Locked Out of Love

by Mary K. Norris

  Joel threw his head back and laughed. “Now who’s the bloodthirsty one?”

  The game took on a mind of its own after that.

  Felix started using his powers more to make up for Cali’s one-arm disadvantage. Cali weaved around the court in an attempt to keep Melanie at bay. Melanie got only close enough to Lock Cali to the concrete once, but her concentration was spotty at best and the hold lasted just a second.

  Cali jumped away from her. “We’re switching, Felix, You’re taking Melanie now. This girl is ruthless. I think she’s better than Joel.”

  “I heard that,” Joel called.

  “That’s ‘cause I wanted you to.” Cali stuck her tongue out at him.

  They switched partners. Melanie was winded within seconds trying to keep up with Felix’s long legs. Cali had been closer in height so the difference wasn’t as obvious, but with Felix she was screwed. It didn’t help matters either when he gave her winks or smiles as he scored on her. Her competitive side was starting to get annoyed.

  “Need a break there, Melanie?” Felix asked playfully.

  Her chest heaving, she glared at him. “I can go all day,” she told him boldly.

  His brows rose. “Is that so? Here.” He threw her the ball for a check despite the fact they were playing full court. He moved up the sideline, and Melanie felt a small tingle at the back of her neck as she tossed the ball back to him. It shot out of her hand like a cannon and she realized her mistake as it happened. Felix caught the ball with an “umph” and fell into one of the benches that lined the court.

  Cali and Joel turned at the sound.

  Melanie stood frozen to the ground. She hadn’t meant to use Charlotte’s powers. She wanted to ask Felix if he was hurt, but she didn’t want to risk exposing herself.

  I kinda already did.

  She swallowed thickly as Cali and Joel jogged over.

  “What the hell are you doing?” Cali asked, hands on hips.

  “You tired, Felix? We can end the game right here if you like,” Joel said with a smile and waggle of his brow.

  Felix got up and rubbed his back and butt. “I’m fine.” His gaze touched on Melanie for a second before moving onto his friends. “I just lost my footing.”

  The rest of the game went by in a blur. Melanie kept her focus solely on making sure she didn’t accidentally shove a basketball through someone’s chest.

  By the end they were all sweaty and exhausted. They lounged on the benches, talking and drinking.

  Melanie Unlocked Cali’s arm from her side.

  “So what’s your power again?” Cali asked. “Are you a Locksmith like Joel?”

  Melanie fiddled with the leather bracelet on her wrist. “No. I can temporarily borrow someone’s powers.”

  She waited for fear or disgust, but Cali simply nodded. “That’s cool.” She stuck her hand out. “Take mine.”

  Melanie recoiled. “It’s okay, I’m a little tired.”

  “Oh, come on.” Cali wiggled her fingers. “Just a little bit. I want to know what it feels like, and I’m sure you want to practice using someone else’s powers other than lame-ass Joel’s.”

  Joel arched a brow. “Lame-ass? Really, Cali? Your material is going down the drain.” He tsked and took a long swig of his Gatorade.

  Cali glared at him. “You were more fun before she gave you confidence.” She jerked her head in Melanie’s direction.

  Joel saluted her with his Gatorade bottle. “Your days of getting a rise out of me are over, evil tyrant.”

  Melanie took a tentative sip of water, thinking she’d dodged Cali’s bullet.

  She thought wrong.

  As soon as Cali finished smart-mouthing Joel, those dark eyes were back on Melanie, her hand stretched out before her.

  Melanie stared at it. She could probably fight all day long and Cali still wouldn’t give up.

  “Might as well,” Joel said to her. “It’ll give you more practice.”

  She mustered a smile. Little did he know that they were giving her exactly what Juliet would want.

  No. She wasn’t going to go that far with it. She’d take a little bit of Cali’s powers, enough to satisfy both their curiosities, and then she’d be done.

  Cali’s nails were done a dark purple and her fingers were slender. Artist hands.

