by Alessa James
“What?” I snapped.
“E-brake?” he asked, composing himself into the epitome of sincerity.
I glared at him as I released the emergency brake. Pressing the gas again, I jumped a little when the car lurched backwards down the driveway. At the curb, I looked again for traffic on our empty street before slowly pulling out. The roads were slick from rain, and the car’s wheels spun as I turned the corner.
“Not a word,” I warned.
We would have been at school already if Will had been driving. Just that thought made me punch the gas pedal more aggressively than I should have, causing the engine to growl. Then I remembered that I couldn’t outrun the police or talk my way out of a ticket.
Even though I had left early for school, we still arrived on campus just a few minutes before the first bell. I pulled into a space, and a second later Will opened my door. Taking his hand, I got out and looked across the parking lot where Edmond’ SUV was already at the far end. Then I heard someone shouting my name. Turning, I saw Sean rushing toward us. Before I could say anything, he picked me up and twirled me around, setting me down when he saw Will, whose blue eyes turned into ice the instant Sean cuffed me on the shoulder.
“Way to go, Aven! Driver’s license before your eighteenth birthday!” Sean whooped. “And your old man gave you the car?”
I nodded, beaming.
“Yep, and I’m going to need that job, if your boss is still hiring. I have to pay for gas somehow.”
“Or you could simply drive an electric vehicle,” Will muttered under his breath.
I jabbed him and then regretted banging my elbow into solid rock.
“I’ll ask the boss man this afternoon, I swear,” Sean grinned. “Hey, we should go to lunch to celebrate. The usual?”
I nodded, smiling—until it occurred to me that Sean was not so subtly ignoring Will. Frowning, I tried to brush it off as Will and I walked toward my first period. At nutrition, when we reached “our” classroom, I hopped up on the back counter and waited for Will to join me—watching in disappointment as he sat down at a desk a few feet away. I sighed and tried to think of a way to distract him.
“You thought I was awful this morning, didn’t you?” I accused jokingly. “Confess.”
“You are a perfectly competent driver,” Will answered seriously.
“What was with you in the parking lot, then?”
Will stiffened, like he was bracing for an argument.
“You don’t need a part-time job,” he said plainly.
I stared at him.
“Okay. Then how else am I going to pay for gas?”
“Easy. The Tesla is yours. No fossil fuel required.”
“And what about my dad’s car?”
“I’ll pay your father for it, and the insurance.”
I jumped off the counter.
“That’s not the point, Will! My dad gave me the car—an act of kindness I never expected. Besides, I wouldn’t have access to a Tesla if it weren’t for you.”
“Aven, don’t be stubborn. It’s not as if I don’t have the means,” he snapped in exasperation.
“Yeah, well I can’t just exit my normal life because I met you.”
I swallowed, wondering if I would be ready to make a decision about my mortality by my eighteenth birthday.
“I thought you gave up on normal when you fell in love with an immortal,” Will teased before becoming serious again. “My point is that working late at night and coming home alone would allow Fidatov the perfect opportunity.”
“I wouldn’t work more than a couple of nights a week, maybe one weekend day.”
“Does that mean you would let me drive you to and from work, then?”
“Do I have any other choice?”
“I’m only trying to keep you safe until Fidatov is dealt with.”
Sighing, I walked over and sat on the desk where he was. Offering to pay for my transportation expenses was just crazy, but his intentions were good. The bigger problem was: I couldn’t live this way forever.
“When does it end?” I asked quietly.
Will looked away from me.
“I don’t know.”
At lunch, things just got worse, with cracks already beginning to appear in our newly forged social circle. In other words, Sean was being a jerk and pretending like Will, Edmond, and Gen didn’t exist. Then, just as I was thinking the situation was at its worst, James showed up. He didn’t say a word to anyone—he just sat down and stared at me like I was the reminder of something he wanted to forget but couldn’t. The only good thing was that I didn’t get the feeling that he hated me. His hostility seemed more directed at Will, which I couldn’t understand, either—even after their confrontation over the weekend. I was stabbing at my salad with my fork when my phone buzzed. Looking down, I frowned at the text from Sean.
