“Then what’s the point?” he said.
“I don’t mean big lies. Little, harmless ones. You think if some girl meets you, finds those geek-chic glasses incredibly sexy, and is super attracted to your natural sweetheart charm that she’ll be upset when she discovers you lied about your height? Won’t even matter.”
The heat had traveled down Graham’s spine and up to his temples. He couldn’t start sweating. He bit his tongue to keep from asking if all that was how she thought of him.
“Okay, the first part is all set up. Now we plug in what you’re looking for in a woman.” She tapped away at the screen for a while.
“Wait,” he said. “Aren’t you going to ask me first?”
“I’m just tailoring this so you don’t get creepos and bimbos. We can refine it more when we start browsing profiles.”
“Um, okay.”
She tucked her legs beneath her and turned sideways to face him on the couch. Her knees brushed his thigh. “Just so I know, what do you consider your type?”
“My type? I have no idea.” Graham thought of his previous relationships, the few girlfriends back in high school, and the maybe two in the last year since he’d graduated. “I guess I haven’t had a ton of long-term relationships.”
“Nothing wrong with that. I’m just asking, if you had to put your finger on it, what would you say your ideal is?”
Graham thought, wondering why he’d never asked himself the question. “Someone…intelligent. Creative. Vibrant….”
“Vibrant. Ooh, good word. What else?”
“Someone who’s not afraid to take control, at least once in a while.”
Chloe nodded. “Good, I like it. What else?”
“Someone who knows how to be both strong and sensitive at the same time. Is that too specific?”
“No, it’s good.” She smiled to encourage him. “I can’t input stuff like this, but it gives me a good idea to go on. As your personal relationship counselor, I’ll need this info eventually. The more I have to go on, the better I can do.”
“Okay.”
“You prefer blondes or brunettes?”
Violet’s red-tinted tresses filled his mind. He shoved them away, and Chloe’s brassy golden hair took their place. The question caught Graham off guard. His throat went dry. He managed to clear it, hoping he didn’t sound like a horse. “It depends on the person. Do I have to pick?”
She smiled. “Nope. Just checking.”
For the next hour and a half, they sat together, browsing profiles, laughing at the odd characters that popped up, and debating the authenticity of each girl’s profile. Graham never thought he would enjoy browsing a dating site so much.
Still, at the end of the night when he headed home, he couldn’t help but think he might have found his ideal without even trying.
~
The next few days Violet practiced control of her threads in between a hearty exercise regimen, which included running several miles on the treadmill. The quick tap into Logan’s psyche tempted her, but she knew she wasn’t strong enough yet. Last time she’d hadn’t quite managed to subdue him. She wouldn’t take another risk like that again. The next time she went after him, she’d have more practice at controlling her magic threads, and she’d be in better shape. She would leave nothing to chance. Which was why, for the time being, she left Logan alone. She called Ras back under her power, increasing his surveillance duties. He’d been thrilled at the extension of his leash—of course.
He popped into the little coffee shop down a ways from Logan’s home, meeting her with too much enthusiasm. She couldn’t believe the stink radiating from him after he’d hid out in the woods for days. It nauseated her.
Ras gave her the update. “He’s going camping.”
“Really?”
“He leaves tomorrow. Even has a ‘Camping Trip Checklist.’ See?” Ras held out his phone and flicked through a few pictures, including Logan sitting at his computer looking at a spreadsheet. He must’ve taken these through the window.
“You were that close? Are you sure he didn’t see you?”
“Not a chance. He was distracted, and I’m good at this, girl.” The corner of Ras’s mouth curved up in a proud smirk.
“And you sure he’s leaving soon?”
“When I left an hour ago, he was packing up all his gear. He had the coolers out and ready, so I’m guessing he’s leaving this afternoon.”
Violet considered this turn of events. Logan was a creature of habit, and this week he’d become even more routine, thanks to the breakup. Every day it was work and back home for a quiet dinner. The only time he’d changed was on Wednesday when he’d stopped for groceries. She wondered if her surprise visit had rattled him enough to send him away on a camping trip. The thought pleased her, as if even without enchanting him she could influence him so drastically. Still, no matter what he thought, he couldn’t run from her.
She’d allowed herself to recover, and she was ready now. There would be no more delays.
Violet considered Ras, as he waited for her next request. His dark eyes were vibrant and eager. His hair tufts were as touchable as ever, yet they didn’t hold that spark for her anymore. His shiny had worn off. Even his dark, chiseled arms bulging beneath his shirt didn’t call to her the way they had before. He was old news, and she was ready to move on. But what to do with him? When she swapped the strings from him to Logan, he would be free, but he might also be angry, the way he’d been in the pharmacy when he realized everything she’d done to him. She would have to decide what to do with him before she went after Logan, even if it meant holding him prisoner in one of her closets.
She was getting stronger and, though she enjoyed having a hot boy to toy with, she didn’t need him to help her with heavy lifting anymore. There was only one man she needed, and that was more because of fate than her weakness.
“So? Now, what?” Ras was watching her.
“Now we go back home.”
