Siphon (Siphon Chronicles, Book One) Read online

  “Not at the time. Passing through Dallas. Arlington for now.”

  “Call me up. Grab a chick and join us for a game of pool one night. You the Daniel Crawford the council’s in an uproar about?”

  “And?” I straightened defensively.

  “It’s cool and all. You just don’t seem that...evil villainesque as they say.”

  Not since three days ago.

  I smiled in earnest, my cool still held on the face of it. “Thanks for your time.”

  LARK ✜ Physical Science

  I was overly excited to see my archenemy at school. Five more minutes and I would see his bulky all-muscle stride walk in the room. Not that I noticed anything about his stomach muscles through the dark t-shirt the day before. Would he be the arrogant know-it-all or the open and honest real guy I saw yesterday?

  I needed to see Jason and ask questions but fear of him sending Daniel away kept me silent. I wanted to know more about myself and what I was.

  Amber headed off yelling for me to start acting normal again and that Sam already borrowed the new jacket. She’d hinted that I was indifferent to her wardrobe choice and that was unacceptable and that maybe this new guy was good medicine for me or something like that. I only half listened. I had other things on my mind.

  I beat him to second period and sat down at the lab where I was one table behind him. He was paired with Foster. I was paired with Sam, my busybody best friend who thought she was now in charge of my possible love life. Or at least I thought was my best friend. I worried now who the talk around the school was coming from since only she would know some things, i.e. Foster and the past. She was so angry I didn’t show up at the pizza place to meet Foster. I didn't care about that either.

  I haven't daydreamed this much about a guy in so long regardless of whether he was off limits. It was just daydreaming.

  Sam greeted me with a fake kiss in the air as she pulled up next to me. I hurried to look busy before anyone else entered the classroom. Her neon pink nails that blinded everyone in the room matched the gooey substance in the beaker beside us. I wanted to ask the teacher what all this Physical Science class included since all we've seen were “chemistry” experiments so far. I started a search through the index for the strange V word description the beaker had on the side when Sam interrupted my thoughts.

  “Oh, girl. Dish it. I heard that Foster is first in line and the new boy, Dane was closing in.”

  I rolled my eyes. That’s how rumors get started…

  “No on the Foster news. Not gonna happen. As for Daniel, I hate him remember?”

  “Yeah right. I saw you with him. If hate means two inches of distance between you and your worst enemy, I’m a monkey’s uncle. You are so into him.”

  I ignored her naturally.

  “And he is so into you.” My reaction was silent, but her gasp was too delayed to be in response to her own comment.

  My eyes shot up at her mouthy reaction to something I couldn’t see behind me. Was she creating some chemical reaction in the wrong science class? That about describes Sam.

  My eyes didn’t see science at all unless you count six foot two and all muscle physical science.

  His heavy feet pounded in my ears. His eyes drilled holes in my soul. He didn't look anywhere but at me. Was he trying to cause a scene?

  Daniel stopped right in front of me forcing me to acknowledge him. I refused to call him Dane to his face. It made him sound like a nice guy. I preferred to stick with his evil-minded name I’d known him for.

  He never took his eyes off me now as he asked Sam with one of his same killer smiles, “Mind if we switch partners?”

  In the biggest wide mouth expression I’ve ever seen on my best friend, she never answered him but moved her books in a floaty motion up one lab desk.

  Never protesting like I should, I just watched. That was becoming a habit with him around. Watch the predator scan his meal in slow motion under the cover of darkness. Then he moves like stealth and pounces at the unlikeliest of times.

  Delayed by my staring, I refocused and started in on my refusal. “What the bleeping—“

  My words stopped and my attention went to Foster whom I could taste on the moving air. That was one drawback to my “condition”. After I siphoned the younger victims, they carried the “scent” in the air with them. It’s hard to explain; you just know they are near you. Only Daniel had ever had a specific scent and taste combined. As if it was one sense. All others were the same. So it was either Foster or the one other friend from years ago. Since she wasn't in this class that left Foster.

