“Yeah.” Amy smiled and played with the radio. “My brother thought about becoming a mechanic. I used to hang out with him in his friend’s garage.”
His eyes widened a fraction. Amy on her back beneath a car, clad in nothing but a tank top and shorts. That was one hot mental image. He swiftly changed the subject. “You have a brother?” Neither Susan nor Amy had mentioned another sibling.
“Yeah. He moved away to go to university.” She settled on a hard rock station and leaned back against her seat.
“Where does he go to school?” He finally had her talking, and this was a better topic than the weather.
“Vancouver.” She tucked a lock of hair behind her ear. “Justin is studying criminal justice.”
“Savage!” Zack flashed an impressed smile. They pulled into a parking space in front of Parsons Elementary.
Chris appeared at Amy’s window. She rolled it down. “This why you’re late, Zack?” He smirked.
Zack grinned, unashamed. “Yep. We’re dropping Amy off at work before heading home.”
“Where do you work?” Chris scrambled into the back seat with a happy-go-lucky smile.
“Pete’s,” Amy and Zack said in unison.
“Oh, right.” Amy sighed. “You were there with your team a few days ago.”
“Yeah, we celebrate there on the reg.” He cruised out of the elementary school parking lot and hit the gas as a good song came on.
Amy’s ebony hair swirled around her face in the wind from her open window. She looked at him bobbing his head to the beat and burst out laughing. His breath caught in his chest. Laughter transformed her like a flower opening to the sun. Her defenses fell away, leaving her simultaneously beautiful and vulnerable.
“What?” Zack chuckled. “My team wins a lot!”
“I know.” More giggles burst from her lips. They painted the car in shades of shimmering sunlight. “I’m surprised you jocks party it up with such family-friendly style.”
“Babe, our after-parties are too lit for your loner mind to handle. Come watch us play this Saturday and maybe you’ll score an invite.”
“I’ll pass.” She chuckled. He never wanted her to stop laughing. “My kid-friendly restaurant needs me.”
“Did you just start working at Pete’s?” It was weird he had never seen her there before.
Her eyes danced with mirth. “I’ve been there over a year.”
“Oh.” Heat crept into his cheeks. He was an oblivious idiot.
Chris leaned forward to tell Amy about his day. She gave him her full attention, truly listening to everything he said. They acted like siblings, joking, laughing, and teasing each other mercilessly.
He insisted on walking Amy to the door, and from the moment they entered the diner, he regretted his decision. Every last person in the place turned to gape at them. Two employees at the counter waved hello to Amy and continued staring openly at Zack.
“Hey Amy.” The shorter of the two greeted her with narrowed eyes and pursed lips. “Who’s your friend?”
“Steve, Andrew, this is Zack.” Amy did her best to ignore the attention they were receiving. “He’s also a junior at THS.”
A grizzled old guy waggled his fingers at them. “What’d I tell you, Amy? I knew you’d make some lucky fellow’s life a little brighter.”
Amy cringed. “Hi, Hal.” She looked like she wanted to melt into a puddle and never solidify again.
Steve mumbled something under his breath and stalked into the kitchen.
“Nice to meet you.” Zack shook Andrew’s hand and waved hello to the old guy. “Hi, sir.” He crossed the diner to shake his hand as well. “I’m Zack.”
“Good to meet you, son. The name’s Hal.” He had a firm handshake but a welcoming smile. “You be sure to treat our Amy right.”
“Oh God.” Amy’s cheeks flamed. She buried her face in her arm.
“I’ll be sure to do that.” Zack winked. A gagging sound from the kitchen doorway signaled Steve’s return.
Hal looked Zack up and down. “You seem familiar. You eaten here before?”
“Yeah, my football team drops by all the time.” Steve screwed up his face. Zack suppressed a chuckle. Amy had a college dropout love interest? He ought to free the loser from his delusions. “I’d love to stay and chat, but I’m late for practice right now. Later, hon.” He blew Amy a kiss and sauntered out the door with his hands in his pockets.
