Magnetic Shift (3 page)

More things? He
did
realize I worked for him, not the other way around, right?

Dean pulled out a large bag from a compartment under the seat of the eating area and motioned for me to sit.

“From what I gather, you’ve been doing your schooling through online independent studies. Correct?”

I nodded and shifted awkwardly. “It’s a long story, I—”

He waved his hand. “No need to explain. It’s actually a relief that I didn’t have to pull you out of school.” I bit my lip. He proceeded to pull out a black Toshiba laptop from a zipped protective casing and set it down in front of me. “I just want to make sure you don’t neglect your school work while you’re with us.” I stared at it. A squeal lodged itself in my throat—this gift was too good to be true. “It’s not new, but I had it reformatted and made sure you’d have all the software you need.”

Who cared if it wasn’t new? Anything was better than the old piece of shit computer I had at home that would greet me with the blue screen of death the second I attempted to surf the web and run MS Word at the same time.

My lip twitched, wanting to smile, but I suppressed it. I couldn’t accept this gift, not when I had every intention of leaving Sunday.

“Sir, I appreciate what you’re doing, but—”

“It’s Dean. And consider the laptop a loan if it makes you feel more comfortable.” Before I could respond, he pulled out a small wallet-sized case. “This is so we can reach you when we need to. Colton tells me it’s the phone to have. He set it up for you. Added music and apps he thought you might like.” He opened the case and placed a brand new iPhone on the table next to the laptop.

I picked it up, my hand trembling. I’d never had a cell phone before, nor had I ever had the need for one, but I’d wanted one so bad. My eyes itched. I took a conscious breath and set the phone back on the table. “Dean, I—”

Dean’s finger shot up and stopped me. “Oh, and I almost forgot …” he reached into his back pocket. “This should be enough to get you started.” He held out a folded envelope. I shot him a glance and then looked down at his hand. He pushed the envelope toward me. I took it, opened it, and pulled out a stack of twenty-dollar bills. A web of emotions spun in my throat and fed the curse, now pulsating hard in my temples. I dropped the bills on the table as if they’d bitten me and balled my hands together in my lap.

Get a grip, Lex. You’re stronger than this.

“Is something wrong?” Dean asked, looking puzzled.

“Why are you doing this?”

Dean slipped his hands in his pockets. “Did you actually think me cruel enough not to pay you?”

Okay. Now I really didn’t understand. “That was the deal, wasn’t it?”

“With Roy, yes. But with you, it doesn’t have to be.” I looked down at the money.

“Unfortunately, I’ll have to pay you in cash—under the table, so to speak. Two hundred per week sound good?”

“Two hundred per—” My throat stopped functioning and pressure built in the back of my eyes. I’d never been paid for working at the Salvage Yard, nor had I ever gotten an allowance. Roy would show up now and then with a hand-me-down bag of clothes he’d picked up from God knows where, and if my luck aligned with the planets just right, he’d bring home a movie rental as a treat, but that was the extent of his kindness and fulfillment of stepfatherly duties. The only time Roy ever put money in my hand was for me to run his errands at the supermarket next door.

The Blackberry clipped to Dean’s belt chirped. In a quick one-handed sweep, he unclipped it, thumbed the keys, and read the screen. “Ah, hell.” He rubbed the back of his neck, clipping the phone back at his waist. “I hate to do this to you, but I have to go. The CEO of Guardian Auto Insurance decided to swing by unannounced. I need to clear my schedule and go schmooze the man if we want to keep him on as our main sponsor for the full season. Are you okay here?”

I batted my lids to dry the moisture building along my lashes and nodded. I was on the verge of crumbling—which was totally unlike me—and I didn’t like it one bit.

The side door burst open, and Colton ran inside. “Dean, Mr. Langdon’s—”

“I know. Jimmy just texted me,” Dean told him.

My stomach fluttered when Colton’s eyes shifted to me and didn’t look away. I tried my best to look sane and not disturbed by the forces churning inside my head. I thought I’d imagined it before, but now I knew for sure that Colton had a strong effect
on me, one that warmed my insides but also kept me teetering on the edge of going magnetically insane. It didn’t help that Dean’s gift giving had thrown my emotions all out of whack. I didn’t know if I could control it much longer.

