Heart of Clay (High School Hell #2)

By I.D. Russell

Samantha Abraham has the power to magically control her boyfriend's every action, but now someone wants that power--and wants him dead.
After the fallout from Heart of Stone, Sam has learned the truth: that her boyfriend, Joshua, was created in a lab by a mysterious scientist known only as The Professor. A magical ruby gives her the power to control him by thought. It seems like the perfect relationship, until a gauntlet of assassins show up in River City with murder on their minds.
On a quest for the truth that takes her to Toronto and into the den of her enemies, can Sam, Duckie, and hockey-hunk Rick save Joshua’s life before it all goes to hell?

• Language: English
• Publisher: I.D. Russell
• Release date: Oct 15, 2016
• ISBN: 9781988383040

I.D. Russell

When he’s not working full time, training in Hapkido and Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, or looking after his kids, Ian likes to relax with a good book/board game/video game/movie/retro pro-wrestling match. Somewhere in there he finds time to write and make movies.Check out www.ringojones.com for links to his movies and follow him on Facebook, twitter, and youtube

Book preview

CHAPTER ONE

heartofclay-lightning

The world was awash in blood. Samantha Abraham stared into the ruby gemstone dangling from a chain in her hands. The multifaceted shape caught the light filtering in through the leaves of the trees above, reflecting a thousand images of her face—tiny, thoughtful, her eyes staring into infinity. She could lose herself in this strange stone for hours, searching for an answer to the source of its power. She was no closer to learning how it worked than she’d been before the summer.

Joshua, come.

Experimentation had taught her much. Her thoughts were somehow telepathically imparted to him. Control required skin to gem contact. As long as the stone was kept from touching her body, Joshua was free to do and act as he chose. But when she held the gem in her hand, a blank look would overtake him and he would stand frozen, waiting for her to tell him what to do.

He seemed to emerge from the trees like they were curtains. He wore his dark blue city champion hockey team jacket and black pants. But it wasn’t what he was wearing that enraptured her—it was his green eyes, his wavy hair, his chiseled yet soft features, his smile, and the calm presence he carried about him. It was all she could do to not melt right on the spot.

She waved and he walked over to her, smiling.

Hey.

Sam had bought a small chain and locket to fit the ruby into, following along with a YouTube FAQ video to mount the stone as carefully as she could. She didn’t want to find out the hard way what a scratch could do. As Joshua smiled at her in anticipation, she slung the gemstone over her neck and tucked it under her shirt, preferring to keep it close to her heart, but always on her mind.

She felt the gem tingling against her skin, the ruby itching, reaching out for her to take hold of it and command Joshua to sweep her into his arms right then and there, but she resisted.

Are you ready to do this? she asked.

Sure, he shrugged.

It was the first day of school and Sam needed to make an entrance. She had to let everyone know that this was a new year and a new Sam. She was going to show up with Joshua, holding hands. This time it wasn’t going to backfire on her like it had at last year’s Halloween dance. Then, Debbie Peterson’s jealousy had nearly ruined everything, but after almost a year, that wound had healed. It was time to make a statement and solidify herself in the school hierarchy.

It was a bright and beautiful fall morning. She took his hand in hers and led him down the sidewalk of her tree-lined neighbourhood. They passed houses with manicured lawns, stucco and vinyl siding fronts, and extra cars parked in their driveways. As sprinklers watered the carefully landscaped flower beds, the scene was the quiet promise of suburbia.

Summer had blazed by in an instant. Sam had been forced to get a job. Her parents thought she needed something to get her out of the house all day, so her father arranged for her to work at one of his restaurants, first as a busser, then as a hostess. She wasn’t old enough to serve alcohol and couldn’t waitress, which was where the real money was.

Her job had been a nightmare introduction to the working world. As a hostess, she had to deal with impatient customers, had to wither under the disguised glances at the prominent mole above her left eyebrow, had to suffer the indignities that went along with seating someone she knew from school. But with bussing, she had to clean up after ever-surprising new kinds of human pigs. She found tables with partially chewed food left in piles, napkins stained in unnatural colours, drink glasses filled with rice or lettuce, wing sauce rubbed all over the seats, dirty diapers left on the floor, and one unidentifiable stain that no one in the restaurant would go near. If that was the real world, you could count her out.

And while working added funds to her secret college stash, it took time away from Joshua. Free from the Professor’s control, she assumed they would be able to spend as much time together as she wanted, but the world of high school sports never let up. Coach Lepine had volunteered to take Joshua in after the fire, but that meant that summer was just another name for training camp. Joshua had skills development, weight training, a curfew, and now a life of his own.

She looked over at him walking beside her, smiled at his hair gently blowing in the breeze, remembering that special night in August. Joshua was supposed to be in bed by ten thirty, but Coach Lepine hadn’t counted on the gemstone. It was better than a cellphone. All she had to do was hold on to the ruby and think of him and he’d be there at her window. There had been so many temptations to abuse the power of the gem. As he stared up at her in the darkness, she’d told him to climb the latticework on the house, come up to her open window, and finally kiss her.

