The Zeuorian Awakening Read online

  Her eyes settled on the leather bag. Her mother must’ve hidden it behind the fabric, the way she used the ripped lining in her purse to hide money and credit cards while they traveled.

  She felt the outside of the bag and stopped when her hand touched something hard behind the etched letters “Αλεξις.” That had to be the journal. She traced her finger along the fabric for any ripped or opened seam. Her fingers slipped between the fabric and inside a hidden pocket. But it was empty.

  The only other person who may know where the journal could be was Irene. No, scratch that. Irene would’ve known that half-breeds wanted to kill her and wouldn’t have sent her to high school.

  Actually, even if Irene didn’t know about the journal, she must’ve known her parents were murdered and suspected the people after her were willing to kill to get her. The police or DA would’ve told her when Irene took custody of her.

  It was time to confront Irene since she knew more than she let on. Hopefully whatever she knew could answer some of her questions, if not all of them.

  Lexi pulled out her cell phone from her back pocket and hit the speed dial button number one. The phone rang once and Irene picked up, “What’s wrong?” she asked.

  “I remember what had happened to my parents. Why did you lie to me and make me believe all this time they died in a stupid car accident?” Lexi said as furniture and other items in her room lifted in to the air.

  “Oh, sweetie.” Irene sighed. “I wanted to protect you.”

  Lexi took a deep breath, calming herself down and lowering everything floating in her room. “But you knew whoever killed them had to be one of the others after me.”

  “Hold on a second,” Irene said. “Let me go somewhere more private.”

  Lexi sat on her bed and closed her eyes. She focused on keeping her telekinesis in check while waiting for Irene to pick up the phone line.

  A few minutes passed before Irene spoke. “You’re right. I had an idea it could’ve been one of the people looking for you. Your mother told me a few months before you turned fifteen they had to leave town since a man tried to grab you in the woods and they were afraid others would try too.”

  “He didn’t try to grab me. He tried to kill me.” Lexi squeezed her hands together as the memory of him trying to kill her replayed in her mind. “I always thought he wanted me dead, because he couldn’t handle me being different. Now that I think about it, he had been following me before I talked to the boy. He was one of them.” She recalled her saying so in her memory. “So did my mother tell you anything about the people after me?”

  Irene drew in a deep breath and let it out slowly. “No. They didn’t have time to explain. Cheryl barely had time to tell me about the man attacking you before she had to hang up. I’m sorry. I wish I could tell you more.”

  “Don’t be.” Lexi squared her shoulders. “I remember who they are, well, what they are?”

  “What do you mean, what they are?” Irene asked, her voice trembling.

  “You’re not going to like this.” Lexi took her time mulling over the best way to tell her the truth about herself. “I’m an alien and half-aliens or rather half-breeds are after me. They have abilities like me, but not as strong. They can read your mind or control it. That’s how they killed Mom.” Her mouth went dry and she couldn’t finish telling Irene what had happened to her parents.

  “They could do that?” Irene voice filled with terror. “I-I w-wish I had known about the half-breeds,” she stuttered. “I would’ve done more to protect you from them, but I thought you were safe as long as you hid your telepathy from everyone.”

  “So did I,” Lexi said with a sigh.

  If she had known about being an alien and half-breeds were after her, she would’ve done a lot of things differently. But she can’t change the past. No matter how much she wanted too. She had to deal with what was happening now.

  “Did Mom ever tell you about my birth mother’s journal?” she asked.

  Irene took her time before answering. “No. I don’t recall Cheryl ever telling me about a journal. I wish she did. Maybe it could help us now.”

  Lexi slumped against her headrest. “Yeah it would.”

  It seemed learning more about the half-breeds and possibly stopping them from killing her was lost somewhere in her parent’s boxes or worse somewhere she would never be able to find it. Now her only hope of getting those answers rested in the hands of her Watcher.

  “Okay, what’s going on?” Irene asked. “You’re being too quiet.”

  Should she tell Irene about the accidents she had caused and her Watcher helping her? Irene may insist she stay at home and stop talking to her Watcher. If her telekinesis was a sign of what she had to look forward to as she developed all the powers her mother had written in her journal, staying at home won’t keep her from causing another accident and leading the half-breeds to her.

  She needed help. Right now her Watcher was the only person who could provide that help. “It’s nothing,” she said.

  “Just tell me,” Irene said, frustration edging her voice. “I don’t want to find out the truth after something bad happens to you and wonder if I could’ve stopped it from happening, if you had told me truth.”

  Lexi felt a pang in her chest. By keeping the truth from Irene, could she be following in her parents footsteps? Perhaps Irene would be able to provide her some help.

  “My telekinesis is growing stronger,” Lexi squeezed her knee with her hand, “and I’m having a hard time controlling it. The thirty car pileup was my fault, same as what had happened at school today.”

  “You did that?”

  “Yes and that’s not all.” Lexi’s voice lifted with excitement. “I spoke to the boy following me. He wants to help me hide from the half-breeds as a favor to Mom and Dad.”

