We Will Change Our Stars: Seers and Demigods Book 2

by Nicole Thorn

  Hands touched me when I came back to myself. I still sat in Zander’s lap, but all the fun and games and come to a halt. He cupped my face, looking worried. I blinked at him, and breathed a sigh of relief. “What did you see?” he asked.

  “I think you and I are about to take a little road trip,” I said.

  CHAPTER SIXTEEN:

  See What I See

  Zander

  Jasmine dismounted me, and sat back in her seat with a thud and a grunt. I still felt . . . foggy. Her panties sat on my lap, just where she dropped them. Oh, she would make this difficult for me, I could see that now. My fault for pouncing on her before. I could have avoided this for a while longer.

  Maybe.

  The truth was this would’ve happened eventually, no matter what. The only reason it hadn’t before was because Kizzy needed the house stable. I couldn’t risk her place there by trying something with Jasmine. As much as I wanted to from the start. It would have been risking too much if I made the house feel uncomfortable, and also, things had been trying to kill us. But then it all settled, and I got to know Jasmine more. I saw all the little cracks in her being, and it became clear that I couldn’t keep her. I planned to let it go, back when I thought such an option existed.

  I managed to hand back her underwear, and not watch her as she slipped them back on. I stared out at the road, trying not to throw up out the window. Oh God, this literally hurt. I wanted to toss her in the back of the car and finish what she started. Thankfully, she had a vision.

  “Where to?” I asked, sounding tired all of the sudden.

  Jasmine gave me directions as she buckled up, and I made a valiant effort to hear her words and not think about how I played with her naughty bits not three minutes ago. Warm . . . she had been very warm and soft. FUCK! Literally the only thing on my mind was getting her back home, and locking her in my room with me. We were busy people, and that saved her, thankfully.

  Jeez, I didn’t even make it a whole day without touching her. What a loser.

  I started driving when I decided it would be safe for the other drivers. Wouldn’t want strangers to die because I pictured Jasmine naked. Not that I pictured her naked a lot . . . Only when I ate, or showered, or went for a walk, got dressed, cleaned, or looked at her. I felt perfectly fine for the most part. A normal person who could function through his days.

  I focused on the road as I went, because I didn’t want my thoughts to slip, and then crash into a tree. Plenty of stuff wanted to be on the forefront of my brain. Other than a naked and screaming Jasmine, we had that stuff Callie got on the airwaves. Jasmine thought that something wanted to kill us, which was probably true. I liked to think that it meant something else. It could be interpreted as anything.

  “I’m offended,” Jasmine decided with the crossing of her arms. “I mean, paying someone to kill us isn’t classy.”

  I chuckled at that. So damn adorable with that little pout in her lips, and the set of her jaw. “No, it’s not. The good news is that I promise to murder them in revenge. We’re all going to be fine.”

  “What about Callie’s notes?”

  I shrugged. “Until she figures out what they really mean, I don’t think we should panic. We survived assassins with wings, Jasmine. We can figure out whatever might be coming for us.”

  She didn’t respond to me. Instead, she chose to look out the window at the houses that we passed. I felt her worry, and left her to it, because I didn’t think anything I had to say would work. We were both stubborn people. Maybe we worked better together than I thought we did.

  We looked for a house in Jasmine’s vision, and it helped that she had the address for me to find. The person who tried getting us killed lived there, so that meant we could be in for a fight. Jasmine would want to help me, and wouldn’t stay in the car. Maybe I could bribe her.

  “Hey,” I said, making Jasmine turn to me. “Would you wait in the car while I went in?”

  She snorted at me.

  “Thought so. What if I made you a deal?”

  Jasmine appeared to be interested, arching a brow and smirking. “What are you gonna offer me? I can buy my own candy you know?”

  I laughed. “First of all, you don’t have the candy connections I do, missy.”

  “Missy?” she laughed.

  “My brother knows candy people all over this world, and I could get you chocolate that puts you in a coma. But that’s not what I’m offering.”

