Hidden Wings (11 page)

Awkward!
There were two new faces staring at me. Dominic and Malachi were there, but Kade wasn’t. Bummer.

Each of them nodded as I made my way around the table. I smiled and nodded.

They looked like they were in their early twenties, except for one, who looked closer to my age. All were clean-cut, dressed in jeans and t-shirts, and strikingly handsome. What was up with that? Was my aunt the Janice Dickenson of Alaska?

Every eye followed me to my seat, like I was on parade, or some type of oddity. They didn’t smile; they just gawked, which made me begin to feel very uncomfortable. I wanted to do a 180 turn and walk right out, but instead I took my seat and turned my chair a little towards Courtney. As I sat, I heard muffled whispers amongst them.

“Hey Emma,” Malachi said with a slight nod of his head, in a cool, low tone. He was sitting directly across from me. His glasses were off, but he was in cool-guy mode, most likely because the other guys were around. I didn’t mind. He’d already shown me his softer, sweeter side. I knew he was just a big, grumpy looking, teddy-bear.

“Hey,” I said softly.

“Hey Emma! Remember me?” Dominic called from the far side of the table, waving his arm and wiggling his eyebrows, “The awesome get-away driver?”

“Yes.” I smiled and nodded. He chuckled, and then buried his face back into his plate.

“Thomas? Could you PLEASE pass the pancakes?” Courtney yelled across the table. A disheveled, blonde haired guy with bright, baby-blue eyes turned and grinned at us.

“Sure princess,” he said with sarcasm.

“Thank you!” she hollered back.

“Hey Alex, pass this down.” Thomas nudged the boy that looked my age. He had shoulder-length, raven-black hair, dark green eyes, and a pale, handsome face. He glanced at me, picked up the plate and walked it over, setting it down between me and Courtney.

“Thanks Alex,” Courtney turned and offered him a smile.

“Sure thing,” he answered with a wink. He glanced at me, spun on his heel, and headed back to his seat.

Courtney stabbed two pancakes and plopped them on my plate, then slathered butter over them and drenched them in syrup. She handed me the plate of bacon, and proceeded to stab her own pancakes. I was tempted to take lots of bacon but only took three. Three seemed appropriate. I love bacon. I mean… who doesn’t?

“Okay,” she whispered. “I’ll give you a quick rundown. The one that passed-the-buck is Thomas, which you probably already knew because I yelled his name. He’s a trouble maker, like Kade.”

The remark made me giggle.

“The guy who brought us the pancakes is Alexander, but he likes to be called Alex. The one across from Thomas is Dominic, and I guess you already know him. If his mouth wasn’t full of food, he’d probably be yakking away.”

Dominic turned and gave me a wink, then proceeded to pile food into his mouth.

“And, you’ve already met Malachi. He’s my very favorite.” She whispered the last part, and smiled at him with a huge, cheesy smile. Malachi narrowed his eyes and huffed. “The only ones missing are Kade and James. James is the oldest and the one that usually takes your aunt on her errands. And, you’ve obviously met Kade.”

“Oh…yes,” I said, quickly digging in to my plate.

The odd thing about all of
them
– they looked totally different but seemed so similar. Similar, but I couldn’t really put my finger on how. Maybe it was because they were all beautiful and perfect. Or seemingly perfect – at least on the outside.

The pancakes were perfect too, light and fluffy, and had chocolate chips melted through each bite. It tasted like an extra soft chocolate chip cookie, but it was super rich with the syrup and butter soaked into it. After a few bites I had my sugar-high for the rest of the day.

“Orange juice?” Courtney asked while holding a pitcher over my glass.

“No thanks. I’ll just have water,” I said. I couldn’t put another sugary thing into my mouth.

Malachi jumped from his seat, and returned a few seconds later with a bottle of water. He unscrewed the top, and set it in front of me. Wow! These guys were well mannered. Must be an Alaska thing. Most boys I knew wouldn’t budge.

“Thanks,” I said with a smile. He returned a quick smile, then sat and scraped the remainders on his plate into his mouth.

“Good morning everyone,” Henry said, stepping into the room.

“Morning Henry,” they all answered.

Henry rounded the corner, holding an envelope in his hand. He walked directly to me and bent down. Everybody stopped and became silent again, staring.

“Good morning Emma.” he spoke softly, in his awesome English accent.

“Good morning Henry.”

