The 52nd (The 52nd Saga Book 1) (44 page)

She shoved her feet forward, suddenly antsy, then chuckled silently to herself and looked up. “You haven’t just stolen Lucas’s heart. We all love you. We don’t want to lose
you.”

I scratched my reeling head, wondering whether the pills could have kicked in that
fast.

“Oh, I, uh . . .” I remembered drowsily Lucas saying his family could hear us in the bedroom. I snickered with equal parts embarrassment and curiosity. “Did you hear us the other
night?”

She stood with a grin, pulled the loose sheets up over my satin-and-gauze-wrapped body, and tucked them softly underneath. “There’s nothing wrong with love, especially when Lucas was broken for so long.” She walked to the arch of the door and, holding the jamb, glanced back. “You’ve given him a reason to be
fixed.”

I lay still as the words sank
in.

“Good night, Zara,” she said, and then left me
alone.

Once her words faded from my restless mind, I dozed and slipped into a deep sleep. When I woke, Lucas was lying next to me on the bed. It was dark and the house was quiet. As I tried to make myself more comfortable, his lips suddenly pressed to mine, sending gentle sparks throughout my
body.

“Good morning, sleepyhead,” he whispered
softly.

I rubbed my eyes and yawned. “How long have you been
here?”

“I came right after you fell
asleep.”

I tried to look for a clock, but my injuries restricted my movement. “What time is
it?”

“Three in the morning.”

“How long have I been out
for?”

“Twelve hours. How are you feeling?”

My bloodied bandages had been changed, glowing whiter in the dark, and I was in clean pajamas. I eyed Lucas with a curious accusation.

He pointed to his chest and laughed as he shook his head. “It wasn’t
me.”

“Do you want to?” Something about knowing he could have taken advantage of me built an unnerving excitement.

He messed with his hair, an arrogant grin spreading across his face that stretched his dimple beautifully. “Trust me, I tried, but Marifer wasn’t having
it.”

“Well then, I will have to remember to thank her for that.” Then I remembered the ridiculous wrapping and sticky misery of the pyramid. “What
was
on me in the pyramid?”

His porcelain teeth flashed in the dark. “When the people of my time offered virgins as sacrifices, they painted them white and dressed them in red. The two together to symbolize what was then and what is now. The white symbolized their purity and the red represented the act they were about to perform
,
giving themselves—their lives—to
death.”

I gulped against the hard pit of nausea that wanted to spread throughout me. “And what was on my
head?”

“A feather crown,” he
said.

“Feathers? It didn’t feel like feathers at all. That thing was so
heavy.”

“And gold,” he added with a chuckle. “You’ve seen mine. Try lifting it sometime.”

“No, thank
you.”

His fingers gently brushed the surface of my arm, easing away my disgust, and I sighed with pleasure. The rest of the night we laughed over the hideous wardrobe faux pas we’d had as children. We argued about whose clothes were more awful, though it was hard to compare the nineteen nineties to the fifteenth century. Lucas finally caved when I pointed out that he practically grew up naked, and then we agreed that the nineties were not kind to either of
us.

Soon light seeped over the horizon, pouring a beautiful orange light into the room. The house was still quiet. Only the ocean waves were audible when Lucas left my bed and bent down over me with his arms outstretched.

“What are you doing?” I said, as he tucked me lightly into him. I winced at first, but then his outer arm moved enough to not press so tightly and his steps didn’t jar
me.

“We’re watching the sunrise,” he answered, and he carried me down the
stairs.

“Lucas, my parents are going to
see.”

He hushed me. “They are asleep. Stop talking, or they’ll wake
up.”

I shut my mouth as he passed the kitchen. The double glass doors had been left wide open, letting the fresh breeze blow inside. I smelled sweet water as Lucas trekked across the sand toward the sea. A copse of palms and bushes gave us privacy, and we were far enough away that my family, at least, wouldn’t be able to hear us from the house. Lucas set me down carefully under the curve of a palm. The black ocean was lightening as rays peeked over the edge of the water. I couldn’t take my eyes off the colors blooming in the
sky.

