Time's Daughter (23 page)

I let Alex’s mom guide me to the garage where her
Volkswagen was stored. A noise to my right startled me enough that
I nearly screamed. Anna shot toward it with supernatural speed.

She exclaimed in surprise a half second later. “It’s
the cameraman!”

Peter spilled out of the Chevy as soon as she’d
opened Alex’s car door.

The camera guy slumped to the ground, breathless
with fright. “Oh, thank god it’s you!” He exclaimed with eyes
wildly darting around the garage. “Something tried to
attack
me!”

Anna’s tone reverted to her calm manner. “What
attacked you?”

“
I don’t know! It was like
seven-feet tall and really ugly. I ran to the car, hid in the
floorboards and then I guess I passed out. It was gone when I woke
up but I was too scared to get out of the car.”

“
Come with us.” Anna’s demand
brooked no argument.

While we crossed the gravel to the deck he relayed
the tale of how he’d been walking toward his car when the creature
had emerged from the woods surrounding the driveway. Once inside
the house, Anna settled him on the sofa near the fire and left us
to fetch the others.

Three minutes later Arnold and Aaron appeared within
the inner room clothed in what they’d worn prior to the attack.
They listened to the tale, questioning him here and there and
glancing at each other at key moments. I awkwardly stood damp
beneath the blanket contributing nothing and wishing I could take a
hot shower.

Anna soon returned to grant my wish. I would simply
have to sit through the uncomfortable drive home first. We headed
back outside while the others continued questioning the frightened
cameraman.

Little was said in the car until we’d pulled onto
the smoother roads. Anna glanced at me, forced a smile and then
asked me about my family. I answered with the bare minimum of
information. Eventually she gave up trying. I hoped she’d realize I
was worried and not trying to be rude.

“
Drew is just behind us.” She
gestured to the headlights that had turned onto Eagle Drive. “He’ll
be watching out for you. The others said that if you get in a
pinch, you can use your newest power. It won’t send shockwaves out.
But they would prefer it if you continued to refrain from using the
other.”

I nodded.

“
It will be okay, Aeon,” Anna
assured me even though she didn’t know that. “I’m so sorry that
your visit to us was spoiled. It was nice having you
over.”

“
Thank you. I’d better go in before
my mom wonders.”

I hopped from the car then set the blanket they’d
loaned me down on the seat first. I folded my arms in front of my
chest and hurried to the door.

My mom was watching television in the dark. I took
advantage of the lack of light to sneak through the room toward the
bathroom in the hope she wouldn’t see the state of my skirt.

“
How did it go?”

“
It was good,” I lied. “Until I
stupidly lost my balance and fell off their lake-side dock into the
water.”

“
Oh no! You’re all
right?”

“
Yeah, I’m fine. I’m just going to
take a shower to warm up.”

“
Okay.”

I stripped the tattered skirt and muddy shirt off,
started the water then stepped beneath it. Though the shower was
steamy I continued to shiver. Rinsing my hair several times kept my
mind occupied but it didn’t last for long.

“
So…” Mom prompted from the door of
my room minutes later.

I rubbed the moisture from my hair with a towel. “He
has a huge family, a massive house that you’d love and his little
sister is adorable. Other than that, there isn’t much to tell.”

“
What do his parents do for a
living?”

Every question she could think of was answered to
the best of my knowledge without letting on that anything bad had
happened. In the end I told her I thought I’d caught a cold because
of falling into the water. She let me call it an early night
without rehashing the entire visit down to the second.

I couldn’t seem to get warm. After doubling up on
socks, pulling a sweater on and fetching the afghan from the other
room I managed to get my shivers down to a mere chill. I considered
taking aspirin for a possible fever but knew a cold wasn’t my
problem.

My problem was that I’d assisted in killing a living
creature. I’d used the power my father had given me to
destroy
something instead of to protect.

Yes, it had been trying to harm us, but surely there
was something we could have done to stop it that didn’t involve
death. And such a horrible way to go—frozen in time and set
aflame.

I
was
an abomination.

* * * *

The car at the end
of the street had a familiar looking black-haired male in it,
Aaron, Alex’s youngest uncle. I puffed out my breath, stepped onto
the sidewalk to the right and then started for school. Two days had
passed without news from the Chattan family. It was Thursday, my
day off from work. Less than a week had passed since I’d gone on
the photography trip downtown with Alex.

He was my every worry now. I resisted the urge to
demand my stalker tell me what was going on for the thousandth
time. But with Guy recording my every word, it would be impossible
to explain why a member of the Chattan family was casing my
house.

I went through the motions in my classes. At lunch
my friends sent me retreating to my tree when the inevitable
question of where my boyfriend was came up. I stepped into the
photography studio in dismay upon finding it empty of shining
faces.

Alex had become an integral part of my life in a
frighteningly short span of time. Now that part was gone and I
missed it terribly.

I walked to the library downtown with my head
hanging after a lonely gym class. Thursday was nearly over and
still I knew nothing about Alex’s health. No news was
not
good news. There was little doubt that the Chattan family would see
no need to tell me if something had happened to their youngest
son.

The thought of him becoming like that thing that had
attacked us made me ill enough that I raced to the bathroom in the
county library and didn’t emerge until everything I’d eaten, what
little it was, was purged from my system.

I walked to Eagle Drive with a stapled paper in my
backpack and little memory of what I’d put on that paper. It was
the poorest work I’d done in my entire high school career. There’d
be no way I could explain my way to a make-up assignment without
making myself seem crazy. But right then I didn’t care about
grades, college or my future.

All I cared about was whether I’d ever see Alex
Chattan again.

CHAPTER
NINETEEN

“
I’m going to ace
this test. What about you? Aeon? Aeon!”

