Parahuman (Parahuman Series) Read online

Laney found herself watching the two men through new eyes. Not as uncle and nephew, but as two people who were caught in a dangerous situation and were just trying to survive. She also noticed—in a relieved way—that their relationship was on an even tenor; not as scientist and subject, but person to person.

  Brett glanced at both of them nervously as he pulled on a light jacket and headed for the door.

  “He’s going to the library to find out what everyone is saying?” Laney asked.

  Devan eyes shifted away from her. “He works there.”

  What the heck! Devan had told her that his uncle—well not his uncle—didn’t want to stay in this area. If he didn’t want to stay why was he getting a job at the library? It sure wasn’t for the money. It was more of a volunteer position.

  “That story you gave me about not wanting to stay in Silverton and that you would be leaving soon; that wasn’t really true, was it?”

  The only way to describe the expression on Devan’s face would be ‘sheepish’. “Why don’t we go out to the back deck and clear up some things you might have on your mind.”

  Devan pulled open the French doors, Laney strode through and dropped into one of the wooden lawn chairs arranged on the deck. Devan took the one opposite of her. He leaned back and stretched his legs out in front of him and Laney couldn’t help her gaze from admiring those lovely calves of his. Her attention was interrupted by a humming in her pocket…thank god, because he might have notice her ogling his legs.

  Snatching the phone out of her pocket Laney glanced at the screen. Rolling her eyes she went to put it back into her pocket.

  “If you could, may I ask you to take that call.”

  Laney looked up at Devan in surprise. “Why? This person just wants to hound me for information.”

  A look of shame-faced guilt crossed Devan’s face. “Yes, but information is something we need at this moment.”

  Laney wasn’t able to say ‘no’ to that look, and he had a point. Inhaling deeply she prepared herself for interrogation.

  “Hello?”

  “Laney, OMG, are you okay?”

  Laney jerked the phone away from her ear at the screech on the other end. Jordyn was one of the most annoying gossips in the school. Giving Devan an aggrieved glare…which he returned with an apologetic look...Laney put the phone back to her ear.

  “Hi Jordyn. Yes, I’m fine. Thank you for asking.”

  “When I saw you come out of the athletic shed covered in blood I almost had a heart attack, and then they hustled us out of there so fast I wasn’t able to find out if you were alright. Everyone has been gathering at The Diner and talking about what happened. They said that one of the wolves got into the shed with you and that you killed it. That is just so crazy.”

  “That’s about the gist of it.” Laney grimaced and threw an aggrieved look Devan’s way. He gave her a supportive smile that warmed her from the toes up.

  “I just talked to Jesse and he said that he had tried to get into the building but that it had been locked. How did you get in?”

  Laney improvised. “The door was barely hanging on when I tried it. I think it might have been half way busted from other people trying to get in before me.”

  “Katelyn said she saw you in the parking lot talking to the new kid, Devan. Whatever happened to him?”

  Laney stiffened in alarm and her mind went blank. If they were talking about Devan then he might have to leave. She didn’t want him to leave.

  Devan leaned forward with a neutral expression on his face. “Keep it simple. Just tell her we got separated.” He whispered.

  Laney raised her brows in surprise and pointed to the phone. He nodded and also pointed to the phone, but urgently. Oops…long pauses, not good.

  “Laney…?” Jordyn called from the other end of the phone.

  “Sorry Jordyn, had food in my mouth.” Laney invented quickly. “Someone saw me with the new guy, huh. Well, when the wolves showed up we got separated. No idea what happened to him.”

  “Ohh, because Erica said something about seeing Devan go into the storage building with you. She seems to be the only one to have seen it though. Everyone else’s eyes were glued in the other direction at the wolves.”

  Laney watched Devan’s expression turn grave at Jordyn’s words. Her heart flipped over at the thought that he might think of leaving because of this. She wasn’t sure why she couldn’t stand to think of him leaving, but the thought was there, and there didn’t seem to be anything she could do about it.

