Sarah walked toward me, noting that I was trying, somewhat unsuccessfully, to stand on top of the radiator. “You weren’t planning on sneaking out through the window, were you?”
That was exactly what I was planning. “Do you have a ladder?”
Although my friends and I were close, they didn’t know about my training. To them, I was the luckiest girl alive. I had a mother who loved me, and we were rich as well. I didn’t tell them about my family’s secret, because I didn’t know where to start and where to end, and so I did the only thing I could—kept half of my life hidden.
“Yes, of course I do. Just let me dig it out of my purse. Come on, Abby. If you make me miss this party, I’m going to kill you.” Sarah frowned, snatching my pumps out of my hand and taking my lipstick and bag away from me. For the first time tonight, I noticed her beautiful, strapless, gold satin Cells dress. Sarah looked gorgeous as always, her hair fanning out around her shoulders. I’ve always admired her beauty, her big brown eyes, and her flawless dark skin. Black was indeed beautiful.
All right, plan C. A had been to play sick, which obviously hadn’t worked or I wouldn’t be here. B was to slip out the window, which Sarah had just ruined. So C would be to hide out all night in the bathroom. “You can go have fun, Sarah. I’ll join you later.”
Sarah took my face in her hands without warning, “You are coming out,” she said as she started reapplying my lipstick, “and you are going to enjoy yourself.” She pushed my head toward the mirror when she was done, so I could look at myself. “See? I’m a miracle worker. You no longer look like an ugly duckling, which means you can come out from hiding.” She shoved the lipstick back into my bag.
“Sarah, I know you…” She was already shaking her head before I could get my words out.
She slipped my handbag onto my shoulder and smoothed my hair one last time for good measure. “You are coming out,” she ordered, clutching my hand and pulling me along.
Sarah managed to get me out of the restroom despite my dragging my feet. When we rejoined the party, I remembered why I’d run away. The music was too loud. The place was filled with noise, the press, cameras, and guys who only wanted to date me because I was famous. All of that made me not want to be there.
Sarah knew I would slink away if given the chance, so she didn’t let go of my hand until we reached my two other best friends, Jake and Danny, two funny eighteen-year-old troublemakers whom I loved having in my life.
Jake was a charming skater boy who’d been in detention more times than I could count. Danny was smart and funny, and got as much detention as Jake. Sarah was the cheer captain—understanding, loving and ambitious. Me? I was just the rich, famous kid.
When I saw that Jake was dressed in what looked like an Elizabethan doublet and pale blue hose, I forgot my escape plans. What was he thinking?
Danny teased. “Dude, Shakespeare called, and he wants his outfit back!” We broke into loud, genuine, tension-breaking laughter. When the laughter faded, however, a cameraman snapped my picture, and I remembered why I didn’t want to be there.
“You’re thinking about going home, aren’t you?” Sarah squinted at me. She knew me all too well. “Why? Every guy here wants to dance with you.”
That was one of my problems. “I don’t care if every guy here wants to dance with me. I just want to go home.” At the moment I’d rather be at home watching the Discovery Channel. “Besides, guys just want one thing.”
“And what is that?” a young man’s voice from behind me asked.
“Excuse me?” The voice that had spoken was sweet and rich, like a heavenly symphony, and even though the place was packed with noises, I couldn’t hear anything except him.
“Hello,” he said, and since I was sure I couldn’t avoid responding, I slowly turned around.
My eyes went straight to the stranger’s big black army boots, then up to his rough-cut jeans, then to his ebony shirt and black leather jacket. Finally, my eyes reached his face.
I couldn’t breathe when I saw him. Everything about his chiseled features spoke of danger, even his messy dark hair. I unabashedly stared.
He wasn’t just handsome, he was… unusual, reminding me of one of Leonardo’s angels, perfect and, well, frighteningly too perfect. So beautiful, yet every bone in my body told me to run away from him. I didn’t know why, and I didn’t want to find out. I sensed raw danger.
Beware of the angels you invite in, for some are demons in disguise, I thought. I pushed the warning aside.
