Enigma (28 page)

“Kate, your brother is on the phone.”

Thinking about Brett made me smile.

“Put him through to me, Tobias. Thank you.”

I hadn’t spoken to Brett in days. Now I had the perfect opportunity to say a secret goodbye to him. It could potentially be a last time I ever spoke to him.

My hands began to shake, but I had to pull myself together; if anyone could suspect something was wrong, it would be Brett. Picking up the phone, I took a deep breath, fighting back tears.

“Hey, Brett—”

“Finally! I’ve been calling you all week. Where have you been?”

“I’ve been spending a lot of time at Jack’s house, that’s all. How are you?”

“I’m doing good. I hope to be home real soon.”

“That’s fantastic! I’m so proud of you, Brett. I knew you could do it!” I gushed, forcing my tears to stay put.

“If it wasn’t for you, I might be dead right now. You saved my life, Kate.”

“Don’t be ridiculous,” I said softly.

“I owe you my life. Kate? Are you still there?” he asked quietly.

A few tears escaped. “Yeah, I’m still here.”

“Are you crying?”

“Only because I’m so proud of you. I love you so much.”

“I can’t wait to see you. I want to meet this guy who seems to have your undivided attention.” There was a brief pause and then he said, “I have to go. I love you too. I’ll see you soon.”

After hanging up the phone, I lay on my bed and sobbed into my pillow. I didn’t know if I was crying because I felt guilty for getting so close to kissing Seb again, or if I was crying over Jonathan’s untimely death. I could have also been crying over Brett coming home and the fact that I might not be there to welcome him. Was I crying because we had lost hope of the adrenalization? I was so confused and there was so much to cry about, but I had to snap out of this depressive state; I had to be positive.

With the last of my energy, I reached for a tissue on my bedside table but before I could grab one, Seb passed me the box, startling me. I took a tissue and mopped up my tears.

“I had to come and see if you were okay.” He sat on the edge of my bed.

“Well, I think you’ve got your answer,” I said, blowing my nose.

He took my hand and our fingers entwined as our eyes met. He spoke to me with guilt all over his beautiful face.

“Kate, I want to comfort you.” Seb moved closer to me. “I want to kiss you.”

“Seb, you just lost your dad. Do you want to lose your brother too?”

“Let me kiss you,” he said.

I wanted him to kiss me more than anything.

“Seb, we can’t. What about Jack?” I was weakening. “This could kill Jack and we’re so close to finding an answer to our problem.”

“I don’t care anymore. I need to kiss you. If I die never having kissed you I will have never truly lived.” He wrapped his arms around my waist.

“This could jeopardize everything,” I whispered.

“We don’t have anything to lose anymore.”

I felt his breath brush across my mouth and could no longer resist him. Our eyes locked, and before our lips touched, there was an undeniable chemistry between us. Seb gently tucked my hair behind my ears and, cupping my face in his hands, he leaned into me. His lips touched mine and I lost myself in the moment. Kissing Seb felt amazing.

He slowly released his lips from mine and I sat on my bed with my eyes still closed, absorbing every detail of that moment in order to lock it away in my heart forever. Seb then ran his finger down my face and I opened my eyes. I pulled him down on my bed, wrapping my legs around him, and he firmly gripped my waist. We kissed again and began removing each other’s clothes before Seb pulled away from me.

“We can’t do this. It was just supposed to be a kiss,” Seb weakly protested.

“I want you to make love to me,” I said, sitting up.

“This was supposed to be about a kiss—just a kiss, Kate.”

“Whatever we do, we’ve already betrayed Jack in the worst possible way. Neither of us can take it back.” I wanted him so badly, but then Seb’s expression changed. “What’s wrong?” I asked.

“Shh! Listen!” Seb said, while looking out of my window.

“I can’t hear anything,” I replied.

“It’s Jack. He’s yelling out in pain!” Seb looked horrified.

“It must be because of us.” I felt sick with guilt.

Seb turned to me and held my shoulders. “Whatever you do, deny this or he’ll be dead by the morning. You have to deny it. Tell a thousand lies if you have to, for Jack’s sake. I have to go. Don’t follow me or he’ll know we’ve been together. Wait for one of us to contact you.” He buttoned up his shirt.

“How will I know if he’s okay? How will I know if you’re okay?” I asked, panicking.

“I’ll be back early in the morning. If I am not here by eight—”

“Don’t say it!”

Seb jumped off my balcony and was gone.

The curse was underway and there was no stopping it. Seb wanted me and I wanted him; we could no longer resist each other.

As promised, Seb returned the next morning. Jack had been in pain all night and it had left him weak. Seb was plagued with guilt and we swore that we wouldn’t allow ourselves to be intimate in any way until after the curse was broken—if there was still a chance.

I
n the days that followed, I tried to stay away from Jack’s house, but we had to bury Jonathan, and I had to support Jack. I felt guilty, but I wasn’t the only one. Lindsey was blaming herself, justifying her blame on the fact that she’d forced Jonathan to adrenalize me, inducing stress and the heart attack.

I didn’t disagree that stress had contributed to his death, but everyone had to take blame for their part, including Jonathan. He’d kept such huge secrets for so long, that he must have felt like a ticking time bomb for most of his life, never knowing when something or someone would expose them. Everyone felt responsible and guilty in some way or another, but we all had to try to move forward.