  “He might have been close by as I ran into the building, but he didn’t go in with me. Maybe he ran by me to go around the building. It was a pretty extreme situation and sometimes things a person sees can get mixed up. I never saw him after I went into the building.”

  Devan was holding his hands up and Laney realized he wanted her to stop talking. She recognized that she might be babbling and protesting a little too much so she shut her mouth.

  “Yeah, can’t dismiss the extreme circumstances. It was definitely that. Oh well, it would have been cool for you if you had been stuck in the building with that new guy. He seems like he would have been a big help.” Jordyn sniggered at her big reference. “He also kind of exudes mystery and danger, and heck he’s new, which is something that is needed around here.”

  Laney’s dander was up at Jordyn’s flippant manner toward Devan, and at her possible interest. She didn’t like it.

  “Yeah, he’s a really nice guy and would have been a real big help with the wolf. Thankfully I got lucky.” Laney gritted out.

  “Well, thank god you’re all right.” Jordyn’s voice oozed concerned relief. It was possible she’d heard the stiffness in Laney’s tone.

  Laney figured she’d gotten enough information and she was so done with this tête-à-tête.

  “Jordyn, I have to go I have another call coming in. Tell everyone I’m okay and thank you for your concern.” No matter how self-serving it is, Laney thought.

  “Okay, bye!” Jordyn yelled as Laney hung up.

  Laney heaved a huge sigh and pretended to strangle her phone. “Uhgg.”

  “Sorry for having to put you through that.” Devan’s face portrayed extreme regret.

  Distress filled Laney that Devan might think she regretted doing this. Because she didn’t. “I’m just upset about the way she was acting. Jordyn wasn’t really concerned about me; well, maybe a little, but she was more interested in getting the inside scope on the story. And then Erica gave her a reason to question me about you.” Laney heart jumped again in alarm that he might use one person’s account as a reason to leave. “Jordyn made it sound like Erica was the only one that might have seen you with me at the storage building. That’s probably a good thing, right. One person’s possible sighting won’t cause you any problems.”

  “It’s hard to say at this time. We will just have to wait a see.” Devan’s somber expression still remained.

  “Maybe I could call Erica and talk to her. Make her see that she didn’t see what she thought she saw.”

  “I don’t want you to have to make up more stories than you have to. I don’t want you to have to lie.” The gloom in that statement went right to Laney’s heart and stabbed deep. It told Laney that Devan lived a life of lies and it didn’t sit well with him. Laney thought back to the many lies he had probably unloaded on her and everyone already in just the few days he’d been around. How did he keep track of them all?

  “I wouldn’t necessarily be lying; just interviewing and mind-bending.” Laney joked feebly.

  “Calling just to refute her might cause her to become suspicious. Better to keep to your story and wait for a chance encounter with her later to…interview and mind-bend.” Devan gave her a smile and she knew it was a way to show his gratitude.

  “Chance encounters are sooo last year; now premeditated run ins are all the rage.” Laney smirked.

  Her phone hummed again. Laney smothered a groan that would only have made Devan feel guiltier. Yep, there was
the shame face. Laney gave him a bright smile so he would think she was loving this. His arched brow said he didn’t believe it.

  Laney spent the next five minutes going over her story again with Gabby, but this time there was no mention of Devan…thank god. She watched him as she talked and could tell he could hear the other person by certain facial tics, and then found herself getting mesmerized by his eyes and losing track of the conversation from time to time. Not good. Shaking her head to clear it she wrapped up the conversation and hung up.

  “No news about you is good news.” Laney said happily. Then she thought about that for a second. “Wait…that came out wrong. Well, you know what I mean.”

  “Yes.”

  “Yes its good news, yes it came out wrong, yes you know what I mean?” Laney asked with a grin.

  Devan smiled. “Yes.”

  Laney smiled crazily back at him. She loved it when he joked with her. It seemed to take a lot for him to let loose. Her phone hummed again and she answered it in a much better mode.

  “Hello,” Laney answered in a sing-song voice.

  “Laney?”

