Too Late To Save Time

Alexander's Secret Contact

I dragged myself into the room after the end of school and groaned into my pillow.

"This place is draining me!" I yelled to no one.

"I see it's taking my job then."

I turned and smiled at Dawn. "Hi, Dawn. What're you doing here?" I greeted, sitting up.

"What? I can't see someone I've shared a house with for two months once in a while?" She asked, placing her fists on her hips.

"It's not that, I just thought you had a reason." I replied. "Good to see you since tutors." My straight face broke into a grin.

"Okay you got me. I was looking for Casey again. I haven't seen him at all since we got here, and you would be the one who would know." I shook my head and shrugged. Dawn sighed. "Where could he be?"

"Where could who be?" Alex's voice rang out across the room, smiling as he joined me on my bed.

"This kid Casey." Dawn replied exasperatedly. Eli joined me in my room and narrowed his eyes at something only he could see.

"Have any of you seen Casey? That's prety weird. I haven't even seen him in tutors yet, or gym." My heartbeat started to pick up and the guys looked over at me.

"Calm down, he's probably fine." Eli said gently. Dawn gave me a wry look.

"Did I miss something between Eli and Honey again?" She asked. I laughed. It's funny how we all blamed any changes with any one of those two with the other.

"I'm her boyfriend now. And yes, something did happen with Honey." Eli replied. Somehow jealousy spiked up in me, but I pushed it down. Alex smirked.

Aww, don't feel jealous because the boy you're using is suspicious. It's not that big of a deal I shot him a glare.

"Um, okay. And nice guys, Foggy, you've got good taste. Tonight you have to help me find Casey though." Dawn said. I nodded.

"Kay, see you tonight then. Bye-bye butterfly." Dawn shook her head and left.

"Bye-bye home fry." Eli shook his head as the door closed.

"It's so funny seeing how you two hated each other for the longest time, and now you're friends." He told me. I shrugged.

"It's whatever. Hey, is there some ancient secret magic thingy that can help shadow fae find people? I know soul has it, but I'm wondering about shadow." I asked. Eli shrugged and looked to Alex.

"You know, Pretty Boy?" Alex shook his head.

"There's no ancient shadow magic for that. Well there is some shadow magic for that but only third dimension species possess it." I slumped.

"Come on Casey, where are you?" I asked to no one. Alex suddenly sat up straight.

"But if you can single out his thoughts then you could get into his head and go into his memories, pulling up recent ones. Then we would know where he is." Eli's face went grim.

"That's too dangerous. If she tries to read without practice she could end up being stuck in that person's head or hurting the person. It has to be you or me, Pretty Boy." I glared at Eli. His gaze softened when it got to me. "You could get hurt." I groaned and fell back on the bed, breathing deeply and closing my eyes so I could use my senses.

It's weird, but I could follow a scent. So I did exactly that in my mind's eye, following down hallways. I found Casey in a luxurious room, fiddling with his phone before going back to the work spread out around him on a hardwood table.

"I'm gonna have so much fun." He mumbled with a smile. I retracted my senses and sat up.

You were always too good at hide and seek. I shoved him.

"I know where Casey is. But I'm not telling you. The school wants something with him, and it's a complete secret so he had to sit in a room all week and do his work.

"Dawn'll kill you." Eli informed.

"She'll be fine...wait, do you think she'll use her soul abilities?" I asked, suddenly wary. She was able to find me, but only by sound...

"Attention Juniors: make you're way to the gym for weekend project information." The loudspeaker crackled. Alex groaned and Eli shared a suspicious look with me. I was happy that the enchantment would hide my thoughts and feelings to most anyone.

"You have a powerful enchantment in the lighter, but beware, some people will be able to take it down." Eli said. I nodded. "Alex, if you notice the enchantment down, tell us."  Alex nodded and took a step to me, touching his birthday present to me.

"I'm putting a spell onthe necklace so it's also a booster. It heightens your powers and increases the magnitude of enchantments set on you. Careful, that's not always a good thing." He said, holding the necklace in his fist. When he let it go and it fell against my chest the color was different. It was a goldenish yellow color. Eli looked uncomfortable at how close Alex was to me. I looked up into his green and blue eyes and smiled.

"Thanks."

Sir Alexander Keller. I added.

***

"You all are probably wnodering why I gathered you here tonight." Mr. Daunts said. I wondered where the other gym teacher was. "Remember the weekend surprise? Well, every weekend we will be coming up with realistic battle training. It's as close to being out in the field as possible. Half the class will be the enemies, and the other half will be us." My heart rate picked up in excitement. "I will hand out slips of paper and you will keep them hidden from everyone. You never know who's your ally until the battle anyway, so this will be good for the realism factor. But on saturday we will call up random pairs from a certain team to meet their team in a clandestine location for planning. Now's the chance to show your battle strategy teacher how much you were paying attention in class." Mr. Daunts said, handing out the slips of paper. As soon as I got mine I put up my mind enchantment to Alex too, and read the slip.

Us.

"Rules for the battle will be posted on the message board in the main office tomorrow morning. Get good rest, everyone. You have serious work to do. And you never know when the enemy will attack." I stuck my slip into my back pocket and laid my thumbs to hook in so that no one could secretly try to get the paper out of my skintight jean shorts. Not short shorts, regular shorts.

"Hey babe." Eli greeted, swinging his arm over my shoulder. I gave him a suspicious look.

"You could be the enemy. I shall not fratenize(sp?) with the enemy. Sorry babe, but I love this too much not to take it seriously." I said, giving Eli a quick kiss on the cheek and then jogging off. If Lucas is the enemy I will beat him into the ground. He won't know what hit him. An image of Lucas bloodied and bruised, on the floor, with his eyes closed suddenly replaced my vision of the hallway around me. I froze, and when it passed Alex was at my side, looking at me with concern.

"I saw it too." He said grimly. I held onto his hand and leaned my head on his arm.

"You don't think.." I trailed off. The last time I had a vision it was of Alex and then the news article on his supposed "death". I hadn't paid any attention to it, and I ended up heartbroken.

"The question is when, not if." Alex said. I nodded and walked with him, entwining my fingers with his like we always used to do. Suddenly his phone went off and Alex picked it up. His voice lowered considerably. "Alex speaking." He said. I was surprised he used his real name. His eyes flickered to me. "Yeah she's fine, so are the others." There was a pause. "I don't know when your parents will be home. They went into the forces." He sighed. "I'm sorry...bye, love you." And with that he hung up. I stared at Alex expectantly. He shook his head. "Sorry, but this is someone I'm not going to tell you about." I pouted and looked up at him through my eyelashes.

"I can't trust you. You might be the enemy." Alex said, speeding up and walking away from me. I couldn't wait until I figured out who was on my side.