Bree handed me her cell. I frowned but took it. His deep voice came over the speaker.
“Feeling okay, dearest?”Jace asked.
I wanted to demand what he did to me. I wanted to know if he’d leave me alone now that I’d let him have his fun. Judging from the phone call, I still had a stalker. I should have known better than to trust that he’d leave me alone. Instead of screaming questions, I said nothing. If anything, Bree would take it entirely the wrong way when I asked a few things. She might think that he’d hurt me… Okay, a small part of me was tempted but she’d never let it go. I wasn’t ready to mention anything about him being able to torture me without even laying a hand on me. Otherwise, she’d think that I’d seriously lost it.
“I’ll stop by your place later tonight –”
“In your dreams.”
He laughed and then the call ended. If someone could bottle up his laugh and sell it, they’d make millions. I handed the cell back to Bree. She waited patiently, expecting me to tell her what we’d discussed. A silent minute passed before Bree got up, walked to the door, and yelled down the stairs. “Martha, would it be cool if I treat Winnie to a breakfast of champions, Monday morning?”
“If you two behave this weekend,” she called back up.
“Guess we have to cancel our big plans of getting drunk, doing some drugs, and meeting up with some guys later –”
“Breanne Jackson!” she yelled. “Don’t joke about those things. People don’t always know you’re kidding.”
“Relax, Mrs. T, we’re just going to the arcade with a few friends tomorrow,” Bree yelled back and shut the door.
“Breakfast on Monday? Was I going to get a memo?” I asked.
“You’re being stubborn. If you’re sight is really bothering you, go see your doc. You do almost everything without your fosters’ permission, so why not schedule the medical appointments? Breakfast will be my reason for picking you up early and your cover for the appointment.”
Bree excelled at scheming. I had to hand it to her – it was a good plan. “What was the whole going out with some friends tomorrow night bit?”
“I’m pulling out the FB-card,” Bree said a matter-o-fact. “You owe me a night out with Ryker. Mom found out about the double-o-seven date and has been extra lame giving me excuses not to get out of the house at night. Plus you’re keeping secrets and don’t try to deny it. I’m not an idiot. You’ll tell me when you’re good and ready, but if you want me to play taxi driver and nurse without giving me a good reason why, I’m going to cash in my ‘friend benefits card’ so I can see my boyfriend after dark.”
I sighed. I couldn’t disagree with that logic either.
“My ma said, and I quote, ‘You will not go out with that Ryker boy alone.’ She just saw a commercial for TeenPregs and now is positive I’m going to give her a grandbaby by the time we graduate from this dumpy little town.”
***
I woke in a wheat field at day break. My head throbbed. At least my stomach wasn’t retching. The hard soil did a number on my knees. My hands smashed into the dried grass around me. No flower petals this time. My hair tickled my nose as the wind pushed it around. Cottonwood seeds floated in the air around me, almost invisible in the light.
I called out for him – for Jace – and immediately regretted it. I didn’t want to dream of him. Okay, maybe that wasn’t exactly the truth, but he still scared me. His protective tendencies should have sent me running for the hills, but for some reason my feet refused to move. I felt him kneel behind me before I heard him.
Jace was a hazard to my health. It was one thing that I had a slight fixation about dreaming of him, but it was another when I couldn’t stop thinking about his voice while in class. And finally, he proved that he wasn’t actually planning on leaving me alone. I needed distance. I needed time to strategize – find a way to cease his obsession with me. He was arrogant, vain, and overprotective. Even if he was a saint, it wasn’t healthy to waste so much time thinking about one guy.
Jace began rubbing my back with his smooth hands. A rush of regret washed over my soul but it wasn’t an emotion that had come within me; it was as if I sensed Jace’s feelings as well as my own. The tension in my back weakened; my resistance crumbled.
“You said to meet me in your dreams,” Jace whispered.
“In your dreams, is what I actually said. Not mine.”
“Technicalities.”
He gently moved my hair away from my neck. He muttered something right before his smooth lips caressed my skin. My hesitation vanished. I leaned against him and began to enjoy myself once more. When the thought surfaced again, he flicked his tongue over my skin. I squirmed, which only encouraged him.
“Let go of reality, dearest.”
Reality, I reminded myself. This wasn’t it. I needed to wake up for sanity’s sake. This wasn’t real. Soon, I wouldn’t know what my subconscious was creating. My real life was becoming more difficult to know what was impossible and fake. My visions drug me to the limits of my sanity. Falling for a heart-throb in my dreams, while in reality he was dangerous, both emotionally and physically, was where I could draw the line. I needed to wake up!
I elbowed him in the gut out of sheer desperation. He didn’t flinch. I spun around and connected a right hook. He didn’t fight back, so I aimed lower. He blocked me. Grabbing my wrist, he suppressed a chuckle. I tried not to cry out when he twisted my wrist to the point of breaking. Instead of “saying uncle” like I should have, my elbow got familiar with his eye.