  Devan sat up straighter in his seat.

  “Hey Donny.” Donny was one of Laney’s good friends. He hung out with her and Hali all the time.

  “Hey girl, I held off as long as I could but I had to call to see if you’re okay. Jordyn was just spouting that she’d talked to you, and if you’re talking to that wack job then a call from one of your friend’s would be a relief.”

  “You’re right, it does, and I’m doing fine. Thanks for caring.”

  “You know you’re my girl.” He said with sincerity.

  Devan had been relaxing back in his chair but he abruptly seemed to tense up and a small indent appeared between his eyes. Laney tried to catch his gaze but his eyes snapped away from hers and focused somewhere over her shoulder. Laney wondered what he was thinking. Donny continued talking so she made herself pay attention because it sounded relevant.

  “Everyone and I mean everyone is down here at The Diner and all everyone is talking about is you. How you took on a wolf and won, and did it without getting a scratch. It’s like a miracle or something.”

  “Yes, it was definitely a miracle.” But instead of something it was someone Laney mused. “So, what is the gossip mill spilling out about me?” Donny would have scooped out every little story that was circulating. He planned to go into journalism and he was like a blood hound when it came to a juicy story.

  “Girl, the stories I’ve been hearing could fill the National Inquirer. Everyone knows that a wolf got into the athletic building with you; it’s after that the story explodes into a confetti gossip smorgasbord.” Confetti gossip smorgasbord? “There’s one where you hacked the poor wolf to pieces with a chainsaw, another says that you strangled the thing with your bare hands, another states that you ran it over with the lawn mower, my personal favorite though is the one where you jumped on the back of the wolf Lara Croft style and then proceeded to skewer it twenty times with ski poles until it looked like a big furry pin cushion.”

  Laney grinned. “You came up with that last one, didn’t you?”

  There was an indignant huff on the other end. “I am a serious journalist in training; I would never fabricate or exaggerate a story. It’s the facts ma’am, only the facts.”

  Laney gave a chuckle. “When did the National Inquirer ever concern themselves about the facts? I thought they were all about big foot, the Chupacabra, and alien probing.”

  There was another indignant sound from the other end, but this time it was a gasp. “Those stories have actual factual data to back them up. Don’t you be knocking my two favorite hairy guys and alien probing. Those stories put me to sleep during many dark stormy nights.” He gave a sigh on the other end. “Oh, the good old days.”

  Laney noticed that Devan’s dent had gotten a little deeper. She knew he could hear Donny’s end of the conversation and had to be questioning his sanity. Laney herself had speculated on Donny’s mental faculties throughout the years. The boy was just a little too into his x-files.

  “You are a few fries and a couple nuggets short of a happy meal, son. You really need some help.” Laney joked good-naturedly.

  “Put the three of us together and we make up a happy meal and a half; so it works itself out.”

  Laney chuckled and Devan’s dent turned into a fully fledged scowl. Laney wondered if he was getting impatient about what little information she was finding out.

  “So Donny, that’s all the stories going on. Seems kind of boring; I guess I was expecting a little more.” Laney tried navigating the conversation.

  “Wellll, there was a singular tid-bit about the new guy being seen running into the athletic building with you. Erica is the only person that is repeating this though, and since you are the only person to come out of that building with blood all over you she is being denounce vociferously. I mean what did he do? Slip out of there unnoticed without you saying a word about it. I think if he had been in there you would have said something. No one else seems to remember seeing him at all afterwards. It’s like he just disappeared. Maybe he took off for the woods and kept on running till he got home.”

  Laney couldn’t help the nervous laugh that escaped at Donny’s near rendition of what had taken place this morning. Devan looked dumbfounded as well.

  “Yeah, actually I wanted all the glory to myself so I sliced up Devan and stuffed him in one of the athletic bags. I’m going to go back and take care of it later.” Laney added a sinister ‘whaa-haa-haa’ to the end just to make it sound good.

