When Lightning Strikes (Lightning Series Book 1) (22 page)

She was now locked in. She gulped.

Julie went down the hallway, testing doors as she went, now trying to find a way out. They were all locked. When she got to the end, she turned right. It was another hallway with more doors. At the end of this one, though, there was a glass door, and on the other side she could see trees and bushes. She hurried past all the other doors, and with a sigh of relief, it opened.

She stopped, and her jaw hung open. She was not outside, but in a giant atrium with full–sized trees and bushes. Delicate vines wound through the treetops, arching over the pathway in sprays of brilliant color. Flowers bloomed along the pathway and throughout the forest floor. She drew in a breath and felt a little thrill at the perfumed air.

Birds rustled about and sang. Way up above, delicate gold columns and trusses broke up the huge expanse of glass. She knew the building was large, but it looked like the entire core was made of this garden. A gray stone path led forward and turned sharply a dozen yards or so down the path. She clicked her mouth shut and took a step.

Why would anyone build such a large garden inside?

Julie followed the stone pathway, noting a few tables, chairs, and loungers tucked into the trees along the way. Each seating area was made of stone that looked like it grew up from the ground. Moss with tiny flowers dotted the base of the chairs and tables. Cushions in bright colors and delicate woven patterns padded the seats. An image came to mind of her and Rory lying in one and staring up at the flowers above.

She plodded along, entranced. This place was unreal. Yet each time she stopped to look at something, it didn’t seem like anything unusual in itself. It was when you stood back and looked at the whole that it was amazing, every inch of the garden arranged to be almost painfully beautiful.

There wasn’t a dead plant or even a stray leaf littering a path anywhere to be seen. It was inhuman. The maintenance and support in this garden had to be unreal—to make sure every flower was perfect and every bush and tree was sculpted to give off an effect from each angle. Had she stepped into another world?

Julie turned the corner, and sunlight streamed down into an amphitheater with flowers and moss breaking up the large circles of stone. It was surrounded on all sides by trees and bushes. If she didn’t see the ceiling above, she would think she was outside in a forest. In the center, several chairs sat on a platform.

Hoping to find another path outside, she edged around the outside. She made her way up, only to find the glass door locked. She pressed her head against the glass, but it was another corridor like the one she had come down.

She started to panic. Everything was so similar. All the pathways wound the same way, with little spots for people to sit in the trees that turned abruptly to expose the amphitheater. She couldn’t be locked into this massive garden, and she didn’t even want to think about what they would do when they found her in here.

She paused before going down another pathway, noting this one was a bit wider than the others. A few yards away, another wider pathway looked like it matched the one she was on.

Julie took a breath and crossed her fingers. This one wove through the trees a bit more. There was more seating areas in the trees as she passed, and she heard water like streams or fountains. She pushed away the longing to explore each area and walked until she found the glass doors.

They were bigger this time. Arched into a point, the wood surrounding the glass was carved into the image of branching tree. The glass was frosted with images of flowers where the wooden limbs broke into the glass. How they had managed to mold glass to fit around all the limbs as one giant sheet was beyond her.

Julie peaked through a clear flower and gasped.

On the other side was the building’s entrance. She could make out the plain glass doors and windows that made up the front of the brick building. She could even see her moped and the coffeehouse across the street down the wide stairway.

Oh thank God.

She wasn’t trapped in this scary paradise. She was just steps away from the normal world. Or at least the world she knew a bit better than this one.

She pushed on the door. It glided open easily, even though the door had to be three times as tall as her and as wide. The door whooshed shut behind her. She turned to see that it was one of three that were evenly spaced along the front. The middle one was even more massive than the one she went through. The trees branches arched all the way up into the wall. Delicately handmade glass flowers were placed along its branches on the light blue wall.

She stood back to look at it. The whole wall was one massive art piece. Each glass flower and petal a perfect masterpiece. She could no longer see the garden on the other side, the vague impression of green through the frosted glass and glimmers form the clear flowers. She stood rooted to the spot, staring at the wall for a few minutes, unable to help herself.

