The Brotherhood of the Snake (Return of the Ancients Book 2) (32 page)

I looked down into the brindled bloodhound’s imploring eyes.

“Sorry, Tigger,” I apologized. “I can’t give you a hotdog. Betty would get mad at me for ruining your diet.”

I reached over to pet him when I saw something slip from my pocket, and just before it hit the floor, I belatedly realized what it was.

It was a programmable atom.

With horror, I grasped for it, feverishly trying to control my thoughts to prevent another giant, gun-toting Hello Kitty from popping up in Betty’s kitchen. 

I saw Tigger’s long tongue snake out.

There was nothing I could do.

I could only note Rafael and Jareth’s shocked faces as Tigger slurped up the programmable atom.

But then—apparently thinking it was one of Betty’s weight-loss pills—he promptly spat it out.

Again, we watched in horror as the programmable atom slowly arced to the floor where it bounced once and turned into a small pile of purple goo.

I scrunched my eyes shut, not knowing what to expect, but then 
I heard Rafael’s soft chuckle.

My eyes flew open.

On the floor in front of Tigger was a hotdog. It wasn’t even a fancy, super juicy hotdog. It was one of those cheap, generic-brand hotdogs that Betty was always buying.

Tigger’s tail wagged, and he lay down with a loud, exaggerated sight of pleasure and promptly inhaled his prize.

“I didn’t think that!” I said with a laugh. “That was all Tigger!”

“Apparently, dogs can control programmable atoms as well,” Rafael observed, still chuckling.

Even Jareth was amused. Snapping his fingers, another programmable atom appeared between his fingers, and dropping to one knee next to Tigger, he patiently explained, “You can have anything you want, Tigger. Anything. Just wish it and it’ll be yours.”

Rafael objected, but only half-heartedly as Jareth tossed the pearl into Tigger’s mouth.

I held my breath as—once again—Tigger spit the programmable atom out, belatedly wondering what we were going to say to Al and Betty when their entire kitchen filled up with hotdogs.

The pile of purple goo bubbled before it turned yet again into another single, cheap generic-brand hotdog.

Wagging his tail, Tigger inhaled this one as fast as he’d finished the first.

“Tigger isn’t a greedy soul”, Rafael said, amusement touching his lips.

I expected Jareth to disagree, but even he seemed genuinely charmed by the old, potbellied dog.

I smiled, wondering what Ajax would’ve conjured up. I almost thought of giving him one of mine just out of curiosity, but then my self-preservation kicked in. He wouldn’t waste it on a harmless hotdog. He’d probably create something to torture me with, or at the very least, he’d conjure up a Sydney-sized kennel, complete with padlock to free himself of his babysitting duties.

But thoughts of Ajax made me realize that I hadn’t seen him in while, and I was just about to ask Rafael where he was when I heard Grace’s voice.

“Better not let Mom catch you guys,” she said, shocking us all.

We whirled to find her standing behind us, her brown eyes unreadable.

How much had she seen?

“What’s up?” she asked us, noting our sudden silence.

But then Al strode into the kitchen, a toothpick in his mouth and rubbing his hands together. “Well done, soldiers! It’s time to deploy!”

As we bundled into our scarves and coats, Tigger pressed his cold nose in my hand, licking my fingers a couple of times in thanks before plodding back to the refrigerator. Turning around a couple of times to make sure his tail was aligned with his nose, he settled in front of the fridge for a nice, long nap.

“Guess he doesn’t want to learn survival tips.” I giggled a little.

“He’s smart enough to know he can’t survive more than twenty feet from the refrigerator,” Jareth commented with dry sarcasm.

We all smiled at that, even Rafael. Al kissed Betty goodbye and led us outside, through the backyard towards the greenbelt, and into the nearby park. The sky overhead was a miserable gray, heavy with the promise of more snow as we fell into step behind him. Jareth and Grace walked up front, with Rafael beside me bringing up the rear.

But Al didn’t give us any time to talk. He began delivering his pep talk almost immediately. “A person who survives is a person who FIGHTS! Say it with me, Grace!”

Rolling her eyes but grinning good-naturedly, Grace repeated, “’F’ for Fear, ‘I’ for Injuries, ‘G’ for Get Warm, ‘H’ for Hunger, ‘T’ for Thirst, and ‘S’ for Signal!”

