TIED (A Fire Born Novel)

by Laney McMann

  “Layla?” Max leaned his head into my sight stream, redirecting my attention. “Are we going inside?”

  I shook my head.

  “Okay.” His voice broke. “What’s it going to take for you to believe me?”

  I shrugged, crossing my arms over my chest.

  He snickered.

  “What’s so funny?” I let my arms drop to my sides.

  “Just you.” His eyes glimmered in the evening light.

  I pushed my shirt sleeves up on my shoulders. Is it hot out here?

  “Are you still mad?” He grinned.

  “Yes.” I dug in my pocket and retrieved my phone. “I need to text Benny and tell her I’ll meet her in a little while.” I kept my focus on the screen, not wanting to attract attention to myself in the parking lot should any patrons look my way.

  “Meet her where?”

  “The Pub. I’m late. I didn’t expect my—my—whatever you are—to stalk me.”

  He placed his hand over the screen, brushing my hand with his, and faced me.

  I yanked at the collar of my shirt. It’s really hot tonight.

  “I’ll take you to her.” He hit the home button on my phone, clearing the message I typed.

  “Why’d you do that?” I turned it back on.

  He took the phone out of my hand and shoved it in his jeans pocket. “I’ll take you to meet Benny.” He gave me an encouraging grin.

  I gaped at him and cleared my throat. “Give me my phone.”

  He shook his head from side to side without shifting his gaze from mine and grinned again.

  I’m dying of heatstroke.

  He chuckled. “Are you going to talk to me, or only to yourself?”

  “I … huh?” I eyed a cluster of guests leaving the restaurant. “I’d rather not have people think I’m the lunatic I’ve become,” I said to the ground, hoping no one was watching me talk to myself. “So, I think I’ll stick with the thoughts in my head.”

  “Okay.” He lowered his voice to a whisper. “But I can hear those, too.”

  My jaw dropped.

  “You’re not crazy.” He pointed across the parking lot. “Those people over there can see me, too.”

  “Stop.” I tried to push his arm down, but he caught my hand in his and folded them together, electric shocks tingling through my fingers.

  “This isn’t a dream.” He tilted his head, his gaze locked onto mine, a shadow of a smirk playing on his lips. “What’d you do to your hair?”

  “Nothing.” I yanked my hand away. “What’s wrong with it?” I tucked the strays behind my ears and made sure the rest was still in its usual mass on top of my head.

  “It’s all … I don’t know. Where’d the blonde go?”

  “What do you mean where’d it go? It’s the same color it’s always been.” I wondered if I looked worse than I’d thought.

  “Hmm.” He cocked his head sideways, squinting. “Looks different.”

  Benny had said I resembled the walking dead. Attractive.

  “Well … I haven’t washed it, I guess,” I said, realizing how bad I really must have looked to him. Me, the girl who practically had to jam toothpicks in her eyes at night to keep herself from falling asleep, the girl who lived at the dance studio and hadn’t washed her hair in days because, well, what was the point? My hair was always up for rehearsal, anyway.

  Max kept grinning at me, though, like he couldn’t have cared less if I were a zombie. “I never really left you, Lay.”

  My chest tightened, the loss still too close to the surface. “I forgot you used to call me that. Only Benny calls me Lay, now.” Tears welled up, and I glanced away.

  “I don’t want to upset you. Should I leave?” He turned toward my battered car.

  “No,” I said, a little too quickly, my arm reaching out to stop him. I let it drop to my side from mid air. “That’s the last thing I want.” I sighed, wiping my eyes, knowing how true it was. I would dream forever if I could keep him with me.

  “Good.” His voice was full of relief, as he tugged on my elbow, his touch leaving a heated trail. “Come on. I’m taking you to Benny.”

  I nodded, not quite sure what I was agreeing to, and followed him back to my car.

  “Excuse me, son?”

  My head whipped around at the sound of someone’s voice.

  A middle aged man shouted from across the parking lot. “Do you need me to call anyone for you? Your car seems pretty beat up.”

  “Oh, no, thank you.” Max said back. “It still runs. I can make it home.”

