Dangerous (Element Preservers Series, Book 1) Read online

  “Alright,” I said, hoping I’d come up with a good idea before we reached the restroom. Adrian took my hand, clearly satisfied, and led me through the crowd. I was glad people were too drunk and too involved with each other to notice us. And I had lost Paula and Michael out of my sight long time ago, which was a good thing, or maybe not.

  We reached the restroom faster than I'd thought we would and I hadn’t really come up with a good plan, so I let Adrian lead me inside, hoping no one would see me coming into the men’s restroom with my best friend’s boyfriend.

  There was just one guy inside, clearly drunk, and Adrian waited for him to get out. The guy smiled at me stupidly before leaving, and I really hoped he wouldn’t remember me. I was staring at myself in the mirror, wondering how the hell I'd gotten myself into this, while Adrian was getting out the pills.

  He took one of those white things and handed it to me. I took it, examining it carefully. I had no idea what kind of a pill it was and even less what it could do to me.

  “Where did you get this?” I said. For all I knew he could be giving me a different pill than Paula had taken and kill me. But what would he have from that?

  “I have my sources,” he said. I rolled my eyes at him.

  “What is this anyway? Are you trying to kill me?” I said, waiting for some kind of a reaction, but his face remained unreadable to me.

  “Oh, come on. If I wanted to kill you, I’d do it with my own hands.” He smiled. Of course, he’d take my element, and you couldn’t do that if you weren't nearby right before your victim died.

  “Yeah, but that would get you in trouble. Me taking a pill and dying of it at a party wouldn’t make you suspicious,” I pointed out, playing with the pill in my hand.

  “I don’t want you dead,” he said. “And Paula would get depressed if you died, so… you can trust me or not, but if Paula becomes addicted, you’ll know you had a chance to stop it and didn’t use it.”

  “You’re such an asshole,” I said, looking back at the pill. It didn’t look like something dangerous, but that didn’t mean it wasn’t. And Adrian was most likely lying to me.

  “What will it do to me?” I said. “Just don’t tell me I’m going to feel great because I’ll hit you.”

  “You’ll feel lighter, no worries, no problems,… and you’ll lose the feel of your element for some time,” he said. I looked at him and suddenly had an idea why he had given the pills to Paula.

  “You gave it to her so she could have sex with you,” I said accusingly. There was a hint of surprise on his face and then he smiled.

  “How did you know?” he asked.

  “You said it made you lose the feel of your element,” I said. “And you didn’t want to risk something happening during sex… You didn’t want to lose control.”

  “Maybe,” he said, but I was sure I was right. “She needed to relax.”

  “Which all only leads me to believe you’re trying to trick me, since I don’t think you aren't planning to have sex with her again,” I said.

  “Don’t worry. I got what I wanted from her. I’m only keeping her for… display,” he said, and I turned around to face him so fast that he actually backed away.

  “What? She’s happy,” he said. “Look, are you going to do it or not? Michael will get worried.”

  I considered calling the police, but Adrian had enough money to bribe them. Telling Alan probably wouldn’t help since he was Adrian’s guardian. Calling my father to get rid of him… Well, that was weird and it would probably bother me for the rest of my life. Trying to make Paula see reason seemed hardest of all of it.

  Fuck. One small pill couldn’t kill me, right? I let the water flow in the sink and took it. I looked up at the mirror and saw Adrian watching me in amazement as I got some water. I had most likely done the stupidest thing ever.

  “Happy?” I turned off the water and turned around. Adrian got so close to me that I gasped.

  “Not yet,” he whispered, his gray-blue eyes boring into mine. He reached up and placed his finger on my lip. I looked at him in surprise and my lips parted. He must have been waiting for that because the next thing I knew, his lips were on mine. He plunged his tongue into my mouth, exploring every part of it.

  I was too stunned to move. Something was telling me that I should push him away, but I wasn’t quite sure why. It did feel good. Different. Hot…

  Wait, what? I blinked as Adrian moved away from me, surprise written all over his face. He regained his composure in a second, smiling at me from the door.

