by Apryl Baker
“You are no what I expected.” The sound of his voice is loud in the sudden silence around us. His lips graze my ear, and I shudder at the feeling that sweeps through me. Why am I so affected by this man?
“What did you expect?” I try to move away from him, but his arms tighten. His fingers slide from my hair to span around my throat. His grip isn’t tight, but it causes me to tense.
“Someone else.” His mouth slides along my jaw, his fingers tightening around my throat. There is a menace in his voice, and I remember his words at the diner, that I was only safe for now. Does he want to hurt me? But why would he? Just when I start to panic, he releases me and steps back.
I pull air into my lungs for several seconds and then turn to face him. The light filtering through the treetops surrounds him, and again I am struck by how much he looks like some dark, forbidden angel. He is beautiful. My hand covers my throat, not sure what to say.
“Come, Alexandria. Let’s get you home.” His hand takes my free one, and he starts leading me through the woods.
I let him drag me through the trees for a good five minutes before I see the back of the apartment complex. Shock, maybe? My mind keeps reeling back to that moment when his hand became so tight around my neck, I couldn’t breathe for a second. I should be afraid of him, but I’m not. Which tells me I really am crazy.
We stop right outside my door. He looks at me and sighs. The irritation is back on his face. He’s upset with me, but for the life of me, I don’t know why.
“Stay inside today, Alexandria.”
“Why?” That is a weird request.
“Can you no just trust me?”
My hand flits back to my throat. “No.”
Regret swamps his eyes, but it’s there and gone so fast, I might have imagined it. His hand comes up and cups my cheek. “I know there are things you no understand, things that make you think you are leerky.”
“Leerky?” I have to see if there some kind of Romani to English dictionary if we are going to be spending any kind of time together. Wait, what am I saying? The guy tried to strangle me, maybe? I honestly don’t know.
“What is word?” He frowns, thinking. “Crazy?”
“You think I’m crazy?” Anger begins to bubble under my skin, igniting a fire that races through me. I go from confused to enraged in a matter of seconds. Now I’m beginning to understand Jason’s snap temperament changes. People can piss you off in a heartbeat.
“No, no,” he soothes. “I no mean you are leerky. I say you think you are, but you are no. Remember this, munya. No matter what happen, you are no leerky, crazy.”
“Who are you?” The whispered question is torn from my lips. Why does it feel like he knows me, knows everything about me?
His smile is full of sadness, a deep grief in his eyes. “Someone who must do what must be done. Stay inside. I mean this.”
With that, he turns and jogs around the building, heading back toward the entrance and presumably back to town to collect his Explorer.
I stand there, confused, alarmed, and some emotion I have no name for.
Who the hell is he?
Chapter Seven
Despite my own good sense, I stayed inside all day. There was a raw honesty in Luka’s voice that stayed with me, a warning I couldn’t ignore. It bugs me that I did exactly what he wanted me to, but I can’t explain this need I have to listen…no…to obey him. It rankles.
I turn off the shower and dry off, before dragging on my brand new fuzzy penguin pajama bottoms. A blue tank top goes on instead of the long sleeved shirt that came with the bottoms. The cold never really bothers me, but I love the feel of the soft, fuzzy material of the bottoms. I’ll wear these even when it’s ninety outside, guaranteed.
Jason has texted me at least twenty times today, worried. He’s on the college football team, and they had their first practice. He forgot to tell me last night. His last text asked if I wanted him to bring home something to eat. He was going to go grab a bite with the guys. I told him no. I’d order something.
He’s trying so hard to let me do my own thing, and I appreciate it more than I can say. I just wish I weren’t sitting here terrified I’m going insane. Between the vivid dreams of the wolf I have every night, the voice in my head that pops in at random times, and my own paranoia, I might wind up right back at Compton sooner rather than later.
My biggest fear is that I truly am insane. It’s something that’s haunted me, lived like a cancer in the back of my mind. Luka told me I wasn’t crazy, but he can’t have any idea of my past. He’s not even from the U.S., for cripe’s sake. He’s from Romania! The look in his eyes, though, and the surety of his voice, it makes me think he does know about me. And that terrifies me. What if he tells someone?
