Fluorescence: The Complete Tetralogy

by P. Anastasia

  He shifted in place, tilting the coin in his hand while pointing to the mountain on the left side. “This one looks like a sleeping woman—the princess.”

  I couldn’t see it, but I took his word for it.

  “And what does all of this have to do with me?” I narrowed my eyes, struggling to see any kind of people-like shapes in the mountains on the coin stamping.

  “I told you the story because I wanted to make a point. Sometimes two people care for each other so much, their feelings evolve into something bigger. And, for better or worse, unchangeable.”

  David reached out and pressed the coin into my open hand.

  “W-what are you doing?”

  “Take it,” he said, smiling kindly at me.

  “But… No. It must be important to you. Right? I-I couldn’t.” I tried to give it back to him, but he gently refused, pushing my hand away and forcing my fingers to close around the coin.

  “Keep it,” he said softly. “It’s kept me safe all these years. Hell, it may have even saved my ass from a bullet or two. But right now, you need the luck more than I do. Look, I know I haven’t been with you guys for very long, but I can already see what’s going on.”

  “What do you mean? What do you think is going on?” I squeezed the heavy coin in my fingers.

  “You’ve got an eye for Brian. I’d have to be blind not to notice the way you look at him and the way he avoids you. You try to hide it behind your angst, but it’s obvious. The thing is, you’ve got to come clean about what’s really happening. Life that can’t or won’t adapt to change will struggle to survive, and as long as you’re holding on to something you can’t really have, you’re only hurting yourself. You can’t keep trying to do the impossible. You can’t move mountains.”

  “M-mountains?”

  He motioned toward my closed hand. “Think about it for a minute.”

  I did.

  Brian and Alice were the mountains…

  Chapter 7

  I spent the next few moments trying to think of smart ways I could retort to David’s “advice.” Stupid things like “yeah, well, water can erode anything” and “earthquakes destroy shit, too.”

  Really, I was trying to avoid the painful truth.

  I couldn’t move mountains.

  I couldn’t stop Brian and Alice from loving each other. Thinking about it constantly was doing nothing but causing me pain and reminding me over and over again how very alone I was.

  I miss my family… I miss being safe… I just want a stable life again.

  “Thank you for finding me and for pulling me out of that hellhole,” I said, looking at David. “To be honest, I thought that gun of yours was some kind of front, and that you were only acting tough because of your powers, but you’re a lot braver than I thought you were. Thank you for saving my life.”

  He looked off to the side, fixating on something I couldn’t see and licked his lips. “You’re brave too, you know?” He turned to look me in the eye. “To stand up to Brian like that. To really hold your ground even when it means putting aside your feelings.”

  “He acts like a jerk, but he’s a good guy at heart.” I shrugged. “I’ve learned a lot hanging around him and Alice. I didn’t know shit before they came along.”

  “People change,” he said quietly. “I’m not sure what they really think of you, but I know you’re a whole lot smarter than you let on.”

  I sighed. “Maybe.” I took a deep breath and squeezed my fingers around the coin, wondering if it might bring me any luck at all—not that I believed in that kind of shit. “I was a lot happier before those bastards put this stuff inside me.” I brushed my thumb over the angel’s image and then tucked the Libertad into the pocket of my robe.

  “We all were,” David said.

  “Yes, but the Saviors put some kind of curse or something on me and, unlike Brian and Alice, it’s impossible for me to even try to be happy. I can’t get close to someone because I get these damn migraines. They’re so painful that they—”

  His hand rose toward my face and I gasped.

  “Don’t!” I squeezed my eyes shut and cringed. “Please. No!”

  “No?” he echoed, his palm cupping the side of my neck. “Why not?” His fingers slid up to my jaw and he traced my lower lip with his thumb.

  “Because…” My eyes eased open. His face was only inches from mine.

  No debilitating pain. No migraine.

