Looking for the swarthy skinned stud in question, I look around again, scanning for the delinquents.
Seithe glances at me, giving me a tiny hint of a smile while he talks to Kev. Looking away he continues conversing while my heart triple somersaults and dives into hope lake.
Finally spying Andi, I wonder what the occasion is that he's having a party. Do we have to take a present? What do you get for a guy like him anyway?
Heavy eyes hunt down my senses again, and I twist nervously, looking instinctively their way.
Seithe blinks, caught red handed gawking at me, and a secret thrill rides the swell his attention inflates my world with.
Looking shy, he ducks his head, fiddling with the drink in his hand. I stare at it, recognizing the label. So he doesn't drink alcohol either? He's having cream soda.
“Toyota,” breathes in my ear, and I peg straight, flinching away from the sordid breath.
“Ross.”
Leaning a cool pose with his arm braced on the wall behind me, he smirks dangerously, “I just heard the good news.” He blinks like a crocodile, too slowly, threatening, leaning his height down to my ear again, “How delightful that you've decided to come slumming.”
“What the hell are you talking about?” I snap, cringing into the wall to get space from his bad breath.
“Carrie says you're coming to Andi's party.”
I whip left, wondering when exactly Carrie abandoned me into standing on my own at a party like a total reject.
Hell's bells, I'm alone.... with Ross!
“Yup,” I nod confirmation, frantically searching for an excuse to escape without seeming rude.
“Wear something black,” he winks, boosting off the wall and slithering away in his henchman walk.
He walks like a gangster, as if he has a leg injury and needs to manually lift his left leg with each step. He thinks he's so über cool.
Ugh, he creeps me the hell out.
Spotting Carrie, I go charging after her, giving her a sharp pinch when I reach her, “Thanks for just vanishing!”
“I thought you were with me,” she grumbles, swaying a little.
“We need to get you home,” I pout, upset we have to leave so soon. I really wanted to get to know Seithe better. If we leave now the slut pod will be all over him.
“Nah, we're cool,” she giggles, and for me it's confirmation. Good friends look after their inebriated buddies, no matter what.
“We're going,” I say firmly, grabbing her arm and hauling her with me across the back yard.
Seithe walks toward us, smiling softly, “Hey there.”
“Hey,” I smile back, almost ready to cry at the injustice of the world. “We're on our way out.”
“I'll walk you,” he says, clasping his hand to my elbow and pressing against my side, guiding me like a bouncer.
It makes me oddly safe.
Once we're out front at my scooter, he pauses while Carrie rushes to the shrubbery, spewing grossness into the quiet this side of the night.
“So, uh, you gonna go running tomorrow morning?”
I nod, not that I was planning on it, but I am now.
“Cool, I'll see you then. We're going surfing with Kev and Dave.”
“Awesome,” I nod, distracted, wondering if I should go help Carrie.
“Will you make it home okay?” he asks, looking at her, then back at me, then over his shoulder back to the house, as if sensing my stalker.
“Yup, we'll be fine,” I nod, acting tough and capable.
“Okay then,” he says, turning back to give me his full attention. “It was nice meeting you properly, Tasmin.”
“And you,” I nod, now awkward.
I feel like our moment was cut short and instead of a goodnight kiss I'm going to get a handshake.
As it turns out I get neither. “See you in the morning,” he winks, strolling back to the front door.
Carrie staggers to me, smelling like something the cat coughed onto the carpet, “I feel like hell.”
“Come on, let's get you home,” I order, helping her onto the scooter, knowing we're going to have to be careful with two of us on it.
Sigh.
So much for an awesome evening.
Putting my helmet on, I sit on the motorcycle, flicking the light on and starting it up.
It's only as I maneuver it off the drive and into the road that I realize he's still standing at the door, staring after us when we leave.
He lifts a hand lazily in salute, and I wave back, causing the bike to wobble.
“Taz! God girl, do you want me to hurl down your back?”
Carrie's self-absorbed statement grounds me back in cold hard reality, and I focus wholeheartedly on the road.
Halting at the stop sign, the heavy foreboding weight sinks teeth into my soul again, and I twist, looking back at Brett's house. Seithe is gone, but a shadow moves along the wall between the bedroom windows and terror cracks a fissure back into my spidey senses.
Who are you?
*
Seithe:
“Seithe!” summons, the second we arrive back in the house.
Looking to Jo and Ellie, I nudge my head toward the booming voice, “See you guys upstairs. I have to go see what the prison warden wants.”
I watch them file upstairs before turning to the entertainment lounge. Squaring my shoulders, I stride purposefully into the room, finding Venix slouched in his favorite chair. “What?”
“If you want to go out I suggest you stick to the vamporium.”
Arching my eyebrows, I'm surprised, “There's a vamporium here?”
“They're everywhere,” he snaps, using a tone which insinuates I'm stupid. “Wherever there is a forest you'll locate a vamporium entrance.”
“And I was magically just supposed to know this?” I grind out. Jeez, the nerve of this guy is beginning to light the short fuse on my temper.
“You know it now,” he says, sitting straight and then standing. Now that he can stare down his nose at me, he says, “You seem to be the shoulders of responsibility for your siblings, so I want you to check it's safe before you let your sister go there.”
