by Dean Murray
Talk about scary. I wasn't sure that I would ever be comfortable with that kind of blind adoration, but deep down inside of me something was convinced that Jace would never do anything to hurt me.
"Do you believe in reincarnation?"
"Like people coming back as cows?"
"No, not exactly. More like the idea that some people come back again and again, reborn each time they die."
"I don't know. I guess I never really thought about it. Are you trying to tell me I gave you that box in a past life?"
Jace looked down at me with those gorgeous eyes that I trusted despite everything, and nodded. "That's exactly what I'm saying."
I shook my head, part in disbelief and part in confusion. "That's impossible, Jace. The other version of me would have had to give you that box before I was born. You would have been an infant—you wouldn't be able to remember any of that unless—"
"Unless I'm a lot older than I look."
I licked my lips, unsure if I really wanted to know.
"How much older are we talking exactly?"
"I don't know, not exactly. Can we just leave it at a lot and move on? I'm not done blowing your mind and I'd rather not stretch your ability to believe any further than I have to."
"No, I want to know. If you're going to tell me stuff then I want to know it all. How old are you?"
"My best guess is that I was born about five hundred years ago, but it's not much more than a guess, so you should try to avoid getting fixated on that particular number."
I closed my eyes, partially in an attempt to let myself process what he'd said, and partially because I suddenly felt a strong need to protect myself from seeing his face. It was too hard to be skeptical when he was this close to me.
"Okay, let's just say that I believe you for now. You're five hundred years old, give or take a few decades. So what does that mean? Did you find the fountain of youth, or…?"
I trailed off, unable to finish the question. Jace shifted forward, almost as though he wanted to comfort me, but in the end he settled back on my hips without touching my face.
"There is no such thing as the fountain of youth, Selene."
"So you're not human then."
The words were ash in my mouth. It figured that the universe couldn't let me be happy for more than a day or two. I was now faced with the dilemma of trying to decide whether I wanted Jace to be a delusional stalker or if I'd rather be dating outside of my species.
"No, I'm not. I'm something else."
"So what, you ran into me a few decades back, fell in love with that version of me, and then once I died you thought that you'd try to recreate the magic by hunting for me among all of the billions of people in the world?"
Jace cupped the side of my face, not answering until I opened my eyes. "Is that really so hard for you to believe?"
"Well, I did start off by saying that you fell in love with me. Granted, it was previous-life me, but still, that's pretty hard for any rational person to believe…"
Jace opened his mouth to respond, but didn't get a chance to get any words out before Kat's voice drifted up to us.
"I hope you two love birds are decent. Not only do I not want to see that, Ari is here with me now, and I'm not sure we should be corrupting her like that quite yet. Oh, also the burgers seem to be burning…"
Jace swore, looking back and forth between the door and me. "Seriously, Kat couldn't have worse timing."
I gave him my best crooked smile in response and waved for him to go downstairs. "Go ahead. Kat said that you're particular about dinner and I don't want my sister to see us like this. I think that she's on board with keeping all of this a secret from our dad, but there are limits even to what she'd be willing to keep from him. This wouldn't be easy to explain away."
"I owe you an explanation…"
"No, it's fine, Jace. I won't run away. You'll have a chance to explain later. Go take care of the food and tell Kat to stop implanting ideas in Ari's head. I'll stay here and get dressed. You can even lock me in with those fancy locks if that is what it will take for you to feel you're going to get a chance to finish explaining everything."
Jace looked at me, but it wasn't just a look. It was like he'd peeled back the illusion I usually presented to the rest of the world and looked straight into my soul.
"I don't need to lock you up. This time I believe you when you say that you'll hear me out."
"Good, because I really mean it."
Chapter 8
Jace stood and then offered me his hand, which was good because I wasn't sure I could have managed my towel and made it to my feet at the same time.
Jace picked up my clothes and handed them to me with a smile before disappearing into the sitting room. I stood there looking at his door for several seconds before shaking myself and heading back into the bathroom.
I'd almost waited too long to comb out my hair. It always looked better if I combed it out before it had a chance to dry all of the way. I ran my fingers through it a couple of times and was nearly resigned to having a mess once it finished drying when I remembered the toiletry bag that had been in Jace's—my—box.
I bit my lip and debated for a few seconds before finally deciding there wasn't any reason not to use dead-me's stuff. The toiletry bag proved to be a virtual treasure trove. It not only had a comb, it also had a full range of makeup, still in the original packaging, that was perfectly suited to my coloring. Some of it was so far past its expiration date that it wasn't usable, but most of it was actually in pretty good shape.
I snugged my towel back up and then combed my hair out before going back into Jace's closet to pick out the cutest underwear from the offering of nineties options. Once I was dressed again, it only took me another ten minutes to do my makeup and then I put everything back more or less like I'd found it and headed back downstairs.
The neckline on my sweater had tightened back up some while it had been folded up, first in my locker and then on Jace's counter. That was nice because it meant that it didn't ride quite so low on my shoulders. Maybe it was silly to be worried about that considering the fact that Jace had seen a lot more skin than that while I'd been wearing my towel, but somehow it still mattered to me.
