by AJ Myers
“That’s it,” she hissed between her teeth, completely ignoring the way everyone had turned to stare at us—and the irritated shushing noises Mrs. Fletcher was making behind us. “I want to know who the hell you are, and what you’ve done with my best friend!”
“Kim—” I began, but she cut me off.
“Don’t, Ember!” she snapped as a tear rolled down her cheek. “I don’t want to hear any more lies. And that’s all you’ve done since you mysteriously disappeared last month! One lie after another after another! And do you know how I know you’re lying to me, Em? Because you suck at it! And do you know how I know that? Because I know you better than anyone on this planet, that’s how!”
“I explained about that, Kim,” I said, sighing again as I prepared myself to lie some more—and feeling like shit because I had to. “I went to Washington because Grams needed me. I didn’t have time to call you, and I didn’t realize I didn’t have my phone until I was already on the plane.”
“And yet, you had time to pick up your new boyfriend on the way,” Kim sneered, her expression hard as stone. “What? Was he on sale in the airport gift shop?”
“Wait!” I said, returning her glare. “Wasn’t it you and Blake who left me on the side of the road with a perfect stranger?”
“Well, I never thought you’d move in with him!” she practically snarled.
“That didn’t happen until I got back,” I defended myself, glad that I could at least tell her one thing that was true. “I told you, Mom and I had a fight because I went to Washington without telling her. It got ugly, and I moved out. I ran into Nathan again at that nasty-ass coffee shop on Oak. We got to talking, and he offered to rent me a room.”
“Uh-huh. His?” Kim asked with a bitter laugh. “And before you lie to me again, don’t. I’ve seen the two of you together. I know that relationship is not platonic, Ember.”
She had me there, and I knew it. There wasn’t anything platonic about my relationship with my vampire kidnapper. Passionate might have been a good descriptor. Maddening would have worked, too, seeing as Nathan exemplified the three P’s—Possessive, Protective, and Paranoid. It had taken an all-out fight to get him to let me go back to school after what had happened with Jack.
Mostly, though, I would have just gone with ‘complicated’ as the word to best describe our relationship. Yeah, complicated was a very good description.
It wasn’t that I didn’t want to give Nathan my heart. Given that he looked like a Greek god or something, with his dark hair, mesmerizing hazel eyes, and tall muscular body, he was really hard to resist. And there had been so many times in the last month when I was close to giving him what he wanted and completing the soul mate bond Demon Jack had interrupted. But in the end, it came down to trust. And there was part of me that just couldn’t take that leap and trust him.
And all because of his mark.
Though he swore he never would, he could control me through the pearlescent trinity and heart shaped knot on my neck, the mark he had given me the night he bit me. If he wanted me to do something, I would do it. If he wanted me to see or hear or think whatever he wanted, I would. And if he wanted me to love him, I wouldn’t have a choice. Knowing he had that power over me, that potential to take away my free will, kept me from being able to truly give him the two things he claimed to want most.
My trust…and my heart.
“Kim, me and Nathan…we’re—”
“Complicated. Yeah, you’ve said that,” Kim said angrily, getting up and starting to cram her things back into her backpack. “You know what, Em? I’m done. When you’re ready to tell me the truth, you know where to find me.”
“Kim!”
“No, Ember,” she said, slinging her bag over her shoulder and tossing her hair long dark hair back before leveling a cold look right at me. “I don’t want to hear it. When the Ember I know and love comes back, tell her to give me a call. That Ember didn’t lie to me every time she opened her mouth.”
With that, she turned on her heel and stomped out of the library, the sound of the last bell of the day serenading her departure. I sat there, watching her go, knowing there wasn’t anything I could do to make things better. Even after the last of my fellow seniors had followed her out, I continued to sit there, wondering how my life had gotten so crazy. It was the thought of Nathan waiting in the parking lot—and the thought of Kim getting to him before I did—that finally pushed me into movement. Gathering up my own crap, I headed for my locker.
I stopped halfway down the hall and stared at Jack’s locker for a long minute, Kim’s words echoing in my head. There were cards and pictures taped all over the front of it, a tribute to the football star and friend we had all lost. Since Jack had disappeared without a trace, taking nothing with him, it was widely believed he was dead.
