Awakening (Book 2 in the Original BOC Series) ✔

Chapter Twenty

He'd been searching for her for fifteen minutes but she was nowhere to be found. He'd checked the study, the library, the backyard, the kitchen, the living room, and even stood outside the bathroom door for five minutes.

His sister stopped on her way into the living room when Nathan entered the hallway to question her brother's heavy steps and why he was breathing so rapidly. Nathan frowned, forgetting how talented his little sister was on reading emotions just by listening to their breathing and footstep patterns. And she was so quiet it was difficult for Nathan to hear her at times. Like now.

Rubbing the back of his neck, Nathan grumbled, "I'm... curious if you know where... Mara is?" Lily stared at her brother blankly. She pursed her mouth lowering a brow and tilted her head away when she asked him why he wanted to know. Nathan explained that Mara was supposed to accompany him on his turn of his round.

"Have you checked her room?" Lily inquired.

Silence was the response to this. Nathan didn't want to go up to the third floor. He didn't want to go anywhere near Marshall. Although they were no longer hateful towards one another, Nathan still refused to be around the guy. He didn't know why, but Nathan preferred to keep his distance. It was better for everyone if they did.

"Erm... no... no, I haven't." He glanced away, wondering how he was going to get a hold of Mara when his sister asked if she'd like for her to go upstairs to get Mara. Nathan sighed in relief, raising his brows, "Would you? I don't think... I'm welcome up there." Lily nodded, going to the steps and pulled herself up with her hand on the railing.

Nathan waited patiently with his back against the wall and his arms crossed. He was staring at Chambers and Sam in the kitchen playing poker using Twinkies as chips. Chambers placed down the hand he held and Sam slammed his fists on the table shouting profanities after throwing his own dealt hand in the air.

"Nate?" Jennings came into view from behind the staircase and smiled when she saw Nathan standing alone. She crossed her arms, leaning her weight on one leg so that her hip stuck out and asked what he was doing. "Waiting for Lily. She's upstairs."

"Oh..." Jennings frowned and raised a brow, "Aren't you supposed to be making your round right now?"

Nathan glanced at the clock hanging on the wall of the kitchen by the fridge that was in the shape of a koala. He didn't even know that they made koala clocks. That was just weird to him. He didn't understand why it was even bought. It didn't fit with the house at all.

The clock read 4:17.

He was supposed to start his round two minutes ago. He'd looked everywhere for her and yet she made herself invisible after he told her that he wanted to speak with her. Nathan nodded, "I am. I'm a bit late because—"

They both turned when Lily was coming down the stairs with Jane. Jane raised a perfectly shaped brow, glancing between the two at the bottom of the steps and sighed, "She's not in her room. Steven is asleep. He's been asleep for a few hours now because of the sleeping medicine that Ben gave him. So my cousin hasn't been in upstairs since this morning, I'm afraid."

The girls were now at the bottom of the stairs; Jane with her stone-hard expression and her nose in the air, and Lily tilting her head to the side to listen to Jennings, then tilted it to the other side to listen to Nathan. Lily raised a brow when she heard her brother push himself off the wall and curse under his breath.

"How can she disappear? And how is it possible that no one has seen her?" Nathan asked them. Jane raised a brow, yawning and used her fingertips to cover the yawn before sighing that this conversation was boring. She slipped her arm from Lily's and walked between her and Jennings, not saying a word to anyone as she turned down the hall to where the other three heard Carter's door open and close.