“The cave’s no good for you, Nate. You’ll thank us later.” Tristan stood next to Gabriel.
Seeing the twins beside one another, Scarlet’s heart squeezed. Nothing had changed in their appearances; they were both still ridiculously attractive. But, as she looked at them side-by-side, Scarlet’s soul screamed for the green-eyed brother.
Which made her a traitor.
What is wrong with me?
Tristan’s eyes shot to hers and she instantly looked away.
“Tell us more about the Head Ghost.” Tristan looked at Nate and crossed his arms in front of his chest.
“I’m sorry…‘Head Ghost’?” Scarlet looked around questioningly.
“The black object Tristan commandeered from your intruder is called a Head Ghost,” Nate explained.
“Commandeered? Really?” Tristan lifted a brow.
Gabriel said, “It’s a device designed to draw out memories from the brain. We believe your intruder intended to capture either some, or all, of your memories. Most likely, any memories pertaining to the fountain, or the curse…maybe even about us.”
Nate pulled the black band out of his backpack.
Scarlet swallowed. “Can that really be done? Does that…thing really work?”
Nate nodded. “Oh yeah. I’ve been hearing about Head Ghosts for a few years now. Pretty high-tech stuff. Really only moved underground. See this thing?” He pulled the tiny, sharp crystal from the band. “This is actually a very tiny syringe, holding a sleep serum.”
“Creepy,” Scarlet said.
Nate nodded. “Yeah, well. It’s useful. You can’t put the Head Ghost on a sleeping person and expect them to just surrender their memories to you. You have to put them into a deep sleep first. The sleep serum is injected right behind the victim’s ear, like a shot.” He pointed to a spot just behind his left ear.
“Ouch.” Gabriel made a face.
Nate shrugged. “It doesn’t hurt—the needle point is too thin and sharp, see?” He held the crystal up so they could all look at it. “The victim immediately falls into a deep sleep and remains there for four-to-six hours—or until they’re given the antidote.”
Scarlet’s eyes bulged. “That guy was going to put me into a deep sleep for hours?”
“Probably,” Nate said. “But the antidote is right here,” he pointed to one end of the band where another crystal—a black one—was latched, “so, maybe not. Maybe he planned to pull you right back out of it. I dunno.”
Tristan rubbed the back of his neck as he exhaled.
Scarlet took a deep breath. “Okay, so what does that mean?”
“It means you’re in danger,” Tristan said.
Scarlet swallowed.
“It also means you probably have a memory—or memories—that someone wants.” Nate smiled weakly. “You don’t, by any chance, remember any juicy secrets that someone would be after, do you?”
Scarlet shook her head. “I wish. Trust me, no one wants to know what’s in my head more than I do.”
Nate nodded. “Well, then, we need to assume your perpetrator has every intention of coming back. Which means we need to keep you, and your memories, safe.”
Gabriel shifted his weight. “I think Scarlet should stay here with us until Laura gets back.”
Tristan paced to the far end of the kitchen. “No way.”
Wow.
“You’re a jerk.” Scarlet snapped at Tristan.
He shrugged.
Nate stepped over to Scarlet. “How have your eyes been? They look pretty healthy right now, but have you noticed any sparks in them lately? Any changes in color?”
Scarlet looked at him in utter confusion. “What?”
Nate raised his eyebrows and looked at Gabriel. “Please tell me you told her how her eyes change.”
Gabriel shook his head. “She was already freaking out about dying and I didn’t want to—”
“Dude.” Nate held his palms up. “That’s, like, an important thing to tell her. She needs to know.”
“I need to know what?” Scarlet asked, panic rising in her chest.
Nate came over and smashed both his hands against her cheeks, making her look like she had duck lips. He leaned in and stared at her.
So. Weird.
Scarlet froze. “Uh…what are you doing?” Her words came out distorted through her awkwardly-puckered lips.
“Looking at your eyes.” He used his thumb to pull down the skin below her right eye and examined her like she was a foreign creature.
