Eeli: The Brotherhood of Ormarr Book Three

by Rayne, Bobbie

  “No clue,” Rachel answered even though I wasn’t really asking her.

  “It’s weird, right?” I pulled my sleeve over the bandage on my arm so no one would see it. It was bad enough coming to school covered in bruises every other week, I didn’t need anyone wondering why I was always hurt.

  She nodded and shrugged, but I could tell she wasn’t really paying attention to me. I spent the remainder of class ignoring a certain goth boy even though I felt his eyes on me a couple of times. What was his deal? Why was he always looking at me?

  I had to ignore him during music class, too, which was much more difficult considering what an amazing voice he had. Part of me wanted to move to a closer seat so I could hear him better, but another part wished I didn’t have to hear it at all because someone like him probably didn’t even appreciate that gift.

  As usual, Bodhi kept me wiggling in my seat for the entire class. I was typically poised and eager to learn, and I hated that she was making me look like I couldn’t sit still for even thirty seconds. It was so embarrassing; I wanted to hide my face every time she messed with me and made me wiggle like a weirdo. Figuring she needed to get out of there, I rushed out the door when the bell rang, but as soon as I did, I could feel her displeasure.

  No.

  No, what? Bo, what’s wrong?

  She huffed in my mind, but didn’t reply. Instead, she got even more antsy. So much so that I was afraid she’d come out of my skin, and there were a million other kids milling about, trying to get out the door. Not knowing what else to do, I leapt through the music room doorway and slammed the door shut so no one would see if she escaped.

  “Eeli?”

  I froze, then slowly turned to find Mrs. Karasel looking at me in concern. Then I cringed when I saw Slash standing beside her, looking like he wanted to murder me. When I didn’t say anything, Mrs. K asked, “You okay, Eeli?”

  Swallowing the nerves down my throat, I croaked out, “Yeah. Fine.”

  “Did you need something?”

  I accidentally looked at Slash again, and this time I could see his eyes, so I got caught in his gaze. He crossed his arms in front of his chest and continued to glare at me as he fiddled with one of his leather bracelets he always wore, and all I could do was stare. At his pretty eyes. No, not pretty. They are not pretty!

  Then why can’t you look away?

  “Eeli?” Mrs. Karasel stepped in front of me, cutting off my line of sight—thank goodness—and breaking the weird hazel-eye hold Slash had over me. “Are you alright, sweetheart?”

  Blinking a few times, I shook myself out. “Um, yeah. I just…” I looked around the room for some excuse, then said, “I forgot my favorite pencil, and I didn’t want it to get lost.” I made my way across the room to a chair that wasn’t even close to my normal seat, then picked up a plain yellow pencil. “Here it is! Thank you. Sorry for interrupting!” I rushed out of there before either of them could say anything else or I could make a bigger fool of myself in front of Goth Boy. Mrs. K probably thought I was going insane with the way I’d been behaving lately.

  Bodhi started wiggling around on my skin again, and I chastised, “We’re in public!” She ignored me. Of course.

  I rushed to my locker, grabbed the rest of my books and stuffed them into my bag, then headed toward the door that led to the parking lot. My dragon was making the skin on my arm ripple which would be hard to explain to a human, so I said, “Knock it off!”

  Bodhi went even crazier as I turned the corner and slammed into someone.

  “Watch where you’re going, Brainiac,” Slash said through gritted teeth.

  “S-sorry,” I stammered before rushing around him and walking as fast as I could out to my car. When I shut my car door, I said, “Aroko,” meaning rise, and Bodhi shimmered out of my skin into the passenger seat. “What is your problem, Bo? You’re making me look like a crazy person! Someone could’ve seen you if you’d come out in there!”

  I could’ve cloaked myself.

  I supposed that was true, but I sure would’ve looked like an idiot. More of an idiot, rather. Ugh.

  She shook herself out, and I could feel her cloaking magic radiating off her, so I wasn’t worried about anyone seeing her. If anyone looked inside my car, they’d think I was talking to an imaginary person… so I’d look even crazier than I already did. Lovely.

