Siphon (Siphon Chronicles, Book One) Read online

  “Would I kiss you if I wasn’t joking?”

  He shuddered. This all male, all brawn, fully capable intelligent guy trembled.

  “I don’t know what you’ve done to me.”

  Guess my own spell is working.

  DANE  Making Friends

  This girl, who was wanted by my own kind for god knows what, was getting under my skin. She made me want to do things to her I’ve never done with anyone I’ve ever cared about and more. I wanted her for me and me alone and I had no idea why. To me, girls have always been like clocks. They run out of time and I move on. I couldn’t see past this one though. I couldn’t see a foot past her. She tunneled my vision and it scared me.

  We fell into routine chitchat for the ride. She didn’t know I was a roamer or what my actual job entitlement included and I never let that part of the conversation go anywhere. I was so wrapped up in the three days of meeting and not seeing past her that I’d neglected to face the future of what I’d done. Was doing. But somehow, in the middle of kissing her, the cloud seemed to tell me it would all work out. I’d found a person who could touch me without me stealing their life.

  On the way to pizza in the Jeep, we discussed an agreement that when we both entered the “euphoria” as she called it, that we weren’t taking any years from each other. That seemed impossible to both of us. How could no one know this and how could they not tell us if they did? Knowing who my father was made me even more leery. The two of us asked several questions to the air since we had no answers. Were we the only ones? she asked. There was the rest of the council and their children. Did she know about them? No flippin’ way.

  In the back booth of the infinitesimally small pizza joint that couldn't be topped over pepperoni and black olives I asked her, “Have you ever been to the Siphonic Headquarters?”

  Treading lightly she answered with my already made conclusion, “No. What is that?” Lark took a dainty bite of pizza and licked her lips. That was euphoric to watch all in itself. I’d never watched a girl eat.

  I’d known for years there were a few siphons out there that were kept purposely hidden and unaware. I shouldn’t tell her that. Or that I knew she existed. I hated her kind for so long knowing they didn’t have to deal with what they were.

  “You are a siphon. You take people’s years for your own survival. You belong to the council located at the Siphonic Headquarters off the coast of Rhode Island. If you don’t know what it is, you couldn’t have been there. So why do you live here in Dallas? Do you know any others like us?”

  I’d overwhelmed her, but time would run out if I didn’t fit some puzzle pieces together. Give and take.

  I heard the door chime and knew the recognizable face was heading our way, but all I successfully did was inch a little closer to her in hopes he’d venture away.

  He didn't.

  “Hello, Lark. Heard you weren’t happy with who coach stuck you with in class. Wanted to be sure you were doing okay?” The wingding named Zane asked her, not acknowledging my presence.

  “Fine, Zane. Good to see you.”

  The boy’s eyes lit up like that might mean she really thinks it. I had to shut this loser down.

  “Zane, is it? Good to meet you. I’m Dane,” I shoved my hand out to shake his only to not have it returned. His eyes dilated and blinked. He was afraid of me. Good!

  “Yeah. Call me, Lark,” the boy coaxed unsteadily.

  I let out a breath only after the mental midget moved on to his friends. Lark looked pissed, but she never said so. Instead she started on her food again.

  Shaking hands was against my usual order of business, but I hadn't followed any of my other rules since arriving here. And I did say I was going to try it out.

  “First off,” she stopped eating, took a drink of soda and looked me dead in the eyes, “you are kind of the first I’ve ever met of what you call “our kind” and second, I didn’t know this was a norm for many others until you showed up. If there are more out there, I want to meet them.”

  A sudden fear rose in the depth of my stomach. What if she was just intrigued by me? What if I lost her? I’d just met this girl and suddenly I wanted to go all Zales jewelry and settle down for the rest of my unnatural life. What was wrong with me?

  Coolness set back in. I needed to back off. Standoffish and aloof I told her, “Sure. We can do that. I’m staying near a guy who’s like you. He has a friend that’s the same.”

  I had some work to do.

  “You don’t live here?” she asked warily.

  Here’s where the lies would begin.

  “No.” Not a lie.

  She sat in wait, crossing her tan arms over like a prowling lioness and narrowing her eyes at me. I snagged a look at her overall picture for later purposes if she ran from me and never wanted to see me again. Were her arms cold? She took off the little jacket she wore.

  Freckles covered her shoulders leftover from summer’s heat. She wore little makeup and her lips were always shiny except now. Her neck was pretty with the arched shoulders I liked too much. I wanted to kiss them. I wanted to earlier too, but that would have been too forward.

  “I work for the council. I travel around, taking care of...things for them.”

  Not a lie.

  “So you have no home?”

  This would get complicated. She would want to know how an eighteen-year-old guy owns a home and lives alone, but travels endlessly with nowhere to go.

  “I do. In Rhode Island.”

  She seemed to settle a little. “With your parents?”

  Uh, oh! “No. Alone."

  “Alone as in by yourself?”

  I nodded. This would get sticky. I could lie, say they died, and I inherited the house. I could say it belonged to someone else. Not even my father knew about it. The more I stared at her face, I couldn’t lie to her. It was either she accepted me or not.

