When Lightning Strikes (Lightning Series Book 1) (18 page)

Her shivering stopped as she balled up her hands in anger. The sparkle of sunlight on the water caught her attention, and she felt herself drifting away. She struggled to stay focused, trying to calm her rising panic. She did not want to forget again.

She took a deep breath, as if she were about to start dancing, and felt her mind snap back. A jolt went through her body, and she was instantly warmer. Her muscles awakened like they did when she danced. She unclenched her jaw. What was their deal anyway?

It looked like she was on her own. Julie looked back at the water, debating about swimming, and then back down the beach to where the other kids were. It was weird to be over here by herself while they all snubbed her down there. She shouldn’t let them scare her off, but she felt tired from everything. She didn’t want to go home yet, but she didn’t want to stay here with them either.

With a sigh, she peeled off her wet clothes and went to her bag to dry off with her towel. She stuffed her clothes in her bag. She definitely wasn’t going to ask to borrow anyone’s clothes since they didn’t even thank her after saving their friend’s life. She would have to ride her moped home in her swimsuit.

Any lingering ideas about kissing Rory left her as she thought about what asses he and his friends were. What the hell had she been thinking?

With one last glance down the beach at everyone babying Rory, Julie stalked away in her bathing suit and flip flops, knees in the wind and her towel flapping around her waist. At the top of the ridge she looked down again, unable to help herself, looking for Rory.

She didn’t see him. He was sitting down on a towel or something. As she started to turn her eyes back to the path she noticed that one girl stood apart from the rest. Her brown hair whipped around her perfectly proportioned body, reminding her of Kara. It could only be Melissande.

And she was staring right back.

Julie couldn’t see her expression, but something about Melissande’s rigid stance warned her that it wasn’t good. Wonderful. For some reason, saving Rory had made her an enemy.

She shouldn’t have bothered.

She got back to her moped, mad at herself. She couldn’t stop thinking about him and his stormy gray eyes. She wanted to puke. The reaction she had to him must have been another side effect of whatever was going on. How could she have had those feelings for someone she didn’t like?

But even more strange, something about Rory made her think of the vivid blue eyes from her dreams. It was like she is being tugged between them.

Julie needed to find something else to focus on. Going back to her empty house with only her thoughts seems like a bad idea. Thinking about Rory would drive her crazy. If she wasn’t already.

The day was sunny, so she drove around the entire island, where the community gates didn’t stop her. She stopped and took notes as she went, trying to figure out if she was over thinking something or if it was truly odd.

The town itself, the parks, the perfection of all the gardens…it was all peculiar. She never saw anyone actually gardening, but there were never any weeds. Even in the parts that looked wild, it was as if someone designed nature. There was no other way to put it. The woods were a stylized ideal of what nature should be. Wild flowers and trees grew in vignettes that were too perfect for sheer luck. Every place she looked was beautiful. It was like walking around in a dream. No one littered here. For that matter—where were all the trash cans?

The effect of the perfect gardens was unreal, like she was living on a stage. It was also distracting, taking her thoughts away from what might be lurking underneath.

It was a perfect trap. Add that to the memory loss and strong emotions, and Julie knew why she was complacent for so long.

It would have been terrible if she had grown up here like Kara and the others. Anger burned beneath her skin, but she tempered it now, stoking it to just below the tipping point, but keeping a calm veneer over her face. If she felt like she might slip under the peaceful spell, she pulled up her dancing mind, taking comfort in the prickling currents she felt throughout her body which prevented more memory loss.

She wouldn’t forget. She was mastering whatever this was.

Julie leaned against a tree in the island’s main park with the red notebook propped on her knees, watching the people in the town. How they all dressed nicely, with no jeans or t–shirts in sight. The building across from the coffee shop where people came and went but there were no stores. The traffic over the bridge—which was very little. The same damn people who watched her on the bridge earlier, still watching the bridge.

There was something very wrong about this place. She shivered.

They were all so formal for living in a beach town, like it was necessary for them to impress each other. Was everyone here a prisoner and being controlled, except for a few people? Why only them? Or was everyone but a few people happy here and helping to keep the rest under control?

