The Secret Circle: The Complete Collection (27 page)

Read The Secret Circle: The Complete Collection Online

Authors: L. J. Smith

Tags: #Young Adult, #Fantasy, #Romance, #Vampires, #Juvenile Fiction, #Teenage Girls, #Horror & Ghost Stories, #Love & Romance, #Witchcraft, #Fiction, #Fantasy & Magic, #Social Issues, #Young Adult Fiction, #love, #Dating & Sex, #Massachusetts

BOOK: The Secret Circle: The Complete Collection
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Cassie sat, her vision blurring.
“They saw two people on the bluff out near Number Twelve. And those two people were . . . well, shall we say they were getting very friendly themselves? Very friendly. It was pretty hot, the way I heard it.”
Cassie tried to speak, but nothing came out.
“And you’ll never believe who those two people were! I wouldn’t have believed it myself, except that it reminded me of a poem I’d read somewhere. Now, how did it go?
Each night I lie and dream about the one
—”
“Faye!” Cassie was on her feet.
Faye smiled. “I think you get the point. Diana hasn’t read that particular little poem, has she? I didn’t think so. Well, Cassie, if you don’t want her to hear it, or to know about what happened on the bluff last night, I’d say you’d better start being my friend and fast, don’t you think?”
“It wasn’t like that,” Cassie said. She was hot and shaking with fury, with fear. “You don’t understand at all—”
“Of course I understand. Adam is very attractive. And I always suspected that ‘eternal fidelity’ routine of theirs was just an act. I don’t blame you, Cassie. It’s very natural . . .”
“That isn’t what happened. There’s nothing between us—”
Faye smirked. “From what I hear, there
was
very little between you last night—sorry. No, really, I’d like to believe you, Cassie, but I wonder if Diana will see it the same way. Especially after she learns how you conveniently forgot to mention that you’d met her boyfriend over the summer—when he
awakened
you, I believe. How did that poem go again?”
“No . . .” Cassie whispered.
“And then the way you looked at him when he appeared after the initiation ceremony—well, Diana didn’t see that, but I must admit that my suspicions were aroused. The little scene on the bluff only clinched it. When I tell Diana—”
“You
can’t
,” Cassie said desperately. “You can’t tell her. Please, Faye. She won’t understand. It’s not that way at all, but she won’t
understand
.”
Faye clucked her tongue. “But Cassie, Diana is my cousin. My blood relation. I
have
to tell her.”
Cassie felt like a rat running frantically in a maze, searching for a way out that didn’t exist. Panic was pounding in her ears. Faye
couldn’t
tell Diana. It couldn’t happen. The thought of how Diana would look—of how she would look at Cassie . . .
And at Adam. That was almost worse. She would think they had betrayed her, that Cassie and Adam had truly betrayed her. And how she would look then . . . how Adam would look. . . .
Cassie could stand anything but that.
“You can’t,” she whispered. “You can’t.”
“Well, Cassie, I told you before. If we were
friends
, really good friends, I might be able to keep your secret. Diana and I may be cousins, but I’d do anything for my friends. And,” Faye said deliberately, her honey-colored eyes never leaving Cassie’s face, “I expect them to do anything for me.”
It was then, at last, that Cassie realized what this was all about. Everything went still around her, too still. Her heart gave one great thump and seemed to sink like lead. Down and down and down.
