“How was your night last night?” I hold my breath, waiting to see what his answer will be, waiting to see how he’ll react, waiting to see what he remembers.
“Fine.” He stares off into space as a small frown pulls the corners of his mouth downward. “I think.” He shifts in his seat, finally looking at me directly. “Why are you talking to me?”
“Why wouldn’t I?”
“Because we broke up.”
“I know, but as I recall, before we ever started dating, we said we’d still be friends no matter what. Including if we ever broke up. We pinky swore it.” I keep my voice light and friendly, but on the inside my heart is beating so fast there’s a good chance it might break through my chest to splatter across his face. “You know the rules of a pinky swear.”
A small smile plays at his mouth. “If the other person breaks it, you get to break their pinky.”
“You don’t want me to break your pinky, do you?” I tease.
“Why would you even still want to be friends with me? I’ve been an ass to you since we broke up.” The smile I’d just gleaned from him falls back into a bewildered frown. “I think.” His eyes narrow, pinching at the corners. “Haven’t I?”
“A little.”
“I remember being so mad at you after we broke up, and when I’m angry like that, I can be a real jerk.”
“Are you saying you don’t remember much of what happened between us since then? What about coming to my house after school yesterday?” I lean in a little closer, looking him dead in the eye. I need to know what I’m dealing with. I just hope he doesn’t see the throbbing pulse at my neck, thumping out it’s all my fault everything is hazy and messed up because I screwed with your emotions when I had no right to in Morse code.
“A little, but I don’t remember exactly why I was there. Truthfully, this whole past month or so is a blur. It’s weird. Every time I try to focus in on something, I just can’t.”
“Interesting.”
“What?”
“Nothing. I was just agreeing with you on the weirdness.” I lean back in my seat, barely hiding the smile trying to break free. The tension in my shoulders relaxes, allowing me to finally breathe freely since walking into class. Magic is amazing. I should be using it all the time. When Jack said Evan wouldn’t know what happened, but he’d probably still be suspicious that something isn’t quite right, I didn’t think that meant his mind would literally gloss over the details of all the creepy crap he’d done while under my spell.
Maybe there’s hope for us yet.
“Maybe having the past month or so feel like a blur is a blessing in disguise because it can allow us to put our breakup behind us and move forward. I’ve really missed having you as a friend. We were always good in that department, and I’d hate for that to end too.” I hold a steady hand out over the aisle, which is amazing since everything inside of me is trembling at a hundred miles an hour. “What do you say, Evan? Still friends?”
He stares at my outstretched hand for half a minute before taking it. “Friends.” After another half a minute passes, he jerks his hand away so fast you’d think my hand was made of lava, and I’d just melted his flesh down to bone. Anger, disgust, confusion, and a little bit of what the hell are you flashes over his face.
My heart jumps into my throat. I swallow hard to push it down as I set free two terrifying words set to potentially damn me. “Everything okay?”
He shakes his head, his eyes blinking a million times faster than normal. Confusion keeps its hold over his expression while everything else fades away… for the moment, anyway. “Yeah.” He blinks several more times before the lines crinkling his forehead smooth out. “I’m fine.” His tone doesn’t exactly inspire confidence, and I can’t help but think of a memory wipe spell in the back of my Book of Shadows. If ever he starts to really remember, maybe using it wouldn’t be such a bad idea.
Yeah, because the last spell I cast on him went over so well. Have I learned nothing? I shouldn’t even be considering touching the Book of Shadows at all, let alone cast from it… But if it helps, and I do things right this time, maybe it won’t be so bad?
I run into Evan three more times before the end of the school day, each encounter becoming a little more normal and a little less him looking at me like I’m the devil hiding behind the face of an angel. The more relaxed he proved to be, the more confident I am the cleansing ritual won’t be so difficult after all.
Smiling at my reflection in the bathroom mirror, I cross my fingers and press them to my lips for a kiss of luck. Here’s to hoping.
