Lost In Lies Read online

  Lost In Lies

  Never Say Neverland 2

  Lost in Lies

  Never Say Neverland 2

  By Xavier Neal

  © Xavier Neal 2014

  All Right Reserved

  Published by Entertwine Publishing

  Cover by Entertwine Publishing

  License Notes

  Thank you for downloading this e-book. This book remains the copyrighted property of the author, and may not be redistributed to others for commercial or non-commercial purposes. If you enjoyed this book, please encourage your friends to download their own copy from their favorite authorized retailer. Thank you for your support.

  All character, places, and descriptions come from the imagination of the author. All are fictional and any resemblance to real life persons or places is purely coincident

  “That's the secret to life...replace one worry with another...” Charlie Brown

  Chapter 1

  Stretching out on my back across the small, twin-sized bed, I pull the soft pillow up to my chin and rest my hand beside my face, where my birthday bracelet lies in perfect view. Excited, I touch the gold cloud, holding it between my fingers, caressing the music note engraved on it. Neverland. We’re headed for Neverland, the last place I’ll ever call home. Exhausted from the night’s events, I close my eyes. Even the sound of the door opening could not keep me awake.

  Somehow, I manage to find a dreamless slumber, my body numb to the rest of the world, something I’m not used to. Then, I feel an unexpected pressure on my chest. In a panic, my eyes shoot open to see Justin lying on top of me. Immediately, I open my mouth to chastise him, which he quickly cups with his hand.

  “Shh.” He says softly as he slides open the porthole above my head.

  Did he really just shush me? The guy of my dreams? The guy I just gave up my family and my life for just shushed me? Isn’t it written somewhere “Thou shalt not shush thy girlfriend”? My eyes follow the hand that isn’t covering my mouth, which is holding a gray and silver compound bow with stars on the handle. Instantly, I notice the bolts are transparent with a glowing, gray smoke circling inside of them.

  Justin pulls back and fires effortlessly. Grabbing another bolt from the bag he must’ve thrown beside the bed I was recuperating in, he rolls off of me, reloads, and re-aims, his bright-blue laser sight shining brighter than I’ve even seen.

  Popping up, I look out the small window with him. “What exactly are you firing at?”

  “Dark Watchers.” I decide to forgive the whole shushing incident.

  “What’s with these bolts?”

  “They’re sleeping darts. They’ll knock a person out for six hours.” He says, as I watch two Dark Watchers fall over instead of disappearing into the thick, gray smoke I’m accustomed to. “Using these just in case I hit Lola or Alex.”

  “Wouldn’t want to hurt your precious Lola.” My voice mocks him as I pull down the edge of my shirt. Lola. She’s definitely the Joker to my Batman. Or I guess, since I’m not exactly fighting crime, I’m more of a Catwoman, which I’m not sure has an opposite I’d like to compare with Lola. My point is that gorgeous, reject James Bond Girl has it out for my man, and her credentials stack up a little higher than mine on his list of compatibility. It doesn’t help she knows more about his historic past than me, either.

  Chuckling, Justin raises an eyebrow at me suspiciously. “Is that jealousy I sense?”

  My eyes simmer in a glare as he chuckles, grabs another bolt, and begins to reposition it. Ever mindful of his fan club president out there, I lean over with the intention to mount a hostile takeover of his thoughts. His bright-blue eyes, which seem to have a twinkle in them, linger on mine. It could be the way they sparkle or the way I never really know what’s going on behind them, but every time I look into them, I find myself weak at the knees. Without being able to control myself, I lift my face up, plant my lips on top of his feverishly, and embrace the first private moment we’ve had since I climbed aboard the ship.

  After a moment, I hear a thud outside the porthole, which makes him pull his lips from mine and mutter. “The kiss that started the war is what keeps a losing man fighting.”

  “Are you telling me that I started a war or am a good kisser?” I playfully wink.

  “Both.” He chuckles, before firing the next bolt out the window.

  Letting the other half of his quote hit me, I respond. “And since when do you lose?”

