“It’s a private party,” he tells me.
The two others in the back seat are quiet as gravestones as they wait to see what happens next.
Having no control over one’s body and only minimal control over one’s mind is literally a petrifying experience, and exhausting. I want to sit here and never speak or move again, but I know that’s not going to happen. Whatever is wrong with me wins this inner battle again as I hear my answer to Jared. “I’m ready for a party. The club sucks tonight.”
“Too bad, Jules. Get out.”
“Too bad, Jared, I’m staying. Seriously, I need something to take the edge off. Chris is intense.”
“Chris says to—”
“I don’t care what the crazy bastard has to say,” I interrupt before Jared can finish.
“He took off, but he wants—”
I stop Jared mid-sentence, turning to the guys in the back seat. “Help a girl out and let me take of hit off your pipe. I know one of you is holding.”
Two sets of uncertain eyes look to Jared. I give Jared the most ‘I dare you to object’ look I can in the darkened car, and he responds by gripping his good hand around the steering wheel.
“What do you think you’re doing?” he threatens through clenched teeth.
“Do you think you’re the only one who’s allowed to party and have a good time? Shit Jared, just relax.”
Reaching my open hand into the back seat I wait for one of the numbskulls to give in. It takes about a second for a small pipe and a lighter to appear.
“Thanks.” I flash them my brightest smile and then turn to Jared in triumph.
“For Christ’s sake, Jules, at least bend down so you don’t get us busted,” he says.
“No problem.”
“You’re gonna hate yourself,” he warns.
“Thanks for the concern,” I say, sarcasm dripping, and bend down low in my seat so the flick of the flame is below the level of the dashboard.
Pungent acidic smoke burns a path down my windpipe and into my lungs. I hold in the hit as long as I can, letting the drug absorb into my bloodstream. The used smoke rushes out of me in a long grayish-green gush. I take another long drag off of the pipe, already feeling the effects begin to mix with my buzz from the two drinks I had inside.
“Incredible, Jules,” Jared spits out. “Don’t bogart the bowl.”
“Let me have one more and then I’ll leave you alone. To your private party,” I say testing his patience.
“Pass it over.”
I do and wait for one more turn, enjoying the rip roaring rush which has taken over my senses.
“Your sister is wild. Does she even know what she’s smoking?” Patrick says from the back seat.
“It’s doing a fucking good job. That’s all I need to know,” I say, noticing my tongue feels too large for my mouth.
“When did you start cussing?” Jared mumbles.
“Shut up. I’m going back inside. Thanks, J.”
How I made it back into the club is beyond my comprehension. I think I flew, but I really don’t remember.
Dave and his friend are foremost on my mind, but The Edge is teeming with fresh young bodies all tempting me to come and play. A different band has replaced the previous dead meat on stage. My ears perk up. The bass drum pounds inside my bones and draws me to the dance floor like a bee to nectar. I start to move to the beat and then let the melodies guide me.
Tricky half-licks and the upbeat tempo have me rolling and jumping with the crowd. Some beefcake moves up next to me and I press myself into him, feeling the length of his body against mine. We begin to move together to the music and I slowly inch us over to the closest wall, wanting to get a more private feel of him.
“Hi. You like the band?” he asks.
Brawn and brain together are a rare combination, one not to be found here, but I don’t care, he’s male and virile. “Yeah, terrific,” I yell back at him.
“You’re cute,” he says.
“You too,” I say, as I let my hand slide down his back and onto his tight round ass.
“Hey, there you are,” someone yells close by me.
I ignore it, and lean up to my new friend, sticking my tongue in his mouth. He kisses me back, a sloppy, wet, beer-tasting kind of kiss.
Pulling back, I want to wipe my mouth, but refrain from doing so as the muscle bound goof smiles down at me.
“We’ve been looking for you,” the same voice says.
I feel fingertips on the top of my shoulder. Looking back, annoyed, I find Dave and his friend staring at me.
