Seclusion (16 page)

*
* *

We still had about thirty
minutes before the jet landed.

“I don’t want us to be
friends, Damen.”

“I know, but I also know
you’re not planning on talking to Chase any time soon.”

“How can you say that? I
was planning on telling him on our quote date.”

“Yes, but that’s not going
to happen now.”

“What? Why?”

“He was going to plan it
out today, and you’ll get home today so he won’t expect you. Plus, he has a
basketball game tonight, and that will delay things. And next Friday is already
summer fling, and you’ll want to honor that. You said you’d go with him. I’m
just frustrated.”

I hated that he was usually
right, so I decided to tell Chase as soon as possible and prove Damen wrong.

Although my intentions were
good, things with Chase happened just as Damen said they would. After our trip,
Damen rarely spoke to me, and I noticed he was hanging out with Chloe a lot.
When I tried using our link, I could only see a locked door. I didn’t even know
if he was still interested in being with me at this point. Our dreams were the
only place things were normal, and half the time I wasn’t sure if he was sharing
them with me, or if they were really just dreams.

We had made plans to meet,
and I could feel he was planning on talking to me. I was really nervous. The
summer fling was in four days, and I assumed I was going with Chase, but I
couldn’t handle it anymore. I had to tell Chase, regardless of whether Damen
still had feelings for me or not.

I met Chase at the coffee
shop before my meeting with Damen.

“Hey, Raegan!” He swooped
down and gave me a huge kiss.

I could feel Damen’s
presence and pushed Chase away gently, but I kept a hold of his hand.

“I need to talk to you. I
want to be with someone else. I love you as a friend,” I blurted out as fast as
I could.

Chase removed his hand from
mine.

“You were my first real
friend, and you’ll always be important to me,” I continued.

 Chase looked dumbstruck.
“Okay, Raegan. If you need me, I’ll be around, but I’ll need some space. I’m
assuming summer fling is off.”

“I think that would be
best,” I croaked, feeling the burn down my throat.

I could see the wounded expression
on his face as he stalked off. I was surprised by his abrupt exit and couldn’t
stop the single tear running down my cheek.

I just sat there, staring
into space and fighting the tears back. Damen scooted into the booth and
grabbed my hand. I pulled away. He gave me a frustrated look.

“I can’t talk to you right
now. It’s not fair to Chase.”

Damen put his palm on the
side of my face, guiding me to look at him. “You did it. It’s going to be
okay,” he said.

“No it won’t. I’ve lost my
first friend, and it hurts.”

“Fine, Raegan. When you
decide what you want, I might not be here anymore. Don’t bother coming over
tonight. I think you’ve learned enough for a week.”

“Damen.” I grabbed his
hand, but he acted as if I had just burnt him and flung my hand back at me.

“I’ll see you in Taylor’s office tomorrow.” He looked at me like he was going to say something, but then
turned around.

I was devastated. I felt
like everyone was leaving me. I didn’t know what the right choice was. I walked
back to my room in a daze. I was prepared to see Elsie, but I wasn’t ready to
be cheered up just yet, so I hid from her and walked as quickly as I could to
my bedroom. That’s when I noticed I had a letter from my granny.
Finally, a
much needed distraction.
I opened the letter.

Raegan,

   Your letter was like
spring water to a thirsty soul. I’ve been waiting to explain your mother’s
story for so long. Janice and I, however, decided to wait until you were ready
to hear it. Janice, as you know, has her own special ability, but she refuses
to see it for what it is. She tried for a long time to suppress yours, until
that school found you. I, however, don’t blame her. I know how much you’ve
struggled to fit in.

 Your mother was what I
would call a power conductor. She could enhance others’ abilities and also
absorb their powers. She had an unlimited amount of abilities, but she could
only hold onto about four abilities at a time, depending on how much power they
took from her. She received a letter two days before she went missing. I only
remember the letter Z on the envelope. She rushed off so quickly, and after
that, we never heard from her again. I know she was planning on a long drive
because of the way she packed, but other than that I don’t know what to tell
you.