  “I didn’t think you’d really do it,” he said. I nearly asked what, but then I remembered I’d taken some strange pill. Ah, that was why I was feeling so weird. Just how had it worked so quickly? Or was it the kiss? The kiss? Oh, shit. I'd kissed Adrian? Or better said, he’d been looking for the pill in my mouth… with his tongue… ewww!

  “Stay away from me,” I managed to say, supporting myself on the sink. I just hoped it wouldn’t break.

  “Sure,” he said. “You impressed me. Not everyone would do this for a friend. Now go find Michael before he gets worried.”

  Michael? Ah yeah, my boyfriend. Why was my mind suddenly so slow? I let go of the sink and figured I could still walk. Great. I was out of the restroom, bumping into people as I passed by. Where the hell was Michael?

  Someone grabbed me from behind, and I would have fallen if that person’s grip wasn’t strong enough.

  “Ria, where have you been? I’ve been looking all over for you.” I peered at the guy talking to me and realized it was Michael, my extremely hot boyfriend.

  “Heeeey!” I said, throwing myself around his neck. He eyed me suspiciously, and I pulled him with me to the dance floor. The weird feeling I'd had in my stomach was completely gone and I felt better than ever. I wanted to dance, and soon Michael and I were ruling the dance floor. The colorful lights around us were so beautiful, so alive…

  I was laughing and Michael was spinning me around, lifting me in the air, and I was flying. Flying like a bird… light and free…

  Chapter 10

  I woke up, feeling pain in my whole body. The headache was pressing my head like a huge hat full of stones. I didn’t feel like getting up or even opening my eyes. My arm hit something as I moved, and I heard a groan. I opened my eyes in panic and saw Michael lying in the bed next to me.

  “Hey, careful.” He smiled at me, moving my arm away from his face. I looked around and recognized his room. Horror washed over me as I realized I couldn’t remember how we’d gotten here. And more important, I couldn’t remember what had happened at all. I saw my blue panties on the floor next to my dress, and I clutched the sheets closer to me. Oh, shit.

  “What’s wrong? Are you cold?” Michael looked worried. I just nodded, and he put his arms around me, pulling me closer to him, so I ended up resting my head on his chest. Clothes on the floor, weird, slightly painful sensation between my legs… Oh yeah, we had had sex. But why couldn’t I remember anything?

  “Last night… It was amazing,” Michael said, kissing the top of my head.

  “Yeah,” I found my voice and realized my throat was a bit sore. Had I screamed? Sung too much at the party? Party. Yeah, I remembered the party. And I remembered Adrian giving me that damn pill, some of the partying, but nothing else.

  “What time is it?” I asked.

  “Nine,” Michael said.

  “Shit, I have to get out of here!” I said, knowing that if someone saw me coming out of Michael’s room in the dress I'd been wearing at the party last night, there would be trouble. People would be talking about it just because we had different elements; I was sure of it.

  “I can lend you my shirt.” He grinned. I glared at him, grabbing for my clothes. Suddenly putting my clothes on in front of him seemed embarrassing. But he’d seen all of me already, hadn’t he? Still, I didn’t feel comfortable.

  “Umm, could you… look the other way?” I said. He rolled his eyes in fake indignation but looked away any
way. I hastily put on my underwear, despite my whole body protesting against the movements. The dress, however, was impossible to put on. I sighed, wondering should I just rip it and tie it around me. It definitely seemed easier.

  “I’ll give you my shirt,” Michael said, getting out of the bed and walking over to the closet. He was stark naked. I stared at the perfection that was his body and wondered how the hell I couldn’t remember touching any of that. He threw me a green T-shirt, which came to my thighs when I put it on.

  “I don’t think there will be many people in the hall,” he said, getting dressed. “Everyone had a crazy night.”

  “I hope so,” I said, finding a bag to put my dress in. And I really hoped there wouldn’t be anyone because my room was on the other side of the building and I was dressed just in my boyfriend’s T-shirt. Running to my room as fast as I could seemed like a good idea until I made a step towards the door and realized how stiff my muscles were. At this point walking appeared to be one of the hardest things to do.