  “Do you want to wait in here when I get groceries?” I asked her.

  Come with you.

  I hesitated, then blew out a breath. “Fine. Stretch yourself out for a few minutes before we go out in public again. I’ll work on my language arts homework until then.”

  When I reached onto the floor in front of her to get my book out, she rubbed her face on my arm. Eeli, are you mad?

  “No, I’m fine.” I scratched her neck and she preened, making a reluctant smile pull up on my lips. I leaned over and kissed the top of her head, then pulled out my homework while she wiggled around in her seat and stretched herself out. Maybe she just didn’t like being stuck in tattoo form all day. Maybe that was why she got so antsy in music class. It was the last class of the day.

  Once she’d stretched enough, I drove my car to the grocery store. All of us chipped in to help the family with whatever we could, and since I was already in town most days for school, I’d taken over buying the groceries for the entire family. I used to go once a week, but now that most days there were six adults and five dragons—they ate most of their meals out in the woods, but they snacked inside as well—living in the house, I usually had to make a second run at some point. I was still getting used to buying for that many people, and while we never ran out of food, I really needed to get better at accounting for everyone. This was my job and I took it very seriously. It may have only been something small, but I wanted to prove to my brothers that I could hold my own and be responsible.

  After parking and calling Bodhi back into her tattoo, I headed into the store. We were running low on a few things, so I pulled out my list and looked it over with a frown. A couple of years ago, I started leaving the list on the fridge so anyone could add to it if they needed something, so there were a couple additions at the bottom in my brother’s handwriting. I thought one of the items said brownie mix, but I wasn’t sure because it was written so sloppily, so I called Malachite on my cell.

  “Hey, what’s up?”

  “I’m at the store, and I think you added brownie mix, but I wanted to double check before I had to go down that aisle.”

  “Yeah, I wanted to make some desserts this weekend. Do you mind getting it?”

  Holding in the massive eye roll I wanted to do, I said, “Yeah, it’s fine.”

  “Thanks.”

  “Whatever, Kite.”

  “Hey, Eeli? Don’t spend our whole budget on candy.” It was easy to hear the amusement in his voice. The jerk probably asked for brownie mix on purpose just to make me suffer going down that aisle. Ugh.

  Shaking my head, I said, “You’re a butthead,” then I hung up the phone. “Okay, you can do this, Eeli.” With a nod to myself, I grabbed a shopping cart and picked up everything else we needed first, then I walked to the end of the dreaded aisle. The problem with this aisle was that half of it stocked candy. Personally, I didn’t even like candy, but Bodhi on the other hand, was obsessed. Not only did she enjoy eating it, she made sure to lick the wrappers clean so she could save them. Yep, that’s right, my dragon collects candy wrappers. In other words, she likes trash.

  Not trash; pretties.

  This time, I didn’t hold in my eye roll. “It’s still trash, Bo.”

  She snorted in annoyance at me, and I was pretty sure my hair would be on fire if she’d been out of her tattoo.

  Look at them all!

  I refused to look at the candy, and grabbed four boxes of brownie mix, then headed for the end of the aisle.

  No! Eeli, I need them!

  No, you don’t. We don’t need more trash in our room.

  Not trash; pretties!
>
  Instead of waiting for a reply, she suddenly rippled out of my skin, jumped onto the floor, then scurried down the aisle.

  “Oh no,” I whispered, watching in horror as she wiggled her butt in the air before leaping from the floor up to the shelf, making the entire unit sway. “Please don’t knock it over, please don’t knock it over.” Cart forgotten, I continued my mantra as I ran down the aisle and tried to stop the shelf from falling over.

  As soon as Bo saw me, she climbed up to the next shelf, then ran in the opposite direction. “Bodhi!” I hissed, and once the shelf was no longer threatening to tip, I ran after her. “What do you think you’re doing?” She’d already stuffed countless pieces of candy into her pouch, yet, she was on the hunt for more. “Please stop! Someone will see!”

  Then you can erase their memory like your brothers do.

