Death's Awakening (Eternal Sorrows, #1) Read online

  Parrish cleared her throat and the four bullies turned toward her.

  Jason threw the backpack on the ground at the kid’s feet. “What do you want, Sorrows? This doesn’t concern you.”

  She raised an eyebrow and pulled a lollipop from the pocket of her plaid school uniform skirt. She unwrapped it slowly and threw the trash on the ground. “That’s not exactly true,” she said. “See, my locker is right here on the end by the door.”

  She put the sucker in her mouth and hooked her thumb toward the hallway.

  Jason narrowed his eyes at her. “What does that have to do with anything?”

  She slowly pulled the sucker from her mouth, all four of the older guys staring at her mouth now. “I can hear everything that happens out here,” she said. “Which means you made it my concern when you chose this particular spot for your bullying.”

  One of the other boys put his arm around the kid. “Bullying?” He laughed and squeezed the kid’s shoulder so tight it made him flinch. “We’re not bullying him. We’re welcoming him to Lawson Prep with a time-honored hazing ritual.”

  “Yeah, he should be thanking us for spending our time hanging out with him,” Jason said. He walked up to where Parrish was standing and got up in her face. “So if you’ll excuse us, freak, we’ll get back to our business. I strongly suggest you get back to yours.”

  Parrish didn’t blink an eye. She merely lifted her knee up hard and fast.

  Jason doubled over, grunting. He grabbed his crotch, then leaned against the brick wall.

  Two of the other guys walked toward her, their lips in a snarl and their hands fisted and tense. Parrish put the cherry-flavored sucker in her mouth. She kept her eyes on their hands. When one reached out to grab her shoulder, she grabbed his wrist before he could get to her. She twisted around, using his own momentum to throw him in to the metal door frame. His head smacked hard against it and he reached up to cradle his bleeding nose.

  The second guy reached for her hair, but she ducked just in time, then came up hard with both fists to his gut. She spun around as she stood, planting the heel of her heavy boot in his back. He groaned and fell to the ground.

  The fourth and final guy backed up against the large metal dumpster, his hands up in surrender. Parrish stared him down, then stared toward the door. He took off at a jog, taking his three bully friends with him.

  Parrish grabbed the kid’s backpack off the ground and handed it to him.

  He picked his glasses up and placed them back on his face, then took the bag. “Thanks,” he said. “I owe you.”

  Parrish shook her head. “How ’bout you learn to stand up for yourself and stop walking the halls alone so they can bring you out here, okay? I swear, I’m not going to help you again. Now, get out of here.”

  The kid took off and as she watched him push past the door, she met a pair of deep brown eyes staring back at her from the hall.

  Her breath stuck in her throat and her jaw opened slightly.

  Noah.

  He held her gaze and her heart hammered in her ears. She couldn’t force herself to look away. Had he been watching her this whole time? Her cheeks flushed with warmth.

  He took a step toward her, his eyes glossy and bright. She swallowed, breathless, then shifted her weight from one foot to the other.

  Was he coming to talk to her? She told herself she could care less what he did. They had nothing in common, anyway. A guy like Noah would never really get her. He was too perfect. Too gorgeous.

  Still, her pulse raced and her hand fell to her side, the lollipop forgotten but the cherry flavor still sticky and sweet on her lips.

  He took another step toward her, but before he could get to the door, high-pitched laughter shattered the silence between them. Parrish turned to see a rush of blonde hair sweep down the hall toward Noah. Karmen Hughes laughed and threw her arms around his neck, nearly toppling him over.

  “Noah! Where have you been, you dork,” she said. “Aaron’s been looking for you. You’re going to be late for practice.”

  Parrish drew a deep, slow breath into her lungs. Noah wasn’t looking at her anymore and none of the girls surrounding him now had even noticed her standing beyond the door.

  “Hey,” he said. “I guess I lost track of time.”

