Crushed

by Kasi Blake

  “I… I’m Kristen Noah, a friend of Zach’s. He’s looking for you so he can introduce us.”

  “Zach doesn’t have friends. He keeps to himself. He told me he has to lay low. He keeps to himself. Talking to people is dangerous. Who are you? Why are you here?”

  There was a definite challenge in the tone of voice. Kristen looked at the doorway again, desperate to see Zach’s face. She didn’t want to upset the girl. Zach might not forgive her.

  Taking a deep breath, she said, “Zach and I are brand-new friends.”

  “Zach doesn’t bring people home with him.” Suspicious, the sister moved closer to Kristen. “He doesn’t have friends. Zach doesn’t bring people home with him.” Her dark eyes raked Kristen from head to toe. “And he doesn’t like it when people touch his stuff. Are you a burglar? If you are, I have the right to defend myself. Zach told me we’re allowed to defend ourselves.”

  “I’m not a burglar.”

  “Burglars break into people’s homes. They get shot because people have the right to defend themselves. Zach says we aren’t supposed to hurt people, but we have to defend ourselves. I wrote it down in my notebook.”

  Kristen forced a smile. “That’s good. It’s good to write things down so you’ll remember.”

  Morgan stared at Kristen in silence.

  Kristen shifted from one foot to the other, uncomfortable.

  “There you are,” Zach said from the doorway. He moved to stand next to Morgan. “Have you met Kristen? This is my sister Morgan, and this is Kristen Noah. I hope you two will become good friends.”

  “You’re home early again. You aren’t supposed to be home until a few minutes after three. It’s only nine o’clock now. Are you going to have snack with me at ten?”

  “Well, I’ll stay for a snack if Kristen wants to join us.”

  “I don’t want her here,” Morgan said, body rigid. Her voice started cold and flat, but by the time she reached the last word it had steadily grown louder. “Make her go.”

  “That isn’t very nice, Morgan.”

  She glared at Kristen while hugging her brother close, a possessive flare in her eyes. “I don’t care. I don’t like her. Bear doesn’t like her, either. Make her go away. Then we can have a snack together.”

  She ran out of the room and up the stairs. The door slammed shut above them a few seconds later. Zach gave Kristen an apologetic smile. “That actually went better than I thought it would. I’m going to talk to her. I’ll be back in a second.”

  Kristen waited alone in the expensively furnished room. She found the girl’s notebook and flipped through it, reading a few of the entries. Apparently, Morgan felt like she had to write everything down. There were lists of things to do, stuff that Zach had told her, and a few detailed entries on what Zach did when he left the house.

  Did Zach know his sister liked to spy on him?

  She had followed him to the club and seen him with Kristen on their second date. The girl wasn’t as helpless or as clueless as she pretended to be. She’d known who Kristen was when she’d questioned her. Two sets of footsteps tromped down the stairs. They were coming back. Kristen tossed the notebook back on the table and went to stand by the fireplace again.

  Morgan entered the room ahead of her brother. In a robotic voice, she said, “Kristen, we want you to have snack with us at ten.”

  Zach gestured for Kristen to respond to his sister’s forced invitation.

  “Thank you,” she said. “I would love to have snack with you.”

  Morgan’s smile changed, becoming slightly malicious. “Then maybe you and I can play a game.”

  Game? A shiver raced up Kristen’s spine. There was knowledge glittering in the cold depths of the other girl’s eyes. This girl wasn’t just ill, she was off her rocker. Kristen had no doubt that if Morgan could kill her and get away with it, she would.

  Zach stood there smiling, completely oblivious.

  “I don’t think your sister likes me very much,” Kristen said as they took a walk through the woods behind Zach’s house. There wasn’t another person for miles. He owned two-hundred-plus acres. It was weird to think everything in sight belonged to him. There wasn’t another person for miles. Little Morgan didn’t like visitors.

  Kristen tried to keep her tone light. They weren’t at the point in their relationship yet where she could tell him the truth about a close relative, especially not the sister he obviously adored. She peeked at him from beneath lowered lashes, checking his expression.