“They look healthy.” Nate released her face and stepped back. “Tell me, Scarlet, have your eyes been burning lately? Have they felt hot?”
Scarlet rubbed her face where his hands had been. “Uh…no, not really.” She thought about it. “Well, maybe a few times. Like when I have flashbacks, or when….”
She remembered how her eyes felt hot when she was standing so close to Tristan in the kitchen the night before.
Tristan makes my eyes hot. Yeah, she wasn’t going to broadcast that.
Nate looked at her. “When what?”
Scarlet shook her head. “That’s it. Just when I have flashbacks. Why? What’s wrong with my eyes? Am I losing my sight?”
Wonderful.
Not only am I dying, but I’m going blind as well.
It’s like the curse that keeps on giving.
“No,” Nate said shaking his head. “You’re not going blind. You’re dying.”
Scarlet blinked at his bluntness. “I know.”
“And the closer you get to death, the weaker your heart gets. Over time, your eye color intensifies, indicating your heart is close to failing. So, your eyes will get brighter and brighter…until you die.”
Scarlet;s mouth dropped open. “Seriously?”
Nate nodded.
She darted from the kitchen and into the hall bathroom to look at herself in the mirror.
The guys followed her.
She leaned in and looked at her irises closely. “Oh my g—they’re different. My eyes didn’t used to be this blue! They’re different now. They’re…weirder.” Her heart started to pound.
Tristan’s mouth tightened as he leaned into Gabriel. “I told you.”
Scarlet whipped her head around and looked at Nate. “What does this mean, then?” She pointed to her eyeball. “Am I almost dead? Could I die any second?” Her voice was rushed and high-pitched.
She was officially freaking out.
“No,” Nate said.
She calmed down a tad.
“But you are definitely going to die,” Nate continued.
She freaked out again.
“Unless we find a way to cure you.”
Scarlet looked at the three immortals in the bathroom with her. “Then what are we waiting for? Let’s go find that freakin’ fountain and cure me!” Scarlet nearly shouted, moving past the wall of boys and out into the hallway.
There was no time for bathroom pow-wows and paper towel doodles. Something had to be done. Immediately.
“It’s not that simple,” Nate said, following her into the living room.
“Why not?”
“Because we don’t know where to look. We can’t just pack up today and find the fountain tomorrow. I think our best bet is to come up with a new plan, and find a way to keep you safe and alive in the meantime.”
“I already have a new plan.” Tristan cocked his head to the said.
“Nobody likes your plan.” Gabriel didn’t look at his brother.
“Your plan sucks,” Nate agreed.
Scarlet couldn’t believe what she was hearing. “Who cares if a plan—any plan—sucks? Let’s just fix me! I could die any second.”
“Oh, no. You have at least a few weeks left. Maybe even months.” Nate nodded.
Through her teeth, Scarlet said, “That’s not very comforting.”
He dropped his head. “You’re right. I’m sorry. But if you want to be healed, what we need to do is come up with a plan. I put a call in to one
of my old contacts, looking for pictures of a recently-discovered map of the New World, so that might be a good starting place for us.” Nate looked at his watch. “I should hear back from him in the next few hours. Maybe then we can come up with a new search strategy. But for now,” Nate unzipped his backpack, “I need to set up my video games.”
59
Forty-five minutes and two-hundred wires later, Nate had transformed the spare bedroom upstairs into a video game haven. Scarlet listened to the three boys argue about the most efficient way to destroy an AWOL robot and realized she’d rather listen to Heather complain about last year’s footwear styles than one more minute of nerd-talk.
Nate pulled a few speakers from his bag.
“Surround sound, Nate? Really?” Gabriel pointed to the hall. “My bedroom is right next door. How am I supposed to sleep when you’re blasting aliens all night? Why couldn’t you just use the downstairs guest room?”