  “Well, you better get going. Tomorrow’s the big game and if you screw it up, the coach’ll kill you,” Karmen said. The cluster of girls around her giggled and Parrish wanted to throw up.

  She tossed her sucker into the big trash bin and walked silently into the building. She scooped her bag off the floor near her locker, then threw one last glance at Noah before she walked toward the front of the building and out to her car.

  Noah

  Noah stumbled as Karmen barreled into him. She was always doing crap like that.

  They’d been friends for years, and even though she was dating his best friend Aaron, she was always being all flirty with him. It was a little annoying, but he didn’t want to hurt her feelings by telling her to stop.

  “You’re definitely coming to my party after the game tomorrow, right?” she asked. She still had her arm looped in his and was pressing her body against his arm. Her breast rubbed against him and he tried to pull away, but she had a serious grip on him.

  “I’m not sure,” he said. He tried to look around the other girls to see if Parrish was still standing there. He’d just worked up the nerve to go talk to her when they’d jumped him in the hall. He didn’t want to make it too obvious he was looking for her, but he’d seen what she did for that boy and wanted to talk to her about it.

  Where had she learned to beat the crap out of guys twice her size?

  “No way,” Karmen said, pouting. “You’re not getting out of it that easy. You have to come or I’ll seriously be devastated. This is the first real party of the season. My parents will be gone for three whole days and we’ll have the house all to ourselves.”

  She raised her eyebrows as if she meant just the two of them. He wondered if Aaron was planning on spending the night.

  “I’ll stop by for a while, at least,” he said. “You know how my dad is about those things.”

  She rolled her eyes and some of the other girls giggled. “You worry way too much about what your dad says. Besides, he’ll probably be working late as usual and he won’t even know you’re gone.”

  Noah cleared his throat. She was right about that. His dad was gone all the time with work, leaving Noah alone at the house. Still, he didn’t like to upset him, and his dad hated parties like this. Everyone would be drinking and things tended to get way out of hand. Usually, someone ended up calling the cops around three in the morning before things settled down again.

  Karmen didn’t care, but she never seemed to care what her parents thought.

  He glanced toward the door again, catching a glimpse of the empty space outside. There was no sign of Parrish. He turned to look down the hallway and just caught sight of her braided black hair and combat boots before she turned the corner toward the main exit.

  Crap.

  Even though Parrish lived across the street from him and went to the same school he did, he never got a chance to talk to her. Whenever he did, she usually kept the conversation short and bolted as soon as she got the chance. He didn’t understand her.

  But there was something about her.

  “Earth to Noah.”

  Noah blinked and turned his attention back to Karmen. “Sorry, what?”

  Karmen followed his gaze down the hall but there was no one there. “You can be really weird sometimes, you know that?”

  He shrugged and pulled his arm away from her. “I gotta run,” he said. “I don’t want to be late for baseball practice.”

  “So I’ll see you tomorrow night at my place, right?” she called after him. “My friend Star from Bethesda is going to be there and she’s dying to meet you.”

  Noah waved and took off in a jog toward the field house. He’d only have about two minutes to get cha
nged into his practice clothes and get out on the field, but it would have been worth being late if he’d gotten to talk to Parrish.

  What was it about her that had him so twisted up? He couldn’t quite put his finger on it, but he’d been drawn to her ever since he first moved to the D.C. area nearly eight years ago. She was different, for sure. She had her own style with those boots and funky hair. She also had a major attitude, but that was all just surface stuff. There was something more to it.

  Something deeper that drew him in.

  He wanted to get to know her, but they didn’t exactly run in the same circles. Karmen and her clones always made fun of Parrish, but she didn’t seem to care. She seemed to like being alone all the time. In fact, he didn’t think he’d ever seen her with a single friend. That made most people go running in the opposite direction, but she was interesting to him. He was tired of always watching her from afar and never getting anywhere. He hated that he even cared what his friends thought of her.

  Next time he got the chance, he was just going to go talk to her. Screw what his friends thought. Why not? You only lived once, right? What was he so afraid of?

