Time's Daughter

by Anya Breton

“Cool, dude. I’ll let you know next time.”

  Reluctantly Alex let go of my hand to play the game. I pretended to wait for the ball as usual and was relieved when another student arrived to take my place on the court. It gave me the chance to watch Alex and Tyler at work. Their rivalry extended to basketball even though it wasn’t Alex’s best sport. I covered my smile with a hand every time he missed a basket. I loved that he wasn’t afraid to fail.

  “You were staring at me throughout that whole game,” Alex chided playfully after we’d met up outside the locker rooms.

  “Should I stare at Tyler instead?”

  “No,” he grumbled then pulled me into the crook of his arm while we walked. “You’re going to let me give you a ride to work, right?”

  I felt myself smiling stupidly. He was so sweet. The answer I gave was a light, “If you insist.”

  “I insist.”

  My cheeks colored a little at the firm sound of his answer. “Then I guess I’m letting you.”

  “What time do you get a break?”

  Without looking him in the eye I replied, “Most nights I don’t get one.”

  Alex grunted. “Why is that?”

  “I’m not going to tell you,” I answered stubbornly.

  He leaned over to lower his voice. “I already know why. So you might as well tell me.”

  I remained mum on the subject. Another grunt was the only argument he gave.

  “All right then,” he sighed. “What time would you like me to bring you something?”

  “Something?”

  He unlocked the passenger side door on his car and held the door open for me. “Dinner.”

  I groused playfully because I was a little embarrassed. “When did you turn into my mother?”

  “When has your mother brought you dinner?”

  “Last time she had a day off when I didn’t,” I informed him coolly because he had no right insulting my mother like that. He didn’t know us. “We try to work the same nights so that we have our days off together.”

  He didn’t say anything until he slid down into his seat beside me in the car. “I’m sorry.” He sounded legitimately contribute. “I shouldn’t have assumed the last few weeks were routine.”

  “They were routine,” I admitted. “For the most part. But I’ll be fine with the snack I brought. Don’t worry about it.”

  Alex concentrated on getting out of the parking lot without hitting anyone instead of debating with me further. I settled back in the seat, conscious that Guy and Peter were behind us recording everything. Once we’d gotten a half-mile from the school traffic Alex relaxed again.

  He glanced over at me. “You didn’t want to go to that party tonight, did you?”

  I turned in surprise at the subject change. “No.”

  Summer’s parties were the event of the season and I’d always been curious but I knew better than to want to actually go. It wasn’t my scene. They weren’t my people. I would only be uncomfortable.

  “Because we could go if you wanted. I have his number…”

  “No, it’s fine,” I assured him.

  But the fact that he had Tyler’s phone number seemed to prove that he had gotten in good with the popular clique after all.

  “Good,” Alex replied. “I didn’t want to share you with anyone.”

  I blushed then realized with a start that he shouldn’t have said that. “Besides I have to work,” I reminded him and then spoke a complete lie. “And after that I’m going home to study for a test in English.”

  His profile swiveled toward me. I hoped he’d realize his error and keep quiet about my lie.

  Alex grunted yet again but replied with, “At least I’ll have you tomorrow.”

  “Yes,” I agreed.

  He’d gotten the hint. I’d known he would. He was smart.

  The Cobalt pulled to a stop at the curb in front of Burning Idea. I lifted my heavy bag from the floorboards, put my hand on the handle then turned to face him. The expectant expression on his face made me blush.

  “Thanks for the ride,” I murmured.

  “There was a price,” Alex informed me with a smirk. “A kiss.”

  I chuckled lightly even as my cheeks flushed. “Of course, always a price.”

  He sat still and refused to help me at all. Awkwardly I leaned over the armrest until my face was inches from his. The cheeky grin he gave me did nothing for my self-consciousness.

  What if I were a poor kisser? What if he laughed at me because I slobbered him too much? I would be devastated. Already I’d let myself get too attached to the handsome new kid.

  Alex impatiently closed the remaining distance to kiss me himself.

  I smiled against his lips then spoke quietly before moving back toward the door. “See you tomorrow.”

  “I’ll miss you until then.”

  I pretended not to hear him.

  * * * *

  Having to work on Friday nights had never bothered me until now. It was especially irritating that my boss left me alone at the store and that we’d had all of two customers. Even more so was that one of those customers had demanded to see the owner because the triple extra large shirt she’d bought didn’t fit her husband. I managed to persuade her to come back Sunday when I was certain Felix would be there. But I was smart enough to apologize profusely for his absence tonight.

  Reaching the apartment after work without incident was a minor win. But explaining to my mom about why I was about to disappear without my cameraman for who knew how long would require a bigger win. We’d never had a discussion about curfew or being alone with boys before because it had never been an issue. I hoped to avoid the discussion for a bit longer.

  “Eliza from the salon wants to see a movie tonight but her boyfriend has to work an extra shift. Do you have any interest in seeing a chick flick with us?”

  I pulled my head out of the refrigerator to look at her. “I need to get through some of the mounds of homework I have.”

  Mom’s gave me a crooked frown. “On a Friday night? Come with us, hon.”