“That was unnecessary,” he grunted.
Using my free hand, I pounded his stomach, hoping to knock the wind out of him. No shirt – picture my surprise. His hazy outline focused. The muscles hiding in the haze became defined. I could see that he simply wore jeans and nothing else. An image flickered in my mind of water of dripping down his hair and onto his hard chest. I bit my lip remembering how it felt to be held as water splashed on us in my last dream.
“Indulge in more thoughts like that,” he said, as if he could see the fantasies play out in my mind.
I couldn’t get the image of the beads of water drizzling down his chest out of my head even when I attacked him. He fought with skill and was fast enough to block all of my charges.
“What are you, some kind of gladiator?” I asked.
“Not anymore.”
I stopped fighting. What was that supposed to mean?
He slowly released his grip like he didn’t trust me not to hit below the belt. Smart guy! He didn’t move away, so I stood up and walked away. My body begged me not to. I wanted nothing more than to lose myself in another dream like this, but I couldn’t. As precarious as Jace was, losing a grip on what was real. It didn’t seem like a good idea. My reality was making less sense, so losing myself in my dreams was dangerous on another level entirely.
A half a second later, Jace was walking through the wheat field beside me. My skin burned as he reached for my hand. I turned directions. He changed course and followed me.
“Running again, my dearest? You left me several lifetimes ago, and I’m still chasing you. There’s no point in making this difficult when it doesn’t have to be.”
I stopped and turned to him. Small colorless flames rippled from his skin. My skin prickled as they grew more intense. My mouth dried. Smoke floated around us. If charisma, raw hunger, and undying lust could be wrapped up into one hot package, it’d be called ‘Jace.’ A part of me didn’t care if I got burned – which was exactly why I didn’t let myself indulge in the temptation he was offering.
He was in front of me before I could blink. His hot hands were on my shoulders, holding me still. Even in my sleep I couldn’t evade him – and I didn’t want to. I had an internal battle with wanting Jace to steal me from my pathetic life and to run away from him. The closer he was, the more often he touched me, the more my mouth watered for him to kiss me. He was like a drug – addictive. And like drugs, he had to have dangerous repercussions. I refused t
o become an Addict.
The smoke grew, threatening to block out the beginning of dawn. Flames leaped from his skin to mine. Just as quickly as his touch burned me, I wanted more. It hurt, but just as painful as it was to get burned from the fire creeping over our skin; it left no evidence of damaged skin. Either his fire wasn’t hazardous, which I doubted, or he healed me faster than his flames hurt me.
I hadn’t understood how it was possible. But then again, most dreams never made sense. A dream. This wasn’t reality. I needed to remember that. Instead of embracing him, I slammed my fist into his gut. He never released his grip on my shoulders. His fire engulfed us. Smoke blocked out everything but his face, which started to define around the edges. Even with the intense heat, I couldn’t look away. Tears gathered and trickled down my cheeks. Within their dark color, a flicker grew. His eyes trapped a single colorless flame. It was impossible and beautiful. The more ridged his body became as he pressed himself against me, the hotter I burned for him.
“The chase,” he said as his hand slid up my back and behind my head. “The chase has tormented me for the better part of my existence, but it doesn’t hold a flame to what you are doing now.”
“What am I doing now?” I asked, squirming in his grip even though I didn’t want to be anywhere else. I hungered for his touch just as I refused to admit the sinful appetite he brought out in me.
“Fighting – I always wanted, prayed even, for you to find a little bit of fight in you, and now that you do it makes my blood boil.” His voice rose the longer he spoke. His anger was evident. “Not because it doesn’t please me to see defiance grow in you, but because you insist on fighting me! For heaven’s sake, stop fighting me. I’m not your enemy!”
His words bred frustration when combined with his body language. He slid his trembling hand down my side and then around my back. He abruptly pulled me up against him just as he gently slid his other hand under my jaw. He leaned into me like he was going to give me another taste of his kiss.
“Every past experience could’ve been prevented if you had any fight, any fight at all! But no, you preferred to be passive, which nearly cost…”
He stepped away from me like he suddenly couldn’t stand to be anywhere near me. Seeing him engulfed in his horrific, beautiful fire, did me in. The morning sun couldn’t warm my skin the way Jace could. Now I never felt colder or more alone…
“Jace, stop!”
He didn’t. I needed to say something, anything to keep him from leaving. I hadn’t known why he was so angry. How could he be so adamant about us being together, yet walk away?
“Don’t leave me!” I yelled.
“I screamed that very line to the heavens years ago.”
***
My sight and hearing had returned to normal by the time I woke up in my back yard. The morning sun greeted me. Dew had collected on the grass around me as well as coated my pajamas. My body was cold, and my mind was groggy. I stayed outside, trying to make sense of what my unconscious was screaming at me. Apparently, I was dense, because I just wasn’t getting it.
