Dangerous (Element Preservers Series, Book 1)

by Alycia Linwood

  “Cool,” I said and didn’t even realize I was still holding the vodka bottle until Adrian took it out of my hands and placed it on the nightstand. I started lifting myself up and then my eyes fell on his lips.

  “Your lips are dry,” I said in a voice that didn’t quite sound like mine. Great, I was most likely drunk. But I didn’t care.

  “So?” He raised an eyebrow at me.

  “I can fix it,” I said, going for my jeans pocket. “I have a lip balm somewhere.”

  “Oh no, you’re not giving me your lip balm,” he said. I found the little tube in my left pocket and smiled triumphantly.

  “Yes, I am,” I said, trying to open the stupid thing, but my fingers kept sliding off. Damn, when had those little things gotten so complicated to open? I finally opened it and squeezed some on my finger… and some of it fell on my jeans, but whatever. I moved closer to put it on his lips.

  “No! Stay the fuck away from me with that!” he yelled, but I didn’t stop. He grabbed both of my hands and held me at a safe distance, and I just kept trying. After an attempt to push me away, we ended up rolling across the bed. In what seemed as a second, we fell onto the floor. Actually, I fell on top of him and that softened my fall a lot.

  “Ouch,” he said, wincing in pain.

  “Sorry,” I said, but instead sounding like it, a giggle escaped my lips. I couldn’t help it, but there was something hilarious about all of this. He looked at me and then started to laugh too. When I came back to my senses, I realized I still had a bit of my lip balm on my finger.

  “No, don’t do that.” He moved his head away. I looked at him, then back at my finger. Oh well, if he didn’t want it… I brought my finger to my lips.

  “What are you doing?” He turned his head back to look at me, and I saw it as an opportunity to do what I wanted. I brought my lips down on his before he could protest again. Just this time he didn’t try to push me away. He kissed me back. Kissed me? Some part of my brain knew there was something wrong with that, but my body didn’t. His lips were so soft and so warm on mine, and nothing existed except us.

  “Not on the floor,” he said, breaking the kiss. I shakily got up and let myself fall on the bed. He was right; the bed was much more comfortable. He pulled himself up and climbed on top of me. I stared into his gray-blue eyes and smiled. His eyes had never been so beautiful as they were now.

  “Kiss me,” I whispered, and he did. My arms slid around his neck and his hand ended up under my top, caressing my breast. This had to be forbidden on so many levels, but it felt so damn good. I just didn’t want him to stop.

  He kissed his way down my cheek, my collarbone,… My hands gripped at his shirt, and he helped me pull it off. His lips were on mine again, sending shivers all over my body.

  “Take it…” I whispered, “…off.”

  He looked at me, and I tugged at my top to show him what I wanted. It took him a second to understand, and soon enough my top was somewhere on the floor. His every touch, every kiss, every caress brought me waves of pleasure. I’d never felt so good in my whole life.

  He stopped suddenly and looked at me with those gorgeous gray-blue eyes. I frowned at first, not understanding what he was waiting for. Then I looked down my body and realized that the only thing that was between him and me were his boxers. I didn’t remember exactly at what point my panties had come off, but it didn’t really matter.

  I tried to pull him closer and kiss him, but he didn’t let me. He was just looking at me intently. I suddenly knew what he wanted. This was my chance to say no. This was my chance to stop, but I didn’t want to. I gave him a short nod, and he reached for the drawer of his nightstand. Maybe we couldn’t infect each other with the magic disease, but there were other unwanted consequences.

  He was kissing me again in a second, and I dug my nails into his back and didn’t care whether it would leave marks. The world suddenly seemed like such a nice and happy place, and I wanted that to last.

  Chapter 23

  Someone was banging on the door, and it was loud enough for me to hear it through my sleep. I felt shifting in the bed and slowly opened my eyes. Images from the last night hit my head like a wave, making me dizzy for a second. I had slept with Adrian.

