Shadow Dancer Boxed Set

by Courtney Rene

  He took in a noisy deep breath then sat up and gained his feet. He was a bit shaky, but he looked good, all in all.

  "You good to walk?"

  "Yeah."

  I took his hand in mine and lead the way. We made it down the hill and to my house without incident. Thankfully. In fact, by the time we made it to my front door, Lucas' color was normal and he was smiling and content once more.

  "It's a pleasure to meet you, Lucas," my mom said. Since she was smiling, I actually believed her. My dad had done the whole manly handshake thing with Lucas and now stood easy next to my mom as he let her do all the talking.

  They had never been that easy with Leif. What the heck? "Well, I guess we are going to head out then," I said. "I don't know when we will be back, but at least in time to get ready."

  I hustled us out of the house after that, as a meet and greet was all I could handle right then.

  "What is that?"

  I wondered what he would think of the car. "It's a car. Our transportation. Have you ever seen one before?"

  He slowly shook his head back and forth and said, "No, but I have heard about them."

  "Oh, good. Then get in and we can get out of here," I said, indicating the passenger door.

  He stood before the door and stared down at the handle for a moment before he reached out and gave it a tug, which released the door with a slight click. He looked up at me, a smile wide on his face, "Ah. I see."

  I smiled and laughed. He found simple joy in the littlest things, like opening a car door. We got in and settled. After dealing with the explanation of seatbelts, I started the car. "You ready?"

  He nodded, a quick firm movement of his head. "Yes."

  I put the car in reverse and eased off the brake. Lucas seemed to be okay with the movement, so after backing out of the drive, I shifted to drive and took off. The muffled noise next to me was my first inkling that all was not well. As I gathered speed, up to a whole twenty-five miles an hour, I was still in town after all, I glanced over to see Lucas had a white-knuckled grip on the door rest. "You all right?" I tried to hide my amusement, but knew I had failed when he tossed a severe scowl my way.

  "This car moves fast."

  A wide smile crossed my face. I patted his leg, stiff and strained as it was, as Lucas pressed down against the floorboard. "You ain't seen nothing yet," I said.

  We had made it out of town and to Route Thirty-three. The highway. I quickly, and a bit on the mean side, accelerated to a swift sixty-five miles an hour.

  "Jesus!" he whispered then slammed a knee against the dash and grabbed hold of not only the door rest, but also the gearshift.

  I laughed.

  After we had been traveling for a while, Lucas began to relax, and we began to talk. "So, what do you think of the Water Realm?" I asked.

  A pinched frown marred his face before he said, "Everything is so fast here."

  "You mean the cars?"

  "No, there are fast cars, and fast food, and fast gas stops." He shrugged one shoulder. "Just fast. You can't really enjoy anything without slowing down."

  "We are a bigger world than Acadia. It takes longer to get anywhere because we have to go so far. We have to be fast I guess. Besides, you haven't tried fast food yet. You may like it."

  "Maybe."

  It was a nice drive with Lucas. He asked about the car and how it worked. He asked about everything we passed. "What is a farmer's market?" "What is a LS Store?" Then after passing a school bus parking lot, "Look at all those big yellow cars all in one place." The semis amazed him with their size and sound. The black gray puffs of smoke that spewed out of them though were another story. Finally, we arrived at the mall.

  "I think we should stop at the tux place first. See what colors they have left. I can always find a dress to match."

  "This is your realm, you lead the way."

  "May I help you?" A tall, extremely thin sales clerk asked us the moment the door dinged at our entrance.

  "Yes. I know we are a bit last minute, but do you have anything available for tonight?"

  The giant, obvious eye-roll that simple sentence evoked upon the little man was almost comical in its rudeness. "Tonight? Not much into planning, are we?"

  Lucas, used to rudeness, ignored it, while I smiled at the little jerk.

  After he inhaled a noisy breath, he said, "Let's see what we have left."

  Actually, it wasn't too bad. There was a horrible puce color, which who in the world would wear that? There was also gold, silver, plain black, and white. "I think we should go with the standard black tux, and the silver belt thing…"

  "A cummerbund," the clerk interjected.