She loved you very, very
much! I think someone killed her. I know something horrible happened to her.
I’m sorry to dump this tragic notion on you, but it’s time you hear the truth.

I hope you’re doing well in
school. I know you’ll have plenty of questions for me, so I’ll be expecting
your letter.

Hugs and kisses,

 Granny

I wrote back to her
immediately and made sure to ask all my questions, like why we have these
abilities, and if she had any ideas what Z meant. I wondered curiously about
the Z. Was it just a coincidence that Dr. Z was in charge of the school and
that my mother was in contact with a mysterious Z? I wouldn’t be trusting him
anytime soon.

The only people I wanted to
talk to, I couldn’t – Elsie’s talent was overwhelming, and I had just pushed
Chase and Damen away. I decided to go see Damen anyway. I chose my clothes
carefully: a skirt, tank top, sandals, and a jacket. I reapplied my lip gloss
and headed to Damen’s room.

When I got there, I knocked
on both doors: the mental one, and then the physical one. He answered the door
shirtless, but with dark jeans on. He opened the door with a confused
expression.

“I need to talk to you,” I
said in a whisper, half speaking through our link.

“D, honey, whoever it is,
send them away.” Chloe’s head popped up over Damen’s shoulder. She wrapped her
hand around Damen’s chest, but he grabbed her arm and gave her a little nudge.
She gave him a pouty face.

“Chloe,” Damen said, “why
don’t you run and get us some food. I need to talk to Raegan in private.”

I was pissed and hurt.

“How dare I what?” Damen
asked. He guided me gently by the arm and sat me down. “What’s wrong? I know
you’re upset, and I’ll tell Chloe to leave when she gets back. I’m sorry I
walled you out. You scare me, Raegan.”

His wall was down, and I
crawled onto his lap and cried. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” I said.

“Shh, shh. It’s okay. I’m
here.” He wrapped his arms around me and gently kissed my tears away.

I handed him the letter
from my granny and started sobbing again.

He read it twice. “Whatever
you want to do about this, I will help you. Baby, Chloe is on her way back. I
need to talk to her. But I’ll be right back. Don’t move.”

I could hear the
conversation in Damen’s head.
“Chloe, you know we weren’t even dating, and
we definitely weren’t exclusive. I’ve been waiting for Raegan, and she’s here
now. Sorry.”

“You asshole!”

Chloe slammed the pizza
down in Damen’s arms and stalked off. Damen went to his bedroom and made a
phone call, and then he sat down next to me and wrapped his arms around me.

“I don’t think we should do
anything about this right now until we get the rest of the information. Just
relax.”

There was a hesitant knock
on the door.

“Come in,” Damen shouted as
he opened the door with his mind.

Elsie came in. “Oh,
sweetie, you’ve had a rough week. Damen had me bring over some of your stuff.
Which room did you want it in?”

“My bedroom is fine,” Damen
said as I smiled at Elsie.

“Thanks,” I said. “Sorry
I’ve been hiding from you.”

“It’s okay, I understand.”

“Rae, I think we should
show her the letter.”

I nodded, and Elsie read
the letter.

“Wow, that doesn’t give us
much to go on.”

“Yeah, we’re going to wait
for the next letter from her grandmother,” Damen said. “But if you could do a
little research with Connor, that would be appreciated, and obviously, silence
is important.”

“Okay. That sounds good. I
know you won’t like to hear this, Damen, but I think you should let me show the
letter to Chase. He cares a lot about Rae and would be very hurt if he wasn’t
able to help,” Elsie said.

Damen smirked.

“I highly doubt he can help
us, but it’s up to Rae.”

“Sure,” I said. “And thanks
for the stuff.” I gave Elsie a little hug and walked her to the door.

I looked at Damen.
“Tomorrow is our meeting with Taylor. We need to make sure we are on the same
page about our trip,” I said in hopes of distracting myself.

