“Sounds better than this,” I said, even though I had no idea if it was in fact better.
“Cool, maybe we’ll see you there,” Trevor said. Jodi smiled at him as if he’d said something sweet and private just for her. I could feel her excitement crawling up my arm, and somewhere in the back of my mind, I heard Steven snickering as he watched.
We headed back towards my car; Jodi was practically skipping by my side. I was fine with her enthusiasm though because now that we were away from the crowds, the chill had come back full force and it stung my cheeks and stole my breath, so I wanted to hurry. Behind us, Steven chatted animatedly, totally unaffected by the cold air. Once in the car, I sat and revved the engine, burning through the gas, until I felt the first light wisps of warm air through the vents. Jodi was checking her makeup in the visor mirror, the only thing distracting her from her intense desire to get me to hurry up and leave.
“Okay, okay, we’re going,” I said before her nerves ate through my stomach.
“Huh?” Anthony said from the backseat. Sometimes I forgot to watch what I said around other people when Jodi and Steven were getting to me.
“Nothing,” I said, shaking my head as I maneuvered through the narrow one-way streets, looking for the freeway onramp. Traffic was way worse now. I slumped in my seat when we sat through a green light, not even inching forward due to the gridlock of cars in the intersection.
“Seriously?” Jodi demanded as if the cars ahead of us could hear her. What should’ve been a quick ten minute drive took us almost an hour. We were just turning up the hillside, following the flow of traffic to the gardens, when I realized it was already eleven o’clock.
“Thank goodness,” Steven said. “I thought we were going to be ringing in the New Year in your freaking car.”
“Right?” I said, stepping on the brake a little too hard to keep from rear-ending a Jeep that cut in front of us. Finally we found the makeshift parking lot everyone was using and I managed to park the car without getting into an accident.
Jodi was out of the car in a second, barely checking herself before she went running for the crowd. She skidded to a halt and threw me an embarrassed look. I grinned back at her; I knew what a crush was like, even if Jodi’s crushes came out of nowhere and like a freight train. When we merged with the crowd, I looked around, wondering how we were going to get in since it was obviously after hours.
“Oh, crap,” I whispered when I saw the gate. Someone had simply cut the lock and broken into the gardens.
“It’s fine, come on,” Jodi urged, pulling on my arm when I slowed down.
“They broke in though?” I felt a bubble of worry in my stomach, but kept walking with her.
“We didn’t though,” Jodi said as we crossed through the entrance.
“Yeah, tell your dad that, see what he says.” She didn’t respond to that. I felt her momentary hesitation, but as soon as she saw Trevor in the crowd ahead of us, she shook it off.
“Let’s just try to have a good time, okay? School starts in less than a week and it’s New Year’s!” She yelled the last part, throwing her free hand into the air, and was answered by a chorus of whoops and yells from the people around us. I chewed the inside of my cheek and kept my mouth shut. It looked like these people had been here for a while, so if the cops were going to show, they probably would’ve by now.
“Be right back,” Jodi said, slipping her arm from mine and walked over to Trevor. I stopped and looked around, trying to take in my surroundings. It looked like this part of the gardens hadn’t been used in years. Many of the bushes were overgrown and the flowers were dead and brown without so much as blade of grass to be seen.
“Babe,” Steven’s voice came from behind me. “You okay?”
“Yeah,” I said, turning to face him and Anthony. “Why?”
“Just saw that Jodi ditched you. You want to walk with us?” he offered and he sounded genuine, but I could feel his hope that I would say no so he could spend some private time with Anthony.
“No, it’s cool,” I said with a smile, placing a hand on his arm and lifting onto my toes to reach his cheek and kiss him.
“If you’re sure,” he said. “We’ll meet up later though.”
“Sure,” I agreed, waving him off. I watched them go and felt a fluttering in my heart; it felt good to see them happy together. I had a feeling after graduation Steven would be moving out of his parents’ house as fast as he could and would probably end up in Anthony’s apartment.
