Siphon (Siphon Chronicles, Book One) (10 page)

They were chest to chest in a king of the jungle pose ready to fight.  The crowd of elderly patrons watched on like it was a soap opera to behold.  One of the ladies giggled and asked for popcorn, then laughed louder saying never mind, she'd forgotten her teeth.

“Alright you two.  That’s enough.  I get now you both are in the know about my status or what is to become of it.  I’d like to know myself if that’s okay with you both.  Perhaps we can all sit down like civilized people and get it in the open.”

Jason eyed Daniel and he did the same back.  Some kind of guy language passed between them and suddenly I was being pushed into the dining room to visit the widow Mrs. Marks.  Jason said he just left her and she needed a sitter to listen to her stories for a bit.  I didn’t want to go sit with her right now.  Jason gave me the pouty lip like he always did when he wanted away from the “old bitties” as he called them.  Some of them pinched his butt a few too many times and I was his savior.

Both of them walked away together. This didn't look good.

“Let’s get this done.”

“Outside is better,” Jason walked ahead to the outside terrace covered in rocking chairs with checkerboards between them.

“Let’s cut to the chase then, what are you doing here?”

“First tell me what she smells like to you,” I asked feeling a little like a freak in my own circus.

“Strange, but aren’t we all.  I don’t know, man.  Just girly.  Powdery.  Sugary.  She was the first I’ve ever siphoned young.  All the rest are painful which royally sucks in the girlfriend department.  She kissed me once.  I was paralyzed till she stopped singing.  Lark won’t give me the time of day since. What did you do to get her?”

“Nothing.  She came to me,” I rubbed my neck where I’d held it stiff-like from watching her all night the last few.  I didn’t want her left alone.  Sitting on her roof listening to any sound below her room was tiring, but necessary.  I knew what my father was capable of.

“What does she smell like to you since it’s obvious you’re asking?”

“Not like a flower or—roses or,” I tried to think of something on the fly that would throw him off but I faltered, “er—honeysuckle.”  I sounded so lame.

“Dude.  You’re like in love with her already or something.”

“Shut the hell up!”

Jason threw his hands in the air.  “Don’t throw me to the wolves you call daddy.  I’m not why you’re here.  But I promise you I’m going to be a fly on your ass every move you make if it involves her.  She doesn’t deserve to be mind warped into one of those siphon robots.  You’re not turning her in.”

“I’m not,” I bit out.

“Then why are you here?”  He leaned against the balcony and crossed his arms.  I didn’t even feel her open the door or close it.

“I’m here for the reasons you think.  To take her to my father and take away her ability to sing.  But that doesn’t mean I intend to go through with it.”  It wasn't what I was told, but I knew it to be the truth.

“Then what is your plan?”

Daniel ran a hand through his hair, his back still to me.  Jason coaxed him into saying it right in front of me.  I held my mouth with my hand to keep from gasping like my body was doing.  He’d just said he was there to take me away and someone was going to make me not sing.  I didn’t get it, but it didn’t sound nice.

“I don’t know anymore.  I didn’t anticipate it being this way.  She is...more than they said.  She’s not hurting anyone.  And I think I—“

“Whoa.  TMI, man.  Don’t get all touchy feely on me.  I think now would be a good time to—“

I didn’t hear the rest.  I ran as fast as I could back through the double doors and out the front ones.  I didn’t have my own car and I couldn’t use theirs.  A fast food place sat next door, so I took off in the direction of the side door and hid in the bleachy bathroom stall. 

I cried till my eyes were good and puffy.  My bottom lip was swollen from tugging on it with my teeth.  I was right.  He was the bad guy.  His father wants to do experiments on me or something.  
 

The bathroom door swung open and I sat still on the seat hidden in the stall with the door locked.  I waited for the other stall door to open and close, but it never did.  Instead, two black boots positioned themselves just outside the bottom of the paint peeled door and stilled.

“Lark,” his voice was low.  “I know you hate me now and I would completely back you on that assessment if I didn’t know that I’d changed my course recently.  I was sent here to take you to them and not for savory reasons, but you altered the course.  I haven’t lied to you in any way, but I have to tell you something now.  I am not by any means innocent nor am I here on good terms, but I assure you my mission changed the second I saw you were nothing like my father made you out to be.  You’re kind and giving.  You love like it’s a living-breathing thing.  I believe my father is wrong.”

Not a sound came from the stall, nor did the air move.  Her energy did not call to me.  My father had said the nexus would be a pure uncontainable single-minded corrupter of our world.  He lied to me.

And then I heard her shoe hit the floor.  Then the other. The lock clicked and there she was before me.  Her eyes were red, her skin pale.

“Wrong about what?” she tried to clear her throat.

Stupid as it was, I wrapped my arms around her.  Her warmth was amazing to me. 

“I am not going to let anything happen to you.”