  “Because it usually…” I stopped again and glared at him. “Wait. After everything I just said to you, why the hell would you do that!? How did you know it wouldn’t—”

  He shrugged. “I didn’t.” A small smile curled on his lips. “But I had to find out.” His fingers slipped from my chin.

  Ass.

  I crossed my arms and scoffed, trying to ignore the audacity of his actions. But then I felt a twinge in my stomach—a flurry of emotions took wing—and I felt compelled to look David in the eye.

  Butterflies. Maybe?

  Over… him?

  It was a sickness so good, it made my heart flutter. I couldn’t remember the last time I’d felt it.

  Challenging the anxious thoughts bubbling inside, I brought a hand up to David’s face and let the backs of my fingers drift over his strong jaw line, contemplating his carefully chosen words.

  “I had to find out,” he’d said.

  The dark stubble on his chin bristled against my knuckles. His intense eye contact held me captive while I traced my thumb from his trimmed black mustache down to his goatee. Dark brown eyes watched my expression change. The golden amber light brightened in his chest, flecks of yellow-gold leaching through his grey t-shirt. His gaze locked onto my lips and he leaned in to kiss me.

  The deep kiss made my head swirl with dirty thoughts—twisted, erotic visions of the pleasure I’d been forced to abstain from for too long. A hand inched up my bare knee and slid beneath the robe, lingering on my thigh. I pressed my palm against his chest and felt his heart pounding, the golden light growing brighter with each beat. The heat and energy drew me in, every pulse pulling me closer and closer toward his body as we kissed.

  Our lips parted and he held my face, staring at me, studying me again as if he were waiting for some kind of response.

  “I’m sorry,” he said with a loud exhale. He lowered his hand. “I didn’t mean to assume that you—”

  “Don’t be,” I said, as I stopped his fingers from sliding off my leg. “I mean, it’s fine.” My voice trembled with more urgency than I had wanted him to hear. “It’s like I said earlier. We’re both adults, right?” I leaned in closer, surrendering with a consensual smirk and an innocent nibble of my lip.

  Men like that.

  David scanned up my body, making my heart thump even more eagerly in my chest as his eyes slowly made their way back up to lock with mine. Then he forked a hand through my hair and pulled me into another kiss. More passionate than the first, the second kiss tore away apprehensions, exposing my long-overdue desires. Every inch of my body flushed with waves of carnal need and I exhaled a groan.

  Breathing in the fiery scent of his skin. Tasting his lips against mine. His tongue in my mouth.

  Jesus…

  His t-shirt clung to his chest, sticking already to sweat. I wrinkled it up to his underarms, provoking him to peel it over his head and toss it off to the side. On his left pec was a tattoo of a lion’s head with an intricate mane weaved into the coils of a geometric design. The swirling tribal patterns spread up over his shoulder and down his arm like a short sleeve.

  I bit my lip again. Tasteful, well-done tattoos on a firm, maintained body were one of my fetishes—an addiction I couldn’t cure. I slipped off the bed for a moment and turned to face him. His hands stayed fixated on my waist as I straddled his legs. Rough denim tickled my inner thighs and the friction made me quake as he forced my hips closer.

  High school boys didn’t know how to touch me. They didn’t know
how to make me cave in with a well-paced kiss, or how a stroke of the tongue to my décolletage could render me breathless.

  David did, and it made me writhe.

  No stupid games. No clumsy questions. Just pure instinct driving us together.

  I kissed his collar bone, tasting salt on his skin, and he dropped his head back, sucking in a breath through his teeth. He shuddered and I squeezed my legs tighter, needing him inside me.

  Hot embers of golden light flickered across his chest, bringing the tattoo on his shoulder to life with hypnotic bolts of color.

  Just when I had started to believe that my life could only get worse, David—a man I didn’t trust ten minutes ago—reached out, took me into his arms, and blew my mind.

  . . .