  He shook his head and smiled. “You just aren’t used to how she acts. She doesn’t like or dislike anyone. Remember the movie Rain Man? That’s Morgan, except for the freaky number thing. She can’t do that.”

  The trees parted on a clearing overgrown with weeds and wildflowers. There was an old, red barn in the center. It looked like one of those picture-perfect calendar photos. For a moment, Kristen forgot about the crazy sister. She felt like an explorer making an amazing discovery. Her lips parted on a soft gasp. “I wish I had my camera.”

  Zach gave her a doubtful look. “Are you kidding me? You’d want a picture of that?”

  “It’s beautiful.”

  “It’s old and falling apart.”

  She smiled and took him by the hand, pulling him towards the building. “Where is your sense of adventure? Let’s have a closer look.”

  “Are you sure? The guy who sold me the land said no one has used it for over a decade. It might not be safe.”

  “Hey, I thought I was the one who worried over nothing.” She grinned before ushering him closer. Walking behind him, she pushed him to the large opening while laughing. “You’re big and strong. I trust you to protect me.”

  He returned her smile. In a quick role-reversal, he spun around, wrapped his arms around her, and put her in front of him. They stepped into the old building together. “It stinks in here,” he grumbled, his smile evaporating.

  Kristen tried hard not to wrinkle her nose. Yes, it did smell, but it was nice to have Zach alone. She wanted to share her fears and frustrations with him. So much had happened since the last time they’d spoken. “Everything has been crashing down around me for the last few weeks.”

  “I noticed. Gina has been working overtime to get to you. I don’t know what her problem is, and I can’t believe your sister is helping her. I think siblings should have each other’s backs, no matter what.”

  Kristen wished she could tell him the truth about Brittany, the game, and her powers. If he knew what she was dealing with, how her sister was a dangerous witch, he would finally understand what was truly going on. Maybe he could help her think of a way out of it.

  But she couldn’t tell him. He would either think she was insane or lying. Then there were the dreams to consider. He was going to accuse her someday and steal her powers away. As much as she wanted to trust him, she couldn’t.

  “Brittany will come around eventually. She always does.”

  Zach rubbed his hands down the length of both of her arms in a comforting gesture. “We can’t choose our relatives.”

  “What about you and Morgan? You seem to get along.”

  He made a face. “She’s the only family I have left, and she needs me. But sometimes, honestly, I just want to put her in a box and ship her as far away from me as I possibly can.”

  Changing the subject to a happier one, she asked, “Where did you find those amazing angels on the fireplace?”

  With a laugh, he pulled Kristen into a tight embrace. “Let’s not talk about that right now. We should take advantage of this rare moment.”

  “What do you mean?”

  His voice fell to a whisper. “We’re alone.”

  “Yeah. I noticed that.”

  “Scared?”

  “Of you?” She laughed, thinking about how silly she’d been to ever believe he was horrible or dangerous. Now when she gazed into those blue eyes, she only saw the good in him. “Of course not.”

  “You never have to be a
fraid of me. I will always take care of you.” His eyes dropped to her mouth while his fingers caressed her face. “Do you have any idea how much I’ve been wanting to kiss you?”

  She blushed. “Me too.”

  “All through snack time, while Morgan was going on and on about nothing, I just kept thinking how I wanted to reach over the table and take your face between my hands like this.” He demonstrated. “And kiss you breathless, like this.”

  His mouth covered hers in a kiss that seared what was left of her brain. She couldn’t think; she could only feel. Her lips parted beneath his on a blissful sigh, and she marveled at the tenderness of his touch. It was hard to believe this was the same guy she’d recently hated.

  A groaning sound filled her ears. For a moment, she thought the sound was coming from Zach, but it grew louder, more insistent. It was a bad sound, the sound of impending doom. Fear coursed through her veins.

  They broke apart in confusion.

  As if by mutual consent, their eyes traveled upward. The terrible noise magnified a hundredfold. A large, single beam directly over their heads seemed to be the only thing holding the barn up. It snapped while Kristen was staring up at it. The decrepit roof was going to fall on them. There wasn’t time to move, wasn’t time to run. It was over. They were going to be crushed.