“Dave! Hey, there’s no need to glare. I’ve missed you too.”
Spinning on a heel I throw an arm around him and pull him in close to my overheated body. “God, you’re cute,” I say and kiss him too.
I feel his surge of territorial instinct kick into overdrive as he returns my gesture, more to make a point to the new guy than because he wants to kiss me on the edge of the dance floor. Dave is so much better at it than Mr. Beefcake behind me, firm and soft, and sucking slightly at my tongue. I groan into his mouth. When the kiss ends I’m mildly disappointed.
Big brawny guy looks as if he might throw a punch so I try to make everyone happy. “There’s no need to pout, boys,” I say and climb onto the nearest tabletop and begin to dance for all three of them and the couple of guys whose table I confiscated.
My skirt is short and my top is tiny and I’m fully aware of the attention being flung my direction. I’m eating up their desire, and I can feel my energy growing by the second. Trying my best to make my private show as interesting as possible, I swoop down close to the table and swirl my hips as I ascend. My hands move over my body, feeling my curves. When I’m satisfied I have every male’s full attention, I let myself get lost in the excitement, the blur of faces, and the pounding rhythms.
It shouldn’t have been a surprise when I’m completely caught off guard as someone grabs me around the middle and pulls me down from the table.
“It’s time to go,” he shouts.
“Jared! Put me down,” I shriek, and then buck at him like a wild rabbit in a snare. For all of my struggling, he won’t let go of my waist. Jared towers over me, and most everyone else, but I keep up my fight anyway. There’s a slight pause as my boot contacts his shinbone, but he doesn’t relinquish.
Four or five guys circle to my defense, but Jared manages to keep them at bay as he drags me to the door. I see the bouncer nod agreeably to my brother and I know my fight is over. Damn him.
“You’re out of control and we’re going home,” he says, as he carries me to the car.
“How dare you! I was having a good time.”
“Yeah, you’re having a great time ruining my night!”
“Screw you, Jared. I wasn’t doing anything to you.”
Jared pops open the car door and drops me unceremoniously onto the seat. “I’m not sorry for keeping you out of trouble, so shut your trap, Jules.”
“I’ll find my own ride home!” I say, and try to open the door, but he has it locked.
Jared reaches over and grabs my arm. “You’re coming home. And yes, I can make you.”
“Damn you, Jared Crowson. You’re going to Hell for this.”
He rolls his eyes and shakes his head as he starts the car and pulls out of the lot, heading for the highway. We have about an hour drive back to our house. Oh goody. Pouting in the front seat isn’t helping me solve my problems, but an answer miraculously lands almost in my lap.
Jared’s friend, someone I don’t know, leans forward from the back seat and is messing with the stereo knobs. Having been consumed with my own pity, I didn’t even notice Patrick and the other guy are still with us. I climb between the two front seats and squeeze myself between them. Patrick takes one look at me and decides to switch places, almost kicking me in the stomach this time as he tries to get up front. I’m not overly insulted. Patrick repels me anyway — which I can’t explain because he’s cute as a button although a l
ittle grungy — but for some reason I know I have to stay away from him. Besides, the other guy with me in the back seat is much more my style.
“Hi there,” I say, as I slip my hand over the top of his thigh. “Still have the pipe on you?”
Chapter Ten: Invisible
Nathaniel
5:50 p.m. To my complete and total relief Juliana is sound asleep in her bed. In the other rooms in the house I find Jared — thankfully still alive — taking a shower in the bathroom. Patrick, Corrine’s brother, is also here. He’s in Jared’s bedroom with Marcus, my mentor. As for Corrine, my suicidal client, she’s curled up on the couch watching television and looks frazzled, but not any worse than when I last saw her — except for a bandage on her wrist. Juliana can fill me in on that small detail later. The important thing is everyone is here and breathing.