  “Well, I’m going now,” I said, looking back at Michael. “See you later.”

  “Ok.” He gave me a smile that could melt any woman’s heart. “I love you.”

  “I love you too,” I said and walked out of the room. On the way to my room, I cursed Adrian, his damned pills, the person who made them and myself. Yeah, I knew it was my fault more than anyone else’s, but I preferred to blame Adrian. Why had I been so stupid to take the pill? I was sure I’d never take any pill again, not even for a headache. I didn’t want to forget anything, especially not something as important as my first time with Michael.

  I hadn’t seen anyone on my way, and I was just about to turn the knob when I sensed someone behind me. I turned around and saw Paula. I let out a breath I hadn’t even known I’d been holding.

  “Oh, you… Oh!” Paula squeaked when she took in my appearance. I rolled my eyes at her delight and opened the door.

  “Wanna come in?” I said, and she followed me, grinning all the time like she had won the lottery. I settled the bag with my dress on the floor and sat on the bed. Paula came to sit next to me.

  “You spent the night with Michael,” she said, and it wasn’t a question. I just smiled shyly, knowing that if I could remember it, I’d probably be out of my mind from happiness.

  “What are you doing in the hall so early?” I suddenly said, trying to change the topic. “And looking so… great?”

  “Is that a compliment?” She laughed. “Well, I had some sleep, unlike you. Did you look at yourself in the mirror?”

  I frowned. In all that mess I hadn’t had a chance to really do that… Oh crap, who knew how I looked? I immediately grabbed the mirror from the drawer. The person who was looking back at me had a really messy hair, dark circles under her eyes and looked a lot like a zombie. Oh, shit. And Michael had seen me like this!

  “I need to use the bathroom,” I said, and Paula just nodded. I was just about to enter the bathroom when I remembered something.

  “Wait, you said you had some sleep… didn’t you and Adrian, you know?”

  “No.” Her smiled faded a little. “He said he was tired, so we just went to our rooms.”

  He'd been tired? Yeah, right. But if he wanted to sleep with her, he’d have to give her the pill… No, I didn’t even dare to hope that he would keep his promise. Or maybe he had gotten tired of her; he never slept with the same girl twice, from what I had heard. I waved at Paula, told her we’d talk later and went in the shower.

  What kind of a game was Adrian playing? First he had tried to get me away from Paula and now he seemed to want to get her closer to me… or maybe not. Damn, he was truly a psycho. Was he planning to leave her? But why then all the threats to break her heart if he was going to do it anyway? His weird logic didn’t make any sense. I guessed he just enjoyed playing with people, no matter who and why.

  The cold water felt good on my skin, but it didn’t help me clear my mind. The headache was still present and I felt more tired than ever, almost like I hadn’t slept at all. I managed to wash my hair, which was sticky and tangled, and clean up my face from what little was left of my make-up.

  I dragged myself to the bed, barely keeping my eyes open. I was lying on the soft pillows and wondering why Paula didn’t seem to suffer from the same symptoms. Or she just hadn’t told me. Maybe she didn’t remember, but would never admit it. Funny, I wasn’t willing to admit it to anyone either. With those thoughts, I drifted off to sleep.

  I hadn’t remembered anything else from that night even though a whole week had passed. It seemed impossible now that I would ever remember, so I just stopped trying. I had spent hours and hours crying because of it. Michael was nice and sweet as usual around me, and I just couldn’t help but feel bad about not remembering the night he kept reminding me of. And even worse, he’d said it was the best night he’d ever had in his life, and I probably hadn't been me at all at that time.

  “Is something wrong?” Michael asked, rousing me from my thoughts. I realized I’d been playing with the food on my plate, completely oblivious to the world around me.

  “No, everything’s fine,” I said, getting up from the table. “I just need something to drink.”

  “I can get it for you,” Michael said.

  “No, I’ll go.” I smiled at him and walked to the bar. I nearly bumped into Adrian when I got there.

