He grinned. “It wasn’t exactly like that. Not like I would have put you at risk if I hadn’t, you know, fallen for you.”
“You’re never gonna let me live that one down.”
He nudged his knee against mine. “Probably not. But so you know, I’m not some selfish jerk. I thought you could help me without it putting you in danger. My only regret is that I was wrong. I never misled you, though.”
“I know,” I said, letting him kiss me for the third time. His hands moved to my hips as mine reached for his shoulders.
For the second time that week, life was perfect.
Which probably meant my luck was about to run out.
Unfortunately, Heather was not as convinced as me that Noah wasn’t a selfish a-hole, and there wasn’t much I could say to convince her otherwise.
We were sitting in my room watching “Becoming Jane” on my laptop, and I thought the ballroom scene would distract her long enough to agree. Instead I got:
“Huh? Sure,” as she slowly lifted popcorn to her mouth. Then her hand fell back into the bowl. “Wait – what? No. Did you say you were telling your dad we’re spending the weekend together, but you’re really going somewhere with Noah?”
I winced, but offered a small nod.
She leaned over and paused the movie, then turned her whole body toward me. “Emily, have you lost it? What are you thinking? Are you like, gonna sleep with him? Is he pressuring you to have sex?”
I grabbed her shoulders. “Heather, breathe. No one is having sex. I will have to sleep at some point, and he will probably also be sleeping, but we won’t be sleeping together. At least not in the colloquial sense, okay?”
She eyed me warily, the glow of the screen lighting up her freckled face and casting a reflection in her glasses. “I still don’t feel comfortable lying about it. Could I go with you guys?”
I rubbed my face. “I’m not sure. He’s taking me to meet his family. That would be kind of weird.”
“You’re meeting family of his that lives hours away but haven’t met his parents yet?”
I picked a piece of popcorn out of her brown waves. “They’re cousins or something,” I said, flicking away the small crumb. “It’s different.”
Heather pressed her lips together and stared into the popcorn bowl, as though the answers to her moral dilemmas were hidden in the un-popped kernels.
“Heather, please. I need this. I need to get out of this town for a bit. Noah and I spend all of our time hiding out from Sarah. You know, because she would make my life hell if she knew he was into me. We never get to just be together.”
“If I do this,” she said slowly, “you have to promise to answer my texts right away, so I can know you’re safe.”
I sat up straighter. “Done. I will. You can bet on it.”
“I’m not sure about betting on anything you say.”
My heart sank. Heather had me figured out. I would have to make it up to her. What I lacked in honesty I could…well, I didn’t know what, but I would come up with something.
“I promise,” I added, the words now seeming meaningless.
“If you don’t, I’ll tell your dad.” She lifted her chin. “I’m not kidding. Better keep that phone glued to your hand.”
I wasn’t sure how to promise her I wasn’t lying this time. Pinky swearing seemed old hat. Instead, I forced a smile. “Thank you. You’re like, totally one hundred percent the best friend a girl could ask for.”
“Maybe,” she whispered. Standing, she grabbed her coat. “It’s getting late. I should probably go.”
I walked her downstairs. “See you soon?”
“Yep,” she said in a clipped tone. She turned to leave, but then quickly turned back again, a hint of panic in her eyes. “Just stay safe, all right? Promise me?”
She was asking for another promise she couldn’t trust, but it was the least I could give her.
“Okay,” I lied.
I should’ve known better than to make a promise I couldn’t keep.
13
OXYGEN
When I was little, my mom took me every Sunday to get fast food. Don’t judge. I never proclaimed we were a health-conscious family. Besides, it was more a ritual than anything. While we sat across from each other beneath those golden arches, my mom would tell me things.
Things like how I was pretty because I didn’t have her nose, which I thought was fine. Or how I could do anything and be anyone, which might be where my obsession with the witness protection program came from. That or Family in Hiding, the made-for-TV movie I was obsessed with until I was about eleven or twelve.
Either way, I spent most of my life dreaming of being other people. Not lately. My desire to be someone else started to fade when I met Noah. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but I was determined not to think about it too much.
It did make good road trip fodder, though. I asked Noah the same question I’d asked my dad a thousand times growing up. “Who would you be if you could be anyone in the world?”
“Hmm,” he said, clicking his tongue. “Who’s the first boy you kissed? I think I’d like to be that guy.”
My whole face burned. He had been the first guy I kissed. “The game doesn’t work like that,” I said. “You gotta pick someone exciting.”
His gaze lifted from the road and touched on my face. “Kissing you is exciting.”
I pressed my lips together and removed eye contact until his hand slipped around mine, warm and inviting. I peered over again, but his gaze was back on the road. He looked more peaceful than I’d ever seen him.
“Who would you be?” Noah asked. “If you could be anyone.”
“I don’t know,” I lied. “How much longer until we’re there?”
“Changing the subject?” Without missing a beat, he added, “A couple of hours. I want to show you something first.”
About a mile up the road, Noah took an exit. (Don’t ask which one. People from New Jersey hate that.) He didn’t let go of my hand until we arrived at our destination. He opened the passenger side door, grabbed me by my hips, and lowered me to the ground. I glanced over his shoulder. I didn’t know what I was expecting, but it wasn’t an abandoned playground.
