Pawn (Nightmares Trilogy #1) (12 page)

Mandy emerged from the farmhouse
seconds later. Tonight she was wearing too-tight faded jeans and a
whimsical top in various shades of green. The shirt would have been
cute on somebody like Devon, but it hugged Mandy in all the wrong
places. I thought maybe a shopping trip was in order.

Devon gave me a pointed look when she
noticed Mandy’s ensemble. She had been against making the trip to
the boonies to get Mandy in the first place, but I had insisted.
Without us she would have no ride. When I voiced the concern to
Devon, she’d been unsympathetic to Mandy’s plight. She’d finally
relented in exchange for an all-expenses-paid breakfast the
following morning.

“Maybe we should’ve suggested she get
ready at my house,” I said.

“Yeah, that, or we could have not
invited her,” Devon grumbled just as Mandy grabbed the door
handle.

“Hey, guys!” Mandy greeted us as she
clamored ungracefully into the back seat.

“Hey, Mandy.” I twisted in my seat to
give her a welcoming smile.

Devon responded with a very unladylike
grunt. I pinched the arm of hers that was closest to me and shot
her a “be nice” look.

“So, Dev, are Rick and Kevin coming?”
Mandy asked as Devon sped down the gravel drive.

“Um, Rick is.”

“Oh…but not Kevin?” Mandy asked again,
disappointed.

“No clue. I’m not Kevin’s keeper,”
Devon shot back.

“Devon,” I groaned, pitching my voice
in the hope Mandy wouldn’t hear.

“I gave him my number, but he hasn’t
called,” Mandy confided.

“And he’s not going to,” Devon
muttered under her breath.

I silently urged her with my eyes to
be civil, but doubted she noticed in the absence of streetlights.
Devon was right, though; Kevin wouldn’t call. He hadn’t even
bragged about his conquest at school, a clear indication he wasn’t
proud of hooking up with Mandy.

“I’m sure he’ll be there,” I assured
Mandy.

Actually, I knew he would be; he’d
made a point to tell me so in the hallway between third and fourth
periods.

“Oh, good!” Mandy squealed, now
digging in her purse to search for a compact.

The excitement over a boy who had no
interest in her tugged at my heartstrings. Maybe Devon’s brand of
honesty was better in this situation. At least it would save Mandy
from public humiliation when Kevin ignored her.

When we pulled through Elizabeth’s
front gates twenty minutes later, the yard was already littered
with cars.

“Great. We’re late,” Devon mumbled,
unbuckling her seat belt.

“The alcohol isn’t going anywhere,” I
replied.

Late was an exaggeration, but the
party was in full swing when we walked in. The Mt. St. Mary’s
girls, in varying states of inebriation, milled through Elizabeth’s
hallways. Many of our teammates were already there as well and
taking full advantage of the chance to mingle with the St. Paul’s
boys.

“Drinks?” Devon asked. Without waiting
for my reply, she grabbed my hand and began dragging me through a
gaggle of baseball players toward the back deck.

I hastily reached for Mandy, seizing a
fistful of her shirt and tugging her along for the ride.

The moment we stepped onto
the deck, I caught sight of Elizabeth by the
tiki
bar. She was in full-on prowl
mode, tossing her blonde locks over one shoulder and giggling
loudly at whatever her current companion was saying. Her hand
rested possessively on his bicep when she inclined her head closer
to hear his story better. Whatever he said must have been hilarious
because she threw her head and roared with laughter, giving him a
nice view of her Victoria’s Secret enhanced cleavage.

The current object of
Elizabeth’s affection was tall, a full head taller than she was,
and the lean muscles of his back and shoulders were evident through
his green-and-white striped oxford. The sleeves of his shirt were
pushed up to expose defined forearms that flexed when he moved.
Light from the
tiki
torches danced across his face, magnifying the natural
highlights in his messy chestnut hair. Large green eyes reflected
two mirror images of the flames.

