“Oh yeah, Eeli? What’re you gonna do about it?”
Bodhi jumped from my arms and began pecking at his feet, making him move closer to me as he jumped around and tried to get away. When she had him up against the lockers in front of me again, I pulled out my cell to call Zale.
“Hey.”
“Hey, uh… we have a problem.”
“What’s going on? Where are you?”
“I’m still at school, but uh… can you meet me here? I need your help.” Before he could reply I added, “And bring some rope.”
“Eeli, what’s going on? Are you hurt?” Zale asked at the same time that Slash’s eyes widened as he said, “Rope?”
I didn’t take my eyes off him as I asked my brother, “Is your mate with you?”
“Of course.”
“Bring him, too.”
“Why do you need Davis?”
My blue eyes connected with Slash’s hazel ones, and I said, “Because he has experience with kidnapping people.”
9
Slash
Had Eeli just said kidnapping people? No way. I knew he needed help, but there was something seriously wrong with him. As he finished up his phone call, I tried to ease my way down the lockers in the other direction. There was a side exit at the end of the hall if I could make it down there without him stopping me. I couldn’t have taken more than two side steps when that thing, that thing poor Eeli had deluded himself into believing was a dragon, started pecking at my feet again. Okay, it was a little thing, small but scary, and I had to get to my sister. What if Eeli really did have someone who’d come take me? Then Kyla would be alone and scared, she wouldn’t know where I went. Oh god, she’d think I’d been taken by… No. I had to make a break for it. Screw my backpack. As I spun and took off running, I heard, “Bodhi, do something.”
The next thing I knew, there was a very large, very purple dragon? in front of me. Tilting my head up, up, up I saw it was as tall as the ceiling as it crouched its head down to stare into my eyes. It almost appeared as if it was smiling? at me. Before I could focus on that, air swirled around me, brushing my skin. It felt as if I was stuck in a wind tunnel. As the thought registered, I watched the massive beast’s wings? spread out before they settled back down next to its body. “Uh, Eeli?”
“Um… what? Yes?” His voice was strained, but I couldn’t worry about his mental health right now. I thought I might be in the middle of my own stress-induced psychotic break.
“W-w-what is that?”
“Uh, yeah, that’s Bodhi, my dragon. I told you that already.”
His voice had taken on an edge of impatience that just pissed me off. Ignoring what must surely be a figment of my imagination, since there was no way for a purple winged dragon to be smiling at me in the middle of the school hall, I whirled on him. “Are you kidding me? You really expect me to believe you have a dragon as a pet? A dragon that goes from being the size of a puppy to… to…” I motioned toward the beast with an outstretched hand like I was a game show host displaying the prize. “To the size of a building?”
He appeared completely exasperated with me as he replied, “Well, you can see with your own eyes she’s real. And stop being mean, Slash. You’re going to hurt her feelings if you keep talking about her like that.”
Before I could reply, I heard women’s voices passing the end of the hall we were down. As soon as I saw who they were, I sighed with relief. “Mrs. Karasel! Mrs. Eldrid! Help!”
They both stopped in their tracks, astonished. “Well, it’s about time,” Mrs. Eldrid said.
“What?” I glanced at the thing still standing over me. It had turned its head to watch the ladies curiously, but made no move toward them and was still blocking my exit. “Help me.”
Eeli forced a stiff chuckle out of his mouth. “He’s kidding. I was teasing him about something and he’s uh… just being dramatic.”
Mrs. Karasel giggled. “So that’s what’s been wrong with you lately, Eeli.” She looked between us, her teeth on full display as she beamed at us.
“Don’t you see it?” I begged. Oh god, if they couldn’t see, he had somehow sucked me into his delusion.
Mrs. Eldrid’s warm smile and kind eyes rested on me. “Oh, we see it alright. But school’s over and the teachers are even leaving, so why don’t you take this outside. Slash, you need to get going to get your sister, anyway.”
I caught Eeli’s eyes widening out of my peripheral, but I couldn’t worry about that. “No. Wait. Let me come with you. He’s going to kidnap me. Please. You have to take me with you.”
