by H. D. Gordon
I nodded. “Sam’s a special girl, no doubt about it. It’s not hard to love her.”
Matt tucked some of his curly brown hair behind his ear. “I might disagree with that,” he mumbled as Sam returned, two funnel cakes and fresh-squeezed lemonades in her hands.
It was hard to focus on anything but that deep-fried, powder-covered deliciousness, and little was said while the three of us tore into them. Once they were gone, Sam and Matt both looked at me funny and chuckled.
“What?” I said.
Between laughs, Sam replied, “Aria, there is powdered sugar literally all over you.”
I gave a sheepish smile, dusting off my t-shirt and swiping at my face. “Well, then… I must look delicious.”
“That’s true,” said a familiar voice, making the three of us turn our heads.
My heart did a little flip as I saw that the voice belonged to Caleb Cross, whom I hadn’t spoken to in over a month. The situation immediately took on a tone of awkwardness. I shifted in my seat, and Sam’s gaze flicked to me and back to Caleb.
The last time I’d seen Caleb had been when he’d shown up at my door to ask me if it was true that I was having his father’s company, The Cross Corporation, investigated. It was a memory that I’d revisited countless times in the past month, and never felt better about. Truth was, Caleb had been nothing but kind to me from the moment we’d met. No, not just kind, but good. He’d been good to me, and I’d turned around and reported Cross Corp to the Peace Brokers.
He’d shown up at my apartment that day with a broken heart, and left one behind as well.
So… yeah, things were awkward.
“How have you been?” Caleb asked me.
I had to swallow twice before I could answer, wondering if there was still powdered sugar “literally all over me,” and deciding that was likely an affirmative.
“Good,” I said.
Silence fell, thick enough to slice. When I could no longer stand it, I opened my mouth to say something, though I didn’t know what.
“Caleb—” I began, but snapped my mouth shut when a girl I’d never seen before came wandering up to us.
When Caleb put his arm around her, I wanted to crawl under the table with all of my powdered sugar droppings and those of the seagulls and melt through the cracks in the boards. To further my discomfort, I noticed that she was very pretty, with long dark hair, tan skin, and almond-shaped eyes that suggested East Asian descent.
“Oh, this is Sophia,” Caleb said. “Sophia, this is Matt, Sam, and Aria.”
We all exchanged greetings, while I ignored the way Sam’s eyes flicked to me, taking in my reaction.
“Nice to meet you,” Sophia said. She turned to Caleb. “We should go or we’ll miss the show.”
Caleb nodded. His gaze flashed to me and lingered just long enough to make my stomach flip. “Okay. I guess we better go,” he said. “It was good to see you guys.”
Sam, Matt, and I sat quietly as we watched the two of them walk away. Sophia wrapped an arm around Caleb’s waist and his hanging off her shoulder. He didn’t glance back. I don’t know why I’d think he would.
I sighed. “And with that super awkward cherry atop the night’s sundae, you guys ready to go?” I asked.
Sam gave me a sympathetic smile, and Matt nodded. We disposed of our funnel cake trash and linked arms to exit the boardwalk.
Sam leaned into me, resting her head on my shoulder. “You’re prettier than her,” she told me, a little grin lifting her lips. “Like, way prettier.”
I felt myself relax a bit under her charms. “You know me too well, Samantha Shy,” I said.
Surprising me, she kissed my cheek. “And it’s a privilege, Aria Fae.”
“Totally,” Matt agreed from my other side. “And I bet she only likes him because he’s handsome and rich and charming.”
I chuckled. “Right. And who wants those crap-ass qualities in a man?”
“Caleb will come around,” Sam insisted. “He’s got to know you’d never hurt him on purpose.”
I nodded, suddenly wanting a change in subject like a drowning man wants air. The unspoken part of what Sam had just said was that I had indeed hurt Caleb Cross, and I didn’t think the “on purpose” thing mattered to him in the least.