Only, I knew it was true. If I had any doubts about that, the memory of his screams as I shoved him into the void was all the proof I needed. There was also the fact that he hadn’t been seen or heard from since. His parents were offering a huge reward for any information, but no one had come to collect. There had been no activity on his credit cards, and his cell phone hadn’t been used since the day before I banished him—a fact we had learned from the local PD thanks to Nathan’s vampy compulsion skills.
Besides, Grams had been doing daily demon searches and hadn’t come up with anything. Mrs. Amelia had been casting daily wards over Moonlight too, promising me that if anything even remotely demonic entered the city limits, she would know. It was like he had dropped off the face of the planet. Which I guess, in a way, he had.
“I’m sorry,” I whispered as my eyes fastened on a picture of Jack the way I had once known him, smiling into the camera with all the charm that had made him so irresistible to most girls. “I’m so sorry, Jack.”
And I was. I was sorry I’d been forced to send the body of one of my oldest friends to the lost plane with a demon inside it. I was sorry I couldn’t tell anyone what had happened to him. But most of all, I was just sorry he was gone. I was sorry I would never get to see him smile at me again, or listen to his vulgar jokes, or tease him about his string of girlfriends. I was sorry I had lost him. So very sorry.
With tears in my eyes, I turned and ran the other direction, away from the memories of my friend, away from my locker, and toward the door and the man waiting for me outside whose comfort I needed so badly.
I had just cleared the front steps when I felt a chill sweep through me that had nothing to do with the icy winter wind blowing across the lawn. My head snapped up, and I found myself searching the trees that bordered the property, looking for something I couldn’t even name.
And then I saw him. Leaned against a tree directly across from me, his muscular arms crossed over his broad chest, was Jack. I stopped right where I was, everything inside me from my blood to my heart freezing up like I’d been encased in ice.
He’s not real, he’s not real, I chanted to myself, staring at the apparition in front of me. He’s on the lost plane now. He’s not really there.
I closed my eyes, forcing myself to breathe, and counted to ten. And, sure enough, when I opened them again, he was gone. Though I searched the trees around where I had seen him, there was no sign of him. And yet, he had seemed so real, so solid.
“You need to get a grip,” I muttered under my breath. “Just let it go.”
But, as I threaded my way between the parked cars and packs of students in the parking lot, not even the sight of Nathan smiling at me from the hood of his Aston Martin was enough to make that image go away. All I could think about was that empty, photo-plastered locker…
And Jack leaning against a tree, looking smug and very, very much alive.
If you’re looking for more great characters and great books, our other authors at Parasite have some doozies. Each of our authors some favorites from our character-based selection. Here are AJ’s recommendations:
Sci-Fi – Outer Bounds: Fortune’s Rising by Sara King
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Table of Contents
Copyright
More Great Character Novels from Parasite Publications:
Disclaimer:
The Poem that Started it All:
Dedication:
Chapter One Parental Patrol
Chapter Two Every Girl Needs a Stalker
Chapter Three Crash Course in Creepy
Chapter Four The Truth Does Not Set You Free; It Gets You Blackmailed
Chapter Five Demons, Vampires, and Witches! Yeah, Right!
Chapter Six Abducted by the Undead
Chapter Seven Vampire Vanquish
Chapter Eight Caveman Mentality
Chapter Nine Motel Madness
Chapter Ten The Price of Flight
Chapter Eleven Dream a Little Dream of Me
Chapter Twelve Falling for the Fanged
Chapter Thirteen Confessions
Chapter Fourteen Vampire Mind Meld
Chapter Fifteen Witch Bane
Chapter Sixteen Demon Bashing 101
Chapter Seventeen Tantrums and Teleportation
Chapter Eighteen Making a Deal with the Devil
Chapter Nineteen Just When I Think it Can't Get Worse... It Does
Chapter Twenty Feel the Burn
Chapter Twenty One Mr. Right
Chapter Two Demon Damage
Chapter Three Heart and Soul
The Next Chapter Begins
A Note from AJ Myers:
Excerpt from Something Wicked