The Keepers (The Alchemy Series) (12 page)

If I hadn’t gone shoppi
ng, I would have been in grandma type underwear and a sports bra. If I hadn’t gone shopping, Cormac might not have been staring at me like he was now. I had the stereo so loud I didn’t hear him come in. Wound up for days, I’d decided to grab a wine glass and a bottle of wine from the bar. So there I was; perusing wines with my breasts practically grazing my chin. The tiniest swatch of lace with some small ribbon like strands, were serving as underwear.

He clea
red his throat, and that was when I finally realized he was there. I wasn’t sure how long he had been standing there and my mind raced back over the last few moments and the poses I had probably presented him. I’ve never been one to blush, and I didn’t then, either, but I was as close to it as I had ever been in my life.

I went
to rush out of the room and that’s when I looked in his eyes and saw the heat there. I’d seen it before, but I hadn’t realized how much he had held back. My knees went weak, and I got a lump in my throat. There was no denying it anymore. Of all the men I’d met, I’d never been this sexually attracted to any of them. And it had to be this man? It didn’t matter how I felt. I’d never let this happen. Ever. He stood still in his spot in the doorway, as I squeezed around him trying to avoid all contact and ran from the room.

I didn’t leave my room again. I tossed and turned all night, and when I finally fell asleep, I dreamt of him. I dreamt of all the things I would never do.

When I finally poked my head out in the morning, he was there sitting on the couch with a room service table in front of him, eating breakfast.

“I ordered you pancakes,” he said, not bothering to look up.

“Any coffee?”

“Full pot of hazelnut.”

And just like that, we silently agreed to ignore last night. But something had changed. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to describe this difference if I had to, but it hovered, like an electrical charge in the air before a lightning strike. There had been flirtation before, but it had seemed slightly playful, now it felt dangerous.

“You ready to finish our conversation from the other day?”

“Sure.” I was more agreeable than normal, as I clung to anything that was nonsexual in nature.

“I had started to tell you, I need your help.”

“But you didn’t tell me why you needed me in particular.”

“Keepers are born with different levels of power.”

I nodded my head for him to continue, as I sat across from him and settled a plate of pancakes on my lap.

“We can’t all alter physics. Some of us can’t do it at all, some to a small degree. Each individual’s capabilities
are hindered or enhanced by the abilities they are born with.”

He placed a steaming cup of coffee on the table next to me. I loved the smell of coffee in the morning.

“I don’t get it. If you can alter physics, why can’t you just alter
their
physics so they can do it?” I asked while I watched him over the rim of my porcelain cup.

“It’s a part of our brain that controls it. The brain can be very trick
y. Several generations ago, several Keepers dabbled in trying to amp up people’s abilities.”

“And?”

“It didn’t go so hot. I’ve met a couple of the people who volunteered for the experiment. They aren’t quite all there anymore.”

My mouth formed a silent O, and he just nodded in agreement.

“You still haven’t explained how I’m going to help you.”

I put my plate of pancakes down on the side table and tucked my legs up underneath me. He sat forward on the couch, already dressed in his standard black slacks and crisp white shirt, his sleeves always rolled up, baring his corded forearms
, and the button at his neck was always undone. It was as if he tried to don the outfit he felt he should wear, or perhaps the one society expected to see, but found it too constrictive for what he really was.

             
“You are uncommonly strong. What happened the other night, when the portal went wrong, it wasn’t the first time. It has happened to me as well. Something, or someone, is blocking our absorption of the radiation.”

“And you can’t fix it?”

He leaned forward, resting his arms on his legs. “No. Meanwhile, we need to open the portal at least once a day. This is what prevents other portals from opening. The shorter the time frame between openings, the stronger the Keeper needs to be to open one anywhere else.”

“Why can’t you just stop transporting people?”

“If we won’t transfer people in and out, it will get very ugly, very quickly. It might even start a war. One I can’t take the chance of losing. Like I said before, a lot of things hinge on keeping things running smoothly. It’s also a matter of image. The weaker I seem; the more people will join against me. I don’t know how many Keepers they have now, but I can’t risk losing anymore to them. I need to not show any vulnerability.”

“So
, now you want my help?”

“You’re not just helping me
.”

“Yes, helping to clean up a mess that you
r people and your men started. These wormholes were nothing before your people. Now you guys screw it up, and I’m supposed to run right in and be thrilled to help you?”

“I think you are forgetting that the people
who started this whole mess are your people too?”

Shit. He had a point. “Okay, maybe you
’re right. But the way I see it, I’ve got no motivation to help right now. I help you clean up this mess and I’m stuck. I don’t help and I’m still stuck.”

H
e pushed his sleeves up a little farther on his arms. His biceps straining beneath a refinement that didn’t quite fit what I sensed was truly there.

“I’ll make it worth your while. Whatever you want?”

“Let’s see, hmmmm, maybe getting my life back would be a good start. Perhaps, even make me want to be cooperative?”

“You know that’s the one thing I can’t do.” He leaned his head down and ran his fingers through his hair
in frustration. “Anything else, money, cars, whatever.”

I looked away from him, and took the few steps to the window. I stared at the Vegas horizon
, as I liked to do. The Luxor’s black pyramid was one of my favorite sights, the lights glowing along its edges. “I want to know when you plan to let me leave, and…” I hesitated finishing. I hated revealing anything that showed softness, but this mattered to me. Deep down, no matter how jaded I had become, or what I said, I would do whatever I could to help avert the disaster that might be coming. I might as well get something I wanted. “I want to know who my parents are.”

