A Synchronized Tap Dance

 

Chapter Fourteen

 

When I open my eyes a petite woman with blonde hair pulled back into a bun is regarding me with curiosity. The grey in her hair kind of suits her. The way orange and black suits a tiger.

Which is such a weird analogy. I apologize.

I try to sit up and she reaches out a hand to help me into a sitting position. It feels like my head has been cracked open with a hammer. A lovely, lovely feeling.

“How are you feeling?” The woman asks me. The blurriness in my eyes disappears and I do a double-take of the woman standing next to me.

“You’re Mrs. Davenport, right?” I ask, ignoring her question in my momentary state of shock. Chase said his mom lived near the Company, so why is she here?

And why does a lady who has had three kids look like a model?

I look at her a little closer. High cheekbones, full lips, sparkling blue eyes (much like Chase’s), and a perfectly proportioned figure. If she wasn’t the brother’s mom, I would so hate her.

Chase’s mom smiles at me, her sparkling white teeth showing from behind her bubblegum pink lips. “You can call me Margaret.” She says. I nod once and look down at my hands with the tubes sticking out of them.

“Is everyone okay?” I ask, referencing my parents from the other night…day…week…whenever it was. And then I realize that Chase was there too. I almost re-edit my question and ask “is Chase okay?!”  But I realize how stupid that would be to ask. Chase could never get hurt. He controls minds for freak’s sake. Plus, why should I be more worried about Chase then my own parents?

I told you I’m all screwed up.

Margaret looks at me as if she knows what I’m thinking. I’m worried for a second that she’s a Reader (they read minds, obviously), but I remember that she’s a healer. “Everyone is fine.” She says, and her smile grows tight. I look down again at my hands with the tubes taped to them.

I give a dry laugh. “Except for me, right?” I ask.

“I assume Chase told you my Talent, right?” Margaret says, ignoring my question. I consider the question.

“Yeah, but to be honest, you don’t strike me as the exotic dancer type.” I say, dryly. Before I can stop myself, the words have already left my mouth. I always did have a problem with that. I look at Margaret, who sits open-mouthed, fumbling for words.

“Well—I mean, I’m not…I wouldn’t…he said…” She stutters. I press my lips together to stop a smile. Margaret stops talking and narrows her eyes at me. “You’re joking.” She says, accusingly.

I laugh. Margaret doesn’t laugh but she regards me with a new respect, I think. She then smiles. “I like you.” She says, approvingly. I laugh again.

“So, if you’re a Healer why is Chase out there freaking out about whatever’s wrong with me?” I ask Margaret. She bites her lip. “I mean, you can fix me, right?”

She shakes her head slowly, blonde pieces of hair falling forward on her face. “Wrong.” A pause. “Demetri is a killer. That’s not his Talent, he’s not literally a Killer, but with his Talent he can kill. And he has killed. Many times. So if he wanted you dead right now, you would be. Demetri is actually a Piercer, which I’m guessing pretty much describes the sound you heard in you head a few days ago, am I right?” Margaret asks me, her eyes serious now. I nod.

“Yeah, that’s exactly it. It’s like he was piercing my head with that…that sound.” I say, thinking back to the sound that was a lot like a knife being driven into my skull. Like I said: lovely.

“What Demetri does is send a piercing sound into people’s heads that almost paralyzes them from pain. The sound that he sends can’t be taken out of the victim’s heads…unless he takes it out. It can be relieved…which is what I did to you. But only Demetri can take away the mark of his Talent. Anyway. After he Pierces his victim’s minds, he then proceeds to kill most of his victims…only, with you he didn’t. Which makes sense, being that he’s on our side.” Margaret says, almost talking to herself now.

I pause and take a breath. What did she just say? “What did you just say?” I ask her. Margaret looks up, as if noticing me. “He didn’t kill you?”

“After that.”

“It makes sense?”

“After that too,” I sigh.

“He’s on our side?” Margaret asks, confused.

I clap my hands. “Bingo!”

Margaret realizes what she said that made me so shocked. “Oh, you don’t know, do you?” She murmurs, mostly to herself again. I sigh.

“Uh, no?”

Margaret looks towards the door. “Chase?” She calls out.

I groan. Not Chase. Not now. I’m feeling confused about my feelings for Chase right now. I mean, obviously he’s absolutely gorgeous and I’m attracted to him. But the feeling in the pit of my stomach isn’t just lust anymore…and it’s sort of freaking me out.

Chase ambles into the room, wearing dark pants and a fitted red t-shirt that looks good with his dark hair.

My stomach and heart do a little synchronized tap dance that sends a flush to my cheeks. Wonderful. Just wonderful.

He looks at me, a smile growing on his face. “You’re up.” He states, looking at me with a certain amount of relief. Yeah, I think to myself. I’m not dead yet.

“Yupp,” I say, always the conversationalist. Truth be told, I’m concentrating on my tap dancing organs too much to listen to what he’s saying.

I see Margaret look at us, and a with a sweet smile she says, “I’ll be back in a minute.” She pats Chase’s shoulder as she leaves the room, having to reach up to do so, and then leaves quietly.

Chase sits down in a chair beside my bed. I guess I’m in the infirmary again. Go figure.

“How’re you feeling?” Chase asks me, watching my face closely. I shrug and the tube in my hand pulls a little. My stomach churns. Gross. “Are you okay?” Chase asks me, noticing my greenish face.