  I guess my look of pure anxious fear fell off me in waves because Foster tried to rescue me in his own way. I knew it was for his own gain to fame, but I so wanted to be rescued from this boy, the siphon.

  “Man, you can’t just switch. Coach won’t let you.”

  Stupid jock.

  “Taken care of. He already allowed it.”

  He did?

  Enter...coach.

  “Coach. This moron said you okayed the switch,” Foster waved his arms at all four of us. The whole class just sat in wait no doubt enjoying the show.

  “Yes. Mr. Crawford expressed concern for the subject area and I allowed him a more adequate tutor for the subject matter. Lark has the expertise to catch him up to speed.”

  I gulped too loud. Foster would fly off the handle just like he did at football practice and all of his games. He was such a meathead.

  His face flamed from embarrassment first, and then to save face he said loud for all to be sure and hear, “My bad. Nerds-r-us not accounted for at this desk.”

  I was hurt. He knew it too. He shot a look of apology for only me to see, but it was way too late for that. Like three years too late.

  Daniel made a terrific little territorial noise under his breath that ordinarily I’d have hushed, but today I let go.

  Besides, what did I care? I’d be the boss of Mr. Foster Kelly one day. He’d be the mechanic’s helper if he didn't pick up the pace on a track in life. I know for a fact he didn't have any intention of working in a hospital.

  We set to work on whatever the assignment the whiteboard explained. I was so out of it by the end, I did not even remember one iota of the hour with exception for the legs that bumped me once, the hands that touched me twice, or the eyes that watched me constantly. Smiled even.

  I decided his smiles were worse than deadly and had an agenda I wasn’t sure was safe. One day I might grow accustomed to the power they held and could muster enough defenses against them, but for now each new one was like stumbling through a dark cave and sudden bright lights were turning on to show me the way. His way.

  I’d vote for his way. Even knowing the evil he'd committed, it made me wonder if he chose it or possibly made to do it.

  I counted next. Two inches separated the space between our arms length from each other, and oh yes, I was checking him out. Head to toe. He was just that...distracting. I also looked forward. Seven inches between Foster and Sam. I hated when my best friend was right.

  And the smoke. The smell that made my body ache. It was like cedar lined walls were caving in on me. I could taste the burning wood like it was on fire in my mouth.

  “You’re doing it again,” he drawled with the accent.

  “No I’m not.” Crap. I just messed up. It was the way I siphoned, to taste their essence. It was a natural feeling around him like I was supposed to do it.

  “I didn’t say what it was you were doing.”

  Grr!

  He was like a wolf and I was Little Red. I was shaken in my size seven cherry red boots I’d worn today.

  Class ended with the bell and lunch was next.

  Here comes round two.

  DANE  Out of Breath

  She was stealing the air from me. Her sweet scent hit me like a brick when she lifted her lashes across the table at the beginning of class. Did she know I wanted to steal every ounce of essence out of her? Drain her.

  I
watched her so close to see if she was the same, but I couldn’t tell if she could sense my desire that was pulling me like a damn pirate to the water.

  And just like that, I caught her checking me out too.

  The bell rang and she shot out of her seat like a bullet.

  I grabbed her arm before I could think what she might do about it. She stilled to statue proportions. I saw her friend look back at last second and wiggle her eyes at her. She didn’t see because she was looking at me.

  “Pigeon, we need to talk.”

  “NO.WE.DON’T.”

  She wasn’t out of the hate me stage yet. Her one shoulder shrug tried to brush me off but...no way was I leaving her and not finding out more about this girl who got under my skin and made me want to fight dragons. Or ex’s.

  “Eventually.”

  “Like never. You just left yesterday. I was the one left hanging.”

  Why was she so angry? She hasn’t reacted this far into an outrageously bile filled stage from any of my carefully traced efforts. I didn't do a thing wrong yesterday that I recall. She left too!

