Connor (13 page)

With that, he was done. I have never been so overwhelmingly exhausted in my life.

I said my good-byes to the others, and Tony said he would call me later. I was seriously looking forward to that phone call. I stayed behind lingering, waiting for Selene as she finished talking with the other
Keepers
.

Selene and I stood in her kitchen after everyone had left and the dust had settled. “Tea?” she asked me, reaching into her cabinet. “I have soda or juice if you prefer.”

“Bourbon, straight.” I laughed but was seriously hoping.

“Do not lose that crazy sense of humor, kiddo, but no.” Instead, she handed me a soda and a smile.

We headed out back to her deck. We sat for a little while, not talking, only relaxing. I had my arms wrapped around my knees, stargazing. I took some long deep breaths, trying to soak tonight in. So I'm not crazy after all. Someone was following me around—Selene.

Without turning my head, I broke the silence “My dad, huh? What exactly did they tell him? Did he ask questions? Why did he agree to this? Does he know that I will know one day?” I had so many unanswered questions running around in my head. I needed more than what they gave us tonight.

“He did it because your mom was very ill with a rare disease that was killing her. No approved medications worked, and he was out of options. Agreeing to this made experimental drugs and the best doctors available to them. Mr. Conway, being his boss, was aware of your mother's illness and approached him, knowing he would agree,” Selene said.

My mom was sick. I never knew. They never told me. She was waiting for me to say something, but I could not manage to form any words, so I let her continue.

“Your father knew it was an illegal adoption, but when he was told it was to protect you from bad people, he learned to live with it. Listen, when you are desperate enough and more money than you can count is handed to you, most people do not ask questions. Your mother, who thought she could never have another child, accepted you with open arms. Your father is a good man, Connor. You need to find closure with this. He did what he had to do for the both of you, but you can never talk to him about any of this. Do you understand?” she asked.

She said a mouthful. My picture-perfect family was not so perfect after all. I didn't know what to think or feel, so I said yes and changed the subject.

“Will we become
Keepers
too?” I asked.

“If you chose it, but usually the council has plans for us all. Usually,
Keepers
come into this world first to prepare
yougows
who will grow into
Dianads
(dee-a-naud), meaning defender of this world, when all your abilities have come. There will be a lot of training.”

“Great, cannot wait.”

She laughed at me, then went to grab us some snacks. When she returned, I had to ask the million-dollar question, “There's no Mr. Palmer, is there? What do I call you?”

She sighed. “Selene, please. No, there has never been a Mr. Palmer. I have always told people he left me. After that, people abruptly change the subject. I am sure you have seen a certain
Keeper
here and assumed it was my husband.”

“Khan,” I said. “Why is it a secret?”

“We really do not have room for personal lives. It can get in the way. I see the way you and Tony look at each other.” I was blushing hard. I really was not expecting this conversation to turn on me.

“You do not have to respond, but feelings can get you in trouble. It is best to settle down once the danger has ended for some time. Unfortunately, we do not get the luxuries as others do on this planet. Khan and I slowed things down considerably once you all were born. We have our duties, and they come before anything else.”

I could tell by the way she talked this was a hard conversation. Never in a million years would I have imagined sitting here, talking to her like this. She seemed so easy to talk to; I had no clue who she really was. I feel so bad the way I acted toward her when she was only ever watching out for me since birth.

“So what am I supposed to do, wait another sixteen years to settle down and find Mr. Right? I'm not saying Tony is Mr. Right or anything, but I don't want to be old when it's time to settle down,” I said.

A funny expression came across her face as if I made a joke, “I am over sixty, Connor,” she said.

I spat my drink out, nearly choking on it. There was no way she was sixty. She easily looked like she was in her twenties. Her cocoa-colored skin was flawless, and she had the body of a goddess. How was that possible?

“We age gracefully and quite slowly. Our kind can live up to about two hundred years. The year our abilities come in is the only time we grow and develop rapidly. You never stop eating and talk about the growing pains, ouch. I don't miss it. We are considered adults when this occurs, usually around sixteen, not eighteen,” she said, laughing at me, not sounding sympathetic at all.

