Secrets Abound (Supernaturally Bound Book 1) (24 page)

“Did you bring it?” Nathaniel asked.

I lifted a brow. “Of course, I brought it. I haven’t left this thing alone since he took my foster sister for a test drive.”

“Follow me.” He ordered.

He led me up a flight of stairs and through a long winded hallway until we finally came upon a large room. A cold chill ran up my spine as I entered the dark room. Pentagrams and other symbols were drawn in chalk on the walls. Unlit candles covered the ground. In the middle of the room, on the floor, a large circle was drawn with a squiggly X in the center. Words from another language were written in each section that the X had marked off. Nathaniel began strategically placing candles along the outline of the circle.

“Set the ring in the center of the X.” He ordered.

I removed the necklace and placed it where he said to. I took a step back, not wanting to be any closer than was necessary. Nathaniel snapped his fingers and the candles lit up, instantly. I was awed by the show of power. It was one thing to be told he was a sorcerer and another to see it in action. I gasped aloud as the ring began to float. Nathaniel started muttering incantations that seemed to agitate the ring. It vibrated and twisted, wrapping itself within the necklace until it released a burst of energy that disintegrated the chain.

A shadow appeared within the circle. It was shaped like a man, and I knew it was Jeremiah. A lump formed in the back of my throat as his figure gradually grew more solid. My heart was painful as it banged against my ribcage. Fully formed, Jeremiah’s eyes found mine and a wicked grin spread across his face. He attempted to take a step toward me but was stopped at the edge of the circle. He couldn’t get out. His eyes shifted into rage as they snapped to his brother. Nathaniel did not let it affect him. He continued with his spell.

“Do you honestly believe you are powerful enough to pull this off, brother?” Jeremiah’s tone was condescending. “You
are
without a coven, after all.”

Nathaniel was in his own zone as he continued with his whispered incantations. His concentration did not falter one bit. He was unaffected by the insults. I, on the other hand, was becoming increasingly terrified. What if this didn’t work? Jeremiah was sure to slaughter us both. As if he could sense my doubt, Jeremiah’s eyes found mine, again.

“This won’t work. If you stop this now, I will hold true to our deal. Find me a host by tomorrow, and I won’t kill you.” He offered.

I shook my head. My hands trembled under his fierce glare. He opened his mouth and let out a hissing noise. His sharp teeth seemed to grow an inch. My stomach rolled in fear. His furious hissing turned into screams of pain as Nathaniel’s words grew fast and loud. The outline on the floor glowed a crimson red that flashed brightly. I protected my eyes with my arm until the light vanished. I dared a peek and saw that Jeremiah was gone and the ring now lay motionless on the floor.

“Did it work?” I asked Nathaniel.

“Yes.” He grinned in relief.

I slowly stepped over to the circle. The candles had gone out and the ring lay dead in the center. I hesitantly reached out and grabbed the ring. I offered it back to Nathaniel.

“This belongs to you.” I smiled.

“No, you bought it. It’s technically yours. Besides, you deserve to keep it. Sell it, do whatever you want with it. It holds only terrible memories for me, now.” He declared. I tucked it into my pocket before calling Chad to come get me.

I didn’t have a restful sleep that night. Jeremiah haunted my first dream. His evil face would appear and disappear, leaving behind that hissing sound that disturbed me to the core. After waking up at midnight and getting a drink of water, my dreams finally switched stations. This one started out sweet. Eli was playing his guitar for me and singing softly. Then, we were in his car on a deserted road, and we were accelerating at an amazing speed. There were a few other cars next to us, inching their way trying to get ahead, but we were clearly going to win whatever race we were in.

By the time I woke up the next morning, my dreams were hazy, and I could only remember bits and pieces. The only part I remembered clearly was being with Eli. Thinking about Eli made me wish it was three o’clock. He was going to pick me up from school today so we could hang out. But unfortunately, it was only seven, so I’d have to keep myself distracted until then.