We discussed the events
that had happened on our trip, skipping some of the nitty-gritty details. Damen
fortunately did a good job distracting me. He was still teasing me about my tipsy
comments and my sexy present for Caleb.

“You don’t have to
entertain me,” he said. “You can take a shower if you want. I know you’ll feel
better.” He kissed my forehead and pushed me toward the bathroom. I winked at
him.

“No comments about joining
me now that we are together?”

Damen lifted me up and set
me down on the bathroom counter. “So we are official, huh? Does that mean we
are going to the summer fling? I don’t know if you noticed, but I have some mad
dance skills. I’m all for the Bella and Edward thing, but it might be funnier
if I showed up in cut offs and shirtless.” Damen winked.

“You are more like Jacob…”
I said, contemplating. “Wait! You’ve read it!” I shouted excitedly.

“I have not,” he said.
“Don’t ever say those words aloud again!” he said with a grin. He started
laughing and threw me on the bed. “Your aura just changed from a strong yellow
to pink! You only love me 'cause I’m a closet twihard! I would’ve told you
sooner if I’d known I’d get that kind of reaction.”

“You admit it!” I said,
bouncing on the bed.

“I did not! Seriously, I
never said that.”

I laughed. “Does that mean
we get to see
Breaking Dawn
together when it comes out?”

“Definitely, but you’re
going to hear some awful whining about how you dragged me to the midnight showing,” he said with a wink.

Damen set me on the floor
and pushed me toward the shower. I started lifting my shirt as I walked to the
bathroom.

“Only been dating for two
hours and you’re already trying to strip your clothes off for me. I’d say that
was a record, but I’d be lying,” he said.

“You better not give me an
STD.” I slammed the door shut and locked it.

“That won’t keep me out,”
he said as the door unlocked. “I’m offended that you assume I sleep around.”

I could see in his mind
that he was cleaning our mess up. I showered quickly so I could be with him
sooner.

“What are you doing?”
I asked in my head.

“Are you going to start
babysitting me?” he asked.

“I’m just making
conversation.”

“Ohhh. Okay. I’m not really
doing anything. I figured you’d want to relax and go to bed. I don’t know what
you want to do. Watch a movie or TV? Oh, I see…you want to make out.”

“Oh, shush. You know I said
I wanted to do it all. I play a mean game of Scrabble, by the way. I guess
playing each other would be pointless, though.” I said.

“Maybe I should take you to
Vegas,” he commented.

I laughed. “You’re silly,
but maybe if we’re really hard up for cash. That reminds me, I still have that
credit card. We should give that to Taylor when we see her.”

*
* *

The next morning, I woke up
in Damen’s arms. I was thankful he had a whole suite to himself. Even though we
had the okay for sleepovers, technically our mission was over, and I wouldn’t
have wanted to explain things to anyone, even if we didn’t actually have sex.
Good thing my prediction powers were able to tell me when the hallways were
clear.

I was surprised Damen was
still sleeping, and I slowly tried to move out of his reach, but he grabbed me
tighter.

“Are you sneaking out on
me?”

“I was trying not to wake
you. That was a fun Vegas dream last night.”

Damen pulled me on top of
him. “You’re not going to get tired of me or bored with me like you did with
Chase are you?” he asked as he kissed my fingers.

“More like someone hotter
will come along and you’ll leave me,” I said.

He laughed. “That’s
doubtful.”

“Damen, I know we are
officially dating now, but I don’t want everyone to think I’m a jerk. Can we
pretend to just be friends for a few days? Just until summer fling.”

He pushed me off of the
bed. “I don’t see the point, but fine. Only till the dance, though, and you’re
going with me, that’s the condition.”

“Don’t be mad at me, you
know it makes sense.”

“What makes sense is being
with the person you want to be with, despite anyone else. You have a kind and
generous heart. That’s what I love about you…but sometimes it’s just better to
be real.”

His comment stung a little.