  Melanie closed her eyes, and with Joel so close, his heat warming the right side of her body, she conjured her powers easily. She imagined a stream, trickling into the ocean, and took the tiniest bit from Cali.

  “That’s so strange,” she heard Cali say. “It feels like I’m touching a live wire or something.”

  Melanie released her instantly.

  Disappointment crossed Cali’s face but interest replaced it within seconds. “Can you use them now?”

  Melanie focused. How was she supposed to shift through the different powers and know when she had the right one?

  Her neck was buzzing from her active powers.

  “I don’t know,” she said at last, unsure how she was supposed to use a Silencer’s abilities.

  Cali and Felix had knowing smiles on their faces.

  “What?” she turned to Joel.

  His lips moved but no sound came out.

  “What?” she said again and worked her jaw to try and pop her ears.

  His grin deepened. This time he moved his lips slowly. “You’re using Cali’s powers.”

  Being in her own little sound bubble was a little disconcerting. There was no noise whatsoever, no wind, no cars, no sound from the people around the corner on another court.

  It felt lonely.

  “Is it gone?” she asked after a moment.

  “I think so,” Joel said. “I can hear you again.”

  She relaxed. “Good. That’s a strange power,” she mused to herself.

  Cali shrugged. “It was really helpful when I needed peace and quiet to work on some of my paintings.”

  Felix leaned around her, hand outstretched. “Me next,” he said like a little kid.

  Melanie couldn’t help it. She laughed. “Fine.” She pretended to be put out and grasped his much larger hand. It was warm and soft but missing all the scars she loved to trace with her eyes.

  She reached for her powers, but Cali quickly disentangled their hands. “Wait a minute,” she said. “Is it really a good idea to have her take your powers, Felix?”

  His blue-green eyes widened. He quickly took his hand back, his gaze dropping with embarrassment. “Sorry, I should have realized.”

  “Realized what? What’s going on?” Their faces betrayed nothing. “I don’t understand.”

  Joel’s hand came to rest on her thigh. A spark of awareness shot through her and she saw the answering call in Joel’s eyes, but like her, he pushed it down. “Felix’s powers are … different. If you don’t know how to control them … ”

  “People could get hurt,” Felix finished for him, looking both ashamed and angry.

  “What do you mean? I saw him on the basketball court earlier. He made the ball vanish and reappear. What’s the big deal?”

  “The big deal is that I’m an Eraser and got my name because I used to cause things to vanish, for good. I only got my ability to bring things back when I became full-forced. If I transferred my powers to you, who knows if you’d have the ability to make things reappear. If you accidently Erased one of us and couldn’t bring us back … Well, let’s just say we never want to find out.”

  Melanie stared at Felix as she let his words sink in. “That must’ve been frightening,” she said.

  They all gave collective nods, Felix mostly. “It was, still is.”

  “Have you ever tried to Erase someone and bring them back?” she asked carefully.

  His head snapped up so quickly she winced.

  “Never.”

  She jumped at the vehemence in his voice.

  She held her hands up, palms out. “Okay.”

  Joel squeezed her thigh sympathetically. “It’s not a matter of feari
ng that he wouldn’t be able to bring them back. It’s a matter of where they go.”

  Unease crept down her spine. “Where do they go?”

  They all exchanged worried glances. “We’re not sure,” Cali answered her.

  “Then how do you know it’s somewhere bad?”

  Cali wordlessly handed Felix the basketball resting beneath their bench. Felix took the ball and glanced around to make sure no one was watching.

  Melanie couldn’t help it; she scanned the area too.

  When it was deemed clear, Felix inhaled deeply and waved his hand. The ball vanished, but unlike on the basketball court he didn’t bring it back right away. He seemed to be waiting for something.

  A minute or so later he waved his hand again. The basketball reappeared at his feet.

  Melanie drew back from the sight, Joel’s hand steady on her leg. “It’s okay,” he murmured.

  When she overcame her shock, she leaned forward. “What the hell happened to it?”

  The ball was covered with a faint pink mucus. It looked to be steaming, and the hiss of deflating air met her ears. There was a long gash in the side of the ball that looked suspiciously like claw marks.