Mrs. Karasel didn’t even pretend to hear me as she said to Mrs. Eldrid, “How cute are they?” They both said goodbye and kept walking. They left me. I was alone with a boy who’d lost his mind and the figment of his imagination that he’d conjured to scare me into staying with him. I knew it wasn’t real and I wanted to bolt, but each time I looked up at it, my body froze.
“How come they didn’t see it?” I asked Eeli.
“Oh, she didn’t let them see her. She’s usually invisible when we’re out in public. I guess she was sick of you not knowing she existed.”
Before I could process that, I heard loud footsteps running down the hall toward us. “Eeli? Eeli, where are you?”
“About time,” he muttered. Yelling out, he said, “Down here. Hurry. I don’t know what to do and Slash is freaking out and I’m freaking out and Bo wants to hug him and—”
“Woah, slow it down, little brother,” a blond-haired man about my size but muscled said as soon as he came into view.
“What took you so long?” Eeli asked. “It should have taken you a few minutes to fly here.” Fly here?
“Oh, we drove. Figured if we needed rope then maybe we needed a getaway vehicle,” he said before laughing. Then noticing me, he gestured wildly. “Why the heck is Bodhi standing in the middle of the hall halfway in warrior form scaring that kid?”
“That’s Slash and he’s my mate and he must be why Bo’s been acting so crazy, but I didn’t know because I’m only eighteen and why would I have thought my mate was at school and now Bo won’t leave him and we have him trapped down the hall and Bo showed herself and I won’t be able to erase his memory so now we have to take him, so where’s the rope?”
The blond just looked at Eeli and blinked while a large, bald, tattooed wall of muscle stood behind him and laughed his ass off. What the hell was wrong with these people? I recognized the blond as one of Eeli’s brothers who came into the grocery store with him. Were they all crazy? Then it dawned on me. “Wait, you guys can see that, uh, thing—”
“Bodhi,” Eeli interrupted, sounding cranky. “You’re hurting her feelings and it’s pissing me off.”
“You expect me to believe that… Bodhi… is a girl?” I asked him incredulously.
“Why can’t she be a girl?” he snapped. “She’s gorgeous.”
The bald guy nodded. “Bo really is a beautiful girl,” he cooed with a deep rumble.
I cut my eyes up to Bodhi? and I could swear she batted her long lashes at the bald guy before fixing her very reptilian eyes back on me.
Eeli said to the bald man, “Did you bring the rope, Davis?”
“Yeah, that would be a no, little bro.”
“But… but… how am I supposed to get him home? He’ll tell people,” he said with a whine.
“No! No, I won’t. Eeli, I swear, if you let me leave, I’ll never tell a soul about whatever this was.”
I heard a chuffing and looked up at the dragon—I guessed if that’s what they were going with, I might as well, too. She didn’t look happy. In fact, I was pretty sure she was glaring, but not at me, at Eeli. Then she started to… wiggle her butt… just like Eeli usually did. I think I’m gonna pass out.
The guy Eeli called Davis said, “We don’t need rope. We’re simply going to ask him to come with us. Right, Zale?”
The guy, Zale, said, “Yeah. I think that’s best. We’ll take him to Azaran and he can figure
this out. He’ll know what to do.”
“Aslan?” I asked, my voice high and squeaky. “You guys think you have a lion at home named Aslan? Does he live in a wardrobe?” Okay, I really am going to pass out.
The two men started to laugh, but Eeli narrowed his eyes at me. “What, are you crazy? Azaran, not Aslan. He’s my oldest brother. What do you think, we’re crazy or something?” I blinked, unsure how to answer. “Great, just great.” He threw his arms in the air, clearly frustrated. “My mate thinks I’m nuts. This is awesome. I can’t get anything right. I didn’t bond with Bo right, and now I’m not going to bond with my mate right, either. I don’t even know why I bother.”
Zale immediately walked up and enfolded Eeli in his arms, but I couldn’t hear what he was whispering to him. Davis strode over to me, purpose in his movement. It was almost as intimidating as the dragon. “Sorry about this, kid. I really am going to need you to come with us. I didn’t bring rope, but I can assure you I don’t need it to get you into the car; so are you going to come out peacefully or do I have to haul you out?”
They all stopped and watched me; men and beast. I didn’t know what to do, but what I did know was I couldn’t leave Kyla on her own. These guys might be absolutely nuts, but they didn’t seem to want to hurt me, but my uncle… no, she was better off with me. “I’ll come with you, but under one condition.”
