The Accidental Kiss

by Nicole Simone

  “Sorry, “ I whispered.

  While gorgeous, this library wasn’t the friendliest. Cleaning up the mess I had created, I returned the hardbacks to the bottom shelf. My idea was half-baked but if somehow Daemon and I could get to New Orleans, there would be a thousand resources at our beck and call. While I was against murder, I wasn’t against black magic. If it was used in a productive manner, like defending yourself that is. However, there were two glaring problems. I didn’t own a car and I was deathly afraid of driving. After Melissa died, sitting in a vehicle triggered panic attacks. A year later, the panic was still there but it had lessened. Operating a car though was out. There was too much power a person held behind the wheel.

  The alarm on my phone beeped, signaling class was about to begin. I hightailed it out of the library and was thrust into the throng of students. Using my short height to my advantage, I weaved through the crowd with relative ease. Halfway up the staircase, my legs froze. Daemon stood on the landing, head bent over his phone. Light from the window next to him spilled across his sandy blonde hair.

  “Move,” said a girl who shoved past me.

  Similar remarks were spoken but my body remained glued to the spot. My humiliation was a raw wound that wouldn’t heal in a day. Problem was, I had no idea when the voodoo priest’s zombies would attack again. It could be tomorrow, tonight, or next week. Daemon was not only my inside communication line, he was also my best form of protection at the moment. I was all for girl power but my pride won’t be what kills me in the end. As if Daemon felt my gaze, he looked up and his green eyes twinkled. Electricity pulsed in the air. I blinked, somehow summoning Daemon in front of me close enough to smell his cologne.

  “I see you’re in one piece,” he purred.

  My tongue felt thick in my mouth. A witty comeback was hard to muster so instead my chin dipped in a nod.

  “Good to hear, I rather like you in one piece.” His heady gaze flicked over my bottom half. “Especially some body parts more than others.”

  The haze cleared. “Don’t get all Daemon on me.”

  “I didn’t know my name was an adverb.”

  If it was, Daemon would be a new way to describe a man who used his sexual charms to persuade women into just about anything, like losing your virginity for example.

  I poked his rock hard chest. “What you did back there on the boat was unforgivable.”

  “How was saving your virtue unforgivable?”

  A couple of girls giggled when they walked past us, reminding me we weren’t alone. Quite the opposite. There were at least a hundred ears trained on our conversation at this very minute.

  I poked his chest again. “Keep your voice down.”

  He grabbed my finger, cradling it against his chest. “Sky, my intention wasn’t to reject you.” His eyes blazed with fire. “I wanted to devour you but now is not the time. Not like this.”

  A whirlwind of emotions stirred in my stomach. Anger, lust, and humiliation being the three contenders. What Emily and my mom had told me about Daemon didn’t match the Daemon I’d gotten to know the past two days. It was seriously messing with my mind.

  I took back my hand. “I have to go to class.”

  “Of course but we need to figure out how to stop you know…”

  I knew whom Daemon was referring to, how could I not? There was only one person that wanted to drain my blood. “We will. Can you swing by my house later tonight? There’s something I need to show you.” His face lit up with interest. “Get your mind out of the gutter,” I said. “It’s a book.”

  He grinned. “What can I say? One peek wasn’t enough.”

  He could say that again. An unquenchable thirst was sparked when I first laid eyes on him and it had only worsened when I got a taste on the boat.

  The day dragged on at an unbearable pace. By the time the bell rang, I bolted out of my seat and speed walked outside where the sun greeted me. I threw my head back, basking in the warm glow. If things went according to the voodoo priest’s plans, my body would be in a trashcan right now. I had never felt such a deep appreciation at being alive before. It was a gift I had taken advantage of for far to long. Although I wished I had come to this conclusion without a near death experience.

  “What are you doing?” Emily’s voice cut into my thoughts.