  Justin turns his face to mine, a bolt still waiting to be fired, though he’s not paying attention. At the same time, he releases, like the show-off I am proud of, and he smirks, “I don’t.”

  Rolling my eyes, I watch him shoot a few more before my thoughts shift, “Where are your reinforcements?”

  “I am the reinforcement,” his cocky grin sends shivers up my spine. Down to his very last bolt from the stash, he nods his head, making the motion for us to exit. “Let’s get up top.”

  Before Justin can put his hand on the knob, the door swings open, and in rushes a lanky, young man in a pair of jeans and a tattered, black T-shirt. Instantly, Justin tosses me the bow and plants his fist in the guy’s face. Clutching the crossbow, I watch as Justin tosses his body into the red button against the wall, which closes the porthole up.

  The Dark Watcher swings Justin into the doorframe, cracking it, which causes him to grunt in pain. Afraid to shoot that I might hit Justin instead of the Dark Watcher, I stutter back and forth as Justin tosses the guy back into the other side of the frame, smashing that side as well. Justin grabs the Dark Watcher by the collar, swings him around, and face plants him into the frame, which is when the intruder disappears in a relieving, but still smoky, way.

  “What the hell was that?” I ask, tossing Justin his crossbow back.

  “A Dark Watcher.”

  “But he was so—and then he—but he—then you, but he still—then you still—”

  “Some are stronger than others,” he sighs heavily, sliding the plank over and pulling a lever that reveals a hidden cache of weapons. “Though they’ll never be stronger than me. As Emerson said, ‘There is no strong performance without a little fanaticism in the performer.’ And let’s face it, these kinds of battles are my stage.”

  “One of many...” I express with a sigh, receiving a nod that he agrees. Returning to the original subject, I try to smile innocently, “I’m guessing they aren’t pleased with my wild goose chase trick?” Now that I have a moment to reflect on it, what I did was quite trickery—a small con, but a masterful one. Sending the Dark Watchers chasing that armored truck probably not only pissed them off because I lied but because I imagine it led them to an unnecessary gunfight, fistfight, or even a little time in jail. If it was jail, it obviously wasn’t long enough.

  Justin simply shakes his head, pulls out a dagger from the cache, and hands it to me. He then grabs my free hand and leads me down the hall toward the stairs to take me to the main deck. Before his foot hits the first step, another tall, lanky character swings in, wraps both his legs around Justin’s neck, and pins him down. Instinctively, I slide my dagger’s blade across his neck, and he vanishes.

  Coughing in relief, he rises to his feet, “Thanks.”

  “You’re welcome.” I grip the dagger in one hand and his hand in the other.

  “Getting pretty quick there.”

  “I don’t have much of a choice,” I mumble sweetly and hold his hand tighter.

  “It’s our ability to choose that makes us human.” The quote barely has time to leave his mouth before a set of Dark Watchers land themselves in our path, creating a wall in front of us.

  Immediately, I pull out my dagger to assist when I realize only one of them seems to be headed toward me. The Watcher smiles to reveal no teeth, which mak
es me dry heave a little before saying in a shaky voice, “Back off ...”

  “You are pretty,” he mocks and makes a joyful clap. Should I be flattered or even more grossed out? “I’m going to make Alex proud.”

  “Just stay back,” I wave the dagger in front of me. “Stay back ...”

  My back hits the wall at the end of the hall, and proudly, he pulls out a rope from his back pocket. After a small glance over his shoulder, where I see Justin struggling with a group probably larger than he can handle, I let out a small whimper in fear. Suddenly, the wall behind me is ripped off, thrusting me slightly forward, which is when the Dark Watcher lassos me like I’m the calf in this twisted rodeo. In haste, he tosses the other end of the rope across to the ship floating next to us in the night sky and swings us over.

  Screaming only seems to annoy the Watcher and Alex, who is beaming proudly on the back side of his ship behind a desk with an oversized Dark Watcher beside him and my new best friend Lola on the other.

  “They can’t hear you,” Alex points to his ears while firing goes on all around him.

  “What do you want, Alex?” I struggle even though I know it’s not going to do me any good. Now I just look like one of those useless female characters in movies who gets killed so the real star can exact sweet revenge.