“Alaine wanted me to give this to you,” he said as he handed me the envelope.

I wasn’t sure what to do with it. Should I wait until I was alone, or should I just open it? What if it was private? If it was private, then Henry would probably have told me. I decided to open it, so I lifted the flap, pulled out the letter and began to read.

………………

Dearest Emma,

I am so sorry that I cannot be with you this morning. There was an emergency at the medical center and they needed my assistance. I will be back at around three, and we will talk then. Until then, please don’t wander off the property.

With love,

Alaine

………………

“Who’s that from?” Courtney pried.

“My aunt. She had to leave, but she’ll be back around three.”

“Oh goody! That means I get to show you around the place. You know… the grand tour,” she said with enthusiasm, shoveling her last piece of pancake into her mouth.

“Yeah, that’ll be cool.” I tried to seem thrilled, but it just seemed like everything that had to do with my new life, was on hold. It was frustrating, and now I had a bunch of hours to kill before I’d get my answers. Well… at least I had Courtney to keep me busy. I’m sure she had a list of things to do.

I instantly felt dizzy and that familiar feeling of euphoria slammed me. I reached for my water bottle, suddenly feeling hot and flustered, and fidgeted in my seat. I took a sip, a deep breath, and tried to calm my nerves. Malachi shot me a strange look just as a side door swung open.

“Good morning!” Kade smiled as he entered the room. He had a sparkle in his eye and a bounce in his step. Seeing his face made every butterfly in my stomach dance with happiness. Malachi glanced at him and then back to me with an inquisitive, yet unpleasant look in his eyes.

He must have sensed something between us, because he was with us all day yesterday and saw how flustered I became whenever Kade and I became too close. I’d have to learn to hide my emotions a whole lot better, because right now…I was wearing them all over my sleeve. It was pretty embarrassing, especially with Malachi’s watchful eye.

“What’s up guys?” Kade exclaimed with a gleaming smile as he entered the room. I felt Malachi’s eyes on me, and started to feel anxious. I took a bite of the much-too-sweet, chocolate chip pancake and tried to keep my eyes on my plate.

The others gave their salutations while Kade grabbed a chair from the other end of the table, carried it down to our end, and set it down
right
next to me. I felt my face blush with heat as I glanced at him. That was something impossible to hide.

“Hey Emma,” he said in a sweet tone. My heart skipped another beat until I looked into Malachi’s glaring eye.
Awkward!

“Hey Kade,” I chimed, hoping it would have some kind of effect on him. It wasn’t fair - the magic he had on me. He laughed out loud, and I could tell he was thrilled I’d said his name. I laughed too, but Courtney and Malachi had confused looks on their faces.

“Inside joke,” Kade explained.

“Oh. Well, Hi Kade,” Courtney said teasingly. “I missed you.”

“Why, hello Courtney. I’ve missed you too. So, how are you doing this morning?” He asked, grabbing a plate and scraping the rest of the pancakes and bacon onto it.

“Not bad. Especially since I’m not the only girl around here anymore,” she answered.

“Well, I’ll be seeing you guys,” Malachi murmured, with narrowed eyes as he left the table. If I didn’t experience his softer side, I would have been terrified. The others also started to clear the table, heading into the kitchen with their empty plates.

“So, Emma… I see you’ve grown a tail,” Kade said raising his eyebrows, looking toward Courtney, who was busy pouring juice into her glass.

“Mmm-hmm,” I hummed.

"What?” Courtney blurted, glancing down towards my backside.

“Courtney you’re so dumb. He was talking about
you
,” a voice scolded from the kitchen. A tall, lanky boy with golden hair and light blue eyes came around the corner carrying a plate of fruit and toast. Caleb.

There were small similarities between him and Courtney; same shaped face and eyes, but he was just an average boy who’d probably get lost in the crowd at my old school.

“I don’t have a tail!” she scolded.

“Hello! You ARE the tail,” he muttered.

“Shut up, Caleb…I knew that!”

“Yeah right! Why’d you look then?” he countered with a scoff.

“I wasn’t! I was…”

“See, just admit it. You’re stupid.”

“Well, you’re…you’re ugly!” she stuttered.

“Uh, you look like me, so there…” he teased, tossing a grape into his mouth.

“I look nothing like you!”

“Whoa! Whoa, you two! You’re not leaving a good impression on Emma,” Kade announced, holding a hand up, and shaking his head in disapproval. They both glanced at me.