  I collapsed beside him on the bed, panting, and wiped my forehead with the back of my hand. Sweat glimmered on my skin and my muscles burned. My hair was damp—tangled all over me. I combed my fingers through it, but they caught on a knot. Ouch.

  David reached for a pillow and tucked it beneath his head. I curled up against him and rested my face on his chest. His scent was musky—peppery, almost—and tainted by the pungency of cigarettes.

  The glow inside him had toned down and the color had changed into a more blood-orange now. I assumed mine was the same as I could just make out a faded orange halo in my vision. My knees ached. My wrists hurt. But the satisfaction rippling through me felt so damn good. I don’t know if it was my need or his skill, but it was crazy perfect.

  Laying my head against him felt strange, though. Like it was too intimate. I’d barely gotten to know him and yet we had sex. Mindless, primitive sex. And yes, it felt great. And yes, I’d do it with him again in a heartbeat.

  But maybe it’d have been better if we’d…

  “So, what did you want to do with your life before all of this?” he asked, in a voice much softer and more soothing than I’d ever heard come out of his mouth. “Before the Saviors came and screwed it all up?”

  “I don’t know.” I grabbed another pillow and moved over, sliding the bed sheet up to my shoulders. The room had gotten stuffy and warm since I’d turned down the A/C. “My parents wanted me to be a lawyer. It wasn’t my thing. They wanted me to make shit-loads of money and marry a ‘nice Indian boy.’ Also not really my thing.”

  He smirked and raised an eyebrow—the smart-ass—clearly touting his conquest of me. I liked the cockiness. It made me think he had nothing to hide, that he’d made every decision confidently and without regret. Something I wish I could do.

  I rolled onto my side and looked into his endless brown eyes. His nose had a nice slope to it, but the shape of his face seemed different than what I’d become familiar with in Hispanic guys. I couldn’t tell exactly what his ethnicity was, and that bothered me. “Speaking of Indians, what are you exactly? If that’s not too forward to ask after sex?”

  He laughed. “My mother was Hispanic-American and my father was a pure-blooded Samoan. I was born in Hawaii, but we moved to Chicago when I was six.”

  “Ah.” That explained a lot. I had to admit, it was an attractive combination. All the toned muscle without all the bulk, and a unique face that really set him apart—in a good way. Maybe I wasn’t into him much at first, but now I liked the way he stood out. The clean, sharp lines of his face and goatee made him look fierce and intense but also… beautiful, in a badass sort of way.

  “So… Indian, huh?” he asked.

  “Yeah.”

  “Can’t say I know much about your culture. Aside from a handful of Bollywood movies where they’re always singing and dancing and… wow, I sound like a jackass right now.”

  I grinned. “No. Don’t worry about it. I’ve heard worse. ‘Jai Ho’ and all that Americanized crap. I’m not Hindu like my parents anyway. I don’t practice anything. I just want to live for myself.” I laid my hand on his chest and brushed my fingertips over the soft little curls of hair. It quieted my fervent thoughts. I felt raised lines on his skin—scars—and it made me wonder where he’d gotten them all.

  “I… like you,” he said, his voice a broken whisper.

  “I kind of like you, too, David.” I scooted closer and rested my head on his outstretched arm.

  “Maybe… we should get to know each other a bit more before we—”

  “Yeah. Maybe.”

  He had a point. For the first time in my life, I did feel awkward about what we’d done. It wasn’t regret. It felt more like something was missing. I was used to casual sex, but this… didn’t feel so casual anymore.

  He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me in toward his side. His body felt good against mine. I draped a naked leg across his and wriggled closer, feeling more comfortable and safe than I had in a long, long time.

  Something inside urged me to keep David near—to make our tryst more than a fling. But that wasn’t what I wanted.

  “David, I…” I knew what I had to say but didn’t know how to say it.

  “What is it?”

  “We’ve got a lot going on and… I-I don’t want things to get messy between us.”

