“I think I’m gonna wander,” Jodi said abruptly. Neither of us made an effort to stop her as she pushed away from the ground, dusted off the sand from her hands, and stalked off.
“Bitchy,” Steven tsked as he ate the last bite of his hotdog.
“No, you made her feel stupid,” I corrected him, running a hand through my hair, trying to tame it as a breeze flitted around the party. It had Jodi’s signature all through it.
“How?”
“By pointing out that she pushed that guy into taking her number and her putting it into his phone for him so he couldn’t pretend he got it wrong.”
“I didn’t mean anything by that,” he said, looking towards Jodi, who was now a good thirty feet away, arms crossed over her chest and her chin set defiantly.
“Well, it upset her.”
“Why didn’t she say anything? She’s been sitting here for, like, twenty minutes.”
“Because,” I said slowly, leaning in closer to him to emphasize my words, “You. Made. Her. Feel. Stupid.”
“I know I’m gay, but damn, you girls can be so confusing.” He gave a dramatic sigh before propping his skewer next to mine and jumping to his feet to hurry after her. I watched as Jodi realized Steven was coming for her. She tried to turn and walk away before he got close, but Steven just broke out into a full out run, crouching at the last moment and then scooping her up almost over his head. She let out a genuine shriek, her legs kicking in the air and her arms flailing until they found his neck, hanging on for dear life. The crowd around them laughed, some girls clapping while the guys hollered and whooped.
Steven jogged a few more yards, slowing down before trying to walk. He set her down a few yards away from everyone else. I watched, expecting to see them start talking or Steven to get down on his knees and beg her forgiveness for his lapse into male stupidity, but instead he reached for her and pulled Jodi into a hug, pressing her against his chest while he rested his cheek on her head. A few moments passed, but Jodi finally unclenched and slipped her arms around Steven’s waist and hugged him back. I smiled, leaning back on my hands and looking up into the sky again, giving them some privacy.
You would think the gay guy with parents who didn’t wholly accept him or the girl dealing with the revelation that she was a guardian angel would be the most delicate of our group. But strangely, it was the most normal of our little magical triumvirate who was the most delicate.
I lowered my face and opened my eyes, scanning the crowd. There were far fewer dancers now than before; what were left were couples clinging together, swaying to the music of the one radio left on. Most were cuddled up together in circles around the various fires. The few left standing were starting to find places to sit or lie down. It was calm and peaceful now, the warmth of the fires mixing with lovers’ whispers and shared intimacies making the salty air thick and heavy. But it was like cream in coffee, silky and rich; not even the smoke of the fires clung to the air, catching the breeze from the ocean and winging away. My eyelids drooped a little as I glanced from couples to groups, tasting the play of excitement and contentment mingling together.
My skin tingled as the energy slipped around me. I was used to the emotions of so many bodies just from still being in high school, but people there were filled with anxiety, annoyance, and indifference. In that prison of cinderblocks and dull paint, their emotions bit at my skin and pushed at my temples. I felt a singe of power slip between my lips when I parted them to take a breath and tasted the salty campfire smoke, making me blink. My fingertips prickled with power. I buried them into the sand so no one would see.
I let my head lull back, closing my eyes, and started to breathe deep and slow. The air around me was much warmer than the fire would provide in the middle of the night so close to the water. The chilling breeze didn’t seem to touch me here; if it did, it was only to bring the soft murmurs closer to my ears, tickling and tempting. For a moment I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stand up, as though someone was watching me from behind.
“Enjoying the high?” a vaguely familiar voice whispered next to me. My head snapped up and my eyes flew open. I had to catch myself from throwing a jolt of energy through him, but when I saw Liam’s face too close to mine, the spell of the campfire snapped.
I recovered quickly, easing my shoulders away from my ears and relaxing back against my hands again. I blinked the shock away from my face and shook my hair out behind my head.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” I said smoothly.
“Of course not,” he chuckled. “You weren’t absorbing the ambient energy swirling around here pumped full of good, old fashioned teenage hormones.”
“No, I wasn’t.” I inwardly cringed at his blunt comment, but I hoped he didn’t notice. When he snorted, I knew he had, the bastard.
“Love, it’s okay, you know.” He leaned closer to me and I was proud when I didn’t shrink away from him. “I mean, you’re only taking what they’re already giving up for free and you don’t even have to heal any pesky puncture marks when you’re done.”
“I’m not taking anything,” I insisted.
“Look, it’s only fair.”
“What’s only fair?”
“Tell me when they’re all angry, sad, and despondent that it doesn’t affect you horribly,” he whispered, watching my face for a reaction. When I didn’t respond, he nodded. “Exactly, so now they all feel wonderful; isn’t it only fair that since you suffer with them, you should reap some payment?”
“No,” I said quietly. “At least, it doesn’t sound fair when you say it.”
“Ah, but if one of your little friends over there,” he indicated Jodi and Steven with a nod of his head, “said the same thing to you, I bet it would sound just fine.” I hated to admit it, even if only to myself, but I knew he was probably right about that.