She wasn’t entirely sure how many people lived on the island, but it had to be several thousand. Each neighborhood had ten to twenty homes, and they lined up and down the island, which stretched twenty miles or more. Or at least she thought it did. Some places, like the middle, were thinner than others, so the neighborhoods might be smaller.

Julie still wore her towel wrapped around her waist and her bathing suit top. This was a beach town, and she refused to feel underdressed. She would not live by any more of these stupid rules. She wanted to see what they did if she start walking around in her jeans.

Who was she kidding? She had no idea what was going on. She might be angry, but she didn’t need to push it. What would happen if they all realized she wasn’t under their spell anymore? Julie rubbed her forehead. She felt a headache coming.

She looked down at her notes. On one page she listed what emotions she knew caused memory issues.

Anger. Sadness. Frustration.

She remembered being happy and the moments around it a few times since she arrived. Dancing with Muriel.

So happiness was allowed. Which explained a lot. Her mouth screwed up into a bitter knot. She was allowed to think and feel happy thoughts. Happy, harmless, mindless thoughts.

Julie sighed. She was not going to work this out today. She needed to know more.

The sun was starting to set. The vivid oranges and purples contrasted the bright blue of the daytime sky. At least the sunset was real.

She stared at the sky for a while, letting her mind wander free since she was starting to suspect that she might be a prisoner on the island. Prisoners should fight their prison, even if it was a breathtakingly beautiful gilded cage, padded with something to keep bad emotions away.

She had to go home.

It was weird to dread that thought. To dread being around the people who were the most important in her life: her mom, her dad, and Jamie. They were a part of all this.

They were all liars.

She slammed her book closed. Getting to her feet, she trekked across the park to her moped. The small pink motorized bike was shiny and new. It allowed her to roam the island. But the illusion of it being a nice birthday present—something to give her more freedom—was gone. Now she understood why she didn’t have a car. She wasn’t allowed to leave.

Julie got home a couple hours after the beach incident. She was surprised that Andromeda was already back, but even more that Lir’s car was there too, along with a silver Mercedes she didn’t recognize parked in front of their house. It was probably a neighbor’s or something. No one had ever come to visit them except Kara.

She pulled the moped into the gloomy garage. Her shoes clacked against the concrete as she got off the bike and swung the bag over her shoulders.

“There you are! I was starting to worry. You weren’t answering your phone, and it was getting late,” Andromeda said.

“Hey.” Julie wanted to go upstairs and lie down. She’d already had a long, disappointing day and didn’t feel like faking it with her family.

“We have surprise guests for dinner, though they came here to see you.”

Who would be here? Kara was out of town. Darcy and Mandy weren’t coming to visit until the end of the summer. Julie stared at her. She was twisting her wedding ring again, and she didn’t sound too enthusiastic about whoever was there.

Great. What was she in for now?

“Julie, oh no,” Andromeda said as she saw Julie better in the light. “What are you wearing? Did you wear that all day? Just a towel and your swimsuit?”

Julie looked at her, disgusted. She was tired of all this. She pushed past her into the house, more irritated than angry. It was hard to be angry with someone that was so miserable.

“Yes, I did. Okay? Is there a problem with that? This is a beach town. You know—swimsuits and all. It isn’t like I’m running around naked or anything. Though maybe I should run around naked one day. It would be funny to see what all the prissy a–holes around here thought of that.”

Andromeda gasped.

She plopped her bag on the kitchen table. Digging out the wet clothes, she noticed that a lump was in her pants pocket. Her phone.

“I got all my clothes wet diving into the ocean after some stupid kid today and didn’t feel like coming back to change.” She handed over the wet clothes and peeled off her towel to hand over too. “Probably shouldn’t have bothered saving him for all the thanks I got. And look! My phone is dead. So now I don’t even have a phone. Awesome.”

A voice cleared in the living room. “I will be happy to replace the phone for you, Julie. It is Julie, right?”

