Tyson: An Ariel Kimber Novella

by Mary Martel

  I reread the text message for a third time as a muscle in my jaw ticked.

  That fucking bitch.

  Would I never be rid of her and her toxic bullshit? It was becoming clearer the more I stared at that text message that the answer to that question was a big, fat, fucking no.

  She wanted to make my life a living hell because of what my Uncle Quint had done to her face and I almost couldn't even blame her for it. If someone had destroyed my face the way hers had been ruined, I didn't think I would ever be able to turn my back on them and walk away without first seeking out vengeance and raining my particular horror and pain down all over their asses. But, then, I wasn't the type to let things go, I held a mean grudge that worked just fine for me. I didn't enjoy it coming off of other people so much. Seeing my own flaws on other people wasn't exactly making me feel real good about myself at the moment.

  I read the text message for the fourth time as I sighed heavily and rubbed my fingers into my forehead bitingly.

  Belle: I'm at the Motel with the Council and I really want to see you. Either you come here or I go there. We both know you don't want me to go there. Text me a time and an address and I'll be there.

  Belle? Really, Tyson?

  I flinched at the sight of the nickname I'd used for her since the day I'd first laid eyes on her. Apparently, I'd never removed her from my contact list.

  I didn't do the smart thing and block her number now. I wanted to but I knew better. If I blocked her and didn't meet up with her then she'd do as she said she would and she'd show up at the big house, the house where I lived with my Uncle and Abel and Addison. She never bluffed. It was something I used to find highly attractive in her, but now I found it nothing more than annoying.

  Trapped, I felt trapped.

  And I fucking hated it. I hated her for it. Hated her fucking guts.

  I thought I had hated her before, but I hadn't been doing it right because this was so much more than what it had been before receiving that text. This was hate, and it was a horrible, all-consuming feeling that burned in my gut.

  There was no getting her out of my life and she could destroy everything. Absolutely everything.

  And Ariel...

  My stomach clenched painfully at the thought of Ariel knowing about Annabell texting my phone and seeing the nickname I had saved in it for her. She was so vulnerable and incredibly guarded when it came to her heart that it was a fight just to get anywhere with her. She fought against every feeling, every little damn thing, because she didn't want anyone to hurt her worse than she'd already been hurt. I couldn't blame her for it but it was incredibly frustrating at times and very disheartening at others. If she were to find out Annabell was texting me or that I went to meet up with her, there was no telling how she'd react, but I was willing to bet it wouldn't be good for me. It would likely turn her away from me.

  I'd sooner gouge out my own eyeballs than hurt her or unintentionally push her away from me.

  I couldn't risk Ariel finding out that Annabell was staying with the Council and I definitely couldn't be seen out in public with her. And, I sure as hell didn't want to go somewhere private where it would end up being the two of us alone where she could do something hideous, like, say, try to come on to me and make me vomit all over her because of it.

  No, this needed to be dealt with now and before she could do something unfortunate that I would end up living to regret. It's not like she would regret anything, the bitch didn't have feelings or a heart capable of regret.

  That meant, I needed to make the long drive out to the Motel and confront her there before she showed up here. If she came here then there was no telling what would come out of her mouth or what would happen to her because Uncle Quint hated her even more than I did. And that crazy asshole was capable of damn near anything. When it came to our family, he lacked a moral compass of any kind. Sometimes, I envied him his lack of morals. Other times, I wanted to strangle his ornery, pigheaded ass.

  He couldn't know that the bitch was back and wouldn't be learning it from me, that's for sure.

  Dreading what I had to come face to face with, I grabbed my car keys off of the nightstand I had carelessly tossed them on to when I'd last come home after driving my car. Where I always carelessly tossed them. If I didn't put them in the same spot always I would lose them. I could keep track of everyone else's shit except for my own.

  I pulled open the nightstand drawer, shut down my phone completely, and dropped it inside the drawer.

  My lips curved upwards in a half smile as I reached for the only other thing in the drawer. It was the papers Ariel and I had written about each other on the second day of school when that jackass teacher had proclaimed us as partners and forced us to write an entire paper about each other. I didn't think she knew I had hers and I had no plans on telling her I'd kept them both like some love-sick sappy asshole that I actually was but didn't want anyone else to ever see me as.

  Just because, I picked the one on top up and stated reading.

  Ariel Kimber is my partner for this semester in Mr. Franklin's class even though she very much wishes not to be partnered with me. I can't say I blame her because, along with my fellow classmates, I wasn't very nice to her yesterday. Granted, I wasn't as ruthless and horrible to her as the rest of the others had been, but it was no excuse for the way that I had treated her. I was rude and I treated her in an inexcusable manner that I feel like I will probably be spending a whole lot of time apologizing for.

  I consider myself lucky for having her even speak to me today instead of slapping me across the face for even daring to breathe air anywhere near her. That taught me something else about her that I hadn't know before, she was a better person than me, that's for sure. Likely better than the rest of these losers who go to school here. That's really no surprise to me either because everyone was a loser long before their actions marked them as such yesterday.