Violet made Ras drive and took the backseat so she could lounge and rest on the way. She’d had an intense workout that morning and was still exhausted from it. She tugged on the bill of her ball cap and sat back to consider a plan. The wheels were spinning in her head as she considered what she’d need for a camping trip. It wasn’t anything she’d considered doing before, but today something about the idea captured her. She was ready to get Logan all to herself, and this seemed like the perfect solution.
In the driver’s seat, Ras glanced back at her.
“What?” Her tone thoroughly conveyed the leave-me-alone vibe, but the guy couldn’t read the signs—he never could when he was under her spell. She sighed and turned to look out the window as they headed up the interstate back toward Colorado Springs. That was the problem with this ability. It wasn’t the same as precise control. She could influence people, but getting exactly what she wanted was more difficult.
And Ras was getting annoying.
“Want some music?” He flipped on the radio and clicked between stations, throwing clips of songs over the rear speakers. “Whatchu want to listen to?”
“Nothing,” she muttered. “I’d rather it be quiet.”
“Huh?” He craned his head back to look at her, and the car swerved until he turned back forward.
A beat-heavy rap song had taken over the car’s stereo, forcing her to yell over the noise.
“Just turn it off!”
“Oh, okay.” Ras clicked the radio off.
She massaged the back of her neck with a hand, eyes returning to the road passing by.
“How about some coffee? Or ice cream? We could stop at Twenty-Five Scoops.”
“Ugh, no,” Violet said. She scowled. “Can’t you just give me some peace and quiet?” She rested her head against the seat and closed her eyes. She couldn’t release his strands without losing hold of him altogether, which put her in an irritating spot. “Sometimes I wish you’d just go jump off a bridge,” Violet muttered.
As Violet tried to r
est, she felt the car gradually slowing. It was too soon for them to turn off for her condo, which made her wonder what her chauffeur was doing. When the car came to a full stop, Violet sat up and frowned. “What’s going on?”
Ras hadn’t heard. He’d exited the car and was rounding the front of it.
“What are you doing?” Violet pounded on her window, but he ignored her, intent on something else. “Hey!”
Cars streaked by on their left, making the vehicle shudder with each pass. His Honda sat on an overpass on the highway. To her right was a guardrail that looked down on the street below. What was he doing?
She rolled down her window and stuck her head out. “Ras?” The wind whipped, but her ball cap stayed in place.
Ras stepped up to the guardrail, which was more of a short concrete wall. He placed a foot on top of the wall and pulled himself up so that he stood with his back to her, looking over the rushing traffic.
“What the hell are you doing?” Violet screamed over the noise of wind and cars rushing past.
He gave one glance over his shoulder and met her eyes. “For you, Violet.” The words came out clipped and full of emotion.
Violet frowned, trying to figure out what he was talking about. “What—”
Before she could finish her thought, he jumped. His body disappeared over the wall and out of sight.
Violet gasped. Her hands grappled with the door handle, forgetting how to perform such a simple task. She managed to wrench it open and dove out of the car, hurling herself at the wall. She wasn’t tall enough to see past the width of it to the ground below, so she pulled herself on her belly, craning to see.
On the road below lay Ras’s broken form. His limbs were splayed at awkward angles, and one leg was trapped beneath. Cars screeched and slid, swerving to avoid the body. There was a bang of one collision and then another as traffic piled up.
Violet couldn’t look away from Ras. Beneath his head was a growing pool of blood. The dark scarlet covered half the width of the lane below—so much blood. She’d never seen so much in one place.
Realization dawned slow, but when it came, it walloped her. Her wish had made him jump.
A hot, heady pressure rose up inside her chest and escaped her lips in a quick exhalation. The delicious sensation of ultimate supremacy flooded her body in tantalizing waves. No one could fight her command. She possessed complete control—ultimate domination. Her eyes fixated on the blood, like a pool around him. She imagined his prone, lifeless body drifting in a lake of red.
Only then did she notice his glowing halo was gone. Her cords had broken off from him and were waving through the air, lazily dancing from her fingertips.
His energy had dissipated, trickling out with the blood. He held no more resistance to her. He could no longer run from her or fight her will. No longer would he try to pacify her with lame attempts.
Instead of feeling a loss at this, a fallen play thing, she felt something else. That heat inside her—that intense sensation flooding her system—was intoxicating. It breathed a new life into her, an invigorated strength. With it came resolution, as tight as a clenched fist.
She pulled back so she wouldn’t be spotted from below. Thankfully, the hat she wore would help hide her red hair.
Still, her thoughts were riveted on this new discovery. Violet imagined touching Ras’s blood with her fingertips, kneading the thick, warm substance into her hands. Her palms stung suddenly, and she glanced down, realizing she had been rubbing her hands over the rough concrete wall. Her fingers were red and scraped.
With a final image of Ras’s body in her mind, she stepped away from the wall. She glanced around, but none of the passing traffic on the overpass had stopped. It looked as though only people below knew what had happened so far, and none of them would be able to identify Ras’s car up here. The wide concrete guardrail blocked the view from below.
