“Tess!” Ian called. He caught sight of me and, fortunately, I wasn’t still gawking at him like some love-struck twerp. I casually strolled toward him, trying not to limp. He brushed his hair out of his blue eyes before he grabbed me and gave me a chaste hug.
Aunt Amy commanded, “Tess, sit yourself down and put your feet up on the stool.”
“Yes, Auntie, whatever you say,” I groaned as I proceeded to settle on the couch.
She raised one eyebrow. “I’ll leave you two alone. Ian, do you think you can keep Tess from encountering any more unfortunate episodes over the afternoon? My heart can’t take any more stress.” Ian turned his beautiful smile to Aunt Amy. I could see her melt before my very eyes.
“Well, I have plenty to do today. However, I can make you guys some sandwiches if you get hungry. Just let me know,” Aunt Amy remarked as she left the room.
Finally, alone. Ian sat down and leaned over, slowly kissing me full on the lips. I felt myself drifting away. Then, he took advantage of my weakened state to start up with the questions. “So what did I hear about you getting bitten by rats?” I hesitated before saying anything, so he softened me up even more by gently taking my hand. “Tess, please tell me. I worry about you,” he murmured.
Suddenly, out of the blue, Beauty Queen let out an eerie howl. It actually sent a chill up my spine. She was in the middle of the room having a cat hissy fit, standing on her toes with her hair completely on end. She continued her threatening howl while staring directly at Ian! What in the world was wrong with her?
“Beauty Queen, stop it, right now! What’s wrong with you?” I yelled. I looked at Ian. “Sorry about that. I don’t know what’s going on with her.” He was staring at her but he didn’t answer. He finally shrugged as if he didn’t care.
“Beauty Queen! You’re gonna have to stop it or I will put you in the basement!” I declared.
She finally stopped her hissing and howling. She walked stiffly to the corner of the room and found her spot. She sat and stared at us.
“I’m sorry, Ian. I’ve never seen Beauty Queen like that. I don’t know what’s gotten into her.”
“It’s OK. Forget about it. For some reason, cats have never liked me,” he stated matter-of-factly.
“So, I presume you know something about this.” I gestured toward my feet. “What have you heard?”
He proceeded to tell me what he found out from someone who was at the robotics meet. Rumors had spread through town like wildfire. I filled in some details and corrected some misperceptions. People knew that the rats got electrocuted but it was explained away as a freak accident from a simple lightning strike. They didn’t know that I had USED the lightning strike. I had no plans for letting Ian in on that little fact.
“So, is everything OK? Rat bites sound terrible,” he said, concern in his eyes.
“Yeah, I’ll be OK. I just had to go through the rounds of tetanus shots and antibiotics,” I answered pitifully. I had no problem being the object of Ian’s sympathy if he was going to lavish extra attention on me.
“I’m so glad to hear it. I worry about you,” he whispered. He leaned in and lightly kissed my forehead and my eyelids. Then he moved down and kissed me all around my mouth, light, tingly kisses. I sat there and passively soaked it all in. The joy and pleasure of it made me weightless, like a tiny floating ball of silky fluff floating aimlessly round and round. I could hardly breathe.
I felt a mental tug to come back to earth, but I immediately pushed it aside. This was not the time to interrupt my paradise. I knew I was only fooling myself, though. Once my mind latches onto something to worry about, it never lets up. It didn’t matter what I was doing. I couldn’t get rid of the image of Ian from my dream; the one of him without his shirt on. Unfortunately, I wasn’t thinking about his physique, no, I was thinking about the tattoo of the X mark over the cross.
I could feel his sweet kisses move from my lips to my neck and my ear. I wanted to sit with Ian forever and just let him kiss me, but the disturbing image of the tattoo was still there, parked in my head. It was a sign I could not ignore.
I was lying down, feeling Ian’s delicious caresses of my face with his lips. “Ian,” I asked, “do you have any tattoos?”
He instantly stopped. “Tattoos?” he asked.
