by Gloria Craw
I looked into Theron’s eyes and repeated, “Our side… It’s nice to have a side.”
Maybe he blushed a little, I don’t know. “I wanted to do them in color,” he said, “but I didn’t have time. I’ll do another set and send them to you later.”
“If you never get around to it, I don’t care. These are perfect.”
I leaned over and hugged him tight. He hugged me back.
“You’d hug anyone, wouldn’t you?” he said.
“I went a long time without hugging,” I replied. “I’m making up for lost time.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Theron and I left early for Greenvale the next morning. More of his stuff had arrived from New York, and he wanted to get it from Stacy, so he’d happily…almost…agreed to drive me down.
Betsy’s had just opened when we got there. Ian already had a table. “You charmed Livy into letting you in before officially opening, didn’t you?” I asked.
He winked at me. “I’m here so much she’s come to think of me as a part of the furniture.”
“Or a backup if things don’t work out with Skip,” Theron said.
“I’m taken. My heart belongs to a dark-haired, gray-eyed girl with a great right hook.”
I smiled as we slid into our bench seats. “She sounds amazing,” I said.
Betsy’s started filling fast. We placed our orders and listened to the buzz of talk around us. Ian tried to start a conversation about surfing, but it didn’t work. Our minds were busy mulling over more important matters.
We were halfway through breakfast when Theron got a text on his ancient phone.
“Stacy needs me,” he said. “I should head over.”
“We’ll follow you,” Ian said.
When Ian and I pulled up to Stacy’s, I noticed the poor snowman had lost his other coal eye.
“I need to help her with a system…thing,” Theron said as we got out. “I promise it’s nothing big, and if it was, it couldn’t be traced back to us.”
Ian laughed. “Control your criminal instincts, man,” he said.
“Technically, what we’re doing isn’t illegal in China.”
“Whatever. I’m pretending you didn’t say anything about it,” Ian replied as we climbed the stairs.
Stacy was sitting in the middle of the mess in her living room. She had three computers set up the same way Ian had them at the cabin. “Hi, Ali,” she said, without looking up. “It’s good to see you…well not see you, but you know…hear you. I’m going to be in the middle of this for a while. Feel free to make yourself a cup of tea in the kitchen.”
Just the thought of tea made my stomach turn.
“What’s wrong with your face?” Theron asked. “You look like she offered you a cup of dirt.”
“She doesn’t like tea,” Ian supplied.
“There’s cider mix in the tin above the stove,” she said. “Have one of those.”
“That’s okay,” I replied. “I’m going to put the coal back in your snowman’s eye sockets.”
“Thanks,” she replied with her fingers moving fast over her keyboard.
It took me a while to locate the missing pieces of coal. When I finally did, Ian had started carrying boxes to Theron’s car.
“Do you need help?” I asked.
“Nope. One more trip and I’ll have it done.”
I dug the holes a little deeper for Mr. Snowman’s eyes and put the black blobs in it. Then I straightened his hat.
“He looks a lot better,” Ian observed after putting the last box in the back of Theron’s Land Rover.
I hid a smile as he closed the door. He had no idea he’d just helped Theron break more laws.
The snow was deep a few feet away, so I walked over and lay down in it. Moving my arms and legs, I started to make a snow angel.
Ian lay down next to me and did the same thing.
“When was the last time you did this?” I asked.
“Um…I think I was six.”
“I can imagine you at six,” I said. “A little blond-haired boy with too much energy to contain. You probably climbed the walls and made your mom want to pull her hair out.”
He looked over at me. “Maybe, but you would have loved me.”
I scooted over to fresh snow to make another snow angel. “What have you and Theron been doing in your spare time?” he asked.
“Talking and watching TV. I looked through the dewing history book the other day, though.”
Surprised, he looked over at me. “What did you think?
“It’s pretty interesting,” I admitted. “I’m going to go through it some more when we get home.”
“That’s progress,” he said. “You want to sit in my car and warm up a little?”
I had worked on the snowman without gloves, and my hands were freezing. “Definitely,” I replied.
We got in and Ian turned the car engine on. “It should only take a minute for the air to heat up,” he said.
I put my head in my hands. “The last five days feel more like fifteen,” I grumbled.
He kneaded the tight muscles on my shoulders. With my eyes still closed, I sat up. It didn’t surprise me to feel his lips on my own. The kisses moved from my mouth, to the side of neck, and then to the hollow where the sapphire still rested.
Sighing, I gave in and moved so I could kiss him back.
“The windows are going to fog up,” I whispered.
“I don’t care…when are you going to leave?”
“Soon. I’m supposed to meet Phoebe for a late lunch.”
He brushed a piece of hair away from my face. “That’s not what I mean. When are you going to leave Vegas and come with me?”
“I never told you I was going with you.”
“You should,” he urged. “My parents have protection living in your neighborhood. My uncle will make sure your family is safe. You don’t have to worry about them.”
I sat back. “I can’t go yet…I’m not ready.”
“How long are you going to put yourself through this?” he asked. “You have to leave them. Knowing that is a weight you carry. If I’ve noticed, I’m willing to bet your parents have, too.”