  “Studying on a Friday night is no worse than being seen with my mother at the movies.”

  She chuckled. “Yeah, I guess.”

  “Besides, I have another date tomorrow night so I need to do my Saturday evening studying tonight…oh!” I stepped out of the fridge with an excited hop. “I almost forgot!”

  Mom’s eyes widened at my sudden animation.

  I could barely hide my happiness when I explained, “The Chattan family has invited us apple picking on Sunday. Alex had been sick and I wasn’t sure he’d be well enough to go so I didn’t ask you. But he’s better now.”

  She slid over to the sink to run her freshly painted nails under the cold water. “Apple picking? That might be fun. We haven’t done that in years. Brigit asked me to work at the last minute but I’ll see if I can get out of it.” She glanced over her shoulder with a sly smile. “He’s really cute.”

  My eyes bugged out to illustrate my disbelief over having a boyfriend as amazing as Alex. “I know.”

  “I’d hug the stuffin’ out of you but I just did my nails.”

  “You can owe me one.”

  “Deal.” She smiled then glanced at the clock. “Allrighty, I’m going to go get ready.”

  She left me to scrounge for food alone. I ate a ham sandwich then gnawed on my fingernails for a half hour until my mom emerged from her bedroom looking stunning. She kissed me goodnight, told me not to wait up and then headed out for girls’ night out.

  For the cameras’ benefit I pretended to ready for bed by brushing my teeth, combing my hair and gathering clothes to wear. After a forced yawn I shut off all the lights and sat on my bed for several minutes.

  This sneaking out thing was both exhilarating and frightening. But it was well worth it.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE

  I was startled to find that he was already waiting for me on the front step when I walked out of the front door ten minutes later.

/>   Alex lifted himself to his full height as he swiveled to face me. With what looked to be an imperious gesture he folded his arms in front of his chest and fixed me with a dark eye. “You owe me a kiss.”

  My eyebrows lifted gently. “I do?”

  “Yes.” He gave a firm nod of his dark head. “For that ride to work. I got tired of waiting for you and didn’t want you to be late, remember?”

  Curiously enough, with the cameras absent I was brave enough to admit what the problem had been. “You don’t want me to kiss you. You might find out I suck at it.”

  He chuckled lightly. “I’m willing to take the chance.”

  “But it would be forced now,” I complained in a last ditch effort to avoid the inevitable awkwardness. “I’m not feeling it. Wouldn’t you much rather I kiss you when the fancy strikes me?”

  Alex shook his head in slow disbelief. An amused smile spread his lips. “You’re good.”

  “I try.” I grinned at him then flounced a few steps passed him. “So why did you want to meet me sans camera?”

  “I thought you might want to talk…about what happened the other day.”

  I glanced around us. I did want to talk about it but not there, not on the sidewalk in front of the apartment.

  Alex must have recognized my unease. “We could go someplace. My car is parked on the next street over.”

  “Where would we go that would be safe to talk?”

  “Um,” he shrugged. “You know the area better than I do.”

  “I guess if we’re in your car then just about any place is safe.”

  Alex held out his hand to me. As soon as I’d reached him he pulled me into the crook of his arm to guide me to the car. Such a small action made a big impact on me. I felt wanted and protected. It was such a nice feeling that I almost protested when he helped me into the passenger’s seat of his car and pulled away.

  I waited until he’d closed himself in the car before making a suggestion. “There’s a factory down on third that has swing shifts. They won’t notice an extra car parked in their lot.”

  “Third it is,” Alex nodded while starting the engine.

  I settled back to watch him stealthily. Occasionally he’d glance over at me with an odd expression on his face. It was almost as if he couldn’t believe I was in his car anymore than I could believe it. But that couldn’t be right.

  I turned enough in my seat to see him once he’d turned the car off again in the parking lot. There was no hesitation in my first question.

  “What’s a wendigo?”

  His forearm lifted onto the armrest while he adjusted his pose to see me better. “If I had to compare it to something, I’d compare it to zombies. The flesh-eating brain-craving kind we see in the movies. That’s what a wendigo is.”

  My nose crinkled in disgust because that sounded simply awful. “What did your family mean that the madness was spread through the fluids?”

  Alex patiently explained the history to me. “The natives thought people turned into wendigo if they succumbed to starvation enough that they resorted to cannibalism. Most people think it’s just an old wives tale meant to scare them into other alternatives. But it wasn’t really.” He paused to adopt a grim tone. “The creatures are real. From what we can tell, a wendigo was a person at one time. A virus transmitted through the fluids, saliva, blood, that sort of thing, turned it into that thing.”

  My stomach threatened to turn at the thought of it being human once. “But you didn’t catch it?”

  “No.” His head shook. “My grandfather thinks maybe we’re immune in our animal form.”

  The mention of his grandfather reminded me of their behavior that night. “I can’t believe they didn’t help you. I was so furious.”

  “Yeah, that pissed me off too. But they were right to try to protect the others,” he said firmly as if he believed it now. “And you shouldn’t have come back for me. You should have stayed where it was safe.”

  “It wanted me anyway…”

  Alex interrupted me with a half-scolding, “It wanted you because you were the only human around.”

