by Kristie Cook
“No, no … hold up, I’m going with you. I’ll see you guys later. Have fun tonight,” I say to them, linking arms with Buns.
“Wicked, let’s bounce,” Buns says, and then turns to Reed and Russell, “gentlemen, enjoy the rest of the evening with your dates!”
The ballroom is just off the main hotel lobby. I walk with Buns from the restaurant and through an impressive atrium to get to it. Soft lighting from elegant chandeliers make the ballroom appear much more upscale than I had been expecting. We spot Brownie and Pete immediately. Brownie hugs me when she sees me and says she is sorry that I had gotten separated from them. The music starts, so Brownie and Buns drag me out on the dance floor with them.
After a few songs, JT, Pete, and Owen join us. I see Russell on the dance floor with Candace. Russell is … well … Russell is hot. He has a natural grace. He moves his body effortlessly. Just watching him freestyle is amazing. The music slows down, and we all leave the dance floor to get some water. Owen is on his way back from the bar with our drinks when Reed bumps into him. Reed says something to Owen that I try to hear, but I’m having trouble tuning out the music that blares from the speakers. Owen looks a little confused as Reed lifts the water glasses from his hands.
While Reed walks away, Owen passes right by me, heading over to where Caroline is sitting with Candace and Russell. After Owen bends down to whisper in Caroline’s ear, I see her nod. A slow, triumphant expression spreads over Caroline’s face while my date leads her to the dance floor and begins slow dancing with her like they’re lovers.
I frown, watching them as Caroline’s arms wrap tightly around Owen’s neck, like she has been waiting for this moment for a while. Then, I understand what is happening. Reed persuaded Owen to ask Caroline to dance. Pawns, to be manipulated and played … is that what we all are? Is that what I am? Reed has already left the ballroom, so I follow him out, catching up to him near the coatroom. He has just given his ticket to the coat check attendant as I approach him.
“You crossed the line … does that matter to you?” I ask quietly, not looking at him, but raising my chin a bit higher while I watch the attendant search the racks.
“You pushed me over it,” Reed replies, and he is so close his breath tickles my neck. My body reacts to the closeness, but my mind is all fury. “What are you doing with Owen?” Reed asks in frustration.
“Whatever I want to. I’m not a puppet, Reed. I get to choose who I will love and who I will be with—you don’t get to decide,” I try to say this evenly, but anger leaks into my tone.
“You don’t love Owen,” he says as a justification for his actions.
“No. I love you,” I reply in a soft tone. “I’m not a military exercise, Reed. Whatever this is … whatever you’re trying to accomplish, just stop.”
I am about to leave but he holds my arm and says, “You should be with Russell.”
My eyebrow quirks as I say, “Ah, I see, you’re being cupid … how ironic. What is this then—are you trying to provoke Russell into action, or me? Well, I’ve got news for you: I can’t be with Russell—don’t you get it? I love you. If I try to be with Russell, I’ll only end up hurting him more. He deserves someone who loves him with her whole heart.”
“You’re so stubborn, Genevieve,” Reed says in frustration. “You make yourself so sad for no good reason.”
“No, Reed, you make me sad,” I reply, and he releases my arm like I’ve burned him.
Walking back to the ballroom, I stop at the entrance, seeing Owen and Caroline still on the dance floor together. Caroline is kissing Owen’s neck. Perfect! I think, shifting back toward the lobby just in time to watch Reed leave through the outer doors. I’m not going back in the ballroom. I’ll be better off hiding in the bathroom the rest of the evening because Candace is going to want to gloat about this one.
Resolving to hide in the ladies room, I begin walking across the atrium near the attached hotel when a voice behind me says, “Angel.”
I turn to see a beautiful young man attired in a pale gray, silk suit. He isn’t wearing a tie, and his white collared shirt is unbuttoned casually. A lock of his blond hair is lighter in the front as if the sun has kissed it, and his eyes are the deep blue of a dark pool. A shadow of a beard graces his face, but it doesn’t disguise his strong jaw line. It enhances it. He can’t be much older than twenty, but I don’t recognize him from school.
