“Admit it, Becky, you dig George. You always had this little crush on him ever since we started attending Dragonia.” Sammy teased her too.
“Fine, so I like him. It was bound to happen since I'm forced to spend every single day with him.” She crossed her arms in defense.
“There's nothing wrong with liking George, Becky. He has really changed,and hey, I even forgave him for the stupid prank.”
“I forgot about that. I fell for a loser,” Becky cried, and she fell backwards on my bed.
“He's not a loser. I got a feeling you're going to do great things together.” I remembered Cheng's words when we found George's foretelling.
She rested on her one elbow. “You really think that?”
I nodded encouragingly.
“Thanks, Elena, you're so cool. Next time, you're coming with us.”
We talked all night long about everything they did in Elm. When the main clock struck twelve, we called it a night and went to sleep. I couldn't wait for tomorrow. Lucian had sent Sammy a message telling what time I should meet him.
As much as I wanted to put my questions aside and fall asleep, I couldn’t. The Viden’s words haunted me so much that it made my head hurt. Not to mention the Queen. Why did she decide to appear in my dreams? I closed my eyes, and before I knew it, I was standing at the top of the hill again.
Chapter Twenty-Three
The next morning I found Lucian waiting by a black Hummer. I ran straight into his arms and gave him the longest kiss ever.
“I hope you're done mixing business with pleasure,” he said with his face buried in the nape of my neck. He opened the passenger door for me. “So, did you enjoy the museum?”
“Yes, especially the exhibit on you and your family,” I teased.
His face turned red. “I hate that stupid thing. It took hours just for them to get the measurements right, and they still did a crappy job.”
I laughed excitedly. “So where are we going?”
“I told you it's a surprise, although not the one I had planned, but it will have to do.” He started the Hummer and music blared from the radio.
"I want to play you something," he said, and took out a disc and slid it into the player. The song had an upbeat rhythm, and I started bouncing in my seat. The lyrics were deep, and I got lost in them as I listened to the vocalist singing of a girl he hadn't found yet. He sounded lost.
Lucian smiled, and looked at me every five seconds through the corner of his eyes.
“What?” I asked, scared I had something in my hair or worse, my teeth.
“You know who that is?”
“Who? The guy singing?”
He nodded.
I listened again. “No, should I?”
A huge grin appeared on his face.
“C'mon, Elena, guess.”
I giggled. “Is it you?”
He roared with a contagious laughter. “Hell no. I can't keep a tune.”
“Then who? I knew I'd never heard this voice before.
“It's Blake.”
My mouth dropped. “Get out! Really?”
“He has what it takes to make it big, but the Council doesn't want to grant him permission to go for it, because he's the Rubicon. It doesn't stop him from doing a couple of gigs though.”
“Wow. Do you think he wrote this song for Tabitha?”
Lucian gave a chuckle I'd never heard before.
“What?”
“Elena, Blake only keeps Tabitha for one thing?”
“He's that shallow.” I shrieked, disgusted.
He smiled again, but this time I could see sadness around the edges. “You still need to learn that Blake only does things for himself, no one else.”
“Then who did he write this for?”
Lucian shrugged. “He recorded this about a year ago.” His forehead crinkled in thought.
“You really miss him, don't you?”
His nose wrinkled, not answering, as his eyes looked out the window.
“So, what song did you play when you faced the big, mighty Rubicon?” I needed to change the topic. A huge grin spread over his face and lit up his eyes. He happily took out another CD.
“Blake once admitted that this song scares the living crap out of him.” The radio swallowed the CD, and his grin spread wider.
My eyes grew bigger as the song started. “You know ACDC?”
“Elena, everybody knows ACDC,” he said, rolling his eyes.
I leaned back in my seat and closed my eyes, trying to imagine what Lucian looked like being introduced by “Thunderstruck”. It gave me goose pimples.
“Wow.” It slipped out as my image of him in gladiator gear exposed his muscular arms.
“What?”
“I can just imagine what it must be like. I'd be scared too if I was Blake.”
He laughed and turned into a deserted parking lot. When the Hummer stopped, he put on a baseball cap and shades.