Odette finally kicked the man off of her legs and drew her body into a tight ball. Her heart was beating so impossibly fast that she wondered if she would faint again. She reached over the man and picked up her kitten, practically crushing her into her chest. Runt’s claws dug into the flesh of her shoulder but, at the moment, she didn’t mind the pain.
Where am I?! Odette couldn’t help but notice that the woods around her all looked the same.
The rain picked up and Odette used her hair as a curtain for the poor cat. She tucked her inside of her shirt, mostly for her comfort. She felt so strange; she was cold but hot at the same time. The raindrops were warm, splattering all over the exposed skin of her arms.
Quit staring at me, she begged the lifeless man in her mind. Using the tree behind her, she rose up to her feet. Her legs quaked beneath her.
“Mom!” she screamed, hoping that she was nearby. The wind blew through the trees, rustling them. They were laughing at her.
“Dad!”
Lightning crashed and she spun around in a circle. Was that way the way she came from? Or that way? The dead man was taunting her now with his dull eyes.
“Anybody?!” Her screams were drowned out by the thunderclap. She fell back against a tree, sobbing. She couldn’t help but look at her other companion, now soiled from the mud.
He wasn’t wearing anything special—a pair of ratty jeans and a T-shirt. His blond hair was limp and dull, sprinkled with bits of leaves and dirt. Odette wondered if he killed himself out here. She had heard of people getting dressed up for their last days on earth but he looked like he didn’t care. He looked scared. She wondered if he had a family who missed him. Now, as she looked at him, the revulsion died down little-by-little; he couldn’t have been too much older than Grayson.
“MOM!” she screamed again.
There was no answer, only the howling in the wind that sounded too much like her name.
A hand clasped down on her shoulder and Odette screamed bloody murder once again. She whirled around, slapping a hand over her mouth. Grayson.
He was soaked, his dark hair matted down on his forehead. Rivulets of water ran down his cheeks and forehead, dripping from the ends of his hair. He was looking at her with so much concern.
Odette opened and closed her mouth but her voice refused to work. Why was he here? How did he find me? He’s here to save me. Everything will be fine now.
The boy pulled her into his chest, hugging her tightly. Runt squirmed around inside her shirt, meowing to be let go. Odette continued to shake in his arms, crying hard. She was so afraid and here he was, her knight in shining armor.
He pulled away, still holding onto her like she would drop any minute. He looked over her shoulder and saw what had spooked her so much, his face darkening.
“Did you find him?” he asked, having to yell over the noise of rain.
Odette nodded her head rapidly, too hysterical to actually do much else other than clutch onto him and cry her eyes out.
“Let’s get you home.”
It surprised her how easily Grayson could navigate the woods but he had lived in Sunwick longer than she had. Odette wanted to ask about his arm, how he was feeling, but she couldn’t speak. She was frozen, one hand holding onto him, the other holding Runt.
Her backdoor came into view and they could see the lights were on inside and the door was ajar. Grayson held it open for her and she walked in, seeing her parents almost instantly. They were sitting at the kitchen table, holding hands and not talking.
Jonah jumped up upon seeing his daughter. “Are you okay?” “You were gone for a long time, you shouldn’t have done that. Runt is an animal, she would have been able to find shelter through the storm and been safe,” Pamela lectured.
Odette just stared at the ground, her eyes wide. Hiccupping sobs left her mouth, the feeling of that body laying on top of her, that deadweight crushing her, burned into her mind. She had nearly forgotten about Grayson being there until his hand connected to the small of her back. It was a pitiful source of comfort and not even doing that good of a job as all she could imagine was that it was the dead body touching her.
“Odette,” Pamela said, trying to gain her attention. “What’s wrong?”
Jonah walked out of the room, coming back a second later with two towels. Odette just allowed hers to be draped around her. She was trying to think, trying to find her words.
“We need to call the police,” she mumbled.
Grayson frowned but ushered her to sit down.