  “I don’t know that doesn’t seem right. Your parents would never have trusted anyone with your life, but maybe they did.” Irene swallowed hard. “Only someone who knew you could track you down, since Nicholas Moore covered up any possible way the murderer could attempt to kill you again, being the only witness to his crime.”

  “What about the ambulance report?” Lexi asked. “I called nine-one-one after finding Dad’s body and told them Mom had been hurt. They would’ve sent an ambulance with the police.”

  “You saw your father’s body?” Irene sounded mortified.

  The bed shook and lifted in the air. “I wish I didn’t have to remember what that man had done to them, but it’s the only way I can learn the truth.” Lexi closed her eyes, focusing on lowering the bed as her head ached from over using her telekinesis. Once the bed rested firmly on the ground, she asked, “Do you think it’s possible they found me through the newspaper?”

  Irene thought for a minute before answering. “No. The DA wanted to keep it quiet about the murders. He said it had something to do with scaring tourists.”

  Then he had to already have known where she lived. One person came to mind. Tyler.

  Could he actually be her Watcher?

  His father helped cover up her parent’s death and anyway for the half-breeds to track her down. Tyler knew her parents and he spent the summer with her.

  Could that be what he meant about keeping a secret from her? He meant they used to date the summer she forgotten.

  Why not tell her? Why keep it to himself? Had her parents asked him to keep it a secret from her like they asked Irene to keep her being adopted and that people were searching for her a secret?

  Lexi sighed. ”I wish I could remember the summer. Then I would know who the guy was following me and why the half-breeds want me dead.”

  “You don’t know who is he?” Irene said, her voice hiking up. “I thought you spoke to him?”

  “I did speak to him, but only telepathically.”

  “Are you sure he’s telling you the truth about your parents and not trying to trick you into trusting him. Someone who hides their identity does it for a reason and it’s not always for the
good.”

  “He could be trusted. I think he’s the boy I dated the summer before my parents died and a half-breed.” She assumed since he could hear her thoughts and knew her parents. “Only someone who truly cares would turn his back on his own people and help me.”

  “Or he knows about the boy and using it to trick you into trusting him,” Irene said with matter-of-fact tone to her voice. “Until you’re positive he’s the boy you dated, you shouldn’t talk to him.”

  “But what if that’s the only way I can prove he’s the boy?” Lexi asked with a hint of desperation to her voice.

  “You’ll have to figure it out another way. Now promise me you won’t talk to him ever again.” Irene waited for a response. “Promise me.”

  The last thing Lexi wanted to do was stop talking to him. She was positive he knew who the half-breeds were and possibly how to stop them from killing her as well as how to control her power, but Irene wasn’t going to let this go unless she promised to stop talking to him.

  She let out an exaggerated sigh. “Fine, I won’t talk to him.”

  But that didn’t mean she couldn’t question Tyler.

  Still what if Tyler wasn’t her Watcher? What if all he wanted was to date her? She could be putting herself in a situation where she could cause another incident while attempting to confront him, bringing the half-breeds closer to finding her, if she hadn’t already with the incident in the cafeteria.

  13 ATTRACTION

  A cold breeze swept across Lexi’s skin the following Friday while she leaned against Robert’s Camaro in their auto shop class. She watched the dark cumulus clouds gather to the west, along the Pacific Coast, when a boy shouted, “We made national news.”

  Her heart sunk into the pit of her stomach. The national news picked up the story about the strange incident she caused. Oh, that couldn’t be good. She’d better move closer and see if anything in the article would lead the half-breeds to her.

  She slid across the Camaro fender and listened to the boy read the article aloud. “At 12:18 P.M. an earthquake of the magnitude of 6.3 hit the city of Brookings. The epicenter had been pinpointed under Brookings high school during their lunch break. Luckily, no one had been seriously injured. However, the damage to the cafeteria is estimated at $67,000 dollars.”

  She slumped against the car and ran her fingers through her long hair. The newspaper reported the incident as an earthquake. Would that tip off the half-breeds she caused it?

  “No it won’t,” her Watchers voice echoed in her head. “I looked it up and Brookings had earthquakes in the past.”

  Damn, she forgot to block her thoughts. She wanted to make sure no one could hear her thinking about her abilities and her Watcher if by chance one of the half-breeds happened to be telepathic like him and close by. But now that he spoke to her, she wanted to continue the conversation so she could attempt to pinpoint who he could be.

  “But don’t you think a 6.3 earthquake is too strong for this area?” she asked telepathically, scanning each boy in the room, in particular Tyler to see if he could be her Watcher.

  “You’re safe,” her Watcher said. “But you must avoid doing anything that’ll make you lose control again.”

  He didn’t have to remind her of that, but she couldn’t stop thinking about questioning Tyler. She glanced over at him. He stood next to a lime green rice burner with an oil rag in his hand and stared back at her.

  She wondered if it would finally be safe to question him now that her telekinesis seemed to be behaving? It had plateaued, no longer growing stronger. Thursday she had no further slip ups even when she bent over to pick up a book and Tyler brushed his hand along her butt.

  It probably would be safe to question him as long as she did it in class so if by chance he wasn’t her Watcher and only wanted to date her, he wouldn’t try something and make her lose control.

