Beyond the Eyes: YA Paranormal Romance

by Rebekkah Ford

She was a tall blonde, wearing skinny jeans tucked in Ugg boots and a brown suede jacket that grazed her hips. Playboy material, I thought, and so did a couple young guys walking to their car. They stared at her like two horny dogs waiting to pounce on the bitch strolling by. But when the squeal of a car alarm went off, they jumped and turned the other way.

  As she approached us, Nathan pushed me behind him and stood in a protective stance. I peeked around his side and saw the menacing sneer on her beautiful face. There were people in the parking lot coming and going, but they were too caught up in their own dealings to show any interest in ours.

  “The notorious Nathan Caswell. What a pleasure to finally meet you,” she said in a sugary, sweet voice. “My sisters and some of my brothers were right. You are a hottie. But I have to say, there are quite a few who would like to see you suffer.” Her eyes darted to me and a beam of light swiped across them. I shrank behind Nathan, now knowing this was Aosoth.

  Nathan swept his arm back, further shielding me. “Stay away from her,” he warned, his voice deep and dangerous.

  She leaned to the side to get a better look at me, then fixed her gaze on Nathan. “I could easily make it happen by ripping her throat out.” She paused, her expression turning dark. “Or better yet, I could round up some of my brothers and make you sit and watch while we tear her from limb to limb.”

  A squeak escaped my lips, and I covered my mouth. Nathan’s hands clenched into fists, and the thought of passion and death entered my mind.

  “If any one of you touches her, I will personally create a hell for each and everyone involved, mercilessly inflicting agonizing pain upon you like you’ve never imagined!” His words were not a threat, but a promise, leaving no doubt in my mind he’d keep.

  Her face twitched uneasily. “Yes, there is a brutality in you that runs deep. I see it in your eyes, and you wouldn’t think twice about unleashing it for the one behind you.” She hesitated for a minute; fear flickering across her eyes, but then she threw her head back and shrieked with laughter. I winced. “Nathan Caswell finally has a weakness.”

  “Shut up!” I yelled, now more angry than scared. I wanted to slap that taunting smile off her face and attempted to step around Nathan, but his arm flew out again, pushing me back.

  Aosoth bent over with her hands out like she wanted to pinch me and wiggled her fingers. She looked amused, which was unsettling. “You’re a feisty little thing.” She straightened her back, still staring at me, her eyes turning cold. “I want to know if you have any information about the ring, and if you’re going to give it to me.”

  “She’ll tell you when her six weeks are up,” Nathan spat.

  She whipped her head around, her face twisting into a grotesque mask. “I wasn’t asking you,” she hatefully said. “And if it wasn’t for the ‘old one,’ I would have forced an answer out of her that night.”

  “What’s that supposed to mean?” I recalled that night when I asked her if I could think about my answer, and how scared I was when she pondered it. I then realized it was all an act, just to screw with me. I mean, the “old one” told me he started the fight on purpose so she could talk to me. Therefore, what she said in the restroom had already been preplanned by the “old one.” So it was because of him I was alive and given the time to do research on my father. But he had to know from hanging out with me for all those months, I wouldn’t give them the ring. His motives made no sense to me.

  “He’s fond of you,” Nathan said before she could answer me. “But we both know he’s more fond of her.”

  “Don’t take me for a fool. He has his sights on this one”–she pointed at me in disgust– “that’s why she’s still alive and because some of us are too coward to cross you,” she squawked at Nathan.

  “He is fond of you,” I told her, following Nathan’s lead. “The other day in history class he told me if it wasn’t for Aosoth, he wouldn’t have been able to pull off what he did at The Lion’s Den that night.”

  She gaped at me. “He told you my name?”

  I faked a smile. “I think he has a sweet spot for you.”

  “Well,” she said with a smug look, “I am good at what I do, and I’ve never been cast out.”

  “That’s probably one of the reasons he respects you,” Nathan pointed out.

  She suddenly became giddy, twirling in circles with her arms out, confirming to me how stupid and nutty she was. But then she stopped and turned to us. “Tell me about the ring,” she demanded. “He’ll want to know.”

  “We haven’t found anything yet,” Nathan answered.

  She waved a hand in the air like she was shooing a fly, clearly in a much better mood. But then she drew closer, and Nathan’s arm flew back in front of me.