“Well, I definitely eat like a horse, but no growth pains yet. Sounds like fun, yea.”

“Be ready, Connor, by next year, you will have a body of a twenty-year-old, and it stays that way until you are over one hundred years or so. That's when we start aging. It is smart to wait until things are calmer before settling down. That is why we have our children at the same time and centuries apart as to not wander alone and things are calmer.”

“Wait, are we supposed to pair up with each other or something? I like Tony, but like I said, I don't know if he is the one. I want to choose, you know?”

Now it was her turn to choke on her drink. “So do we. It just worked out that way this time. There are others out there for us, so don't worry. We cannot determine our young's sex, and if we could, we would not do so. Years ago, when things were different, it was said we had a true match or
Destiny
.”

“What is a
Destiny
?” I asked.

“
Destiny
is the one your heart desires so powerfully you can lose all sense of truth.” Her smile faded as she continued, “You both are drawn to each other, not just one of you, but you have no control over it. It's irrational love bordering on obsession.” She stood up and walked to the side railing facing the woods in front of us.

“Centuries ago before my time, people felt lucky to find their
Destiny
. I know that may sound crazy, but we are a passionate kind, always hurtfully so. Now since the way of the world, things have changed so drastically for us, most of us would be happy just to find love.”

“How do you know when you have found your
Destiny
?” I asked.

“You will know, but listen, Connor.” She sat back down to face me. “Times have changed so severely that your
Destiny
, if one is out there, may not be the person they were meant to be, so you are better off finding a sensible match, the one that makes emotional sense or simply find one you will learn to love.”

I wondered if she was talking from experience. “When you say learn…” but I realized she was not listening to me but to something else.

Her whole demeanor changed. Her face went tense; she moved to the edge of her seat. She appeared to be scoping out the backyard. I followed her gaze but saw or heard nothing. Behind her fence were the dreaded woods. Now knowing that things really go bump in the night, they seemed even scarier.

“Run toward your house,” she snapped at me. Her eyes were slowly turning a misty brown-green mixture. I could actually see the change occur. With us, it just seemed to happened.

She grabbed my arm and lifted me up so fast, I didn't have time to react. “Run, girl. I will be right behind you.” I hopped the side rail, running to my house. I sensed something close, and it felt angry, like the thing that was in the room with me tonight. I ran faster. I turned my head when something grabbed me and threw me across Selene's front yard. I landed on top of her rosebushes. The thorns sliced me good, but I couldn't focus on that. I

needed to get up and take cover.

Selene came running from the other side of the house toward me, holding a blade of some kind. Her lip was bloody, and she had a slash across her chest. She came right at me, raised her hand in an upward motion. For a minute I thought she was about to attack me, but instead her hand went down hard into something I couldn't see, but I heard the squishy sound when she made contact.

The thing she stabbed revealed itself as it fell to the ground, dead. At least I'm hoping, since she cut its head clean off. It was the most gigantic creature I had ever seen. Its skin was a pasty purplish color, and it only had on a pair of pants, no shoes. He must have been about eight feet tall and made of pure muscle. His neck and hands were enormous, and his face was abnormally large. I jumped back as it started shrinking into a normal human-size male.

“Go inside your house and lock the door. I will come in a few,” Selene said, shoving me.

“What are you going to do?” I was a wreck, but I didn't want to leave her by herself.

“Get rid of him now, hurry.” She started dragging the body as I ran across the street at full speed.

Something hit me in the gut, propelling me down the street. I slammed into the sidewalk headfirst and bit my lip. I rolled over and puked my guts out. I had never been hit so hard in my life.

I finished puking, got up as quickly as possible but felt dizzy. Half woozy and nauseous, I headed toward my house again but only made it as far as my parents' car. I needed to stop for a minute. I was out of breath, and my head was pounding so badly, I wanted to puke again.

