House of Korba

by C. L. Stone

  Sitting beside Silas then, feeling him close, I slowly reached out to him. Wrapping my arm around his.

  He found my hand, his own enveloping my palm. He held firm.

  “Was I making you feel awkward?” he asked as he kept an eye on Nathan and Kota who weaved their way through the cars and seemed to be heading for North’s Jeep parked in the middle of the lot. “When I called you night flower?”

  “No,” I said, although I wasn’t fully sure what to say. “I didn’t realize you hadn’t told anyone else about...you know, us.”

  “I haven’t had the time,” he said. “Although North is suspicious.” His thumb moved over on top of mine, rubbing a little. “I think he likes you. He’s protective about talking about you.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked

  “I’ve known him for a long time,” he said. “He’s a brother to me in a lot of ways. I’ve known about all the girls he’s ever had an interest in. But he won’t talk about you. Not in the same way.”

  “Wouldn’t...that mean he’s not interested?”

  “He’s keeping you close,” he said. He turned his head, looking down at me. “But I know about you spending the night with him at the hotel. And I noticed his tattoo.”

  My eyes widened at him. “Tattoo? What tattoo?”

  Silas’s lips curled into a smile at the corner. “The one on his chest. You haven’t seen it yet?”

  My mouth was hanging open. I was staring, and among the chaos, I was trying to make the connection. “I saw a bruise,” I said. “I think.”

  “It looks like one, doesn’t it?” Silas returned to staring out at the crowd. “He said it was from you. He wanted to keep it.”

  I sucked in the slowest breath, holding it for so long, I thought I might never need to breathe again, I was stuck in that moment. North’s mark on his chest was familiar to me, because it was where I’d bitten him. It’d just been so long since that time, that I’d assumed it couldn’t be, because it should have faded, like mine had done.

  And then I remembered that next morning, when North had dropped me off at the house, and he was supposed to go to the diner, but instead was hours late. Had he gone out that day to tattoo my bite onto his chest?

  My face was burning, as was my heart.

  Silas’s head turned quickly, and I instantly got caught up trying to figure out what he was looking at.

  I spotted Kota inside North’s Jeep in the passenger seat. The car was rolling forward, so Nathan must have been driving.

  Amid the chaos, while cars were trying to clear out, Nathan rolled the Jeep through it all. We watched, and I leaned into Silas, waiting.

  They angled the car toward where Mr. Hendricks was still on the phone. There was a line of cars gridlocked, trying to get in or out, and amid the police cars, people were weaving, cutting each other off, and generally stopping the flow of traffic. Nathan wedged the Jeep right into the middle.

  “What are they doing?”

  “Getting a clear line of sight,” Silas said. “They might be able to hear what is being said on the phone, if anything, and what he might say in return.”

  “From the car?” I asked.

  “There’s a few special features Victor and Mr. Blackboure put inside that Jeep.”

  I paused for a long moment, watching the Jeep, as if I could see inside and tell what was going on. “What else does North keep inside his Jeep?”

  Silas chuckled, a deep rumble.

  Worse

  We were called into class before Kota and Nathan returned. Silas walked with me to make sure I got there without incident. We hadn’t heard details about what happened.

  The silence was hard to bear. I kept looking at my phone, waiting for an update. Silas had to remind me that silence was probably good. If they were calling for assistance, that was the time to worry.

  After all the morning chaos, school started two hours late. Once parents were cleared and everyone was parked, I ended up in second period with Nathan and North.

  North sat behind me. I stared at the back of Nathan’s head instead of paying attention to the lesson, wishing they could have told me what had happened in the Jeep or with Luke trying to get the cell phone, but the teacher had started before they managed to make it into class.

  After the teacher had collected homework, a voice rang in over the loudspeaker. I could tell it was being broadcast throughout the whole school, because I could hear the echo from the hallway.