  "...and the tissue thingy." I said the tissue part just to annoy the sales guy. I knew it was a handkerchief.

  "Works for me," Lucas said.

  There was another loud sigh from the sales clerk, just before he dropped down to his knees in front of Lucas and whipped out a measuring tape.

  I had been expecting this, but had forgotten to mention it to Lucas, who although was a bit puzzled by the man kneeling at his feet, about jumped out of his skin and hauled back to punch when the sales clerk had the nerve to place his hand up high on his inner thigh. "What do you think…!"

  "Whoa!" I said, jumping quickly between the two men. One red faced and furious, one startled and confused.

  "He's got to measure you," I said from my place of about two inches from Lucas' face. "It's all right."

  He glanced at me, then to the sales clerk, and back to me again, before he made up his mind. "Fine. Get it done then."

  I stepped back to let the measuring begin. I dropped my head into my hands and rubbed my forehead. What had I gotten myself into?

  "Yes, I think I have something that will do," the clerk said. He grabbed a pair of pants from a rack and handed them to Lucas. "Try these on. Let's see how they fit."

  Lucas tossed the pants over one arm and reached for his jean button. Startled, I again jumped forward just as he was about to shove the jeans down his legs. I grabbed the waistband of his jeans firmly in both hands and held them up. "Lucas!"

  "What?"

  "What are you doing?"

  "He said to try these on," he said, nodding at the tux pants on his arm.

  "Yes, but not out here in the open." I indicated the dressing rooms along the back wall. "In there."

  I guess running around in the woods, camping out, and such, made him a bit less modest than I was used to. Lord. I realized then that I was still holding the waist of his pants, and I was again right up against him. "You smell really good." I felt my eyes go wide. Where had that come from?

  "Uh…thanks?" Lucas replied.

  I cleared my throat and stepped back. I waved a hand at the dressing rooms and said, "In there."

  "You have to let go first," Lucas said, his eyes directly on mine.

  "Oh," I said and jerked my hand back. "Of course."

  He had the nerve to laugh at me as he headed back to try on his pants. At least I wasn't the one about to drop my drawers in public, I thought a bit defensively.

  The pants fit beautifully. The jacket was a snug fit, but it also looked nice. We finished up there and were told to come back, in about an hour, to pick up the set.

  From there we hit the main dress shop. It was more for weddings, but they had a good stock of homecoming and prom dresses. There had to be something there that would work.

  "Wow. This is a lot of dresses," Lucas said, a bit glaze eyed as he took in the full array of color and fluff.

  I dove right in and pulled dress after dress off the racks. With a full armload, I headed back to the dressing area. I looked over my shoulder and called to Lucas, "You coming?"

  He looked around as if not sure what to do.

  "It's all right. You're allowed."

  I sat him down on a big square stool made of puffy pink ruffles and headed into a dressing room. The first dress to try on was a dark, almost midnight blue, dress. Cinched in at the waist and p
ushed up at the bust. I opened the door and saw Lucas' eyes about bug out of his head. It couldn't be that bad, could it?

  I made a beeline for the big mirror and realized, yes, it was that bad. "Oh!" Although the dress was a nice color, the push up part made me look like I had a shelf sitting on my chest. "Just ick."

  I headed right back into the dressing room and grabbed a sequined orange one. It was corseted and strapless. The bottom flared out in a sea of ruffles. I didn't' really like the color, it was too dark against my pale skin, but I headed out to give Lucas a look.

  He scrunched up his face and shook his head. Enough said, as I agreed.

  Dress after dress, pink, green, light blue, short, long, fluffy, sleek. They all were just not quite right. Then I pulled out a pale barely yellow dress. It had a fitted bust with silver beads in a sun burst shape. It fell from the bust line in a flowing wisp of layered materials to just above my knees. Some of layers were shear, some not. I put it on and instantly loved it. My hair was a golden backdrop to the soft pale yellow of the dress.

  I stepped out to see what Lucas thought. He stared and stared at me. He didn't say anything.