Dean glanced at his watch. “Link’s practice is in forty-five minutes. Lexi, if you want you can meet me at the hauler later to get a feel for what we do around here.”

I broke eye contact with Colton and looked back at the items in front of me. My energy was draining fast, and the pressure kept building. I couldn’t remember the last time my head pounded and throbbed this bad. “I’d like to stay here and unpack … if that’s okay.”

“Alright …” Concern crept across Dean’s face, dueling with his obvious sense of obligation, but he concealed it with a smile. “I’ll see you later, then.” He hesitated, and then turned to Colton. “Come on, kid. We can’t make the man wait.”

Colton followed Dean out and threw me a smile and a wink before closing the door behind him.

That did it.

My head exploded with pain. I threw myself over the phone and laptop to prevent them from moving, but the coffee machine and a few other objects on the counter levitated and swirled up above my head. Cupboard doors began to open and slam shut thanks to their spring-loaded hinges.

My first day of high school flashed in front of my eyes. It was all happening again.

I covered my ears and ran to the bathroom, trying to escape the clanging metal and vibrating walls, but the chaos followed. Why me? Why did I have to suffer with this curse?

I knew why. It was thanks to the father I didn’t remember
and the stupid unexplained condition he passed onto me at birth, the one that caused my iron levels to fluctuate with my emotions and allowed my body to store it all without symptoms.

But I could live with that—and I had, for fourteen years. No one but my mother knew I could sense every metal object around me the second I walked into a room, more so if my emotions were heightened. Essentially, I was a human metal detector. But what Mama failed to explain to me was why my father felt the need to take his own life only days after surviving a power line accident when I was two, or why she kept me locked inside the house during electrical storms.

I understood when I’d survived my own life-altering encounter with high voltage the night of her funeral. My emotions had been at their highest, my iron level through the roof, when lightning had struck. I found out that night what had driven my father to end his life. And now the curse was mine to bear.

For three years now, I’d been dealing with this new manifestation of my ability, this new control I had over metal objects as if they were an extension of my body. I thought I’d finally mastered it—but then again, who can say for sure when emotions play a role?

A tight-fisted knot ached behind my ribcage. Who was I kidding? I couldn’t stay here. I had to leave on Sunday before someone figured out what I could do, before they shipped me off to some institute or research facility. But did I really want to go back to face Roy and his rage?

I leaned against the wall and faced the long mirror in front of me. My usual storm grey eyes stared back at me, blood red and panicked from the intensity of uncontrolled magnetic
currents flowing through me like a triple shot of caffeine. My eyes burned and tingled like pins and needles. They’d done the same that first day of high school, and every other time I’d lost control after that until I’d learned to contain it.

I wasn’t doing a good job of it now, though.

I squeezed my eyes shut and sank to the floor, rocking myself back and forth to calm my mind. Mama did that with me when I got upset as a kid. If only she were here now to take me into her arms, rock me, and tell me everything would be okay. But things weren’t okay. Every metal-hinged door flung open and slammed shut, over and over. I kept my hands over my ears to muffle the noise and prayed the shower door didn’t shatter. The walls around me shook as if a hurricane was blowing through the lot outside. My lungs burned and ached. I wanted to scream.

Oh, God, make it stop. Make it stop.

I hugged my legs tight to my chest, put my head down, and forced myself to concentrate on something, anything other than the chaos around me. Imagining my mother’s face was the only thing that worked in the past. That calmed me when this new ability first manifested, but as time went on, the details of her features, her smile, even the feel of her skin faded from my memory. I relied on pictures that contained some—not all—of the details my memory had lost, but it wasn’t the same. Besides, I hadn’t needed to be calmed in over two years. Why was this happening now?

I rubbed my temples, trying to soothe them. I couldn’t think straight. All I could do now was clear my mind and wait it out, one deep breath at a time.

It took several minutes for my rattling senses to calm, and for silence to return. What a sweet sound silence could be.

I looked up at my reflection. My eyes were their dull gray selves again. “Thank you,” I whispered to no one, and then slumped back against the wall, eyes closed, concentrating on catching my breath as the expected wave of exhaustion hit me with a cold sweat.