  Kristen’s eyes went to Zach’s. There wasn’t time for her to tell him how important he was to her. She thought she might actually be in love with him. Now he would never know.

  Zach grabbed her.

  He couldn’t possibly protect her from the collapsing barn, but the fact that he was willing to try made her love him even more. The words stuck in her throat. Instead of getting hit by something, she felt as if she were playing that silly kid game where you twirled around and around until you almost passed out. It was like she was flying through the air with nothing to hold on to except for Zach’s warm body.

  Then she was falling, and Zach’s comforting presence was gone.

  She screamed. The ground rushed up to meet her, and her body slammed against it. A cloud of dust momentarily distorted her vision. Eyes open, she scrambled to her feet and found herself no longer inside the barn. They were back in the woods. Her mind headed for a total meltdown. She yelled, “What the hell! What’s going on? How did we get out here?”

  Zach was on his knees a few feet from her. His eyes were glued to her as if he were afraid to look away. He stood up slowly, hands out like he was trying to calm a frightened animal. “It’s okay. Don’t be upset. I can explain.”

  “Explain what? You did this? How?”

  “Let’s just say you aren’t the only one in Sol Moreno with powers.”

  A dark fear, worse than anything she’d experienced before, seeped into her bones and clouded her judgment. She had trusted him. Total betrayal rocked her senses. Unable to breathe, she just stood there, staring at him in shock. His words rolled over her a second time.

  “Wait a second,” she said. “How long have you known about me?”

  His gaze dropped to the ground.

  “How long?” she shouted.

  With a frown, he admitted, “I figured it out a few weeks after starting at Titan. I saw Cyndi blow colorful dust into a boy’s face. Then that kid started following her around, doing everything she asked him to. It was obvious to me, at least.”

  “Why didn’t you say something?”

  “Because then you would have known that I was like you. I’m hiding from the witches’ council because of Morgan. I couldn’t afford for you to notice me. And anyway, I thought you were a psychotic, stuck-up witch with delusions of grandeur. So I avoided you for as long as I could.”

  “Until I blew the dust into your face.” Her skin crawled at the memory of how he’d behaved after she’d crushed him. That whole time he’d been playing a game with her. “You lied to me.”

  He gawked at her, disbelief written all over his face. “Excuse me? You lied to me first! And you tried to use me, make me into your little puppet boy. I was going to blow your butt out of the water and accuse you in front of the whole damn school that day, but…”

  The blood drained from her face. “Why didn’t you?”

  “I went home to vent so my anger wouldn’t explode and destroy the whole block. After I got myself under control, I realized I couldn’t do it. I don’t want the council to know Morgan is with me. Then, when I got back to school, I found you fighting with Gina. You were so strong, so determined to beat her down.

  “When you turned those beautiful eyes in my direction and demanded my jacket, I couldn’t resist. For a while, I thought I might actually be enchanted. It took time to figure out I just wanted to be near you. I was under a different sort of spell.”

  On any other day, his words would have filled her with such unimaginable joy she would have been floating ten feet in the air, but she couldn’t get past the lies and the betrayal. Then, there was the crazy power he had. She had never seen anything like it.

  “How did you do it?” she asked. “I’ve never even heard of someone who could do what you just did. My grandmother is the most powerful witch I know, and she can’t do anything close.”

  “I can explain.” He took a step in her direction.

  Kristen automatically backed away, arms raised and fists clenched. She spread her legs in a fighting stance as she thought of a spell, something that would knock him off balance so she could get away. He was dangerous—that was crystal clear. Anyone who could pop from one place to another was capable of anything. He might be able to make the ground open and swallow her. Maybe he could even wipe her memory clean so she wouldn’t remember this conversation.

  “Stay away from me,” she said. “I mean it.”

  “You don’t have to be afraid of me.”

  “Right. So says the boy with the wicked power.”

  “I would never do anything to hurt you.”