He and Chris blared Amy’s rock station on the drive home while Zack mulled over the sensation he had created at Pete’s. Either everyone working with her had as bad a crush as he did, or his and Amy’s class difference had prompted the staring. Was she not supposed to associate with rich kids? Or did Amy seriously have no friends at all? Had it been that weird for her co-workers to see her with someone from school? He shrugged. Befriending unpopular kids was out of the question, no matter how addictively attractive they were.
Thirteen
CHARLES BREEZED INTO homeroom Thursday morning with a smile on his face and a spring in his step. Assassin’s Honor had ignored him since their run-in with Amy on Monday afternoon. He grinned to himself and took a seat with the nerds. Chem jokes were a hell of a lot less painful than Alex’s fists.
A light knock at the door interrupted his homeroom teacher midsentence. All heads turned as Amy slipped into a seat in the back row. Mr. Fields scowled, his hazel eyes shooting sparks of annoyance. “Kind of you to grace us with your presence.”
“Sorry, sir.” Amy gazed demurely at her desk.
Mr. Fields huffed out an annoyed breath and resumed class with his usual blustering rage. Zack and Ken shared a look. If either of them had arrived this late, they would have gotten a week’s worth of detention. Their bitter, old teacher must dislike some of his students marginally less than others.
The next time Charles saw Amy, she was hurtling toward him through the cafeteria at lunch. He tried to move out of her way, but a crowd of chattering freshmen blocked his path. She smashed into him with a lot of force for a small person, and their books exploded in all directions.
“Damn it! Sorry.” A flush crept up Amy’s neck.
“No problem.” He bent to retrieve his stuff. She gathered her things and rushed outside.
Charles sat with the nerds and began cramming books into his bag. He hesitated with a pair of identical history texts in his hands. He opened one to check the name on the inside cover, and a scrap of paper fell onto the table in front of him. His stomach lurched. The slanted handwriting was horrifyingly familiar. It spelled his doom just as surely as Nathan had misspelled the word ‘invincible.’ How had he missed seeing this message? When had he received it? Assassin’s Honor was the furthest thing from stealthy. His gaze flitted back to the book, and a rush of relief loosened the knots in his gut. That wasn’t his name scrawled across the inside cover. It was Amy’s.
His relief evaporated. His eyes stretched wide, his stomach doing a sickening flip of horror. Amy had received a note from Assassin’s Honor. Charles smoothed the paper with shaking hands.
Evans,
You have crossed a line. Not once, but twice. Do you truly expect to get away with this? Do you honestly think you’re invinsable? Are you relying on that boyfriend of yours to protect you? Because news flash, he can’t. Anyone who messes with us pays a painful price. Everyone has a weakness, and it will be our pleasure to exploit yours. You better watch your back, because we’re watching you.
Nathan had signed his note with an X in the bottom left corner. Charles stared at the paper, his stomach churning with queasiness. Were they targeting Amy because she had helped him on Monday? Guilt snaked through his gut and tangled with his dread. You have crossed a line. Not once, but twice. His blood turned to ice. What other encounters had she had with them?
His chair scraped against the floor as he shakily stood and pocketed the note. He had to put a stop to this. A human was helpless against a Dark. He was helpless against a Dark, as well, but that was beside the point. Thi
s was a supernatural conflict, and it was his duty as a mage to keep Amy safe.
Charles summoned his nonexistent courage and went looking for the most dangerous super he knew. Alex spent his lunch periods seducing girls in the soundproof music room. Charles peeked through the little, round window in the door and found Alex making out with a curly-haired blonde. He was going to have to wait until after she left. He leaned against the wall, his heart pounding in his ears and his muscles rigid with tension. His thoughts tumbled over one another as he tried to imagine surviving the lunch break.
The blonde slipped from the room, and Charles’s jaw dropped. She was Chelsea Brookes, the girlfriend of popular football jock, Zack Donnellson.
Her eyes widened a fraction. She licked her lips, opened her mouth, and swiftly snapped it shut. He had been deemed unworthy of an excuse. Chelsea assumed, rightfully so, that he had no one to tell. She smoothed a hand over her hair, dismissed him with an imperious jerk of her head, and floated down the hall like an addict on ecstasy. He glanced up to the ceiling. Chelsea was in way over her head.