“This is my favorite place to watch the sunrise,” Lucas said, resting his elbows on his
knees.

“It’s so
pretty.”

Lucas turned to me. “Max won’t talk to me. Other than to say it’s all my
fault.”

“But that’s stupid,” I said, distress coloring my
voice.

“Is
it?”

“Yes.”

“Zara, none of this would have happened if I had just listened to you.” He choked and barely clamped down his rising emotions. “I almost lost
you.”

“I’m okay now, and Max can’t ignore me forever. I’m his sister!” I declared.

Lucas looked away again to the horizon. “Zara, he’s a guy. You need to give him
time.”

“Maybe you’re right,” I muttered.

“I know I’m right. I speak
guy.”

“Oh, is that a new language you invented?”

“Nah. It’s always been around. Only guys would understand it, though.”

When I didn’t answer, Lucas turned to me with a serious expression. And as the sun rose in the distance, he cupped my cheeks carefully and kissed me with every reason in the universe. There was no more fear in his lips, and the kisses left words on my heart, as if setting his love in
stone.

Our lips popped when he broke
away.

“Whatever it takes to keep you, I will do. Just tell me what to do. Whatever I meant but never said when I first met you, I’m saying it now. I will wait for you forever and serve you in all your remaining days. Choose where you want to live, and I will follow. I am yours. I’ll rub your feet every night for the rest of your life if you want, and you have my blessing on whatever it is you desire. I’ll build a mansion for you, or an army—” he promised, sounding nearly
scared.

I cut him short when I cupped his scruff gently and smiled, honored. “How about college?”

“It’s yours . . . but I’m paying your
way.”

“I’m sure we can work something
out.”

He looked happily away into the sunrise and sighed. “I had to make sure you saw this at least once before we go
home.”

“We’re going
home?”

“Yes. You need to be at home in your own bed, where your mom can take care of you. As much as I would love to be crazy and run off together, we need to act like a normal couple would. And it’s critical that you act your age.” He kissed my forehead and sniffed. “But I don’t want you to. I want to be the old couple already. I want to surprise you with trips to Paris and new
cars.”

“Is that what you think is normal for people my
age?”

“My perception, yes. I’ve only had Gabriella and Dylan as an example.”

I laughed. “Okay,
that
is not normal. Normal people struggle with finances, health, and even their own love for one another.”

He frowned. “But I don’t want you to have any of
that.”

I leaned as far back into his shoulder as I could without hurting. “You’ll be surprised. Having trials makes the good times even
better.”

He kissed the top of my head, leaving his face buried in my hair. “I’m so in love with you.” Each time he breathed out, it warmed my head. I didn’t want it to go away ever, but he lifted his head and looked toward the ocean. “You may have to show me how to be normal, then.”

“Gladly.”

We sat in each other’s embrace, watching the waves on the shore in the most comfortable silence I’d ever felt. If this was how Lucas’s money was spent—luxurious homes where I could feel the sand between my toes—then I wanted a part of
it.

“When are we leaving?” I wondered, feeling the breeze cool my sun-kissed
cheeks.

“This afternoon.”

I closed my eyes and breathed in deeply, never wanting to forget this
place.

As Lucas packed my suitcase, Aluxes checked on me every thirty minutes. I was reading a magazine when Marifer came in, and even though it hurt, I gave her a weak one-armed hug, hoping it was a universal language for
thank you
. I was pretty confident she understood when she squeezed me back gently. We exchanged a few short words in broken English and Spanish and ended up laughing at each other for our silly attempts.

Max kept quiet, though, and I was really starting to worry. He’d always been the type to let problems fester inside until he blew up. Things were not okay between us, and I knew that as we boarded the plane. It didn’t help that Lucas was pushing my wheelchair. But Max would have to talk to me sooner or later, so I decided to blindside him as soon as we got
home.

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

A New Year

Snow was piled high at the front of the house, leaving Lucas no option but to carry me across the unplowed expanse. It was ridiculous; I could walk. But I played along as he set me down at the bottom of the
stairs.

“Thanks so much, Lucas, for all your help. Please drive home safe,” Mom
said.