“I didn’t mean to disturb you.” His voice enchanted me. I could see I wasn’t the only one, as Sarah was a little unfocused as well. “My car just broke down, and I was wondering if I could get directions to the nearest bus stop.” I could see his perfect lips moving, the colored lights glinting off his dark hair, but I didn’t hear anything else he said.
Wait. Bus stop? How had he managed to get into the party? There was a guest list—I had helped my mother with it—and this stranger wasn’t on the list, was he? He couldn’t be. And if he were supposed to be here, why would he be asking for directions? All my questions about this, this person, hung heavy in the air around us. We took a bit too long to respond to him.
He looked from one of us to the other, waiting for someone to answer, but we all just stared silently back at him. He cleared his throat. “Um, I hope I’m not crashing your party.”
Danny pushed me aside, “Of course not. Besides, a party isn’t a party until someone crashes it.”
At the sound of Danny’s voice I came back to myself, shaking myself out of my daze.
“So… can you show me where I can find a bus stop?”
Jake took over. “Of course. Abby is about to go home, and her driver can drop you off at the bus stop. She goes right past it.” Jake gave me a wink and a big smile after this, as if he had just done me a huge favor. I knew he had only offered because he knew my bodyguards would be with me. He would never have allowed me to give a stranger a ride on my own.
And I was also sure he was playing wingman, since Sarah was still too dazed to do that.
The stranger turned and looked at me, and then I did the worst possible thing I could think of: I smiled at him and blushed. Which I suppose I was entitled to do, since I was about to escort the most drop-dead gorgeous guy I’d ever met to…
To the bus stop. How romantic.
Maybe he’d ask me for my number. Wow. I scared myself with that thought. I was usually not the girly type. I’d only once had a boyfriend of sorts, but that had only lasted for a month and a half, and I’d never acted as giddy with him as I was doing now.
“That’s nice of you. I’m Gideon,” he introduced himself, holding out his hand.
I didn’t remember any Gideon on the guest list. I figured he had probably bribed the guards at the front door.
“The… me… car… is ready out,” I babbled. Gideon still stood with his hand out, and then, to my horror and chagrin, gave up and put his hand back in his pocket. I wanted to give myself a face punch after that. What the hell was wrong with me? Yeah, the guy looked like he’d leaped out of a fairytale, but that was no excuse for me to gawp at him, slack-jawed and speechless. Actually, it would have been the perfect time to be speechless. Silence would certainly have been better than “The… me… car… is ready out.” Damn.
Gideon was grinning, probably at me, and at how stupid I must have sounded. Way to make a total fool of yourself Abigail!
Taking a deep breath, I pulled myself together, “Sorry, I meant, the limo is… outside,” I corrected. I could feel that I was still blushing.
Looking to avoid any more awkward episodes, I said goodbye to my friends. With Gideon in tow I searched trough the crowd until I found my mother and said goodbye to her as well, and then I called Ben to drive us home. Because of the life I lived, I sometimes felt as though I suffered from hypervigilance. I startled at the slightest sound, always jumpy, and just below the level of consciousness I always had a vague, constant feeli
ng of being under threat. And right now, at the thought of giving a stranger a ride, warning alarms were going off in my head, even though Ben was sitting right in front of me, heavily armed and expertly trained, driving the limo.
Ben had been driving for about five minutes, and no one had said a word. An oppressive silence filled the limo. I could feel Gideon’s eyes on me in the dark. When I turned to look at him, he smiled.
Surprisingly, I found myself asking, “What?” Then I quickly looked away.
“My question. You never answered me.” He reached out and closed the privacy screen in the limo, separating Ben from us. My heart jumped even faster, unsure of what Gideon was up to. A part of me went into panic mode, and another part, the really girly part, went into full-on blush mode, wondering, half in fear and half in excitement, if this was going to be one of those nights that would leave me waking up the next morning asking, “Damn, did I do that?”
“What,” I swallowed breathlessly, “question?”
Gideon looked straight into my eyes from just inches away, making me all the more breathless. It was as if he didn’t know he was, um, ornamental, though obviously he must have owed a mirror or two. I knew I would if I looked like a masterpiece by Michelangelo.