I’d come to a similar conclusion. That didn’t mean the solution was to go.
“Imagine you were in my place,” I said. “Imagine you had to leave your parents. How would you feel about it?”
“It would hurt,” he said. “I would be sad, but if destiny put me in your position…if I was living a life that interfered with who I was meant to be, I would leave.
I was so angry I couldn’t look at him.
“When this thing with the Truss is finished, come with me,” he pushed. He lifted my hands to kiss the insides of my wrists. “You were planning to move to Alaska the day I told you who I was. I promise you’ll like where I live better.”
“I want more memories with my family,” I replied. Remembering how Theron understood my reasoning, I continued, “I know wanting to stay with them is a human desire, but that’s part of who I am. I’ve believed in making decisions all my life and right now I’m deciding to have more time with the McKyes.”
“You have perfect recall. You can pull up a million memories and experience them like they’re happening for real.”
He was right, but I wanted absolutely as many pictures in my mind as possible. It made me angry that he still didn’t get that. After opening my door, I got out. He was at my side before I’d taken two steps.
“I didn’t mean to make you mad,” he said. “But be honest with yourself. It’s torture to live the way you are. It’s better for everyone if you just move on.”
That did it. I clenched my hands into fists and asked, “What do you really want, Ian? What do you think will happen if I go with you? Let’s get it all out in the open.”
He put his hands on my shoulders and squeezed gently. “I think I’ve made it obvious what I want. I want destiny to pair us.”
It was going to hurt, but I had to get the
truth out. “We will never likeness, Ian.”
“You can’t know that.”
I swallowed the lump in my throat. “The night we fought Sebastian, it happened. But the destiny you feel so strongly about didn’t let it stick.”
His hands dropped to his sides. “What are you talking about?”
“When Sebastian was seconds away from crushing your mind, I accepted everything about being dewing. I accepted because…I loved you. It started out as a thought I was going to put into Sebastian’s mind to trick him into believing I belonged to someone else. But it became something different. My energy was yours and yours was mine. The beginning of likeness. We were two parts of the same person…and then we separated again.”
It was like I’d punched him in the stomach. “It couldn’t have happened. I would remember.”
“You were pretty close to dead at the time,” I said. “At first, I didn’t understand what had happened. With Brandy dead and you dying, it was too much to take in. Days later, when I could sit down and think things through, I realized what had happened.”
Ian took half a step back. “I don’t believe it. You imagined it.”
“It’s the truth,” I insisted. “The last thing I want is to hurt you, but we have to face the truth. There is too much human going on in my mind. I will never likeness…to anyone.”
“It was just the wrong time,” he insisted. “The wrong place and the wrong time.”
“No,” I said firmly. “We were connected one second and we were separate the next. I can’t go with you because I’ll come to love you even more. Then when you find the one you’re meant to be with, you’ll leave me. I can’t…I just can’t watch that happen. I don’t think I can survive that kind of loss again.”
He cupped my face in his hands. “Maybe things will change when you admit who you really are. The rest will fall into place.”
I moved his hands away. “I want that to be true, but it isn’t.”
I could see the pain in his eyes, and it killed me that I’d caused it.
Theron walked around the side of the house. “Time to leave,” he said.
I leaned forward and kissed Ian’s cheek. “I’m sorry,” I whispered.
As Theron drove us out of town, I asked, “How much of that did you overhear?”
He glanced at me. “Enough.”
“Thanks.”
“For what?”
“For not asking questions.”
“I’m fighting my own demons, remember?” he replied quietly.
Chapter Twenty-Four
Theron cut the engine in front of his cabin, but neither of us got out.
“I hacked the Ledges’ guest registry,” he said, “Yvonne rented all of the rooms the Truss are staying in under her own name. The cabins, too. I can’t tell you where Jacob is staying or where he’s keeping Nikki.”
“I’ll have to track her vibration, which means I’m going to have to wander around the guest floors all afternoon.”
“Pretty much,” he agreed.
“Ugh. I can hardly think straight right now. All I can see is Ian, and the way I hurt him.”
“It’s going to be difficult between you two for a while,” he said, “but he’ll rebound. Ian won’t stop being your friend. It’s not his MO. Right now, you have to compartmentalize your feelings. You agreed you’d talk to Nikki today. That has to be your focus.”
He was right. I took a deep breath and pushed my hair back. “How good are you in a bar fight?”
He gave me a blank stare.
“I need to lose some excess energy,” I said, getting out of the car. “And you’re the only one around.”
If I asked him to spar with me, he’d say no. We’d have to go a few rounds about how it wasn’t right to hit a girl. I didn’t have the patience for that. When he got out of the car, I grabbed his hand and dragged him into the deeper snow.
Facing him, I said, “Sorry.”
Then I threw an uppercut to his jaw.
“Ahhh,” he said, holding his face and bending at the waist. “What was that for?”
“I need this,” I said. “It will help me focus. I can take as good as I give, so don’t be shy. Just don’t hit me in the face. I have to meet Phoebe at the lodge.”
“You just hit me in the face.”