  Her eyes met Felix’s. They were steady, but deep within she could make out the hint of fear. She’d seen that look in the mirror enough times these past few weeks.

  Her heart went out to him and in the far recesses of her mind, she wondered if Felix wanted to be free of his powers.

  Chapter 23

  That night Melanie fretted over what she was going to wear. Joel had dropped her off after basketball and invited her out for dinner. Just the two of them. Their first real date.

  And she had nothing to wear.

  “Damn,” she said under her breath and threw the shirt she was holding against her chest over her head where it landed with all the other rejected tops.

  “Hot date?” Nathan had snuck into their room.

  “The door was closed for a reason.” She glared at him.

  He leaned back against the wall, a smile teasing his lips. “You totally have a date. Need helping picking out an outfit?”

  “Ha. Like you would be any help.”

  He shrugged. “Fine, but I think you’d look best in that loose floral skirt you put in Mom’s closet for safekeeping.”

  She paused mid reach into her closet. She’d forgotten all about that skirt. It had been one of her favorites, which was why she kept it from her room. She hadn’t trusted Nathan with all of her possessions.

  “See,” he said. “I can be helpful.” He turned and left.

  She hastily followed after him. He was already in the hallway closet, sifting through the mass of clothes stored within. He pulled out the skirt in question and held it up for Melanie.

  It was perfect.

  Knee length and decorated with pale pink and blue flowers, it had captured her attention instantly when she’d seen it at the store. She’d splurged and bought it at full price, not wanting to risk losing it.

  “How did you know this was here?” she asked. She distinctly remembered that he’d been zoned out of his mind when she’d got home the night she bought the skirt.

  He looked uncomfortable. “I saw this.”

  Her fingers tightened around the skirt. “Saw this, as in you stumbled through the closet and saw it?” But she could already tell by his expression that wasn’t the case.

  She lowered her voice. “You Dreamed of me in this outfit?”

  He avoided her gaze and rubbed the back of his neck. “Yeah.”

  Melanie didn’t know how she felt about that. “What else did you see?”

  He shrugged. “Not sure. Over the last couple days it’s like my mind finally has time to catch up to everything it saw over the past few years. I remember things that I know I didn’t see with my own two eyes. I just saw you in this.” He gave another shrug. He couldn’t quite look her in the eye, and he disappeared to the kitchen before she could say more.

  She shook off her unease. So Nathan saw her in this outfit, no big deal. She might have worn it to something else when he had the vision. She made her own destiny. With her spirits lifted, she marched back into her room.

  She had the perfect blue top to go with her skirt. She debated whether or not to wear cowboy boots but ultimately decided to wear heels instead.

  She borrowed some of Aunt Bertie’s makeup and threw on a hint of lip gloss and a layer of mascara. It made her eyelashes feel heavy, but it was worth it. There wasn’t much she could do with her hair; the bob went to her jaw and was too short to curl. She settled on running the hairdryer through it a few times and teasing the hair to give it volume.

  There. Done.

  She stepped back from the mirror and admired herself.

  She hoped it was enough. The doorbell rang and her heart leapt into her throat. She snatched her purse from her room and ran for the door so no one else would answer it.

  Unfortunately, the entire family was home on a Sunday evening, and as she rounded the corner of the hallway she saw her father open the door.

  She came to a screeching halt as the two men at the door eyed each other.

  Joel looked amazing. He wore black dress slacks and a navy-blue, long-sleeved button up that had thin, pale blue strips running vertically through it. The sleeves were rolled up to his elbow, exposing the scars both old and new on his arms. He was freshly showered and shaved, his damp hair looking as if it was combed back but starting to develop a mind of its own as it dried.

  His black eye was nothing but a yellow-green mass on his face, and she could see her father zeroing in on it as well as the fresh cuts on his arms.

  She hurried to the entrance, passing the kitchen where her mother, aunt, Paul, and Nathan stared openly. She grimaced and rushed to her father’s side before he could say anything.