He bowed his head. “I will, Mrs. Moss.”

“Come by the shop sometime if you get a chance. I would love to show you our pictures,” Dad
said.

“Thank you. I would love that.” He glanced up the stairs, making my heart skip a beat. “Get some rest. I will call you
later.”

“Drive safe,” I
said.

As he pulled out into the icy night, I wobbled into my room, realizing I hadn’t turned on my cell phone. There were ten missed calls, mostly from Bri. I was surprised to see one from Jett, who sounded upset in his voicemail.

I dialed him first. I only had a few minutes before Lucas would come back to check on
me.

“Hello?” Jett answered, half
asleep.

I glanced at the clock. It was two in the morning in New
York.

“Oh, sorry. I didn’t realize how late it was. I’ll call you tomorrow.”

“No, no.” Jett yawned. “I’ve been waiting for you to call me. How are
you?”

“I’m okay. Did you talk to Max?” His alarmed voice message made me suspicious. I pictured him scratching his mussed hair, his eyes puffy, wrinkly lines dented down the side of his face, and bad breath, all of which were, well, human.

“He’s really upset about something, but he won’t tell me anything. What happened?”

“I don’t know why he’s so upset still,” I lied. “I got caught in the tide and got pretty cut up on a reef, but I’m okay
now.”

“That’s it? He made it seem like something more.” I could hear his sheets sliding as he rolled
over.

“How was Christmas with your
mom?”

“It wasn’t too bad. I’ll be home for New Year’s though. Want to hang out? I heard the slopes got tons of
snow.”

“I don’t think I’m in any condition to do much boarding, so I will probably be doing something with Lucas. Maybe we could all do something together?”

“Yeah, okay. Sure.” He didn’t sound thrilled. “Well, I uh . . .” He yawned again. “I will get something planned and then let you
know.”

“All right.” I yawned
too.

“I’ll call you when I get back in
town.”

I hung up the phone and looked at the clock, surprised that Lucas hadn’t returned yet. I decided to call Bri. She picked up the phone on the first
ring.

“You are so getting it from me,” she answered.

“Bri, hey. Sorry. It’s been
crazy.”

“I know. I want to hear it all. And don’t you dare leave out any details. It’s the least you can do for not calling me once while you were
there.”

“Well, what do you want to know?” My body had started to ache. I wasn’t sure I had a chatty conversation in
me.

“First, did you do it?” She could barely breathe as she waited for my response.

“Bri, gross. No!”

“What do you mean gross? You have the hottest boyfriend in
Tahoe.”

“It’s not like that, Bri . . .” I said, remembering our unnatural lack of privacy.

A freezing draft came from the window. The window was already shut and Lucas was lying on his side next to me when I turned. He tickled my arm with his fingers, and talking normally became a difficult
task.

“Well, what is this thing I heard about you breaking your collarbone? Is it true?” she
asked.

I couldn’t help but to look down and sigh. “Yes.”

I heard muffled screams on the other
end.

“Bri, calm down. It’s not that
bad.”

“How could you not tell me something this big? What happened?”

“I got caught in a riptide, Lucas saved me, yadda yadda . . .”

I pulled the phone from my ear as more screams shrieked through. “Lucas saved you? That is so romantic!”

That was too
easy.

“I know, right? He’s way cute.” I wrinkled my nose at
him.

“So what did you guys do preaccidento?”

I yawned again and lay down carefully in Lucas’s arms. He nuzzled his nose into the hollow of my neck and stroked his tongue along the skin. I shivered, leaned away out of his reach, and replied in a higher pitch. “Not much. Beach
mainly.”

“So not fair. I bet you’ve got the nicest tan. Anyway, we’ve got to plan New Year’s, but we can talk about it tomorrow. Tommy’s beeping in, ’night, chica.”

I had just turned to Lucas when a knock rattled my door. I looked at Lucas, but he had already vanished. There was a small indentation on the blankets where he’d been, still
warm.

Max poked his head past the door. “Can I come
in?”

“Sure.”

Max sat where Lucas had been and stared at his hands. I twisted my hair nervously in the awkward silence between
us.