  “Adrian! Open the damn door!” I recognized Alan’s voice and looked at Adrian in panic. He got up from the bed, finding his boxers and jeans and putting them on. I looked around and saw my clothes scattered everywhere. I had enough time only to put on my panties because Adrian was already going for the door.

  “No!” I whispered to him, but he ignored me. I had no other choice but to wrap the sheets around me and wait to see what would happen. Adrian opened the door and moved away as Alan stormed inside. The look on Alan’s face when he saw me there in the bed and the state of the room was that of shock, surprise and then pure fury.

  “What have you done?” Alan said, turning to Adrian.

  “What does it look like, genius?” Adrian said, looking amused. Alan took a step towards him and slapped him hard across the face. But Adrian just smiled at him.

  “You didn’t believe I could have sex with any girl I wanted,” he said. “Well, now you have the proof.”

  “But you, Ria?” Alan looked at me, and I just bit my lip, looking away from his judging eyes. There was no excuse for what I’d done. And I couldn’t blame anyone but myself.

  “I want to see you in my office,” Alan said. “Both of you.”

  With that, he left the room. Adrian closed the door behind him and walked over to pick up his shirt, a satisfied smile on his face.

  “You son of a bitch,” I said angrily, collecting my things. “You knew he was going to come! You fucking knew! You used me!”

  “You enjoyed every bit of it.” He smirked. “And I don’t care what you think.”

  So, that was it. I was just another girl on his famous list, and he had a witness. I wasn’t sure what I'd been expecting, but last night I hadn’t been thinking about any of it. How would I look into my boyfriend’s face? How would I look into my best friend’s face knowing that I’d slept with her boyfriend?

  I got dressed as fast as I could and ran out of the room. When I was safe in my own room, tears started to fall freely down my face. I picked up my mobile phone and saw a ton of worried messages and unanswered calls from Michael. He was worried for me as usual, and I had stabbed him in the back. I managed to send him a message that I was fine and that I would see him at lunch. I wasn’t sure what I would say or do, but I had to do something… anything.

  Now I knew why Adrian was like he was, but that didn’t give him the right to go around and play with any girl’s feelings. For a second I wished Alan would decide to send him back to that horrible place, but what would be left of me if that happened? Why did I depend on such a hateful man? How would I ever go to him to get in control knowing that he’d tricked me? And was there anything real in that boy who’d sometimes cared about me when I needed it, or had it all been a trick to get me to like him? I just wasn’t sure. I wasn’t sure of anything anymore.

  After a few hours of brooding in my room, I decided I couldn’t go back in time and change anything, so I might as well accept it. It was the lunchtime, and I had to see Michael no matter what, and tell him everything. If he was going to hate me, then let him. He had every right to do it. Paula too. I was probably going to stay alone in the world, but I didn’t want to think about it.

  As I walked down the hall towards the lunchroom, I noticed people were watching me differently. Some boys were laughing quietly after I passed by, and girls were giving me dirty looks.

  “You bitch!” one blond girl yelled at me. “You just couldn’t be happy with one, could you? You had to have them both!”

  I stared at her in shock. No, no way. He couldn’t have spread the news, could he? Because if he had, I was going to kill him.

  “Fight! Fight! Fight!” I heard someone yell, and I ran for the lunchroom, pushing people out of my way. I didn’t have time
to notice that the lunchroom was back to its usual state, because people were standing in a circle in the middle of it. Some were shouting, some were cheering… it was a total mess. I managed to get to the front and at that moment saw Adrian punching Michel in the face. They both looked like they were in the middle of a war.

  “Stop!” I yelled, but they didn’t hear me or didn’t care. I saw Paula standing on the other end, her hands covering her face. She was crying. Michael’s element was getting stronger and stronger, and I recalled something I’d learned about the magic disease and that was that it got stronger in fights. They could really kill each other. I knew I couldn’t just stand there and I ran for them in the same moment as Alan appeared. But I was closer to Adrian and he was closer to Michael.

  I wasn’t sure if Adrian had said something about me having the disease to anyone, but I didn’t have time to think about it. Others joined to help separate them, and Alan managed to pull Michael out of Adrian’s reach. I ran to Adrian and grabbed his arm, but he shoved me away.