“You said guys only wanted one thing.” Oh. That.
I’d heard Sarah’s mother warn us, girls, be careful, because guys only want one thing so many times that I thought I understood what she meant. Now that it was time for me to explain the lesson to someone, though, I wasn’t quite sure what the lesson was.
I’d just made up my mind to give a vague, non-answer answer, when suddenly Gideon had my hands in his. My heart skipped a beat. The part of me that was blushing and excited disappeared, leaving only panicked Abigail behind. Immediately, I pulled my hands away.
“Well, what do all guys want?” He was defiant now.
“They… I mean, they only want… ” I had no idea what I wanted to say, so I looked away from him and tried breathing, because for some reason it seemed all the air in the limo had been drained out. “They want to… fool around… I mean have… fun?” Could I sound any more pathetic?
I could shoot a can off the top of Logan’s head without blinking, and yet I was speechless because of a cute guy? This wasn’t what I thought happened when you traded dolls for guns. Where had all that determination, all that cold steely strength disappeared to?
“Fool around?” And as if he weren’t already godlike enough, he laughed. I couldn’t explain how wonderful his laughter sounded. There was one thing I did know; his laughter was what good music was made out of. It sounded so addictive, and somehow sexy, that for a second I forgot all my self-defense training, and felt like moving toward him, getting closer to him.
“You are funny, Abigail.” That snapped me out of my reverie. Funny? High-school-girl logic said boys didn’t want a funny girl. They wanted a girl who was hot, not funny. Had I made a fool of myself by making a joke. No. Maybe? I didn’t know about dating. I wouldn’t even know if I’d made a fool of myself.
When that reality hit home, I pleaded to God to let us reach the bus stop before I collapsed out of shame or embarrassed myself any further.
“I didn’t mean… ” I tried to take another breath, but the air was dense now. I forced my next sentence out before I suffocated. “I guess… boys like to have fun” OK, now I was just making stuff up.
“I thought boys liked to eat.” The moment Gideon said this, it was as if the air returned, breaking whatever spell I was under.
“Eat?” I asked, confused. I hadn’t been expecting him to say this. “What are you talking about?” I knew boys liked food, but let’s face it, that wasn’t the one thing they wanted. Sarah’s mom hadn’t been warning us to guard our sandwiches closely.
I was expecting Gideon to come up with an explanation, but instead, when he opened his mouth, what came out was “I killed your driver.”
He killed my driver? What? We were almost at the bus stop, and I totally didn’t get his humor. Why was he ruining the mood with this crazy talk? “Excuse me?” I asked, suddenly feeling uneasy.
“I said, I killed your driver.” His sexy voice now sounded cold. So much for the angel face. I should’ve known not to judge this pretty little book by its cover. I guess he was one of those weirdos. Really, were all the nice guys taken? Were the only hot ones left all deranged like this?
Couldn’t he have made awkward jokes like normal guys? “Wait a minute. You killed my driver? You’re funny.” No wait, funny’s not the word I’m looking for. Psychotic. Yeah, that was it. I leaned away from him to remind Ben to turn off for the bus stop. I pushed the button that lowered the glass between us and the front seat, and then I screamed.
As the glass lowered, I saw Ben’s head lolling forward onto the steering wheel. The car continued to drive on its own. The horn blared as Ben’s head rolled onto it. The car raced past the bus stop, and my heart nearly burst out of my chest. This time when I turned to look at Gideon, it wasn’t passion that I felt. It was stark fear.
I struggled to speak. “What have you done? Who are you?”
At once, his lovely green eyes darkened. And then he reached out for me.
I screamed for help, but there was no one around to hear.
AVALANCHE
I’ve always heard that there’s a white-hot feeling one gets when one senses death is near, but I didn’t feel it.
Although I was freaking out and desperately wishing I hadn’t left the party, I still didn’t have the intense emotion I’d expected would come over me when I was fighting for my life. I didn’t really have any emotion at all. I was too overcome with shock to feel anything else. Instead of feeling or acting, I simply noticed that everything had become very still and very clear. All the colors of things around me became deeply saturated, the red of my dress, the green of Gideon’s eyes.
