Keeper Page 22

Chapter 19

  My heart hammered. I wanted to yell—no, scream—but my voice only allowed a whisper. “That’s impossible. Delmari said he didn’t know my mom.”

  Aiden shifted uncomfortably. “I think Delmari loved your mom. And when she…died, that left the two of you. Luckily, you needed protection, too.”

  My mind refused to process it even though the evidence stared me in the face. This girl was my mom. That would mean Delmari was my…dad? Could that be right? I looked at the picture in disbelief. No, it couldn’t be.

  “Maybe it was another Taylee and Aileen.” I realized how stupid I sounded.

  “Do you always deny what’s in front of you?”

  The first vision rushed back to me: the girl running through the forest from those Rygons. She died. Where was Delmari? With me?

  Delmari told me the Authority assigned him to me just after I turned three months old. My mother died, shortly before and my father apparently ran off. He told me he didn’t know who my mom was or any information about her, when he would’ve been the best source.

  Suddenly, it all started sinking in.

  “Oh shit.” I tried to laugh, but it came out a frantic, jagged breath. The pain in my chest intensified and I dropped to the floor, wrapping my arms around myself. The Kember’s words hit me hard, like he said them all over again. If Delmari was such a good man, why didn’t he tell you who your father was? Why didn’t he speak of your mother or let you see a picture of her? Every word out of his mouth was a lie.

  All those times Delmari and I searched for information on my parents. Every time I asked a question, hoping he’d possibly know. Deep down, maybe I always knew he did. Funny how complete confidence in someone could blind you beyond reason. Everything I’d ever known, everything he’d ever told me was a lie.

  I clutched the picture in my hand, feeling the smooth texture crinkle beneath my fingers.

  “You okay?” Aiden asked.

  I nodded, hot, angry tears welling in my eyes. I swallowed past the lump in my throat, refusing to meet his gaze. I couldn’t talk. I could barely breathe. Every day for seventeen years, Delmari looked me in the eyes and lied to me. Actually lied—to me!

  I felt like I’d been abandoned in a foreign country. Nothing made sense. I didn’t know which direction would lead me where. Everything appeared and sounded different. Who could I trust? Who was on my side?

  “Why don’t you get off the floor?” Aiden held out his hand.

  My head ached. I stared at his palm, feeling like I’d lost all comprehension.

  “You have every right to be upset but we’re going to figure this out.”

  Figure out what? Delmari had been the only thing right in my life. My rock. My savior. Now? Now, I didn’t even know what to think.

  I wanted to know, understand why Delmari kept this from me. Too late. A tear rolled down my cheek and I quickly wiped it. He’d raised me like a daughter. He’d given me his unconditional love. Sometimes I wondered why he tolerated me. Why I was his weakness. Now I knew.

  “It’s better than the alternative, isn’t it? You thought your father deserted you. You wondered who he was. At least now you know he loved you and cared.”

  “Don’t you dare take his side!” My words sounded venomous. I sat on the bed, legs crossed, with Aiden next to me. “If he’d loved me, if he really cared, he would’ve told me.”

  “Taylee, he probably—“

  “Will you stop?” I kicked my legs over the side of the bed, I stormed toward the door.

  Aiden was faster and a lot more stable. He stood, blocking my exit. “I’m not taking his side. I’m trying to get you to understand—”

  “That he’s a fucking liar?”

  “That he did what he thought was best for you.” A flash of anger stirred behind his suddenly dark eyes. “Can you imagine if someone would’ve found out? Have you even paused to think about the severity behind this? If you spent as much time and energy trying to find reason as you did acting irrational, you may have a different outlook on things.”

  I clenched my fists and gritted my teeth. “Irrational? How am I being irrational about this? He-He—”

  “Lied. I get it.” His eyes softened and he lowered his face down closer to mine. “But you know what? Delmari was human—he wasn’t perfect. It doesn’t mean he loved you any less. He made every decision with your best interest in mind. I honestly believe that. If he didn’t tell you about him and Aileen, you better believe there’s a good reason.”

