The Secret of Spruce Knoll (18 page)

Chapter 33

Eren had so much fun the next day that she was able to forget about Luke and Elisabeth completely. She and Sylvia shopped for hours in all the stores she and her old friends had only dreamed about going in. Even shopping was different now. She had to look for clothes that would be easy to take off quickly in case she needed to channel. Sylvia figured out what she was looking for and was more than happy to help.

After that, they found an upscale place that did manicures and pedicures. They caught a chick flick that had them both crying and laughing, then wrapped up the day at a fine steak house. It was so much fun that Eren was not looking forward to going home the next day.

Careful to keep her painted toes out of the water, Eren lounged in the hot tub with her aunt. It was far too big for just the two of them, but that allowed them to stretch out and take up all the room they wanted.

“Thanks for this, Eren. With two boys in the house, I don’t really get any girl time,” Sylvia sighed.

“I bet. But I should be thanking you, this has been a lot of fun,” Eren said with a content smile.

After a while of soaking Sylvia stood up and reached for her towel.

“I’m going to try and get a hold of Alin and Fane. You go ahead and soak,” she told her.

Settling deeper into the liquid warmth, Eren did just that. Her life had been all about stress and drama for so long that it almost felt strange to relax. The nausea had faded away and as long as she kept her power under tight control, the headache wasn’t so bad. The quiet gave her a chance to think, and that wasn’t necessarily a good thing. She began to wonder if she was really ready for what was coming, or if she was in over her head. Virgil and Camilia were killers after all. Who’s to say Luke wasn’t capable of the same? He certainly seemed twisted enough. Elisabeth, on the other hand, was starting to act as trapped as Aiden.

What if the party came to a fight? Luke’s intention seemed to be for it to end that way. As hard as she tried, she couldn’t stop her thoughts from moving in that direction. The possibility was very likely. She had a pretty strong feeling that Luke’s idea of pleasing his parents would involve her death. His interest in her wasn’t faked, but it certainly wasn’t for her personality either, which probably meant he had more in store for her than just a quick death. That thought made her shudder despite the hot cocoon of water.

Every day after school she had been training as hard as she could and she was becoming a decent fighter. But would it be enough against someone like Luke? Much, much worse, was the question; would Aiden get hurt? Of all things, that she couldn’t bear. 

Enough thinking for one night, she could handle no more. Eren stood up and grabbed her towel. She was almost dry when Aunt Sylvia came in and asked if she wanted to talk to Alin and Fane.

“Yeah! I’ll be right there.”

Slipping on an oversized night shirt, she grabbed the necklace from the coroner and dashed into the other room. Thanking Sylvia, she slid into the seat she had just vacated. Alin’s handsome face smiled back at her from the computer screen.

“Hi, Uncle Alin. I have a question for you,” she said.

She was hesitant, not sure if she was ready for the answer. But like all the other unpleasant truths in her life, she had to know. Her hands fumbled with the baggy, unusually uncoordinated. Finally, she opened it and held the necklace up before the web cam.

“Do you recognize this?” she asked.

“By the gods Eren, where did you get that?” Alin nearly shouted.

A chill sank into her. “The coroner sent it to me along with my parents other personal property,” she said.

His desperate tone didn’t exactly ease her mind. Aunt Sylvia must have heard because she was suddenly standing over Eren’s shoulder. On the computer screen Eren could see that Fane was doing the same to his dad. This had gone from a simple question to a family discussion. Not a good sign.

“What is it Alin?” Sylvia asked.

Alin rubbed his hand across his brow and took a moment before he spoke. Eren thought she saw the glimmer of tears in his eyes.

“That’s my grandmother’s necklace. I would know it anywhere. Virgil stole it when he fled Romania,” Alin said.

Eren drew in a sharp breath and dropped the necklace on the desk so she could cover her gaping mouth. There was only one way that could have ended up with her parents’ bodies. Camilia had to have dropped it in the fight.

“That means—" Eren choked on the rest, unable to finish.

“That means Camilia and Virgil killed your parents,” Sylvia finished for her as she placed her hands upon Eren’s shoulders.

Her touch brought a little comfort and it gave Eren the strength to ask her next question.

“Is it proof enough?”

“Alone, no. But it will definitely help,” Alin said.

How could it not be enough? This was insane! Another idea occurred to her.