  “Alone as in I own it.”

  Her eyes went wide in an innocent display of being sheltered from the world.

  “So we can establish that you are not a typical high school senior, do not live here, and have a real job. Do I assume you are really enrolled at my school?”

  She wasn’t naive.

  “No, no, and yes. And yes, I am enrolled with you.”

  If she were in fact intelligent like I knew her to be, not at all naive like I’d off and on determined, she would piece together more. And soon.

  “You are here on business?” she asked.

  LARK ✜ All About Me

  “Yes,” he said nervously. The inches increased our distance of separation. Two, to be exact.

  What was he scared to tell me? I wanted to know, but I was worried suddenly he might have to lie to me and I didn’t want to be lied to. I’d already figured out by the short answers that he was skirting around things to keep himself honest. He had a lot of secrets. I just hoped it did not involve me.

  “It is okay if you need to keep your secrets. We all have them.” Why did I feel a little like I was keeping company with the devil? I just told him it was okay to lie to me. Or stretch the truth.

  He stiffened at that no doubt wondering what secret I could hold.

  It was true, I didn’t know about the headquarters he talked about, but my stepparents knew. The same stepparents who told me my parents died in a vacation accident and now I wonder if it was even true. They mentioned my mom once. Only once.

  I was sure this was the same “headquarters” they mentioned. I’d heard them talk behind closed doors for years about a Dr. Phoenix who wanted to meet me and they refused to take me to him. I only know now the connection because Daniel just said the very place the doctor was located. Rhode Island.

  My stepparents even called it the headquarters. It all made sense. Sort of.

  “You are giving a little I can tell and I know you are guarding something inside you. I’ve lived with this life all alone and no one was there to tell my fears to. I don’t want to depress you with my sordid life, but well, I h
ad to grow up too fast with neglect from my parents. I have heard of the headquarters, but never heard it named. My parents don’t know that I know.”

  That was all I would tell this boy until I knew more. He would have to give the next tidbit.

  He swallowed deeply as he took a drink of his own soda. I think he took a long time on purpose.

  I smiled at his painstaking eyes and laughed aloud. His startled look showed me it worked.

  “All this deep talk has me craving ice cream. I’ll be right back. When I return, maybe we could not talk about the fact that we both have information that might scare the other away as I have a feeling your secrets are more dangerous than mine.”

  Since he was the one who showed up out of nowhere, I would wait and see. I would stay on my guard though. Somehow, I still thought he wasn’t the good guy even though I kissed him. And I will not lie that it felt like I was being stupid for giving him the time of day, but this guy had answers I’ve been seeking for years and this might be my only chance to ever know the truth. Deep down inside, I knew the events of the week would alter my life forever. Hence, him being the monkey wrench in my senior year from day one of the second and final semester of high school. What would tomorrow bring?

  DANE  Birds of a Feather

  I was a mess, but she gave me an out. She didn’t want to know just yet for the same reasons I didn’t want to tell her.

  I let my eyes watch her lithe body move across the busy room of teenagers eating to their hearts content. Especially the male population. One guy was sliding an entire piece of taco pizza into his mouth on a dare by his posse who still looked up in time to watch her cross the room.

  Several people said hello to Lark as she passed them. More of them male than female. The growling beast inside me didn’t like that assessment. And how did I not see the Foster dude was here? He stopped with her at the soft serve machine and slid his hand around her waist. She cowered away and pushed the chocolate button on the right to swirl against her cone. I watched her face turn sideways and tell the guy to stop. That was my cue.

  Moving with the speed of light, I curled my arm around her shoulders and gently pulled her to me. I had no claim over this girl, but I didn’t like her feeling trapped by this scumbag. He was the worst kind of human male. No, I wasn’t a saint, but he was only out for his own personal gain. She was a notch on his notepad.

  She smoothed out against my hip and looked into my eyes.

  “Are you okay, Pigeon?”

  “You called her a bird. That’s classic. What a brain surgeon. Don’t you know she’s already a little bird named Lark who flies solo?”

  I got her permission with her eyes. They were tearing up, but she blinked them away.

  “Not any more. She’s with me.”

  “You won’t get any out of her. She’s a prude.”

  “Maybe if you’d treat her like the classic she is, you’d see that there is more to this girl than just her beauty. She deserves better than you.”

  Foster rolled up on the front of his shoes at me. “And you think you’re better?”

  I pushed her behind me and stepped closer to him showing my three inches on him, “Not by a long shot. But she deserves to be treated with respect. She is not one of your backseat buddies you flaunt to the world. In fact, no girl deserves scum like you.”

  LARK ✜ Tick. Tock.

  Foster’s fist started to form a white knuckle sandwich and I knew from experience what would happen next. I couldn’t step between two huge pure muscle boys, but I could stop this before it escalated to that point.

  “Foster, let it go. Daniel is here for now and you will just have to deal with it. Go back to your table and go on with whatever it is that you do. You knew we were over long ago and I’m not afraid to make sure all your friends know I never gave it up for you. Any girl who has should have had more self-respect for themselves before they let a STD infested snake like you take anything from them.”