***
Peering over the edge of the roof, I spotted Thomas Reid sitting in his usual place atop a crate overlooking the city. I hung there for a moment, observing him like a total creeper, admiring the way the profile of his handsome face was cast partly in shadows, much like his aura.
It was funny, the affect he had on me. I swore the world could be crumbling around me and if Thomas Reid looked at me the right way, I likely wouldn’t even notice the collapsing. When I was around him, my stomach felt funny, my nerves frayed with excitement. It was a dangerous feeling, with a high probability of addiction.
Sighing, I pulled myself over the ledge and landed lithely on my feet. Thomas’s head tilted in my direction, and a rare smile pulled up his lips.
“Good evening, Aria,” he said in his deep and soothing voice, his gaze still holding the city.
I wandered over to the wooden crate beside the one he sat on and claimed my seat. “Good evening, Thomas,” I replied as I settled into the comfort zone that had become this spot beside this man.
Thomas handed me a foil-wrapped cheeseburger and some apple slices, and I took them with a grin. “No French fries?” I asked around a large bite of the homemade burger.
Thomas’s hazel gaze flicked to me, a touch of gold dancing in his aura, which I knew indicated amusement. “I figured since ninety percent of the Masked Maiden’s nourishment depends on me,” he said, “maybe I ought to start feeding her a more balanced diet.” He reached into a bag beside his crate and handed over some carrot sticks. “That way she can be in top shape to go out catching bad guys.”
I nodded solemnly. “Yes. You’re right. It was pretty irresponsible of you to cave to my desires and give me so much fried food.”
More gold in his aura. A half smile and a shake of his head.
I jabbed a carrot stick at him. “But I’ll remind you that you took on this responsibility without any prodding on my part. Now you’re stuck. You can’t just start feeding a stray animal and not expect it to keep coming back.”
His hazel gaze captured me more fully now, and in his low voice, he said, “I very much count on you coming back.”
My stomach did a somersault, something warm igniting there. I was silent for a time because the only noise that wanted to come out of me was a goofy fit of giggles followed by an intense blush of the cheeks. Thomas Reid had a way of turning me into a teeny-bopping fangirl.
We ate in comfortable companionship, our familiar ease with each other settling into place.
“I mean, a tater tot wouldn’t kill me, though,” I mumbled as I shoved a carrot stick in my mouth and grinned at him around it.
Thomas reached out to take back the remaining apples and carrot sticks spread out on a napkin on my lap, and I bared my teeth and growled, snapping my teeth together audibly and making him jerk his hand back.
Gold shot through his aura like stars across a dark sky. There was nothing I loved more than making sunlight appear in Thomas Reid’s aura. It had become something of a sport for me, a challenge I partook in every time he was near. As a spec ops vet and an operative of a top-secret military operation, Thomas had more shadows in his aura than any one person should have to deal with. I loved making them scatter with my humor and affection, like parting the clouds of an endless rain.
“Twice the power went out all over the city today,” I said. “Did you see it?”
Thomas shook his head. “I was out on assignment all day. Just got here a few minutes before you.”
I nodded. “It was strange. It was like a blanket fell over Grant City, casting everything into darkness and there was this eerie silence.”
“Hmm. I’ll mention something to my superiors, see what they think…” H
e paused. “I have to go away for a little bit.”
I blinked, jolted by that announcement, and had to put some effort into making sure my voice didn’t come out whiny. “Oh? Where? For how long?” I swallowed and snapped my mouth shut.
A half smile formed on his lips. “I would tell you, but then I’d have to kill you.”
I snorted. “As if you could,” I replied, hoping my disappointment about his projected absence wasn’t as obvious on my face as it was in my gut.
“I’ll be gone a week,” he said. “Maybe less, if I’m lucky.” He reached into his pocket and handed me a folded piece of paper.
I opened it and looked down. “What’s this?” I asked.
“It’s a number where you’ll be able to reach me,” he said. “I’ll be off the grid, but that will put you through to someone who can contact me if you have to.”
