The Zeuorian Awakening Read online

  The Zeuorian Awakening

  Cindy Zablockis

  Published by CZ Publishing, LLC

  Copyright © 2013 Cindy Zablockis

  The ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return it to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

  CZ Publishing, LLC

  Round Rock, TX 78681

  Visit our website at http://www.czpublishing.com/

  First Edition: Sept 2013

  This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used factiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

  The ZeuorianTM is a trademark of Cindy Zablockis

  Photography ©2013 Igor Balasanov/Vetta Collection/Getty Images

  Book and jacket design ©2013 CZ Design Co.

  DEDICATION PAGE

  DEDICATION

  For my mother, Lois Zablockis, without your help, I wouldn’t have been able to complete this book.

  And for my husband and son, thank you for your understanding and support the past couple of years.

  CONTENTS

  1 TRANSFORMATION

  2 MAN IN THE WOODS

  3 STRANGER

  4 FOLLOWED

  5 MIND BEND

  6 FALLING

  7 THE TALK

  8 MIND OVER MATTER

  9 BRACE FOR IMPACT

  10 SHAKEN TO THE CORE

  11 MEMORIES

  12 FAMILY SECRETS

  13 ATTRACTION

  14 UNINVITED GUEST

  15 STORM

  16 RESCUE

  17 AFTERMATH

  18 EYE OPENER

  19 SUBTLE HINTS

  20 STALKER OR WATCHER?

  21 THE COMMUNITY

  22 A NEW DAY

  23 PRACTICE MAKES PERFECT

  24 NARROW ESCAPE

  25 SURPRISE VISIT

  26 MAKING A STAND

  27 STEALING MEMORIES

  28 FIRST ENCOUNTER

  29 DETERMINATION

  30 CORNERED

  31 CONFRONTATION

  32 GOOD NEWS

  Sometimes learning the truth is worth risking everything even your life.

  1 TRANSFORMATION

  Lexi had a nagging feeling something bad was about to happen to her, but she never expected this. She lifted her hand from the salt water and blinked several times. Her bones were glowing through her pale color skin.

  No, I can’t be glowing. It must be the sunset playing a trick on my eyes.

  She stuck her arm into the water. The typical cold Oregon Ocean warmed and bubbled around her. Her glowing bones shined on the coral attached to the massive rock a few feet from her. Every bump, crevice and crack on the surface became visible to her. Even the sea creatures that normally blended with the rock were visible from her glowing arm.

  That couldn’t be right. It had to be an illusion.

  She plunged her other arm into the water and the light shined brighter on the rock. The temperature of the water warmed even more as large waves formed around her. The waves thrust her body back and forth until she slammed hard against the rock.

  A sharp pain radiated from the back of her head and down her spine. Then she felt nothing. Not the gentle breeze brushing across her back. Not the waves lifting and lowering her limp body. Not even her lungs inflating while taking a breath.

  Nothing.

  Slowly the water faded into darkness, followed by the glow on her skin. The loud roar of the sea transformed into the slow rhythmic beat of her heart. Thump, thump . . . thump, thump . . . thump . . . thu-ump . . . silence.

  A seagull squawked, waking Lexi from her sleep. She opened her eyes and looked up at the black sky, dusted with twinkling stars. She moved her aching hand and grains of sand slipped between her fingers.

  What happened? Did someone save her?

  She sat up and glanced around the dark beach. The sand stretched across the coast to the rocks stacked along the bottom of the cliff. To her right was a dense forest cast in shadow, but no one seemed to be close by.

  She must’ve washed ashore after, oh, no. Thoughts of her glowing flooded her mind.

  Lowering her head, she searched her body for a single hint of a glow. She scanned her feet and moved up along her legs to the white bikini that hugged her narrow hips and finally ended at her slender arms.

  Her skin appeared a neon color green that shined on the sand similar to the glow on a screen after turning off the monitor in a dark room. A sign the glow would burn out soon and she’d be normal again, at least she hoped.

  What a relief. She slumped back and rested her palms on the sand. Now she wouldn’t have to worry about anyone seeing her body glowing while going home unless someone showed up before her glow disappeared.

  She scanned the beach one more time, looking for anyone who could be close enough to see her skin glowing. Her heart skipped a beat when she saw the most popular boy in school and to some girls—a God. He brushed a few strands of his jet black hair, dripping wet, off his face while stepping off the rocks in her direction.

  No, no, no. Why did Tyler have to walk over to this part of the beach? He was the most talked about person at school. He documented and posted his entire life on the web for the whole world to read. If he saw her glowing, everyone in school would know before midnight about it.

  She leaped to her feet and ran into the woods to get away from him. Then she stood behind a tree and checked to see if Tyler had seen her.

  He continued to walk across the sand toward the spot she had been lying. A white box swung back and forth in his hand. As far as she could tell, he hadn’t seen her on the beach. She still had a chance to avoid him seeing her glowing.

  She spun around and took off into the woods. The woods were darker than she expected, but she refused to let that slow her down. She ran faster, side stepping bushes and low hanging tree limbs until her foot got caught on a rock and she fell on a pile of pine cones. The hard cone shells let out a large cracking noise as she crushed them with her body.