  In a lighter tone than before, she said, “Then what are you offering me, Zander?”

  I grinned at her. “If you stay in the car and out of trouble, I’ll take you home, make you dinner that is literally anything you want.”

  She cut me off. “Oh, that does sound tempting.”

  “Not done,” I said, holding a hand up. “After dinner, I would take you up to my room, and put you on the bed, where I would proceed to go down on you until you finished either three times, or until an hour has passed. Whichever happens last.” Might as well do something we both would’ve enjoy, since I would probably do it anyway. Who was I kidding?

  Jasmine stared blankly out the windshield for a long time, and I listened to the little hums of her emotions as they played in her head. My favorite was the utter shock that I would make such an offer. Then the feelings that came along with what had to be her picturing it, like I did.

  “Why three?” she asked. “That would take a while.”

  I smiled. “It wouldn’t, which is why I said an hour.”

  Jasmine made a sound that might have been a whimper. I glanced at her from the road, watching her consider my offer for a little while. Hmm. I hoped she would go for it, because that would be a lovely way to end the day.

  With a deep breath, she said, “Nope. I have to go in with you. I don’t want you to die. And besides, I’ll get you to go down on me sooner or later anyway.”

  Damn! “Fine,” I huffed. “Have it your way, but now you don’t get dinner.”

  Jasmine went back to pouting, and I did the same. I wanted to do what I offered, so maybe it was a bad idea that I did. I should’ve been glad she didn’t go for it. We shouldn’t be together, but it didn’t stop me from wanting it. I wanted her so badly that it made me lose my sense. I had to behave from now on.

  We got to the creepiest looking house on the planet, and I felt the darkness in it from my car. Everything about the house warned people to stay away. The home looked dirty and broken down like in some old horror movie. A mad scientist probably lived inside of it. I bet booby traps lined the floors, just waiting to kill us.

  “I really don’t want you going inside,” I said as I turned the car off.

  “Too bad,” Jasmine said. “Something can get me out here. Either I go in the spooky house with you, where you can protect me, or you leave me all alone out here to fend for myself.”

  She had a point, and a good one that I couldn’t ignore. Damn her and when she made sense. “You win,” I said.

  Jasmine shrugged. “If I really won, you’d still go down on me later.”

  As revenge, I smirked at her. “We’ll see.”

  We got out of the car, and began the slow walk up to the house. I looked around, ready for a fight when it came. I had grown far too used to things popping out at me. If one did, I would bash its brains in. Simple and clean.

  I pushed Jasmine back when I wanted to open the door. It had been locked, but I broke the handle off with ease, and tossed it into the overgrown grass at the bottom of the steps. Then I shoved the door open, and looked inside the haunted house. Because it was totally haunted, and I didn’t care who thought me crazy for believing that.

  Several broken windows lit up the first room we ended up in. The main room, I supposed. It looked exactly like I thought it would when I had stood outside. Wooden floors looked rotted and about to crumble, while cobwebs and dirt coated the walls so thick that I almost gagged at the sight of it.

  “This is so gross,” I said.

  I turned to look at Jasm
ine, and she eyed everything suspiciously, as if she accused the home itself of something. She didn’t offer up comment, so I figured she felt as disgusted as I did.

  “We should check the rest of it,” I said. “That woman might be in here waiting for us.”

  Jasmine tensed. “Maybe we should go back home, and get that pretty sword of yours. You look hot with the sword . . . ”

  Well that’s nice to hear her say. I would have to make sure I accidentally let her see me next time I cleaned it or something. She would get a kick out of it.

  No! Must not do things to her. I had to let her heal on her own before I stepped in, and made everything all messy for her life. She needed me to back off.

  “At the very least,” I said. “Something is here. If we don’t find that woman, we’ll find something we can use. Let’s check in there.” I pointed to the room just off the foyer, and started walking.

  “Wait!” Jasmine grabbed my arm. “I mean, we don’t have to do this. It’s probably a huge waste of time anyway.”