  "Well? What do you think?" I finally asked.

  "You look lovely," he said.

  I looked down at myself, ran a hand along the flow of the soft material. Lovely was such a nice word. It seemed more than pretty and better than beautiful. I felt a warm wave course through me. "Yeah?"

  He nodded slowly and said, "Yeah."

  "All right then," I said.

  After I had gotten dressed in my street clothes and paid for the gown, I asked, "So, do you want to eat before we tackle accessories, or do you want to wait?"

  "What are accessories?" he asked a bit warily.

  I shrugged and said, "You know, shoes, jewelry, hairclips."

  He raised one eyebrow.

  I grabbed his arm, laughed, and hauled him toward the food court. "Sustenance it is then."

  ~ * ~

  I watched as he pushed the food around on his white paper plate. "So, what do you think of the orange chicken?"

  He shrugged at me as he intently inspected a piece of fried chicken glazed in sauce that he had speared with his fork.

  "I knew you should have gotten a hamburger." I looked around and saw the line was empty at the burger place. "I'll be right back."

  I plunked a plate that held a huge hamburger with the works and a side of French fries down in front of him. "Here, this will do your body good. Mmmm, grease."

  He shot me a funny look.

  "Oh, don't be a baby. Try it," I said.

  He picked it up and took a small bite. He chewed once, twice, then his eyes widened and he took another bigger bite and sighed in contentment. "This is so good," he mumbled from around the half masticated food in his mouth.

  I scrunched up my nose and said, "Glad you like it." At least he wouldn't starve while on my watch. He may not like Chinese food, but American grease he was apparently good with.

  I sat and enjoyed watching him eat until I felt a chill quiver down my back. I instantly sat up and looked around.

  So did Lucas. "What is it?"

  I continued to scour the people around us, edgy with knowledge that someone was close and watching me. "I'm not sure, but I think…"

  Before I could finish my thoughts, Leif materialized right next to me without a care to anyone watching. I glanced around us to see if anyone was paying us any attention. Aside from a group of giggling preteens, too preoccupied with their own drama to notice Leif, and an older man, intent on his Saturday paper, the food court was empty. No one appeared to be looking at us at all.

  I turned back to face Leif and my heart skipped at the sight of him. He looked tired. He had on his cold as ice persona, but I could see around that. He was dressed well enough, but his hair was shaggy, his face stubbly, and he had dark half moons evident under his eyes. "I guess you're moving on just fine," he all but snarled at me.

  I arched one brow. "What are you doing here, Leif?" I asked, and ignored his remark.

  "I'm just checking in with you. I see you're still messed up in your priorities." He flicked a hand over my plastic-wrapped dress and frowned at Lucas. Turning his attention back to my face, he said, "Nothing better to do with your time than waste it at the mall? It's not like there is a war going on or anything."

  I felt a wave of heat rush to my face. "You don't know anything about my priorities," I said. Then purposefully turned away from him and took a big bite of my rice. Yes, it was a stalling technique. I figured I could chew really slowly and think of what to do.

  "I know everything about you. I've been keeping track of you," he said, a slow, wicked smile on his lips. "Oh, you didn't know that?"

  For a moment I believed him. I had expected as much, waited for him to appear, but he had never come. Not once in the time that I had been home. Not until that day. I glared at him and said, "Same ole Leif. You are such a liar."

  He was quite taken aback by my response. Apparently, he had expected me to be the same ole naive Sunny, that believed everything he said. He had quite a surprise waiting for him then. A very different Sunny had come home from Acadia than the one that had begun that journey.

  He turned his attention briefly to Lucas, who had stayed silent up to that point. "I see you have moved on. Rather quick don't you think?" he asked.

  I refused to answer his taunt. Instead, I said to Lucas, "You about ready?"

  A red flush of color appeared across Leif's normally pale cheeks. I didn't care. I was not going to be baited or made to feel bad for being out with Lucas. Was it a date? It hadn't been specifically declared that, but it was something more than just an outing too. Maybe I was moving on, but that was my business. Not Leif's.