“Max, I . . .” I
began.

“No, stop, Zara. I don’t want to hear your lies anymore. What the hell happened?”

My hair started knotting around itself. “I don’t know, exactly,” I stuttered.

“What do you mean you don’t know? It’s simple. You tell me to run for help because you weren’t feeling good. I mean, I’ve never seen you that white in my life. I come back and you’re missing. Not gone, but
missing
, Zara. Where did you go? How did you really get those
cuts?”

“What do you think happened?” I said, more loudly than I’d intended.

“Honestly, I haven’t got a clue. Why don’t you start by telling me how you got those bruises on your wrist.” He pointed to Xavier’s fingerprints, slipping out underneath the gauze. “Did Lucas do that to
you?”

“No, Lucas did not do this to me,” I answered firmly as I pulled the loosened bandage over the
prints.

“Lucas isn’t good for you. I want you to stay away from
him.”

“Is this what you came to tell
me?”

“No. I came to find out the truth, but you won’t tell me. So I’m saying that I want you to stay away from
Lucas.”

“The truth is I got stuck in a tide. Why can’t you just accept that like everyone
else?”

Max stood, his face a new shade of red. “I know that you are lying. I was in the kitchen, getting Nicolás. You would have gone through the kitchen to get out to the ocean—there’s a privacy wall that makes it impossible to go around from the front. And guess what, you didn’t go out the back!” He was nearly screaming, his hands slicing the
air.

“Just go away, now!”

He paused with a pathetic half chuckle.

“Way to go, Zara. Is that what you think of me? That I am stupid enough to believe your lame story? You’re in a heap of trouble if you think you can go around lying to us. I won’t say anything, but it’s only a matter of time until Mom and Dad find out you’re lying to them.” He walked to the door. “Whatever it is you’re trying to do, good luck.” Then he left, and I felt more wrecked than
ever.

I tried to lie down, but my collarbone wouldn’t let me get comfortable. I shifted around, frustrated, knowing that Max was right. How long could I keep on lying to my family? Bitter air wisped my skin as Lucas came in again. He dropped his jacket on the chair and smoothly wrapped his firm arms around
me.

“Zara,” he whispered after a minute of silence. “Your brother is right. We can’t keep pretending that nothing happened.”

I felt sick. “I just wasn’t ready for him to know the
truth.”

He looked away. “Me
either.”

As I looked around, trying to let the adrenaline simmer off, I noticed the messy list of college applications I’d left on the desk. I imagined the pressure on our budding relationship as the realities of college life flooded in—not to mention everything after. I felt weak. “How will it ever work, us going to college together?”

“I’ve been thinking of putting my doctorate to good use. I could practice wherever you decide to
go.”

“Really?”

He shrugged. “It’s seems practical enough. Remember, I’m paying your way. We need a reason for me to be
rich.”

“Right, because you’d be a ridiculously young doctor with no student debt. Makes sense,” I joked, scooting down to rest on his tattooed
arm.

“I’m kidding.”

“My parents know I can’t pay for it on my own. They’d have to know where I got the rest of my money, and you a doctor straight out of high school? Highly impractical.”

“Nah, you’d just win a really good private scholarship. Your parents wouldn’t even have to know that I was working. As far as anyone we know was aware, I’d be a freshman at college with
you.”

I stretched. “It could
work.”

Lucas pulled the sheets over my arms and played with my hair. The mixture of his warm body and the flannel covers warmed me to the core. I yawned again, gave up fighting it any longer, and shut my
eyes.

“Zara?” His voice chimed softly around my
ear.

“Hmm?”

“I want to take you to the New Year’s party.” The kiss on the side of my head was gentle. “We can go out with your friends if you want. I know you miss
them.”

His lips grazed underneath my chin. Then they moved to the other side of my neck, setting off a good throbbing in my body as his breath caressed my skin. “I can take you out to dinner, and then we can go to the Lodge to watch the fireworks.”

He lifted a strand of hair and sniffed. “I wonder if you taste how you
smell.”

My body was on fire, and it was difficult to breathe as he teased. All I could think about was my blood rushing south. “Lucas . . .”