What’s with the psycho?
I looked up and glared at him, but he just shrugged. Still, I was pissed, so when I got to sixth period, I went into the layout room to confront him.
“Sean?”
He didn’t turn around, and I watched in irritation as he continued working on the op-ed page. Still staring at the screen, he announced that he, Lizzie, Matt, Megan, and Jeff were going to Ford’s. He stopped short of saying Will and the others couldn’t come, but I got the message.
“Seriously, Sean? What is up with you suddenly?” I demanded.
“Nothing,” Sean shrugged, continuing to face away from me.
“Right. Who’s acting like the psycho?” I snapped angrily before stomping out.
“At least I’m not a robot or an alien,” he muttered so quietly that I barely heard him.
Retreating into the main classroom, I shook my head. The last thing I needed was for Sean to become a freaking overnight conspiracy theorist. I pinched the bridge of my nose, feeling like everything—including my sanity—was being held together with duct tape. Had I taken too much for granted in thinking that I could combine Will’s world with mine, even just for the rest of my senior year?
When class ended, I ducked out quickly to avoid Sean. Then I stopped and stared across the hall at James. The truth hit me hard in the chest as I realized that we reminded each other of unpleasant truths. I reminded him that his long, lost love was with Fidatov, and he reminded me that Will wasn’t the infallible hero from fairy tales. Instead, Will had faults—or at least one very big one. Whether I liked it or not, he was dangerous to me. As soon as Will came around the corner less than a second later, James pushed off from the wall and began walking in the opposite direction. For a few seconds both Will and I glared after him, each locked in our own private resentments.
By the time we got to my house, I was a nervous wreck from driving. Will always seemed so calm and relaxed behind the wheel, while for me, it felt like every cat and every squirrel in Oregon had recently decided it was a great idea to jump in front of the girl who had just gotten her license.
At the moment, the last thing I wanted to do was study for Trig. What I wanted to do was attack Will. Picking up my backpack, Will began walking upstairs, and as I followed him, I wished that things would just go back to normal—or at least normal for us. This strange distance between us since Saturday was beginning to make me nuts. He was the same, but different. Affectionate, but reserved. Close, yet he felt very far away.
Will set down my bag and sat at my desk. Seconds later, music began to drift from my computer, and I suddenly had to wonder if I owned any music that wasn’t incredibly depressing. Throwing my Trig book on the bed with a sigh, I sat down and crossed my legs, ready to take out my frustration on my least favorite subject.
Within fifteen minutes, I had snapped two pencils and was ready to throw my Trig book across the room. I looked up and saw Will watching me, his expression a combination of amusement and something else. Regret maybe?
“What? You try being mathematically deficient,” I growled.
Like Will could be deficient in any way. Shaking my hea
d, I got up and walked over to my desk, enjoying a rare height advantage over Will. He looked up at me, his eyes glittering with warning—like he knew exactly what I was about to do. Pulling my sweater over my head, I climbed into his lap, straddling his legs. Then I did nothing. I just watched him. Slowly, I leaned forward and kissed the edge of his jaw. His muscles tensed, and I moved to his ear.
“See?” I said, trying to keep my breathing in check. “Careful.”
Clutching the front of his shirt for balance, I shifted back to see his face. Will’s eyes were closed, like he was concentrating very hard. But he wasn’t stopping me. With my free hand, I reached up and traced his perfectly shaped lips, then his brows, his eyelids, the curve of his jaw. Then I kissed him, just barely touching my lips to his. Something about the barely-there contact caused a spike of pleasure to course through me. When I sighed, suddenly Will’s hand gripped the back of my neck, his lips brushing across mine again and sending sparks through me.