  Ariel wasn't a loser. She's precious and I want to kick my own ass for ever daring to speak to her in such a way. If my Uncle had been in the vicinity and seen what had gone down and heard the way I'd spoken to her he would have kicked my ass right there in the hallway and I would have laid down like a bitch and let him beat my ass because it would have been much deserved.

  I digress...

  As for Ariel's looks...

  Well, let’s just say I think she's beautiful and leave it at that. I would feel like a pervert if I waxed poetic about how hot I found her on a school paper.

  But she is, hot that is.

  And her voice, damn. She has a quiet voice that's sweet, she's always so soft spoken. It's very feminine and something that I find incredibly attractive. It's refreshing because I don't think she knows how attractive even her voice is. I'm not used to that in a female. The one's I've known before always knew just how attractive they were and wielded their beauty like a powerful weapon to gain whatever their black hearts had desired.

  Ariel doesn't seem to have a vindictive bone in her body.

  She's also been my neighbor since the beginning of the summer, and I am hating myself and my decision to stay gone for the entire summer on a last all boys camping trip because it's time I've missed out on getting to know her. If I'd have spent the summer getting to know her then I wouldn't have been such a dick to her yesterday in the hallway. Which was my problem to begin with. Yesterday, while watching her, I felt something unpleasant slither through me because there was something unpleasant about watching her. She wasn't right. She wasn't shy, but she came off as timid and acted as if she thought the entire world should find her invisible. Which was ridiculous to me because beautiful girls were never invisible and especially not in high school. She should have hit the hot girl radar in even douche bags eyes and then been hit on left and right. Instead, everyone seemed to hate her right away.

  It wasn't normal and I didn't get it. What's worse is, she acts like she expected it to some extent.

  Since no one besides myself is going to read this I'm jus
t going to put it out there and write it down for myself to read my own words back.

  I think it has something to do with her being like me and the rest of my family. I think her magic gives off some sort of repellent to normal, average folks and, if that's the case, she needs me, needs the rest of us, more now than I had realized. And, because of that thought, I hate myself just a little bit.

  She'd clearly made no friends during the summer while we were gone and yesterday had made it obvious she wouldn't be making any friends now that school had started.

  If I hadn't insisted she'd be fine without us for the summer and we'd stuck around then she would have had friends on her first day, she wouldn't have spent the entire summer alone with no one but her mother and Marcus to rely on. I had been still too hurt by another female of her kind to even consider that this one might be different. And, in all honesty, I could only admit these things because I knew no one else would ever read them. I messed things up so badly with her from the start that I have no idea even where to begin again with her and that thought terrifies me.

  She, Ariel Kimber, terrifies me and she doesn't even know it. She has the power to destroy my family and that's something I've gone through once before and have no desire to go through again. That's the only reason I'd insisted on going camping for the summer instead of staying home and getting to know the new witch next door who we'd all dreamed about becoming such a big part of our family. Because she alone held the power to destroy what was really most precious to me, my family.

  And she scared the absolute shit out of me.

  Proceed with caution, that would be my new life motto because I wasn't about to let my family be sucked under by another female who had the potential to destroy us.

  I never received a grade for it and neither had Ariel for hers because I hadn't given Mr. Franklin the chance to even read them before swiping them from his desk. He hadn't needed to read mine and I hadn't wanted anyone else to read the things she'd written about me on hers. We'd both been given F's but I figured that was okay because he was a dick and probably would have failed Ariel anyways because he seemed to hate her from the moment she walked into his classroom, which was something I did not understand in the slightest.

  As far as I was concerned, Mr. Franklin could suck it, he meant next to nothing to me. We weren't going to school anymore so neither of us ever had to think of the toad of a man ever again.

  And, as far as Ariel was concerned, she never had to know I had the papers.

  Chapter Three

  Typical Council behavior

  The Motel loomed up ahead of me, dark and dreary. I couldn’t imagine anyone but a psychopath wanting to stay here in this creepy place. I wasn't surprised in the least that the Council chose this place to stay in, and not simply because it was creepy as all get out. It was isolated in the extreme and I knew that was probably the driving factor behind them moving in. The Council liked its privacy from the normal, everyday average human beings and what better place to find that than here in a serial killer’s wannabe hang out.

  Typical Council behavior.

  They were hiding more than just themselves, and I knew it. They were always hiding something and seemed to be never capable of simply being open and honest. They also sneered at the weakest among us and adored the cruelest. My grandfather, my Uncle Quint's father, had been testament to that. They’d loved him and he’d been one of the biggest motherfuckers to ever walk the planet.

  I wondered how long they planned on staying here and hoped like hell they lost interest in our coven and Ariel sooner rather than later because I didn't want to deal with the threat of them lurking around every corner.

  I parked my Audi on the side of the dirt road a slight ways back from the Motel and got out. I didn't want them all to know I was here because I was certain if something bad went down then Adrian would immediately be on the phone with Uncle Quint, telling him how naughty I was and that he needed to put a tighter leash on me. The whole entirety of those pricks worked like that, thinking the only one's of us who really mattered were the leaders and the rest of us were simply sheep to be commanded at their every whim.