“Why can't you go?” I argue.
“Teenagers only policy,” he smirks, splaying his hands in a helpless gesture. “Tomorrow's full moon, you can check it out then.”
“How will I find it?” For crying in a rainstorm, you'd think he could offer some clues. I can't thumb suck everything.
“You'll locate it due north, on the other side of the Tokai forest on the Vlekkenberg Peak. Just follow the indigo markers.” He smiles flatly, obviously dismissing me.
“Why full moon?” I ask.
His exasperated sigh is sarcastic, “Seithe, the only way to find the location of a vamporium the first time is on high moon. I thought you knew the ground aura only glows then.”
“Oh.” Actually I did not know that. “There's a flaw in your logic,” I say, walking closer to the doorway.
“And what is that?”
Looking up at him, I speak my mind, “You said you made us younger to meet humans. We won't meet humans at the vamporium.”
“But you've already planned to go to another party, you've met more than enough humans already, between surfing and shopping you have made all the contacts you need.”
Bastard. How does he know?
“I know everything, try remember that the next time you think you are the master of your own destiny.”
Losing the smile, giving me the stare of imminent harm, his powerful muscles seem more pronounced, as if I irk him as much as he riles me.
Turning, he vanishes while walking away.
“Good night to you too,” I say to the empty room.
Chapter 7
Seithe:
Holding my board, ready to rush into the surf after two hours of beach training with Kev, I see her running down the bluff. Pausing, I appreciate the natural grace of her movement, her ponytail swaying exuberantly to the rhythm of her
stride.
Jo lies flat on his board, jumping up and assuming the goofy foot position explained by David. Dropping down and repeating the motion, practicing. I wait for her attention, waving when she looks up.
She waves back, smiling.
It gives me a small thrill to have her looking at me that way, indicating to her with a hand signal that I'm off into the ocean. She nods, returning her focus to her feet and the endless white talc beneath them.
Paddling out, the instructions fresh in my head, I count the sets, eyeballing the sections. The section is the part of the wave we ride on, apparently. Bobbing idly, I watch Kevin carve up the floater until the tip of his board dips into the wave in what they call pearl.
He bails, resurfacing with a flick of sopping hair. Using the leash he pulls his board back, hopping on and paddling out to the next bomb. He likes the big waves I notice.
Jo pulls up next to me, sitting on his board with legs dangling, watching with me as we scrutinize the technique executed by the wave walkers.
We're grommets, being newbies and kooks, and we're hanging loose waiting to attempt our first wave. Deciding sitting here isn't going to do me any good, I paddle out to the shoulder, popping up, understanding the riding term gnarly I drop into the wave. This is a heck of a lot harder than it looks.
Legs akimbo, it reminds me of karate, using instinct to balance, my feet sticking to the board by the waterproof wax we lovingly stroked over it, and feeling like I'm flying, the rush of water under the board and the sharp sting of salt water in my eyes adrenalizing.
Smiling, I can't believe I'm doing this first go. Catching Jo's attention, I lose my balance
Bailing, I end up over the falls, caught in the turbulence of the rolling wave. After an endless turtle roll I resurface, pumped to do it again.
Our kind have advantages. Show us something once and we pretty much master it.
*
Tasmin:
Watching him surf with the guys is meditative, the breeze warm enough to be relaxing.
He comes out on his own, leaving his brother out in the ocean with the wave walkers. I try looking cool when he stalks up to me in long athletic strides.
“That was fun,” he smiles, stopping my heart as surely as a bolt of lightning, running fingers through his wet hair.
I don't know what to say, so just smile back while his chocolate velvet brown eyes scour me from head to toe, lingering four seconds too long on my lips, tracing up the planes of my face with his focus until our gazes lock. “What are your plans for the day?” he drawls in that lickable voice.
I shrug, “Nothing special. You?”
“I have to check out a spot tonight, otherwise I'm free.”
“Would you like to come to my place for coffee?” I offer, rather excited that no one will be home.
He nods, “That would be awesome.”
“Are you done surfing?”
“Yup,” he smiles. “I'll leave my board for Jo to take home. Can you give me two secs to jog out to the wreck to get my threads?”
I nod, melting under the potency of his smile, appreciating his physique suctioned in black neoprene as he covers the distance to the old rusty boiler in a quarter of the time it usually takes me.
He disappears behind the wreck, remerging two minutes later in jeans and a navy henley. Wow, he looks so hot in that.
Standing, a little giddy, I dust the sand off my lycra gym long length shorts.
When he rejoins me, he plops his arm around my shoulders, “Where to?”
Having a mini seizure at the warm muscular contact, I point up the road, “Three blocks over, behind the stables.”
“Cool,” he grins, looking up, “It's blue for a change.”
Walking with him to the parking area, I look up too, noting how incredible the cobalt sky is today. It's flawless.
“Yup. It's like that a lot in summer.”
“I hope I'll get to see it in summer.”
Peeking at him, examining the strong features of his face, I mumble, “How long are you here for?”
“Until school goes back. We have to head to Croatia.”