“What? Why?” her mother asked.
“I found Odette in the woods after I had heard a scream outside,” Grayson started. “She was huddled up against a tree, shaking. She found a dead body.”
Both of her parents sucked in a deep breath, Pamela covering her mouth with her hand. Jonah reached for his cell phone and punched in 911.
The police arrive almost forty minutes later, which was strange for how small the town was. The rain had died down to a drizzle but the thunder and lightning had gone away completely. Grayson stayed by Odette’s side the whole time, much to her mother’s displeasure. He didn’t say much, only held her in his arms on her living room couch while they both watched TV.
When the police did arrive, it was two cops—one short and one tall. They both had the same horseshoe mustaches; the taller one’s was darker while the shorter one’s was a graying red. They looked very peeved by the fact that they had been called out to do something, but, when they caught sight of Grayson, their attitudes changed.
“Okay and where did you say that this happened again?” the smaller cop, Sheriff Landry, asked.
Odette released her bottom lip from her teeth. “In the woods. I-I don’t know where exactly.”
“About a two-minute walk from their back door, Sheriff. It looked like the guy had hung himself,” Grayson added. His arm was still resting protectively around her, giving her a reassuring squeeze on the shoulder every now and then.
Landry nodded, writing down in his little notebook. “And you found him how exactly?”
Odette shuddered, looking down at her hands. “My cat ran off through the woods when I ran straight into the body. I hit it so hard that the … the rope that was on the tree …” she turned her head to the side, gathering her bearings. “It made the rope snap off of the branch and he fell on top of me. I didn’t know what it was at first.”
Landry nodded his head. Odette could see his Adam’s apple bobbing as he swallowed hard. “Did you recognize him? Do you know this man?”
Odette frowned, shaking her head. “I don’t think so. I haven’t been around town too much, so I’m not familiar with the locals.”
“Grayson?” Landry asked.
Grayson shook his head, “The guy was from out of town. Maybe from the city? It was dark, but he didn’t look like any of the college students around here.”
The sheriff nodded, slapping his hands on his thighs. He stood up from the armchair beside the couch, “Thanks kids. I’m sorry you had to see something like that, Miss Sinclair.” He motioned for his deputy to follow him out of the door.
“How are you feeling?” Grayson asked quietly, turning Odette’s attention to him.
“I’m … I’m okay.” A lie. “I’ll be okay. It wasn’t me who was, well, you know.” Odette cringed, resting her hand on his arm gently. “Besides, you saved me before I went crazy. How are you feeling?”
Grayson’s blank expression turned sour. “I’m not the one who just body slammed a dead person, princess. I’m fine.”
“No, you dork, I meant your arm.” She inched out of his arms, the cold blast of the air conditioner making her shiver.
He knew what she meant the first time; she could see it in the twitch of his eye. “I’m fine. I have painkillers for when I’m not fine. It’s nothing.” An obvious lie.
Odette scoffed, resisting the urge to roll her eyes. “Dude, a bullet wound is not nothing. Bleeding out in your car is not nothing. Seriously, you got rea
lly hurt and yet it’s ‘nothing.’”
Grayson’s eyes darted around the room, checking to see if any of the cops had come back inside. It was strange to see him so agitated. “It is nothing, princess. My pain is nothing compared to yours, don’t you understand?”
“What?”
Grayson grabbed both of her hands, holding them like she would try and tear them away from him any second. “I would gladly endure any amount of pain if it meant that you didn’t have to feel any. You’re too pure; you shouldn’t have to experience the pain of this world. I will gladly take a bullet for you any day.”
His words stirred feelings inside Odette but most of them weren’t good. If it wasn’t the tightening of his hands around hers, it was that deranged look on his face. He looked completely unhinged.
“Oh,” she whispered.
His blue eyes glimmered in the soft light of the lamp. He released one of her hands, which she quickly placed behind her but his hand came up to cup her cheek.
He caressed her skin, taking some of her damp hair between his fingers and twisting it around. “Do you know how beautiful you are?”
