The Key Read online

  She didn’t like that question at all. When she thought about Chase not being her friend any longer, it felt as if she’d swallowed a brick… whole. Yeah, that’s the kind of thing a dork would do.

  Since her grandma had yet to come downstairs, Maddie wrote a note saying she’d left early for school. She didn’t explain it was because she was walking. Some things Grandma didn’t need to know.

  Bundled up, Maddie left, locking the door behind her. The cold morning wrapped frigid arms around her and she shivered before she reached the road. The wind whistled past her ears as she strode on the roadside, facing traffic. She raised her collar to block the chill. Snow flurries fell, but didn’t stick. Boy, did she miss her bike and the warmth of summer.

  A blaring horn from a jet black SUV startled her and her heart thumped wildly in her chest. It pulled up on the opposite road shoulder. The driver’s window rolled down. Dougal leaned from the window and opened his mouth, only to be interrupted by Stephanie’s high-pitched wail. “Why are you stopping?”

  Dougal pulled back inside the SUV. “Because she needs a ride.”

  “I don’t care.” Stephanie pouted.

  “I do.” Dougal’s tone sounded stern. Again he leaned out the open window, and his voice sweetened when he spoke again. “Would you like a ride to school?”

  Maddie would have loved to say no, but her lips were chapped, her hands numb, and she wasn’t even halfway there. “Y-yes, thank you.”

  Dougal jumped out and opened the rear door. But three kids were crammed into the back and there was nowhere left to sit.

  “Hmm, seems I’ve been a tad too generous today.” He shut the door and reopened his own. Maddie was afraid he’d changed his mind and was about to tell her she’d have to keep walking but instead he said, “Stephanie, scoot over.”

  Stephanie mumbled in a disgruntled tone as she complied.

  Dougal’s Irish brogue thickened as he stood aside and with a gentlemanly sweep of his arm, he said, “Your chariot awaits.”

  His eyes glowed bronze. A chill climbed her spine, but this one had nothing to do with the temperature. Maddie averted her gaze and hugged her purse to her chest. “Thank you.” His eyes had glowed that way before, a few days ago in school, hadn’t they?

  Sarcasm poured from Stephanie’s mouth. “Of course you’ll accept a ride. I’m crammed against the door with the handle jabbing me in the ribs and you’re enjoying it.”

  Dougal climbed in and Maddie was caught between them, sitting atop the center console without a seatbelt. Even though she sat above him, her thigh pressed down against his. She attempted to wiggle away, but there was nowhere for her to go and all she accomplished was igniting a spark of friction. The smile he flashed in her direction exuded an animal magnetism, wicked and handsome, that had heat flushing her face. How could she avoid his attention in such close quarters?

  Stephanie shifted and grunted. Classical music filled the interior and Maddie forced herself to relax. Propped up on the console as she was, her legs spread for balance and her hands gripping both bucket seat backs, it wasn’t a comfortable ride. “What an interesting choice of music.”

  “More like boring.” Stephanie studied her painted nails.

  Dougal flexed his thigh against hers again. “I prefer instrumental music to the music of today. What do you listen to?”

  If only her left thigh had one more inch of room. But she had to admit, tweaking Stephanie had its good points. “A little bit of everything.”

  “Easy listening?”

  “Sometimes.”

  “Pop?”

  “Occasionally.”

  “What about heavy metal?”

  “Not really.”

  Tension oozed from Stephanie and Maddie fought a rising sense of satisfaction. Okay, so she didn’t fight it all that hard.

  They eased into a parking spot, and Stephanie jumped out before the vehicle stopped. Maddie waited until Dougal slid from the behind the wheel and climbed out his side with his gentlemanly assistance.

  “Thanks.”

  “No problem. If you’ll wait until I can grab my bag out of the back, I’ll walk you to your locker.”

  She gnawed on her lip. She would love to be escorted by Dougal, but that would mean she couldn’t search for Chase. “Umm, don’t worry about it. I need to make a stop first, so I’ll see you inside.” She didn’t wait for him to protest but threw her purse over her shoulder and crossed the pavement, searching for Chase’s vehicle for the second day in a row.