The creaking door to the motor coach opened and broke through my sweet silence. My nerves tensed, and I pursed my lips shut to try to contain the occasional whimpers that insisted on slipping out.

“Lexi?”

Shit. What was Colton doing back here so soon?

“Lexi, are you in here? Dean asked me to come …” His voice trailed off, and I knew he had heard me.

A knock at the bathroom door pushed me to square my shoulders and bite down on my lower lip to prevent any more noises from coming out.

“Lexi, are you alright in there? If you don’t answer, I’m coming in.”

Could he? I couldn’t remember if I’d locked the door. I didn’t think I did. Crap. I didn’t have the energy to contain another meltdown. I opened my mouth to ask him to leave, but a sniff and a sob replaced my words. I clamped both hands over my mouth, hoping he hadn’t heard.

The door slid open. His eyes landed on me, half collapsed on the floor against the wall. He shoved the door wide open and dropped to his knees next to me. “Lexi, damn it, what happened?”

“Nothing,” I choked out.

“You’re bleeding. You’ve been crying.”

Bleeding? I snapped a glance back to the mirror in front
of me. A nosebleed. “Oh. That. It’s nothing. I get these all the time.” Over the years, I’d learned that using my ability lowered my iron levels, so using it from time to time kept me balanced. But losing control like I’d just done dipped them dangerously low, bringing on more extreme symptoms. This was just another common side effect of my uncontrolled magnetic freak-outs. It’d been so long since I’d had one that I’d almost forgotten.

I stood and tore off a few hand-twirls of toilet paper from the holder and held it to my nose to soak up the blood. Colton towered behind me, so close that all it would take was a slight lean to rest my head against his chest. My stomach did that fluttery thing again and sent pulses rushing to my head, but this time, I was too weak to fight for control. The curse dulled to a low hum in the back of my mind.

I stared at his reflection in the mirror—more specifically, his mismatched eyes. “Me being here has nothing to do with my mechanical skills, does it? I’m a charity case.”

Colton’s eyes narrowed. “No—”

“That’s why he accepted that deal. That’s why you and Dean are being so nice …” A sob cut me short.

Colton slid his warm hand up my right arm. The flutters spread to my chest and into my lungs, making it harder to breathe. He lifted my sleeve and uncovered the yellowed marking left over from last week’s bruise. The discoloration stuck out against my skin. Colton’s entire hand glided gently over the mark, and then he looked up and met my eyes through the mirror. A shiver ran across my shoulders.

“Dean knows what it’s like. He’s been in your shoes.”

I stepped out of his touch, ashamed that he knew about my bruise and what kind of stepdad Roy really was. I balled
up the blood-soaked wad of toilet paper and whipped it at the wastebasket next to the toilet with whatever strength I could muster. Colton took one of my elbows and gently turned me around to face him. “Give Dean a chance, Lex. He’s a good guy. Trust me. Don’t go through this alone. Not when you don’t have to.”

This would’ve been so much easier if Roy’s tight arm grips and slaps were the only things I had to worry about—if I didn’t have to monitor my own thoughts and analyze my emotions every damn second to make sure I didn’t expose myself in public and get locked up in some mental institution. But my life hadn’t been easy for three and a half years now. I had to live with the fear and the guilt. Images of overturned desks and screaming classmates flashed in my mind. I shook my head, looked up at Colton’s questioning gaze, and whispered, “No one can help me.”

chapter three

I knuckled the sleep from my eyes to the sound of muffled voices coming from the kitchen just outside my door. Dim light filtered through the tinted window next to the dresser. Morning had snuck up on me. I pulled back the covers, sat up, and dangled my feet off the edge. It’d been years since I’d slept in such comfort, and every inch of me protested against getting out of bed. But I couldn’t stay in here all day, even if I wanted to.

The voices grew louder. I couldn’t quite make out what they were saying, but it was none of my business—living with Roy, I’d learned real quick that I should never stick my nose where it didn’t belong. A black eye had taught me that lesson.

I shuffled to the bathroom like a zombie and prepared to splash water over my face to liven myself up when I heard Colton’s angry voice.