  “I’ve never done that before without Kite or Az with me!” She stopped her crazed chocolate fest to tilt her head at me, and I whispered, “I’ll buy you whatever candy you want.”

  I want all of it.

  “Bodhi, I can’t afford that much. Can’t you pick like two pieces?”

  Only two? She sounded horrified.

  “Fine, five.”

  “Five what?”

  I turned around and snapped my gaze to the last person on the planet I wanted to see. Slash. Why was it that every time I felt out of control and crazy, he showed up? I hated feeling this way. Even more, I hated when someone else saw me this way. And worse, I hated when it was Slash.

  “Who are you always talking to?” he asked, trying to look behind me, not that it was difficult since more than half the population could see over my head. Still, I went up on my toes to block his view of Bodhi. Or at least, I hoped I did. Since he wasn’t acting like anything was weird behind me, I figured she was hiding from him or had already moved on to another shelf. Yeah, that was probably it.

  Slash was still staring at me. Why is he staring at me? Oh right, he asked me something. “What are you talking about?”

  He rolled his eyes, then looked at the shelf next to me and his jaw clenched. “Did you seriously do this? You know that someone’s going to have to fix this, right?”

  Running my eyes down his body, then back up, I licked my lips to try and get some moisture back in my mouth. He was wearing a uniform with the grocery store logo on it—I knew he worked here, but why did he always seem to show up when Bo was acting crazy? And even though it was only a t-shirt and his normal dark jeans, it showed off his toned arms, and it was a good look for him. Really good. Wow. I got so distracted checking him out, that I completely forgot he asked me a question. What was with me lately? I really needed to get my act together and start acting normal again!

  “That someone being me,” he said angrily, making me blink and refocus on what he was saying.

  I glanced at the shelf and saw what a disaster it was, and I cringed. “No, it wasn’t me.”

  “Right. It was that other, invisible person you’re always talking to, right? Your invisible friend did it? Or maybe he made you do it?”

  Narrowing my eyes at him, I stood up tall—tall for me. “Why are you always such a jerk to everyone? What did I ever do to you?”

  He lifted a brow and pointed at the messy shelf.

  “No, I told you I didn—” I cut myself off when I saw Bodhi leap over Slash’s head, across the aisle to the other side. “Oh, dear god.”

  “What?”

  Ignoring his scowling face, I ran past him and said loudly in my most commanding voice, “Arata,” which meant return. Most of the time a bonded dragon would listen to her rider unless her rider was in danger, so I was praying that she’d listen to me this time.

  Luckily, I saw her shimmer on the top shelf, and a moment later, she was back in her tattoo form on my arm. Without looking at Slash, who I knew was staring at me and probably assuming I’d lost my mind somewhere in that aisle, I rushed out of it and away from temptation. Bo’s temptation, not mine. Ugh.

  We are so having a talk about this later, Bo. What were you thinking?

  My pretties.

  I sighed and pushed my way to get in line. How much did you take?

  She started listing all the candy she stole, so I added it up in my head and decided I’d leave an extra hundred dollars in the register to cover it. The money wasn’t an issue since we had plenty, but I didn’t have a lot on me and we didn’t spend it frivolously because we wanted to make it last and be sure we could afford the things we needed for missions. Hopefully, I could sneak the money into the register when no one was looking. Unlike my dragon, I did have a little bit of skill in being sneaky. Or at least, I hoped I was better at it than she was.

  As I was leaving the store, I looked back to find Slash watching me go with an angry look on his face. If he’d ever wipe that glower off his face, he’d be pretty handsome. Okay, even with the scowl he was hot. But the bad attitude knocked him down at least ten pegs.

  On the drive home, I realized I was still thinking about that look on Slash’s face when he saw what a mess the candy was, and guilt formed in my belly. I should’ve been the one to clean it up, but there was no way I could stick around in that aisle with Bo. She would’ve only made it worse.

  Maybe next time I saw Slash, I should tip him or something for cleaning it up. How I could possibly do that without getting punched in the face, I had no idea.

  Ugh. Slash. I wish I didn’t have to see him tomorrow.