I felt a rush of air, and the next thing I knew, my back was being pressed into my bed. Will was hovering over me, his eyes slate-gray and desperate. Reaching up to touch his cheek, I tried to push my energy outward. I wanted to give him energy and also ease his ever-present pain, which I could feel leaking into the edges of my mind. He groaned, and then his lips were on mine again, coaxing my mouth to open beneath his.
“Aven,” he breathed raggedly. “I love you. I want you.”
“So this is what careful looks like,” a voice said across the room.
My entire body froze, and before I could blink, Will was across the room. Sitting up, I looked over at him before seeing James sitting at my desk. By the time I looked back to where Will had been, he was gone. Jumping up from the bed, I stalked across the room to where James was sitting. Lifting my hand, I swung out, but he caught my wrist a half second before I could slap him across his smirking face. As I stared down at him, anger burned a path through me before it registered in my brain that his eyes, too, were slate-gray. I laughed bitterly.
“So, you’re the monk, then? Holier than the rest because you don’t suck energy from poor, unsuspecting souls?”
“Holier? No. Smarter? Yes. I’ve learned my lessons. I can get all the energy I need by filtering out the excess in a crowded movie theatre or a packed bar full of drunken fools. I do not, however, draw from individuals—and particularly not an empath. Too much temptation.”
I looked down at my wrist, which he was still holding loosely in one hand.
“So you’re immune, then? Infallible even?” I asked.
“I never said that. I said smarter, which means I don’t need to be infallible.”
Putting my other hand on the armrest of my chair, I bent down until we were eye to eye. He smelled the same as Will—tempting. But it was different at the same time. Like the difference between the smell of chocolate cake and chocolate-chip cookies.
Smiling, I leaned forward until our lips were a millimeter apart. Then I thought of Will, the feel of his lips, his touch. Closing my eyes, I pushed the energy outward, and James hissed. His grip on my wrist tightened, and fear flared in my chest. Suddenly his lips were on mine, and I knew that my attempt to prove a point had gone too far. Breaking free, I opened my eyes, feeling my legs begin to shake with the effort of standing. His eyes were suddenly a startling emerald green again. Pulling away, I took a step back, frightened by the expression I saw in his eyes.
“Get out,” I said evenly. “And don’t even try to pretend you’re so superior.”
Going over to the dresser, I grabbed a change of clothes, struggling to keep my hands from shaking. By the time I turned around, James was gone. Opening the door to my room, I hurried down the hall to the bathroom, where I turned on the water. Beneath the spray, I scrubbed my skin and tried to keep my mind off of what had just happened.
By the time I stepped out of the shower and dried off, I heard the front door swing open. Hurrying to get dressed, I grabbed my dirty clothes from the floor of the bathroom and went to throw them in my laundry basket before going downstairs to meet my dad. When I walked into the kitchen, he was at the counter talking to a young woman sitting at the kitchen table. She turned toward me—and I knew.
Grace.
“Hi, sweetie,” my dad said. “I’d like you to meet Grace Fenton. Grace, this is my daughter, Aven.”
The young woman stood up. With shoulder-length ebony hair and violet-colored eyes, she looked like a classic Hollywood version of Cleopatra. She even wore the same over-the-top eye makeup.
“Hello, Aven. It’s nice to meet you.”
“Dr. Pitt introduced us today,” my dad said. “Grace just started her master’s in women’s studies, and she might do some crossover work in our department.”
I stood frozen, unable to breathe, speak, or move. Then my dad frowned.
“Do you smell that?” he asked, frowning. “It smells like—it smells like a gas leak.”
I inhaled. He was right. He started to usher us out of the kitchen, and when I looked over at Grace, she smiled at me, making my soul wither. Had she caused the gas leak? Was the house about to explode? Just as we were about to reach the front door, someone knocked. I felt another crippling spike of fear, afraid that everything was going to come to an end right now. As my dad reached for the door, I tried to say something, but I couldn’t even speak. When the door swung open, I nearly collapsed. Gen was standing outside.