  "Yep. I'm ready," Lucas said then shoved the last bite of burger into his mouth and stood to clear the table.

  I did the same and gathered up my trash and belongings.

  Leif suddenly and inexplicably became enraged. Either he was more upset about Lucas than I had realized or he really was going a bit on the loopy side. He grabbed my arm painfully and said, "We aren't through here."

  "Stop it! You're hurting me," I said through gritted teeth. I didn't want to cause a scene in the middle of the mall. People were beginning to stare.

  That was all the action Lucas needed to get involved. He slammed one big hand down on Leif's shoulder and said as calm as could be, "I think you should release her."

  Leif did let go, which should have made me wary as he wasn't the give up easy type, but I was too busy rubbing circulation back into my arm to think about it.

  Leif spun around to face Lucas. "You can mind your own business. This is between her and me."

  "You made it my business when you laid a hand on her," Lucas said, not backing down an inch.

  Side by side the two were colored very alike, but that was where the similarities ended. Leif had ice blue eyes and Lucas had warm blue, inviting eyes. Leif was tall, thin, but wiry strong. Lucas was tall and bulky with evident muscles and strength.

  "You don't know what you are dealing with here," Leif said and took a step closer to Lucas. It was like he was daring him to engage.

  Lucas though, appeared calm and easy, no hint of aggression. "Yes. Actually I do."

  I began to realize that Leif didn't recognize Lucas. He really didn't know who he was. Leif didn't have any special gifts other than begin a shadow walker tracker. Why then was he being so aggressive?

  A wave of confusion crossed over Leif's features for a moment. He stepped back and regarded Lucas. "You a walker?"

  "Among other things. What's it to you?"

  Leif again grabbed my arm, not quite as hard that time, but hard enough to make me wince, and pulled me forward to stand almost next to him. "Then you know what she is," he said.

  I was getting a bit annoyed at being talked about like I wasn't standing there. I was also getting angry at being manhandled by Leif. Incidentally, the anger is what caused me to pu
ll in a bit of the energy from around us. I only grabbed a small ball of it, but it was enough to concern me. Whether in small or large amounts, energy was just as hard to control.

  "Yes, I do," Lucas said.

  Leif leaned toward Lucas until he was just a few inches away from his face, glared hard with half squinted eyes, and said, "They you also know she's mine. I found her. You don't get to have her."

  That was it. I didn't care about the pain it was going to cause me. I purposefully and intentionally, pushed out a zap of energy at Leif where he held my arm. Not enough to really hurt him, but it was enough to have him jerk his hand off me in surprise and a bit of pain. Rage clouded his eyes for a moment as he directed his gaze on me.

  I rounded on him with the full force of my own rage and completely ignored his. "You!" I said and poked a finger into his chest. "Don't get to own me! No one gets to own me."

  He took a step back. I stepped forward and poked him again. "I get to decide who I want to be with and who gets to be with me." Again he took a step back, and me a step forward, and I poked him hard in the chest, hard enough to make my finger twinge in pain at the abuse, but I ignored it. "I get to decide. Do you hear me, Leif?"

  "Sunny," Lucas said from behind me. "You have an audience."

  Without taking my eyes from Leif, I swung an arm behind me with my hand up at him, hoping that I conveyed with that one action to shut up.

  I did lower my voice at least. "You had your chance with me, but you chose to lie, to cheat, and to keep me in the dark at your mercy. You don't get to decide anything about me anymore."

  I turned away from him and stepped back to my table where I again began to gather up the debris from lunch. "Go home, Leif. There's nothing here for you anymore."

  "Yes, there is," he said softly from directly behind me. I hadn't heard him come up next to me. Then even softer he said, "This isn't over between us, Sunny. I'm not giving up."

  I glanced over my shoulder at him. The man before me was the Leif I knew. The Leif I had fallen in love with. The ice was missing from his face and his eyes and my heart felt the pain of losing him all over again. Why did it still hurt to see him, to be next to him? "Leif," I whispered, "go home. Please."