As soon as the words left my mouth, I did something that I hadn’t done since a small child. I blushed.

“Deal. But I can’t guarantee anything.”

There was an odd tone in his voice. I took a deep breath and looked over
at him. “Stop looking at me like that!”

“Like what?” he asked.

“Like I’m some lost puppy you need to help. Just because I’m curious doesn’t mean I’m soft.” I walked toward my room.

“It’s okay to want to know your parents. We aren’t meant to be alone.” His voice indicated he was right behind me, following me as I walked.

“You have no idea why I want to know.” I got to the threshold of my bedroom door and turned to block him. “Don’t start thinking I’m some little girl that is all soft in the center and needs some man to save her.”

He was leaning on the wall outside my room. He looked at me, and then slowly smiled. “I think deep down, underneath all that blustering, you’re as soft as a kitten.”
His hand reached out and toyed with a lock of my long hair, then let it drop.

I couldn’t think of a single witty come back, so I cursed him and slammed the door in his face. I could hear the bastard laughing through the door.

“We start tomorrow,” I heard him call out before his footsteps retreated.

“Where’s Cormac?”

I turned to see Dodd stroll in the living room. “How would I know?”

“What are you eating?”

“What’s it look like? What do you want?” As much as I would like to complain about everything, there were a couple of perks to staying here that I couldn’t deny. The menu was insane. They’d make me whatever I wanted to eat, no matter what time I called it in. The turkey club sandwich I was eating right now was among my favorites. How could you go wrong with something that had bacon and mayo?

Before I knew what he was doing, Dodd
’s fingers swooped in and stole a quarter of my club sandwich.

“Hey! Go get your own food!” If Dodd hadn’t been one of
the men on the night of my almost murder, I would have offered him some.

“There’s no way you were going to finish that,
it’s huge,” he said in between bites. Then he had the audacity to reach in and grab some fries.

“You’re missing the point. We,” I pointed to him and then back to me, “are not friends.” I shook my head emphasizing my point. “You do not get
any of my french fries because of that.”

“What are we watching?” He plopped down on the couch across from me and kicked off his shoes. “What i
s this crap?” he asked, as he looked at the TV.

“I like ‘this crap’. You don’t need to watch it. You can leave.”

“Gimme the remote.”

“No.”

“So, I heard you’re going to start training?”

“Why do you keep talking to me?”

“Why wouldn’t I?”

“Because of what you took part
in? I would think you would realize what that means?”

“Yeah, but that was before. You’re one of us
, now.”

“I’m not one of you.” I’d always wanted to belong. What a joke of fate for these to be the people
who would accept me.

“I know we started off rough, but you are one of us. Fight it all you want, you’ll see.” He fluffed up his couch pillow, threw it behind his head, and continued watching TV.

I watched him settled in, made an unattractive grunt, and forfeited the living room to him. I’d barely made it back to my room when I heard Cormac come in.

“You ready to get started?”

“Coming,” I hollered into the hallway. It wasn’t my first choice of words for him, but I swallowed those back in an effort to keep the peace for now.

Cormac was standing in the foyer looking as sexy as ever, as he turned to watch me. It was beyond annoying. My knees went a little weak, as his pale blue eyes stalked my movements across the marble floor.

“Be there in five minutes boss man!” yelled Dodd from the living room.

“Why is he coming?”

“He wanted to help,” Cormac stated mimicking my inflection.

“Fine. I guess being around one murderer or two isn’t that much of a difference.”

“I’m not a murderer.”

“Did you order my murder?”

“I told you, it was complicated.”

I could hear the aggravation in his voice and I rejoiced in pressing his buttons. “You say toma
yto, I say tomahto. Same thing, isn’t it?”

“No. It isn’t.”

“Yes, it is.”

“
No, it…I’m not doing this with you.”

“You already are.”

“No, I’m not, I’m going to rise above this and I refuse to argue with you.”

“
As much as I’d like to debate how you really aren’t rising above anything, I’d rather know if you found anything out?” Ever since I found out about my mother, bloody in the church, the urgency I felt to find the truth had kicked up another notch.

“I’ve started the process. I have my lab running your blood sample against our databases. As soon as they find out anything, they are to tell me right away.”

I nodded, looked at the floor in disappointment, and I felt him lay his hand on my shoulder and start to run it down my upper arm in a comforting gesture that had the exact opposite effect on me, as I quickly stepped back out of reach. He didn’t touch me again but he did step forward, not crowding me, but giving me a strange sort of comfort none the less.

“What’s going on?” Dodd asked, as he joined us in the foyer.

“Nothing. Just waiting for you,” Cormac answered.

“Why does it feel weird in here?”

“Come on, we have a lot of work to do. I want her to be ready to operate a portal with me by Festiva.”

“What’s Festiva?”

Dodd answered “Once every year, we open up the portal and allow more people than normal through to join in an anniversary celebration.”

“Anniversary of the portal?”

“Yes. We are busier than normal the days before, bringing everyone over. If we don’t have this squared away by then, it could be very ugly,” Dodd continued as we left the penthouse.

“Is it a good idea to bring more over under the circumstances? I’m not a tactical mastermind of any sort, but wouldn’t you want less here?”