  Breath whooshed from her mouth. The heaviness in her heart increased. She allowed her hair to drape across her face as she passed his truck and entered the school. Perhaps if she’d apologized for her behavior, Chase wouldn’t have felt the need to leave her stranded two days in a row. Or maybe he’s just tired of the dork.

  She made a beeline for the office and explained her lack of books. The principal chastised her for not taking better care of school property, but wrote a note of explanation for her teachers to see.

  Chase had driven to school, but hadn’t stopped to pick her up. That meant something was definitely wrong. She would avoid his locker until he told her everything was again copacetic, not that she needed a locker since her books had been lost when her bicycle was crushed. Hopefully he’d rush up to her in one of their classes together and she could explain and apologize. The alternative would be to carry all her books home, once the teachers replaced them… or use the space in the teachers’ lounge again. Lovely.

  A fake smile plastered on her face, she entered homeroom.

  Chase leaned against a desk on the room’s far side. Football players and cheerleaders surrounded him, all laughing and chatting together. Maddie couldn’t reach him without pushing through them, so she took another route to her seat, sliding between desks and trying not to notice all the sideways stares. He laughed and cut up with the group, acting like a completely different person.

  She tried a little wave to capture his attention, but he ignored her. Her hopes sank. Yep, he’d tired of the dork.

  Class was a blur. Maddie couldn’t focus. She tapped the pencil’s eraser on the desk. Chase had been her friend. There were so many things she had wanted to share with him, so many things she yearned to tell him.

  Tears welled in her eyes and she swiped them away as she doodled a broken heart on her composition book. If this was how she felt because he didn’t want to be friends, what would it have felt like if she’d loved him? The pain would have been unbearable.

  Second period was the same, with Chase hanging out with his new buds. Maddie tried to convince herself that lunch break would be different. He would sit across from her and stare at her with his big blue eyes. They would talk about classes and their upcoming tests, and the past places he’d lived, and everything would return to normal.

  Tray in hand, she carried it to her usual table. Chase entered and sat at another table with his new best friends, clearing avoiding her.

  Dougal sat with Stephanie and her pals. He sent her pitying looks and Maddie stared at her tray, trying not to meet his gaze.

  Her throat burned and her chest ached. In a rush, Maddie picked up her tray of untouched food, walked to the garbage can, and dumped it. She shouldered past teachers and students and headed toward the bathroom. She could hide there for the rest of the day. But halfway there she changed her mind and went to the principal’s office.

  “Mrs. Grady?” Maddie said.

  “Yes, dear?”

  “I need to go home.”

  “Are you sick?”

  “Yes.” In my heart.

  “Do you have a way?”

  “Yes,” she lied.

  “Okay. You can leave. I hope you feel well enough to return tomorrow.”

  “Thank you.” Maddie left the office and crossed the parking lot. She should’ve known having a friend was too good to be true. Who’d want to be friends with her?

  She trudged along the deserted highway and cried. If her life had to suck tha
t badly, why did people keep saving her? Why didn’t they just let her die?

  Tears blurred her vision, but she recognized the path veering off the road into the forest. On impulse, she followed it. In a small clearing hidden from the road, huge rocks dotted the turf and she scrambled onto a boulder. Her shoulders shook. Tears finally spent, she laid back across the granite and studied the sky. If she was lucky, maybe the careless driver would pay her another visit.

  ****

  Maddie disappeared from the lunchroom and Chase allowed himself to relax. The close proximity had had him feeling her tension and sadness, and it had been almost more than he could bear. Besides, fighting off her sinking emotions was giving him a headache. Making her miserable… he hadn’t signed on for that.

  Around him at the table, his new best friends chattered on. They hadn’t stopped yet, making him wonder if they ever would.

  “I can’t wait for the game this weekend.”

  “Yeah, we’re just now getting good.”