All I want is to be normal, and if he tells anyone…no. He can’t know. I’m just being paranoid.
My stomach rumbles, reminding me I haven’t eaten since breakfast. Because I listened to the crazy Gypsy, I didn’t go to the store either. Takeout it is.
The town is surprising large once you get within walking distance of the campus. They have all the bigger places like Pizza Hut, Papa John’s, McDonald’s, Starbucks, and several other big brands. The outskirts of the town hold the smaller, mom and pop places like The Coffee Shop. Or so the phone book proclaims.
Someone knocks at the door, startling me so much I drop the phone book. I scold myself for letting Luka make me jumpy. I do look through the peephole, though. Not opening my door to just anyone. Even I know better than that. Micah is on the other side, holding three pizza boxes and a bag with pop in it. My stomach wastes no time in telling me to open the door.
“Micah?” What’s he doing here?
“Hey, there, Blue.” His eyes are sparkling. “Hungry?”
My stomach answers for me, and he snorts at the loud sound. Why-oh-why does my stomach feel the need to embarrass me?
“What are you doing here?” I ignore my stomach for a minute.
“Well, I had nothing to do today, and since I haven’t seen you in over a week, thought I’d come check on you. Cute PJs, by the way.”
“How did you know where I lived?”
“I asked Beth Anne. She knows everything.” He nods to the pizza boxes. “These are getting cold, and pizza always tastes better hot.”
I step back and let him enter. He zeros in on the PS4, and I roll my eyes. Guys of all ages, from little boys, to men as old as my grandfather, are addicted to video games. Well, I’m becoming addicted myself. I’ve played Black Ops all day. Jason introduced me to it the third night we were here, and I’ve been playing since.
“Do you have some plates and cups?” He sets the pizza box on the kitchen counter.
“Cabinet above your head.” Why is he checking on me? I grab some paper towels, watching as he takes down two plates and two cups before picking up two boxes of pizza. Sauntering over to the couch, he flops down and carefully places the pizzas on the coffee table.
“Come on, Blue, I don’t bite, and this pizza really is getting cold.”
“Why are you calling me that?” I sit on the couch, reaching for a box.
“When I think about you, the first thing I remember is the deep blue of your eyes, so I started calling you Blue.” He grabs the other pizza box and tosses me a paper plate. Jason and I vowed to never wash dishes if we didn’t have to. We can get by on paper and plastic.
I open the lid to the box I’m holding and discover all my favorite things—pepperoni, spicy Italian sausage, tomatoes, green peppers, mushrooms, and extra sauce. I see it oozing out of the middle. How does Micah know exactly what I would have ordered?
“I’m still trying to figure out why you’re here.”
“Because, Blue, I decided you and I are going to be friends.” He takes a bite of pizza which is covered in onions. I scrunch up my nose as the smell hits me. I hate onions. “I have a feeling about you. I think we are going to be friends for a long, long time.”
I’m new to this w
hole guy-girl thing, so I don’t honestly know if he’s interested in me or just interested in being friends. I’m hoping it’s the latter, as I have no designs on him. He’s cute, but…
“Eat before your face freezes in that bizarre expression.”
“Your face can’t freeze.” I pick up a slice of pizza and sigh when the first bite hits my tongue. I love pizza. I can live off the stuff. It’s my all-time favorite food, and something we got at Compton maybe once every three or four months. They kept us on a strict diet.
“I bet it can.” He inhales another slice faster than even Jason can. Impressive. “You’re trying to figure out what my angle is, aren’t you?”
I nod, my mouth completely full of cheesy deliciousness.
“I’m not hitting on you, I promise.” He wipes his mouth and takes a swig of pop right out of the Coke two liter. “I have a girlfriend. You’ll meet her later. The only thing I want from you is friendship. I have no designs on you, except for being your friend.”