Darks possessed a creepy ability to enslave their victims by kissing them, a process they had termed bonding. Darks’ saliva contained hormones that relaxed the mind and body and invoked a drug-like sense of euphoria. This caused addicted victims, like Chelsea, to crave attention and validation from their Dark, doing anything and everything to win their favor. Bonds were characterized by every aspect of unhealthy relationships. They encouraged physical and emotional dependence, loss of identity and self, and abusive tendencies bordering on BDSM behavior. Darks often created entire armies of bonded victims for their unflinching, blind loyalty and zombie-like acceptance of whatever the Dark did and said.
“What you looking at?” Alex stalked from the music room, straightening his leather jacket. “You so starved for attention, you spy on people making out? Go home and watch some porn.”
Charles’s heart leapt into his throat at Alex’s sudden appearance. “I’m not here to discuss Chelsea.” Doubt slithered into his mind as he met Alex’s cold blue eyes. Was Amy worth risking his life? He barely knew her and what he did know, he didn’t much like.
Alex bared his teeth. “Spit it out, loser. I don’t have all day.”
Yeah. You’ve a whole list of cheerleader conquests to enslave before the lunch period ends. Disgust chased away his doubt. Charles pulled Nathan’s note from his pocket and waved it in Alex’s face. “What’s with this?”
“Nathan gave that to her.” Alex leaned against the music room doorframe, a smirk playing at the corners of his mouth.
Charles crossed his skinny arms over his chest and scowled. “Cut the crap, Cardelle. We both know you control everything they do.”
“That’s right. I do control them. I control anyone I want.”
“Leave Amy out of this. I barely know the girl.”
“You two dating? This chick must dish it out like candy.”
Charles grimaced. “God, no!” He would never, ever go out with someone as bitchy as Amy. “I’m only saying targeting her is pointless. She means nothing to me.”
“And yet here you are, begging me to leave her alone. Amy must have considered the consequences before she got involved.”
“End this.” Charles shoved him with pure magical energy. Alex’s mocha hair stood on end.
He outright laughed at the flimsy attempt at force. “Look who thinks he’s a big man now. Stay out of our way, and the next time we chat, Amy might still have all her teeth.” He sauntered away, whistling.
Charles blanched at the vivid image of Alex punching out Amy’s teeth, or worse, him operating a dental drill. His stomach roiled at the pictures Alex had placed in his mind. He hung his head. Standing up to the Dark had made him even more psychopathic.
Fourteen
“HEY.”
Smash. Amy’s beaker of chemicals slipped from her hand and shattered on the laminate countertop.
Her chemistry lab teacher motioned for her to clean up the mess. Amy held her breath for a second and shrugged free of her clinging terror. Her startle response had shot through the roof since the note had appeared in her locker. Assassin’s Honor had a gift for crafting creepy phrases. We’re watching you. Everyone has a weakness. Their threats echoed in her mind, poisoning her thoughts and choking her with unease. The girl leaning across the aisle, the one who had spoken, took in Amy’s deer-in-the-headlights expression and gaped at her in openmouthed dismay.
“Sorry? Didn’t mean to startle you.” The girl was several inches taller than Amy with long, wavy auburn hair and enough style to impress Hollywood. She radiated cheerleader popularity.
Amy flushed with embarrassment. “It was my fault.”
“Are you going out with Zack Donnellson?” The cheerleader skipped straight to the point and pierced her with a chiding look.
“Not again,” Amy groaned. “Everyone’s been asking me that all day.” She gratefully accepted the rag her lab partner passed her.
“Because he has a girlfriend. You know that, right?”
“No and yes.” She wrinkled her nose and mopped up the spill.
The cheerleader narrowed her emerald green eyes. “Yes, you are going out with him, but no one told you he had a girlfriend?”
“No.” She threw the pushy cheerleader an exasperated scowl. “No, I’m not going out with him, and yes, I know he has a girlfriend.”
“Good.” The cheerleader smiled, dazzling the room with a row of perfect white teeth. “I just wanted to check, because I’m friends with his girlfriend.”
“Whatever.” Amy shrugged. “Good talking to you.”