  My eyes squinted against the harsh rays. She was an arm’s length away from me, her mouth formed into a puzzled expression. I studied her body language to see if there were any traces of anger left. What Emily had said back in the lost and found room stuck with me. I hadn’t noticed it but I had formed a cement wall around myself. I figured if I kept everybody at a distance it would protect me from any further loss. In the process though, I had lost out on valuable friendships. With my newfound zest for life though, those barriers crumbled.

  “I threw myself at Daemon earlier,” I blurted out.

  Emily’s hand flew to her mouth. “No.”

  “Yes, and he rejected me so I jumped off the boat and waded to shore.”

  “Wait, back up. Why were you on a boat? And since when have you and Daemon been close enough for this to even happen?”

  I wanted to tell Emily everything, which included revealing my hidden talent. However, that was a tale for another day.

  “We became friendly in English class and one thing lead to another,” I said.

  Emily’s brows knitted together. “I knew there was something up between you two but I didn’t peg you as that kind of girl.”

  Awesome. Now the only friend I had made in this town besides Lucy saw me as a slut. I shouldn’t have taken my guard down. “Forget I said anything. Where’s Lucy?” I looked around the common area to conceal my tears.

  Emily reached out and wrapped her fingers around my wrist. “Hey,” she said softly. “I didn’t mean anything by that. I just meant you move fast.”

  The knife shoved deeper into my chest. A strong urge to protect my reputation almost unglued my tongue. If Emily were in my shoes, she too would throw herself at Daemon if it meant saving her life.

  “Shit, I didn’t mean that either.” Emily groaned, burying her face into her palms.

  There wasn’t a need for clarification; I knew exactly what she meant. “It’s fine. You think I am a huge slut. I got it.”

  She shook her head violently while her hands slid away. Her green eyes were as wide as saucers. “No, you misunderstood me. Since Daemon got here two weeks ago, girls have gone nuts over him. Yet he hasn’t given any of them the time of day, until you.”

  A strong buzzing sounded in my ears. “Wait? I thought Daemon grew up here.”

  “Boys like Daemon don’t exist in a small town like Castor, let alone grow up here.”

  The buzzing grew louder. I moved here two weeks ago. My mom wanted us to explore the town and get situated before school started. Except, I had hardly left my room and instead holed up with my favorite novels. A shy person by nature I put off the idea of making friends for as long as possible.

  “But he’s a living legend at school,” I said.

  “Like I said girls have gone ape shit crazy over him coupled with his mysterious background and too hot to handle looks. It’s rumor gold,” Emily said.

  It didn’t make sense, which wasn’t anything new. Yet, what were the chances Daemon would move to Castor at the same time as me? Slim to none. Castor was a tiny blip on the map with only 500 occupants.

  “I am here because of you. It has always been about you.”

  Daemon’s declaration echoed inside my head. What if he was telling the truth? What if he moved to this town for the sole reason to protect me? But why go through all that trouble? I knew Daemon said he was sick of being bad and wanted to try out being good for once. Nonetheless, that doesn’t happen overnight. An event or a moment had to happen in order to shift gears so dramatically. I had a strong instinct you couldn’t walk away from the voodoo priest all easy breezy either. He had owned Daemon’s body and soul for almost sixty years. Daemon most
likely had to fight like hell to get out from underneath his thumb.

  Emily’s gaze grew concerned. “Are you ok?”

  No, I wasn’t. Once again, Daemon was hiding a piece of the puzzle from me. How the hell could we prevent my death if we didn’t trust each other? We were in this battle until the bloody end. I deserved to know the whole story.

  Lucy’s red car chugged along the highway toward the mall. Emily took advantage of my distressed state and called shotgun. I was stuck in the backseat amongst fast food wrappers, discarded clothing, and five different pairs of shoes. Luckily, I was tiny so it didn’t bother me that my legs were shoved against my chest.

  “Do you want to listen to anything in particular?” Lucy asked me. She turned the radio dial, searching for a signal.

  “Whatever. I’m not picky when it comes to music.”

  Emily smacked Lucy’s hand away. “Let me do it. You are an awful DJ.”

  “Hey! No I am not.” She paused. “Ok, you’re right.”