  Desperate now, huh? “You know it’s not, Jasmine. Just stay calm, and remember you’re with a killing machine.”

  She arched an eyebrow at me. “Cocky.”

  “You know it.”

  Jasmine followed at my side, almost clutching onto me as she looked around with suspicions I couldn’t help but understand. I kept waiting for a ghost to pop out, and try and kill us.

  Jasmine pulled on my sleeve as she turned to me. “How sure about this are you?”

  I shrugged, because I had just as many answers as she did here. “Pretty sure. It’s only the living room, Jazz. Let’s see the rest of the house before making any dire decisions.”

  She made me want to attack her when she wrinkled her nose, looking all too tempting, like she always did. Why did she have to do this to me? “Sure,” she said sarcastically. “The big scary demigod who can’t get tetanus from rusty nails wants to check it out. Meek little human must follow along.”

  I laughed at her, because she was the one who insisted we come to the house. She could have waited in the car if she wanted, but she chose this over an hour of fun and a delicious meal. She deserved the jumpiness she felt.

  And I deserved the show I got.

  Jasmine walked face first into a massive cobweb, and flailed like she had been electrocuted, cursing at the spider that wasn’t there, and pulling the abandoned home off of her with utter disgust and terror.

  I smiled, and walked forward into the room. Dust made up everything in this place, and it coated old furniture as well as the walls and the objects were thrown about carelessly. No one could possibly live there, right?

  “It looks like there’s stuff in this room,” I said to Jasmine, looking over my shoulder at her. She had broken free of her web prison.

  She scurried over to me, hopping over the things left on the floor. Little bombs laid everywhere, and she could trip and break her ankle should she step on one. They appeared to mostly be trash, but you never knew. Something could be dangerous if that person hanging out here and wanted us dead. A beer bottle may not have been a beer bottle, so I let her hop around like a crazy bunny.

  We entered the room right next to this one, moving through the big opening in the wall. This room did . . . not look right. Too clean where the rest of the house looked like it had had a war take place in it. This room appeared lived in, and taken care of. The owner kept it clean, and she even had a bed in there. Curtains hung on the walls, and they didn’t look torn or dusty like the rest of what we’d seen.

  I didn’t like it. It felt like we waited for that woman to find us, and try and kill us for being in her house. I didn’t know what she was, but I hoped for anything less powerful than a demigod. That way we stood a chance against her. I could keep the woman distracted long enough for Jasmine to run, and I didn’t need anything else.

  I went over to the bed, and started looking around. The woman didn’t have a nightstand for me to go through, so I checked where everyone hid stuff. Under the bed. It had been my favorite spot as a kid, and still now. I had all the good candy under there.

  I knelt, and pulled the quilt up so I could see. Ha! A box waited for me. I pulled it out, and smiled. “See. I told you this wasn’t a waste of time.” Too bad the damn thing had a lock on it. We’d have to bring it home.

  Jasmine wrinkled her nose again, looking extra adorable. “That has yet to be seen, Tall, Light and Goofy. Let me at it.”

  I handed it to her, and she looked the box over for a bit, noticing the lock. She didn’t say anything as she dug around in her pocket for something. She pulled out a paperclip, and looked at it in victory before she started working the tip into the lock.

  It took her four seconds to open it.

  Oh, that did something to my body that I hadn’t expected. Nimble fingers . . . Why did I give her the choice of me going down on her later? I had been crazy. I should just throw her onto the bed right now. She might not have gone for it in a house full of cobwebs and where a bad person lived, but she would’ve forgotten that when I finally got my head between her thighs. I would forget too. Forget why I held back and made myself suffer.

  “Huh,” I said, my voice too deep and all wrong. “That’s sexier than I thought it would be.” Putting it mildly.

  Goddamn, she wrinkled her nose again. Jasmine clearly wanted me to attack her. Hell, I already knelt on my knees, and she stood in front of me. I could work with that. A leg over my shoulder . . . “We are working.,” she reminded me, pulling me from the screaming version of her in my head. “We can make out in the car later, buddy boy.”