  “Who’s there,” Tyler shouted in the distance. “Is that you Lexi?”

  Oh, no, he knew she was there.

  She sprinted deeper into the woods as he chased after her. The sound of his heavy panting grew louder and louder. Damn, he was gaining on her. No surprise. He was the star quarterback and fast.

  She ducked behind a large bush and watched Tyler run passed her. The neon blue trim on his swim trunks dulled the farther her ran until it disappeared. Once his breathing faded into the distance, she sprinted across the highway, dodging cars on the way, and continued to run until she reached her two-story house.

  Gripping the door knob, she yanked it to the right and the door opened. She rushed inside, calling to her aunt, “Irene, are you home?”

  She stopped near the kitchen door at the foot of the stairs. The white satin cake with seventeen candles sat in the middle of the round wood table. The same place she’d left it before ditching her birthday party Irene threw against her wishes.

  Next to the cake she noticed a half-empty cup of coffee and a newspaper open to the local news section. Irene must’ve waited for her to come home and eventually gave up and retreated upstairs, Lexi assumed.

  She rushed up the stairs toward the tiny hall barely lit by a low watt bulb while calling out, “Irene, where are you?” But when she reached the top
of the stairs, the three bedrooms were dark and a note was stuck to bathroom door.

  “Lexi, I went to the hospital,” Irene wrote. “One of the doctors in the ER got sick and I had to take their shift. There’s a frozen dinner in the freezer for you.”

  Great. Irene won’t be back until after 7 A.M.

  Lexi rubbed the back of her head, throbbing from her hitting it on the rock. When she glanced at the palm of her hand, blood and sand covered it. Damn, she better take care of her wound before it got infected.

  She walked into the bathroom and flipped the light switch to check the back of her head. When her eyes caught sight of her reflection in the mirror, her mouth went dry and a tiny gurgling noise escaped her lips.

  What happened?

  She pressed her body against the sink to get a better view of herself. Her freckles had washed away. Her strawberry-blond hair had darkened into a beautiful auburn color, accentuating her emerald-green eyes and her boyish figure had filled out in all the right places. She looked like a totally different person from the one she had been a few hours ago.

  This was strange even for her. She was born with the abilities to read others minds and receive premonitions or rather gut feelings when she sensed danger. From what she read on the web, those abilities were, well, not too out of ordinary compared to transforming. That was something straight out of a comic book or a movie.

  The phone rang and Lexi knew instantly who it could be, Angie, her best friend, probably calling to discuss their class schedules. Oh, no. She forgot. School started tomorrow.

  This was off the chart, end of the world bad. Tyler had been throwing a party at his beach house when she walked by. She couldn’t recall anyone seeing her other than Tyler. If she went to school, he would know she had transformed overnight, unless he already knew. She bit her lower lip.

  He could’ve seen her glowing on the beach before she ran and saw her new appearance? That would explain how he guessed it was her in the woods. Or Worse. What if he saved her from drowning and came back after grabbing a first aid kit to tend to her wound.

  He did have a white box in his hand, similar to a store bought first aid kit. If he had saved her, then he would’ve seen her body glowing as well as her new appearance up close.

  But would he tell anyone?

  He was known to keep secrets, playing the attractive, mysterious boy to all the girls, but even he couldn’t resist sharing this juicy information with his teammates and probably on his Facebook page. No not Facebook. Anyone could read the posting on his personal page without being one of his friends.

  Lexi cringed. There was only one way to know if he told anyone.

  She ran out of the bathroom to her bedroom and over to her computer desk under the tiny window. It took several minutes for the computer to boot up before she could log on to Facebook. She typed into the search box, “Tyler Moore.” His personal page appeared on the screen. There were over fifty messages posted on his page within the last twenty minutes.

  How could there be so many messages already?

  She scrolled down the page to the first message he received from a boy named Steve and read, “Dude where did you go? You missed Amber’s bikini top falling off in the pool.”

  “I don’t think Tyler’s back yet,” a boy named Neal replied.

  She scanned over the rest of the messages and there weren’t a single reply from Tyler, but he could post a message later or talk to someone in person about her glowing and changing.

  When that happened would the person he told be cool about it like Angie had when she discovered what she could do or would they freak out like the man who had tried to kill her when she was fourteen years old.

  2 MAN IN THE WOODS

  An hour later Lexi placed her cell phone on the dresser next to a photo of Angie holding a brand new Gucci backpack. Then she grabbed a worn camisole from a drawer and pulled it on. The fabric stretched over her newly curved chest until the seam split open under her arm.

  Great. Lexi checked if the seam could be repaired, but to her dismay it couldn’t.

  She picked up her cell phone and continued her conversation with Angie. “I think I need to buy new clothes.”

  “Really?” Angie said with a hint of surprise to her voice. “You’re actually going to buy clothes?”

  “I bought clothes before.” Lexi said, a hint of defensiveness to her voice.