  I wasn't a sheep and I wasn't about to be lead around by the leash Annabell wanted to snap back around my neck when I wasn't paying close enough attention to her. That bitch was not getting her claws back into me. Not now, not ever. And she sure as hell wasn't going to drag my family back through the mud while I sat back on my ass and watched and did nothing. This was my mess that had started with her and I was going to be the one to clean it up.

  I was so sick and tired of everything for me always coming back to Annabell and the way she'd hurt me. It had even made it hard for me to trust Ariel in the beginning or treat her as well as I should have. I still felt immense guilt over the way I had behaved towards her on the first day of school even though it had been months ago. If I hadn't allowed Annabell to hurt me before, and to still fucking control my life even though she was no longer a part of it, then I wouldn't have treated Ariel the way that I had. I needed to finally face what she'd done to me and move past it once and for all so that I could live my life outside of the shadow she'd cast on it when she'd royally fucked not only myself but two of my brothers over.

  I didn't want to feel like she still had a hold on me anymore. And, it's not even like it was her who really had a hold on me, because it wasn't. It was what she'd done to me and how it had happened at a time when I was so incredibly vulnerable due to the death of my parents and how she'd tried to tear apart the only thing I had left that was good in my life anymore, that's what still had a hold on me. I couldn't get past my own stupidity over having allowed a snake to infest my family. I had always been arrogant enough to think I was smart and she'd proven me wrong in every way and made me feel like I wasn't worth a damn at all and that I wasn't capable of taking care of my family.

  I absolutely loathed everything about Annabell.

  No, we weren't doing this on her terms. We were doing it on mine and I'd be damned if I let her do any more damage to my family.

  I whispered a short spell as I slowly moved up the dirt road in the direction of the Motel. It would keep me in the shadows and on silent feet. It, like all magic, came at a cost and after a while would start draining on my energy. I'd need to eat something to replenish myself and for that reason alone I had always kept my glove compartment well stocked with a bottle of water and plenty of energy bars that would work in a pinch to refuel my low energy.

  I knew it wouldn't be hard for the Council to see right through my pathetic attempt at shielding but at this juncture anything was better than nothing and, as strong as she claimed to be, Annabell wouldn't be able to see through it as easily as the Council would be able to. She was no where near as strong as she claimed to be. In fact, compared to the kind of power Ariel had started to give off, Annabell's magic abilities were starting to look like a joke, something laughable in comparison.

  I crept along the shadows of the tree line as I moved down the dirt road. When I made it to the vehicles in front of the building I stuck to the shadows as I moved between them.

  The lights in every room were lit up and the entire building gave off a bright, happy glow that was so out of place here in the backwoods coming off of this dumpy, gloomy building that it would have been laughable if it hadn't been so damn creepy. And, oddly enough, the place was eerily quiet. I knew the place was probably spelled in some way that kept the noise level down to nonexistent but it made it creepy outside to not even hear the slightest rustling of leaves in the surrounding woods.

  I had no idea where I was going when I hit the front of the building, but for some unknown reason I was drawn to the stairs. I didn't question it. I let my instincts take over and followed behind them. I was half way up the wooden stairs before I realized it wasn't my instincts I was following but the essence of someone else's magic that had once violated me in a way I knew down to my very soul that I would never, not ever, fucking forget a second of. Magic
that had been used against me in a way that wasn't allowed amongst the covens here in the U.S. Magic that had been used to control my every emotion.

  Yeah, oh yeah, I fucking hated Annabell.

  I followed the sour taste of her magic until I came to the third door on the right. Without hesitation, I placed my hand on the knob and turned. The door opened up and I stepped inside.

  I wasn't surprised in the slightest by the richness of the room I'd stepped into. It looked a whole lot like a formal sitting room that belonged in a house from a different time. The floor was covered in a priceless Persian rug decorated in deep, rich colors. The chair and couch that were seated across from each other looked so delicate there was no doubt in my mind that if a heavier set person were to sit down on one and take a load off the thin, curved legs on either piece of furniture would likely snap under the weight. Maybe they were sturdier than they looked, and, given their age I imagined they had to have been to withstand the years they had without breaking, but I'd much rather take my chances and sit my ass on the floor if I had to, thank you very much. A fancy silver tea set had been placed on the center of a table in between the couch and chair. Steam rose from the tea cups, letting me know the contents inside had recently been poured.

  That was one thing I certainly didn't miss about Annabell, her love for tea. She never enjoyed coffee and she thought soda was so full of sugar that it disgusted her. And she could never just heat up water in the microwave and dip her tea bag into it. Oh no, nothing so mundane for the precious Annabell. She had to have a set up like this with the full-blown tea set every single fucking time she had her tea, which, in case you were wondering, was all the fucking time. And, it gets worse, because of how she'd been raised and the princess she arrogantly thought herself to be, she expected someone else to wait on her every single time she had her tea because she thought she was too good to pour it out her damned self and always expected someone else to do it for her.