Elsie reached for my hand when I walked in the back door. She acted like waking up outside was completely normal. It seemed that she wasn’t going to give up her duty of guiding me around the house, like I needed to last night when Bree brought me home. I was feeling much better, but that wasn’t important when her tiny hand held onto mine like I was her lifeline. I didn’t have the heart to tell her that I could rattle off how many steps it was from the garage door to the fridge, how many paces it took to get from my dining table seat to the bathroom and then to the couch. I knew exactly how many steps it took for me to walk from the front door to my bedroom. I knew that the seventeenth step on the stairs groaned when someone walked across it. I had the entire house mapped out, but that wasn’t as important as making her feel like she had a purpose.
That night, Bree cashed in her friendship benefits card when she came over to pick out my clothes – big mistake. She let me veto the heels only because I’d be a walking disaster in them. Opting for ballerina flats, I slipped on a pair of her pants that she swore up and down weren’t from the bottom of my dresser drawer, but the musty smell indicated otherwise.
“You look great,” she said, after I got a little long-winded about not being twelve and how I shouldn’t dress in pants I wore back then. “Besides, you never wear anything that shows off all those long hours at the gym.”
I sucked in and buttoned the top of the jeans. After that, she handed me a pile of shirts. It was only after I slipped on three different shirts of different lengths and shades of gray did I start to suspect that she’d been plotting again. “Why do I feel like I’m going on a date or something equally horrible?”
“Just hanging out with Ryker and friends,” she promised, grabbing a brush.
After pulling out my ponytail that took me all of forty-five seconds to whip up, she took a flat iron to my hair. By the time she was done, I could touch the tips of my hair if I strained my shoulder by reaching around my back. She still sprayed me down with a canister of hairspray. I gagged. I couldn’t get the window cracked open fast enough. A car pulled into the driveway.
“Perfect timing!” Bree said and reached for my hand.
HomFree’s alarms wouldn’t sound since the window was open; but then again, it was on the second floor of the house. If someone wanted to break in, it wasn’t going to be an easy climb. Sure there was a tree right outside my window, but its branches were old and wouldn’t support a lot of weight.
Leading me to the passenger side, Bree opened the door and tilted the seat forward. I crawled in the back seat.
“You don’t look completely hideous,” Ryker said.
“Wish I could say the same thing about you,” I muttered and pulled the seat back so Bree could sit when I noticed the driver side door opening and a person was entering the vehicle from his side.
A wave of nausea hadn’t hit me, but I knew who it was from the scent. Jace. He pushed the seat forward and sat down next to me. I pushed the back of the seat to get out; Bree blocked me.
“Pay up,” Ryker said.
“Technically, she didn’t insist on my leaving,” Jace said.
“No, but if Bree wouldn’t have barricaded her inside, she’d have slipped out the second she realized you’re her date,” Ryker said, shifting the car into gear.
I sat in silence as the others joked around playfully. While it wasn’t unlike how my ride would have been without Jace; he was an awful added bonus who kept trying to grab my hand which I proceeded to slap away at every opportunity.
Problem: he thought I was playing hard to get. Bigger problem: I didn’t know if I was.
When we arrived, Bree reminded me that I owed her, and shut the door before I could escape, trapping me in the car with Jace. Ryker left his door open. I didn’t utter a word as I waited for Jace to get out of the backseat.
“Ladies first,” Jace said, and gestured to the driver’s door as he leaned back in his seat.
“Like I’m going to give you a front row view of my backside, while I crawl out!” I closed my eyes to get a better view of him.
“Would you like me to get out and open the passenger door for you? Or would you prefer the comfort of this backseat? I’m game for either.”
My vertigo shifted, and all the moisture left my mouth at the thought of kissing him in real-life. I bit the inside of my cheek to help me focus. “We need to talk, privately.”
He reached for the driver’s door handle and then closed us inside. The atmosphere suddenly became very intense. Behind closed doors, when the rest of the world wasn’t watching, the demeanor shifted between us.
“That we do,” he said.
Everything else faded away, like it wasn’t as important as what he was saying. I caught my breath when he reached for me and gently stroked my cheek just like he had in my dreams. I shivered. When he caressed me I forgot every thought bouncing around in my mind. However, it wasn’t just that my t
houghts evaded me that left me speechless. His hand reshaped so I could see more than just his fingers; their coarse edges, knuckles, even nails became more defined. He no longer looked liked a blurred, white silhouette. His chest rose and fell rapidly. He clenched and then relaxed his fist before brushing my hair off my neck.
“The Elysian flowing in your veins is responding well to me now that your tolerance is better,” he said like he was pleased. “But you still have a way to go before you’re able to handle a group of us.”
I remembered how he seemed so interested with the tears that bled from my eyes. I swallowed and tried to keep focus on my intentions. “What do you think you are?”
“A Healer.” Jace hastily picked up my hand in his and kissed it with a gentle fierceness.
My skin erupted in fire where his lips caressed. My hand throbbed where he kissed it. I wanted him to touch more, kiss more.
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