  She pulled her arm out of my grasp and took off. I followed her not to the cafeteria where I assumed she’d go under the safety net of friends, but to the oak tree. Maybe she did want to confront the obvious.

  All my life I’ve been alone. No one ever asked. No one cared. And three days ago, someone did.

  “You feel it whether you admit it or not,” I cornered her against the tree dropping my books and having luck that they fell into a halfway neat pile. Not that I cared.

  “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Maybe you were too busy smelling me.” I moved in before I knew what I would do next. I just had to know. Theories based on little background evidence and centered around mere hunches didn’t always pan out the way I wanted, but this one—I think it will. Oh, I've been in pain before, at the last moments of what was thought to be near death when the energy was that low, but this may just be Pandora's box of the ultimate treasure. Form what I could tell from her forlorn face at the times fears arose from what she thought might be the grimmest future, she'd been close to death too.

  Her face was so close, her scent so strong. She just needed to tip her head up another fraction and...“I’m going to kiss you, Lark. If you want to take from me, go ahead, but I think my theory might just be right.”

  I may have been calling this an experiment in my head, but it was dangerously close to something else.

  She didn’t oppose it. She didn’t answer at all. I closed my eyes just as I felt her just licked lips against mine. Like coming home to a sweet taste of heaven, I continued the kiss. When she didn’t fight it, I deepened the kiss to a slow rhythm. Her hand gripped the front of my shirt. Her leg inched up against mine as if wanting to be as close as I wanted to be to her. I’d never kissed or been kissed like this. And it had been so long.

  When she slid her tongue across the inside of my bottom lip, my body answered the call. I felt the power of the siphon moving in. It was going to take from her. Scared crapless, I went as far as she would let me. I opened her mouth for the taking. If it was possible, she inched even closer, a soft groan escaping.

  Words do not describe what she tasted like, felt like. This girl was poison. She would ruin me for the rest of my life. My hands wound around her waist, hers sending fire all over my neck.

  Her velvety tongue slipped into my mouth. Just then I felt it. She was taking from me. Did she know it?

  The kiss continued on until one of us, I don’t know which, sucked in a breath and our lips suctioned apart. Licking her lips with dark, half closed eyes, she looked up.

  She saw them too.

  I looked up knowing exactly what to look for, but it wasn’t there. Instead were swirls of a misty cloud of color. Bright vibrant colors. Every color imaginable if you stared long enough.

  Something shot down to the core of my fully male reaction to her when I looked at her eyes.

  “You describe it,” I said hoarsely and giving away the way she affected me.

  Looking back up with her at the sight, she said in phrases, “My own body is doing dizzying circles around the sensation. Mixtures of colors stand right above your head like a dance or a song. No one has ever had colors. What does it mean, Daniel?”

  She still insisted on calling me that. No one did. One more question before I theorize. “Do you feel weak, at all?”

  She tossed her light silky hair behind her back, “No. I feel…stronger.”

  I smiled then. I knew. “So do I. We don’t weaken each other when we take, we give each other energy. We are opposites that give, not take.”

  She was beaming and giving me the come back of my life, “And you know what they say about opposites?” Her own eyes danced with the finality of her shoulders officially lowering and letting me in.

  “No, Pigeon. What do they say on the subject?” I wanted to hear her say it. See her smile, not begrudge me like the last few days.

  “Opposites attract.”

  That they do!

  What did I do? I kissed her again. And again.

  LARK ✜ Clouded by Kisses

  I was on fire. I wanted to fly like Superman and fight the trails of evil. I wanted to run a marathon. I wanted to...kiss this boy all day and night.

  I could feel what he feels. Maybe he was afraid to show that he was as weakened by this as I was, yet filled with a kind of energy that surpassed what it feels like when I take from others. His taste was prominent, but for the first time, I could foresee the coming scent of him mixed with the taste. It was all in one accord.

  His heart thundered loud like mine, his breathing became erratic.