I prayed they would stay safe inside the house until I could get back. It’s the reassurance I needed to keep me connected to this world. I would have died — again — if anything had happened to them while I was healing. I did recover some. The rest period I was forced to take helped heal the damages from the demon attack. The wound on my side is raw, but the open tears are sealed and the searing pain is mostly gone.
Questions circle my mind like cars racing around a track. This is the one consistent activity in my life since I met Juliana. Questioning everything, and worrying I’ll lose her, even before I had her. Longing to speak to Juliana and ask her why she’s asleep in the early evening almost makes me go mad with the need to wake her up, but I have to wait. She’ll wake on her own and I’ll be right there when she does. The rounded mound of her body under the bedspread rises and falls with each breath. There’s nothing I wouldn’t give to lay beside her and feel her breathing peacefully next to me. That will also have to wait too, I tell myself. I don’t want Marcus to know the extent of our feelings for each other. At least not yet.
A surge of exhilaration, contentment, and a happiness I’ve never known rushes through me as I remember the entire night and the day we spent together. Juliana knows what I am and she didn’t ask me to leave her alone. It’s difficult to believe she wants to be with me as badly as I want her, but she says she does. I’ll take any time she will allow me to be with her, a second, a minute; eternity wouldn’t be enough.
Before temptation or selfishness get the better of me and I wake her, I leave Juliana to rest in her bed and move across the hall to Jared’s room.
Marcus looks me up and down as I enter. Heavy drapes are closed to the evening sun, casting the room in a navy blue hue. Patrick sits on the floor between the bed and the stereo reading a magazine and listening to music. The track playing is edgy and full of drums and guitars. My mentor appears fixed between keeping an eye on me and peering outside through a crack in the curtain panels.
“You look much improved,” he says.
“You could say that,” I agree. “How’re things around here?”
“Funny you should ask,” he says and then looks away, watching out of the window again.
“I take that as in not the ha ha sort of funny.” Does he not want to tell me something? What’s going on?
“Jared’s sister, she’s unique. Isn’t she?”
“What happened?” I ask, jumping ahead but trying to sound as casual as possible.
He will not approve of our relationship and he has the power to change everything for me. He already has — in some ways. It is the reason I ended up with Corrine as my client instead of Jared.
“Have you seen Corrine?”
“Yes. She’s downstairs. I saw the bandage on her arm. Were you here?”
“Sorry, man. I didn’t see it. I saw her after it happened. I think she slept while we were out last night.” He glances between me and the window again, making me wonder what has his attention.
“You and Jared, you mean?” I ask.
“Yeah, man. We all went out. Jared, Jules, and Patrick. We picked up another kid, but he left a while ago. Your Corrine stayed here.”
Digesting what he just shared with me feels like I swallowed a pile of rocks. Juliana went out with her brother last night after I left. “Corrine stayed here. The rest of you went out,” I say numbly.
“She has a way of knowing things, doesn’t she?”
“Corrine has a difficult home life. Her stepfather is a warlock, and apparently wields demons for fun. He uses her for selfish personal gains, but I haven’t learned enough,” I say, like an automaton as I attempt to digest the boulders Marcus has just fed me.
“Not Corrine, the sister, Jules. She’s a troublemaker when it comes to confusing the fates.”
“What?” I ask. Confuses the fates? Knows things?
“Didn’t you say she can see the likes of us?”
“Yes.”
“Well isn’t that interestin’?”
“What, Marcus? What happened last night?”
“Jules had quite the late evenin’, but the strange part is, when it comes to her brother, she seems to know how to prolong the boy’s life.”
“What are you talking about? Didn’t she see you? Did she talk to you?” I force my voice to stay calm. I’d like to scream at the top of my lungs so the entire neighborhood can hear, but I can’t lose it right now.
“I thought I was going to have quite the mess to deal with last night. Car accident. You know how those go. And four teenagers and all, but somehow she got Jared to pull over just in time. I don’t even think she meant to do it. Funny. Is that what I said earlier? Yeah man, it was funny how it all played out. And now I’m still hangin’ around.”
