Holding the arm she’d twisted behind his back, Arianna pushed Preppy-boy headfirst and he smashed into a row of lockers. He fell to the ground, his eyes dazed an unfocused. She was about to turn to the group and see if any of them had insults to offer when a vice-like grip seized her arm and spun her around.
“Arianna!” a voice spoke. “What the hell are you doing?”
The scarlet cloak that shrouded her eyes evaporated and she saw a pair of gray eyes glowering at her. Luke squeezed her upper arm.
“Luke,” she said struggling to catch her breath.
His face held no anger, and it held no affection either, just fear and something else she could not name exactly. But it was not good. His expression was a blend of shame and disgust, of embarrassment and repulsion. He looked at her as if he was seeing her for the first time, but only saw a monster, not her. He slowly released his grip on her arm and shrunk back, and she knew his feelings for her had slipped away just as readily. She tried to draw in breath, the pain in her chest sudden, but her lungs felt like they had shrunk, refusing to fill. The air she breathed burned in her throat, ached in her core.
Luke lowered his eyes to the floor and turned his head. She took a last look at his profile, his spiky black hair, his full, soft lips, then ran out of the building. She did not know where she was going, did not care, but knew she could not spend another second in Herald Falls High School.
She’d only made it to the edge of the parking lot where school property met with the main road when Desmond appeared. His large biceps bulged intimidatingly as he crossed both arms across his broad chest. His face, typically the epitome of calm, looked livid and she could see a small muscle in his jaw tense and flex. She’d had an awful couple of days, and judging from the look on his face, knew that her day was about to get much worse. He leveled his sky-blue gaze at her and with her own eyes, pleaded with him wordlessly to go easy on her. When his features softened and his arms dropped to his sides, she wondered whether he’d heard her silent plea. She also could not help but notice how, even in the harsh gray light of the gloomy day, he looked like a golden god cast to Earth from the heavens, an angry god, but a god, nonetheless.
When she was close enough to smell his spicy aftershave mingling with the faint scent of leather, he spoke only three words.
“Come with me,” he said in his rich, soothing voice. He reached out a large hand and she placed hers in it. With her hand in his, she felt a tingle begin in her palm and travel up her arm as gently as a summer breeze blowing across her skin, warm and welcoming. The inviting sensation was immediately followed by his energy flowing through her, thrumming in time with her heartbeat, wafting through every part of her. The anguish she’d felt over recent days began to fade, replaced by a sense of peace.
The world around them, leaden and dreary, began to fade. Desmond pulled Arianna close to him and enveloped her in his powerful arms. Her legs threatened to give way beneath her as all of her worries seeped from her. She closed her eyes, relishing in the feel of his body against hers, his masculine scent; his protection. When she opened them, lush fields of green dotted with blossoms in vibrant shades of pink and purple surrounded her. Herald Falls had disappeared completely. The clouds and drizzle were replaced with brilliant sunlight that kissed the vivid landscape. The stagnant air polluted with the stench of car exhausts passing on the county road they’d stood near moments earlier had been traded for a refreshing breeze that stirred tall grass and the faint sound of birds chirping. She recognized the field they stood in immediately, it was where he’d taken her the night she’d encountered the attackers at the Blue Ivy nightclub.
Desmond stood just inches from her, bathed in golden light that caressed each of his magnificent features. She wanted to remain encircled in his muscular arms, breathing in his intoxicating scent, but reluctantly stepped back.
“We need to talk,” he said gently.
“Amazing, someone actually wants to talk to me,” she said dejectedly.
Around Desmond, she did not have to pretend. She did not need walls to protect her. He knew what she was, had always known, and did not reject her.
“I am sorry for what has happened to you, for what is happening” he began. “Nothing has ever been easy for you.”
Arianna blinked feverishly, fighting tears that welled and fell despite her effort.
“But it is imperative that you learn to control your emotions,” he continued.
“That’s easier said than done,” she mumbled.