“Well done!” Al stopped a moment to beam down at her. Holding up a finger, he said, “You fight fear with logic. Fear is the number one enemy. Its whole goal is to stop you from taking action. Know you’re gonna feel it but never give into it. You’ve got to fight it and run from it as fast as you can!”

I blinked in surprise and nearly tripped as Al’s words seared into my brain. I was dimly aware of Rafael sliding his arm around my shoulders to help me regain my balance, but my full attention had just locked onto Al’s words.

I’d searched the internet looking for ideas of how to conquer fear and hadn’t come up with anything nearly so valuable as Al’s pep talk.

Fight fear with logic. And never give into fear. Take action and move on! I could remember that.

“Now let’s talk about injuries!” Al was saying, tromping down the trail. “Deal with all injuries quickly. Never wander around in the dark because you’ll just end up with more of them to worry about!”

“Sir, yes, sir!” Grace shouted, beginning to march in step.

“Now let’s talk about ‘Get Warm’!” Al was clearly enjoying himself. “Remember when you’re cold, you can’t think! You fight cold with shelter and fire.”

“A five-star hotel with a hot tub should be sufficient,” Jareth drawled, looking as bored as he sounded.

But Al kept going. “Hunger. Ration your provisions. Thirst. Melt the snow first before you try to drink it, and lastly, let’s talk about ‘Signal’! Stay close to where you got lost and signal. They always start looking for you where you first got lost. They can’t find you if you wander around!”

Grace put a hand to her eyes and pointed to the street through a break in the trees. “Why don’t we just flag the cars down and borrow a cell phone? Or we could just walk home …” She grinned cheekily at her dad.

Laughing, he tousled her head and said, “Today, we’ll take advantage of the snow and focus on ‘Get Warm’!”

“Great idea!” Jareth rubbed his hands together briskly. “Let’s grab a hot chocolate and find that five-star hotel.”

“You can’t fool me, Mr. Fancy-Pants-Rock-Star.” Al turned a sudden, shrewd gaze on him. “You’ve got quite the set of muscles on you. That just doesn’t happen by accident. That’s hard work, discipline, and purpose staring right at me.”

Jareth hesitated.

Turning to Rafael, Al’s blue eyes brightened with intelligent humor. “And the same goes for you, Mr. Never-At-School-Medical-Student. You can’t fool me, either. I know soldiers when I see them!”

We all stopped dead in our tracks.

“Now, let’s get back to the business of building shelters!” he announced with a chuckle. Clearing his throat loudly, he continued tromping down the trail, oblivious to our shocked expressions, or at least pretending to be.

“Let’s go,” Rafael ordered, nodding after Al, but he was suddenly much more serious than I’d ever seen him before.

Jareth didn’t even protest as we hurried after Al.

It wasn’t the first time I found myself wondering just how much Al knew or really suspected.

I was beginning to think he might just know the truth.

Chapter Seventeen – Blondie

We burst out of the trail and into the park.

Al was walking towards a small open space surrounded by ice-covered trees. And as we ran after him, more snowflakes drifted lazily down from the sky.

But we’d only just caught up when he pointed to a man pulling several children on a sled.

“At ease, soldiers!” he said. “That’s the captain of block 241. We’ve got a bit of business that needs finishing. Wait here!”

As soon as he’d trudged out of earshot, Grace began bouncing up and down.

“Time for a snow fight!” she suggested, her eyes sparkling with excitement. Nodding her chin towards Al, she added, “He’ll be talking at least half an hour!”

She ran a few feet away and began building an arsenal of snowballs as Jareth stretched and yawned.

Clearly, he had no intention of joining in.

I stood, keenly aware of Rafael standing only inches away, and all at once I decided to quit avoiding him. After all, he’d kissed me. What was wrong with him knowing the truth, that I thought he was handsome? Why was I so embarrassed about it?

I expelled a deep breath, momentarily distracted at what looked like a large cloud of smoke coming out of my nose. Watching my frozen breath strangely made me feel as carefree as a kid. Expelling my breath a few more times, I suddenly bent down, scooped up two large handfuls of snow and turning, playfully threw one straight at Rafael.

Taking him by surprise, it hit his neck and went down the back of his shirt.

“Good one!” Grace shouted at me.

Rafael’s brow lifted in surprise, and his lips quirked in amusement. Tilting his head a little, he advanced, never removing his eyes from mine.

And then it all changed.