  “Messy?” His chest shook lightly as he stifled a laugh. “What are we, high-schoolers? Things are only going to get as messy as you let them.” He stroked a line down my arm with his warm fingers. “This won’t involve any broken hearts unless you let it.”

  It won’t.

  I won’t let that happen.

  Chapter 8

  David told me later that night that he couldn’t remember my name.

  Awkward.

  It’s not like we were ever formally introduced. Well, it wasn’t the worst thing I’d heard after sleeping with someone. Still, it was awkward.

  Sunlight filtered through the window curtains. I stayed in bed, rolling over beneath the sheets to stare at David, as he lay asleep in the bed across from mine. There was a look of discontent on his face, as though something was bothering him.

  After securing the belt on my bathrobe, I sat up and placed my bare feet on the carpet. I could see fluorescence living inside David’s chest, swirling and moving of its own accord. Each inhalation made its flow quicken; each exhalation caused it to briefly become sluggish. Then I saw something else—a dark, sinister color creeping through his veins.

  “Why are you watching me?” he asked, opening his eyes.

  I gasped. “I’m sorry. I-I didn’t mean to wake you.”

  He sat up and slid his bed sheet off to the side. “I don’t care,” he said with a grin, putting his feet on the floor. The sight of his tattooed chest reminded me of last night and I felt heat flush through me.

  “Did you sleep in your robe?” he asked, tugging on his pants, zipping them up, and then weaving his belt through the loops.

  “Yeah.”

  He chuckled as he reached under his pillow for his gun and tucked it into the back of his jeans.

  “What?”

  “Nothing. Women are strange. You take it all off and then put it right back on as if nothing ever happened.” A grin twisted his lips before he pulled his t-shirt on over his head. “Are the others awake?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know.”

  “Hungry?”

  “Yes,” I replied. My stomach had already started to grumble.

  “There’s some stuff in the fridge and beside the desk. Help yourself.” He walked over to the door connecting the two rooms and unlocked it. Then he knocked. “Wake-up time, kids.”

  The fridge? When did he…

  The door unlocked from the other side and opened. Brian stood there with a horribly bitter look on his face.

  “Stop calling us kids, jackass,” he growled.

  “Nice to see you bright-eyed this morning,” David replied with a chuckle.

  I was certain Brian was going to punch him in the face right then and there.

  But he didn’t.

  While they talked, I went over to the refrigerator, opened it, and took out a
small carton of milk. Then I checked the desk drawer beside it and pulled out a box of breakfast snack bars.

  I headed back to the bed and sat on the edge. Just as I took a bite of a granola bar, David closed the door between our rooms and turned toward me.

  “Those okay?” he asked.

  “Sure.” I’d barely finished chewing my first bite. I took a sip of milk and set the carton down beside me. “When did you have time to get this stuff?”

  “I don’t sleep much,” he said matter-of-factly as he walked over to the desk and flipped on the coffee pot. “I went out for a smoke and figured I should grab something for us.”

  “What about Brian and Alice?”

  “I’m sure the kid’s got it covered. He thinks he can take care of himself, so I’ll let him keep thinking that.”

  It kind of frightened me, how incredible stealthy David was. He snuck out in the middle of the night, took a walk, and got a smoke, and I didn’t even hear him come back in. If he wanted to hurt us, he could easily have done it by now. But who was I to judge? I’d barely known him for day and already we’d had—

  A sick feeling washed over me and I held my breath. The room closed in. Spots of light invaded my vision and I felt weightless. A burst of hot white light blinded me and I opened my mouth to scream, silently choked of all oxygen by the swift change in atmosphere.

  Ugh! I hit the ground hard and shook my head as my vision returned to normal.

  “What do you think you are doing?” a terrifyingly familiar voice asked.

  God, no. Not again.

  I lifted my face to look upon the snow-white translator—the one Savior who spoke to us.

  I looked back down at the cold, glossy floor and swallowed.