It had been her first kiss and it was wonderful, just as every song, book, and movie had made it out to be. Their lips met softly. He was warm and moist and the kiss moved her one step further away from life as a child. She’d immediately felt ashamed about having manipulated him. While the kiss had been magical, it felt cheap afterwards. She’d used mind control instead of letting it happen naturally, and it had taken away something precious from the experience.

She’d resolved never to use the power of the ruby like that again, and tried to keep the stone locked up in her jewellry box as much as possible. The only problem was that the gem seemed to have a mind of its own. She could feel it calling to her when it was locked away. It wasn’t a whispered voice, but an urge, a desire to hold the stone creeping into her psyche, making it hard to concentrate. Wearing the locket helped quell the strange feeling of abandonment she experienced when apart from the ruby. She now wore it whenever she could, but still, the urge was always there. Touch the stone, make him do what you want. She could swear the stone wanted her to use it, but that was crazy. It was just an inanimate object.

She held on to his hand all the way to school, clutching it tightly to avoid the temptation to hold the stone. John A. MacDonald High was red brick, classic Americana stuck in the middle of the Great White North. The large front was dominated by the imposing entrance way, complete with huge staircase. A flag pole waved the red and white proudly for all to see. The building stretched down half a block, eventually connecting with the hockey arena the school had absorbed so many years ago.

Kids of all shapes, sizes, and colours mulled around the front, talking amongst themselves. Snippets of a dozen conversations blended into a cacophony of noise that greeted them as they approached. A few pairs of eyes noticed her arrival, some checking Joshua out, comparing him to her. She could almost see their thoughts running through their minds; why is he with her? Sam squeezed his hand tighter and felt smug. Let them wonder, she thought.

They walked up the stairs. Loiterers parted for them like the Red Sea. He was a champion hockey player, a king of the school, and her arm candy. They passed through the middle set of double doors into the main foyer. Here the noise reached a crescendo, as most of the student body stood around talking to each other, sharing how they spent their summer vacations, catching up on the latest gossip, stirring the pot before the water even started boiling.

...so then Johnny drank the whole thing in one gulp and puked!

No way!

Seriously, dude had hot dogs for lunch and everything!

Too funny!

What about Maria, you shack up yet?

The words and faces were unimportant. Sam scanned the crowd for the one person she most wanted to notice her and Joshua’s hand holding, the person she most wanted to stick it to. She saw her standing next to the north wing hallway, chatting with the rest of the girls’ volleyball team.

Debbie Peterson, her arch-enemy, or at least the high school equivalent of one, had been doing her part to make sure that Sam’s three years at John A. MacDonald would be a living hell. Last year alone, Debbie had managed to convince everyone that Joshua was an attempted-rapist, pegging Sam as the victim while Joshua was kept away by a restraining order. Her twisted plan had almost worked, would have worked, if Joshua had been any other man.

Debbie was the prettiest girl in school and could get any guy she wanted, but Joshua wasn’t interested. He’d rejected her, become a hockey hero, worked through the accusations and gotten back in everyone’s good graces. He and Sam could be together in school again.

Debbie laughed at something, her perfect teeth as white as snow. How Sam hated her. Where was her glaring beauty imperfection? Where was Debbie’s shame that branded her an outsider? Sam could feel the mole above her eye, knew it was showing behind her hair. People like Debbie would never let her forget about it, but there was one thing Sam could do to get back at them.

She knew that she was tempting fate by doing this, knew that to risk Debbie’s ire was dangerous, but she couldn’t help herself. This was possibly the only time in her life that Sam would have something the evil ice queen wanted. Debbie would always be more popular, prettier, better at sports, beloved by the faculty and every red-blooded man within a hundred meters, but she would never have Joshua. Sam knew that both in her heart and in the gemstone hanging next to it. She had to flaunt it.

Sam took a deep breath, squeezed Joshua’s hand, and led him in a wide circuit of the room, pretending to look for someone, planning on passing by Debbie as innocently as she could, but a voice caught her from the crowd.

Sam!

She turned, looking for the source in the mass of people, unable to spot who had shouted her name.

Sam, over here.

There it was again. Who was calling her?

She felt a tug on her sleeve and turned to see Rick Hansen, the captain of the school’s hockey team standing next to her, smiling. He was wearing his team jacket and black pants. He had let his hair grow over the summer, the black locks now reaching down to just past his chin. The way it was brushed made him look like a Goth rock star, like Robert Smith’s teenage emo lovechild. It was a stark change of pace from his usual trim style and it threw her for a loop. He looked like he should be on the cover of Seventeen Magazine.

What has he been up to this summer?

Hey Sam, how’s it going? he smiled again. How was your break?