“I saw Camilia wearing my mom’s necklace. Dad had it specially made for her and took it on the hiking trip to give to her. Dad kept receipts for everything. I’m sure if I pulled his computer out of storage I could find record of it somewhere,” she blurted out.

Alin’s eyes widened and he looked over her shoulder at Sylvia.

“Let us take care of this, Eren. I want you to stay out of harm’s way. Thank you for telling us,” he said to her.

Doing her best to hide her frustration, Eren nodded and stared hard at the wood grain in the desk. Just because she was a teenager didn’t mean she was useless. It looked like she wasn’t going to get out of attending the party. Which meant this wasn’t over yet.

Chapter 34

Aunt Sylvia didn’t talk much on the drive home the next day, which only added to Eren’s morose mood. Physically, Eren felt better the moment they left the city behind but mentally was another issue all together. The time to face her fears was nearly upon her and she was not ready. When she asked her aunt if she could go to a party that Saturday, Sylvia was so lost in her own thoughts that she agreed without question. It scared Eren a bit to see her aunt so shaken up but at least now she wasn’t the only one.

Friday morning after breakfast Sylvia hugged her so tight that it took Eren’s breath away, then she made her promise to be careful before she would let go.

Thoughts weighed heavy on her mind as she walked to school. The late October air was chilly but at least it had stopped raining. She’d thrown on a windbreaker, more so to keep dry than out of any need for warmth. The sunshine couldn’t quite break through the cloud cover and the resulting gloom reflected Eren’s mood.

No matter how hard she tried to focus on the scenery, she couldn’t. Somehow she had to get away from Luke long enough to talk to Aiden. It wasn’t going to be easy but she had an idea.

The school steps came into view and she saw Luke and Elisabeth waiting there for her. There was a group of kids around them. As Eren got closer the group dispersed, leaving only Luke and Elisabeth. Odd, she had never seen anyone else hanging out with them. But then she knew it was foolish to think the children of such a powerful family didn’t have friends. Eren had a feeling they were making people stay away from her so she would feel more isolated and would have to hang out with them. Whatever they had planned, clearly they had put a lot of thought into it.

Eren forced herself to smile and wave as she walked up. Jumping to his feet, Luke stepped to her side and slid his arm around her. His huge smile almost looked sinister. There was a gleam in his dark eyes that Eren recognized at once. It was the look of an oversexed teen boy who thought he was about to get what he wanted. Apparently her fears about his plans for the party were dead on. She hid behind her hair until the chill that was racing through her passed.

“I’ve got to go to the bathroom. Elisabeth, you wanna come with me?” she asked.

It was hard to sound casual with fear trying to strangle her voice and tie her guts in knots. Of course, she didn’t really have to go to the bathroom but she had to get away from Luke. He was freaking her out. The look on his face made her want to raise her power and see if flesh blew up like rock did. Now that she had channeled it was tremendously hard not to. Dealing with the anxiety triggering it was one thing. Dealing with the desire to channel was another entirely. It was as if she had to learn to control it all over again and this time it was harder.

“Yeah, I gotta go too,” Elisabeth said, her voice full of that false cheer again.

Grabbing her hand, she pulled Eren up the stairs and away from Luke. Eren turned her head to grin apologetically at him as she waved. The vicious look he was giving Elisabeth melted into a smile as Eren looked at him, but she hadn’t missed it.

So many girls were fighting for a space in front of the mirror that she could barely fit into the bathroom. They all scattered the moment they saw Elisabeth. Just a few seconds later the only sound in the room was the squeaking of vacated stall doors as they swung on their hinges.

“I can clear a room can’t I?” Eren laughed, pretending to think they had left because of her.

But she knew the truth now, and from the look on Elisabeth’s face, she knew Eren knew the truth. Kids may not like that Eren was a mixed blood, but they were afraid of Elisabeth. A long, very uncomfortable moment of silence stretched out. With her back to the mirror Elisabeth leaned on the counter and crossed her arms. Eren pretended to fix her hair.

“You haven’t channeled yet have you Eren?” Elisabeth asked, not taking her eyes off the stall door before her.

There was an abrupt, no-nonsense tone to her voice that made Eren think she was just as tired of this game as Eren was. She decided to stick with her and Aiden’s original plan and lie.