  Foster snorted, “They liked every minute of it little Lark the prude.”

  I stepped around Daniel who’d grown quiet for the last back and forth word fight between the snake and me. I felt, not saw, that Daniel was that much bigger than Foster. His arms alone rivaled that of a concrete block next to Foster’s puny household bricks. That’s not to say that Foster isn’t strong, because I knew he worked out and ran a mile each morning before school. Vanity was his calling card. It is just that Daniel was huge in comparison to Foster’s muscular, lean side. I screwed my head back on straight and gave Foster the piece of my mind I was holding back, “I could take things from you that would change your life forever you piece of crap for a human.”

  A hand curled around my own and squeezed. I felt it in the recesses of my brain but only registered that it was there, not protecting me. I’d never had a friend who would stand up for me like that. Sam was great, but in the heat of battle, she would hide under a rock and disappear. With him, something made me feel stronger and able to stand up for myself. I was braver.

  “Like you’re some witch that can curse me into a beast or something. You know we all know you are different Lark. Is that what you are Lark, a witch?” His red face looked like a madman. The moment passed like Krueger or Mike Myers might jump out and take us all down. I was so angry. I drew in a huge breath and before I knew it I was sucking in something other than the oily air of the pizza place. It was always the same. The air would still, then the hum would move through me like a silent motor. Something like motion sickness would hit me. I was taking a year from Foster and couldn’t stop it.

  I couldn’t stop.

  Not in my own skin, I didn’t feel my body being jolted in a spin and my mouth being overtaken by another. Lips. Tongue.

  Someone was kissing me.

  Euphoria.

  Seconds. Tick. Tock.

  I came down from the high just as his lips released me.

  “I didn’t know what else to do,” Daniel whispered into my mouth.

  Reality hit me all at once. First, Daniel kissed me in front of a large enough population of the senior students. And second, I was just about to take another year from Foster. And it wasn’t through kissing. Something wasn’t right about it. I never felt the song ring out in my head, but Foster was losing a year either way.

  I turned fast in his arms and faced where I’d just stood. Foster’s paralyzed face was stuck in a twisted reaction of some kind of demented smile and little birdies flying around the top of his head. Did I fry his brain?

  “Foster. FOSTER. Are you okay?” I shook him by the arms feeling Daniel fall back with my leap.

  Foster shook his head to rid himself of the dizzying affect before saying, “Whoa. That was like a good backseat Twister!”

  “Whoa man. What did she do to you? Chick never touched you, man.” Foster’s best friend Mike did his overboard surfer dude talk and waved a hand in his face. “What’s wrong with him?” Mike turned to me.

  Foster slowly became more alert as his face changed to anger like a snap of the finger. His voice resonated up an octave, “You. You did something to me, you witch. You are a witch. Stay away from me.”

  He pushed off the ice cream machine he’d been leaning on and knocked over his friend Mike. His words were the solid reminder of why I don’t take from the young. “Crap. I feel like I was stabbed by a knife. Keep that witch away from me.”

  All this happened in the span of maybe three minutes’ time. Not one worker in the place saw an ounce of it.

  DANE  The Lark

  “I’m getting you out of here,” I rasped in her ear. Her body was shaking and felt like jelly in my hold. I took her hand only to keep her friends from making fun of her though my instinct was to carry her in my arms. The crowd watched on as I dropped money on the table, and walked us to the front door saying nothing.

  Sly and clever, but inexperienced. She moved like lightning to save the situation, but it wasn’t fast enough. She could have saved that incident from unwanted outcomes
if done right. With proper training, her body could move through shadows and not be seen. My guess is she had always taken from the old, who didn't need a stealthy siphon attempt.

  The murmuring began the second the door closed. Since the place was covered up in high-schoolers, gossip was a given. We’d deal with it tomorrow.

  I took her to the car and fastened her in where she finally woke out of the stupor and told me to stop. I looked up at her since she was sitting in my Jeep and not her own car. If she ran, now would be the moment for it.

  “Are you okay?”

  She huffed at my question and looked forward. Was she angry at what I did?

  I stopped at the gas station by the school and practically jumped out of the car and back in after two minutes flat with sodas and bags of chips. Her distant eyes focused, zoning in on the bag.

  “Pickle chips?”

  I think it might have been a question, but maybe just an observance. I dropped my gaze to the bags finding that I never even looked at what I snagged.

  “Yeah. Sorry.”

  She didn’t smile, nor turn them down. Hunger took over after a taking. I heard her snicker and maybe even pucker her lips eating the bag up in seconds. I knew the feeling well. I drove her back to her car and pulled into the space beside her Dodge.

  Out of the blue, she asked me a question I wouldn’t have guessed coming from the incident that had just happened.

  “Why do you call me a pigeon?” She turned her face making her hair go behind to her shoulders.

  I smiled inside. She would just laugh. “I’d heard of your kind for years. The ones who got to live out their lives unaware of the ways we lived by. You were shielded from that life. When I found out about you, I was a little weary of what I’d find.”