  “Will the following students please report to the front office:

  Sang Sorenson

  Arthur Prescott

  Jay William

  I wasn’t surprised that my name would come across those speakers, even though I’d hoped it wouldn’t.

  I stood up, and before I collected my bag, North was picking it up.

  I was way too tired to fight with him about how he should stay behind, and North seemed too agitated to bother to respond to the teacher, who told him to sit down.

  The hallways were empty and our footsteps echoed as we walked.

  “You’ll probably get detention,” I said.

  “No, I won’t,” North said.

  “It’s not like you can go with me into the office.”

  “I don’t really give a shit,” North said. He hefted our bags on his shoulders, making fists as he held on to the straps. “I’m so fucking tired of this school. I’m tired of the bullshit.”

  That edge started to slice up against my heart again. Tension hovered in the air between us. I tried to think of something to say or do to ease his thoughts so he didn’t flip out.

  “Do we...have to hurry?” I asked. Mostly, I wanted a chance for him to calm down a bit. I thought if we took advantage of being out of class for a moment, it might work.

  North’s dark eyebrows lifted and he turned his gaze to me. “What? Something wrong?”

  “Something’s wrong with you,” I said quietly. “Can we talk?”

  He grunted. His head moved, scanning the area. He pointed down a hallway, changing our direction. Two more turns, and we were at a set of restrooms. He pointed to the boys’ bathroom, and I blushed, stopping at the door.

  He went in and a few minutes later after I heard the squeaking of stall doors, he called out, “Clear.”

  I went inside and closed the door, locking it behind us. In my old life, I would have never dreamed of doing anything of the sort. It struck me in the moment how things had changed.

  North dropped our book bags on the floor. He turned, smacked the water to start running. He scooped his hands under the flow and then brought it to his face, rubbing at his cheeks and eyes. “Christ,” he said. “I’m about to kill Theo. I’m about to kill Mr. Hendricks. This bomber better watch out. And I heard about Volto yesterday. If I find Kota’s car, I’m using it to run his ass over.”

  I stepped to the counter next to the sink and crossed my arms just under my breasts, watching as he rubbed at his face. “You’re not mad at Silas, are you?”

  His head snapped around and his wild eyes locked on mine. “What the hell are you talking about?”

  “You just seemed upset with him earlier.”

  He groaned. He snapped up some paper towels that were piled on a stack by the mirror. He dried his face. “I’ve been up all night watching his brother, and arguing with Silas about why he shouldn’t move back to Greece with his family.”

  It was like he had dropped cold water on my face. “Silas? What?”

  “He feels guilty,” North said. He leaned away, crumpling the paper towel and tossing it at the open trash can. He turned back to me. “He thinks shit that happened five years ago was his fault.”

  “You mean, with his mother?” I asked.

  North’s eyes flashed. “You know about that?”

  “I just...” I wasn’t sure how to respond, if he’d be angry Nathan told me. I simply nodded. Better not to say who told me.

  North frowned and shook his head. “We all go through that. There’s always someone w
e could have helped, something we could have stopped. He thinks if he’d stayed with his brother, maybe watched him, he could have stopped what happened. Now he’s blaming himself for what Theo is choosing to do. He thinks he’s a burden or whatever. I called him on his bullshit. I don’t know if I got through to him.”

  “Why would he go back?”

  “To get Theo out of our hair,” he said. He moved, touching a palm at each of my hips. “Sit down a minute.”

  I relaxed, allowing him to pick me up and put me on the counter. He stood close enough that I parted my legs so he could lean against the counter.

  North held my cheeks between his palms, keeping his gaze fixed on me. “I need your help,” he said quietly. “I’m trying to keep my family together. That includes Silas. I might yell at him, but he needs us right now. You might be able to help.”

  “How?” I asked, my heart in an uproar. I was panicking, worried about where Silas was even at this moment. I just saw him, no less than maybe twenty minutes ago while trying to get to class. Now, North was telling me he was thinking about going back to Greece and I wanted to find him again, worried he could already be on his way.