Things seemed to be going smoothly with Aiden. We walked to school together. He talked about a book he’d just read, and I told him about more annoying things my foster parents did. We talked about everything except for Eli. I just avoided bringing him up. Aiden asked me if we were going to study after school. I told him I had plans, but I didn’t go into detail. He knew that they were with Eli, so he dropped it.

“So, do you have any spring break plans?” I asked Aiden.

“Not particularly. What about you?” He asked.

“Cassie and I are getting a hotel room in Lincoln. A lot of booze and dancing, all the usual spring break activities.”

“Oh, so you guys made plans without me, huh?” He cocked a brow at me.

“No, you can come, but you have to play nice.” I told him firmly reminding him of our deal.

I didn’t know how confident I actually was with his ability to get along with Eli, but I had deep hope that he could. Fantasy though it may be, it would be wonderful to hang out with both of them without World War III breaking out.

“What are you talking about? I’m always nice.” He smirked.

As we waltzed up to the school, we saw that everyone was crowded around outside, watching something. We couldn’t tell what it was at first, but once we got close enough, we saw Mr. Reynolds dancing to music someone was playing on their phone. And that wasn’t even the weird part. He had his tie on his head, and he wasn’t wearing any pants. He spun on his head and did a few other breakdance moves that I hadn’t a clue he could do. Then, Mrs. Conner sashayed up beside him and belted the last note of the song that was playing. All the students were amused by this random display. If I wasn’t so stunned, I’d be laughing right along with them.

“What’s going on?” I asked Cassie when she strolled up to us.

“Someone sent marijuana muffins to the teachers’ lounge, and now all the teachers are high.” She laughed. Someone probably wanted to outdo our prank. Well, they’d have to do better than
this
.

“Do they know who did it?” I asked.

“Not a clue, but whoever it was, they are my new hero.” She said. Right then, Principal Heckler stepped outside.

“Can I have everyone’s attention, please?” He said sternly. “School is cancelled for today since all of the teachers have to be taken to the hospital. We
will
find out who did this, and they will be
severely
punished.”

“No school?” We heard someone say joyfully behind us. I was gleeful, myself. No school meant I could hang out with Eli all day. Today was the first day of his school’s spring break. They used some excuse about extra bad weather days, but everyone knew it was because the headmaster was going to Hawaii early, so they were getting a week and a half of spring break. They were so lucky.

“You want to get breakfast?” Aiden asked.

I knew I would have some time to kill before Eli could drive here, so I agreed, and we headed to the diner. I texted Eli on the way and told him about the school being closed. He said he’d pick me up in a couple of hours, and I felt my chest lighten in delight.

“You already have plans for the rest of the day?” Aiden asked, noticing my texting.

“Yeah, I’d invite you, but it’s sort of a date thing.” I told him.

“Oh.” Aiden stared down at the menu. I felt guilty for ditching him, but it would be too awkward to drag him along on our date.

“Okay, so Friday we are going out dancing and getting hotel rooms in Lincoln. Did you still want to come with us?” I asked trying to change the subject.

“Sure.” He said. We finished our breakfast and went back home. I almost forgot Aiden had a truck since he apparently preferred walking.

I decided I wanted to change into a cuter outfit for my date. Before I got dressed, I stood in front of the mirror pulling down the side of my underwear. The black mark was still there, but now it was longer. When I first noticed it, it was tiny enough that my underwear covered it up, but now it stuck out above my panty line. It was a line that now started to curve at the end. It was certainly bizarre, but I didn’t have the time to worry over what it was. Eli would be here soon, and I wasn’t even dressed. I tugged a black sweater dress over my head and slipped a pair of black boots on. I was curling the last of my hair when Eli texted me that he was here. I had told him to wait out front so that Judy wouldn’t see him.

“What are we doing today?” I asked him as I slid into his car.

“Well, the original plan doesn’t start until later, so I figured we could wing it until then.” He smiled.