“Yes, tattoos,” I responded.
Ian sat back and regarded me. “Why do you want to know something like that?”
Perhaps I should back off, but I knew I couldn’t. I had to figure out what was up with him. If I didn’t find out, my imagination would turn it into a big ugly wart on the end of his nose. I lifted my chin and declared, “Because I just have to know.”
He sat there for a minute, avoiding my eyes. This wasn’t the reaction I was hoping for. He finally looked at me and said with a tight smile, “Yes, I have a tattoo.”
So he’s gonna make me ask. “Can I see it?”
“Somehow I knew you would feel that way,” he said with a gloomy sigh. He sat for a minute, his head down. He finally stood up and pulled his shirt over his head.
Oh, my, God! That took me by surprise. How was I going to stop staring at his perfect abs? Where else do I look? I forced myself to casually glance away. I suddenly discovered that I was greatly interested in Grandma’s cracked vase on the coffee table. He finally saved me by speaking. “Well, do you want to see it?”
“See what?” I asked.
“The tattoo!” he replied, viewing me as if I was crazy.
It wasn’t just that his beautiful construction muscles were distracting me. I didn’t want to see that tattoo on him because once I actually saw it, I knew things would change between us and I didn’t want them to change. I wanted things to stay just as they were.
He turned around so I could get a clear view. There it was, in the center of his back above his jeans, a tattoo of a small cross with an X over it.
46. Who is Ian?
“What is that, Ian? What does it mean?” I asked quietly.
“It’s supposed to be a charm for witches,” he stated flatly.
“Why would you have that symbol embedded in your skin?” I questioned, trying to stay calm.
“I had it done a couple years ago. Tonya got it for me for my birthday,” he explained in a tired voice.
“Tonya! It was Tonya’s idea?” I asked, starting to feel the panic creep in.
“Yes,” Ian stated, looking away.
“I’ve seen that symbol on one other boy, that creepy, nasty, Tattoo Boy at school. It’s on his neck. He is an evil soul. I know it.” I couldn’t accept that this was actually happening, that Ian may be one of them.
Ian shrugged, still looking away.
“Are you a witch, Ian?” I asked.
He sighed before he finally said. “Are you sure you want to ask me that?”
I stared at him. “Yes, Ian. I want to know.”
He put his head in his hands before he finally looked back at me and responded, “Yes, I do believe that I am”. At that very moment, I started noticing something around his head and shoulders, a swirling red-violet fog. He’s finally allowing his aura to show. I see turmoil, confusion, trouble.
“Are you a diabole?” I asked.
He just stared at me, sadness and regret in his eyes.
I bent over and started to weep. After a moment, Ian put his arm around my shoulders. “I’m so sorry, Tessie,” he whispered, a note of despair in his voice.
An awful thought occurred to me. Should I ask? Do I really want to know? “Ian, why did you ask me out? I won’t get mad. I just have to know.”
“It was Tonya”, he confessed in a dry tone, releasing his arm.
“Tonya?” I squeaked. I should’ve expected that answer.
He sighed heavily before continuing, “It was after that incident you had at school with her, you know, when you jumped into her fight with Mercy. She came to realize that you were a possible threat. She asked me to go out with you, to get to know you.”
“You mea
n she asked you to spy on me,” I claimed, my voice rising.
“Correct,” Ian quietly affirmed, his eyes averted.
“So, what did you learn about me, Ian?” I demanded.
He looked at me, drawing his mouth into a straight line. “Remember that day when you were riding around on your bike and I found you in that field? Tonya had told me that she saw you riding around. We figured you wouldn’t be too far from where she was so I drove around looking for you and your bike.”
I interrupted, “So you were LOOKING for me that day? You weren’t driving around looking for your dog?”
“Correct,” he said. Then he shook his head. “I couldn’t believe what was happening by that tree. I heard those voices, too, you know.”
“So, I wasn’t hearing them because I was a nut job?” I asked dryly.