  “Well, all right, but be careful.” The man nodded and climbed in his car.

  “We will. Thank you for the offer.” Max waved that polite ‘everything is fine’ wave in that voice that had burned itself into my soul so long ago.

  I watched the way his hair swept over his eyes in the breeze, longer than I remembered it being, and how his shoulders had grown broad like a man’s. The sleeves of his T-shirt fit snuggly around his biceps, the cotton fabric clinging to ribbed abdominal muscles underneath, but his face—his face was exactly the same. Real.

  Every nerve in my body sizzled. Alive. I placed my hand over my heart, in utter confusion and disbelief.

  “Layla?”

  “Max …” I strangled the words out as uncontrollable tears streamed down my face.

  “What is it?” He rushed to my side. “What’s wrong?”

  I threw my arms around him, sobbing. “You’re here.”

  He drew me into him, the warmth from his body radiating through mine. “Yeah, I’m here. I’m so sorry I let you down.” His words choked out, thick and stressed.

  “I missed you so much.” I buried my face in his neck.

  “I missed you, too.”

  “Is everything all right?” The middle aged man shouted again from his car.

  “Yeah, we’re fine.” Max detangled our arms from one another.

  The man nodded, concern in his expression, but he drove away.

  “Where have you been?” I pushed Max a little too hard. “You just left?”

  “Ow.” He rubbed his chest. “I never really left you.” He massaged the spot again and scowled.

  “I don’t understand.”

  “I tried to do what your mom asked. I believed she was right; that I was dangerous for you.” He shrugged. “Maybe I am. But I always kept an eye on you. From a distance.”

  I attempted to process what he said, my thoughts churning.

  He wiped my cheeks. “I didn’t know you would be at the shop the other day. I should have noticed your car. I wasn’t thinking.”

  My brow cinched.

  “Don’t freak out on me again.”

  I didn’t know what to say. All those years, and he’d always known where I was? All those years I thought I was delusional, he’d been keeping an eye on me?

  “Yes,” he said with no apology. “Can we take this slow? Is that okay? I mean, I have a lot to tell you, but I think you need some time.” He wiped my cheek again. “You really are supposed to be taking it easy. Doctor’s orders.”

  I nodded, trembling slightly.

  “Well, you did believe you were clinically insane a few minutes ago.” He smirked.

  “How is that funny?”

  “It’s not.” He bumped my shoulder with his.

  “If this isn’t real—I mean if you leave aga—” I couldn’t finish.

  “I’m not leaving.”

  I gazed up into his face. “You’re the least dangerous person I’ve ever known.” I tried to smile through tear glazed vision.

  “Thanks, Lay. So that’s it? No hundred questions? We can eat now?” He laughed.

  “I’m in shock, I think.”

  We climbed into my busted up car with Max repeatedly asking if I was sure I was all right and adamantly insisting that he drive, while I attempted to stop staring at him.

  He raised an eyebrow. “I won’t evaporate.”

  I shifted my eyes toward my disaster of a car. How I
was going to explain it to my mom … I had no idea.

  “Is that … blood?” Dried specks dotted the interior of my car. I yanked the visor down with too much force, ripping it from the broken windshield and looked in the mirror. No gash. No dried stream of blood. I touched my eye. It was sore from the cut, but otherwise fine.

  “What’s wrong?”

  “It cut me. The windshield. It cut me when it shattered before. I felt it. The blood.”

  Max searched my face. “Are you sure?”

  “Positive. It was hot, too. Boiling almost.” Come to think about it, I was, too, for a while.

  He gave an apprehensive nod.

  “What?”

  He shook his head. “Let’s get going. We shouldn’t have lingered this long.” He cranked the engine, which stalled three times before it started.

  Lingered?

  He shook his head as we pulled out of the parking lot. “I can’t believe this is what you’re driving.”

  “Shouldn’t I drop you off somewhere?” I asked, ignoring his comment as we drove toward The Pub. “This is going to be really awkward.” I had no desire to face Benny. The thought of her lying to me for years was enraging.

  “I’m going with you.” He fiddled with the radio, music going in and out. “I can fix this.”