  With a grin on his face, his eyes light up, “You see this space right here?” He motions to the empty desk. “Well this is where I want to put my map. It’s a good space, right?”

  “Wonderful,” my mouth mumbles.

  “Can you tell me what the problem is?” Alex slips a hand in his pocket while the other taps the cherry wood.

  “You should have picked a different color wood?”

  His eyes lower in a glare, “Try again.”

  “Lola’s not doing a good job as your maid? It is a little dusty. ” I toss a glance at Lola, who tries to come at me, when Alex puts a hand up for her to stop. “Aw, someone so sensitive that she can’t even cut it as the help? Must be rough.”

  “The help?” Lola snips loudly, her leather-covered body tensing up again.

  Alex licks his lips and repeats, “Can you tell me what the problem is, Peyton?”

  My tongue grazes my lips as Toothless tugs harshly at the rope, causing me to whimper in pain. “Can’t say that I can.”

  “Oh, I think you can.” His voice has the same precision and dialect as Peter’s, almost as if he were carbon copy in another life. Toothless yanks once more, and my wincing sparks Alex to sigh, “Now, what’s the problem with this picture?”

  “You’re jealous that I’m smarter than the average bear beside you?” The words roll off in a fashion that further makes me aware that it is official. I have spent too much time around the Lost Boys because I’m beginning to sound like one.

  Offended, Lola makes a motion toward me once again, her insanely too-high heels for such an occasion treading loudly against the wood, “Why you little, low-class, C-minus criminal…”

  “C minus? Still not the F class you are. How hard are you failing right now at being Alex’s right-hand woman?” The words sting. I can tell by the way her arms slowly fold across her chest, the leather rubbing to make a sound that makes my nose itch. “Or, does it just hurt more that you’re failing at a different competition?”

  Thrusting forward once more, she yells, “You no-good, dirty…”

  “Ladies,” Alex places a hand out to stop her, shifting his eyes to meet hers, “now is not the time to discuss who would be a better match for the felon. Right now is the perfect time to discuss where my map is.” After a long look, he turns back to face me, “And why it is not here.”

  I simply shrug and sigh, “Couldn’t tell you. I’m just your average Lost Boy.”

  “You’re not a Lost Boy,” Lola sneers with a tug of her black leather miniskirt, showing off her legs, one of the assets I’m sure helps seduce the enemy in certain situations. “Members of the Precious Society can’t be Lost Boys. Besides you’re over 18. Over the limit.”

  “A plus for doing your homework,” I wink at her before bobbing my head condescendingly around, “Funny thing, though. It turns out after sending you into the middle of nowhere on that silly wild goose chase, you know, leaving us time to steal the real painting, we finished a little sooner than we thought, just a few minutes before midnight. I never quite made it to 18. Oops. Silly me.”

  A wide grin grows across my face as the color flushes from Alex’s, “My cousin couldn’t possibly have…”

  “Cousin?” I interrupt him. Can he be serious? This jerk who has been trying to kidnap me, to persuade me, to seduce me even is actually the cousin of my new-found, anything-but-fearless leader? So two sides are raging some sort of war, and it started in the family? How on earth did I fall into this kind of twisted situation?

  “Am I intruding?” The sweet sound of Justin’s voice melts my heart even as it irritates my brain. This is just one more thing Justin never told me about Peter, who is anything but an open book.

  After a quick block of Toothless’s attempted punch, Justin exposes the knife that was hidden up his sleeve and jabs him right in the heart. Toothless frees his grip on me right as I squeak, “They’re cousins?”

  “You didn’t know?” Lola snorts, disgusted.

  “Raised as brothers,” Alex mutters. “Peter really convinced you to join his side?”

  “He didn’t,” Justin clarifies with a cocky grin, “I did.”

  “Well, aren’t you just great at everything,” Alex mumbles as Justin yanks me into the air, redirecting every arrow, bolt, and bullet on the boat from our direction. His knife quickly slices the rope, freeing me to experience what I’m certain is going to be a fall to my death. My jaw opens to let out a shrill, the darkness of night seeming like a tornado around me, sucking me into a falling demise I have no idea how to escape from. As my lungs fill with panic, drowning me in my own fear, I’m just about to cry for help, when there’s a thud.