  “And I was worried about you,” I admitted without compunction.

  He grinned broadly. “That’s sweet. But I can hold my own.”

  I glanced out the windshield. “I know that now.”

  “I still freak you out, don’t I?”

  “I don’t know. I think it’s the situation more than anything.” I paused to consider what about the situation freaked me out. “I mean if I were that close to a wild animal attack I’d probably be just as freaked out.”

  “I’m not a wild animal,” Alex answered in a grave tone. “When I’m like that I’m completely in control of my faculties. I still think like a human.”

  “But apparently you purr,” I added with a smile.

  “Was I supposed to dislike that you were touching me just about everywhere?”

  My cheeks flushed bright red at the reminder. Not only had I been touching him everywhere, for all intents and purposes, he’d been nude. “I was feeling for wounds.”

  His grin returned and increased mischievously. “In that case I ought to get into fights more often.”

  I swatted him on the arm, frowning as I did. “That isn’t funny. I was really worried.”

  Alex snatched up the hand that had hit him and pulled me forward until I was inches from him. He kissed me lightly on the nose. “Well, you really worried me too. Do you always run into a fight instead of away?”

  “I don’t know. It was the first time I’ve been involved in one.”

  “You earned my mother’s respect.”

  “But not the others,” I stated evenly. It was a guess on my part based on his wording.

  Alex snorted in irritation. “I’m not sure you’ll ever be able to win Alicia over because of what you are.”

  “What I am?”

  “A Time witch.”

  “But I’m not a Time witch,” I reminded him with a frown.

  “You manipulate time. It’s enough to earn her anger.” He glanced away as he spoke, “Her husband was killed by someone who could.”

  My eyes rounded at the idea of someone good, someone’s husband, being killed by a time manipulator like me.

  “That’s awful,” I declared and meant it. “No wonder she hates me.”

  “She doesn’t hate you.” He assured me though I didn’t believe it. “She hates what you are. If she knew you at all, she’d adore you like the rest of us.”

  “You adore me?”

  A slow smile spread across his face. His gaze lowered to my mouth then gave a lazy blink. My pulse quickened in anticipation. It amazed me that he didn’t have to touch me to get such a reaction. Alex’s hand lifted to my right cheek as he leaned forward to meet my lips.

  Nervously I laughed. “I’ll take that as a yes.”

  “I more than adore you, Aeon.” The serious expression that had descended into his eyes made me take note. He truly believed it. “And I’d adore you even more if you’d kiss me.”

  “I am kissing you,” I protested with a gesture to our nearly touching lips.

  Alex pulled back into his seat with a sly half smile. I considered following him so I could continue to kiss him but decided against it. We were in a car, alone, at night. There was only so much kissing we could do before it would have to go further.

  “I hate that we are hounded by cameras,” Alex grumbled as I slid back to my own seat. “I want to take you out for a nice date tomorrow but I know we’ll have at least one person following our every move.”

  “It will be a nice date anyway.”

  His lips twisted at me. “How do you know?”

  I didn’t let his expression stop me from replying, “Because it’s with you.”

  He breathed through his nose in a slight laugh. “Look how well our last date ended. I want to do something special to make it up to you.”

  I assumed he was referring to my visiting his family. I hadn’t really conside
red it a date. “You could take me to McDonald’s for fries you won on a coupon and it would be special.”

  Alex stared at me silently for a long moment in what appeared to be shock. I contemplated adding more to my cheesy line to make it less pathetic but couldn’t seem to form words on my lips. He adjusted himself so that he was seated normally in the seat again and threw his hand up to his forehead.

  I’d said something wrong. He was upset now. Why did I always have to mess everything up?

  “I must be crazy.” He pressed his eyes shut and gave a shake of his head.

  My stomach flipped sickly. He’d obviously realized how much of a loser I really was. How could I have said that about McDonald’s? People like Alex Chattan probably never ate fast food.

  I followed his lead by sitting in the seat as designed and waiting with an unsettled stomach for him to explain why he was crazy.

  “You’re going to run screaming to the hills,” he said at last.

  Me? What could possibly make me run screaming to the hills if a flesh-eating zombie-thing hadn’t done the trick?

  Alex continued speaking in what sounded to be sincerity. “I don’t know how it’s possible after only a few weeks but I think I’m falling in love with you.”

  My unsettled stomach flipped again while my heart skipped several beats. I stared forward in shock, unwilling to look at him in case he recanted. Gorgeous new guy Alex Chattan thought he was falling in love with me? How had that happened?

  “I mean, I knew I liked you, a lot,” he continued at a rambling pace. “But when you stepped back on that dock and demanded the thing stop, I was floored. I was also so scared I could hardly think. I don’t know what I would have done if something had happened to you.”

  In an entirely impulsive move I turned toward him, grasped his face in between my hands and kissed him full on the lips. The startled eyes that looked into mine slowly slid shut a moment later. I let my eyes shut as well. Then I kissed him harder.

  He was smiling more broadly than I ever recalled seeing when I pulled back. It was the most gorgeous thing I’d ever seen. I couldn’t help but smile back.

  “You’re not screaming,” he noted almost sheepishly.

  “No,” I agreed.