  Emily turned around in her seat and looked at me. “The last time I let Lucy take control of the radio, we ended up listening to a Celine Dion marathon.”

  “She is an amazing singer,” Lucy defended.

  “Not for eight hours.”

  I laughed. “Have to agree with you there. You can only take Celine Dion in small doses.”

  A debate broke out between us over which female singer had the best vocal range. My vote was for Aretha Franklin, but Lucy and Emily disagreed. Voices were raised, hands gestured widely, and a lone sock ended up on Emily’s head. It was the most fun I’d had in awhile and for those five minutes, my obsession about Daemon, the Priest of Santeria, and the other million of questions went silent.

  Lucy wedged the car into a tight parking space. “Alright, let’s get this party started.” She turned off the engine and hopped out onto the black asphalt.

  I couldn’t get out until Emily moved, which she wasn’t doing. “You alright?”

  “I’m fine, but Sky…” Her eyes shined with remorse as she peeked over the headrest. “I am sorry for what I said earlier. I don’t think you’re a slut and never will. Daemon is an idiot for rejecting you. Ninety-nine percent of the guys at school would love to climb into your pants.”

  Her apology was like a healing balm over my wounds. “Thank you, but no need to stroke my ego.”

  “What else are friends for?”

  My lips formed into a lopsided smile. “You’re right. Now move your ass into gear. Somebody promised me a pretzel.”

  The underlining tension between us dissolved. Emily got out of the car while I followed suit. Lucy was already halfway across the parking lot; her Mohawk sticking up like a beacon.

  “Thanks for waiting for us,” Emily yelled, which got a raised middle finger in response. “Sometimes I wonder why I bother.”

  “You bother because she has meat cleavers at her disposal,” I joked.

  Emily’s eyed widened as if it just dawned on her. “Oh my God. You’re right.”

  Lucy stopped at the entrance, waiting for us to catch up with her. Even from this distance, the annoyance written on her face was visible. Obviously, patience wasn’t one of her virtues.

  “We’d better hurry or else she might use one of them on us,” I said.

  Emily and I quickened our pace while the sky behind us exploded into a mural of color as the sun dipped away. When we stepped inside, it was packed to the gills with teenagers, old people, and moms pushing strollers. So this was where everybody hung out. We convened around the fountain and tried to figure out our game plan. Since Emily was aware of my phobia with shopping, she suggested three retail shops, then a pretzel break.

  Lucy shook her head in disagreement. “We should do pretzels first because then Sky can eat while she walks and pretend as if she isn’t bored.”

  My mom and dad had divorced when I was only six months old but this was probably what their discussions would have sounded like if they shared custody.

  “Hello, I’m right here.” I waved my hands in the air. When their eyeballs were on me, I cleared my throat. “Thank you. I won’t get bored shopping but I am hungry. And when I’m hungry, I get cranky.”

  Lucy understood what I was implying. “Pretzels, then shopping it is.”

  The three of us walked over to the food court, which also wasn’t accurately named. There was a pretzel bar, a farm to table soul food restaurant, a French bakery, and couple of other venues. Bistro tables, decorated with mason jars and white table clothes, surrounded a long communal table in the middle of the room. A double-paned skylight gave everybody a glimpse at the starry sky above. This town was constantly throwing me curve balls.

  Emily was practically jumping out of her skin. “You can get so many crazy awesome flavors at The Pretzel Bar, like strawberry balsamic.” She clapped her hands together. “OR! Parmesan chocolate chip.”

  I scrunched my nose in disgust. “Please tell me they have fake cheese. That’s all I want.”

  Lucy chimed in. “They don’t, but trust me you will love it.”

  Unease churned my stomach. Nothing beats fake cheese except fake cheese. It was a gross thing to love but damn it, that neon yellow goop tugged at my heartstrings. My feet reluctantly trailed after them. Ten minutes later I saw nirvana.

  “Holy shit,” I moaned. “This sauce is the bomb with a capital B.”