I turned away and saw that most of the crowd was walking in the same direction, so I decided to follow, just to get away from the entrance. I caught Jodi’s eye and pointed towards the way I was walking and she nodded at me. As we moved forward, I could hear the faint notes of music and see the muted orange light of a campfire. When the trail dipped down, it opened to a large clearing where most of the people were milling about. I found the source of the light – a small campfire that wasn’t giving off much heat, but with so many bodies around, it didn’t matter. I still didn’t know where the music was coming from, but people were starting to dance.
I hung back at the edge of the clearing. Since the air was warmer here, I didn’t regret leaving my coat in the car. I drew in a deep breath, tasting the smoke and heat from the fire and the excitement and spices of the people around me. I leaned on my shoulder against a smooth tree that had lost its bark in the winter and let my vision slide out of focus. I could see everyone’s auras pulsating in a slow moving rainbow of reds, greens, blues, and white. The electricity snapped around them, slipping into and around everyone. The flashes of energy popped when they touched with hands and hips. I breathed in deep, savoring the smoky, sweet flavor of so many enjoying the same space.
I felt a pull at the back of my mind, drawing me to look over my shoulder. Steven and Anthony were just yards away, tucked into the shadow of two trees. Anthony was a couple of inches taller than Steven, so when Steven looked up at him, the shadows played with the color of his eyes, making them dark and brooding. He reached up, brushing his fingers through Anthony’s hair, pushing it out of his face just as Anthony took a step forward, closing the distance between them. I had seen them kiss before, but something about the way Anthony placed his hands, cupping Steven’s jaw, and the way Steven’s fingers curled into Anthony’s hair made me pause.
Their kiss was slow, measured, and intense. I felt the weak fire behind me surge to life with cracks and pops as the flames danced and ate away at the burning logs. The rush of heat from Steven and the fire swirled around the dancing crowd as the flames painted everyone in reds and golds. Anthony’s hands dropped from Steven’s face so he could wrap his arms around his waist and press their bodies together. I watched as Anthony pressed Steven against a tree, his lips still crushed to Steven’s. After a few moments, they broke their kiss and Steven smiled up at Anthony, who bent his head forward, pressing his forehead to Steven’s. I didn’t mean to intrude, but as Steven’s magic swirled through the forest, feeding the fire, warming me, I heard Anthony whisper, “I love you.”
Tears stung my eyes and I shook my head to clear my mind and break the connection. I was aware of the sharp, cool, winter air again. Just as I was about to push away from the tree and wander, I felt the prickling tingle of awareness on the back of my neck. I turned my head back and forth, looking for the source of my unease, but I didn’t see anything out of place. The bodies dancing in front of me were consumed and paying me no attention. People walked by me without sparing me a glance. But someone was watching me, I just knew it. I wanted to go looking for this person, but I didn’t want to give up the safety the tree gave me, keeping one side of me protected.
I watched the milling, gyrating crowd in front of me, and as they shifted to and fro, I became aware of a man across the clearing, standing perfectly still by his own tree. A line of shadow cut down his middle, but as the flames of the campfire flickered, I caught sight of his face through the bodies. He was staring right at me. In one hand he
held a beer; the other was clenched in a fist at his side. His long black hair was loose around his shoulders, and the firelight and shadows made his vaguely familiar face gaunt and grotesque one moment and soft and alluring the next. My stomach lurched when I finally recognized him.
His lips formed a word and I watched as he called me bruja again. I felt a pang of worry, quickly followed by anger. Though I was surprised to see him here, I wasn’t surprised he was already out of jail. He’d obviously made bail. Hopefully after the hearing and my testimony, he wouldn’t be so lucky. He lifted his beer and took a long pull from the bottle, his eyes never leaving mine. The crowd shifted between us again and I lost sight of him. When a gap appeared again, he was gone. I started, but kept my shoulder pressed into the tree. If I didn’t move, he couldn’t sneak up on me again.