“First of all,” Nate adjusted a speaker and looked back at Gabriel, “the aliens are on my team—so I don’t ‘blast’ them. Second,” Nate’s eyes grew wide, “you know I have a wicked fear of sleeping underground. Basements are for bats and axe-murders.” He looked at Tristan. “No offense.”
Tristan shrugged.
Nate’s phone rang and he scrambled to answer it. He then proceeded to have a long conversation—in French—about…well, Scarlet didn’t know because she didn’t speak French, but she was pretty sure they were talking about maps.
Eventually, Nate ended his call and turned back to them. “Pierre just emailed me pictures of the map he found. Let’s go downstairs, print them out, and come up with a search plan.”
Finally, Scarlet thought.
The four of them went back downstairs and waited while Nate printed out the pictures.
The map made no sense to Scarlet, but she nodded her head and tried to understand what the boys were saying to one another as they poured over the pictures.
An hour and several map arguments later, Nate sighed. “Well, that sucks. There’s nothing here we haven’t seen before.”
Gabriel shook his head. “I was really hoping we’d have a new lead.”
Concern came over Scarlet. “So, the map is a dead end?”
Nate nodded.
“What now?”
“Now we go with my plan.” Tristan said, arms crossed as he leaned against the wall.
Gabriel and Nate ignored him.
“I think our best bet is to start from scratch. We’ll divvy up search responsibilities and see what we can come up with in the next few weeks. Who knows? Maybe we’ll come across something we missed before.”
They spent the next few hours plotting, arguing, and delegating search assignments. Nate was going to try and contact any modern-day treasure hunters. Gabriel would track down and analyze any ancient maps they hadn’t already seen. Tristan was in charge of reading through old journals and ship logs. And Scarlet would research the fountain’s existence online.
At the end of their session, Scarlet felt hopeful.
As night fell and cold autumn darkness came upon the cabin, everyone began to disperse, retreating to their rooms.
Tristan, who’d been less than enthusiastic about looking for the fountain from the get go, descended the basements stairs with a dark cloud over his head.
No surprise there.
Nate ran upstairs to continue battling mutant pirates or whatever his latest video game was about.
And Scarlet and Gabriel went up to his room.
Gabriel closed the bedroom door behind them and looked at her sympathetically. “How ya doing? Are you still scared?”
“A little. But I feel good knowing that we’ll all be working together to find the fountain. It’s better than just, you know, waiting to die.” She smiled, trying to lighten the mood.
Gabriel smiled back and pulled her into a hug. “You’re not going to die. We’re not going to let that happen.”
Scarlet sighed as she leaned her head against his chest. “I want to stay alive. I want to grow up and finish high school and shop with Heather on payday.”
Gabriel laughed. “Ah, payday shopping. So worth living for.”
Scarlet laughed softly. “Don’t forget the Kissing Festival. I have to stick around long enough to experience that at least one more time.”
“Without a doubt.”
“And coffee. If I died, I’d miss coffee.” She sighed, still in his arms.
“What about homework? Would you miss that?”
“Big time.”
“Cafeteria food?”
“Totally.”
“What about…high school dances with your awesome boyfriend?”
Scarlet looked up at him, still smiling. “No. I would not miss dancing.”
“Oh, you would miss dancing.” He started rocking her in his arms, and she laughed. “You would miss being swept off your feet.” He swung her around and began waltzing with her.
Scarlet was reminded of her dream about Gabriel quacking—or had that been a flashback?
She laughed. “No way. I wouldn’t miss dancing one bit.”
He kept swaying with her in his big arms and wagged his eyebrows. “Would you miss kissing?”
“Hmm.” Scarlet looked at him playfully. “I’m not sure. It depends on who the kisser was.”
He kissed her cheek. “Is that right?”
She nodded.
“Well, I guess,” he started kissing a trail back to her ear as she giggled, “I’ll have to make sure my kisses,” he ran his lips back down her face to her mouth, “are memorable.” He kissed her fully on the lips.