“I’m sorry, I thought you were speaking to me,” I say, realizing I don’t know him. I take a step in the direction of the bathroom, but he catches my elbow loosely in his grasp.
His blue eyes shutter seductively as he asks, “What is your name, little one?” Reaching out, he touches my hair almost reverently.
“Um, why?” I ask nervously, weirded out by the expression of delight on his face and by the fact that he is touching me. I scan the atrium to see if I recognize anyone I can call to, but we are alone for the moment.
Smiling as if I’m an exquisite jewel he’s just found lying around, he says, “Because I must have a name for the singularly exceptional creature I find before me. It cannot be angel, because you are more than an angel, are you not?”
“Um … my name’s Genevieve,” I say, definitely feeling alarm, my heartbeat speeding up.
He cocks his head to the side, studying me for a second. “Your heart is beating so fast, Genevieve, are you afraid of me?”
I let out a breath like he has punched me in the stomach. Holy Freaking Crap! He’s an angel! Don’t freak out—ask him his name, like you’re interested—buy time, I think.
“What’s your name … angel?” I ask as confidently as I can, hoping that my bluff has improved.
“Sebastian,” he replies immediately to my question with a grin. “You are incomparable,” he continues, and then he moves so quickly I couldn’t have avoided him if I had been a thousand yards away. Holding me in his arms as if I am a gift that he intends to unwrap, he scrutinizes me like he will memorize every detail of my body.
“You have a soul,” he breathes, and it would be sexy if it were not so completely creepy.
“Yes, and I plan on keeping it, so don’t get any ideas,” I reply grimly, not knowing what else to say.
Sebastian laughs delightedly at my rebuttal, before saying, “What a paradox you are! You change everything, Genevieve. Do you know that?”
“I have heard that somewhere before, but change is a good thing, right?” I try to smile back, but I’m sure it looks more like a grimace than a smile.
Sebastian hoists me in his arms and moves toward the outside doors. I think he’s so distracted by me that he’s forgetting to use a human pace because the room is whirling by faster than it should. We are across the lobby and to the doors in seconds.
Pushing against his chest, I try to wiggle free. “Please put me down! Where’re you taking me?” I ask Sebastian, really frightened now.
From across the lobby at the entrance to the ballroom, Russell yells, “HEY, WHERE’RE YA TAKIN’ MY GIRL?”
Sebastian doesn’t stop to deal with Russell, but heads out to the parking lot instead. “You are with the humans?” Sebastian asks, frowning disgustedly. “You know, we consider that slumming. It is a good thing that I found you when I did. You really cannot associate with trash like that and expect to survive long.”
Fear makes it hard to breathe. “Sebastian, I’m here with somebody, and I can’t just leave …” I start to say, but am interrupted when Sebastian stops. I look in front of us to see Reed blocking our way. “Reed!” I squeak, unable to say more.
Sebastian growls low and menacingly at Reed, and it has to be the most terrifying sound I’ve ever heard in my life. Reed doesn’t react to this threat; in fact, he is fairly bored with Sebastian’s aggressive warning. “I want her,” Sebastian rasps, and his voice sounds eerily like a wild animal’s. A shiver of revulsion runs the length of my body as he holds me closer to him.
“You will have to get in line then, and it forms behind me,” Reed says
, taking off his jacket and tie and resting them on a nearby car. Reed unbuttons his collared shirt. As Sebastian watches Reed, I become aware that he’s deliberating about what to do next. He keeps squeezing me uncomfortably, like he wants to put me down but he can’t actually make himself do it.
“HEY FREAK! YER NOT GOIN’ ANYWHERE WITH HER!” Russell yells from behind us, and Reed actually smiles.
Sebastian scowls. “Really, little one, you do keep very strange company,” he whispers in my ear as he nuzzles my neck. “We will have to rectify that in the future. I will insist upon it.”
“Sebastian … please, don’t hurt them,” I plead, my breath catching in my throat as the revulsion of his touch hit me in waves. He has a particular darkness to him—I can smell it, feel it, but I have no experience with it to be able to name what exactly it is.