“I know. Believe me. I have been through it myself,” he surprised her by saying. “But your powers are far greater than mine were or will ever be. And you need to control them. What happened today, at your school, can never happen again. Do you understand me?”
“Of course I understand you! Do you think I want to be this way? I have no one. No one at all,” she said her eyes overflowed with emotion.
Desmond reached out and took her hands in his. “You are never alone,” he assured her. “I am always a heartbeat away. You have me.”
Arianna looked up into his cerulean eyes and saw nothing but kindness and warmth shining in them. She wanted to believe in something, in him.
“But you’ve only come to me a handful of times.”
“You’ve only ever wanted me a handful of times,” he replied softly.
“I always want you,” she murmured and buried her face in his chest.
The sudden realization of what she’d said sent her pulse racing and color to her cheeks. She hadn’t given any thought to her words, had just blurted them out.
“I am here,” he said and surrounded her with his arms, with his body.
She allowed her form to meld to his, felt the heat of his skin through his fitted T-shirt.
“You will learn to manage your powers,” he said. She looked up at him and he brushed her cheek with his knuckles. The contact sent a shiver across her skin. “It will get easier.”
“How?” she asked.
“First, you will need to stay away from people who evoke strong emotional reactions from you.”
“So, I’m guessing no school, right?”
“And no Luke,” he said then added thoughtfully, “You should not have given yourself to him. He isn’t worthy of you.”
“Wait, what?” Arianna asked and wondered how Desmond could have possibly known about her night with Luke. “How did you know?”
“I saw,” Desmond replied evenly.
“You saw?” she asked incredulously. “As in you saw us, you know, doing it.”
Arianna felt her cheeks blaze and leaned back.
“Unfortunately, yes. I saw the two of you begin your intimate moment,” he said and Arianna thought she heard a hint of jealously in his voice. She quickly dismissed it, though. How could Desmond possibly be jealous of Luke? The fleeting thought seemed outlandish. Desmond looked like a god, and Luke looked like an average teenager. Regardless, she decided to accuse him, if for no other reason than to punish him for invading her privacy.
“You sound jealous, Desmond,” she accused and stepped away from him.
“Jealous? That’s absurd!” he said and crossed his arms over his chest.
“You sure seem it!” she pressed. “And I bet you put that image in my head of you all shirtless when Luke and I were doing it.”
Desmond visibly cringed at the words “doing it,” then his expression changed unexpectedly, and a smirk spread across his lips. “You thought of me while you were intimate with Luke?” he asked and appeared pleased.
“Yeah, like you didn’t know. Like you didn’t put that image in my head,” she egged him on.
“Arianna, your thoughts and fantasies are your own. I do not have the power to make you think or do anything you do not want to think or do. So if you thought of me while with Luke,” he started and his sky-blue eyes suddenly danced with delight.
“Don’t even say it!” she interrupted him before he could finish his sentence. “And don’t talk to me like you
’re my father because I’ve never had one and don’t need one now!”
“Father?” he asked and looked injured.
Thrilled she’d hit a nerve and ruffled his seemingly unflappable feathers, she persisted. “Well you say you’ve been hovering around me my whole life, like a father.”
Desmond took a step forward and gripped her arms, “I feel nothing fatherly toward you,” he said and his aquamarine eyes smoldered. He pulled her close. Arianna could feel his breath hot on her lips. She wondered whether he was going to kiss her, wished he would kiss her. But he did not. Instead he embraced her and placed her head against his chest, over his heart.
With her body pressed against Desmond’s, she felt the slight adrenaline rush she’d felt while arguing with him dissipate. She felt as though their powers were mingling, felt the calming presence of his energy flowing through her in a steady current. Yet in that current, she still detected the slightest hint of jealousy concerning her night with Luke. She ignored it, however, chalked it up to wishful thinking.
“I hate to bring him up again,” she said softly. “But Luke has my motorcycle, and I need it back.”