I found the others sitting in the solarium behind the kitchen. Jace was cooking again—presumably trying to replace the stuff that got burned while I was freaking out—while Kat and Ari were watching a funny video on Kat's tablet.
Ari took in my wet hair with a suspicious glance. "Where have you been?"
"Sorry, Kat and I ditched school a few minutes before we were supposed to go in for showers, so she said that I could use Jace's shower."
Now it was Kat's turn to give me a suggestive look. "Wow, Selene does it usually take two people to get you showered?"
I wanted to punch her. Instead I managed a sickly sweet smile. "No, actually, it only takes one person to get me through the shower. Once I was done showering I called down for Jace so he could let me into your room—I hope you don't mind that I borrowed some of your makeup, Kat."
I turned to Ari and casually pointed to the kitchen door with its biometric lock. "Has Kat given you the tour yet? It's pretty crazy, they've got those fingerprint locks everywhere, even on their bedrooms and bathrooms."
Apparently my lie held together well enough. I got another raised eyebrow from Kat—apparently she didn't stock makeup in my color—but Ari seemed content to let things drop. I actually felt bad about that. I didn't like lying to Ari.
I tried to salve my conscience by telling myself that nothing had happened between Jace and me, but it didn't really seem to be helping. Maybe because I knew how much danger there had been of something happening. Even after thinking that he was some kind of stalker I'd still been ready to jump his bones just a few minutes later.
That was probably a sign that I had some deep, unresolved issues from my childhood, but as hard as I tried to believe that I needed some kind of professional help, I just couldn't quite buy it
. Jace's story was crazy, but I couldn't deny the connection I felt to him. Even more than that, it was the first thing that provided a halfway decent explanation for all of the déjà vu I'd been experiencing since I'd met him and Kat.
There was just something about him that made me want to believe him. Besides, I'd known for hours that there was something unusual going on. Between the lost time I'd experienced before school and Kat's worship-me aura, I was pretty primed to believe the unbelievable.
Ari shook her head. "Nope, all I've seen so far is the great room, the kitchen and this area. Just based on what I've seen so far this place has got to be pretty spectacular."
Kat made an 'aw shucks' face and then checked her watch. "I'd give you the grand tour, but I think Jace is almost done with dinner. Let's eat first so that he doesn't yell at us, and then I'll show you the whole place."
Jace flipped the grill back open and prodded the burgers a couple of times before frowning at them. "Yeah, I think these bad boys are done. Sorry, ladies. I'm afraid these are just regular hamburgers rather than the gourmet burgers and steaks that I was planning on offering."
Kat faked a pout. "Now I'm sad. There's nothing quite as disappointing as coming home from a hard day of fighting bullies and finding out that you're going to have to settle for normal hamburgers." She looked back at me. "I blame you, you know, Selene. If you hadn't needed to 'put on some makeup' then we could have dined in the fashion to which I've grown accustomed."
Ari shot Kat a look. "Leave it alone, Kat. If Selene says that nothing happened, then nothing happened."
I winced. I appreciated the vote of confidence—although it did feed my guilt—but the last thing I wanted to do was piss Kat off. I needed her to verify all the crazy stuff Jace apparently still had to tell me.
Luckily, Kat just laughed. "Fair enough, but when the two of them do decide to get all inappropriate don't say that I didn't warn you."
Jace had used the last several seconds to good effect. Not only had he pulled the meat off of the grill, he'd also slapped one of the patties on a bun, along with a host of fixings. He walked over to Kat and shoved the resulting culinary masterpiece into Kat's mouth with an apologetic smile for both Ari and me.
"Sorry, you two. I should warn you that the only way to shut Kat up is to feed her. She claims that I enjoy cooking, but the truth is I've learned out of necessity. It's the only way I've ever been able to get any peace and quiet."
Kat held up a finger while she chewed the bite that Jace had given her, and then sighed. "Everything he's said is a lie, but I'm going to just concentrate on this hamburger so that Jace will continue to cook me good food."
Jace rolled his eyes at her, which caused us all to laugh, and then pointed at the hamburgers. "These are ready for the two of you—do you want me to fix them or do you want to do it yourself?"
Kat paused with her hamburger halfway to her mouth. "Trust me, you want him to do it. Tell him what you want on it, but let him put it together. He always manages to get the ratios just right."
Ari didn't have to be told twice. Jace was still shirtless, so he still looked like some kind of pagan god and I had a suspicion that Ari was more than happy to be waited on by a hot, shirtless, older guy. Although, come to think of it, she might not be quite so eager if she knew how much older he was. Then again, so far it hadn't slowed me down.
I watched as Jace put a massive hamburger together for my baby sister and couldn't help but smile at the way that she just kept having him add toppings. Jace had toppings I'd never even heard of, and seemed perfectly happy to stack them on however high Ari wanted. Yeah, she was definitely enjoying herself.
Once Ari hit the point where Jace told her she was going to have to add in another hamburger patty in order to keep the ratios all right, she finally told him his work was acceptable.
Jace looked at me with his characteristic lopsided smile. "So what about you? Should I start out with two pieces of meat for you so you don't have to limit your toppings?"