From the bottom of a pit, she asked Faye emptily, “What kind of thing?”
Faye smiled. She leaned back against the bed, relaxed, the robe parting to reveal one bare shapely leg.
“Well, let me see,” she said slowly, drawing the moment out, relishing it. “I know there was something . . . oh, yes. I’d really like to have that crystal skull Adam found. I’m sure you know where Diana’s keeping it. And if not, I’m sure you could find out.”
“
No
,” Cassie said, horrified.
“Yes,” Faye said, and smiled again. “That’s what I want, Cassie. To show what a good friend you are. Nothing else will do.”
“Faye, you
saw
what happened last night. That skull is evil. There’s already something awful on the loose because of it—if you use it again, who knows what might happen?” And, Cassie’s numbed mind suddenly suggested, who knew what Faye might be planning to use it
for
? “Why do you want it?” she blurted out.
Faye shook her head tolerantly. “That’s my little secret. Maybe, if we become good enough friends, I’ll show you later.”
“I won’t do it. I
can’t
. I can’t, Faye.”
“Well, that’s too bad.” Faye’s eyebrows lifted, and she pursed her full lips. “Because that means I’m going to have to call Diana. I think my cousin has a right to know what her boyfriend is doing.”
She reached for the phone and pushed buttons with an elegant, scarlet-tipped finger.
“Hello, Diana? Is that you?”
“No!” Cassie cried, and grabbed Faye’s arm. Faye pushed the mute button.
“Does this mean,” she said to Cassie, “that we have a deal?”
Cassie couldn’t form a yes or no.
Faye reached out and caught Cassie’s chin in her hand, as she had that first day on the school steps. Cassie could feel the hardness of long nails, the coolness and strength of Faye’s fingers. Faye was staring at her with those eyes, those strange honey-colored eyes. Falcons have yellow eyes, Cassie thought suddenly, wildly. And Faye’s fingers gripped her like talons. There was no escape. She was trapped . . . caught . . . like a white mouse caught by a bird of prey.
The golden eyes were still staring at her . . . into her. She was so lightheaded, so afraid. And this time there was no rock beneath her feet to steady her. She was in Faye’s second-floor bedroom, trapped away from any help.
“Do we have a deal?” Faye said again.
No escape. No hope. Cassie’s vision was blurring, going dim; she could barely hear Faye over the rushing in her ears.
She felt the last drops of resistance, of will, drain out of her.
“Well?” said Faye in her throaty, mocking voice.
Blindly, scarcely knowing what she was doing, Cassie nodded.
Faye released her.
Then she pushed the mute button again. “Sorry, Diana, I got the wrong number. I meant to call the Maytag repairman. ’Bye now!” And with that she hung up.
She stretched like a giant cat, replacing the phone on the nightstand as she lay back. Then she put her arms behind her head and looked at Cassie, smiling.
“All right,” she said. “The first thing is, you get me that skull. And after that . . . well, after that I’ll think of what else I want. You realize that from now on I own you, Cassie.”
“I thought,” Cassie whispered, still unable to see for the gray mist, “that we were friends.”
“That was just a euphemism. The truth is that you’re my captive from now on. I own you now, Cassie Blake. I own you body and soul.”
Chapter 1
        