“Okay, so where do you want to go?” I asked, not caring one way or the other, simply wanting to spend time with him.

“My parents won’t be back until late, so we could hang out at my house.” He offered.

“Okay.” I said with apprehension.

I wasn’t sure being alone with Eli at his house was the best idea. I mean, it’s not that I didn’t trust him. It was more that I didn’t trust myself. My self-control seemed to be dwindling lately, and I had made the decision to wait to go further with Eli than we already had. I found myself rethinking my decision to wear a dress today, but it was too late, now.

I pushed my unnecessary worry out of my thoughts and focused on my earlier excitement. I’d had so much stress lately that I wanted one day of not thinking about ghosts, prophetic dreams, or how the likelihood that I was losing my mind was strong.
No
, today was completely, one hundred percent about having fun.

We drove up in front of a huge house that was bordering on the size of a mansion, but not quite. The yard was impressively decorated. It was obvious they had a full time gardener to keep up the maintenance of it. If this was where Eli lived, he had to think my crappy house was a shack.
No, Bridget, don’t put thoughts in his head. You have no idea what he is actually thinking.

I suppressed the urge to make a snide remark about the excessive size of his house. I mean, do three people honestly need that much space? But I kept it to myself. When I agreed to go out with him, I knew what I was getting into.
And so did he,
I reminded myself. Making a conscious decision to move past any rich boy hang ups I had, I stepped out of the car and waited for Eli to join me.

He placed his hand on the small of my back, leading me up the steps and through the front door. Inside was equally as impressive as the outside. The entranceway had exquisitely designed marble floors. I followed Eli around the corner to a large mahogany staircase.

“My room is upstairs.” He said, but I guess my expression grew weary because he threw his hands in the air and quickly added, “No funny business, scout’s honor.” He added a wink at the last part and took my hand. I laughed and let him pull me alongside him up the stairs. I had to admit, I was curious to see what his room looked like.

We stepped into a room that was definitely bigger than my bedroom, but nowhere near as large as I had pictured it to be. There was a full size bed in the far left corner with a side table next to it. A chest of drawers was up against the right wall with an entertainment center next to it. It was open, and inside, I could see an expensive stereo system and what had to have been a couple hundred CDs.

Near his closet door, he had an acoustic guitar and an electric guitar on stands. An amp was plugged into an outlet behind them. There were two green, bean bag chairs on the floor on either side of the guitars. The walls had a few posters of underground bands I hadn’t heard of. There was a guitar case propped against his bed that had a sticker on it. I brushed my fingers across the lime green letters that read “The Imposters”.

“Is there a meaning behind the name ‘The Imposters’?” I asked.

“Not really. We just thought it sounded cool.” He shrugged.

“Do I have to wait until next week to hear you play?” I asked.

“If you want me to play for you, you just have to ask.” He nudged my arm.

“Okay, then. Will you play something for me?” I plopped down into one of the bean bag chairs.

It was more comfortable than it had appeared. He sat down on the other one and grabbed the acoustic guitar from its stand. He removed a pick from behind the strings on the neck and began strumming. I was hypnotized by the rhythmic tune. He smiled at whatever expression my face was showing. Slightly embarrassed, I smiled back but continued to stare at his fingers as they formed the different shapes creating the notes.

“Don’t think I forgot you’re also the singer of the band. Sing me something.” I commanded with a smile, letting the music he was creating wash over me.

He gave me a lopsided grin. “So demanding. Okay, fine.” He started with a low hum but soon began singing a song about living life to the fullest and so on.

His voice had a smoky tone to it that made my insides shiver. I felt myself becoming entranced in it. I didn’t think it was possible, but he became even more attractive with the guitar in his hands. I suddenly felt the urge to run over and kiss him. Well, that and other things. I was surprised by the effect it was having on me, but then again, everything seemed to be making me want to have sex, lately. As the song came to an end, I felt disappointment swell up inside me.