Eventually there might be an investigation, but Violet would be long gone before that happened. She rounded the car and crawled into the driver’s side.
The heat from Ras’s body still lingered on the seat, warming her as she drove home.
Jade was grateful that Graham had given her a way out of her meeting with Chloe. After everything that had happened, she was emotionally drained and beyond exhausted. But she made herself sit down and finish the first draft of her story. Then she went to bed.
Tuesday at work Jade kept as far from March as she could, trying to avoid any confrontation that might lead to another episode. Fortunately, the store owner stayed in her office most of the time, hopping from one phone call to the next and taking care of whatever business she had.
When Graham arrived a little later for his shift, he and Jade exchanged a look, and she smiled at him, feeling herself relax. There was something about his demeanor that made him easy to talk to. Of course, it hadn’t hurt that he’d been privy to her recent episode. She decided that a person’s reaction to her going bonkers must be the factor that determined whether or not they could be kindred spirits. She wouldn’t ever forget how things with Cam spiraled downhill last year after she lost control around him.
“So, you offered to read my story and give me your thoughts,” Jade said. “Does that offer still stand?”
“Sure. I’d love to read it.”
“I was hoping so. I brought it just in case.” She rifled through her bag below the counter until she found it. “It’s due a week from Thursday, so I don’t have that long.”
“Not a problem,” Graham said. “I’ll get right on it.”
“So how did things go with Chloe last night?” she asked.
Graham gave Jade the brief rundown of their progress on getting ready for Chloe’s fashion show. “She said she’ll be in town all week.”
“Yeah. It’s coming up soon, and since she’s on summer break, she has the time to spare.”
“What about work?”
“She’s not working at the moment.”
He shook his head. “How does she pay for school?”
“Student loans. I think her parents help out some, too.” Jade checked the coffee pot and, finding it empty, went to the back room to start another pot. Graham followed her.
“Are you feeling any better today?” he asked.
She shrugged. “I guess, but that doesn’t mean anything.”
“Why? It sounds like good news to me.”
“It’s just…I never know when I’m going to experience something like that. Logan’s calls yesterday put me over the edge, and I…” She set down the coffee pot and rubbed her forehead with the heel of her hand. “I just wasn’t prepared for it.” When she looked back up, Graham had a thoughtful look on his face and he was nodding to himself.
She arched a brow at him. “What?”
“Just thinking…” He grabbed the bag of coffee and handed it to her. “What if you could prepare for it?”
“What do you mean?”
“Well, what you said gave me an idea. What if there were a way to make yourself ready in case one of your episodes hit without warning?”
“That would be great. I just don’t know how that’s possible.” She measured out the coffee grounds.
“Maybe it’s something you can practice.”
“Practice?”
“Yeah. Or exercise? Like a muscle. Maybe if you practiced, over time you could build up your resistance, like weight training.”
She shrugged and reached to fill the container with water. “There aren’t any barbells for this kind of thing.”
“Right. You’d have to practice on people instead. Otherwise, you wouldn’t know if you were actually gaining control.”
She gave a dry attempt at a chuckle and punched the button on the coffee maker. “That’s exactly why I can’t exercise it. Whose emotional state am I going to risk to get trained?”
Graham stood straighter. “Mine.”
After considering it for a moment, she shook her head and passed him, heading back to the reception desk. �
�No, Graham. I can’t ask you to—”
He hurried to keep up with her. “You don’t have to ask. I’m willing.”
“But maybe I’m not. I can’t take advantage of you that way.”
“I know what I’d be getting myself into—I’ve already experienced it, remember? Besides, what’s the worst that can happen? I’m young and healthy—it’s not like I’m going to have a heart attack.”
Jade winced, thinking of her mother. She toyed with the pens on the desk, turning each of them tip-down in their cup. She considered the effect her ability had on Logan, with his super strength. But Graham was a regular, ordinary guy. He’d already shown her the limits of his strength when he toppled the table. It had been chaotic to have her episode in the bookstore, especially with all the clean-up required, but if they could go somewhere isolated….
“Listen,” Graham continued. “I’m just trying to help. Chloe’s in town, and she’s going to need time with you, right? Probably a lot of it. You won’t be able to go home and chill every day after work.”
Jade straightened a stack of papers with her hand then re-straightened them. “I was thinking about backing out.”
“Really?”
She nodded, her face taking on a guilty tinge. “I didn’t see another option.”
“She’d be ticked,” Graham said.
“I know,” Jade moaned, dropping her head into her hands. Chloe wouldn’t just be mad. It would set all her work back, too. And what if she couldn’t find another model in time? Jade hated the idea of screwing over her friend.
“Didn’t the other guy already bail on her?”
“That’s what makes this all so much harder.”
When Jade finally looked back up at Graham, she saw sympathy in his eyes.
“I’m not trying to guilt you into anything,” he said.
“I know.”
“If you think you should back out, maybe you should. I just want you to know that when I told you I was here for you, it means this too.”
“As my emotional punching block?”
The hint of a grin curled the corner his mouth upward. “Yep. I’m pretty sure I can handle it.”
Enchanter: The Flawed Series Book Four Page 14