  She didn’t believe him. The Zach she’d thought she knew didn’t exist. He had been playing a part the entire time, laughing at her behind her back because she had believed she was in control. Memories surfaced one after another, all the times she’d spent with him. None of it had been real.

  “What was the plan?” she asked. “Were you going to play games with me, make me fall for you, and then accuse me in front of half the school?”

  His dark brows drew together. When he answered her, his voice was quiet. “No. I was going to get you to fall for me so you would remove the spell and I could return to my normal life. But that was before I got to know you. You aren’t like any other girl I’ve ever met.”

  “What is the big master plan now?”

  “There is no plan.” He moved another step closer. “You have to listen to me. I think I might be in love with you.”

  Claiming to love her was the last straw. Without warning she took off through the woods as fast as she could, legs and arms pumping, fear adding to her speed. She wasn’t running from Zach; she was running from a stranger with a familiar face. He had lied and manipulated her. As far as she was concerned, he was worse than Jake.

  “Kristen, stop!” His feet pounded the hard earth behind her.

  He was chasing her.

  In a full-on panic, she pushed herself to run faster. Kristen looked over her shoulder as she tore through the woods. She didn’t hear him anymore, and she didn’t see him, either. There were only trees. She tripped over an exposed root and went down hard, scraping her knees and the palms of her hands. The fall knocked the breath out of her. Around her, the woods got deathly quiet. No birds chirped. No insects buzzed. She glanced up and saw the reason why.

  There, a few short yards from her face, was the wolf from the other night. She was almost certain it was the same animal, although that didn’t make any sense. They were miles from the place she’d last come across it, and how could it possibly know where to find her?

  Every muscle in her body froze. She didn’t dare breathe as their eyes connected and held. Her mind tried to work quic
kly and find a way out of this mess. She searched her brain for a good spell, but before she could come up with anything, the wolf changed. It transformed in front of her eyes, going from wolf to boy in mere seconds.

  Zach stared down at her, his gaze mirroring the wariness in her heart.

  “You.” She stood on shaking legs and shouted, on the verge of hysterics, “You can change into a wolf? Are you kidding me? What else can you do? Just how powerful are you?”

  He approached her slowly, hands in pockets. “I don’t think you’re ready to hear anything I have to say right now.”

  A jumble of emotions brought her to the edge of a mental breakdown. Fear, sadness, and confusion—each grew at a rapid rate until she thought she would collapse under the weight of them. He was right about one thing though.

  She didn’t want to hear his explanation.

  “I’ll take you back to school,” he said while reaching for her arm.

  She stepped to the side, avoiding him easily. “I’m not getting on that motorcycle with you again. Forget it. Point me to the road, and I’m out of here.”

  “You can’t walk back to school. It’s too far.”

  “I’ll call Cyndi. I have my phone.”

  “I have a car, too. Remember?” His tone was flat and lifeless, a good match for his eyes. “I can take you to school in it.”

  “I am not going anywhere with you, not ever again.”

  Digging a hand into the pocket of his faded jeans, he pulled out a set of keys. While she watched, still shaking, he removed a gold one from the ring and held it out to her, saying, “You can take the car. Leave it in the school parking lot with the key under the seat. I’ll get it later.”

  She reached out slowly, afraid it was a trick. Snatching the key from his hand, she held it tightly and took a few steps backwards. “Where is it?”

  “In the garage.”

  “Where is the garage?”

  “Next to the house.”

  She swallowed her rising anger. Getting answers out of him was like undergoing a root canal without anesthesia. If he was trying to be cute, she wasn’t in the mood for it. “Where is the house?”

  “Follow me.”

  She walked several yards behind him. Her eyes floated in a puddle of tears over losing the boy she’d loved. It was almost like he’d died. Almost. Only in truth, he had never really existed. An occasional rock made her stumble. She wanted to run to catch up with him, snuggle close, and pretend the last ten minutes had just been a dream. His shoulders were slumped in defeat, and he looked as sad as she felt. She wanted to tell him she loved him, too, but she couldn’t. Even if he was who he claimed to be, even if he weren’t a threat, she couldn’t be with a boy she didn’t trust.