He rose onto his knees and brushed his lips across my bandaged chest. His breath was warm as his fingers pulled the dressing back slightly and kissed the skin beneath it. My breathing slowed as he lingered there, studying the wound, infatuated with my
body.

“I can’t take your virginity,” he finally said with an anguished edge. His fingers took their time grazing across my collarbone to the other side, where he swept my hair behind my shoulder and kissed my
neck.

“I love you, Zara,” he whispered. “For always. We have a lifetime to make love. There’s no need to
rush.”

“I love you too, Lucas. But don’t you want to just play
around?”

“This isn’t right,” he said. “You’re not well, and when I have you, I need you
whole.”

“Whole?”

He chuckled. “I tend to get a little rough in the bedroom. So I need you healed, and . . .” he lifted up my left hand and pinched my ring finger, sliding his fingers up and down softly. “I need your
hand.”

“Hand?”

“I need you to be mine. All
mine.”

“Oh . . .”
Marriage.
That word I used casually to talk about my reason for keeping my virginity. I felt guilty for forgetting, but it was impossible to think straight with Lucas so close. “How . . .”

“Is that a
yes?”

“Was that a proposal?”

His brows lowered over his perfectly blue eyes. “No, I suppose
not.”

“What about . . .”

“Kids?”

“Gosh, no.” My eyes fluttered, my cheeks heated. “Didn’t you say you couldn’t have
kids?”

“Does that
matter?”

“Well, no, but what about . . .”

“Phew! My heart nearly stopped; oh wait, it doesn’t matter. I can’t die.” He began chuckling. It was funny and sweet, him living in only this moment—but what about . . .

“Lucas!”

“What?” The smile dropped from his lovely
cheer.

“What about our age . . . in the
future?”

He stared blankly as I struggled to lie down again. He shifted on his back and lifted his arm up. “Come here,
muñeca
.”

I rested my head in the crook of his arm. Lucas had unlimited funds. There had to be a fertility doctor who would look at him.
Though I suppose there probably hasn’t been research done on immortals’ fertility.

“You know I’ve thought a lot about this,” he said. “And the answer always comes back to me the same. The gray hair leaves me no choice . . .I’m going to marry you
anyway.”

“Ha! You might want to look at pictures of my grandmas before you make up your mind. I’m not sure my family ages
well.”

“Say yes, Zara.”

I nuzzled my cheek along his arm and breathed in his musk. “You smell
good.”

“Why are you tormenting
me?”

I laughed. “Why are you tormenting yourself?”

“What do you
mean?”

“Why would you want to be with me when I’m old and wrinkly?” I yawned. “Come on, it’s ridiculous.”

“Because I have no choice. Being
without
you torments me. I’d rather be tormented with you than without you. I love your beauty and all, but I love your guts more—the things I love most about you don’t age.
You
are my someday, and I will wait as long as it takes to get
you.”

My heart pumped with a happiness that I couldn’t contain. “I guess you leave me no choice
then.”

“Is that a
yes?”

I grinned. “Maybe.”

His chest rose and he let out a long breath. “I’ll take
it.”

“Good night, Lucas,” I said, and without a chance to even protest, I fell
asleep.

When I woke, Lucas had set recovery terms. No more late nights. We both knew we played with fire in my room, where somebody could hear us. I might have disagreed, but it didn’t matter, I didn’t have the energy to change his mind. Over the next few days we filled out applications to colleges out east, played card games (though it was nearly impossible for me to hold cards with both hands), and watched TV until eleven every night. I complained, but I had to admit that I felt much better for
it.

Later in the week, Dad insisted we stop at his shop to see the pictures from Mexico before going to the New Year’s
dance.

Lucas knocked on the front door promptly at ten in the morning. Max, who had kept his distance from us, watched intently, waiting for Lucas to make one wrong move—or to find something different about him. I could see in Lucas’s eyes the urge to help me as I maneuvered slowly down the stairs, but he restrained himself and crammed his hands deeper into his pockets.

“Gabriella and Dylan are in the car. She’s quite fond of your dad and insisted that she see the pictures too,” Lucas
said.