  “Stop! Adrian, stop!” I stepped in front of him and placed my hands on each side of his face. His gray-blue eyes were unfocused, and even though he was looking at me, I knew he didn’t see me.

  “Look at me,” I said. “Adrian, look at me. Please.”

  He blinked and surprise was written all over his face. My touch calmed him enough to bring him back from the killer mode to reality. If it wasn’t for his split lip, I wouldn’t be able to tell he’d been in a fight at all. Alan came to us and roughly grabbed Adrian by the arm to get him away from there.

  “I don’t know what you did,” Alan said to me. “But I still want to see you in my office.”

  They walked away, and I turned around to see Michael and Paula standing there. A bruise was forming on Michael’s cheekbone, but I knew that wasn’t the reason why his green eyes were full of hurt and sadness. Paula’s make-up was smeared all over her face and she was staring at me through the tears. I took a step towards them, but Michael turned around, took Paula’s hand and they walked away from me.

  From what I could hear while walking back to my room, Adrian had approached Michael and told him he’d slept with his girlfriend. Michael hadn’t believed it at first but Adrian asked him if he knew where I’d been the whole night. Then Michael punched him and the fight started. I couldn’t believe Adrian would do such a thing when he’d already done so much to hurt me. But I guessed he’d just wanted to rub it in Michael’s face. They were enemies after all.

  Alan caught me just as I was plotting how to avoid his office. There was nothing I could do but follow him to his annoying, claustrophobic den. When we entered, I immediately saw Adrian leaning on the wall, his arms crossed. I gave him the coldest and angriest glare I could muster, but he just watched me passively.

  I settled down in one of the familiar red chairs and waited.

  “Sit down, Adrian,” Alan said, getting comfortable in his own chair. Adrian didn’t move.

  “Sit down!” Alan repeated, and Adrian reluctantly dragged himself to the chair. For some reason he avoided looking at me as he sat down as far as he could from me. Weird. Shouldn’t I be the one avoiding him?

  “I can’t believe what the two of you have done!” said Alan. “Especially you, Ria.”

  “We’re not kids,” Adrian said through his teeth.

  “I don’t care,” Alan said. “You were stupid enough to engage in dangerous behavior!”

  I snorted. I wasn’t in the mood for patronizing and especially not from the guy who had absolutely no say in my life. Besides, I had much more important things to do, like figuring out how to explain everything to two very important people in my life, who probably didn’t want to see me ever again.

  “Ria, I don’t think you understand how serious this situation is.” Alan was frowning at me.

  “Just let her go, Alan,” Adrian suddenly said. “It’s my fault.”

  “Your fault? Yeah, I figured that, but it’s her fault too,” Alan said. “Unless you forced her to have intercourse with you.”

  “I…” Adrian seemed to be unsure what to say. He was looking down at his hands in his lap. I glared at him. What the hell was he trying to do? Get himself killed?

  “Adrian, go outside for a moment,” Alan said. “I need to speak privately to Ria.”

  Adrian got up and went for the door, not even glancing at me. I really wished at that moment that I could read his mind, because I wasn’t sure what was going on.

  “Oh, please!” I said. “We had sex, so what? That’s not the university’s problem.”

  “No, it’s not,” Alan said. “But it is mine.”

  “Why?” I said, annoyed. “Because you’re Adrian’s guardian? Well, he slept with his girlfriend too, and I don’t remember you complaining.”

  “Yeah, and the difference in that is that Paula is his girlfriend and you’re not,” he said. “Actually, Paula told me you couldn’t stand each other. She said you wanted all magic disease carriers dead. I highly doubt you changed your opinion.”

  “What are you implying?” I asked, wondering why the hell had Paula told so much to this man.

  “That Adrian forced you to sleep with him, and you are worried about your reputation and maybe afraid for your life too much to admit it,” he said. Great, just fucking great.

  “You’d love that, wouldn’t you?” I glared at him. “You’d love to get rid of him forever and have a normal life.”