And so we meet
again
, I thought. As per usual, the sight
of Kannon invoked a juxtaposition of sensations. The excitement of
laying eyes on the boy I couldn’t vanquish from my thoughts matched
the tightly wound coil of apprehension in my gut.

“Eel!” Elizabeth exclaimed when she
saw our trio. “Look who I found!” She gently pushed Kannon
forward.

Devon still had a firm grip
on my hand. I stopped dead in my tracks as if the deck had turned
to quicksand, causing Devon to come to an abrupt halt.

“Kannon, you remember―” Elizabeth
started to say.

“Endora Lee,” he cut her
off. The way he said my name, lingering on each syllable as if
savoring the taste of it on his tongue, gave me goosebumps. “Or is
it Eel?” he asked, his lips quirking into a lopsided
smirk.

“Endora, actually,” I said stiffly and
marveled at my ability to string words together. “Only my friends
call me Eel,” I added for good measure.

“Understood.”

“And this is Devon.” Elizabeth pointed
to my best friend whose expression remained flat.

In my haste to follow Devon
and my shock at seeing Kannon with Elizabeth, I lost my hold on
Mandy. I looked around for her ― anything to avoid Kannon’s amused
gaze ― but she’d been swallowed by the crowd.

“Hey, again,” Kannon said to
Devon.

Devon nodded her hello,
still assessing the boy. She gave him a once-over, and I could
practically hear the gears grinding in her head. “Lucky you were
there the other night,” she said finally. “Otherwise, who knows
what would have happened to Eel.” Her tone was all innocence and
false gratitude.

She didn’t trust him, I realized. Did
Devon get the same uneasy feeling that I did around him? Clearly
Elizabeth didn’t - she was staring up at him with big doe eyes and
hanging on his every word.

Kannon’s entire face flushed to match
the flames of the nearby torch. “I’m glad I was.” His sentiments
sounded genuine. “The lake is dangerous at night.”

That spine-tingling sensation came
over me as Kannon’s mood went from amused to somber. Maybe I was
reading too much into his words, but they felt ominous.

“Aren’t you going to thank him, Eel?”
Elizabeth purred.

“She already did,” Kannon said
quickly. “And really, it wasn’t a big deal. I saw her jump, and
when she didn’t come up, I figured I should go check on her. I
barely did anything, though. Endora would have made it to the
surface without my help.”

I narrowed my gaze. Why was he lying?
We both knew I would have drowned had he not been there. If the
lake creature hadn’t succeeded in strangling me, then the blow to
my head would have done it. I caught myself. There I went again,
giving credence to something that had been nothing more than my
imagination.

“Don’t be so modest,” Elizabeth cooed.
“You saved her life.”

“What were you doing out at
the lake
alone
anyhow?” Devon asked. To anyone who didn’t know her, the
question sounded conversational. I, however, knew her well. And her
inquiry was more of an accusation than a question.

“I thought we were getting drinks,” I
said, before Kannon had the chance to respond to Devon’s
interrogation. He shot me a grateful smile, which prompted me to
scowl in reply.

“I’ll get you guys drinks,” Kannon
offered quickly. “Requests?”

“Vodka and tonic,” Devon replied,
narrowing her eyes suspiciously. “I’ll be watching you, so don’t
put anything in it.”

Kannon winced but otherwise brushed
off her comment. “Endora?” he asked.

“Something strong,” I said through
clenched teeth. For the first time in my life, I longed to get
drunk. I wanted to forget all the strange things that had happened
to me since my eighteenth birthday. Most of all, I wanted to drown
my feelings for this boy who had me cycling through a range of
emotions I’d never before experienced in such rapid
succession.

“Coming right up.” His entire face lit
up when he grinned at me.

Once he was gone, Devon pried my
fingers from her own, rubbing the purple appendages to restore
circulation. I’d been so preoccupied with Kannon that I’d failed to
notice how tightly I was gripping her hand.

“He is so hot,” Elizabeth declared,
still oblivious to my mounting discomfort. “You saw him first, Eel,
so tell me now if you want dibs; otherwise, I’m calling it,” she
added, ogling Kannon’s backside from across the deck.