Odette didn’t know how to respond to that. She took a small, calming breath. She was just being paranoid. Today had set her nerves on the fritz.
“You’re scared.” Grayson released her hair and pulled her in close to him. It was a little hard to breathe in this position, her face squashed against his shirt, so she fought to turn her head. His hand was rubbing her head in what was supposed to be a soothing manner but Odette had never seen this as soothing.
“Don’t worry,” Grayson said, kissing the top of her head. “Nothing can hurt you while I’m here with you.”
Odette believed him. She relaxed her muscles and pulled herself in closer, wrapping her arms around his lower torso.
“Good girl.”
Dr. Noel Short’s visit had been scheduled not long after. The therapist was—to say the very least—mortified by what her patient had to say.
“I’m sorry?” she blinked several times, processing the words that had just left her patient’s mouth.
Odette wondered if that was considered being professional. “It has been a really bad week,” she said simply.
“You slammed into the corpse of a suicide victim? His body landed on you?” Her eyes were as wide as Odette’s had been when it had happened.
The younger girl flinched, recalling the memories. The body and its weight.
“Yes,” she said in a tight voice. “And … and every time that I close my eyes or just think about it for too long, it’s like I can see it—him—again. Hanging from my ceiling fan or from the banister. Sometimes it’s not even hanging, it’s—he’s—in a heap on the floor.”
Dr. Short was visibly disturbed but she fought to keep herself professional. “Has this been affecting your sleep?”
The girl dug her nails into her skin. “I don’t sleep well anyway,” Odette admitted. “I always have these … nightmares, I guess, of someone in my bedroom. This has just added to it. But I’ve been coping. Grayson’s been—”
“Grayson?” she cut in. “Who is Grayson?”
Odette rubbed her arms. Hadn’t she mentioned him last time? Maybe she didn’t by name. Still, Dr. Short acted like she struck gold.
“He’s my boyfriend and he’s my neighbor that I had mentioned during the last session. But, he’s been helping. He’s been checking up on me and comforting me,” she replied.
“You wouldn’t mean Grayson Mages would you?” Dr. Short asked, twirling her pen in between her fingers.
Her eyebrows shot up. That was quite the leap to make, she was sure that there was more than one Grayson in the area, but she couldn’t blame the doctor for asking. “Actually yes.”
Dr. Short made a noise, which Odette deemed as strange. Wasn’t her job just to sit there silently and judge silently, not out loud? Her face, however, did not reveal her feelings to her patient, nor did her body language.
“Why?” Odette finally asked.
“Nothing, I was just asking. You two must have clicked fast, it’s hardly been a month.” Dr. Short looked down in her notebook, hesitating. “He always seems to get a new girl every year; it’s tragic what happened with the last one.”
I shouldn’t ask, Odette thought, She shouldn’t even be bringing this up. She’s being paid to listen to my problems, not make me jealous about his exes … or pity them.
“His sister has told me a little bit about their past,” she informed the woman. “So far, Grayson has gone out of his way to protect me from any harm. He was the one who found me in the woods after I ran into the suicide victim.”
Dr. Short didn’t make any comment, only wrote away in her notebook.
“Brunch?” Pamela asked incredulously.
Odette rolled her eyes. “Yes, Mom, brunch. We’ve had it a thousand times.”
The girl’s mother raised her hands in defense. “I know but the way you said it made it sound so fancy. ‘Greer invited me to brunch.’”
“How does that sound fancy?” Odette laughed, pulling herself to sit on the countertop.
“It sounds like something that you hear in a soap opera,” her mother explained. “But do you think that you could handle it? After the events of the past week?” She eyed her daughter carefully.
Odette knew that she had to show no weakness in front of her mother if she wanted to do this. She was beginning to go stir crazy in this house and her night terrors only got worse after finding the body in the woods.