He frowned and shook his head, “No way. When I heard those voices, I realized that Tonya was right about you. You ARE special. I only heard them speaking because you were there. I would never have heard those voices on my own.”
“Did you report that back to Tonya?”
Ian vehemently shook his head. “No, I didn’t tell her anything. After I took you home that night, I made a decision to lay off. I couldn’t do what Tonya expected of me because there was something about you. You were so vulnerable. There was no way I was going to take advantage of that. For some reason, I figured you’d be more like Tonya. I couldn’t have been further from the truth.”
“Then why did you continue to see me?” I asked.
“I don’t know.” Ian was shaking his head. “Initially, I had planned on just staying away from you. After all, I didn’t want any trouble from Tonya and her gang of crazies.” Ian looked into my eyes before continuing, “But when I saw you at the bonfire, I knew I had to see you again. In fact, that was why I went there. I just wanted to see if you were there.”
“Tonya was at that bonfire, too. You were with her there,” I asserted.
“No, I just bumped into Tonya and her pals. I took off pretty quickly because I realized how much I hated her. I didn’t want you to see me hanging out with them. I was also jealous of that guy, Will. I didn’t want to watch you having fun with him.”
Ian lifted my chin with his index finger and stared at me with sad eyes. “Tess, I gain nothing by seeing you. In fact, if Tonya and her cohorts found out, I’d be in big trouble. It’s just that, all I seem to think about is watching you, touching you, holding you and kissing you. And there is no rhyme or reason to that. It’s just what is.” He reached over and gently pushed a strand of hair away from my face.
I shivered from the light touch of his finger on my cheek. I didn’t see any deception in his eyes, only truth and sincerity. I understood how he felt, because I felt the same way about him. I just wanted to hold him, and touch him, and breathe him in. Unfortunately, there was one more question nagging at me. I had to ask him before I lost my nerve.
I pulled back and asked in a whispery voice, “Do you know about me, Ian? Do you know who I am?”
Ian questioned sharply, “What did you say, Tess?”
I raised my voice. “Do you know who I am?”
“Yes, I believe I do,” he stated quietly.
“What do you know?”
He sighed, “I know you’re a witch, a good one. I figured that out when you brought out the voices of the condemned witches at the hanging tree. Only a certain kind of witch could do that, a powerful one.”
“So YOU knew, and I didn’t,” I accused.
“Yeah, I’m aware of that. I figured out pretty quickly that you didn’t have a clue. I guess I could have told you, but I really didn’t want to. I thought that our relationship would be better if you didn’t know,” he said with his sad eyes.
I asked softly, “So, Ian, how did you find out you’re a witch?”
Ian paused. I could tell he didn’t want to answer. “It involved Tonya.”
“Of course,” I grumbled.
He continued, “When Tonya first moved to town she tried to ingratiate herself with me. At first I thought it was because she actually liked me, but after a while I figured out that it was because she knew I was a witch. Tonya always seems to know those kinds of things about people.”
I frowned. “Didn’t you ever suspect it about yourself?”
“I always had a feeling there was something different about me, but I deliberately repressed any curiosity about what it could be. Somehow, I knew it would open up a whole new can of worms.” He pursed his lips while adding, “Unlike James who figured out who he was when he was real young. That’s why he’s turned into such a jerk and a bully. I think he was one reason I chose to live in ignorance. Unfortunately, Tonya was only too happy to make me aware. I didn’t realize what her motive was until it was too late. She wanted me to become one of them.”
“What happened after you found out?”
“I didn’t like what I had learned about myself.” Ian shook his head. “I didn’t want to be a witch. I stopped seeing Tonya because I didn’t want anything to do with her schemes. Unfortunately, it was too late. Learning who I really was just opened the floodgates”.
“What do you mean?”
“My life hasn’t been the same. I started having all these strange dreams of how I used to torment humans and the other witches. During the dreams, I seem to get great pleasure out of hurting others.”
“So, you’ve figured out what kind of witch you are?”