“Oh, I’m peachy.” I say before pulling the tube out of my hand, leaving a small red cut behind that closes up as if by magic. My stomach churns again and Chase looks concerned. “No, really.” I continue. “You don’t have to babysit me if you don’t want to.” I’m trying to relieve him of his duty to watch me twenty-four seven, but he doesn’t leave.

“What if I do want to?” He asks me, eyes tinting mischievously.

I look at him and say, “Why would you want to babysit me?”

But Chase doesn’t answer my question. He ignores it, in fact. Charming.

“Why didn’t you use it?” He asks me softly. I’m sitting up in bed, feeling a whole lot better, but now I feel my head go dizzy from confusion.

“Uhhh…do what?” I ask, stupidly. Chase picks at a thread sticking out of the blanket on my hospital bed. When I ask “what” he looks up, and his incredible blue eyes lock on mine. Even if I had wanted to, I wouldn’t have been able to look away. Something about the pull in his eyes…

“Why didn’t you use your Talent at the party a couple of weeks ago…with Demetri…why didn’t you…use your Talent.” Chase’s voice is deep and smooth yet at the same time rough. His eyes are honest—hiding no secrets, like they sometimes do.

I feel my stomach churn when I think of the party and Demetri’s assault of sorts. I cringe when memories flood back to me. Being shoved into a room, door is closed, music is loud, and nobody will hear me scream. Pushed against the wall, Demetri hits me, shirt is off, hands on my body, off…get off, push him away, can’t…he hits again, ouch, this time it hurts.

I cringe again. I don’t want to think about it anymore. “Stop,” I hear myself say quietly, almost inaudible. I was saying it mostly to myself, but Chase thinks I’m talking to him and looks at my face, his own twisting into a look of regret.

“You don’t have to answer me,” Chase says quickly, trying to block out my memories, I can tell. It feels like somebody is probing around in my head and it’s quite bothersome. Memories keep coming though; even Chase’s Controlling won’t help that now.

Demetri’s lips against mine, brutal and demanding. I can’t push him away.

“Stop,” I repeat and hold my hands up to my head, as if that’ll stop the memories from flooding my brain. The pain—that sound—is filling my head again and all I can feel is pain. Pain and memories.

What a freaking happy feeling. Pain and memories. Lovely; now I sound emo.

“Skye!” I hear someone shout. I’m shaking again, I can tell.

More probing around in my head. Stop.

I groan and then, almost as if by miracle, the pain stops. The memories leave. Well, I mean, not completely. The pain is still there—and the memories are too.

But they’re faded now and it’s not to the point where I want to run head-first into a brick wall.

I know, right? I live such an envious life.

“Skye?” Chase asks me worriedly. I open my eyes and his face is inches from mine, hovering over me anxiously, making sure I’m okay.

“I’m fine,” I say, breathlessly. God, he’s beautiful. I’ve mentioned that right? He’s absolutely, freaking beautiful.

At first, Chase doesn’t move away, which makes me quite happy, and a little bit nervous. Okay, okay, a lot nervous.

But then he moves. And not closer to me, as I was hoping, but away from me, and he flops down into the chair beside my bed again.

“I didn’t mean to force you to…remember.” Chase says cautiously. I sit up.

“It’s okay.” I say, and stare down at my hands. “What was your question again?”

Chase looks like he doesn’t want to tell me, but probably realizing that I’m relentless, he decides to. “I was just wondering why you didn’t…use your Talent and…Persuade Demetri to leave you alone.”

I sigh as a cold feeling creeps over me. A feeling of not knowing who I am, which is something that I’ve never felt before. I’ve always thought I knew who I was. I knew that I was a Persuader, a Full-Talent. I knew that I helped people—I trained them. And I knew that I did it for the Company. The Company, which was supposed to keep us all safe.

But I’ve found out in the last few weeks that The Company is in fact the opposite of helpful. I’ve found out that the very guy that assaulted me is actually on “our side”, which means he’s not the bad guy that I know he is. I’ve also found out exactly what I then tell Chase.

“I couldn’t. I tried to Persuade him, but I couldn’t. I was defenseless against him and I don’t know why. Ever since that night, I’ve been trying to use my Talent on people. I can’t. It’s like I don’t have that Talent anymore, which is impossible since I’m a Full-Talent and Talents don’t just change. Unless…” I say, coming to a sudden, scary realization. “Unless I was never a Persuader.”

I look at Chase, whose eyes have grown dark and hooded. I see him take a breath and reach out a hand, his finger brushing my cheek in a caress. And then (the universe REALLY DOES HATE ME!) somebody walks through the door with a grin on his face.

And of all people—of all the freaking people—Demetri is standing there, smiling, and Chase drops his hand.

Reviews

[hales <3]

omg i cant wait to read the next chapter!!!
you have no idea!
or maybe you do ahaha
with every chapter I'm constantly amazed by your incredible skillz
I'm in LOVE with your characters and this mind-blowing storyline
you're such an AMAZING writer (and friennnnnnnd :])
dont forget me when you're famous mmk?
love ya lots
:]

[Anya]

oooooh my left shoe... please, please keep writing it!! I love it so much! I look forward to reading it after school :) Thanks for putting this up :) :)

[Rusty]

Wow, this book is really keeping me on my toes....I'm so glad you keep writing, but I'm a little sad because I want more. Thank you so much for sharing your story. I feel like I'm with the characters, great stuff.