A few quiet seconds passed before a loud resounding boom hit the wall beside us.  A middle-aged woman fell against the hair dryer on the wall and Jason with her.  The Hispanic lady righted herself and cursed Jason in her native tongue.  It was like a scene out of the worst sitcom ever.

“I couldn’t stop this one.  She was insistent.”

Jason stood up and brushed off his leather jacket making the buckles jangle around.  His eyes went to where my hands were on her. He was lying if he denied having feelings for her. No guy went through this much crap for a girl he didn't care about.

“No matter.  We have little time now.  And you two have a lot to learn.”

In the Jeep again, we were alone.  She said goodbye to Jason who agreed to go get his affairs in order.  Turns out, he’s not in high school anymore.  He graduated last year, but goes to the football games to keep an eye on Lark. She did not see his obsession with her, but I did.  And I understood it completely.

“How old are you?” she asked.

Now was the time for small truths.  “I am twenty-six.”

“
What
?  You don’t look it.”

She saw my frown.  “Hence the reason I receive the jobs for high school.”

She huffed and folded her arms.

“What?  I am just telling the truth.”

She crossed her eyes and mocked me.  She was truly a vixen.  “What kind of chips do you like?”

“What?” he asked coming up short in front of me.  His hands waved over the glove box but he never opened it.

“You bought pickle chips.  They do not seem your...type.”

His million watt smile flashed at me.  “My type?”

I blushed.  He was singularly good at saying one thing and meaning another.  Guess I’d done it too.

He rubbed the scruff on his chin making the sound do amazing things to the shivers running up my back.

“Barbeque.”

Huh?

“The chips I like.”

Ohhhh!  Duh!

“You don’t say much, ever." He sideways glanced at me.  See!

“Mr. Dark and Mysterious one minute, then telling me your chip preferences the next.”  Okay.  That was A#1 stupid.  That had to be worse than the age statement I’d fed him earlier. 

“I’ll go with Dark and Mysterious and even throw in an extra.  I really like blondes.”

Oh, he did know exactly what to say to make my lava boil.

He watched me now with a certain curiosity like he couldn’t reason my existence.  Or at least that’s what I imagined he was thinking.

He loves the way his Jeep bounces and never has a smooth ride.  I didn’t mind it.  Maybe a little more than him.

He hopes to go to a lighthouse one day.  It’s the one thing he hasn’t done that he wants to see.  That makes me wonder what all he’s done.  Been?  And just what was his entire job as a Retriever as he called it?

I thought about what Jason said before we left. 

“There is no get out of jail free card here. Pass go either.  You have to take her in or risk your own existence.  How do you plan to get her off the radar when she’s the whole prophecy chick?”

I’d wanted to bust his lip for saying it out loud where she could hear it.  She didn’t hear it, but still.  As far as an answer, I didn’t have one yet. 

The dude was right, but could I really go through with the job I had to do or the right thing to do.  I’ve decided they have it all wrong.  She is not the villain. Which means I have to have an alternative plan.  And I know what it has to be.

“Where are we going?”

“Somewhere?”

“More mysteries,” she guessed. Her trust was undeniably unfounded.

“Yep.”

At the last turn to the shipyard, she started naming different places of interest.  I noted them all.  Her face wrinkled up at the thought of a beach, but lit up with the romanticisms of a boat. 

I’m glad I chose wisely.

“Why are we here?” she asked as we stepped across the bow.

“A place I like to go.  You’ll see.”

He pulled me up from the step and held my hand to land on the deck.  It was more like a yacht, but not near the size of one.  I wouldn’t call it a boat either.

Before I could blink, he’d kicked off his shoes and was walking away.  “You coming?” he goaded from the top of the steps that led to a deck.  His shirt and jeans look made him just that more appealing.

“Is this your boat?” I asked hesitantly.

“Trust me,” he dazzled a smile at me.

That’s the problem.  I do, but I shouldn’t.  He wasn’t evil and conniving, but he wasn’t the good guy either.  Reason told me I was being a stupid girl being led into the lion’s den.

Reason lost.

“You’re nuts.”

“You’re with him,” he reached into a deck bench and pulled out a blanket.

“You’re dangerous,” I admitted.

Daniel finished yanking the corner back down and stood an inch from my face.

“You’re right.”

It was a warning, a chance to change my mind.  Turning back would mean being in the dark.  Turning back would mean no Daniel, of that I was sure. I was too involved now to turn back. 

Eye to eye, I could feel his breath on me.  Even as I tried to hold it in, I knew he could feel mine.  His eyes left mine and traveled to my lips.  I’d tasted those lips.  Only twice, but I wanted to again.  And it meant a surge of energy. The urge, when in his presence, seemed to always be there after that first kiss.