Suddenly the air wasn’t so warm anymore and the bite of the winter breeze snuck up on me, running a shiver up my spine. I drew my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them, resting my chin on them as I stared straight ahead into the fire. I could feel him staring at me, but I couldn’t look at him. He didn’t know me, we’d spent less than ten minutes combined together, and somehow he knew far more about me than even I had allowed myself to realize just yet.
“Shutting me out now, are we?” he asked with very little inflection in his voice, as if he really didn’t care that I was building up my shields against him, pushing his awareness out of mine. But as I closed him out, the emotions of the rest of the people around me couldn’t reach me either and a small ping of disappointment shot through me as I had to let them go. I heard him snort next to me, making me feel like a defiant child acting out against her parents.
“That’s just fine,” he said, shifting his weight to start to stand. He stopped, crouched next to me, to add, “I’m hungry anyway and I think that lovely little brunette over there might be tonight’s special.” My head snapped up, looking for the girl he meant and finding her easily; she was smiling coyly as Liam kept his eyes on her and a flush colored her cheeks in a very endearing way.
“Are you serious?” I snarled. “Right here?”
“Well of course not right here; we’ll go somewhere a little more private.”
“People will notice her missing!”
“We’re not going that far.” He rolled his eyes, clapping the sand from his hands. “And don’t look at me like that; I’m not planning on killing her.”
“I thought you said you don’t make plans,” I replied, tilting my head to the side.
His eyes met mine, but there was no humor in them. “I remember your warning.”
I struggled to think of something to say, my mouth opening and closing as words failed me. Liam nodded to the girl and her smile grew as she stood up, waiting for him to walk over. As Liam went to take another step, I reached out and snatched his ankle, stopping him.
“What?” he demanded, looking down at me and trying to shake me off.
“You know as well as I that she is not a child.” He waited for me to argue. When I didn’t, he added, “She’s eighteen and, by your laws, that’s an adult.” He stood again and I let go; what could I do? He had to eat, right? I mean, we all do in order to survive.
“Just please don’t.” I paused, my voice catching in my throat, earning me another eye roll.
“Would you please calm down? I am not going to kill the girl. Good lord, you’d think I was an animal.” And with that, he walked away from me, going for the girl. My stomach clenched as he reached out a hand and she took it automatically, as if she knew him. She didn’t know him, I knew that. Her eyes were shining in the firelight, but as he turned her away from the crowd, I watched as the awareness blinked out of them and she started walking blindly where he led.
He did as he promised and only took her as far as the first rise of dunes, leading her to sit on a soft patch of long grass. She sank into a shadow, most of her body and all of her face hidden from sight, but he was still very visible. I could see the line of his cheekbone and the slope of his nose as he smiled down at her, whispering things I couldn’t hear.
A long fingered hand came up to caress her cheek. I needed to look away, I should look away, but I didn’t. A knowing smile curled over Liam’s pale lips before he turned to glance my way, holding my gaze before the very tip of his tongue darted out to moisten his lips. In that moment, I saw one pearl white tip of fang, just touching his lower lip. I stared, fixated, my inner voice screaming at me to look away, but I had never seen vampire fangs and there was something mesmerizing about seeing a myth brought to life.
Slowly, Liam turned his face away, only turning his eyes when it was impossible to keep looking at me. He hesitated, caressing the girl’s shadow-hidden cheek. I felt that familiar prickle of energy creep up around me when he bent his head forward, the line of shadow cutting through his face, but I saw his jaw open before he was lost to me. My stomach knotted tight enough to make me feel like I was doing something wrong watching this. I wasn’t a voyeur, but it was like he wanted me to watch, and having never really been sure if vampires were real, I just couldn’t bring myself to look away, no matter how much I was going to hate myself in the morning.
I couldn’t hear anything; the murmur of voices and music had faded away and the glow of the fire didn’t exist for me in that moment. My world had shrunk to the three of us, or rather, the two of us. I found myself biting my lip in anticipation, and I wanted to hit myself. I tried to compose myself, but my fingers were flexing and my toes were curling. Then, finally, a burst of heat erupted from the curled couple and washed over me like opening an oven door. My muscles went limp, my lip throbbing in a sweet pain when Liam brought his head up again and turned to look for me – to see if I was still watching.
He grinned at me, a self-satisfied look on his face. His pale lips were wet and red. His skin was translucent, shining in the moonlight. Even his hair looked more lustrous. Something clenched low in my belly, making me shift my hips and blush at the same time. It was his bedroom look again, one he didn’t deserve to look at me with. It was hard, but I managed to close my eyes against him. I took a long, deep breath in through my nose and held it for three pounding beats of my heart before I exhaled.
When I opened my eyes, he was gone.
Chapter 11
I didn’t waste any more time after that and gathered up Jodi and Steven to leave. I had the excuse of needing to get home by curfew to get them to hurry up. Steven was so excited about the idea of spending the night that he didn’t give me any grief about leaving so early.
When we pulled up to the curb in front of my house, I wasn’t the least bit surprised to see lights on inside. Usually my parents just left the porch light on for me and headed to bed; it seemed this time they were waiting up for me as if I was fifteen again. I sighed and shook my head as I stared up at the house, glad I had risked speeding to get here, beating curfew by a precious three minutes.