My best dubious expression clouds my face. That’s all he wants? Are guys even capable of being just friends?
He laughs. “Sometimes, Alex, when you meet someone, something clicks. That’s what happened the day I met you. Something clicked, and I mulled it over for a week, talked it out with my gramps, and then decided I wasn’t going to try to over-analyze it. I was going to do the grownup thing and go with it.”
“The grownup thing?” I quirk an eyebrow at him.
“We’re adults, at least in theory. We have to start taking responsibility for our actions, and I knew if I let you get away, I’d have lost something precious, something I think I need. That would be you, Alexandria. I need to be your friend.”
Before I can say what I want to, he puts a finger to my lips to shush me. “Just go with it, Blue. Do the grownup thing.”
“Do you really feel like a grownup, though?” I shove another bite of pizza in my mouth. Even though I’m turning twenty-one in a few months, I don’t feel like an adult most days.
“Sometimes, but mostly no.” He shrugs. “Maybe when we graduate and start working in the real world, as my Uncle Earl likes to tell me, I’ll feel more like an adult.”
At least I’m not the only one who feels inadequate at this adult business.
“How are you liking being back in Jacob’s Fork?”
“Back?”
He glances up. “Gramps said you guys lived here before?”
“Oh, I guess we did when I was a baby, but we moved to Raleigh when I was two or three. I don’t remember Jacob’s Fork. Everyone seems to know me, though.”
“That’s because everyone knows your mom.” He takes another swig from the two liter while I snatch up another slice of pizza—my fourth, much to my embarrassment. “She didn’t tell you?”
“I haven’t talked to my mom since she left us when I was six.” The words sound hard and brittle. Talking about her is not something I can do without my hate shining through.
“At all?” Micah frowns, his expression eerily disturbed.
I shake my head. “No. She left and never looked back. Not a phone call or birthday card or anything. She cut us out of her life completely.”
“I’m sorry.” He looks confused, like I’ve told him the sky is green.
“No big deal. Jase and I dealt with it, and then Dad married Emma. She’s a great mother, the best we could have asked for.”
“Your mom is from around here,” Micah says at last. “Did you know that much, at least?”
“No, that can’t be right. She and Dad met at Boston University.”
“There is so much you need to know, Blue, so much about Jacob’s Fork.”
“Like what?” He’s starting to sound like a crazy local again.
“I need to talk to Gramps before I can tell you anything.” He flashes me his best country boy smile. “I know it’s confusing, but as soon as I can, I promise I’ll explain everything to you.” He looks at the empty pizza box on his lap and the almost empty one on mine. “I guess I should have ordered four.”
Heat blooms on my cheeks. Oh my God. I consumed a whole pizza? There is one lonely piece beckoning me from where it lies. My stomach urges me to reach for it. I have never in my life eaten like this. What is wrong with me?
A knock keeps me from bombarding him with questions about his last cryptic remark. “Alex, you home?”
Saidie. I open the door and she breezes in. Her eyes fix on Micah and then she stops, turning to give me the wiggly eyebrows. “Am I interrupting? I can leave and come back…”
“No, it’s fine,” I rush to assure her. “Hungry?”
“Starved,” she admits. “I haven’t eaten at all today.” Her eyes roam over the room. “The paint job did wonders for this place.”
True to her word, she had been here to paint the night we did it. Her roommate hadn’t. She had a date or something. I’d been so nervous, but having Emma and Jason here helped. Plus, I’d spent the night watching Jason do his best flirtation routine. Saidie ignored most of it, despite her claims of his hotness. Like Micah, she was easy to talk to and we’d fallen into a routine that night that flowed into the following days. She is one person I talk to every day at some point.
Looking around, I have to admit we did a good job. The walls are now a creamy beige. My room is done in soft tones of blue. It feels less like a disease infested cell and more like a livable place.
I grab the last pizza box, a cup, and plate and hurry back to the couch. She’s already settled herself in the middle of the couch. “Yeah, and it doesn’t smell as bad either.”