  “I bet if we could get Chase here to join the team, we’d be even better.”

  Chase listened, but didn’t reply.

  An elbow dug into his ribs. “Come on, buddy. The coach is always looking for new players. I bet with your secrets from other schools, we’d be able to take the entire division down.”

  He managed a shrug. It seemed to satisfy them. They huddled together, absorbed in their discussion.

  Football; not anything he cared to discuss. Chase pushed the unappetizing food around on his plate. It could have been a gourmet burger and it wouldn’t have interested him. Silently he stood, dumped his tray, and exited into the atrium. He found a bench surrounded by bushes, took a seat, and cradled his head in his hands.

  His skull pounded. He closed his eyes and tried to force Maddie out of his head. Instead, fuzzy images flashed behind his closed lids. She lounged on a jagged rock, facing the sky. Tears rolled down her cheeks; her body racked with sobs.

  He gulped and grabbed the bench. The wood had been polished smooth by generations of student fingers, but he still managed to nail a splinter.

  After much persuasion and stern warnings, Dad had convinced him to steer clear of Maddie. Chase had argued every point he could think of, but his father had refused to relent, arguing that the safety of their family, especially his younger brothers, had to be his first priority. If Chase morphed during school, they would all be in danger, and they didn’t even understand the powers they faced. Against his better judgment, Chase had finally agreed.

  “Dad, she doesn’t have a way to school!”

  “But you’re not supposed to know that.”

  “But I do know! Even if I didn’t know about her accident, which I do because I was there to save her — but even if I didn’t know, there are ways I’d figure it out. You just don’t understand. How could you? I see her. And I know what she is feeling based on what I see. She’s hurt because she thinks I abandoned her.”

  “I’m sorry. It can’t be helped.”

  “Yes, it can! I’ll just tell her the truth.”

  His father grabbed his arm. “No! I don’t know enough for you to tell her the truth.” He paused, clutched Chase’s shoulders, and stared intensely into his eyes. “You must promise you’ll tell her nothing, at least until we know more of what’s going on.”

  That morning his resolve had almost broken. Seeing her so forlorn, so alone… He didn’t believe Maddie was a threat — how could she be? — but Dad had acted so terrified, so uncertain. Chase had reluctantly agreed not to tell Maddie about changing into a gray beast until Dad deemed it appropriate.

  The pressure of his fingers on the bench increased, driving the splinter deeper. Maddie had hunched over against the morning cold, against his betrayal. Dad didn’t understand the visions or the depression he felt at being separated from Maddie, nor what the separation did to her. If he did, he’d agree with Chase that the risk was worth it.

  What would his father say if he knew Chase had waited in the parking lot until Maddie had arrived? He’d wanted just one glimpse of her, just one, before starting his day.

  But when she’d exited Dougal’s vehicle and looked over at Chase’s truck, he could tell by her deepening slump that she’d hit rock bottom. The bush had hidden him, and he’d almost jumped out and apologized as she’d passed, but his promise to his father had held him back.

  Barely.

  He’d scurried past the janitor and entered a side door to beat her inside.

  She’d entered homeroom and found him surrounded by people who would never accept her. He’d known in advance what effect it would have. That was why he’d sat with them. She had to hate him or he would never be able to stay away from her.

  He yanked the splinter from his finger and watched a drop of blood well out. Her dejection, her silent tears… his choice was tearing her apart.

  If only Chase could control the beast within. Then he could be with her.

  He needed to be with her.

  Chase closed his eyes, letting a fresh wave of anguish assault him. Maddie draped backward over a boulder in the woods. Regret. She regretted that she was alive. He dropped his head into his hands. She had had no one and he had given her hope, only to snatch it away.

  Footsteps alerted him and he straightened. Chase tensed as Stephanie stalked outside and looked around, but she barely glanced at him. “Have you seen Dougal?”

  “No.”

  “Is he with her?”

  “Who are you talking about?” Chase asked.