A hand shoved at my shoulder with a quick jab. I
forced myself to look over at the person who had hit me. Ashley
frowned at me as usual. She stood surrounded by her posse of
friends outside the chemistry room.

“
Huh?”

“
The chemistry test today?” Ash’s
tone soured. “Did you study?”

“
Oh.” I answered robotically.
“No.”

I’d forgotten there was a test this morning.
Ordinarily that would have made my stomach flip but today I
couldn’t muster the energy to care. Tests meant little in the grand
scheme of things.

Ashley snorted in disgust. “I hope you know this
stuff already, cuz I hear the first test is a killer.”

“
I heard that too,” Jenny said with
a comically sober nod of her head and gravely widened eyes. “That’s
why I took biology two instead.”

Melissa leaned over, speaking near my ear so that
the others wouldn’t hear. “Are you still sick?”

“
Yes,” I lied through my
teeth.

My chills had subsided over night and by Tuesday I’d
been back to normal. But the guilt and concern had me in a
different kind of sick state.

She gave me a sympathetic smile I thought she
actually meant. “I’m sorry. I hope you feel better for the
weekend.”

“
Me too.”

But I wasn’t sure I’d ever feel better again.

I heard Ashley’s sound of surprise but thought
nothing of it until the others made similar noises. It occurred to
me that a normal person would look up as well but I didn’t care if
I appeared normal anymore. I certainly didn’t care about whatever
it was that interested them so much.

I folded my arms in front of me petulantly as I
scowled at the floor.

Why did I even need to be here? I hadn’t learned
anything useful in days and all I was doing in my art classes was
ruining perfectly good paper with awful sketches and photos.

A pair of black-clad legs appeared a few feet in
front of me. I cautiously lifted my eyes. My gasp was loud enough
that the discussion inside the chemistry room behind me came to a
halt. If that hadn’t gotten their attention my cry would have
certainly done the trick.

“
Alex!” I launched myself into his
waiting arms and kissed him without a thought to who might be
watching. “I was so worried. Are you okay?”

He kissed me twice more before answering in code.
“Yes. My fever broke early this morning. The doctor gave me a clean
bill of health a half hour ago. I raced in as soon as I could.”

My friends reluctantly left us alone to head to
their classes. I clung to him even though I knew he had to leave
too.

“
I would have called you.” Alex
looked into my eyes with a lovely earnest expression. “I wanted to
so badly. But I didn’t know your phone number. We tried to get the
information out of the cameraman but he was useless.”

How had I’d neglected to give it to him? What kind
of girlfriend was I?

“
I’ll give it to you in history,” I
said, blushing furiously.

He gave me a little push toward the door. “You
better go study.”

“
You heard that?”

“
Yeah.” Alex chuckled. It was so
nice to hear that sound again that I almost forgot I was going to
fail a test in a few minutes. “Go on, I’ll see you next period.
Good luck.”

My lips turned down because he was leaving me.
“Thanks.”

He kissed my frown a last time then walked down the
hall in the direction the others had gone. I rushed to my seat,
yanked open the textbook and studied like mad until the test was in
my hand. Now that I knew Alex was well, the prospect of flunking
one of the few tests we’d have in chemistry worried me more than a
little.

When I left the room my mood was a mix between
dismay at no doubt bombing the test and anticipation.

Alex wasn’t sick. He was back and I couldn’t wait to
see him again.

* * * *

I hurried through the hallway with my bag barely
on my shoulder. I broke into a run when I spotted him heading
toward me. Alex was laughing when we reached each other. I threw my
arms around him for a hug that lasted several seconds.

It was lovely to feel his arms squeezing me and have
his warmth around me. I had been so worried for him. And I’d missed
him dearly.

But I owed him one thing. I tugged my arm back then
punched him in the arm.

“
That was for laughing at me,” I
grumbled near his ear. “And for not sending so much as a note. You
have a hundred family members. One of them could have dropped word
off.”

“
I’m sorry, Aeon.” He squeezed my
sides tightly. “I spent most of the time ranting and railing at
them to let me leave. I thought you’d prefer to see me in person
than read my chicken scratch.”

“
Anything from you would have been
better than nothing.” I softened my hard-edged eyes. “But you’re
here now.”

He pulled back for a look at my face. “I’ll find
some way to make it up to you.”

My lips spread wide until my cheeks ached from
it.

“
Come on, we’ll be late,” he
said.

We left Guy in the hallway behind us while Peter
followed into history class. The highlight of the forty-minute
period was handing in that week’s paper. Briefly I considered
hanging onto it and asking for an extension. But with one paper due
a week, I could probably afford to have at least one awful
assignment.

Reluctantly Alex left me for his next two classes
but vowed to meet me for lunch at the tree. I gnawed on my
fingernails impatiently through the two hours, barely listening to
what was said. Dimly I recognized that an assignment was being
given moments before the bell rang. I hastily scribbled it down in
my notebook, saw the face at the door and shot up. It was a nice
surprise to see Alex there when we’d agreed to meet outside.

The amused smile on his face was more adorable than
the little chuckle he gave. “I’m getting the impression that you
might have missed me a little.”

“
You have
no
idea,” I said
with a dramatic widening of my eyes.

“
It’s nice to be missed. But not
nearly as nice as not having to be missed.” He leaned forward to
whisper in my ear. “Think we can ditch these guys?”

I nodded eagerly and followed him as we darted
through the crowd. Try as we might, one of the cameramen kept up
with our steps at every turn. We gave up after our third attempt
failed and eventually went outside. Beneath the tree Alex adjusted
our poses until my head rested against his shoulder and his arm was
curled around me. The air was chilly but I was warm with him.

“
Are you free after work
tomorrow?”