She turned toward the strange, cultured voice. Her face turned red when she saw it was Marian. Next to her was a tall, handsome man she didn’t recognize, who could only be her husband. Then beyond them, staring intently at her, was Rory. His gray eyes smoldered as he looked her up and down.

Shit.

All thoughts of running around naked were gone. She felt completely naked right now, standing there in her purple bikini. Marian eyed her up and down slowly too, clearly disapproving her lack of clothes.

Julie squared her shoulders. She took a deep breath, bringing on the tingling sensation to try to protect her memory. She was already dealing with enough, and she wasn’t going to let this woman or her idiot son bully her into feeling bad about doing or wearing what she wanted in her home. It wasn’t like she was ashamed of her body—she was a dancer, after all.

“It’s Marian, right? I think we met once before when you were rude at Ariel’s store.”

“Julie!” Andromeda gasped again.

Jamie let out a laugh in the living room. He had to be around the corner in the brown leather chair.

Marian’s eyes narrowed, but she nodded slightly in acknowledgement.

“Hello, I’m Elden, Rory’s father.” He stepped over to her, hesitating a little as he put out a hand out to shake hers. She shook his hand quickly. It was clear he felt uncomfortable with her in a bikini, but he was the type to be overly polite.

Her eyes flickered to Rory, who continued to stare at her behind his parents. His eyes were still looking at every inch of her, like he wanted to touch her instead. It made her uncomfortable. She folded her arms over her chest.

“Hi,” she answered Elden.

“I work with your father. It’s nice to finally meet you. Your brother and I are acquainted already, since he goes to the same school as my son. I guess you know Rory already?”

“Is that his name? I didn’t catch it after I fished him out of the ocean this afternoon. No one cared to tell me or talk to me at all.”

“Julie, I think you better come upstairs and get changed.” Andromeda grabbed her arm and tried to pull her upstairs.

“Why? It’s a bikini. I’m sure they have all seen one before.” She looked away to stare right at Rory. “Get a good enough look yet?”

He blanched white and looked away. She wasn’t sure if she embarrassed him or made him angry. Not that she cared. His mom frowned back at him. Rory and his dad both sat down on the couch. Elden was staring at his son, his mouth an angry slash.

Jamie let out a quick laugh, but she saw him dart an uneasy look at the other boy. Her brother was protective, and she’d put Rory on his radar.

Good. The creep. She should have let him drown.

Her stomach flipped over at the thought, and she tried to convince herself it was out of disgust.

Julie looked back at Andromeda’s face. It was white and drawn. She was scared. Julie gulped, remembering that she was trying to blend in still.

Had she already given herself away by snapping back? What would happen to her now? She had let herself feel tingly all day, like a constant dance meditation, and now she felt wired. Andromeda managed to drag her into the living room before anyone else could say anything.

“Why don’t we all sit back down while Julie gets changed for dinner?” Lir said as they marched up the stairs.

Great, they were planning to stay for a while.

When they got to her room, Andromeda closed the door and looked at her. Julie stood with her back turned, pulling in a few deep breaths. She would not allow these people to make her angry enough to space out.

Breathe.

“What has gotten into you? I have never been so embarrassed.”

“Why do you care? That lady was rude to you in Ariel’s store, so what does it matter? She obviously doesn’t like us. Plus Rory is a jerk. I met him once before, trying to bully Jamie. Today I rescued his idiot butt from the ocean, and he and his friends didn’t even say thanks. I walked away in soaking wet clothes after saving their friend’s life, and it was as if I didn’t exist. Why is that?” The words spilled out of Julie.

“Hush. They might hear you.” A worry line appeared between her eyes.

“So freaking what? Why do we have to be so worried about everyone else around here? In Atlanta it wasn’t like this. You weren’t like this.”

“Calm down, Julie.” She tilted her head to the side, watching Julie’s face.

Was her mom watching to see if she would space out? She was trying to pretend that she still had memory problems, right? She tried to make her gaze become unfocused. She wasn’t good at holding her emotions or words in check. She’d never had to before.