  “I was thinking that’s what happened, and I covered that exceptionally well proportioned bottom of yours. There was no way some new guy was going to get all the attention and acclaim over my girl. I set them all straight on that score.”

  Devan’s expression was back to a hard scowl again. What was he getting so upset about? This was good news. The only person to have seen Devan was Erica and her story was being discounted. Laney gave Devan a smile and thumbs up sign to let him know everything would be okay. The smile he gave her back was weak at best. He must still be worried.

  “Donny, you are the man. I was thinking about coming down there. I might as well get all the hoopla out of the way in one shot. I’d hate having to do it twenty million times over the next week. I’ll probably see you in a little while.”

  “Well, I’m just glad you’re alright. See you in a bit, mama seta.”

  Laney ended the call and pocketed her phone; giving Devan a relieved smile.

  “It looks like everything is going to be alright. Donny says no one is taking Erica’s sighting of you into account. But I was thinking I should go down to The Diner and get a few accounts of the story myself and I can reinforce to everyone that I was in there myself.”

  “Possibly.” The small frown remained on Devan’s face, and he gazed off into the forest. Laney was getting worried by his lack of positivity. His eyes flickered back to hers and there was a sort of puzzled melancholy reflected in his golden stare before they shifted away. He heaved himself up out of the chair; his height towering over her.

  “I will drive you back to your vehicle so you can keep that appointment.”

  Laney hopped up from her seat. Devan’s expression had gone back to that stony facade that she hated. He was suppressing something and whatever it was it wasn’t sitting well with him. She just hoped that his thoughts didn’t center on disappearing.

  CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

  “Are you sure you’re alright to drive?”

  Devan strode over to the French doors and opened them; allowing her to walk through. “I’m good.” He replied shortly, leading her through the house and out to the jeep.

  Laney’s last conversation had disturbed him. Devan had thought his dislike of Jarrod was because he was exceedingly unpleasant, but he was having a similar reaction to this Donny individual who he didn’t even know. For all Devan knew he could be a perfectly nice person, but at the m
oment all Devan wanted to do is dump both him and Jarrod into the Colorado River. The feeling to do harm was actually stronger in regards to this Donny person because Laney demeanor had been wholly relaxed and she’d actually laughed with him. He had referred to her as his girlfriend. The words had burned a path of antipathy through his entire body.

  Devan opened the passenger side door of the jeep expecting to see some blood splatter but it looked like Brett had cleaned it up. Moving aside to let Laney climb in he noticed that she gave him an apprehensive glance as she hoisted herself up into the seat. It was probably for the way he was acting but he had no answer for her, so he avoided her gaze. He needed his glasses. Getting in the driver’s seat he grabbed an extra pair from the glove compartment and put them on. Another buzz from her phone caused a small measure of relief to slide through him. It would give him some reprieve from her appraisal. But she only briefly glanced at the identity before putting it back in her pocket.

  She caught him regarding her.

  “I talked to this person at school and he didn’t see anything.” She answered brusquely.

  Devan knew instantly who the person was…Jarrod. That she deemed the call undeserving an answer lifted his emotions to some extent out of the depths they had fallen. Only slightly, but higher than where they had been.

  Instantaneously, Devan perceived the degree of power Laney had over him. Not four minutes ago he was feeling depressed and angry over some male showing interest in her, and now those emotions were replaced with relief as she rejected a call from an obvious, though fanatical, admirer.

  He couldn’t comprehend how the intrinsic details of her life were causing him so much turmoil. Devan also hadn’t know that it was possible for emotions to fluctuate so radically. It was practically exhausting.

  She stared at him with a frown. “You don’t really need those do you?”

  Smiling grimly Devan started the jeep. “No, I don’t need them. I wear them because my eyes are very distinctive. It’s hard to forget someone who has yellow eyes with larger than normal pupils.”

  “So, the mark on your back, is that a tattoo?” Laney’s abrupt switch from his eyes to his birthmark had him twitching in surprise. He hit a groove in the road jarring his arm slightly. She was finally asking the questions he had been dreading.