  “Hey,” she said to Joel and smiled. He wore cologne, a faint woodsy smell that made her take in another lungful. “You clean up nicely.”

  Joel blinked and gave himself a small shake. “So do you. Wow.”

  Melanie’s cheeks heated with pleasure.

  “It’s Sunday night.” Her father’s voice broke the moment. “We’re having a family dinner.”

  Melanie whirled on him. “I’m going out to dinner. You can split my portion between the five of you.”

  She brushed past her father, but he caught her wrist. “Melanie, you should not be hanging around this man. Look at him.” Her father gestured to Joel, who had stiffened but refused to drop his chin. “He’s dangerous. I won’t have my daughter going out and getting herself into another car accident, some knife fight, or worse.”

  Joel’s eyes darted down to his arms and he cringed.

  Melanie tore her hand from her father’s grasp. “Joel would never hurt me. And I’m past the age when you can tell me who I can and cannot see.”

  She stormed past Joel as he gave a quick nod to her father before following. He lunged before her to open the car door and she smiled at him. “Thank you.”

  “My pleasure.”

  He hustled around to the driver’s side and started the car. Melanie watched her father’s silhouette as they drove off, getting smaller and smaller until it disappeared completely.

  She deflated into her seat. “I’m so sorry about that. My father can be … ”

  “Protective? Intimidating as all hell?”

  She laughed. “Yeah, something like that. Please don’t listen to him. You look amazing tonight.” She rested her hand on his forearm, feeling the scars beneath her palm. She traced one with her thumb absently, not realizing what she was doing until they came to a red light and Joel pierced her with a heated look.

  His eyes flashed in the streetlight, a deep blue as to be almost black. The air in the car crackled and the hair on her arms rose. Her pulse jumped. She should pull her hand away but she couldn’t. She wanted to feel his heated skin against her. She loved the feel of his muscles bunching beneath her fingers as he gripped and released the wh
eel.

  The light turned green. The spell broke. But that didn’t stop the fact that the car suddenly felt two sizes too small.

  As soon as they parked Melanie jumped out into the night air. If she spent any longer inside that car they’d never make it into the restaurant. She was achy and needy and out of control. She inhaled the fresh scent of the ocean water so close by and let it calm her. The cool breeze ruffled her hair and she welcomed it.

  The restaurant was small and quaint, with dim lights and deep red walls, the back wall filled with wine bottles.

  “Wow,” she muttered as they were led to their table. Joel’s hand rested on her lower back and the heat radiating from it seeped into every pore.

  Melanie never had to ask for her water to be refilled, her steak was cooked to perfection, and the plates came and went off the table in a blink of an eye.

  “That was amazing.” She leaned back in her chair, pushing the last of the mud pie toward Joel. “Please finish that.”

  “You sure?”

  “Yes, I’m stuffed. I’m going to have to up my yoga to five times a week next week.”

  He shoveled the pie into his mouth. “I think this is the first time I’ve ever seen you not in yoga pants.”

  She grinned. “And this is the first time I’ve never seen you in a graphic tee shirt.”

  He pulled nervously at the collar. “I miss my graphic tees. These are a little constricting, and promise not to tell anyone, but I had to have Cali help me pick it out. As an artist she has a good eye for colors. Said this would,” he batted his eyelashes, “bring out my eyes.”

  “Well, she was right. How’re they doing by the way? Is Felix all right?”

  Joel tilted his head fractionally. “Why wouldn’t he be?”

  She glanced around the restaurant, but every other couple was deep in their own little world. She dropped her voice anyway. “Because of what happened earlier, with the basketball?”

  Joel waved it off. “That wasn’t the worst incident, trust me. One time he Erased Syd’s car—she was none too happy about that—then brought it back. We all kind of freaked out at the sight of it. It was covered with a pink mucus and dust, with dents all over and scratch marks that didn’t look of this world. We learned that he also brought back an actual animal inside, if that’s what you want to call it. We referred to it as the demon cat.”