My brow furrowed, my throat suddenly tight and my stomach doing that stupid trapeze act again. “Even if there was an emergency, you can’t just leave a mission in the middle,” I said. I had been an operative myself, and I knew how things worked. “You’d be a deserter, and also probably compromise the objective.”
Thomas shifted a bit on his crate, resting his forearms on his thighs and tilting his handsome face toward me. “Well, I’m not telling you to call if your cat gets stuck up a tree,” he said. “Just in case there’s an emergency and you need me… I want you to be able to get a hold of me.”
I believe it would have been reasonable for me to swoon right then, just fling myself to the ground and flutter my eyes with my hand was clutched over my heart while muttering Oh Lawd! Oh Lawd! Oh Lawd!
But because I was obviously way too cool for that, I resisted the urge.
“Thank you,” I said, tucking the paper into my pocket and feeling as though those two words were inadequate. I’m not sure what came over me then, certainly a surge of confidence that was not usual in my interactions with attractive men, but I let my body act before my mind could talk some sense into it.
I grabbed Thomas by the shirtfront and pulled him toward me easily with my Halfling strength. Then my lips were on his and that heat in my stomach was blazing to a full-on inferno.
He did not pull away, as I half expected him to. Instead, his strong hands slipped into my thick mane of reddish-brown hair, pulling me closer. The sounds of the city melted away until all I could hear was the beating of our hearts, the rapid rhythms syncing.
His hold slipped down to my waist, trailing fire wherever he touched, and he lifted me off my crate and onto his lap. I settled there like a puzzle piece, his warm, hard body surrounding me until there was nothing else, as if his proximity could wipe out all the troubles of the world.
Coherent thought became impossible, replaced by things more primal. I held onto Thomas Reid the way a falling woman clings to a rope, my fingers slipping beneath the soft cotton of his t-shirt to dig into the smooth skin of his back. His hands wrapped about my waist, clutching it in a manner that felt urgent and imperative. Fear stole over me out of seemingly nowhere. I’d never known anything like this, and I never wanted this feeling to end.
As if to confirm the inevitability of a conclusion, sirens cut across the silence that had become the night, red and blue flashing behind my eyelids from somewhere in the distance. I pulled away from Thomas with Herculean effort, eliciting a small sigh from him and turning toward the alert of the sirens.
“Ever the hero,” he mumbled, his lips swollen from my kiss, and his strong hands still clutching at my hips. His hazel eyes burned with the fires of a thousand lifetimes, and it occurred to me that I might trade a thousand for a single life with him.
“I should go,” I said, but made no move. I only sat on his lap, captured. Or maybe it was more like surrendered.
Thomas reached up and brushed some of my hair out of my face, looking at me with that inscrutable expression he always wore. I felt a small smile tug up my lips, though, because I could see his aura. His facial expression may default to unreadable, like many soldiers I knew, but auras never lied. And his aura was regarding me as though I’d hung the stars and the moon with my own two hands.
“You don’t have to,” he told me, his deep voice but a whisper. “You don’t owe this city anything.”
I wrapped my arms around his neck and placed a gentle kiss on his forehead. Then one more on his lips, but pulled away and stood up before I could be sucked into the black hole that tore through reality when our bodies collided.
Standing, I fisted my hands at my hips and puffed out my chest, turning my head to the side and staring off into the distance like a comic book superhero. “The Masked Maiden’s work is never done!” I proclaimed, jabbing a finger up into the air. I was delighted when gold touched his aura at my antics.
Grabbing his handsome face in my hands, I stole one more kiss and backed away toward the edge of the building, ever wary of that black hole and yet unable to help myself. Thomas and I had yet to take our relationship beyond kissing, which was both agony and euphoria. After my experience with Nick Ramhart, I’d decided I’d be more careful with my heart and body, as the two could never truly be separated.
“I’ll likely be gone before you get back,” Thomas said. “My ride arrives in an hour.” He studied me a moment, his beautiful face contemplative. “Be careful out there. Promise me?”
Hopping up onto the ledge of the building, I nodded and promised, making him do the same. Then I pulled the hood of my jacket over my head and slipped the black mask out of my pocket, turning away from him to prepare for the leap.