I’d never had a sibling. The closest thing I had was Lia and Jeremy, who could talk some pretty good smack to each other. So, this wasn’t something new to me. It was actually entertaining.

“Sorry, Emma,” Courtney apologized.

Caleb remained silent, popping another grape into his mouth.

“Don’t worry about it. I’m used to it. My best friends used to do the same thing.”

Courtney smiled, took my plate, and got up from the table.

“Let’s go Emma,” she said, heading toward the kitchen, shooting Caleb an evil eye.

“You guys are leaving me? I just got here! And you’re gonna make me stay here … with Caleb?” Kade shot Caleb a look, and Caleb rolled his eyes and huffed.

“She’s giving me the grand tour,” I smiled, but my heart ached when he batted his beautiful hazel eyes, and shot me a sad puppy-dog look. Damn! That was heartbreaking…

“Well, I guess Courtney beat me too it,” he said with a wide grin, biting a piece of bacon. His eyes were greener today, mirroring his fitted green sweater, but there were veins of yellow and brown running through them. I became lost, swimming somewhere within the depths of his eyes when Courtney rudely interrupted.

“E-mma! You coming or what?” Her voice dragged, as she stood in the doorway with her arms crossed over her chest. I smiled at Kade and reluctantly pushed my chair in.

“I better go. So, I’ll see you around?” I asked, hopeful for a chance that I’d run into him sometime during the day.

“You can count on it,” he said, holding out his hand. I wanted to touch him so badly, but I also knew that my body would react, and that would be embarrassing… especially with Caleb and Courtney gawking at us. We needed to behave ourselves, so I offered him my cast instead. I knew his magic, or whatever it was, couldn’t penetrate it. He laughed and took a hold of it.

I turned to Courtney, whose narrowed eyes were fixated on Kade, studying his intentions. He ignored her by pouring a glass of orange juice.

“Have fun,” he teased.

“Yeah right. With Courtney?” Caleb mumbled.

“Whatever, loser!” Courtney chimed.

I ambled towards Courtney, and looped my arm through hers.

“Okay… I’m yours for the next few hours,” I announced.

She smiled and started dragging me away.

Chapter 8:

“So where are we going?” I asked, attempting to seem excited. She led me back in the front area, which looked like a lobby.

“Okay,” she said, stopping in the center of the exquisite marble floor with the tiled art of the angel and the sword. We were facing the staircase. “You already know that the top floor is where we stay. We… meaning me, you and Caleb. We’re on the left and Caleb’s on the right. It has eight bedrooms, four on each side. The other five rooms on our floor are empty.” She looked like an airline stewardess going through her motions.

Oh boy. I was getting the deluxe tour.

“So where do all the guys sleep?” I questioned, even though I already knew Kade slept in the guest house.

“They all sleep in the cottage out back, but two of them stay in the tower each night. They have shifts. They were all hired by Alaine to keep strangers out. I guess there have been some break-ins in the area, but I don’t buy it. The nearest neighbor is like ten miles away. Alaine also said that she hired them to make sure we’re kept safe from bears and other wildlife, but I haven’t seen a bear yet. I’ve only seen some moose and squirrel, but that’s it. The whole time I’ve lived here!” Her hands were flying around her in frustration.

“Oh,” I exhaled. I guess they didn’t tell her about the terrifying dark creatures lurking out there that wanted to kill me. And, I was also guessing that if she didn’t know already, then it wasn’t my place to tell her.

She continued. “The second floor is for guests, and totally off limits to us. There are eight bedrooms on that floor too, each with their own bathrooms.

“This floor has the kitchen, dining, library, study and Miss Alaine’s master suite. That door on the right, leads into the library and our study where we do our homeschooling,” she said with a scrunched up nose. “It’s really not too bad. We can actually finish our work in a few hours and get the rest of the day to do whatever we want.”

That sounded pretty cool. Better than sitting in classes all day, but I’d still miss being with my friends.

“Down this hall to the left is where Miss Alaine’s study and master bedroom are. It’s huge, like double the size of our rooms, and her bathroom looks like a spa. It’s crazy.”

“If you walk all the way down the hall, you’ll see the ballroom. That’s where Alaine holds all her big, fancy parties. Come, I’ll show you,” she said, eagerly skipping down the long, fancy hallway.