“Well, no. But please don’t tell Luke, I don’t want him to think less of me,” she said.

“Did Luke tell you what kind of party this is?” Elisabeth asked, ignoring her plea.

She sounded mad, and Eren had a feeling it wasn’t at her.

“Not exactly. I kind of figured it was sort of like a Halloween party,” she said, trying to sound naïve.

Elisabeth dropped her head in her hands. Eren noticed that her always perfect hair was in a bit of disarray, pulled back into a loose braid which it was coming free from. On anyone else the hairstyle would have looked normal, but on Elisabeth it just showed how frazzled she was. Something had been really bothering her.

Eren reached out and put a hand on her shoulder, hoping she wouldn’t get burned by her power. At times, Elisabeth had been nice to her and she seemed to have the potential to be a good person. Just because she was Luke’s sister wasn’t a good enough reason for Eren to ignore her pain. She knew all too well that one did not get to choose who they lived with—or without—in life.

“I didn’t expect this to be so hard. I didn’t expect to like you,” Elisabeth muttered into her hands.

“Whatever it is, Elisabeth, I’m sorry it’s so hard on you,” Eren said.

Elisabeth violently shrugged Eren’s hand off and thrust her head up, fixing her with a fierce, tear-filled gaze. Her hostility seemed to be directed inward, which actually made Eren more afraid.

“Don’t be nice to me. I don’t deserve it and neither does Luke. It’s a channeling party, Eren and it’s really dangerous for anyone who hasn’t channeled to be there. You should think about not going,” she snapped.

Somewhere in the distance the bell rang. Elisabeth moved toward the door, stopping just before she opened it.

“He knows you haven’t channeled,” she whispered.

And then she was gone, the door left swinging in her wake. Eren called after her and lunged for the door. A mob of scurrying students awaited her and they had already swallowed Elisabeth into their midst.

***

No matter how hard she tried, she could not get Elisabeth alone again all day and it was driving Eren crazy. Aiden picked up on her distress and wouldn’t take his eyes off her in class. He wasn’t even being careful anymore. Occasionally, someone would notice him staring at her and he’d just fix them with a hard glare until they looked away. Eren wanted nothing more than to tell him what Elisabeth had said and what she’d found out from Alin, but they couldn’t get a moment alone.

At the end of the day, Eren nearly wept with relief when Luke agreed not to wait until she was out of practice. After promising to see him at the turnabout tomorrow at six, she watched him until he walked out of sight. Alone at last, she ran around through the grass toward the back entrance of the gym.

Before she got close to the corner of the building, she heard voices that stopped her in her tracks. One of them was Aiden, the other was Elisabeth, and they were arguing.

“You can’t let her go. He’s going to kill her!” Elisabeth said.

“He’ll have to go through me and he
won’t
make it,” Aiden snapped.

That sound raised the hair on the back of Eren’s neck and her energy responded to it. She quelled the desire to channel and tried to concentrate on the conversation. They were a good distance away, around the building, and the wind wasn’t blowing the right direction, so it wasn’t easy. She edged a tiny bit closer.

“I don’t want to see you hurt, Aiden,” Elisabeth said.

“Oh really? Is that why you always stand by and do nothing when Virgil gets pissed off and hits me, or chains me up?” he snapped.

Just hearing that made Eren so mad that she started to shake. It didn’t help that she could feel Aiden’s rage like a fire just on the other side of the wall.

“He’d just hit us both if I got in the way, you know that. And you’re not being fair, I always bring you food and do what I can to keep his attention off you,” she said.

There was such a long stretch of silence that Eren started to wonder if maybe they had left.

“You do, I’m sorry I said that. Can’t you just tell them what he has planned?” Aiden finally asked.

“It wouldn’t do any good, they’d be proud of him,” she muttered and sniffled.

Aiden uttered something in a frustrated tone. It sounded like it was in a different language, Irish maybe. 

“Damn them! He can do no wrong. Maybe if I was more like Luke they wouldn’t hate me so much and this wouldn’t be happening,” he said in a defeated tone.

“Don’t ever say that! I wish Luke was more like you,” Elisabeth said, her voice breaking.

A pair of footsteps retreated. Eren stepped around the corner and saw Aiden looking after Elisabeth’s fleeing form. There were tears in his eyes. She wanted to touch him, to comfort him, but his energy felt angry and hurt and she didn’t know how he’d react. As much as she hated to admit it to herself, his anger scared her.