His hand stayed near my cheek, hovering a flicker of a distance away.  His fingertips brushed the side of my mouth, his thumb across my parted lips.  They left my face and inched their way into my hairline as I closed my eyes.  I wanted him to know I was completely okay with this.  I was ready for this moment.  I lied when I said I wouldn't kiss him again, I just shouldn't.

Logic kept telling me to push his hand away, that he might still be the enemy.  I told myself that I didn’t want anything to do with him, that he was just like any other.  That I didn’t want this.

But I did.

His hand moved forward again, resting on my neck in a soft grip poised just under my jawline.  I gave up waiting and exhaled the breath I’d been holding.  Opening my eyes, his own were glazed over and non-blinking.  I shuddered from head to toe and he’d barely even touched me.

“Are you sure I am still invited?”

I broke free of Daniel and leaned across the deck bench.  "Malarkey."

“Sorry to interrupt,” Jason said grumpily.

“I’m not,” Daniel said too cheerily.

I looked from guy to guy to survey the reason behind it, but I couldn’t decipher the meaning.  I think my reasoning on boys and their ways will take a few more years.  I heard my stepmom once say that men were like a carpenter’s saw.  Jagged in places, smooth when they want to be, and irreplaceable once you find the perfect fit.  I didn’t know anything about saws, and it didn’t help me understand Daniel anymore than I did before.  Or Jason.

"Good to know your vocabulary choices are still a part of you.  I can't imagine anyone trying to change you."

"Malarkey," I smiled his way and we both laughed.  Daniel's sneer caused me to straighten and get started on the pizza.

We ate the pizza Jason brought on the deck with no listening ears to overhear.  Turns out, Daniel really is the son of the head of the council and his father is a tyrant.  Daniel claims he wasn’t always known for the reputation he holds, but when he turned eighteen, his father felt his “too nice attitude” needed a change if he was to take over the council one day.  His father felt a nice guy could never lead the group the Siphon Council had become.  I learned from Jason that the council hadn’t always been on the shady side of the fence.  Before Daniel’s father, it was a kinder, less harrowing people who took years from others in the way Jason and I did, but was now looked upon as weak.

Our kind, the mercy seekers as Jason termed us, had escaped at the time.  That piece of information led me to ask about my parents.

“Do you know what happened to my parents?”

Daniel kept his head down, but Jason answered for me. He apparently learned a lot. However, Daniel's scathing looks didn't escape my attention.

“The Spur’s were part of the original team who fought against the council that resides now.  As the head of the resistance, your father ended up giving his life when Crawford’s father took over.  They pushed him out of the seat and your mother with it.  The story tells that your mother hid you away and all thought you were dead.  Your birth was foretold and your abilities with it as well as boy wonder here. Something in your parent’s genetic makeup mixed perfectly, so to speak.  They just didn't know if you harbored them or not and now they want to get a looksie. They circulated a prophecy that you were to come back one day to return the council to its original order.  Therefore, you’re a wanted girl at the moment.”  Jason told all this like it was a fairy tale and it might even have a happy ending.  I couldn’t see how that could happen.

“His account is correct however he came by it.  I listened to my father when he said the jobs I would need to conquer would make me a better leader.  I know now he was wrong, but fighting against him could prove to be as hard as it was for your father.  As for me, there is no prophecy.  I am only popular because of who my father is. Whoever gave you your facts, was off on that part.” 

Jason ignored him at first, then felt compelled to vindicate himself with, "Or you are in denial.  If all your people know the first of the story, it stands to reason they know the rest."

"Or fabricate gossip sent away with the foolishly convinced."

I waited for them to but heads like bulls or goats going head to head like at the nursing home, but this time they stayed where they sat and both turned to me.  Each of them gave me a telling look of what I interpreted as, "
Take over or I am going to kill him."

“Where is my mother?” I asked already ahead of what I wanted to know.

Daniel dared a look at Jason to answer, but neither made a move or comment.  Daniel gave first.  “She was never found.”

"If my mother was against your father, I wonder the real reason for wanting me there."

"I wonder myself, but it isn't the reason he gave.  One of the men you siphoned from died making you show up on his radar for questioning though I get the hint he knew where you were all along.  Mostly that means he wants to see if you are a team player for his team."

His voice was so demanding, sure of himself.  I’d never picked up in it as royal or political, but here it was—he was like some sort of prince in the siphon world.

Serves me right for reading those dang fairy tales as a child and dreaming up knights and towers.  I really was stuck in a tower and he was here to take me out as an enemy, but saving me instead.  I hope.

There is cruelty in every reality whether we sugarcoat it or not.  Sometimes we just overlook it for its ugliness so as to not face the inevitable.  Or...we succumb to its worst propositions in favor of tricking the unsuspecting varmint into submission.  That’s the real heroic deed in this equation.

“Fine. Take me to the council.”

His face was lit up, but not with excitement.  Oh no!  Not excitement at all.  More like “the bleepity heck I will” and several other unsaid wordy dirties.