to get it. We never buzzed anyone in; you just never knew what kind of crazies there were out there. A few minutes later, I was setting the pizza on the breakfast bar, when I realized that Nora still hadn't come out from her bedroom, unless she had during the few minutes it took to get the pizza. Either way, she wasn't in the living room and neither was the painting.

Just as I was going to call for her, she stepped out of her room. I was confused because she was wearing her jacket now with her purse and keys in hand.

"Where are you going?" I asked.

"I'm so sorry, but I got a call from one of my project partners, and she is freaking out. Our project is due tomorrow and she forgot to get my notes, which directly correlate with her section of it. I'm so pissed! I hate people that wait until the last minute!"

"So you want me to put the pizza in the oven and just wait until you get back?"

Nora groaned. "I hate to do this, but we are going to have to reschedule our night, hon. I'm so sorry. She lives like halfway across town and I'm going to have to explain some things to her. She's not one of the brightest crayons in the box, so this could be awhile."

"That's okay. It's not your fault. We'll do it another night. Go do what you need to do."

She was already halfway out the door as she said, "I'm really sorry, Cassie. But at least I got to meet your new man. And we can talk more when I'm helping you get ready tomorrow, right?"

"Absolutely. Now get out of here and do your Good Samaritan deed for the night." I waved her out the door and shut it behind her as we said goodbye.

Not knowing what to do with myself, now that the night we'd planned was cancelled, I grabbed a slice of pizza. Then I took a seat on the couch and turned on the TV. I found a channel showing "Silence of the Lambs," but it wasn't starting for another half an hour. I decided to pass the time until the movie started by reading a magazine. As I got up to get one, my phone rang.

Praying that it was my mom finally calling to let me know she was all right, I grabbed the phone from the breakfast bar and read my mom's name on the display. Relieved, I answered quickly.

"Mom! Where are you? Are you okay? I've been trying to call you! Why haven't you answered?"

"Cassie, calm down. I'm fine. Sorry I haven't called before now, but I've been in areas without any reception. I should only be a few more days. I'm meeting with someone tomorrow who should have some answers for us, and then I'll be home. Everything okay there?

"I saw another one of those men, or whatever it is, again."

"You mean like the passenger of the car?" she asked, fear in her voice again. "With the eyes? Where?"

I didn't like hearing my mom scared, but the more information she had, the more helpful it might be in getting answers.

"He... it... was at school, following some guy. This one looked me dead in the eyes again. The guy almost fell down the steps in one of the buildings. Luckily, someone saw him and caught him before he went down. There was no way I could get to him in time. Just like the last time, though, the thing was gone, right before it all went down."