What was going on? Why can't I see it? This is insane. Get it together, Connor, you can do this. I peered over the car to see if I could spot it but stiffened when something breathed on my back. I sent it soaring into my neighbor's yard, and when I heard it hit the ground, I ran for my front door.

Halfway there it landed on my back, forcing me to the ground. It weighed a ton. I tried to concentrate and send it flying but was too miserable to focus. It was pulling and twisting my head back so far, pinning me with no way to free myself. I tried rolling and kicking my legs to get it off me, but it wouldn't budge. Uncontrollable tears of agony streamed down my face as it tried breaking me in half, but I dug my fingers into the ground for resistance.

Suddenly, instant relief washed over me. I rolled over and saw Bynder fighting with it. For some reason, I could see it now. Tony grabbed me up, and we ran into the house.

Selene came running up behind us and locked the door. “Sorry, there was another one. It attacked as I was getting rid of the first one.”

As Bynder and the creature fought, the creature stumbled into the street, and a car hit it dead-on, not being able to see it. The car swerved, slamming it and his car into a light pole. After a few minutes, the man staggered out of the car and fell to his knees in the street. Slowly, the man got up and went over the creature, which by now was human looking. It was dead.

Bynder stayed with him to make sure he was all right, even though the man could not see him. Selene explained that for Bynder to appear suddenly when no one else was around, looks suspicious; plus we need not be associated with too many incidences. Too many incidences stir up too many questions from the authorities.

Selene and Tony were standing at the living room window, watching the commotion outside. I sat on the couch, waiting for the pain medication to kick in as they gave me the blow by blow.

Bynder slid inside the house when people started to gather around the body. As Selene walked over to Bynder, she stopped short. “Connor, go get cleaned up before your parents come home,” She turned back to Bynder but caught herself. “Sorry, are you okay?”

“Trying to hold it together.” I really didn't know how I felt. All I could think of was the pain in my back. Tony sat down on the couch next to me and put his arm around me for support. It was a nice gesture, but I wanted to tell him his arm was uncomfortable, but he kept watching me, needing to do something, so I let his arm stay.

“Listen, I need you to hold it together a little longer.” She bent down next to me. “Your parents will get wind of this, and they will come walking through that door any minute, so please get cleaned up before they get here.”

“Come on, Connor, I will take you upstairs to get you cleaned up. I mean, help you, if you need it,” Tony said, tripping over his words.

“Thank you for helping her, Tony,” Selene said. Heading to the steps, I heard Bynder ask. “Selene,

what did you do with the other bodies?”

“They are in the basement. You will have to get rid of them later on tonight when no one is around.”

As Tony and I headed for the stairs, I heard them discussing tonight's attacks and how things transpired. I swear I overheard him say something about a setup, but that is all I heard once I took my first step. The pain shot through me like bolts of lightning with each climb.

Tony stopped each time I grimaced. Being a tomboy as a kid, I fought so many kids in middle school and won a lot, now knowing why. My body has never taken a beating like this before. This is not recess kiddie stuff anymore; somehow I graduated and didn't remember getting an education.

We made it to my room, and as much as I loved my bed already, we bonded like never before as I lay across it now. It was the safest place on Earth, and it brought me so much happiness. Tony took it upon himself to search for some clothes for me to change into since I was no help. He kept asking me what to put on, but all I wanted were my pajamas and my pillow, but I needed to get up to face my parents when they came home.

“How about this outfit?” he asked for the tenth time. He was trying to be strong, but I knew he was upset that he wasn't there to help me. In his head, I somehow became his responsibility, but I'm not.

I sat up to talk to him. “Whatever is okay with me. Listen, Tony, you don't have to worry about me I am fine, honest.” He knew I was lying, but isn't that what you are supposed to say? “Stop beating yourself up because you were not there to protect me, it's not your job.”

He sat next to me on the bed, sounding angrier than I thought. “I wish we were there or sensed something, you know. We left, and then those things jumped you girls. That's not right. I'm sure they waited for us to leave, then pounced first chance.”

“Okay, let's clarify the 'girls' part. Neither Selene nor I have been a girl for some time, especially her.”