  I feel Justin's arms around me, and I open my eyes, “Didn’t I already teach you how to fly?”

  “The 10-second instructions to get on the ship doesn’t qualify as a lesson,” my defeated voice whimpers.

  “It’s on the to-do list then,” he chuckles as an arrow zooms beside us, “right after surviving this round.”

  Halfway smiling, I allow him to maneuver us gracefully through the warfare. As quickly as he can, Justin lands us back aboard our ship on the top deck where Aiden, Eiden, and Belle seem to be defending, yet Peter can’t be found.

  I’m burning to ask Justin about the information I just received but am immediately denied with a shake of his head. Unclear as to why, I make to argue back, receiving a very clear and precise “not now” spoken by his eyes. I’m hoping he’s got an attitude about my need for answers because we’re fending for our lives right now and not because he’s in one of his has-to-keep-his-Lost-Boy-oath moments.

  “And where exactly is our captain?” Justin snaps, slipping the dagger in his back pocket.

  Tossing a weapon to him, Eiden grumbles, “Something about an idea. He asked us to hold down the ship for a minute so he could make a distraction for our getaway.”

  Like the warrior I’m learning he is, Justin raises the crossbow and begins firing at Dark Watchers like in a bad carnival game. Mumbling, he grunts, “Make a distraction? Getaway? The last getaway plan he came up with landed us in that sand prison for three days!”

  “Don’t remind me. I had sand in places I didn’t know existed,” Aiden calls out from behind something that looks like an oversized gun, but instead of typical, brass-colored bullets, they are white and sparkle like ice crystals, reminding me of what Justin said before I was kidnapped—we wouldn’t want Lola hurt or I guess Alex either. Heaven forbid Peter hurts his own flesh and blood.

  “Sand prison?” My voice quivers.

  “Remember the worms,” Eiden inputs.

  “And those crabs,” Aiden recalls, his attention not diverting from his targets.
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  “How could I forget?” Justin shakes his head, firing as well. “I had so many poison bruises across my body that it took Tyger days to heal me.”

  Eiden pauses for a minute and looks at Justin, “Didn’t she send her little sister to take care of you?”

  “And didn’t the two of you spend the week on that secluded island?” Aiden puts his weapon down for a moment.

  Justin smirks, pulling the trigger, his attention never leaving the enemy ship, “Told you I couldn’t forget ...”

  Clearing her throat, Belle snaps them out of their reverie, causing Aiden and Eiden to get back on the defensive. She tosses me a crossbow, “Now would be a good time to see what you’re made of.”

  Shaky, like it was the first time I ever picked one of these up, I allow Justin’s familiar words to ring in my ear as I dodge behind a pillar from an arrow. It’s just like a video game. With my back against the pillar, I lean around and quickly fire a bolt, landing it directly in the stomach of one of our foes. Immediately, he goes down, and I remember: I’m now a Lost Boy. I’m going to be doing this quite often.

  “Week on an island, huh?” I shoot again as Justin’s face winces, wishing he hadn’t let all that information slip.

  “It was a long time ago,” Justin tries to justify, reloading.

  “It was like six months ago,” Belle states, refusing to let Justin get away from the lie.

  “That’s a long time for me,” he tries to get himself out of the hole he’s dug. Quickly releasing his arrow, he states, “It’s over, though. Completely.”

  Cockily, Peter lands on deck, wraps his arm around Belle, and asks, “Is everyone having fun?”

  “Just a blast,” Justin ducks as a bullet grazes the collar of his jacket that I’m not a hundred percent sure I remember him wearing before. Annoyed, he yells, “That’s the second one they’ve ruined since this started!”

  “Might I suggest you stop having wardrobe changes in the middle of a battle?” Peter slides a lollipop in his mouth.

  “As soon as you stop having snack time,” Justin says, not looking as he fires another round, this time hitting two Watchers with one shot.