  “You know exactly who I’m talking about. That Jilly-come-lately. If she thinks she can just waltz into my school with her unusual eyes and make all the guys swoon over her, then she has another think coming.” Stephanie flipped her hair and stalked away, muttering, “It just isn’t done. People like her aren’t supposed to have two guys fawning over them.”

  Well, at least Maddie had that going for her. But Chase’s worry increased. It wasn’t encouraging that Stephanie didn’t know Dougal’s whereabouts. The two of them had been like peas in a pod since he’d arrived at Coal Creek High. Other than the brief moments Dougal spent pretending to be interested in Maddie, of course. Although maybe he wasn’t pretending. Stephanie was pretty, in her cheerleader sort of way, but Maddie was stunning.

  One good thing about having a monster inside him was all the enhanced abilities. Taking advantage of his new skill set, Chase peered through the atrium’s bushes and through the glass door, narrowing his eyes to increase his visional acumen, and swept the student lot. Dougal’s SUV was parked out front.

  Chase shoved off the bench, jogged to his truck, climbed inside, revved the engine, backed out of the lot, and drove out. He had to find Maddie.

  ****

  Maddie left the lunchroom. Dougal excused himself, raced across the atrium, and leaned back against the brick building. She didn’t notice him as she crossed the parking lot and trudged toward her home.

  The bell rang, ending the lunch break. The clamor of students banging their trays against plastic garbage cans echoed behind him as Maddie disappeared around a bend. Dougal didn’t know whether to follow or let her go. Clearly the young blond boy had hurt her. She moped like a teenager who had lost her first love. It was the perfect time to swoop in and soothe her broken heart.

  He kicked at the student lot’s gravel.

  “You should go to her,” the wind murmured.

  Moving his lips but making no sound, Dougal asked, “Where is she?”

  “She sits alone in the wood, bemoaning her ill-fated life.”

  “Show her to me,” he whispered.

  Maddie was in a clearing. Tears rolled down her cheeks as her frail human body racked with sobs. A part of him longed to comfort her. Her sorrow aroused ancient feelings of sympathy within him. He staunched those urges by reminding himself of his goal. Maddie was the means to an end, nothing more. Even though her sweet, silky voice cut straight through his heart, he wouldn’t give in. She served a purpose; he couldn’t
allow himself to become physically or emotionally attached.

  Even though she was at least a mile away, he could hear the thump of blood pumping through her heart. He jogged across the parking lot, picking up speed. When the curve hid him from the school, he changed into his natural form and streaked through the sky to his waiting damsel in distress.

  ****

  Maddie fussed at herself.

  “Why do I have to run everyone off? It’s all my fault! It would be better to never make friends. What could I have done differently? Maybe I was too blunt about my parents. Maybe that was it. I should have just told them the details. Or maybe if I hadn’t been so secretive and just told Chase the truth in the beginning, then his father would have known and there would have been no need to tell them at the table and scare the family away.”

  Maddie ranted and threw granite pebbles fallen from her boulder at a solid oak tree. Each one smacked into the bark, making a plucking sound. She threw another, but it vanished into the surrounding brush without a sound. Shocked, she gulped and jumped down. A dark shape separated from the tree’s trunk, tossed a rock into the air and caught it, and she backed away. Someone had caught it?

  “Don’t be afraid,” said a musical voice.

  “Dougal?” she asked, blinking rapidly.

  He walked from behind the shadows, again tossing and catching the pebble. “Yes.”

  Her heart skipped a beat. “What are you doing here?”

  “I saw you leave school and you seemed upset.” He ambled closer. “Is there anything I can do?”

  Maddie shook her head. Something about Dougal seemed strange, different. Dangerous? But that was silly. Wasn’t it? “No, that’s okay.” Her heart raced as his gaze intensified. The black part of his eye grew and fear tightened its grip on her. Realizing how vulnerable she was, she said, “You should go back to school before you get in trouble.”

  “Are you worried about me?” He took another step closer. His grin sent cold chills along her spine.