Checking one last time to make sure all the stalls are empty, I pull the cleansing juice out from a pocket within my backpack, along with the bottle of blue Gatorade I stole from Evan’s backpack at the end of Calculus when he was called to Mr. Leto’s desk. Pouring half the Gatorade down the drain, I refill it with the potion and give it a good shake to mix it. The color matches perfectly. Holding it up to the light, I smile.
“Someone’s coming,” Liv announces as she walks around the corner and into the bathroom. “Is everything ready?”
I nod as a model-tall, blonde-haired cheerleader enters the bathroom, her gaze glued straight ahead. Not a single glance or even a twitch of the eye in our direction. Not even when Liv offers a hello. Liv probably could have skipped over being lookout for all the attention Pep Squad Barbie pays us. Liv and I could be sacrificing chickens over the sink, and I doubt she’d see a thing. The cheerleaders in this school have a bad habit of only noticing jocks. Everyone else is just background filler. They almost rival Kayla in the conceited category. Almost.
I slip my arms through the straps of my backpack and grab the Gatorade. “Let’s do this.”
“Remember, you have to drink it at the same time. Well, not at the same time same time. Your plan to take a drink then give it to him to take a drink will work fine enough.” Liv hikes up the strap of her backpack as we emerge from the walkway beneath the bleachers. “There he is.” She tips her chin toward the bench along the sidelines. “Now’s your chance. Looks like he’s looking for his missing Gatorade.”
Taking my hand, she pulls me down toward the field. “Woo-hoo! Looking good out there, Liam!” She gives me a wink then saunters off to ogle Liam from close up.
“I see Liv has set her sights on another victim.” Evan offers a cautious smile as he wipes away the sweat from his face with a towel. He stares at the Gatorade in my hand, licking his lips.
I take a large drink then hold it out for him. “You look thirsty. Have some of mine.”
“You don’t have to give me yours. Coach keeps a cooler of water for the team to drink.”
“Come on. Isn’t blue your favorite? You know you want some.” I take another gulp then hold it out, giving it a little shake. “It’s nice and cold, and really good.”
“Okay, fine. If you insist.” He takes it, a smile I hadn’t seen in a really long time gracing his face. He takes several long swigs, and I mumble the incantation to the cleansing ritual under my breath. The cool blue liquid shimmers for just a second before returning to normal. To anyone looking, they would think it was just a reflection of the sun.
By the time he hands it back to me, there’s only a swig or two left in it.
I shrug and down the rest.
“Sorry. Guess I was thirstier than I thought.” A sheepish grin tugs at his mouth, and I can’t help but smile back. A calm tingling starts in my belly and works its way through every part of my body as the cleansing takes effect. I find myself feeling lighter than I have in days, happy even. I’ve finally done something right.
“Please, please, please to whoever is listening up there.” Liv stares up at the sky with her eyes squinted against the brightness of the sun and her hands pressed together under her chin. “Don’t let there be any more bathroom duty today. I can’t handle scrubbing another toilet or cleaning any more tile grout with a toothbrush. I’ve been punished enough.” She glances over at her brother and me. “We
all have.”
Aunt Claudia steps out onto the porch with her mean face on and her arms crossed over her chest. Liv drops her hands and shoves them into the tiny pockets of her jeans. “What are you three doing standing around? Your rooms aren’t going to clean themselves.”
Liv and Jack both groan and drag themselves up the porch stairs. I follow behind, the little bubble of happy I found myself in at the football field morphing into a deep desire to flee before Aunt Claudia realizes my room is already clean and sends me to help Liv clean hers. For the most part, Liv’s room isn’t so bad, but the closet… I fear what we might find growing in there.
If I were staying that is.
I lay my hand over the pendent hidden beneath my sweater, the heat of it seeping through the fabric. A small spell, maybe a little compulsion if need be, and I can be on my way to meeting Paige at the bakery. What good is magic if I can’t use it to my advantage now and then?
25
Hector slides a raspberry filled donut and a vanilla milkshake with an insane amount of cherries on top in front of me. He whips out a couple straws from the pocket of his apron then leans against the countertop. He purses his lips, giving me his best flirty eyes. “I’ve got two straws. How ‘bout we share your shake and call it our first date, hmm, mi amor?”