“I will get you another motorcycle if that is how you chose to travel.”
“Well, I can’t afford a car. Besides, I love the freedom of riding,” she said and envisioned herself on an open road, the wind in her face, the sun shining.
“A motorcycle it is, then,” he agreed. “In the meantime, stay close to home. I will stay close, as well. I can be with you every moment your mother is not around. It will give us time to work on breathing and relaxation techniques that will help you channel your powers more responsibly.”
The news that she’d be spending more time with Desmond was the best new she’d received in quite some time.
“Okay,” she said. “But what about Howard Kane?”
The mention of Howard Kane clouded Desmond’s glorious features. “He is close, and you will face him soon. That is why we need to ready you,” he said firmly.
His words suggested she would be preparing for battle, a battle she would be fighting alone. Her heart sank to her stomach and she let go of Desmond.
Sensing her reaction, he pulled her closer. “You will not be alone against Kane,” he said. “He wants us all dead. We will help you as much as we can. Ultimately, though, you will be the one to kill him.”
Arianna squeezed her eyes shut and refused to acknowledge what he had just said. Instead, she focused on the even beat of his heart.
“It is time to return,” he whispered. And with his words, the flowery meadow began to evaporate. Light filled her field of vision, brilliant white light. Desmond and his warmth surrounded her once again, covering her body with wisps of awareness, light and feathery.
Chapter 14
Howard Kane directed his large Chevy Suburban into the Shady Pines Trailer Park in Herald Falls, New York. Though it was daylight, thick fog smothered everything in its wake. Each trailer appeared haunted, crawling with ghostly curdled shapes that dove and lunged at every turn. He found it fitting that the Sola should live in such a sinister looking community.
He parked his car just outside a smaller unit near the end of the long lane, and saw that a rusted Toyota Camry occupied the space right in front of it. He turned the headlamps off, as well as the ignition, and spoke to the men with him.
“This is her lair, gentlemen,” he said.
“Are you sure she isn’t here?” the man beside him, Eli, asked.
Eli had sounded worried, frightened by the prospect of a possible run-in with the Sola. Fear among his followers did not inspire much confidence in Howard. Fear made them potential liabilities. He would be sure to keep a close eye on Eli in the coming days.
“Yes,” Howard replied and leveled his gaze at Eli. “John Pawley confirmed that she is at school. He called about ten minutes ago. You have nothing to worry about.”
Eli raised a brow at him, “I’m not worried,” he said but his eyes told another story. “I just want things to go smoothly, that’s all.”
Howard could tell that the man had lied to him, that Eli was feigning calm he did not feel.
“Good, Eli,” Howard said plainly. “We fight with righteousness on our side; there is nothing to fear when God is on your side. Fear when fighting alongside the Lord would mean your faith has wavered. Has your faith wavered, Eli?”
“No, no of course not,” Eli replied quickly.
“Good. That’s good, because I need you in top form in the hours forthcoming.”
Howard did not say more on the topic. Rather, he climbed out of his SUV and strode to Arianna Rose’s front door. He turned the doorknob and, to his surprise, the door had not been locked. Given the seediness of the trailer park, most others would have found more security precautions necessary. But no other was the Sola, only Arianna Rose.
He opened the door slowly and peeked inside. The faint light of a side table lamp illuminated the area before them, a crowded area with a couch and coffee table. No one appeared to be in the living-room area. He turned to his men who’d followed and nodded before proceeding to enter the trailer.
Once inside, he was immediately greeted with the sour smell of liquor and nicotine. Both familiar scents from his youth, the stench reminded him of his childhood home he’d shared with his mother, before he’d killed her. He glanced around and saw that an empty bottle of Scotch sat atop the far edge of the coffee table, along with fast-food wrappers. His eyes quickly scanned the kitchen area and hallway. He did not see anyone and was about to address him men when the sound of panting and moaning filled the trailer.