He hung his head, his hair hanging over his eyes. “I know I’m supposed to be a diabole, and that’s really bad. I wish it wasn’t so.” I noticed his hands were balled into tight fists as his voice took on a sharp edge. “In my defense, I’ve never done harm to anyone during this lifetime. Doesn’t that count for anything?”
I sighed, “I don’t know, Ian. I just don’t know.”
47. What to Believe
“So what do we do here, Ian?”
“It’s up to you, Tess. I can’t help what I’ve been in the past. I also know that Tonya wants me to be on her side, but there’s no way. I don’t use any witch power, nor do I want to. ” Ian emphasized while shaking his head.
“Ian, do you realize that I’m right in the middle of it all? Something BIG is going to happen and I know I’m part of it. I don’t want to be, but I have no choice. That’s why Tonya, along with her gang have been after me and as a result, people have died! I’m scared out of my wits. THIS,” I gestured to my bandaged feet, “is part of it. I’M SURE OF IT. I just have to figure out how.”
Ian looked at me like I was crazy. “What do you mean, something BIG is going to happen? You actually think that the rats biting you were part of the witch trouble?”
I glared at him, “Yeah, THAT along with the altercation in front of your house, the catastrophe at the Tri Town Fair, and Bully, uh, I mean Jimmy, attacking me after the school bon fire. Those are ALL related to the terrible trouble that we know is coming.”
Ian sat there in disbelief. “I guess I could see how some of the catastrophe at the Tri Town Fair may have been related to the witch trouble. I knew that Tonya was enraged after she saw us together. I didn’t make the connection at the time, but I see it now. I don’t think she caused all of it, though. I heard they had major problems with their power source during the evening, which wouldn’t necessarily have anything to do with Tonya. She doesn’t have that kind of power, anyway, I don’t think! I don’t know anything about the other stuff you mentioned. What happened at my house and with Jimmy at the bon fire?”
I could feel myself losing it. How could Ian be so dense? Doesn’t he have a brain in his head? “Ian,” I cried, “your nasty brother attacked me in front of your house with the help of Tonya and another one of her cronies. I barely got out of there. Remember when James had that close call with lightning? Well, that was done by ME!” I emphatically poked at my chest while glowering at him. He looked at me like I had two heads.
“AND, remember the night of the bon fire? Bully Boy, yo
ur pal Jimmy, tried to stab me. Fortunately, I had some assistance. That’s why Bully’s wheelchair went down that hill and he ended up in the hospital. He got what he asked for!” I continued to stare at Ian indignantly while adding, “If you remember, I had that little cut above my eye the next day. Bully got the bad end of that one.” Thinking about that brought a little smile to my lips.
Ian was shaking his head, “I don’t know, Tess. Jimmy stabbing at you, and you fighting James with lightning in front of my house, it all sounds crazy to me.”
My voice started to rise, “It sounds CRAZY to you? Are you saying that I’m CRAZY?”
Ian remarked with a controlled smile, “Tess, I’m simply wondering if some of this is a little exaggerated. And what’s this about something BIG that’s going to happen. What does that mean?”
“I don’t know what’s going to happen! What difference does it make? Something IS going to happen. That’s all I know.” I glared at him.
“Who’s been telling you this stuff? Is it Will?” Ian asked. He didn’t look too happy.
“No, but seeing as you don’t believe me, I don’t think that it’s any of your concern,” I stated bluntly.
“Tess,” Ian took my hand. “I’m so sorry for all of this. I wish I could believe everything you’re telling me, but it’s just too much. I’ve lived for 18 years and until very recently I haven’t seen any witch activity going on. Why would all this witch stuff suddenly be happening out of the blue?”
I stared at him. “I wish I could tell you, Ian, but I can’t. All I know is, something’s going to happen and I’m concerned that we won’t be on the same side.”
Ian leaned in, kissed me lightly on my forehead and spoke softly in my ear. “Tessie, I would never, ever go against you in any way. I would never be on ‘the other side’. Ever.”
A Girl Beyond (War of the Witches Book 2) Page 24