“Of course I can. I’m pretty sure that’s why she invited me over anyway. To get a sense of normalcy. She’s invited her two other friends too, so it’s not like it’s just going to be us.” Odette swung her legs playfully, waiting for her mother to speak.
Pamela was quiet, typing on her computer. She stopped and rubbed her nose as though she was battling with something that was truly a matter of life and death. “I don’t know, Det. I love that you have friends and—heck—even a boyfriend, but maybe some separation from them would be good.”
Odette felt as though her mother had just slapped her. “Excuse me?”
“You have been the best I think that I have seen you in years but you’ve also had some pretty serious things happen to you. You were held up and that boy got shot. There was a dead body in our actual backyard. Even though it’s good to have friends to comfort you in times like this, it’s also good to have some ‘you time’ too.”
Odette scoffed, pushing herself off of the countertop. Runt ran around her feet, rubbing up on her ankles and meowing for attention but she couldn’t be bothered at the moment. “Isn’t ‘me time’ all I ever have?”
She started to walk off, making it through the threshold of the kitchen door when her mother called after her. “Odette, don’t walk away from me. We are having a discussion.”
“I think I need to go to my room before we have an unnecessary argument, Mother,” Odette spat.
She stormed up the stairs, clenching her hands into fists. Her nails bit into the flesh of her palms, the pain easing the raging fire that was building up inside of her. She couldn’t believe her mother! The woman who said that she didn’t have enough social interaction didn’t want her to go see her friends. It wasn’t like she even saw them every day, maybe once a week.
Odette flopped onto her bed, angry tears threatening to spill over. She just wanted to see her friends and to get out of this God-awful house. Sharp taps on the side of her window made Odette sit straight up. Her heart leapt up into her throat but she soon calmed down when she saw who was there. She rushed over to her window, heaving it open. “What are you doing up here?!” she whisper-shouted at the boy.
Grayson smirked, leaning his weight against the side of the house. It was a little hard to see him through the screen but he seemed unfazed. “Can’t I visit my princess?”
“You’re going to get yourself killed, I swear. How are you even doing this right now? There’s no way you can get through this wi
ndow, you know that, right?” Odette ran a hand through her hair, looking as far as she could to see just what he was standing on.
“Princess-of-little-faith, you’re ruining my romantic gesture,” he teased. His confident smirk was making her more uneasy as time passed.
“You’re going to have to go through the front door, you know that, right? Besides, my parents would never let me have a boy in my room. Your plan is very, very flawed and could get me grounded,” she whispered, glancing over her shoulder. She knew it was only a matter of time before her mom came upstairs to try and patch things up.
Grayson chuckled, the sound making Odette’s heart flutter—but she would never admit it. “My intentions are pure.”
“Anyone who wants to sneak through a window does not have pure intentions.”
His eyebrow shot up. “Oh my, princess, you’re the one who’s making this—”
“Shut up,” she snapped. He snickered but stayed quiet. “I’m serious, you can’t come through the window, Romeo. The screen will make a noise if I try to remove it and alert my mother of your presence.”
He made a hammy gesture but it was unclear exactly what he did. “Good thing I’m a magician.”
Odette wanted to make a very sarcastic remark, something like, “I don’t think pulling a bunny out of a hat will help you in this situation,” but the comment died in her throat.
Grayson wiggled his fingers at the screen, winking at her. It was entirely to show for whom he really was, but he did stuff like this for a living. All the same, she laughed a little. It wasn’t until she saw the physical signs of the screen moving that she started paying attention to what he was doing.
Despite his obviously overdramatic moves, she could see him concentrating. Out of habit, she looked for his amulet. He always wore it, so where had he placed it this time? It was overcast that morning, so the sun wouldn’t be shining off of it ….
The amulet sat on the cuff of his long-sleeved shirt. It seemed to pulsate, sending out a dull glow of blue with every tug of the invisible rope in Grayson’s hands. Eventually, the protective screen rested in his hands and he slung his legs inside, one at a time.
Violent Delights Page 14