“How about you give me the second straw and the shake I ordered before I tell my mom you’re being a creeper again?” Paige stares him down until he huffs something in Spanish about her being a buzzkill and goes about getting her order.
I laugh and take a sip of my shake. “Thanks for saving me. I’ve got enough drama going on without having Hector add to it. So have you come up with something for us to do?”
The light in her eyes dims for a fraction of a second before she buries whatever is bothering her deep below the surface. I’m sure she’ll talk endlessly about it when she’s ready, but for now it seems she still wants to keep it to herself, and I don’t want to pry anymore than I already have. I’ve got my own crap to contend with, anyway. Like popping over to Gavin’s secret hidey place at the center to find Seth later tonight. The plan to go last night turned out to be a bust after everything went sideways the moment I learned where the blood in my veins had descended from, and I ended up detouring to the land of too much to deal with instead. Too much hurt. Too much feeling. Too much everything.
And while the urge to wallow is still there, it isn’t a luxury I can take. It wouldn’t do me any good, anyway. The past is what it is, and I can’t change it any more than I can change the blood running through my veins. All I can do is make the best of it and face whatever comes at me head on because the world isn’t full of sunshine and butterflies. Beneath the pretty, lies the darkness, and whether I like it or not, that darkness is coming for me, and I need to be prepared for it—even if I have to face it on my own. Risking my family isn’t an option. Jack already nearly died, and I have no idea if or when there will be a consequence for having brought him back. Liv’s been dealt enough trauma to last a lifetime. And my aunt and uncle can’t be trusted not to wipe my memories and suppress my magic. As for the boy who holds my heart, he’s suffered the legacy of my family the most, and I won’t let him suffer any longer.
No, if I want my life back, I have to take it myself. And that starts with finding out what Seth knows. I don’t care how many super vampires I have to go through in Gavin’s hidden lair to get to him. I will find him, and I will take back what’s mine.
Hector drops the small saucer with Paige’s custard filled donut down on the counter, startling me from my thoughts, and her from giving me an answer. He drops a fat cherry on the top of her shake then takes a long stemmed one for himself. Popping it into his mouth, his tongue rolls around behind his lips for several seconds before he smiles and pulls out the stem, now tied into a knot. He tips his chin, his gaze sliding from me to the pile of cherries on my shake. “Let’s see what kind of moves your tongue has.” He rests on his forearms as he leans against the countertop, a seductive—in his mind anyway—smile creeping over his face.
A cherry hits him dead center on the forehead. “Ew, Hector. Don’t be gross. Indi, along with every other girl here, is not interested in your nasty cherry stem tricks.”
He flashes Paige a narrow-eyed glare. “Why don’t you let Indi speak for herself?” He slides my shake toward me with the tip of his finger. “She’s a big girl. A woman, really, who can answer for herself.” His dark brown eyes rake over me. “Can’t you, mi amor.”
“I think I’ll pass.”
“If you can’t do it, I’ll be happy to show you how after I take you out for dinner tonight. We can go back to my place. I’ve got a jar of cherries in my refrigerator you can practice on.” He licks his bottom lip, his gaze dipping well below my eyes.
Gross.
I lean in, and he smiles thinking I’m going to finally say yes and go out with him. Never in a million years would I even touch him with a stick. He’s such a creep. But if he wants to see how good I am with knots…
I mumble words in a language I don’t know—but at the same time somehow do know—low enough for him not to hear as I focus my intent. “Me and you. Never. Going. To. Happen. I have no interest in you or your,”—I flick my gaze downward to insinuate what’s well below his eyes before meeting his gaze head on—“tiny cherry stem, so why don’t you run along before I call Mrs. Hammond over, and we can see how interested she is.”
“I can assure you my stem is anything but tiny.” Pushing off from the counter he winks at me, completely unaffected by my comments. Probably because he’s used to hearing disgusted refusals—from every female he encounters. “One of these days, you’re going to say yes.”
“I wouldn’t hold my breath.”
He pivots to take a step and falls flat on his face.