  “What are we going to say to people?” I shifted in my seat. “That you’re my long lost brother?”

  His hand dropped, and his gaze darted to mine. “What people? And how about the truth? I’m your best friend, who you haven’t seen in a while. Not that that changes anything.” He lifted his eyebrows. “Does it?”

  “You’ll always be my best friend.” Trying to hide just how heartbroken I was, I faced my lap where my hands fidgeted.

  “I never meant to hurt you, Lay.”

  “I know you didn’t.”

  6

  A steady thundering beat of music vibrated my chest, as Max guided me along the cobblestoned walkway through a crowd of Saturday night club goers hovering outside The Pub. I glanced at him, but veered my gaze away only to glimpse again. Not fighting with the idea that he walked beside me seemed impossible.

  As we pushed our way inside the all-ages bar, Benny’s boyfriend, Sam, gave me a silent nod from a shadowed table in the corner, running his dark-eyed gaze over Max and me before steering his focus back toward the nameless-faces pub crowd.

  We made our way over to where Benny bopped up and down in her seat next to him, her focus toward the band playing in the far corner. She turned to show heavy black eyeliner tracing clear blue eyes, and as her mouth fell open, Max’s arm slipped from my shoulder. She rose to her feet, leaned over the table, and put her mouth to my ear, her white-blonde hair brushing my face. “What’s Max doing here?”

  “So you admit he’s real now?” I snapped at her. Trying to keep my temper in check would be tough.

  She glanced toward Max and grinned, cutting off any further interrogation. “So … you’re back?” she asked in an undertone of caution.

  “I am.” Max scooted into the booth across from her and Sam and pulled me with him.

  Benny took her seat. “It was only a matter of time.” She shrugged. “I take it Lorelei doesn’t know?”

  “No,” Max and I chimed in unison.

  “Well, I’m not going to tell her.” Benny smirked. “You’re not kids anymore. I won’t stand in your way.” She winked before turning back to the band.

  Huh? Unease quivered in my stomach. I repositioned myself in my seat, uncrossing my legs, and crossing them again.

  “Who’s your friend?” Sam asked from the corner.

  Benny gave Sam a fleeting glance and a quick smile. “This is Max.”

  Max held his hand out.

  Sam didn’t shake it. “Where’s Devon?” He shifted his gaze toward me.

  Max withdrew his outstretched arm without a word and laid it across the booth at my back.

  My cheeks burned, holding Sam’s glare, daring him to say something, anything, uncomfortably aware of how Max and I must have appeared—like a couple.

  Sam’s cold gaze lingered for a moment on the two of us. He snorted.

  “He’ll be here soon,” I said, refusing to look away.

  Sam dropped his gaze and sneered.

  “Ignore him,” I said to Max, whose gaze hadn’t left Sam’s direction either.

  “Done.” Max and Sam answered as one.

  “Do you two know each other?” I asked, doubtful.

  “I know his kind.” Sam repositioned himself, plunging the side of his face deeper in shadow, creating an inhuman mask down his face.

  Max gave a smile I recognized as nothing but false politeness, tilting his head to the side. “And I know yours.”

  “Tell your boys to behave next time they’re around.” Sam pushed to his feet.

  “I’m sure you can handle it. They aren’t mine to command.”

  “Your hair is crazier than ever, Lay.” At Benny’s touch to Sam’s arm, he sat back down beside her. “New windblown look?”

  “We had a little … issue. With my car,” I said.

  Her eyes swiftly shifted in their sockets as she glanced toward Max. “What do you mean … issue?”

  “Nothing I didn’t handle.” Max rested his elbows on the table.

  Benny gave him a curt nod and turned toward Sam.

  “Is everything okay?” I mumbled into Max’s ear. Heat radiated off his neck. Chills ran through my shoulders, and I backed away, shivering.

  He closed the distance between us, his face inches from mine. “Yeah … everything’s fine.”

  My breathing stopped entirely, my heart pounding against my rib cage.

  “Are you all right?” Max brushed my arm, and a wave of heat flushed my cheeks, coursing up my back. “Layla?” He grabbed my hand.