“Miss?”

Julie jumped and turned to see a man in a dark blue uniform walking toward her.

“Miss? Can I help you? Are you here to see someone?”

Her mouth went dry, and she couldn’t find any words. She was caught.

The man came closer, staring at her face intently. “You look like Lir. You must be his daughter. Julie, right?”

Wide–eyed, she stared at the man and nodded. He could tell who she was by looking at her face. Or was he using something else to tell who she was.

“Well, let me call him and let him know you are here. I wish he had told me you were coming to visit today. I like to keep a list of expected visitors. Plus I would have been here when you came in. Can’t just have anyone wandering around in here.” He quirked his head to the side. “Well, go on. Take a seat.”

Julie’s eyes traveled back to the giant flowered wall behind him.

He looked over to where she stared. “Well, you can’t go in there. It’s the town meeting hall. Only for, well…Here.” He took her arm, guided her to one of several seating areas that dotted the lobby, and went to a desk on the other side of long lobby to pick up a phone.

She leaned toward him, but his voice was too low to hear any words. She gripped her legs with her fingers and looked at the lobby doors. He couldn’t catch her if she ran out. But where would she go? She couldn’t escape across the bridge. She tensed up, trying to decide if she should run or stay.

The security guard came back and sat down across from her. She stayed stiff, tucking her hands under her legs so she could clench the seat’s fabric. She couldn’t run away now. She would have to stick this out.

“Julie?” She looked up to see her Dad and Jamie crossing the lobby from a door to the side.

“Dad.” She wanted to scream but managed to say it normally.

“Honey, I wasn’t expecting you to visit today. Did your mom send you?”

Maybe if she acted vague…“I don’t know. I don’t remember.” She tried to look spacey and gripped the couch fabric harder.

Her father stared at her for a moment, looked at the security guard, and shrugged. “Thanks Larynd. I got it from here. Looks like we have a bit of confusion. I’ll take her across the street for breakfast.”

The guard looked between Julie and Lir. She held her breath.

“It’s okay. I understand.” He patted her on the shoulder. “Your dad will help you now.”

Julie clenched her teeth. Anger that they expected her to zone out warred with relief that she was safe. They acted like she was an invalid or something. She knew what she saw on the other side of the doors. Something weird was going on.

“Come on, Julie. Let’s go.”

“Dad, what is she doing here?” Jamie whispered when they got outside.

Lir frowned at her. “I don’t know. Maybe she wanted to see where I worked or something.”

Julie’s fist balled up. Now they were talking about her like she wasn’t even there. Did they still think she was spaced out? Would she normally be spaced out this long?

They hung around long enough to make sure she ate. Then Lir went over quietly to talk to the coffeehouse owner. After they left, Julie pretended to read for a few hours. She had a lot to think about. Even when it got busy, the owner came over to check on her several times.

It was almost noon. She half hoped that if Rory did go to the gym, he didn’t wait. He was so awful when they first met. The second time, when she saved his life, wasn’t any better. Then the same evening when he kissed her, it was more about him testing what was going on to confirm they had some kind of weird attraction to each other. It was clear he didn’t want it though. That he would fight it, if he could. The feelings she had for him couldn’t be real. Hopefully it was late enough that he gave up on her. If he even showed up at all. She wanted to dance.

Julie walked in the gym and locked the door behind her. Rory sat in the bleachers. She plopped her bag down away from where he sat. “Oh, you’re here. Great.”

She dug around in her bag, trying to look busy. She shuddered as she thought about him so near and wanted to run over to kiss him. She also wanted to run away as far and as fast as possible.

Running away was safer, but her body ached to walk toward him.

“I’ve been waiting for a while. Hours.” His face looked stony, and his mouth was in a straight line.

He was obviously not used to waiting for anyone. Well, he could get over that.