  When Lucy had first placed the pretzel in front of me, my mind was already made up. The pretzel would taste too gourmet but it was love at first bite. In the middle of stuffing my face, my senses started to tingle. I paused and glanced around the packed eating area. Nothing was out of the ordinary except a young girl wearing a Pokémon shirt. Hadn’t that fad been dead for years? Another sweep confirmed my paranoia. I dunked another piece of pretzel into the sauce and shrugged it off.

  “Was I right or was I right?” Emily gloated. “Don’t answer that because I was totally right.”

  Emily and Lucy were right about the cheese sauce; however, the other pretzel combinations were too weird for my taste.

  “You were right…” Emily opened her mouth to speak but I cut her off with my look of disgust. “That though….” I pointed to her pretzel covered in chocolate and Parmesan. “That is wrong.”

  She held eye contact with me as she took a huge bite. I gagged. “So wrong,” I repeated.

  “Don’t knock it until you try it.” Emily chirped.

  “I’m good.”

  My head jerked over my shoulder as the feeling of being watched crept up my spine again. What the hell? I searched the perimeter but everybody was involved in his or her own lives. Nobody’s attention was focused on me. A persistent itch burned between my shoulder blades, telling a different story. I had to leave and now. My chair scraped against the floor as I stood abruptly.

  “Can we go shopping?”

  Emily and Lucy stared up at me, taken aback by my sudden mood swing. A two-second lull passed, then another. They continued to gape, as the itch grew stronger.

  “Please?” I said desperately. “I saw a pair of pants in one of the window displays and I need them.”

  Lucy’s eyebrows rose. “Now?”

  I sounded like a junky itching for a fix. “Yes, now. They’re a spectacular pair of pants.”

  “They’d better be,” Emily grumbled miserably.

  They rose from their seats and dumped their half eaten pretzels in the trash. I felt bad but it was either that or stay, where danger potentially lurked.

  “Lead the way,” Lucy said.

  I headed straight down an escalator, took a right, and then a left until we arrived at a random store that had cute clothes on display. The itch disappeared. I let out a sigh of relief.

  Lucy shot me a suspicious glance. “How did you see these pants? We didn’t pass by this store on the way in.”

  “I saw them last week when my mom and I were here.” Man, the lies were getting easier to spout by the minute.

  She seemed to buy it and walked
into the clothing store without any further questions. I browsed the racks, looking for these so-called spectacular pair of pants. Unfortunately, white washed denim was back in with a vengeance.

  Emily held a black maxi dress against her body. “What do you think about this?”

  “It’s too plain for you.” An orange sweater caught my eye and I yanked it off the hanger. “But this would look nice against your skin color.”

  She cooed in admiration. “Pretty. I’ll try it on.”

  Handing the sweater over to Emily, she walked back to the dressing rooms. I proceeded with my mission but my heart wasn’t in it. My tiny closet at home was already stuffed to the brim with clothes I would never wear again. The Los Angeles climate was the polar opposite of Louisiana’s. I had found that out this summer when my shortest shorts weren’t a match against the heat. Lucy was at the counter flirting with a male sales clerk so I wandered over to where the shoes were. I picked up a pair of six-inch stilettos and grimaced. Anybody who could walk in those was a miracle worker.

  “Can you say painful?”

  I jumped, dropping the shoe on the ground. My heart pounded in my ears. A man dressed in an expensive suit came into view as he bent to pick up the stiletto.

  “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you,” he said.

  When he straightened, unease rippled through me. Although his voice dripped in honey, his dark eyes held the promise of nightmares. I widened our distance from each other.

  “No problem,” I croaked out.

  “My name is Parker.” A tinge of southern accent tainted his words.

  I looked over my shoulder to get Lucy’s attention but she was too absorbed in her conversation with Mr. Sales Clerk. Guess I was on my own.

  “Nice to meet you.”

  A wolfish grin tugged at his lips. “And you.”

  Parker held out his hand to give me back the shoe. As I went to retrieve it, our fingers brushed. Ice wove through my veins. Shivering, I wrapped my arms around my waist. His freakily cold body temperature confirmed my hunch. Parker was a zombie.