I pursed my lips, looked over my shoulder to make sure that Ari was focused on getting everything into her mouth without having it topple onto her lap, and decided to just go for it.
"How many of these have you made for me? Dozens? Hundreds?"
Jace nodded. "Usually I don't have to start over and skip some of the most important steps when it comes to preparing the meat, but yeah. I used to cook for you a lot."
"Then just go ahead and fix it the way that you know I'll like the most."
That earned me another smile. I tried to get close enough to see what all he was putting on there, but he waved me back to my chair. I started to get nervous when it took him so long that Kat was almost finished with hers, but then he brought not one, but two plates over and sat down next to me.
"Here, this one is yours. Go ahead. I want to see the expression on your face when you try it."
I looked at it for a second before obliging him. Some of the ingredients that I hadn't recognized from before had definitely made it onto my hamburger, and there were at least three or four different kinds of mushrooms on it.
"You're sure all of those mushrooms are the non-poisonous varieties?"
"Of course I'm sure—are you going to eat it or not?"
The smile in his voice gave lie to the stern expression he was trying to pull off. I gave him a mock glare and then opened my mouth and took a bite.
It was more than amazing. It tasted better than anything I'd ever eaten before and I suddenly realized that hanging around Jace might be hazardous to my figure. The melody of flavors was unexpected in a couple of places, but it all fit together beautifully. Behind it all was a curiously sweet flavor that was almost like honey, but not quite.
"Oh my gosh, just kill me now. I'll never find anything else this good—life will just be one big disappointment after another from here on out."
Kat was headed back with a plate full of French fries, and Ari snagged one as she walked by and threw it at me. "Melodramatic much?"
"No more than is merited, runt. This seriously is the best hamburger I've ever had. I'm actually afraid to try the version that Jace originally planned on feeding us. I'm going to have a hard enough time going back to our cooking as it is."
Ari shrugged. "You don't have to invite her next time you cook. I'm up for trying whatever you want to feed me. I'm not scared."
"It's a deal, but only if you finish that monster burger you're currently working on."
"Gah, you were a lot sexier when you didn't sound like my dad."
That drew a gasp out of me, but Ari just shrugged. "What? It's not like we aren't all thinking it. Heck, even Kat thinks he's hot. Besides, I'm not the one he's interested in, so it doesn't matter what I say. You on the other hand should keep trying to play hard to get. I hear rich guys like that."
I shook my fist at her. "You do realize that every time you open your mouth you make it harder for anyone to like me, right?"
"Whatever. Jace and Kat both love me." She batted her eyes at both of them. "I'm totally that adorable kid sister that people invite along to everything because secretly they like me more than you, but they just don't want to look uncool because they spend all their time hanging out with someone so much younger than them. By the way, what's the plan after this? You know you have to do more than just treat a girl to a nice meal if you want to really turn her head, right?"
Kat shook some extra salt onto her fries and then popped one into her mouth like it was a cigar. "Oh, we've got a little something-something planned."
Chapter 9
A 'little something-something' turned out to be a movie in their home theater. Ari wasn't very excited about that until she found out that they had a pre-release version of some street-racing movie she'd been excited about for months.
In between gushing about how awesome the movie was going to be and needling Kat in an effort to find out how she'd gotten her hands on a movie that wasn't due to be released for more than a month, Ari settled down in one of
the overstuffed leather recliners with an extra-large tub of popcorn, two cans of pop, and three candy bars. Apparently the room next to the theater was a fully-stocked concessions booth.
Jace offered to grab something for me when he disappeared to grab himself a glass of water, but I was feeling oddly full after the burger. Kat brought another plate of fries with her, which boggled my mind, but when I asked her why she would eat fries instead of just having another of Jace's burgers she shrugged.
"I'm slumming. You can't just eat only Jace's best stuff or you start to take it for granted. It's all about keeping a proper sense of perspective."
"Right, it has nothing to do with the fact that my fries are world-class, or the fact that I refuse to fix more than one hamburger for you on any given night. You keep telling yourself that."
Jace slid into the chair next to me and put two bottles of water in the cup holders between us. "Just in case you decide later on that you're thirsty."
I leaned in close enough that I'd be able to whisper without Ari overhearing us. "Thanks, but we aren't really going to watch a movie, are we? I thought Kat was going to distract Ari with a tour of the house while you filled me in on everything we started talking about earlier in your room…"
"Yeah, that was the original plan, but you seem pretty worried about not making Ari think anything is happening between the two of us, so we thought maybe it would be best if we kept the two of you together for now."
"Doesn't that kind of make it impossible for the two of us to talk?"
"Just wait—you'll see."
It was cryptic, but I shouldn't have expected anything else from Jace. Still, the promise of a full explanation was enough to make me settle back into my chair as the opening scenes of the movie started playing. We were only five or six minutes into the movie when it happened.
The movie froze between one heartbeat and the next. I started to get up, but Jace grabbed my arm and pulled me back down into my seat. "That was supposed to happen. Just sit back down and try not to make any sudden moves if you see Ari start to look back here."