  After practice, he checked for her car in the driveway as he passed by her house, but it wasn’t there. Disappointed, he pulled into his own driveway and parked in the garage. His dad’s car was there, but the trunk was popped and there was a brown leather suitcase stashed inside.

  Noah’s shoulders slumped as he threw the Pontiac into park and got out of the car. A suitcase could only mean one thing.

  “How long will you be gone?” Noah asked as his father rushed around the kitchen, throwing loose papers into his briefcase along with a couple pieces of fruit and a bottle of water.

  “I’m not sure this time,” his dad said. “A couple days? Maybe longer.”

  “What’s going on?” Noah’s dad worked for the CDC—The Center for Disease Control and Prevention—researching viruses and working to come up with vaccines to combat the more serious ones. Usually, he was only called in to stay if there was some kind of emergency. Noah had learned a long time ago not to take these things too seriously. If the American public knew how often the CDC thought there was a possible emergency, everyone would be walking around in full hazmat suits all the time.

  “A new virus.” He paused and pushed his glasses up on the bridge of his nose. He shook his head, his expression full of worry.

  Noah sat down on a bar stool and picked an apple up from the bowl of fruit on top of the island. “Do they think it’s serious?”

  “It’s deadly. Seven people in Canada already and there are reports coming in of illness in some of the northwestern states. We’re working to pinpoint patient zero right now so we can make progress on a workable vaccine.”

  “Some kind of flu or something?” Noah asked.

  His father shook his head. “I don’t know. It’s not like anything we’ve seen in a long time. I’ll have to get in and study it more to help determine what kind of strain it might be. Harrison’s thinking maybe some mutation of the swine flu, but it’s hard to tell with what little data we have so far. One of the victims was a six year old little girl,” he said, shaking his head again. “They’re sending some tissue samples down from her home town for us to study and I want to make it to lab and set up before they come in.”

  Noah tossed the apple from one hand to the other. His dad placed his hand on the apple, gripping one of the Noah’s hands underneath. Noah looked up and saw the fear in his father’s eyes. He’d seen it a million times. Every single time a virus or threat came on the radar, his father got that look in his eyes. Like he was going to lose Noah to that virus and it was his personal mission to stop it before it got to him.

  “There aren’t any reports of it in this area yet, but from early indications, it’s spreading fast,” he said. “Promise me you’ll stay home for a few days until we get more information.”

  Noah stood and pulled his hand away, dropping the apple.

  “Stay home? You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said. “We’ve got the big game tomorrow against Northside. No way am I missing that.”

  His father rubbed his hand across his forehead and sighed. “Okay, okay. Go to school, go to the game, but come straight home afterward,” he said. “Wash your hands. Don’t touch anyone, especially if they appear sick. Be careful not to—”

  “Not to touch my face or my eyes,” Noah said. “I know the drill.”

  His father relaxed his shoulders and picked his briefcase up from the table. “I know you think I’m crazy, but this is serious. You never know which one is going to be the big one,” he said.

  “I know, Dad,” Noah said. “I’ll be okay.”

  His father nodded, then came around the side of the island and gave Noah a one-armed hug. “Just be careful. I’ll see you in a few days.”

  Noah hugged him back and watched as his dad disappeared into the garage and drove away.

  Karmen

  Karmen Hughes gathered her blonde hair into a ponytail and fanned the back of her neck. It was so freaking hot out here, even for May. Another thirty minutes and all her carefully applied makeup would be running down her face from sweat. Gross.

  Her best friend Kate elbowed her, then started clapping. “Go Aaron, wooo!”

  Karmen turned her attention to the baseball field. Her boyfriend of three years, Aaron Goldman, was walking toward the plate, swinging his bat around and looking into the crowd. Karmen stood and cheered, and Aaron smiled and winked at her.

  She was sitting in the same spot she always was—two rows from the back just behind home plate. She told everyone she sat here because this was where she had the best view of Aaron as catcher. Everyone always laughed, including Karmen, but the truth was that most of the time, she was much more interested in watching the pitcher.