  “I think I’ve convinced him to stay, but I need you to make sure he does.”

  “What do I do?” I asked.

  “Anything. I don’t know.” His thumbs slid over my cheekbones. He licked his lips and then clamped his mouth closed for a minute and I could tell he was thinking before he spoke again. “I’m going to ask you something,” he said. “I’m not supposed to, but I need to know. You care about me?”

  The question wasn’t what I was expecting, but I nodded against his hands almost instantly. Of course I did.

  “What about Silas?” he asked. “Do you care about him?”

  I nodded more, as if that could prove it. “Why do you ask?”

  North sighed, again moving his thumbs across my cheeks. He leaned down, kissing lightly between my eyebrows.

  My eyes closed, and he lingered there for the longest time. His musk lingered through my nose. I knew we couldn’t stay long, but that moment was quiet, and with North right there, I felt protected, like he could stop time and keep this moment for as long as we wanted.

  North’s lips traced along my skin as he whispered. “I need a favor, Sang Baby. I know you probably won’t understand. I need you to get as close as possible to Silas. Become the reason to convince him to stay. No matter what happens with Theo, Silas doesn’t deserve to be buried for it. Charlie can make up his own damn mind, but Silas belongs here with us. There’s nothing for him back in Greece.”

  “He’s just upset,” I said softly, unwilling to move or open my eyes. “He wouldn’t really go back.”

  “He says he misses it. What he misses is a life that didn’t exist. What he misses is not feeling guilty back when his mother was alive. He misses her. But I remember Greece. I remember being there with him. He hated it. The kids were mean. The people were rude. He didn’t really fit in. Those kids his brother fell in with treated him like a...worse than a dog. He wouldn’t be happy going back. But if he leaves now, I don’t know if we would be able to convince him to come back.”

  “Maybe...maybe if Charlie and Theo go back, and Theo is happier, he won’t be like this. And then when they settle, Silas would come back.”

  “He’d want to watch out for Theo,” North said. He pulled back a bit, and his hands lowered to cup around my jaw while his thumbs traced lower along my cheeks. “Baby, sometimes we have to let go. Family is a choice. I know how hard it is to let go of a past, but his past is catching up with him hard right now. He needs to remember where we are now, and what’s important.” He paused, swallowed. He tilted his head a little closer, hovering over me almost too close to look at. “He needs you.”

  “I don’t know what I could do,” I whispered.

  “I know you can do it,” he said.

  My heart was thundering in my chest for so many different reasons, but at the forefront was North, so close that I thought he might kiss me. “He... Silas...” I said. “Silas asked me...out.”

  North stopped, and very slowly pulled back just a bit. “What?”

  “Silas asked me to be his girlfriend the other night. When I spent the night?” I don’t know what compelled me to tell him. Maybe somehow it would help with Silas.

  North was quiet for a long time, studying my face. My cheeks heated at his scrutiny. “What did you say?” he asked.

  “I said yes.” I was going to follow up with something else, but once I got out the truth, the other things I thought I wanted to say disappeared. The words jumbled in my head.

  North’s thumb traced across my cheek slowly. His lips pursed. His mood was impossible to judge. The quiet was almost eerie. “Did you tell anyone else?”

  “No,” I said, and at first I meant it, because the way he was touching me, I was just talking and not really thinking. “I mean, yes. Mr. Blackbourne knows.”

  North released a breath between his lips. “Good,” he said. “What did he say?”

  “He said to trust you all and to keep him informed.”

  He nodded. “You should do that. Right now, I need that favor, though. I’ll be fighting with him later. He won’t want to share, you know.”

  My eyes widened. “What?”

  North moved his hands from my face and leaned forward a little, bracing himself on the counter. “You think I’d give you up to him? You’re crazy. If he’s trying to cut everyone else off by making you his girlfriend, he’ll need to wait in line.”