  We did finally let go of each other’s touch boundaries. It was so cold to disconnect, it didn’t feel right.

  He smiled at me, “Can I ask you something?”

  I was still in the kissing cloud called Daniel Crawford, “Yes.”

  DANE  Euphoria

  “Was that kiss better than your last?” I wanted to know how many she’d kissed suddenly. I wanted possession.

  She didn’t let me down however embarrassed she felt, “I never really had a kiss like that before. The last and only one I had was quick and painful.” She didn’t like admitting that.

  However, I was ecstatic.

  “So that wasn’t painful?” I admit I wanted my ego boosted.

  “Euphoric.”

  Now that was my flippin’ new word of the day.

  A frown pressed against her brows. I didn’t like it on her face now. I wanted the smile back. I could kiss her back to smiling if I had my way.

  “What is it, Pigeon?” She frowned more. What was I doing wrong?

  “Was the kiss not as good for you?” she asked.

  Oh, she had the same panic I did. I hated to ever have to admit to her that I’d kissed a lot of spell-ridden siphoned girls to find her. I wasn’t the least bit disappointed in the first real kiss I’d ever had. And from someone who despised me getting near her. That was just so new for me.

  Since confessions were flying around the air above us in other fashions, why not spill the rest?

  Here goes.

  “I’ve never kissed anyone like that.”

  She didn’t believe me. Her face scrunched up. “Um, you were way too good at that to be a first timer.”

  Ego boost well noted.

  “Maybe, but I’ve only ever kissed anyone I made to kiss me because they were under the siphon. You’re the first one I’ve ever kissed who wanted to and gained energy from me.”

  Confessions feel good when no one ridicules you. Still, I will regret pouring my heart out when she spits it back at me. And she would when she found out the truth about why I was here.

  “So that was as good for you as it was for me?” she asked.

  I raised a brow at her misshapen innuendo that was said like an accident, but something else was implied. She was quite the little vixen. We both laughed. Mine was husky
and wanting more of her, not more high school English and mathematics. We headed into class...late again.

  LARK ✜ Insecurities

  The eyebrows all shot up in unison across the room. We never returned to lunch and were now late for class. Daniel walked me here and went off to his respective class. My lips were swollen and tingling making me feel they were displaying my recent actions. Coughs of inappropriate comments were thrown from every direction that contained a male in the seat. One obscene gesture was not observed from coach. My best friend was practically bouncing in her seat. And Foster...was a raging bull.

  I didn’t care. Euphoria was still floating around the top of my head making me clearer headed, yet kind of fuzzy in my stomach and most likely unable to eat anytime soon. I was pumped and ready for anything.

  Racing through the lesson and heading off to the next class without Daniel was tough, but I wasn’t so achy like yesterday or the day before. Did the kiss really give that much power?

  The day ended. No detention. I headed to the parking lot unsure of what the next step in the Daniel Crawford plan might be. I’d just go home and wait.

  Didn’t happen.

  “Going somewhere without me?” His voice easily achieved that same hold-you-still-in-your-step honeyed warmth. I felt like maybe his siphon spell actually worked on me and wanted to say so.

  “You know. I’m not sure your nifty spell you use on girls isn’t working on me. I feel light headed and woozy around you.”

  His face fell to something awful and I couldn’t stand it. “I’m joking, Daniel. Joking. I mean it in a girl kind of way.”

  He wasn’t sure at first. That tough guy I met days ago was falling away, his shell broken open. “You aren’t lying to make me leave?”

  The air was thick between us all of a sudden. Insecurity would have never been a bullet in my list of guesses about Daniel Crawford.

  Geez, he was that afraid. I opened the door of my car, dropped my bag in the seat, and rushed back to his arms. I didn’t kiss him long because I had to get us out of the parking lot before we gave the whole school bad rumors that I’d spent years stifling about myself. I wasn’t that kind of girl. I’d make sure Daniel knew this, but right now he needed this and so did I. Alive with energy with yet another kiss.