He turned at her approach and his power snapped and crackled along her skin like tiny embers. It hurt, bad. The sensation tore a gasp from her and she flinched and took a step back. Regret filled Aiden’s eyes and he looked as though he wanted to reach out to her, but didn’t trust himself.

She suggested the thing that always made her feel better when the world was closing in. “Let’s run.”

Aiden sniffled and nodded. Some of the pain left his eyes when he looked at her.

Not wanting to be seen by anyone, Eren led him to the woods just behind the school.  Eventually the grove gave way to the road and they were forced to run part of the way through town. They sped their jog up to a sprint and quickly left the neighborhoods behind. Once they reached Eren’s house, they went straight upstairs after a quick hello to Aunt Sylvia.

Eren told Aiden everything. Lying across her daybed, head propped up on one hand, he listened intently.

“Maybe if the Rectors of the Societies see what Luke has planned and hear why, it will finally be enough proof. You’ll have to get him to say it though. And take a recorder or they’ll never believe us,” he said.

“If I act afraid and confused I think it will work. He’ll want to gloat so that won’t be hard,” she said. She couldn’t entirely keep the fearful tone out of her voice.

“I won’t let him hurt you. I will get there before it comes to that, don’t worry,” Aiden swore.

He leaned forward and kissed her forehead and she noticed a shadow beneath his right eye. No, it wasn’t a shadow, it was a fading bruise. Gingerly, she reached up and touched it.

“How did this happen?” she asked.

“Luke said something about you I didn’t like,” he said as he turned away.

“Aiden you know I’d never let him do more than hold my hand or put his arm around me, right? I don’t even like to let him touch me that tiny bit,” she grumbled.

He shook his head and turned his angry gaze out the window. It was hard to tell because it was so subtle, but she could swear she saw him shaking. A strange sensation stirred deep inside her and she realized she could feel Aiden’s energy trying to rise to the surface, and hers was responding.

“I know, it’s not that. He was talking about what he planned to do to you,” he said through clenched teeth.

Eren turned his chin to her and made him look at her. She was right, he was vibrating. Whatever Luke said must have been pretty bad. Considering the hungry way the jerk always looked at her, Eren really didn’t want to know what it was.

“He won’t touch me. You’ll get there before he can even try. Besides, I can fight a little,” she said.

She smiled at him and held his gaze until he smiled back. Her hand went to his black eye almost of its own accord and her energy started to rise. But Aiden shook his head and grabbed her hand.

“No, don’t heal it. That will only make him suspicious,” he said.

Eren sighed and snuggled up against his chest as he put his arms around her. They said nothing for a while, just laid there and took comfort in each other’s presence. She ran a finger along his arm and up the swell of his bicep over and over, marveling at the strength she knew was contained within him.

“About earlier, I’m sorry my power hurt you,” Aiden whispered.

“I know you didn’t mean to,” Eren said, trying to sound as though it hadn’t freaked her out. The truth was though, it had a bit.

“My temper is hard to control sometimes. It won’t happen again, though. I don’t ever want to hurt you,” he said.

The honesty in his voice washed her fear away. She snuggled closer and wrapped her arms tighter around him.

“Dinner is ready!” Aunt Sylvia’s voice called to them.

Despite being out of a box and involving frozen meat, it wasn’t half bad. After eating they sat through a movie, trying to pretend to pay attention to it instead of each other. Finally, it grew late enough that Aiden had no choice but to go home.

Eren walked him outside and closed the door behind her, not liking the wary look her Aunt gave her. Aiden pulled her into a tight embrace the moment the door clicked shut. He buried his face in her hair and pressed his body to hers. The feeling of his body touching hers sent fire through every nerve. It made her cling to him, reluctant to allow it to end. Remembering that look on her aunt’s face though, she eventually pulled back. Aiden bent down and kissed her long and slow. He tasted like the chocolate ice cream they had just eaten. It was a wonderful sensation, one that re-ignited her nerve endings. When he drew back, he took her breath with him.

She couldn’t take her eyes off him as he walked away. It was a huge relief to know that after tomorrow she wouldn’t have to pretend to like Luke anymore. After that she was pretty sure she couldn’t. Finally she’d be where she belonged, with Aiden.