“Professor Casey?” Grace said. “I’m sure I’ll see you very soon. I hope you get that gas leak taken care of.”
Laughing, she turned and winked at Gen before walking toward a bright blue convertible across the street.
“Gen, it’s good to see you again,” my dad said cheerfully.
“Did Aven tell you we were going to have dinner tonight?” she asked him sweetly. “You’re more than welcome to join us.”
“Oh. Thank you, Gen, but you girls go ahead. I need to call the gas company and get this sorted out. You two have fun.”
I smiled and nodded as we started walking toward Gen’s car.
“Your father is safe,” she said quietly as we walked. “The gas leak is Edmond’s doing. The gas company won’t be able to fix it, and a representative will tell your father you need to be out of the house for the remainder of the week. I’m sure he won’t mind if you stay with me instead of at a hotel near the university. I’ll make sure he knows you’ll be a guest in my room.”
I shook my head as I stepped into her car.
“That isn’t going to work. There is no way my dad is going to let me stay in the same house as Will.”
“Then we’ll tell him you’re staying in the condo I’ve leased in town.”
I sighed. Being perfect and immortal probably enabled her to assume things would go her way most of the time. I didn’t have the same luxury.
“Are we really going to dinner?”
“You, Will, James, and I are.”
I resisted the urge to put my head between my legs and start hyperventilating.
“What about Edmond?” I asked weakly.
“Edmond will stay and keep an eye on your father.”
“Because they’re after my dad now. Right? I mean, that was Grace—as in James’s Grace—who showed up at my freaking house with my dad, wasn’t it? What happened to what Will said about Fidatov not being interested in my dad?”
I looked down at my hands, which were shaking with fear and anger.
“Aven,” Gen said patiently. “What you’re feeling right now is exactly what he’s trying to instill in you—fear, panic. He’s trying, by any means possible, to frighten you and force us to do something foolish.”
She drove toward my dad’s university and then pulled into a parking space. Getting out, I looked across the street as the gleaming red Tesla … next to a black Tesla. Will was leaning up against the red one—mine if I believed him—and James was standing in front of the other.
“Are they going to have a dance-off next?” I mumbled.
<
br /> Gen gave me a funny look.
“Never mind.”
“You’re both to blame,” Gen said to Will and James when we reached them. “If Fidatov can fracture us so easily, he will win. Make no mistake.”
Will came over and put his arm around me.
“I’m sorry,” he whispered into my ear as we started walking toward the restaurant.
I looked up at him. The truth was that I no longer knew who I should be angry with or afraid of. After my mom’s accident, I had learned the hard way that it was the ones you loved the most who had the greatest power to hurt you. Losing her had forever shattered a piece of me, and now I knew that was what happened when you loved someone with all your heart—if anything happened to that person, you lost a part of yourself.
As we walked into the restaurant, I looked around and realized we were the youngest patrons. Well, I was the youngest person in the restaurant. Gen, James, and Will were definitely the oldest. But everyone was loaded. I could practically see the dollar signs on people’s clothing, purses, and jewelry. The hostess came up and immediately led us to a private room big enough for a thirty-person private party. Gen sat down at the head of a long table, and Will pulled out my chair. When he sat down next to me, I looked over at James, who was across from me.
“I would suggest that both of you keep your petty issues with each other in check from now on,” Gen said plainly. “Now that we know Fidatov isn’t alone, the situation has changed. He wouldn’t go up against the four of us alone. That means if he can divide us, he will—because it will give him a better chance of success. Two of us must be with Aven at all times and at least one of us must watch her father.”
“I, for one, think that’s an excellent idea,” James said.
“Agreed,” Will said immediately. “And it sounds as though James has agreed to watch Aaron until Fidatov is contained. Very generous of you, considering your long lost true love is the one stalking Aven’s father.”
I looked over at James and touched Will’s hand under the table.