I started cursing myself for agreeing to give a stranger a ride. What the hell was I thinking? I thought of all the years of training I’d had, all for nothing. Every fighting instinct I’d learned had abandoned me the first time I actually needed it, lost in a wave of panic and shock.
I tried making sense of what was happening. It seemed like hours, years, that I spent turning it over in my mind. In the distance, as I wracked my brains, I heard someone screaming. It was distracting. I needed to concentrate, to figure out how I could get myself out of this situation, how I could get safe.
Then I realized that I was the one screaming. I didn’t understand. How had it gone so wrong so fast? Only a few seconds ago I was sitting in the back of my limo, achingly close to a hot guy, and now I was in the car with a murderer.
“What…?” I muttered, unable to string together a complete sentence.
“I told you I killed him,” was all Gideon said, and the next thing I knew, he was through the glass partition and beside Ben in the front seat.
Finally, my senses fully kicked in. I yanked on the door handle in an attempt to escape. Locked. There was no manual unlock button back here in the passenger compartment, either. I could feel my chances of survival dropping drastically with each passing second.
“Who are you?” I demanded again, as if knowing who he was would help somehow.
“If you’re looking for Satan, you’ve found him.”
Now he was in the back seat, beside me, and I flinched. I had no idea how he was able to move so fast, but then again, if he were really Satan behind that angel face, this wouldn’t be impossible for him at all.
He took my hand. “You look scared. Would you like me to stop the car?” he asked, and then smiled, putting on the charm.
I swear, if it weren’t for the fact that I was on the edge of doom, I might have continued to find him attractive. How messed up is that? I wanted to shout, “What does it look like?” in answer to his question, but I was too focused on getting away from him. The shout died in my throat.
“It’s really too bad,” he said, cupping my chin in his hand.
&nb
sp; I tried to wrench myself away from him, but he held my chin rigid. Deep beneath my skin I could feel my bones turn to ice. Deep beneath my fear I felt a deep loathing for Gideon.
“Tell me how you feel.” He stroked my right cheek with his thumb, almost gently, his grip on my chin never wavering. “Are you scared, Abigail? Are you terrified? Bad for you and good for me, because your fear and pain are what I feed on.”
He pulled my face closer to his, so close that I could count every particular eyelash, and I felt as though he were siphoning energy from my body.
I was rapidly weakening, all my will and strength dwindling to nothing. I couldn’t tell what he was doing to me or why I couldn’t pull away from him, but there was one thing I knew for sure: I was losing my breath, and fast.
He laughed. “This is fun.” Then he shoved my body against the door. I gasped.
With my eyes brimming with tears, I gulped air into my lungs. The car rushed onward at top speed, driverless, but no one seemed to notice. I couldn’t speak or move. I felt like a stake had been shoved through me. Gideon’s dark eyes pierced me. I wanted to shout, to scream for him to stop, but I felt helpless against his will.
“Abigail Cells.” He leaned forward and gripped my face with his hands again. He smiled beautifully and my breathing became slower. “I am going to kill you.”
My eyes widened. For all that I could barely move, I told myself that barely was not the same as nothing. I could move just a little. I shifted my head, ever so slightly, and—I bit him. I gripped his thumb in my teeth and set my jaw. That was all I could manage. A second later, there was a deafening crash as we collided with something solid. I’d distracted him. My body flew from the seat and hit the dividing wall that separated the driver from the rear compartment. My head slammed against the roof of the car, causing dark spots to dance in my vision.
Gideon had regained his composure. He now acted as if nothing had happened. I pushed myself off the limo floor with shaky arms and winced as I gingerly touched the side of my head. Thank goodness: there was no blood. When I glanced out the window, I saw the front end of the car belching thick black smoke. Before I knew it, Gideon was outside the limo, past the smoking hood, standing beneath the tree the limo had crashed into. Flames erupted from beneath the hood. This time when I yanked the door handle, it opened, and I fell to the ground outside. I crawled away from the car, coughing.
Dominion (Re-edition) Page 7