“Block me next time.”
I threw a left, and he stopped it. He wasn’t expecting the right kick I nailed on his upper thigh. Just as I hoped, it really pissed him off. After that, it was on.
We punched, ducked, kicked, and dodged. It was clear Theron could beat the crap out of me if he wanted, but I trusted he wouldn’t. He needed a good fight as much as I did.
I compared his style to Ian’s. He was less skilled and slower, but his reach was longer and the force behind it was pretty amazing. The rage in him I’d caught glimpses of in our time together was closer to the surface than ever before. It didn’t scare me, but it made me think Spencer was right. Theron needed time to resolve his anger. Otherwise, someone really was going to get hurt.
When I had enough, I signaled time-out.
“Ian’s a good teacher,” Theron said, breathing hard. “You’re not bad.”
We headed to the house and I chucked him with my arm. “Why do we train to fight?” I asked. “If we’re supposed to be so evolved and peace-loving, why do we all learn to rage against the machine?”
“I would have thought you’d have asked Ian that question a long time ago,” he replied.
“There are a lot of questions I’ve put off, but I’m asking now.”
“It’s complicated,” he said, opening the door so I could go inside. “Somewhere along the chain of evolution we learned what we could do to each other with our energy. At the same time, we developed a deeper respect for life. Especially our own. Maybe in the beginning we did fight to kill, but by the time our kind relocated to Atlantis we only fought for fun. It was a lot like how the Greeks boxed and wrestled for sport. There were matches and games between clans on the solstices and equinoxes.”
We sat down and he continued. “There were clear rules. The fights would always stop before anyone’s mind was crushed. The ending was symbolic. The winner would turn his or her opponent’s head. Not hard enough to break the neck…but close. Breaking the spine is the hardest injury for us to come back from.”
“When did it change back to fighting to the death?”
“During the war between Tenebrosus and the Rorelent. Tenebrosus and his followers stopped pretending. We have long memories, and since then, learning to fight has been an important step in growing up.”
“When did you learn?” I asked.
“Early. Your dad was the first to teach me. I’ve always appreciated that. He was a good guy.”
I nodded, but there was a knot in the pit in my stomach. I really wished I’d known him.
After we thawed out a bit, I went to change and get ready to meet Phoebe. Theron was waiting for me by the front door when I was ready to go.
“This is for you,” he said, putting an envelope in my hand. “Well, technically it’s for Jacob, but you’re supposed to give it to him.”
I opened the envelope and pulled a card out. It had a picture of a daisy on the front and inside it said, “Congratulations on your big day.”
“What’s it for?”
“It’s a ‘happy to hear about your wedding’ sort of thing. I put a tracking chip under the daisy. Sign it, get it into Jacob’s hands, and we’ll hope it ends up wherever Nikki is.”
“Smart. Thanks.”
He nodded and followed me to my car. “Don’t take too many chances up there,” he said.
I was hopped up on anxiety, but did my best to hide it. “I’ll be careful,” I replied.
Chapter Twenty-Five
I met Phoebe in front of the restaurant. It might have been nerves, but for once, I didn’t want to eat.
“They won’t open until two,” she said, looking disappointed. “Sorry I asked you to come up so ear
ly.”
“That’s only fifteen minutes away,” I replied. “We can look through the shops if you want to.”
Her fuzzy hair bobbed up and down as she nodded. “Let’s go through the souvenir store first. They have some hilarious stuff.”
I agreed and we headed in that direction.
“I was hoping to see your brother today,” I commented as we walked. “I feel bad that I had to leave the dinner before I could introduce myself the other night.”
It was a lame reason for wanting to see Jacob, but she didn’t seem to think I was a creeper, so that was good.
“I’ll text him and see if he can meet us at the restaurant.”
We went into one of the souvenir shops. It was typical of what you’d find on any vacation. There were a lot of overpriced knickknacks and tchotchkes to look at. In the back, we found a really interesting selection of hats, most of which were completely inappropriate for a ski vacation.
“Hey, come here,” I said, pulling a wide-brimmed sunhat from the top shelf. I put it on her and pulled the sides down a little. “You look like you should be on a beach in Florida.”
She found a mirror and turned side to side in front of it. “It makes my nose look smaller. I’d get plastic surgery, but…”
She didn’t finish. She didn’t need to. I knew her nose would just regenerate in its original shape.
“Who buys these things?” I asked, pulling down a Russian military hat.
“People like my mom. She can’t resist gaudy stuff like this.”
“Come to think of it, my mom would probably buy some, too.”
We wandered down more aisles until I found a shelf of snow globes. “I need to get one of these,” I said.
“Why? They’re as bad as the hats.”
“Which makes them perfect. I promised my little brother I’d bring one back for him. Help me find the most obnoxious one they’ve got.”
We started looking through them. “How about this?” she asked, handing me one with a snowman inside. He was wearing sunglasses and a flowered shirt as he skied down a steep hillside on a snowboard. I tipped the globe to start the snowflakes swirling and noticed a turn-key on the base. After twisting it a couple of times an off-key version of “Margaritaville” began to play.