  “Yeah right, says the girl who wears her mother’s hand me downs.” Angie scoffed. “But if you’re serious about going shopping, we can go after school tomorrow. I already know the perfect places to—”

  “Don’t get too excited.” Lexi stopped Angie before she planned out their shopping trip. “I’m not going to school. I, uh-hum,” she cleared her throat, “brace yourself Ang. Something strange happened to me today when I went swimming in the ocean. My body lit up like a light bulb and I changed afterwards.”

  “Changed, exactly how?” Angie asked. “Did you metamorphous into a creature or something?

  “No.” Lexi took a picture of herself and sent it to Angie’s cell phone. “Take a look for yourself.”

  “Wow,” Angie said. “You’ve always been great looking. Now, oh, man, I hate you. Why can’t my looks change?”

  “This isn’t that great. I freakin’ transformed like a character in a movie.” Hopefully not a horror movie.

  “Do you know why you changed?”

  Lexi had no idea why she transformed. All her life she considered herself gifted and able to tap into the part of the brain scientist claimed allowed a person to speak telepathically and receive premonitions. Now that her body transformed, she didn’t know what to think. It wasn’t something she ever read online or in a book, well, except a superhero comic book.

  Superhero. She pondered what she knew about them. Most of them had acquired their powers through a freak science experiment that had gone haywire or an accident involving hazardous material or they came from another planet.

  Well, she’d never fallen into a pool of nuclear waste or been experimented on as far as she knew. She didn’t seem to be an alien. Her blood was red like a human. Her body temperature 98.6 degrees like a human.

  “No I don’t know why I transformed,” Lexi said with a sigh. “But there has to be a reason and I plan to find out what it is.”

  “I still don’t understand why you can’t go to school,” Angie said. “No one is going to know you transformed. You really haven’t changed that much. Your coloring is darker, but overall, you look the same. I’m sure everyone will assume you developed into a major hottie over the summer.”

  “Thanks. I think.” Lexi rolled her eyes. “But Tyler may know my appearance changed in less than a day.”

  “How would he know, unless,” Angie’s voice hiked up, filled with excitement, “did you two hook up?”

  Lexi smacked herself in the forehead. Why did she mention Tyler? It would only lead to Angie playing matchmaker with Tyler and her again. Even though she thought he looked hot, she swore off boys so she could focus on getting into MIT and avoid another person figuring out what she could do.

  “I think I need something to drink,” Lexi said, walking out of her room and avoiding continuing their conversation about Tyler.

  “Oh, no you don’t,” Angie said. “You’re not going to leave me hanging after dropping that bomb on me.”

  Lexi sighed and continued down the stairs and into the kitchen, ignoring Angie as best she could. She opened up her refrigerator and pulled out a bottle of orange juice.

  “Lexi come on stop stalling and tell me what had happened,” Angie pleaded with her.

  “It really was nothing.” Lexi sipped orange juice from the bottle. “I ran into him while walking toward the beach and he may have pulled me to shore after I hit my head on the rock.“

  “Really, Tyler saved you?” The sound of Angie tapping her long manicured finger nails on her cell phone echoed through Lexi’s speaker. “You should talk to him. I bet my entire wardrobe he’ll be
cool about it like I had been when I discovered what you could since everyone knows he’s crazy about you and has been for the past two years.”

  “No way.” Lexi slammed the bottle on the counter. “I’m not going to talk to him about transforming. Just because you were cool discovering I could read your mind that doesn’t mean he’ll be cool about it. Its better I avoid him.”

  “Lexi, I know your parents scared you into keeping what you can do a secret, but you have to learn to trust other people besides me or you’re going to end up completely alone. I’m sure Tyler would never do anything to hurt you. So talk to him.”

  “I’m not avoiding him because of a warning my parents told me. It has to do with—” Lexi sucked in a deep breath and debated whether to tell Angie the real reason she didn’t want anyone to know her secret. Dammit. She better tell Angie before she told Tyler in an attempt to hook them up.

  “There’s something I never told you before. It’s difficult for me to talk about, but,” Lexi chewed on her lower lip before continuing, “when I was fourteen a man tried to kill me after he realized I could read others minds.”

  She still could recall his black soulless eyes glaring down at her as he pinned her to the ground and said in a low voice, “You’re very pretty. You remind me of an angel—pure and innocent. I wish I could keep you for all of eternity and make you my own, but,” he pulled out a large hunting knife with a long serrated blade from his pant waist band and lifted it up high before he continued to say, “you’re the spawn of the devil and because of that I must kill you before you destroy us all with your powers.”

  She bit his hand covering her mouth, until he jerked it away from her. Then she screamed, “Mom, Dad, help—“

  He struck her face with his fist. The force of the blow made her head spin as she struggled to remain conscious. He lifted the knife up in the air and thrust it at her chest. She closed her eyes and waited for the blade to pierce her heart.

  But the blade never reached her chest. It flew out of the man’s hand and hit a redwood tree when her father kicked the man. The man scrambled to reach for the knife, but her dad held a gun to his head and shouted, “Cheryl, grab Lexi. I’ll take care of him.”