  “Boring.” I wanted it now. I wanted her to put the box down and jump me. I wanted to go back to what we did in the car, when her eyes looked eager, and I could feel it in her body when I touched her.

  Jasmine grinned in satisfaction when she lost all emotion in her face. She stared down at the box, and then around the room for a few long seconds. Realization crossed her face and she hastily set the box on the bed, and backed the fuck up like it would bite her.

  “What?” I asked.

  She took my hands, and yanked me away from the offending box, and I fell on my face onto the floor. “Sorry! You need to stay away from that thing!”

  I put my hands on the floor, and pushed myself up, feeling the sting on my face from where it greeted the floor. No blood, so there was that I guess. I sat up on my knees, rubbed my face, and then got onto my feet next to the cowering girl who glared at the box on the bed.

  I ran my fingers through my hair, fixing the mess. “You mind telling me what’s going on, Jazz?”

  She shook her head, and flailed her arms in the air. “SPIDERS! HUNDREDS!” she yelled.

  I blinked.

  “I had a vision,” she said. “We were here. I only just figured it out. But I opened the box, and I was covered in hundreds of spiders. They bit me all over, and I think I died. They’re in that box, Zander!” Jasmine pointed with purpose. “We need to get the fuck out of here before they all bite me.” She shook her body out, and cowered behind me.

  “We need to see what’s in it,” I said. “Stay here.”

  “No!” she yelled as she grabbed at my shirt. “You can’t die until we’ve had a ton of sex!”

  I chuckled, and left her where she stood. When I reached the bed, I picked the box up. Jasmine squirmed at the wall, looking like she wanted to run a million miles away.

  I opened the box.

  Wouldn’t you know it? Hundreds of motherfucking spiders jumped on me, crawling out like an army with one goal in mind: to kill me. I dropped the box, and looked at the little things. Somehow, something else in the room acted as a bigger distraction.

  Jasmine screamed bloody murder, informing me kindly that hundreds of spiders crawled on my body. I got that part, ‘cause, ya know, they covered me. Crawling up my shirt and biting me like it was their job.

  In her screaming, Jasmine hopped up onto a little coffee table, full blown Tom and Jerry style, ho
lding her skirt up and flailing about like a crazy person. I had to admit, her lung capacity impressed me.

  The spiders did appear to be poisonous, but demigods had immunity to poisons such as that of a spider. My body rejected the venom, so yay me. They itched though, and I brushed them off of my arms and chest, getting them on the floor so that I could crush them under my boot. I stomped them, and Jasmine still screamed. The little bites on my skin felt like nothing, and I watched them fade as quick as they came, but Jasmine still screamed. I pulled my shirt off to shake it free of the creatures, and Jasmine screamed less.

  I shook my shirt out as well as I could, and didn’t put it back on until I couldn’t see spiders anymore. They still crawled all over the floor, and I crushed what I saw. Jasmine could die from a bite, and I didn’t have time to get her home for Kizzy to make the cure. Thankfully, it didn’t look like she would get down from the table anytime soon.

  “You’re safe now,” I said through her screaming.

  She didn’t believe me, but she stopped screaming, and went on to just flailing her arms and jumping around. “They’re gonna get me!”

  I shook my head. “No, they won’t. They’re all dead,” I deadpanned.

  “THEY’RE EVERYWHERE!”

  “Nowhere.”

  “All over me!”

  “Crushed under my boot.”

  “ANGRY GHOST SPIDERS!”

  I loved her so much . . .

  “Jasmine,” I said as she made ‘AHHHHHHHHH’ sounds and squeaked as she flopped around. “There is not one living spider in this room.”

  “LIAH! YOU CANNOT KNOW THAT!”

  Well she could stay up there then. I didn’t know how to prove that the spiders had been killed anyway.

  She pointed to something on the floor, and her flailing stopped. “What’s that?”