Paige and I both lean over the counter to find him sprawled on the floor. Laughter bursts out of her as he scrambles into a sitting position. He stares at the knotted laces of his shoes, then up at me. I shrug and take a large sip of my shake.
“That was hilarious,” Paige announces once Hector has left the room—without his shoes on. I may have knotted them a little too tightly when I cast my spell. “I don’t know what tripped him back there, but the look on his face after he fell was priceless.”
“Yeah. I don’t know what he tripped on either. Or why he took off his shoes. That was super weird.” I take a sip of my shake to hide my smile, thankful Paige didn’t see the knotted laces. Not sure how I would have explained that one. “So, what are we going to do? I can maybe get away with an hour before I have to go.”
“Big plans tonight?” She waggles her eyebrows. “Maybe with a certain bad boy in a leather jacket whose name begins with an S?”
A sharp pain momentarily slices through my chest at the mention of Sebastian before cold numbness seeps in and cuts off whatever I might be feeling for him. Good, bad, it all goes away before I can really feel it. It’s been like that all day. Except for at school, when he pulled me into an empty classroom. I felt him intensely then… until I didn’t. After last night, I wanted to be numb to him, to cut out all the pain we’ve caused each other. And now it seems I am. Could I have somehow subconsciously cast a spell to protect my heart from breaking?
Or is it something else altogether?
What if Sebastian’s right in thinking there’s something wrong with me? I’m not just numb when it comes to him, I’m also crossing the line with my magic and using it for things I would never have used it for before. Coco this morning, Kayla at school, my Aunt and Uncle at home to make them think I’m cleaning my room so I could sneak out to meet Paige, on Hector just now to humiliate him. I’m messing with things I have no business messing with and misusing magic I’m still learning to control. What if I end up creating another Evan situation?
When did it become so easy to blur what’s right and wrong?
“Scratch your chest any harder, and you’re going to draw blood.”
“Huh?”<
br />
Paige flicks her gaze to my chest and raises an eyebrow. I look down and catch myself still scratching. Beneath my nails, there’s a faint reddish glow to what looks like a symbol of some kind.
What the…?
I adjust my top to hide whatever is going on with my chest before someone sees. When I look back up, Paige is staring at me with hope in her eyes. But hope for what? That I really am meeting Sebastian later tonight… or that I would see the symbol that may or not be on my chest?
I shake my head. I’m being crazy thinking it could be about the symbol. Paige couldn’t have seen anything, and she definitely wouldn’t be sending me hopeful glances about it if she did. That would be ridiculous. There’s not a magical bone in her body. If she were to actually see some weird, glowy symbol on my skin, she’d freak out, not sit there all calm about it. No, whatever hopeful look she’s giving me, it’s all about a potential secret rendezvous with Sebastian, and nothing more.
“Excuse me. I need to use the bathroom.”
I lock the door behind me and check the stalls for any other customers. Not a soul in sight. Thank the stars above.
Leaning over the sink on my tiptoes, I get as close to the mirror as I can. Pulling down the neck of my shirt, all I find is inflamed skin where I’d been scratching at it. There’s no glow or symbol. It must have been all in my head.
I stare at myself, wondering if I’m going insane. My reflection stares right back, the look in my eyes haunted. A soft reddish glow illuminates along the edge of my reflection’s neckline. I look down at myself but there’s nothing there, yet I still see it in the mirror.
The moment I reach out to touch my reflection, a burst of intense heat blazes through my chest, right where the glow would be. I pull the neck of my sweater down expecting to see flesh and bone melting away until there’s nothing but a hole left in its place, but there’s nothing there other than the pendant. Another shock courses through me, and I drop to my knees as I clench my teeth together to keep from screaming. Clawing at my chest, the fire beneath my skin continues to burn and burn, hollowing me out. When it finally ends a deep coldness takes its place. It chills and numbs me through and through until I feel absolutely nothing at all. Not even my reflection appears to feel anything anymore. The haunted look I thought I saw in my eyes now gone.
Of Darkness & Light: Blood Descent Book 2 Page 25