Only four days! Crucify me now.
Chapter 8
Tasmin:
After coffee and milk tart, he says, “Should we go walk on the beach?”
What's wrong with staying right here, where it's warm?
“Sure,” I smile, just wanting to hold onto his companionship a little longer.
He holds the door open for me, letting me walk out first.
“Got your keys?” he asks.
Checking my pocket, I nod.
He makes sure the door is locked before capturing my hand in his, walking sedately with me past the green paddocks where horses graze in idle gloom. The sun has vanished under a thick duvet of ominous cloud.
“It's peaceful here,” he comments, looking at the wide empty fields separated by trees that back onto Noordhoek beach.
“It is,” I agree. Too peaceful most of the time.
He gives me a sexy smile, looking into me when he glances my way, the light burnishing his dark hair with shimmering health.
We walk in tranquil silence, through my secluded neighborhood and the riding school's serene fields, using the horse trail to get back onto the beach. He walks to the breakers, looks up and down the beach, and then tugs me into sitting with him, alone on a very big beach.
He stares into me again, leaning closer, his shoulder pressing against mine, “There's something very magnetic about you.”
Likewise dude.
Instead I just smile, ducking my head and appreciating his leg pressed up tight and warm to mine. They're so long and muscular, he really looks sinful in blue jeans.
Absently stroking his thumb over my hand where they interlock, he looks up and down the beach again, twisting back, dipping his head and carefully pressing a warm heady kiss on my lips.
My heart stalls, flooding me with heat and adrenaline.
Delicately breaking it, he smirks, “I've been dying to do that.”
You and me both.
Laughing nervously, I return his smile, my heart doing a triple pike in my chest.
*
Seithe:
There's something about a woman's affection that makes everything right in the world, it makes anything possible. Every time our gazes lock, I feel the compulsive tug of her spirit, pulling me into her breath, into her shadow.
It's when I fold her hands between mine that life pauses, staring into her laughing eyes glossy with spring. It's the first bud to flower in my pulse, pulling my heart into captivity with the infectious melody of her laugh.
Infatuation bridles my attention in dedication's firm hold and I forget what I was about to say, lost in her charm.
“What?” she smiles, biting a plump bottom lip in her natural shyness.
“You're... beautiful.”
Her pink cheeks deepen to rosé, uncertainty dancing in her eyes as she searches my gaze.
She doubts my words.
“You are,” I murmur, heaviness infiltrating my limbs with somber insecurity.
She blinks numerous times, against the wind, against my penetrating stare, self-consciously staring at the ocean instead of at me.
Glancing around, our isolation is undisturbed, and I lean closer, tension spinning a web around my heartbeat so it feels labored and restricted. Warming her hands, I tuck them safely between my thighs, dipping my head to catch her bottom lip in a gentle nip.
The waves serenade her with primordial poetry, whispering secrets of devotion every time they run up the sand to bless her with wet kisses, missing by three feet, giggling in fizzing flirtation when they dash back to the safety of the next swell.
Releasing her hands I slip one of my own up the side of her face, wrapping warmth around her neck with my fingers, sliding three of them into her hair, resting my thumb next to her ear, guiding her closer, using the hold in her brunette tresses to prevent her from withdrawing.
/> She closes her eyes, sucking a stressed breath through her lips, pulling my exhalation into her lungs. Sinking pressure onto her mouth, I savor the taste of vanilla chapstick mixed with lingering coffee. It's delicious, encouraging me to lick inside her bottom lip, tracing the heat hidden in moist seclusion.
The hands between my thighs tremble, mirroring the shakiness in her breath. Employing my free hand I frame her face, skating my tongue across hers, amazed at how soft and velvet it is.
A flame ignites deep inside me, a lone flicker in a hurricane lamp, dancing frenetically in the precarious breeze of discovery.
Her petite hands hold onto me so tightly, it strikes me humble. Anchoring her heat to my legs, it ribbons erratic courage up to my heart, pouring passion into my pulse.
Tracing her lips, delving across the fragile warmth in her mouth, tasting her spirit, it's like swallowing a flame, burning a hole right through me, shutting out every sensation but the delicate petal pressing silkiness into my mouth, teasing my lip between tentative teeth which bite with the gentleness of a cloud.
It seals our fates, branding the sigil of dedication and loyalty across each chamber of our hearts, staining my soul with her colors, her smell, her incredible nubile skin.
Wintry weather curls a warm furnace around us like the fleece of a chenille blanket, wrapping newborn love in swathes of protection, shielding us from interruption.
When she opens her eyes, the whites are so porcelain bright, I realize too late my irises have turned into beacons of angelfire which highlight hers.
She inhales with such dramatic force I pull back, keeping my hold on her head, pressing a last lingering promise across her lips.
Breathing her in, I close my eyes, treasuring it deeply in my subconscious where I can call on it at will.
“Your eyes...” she whispers, when our lips unseal with the clutches of a sticky envelope being pealed open. Reluctantly parting.
I nod, reopening my eyelids, this time ensuring my irises are pure blue to truly blast her senses with the angel encoded inside my DNA. “It's a genetic disorder.”
Indigo Vamporium Page 5