“This isn’t one of those creepy destinations, is it?”
Noah licked his lips and smirked. “You mean like, if I put chalk powder on the merry-go-round, will little kiddie hands show up?”
I raised my eyebrows. “Uh-huh.”
His grin grew wider. “No little ghost children here.” He tilted his head toward the pale sky obscured only a little by the leafless trees. “It’s just a quiet place.”
“You like quiet,” I said.
He took my hand, his touch still capable of lighting a fire in the pit of my stomach. “I like you,” he said. “And we never get to be like this. Not away from the lake.”
I breathed in. Noah had that warm coconut scent, even on the coldest days. “But today might change that, right?”
“I hope,” he said quietly. He sat on the only swing that still had a seat and pulled me into his lap. “We have about ten minutes before we should leave. Any more than that, and Sarah will find us. We need to make it to my friend’s apartment without risking the location.”
“So what do you want to do before we’re back on the road?”
He didn’t answer, so I peeked up at him. He caught my chin with his finger and brought my mouth to his, gently sucking on my bottom lip before releasing it.
“This,” he whispered. “Unless you have a better idea?”
I shook my head and let him kiss me again. Somehow, Noah could make time stand still and the world spin all at once.
He pulled away. “You never answered me earlier. Who would you be?”
I pulled my hands into the sleeves of my sweater and bit my lip.
He turn
ed my face toward his again. “Come on, Em.”
“If you had asked me a couple months ago? Anyone at all. Anyone but Emily Bishop.”
Noah raised an eyebrow. “But I didn’t ask you a couple months ago. I asked you today.”
I started to turn away again, but he immediately righted my face, cupping it in his hand. “You can’t look away forever. Tell me.”
Opening up had always been hard, but staring into Noah’s intense blue eyes I knew two things: it was safe to tell him the truth, and he wasn’t going to let me evade his questions any longer.
“Today,” I said, “I would be me. I would be me, and I would be here with you.”
“Good,” Noah said, pushing his soft lips against mine. As he wrapped his arms around me, he stood, lifting me, my lips still pressed to his. He kissed me on my forehead then set me down. “Come on. We better go.”
The swing swayed in our wake, promising we had really been there – that we had created this moment I would remember forever.
The place Noah took me was in Atlantic City, which was nothing like the City of Atlantis, which for some reason was how I imagined it. The real Atlantic City reminded me of a bad rip-off of Vegas – except I hadn’t been there before, either, so maybe I was imagining Vegas wrong as well.
Unfortunately, I didn’t get to see much of Atlantic City. Shortly after we crossed the border, Noah had me close my eyes until we reached our destination.
“It’s one of my safe places,” he explained, though that much was obvious by the rose-gold haze that domed over her apartment complex and the surrounding neighborhood.
“Am I the only one who can see that?”
“The magic?” Noah nodded. “Not the only one, but normal people can’t, and Sarah can’t see this place at all, since the magic is protecting me from her.”
I still didn’t understand all the ins and outs of Sarah’s magic, and now there was this new kind of magic to consider, too. But I was starting to get a better grasp of Noah and his safe places.
Sarah’s bond to him meant she could sense if he was nearby, locate him even when she didn’t know where he’d gone. Noah’s safe places were the exception. He would drop off her radar, and part of his protection – which I now realized was through whatever magic this friend performed for him – meant that the piece of his mind that knew of these places were also protected from Sarah. If only there was some kind of magic that could protect him completely. Sarah’s hold was apparently too deep for that.
Noah couldn’t risk me knowing where his friend lived if her home was one of his only safe places. Not because he didn’t trust me, but because there was no way of knowing what Sarah might be able to find out from me without my permission. Voodoo wasn’t the only magic she dipped her toes into – not if Noah was also concerned about her reading people’s minds. Or, more likely, having the other It Girls do it for her.
If Sarah wanted to uncover Noah’s safe spots, she needed to follow him. For all we knew, she’d tailed us in the truck, but wasn’t close enough to know exactly where we’d gone. We intended to keep it that way.
The apartment building was even more nondescript than the parts of Atlantic City I’d seen before closing my eyes. We headed to the second floor and met a woman waiting at the top of the stairs. She was a goddess. If not literally, then figuratively. Large, perfectly set crystal blue eyes; full, symmetrical face; short, silky black hair; dark red lips. A modern-day Snow White, but very much awake, and brimming with compelling energy.
She reached out her hand to me. Her nails were painted the same red color as her lips. “You must be Noah’s friend, Emily,” she said, smiling brightly, her teeth almost too white. “I’m Hazel.”
I tried to push through a smile of my own, but the words “Noah’s friend” were stuck in my mind. “Nice to meet you, Hazel.”
She dropped my hand and pulled Noah into a warm embrace. “Mmm,” she purred as she hugged him. “It’s been too long. So glad you came.”
Finally, she let go and waved for us to follow her into a large seating area. “I already took out some material, but after I grab us some java, we can talk.”