  Every fiber inside me heated up. Didn’t Mr. Blackbourne explained we all needed to get along? Or was that what they talked about? “But...” I sputtered for an answer but didn’t have one.

  North smirked. He moved his head and hovered over me. “Do you still like me?”

  “Yes,” I breathed out quickly. “Do...do you still like me?”

  “Worse,” he said as he leaned in a little further but then stopped.

  I waited, anticipating him leaning in further, maybe to bite me somewhere, but he stopped when he got close to my lips. I didn’t know what worse meant, but the way he said it, with almost a growl, it didn’t feel like a bad thing. My heart nearly tripped over itself. He’d been close to kissing me before but hadn’t yet.

  My eyes were partially closed. He was too close to look at.

  “Tilt your pretty head.” His deep voice rippled through me, a command this time.

  I don’t know why, but I instinctively moved to tilt my chin down, away from where he was hovering.

  He huffed, his breath warming my face. “Other way, Baby.”

  I did, slowly. This time I didn’t look. I didn’t think. I moved where he wanted me.

  My lips touched his, and soon pressed.

  He puckered. I did the same.

  For a long moment, that was it. The realization was slowly sinking in that it was a kiss. It was my first with him, and one where I kind of saw it coming, and really wanted it. Not that I wouldn’t have with the others, but in this instance, knowing it was coming sent some different emotions scurrying to the surface. Anticipation and in North’s own way, assurance that this was what he really wanted.

  His hands came up around my face, like they’d been before, and held my cheeks, cupping my face. His lips started moving, pushing back against my mouth, and he leaned in a little. I didn’t know where he wanted me to go, and afraid of hitting something behind me or falling backwards, I pushed back a little, resisting.

  A growl came from him. It started low. The more I pushed back on him trying to push me, the more vocal he got. It was a fight between our lips, a swell of something like anger building up, but I wasn’t really angry with him. I wasn’t angry at anyone. It was just energy, and it built up from his lips pressed to mine.

  I mimicked his movements as best as I could, unsure if I was doing it properly.

  There was a loud groan from him and he pulled back. The flare in his eyes and the sternness in his face
scared me for a moment. Had I done it wrong?

  He quickly released one side of my face and then yanked his cell phone out of his back pocket. He frowned and then answered it, one hand still cupping my head, his rough thumb rubbing against my skin. “What?” he barked into the phone. “Yeah, I’ve got her. She just needed a minute...I’ll bring her in a second.” He looked at me, quietly leaned in, kissed my nose and then bent down to quickly kiss my lips before pulling back to talk into the phone again. “Yeah, I hear you. Nothing’s wrong. We’re heading there now.” He punched at the phone and tucked it back into his pocket. “We’re taking too long.”

  “Do you feel better?” I asked.

  North laughed, shaking his head. “Sang Baby, I’ll fight with Silas, or Hendricks, or goddamn terrorists any damn day if I get to hide in the bathroom and make out with you.”

  Unexpected Terrorists

  North walked me to the front office, where a collection of police officers and men in suits stood around.

  Before I went inside, North gave me my bag and phone. It no longer had the pink case, and I almost didn’t recognize it. “Keep it in your...bra,” he said with a side smirk. “You need pockets.”

  I’m sure my cheeks were red as he held open the door and let me walk in, following behind.

  The usual chaos after a bomb threat had descended on the front office. The phones were being monitored by the assistants as students sat out front, waiting.

  “Sang,” snapped a woman at the front desk. She pointed back to the door. “Down the hall to the left. Second door on your right.”

  I stared at her, hearing her but taking a minute to process what she had said. She knew my name, my face, and was directing me elsewhere and not to Mr. Hendricks’s office.

  “Okay,” I said, starting to turn.

  “I don’t like this,” North said as he pulled open the door and held it for me. He waited until we were around the corner and in the hallway before he took out his phone. He typed into it. It vibrated almost immediately. “Shit,” he said, his voice lowered.