  I realized then how much a part of me needed to stay mad at Delmari. I didn’t want to be sad. I didn’t want to miss him. I didn’t even want to think about him. Every time I did, my chest ached and a nauseous feeling crept in my stomach. It hurt so, so bad. I bit my quivering lip; treacherous tears filled my eyes. Spinning on my heel, I turned away from Aiden and dropped onto the bed. Within seconds, the dam I’d worked so hard to build broke, releasing two months of pent-up tears.

  I wiped at the stream pouring from my eyes, but it just kept coming and coming. My body shook, and I failed to hold back the sobs. My throat felt sore and tight. I didn’t even know which issue I was crying over. Leaving Delmari to die? Missing him? His betrayal? Maybe all three.

  After my tears finally calmed, Aiden walked over and sat next to me. He kept his eyes cast away from my face, like he knew I’d only beat myself up more for crying in front of him. He waited patiently while I mulled things over and tried to make sense of everything.

  I’d never appreciated his silence or chivalry more than in that moment. I was beginning to think he understood me more than I did.

  “I thought Kembers and Dreas couldn’t have babies together.” I wiped my cheeks and glared at the wall. “What’s up with that? Delmari said… ” I closed my eyes, realizing for the first time, I couldn’t believe what Delmari told me. He’d probably been covering his own ass.

  “I’ve never heard of it. It’s not…natural, I guess. Not to mention that they don’t really get the chance. Female Kembers guard female Dreas. Male Kembers guard male Dreas. It’s not very common they get mixed.”

  “So why did they?”

  “Sometimes there’s a shortage in female Kembers. Then they don’t have a choice. Others, like in your mom’s case, request certain Kembers”

  “Yeah, then they get together, make babies, lie about it and die. Easy and fun for them, but sucks for the ones who get left behind.” I pulled my knees to my chest and wrapped my arms tightly around them. “Why did he lie? Didn’t he think I could handle the truth?”

  “Your father was a Kember and your mother was a Drea. He probably didn’t know how or if the race mix would affect you. The last thing he wanted was for someone to find out you weren’t normal.”

  “But I am normal.”

  “Yes.” He paused. “For the most part. I have noticed, aside from the physical ability, you have all the characteristics of a Kember. Every one.”

  “Maybe Delmari rubbed off on me.”

  “No. It’s not on the surface. It’s your instinct, the way you carry yourself. It’s who you are.”

  I tried not to get all uber-excited over the fact he noticed things about me. “So basically, you’re saying you think I’m half and half?” I wiped my eyes. “Is that even possible?”

  “Two Kembers have Kember offspring. Two Dreas have Drea offspring. Why not get a little bit of both with a Kember and a Drea?”

  As scary as it was, he made sense. My mouth opened, but it took a moment for words to spring out. “Isn’t there a way to find out for sure? I mean, Delmari and Aileen couldn’t have been the only ones.”

  “The attraction is weird, Taylee.” He paused, rubbing his chin. “I guarantee, if it’s happened, it hasn’t happened very often.”

  Except, it happened to me. Maybe I was broken like my mother, who had apparently been keen on getting busy with Kembers. “How do we find out for sure?”

  He took a deep breath. “I don’t know. I’m not going
to make phone calls and risk raising suspicions. Delmari hid it for a reason and I’m not about to go against that.”

  “So, what do we do? Sit here?”

  “We’ll deal with it on our own. I don’t see any other option.”

  We. It gave me hope. I wasn’t alone in this. “You think Delmari knew?”

  “I only observed you for a few moments before I figured out something was off. I’m positive he knew.”

  He had to have. Even I noticed how different I was from Skyler and all the other Dreas. I was aggressive and mouthy and always seemed to find myself in a predicament.

  “What a bastard.” My voice quivered.

  Hesitantly, Aiden reached toward me. His hand skimmed across the top of my back as he brushed my hair from one shoulder to the other. Grabbing the top of my arm, he pulled me to him, and I rested my head against his chest.

  My eyes burned when I blinked. I took a few deep breaths, inhaling his intoxicating scent and relaxed into him. I knew in the morning I’d regret letting him see me like this. Right now, I didn’t care. No matter how much I tried to deny it, I needed this and I needed him.

  “This is such a disaster.”

  “No it’s not.” He rubbed my arm. “It’s a little bump; one of those tests in life that shape who we are.”