Reed fishes in the pocket of his jacket, and then he pulls out his keys. “When he puts her down …” Reed says, tossing his keys to Russell, “and he will put her down, or I will rip his arms off …” Reed says with menace, looking at Sebastian, “take my car and get Evie out of here. I am parked over there.” He points behind him.
Sebastian, growling again in anger and frustration, gently lowers me to the ground. When my feet touch the pavement, he points directly at Russell even though he never takes his eyes off of Reed, and says, “Do not make me come after you, boy. I will have her.” The menacing tone makes my knees shake. Pausing in his assessment of Reed, Sebastian says to me, “I’ll just be a minute, little one.” And then, he presses his lips to mine, kissing me roughly.
That gets a reaction from Reed. I don’t even see him move, but he hits Sebastian so hard, it knocks him back fifty feet or more into a docile-looking minivan parked in the lot. Sebastian smashes right through the windshield of the vehicle, falling between the tan, bucket seats. The minivan’s shrill car alarm goes off. We all watch the van for a few seconds as the shock of what just happened paralyzes Russell and me. I am sure that no one can survive the crush of being thrown through a windshield like Sebastian just had, so when the teal-green sliding door of the minivan flies off its hinges, crushing the car next to it, a scream tears from my lungs in utter horror.
Slowly, Sebastian emerges from the interior of the van. When he is fully out of it, he takes off his gray-silk, suit jacket and shakes the broken glass from his sun-kissed hair. Smiling ominously, he calls to me, saying, “Don’t be alarmed, Genevieve. I haven’t been harmed. We’re just getting started.”
I hold my hand over my mouth so that I won’t scream again. Reaching over, Sebastian rips the chrome-plated side step off the van. Before I can figure out what he intends to do with it, it is embedded in the side of a car directly behind where Reed had been standing a fraction of a second ago.
“Russell, now would be the time to get Evie out of here,” Reed says without looking at us, but focusing directly on Sebastian.
Even as I turn to Reed to tell him that I’m not going anywhere, he disappears. In the next second, Reed has pounced on Sebastian who is still fifty yards away. The two become locked in a malicious struggle, each one trying to tear the other apart. I don’t get a chance to try to help Reed because Russell picks me up and throws me over his shoulder.
Russell runs with me in the direction Reed had indicated his car was parked. He has the keys out, hitting the lock button, looking for flashing lights and a horn honk to direct him to the vehicle. Pausing for a second to look down an aisle of cars, a screeching of metal grows louder behind us so I crane my neck upward to try to see what it is.
Russell turns toward the sound at the same time, so I can’t see what’s happening, but then Russell shouts, “AHH, SHOOT!”
Leaping forward into the next aisle of cars, we land hard on the ground just as the teal-colored minivan that Sebastian had smashed rolls over and over several times on its way past us. It lands in a heap of twisted metal and gives an abbreviated honk before falling silent. Russell, looking at me incredulously for just a second, seeks validation from me for what he just sees happen. My eyes are as wide as his as I nod to him, letting him know that this is real; he isn’t dreaming. Scrambling to his feet, Russell drags me to mine. I hear snarling behind me as the fight between the titans ensues. Wanting to go back to help Reed, I pull against Russell’s grip on my wrist, trying to make him let go of me.
“We have to go back, Russell,” I plead as he drags me down the line of cars.
A terrifying noise sounds from across the parking lot, making us both pause again. My heart pounds in my chest as one of the huge parking lot floodlights, which is held in place by a thick concrete column at its base, comes crashing down where we had last seen Reed and Sebastian. Unable to see over the cars in front of me to get a good view, I flinch because it sounds ghastly as the lamps shatter and the area goes dark.
I try desperately to reason with Russell again, “We have to help Reed!”
“No way, Red!” Russell says between his teeth, scooping me up again and running with me over his shoulder.
He runs fast down the aisle of cars, seeing the flashing lights he was looking for. Locating the car, he opens the driver’s side door, shoving me inside. Russell makes me climb into the passenger seat before jumping into the driver’s seat. He fumbles around, trying to find the automatic seat adjuster so he can move it back to accommodate his long legs.
“Russell, we have to go back. Reed’s all alone with Sebastian,” I say, looking out my window into the darkness to see if I can catch a glimpse of them.