T
he day of the funeral arrived and everyone was dreading it. Lindsey looked terrible; she had lost weight and seemed to have aged dramatically over the last few days. Jack was exhausted, physically and mentally, and Seb kept up his pretense. I was sad, but didn’t know Jonathan very well. Then again, did anyone really know him?

The service was small and quick. There was nobody else at the funeral except us and Ethan, who had felt compelled to come. As Jonathan was lowered into his grave, Lindsey broke down. Seb held his mother, trying to be strong for her, while Jack stood by her side. Ethan and I stood opposite them, he was distant and showed little compassion, which I thought was a little heartless.

As we looked at Lindsey and her sons, something flickered behind them. Ethan looked at me, and we waited to see if the flicker would reappear. Sure enough, it did. We turned our backs to the others.

“Did you see that, Ethan?” I whispered.

“Yeah.”

“What was it?” I asked, knowing that he would’ve seen the image much clearer than me.

“It was definitely a person, a man,” Ethan said.

“A man? How would he be able to move that fast?” I asked feeling confused.

“It must be someone like me, you know, like Jack and Seb.”

“Who, though?” I asked.

“I don’t know. I only saw the back of his head. He was remarkably fast.”

We both turned around slowly, not wanting to create suspicion.

“Could it be—”

“Kate, we’re leaving,” Jack said.

I nodded at him. Ethan followed suit, watching over this shoulder, waiting for the stranger to return, but he didn’t.

There was only one other person we knew who’d be able to move so fast, and that was Marcus. Maybe he’d come to pay his respects to his best friend, but how would he have known that Jonathan was dead?

When we arrived back at Jack’s house for the wake, Lindsey fled to her bedroom. Ethan said that he was going to leave and give us all some space, but I guessed he was going back to where we had seen this mystery man. He gave me a look that confirmed my suspicion.

Jack took a cup of coffee upstairs to Lindsey. With him out of the room, Seb got up and walked over to me, stopping only a couple of inches away. He looked serious, but his face was soft. He moved closer and I gripped the countertop as he spoke to me.

“I think it’s best that I go to France for a while. It’s only a matter of time before Jack finds out about us if I stay. Look at him; he’s dying from the inside out already.”

“You can’t leave me. I need you. I can’t get through this without you,” I whispered.

“Our feelings for each other could kill Jack. I don’t want to kill my brother; he’s my best friend.”

“As selfish as I sound, I need you. Jack needs you too. Your dad has given us instructions; we can still go ahead with the adrenalization. Please wait a few more days.”

“What instructions?” he asked.

“I’ll explain later.”

“No need. I hear him. Jack’s in the lab. Let’s go,” Seb said.

We headed down to the basement. The door was open and we let ourselves into the lab. Just as Seb had said, Jack was there, surrounded by beakers containing the colored liquids. A large, dusty book was in his lap. Seb closed the door behind us.

“Jack, what are you doing?”

He was engrossed in the book and held it up for us to see. I sat on the floor, surrounded by the beakers.

“I found it,” he said.

“Found what?” I asked.

“This is it, Kate. This is the box Jonathan told us about at the hospital before he died. These books were inside; they’re what we need to help us!”

“Jack, you need time to grieve for your dad. Let’s do this in a few days.”

“That man was never my dad, and we don’t have a few days, Kate. This pain is excruciating and soon, it’ll kill me.”

We agreed to wait until after the funeral before we discussed the adrenalization again, but I should’ve known that the second it was over, Jack would be looking for answers.

He opened the book to the front page for me to read:

Jonathan,

This is for my boys; it may help them with their lives. My experiences I’m sure, will one day be theirs.

Marcus

I sat open-mouthed and Jack had a huge smile on his face; his biological father had left his sons a legacy. I just hoped that it would contain the answers we needed: an explanation about how to break the curse.

“This book makes me feel kind of normal in a weird way. Look at page three,” Jack said. He was more excited than I had seen him in weeks.

I turned to page three:

Boys, this is your father and this book will help you. Always remember that you are both incredibly special. Use your powers wisely, only with good intentions. Do not expose yourself to anyone until you find that special person you want to spend the rest of your life with. If they truly love you, they will accept you for who you are.

My powers consist of:

Unnatural strength and power

Incredible and lasting energy

Incredible speed and agility

Moving objects with my mind

Spectacularly increased vision and night vision

Enhanced hearing for up to a mile

Ability to heal rapidly

Ability to curse by staring at someone—do not ever curse!

I stopped reading and looked over at Jack. He urged me to continue.

Never curse! It is an evil power! Beware of your eye color. The only time your eyes will be a deep purple color is when you are enraged. Do not look at anyone when your eyes are this color. It is dangerous. A curse cannot be broken unless there are only adrenalized people involved. A curse will prevail with any human involvement. Do not curse!

I stopped reading. Jack looked at me, smiling.

“Mom was right, Kate. If we adrenalize you, the curse will be broken and we can lead a normal life together, forever!”

“Jack, we don’t know what to do,” I said.

“Yes we do. It’s all here. Your positivity has paid off.”

Jack pointed at the dusty book and then sprung in to action. He held up a small beaker that held white serum and smiled widely. Next, he placed a beaker with a purple liquid in front of him. He pulled out a smaller book from the wooden box, which was even more ragged and dusty than the first, and handed it to me. I blew the dust off and Seb watched over my shoulder as I flipped through the pages. The book contained every ingredient used for adrenalization and instructions on how to administer it. There were also detailed diagrams.