“How? What was happening that she made her brother pull the car over?”
“These kids and their drugs. It’s something I’ll never get used to seein’, the way they pollute themselves. Why can’t they understand life is the ultimate high and drugs are the poison?”
He shakes his head in disbelief as he remembers.
“Drugs?” I ask. He has to be talking about Jared. Juliana doesn’t do drugs. But if Jared was driving and there were drugs in the car...?
“I’ll say one thing for sure. I’m glad I was already dead to be along for that car ride.”
“Marcus.”
He gives me a look at the tone of my voice and then continues with his story. “Sorry man, I forget Jared was your case first. Funny that we’re workin’ together again. Our circles run small. It happens for the two of us more than anyone else, don’t it?” he muses.
Closing my eyes to try to find patience in the void of blackness behind my lids only helps while they remain closed. “Yeah, funny,” I say flatly. “Please Marcus, what happened last night?”
Is Juliana all right? Is she sleeping off some terrible injury? God! How do I make someone speed up the conversation when they have all the time in the world?
“They were getting high while driving back from the city. This is after they had been partyin’ till late last night. Jules and Jared were bangin’ heads about what was goin’ on in the back seat. And you know, words were exchanged. Jules and this other kid wanted to be dropped off somewhere in town, but Jared was refusin’. Jared was hot with his sister. I mean smokin’ around the collar. She yanked the wheel and he slammed on the brakes. Swervin’ onto the side of the road. He missed colliding with an enormous bull elk. Man, the timing was absolutely unreal. It’s good that your Corrine stayed here. She’s a frail little thing. Don’t think she would’ve handled it so well.”
“They were getting high? In the car, and arguing? And they almost crashed?” I try to clarify what I just heard, but none of it makes sense.
“If fight is equivalent to two atom bombs explodin’, then yeah. If my sister was actin’ in such a way I would’ve been mighty upset too.”
“Acting how? If you were with them, why didn’t she see you?” I ask, trying to put it all together.
“Not sure, but she was…”
Marcus’s eyes roll up as if he is trying to see the words forming inside his brain befo
re they come out of his mouth. Two large fingers drum on the point of his chin as he tries to find the best adjective.
If Marcus could see the pressure building inside me right now, he would move this along a little faster.
Movement behind me distracts my focus as Jared leans against the doorjamb of his room and interrupts our conversation. His hair is still wet from the shower and pulled back into his customary short tail.
“Hey Patrick, you ready?”
Patrick hits the stop button for the music and climbs to his feet. “Let’s roll,” he says as he shrugs his shoulders and then adjusts his baggy clothes.
“We’re rollin’,” Marcus says. “Ride’s here. I’m glad you’re back, man.” He leaves his place by the window and follows Jared and Patrick.
“Wait,” I say. What about Jules? What in the world was going on last night? I have to find out, but my anxiety is too close to the surface and I don’t want my mentor to see it. Marcus turns his melon sized head to me with questioning eyes.
“You know how it is. Stay close to the client. Catch up with you another time.”
“Yeah,” I say.
Watching the three of them leave reminds me I may never see Jared walk this earth alive again. His time is close. Marcus said Jules saved him from a car accident last night. How many more close calls can he have?
She’ll never forgive me for this. For not telling her Jared was my last case, that I know he’ll pass soon, and for not being able to do anything about it. My silence shames me. It’s like a bone deep bruise. Eventually it will rise to the surface and show itself, but the damage is already done. How will I be able to face her? I have to tell her. There’s no more stalling on this subject. It will only be worse the longer I put it off.
Checking to make sure Corrine is still on the couch, and without any sharp or dangerous objects nearby, I see her nestled into the cushions and staring glassy eyed at a rerun of some sitcom. Juliana Crowson is foremost on my mind, so I quickly return upstairs. I hesitate by her door, not wanting to wake her, but wanting to be there when she awakes. I decide to peek inside like I did earlier.
Angel Dreams (An Angel Falls Book 2) Page 12