“My name’s Jessie.” The cheerleader shook her hand with a surprisingly genuine smile.
“Amy,” she mumbled. She had been going to THS for two entire years and had had less conversations in all that time than in the last week alone. She hated the attention with an intensity that rivaled her alarm on a Monday morning or people who still used the word ‘retarded.’
Jessie was the one person who confronted her to her face. Everyone else was much less polite. People stared at her wherever she went. Conversations broke off the second she grew near, and hushed whispering followed her through school. Angry frustration simmered silently within. So what if Zack had dropped her at Pete’s that one time, and so what if he had driven her and Susan to school that morning? A few rides meant nothing. Zack was just being paranoid after what he had witnessed with Assassin’s Honor.
Amy was in a foul mood by the end of the afternoon. She marched to her locker to retrieve her jacket and once again got ambushed.
“Hey!”
She spun on the spot and slammed her locker shut with a bang. She had enough stress in her life between raising her kid sister and avoiding a bunch of psychopathic gangsters without the whole school accusing her of dating a football star.
“No!” she yelled, planting her fists on her hips. “I am not going out with Zack Donnellson!”
“I was only going to ask if you had notes from precalculus yesterday.” Zack’s friend raised his hands in mock surrender.
“Sorry.” She deflated, heat searing her face. “I’ve had a rough day.”
The chatty girl from chemistry galloped up and greeted Locker Buddy with an enthusiastic kiss. Amy shook her head in confusion. Could this day get any weirder?
Locker Buddy smiled as he unglued himself from Jessie. “Amy, this is—”
“Jessie, I know.” Amy shoved her hands into her pockets. Why was this rando introducing her to his girlfriend when she didn’t even know his name?
“Hey.” Zack ambled up and rested a hand on her shoulder. “How’s it going?”
Amy swept her gaze over the group and raised an eyebrow in skeptical disbelief. Had the three of them planned to ambush her here? They kept multiplying. She shook her head, a string of snarky retorts leaping to her lips. Oh yeah, I’m fantastic. I’ve got half the school hating my guts for stealing some poor girl’s boyfriend, the other half
gossiping about you becoming my personal chauffeur, and a group of hulking gangsters leaving threatening messages in my locker. “Great,” was all she said aloud. She stepped away from Zack and his hand. “You?”
“Good.” Zack glanced at Jessie and her boyfriend, who were once again making out. “Either of you want a ride home?” He dangled his keys in front of their smooching faces. “Look, shiny.”
“This looks fun.” A leggy blonde stalked over and slid her arm through Zack’s. “Who’s this, honey?”
Honey? Amy struggled to keep a straight face. She caught Zack’s eye and grinned. He cringed. Laughter bubbled inside her like a golden spring of joy. Why did this guy make her happy? Uneasy butterflies fluttered through her mirth. Zack was an ass who had called her trailer trash. She jerked her gaze away from his, refusing to be charmed.
“Amy, this is Chelsea. Chelsea, Amy.” Zack shifted uncomfortably and darted a glance between the two girls.
Chelsea shot Amy a glacial glare. “I’m his girlfriend.”
“Never would have guessed.” Amy smirked.
“Want a ride home?” Zack flashed her a sexy smile.
Her insides swirled like water. She cut her gaze to Chelsea in an effort to break his spell, and the other girl shot her a look worthy of Medusa. Amy rolled her eyes. Chelsea fixed her with a death glare that Zack pretended not to notice. Amy shook her head. This was a volatile situation, one she needed to escape before it blew up in her face. She stepped away from the couple. Distance was what she needed, physical and emotional. “No thanks. I’ll grab the bus.”
“The bus.” Chelsea laughed derisively as Amy strode away. “Too bad you can’t afford a car. Or better clothes.”
Amy clenched her fists. She’d be damned if she let Chelsea’s poison affect her. She squared her shoulders, lifted her chin, and marched down the hall with her head held high.
Susan and a dozen of her friends were waiting to ambush her at Parsons Elementary. “Ready to go?” her sister called over the din of clamoring children.
Blood Moon's Fury: A Young Adult Fantasy Thriller (Curse of the Blood Moon Book 1) Page 9