“I don’t trust him,” Devon said before
I could answer. “Seriously, what was he doing at the lake all by
himself?”

“I doubt he was there alone,” I said.
“And why the change of heart? You were all interested in him last
weekend.”

“Last weekend he was a good Samaritan
who happened to be in the right place at the right time,” Devon
replied, not bothering to keep her voice down. Knowing Devon, she
probably wanted him to hear her. “Now he is starting to enter
stalker territory. How did he get your cell phone number anyway?
Why was he at our game? And why is here?”

“He goes to St. Paul’s,” Elizabeth
rolled her eyes, “that’s why he’s here. Besides, isn’t the whole
thing so romantic? Fate intervenes to bring them together. He
spends every waking moment thinking about her. And at night he
dreams about her.”

While Elizabeth sounded like a drunken
voiceover for a bad movie trailer, her words made my heart skip a
beat.

“Did he say that?” I blurted before I
could stop myself. “Did he say he’d dreamt about me?”

Both of my friends stared at me
wide-eyed. Devon’s gaze was suspicious. Elizabeth’s was
amused.

Kannon appeared at my side, saving me
the humiliation of receiving an answer to my question. He handed
Devon a red plastic cup. “Vodka and tonic.” Then he held the other
drink out to me, careful not to let our fingers touch.

“Thanks,” I mumbled.

“Can I talk to you for a minute,
alone?” Kannon asked me without preamble.

Devon stepped between us, using her
body like a physical shield. “First tell us why you were at Caswell
Lake.”

My face was suddenly on fire. Devon
was loyal and protective to a fault, but I didn’t need her fighting
my battles for me. I wasn’t weak. I could take care of myself.
Besides, I wanted to talk to Kannon. And since we were both here,
it was as good a time as any.

I gently pushed her aside. “It’s fine,
Dev. Yes, we can talk,” I told Kannon.

Devon tried to protest, but Elizabeth
intervened. “I think she’s calling dibs,” Elizabeth drunkenly
giggled as she led Devon away.

I covered the awkward
silence their departure left by sipping my drink. The liquor burned
as though I’d taken a swallow from the
tiki
torch instead of my
cup.

“Oh, that’s gross,” I
choked and spit the concoction back into the Solo cup. Instantly
every inch of my skin scorched, embarrassed by my crude
gesture.
I raised you better than
that,
Mom’s voice chastised me in my
head.

Kannon just laughed.

“You said you wanted something
strong,” he pointed out, taking the cup from my hand and placing it
on the bar behind him.

“Strong, not lethal,” I replied,
wiping the lingering drops of alcohol from my lips with the back of
my hand.

“Don’t drink much, huh?”

“No, I drink. I mean I’m not like a
drunk or anything, but I usually drink at these parties - you know,
let loose, have fun.” Smooth, Endora.

Kannon studied the lifelines on his
palm, engrossed by whatever story they told. I peered around the
deck at the other partygoers, and thought about clicking my heels
and chanting, “There is no place like home. There is no place like
home.”

“You were awesome today,” he said,
abruptly looking up from his hand and changing the subject to cover
the awkward moment.

“Thanks. It felt good to beat them,” I
said hesitantly. “Elizabeth said you go to St. Paul’s?” Making
small talk was safe. It allowed me time to scrounge up the courage
to ask him the questions that truly mattered: Did you see a
creature in the lake? Do you have dreams that come true?

Would I really feel validated if he
told me that he’d dreamed about our meeting before it had happened?
Or that he too saw a mermaid flipping her tail in Caswell
Lake?

“Yeah. I’m a senior. Transferred there
at the start of the year. I hear you used to go to St.
Mary’s.”

“You seem to know a lot about me,” I
said evenly.

Kannon shrugged sheepishly. “Yours is
the first life I’ve saved. I was curious about you.”

“Even before then,” I said. “You
called me by my name when you pulled me from the water.”