  “No, Ria, it’s not like that,” he said, surprised. “I’m just worried about the students’ safety.”

  “Well you don’t have to be,” I said. “They’re perfectly safe.”

  “Ria, I can make sure he never hurts you again,” he said. “Don’t think I forgot that incident when you hit him. And I know I told you to avoid him. I don’t know how he threatened you, but I’m sure there’s more to this.”

  “He didn’t rape me,” I said, trying to stay calm. If I showed any sign of the disease now, they would blame Adrian for it. I couldn’t let that happen.

  “Alright, but did he threaten you? Blackmail you? Drug you?” he said, and my frown deepened as he continued talking.

  “How many times do I have to say no?” I said.

  “You’re not convincing me,” he said, trying to look harmless and good-hearted. “Why would you sleep with your best friend’s boyfriend? Especially, when you have a boyfriend. I know you’re not that kind of a girl.”

  Well, that was a good question. Why had I done it? I’d been drunk and Adrian was good-looking, but that wasn’t it. There had to be something else that had caused it. Maybe the fact that I could safely do it only with him? I didn’t know and I didn’t want to discuss it with this man.

  “I’ll take a lie detector,” I said, meeting his eyes. That confused him for a moment, because he’d surely expected my admission that Adrian had forced me somehow to sleep with him.

  “So you really slept with him because you wanted to?” Incredulity was written all over his face.

  “Yeah,” I said.

  “I guess I was wrong then. I’m sorry, Ria.” He sighed. “If you need someone to talk to, you know where to find me.”

  “Yeah,” I said, trying hard not to roll my eyes at him. Did that guy have to know everything about the students’ lives?

  “You may go,” he said, and I got up immediately. Adrian waited outside, looking nervous. I walked over to him.

  “What’s wrong with you?” I said. “First you brag about sleeping with me, then you pick a fight with Michael and now you make it all sound like you raped me!”

  “Did you tell him anything?” he said urgently.

  “About what?”

  “You know,” he said, lowering his voice, “your condition.”

  “No,” I said. “I’m not that crazy.”

  Relief flashed through his eyes.

  “Wait,” I said. “Did you think that Alan would get it out of me somehow? Did you think that saying you raped me would seem believable
enough for him to drop the subject?”

  “Of course not,” he said, but the look on his face betrayed him.

  “You’re an idiot!” I said. “How dare you risk your life for…”

  The words were stuck in my throat. I stared at him, unsure what to think.

  “Ok, maybe I am an idiot,” he said. “But I was afraid you’d tell everything since you seemed so upset before… and… I had no idea what to do.”

  “Why?” I said. “Why do you care?”

  “I don’t want you to go through the same things I did,” he said, looking sincere. “I don’t want anyone to go through that.”

  “So you’d risk your own life just to prevent that?” I raised an eyebrow.

  “Nah, I was hoping you’d be smart and know what to say.” He smiled.

  I rolled my eyes. Why had I even thought for a second that he was a nice person? He was still that arrogant, manipulative bastard who thought he could get anything he wanted. And he always got it. Damn.

  “I’m going to tell the truth to Michael and Paula, whether you liked it or not,” I said. “I need to try to explain it somehow to them.”

  “Fine,” he said. “But think that you’re putting us both in danger.”

  I gave him a cold stare and left.

  Chapter 24

  Michael and Paula had managed to avoid me for the full two weeks. They didn’t return any of my calls and looked away from me when we passed each other in the hall. Paula still waited for Adrian to come talk to her, but he didn’t even bother looking for her. As far as he was concerned, their relationship was over. I was sure he had someone in mind already, but I didn’t feel like talking to him about it.

  One day I decided to finally solve the situation between me, Michael and Paula. I’d spent all day sending them messages and calling them, so they agreed to meet me at the laboratory. I thought the laboratory was the best place since Paula had the key and no one could overhear us there. I didn’t know had Paula gotten the key because of her academic success or her situation with Adrian, but that didn’t really matter.