Siphon (Siphon Chronicles, Book One) (2 page)

I hated this mission. Yeah, I was their best kept secret.  Retriever, the council called me, taking care of unsightly blemishes on the map for dear ole dad.  It keeps the money flowing no matter how dark it makes me inside, so I stay with it.  It’s not like I have much of a life outside of it.  At least not anymore. 

At one time I had girls swarming over me, giving me anything I wanted.  And I took it.  When I hit eighteen, it all changed.  My body and my life went into a boxing match with itself.  That’s when my father decided I was ready to take over the family business.  Now, girls, they are all afraid of me.

   I have heard of Lark Spur, never seen her.  She would hate me like the rest, or so I assumed.   I wanted to just skip the whole “investigate” part and move to step two.  Take her in and be done with it. 

My father said she had something he wanted.  All I knew was that my father…hated her father.  At some point my father wanted what her father had so he took it.  Whatever that was, he didn't share with me.

I'd heard the rumors of the nexus being in the Big D. I was new to the city.  There were few places I hadn't been.  If she was here, she was hidden well. The saying went that when she took, she sang out the words like a siren on the sea. That the victim would be so enamored by her and he or she would give over every year they owned.

Or, at least, that is how the tale is told. It couldn't be real. One day I would find her if she is in fact not just a boy's dream.

This was another day spent in high school numbering fifty-nine on my “retriever” roster for the year.  Sometimes I wished I would at least look over twenty so I could refrain from taking this kind of jobs.

Each and every assignment left me hating myself. I knew some of the siphons I returned were eliminated for good.  Some were tortured. Most we're trained and made into fighting machines who would help my father take over whatever it is he wants to take over.  Sometimes I pretended to not know he was out for power and I chose to ignore the council meetings so I wouldn’t know specifically why. 

Under the blue skies with an oak forest all around, I spied a girl alone eating a bagel that I guessed was her entire breakfast.  How girls eat so little confounded me.  My fuel tank was on empty even now and I just ate a five-stack of pancakes an hour ago.  I would have to stop and snack afterward either way.

I went through the usual routine that worked on even the shiest of girls who weren’t that great looking, but nice.  I didn’t know what this assignment's girl looked like or even resembled so I would have to dig her out of the proverbial haystack.

I smiled.  She smiled.  I sat by her.  She hovered a little in her own space.  I made small talk.  She let her guard down.  I took.  I left.

She was not Lark.

The girl I spied on from afar had blonde hair so that was my only narrowing factor.

I moved on to others.  After about a dozen, I was frustrated and ready to go home.  I vowed to tell my father I was ready to move on to the next job and just accept the inevitable fate my life would take.   Forget finding the nexus too.

I jerked my head down at a girl sitting on a bench.  I took the energy she offered and tilted my head to thank her for something she had no idea she was giving.  My head swam a second later forcing me to adjust my legs.  I balanced them apart and stayed still to wait for equilibrium.  The girl looked at me as strangely too.

But...something was different.  Not the girl, but something off to the side.  No.  Behind me.

Someone was yelling, “Stop!”

A prickle hit my skin like a thousand knives pounding me from a torture chamber.  I jerked my head up searching for anything that might be doing it to me.

Two green, sexy as anything I’d ever seen, eyes were glaring tiny daggers right at my back.  Her shirt was calling out things too but I ignored those thoughts and went straight for the more dangerous ones.  She was a siphon. 

This had to be Lark.

Boy, was he a moody one.  Surprise.  I find another that might be like me and he is gorgeous, sexy, and ill-tempered.  Isn’t that just classic?  All bad boy wrapped in a neat package screaming with a warning label, “Dangerous to your health”.  And this package I was blatantly checking out was more dangerous than any normal boy could ever be.  Ever.

I’d seen him yesterday at the mall and later at the cleaners while picking up my stepmom’s dresses.

Kissing was bad with Foster, but long before that I learned what the repercussions were even if I couldn't name them.  One minute I was talking to the neighbor about flower pots and felt faint, the next I was waking up to my parents and a stranger standing over my bed.  The stranger left and I was told to start visiting my grandmother on a regular basis.  None of it made sense at first, but when people start blacking out because attempting conversation, then a hermit life would be the only answer.  But then I met Jason.

I know what this new boy can do.  And yeah, I still hated him for what he was and wanted to dump fries down his shirt, but I did notice his...other features. I'd avoided others for so long, it would be difficult not to be labeled clingy if this new guy was decent and had answers.

Jason, my
other
friend who owned my abilities, was tall and wiry and taken last I checked.  He’d generously told me some things to make me feel like I wasn’t a leper on some kind of warped superpower highway to hell, but he’d also said he couldn’t tell me everything.   He told me what we are and how my grandmother was keeping me alive for years.