“Name it,” Eeli said, hopefulness in his tone.
“Eeli, don’t make him promises until we hear what it is,” his brother warned him.
“We have to stop at the middle school and get my sister. She waits outside the back door for me. She’s probably already getting worried. I… I really can’t leave without her.”
“Fair enough,” said Zale. “Let’s go. You’ll all ride with me.”
“But I have my car,” said Eeli.
“You just found your mate and rambled a whole monologue at us. You’re not driving anywhere until Azaran helps us figure this out, and you calm down.” His brother wrapped his hand around the back of Eeli’s neck, much like I did with my own sister, and Eeli sank into him.
Davis stayed next to me, but he didn’t try to restrain me in any way. Bodhi instantly became the size of a dog again and jumped up to wrap around the back of my neck. I stiffened my spine and walked as carefully as I could, scared that she’d attack me if I begged her to please, please get off of me. As we walked out to the truck, I noticed that while they may not have brought rope, one had a freaking sword and the other had a knife tucked into a sheath attached to his side. How the heck had I missed that? Deciding I really couldn’t get away from them, I climbed in the back next to Eeli. He cast an apologetic, worried expression at me before staring at his lap; his dragon tucking up in my lap under my chin. Now I was terrified to breathe.
Davis drove and followed my directions to drive to the back of the school next door. My sister stood hunched against the side of the building. Her shoulders drooped in defeat and her backpack hung loosely from one arm. “Damn, glad we came to get her. She looks devastated,” Zale said.
Eeli’s face paled as he muttered, “I’m so sorry, Slash. I’m so sorry. I have no control over this mate thing.”
I didn’t know why they kept saying mate, but that would have to wait for later. Davis must have used a switch on his door to roll my window down, so as soon as it was halfway, I yelled, “Kyla, come on… we’re uh… going to my friend’s house for a little while.” I wasn’t going to scare her until I had a plan to get us out of this mess.
Her head jerked up, her face brightening as she straightened up and ran for me. Zale jumped out of the truck, opened the door for her, and politely helped her up into the seat next to me. This had to be the strangest kidnapping on the planet. “Geesh, you could have warned me. I was getting really worried.”
“Sorry, I—” was as far as I got before she said, “Oh, who’s this?” in a sugar-sweet tone generally used on babies.
The now small beast in my lap jumped from me and onto Kyla’s lap and appeared to hug her neck with its wings. Alarmed, I went to grab it, but my sister already had both arms wrapped tightly around it. To no one in particular she asked, “Is it a boy or a girl?”
“Girl,” Eeli said softly.
My sister cooed, “Who’s a pretty girl?” As Bodhi wiggled in closer, and kissed? her cheek, she continued, “Oh, aren’t you a sweetie. Yes, who’s a pretty girl?”
Oh my god, they’d somehow sucked my sister into their delusion, too. Feeling an elbow poke in my side, I turned to Eeli who glanced purposefully at my sister with the beast in her lap, then looked back at me and stuck out his tongue. A smile bloomed on his face as soon as my sister said, “Wow, Slash. When you decide to make friends, you sure pick awesome ones.”
Not sure how to respond to that, I was stunned when the one named Zale said, “Why don’t you tell us where you guys live so we can swing by and get you some clothes.”
Apparently, Eeli was as shocked by that suggestion as I was since our, “What?” echoed throughout the cab of the truck in unison.
“Wait. What’re we doing?” Kyla asked, looking at me suspiciously.
“We’re… uh… gonna spend the night with Eeli and his brothers,” I answered, still not wanting her to worry.
Zale turned in his seat to pin Eeli with a look I couldn’t decipher before he said, “They need their own stuff. I don’t want them to be uncomfortable while they’re in our house.” Davis glanced at Zale, who leaned over and kissed his cheek, then continued, “Trust me, Eeli, in the long run this will be better for both of you.”
Eeli nodded at his brother and fidgeted in his seat, pushing his hands under the outside of his thighs and sitting on them. Since I wasn’t sure how long Eeli and his brothers were going to hold us captive, and not following this conversation at all, I gave them directions to our crappy little apartment with Uncle Larry.