  Lexi pushed off the car and strolled toward Tyler. A smile spread across his face and grew wider the closer she moved toward him until she felt a hand grab her arm.

  “Oh, no you don’t.” Everett turned Lexi toward him. “You took a break long enough. I need you to finish removing the carburetor so I can work on my next task.”

  “You mean your next task where you continue to watch me tear down the old combustion engine same as you’ve been doing since Thursday?” She crossed her arms over her chest. “Are you intentionally trying to keep me busy so I don’t talk to Tyler?”

  The corner of his mouth twitched as he fought the smile forming on his lips. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

  “Yeah, right.” She shot him you’re-so-full-of-it look. “You have nothing to worry about. I only want to ask him a few questions.”

  “And look what happened the last time.” He shot Tyler a dirty look. “I don’t know what he said to upset you, but I have my suspicions.”

  “He didn’t violate me, if that’s what you’re thinking. He just refused to tell me something he knew about my parents,” she said, watching the fast approaching clouds while rubbing her aching temple.

  Everett stood in front of her and dragged her attention from the weather to him. “I don’t believe you. I saw him pin you to the wall as you tried to push him away. The past day he’s copped a feel of your body one way or another when you weren’t paying attention.”

  Lexi took his hand in hers and squeezed it. “I’m not going to leave the room. So he won’t be able to do anything bad to me.”

  “You’d think that, but he could pull you outside where no one can see you two. I rather you asked him with me standing next to you.” He gave Tyler a threatening look. “So there’s no way he can do anything to you.”

  Actually that sounded like a really good idea. He seemed to be someone she could trust with her secret, but she couldn’t risk telling him and accidently revealing herself to the half-breeds looking for her in the process. No, she should keep her mouth shut.

  “I wish you could come with me, but what I have to discuss with Tyler is private,” she said, side stepping Everett and walking away from the car as static electricity lifted the ends of her hair.

  “Dude, did you see that,” a boy yelled. “The storm changed direction and is headed this way.”

  The storm changed direction? She stood still and watched the black clouds as they moved toward the shop. The wind picked up and frantically blew the pages of her manual sitting on the hood of the car.

  She swallowed a lump in her throat. Did the clouds changing direction have something to do with the low grade pain in her temples? That was all she could handle, another damn new ability developing after what she had done in the cafeteria.

  Everett walked over to her. “Did you change your mind talking—” A loud thunder drowned him out. His eyes closed for a few seconds from the flash of light near the garage door. “I think we should move inside.” He escorted her to a back counter as the room lit up from another flash of light. “So did you change your mind talking to him?”

  Lexi glanced over at Tyler and then the clouds darkening and threatening to spit out lightning. “Yeah, I did.” She wasn’t going to talk to him if there could be a slight chance she had anything to do with the weather.

  Several bright flashes of light lit up the room followed by a loud boom of thunder right above the building, shaking the walls and the light fixtures. “I swear.” Everett stood next to the buffing machine on the counter. “If this keeps up there’s not going to be a beach party tomorrow night.”

  She smiled. She didn’t have to spend Saturday night at the party worrying about hurting anyone or revealing herself if by chance another ability came to light. “Finally something good is happening to me.”

  He turned and faced her. “You’re not going to the beach party?”

  “Oh, I’m going.” She slowly exhaled. “Angie’s determined to make me go out and have fun.” And put her in a situation where she couldn’t avoid Tyler.

  “It won’t be that bad.” He bumped her shoulder with
his. “If you like, why don’t you hang out with me? Then I don’t have to listen to Robert ramble on and on about how much he’s in love with Angie.”

  A large grin spread across her face. Everett actually asked her out on a date. Well sort of a date, if hanging out at a party counts as one. Maybe it was a sign he liked her more than a friend.

  They had their moments in the past where he seemed interested in her, but then he would pull away and go back to acting like a friend. Even though she knew it was risky to date a boy, a part of her wanted to go to the beach party with him.

  She didn’t see any possible danger, if they were only going to hang out together. “Okay, I’ll go with you,” she said, closing her eyes when a flash of light lit up the room, temporarily blinding her for a few seconds.

  “Wow that was close.” Everett pointed to a spot where a bolt of lightning had struck a few feet from the shop door. “It seems the lightning is only hitting around the shop. I wonder if all the metal has something to do with it?”

  Or it had something to do with her. Oh, please don’t be because of me, Lexi chanted in her mind.

  “Anyways.” Everett turned back around. “Do you need a ride—oh, no, watch out!” He yanked her away from the counter into his arms. The socket exploded and shot out sparks into the air. He glanced down at her, clinging to his body. “Did you get hit?”

  Before she could respond her hair lifted into the air just as lightning streaked across the room and struck an exposed power cord along the wall close to her. Every appliance exploded one by one and catapulted metal shards throughout the room.

  “Get down,” Everett said, pulling her to the ground and sheltering her from the debris falling down around them.

  The thunder rumbled from above and shook the building. Lexi covered her ears from the deafening noise that seemed to go on and on. Until all of a sudden everything stopped and the room went dark. Not a single sound could be heard, except Everett’s erratic breathing and his heart beating.