  Tingles flitted into my fingertips as I pulled it away, flexing my hands and trying to lessen the prickle.

  “What’s wrong?” Benny frowned.

  I held a hand up, averting my gaze, and trying to catch my breath.

  “Let’s get some air.” Max grabbed my hand again, and I stood but warmth surged from my stomach, my head spinning. He caught me as I fell.”I’m driving you to the hospital.” He steered me, on my unsteady legs, through the crowd.

  Finding it difficult to stay upright, I could only say, “I’m fine.”

  “No. You aren’t.”

  Benny trailed behind us. “I’m coming, too.”

  “I don’t need an entourage, Ben.” My words slurred.

  “I go where you go.” She shimmied through the crowd of people with us, staying at my side.

  “Since when?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Since always.”

  Clean air welcomed us on exiting the bar, the full moon shining in the distance, making the stormy weather from earlier seem out of place. Max’s arm tightened around my waist as we made our way through the parking lot, as though he feared I might collapse. He opened the car door, hovering while I climbed in.

  “Don’t tell Devon where I am.” I lifted my brow and glared at Benny.

  She stood gaping as if she was trying to form some kind of response—probably about my car. Before she could say a word, we drove away.

  Stark white walls and florescent lights blinded me on entering the hospital. Max demanded he call, so Dr. Jessup would be alerted to my coming in.

  “Why are you making such a big deal?” I complained as we walked through the maze of hallways and inside the doctor’s office.

  “Big deal? You almost passed out. So it’s a big deal. Just sit down and stop arguing with me.” The door opened, and Max fell silent.

  “Good evening, Layla, I hear you’re not feeling well?” Dr. Jessup held my chart, and closed the door shut behind him.

  “Just a little dizzy.”

  “She almost fainted a little while ago,” Max said.

  “I see. And you are?” Dr. Jessup asked.

  “Max.” He stood and extended his hand
. “We met when Layla was first brought in.”

  The doctor shook it. “Oh, yes, of course. You were in quite a state of panic, if I remember correctly.” Max blushed as I glanced over at him. “Well, normally I would wait to speak with your mother, but considering the lateness of the hour, we’ll just take a quick look.”

  Taking a look is code for MRI claustrophobia.

  Being elevated into the giant tubular machine for my MRI, while it knocked and banged with deafening volume, wasn’t half as bad as attempting to master my anxiety and not scratch my way out.

  “It appears as though everything has healed nicely,” Dr. Jessup said after the exam. “There doesn’t seem to be any signs of lingering trauma. Have you been resting as ordered? Under any additional strain? Any unusual stresses? School problems?” He glanced toward Max. “Boyfriend problems?”

  I tried not to laugh. “He’s not my boyfriend.”

  Max shot me a glare.

  Dr. Jessup offered a gentle smile and patted my shoulder. “My advice to you, again, is to take some time off. Get some rest.” He walked to the door. “Head injuries need to be taken seriously.”

  I nodded, wiping the growing grin from my face.

  “Max, it was good to meet you again.” Dr. Jessup paused. “Perhaps you could help Layla take a break?”

  “Consider it done, sir.” Max answered him formally and turned to me with an evil grin.

  As Dr. Jessup left, I said, “No breaks.” I held my hands out. “I have a show to prepare for.”

  “We’ll see.” His words dripped with sarcasm.

  “Yes, we will. You can’t just walk back into my life and pretend everything’s the same as before.” I rose to my feet. “You can’t act like we’re back to normal.”

  “Watch me.” He stood up beside me and smirked.

  Same old Max. The same as Benny and my mom. I’d forgotten how protective he was. Great. Another guardian.

  I eyed him as we ambled back through the hospital hallway and groaned when I caught sight of Benny and Devon exiting the waiting room.

  “Don’t even start.” Devon rolled his eyes. “You think I’m not going to find out you went to the hospital? And then not follow you?” He crossed his arms.

  I didn’t respond. I did shoot daggers at Benny, though.

  She shrugged. “Sorry, Lay. I had to tell him.”