  “Whoa, Ria. Watch where you’re going.” Adrian smiled. “Unless that was deliberate.”

  “Oh, please.” I frowned. “Now get out of my way before I punch you in the face.”

  “Why are you so moody?” he said, getting out of my way but staying near me. “Problems in the paradise?”

  I turned to him to say something really not nice, but I changed my mind at the last moment. “Is one of the aftereffects of that pill of yours memory loss?”

  He looked at me in surprise and then laughed.

  “Well, you’ll need to find someone else to get you pills for that,” he said. “Why? You want Michael to forget about something? Is it bad?”

  “Shut up.”

  “Did you sleep with someone else and Michael found out?” he said cheerfully.

  “I’m not you,” I said, trying to get past him, but he wouldn’t let me.

  “Ouch.” He put his hand over his heart. “You hurt my feelings.”

  “You don’t have any,” I said, finally getting the drinks I wanted and walking away from him. I was glad to see that he didn’t follow but instead started a small talk with the waitress. Good, except I was worried now.

  Memory loss didn’t seem to be on the list of the pill’s effects, if Adrian was telling the truth, but why the hell it had happened to me then? But then again, drugs never brought anything good with them, and if they did, then you just thought it was good while in fact it wasn’t. Maybe I should ask Adrian to tell me the name of the company that produced the pills so I could warn them about a new possible side effect. Yeah, right.

  I slammed the drinks a little bit too forcefully on the table and some of it spilled, startling Michael, who was actually reading a book.

  “Hey, watch it!” he said, lifting his head up and frowning. A few drops had managed to get on the perfectly white pages of his book. Oops.

  “Sorry.” I smiled apologetically.

  “I just bought the thing! Now it has drops all over it!” Michael was angry, but only for a second. I sat next to him and pressed my lips to his. Warmth spread all over me in a huge wave and, strangely enough, it almost felt like I was feeling water… I gasped, moving away from him.

  “We shouldn’t be doing this in here,” he said, looking nervous. I noticed that some people were looking at us, so I took Michael’s hand and pulled him away from there. When I was sure we were alone in the hall, I stopped and turned to him.

  “Were you using your element while kissing me?” I asked.

  “No, why?”

  “Umm, no reason. I was just wondering,” I lied.

  “W
ondering what?” He looked at me intently.

  “Wondering whether I made you lose control.” I smiled, trying to make it seem playful. I must have imagined that feeling of water around me then.

  “Impossible. My control is impeccable,” he said. “But you almost had me that night we…made love…”

  He whispered it into my ear, sending shivers all over my body. I bit my lip to stop myself from saying something stupid like: really, I wouldn’t know, or, can we do it again? Michael smiled at me and then he left to the library. I let him go there alone because we couldn’t really do anything fun, and I didn’t want to bother him, so I just headed for my room.

  Chapter 11

  I was sitting in my History class, staring out of the window and wondering how could time fly so fast. Four months ago I had spent the night with Michael, and we still hadn't had a chance to repeat it. Stupid exams and stupid classes!

  “Miss Milanez,” the professor said, and my attention switched to him. “The counselor wants to see you in his office. “

  I blinked, trying to figure it out who that was. Counselor? Ah, would that be Alan? Oh, great. Just what I needed. I got up, putting the books in my bag, and left the classroom followed by everyone’s look. I didn’t have to go far because Alan was waiting for me in the hall.

  “Ah, there you are, Ria,” he said. “I wasn’t sure would your professor remember to tell you.”

  “He remembered,” I said, and we started walking toward Alan’s office. “Am I in trouble?”

  “I don’t know. Are you?” He smiled, and I fought hard not to roll my eyes at him. He was annoying me almost as much as Adrian. Ok, maybe not that much, but I still didn’t enjoy his company. I wondered did he know about Paula being Adrian’s girlfriend, especially because she seemed to go talk to him a lot. He probably did.

  “Obviously not,” I said. “But why do you want to talk to me then? I mean, you got me out of the class for this. It has to be important.”