Rick was the most popular guy in school, and Sam should have been swooning in his presence, but the aura of ‘Rick’ had waned for her. They’d talked a lot last year, and after getting to know him better, the spark of her old crush was gone. She’d learned that he was actually slightly awkward, even shy—nothing like the Adonis of manhood she’d pictured. He stumbled over his words around her. It didn’t fit with his persona as captain of the hockey team. He was supposed to be a ladies’ man, the on-again-off-again companion of Debbie Peterson, but here he was, talking to her, struggling to make eye contact. Where was the cocky jock?

Hey Rick. Summer was good, you?

He nodded, spotting Joshua next to her, his eyes panning down to notice their hands clasped. He blushed, something Sam had never expected to see. Rick Hansen, top dog of John A. MacDonald High, blushing!

Right, yeah, cool. Yeah, so. Right on. Just wanted to say hi and all that. Catch you later. He stumbled through his words like a seven year old in a school play before bolting back into the crowd.

Well, that was weird.

Sam was all set to resume her march over to Debbie when Duckie popped up in front of her, like he’d teleported in from a starship. He looked upset, confused. Sam, what’s the deal? I show up at your house and your mom says you left already?

Oh crap, I forgot to tell Duckie!

Oh, I thought I told you. Joshua was walking with me today. She pointed to him with the hand that was interlocked in his.

Duckie frowned. Oh, right. I get it. Fine.

Trevor, or Duckie as she called him, didn’t like Joshua. He’d been convinced all last year that he was a criminal, had tried to get Sam to forget about him, and had even followed him around town. But he also knew the truth, that Joshua was a golem.

Duckie had been there when all the craziness went down. He’d seen The Professor who created Joshua capture Sam, had helped her wrestle the gem away from the old man, had seen Joshua, under Sam’s control, inadvertently kill the villain by tossing him into the strange machinery that filled his hidden laboratory. Duckie had been there when Sam used the gem to get Joshua to free her from her bonds, saving them from certain immolation as fire burned the old house down, along with all records of what had gone on inside.

Duckie knew the strange ruby had power, and it was all Sam could do to keep him off her back about it. He wanted to try it out for himself.

Come on, Sam, think about it. He could beat up the hockey team, make them stop picking on us!

He wanted to know what the power to control Joshua felt like. He’d pleaded with her to let him try, just once. He could get back at Debbie for what she did to you. Stick it to her and the Slugs.

She’d briefly considered it, but still said no.

Because they’d been friends since kindergarten, her free nights were a battle between Duckie and Joshua. She could never abandon her oldest friend, but she craved time with the man she loved. Duckie wanted to play Dungeons and Dragons, watch old movies, cruise YouTube, but she wanted to lock lips with the man whose hand she was clinging to like a life raft.

Look, I’m sorry, it just slipped my mind, okay? I’ll walk with you tomorrow.

He scowled, sighing heavily, then turned and took off, disappearing from sight as quickly as he came.

Sam tried calling after him. Duckie, wait! But he was gone.

She didn’t need this drama. What else could go wrong? She shook her head and took a deep breath, pulling Joshua along, ready to resume sticking it to Debbie . . . when the morning bell rang. The first day of school had officially begun.

CHAPTER TWO

heartofclay-lightning

...and so it was in 1926 that Mackenzie King called to the Governor General, Lord Byng, to dissolve parliament and call an election, but in the only instance in Canadian history, Byng refused and turned to the Conservative party and Arthur Meighen to form a government . . .

The words of Miss Fitzjohn passed through Rick’s mind like water. The first day of school and he was already zoning out. What did the King-Byng affair matter to him, anyway? The Sam-Joshua affair was all he could think about. He knew she had a thing for the guy, that much was written all over her face, but somehow the fact that they were holding hands had thrown him for a loop.

Joshua was his teammate, a great defensemen, a solid rock on the blue line, but he never spoke, didn’t seem to have much of a personality. What did she see in him? Rick looked over the heads of his fellow Canadian history students to find Sam, sitting near the window. Her dark hair caught the sunlight and seemed to glow with strange promise.

He was Rick Hansen. He’d been named after the ‘man in motion,’ the famous wheelchair athlete who rode across the world to raise awareness and money for spinal cord injury research. He should have had it all. He was the captain of the championship hockey team, considered by many to be the most handsome guy in school. He came from a wealthy family of doctors and lawyers. He should be living it up, having the time of his life, but why was he so unhappy?

Sam. It was all Sam. He couldn’t get the image of her out of his head. There was something different about her, something intriguing. She wasn’t like Debbie or the other girls; she didn’t seem self-obsessed, or overly concerned with popularity. She seemed down to earth, nice. The kind of girl that people called ‘the girl next door,’ whatever that meant. According to the school’s hierarchy, there was really no reason why someone like him should be interested in someone like her. If he wanted any girl in the school, he just had to ask, but that knowledge did nothing for him. He didn’t want any girl; he wanted one that