  “You’ll find the ring,” she told me, her baby blues tunneling into mine. “Unless, I have to kill you before then.” She clapped her hands together. “Anyway, you don’t have to give me your answer now, so I shall be off.” She paused and smirked at Nathan. “Don’t bother tracking this human down like you did with the other one. I’ll be out of it by the time you do.” She pivoted and strutted across the parking lot to a tall dark-skinned guy waiting for her. She placed her arm around his waist, and he looked over his shoulder at us with damning eyes.

  Nathan stared at him, delivering a threatening message through the murderous expression on his face. “Get in the pickup, Paige. I’ll put the cart away.”

  As we headed home, I watched the lightning flickering behind the dark clouds, turning them a pinkish color. Fat rain drops splattered the windshield, causing the automatic wipers to come on. I sat back trying to reel in my scattered thoughts so I could deal with each one individually. But before I could figure which to focus on, Nathan chose for me.

  “What was your premonition about?”

  “Don’t you want to talk about what happened with Aosoth?” His ears were red, and I thought maybe it wasn’t such a good idea to talk about her after all. “Maybe we shou–”

  “There’s nothing to talk about,” he said through clenched teeth. “She has no qualms about killing you if she sees fit to, and I’m not going to allow it to happen.”

  I hugged myself for comfort and noticed Nathan denting the steering wheel with his tight grip. I decided to change the subject before he broke it. “Why are some of them afraid of you?”

  He slowed to allow an elderly man pull out in front of him. The man raised his hand in thanks. Nathan returned the gesture and looked at me.

  “I’m a loner, Paige. Or was before you. When I became immortal, I made it my prime objective to be a thorn in their side by spending most of my energy tracking, observing, and disrupting their plans. The ones who are afraid of me know I can be just as callous as they are. I’ve caused some of them tremendous amounts of pain to obtain the answers I needed. I’m not proud of it, but neither are the soldiers in war who have to do unspeakable things in order to protect their country.”

  “So you do have a brutality within you like she said?”

  “Yes, but I’ve kept it tethered, and never once had the cord ever been broken. However, it almost snapped that night in the parking lot.”

  I gulped, remembering how petrified I was and could still hear the freaky guy’s voice speaking Latin inside my head. It seemed like it happened a thousand years ago when really it hadn’t been.

  “Aosoth obviously knows my history, and she’s right,” he said. “I wouldn’t think twice about giving into that side of me if someone were to hurt you.”

  I didn’t respond, and thought I’d be dead right now if it wasn’t for Nathan. My heart skipped several beats when it occurred to me he loved me so much, he’d move heaven and earth to protect me.

  “Now tell me about the premonition you had.”

  I really didn’t want to. What I wanted to talk about was how did Aosoth knew Nathan had tracked down the other vessel, and who was that guy with her? But it seemed pointless to bring up. I mean, dark spirits were tricksters, and the guy with her
had to be a soulless human, a backup maybe, or something for her to play with. So I repeated the premonition to Nathan, sounding and feeling ominous.

  Nathan parked in front of my house and at the same time a loud boom erupted from the sky, releasing a steady stream of rain. He reached behind his seat for an umbrella, telling me to stay there, and bolted out the pickup. When he opened my door, he held it over me, making sure I wasn’t getting wet.

  “I think it’s talking about your grandpa or your mom,” he said, as we picked up the groceries from the backseat.

  I froze with the bags in my hands, my stomach knotting up.

  “What?” My mind went totally blank for a second.

  “C’mon, we need to get inside,” he said above the sound of the pouring rain.

  We hurried across the lawn. I noticed Mr. Kitty wasn’t on the porch and wondered where he went, but before I could look about, Nathan nudged me inside. I immediately headed to the kitchen. I dropped the groceries on the table, then took the ones from Nathan so he could put the umbrella in its stand beside the front door. My chest felt empty and cold. When he entered the kitchen, he embraced me.

  “Try not to worry.” His voice was soft next to my ear. “I could be wrong.”

  I pulled back to look at him. “But what did you mean by it?”

  “What I meant was your mom has been estranged from her father for a long time now, and maybe something is going to happen to bring them together and a new life will begin for them.”

  I thought about it for a minute. “But we don’t even know if he’s still alive.”

  “Maybe that’s what it meant when it said to the least expected.”

  “I don’t know.” I held my cheeks in my hands, confused.

  He leveled his eyes with mine. “Try not to worry. Your mom is going to be here tomorrow. Maybe she’ll surprise you with information about your grandfather. In the meantime, we have a lot of work to do before she arrives. We also need to finish looking in the attic.”

  “You’re right,” I said, even though I couldn’t shake off this sickening feeling I had in the pit of my stomach. “We should get busy then.”