“We didn’t exactly make plans or anything. You kind of ran out of here in a hurry yesterday.” She should run right now. She looked back at her bag, trying to break out of whatever kind of spell he had on her. “You said you would see me ‘soon.’ So don’t act like I stood you up or something. You just got up and left yesterday.”

“I had to go home. I will come when I can.” Julie risked a glance at him. His face was still stiff with anger.

No apology or anything for running out after kissing her for hours. He would come when it was convenient to him.

“I wasn’t sure you would be back.” She looked away quickly, shocked that she wanted to tear up now.

She continued to fuss with her bag. He walked over to her and gently pulled her head around to look into his eyes. Where he touched her, pleasant ripples of warmth spread over her skin and down her back.

Julie leaned toward him. All her earlier resolve to tell him to go away was now gone. She wanted more of him. He had made her mind up for her. She couldn’t run away now even if he tried to hurt her; it felt like her legs were bolted to the floor. She started to panic. She would have to remember this.

“I told you I would be back. I don’t think I could stay away, even if I want to.”

So he was as much under a compulsion as she was. How?

“Please stop touching me,” she whispered. “I can’t think straight when you do.”

His face set in hard lines, and he slowly took his hand away as if it took a lot of effort. He struggled with the simple move, trying to listen to what she wanted. She felt cold when his hand left her chin, but she resisted the urge to lean against him.

“I’m sorry. I’ll go. This is a mistake.” He looked at the door.

“No,” she said quickly. Now she couldn’t help herself. “I didn’t mean that. This is kind of fast for me, and I can’t think when you touch me. Can we just not for a little while?”

Rory’s features relaxed some, and he nodded. “Why don’t you dance some? I like to watch you.”

It was kind of creepy, but at least he was trying.

“Sure. Let me go change.”

It was weird having someone who wasn’t a dancer watch her practice. She wasn’t sure why, since she was used to performing on stage.

Julie glanced at him a few times as she danced. His eyes were riveted on her. She blushed, and he smiled when he noticed. He was distracting. She almost felt like they were touching, even though he was sitting across the room on the bleachers. She felt warm all over but also a little queasy. By letting him stay, she had invited him in.

Her body ached for him, even if her mind told her to run. She would end up in his arms today. She shook off her thoughts.

Besides dancing, kissing him was the only relief she had found so far to her constant worrying. She didn’t think about anything else with either activity, and it was a cool balm to the edge of terror she’d started to live with. Distracting herself with him might give her relief from whatever was going on for a few minutes, but it also created whole new problems.

She wasn’t sure about him. She was sure about her dancing.

Ignoring him, Julie closed her eyes and went through a couple of her favorite short recital pieces to give her body a workout of fast and slow moves.

An hour later she opened her eyes again as she finished the last set. She went over to the dance bar and stretched out her muscles to cool them down after the hard workout.

“You are good. Even if you didn’t have my complete attention, I would have trouble taking my eyes off you.”

Julie jumped a little. In her after–dance relaxation, she had almost forgotten that he was there. He was so quiet by the end, and she’d let the dancing take over.

“Um, thanks.” She watched him walk over to her. Her heart sped up the closer he came. Part of her knew he was a big mistake waiting to happen, and part of her didn’t care.

She held up a hand. “No, I’m going to shower first this time.”

“Is that an invitation?” Rory grinned, and she blushed.

“No. You wish. You stay here. Or go…or whatever.” She didn’t want him to go but didn’t want to sound desperate either. She liked having him around and was kind of starting to like his snarkiness. And the fact that he wasn’t so sure about all this too—maybe even a little scared—made her feel better. She wasn’t alone anymore.

“I’m not going anywhere. I can stay out all night tonight if I want. My parents are out of town. You aren’t going to get rid of me that easily.” He grinned again, but he seemed annoyed he felt this way.

“Well I can’t. I guess that puts a limit on things, so let me go change.”

“I’ll wait. I want you, so I’ll wait.”

He wanted her now, but what about tomorrow? She watched him for a moment. He tilted his head to the side, smiling at her, but she could see the slight slant to his eyes that said he was worried.