But Jodi was out there by herself. What if he recognized her? She probably wouldn’t recognize him since he hadn’t singled her out. I tried to pick him out of the crowd, looking this way and that as I tried to decide whether or not to go looking for Jodi. I told myself she was with Trevor, he was a good guy. If some creeper approached her, Trevor wouldn’t leave her alone. My stomach curled against my spine as I felt someone looking at me again. Had he slipped through the crowd and snuck up on me?
I turned my head and saw Liam standing a few yards away, watching me. I let out the breath I had been holding with a relieved laugh. Rolling my eyes at his little smile, I pushed away from the tree and walked over to him.
“Fancy meeting you here,” he teased.
“Fancy, sure,” I nodded, pushing my fingers into the tight pockets of my jeans.
“What?” he asked, his brown eyes going wide in mock innocence. I noticed they were catching the firelight, flickering orange and yellow.
“Am I really still supposed to believe you aren’t following me?” I asked.
“My hand to God, this is totally coincidental,” he said as he lifted his left hand in the air and pressed his right to chest, over his heart.
“Sure,” I said with a nod. I scuffed the toe of my boot in the dirt as I turned to watch the crowd. Liam took a step closer to me. I was surprised to feel heat coming from him; being dead, I always assumed vampires would be cold, like lizards. Then I smirked as I realized why he was warm.
“What?” Liam asked at my smirk.
“Oh, nothing.” I shook my head, making my ponytail sway against my shoulders. “I was just surprised to feel heat coming from you, and then it occurred to me, you must’ve already fed tonight.”
“Ah,” Liam said, “yes, well, a guy’s gotta eat.”
“It is so weird hearing you talk like that,” I said. I turned to face him again and saw that he was much closer to me than I realized. If I wanted to, I could’ve reached out to brush the hair away from his face. I blinked and shook my head at that thought. Luckily, Liam seemed to think that was in reaction to what I had said.
“Talk like what?”
“Like, modern,” I said, pulling one hand out of my pocket to gesture at him vaguely.
“Would you prefer something more like this?” he asked in an Irish accent so thick it sounded like he had added more vowels to the words and my heart did a little pitter pat against my ribs.
“Actually,” I said with a laugh, “yeah, I think most girls would.” I felt my hip shift slightly, moving me a couple of inches closer to the line of his body.
“Yeah, what is that about?” he asked, his voice slipping right back into the laid back, west coast American accent.
“What? Girls and accents? I dunno.” I shrugged. “I bet girls in other countries find different American accents sexy too.”
“Oh, so it’s because it’s different that you all like it so much?”
“Maybe, or maybe it has something to do with where our families come from? Like me, personally I think British Isles accents are lyrical, beautiful,” I said.
“Maybe I should have spoken this way when we first met,” he said, letting his voice change naturally back to the Irish inflection and tones. My toes curled inside my boots and my hips shifted again until I was almost touching him. “Maybe you would have liked me better. Aye, lass?”
“Don’t push it,” I said laughingly, smacking his shoulder lightly. That last bit was a little over the top. We stood there in companionable silence for a while, watching the dancers swaying to the music while the shadows and light flickered between them. I didn’t realize I had started moving to the beat of the music until I accidentally brushed up against Liam.
“Oops,” I said, “sorry.”
“Perfectly all right,” he said. Then he took my hand in his and started forward, pulling me with him.
“Whoa, what are you doing?” I asked, trying in vain to pull against him.
“Oh, lighten up, will you?” he said with a roll of his eyes when he stopped and turned to face me. He twirled me suddenly, surprising a yelp out of me before he caught me. My back was to him, shoulders pressed into his chest. His body was already moving to the slow, low beat of the music, and his hands were resting on the swell of my hips, guiding me to follow his lead. Tiny pin pricks were running up my spine and my palms were a little sweaty. I could feel the crowd around us, pressing against my shields and stealing some of the air.