Looking back over my shoulder, the glittering lights of the city spread out before me, I saw him still watching me. He looked as though he wanted nothing more than to pull me back and keep me with him, and I felt the way he looked.
But the sirens continued to wail, the red and blue continued to flash, the troubles of Grant City calling my name.
“You know,” I said, “if I had a cat, I could get it out of a tree by myself.”
Thomas gave me one of his rare smiles, his aura revealing not just gold now, but something deeper, something I was too afraid to look directly into.
“I know you could, little Halfling,” he said.
I swallowed. “See you later, Thomas.”
“See you later, Aria.”
With this farewell, I leapt off the rooftop, knowing that it was not just the shadows of the night into which I was falling.
CHAPTER 3
“Wait until you see the place I booked,” Sam said, excitement dancing in her blue eyes. “It’s two houses from the beach and walking distance from everything. This is going to be the best vacation ever.”
“And I’ve got snacks covered,” Matt said, and looked at me. “And, yes, I’ve considered your high intake of calories and I’ve planned accordingly.”
Sam nodded eagerly, her aura bright with happiness. “No technology, no crime fighting, nothing but rest and relaxation for three whole days.” Her gaze pinned me. “That was the deal, right?”
I gave a small laugh and held both hands up in surrender. “That was the deal. No phones, no computers, no ass-kicking. Got it.”
Sam adjusted the backpack on her shoulders and threw an arm around me. “You’re going to love Seaside. It’s one of my favorite little towns. A lot like Blue Hook, where you used to live, but less for families and more for adults.” She waggled her eyebrows as if any of us fit in that category.
Though I was still feeling crappy about Caleb and conflicted about Thomas, Sam’s mood was catching, and I found myself grinning earnestly. “You’ve got your heart set on some wild partying, huh?” I laughed.
Sam gave a grand nod. “Darn tootin’. I’m gonna stay up way past bedtime reading and sleep in the next morning. I may finish three or four books in a matter of seventy-two hours.”
Matt and I both broke into laughter. “You party animal,” I said.
We were standing in my tiny apartment going over our luggage, making sure we’d
have everything we needed for the trip. When a knock sounded on my door, I bit my lip, knowing who it was and remembering that I likely should’ve let Sam in on what was about to be the next turn of events.
Matt was closest to the door, so he looked through the peephole, and then looked back at me with furrowed brows. When I gave him a nod, he opened the door.
Raven stood there, hair as black as night and lips as red as blood, a flowered duffle bag slung over her shoulder.
“Hey,” Raven said, stepping into the apartment with a smile for me, and a wary glance at Matt and Sam.
“Hey, Raven,” I responded when it was obvious no one else would.
“You guys ready to go?” Raven asked, shifting uneasily on her feet under the looks she was getting from Matt and Sam.
Since I’d saved Raven’s life on the Grant City Bridge when the Blue Beast was about to collapse the structure right on top of her, the dynamic had changed between Raven and I, as one might imagine. I’d forgiven her for her bitchiness, and in exchange, she had told me everything she knew about the man she’d been working for, which, unfortunately, didn’t turn out to be much.
Before you go thinking how stupid it is to trust someone like Raven, remember that I can read auras, so I rarely had to take someone at their word.
“Aria,” Sam said, “what’s going on?”
I flashed a quick smile at Raven and pulled Sam over to the kitchen area. “I, uh, forgot to tell you. I invited Raven to come with us.” I spread my hands and smiled widely. “Surprise.”
Sam looked less than enthused, to say the least. Her blue gaze was icy as it flashed over to Raven, who was making idle, uncomfortable chitchat with Matt. Matt appeared appropriately stunned by her beauty. Say what you want about the chick, but Raven was a head-turner.
From the subtle shift in Sam’s aura, for the first time since I’d known the two of them, I thought that maybe Matt’s feelings for Samantha were not entirely one-sided. If I wasn’t mistaken, there was a hint of jealousy floating in Sam’s generally sunny aura.