Howard felt a small jolt pass through him and his knees buckled involuntarily. The moaning, the stink of alcohol, cigarettes and cheap cologne transported him back in time. For an instant, he was eight years old, his father dead and he alone with his mother. A different man had shared his mother’s bed each night of the week, and they had drunk and smoked a bevy of vile substances before retiring to her bedroom, and that had been when the panting would begin.
The overwhelming urge to march down the narrow hallway before him and kill the two fornicators snapped Howard back to the present. He balled his fists at his side so tightly his fingernails bit into his palms. He glanced at the faces of the men with him. Their heads had turned toward the sound. Fortunately, none of them had noticed his moment of weakness. His movement toward the moaning alerted them to follow him.
The first door on the right was closed, the sounds of sexual intercourse on the other side of it loud. Howard opened the door and boldly stepped inside, expecting some sort of reaction. But he did not get one. The moaning did not stop. The carnal display before him was grotesque. A pale man with dark body hair thrust his pelvis from behind a blonde woman like a barnyard animal, one hand gripping her breast while the other bounced and flopped as he did so. Both the man and the woman had been so consumed by passion that they hadn’t noticed that four men had entered the room.
He stood, stunned, momentarily as they brazenly continued with their depraved act. Another shock bolted through him as it had moments ago and weakened his knees once more. A vision of his mother being ravaged by a greasy-looking man with long hair flashed through his mind’s eye. The man had knelt behind his mother, thrusting, and clutching her breast, just as the one before him did now. His insides began to quiver and sweat beaded his forehead as anger mounted inside of him.
Silently, he unsheathed his blade from his waistband and crept up behind the man. He swung it in a wide arc and slashed at the side of the man’s throat. Blood spurted out immediately. He’d hit the man’s jugular vein. The man cried out and held his neck then flopped to his side, disengaged from the woman’s body. A bright-red pool expanded around him and the shrill scream of the woman tore through the room. The woman spun and faced them.
“Oh my God! Oh my God!” she cried again and again, and the irony of her pleas did little to calm Howard.
“Shh! Shh!” he shushed her. “Stop scream
ing. Please, stop screaming.”
His voice had obviously calmed her as he’d hoped it would as her wailing ceased. She reached for the covering on her bed and attempted to cover herself, suddenly modest after a room full of men had seen her naked and submitting to immoral behavior.
“Please just take whatever you want. I’ll do anything you want, Just please don’t kill me,” she said in a trembling voice.
With her hair in a state of disarray, her blue makeup smudged around her eyes and streaming down her cheeks, and her face the epitome of terror, Howard almost felt bad for her. But pity was an emotion he reserved only for those deserving of his graces, for the just. And the woman before him was anything but just.
“You have only one thing I want,” Howard said calmly. “And you are going to help me get her.”
The woman looked at him confusedly before a nod to his men ordered them to descend on her. One held her arms while another grabbed her feet. Eli approached with a syringe.
“Please!” the woman begged. “Please don’t kill me!”
Neither Howard nor any of his men flinched at her entreats. Eli jabbed the needle into the woman’s buttock. She blurted out a few incoherent sentences; her voice slurred by the powerful sedative they’d administered then fell to the bed.
“Put her in the truck,” Howard ordered his men.
Three of the four men obeyed, but one paused. Eli hesitated and turned to Howard.
“This is the woman who bore the Sola? This is Arianna Rose’s mother?”
“Yes, Eli. I told you we were coming here for her,” Howard said, impatience creeping into his tone.
“How does she help us kill the Sola, though? The Sola is so powerful, so evil. What makes you think her mother will give us any leverage?”
Anger edged its way into Howard’s already changeable mood. Eli was questioning him. He wondered who exactly Eli thought he was. Eli had not heard the voice of God. Only Howard had.
“I have a plan, Eli,” Howard hissed. “God’s plan. Do you question God’s plan? It sounds to me like you are.”
Arianna Rose: The Awakening (Part 2) Page 12