I wasn’t sure what to expect once I opened the front door, but I felt my temper rising with every step I took across the grass. They were waiting up for me like I was a child. My lips drew into a tight line as I fought not to clench my jaw. I heard my keys jingle in my fingers, letting me know my hands were shaking. I could feel the fight waiting for me as I hit the concrete pad of the porch. I needed to burn off the excess stress Liam had caused me, but I didn’t want to do it in a fight with my mom about Steven being here. I blew out a breath before sliding the house key into the door and unlocked it, turning the doorknob and pushing the door open.
I stepped inside and saw most of the lights were on and heard the TV from around the corner in the living room. It wasn’t the news, so I knew it wasn’t my dad waiting up for us. I squared my shoulders and walked inside, leaving the door open for Jodi and Steven to let themselves in. Sure enough, they walked in quietly, careful to shut the door behind them, and slipped into the hall to hurry to my room.
“Mom?” I said as I stepped into the living room. She was curled at one end of the couch watching late night TV, barely staying awake.
“Shay? What’s the matter?” she asked as she blinked herself fully awake.
“What’s the matter?” I said, making an ugly sound that hardly passed for a laugh. “What are you doing staying up waiting for me? I’m not a kid, mother.”
“I know that,” she said calmly as she pushed the button on the remote to turn off the TV and stood up, grabbing her book and pack of cigarettes.
“Well then?” I demanded.
“We had an agreement; if Steven was going to spend the night, then you’d have a curfew. I wanted to make sure you held up your end of the deal.” Amazingly, that made me even angrier because I had never missed my curfew, and now that I was eighteen, we were back to acting like it was my first night out with one.
“Well, we are,” I said with a dramatic wave at the clock on the cable box, still showing a minute left to spare.
“Good,” she said. She reached under the lampshade of the light next to the couch and turned it off with a click. When she walked around me, I spun to follow her down the hall, knowing that wasn’t the last word.
When we got to my room, the door was still open, Jodi and Steven waiting for me. My mom paused and pushed it all the way open and ducked her head in, seeing Jodi laying on my bed and Steven reclining in my overstuffed chair in the corner by the bookshelf. She nodded before straightening back up.
I stepped past her to go inside, stopping when she placed a hand on my arm and said, “I can come in at any time.” Her voice held the same warning she gave whenever I’d had boyfriends over when I was younger.
“Oh my god! Mother!” I rolled my eyes and covered my face with my hands.
“It’s okay, Shay,” Steven said, nothing but good humor in his voice. “Kinda nice to be treated like all the other guys.”
“But seriously,” I started to argue, but Steven lifted a hand to stop me.
“Really, it’s okay,” he said and then looked at my mom. “I promise I will not be endangering either of these girls’ honor.”
“Steven, you know you’re like a son to me as much as Jodi is a daughter, but just so you know, if you really were my son and you had girls in your room…” She quirked an eyebrow at him.
“You’d say the same thing to me,” he finished for her and she nodded. I sighed, knowing this was pointless, but she kissed my cheek and walked to her room to join my dad.
“I am so sorry!” I said as I closed my bedroom door.
“Don’t worry about it, babe,” Steven said, chuckling lightly. If I hadn’t seen the cracks in Steven’s armor tonight, I might’ve laughed with him, but tonight it wasn’t funny to me.
I dropped my purse to the floor
and walked over to him, bending to encircle my arms around his neck, and hugged him to me. Steven reached for my waist and hugged me back, knowing what I was thinking.
“Careful,” Jodi said from the bed with a laugh, “you might get us in trouble, Steven.”
“Oh right,” he said, pushing me away frantically. “Get away!” He waved his hand adamantly and had a look of pure cartoon terror on his face, finally making me laugh and effectively breaking the tension in the room.
“So what’s first?” Steven asked brightly. “Doing each other’s hair or painting our toe nails?” He looked at each of us with a smile and we realized he wasn’t kidding.
“Pajamas first,” Jodi said as she slid to the edge of the bed to get to her feet.
“And then?” he asked.
“And then we raid the fridge,” I said just as my stomach grumbled.
***
Twenty minutes later, popcorn was popped, sodas were poured, sandwiches were made – cut diagonally, never across – and we were in our pajamas piled on my bed. The T.V. was tuned to a late night movie we’d all seen at least half a dozen times, but it would provide the background noise to drown out our conversation while not distracting us at the same time.
“So,” Steven began around a mouthful of sandwich, “who was that guy you were talking to?”
“What guy?” I asked as my stomach flipped at the mention of Liam.
“Uh, the guy that was obviously too gorgeous to still be in high school,” Jodi chimed in.
“I know, right?” Steven laughed.
“Oh, him,” I muttered. I knew I would have to tell them about Liam eventually, but truth be told, I had hoped he would just go about his business and get out of town after our first encounter at the concert. But after seeing him again so soon, I knew that was a vain hope.
Elemental Series Omnibus Edition Books 1-4 Page 96