“Relax,” Liam whispered in my ear. His breath was hot against the nape of my neck, making me shiver. I closed my eyes and focused on my breath. I could taste the smoke and ash in the air, the spice of lust and abandon, the musk of warm bodies. The music slipped and slid around us. Behind my eyelids, I could see the electricity of the bodies around us again. Liam’s body was warm and firm behind me. His fingers curled into my hips, guiding me into the swish and sway of his body. My head dropped back, resting on his shoulder as my muscles slowly began to unwind, one by one. I settled my hands over Liam’s as we moved, my knees bouncing in time with the music, my hips in time with his.
“So,” Liam said next to my ear. “Who was that man you were having the staring contest with?”
“Oh,” I sighed, shaking my head a little, his question effectively breaking my trance. “Just some guy.”
“I don’t think he was just some guy,” Liam said, his fingers pressing into my hips to underscore his words. “He practically reeked of anger.” I gritted my teeth against the words that were ready to spill out of my mouth. We had been having such a nice time, this was just going to ruin it, but I could feel his determination pressing at me to know the story.
“You remember the night of the concert?” I asked and felt him nod, moving my hair against his cheek. I found myself wanting to drop my head back against his shoulder again, but restrained myself. “Well,” I started to explain to distract myself, “there was this huge fight in one of the parking lots and my friends wanted to make sure everyone was okay.”
“Of course,” he prompted, but he said it as though he found that both expected and stupid of my friends. But looking back at that night, I couldn’t argue; after all, I knew it was a bad idea and had tried to stop them.
“So anyway, we get there and this guy saw us and thought Steven was eye-balling him and tried to start a fight with us. It got out of hand and I had to do what I do, you know.” I shrugged against his chest and he chuckled. He knew all too well what it is that I do by now.
“Anyway,” I went on, “that guy you just saw was one of his friends and he’s got it into his head that I’m some evil witch.”
“Not too far off there,” Liam teased and I elbowed him lightly in the stomach, making him chuckle again. He wrapped his arms tighter around my waist as we moved. I knew it was to protect himself, but I let myself think differently.
“Anyway,” I drew out the word with a roll of my eyes, “he’s been kind of stalking me ever since.”
“Stalking you?” Liam cut in.
“Yeah, well, the other day he tried to sneak up on me in a parking lot.” Liam laughed at that and I found myself smiling at his response.
“I suppose that di
dn’t go too well for the man?” Liam asked.
“No, not really, though I’m sure it hasn’t endeared him towards me anymore than the night in the parking lot.”
“So he followed you here?” I could hear the change in Liam’s voice, the suspicion and a hint of anger.
“I don’t think so, just a coincidence.”
“Shayna,” Liam chided, but the way he said my name so close to my ear made me want to melt back into him, not refute what he was thinking.
“Yeah,” I finally said, gathering my composure. “I suppose it’s possible, but it would’ve been kinda hard to follow me tonight; we’ve been all over the place.”
“Still, you should be careful.”
“People keep saying that to me.” He didn’t press the issue and I was able to focus on the music around us and the warmth of his body behind me, his arms wrapped around me, his breath tickling my neck. I closed my eyes and finally let my head drop back on his shoulder.
Liam turned his face towards me so that his cheek brushed against mine. It was smooth and warm and I felt myself turning towards it. I opened my eyes and could see the rich redness of his lips very near to my face. The tip of his tongue darted out to moisten his lips, making me swallow. I lifted my gaze up the length of his jaw, over the cut of his cheekbone until I watched his eyes. Surprisingly, he wasn’t watching me. His eyes were half closed and it seemed as though he wasn’t looking at anything really, he was just lost in the moment.
His head dipped forward and he turned his face towards me again so that his nose and lips were nuzzled in close to the bend of my neck. My heart thudded against my chest and his fingers gripped my hips tighter, pulling me against him so that there wasn’t as much as an inch between the lines of our bodies. I felt a rumble in his chest, rolling through him until his lips vibrated against my neck. I was suddenly very aware of my pulse in my neck, terrifyingly close to his lips. Chills ran up my arms, and just when I thought he might’ve kissed me, the music shifted and Liam pushed me away and spun me around.
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