Of course, I should have known better than to pick this fight. And of course, I should have known that it would immediately turn into something else, but I had little experience with the powerful emotion of attraction. I didn’t realize how hard it was to contain or control.

One minute, I was picking a friendly snow fight, and in less than thirty seconds, I found myself flirting and focusing on his killer looks and athletic moves.

With heightened senses, I waited until I could feel his breath on my cheek, and then lobbed the second snowball straight at him.

He was so close, I didn’t think I could miss, but he was prepared this time and dodged it with ridiculously graceful ease.

As Jareth watched us in a curiously dark and brooding manner, I ran towards Grace, laughing and screaming at the same time letting Rafael playfully stalk after me all the while picking up snowballs and firing them off with deadly accuracy.

I could sense that Rafael’s awareness had changed too. His eyes held the same look in them as they had right before he’d kissed me in Avalon.

I tried to hide behind Grace, but she started chucking snowballs at me too, and I darted to the side of the clearing, escaping them both.

I paused at the edge to catch my breath and turned to face my opponents. Grace had taken to throwing snowballs at Jareth, and Rafael had disappeared.

Curious, I circled just as he popped up behind me.

The amusement in his gray eyes had grown, and he gave me a bewitching smile that I’d never seen before as he whispered, “Run if you want, little pixie. I’ll enjoy the chase.”

I stared wordlessly up at him, knowing he meant much more than the snow fight. I knew I should stop what I was doing, but it was so very hard to do. My eyelashes lowered of their own accord as I skipped away, but he caught me about the waist at the last second and stuffed a snowball straight down the back of my neck.

I shrieked, shoving him half-heartedly aside, but he pulled me a little closer.

“Tasting the forbidden fruit?” Jareth’s sarcastic voice interrupted. “I thought you were above mistakes, Rafael.”

Rafael lifted his head to lock gazes with Jareth.

I stepped back, feeling ashamed all at once.

What was I doing? I knew we could only be friends. I knew it would be wrong to betray the world for love, but my heart didn’t think it was as bad as my brain did.

But feeling properly chastised, I said, “Nothing’s going on, Jareth. We’re just friends.”

“Friends,” Jareth repeated in a mocking tone.

“Yes, friends,” Rafael confirmed. But after sending Jareth a dark look, he leaned closer to say in a whisper meant for my ears alone, “But you would be a beautiful mistake, pixie.”

With that, he let me go.

Jareth folded his arms and said, “There’s enough strangeness going on here that we’d best stay together.”

At once, my head snapped up as concern overrode all other feelings.

Reading my face, Rafael pointed over my shoulder and assured, “You’re safe, Sydney. There’s no cause for concern.”

I followed his gaze to where I suddenly saw Brock wandering nearby. Ajax was just a few feet away from him, rooting in the snow after an enticing scent.

Subdued, I ran back to the center of the clearing where Grace had flopped back in the snow, moving her arms and legs. “Let’s all make snow angels,” she suggested, wiggling her hands.

Closing my eyes, I joined her, lying back to follow her example and again feeling like a little kid. Or what I imagined a little kid would feel like doing that. I’d never actually made a snow angel before.

Keeping my eyes closed, I took in big gulps of air, savoring the happy sounds of children playing nearby and Grace’s giggling. I’d almost regained my lighthearted mood when something tickled my cheek.

I swatted it away with my mitten.

But it returned, and I finally opened my eyes to discover Rafael leaning over me. His face was mere inches from mine and several strands of his hair had fallen loose from his ponytail to tickle my cheek.

“Al’s on his way back,” he said, his eyes smiling warmly but in only the friendliest of ways. “It’s time to get back to work.”

I let him lift me to my feet, all the while acutely aware of Jareth’s disapproving scrutiny. But then Al reappeared with several children in tow.

“We’ve got a few more recruits!” Al laughed, rubbing his hands together briskly. “Line up, soldiers! Let’s go over the basics of building a shelter, and then you’ll each get thirty minutes to put what you’ve learned into practice!”

As we quickly formed our line, Jareth smoothly inserted himself between Rafael and me. Apparently, he’d appointed himself chaperone. That thought would have been amusing if it hadn’t been so depressing.

Schooling my thoughts, I decided to focus on the task at hand. Besides, it felt good to learn something useful, though I wasn’t exactly sure when I’d need to build a snow shelter. But with my life of late, it wasn’t outside the realm of possibility.