  I had a feeling he’d had a lot of those. I tilted my head, gazing at him. “How many more do you think there are?”

  His lips quirked into a half-smile. “Well, I was hoping they’d stop after you turn twenty-four, but so far I haven’t noticed much of a difference.”

  I almost didn’t hear what he said. I stared at him, taking in his perfect-shaped lips and soft green eyes. There it was again. My heart sputtered as he peered at me, sending a flash of heat through my body. Mortified he felt my emotions, I peeled my eyes from his and looked down, taking a deep breath. “Well, the faster we figure out what these vision things mean, the faster I can push their obscenity to the back of my mind.”

  “I wish I could tell you. Now that the girl’s your mom, I have no idea. We can’t save her because obviously she’s already, well…gone.” His chest moved when he sighed. “There has to be a reason you’re seeing those things. I wonder…”

  “I hate when you do that.”

  He stiffened. “Do what?”

  “Stop midsentence.”

  He paused a moment. “Someone has to be planting those images in your mind. Both times you’ve seen the Kember. Maybe we should be picking up on something else.”

  I hadn’t realized until now that one of my arms had moved from my legs and rested across Aiden’s stomach. My eyes snapped open. When did they close? “Um, could be the Kember. He can communicate telepathically, why not create illusions and past memories?”

  “Maybe, but why would he do that?”

  “Same reason he hangs out in the girls’ bathroom—because he can.”

  Leaning back against the headboard, with his feet crossed, Aiden didn’t respond. Mind reading wasn’t required for me to know he was thinking through every possibility. His body felt tense and hard against mine, but strangely embraceable.

  I tucked my chilled arms close between us, submersing myself in his body heat. His smell. His touch. My mind couldn’t get past either. I closed my eyes and entered into the best night’s sleep I’d had in months.

  The next thing I knew, Aiden was shaking me awake, saying something about noon. I wiped what I hoped—but didn’t seem likely—was dewdrops off my face and rubbed my eyes. Outside, a white, cottony substance fell from the sky. For the sake of my short sleeves, I desperately hoped it was cotton or maybe even blossoms of some sort.

  Nope. Snow. It proved to be the icy bitch I anticipated as we walked the five miles back to the house. Instead of piling, like normal snow, it turned to slush, making the trail muddy and gross. My feet were frozen after only a few minutes of walking in it, but I didn’t care. My heart was just as numb.

  My white shoes weren’t so white when I got home. Peering into the mirror, right before I got into the shower, I realized the day for petty shoe problems were gone. “Son of a bitch!” I jerked my dirty jeans back on, secured my bra and raced down the hall.

  “Aiden, look.” I threw his door open, my heart hammering. “It’s bigger.”

  He spun around in the desk chair and dropped his pen when he saw me. He blinked and it seemed to take his eyes a minute to find the mark. “It- It is bigger.” The shock left his features and he leaned forward. “It’s a—”

  “Flower, yeah. What the hell does it mean?”

  Aiden reached out and rubbed his thumb over what was now, obviously, a stem. He continued up the arc of my hip to the new white blossom and rubbed it.

  I was too worked up and freaked out to care.

  “No idea. Do you know what kind of flower it is?”

  “What do you think I am? A freakin’ old lady flower lover?” I snapped.

  Aiden sat back and directed his gaze at me. He folded his arms across his chest, his expression telling me he’d put up with anything but my attitude right now.

  I took a deep breath and grabbed my hair at the scalp. Since we got home this morning, I hadn’t been able to shake the Aileen-Delmari taboo. Now on top of all that, I had to be reminded of this. None of it was his fault and I figured I shouldn’t take it out on him.

  I collapsed on his bed and put my face in my hands. “I just—”

  “It’s fine. Let’s look it up and see what we find.”

  I nodded, reached down and picked up his pencil. My pathetic attempt at a sorry gesture.

  He tapped his fingers on his laptop keyboard and called me over to his desk a few minutes later.

  I stared at the screen seeing the exact same flower that was now tattooed on my hip: white petals with yellow antenna things sticking out of the middle. It was actually pretty—when it wasn’t on me.

  “It’s a lil

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  y,” Aiden said.