“We can’t help him, Red—yer buddy, Sebastian, just threw a minivan at us—a minivan, Red! Our only chance is to run ‘cuz if that thing gets us, you will be his,” Russell says roughly, using the words that Sebastian had spoken to him.
He twists in his seat to look out the back window while putting the car in reverse. Peeling out of the parking space, he slams the car into first, leaving tire tracks on the ground as we bolt through the parking lot.
“Russell, please—go back—we can hit him with the car or something,” I plead, looking frantically out the back window. I can’t see them at all—maybe they have taken flight. I try to see if I can see them through the glass of the sunroof.
“He’s strong enough to throw a minivan, Red! He can stop this little car, too, if he wants. Who’s that guy anyway, and what does he want with ya?” Russell asks angrily, scanning me for answers as he drives way too fast through the city, blowing red lights while looking for signs for the highway. He is breathing hard, and I suspect it is more from adrenaline now than from the exertion it took to escape the parking lot.
“His name’s Sebastian, and I think he wanted … me,” I say reluctantly, clutching the seat as Russell squeals the tires around a corner when he spots a sign to the highway.
“Why does he want ya? He looked like he was havin’ a hard time puttin’ ya down,” Russell asks, and then he looks me over, adding, “you can never wear that dress again, Red.”
Rolling my eyes at him, “Are you serious?” I scoff, thinking this has nothing to do with my dress and everything to do with what I am.
“Hell, yeah, I’m serious! What was that guy? And don’t act like ya don’t know what I’m talkin’ ‘bout ‘cuz you were datin’ one of them not too long ago,” Russell says tersely.
“Russell don’t—” I begin but I’m cut off.
“Don’t what, Red? Don’t freak out? Don’t ask questions? Don’t care ‘bout ya?” he shoots the questions at me in rapid-fire succession.
“YES!” I yell at Russell. Then, I say in as rational a tone as possible, “Think of it this way, Russell, you really don’t want to know.”
There is a red light in front of us and Russell has to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting another car. Reed’s car just about goes sideways, but Russell manages to bring it back in line before bringing it to a screeching halt.
Russell scowls. “YEAH, RED, I REALLY, REALLY, DO WANNA KNOW!” he yells back at me.
“I can’t tell
you, Russell,” I say quietly.
“AHH, HELL! This is the same conversation we’ve been havin’ ever since I met ya,” Russell continues to yell at me, watching for the light to turn green again.
“Well, get used to it because I really can’t tell you,” I reply adamantly. “But, if you turn around and take me back, I’m sure you’ll be able to figure it out all on your own.”
“And risk that thing gettin’ his hands on ya again?” he asks in revulsion, flooring the car when the light turns green. Russell finds the on-ramp for the highway and buries the needle on the speedometer.
“Russell … please!” I beg him.
“Shut up, Genevieve. I’m not takin’ ya back there, no matter what ya say,” he replies as if I have lost my mind. “Did ya hear that guy? He called ya ‘little one,’ like ya were his pet or somethin’. What’s he gonna do to ya if he gets ya back?” he asks grimly. “This is the only way I can protect ya from him, and I’ll do it, even if ya don’t like it.”
Russell’s phone rings and he pulls it from his suit pocket. “Yeah?” he barks as a greeting, and then holds the phone from his ear as screaming comes out of his phone. When there is a break in the yelling, Russell replies, “Evie wasn’t feelin’ well, so I’m drivin’ her home.” He has to hold the phone away from his ear again as more screaming ensues. “Fine, goodbye,” Russell says, ending the call and looking grim.
“Candace?” I ask softly.
His jaw tightens. “Yep,” he replies.
“She’s mad?” I ask as it just registers with me that Russell has dropped everything to come to my rescue … again.
“Mad doesn’t even come close,” he replies with a sour expression.
“But she’ll forgive you, right …” I say, but trail off when he gives me a sidelong look that says: “What do you think?”
“I’m sorry, Russell,” I say, trying to mean it.
Russell exhales a deep breath, trying to calm down. “Red, it was over with Candace the minute I walked in and saw ya in the lobby in that dress. She knew it; I didn’t have to tell her,” Russell says, not looking at me.