Noah motioned to the couch, and I perched awkwardly on one side. He sat next to me, stretching his arm out behind me. When Hazel returned with coffee, he pulled away, sitting up to take his drink.
Hazel sat on the other side of Noah, pulling up one knee as she turned to face him. Great. Her body language basically forced Noah to turn his back on me. This was not how I envisioned this meeting going. She peered at him over her mug as she drank her “java.”
“Soooo,” she said. “Catch me up. You didn’t say much on the phone.”
“I couldn’t.” I heard the grin in his voice, but couldn’t fathom why he would be smiling. “You know.”
“I do.” She set down her coffee. “How long have we known each other, Noah? Several years?”
Why did she need to say that? What could it possibly add to the conversation?
“At least a few,” Noah said.
I stared at her ugly, cream-colored shag rug that covered a large portion of her dark hardwood floors. I bet there were fleas in it. She probably had a cat around here somewhere.
“And you think this is the girl?” Hazel asked, indicating me with a wave of her hand. “Emily Bishop?” She leaned to the side to glance at me. “You wouldn’t be offended if I asked to see your I.D.? Noah can be a little too trusting.”
I rolled my eyes but dug my driver’s license out of my purse. I held it out with clenched teeth, my arm brushing Noah’s as I said, “Here, take it.”
Hazel studied the card with drawn eyebrows and pursed lips. “It says your name is Emily Bishop,” she said, handing it back to me.
I snatched it from her. “That’s because I am Emily Bishop.”
“By choice?” she pressed.
“Not that I have one,” I shot back, “but yes. I’m fine with who I am.”
Hazel raised her hands. “No need to get in a huff. I have to ask these things. I’m watching out for Noah. We’re both on the same side, aren’t we? Trying to help him?”
“That’s why I’m here,” I mumbled. “And you?”
She laughed, but it seemed forced. Without answering my question, she placed her hand on Noah’s forearm. “We’re going to get started. I just need to grab a few more supplies.”
When she left, Noah glared at me. “What are you doing?”
“Me?” I asked. “She hates me!”
“No, she doesn’t. She’s doing what she’s supposed to. You’re…I don’t know. Are you jealous?”
My eyes went wide, but I couldn’t get the words out. Of course I was jealous! And that was probably exactly what Hazel wanted. Couldn’t he see that?
Noah grinned, then chuckled quietly. “Oh my God, you are. Emily Bishop is jealous!”
“She’s flirting with you.”
His forehead creased. “I doubt that.” Falling back against the couch, he touched the side of his face, shaking his head. Then he laughed.
“What?”
“Emily, she’s gay.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. If she’s going to flirt with either of us, it would be you.” He looked me up and down. “Though you’re not her type.”
I sat up straighter. “Why not? What’s wrong with me?”
“Nothing,” Noah insisted, leaning forward with his elbows on his knees. “Do you want to be her type?”
I shook my head, then said “No,” in case that wasn’t clear enough. Hazel was beautiful, but I only had eyes for Noah. “It’s just –”
“If I kiss you, will you shut up?”
Before I could respond, his hand cradled the side of my face as he brought his lips to mine. My hands trembled. I put them on his shoulders to steady myself. Every time we kissed like this, I turned into a
jittery mess.
He pulled away. “Better?”
If feeling like a deer in headlights could be declared an improvement, then yeah.
Hazel walked back in. “Oh, is it a kissing party now?” She winked at Noah. “You’ll have to kiss her for me. I’m seeing someone now.”
Noah wrapped his arm around me as Hazel set various items – a large book, a crystal on a chain, and a small bottle of liquid – onto the coffee table.
“Sorry to put you through the ringer, Emily,” Hazel said, “but your being here almost seems too good to be true. What were the odds Noah would find you, or you him? He needed a Bishop with your particular gift.”
“Why?” I asked. “It hasn’t done anything to help him. In fact, I think I’ve only made things worse.”
“I’m sure you have,” Hazel said, though not unkindly, “but we’ll turn it around as soon as we learn more. When I searched for answers before, I couldn’t get much further than a name – Bishop – without being blocked.”
“Blocked?”
Noah shifted in his seat. “Sarah must’ve used some kind of protection spell for herself, which has blocked Hazel from using her form of magic to discover more. Your gift with the drawings is different, because it comes to you, instead of you going to it.”
“What does that mean for us?”
Hazel took my hand and placed the crystal in my palm, then closed my fingers over it. She held my hand in both of hers. “It means I can teach you how to use this, and so long as you take the same ’come what may’ approach you usually do with your gift, you might inadvertently uncover the missing pieces to this puzzle.”
“I’ve had this my whole life, and it’s never helped anyone,” I said. “Are you sure it can help Noah?”
Hazel nodded emphatically then released my hand. “And you, too.”
“Me?”
Noah sighed heavily as he took my other hand. “You’re a target as much as I am. You know that.”
“Yeah, but –”
“But nothing. They know what you can do now, and they’ll do anything they can to prevent you from helping me. Even if it means stealing your life in the process.”
Something like Voodoo Page 14