  5

  Slash

  I waited until Eeli had hurried out to his purple car in the parking lot before I approached my co-worker who had rung up his food order. “How much candy did he buy?” I asked.

  She glanced at me curiously, shaking her head. “He didn’t buy any, which,” she tilted her head to the side, “now that you mention it, is weird because he usually buys a few pieces.”

  “He generally buys candy?” I asked skeptically, watching as he loaded his bags into the car. As much as I’d liked to pretend I didn’t pay attention to Eeli unless he was in my way, it wasn’t true. I noticed everything about him, not just the fact that he couldn’t stand still lately and had begun talking to himself or didn’t seem to have an attention span outside of class. I knew the lunches he brought from home were usually pretty nutritious. The couple times I’d seen him get school lunch he’d grabbed a salad, so it was weird to hear he had a candy addiction.

  Even as I glared at him through the window, totally pissed and absurdly disappointed, I couldn’t help wonder what it would feel like to run my hands through his glossy hair. It looked soft even though he wore it shorter, but he didn’t gel it up like most guys did. That, and I was oddly obsessed with the color; it was a golden brown and the streaks of blond through it always glimmered in the sunlight. And I thought he was the strange one.

  After giving him one last dirty look for good measure when he glanced in and made eye contact with me, I turned and marched back to the candy aisle. I sighed as I planted my hands on my hips and took in the horrific mess he’d left behind. I’d been restocking the candy aisle since I got in today, straightening it up as I went, and had only walked into the back to get another container of Smarties.

  Coming back to find candy scattered everywhere was irritating on its own, all my hard work ruined. But to add insult to injury, there were bags of Hershey Kisses and Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups missing, not to mention half a box of individually wrapped Lindor White Chocolate Balls were gone. I probably wouldn’t have noticed, but dammit, I’d just refilled all those spots and opened a new box of the chocolate balls. How the heck did he get them out of the store? Where could he have possibly stuck them? And most of all, why did he steal them? I may not have lived here long, but based on how he dressed and the fact he had a car as soon as he got his license, I had to assume his family wasn’t hurting for money.

  Then there was that kickass dragon tattoo that wrapped up his arm. I’d priced tattoos at the local tattoo parlor since I really wanted a few some
day—after I found a place for me and Kyla to live and got her out of high school. That was a luxury I couldn’t afford right now while every penny I made went to making sure Kyla and I had food at home, especially for the weekends when school breakfast—for Kyla at least, I got to school too late—or lunch wasn’t even an option, and I made sure we had everything else we needed for school. As many hours as Mr. Udine tried to give me, with my limited time, I still had to buy all of our clothes off of discount racks or at the thrift store.

  The disappointment I felt was irrational. Eeli didn’t know me; we weren’t friends, and yet, I felt betrayed. Him acting superior to me hurt my feelings and was annoying, but… Eeli was someone I’d esteemed. If there had been anyone my age I’d met since I’d moved here that I’d wanted to emulate, it was him. Thinking of him as a disrespectful thief was making me nauseous and question whether I knew anything at all.

  “Hey, Slash, right? Do you… I don’t know… need some help, maybe?”

  I spun around and came face to face with Austin Walker. I knew he was popular at school, but I also knew he wasn’t the jerk that the most popular guy at my last school had been. He came in with his mom every week, and he always said hi or asked me how I was. We didn’t have any classes together, but I’d seen him at lunchtime enough to know that Eeli had a crush on him. It was obvious by how he flushed anytime Austin glanced in his direction. It kinda pissed me off, so even though Austin had always been nice to me, kind really, I’d kept my distance and tried not to engage. But as I took in the shelves with candy mixed up all over, nothing in its right place, and bags falling onto the floor, I asked, “You really wouldn’t mind?”

  His bright smile almost blinded me. No wonder Eeli got flustered around the guy. He wasn’t my type—although, I was pretty sure neither I nor Eeli were Austin’s—but there was no denying that he was easy on the eyes. “No, I wouldn’t mind at all,” he said cheerfully. “Mom’s standing over in line at the deli, so I figured I’d wander around. This will give me something to do.”