“You’re really going to let them come in?” Kyla asked me as we parked outside.
I shrugged and pulled her across the seat behind me as I followed Eeli out his side of the truck. Thankful that Uncle Larry’s car wasn’t home again, I hesitated as I unlocked the door. If Eeli had thought he was better than me before, he’d know for sure now. Once they’d followed me into the house, I looked around self-consciously. Uncle Larry’s things were old and battered. The TV across from the old, worn orange couch was small and still had the old-fashioned bunny ears antenna since he said he couldn’t afford cable. The mismatched magenta chair that was next to the couch had a broken-down end table next to it that wobbled and was covered in beer cans. Of course, none of that was as bad as the fast food wrappers, liquor bottles, and god knew what other things that littered the floor. Sighing, I ushered them all into my and Kyla’s room.
The two twin beds stuffed into our room were just as broken down, but at least the room was clean and neat. Kyla and I had organized things as well as we could, with her keeping all of her clothes and keepsakes in the ancient wooden dresser our uncle had provided. “Am I just packing an overnight bag?” Kyla asked, the purple dragon balancing on her shoulders and peering around the room.
Before I could answer, Zale said, “Why don’t you pack for a few days? My brother’s… uh… person would probably love to have you stay as long as possible.”
I shrugged helplessly when Kyla looked at me for direction, then went to start pulling my own stuff out of the box that housed my clothes in the closet. “You two share a room?” Eeli asked, his voice quiet in the still room.
It didn’t surprise me to hear Kyla answer in the affirmative when I remained silent. The fact that they… really, Eeli, was seeing how we lived embarrassed me. It was bad enough they were taking me against my will and I had to appear okay with the whole thing for Kyla, but now I was humiliated, too. “Slash, why is there no food in the kitchen?” Davis asked as soon as he walked into the room. I hadn’t even realized he wasn’t still in here with us as I’d stuffed my few belongings into one of the bags we’d mo
ved here with.
“My uncle doesn’t buy us food that often,” Kyla piped up. “We keep a stash of things under my bed that Slash buys us from his job.”
“Are you kidding me?” Davis asked, his voice hard. When I looked up to assure them it wasn’t a problem, tension radiated off Zale and Davis in waves, keeping me silent. It was a big deal, and I knew it. Not sure how Eeli had reacted to that tidbit, and not wanting to know, I went back to gathering some things. After Kyla and I had grabbed everything we needed for a few days, we followed our kidnappers back out to the truck. Idly, I thought how glad I was that they’d left their weapons in the truck. I had no idea how I’d have explained that to my sister.
Kyla climbed up into Eeli’s side again, and as I went to follow her, Eeli grabbed my shoulder. “I’m sorry, Slash,” he said sincerely. The dull light of his normally sparkling blue eyes made me suspect he wasn’t apologizing for taking us, but for what he’d seen inside. The last thing I wanted was for Eeli—the person who’d thought himself better than me, who was obviously not all there in the head, nor was his family, the person stealing me and my sister—to feel sorry for me. I glanced back toward the door of the apartment before I climbed into the back seat of the truck exchanging one nightmare for another. Fuck. My. Life.
10
Slash
As soon as we pulled up to the house, my sister started to open her door. I tugged on her arm and had her wait for a minute, then as soon as Eli went out his side, I whispered, “I need you to stay close to me, okay?”
She turned her head and with narrowed eyes asked, “Why? Isn’t that guy your friend?” Her eyes shifted to where Eeli was standing watching us, waiting.
Not wanting to scare her, I played it off. “Yeah, but I don’t know him that well yet, so for now, stay close, okay?”
The little beast, dragon, had her head resting on my sister’s shoulder as she crawled out of the truck, but her eyes were fixed on my face. Eeli’s brother was there to help her down, but as I scooted toward the door, Eeli appeared. He shifted from foot to foot, looking everywhere but at me. I hesitated before jumping down because it would put us uncomfortably close. He backed up quickly when my chest brushed his as I landed on both feet. “Sorry,” he mumbled as his face became purplish-red. Huh, beet red, I get it now, I thought randomly as I followed him into the house. Yeah, I was definitely losing my mind.
Eeli: The Brotherhood of Ormarr Book Three Page 8