 
 

F
ire, Cassie thought. All around her she saw blazing autumn colors. The yellow-orange of sugar maple, the brilliant red of sassafras, the crimson of sumac bushes. It was as if the entire world was flaming with Faye’s element.

And I’m trapped in the middle of it
.
The sick feeling in the pit of Cassie’s stomach got worse with every step she took down Crowhaven Road.
The yellow Victorian house at the bottom of the road looked as pretty as ever. Sunlight was striking rainbow sparks off a prism that hung in the highest tower window. A girl with long, light-brown hair called out from the porch.
“Hurry up, Cassie! You’re late!”
“Sorry,” Cassie called back, trying to hurry when what she really wanted to do was turn around and run the other way. She had the sudden, inexplicable conviction that her private thoughts must show in her face. Laurel would take one look at her and know all about what had happened with Adam last night, and all about the bargain with Faye.
But Laurel just grabbed her by the waist and hustled her inside and upstairs to Diana’s bedroom. Diana was standing in front of the large walnut cabinet; Melanie was sitting on the bed. Sean was perched uneasily in the window seat, rubbing his knees with his palms.
Adam was standing beside him.
He looked up as Cassie came in.
Cassie met those blue-gray eyes for only an instant, but it was long enough. They were the color of the ocean at its most mysterious, sunlit on the surface but with incomprehensible depths underneath. The rest of his face was the same as ever: arresting and intriguing, pride showing in the high cheekbones and determined mouth, but sensitivity and humor showing there too. His face looked different only because last night Cassie had seen those eyes midnight blue with passion, and had felt that mouth . . .
Not by word or look or deed,
she told herself fiercely, staring down at the ground because she didn’t dare look up again. But her heart was pounding so hard she expected to see the front of her sweater fluttering. Oh, God, how was she ever going to be able to carry this off and keep her vow? It took an incredible amount of energy to sit down by Melanie and not look at him, to block the charismatic heat of his presence out of her mind.
You’d better get used to it, she told herself. Because you’re going to be doing a lot of it from now on.
“Good; we’re all here,” Diana said. She went over and shut the door. “This is a closed meeting,” she went on, turning back to the group. “The others weren’t invited because I’m not sure they have the same interests at heart as we do.”
“That’s putting it mildly,” Laurel said under her breath.
“They’re going to be upset if they find out,” Sean said, his black eyes darting between Adam and Diana.
“Then let them be,” Melanie said unemotionally. Her own cool gray eyes fixed on Sean and he flushed. “This is much more important than any fit Faye can throw. We have to find out what happened to that dark energy . . . and now.”
“I think I know a way,” said Diana. Out of a white velvet pouch she took a delicate green stone on a silver chain.
“A pendulum,” Melanie said at once.
“Yes. This is peridot,” Diana said to Cassie. “It’s a visionary stone—right, Melanie? Usually we use clear quartz as a pendulum, but this time I think the peridot is better—more likely to pick up traces of the dark energy. We’ll take it down to the place where the dark energy escaped and it’ll align itself in the direction the energy went and start swinging.”
“We hope,” Laurel murmured.
“Well, that’s the theory,” Melanie said.
Diana looked at Adam, who had been unusually quiet. “What do you think?”
“I think it’s worth a try. It’ll take a lot of mental power to back it up, though. We’ll all have to concentrate—especially since we’re not a full Circle.” His voice was calm and even, and Cassie admired him for it. She kept her face turned in Diana’s direction, though as a matter of fact her eyes were fixed on the walnut cabinet.
Diana turned to Cassie. “What about you?”
“Me?” Cassie said, startled, tearing her eyes away from the cabinet door. She hadn’t expected to be asked; she didn’t know anything about pendulums or peridot. To her horror, she felt her face redden.
“Yes, you. You might be new to the methods we use, but a lot of the time you have
feelings
about things.”
“Oh. Well . . .” Cassie tried to search her feelings, scrabbling to get beyond the guilt and terror that were uppermost. “I think . . . it’s a good idea,” she said finally, knowing how lame that sounded. “It seems fine to me.”
Melanie rolled her eyes, but Diana nodded as seriously as she had at Adam. “All right, then, the only thing to do is try,” she said, dropping the peridot and its silver chain into the palm of her left hand and clasping it tightly. “Let’s go.”
Cassie couldn’t breathe; she was still reeling from the impact of Diana’s clear green eyes, slightly darker than the peridot, but with that same delicate transparency, as if there were light shining behind them.
I can’t do it, she thought. She was surprised at how stark and simple everything was now that she had actually looked Diana in the eyes. I
can’t
do it. I’ll have to tell Faye—no, I’ll tell Diana. That’s it. I’ll tell Diana myself before Faye can, and I’ll
make
her believe me. She’ll understand; Diana is so good, she’ll have to understand.
Everyone had gotten up. Cassie got up too, turning toward the door to hide her agitation—
should I tell her right now? Ask her to stay back a minute?
—when the door flew open in her face.
Faye was standing in the doorway.
Suzan and Deborah were behind her. The strawberry-blonde looked mean, and the biker’s habitual scowl was even darker than usual. Behind
them
were the Henderson brothers, Chris frowning and Doug grinning in a wild way that was disturbing.

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