Deep, deep dark brown velvety eyes glared openly at me.  Tousled just right hair to match his eyes in their completeness and perfectly rimmed with sooty lashes that were full of well kept secrets.  I left his eyes long enough to mark out the inherited straight defined Greek nose and perfect mouth.  When I turned back to the eyes, they were still staring at me, like mine were to his. 

Impossible.  He’s the bad guy.

As if saying the same thing in his mind, he looked away from me and back to the giddy cheerleaders that surrounded him now.  I never stuck around to find out how he faired with them, and I didn’t want to know.

His very presence stayed at the top of my thought list in every class.  I’d been told that many of our kind searched out ones like me and never for good purposes.  And while the guy did walk away from me, even as if disgusted with me also, I felt a certain draw...to know more.  He was like Ganconer, the Celtic demon lover.  He took from others their years, but did that dark seducing face effect all the ladies liked just as I was guilty of staring as long as I did.  That could be his secret that made him so spited.  Or so I wanted to believe.  I’d just have to watch him and see if he takes from just females, men, old, or young. The fact that he was taking directly in front of me threw me off.  I’d angered so fast I had to force myself not to hit him.  His half knowing look made me believe he could read me too.  That worried me more. 

Jason said there were enemies to hide my abilities from.  I bit back the words of what I’d do if he tried to take me or hurt me in any way all because of my own stupidity.

Ganconer was a “love talker” of sorts if I remember right.  He would become the face you wanted to see and then take your “essence” so to speak.  Then he left you dry and good for death.  Yes, he was trying to become human again since the Faerie Queen ensnared him to the shadows.  Good luck with that!

I knew this boy would never ensnare me.

Some guy just got done asking her out and sliding his number into her hand.  She crunched it between her fingers and threw it at her friend when the poor guy walked away.  I glanced over only to watch her reaction to her friend’s cackling laugh.  I thought I looked away in time, but her friend caught me.

“I could be wrong, but I think Mr. New Guy Hotness has the hots for you girl.”  Her friend let her loud mouthy echo out her last words.  I followed her at a distance and confirmed through her friend that she was indeed, Lark Spur.  Her last name was familiar to me. My mom died on the same day as her father. It was part of our history class growing up at the Siphon Headquarters.

I heard her answer, “Who?  Full of hot air manwhore.  He may be hotter than any boy I’ve ever seen, but he takes and takes and gives nothing in return.”

Oh, was she the a bitter one. And intelligent.

The girl made a haughty noise back at Lark and said, “He may be that, but no one should pass up a shot at that bod.  He may be all bad boy, but he’s one hundred percent giving off more than just kisses from those hot lips.”

So she knew I was staring.  Good.  I had a mission to take her in willing or not.  Hot chick or not, if the council wanted her investigated, I was the man.

She’d been snagged as a danger because a recent body of hers died during her own taking.  Now, they wanted her watched and eventually taken to face the council for punishment.  If she proved loyal, she’d stay.  The only hitch in the getup...no one had ever told her what she was or
who
.  The fairness of the situation was heretical, but the council would charge and ask questions later.  

My father had a side agenda I was determined to disentangle. Now that I see her, I am back to my original plan.  The incident, the person dying, was just my cover for bringing her in.  I needed to stop ignoring the truth about my father.

She was an innocent.  And apparently she hated my guts
without
knowing who I was yet.  They all did.  When the others heard how I’d changed, they charged me as evil for the way I lived and took from others to survive.  Many of our kind only take from each other, but not so much since my father’s reign. They never asked my reason or my opinion on the subject.

I shot a wink in her direction knowing she’d shun me.  Her friend was like all the rest, batting eyes and flirting her pretty little butt off no matter how prudish she appeared otherwise.  Lark still ignored me.  She wasn’t like other girls.  They always did the girl sighing affect that told me they were melting in a puddle of Crawford mojo.  My mad skills seemed to make her do the opposite. 

She slinked back behind her friend in the lunch line quick as a whip and avoided my eyes.  I don’t know what I could have done to make her hate me already.  She didn’t know me from Adam.

I watched her hide from me and continue to side step each time to be seen.  I couldn’t seem to stop myself from teasing this girl I hated so profusely and for no good reason other than being here.  She riled up so easily.  So what did I do next?