  She glanced toward the dugout. Noah had slipped his red jacket over his right arm and shoulder to keep it warm. Her heart skipped a beat. He looked so good in his baseball cap and tight pants. He stood near the railing, looking out and cheering for Aaron as he took his place near the plate.

  Karmen stared at him a little longer than she should have, hoping to catch his eye. He never looked her way, though, which made absolutely no sense. What was wrong with him anyway? Did he seriously not even notice that she’d been trying to get his attention for the past six months?

  Or was he just trying not to hurt his best friend by stealing his girl?

  And if that was the case, how could she convince him otherwise?

  She liked Aaron well enough. He was cute and smart and popular. His parents were crazy rich and he always bought her anything she wanted, but that didn’t really impress Karmen. Her parents would buy her anything, too. So what? Money was just money.

  But Noah. He was different. Reserved. He had a quietness about him that made him seem like he was always thinking about important things. Like he was deep and really smart. Karmen didn’t even know why she liked that about him. She was usually more of the party type, which meant Aaron was perfect for her. So why was she feeling so drawn to Noah these days?

  The crack of the bat pulled her attention back to the field. Aaron threw his bat to the ground and ran toward first base, digging in hard. Karmen jumped up and Kate grabbed her hand. They screamed his name and cheered him on as he passed first and slid into second base just before the ball.

  “Are you excited about tonight?” Kate asked when they sat back down. Another batter headed toward the plate.

  Karmen stuck her hand deep in Kate’s popcorn and pulled out a handful. “Of course,” she said. “Isn’t everyone?”

  She smiled and Kate rolled her eyes. “Your parties do tend to be epic, I’ll give you that. How long did you say your parents are gone for?”

  “The whole weekend. The leave around six tonight and aren’t coming back until late Monday afternoon.”

  “You’re so lucky,” Melody said. She was sitting on the other side of Kate. For the past five years or so, the thre
e of them had been inseparable. “I wish my parents would trust me at home alone for more than an hour at a time, but they treat me like I’m still eight years old or something.”

  “I know, my dad’s almost never home, but Mom? She never leaves. That woman is seriously tied to the television twenty-four-seven,” Kate said. She offered her soda to Karmen and she took a long sip from the red and white straw.

  “Well, my parents are almost never home,” Karmen said. Ever since her two brothers had graduated and moved out of the house, her parents had been taking a lot more business trips and vacations, leaving her alone. It was the best thing that ever happened to her. “Lots of parties at my place this year.”

  “I can’t wait,” Melody said. “I already told Mom I was staying at your place tonight.”

  “Me too,” Kate said.

  Karmen raised an eyebrow and grabbed another handful of popcorn. “You two can share the guest room,” she said. “My room will be fully occupied tonight, if you know what I mean.”

  Her friends giggled and shoved her. Karmen played along, but the truth was that deep inside, her stomach was tied in knots. She’d promised Aaron he could stay over tonight, but only because he wouldn’t stop asking her about it. She knew what he wanted, but she wasn’t totally sure she was ready to give it up. Yes, she was sixteen as of two weeks ago, and most of her friends had already lost their virginity, but still.

  Karmen looked toward the dugout again, her eyes seeking Noah’s.

  Maybe Aaron just wasn’t the one.

  The Witch

  The witch drifted in and out of consciousness, trapped inside a web of dreams.

  Sometimes, she dreamed of Tobias. Of following him through the forest endlessly, tripping over stumps and roots, but never catching up to him. Sometimes, she dreamed of her life when she was a little girl in the Council’s orphanage. She was playing in the courtyard, catching fairies with her bare hands.

  Other times, she dreamed of a girl with purple eyes.

  In between the dreams, she saw only glimpses of the world she was now lost inside. A dark night with shadows all around and a single bright globe of a moon shining above. Or once, a flash of green grass and the blazing heat of a distant sun.