“Thanks.” She wastes no time in picking out two large slices. “I was hoping you were home. I’m tired of listening to my roommate prattle on and on about nonsense.”
“Nonsense?” Micah goes over and starts plundering through all the PS4 games lined up in the media tower beside the TV.
“She’s into all that Wicca stuff.” Saidie closes her eyes and sighs, swallowing. “I respect the fact she believes in all that, but I can only listen to so much before my brain goes numb. Seriously, if she tries to teach me about the healing properties of crystals one more time, I may end up committing homicide!”
“You don’t believe in any of it?” Micah turns to look at her, his eyes suddenly sharp and closed-off.
Saidie thinks for a moment before she answers. “I believe there is a lot science can’t explain. If that’s Wiccan magic or something else entirely, I have no idea. I think most of us have those old stories in our families that we just take with a grain of salt.”
“Oh, really?” Micah’s gaze becomes sharper. “What kind of stories do you have in your family?”
“It’s not important.” Saidie shrugs the question aside. “All I’m saying is I can only take so much of learning about something I have zero interest in.” She turns to me. “Have you seen the hottie on the third floor? I nearly passed out when I saw him.”
“I don’t think so.”
“Ohmygosh!” Her words are strung together and rushed. “He’s the foreign exchange student from Romania and sooo hot!”
“Luka.” The word is a whisper on my lips, but they both hear me.
“You have met him!” She gives me a scorching look of reprimand. “Alex, you have to share these things with me. You don’t meet a hot guy and not dish!”
“You girls need to stay away from him.” Micah looks troubled.
“Why?” we both ask.
“There’s something not right with him.” Micah fidgets with the cup in his hands. “I don’t think he’s safe.”
“What, is he some kind of stalker or psycho?” Saidie stops munching on pizza and gives Micah her full attention. “What do you know?”
“I don’t know,” Micah admits. “I just get a bad vibe from him.”
Saidie rolls her eyes. “Bad vibe? Please. The boy is H-O-T, hot. Unless you have evidence of his stalkery, I’m going to stalk him.”
A chuckle slips out. I can’t picture Luka being st
alked by the pixie-like girl beside me.
“So what are you two up to, besides pizza?” Saidie swallows the last bite on her plate. “I need distracting. My parents have decided I need to get a job.”
“A job?” I’ve been contemplating getting one myself, just to get me out of the house and in a setting where I can get used to people.
“Yeah.” Saidie kicks her shoes off and pulls her feet under her on the couch. “I’m twenty-one and I need to be more responsible, blah, blah, blah.”
“There’s an opening at The Coffee Shop,” Micah says. “One of the waitresses quit yesterday. Tell Beth Anne I referred you, and you might get hired today.”
“On your say-so?” Saidie’s expression doesn’t even mask the yeah, right look.
“My uncle owns the place. You girls any good at gaming?”
“Three brothers.” Saidie rubs her hands together, a mischievous gleam in her eyes. “I am a Halo tourney champion.”
Micah tosses her a controller. “Black Ops. You in, Blue?”
A wicked grins breaks across my face. “Of course I’m in.”
And just like that, the two people who will come to mean more to me than almost anyone fall into place. I don’t know how I know it, but I do.
Chapter Eight
The wind burns through me and I rub my arms, trying to bring some warmth back into them. I look around, confused. I’m standing in the middle of a trail, surrounded on all sides by snowy mountains. It’s bitterly cold, and my teeth chatter. Where am I?
Before I hear him, I know he’s there. I can feel him. A blazing trail of heat slides up my arms and I lean back, letting his warmth invade me, his fingers caressing my bare arms. Flashes of colors, deep reds and vibrant blues, assault my eyes, his scent invades my senses. His head lowers, lips kissing the tender skin of my neck. A gasp escapes at the feeling that slithers in the pit of my stomach.
My legs feel weak and I grab onto his hips, my fingers digging into his jeans. His mouth continues its slow, torturous trek up my neck, along my jaw. I tilt my head to give him better access.