She kissed him back, closing her eyes. In between their lips coming together Scarlet smiled. “Mmm…yes, very memorable.” Lips still attached, they backed away from his door and fell into his bed.
Scarlet snuggled against the pillows and sheets, welcoming his big body crawling in with her. He wrapped his arms around her and kissed her harder, his hands sliding down to her hips.
The playfulness began to transition into something more serious. Something more intense.
Their kiss became heavier as they moved against one another. Scarlet’s breaths were ragged as she gripped his back, wanting to pull all his clothes off.
She met his mouth more fully as his hand glided up from her hip and under her thin cotton shirt.
The same shirt she’d had on for three nights.
Excited by his warm hand moving up her body, Scarlet arched her back—
And Gabriel pulled away from her.
Abruptly.
He sat back on the bed and stared at her stomach in shock.
Scarlet, laying out of breath and confused, looked down. Her shirt was pulled halfway up, exposing the skin she’d penned earlier that morning.
Gabriel’s eyes were fixed on the design.
Oh yeah, I meant to ask him about that.
She opened her mouth, her lips still swollen from his kiss, but was cut off by his voice.
“What is that?”
Scarlet looked down and blinked. “Uh…just, you know, my doodle. You’ve seen it before. On my shoes and stuff.”
Scarlet’s heart began to race like she was in trouble or something.
“But why…why did you draw it on your skin like that?”
Scarlet looked at him. “What? I draw on my skin all the time. Don’t be weird, Gabriel. I’m allowed to draw on my own skin. Geez! People need to stop—.”
“I don’t care that you drew on your skin.” Gabriel shook his head, his eyes never leaving her torso. “I care that you drew that on your skin.”
He said “that” like it was the mark of Satan or something.
And it very well could have been. Scarlet did have amnesia after all.
Maybe, in her previous lives, she’d been a demon-hunter.
Scarlet sighed and pulled her shirt down. “What’s the deal with the symbol, Gabriel? Why are you freaking out? Is it some kinda devil mark?”
Gabriel
shook his head. “No.”
“Then what is it? It’s not fair to get mad at me when I don’t even know what it is.” She lifted her shirt up again and examined the design. “It’s cool. It’s artistic. I dunno…I like it. What is it?”
Gabriel rubbed the side of his face. “It’s nothing.”
Scarlet dropped her head to the side. “Oh, come on. What is it?”
“No, seriously.” Gabriel said, his voice rising. “It’s nothing. It’s, literally, nothing. It’s just a stupid placement of shapes and lines. It’s dumb, really.”
“Then why are you freaking out about it?”
“Because,” his eyes suddenly caught on the lower part of the tattoo, “wait. Wait….” Gabriel swallowed and leaned back toward her, his hand moved down her ribcage and hip, tracing the design that dipped down below the top of her pajama pants.
He pulled the side of her pants down, baring her entire hip and lower belly.
“Gabriel, geez! What’s with—”
“You know what the whole thing looks like,” he said, more to himself than to her. “You’ve never sketched the bottom part before. You know the entire design perfectly….” Gabriel’s hands traced the bottom lines of the symbol as they fell in front of her hipbone, far below her belly button.
If it hadn’t been so awkward, Scarlet would have been totally turned on by his touch.
But it was awkward. And so not turning her on.
Gabriel let go of her pants and stopped stroking her sensitive skin. He sat back on his haunches and stared at the bed.
“What’s going on?” Scarlet was getting frustrated. “What’s the big deal with this symbol?”
Gabriel shook his head, still staring at the bed.
“Gabriel!” Scarlet smacked her hands down on the soft sheets in front of him. “Tell me what it is.”
He blinked and looked up. His voice was soft. “It’s nothing.” He paused for a moment, his brown eyes flecked with hurt and confusion. “It’s nothing.”
He hurriedly got off the bed.
“Wh—where are you going?” Scarlet sat up straight.
“I…I have to do something. And you need rest. So, just…get some rest. We’ll talk in the morning.” Gabriel left the bedroom and shut the door behind him.