Cutting her off at the pay counter, I leaned into her shoulder.  I didn’t expect to get caught up in the scent of her, but the sweet, floral honeysuckle wafting off her skin was making me lose my thought.  I swallowed hard and rasped out, “Set you ray gun on low, babe.  It’s burning holes in my shirt.”  Yeah, and other places I’ll not name since they weren’t appropriate thoughts for someone who hates me the same as I do her.  Still, she was a steaming hot mess of...someone I couldn’t want or have.  So after she scoffed at me one more time, I said something smart and walked away before she could read the other depth of feeling dwelling behind my eyes.  A dangerous emotion that could get us both in trouble. 

No, she was too dangerous to ponder in that way anyway.  And I was too dangerous for her.

Dane Crawford.  That was the name the Physical Science teacher called out.  I knew that name.  Jason told me about him and it wasn’t the least bit good.

It didn’t escape me in the least that his northern accent only drew out the looks of other girls even more.  He was strange.  Strange like interesting though.  Seeing him for the second time today was unsettling.  His eyes seem to follow me wherever I went.  He talked and laughed and fit in just right with the “in” crowd, but I was the “in between” crowd and never near the radar of those who followed boys around like drone idiots. 

Steady and full were my menacing thoughts as I made my way to our middle ground table of not losers and not wholly popular misfits.  The motley crew of the high school as we called ourselves.

I noticed he sat beside Sadie, the cheerleader who flirted with anything that contained testosterone. Sadie wasn’t picky and boys picked up on that fast enough.  His other seatmate was Foster, my ex.  He and I dated freshman year for several months.  One kiss ended it badly because he “wanted more” and I wasn’t giving.  My loss, his gain—unfortunately.  We were on very guarded talking terms now only because he was always in wonder of how much or how “little” people knew about us.  Let’s just say Foster and Sadie are perfect for each other. 

My sister bobbed her head by me with her bubbly freshman-like hello and headed off away before I could respond.  Needless to say, I wasn’t focused on her and didn’t even look up.

Someone sat beside me.  He said my name, but I was glaring at Sam like it was her fault he had a space to sit in the first place.

“Hi, Lark.”

“Hi, Zane.”

“You look nice today,” he stuffed three bites of an unidentifiable meat concoction in his mouth.

“Thanks.  You told me that last period.”  I tried not to look at the shoveling of food.  I mumbled to myself about animals and their habits but my best friend jabbed me in the side and told me to quit the “insane house” talking to myself.

“You going to the Fall dance with someone?”

Don’t get me wrong.  I am flattered.  But being asked to a dance while Friday’s meatloaf surprise is waffling through the air is just not that appealing an offer.

And the dance was five weeks away.

“Not sure if I can go yet.  I’m waiting to see if the relatives are in town that weekend or not.” 

That was the quickest thinking I’ve ever come up with that sounded halfway believable.  I was quite proud of myself.

I slid my eyes back to the dark haired force centered between Foster and the rest of the table across the yard.  My give…gave. His should-be-lethal eyes were on me.  I dropped my apple on the grass and it rolled too far to grab easily.  Great.

“Um girl, you might as well give in to that.  He’s giving you the guy version of 'I’m hot for you and I’m coming to get you'," Sam giggled shoving her sass on me.

I rolled my eyes dismissing her assessment.  I left the evidence below the bench I sat on and hid my face.  I was starving though, so hunger won out.  Sighing heavily, I peeked down to the grass to see if my apple was easily retrievable.

Letting the shiver that ran through me be disguised by searching for my runaway lunch, I was forced to get up and walk around to the other side of the table where apparently no one saw my apple roll.  Bent over retrieving my fresh from the spring crop lunch, two boots appeared beside my knees. 

“You lose your lunch a lot like you lose your years?” 

Was that a dig on me?  I cocked my head up sideways in a glare thinking carefully about a good come back.  It just didn’t come. Especially when I was overwhelmed with how he smelled. Open mouthed and staring up to his perfectly too happy with himself face that should be resemble a toad if she was to concentrate better.

All thought left her brain making it unable to comeback with what might be considered intelligence.  When I didn’t answer he watched on for probably too many extra seconds since I think the entire cafeteria stopped to watch the dramatic moment.

I looked back to a forgotten Zane for help since he was closest.  He shrugged me off and told me he’d see me later. 

My eyes came back to the guy who was now bent over and picking up my apple.  He moved his face close to me and whispered, “They told me you had a smart mouth and to be prepared for a fight.  Or am I the only one missing out on that hidden
ability
?”

The same now demonically charged eyes bore into mine.  Feeling like I was being challenged into a staring contest or something else, I gave in first and turned away.  Too quickly.  I admonished myself for losing my cool.

Intuition told me he was giving the hint that he knew what I was and that I knew what he was.  I tried to push him out of my mind preparing to forget he existed.   Now if he would just stay out.

I took a breath and like that, my mouth just went off.