“Where did you grow up?”
“Rome. I was a Vestal Virgin.”
“Vestal what?”
“Oh, honey, you have a lot to learn. Unlike other cultures and civilizations, where male high priests hoarded power and locked out women, high priestesses in the Roman Empire were revered. We had temples in every major city of the empire. They called us Vestals or Vestal Virgins because we served Vesta, the goddess of hearth, home, and family. But Vesta has been called by many names in different cultures. She’s the Greeks’ Hestia, the Celtics’ Brighid, ancient Egyptians’ Isis, the Ashanti’s Asasa Ya, the Yoruba’s Yemaya, Babylonians’ Ishtar, Mayans’ Ixchel, and so on. In Valhalla, she’s Frigg, Odin’s wife. My best friend is Celtic. She told me that her people also openly celebrated the power of their high priestesses. The Druids, as their priests and priestesses were called, were just as powerful as the Vestals. Still, the transition to Immortals and finally Valkyrie was a well-kept secret throughout the world, no matter how advanced the civilization.” She smiled.
I was caught in her narration and got impatient when she paused to pour more water into her glass. My cell phone buzzed. I pulled it out impatiently, saw that the text came from Cora, and turned the power off without responding.
“I find that instrument amazing,” she said, staring at my cell phone. “The advances Mortals have made…”
Was she seriously discussing something mundane like modern technology now? I needed to hear more. I waited impatiently for her to stop gushing over my smart phone. “Why are there no more high priests and high priestesses?”
She sighed. “They are, but newer religions have emerged, and anyone following the gods is considered a pagan. Premonitions, spells, and charms are now considered ridiculous and the practice demonized. It started with “witch trials” and burning high priestesses across Europe, the destruction of the Wu in Mandarin, stumping out the Women’s Mysteries in Rome, and so on. Yes, we’ve gone underground, but we’re still recruiting.”
We were still talking when Torin arrived home. My heart started its crazy rickety dance, and my mouth went dry. His hair was wet, probably from showering at the gym after practice. I wanted to run my fingers through it. Play with the wet strands. He also had a shadow on his chin, which made him look sexier than usual. Our eyes met, and my breath caught. His eyes had darkened to the color of stormy ocean water. What was he thinking? Did he miss me even a tiny bit?
“How was practice?” Lavania asked in an upbeat voice.
He dragged his eyes from mine, mumbled something unintelligible, and continued across the room into the kitchen. I stared after him, my heart aching.
Lavania shook her head. “I apologize for his rudeness. I don’t know what’s gotten into him lately. He’s been such a grouch since I got here, and he’s only getting worse.”
I hoped I was the one who’d gotten into him, despite the crap he’d spewed yesterday. In the kitchen, Torin opened the fridge and got bottled water. Suddenly he looked up, snaring my gaze. I expected him to smile or give me a mock salute. Instead, he twisted the lid off the bottle and chugged.
How could he make something as simple and mundane as drinking water look so sexy? Maybe it was the way he tilted his head. He wiped his lips with the back of his hand and disappeared inside the fridge again. Lavania’s voice reached me as though from afar and forced me to focus on what she was saying.
“We’ll try to cover backgrounds on Immortals, Valkyries, and the major deities this week. Next week, we’ll start on runes. Since the Norns are back already, I’ll see what I can do to speed up your education.”
I heard her, but my gaze kept drifting to the gorgeous hunk in the kitchen. He placed bread, peanut butter, and jelly on the counter. His movement fast and efficient, he made a couple of sandwiches, grabbed a stool, sat, and starting munching, his eyes returning to me, completely distracting me and screwing with my lesson. I bet it was deliberate, too.
“…stop now,” I heard Lavania say. “You’re too distracted.”
Heat warmed my cheeks. “I, uh, yes. I promised my parents I’d be home by seven.” I glanced at my watch. It was a quarter past.
“We can continue tomorrow at the same time.”
In the other room, Torin smirked, looking pleased with himself and confirming what I’d suspected all along. He’d deliberately distracted me. “Could we start earlier tomorrow?”
Lavania’s eyes narrowed. “How early?”
“Four o’clock, so we can be done earlier.”
“Okay.” Lavania escorted me to the door. I stole a glance at Torin behind her back and caught him scowling. He knew exactly what the time change meant. I’d be done by six, way before he came home from practice.
I threw him a triumphant grin. His eyes narrowed, his expression annoyed.
Score!
Smiling, I crossed the lawn to our house.
***
The next day, Drew and Keith were by my math class door talking to some girls. By the time I reached them, the girls were gone. A quick glance inside the classroom told me Torin wasn’t at his desk.
“I’m throwing a Halloween party next week. Want to come?” Drew asked.
“Maybe.” Cora, Eirik, and I had a weird Halloween tradition. We went treat-or-treating together then poured all our candy on the bed and traded pieces. Trading was the fun part. “Can my friends come, too?”
“If one of them is Cora, then yes,” Drew said and smirked.
Before I could respond, a telltale shiver rushed under my skin. Torin.
“What are you three plotting,” he asked from behind me. He was so close I could feel the heat from his body. Did he have to stand that close? I’d bet it was deliberate.
I took a deep breath before glancing at him, which was a mistake on so many levels. His scent, earthy and masculine, filled my nostrils, and my traitorous body responded. I wanted to wrap myself around him like a pretzel, bury my face in his neck and just soak him in. He looked so good in a dark-blue shirt under his leather jacket, which made his eyes pop. He hadn’t shaved again, but I wasn’t complaining. The shadow on his chin made him look even yummier.
“Cat got your tongue?” he teased.
“No. It’s still here.” I stuck out my tongue.
His eyes drifted to my lips. My mount went dry, my heart picking up tempo. When our gazes met, I blinked. How could he claim he didn’t want me yet look at me with such heat? I wanted to kick him or yell at him then kiss him senseless.
“We’re discussing my Halloween party,” Drew said.
“You’re coming, St. James, right?” Keith said.
Torin didn’t even look at them, his hot gaze on my face. “Are you going?”
His voice was velvet soft, making me want to purr. I had to swallow before answering. “Yes. Are you?”
“Aren’t you too busy to be partying?” he asked sharply, disapproval on his face.
Just like that, he destroyed my romantic thoughts. I shot him a mean smile.
“For Drew and Keith,” I hugged the two jocks’ arms. “I’ll make time. So are you going?”
“I don’t do Halloween.” He smirked and sauntered past me.
“Chicken,” I retorted.
He stopped and turned. The glint that entered his eyes should have warned me he was about to do something I wouldn’t like. He took a step that brought him closer. My first instinct was to walk away. Run. Say something. But the terrier in me was wagging its tail. His hand slipped around my waist and nudged me closer. My breath hitched. He grinned, liking my response. I stopped breathing altogether when our bodies touched. He felt so good, all muscles, heat, and pure temptation.
“Chicken? Me?” he mocked, his head dipping slowly, eyes daring me to, I don’t know, repeat what I’d said, stop him?
I wanted to say something snarky, but my mouth was too dry. When his nose gently brushed mine, I moaned. He was going to kiss me. Yes! My lips parted in anticipation.
“You don’t want to play
games with me, Freckles. I always win. Always.” Cold air rushed in to replace him as he moved away. He slapped Drew on the back. “Have fun, guys.”
I glared at his retreating back, my senses humming, my heart pounding and lips tingling. Oh, he was so… so Torin. Bold. Sexy. Irresistible. The worst part was he knew it. He glanced back and winked.
“What’s up with you two?” Keith asked, his eyes on Torin.
I shrugged, feeling deflated. I was supposed to be yanking his buttons, not the other way round. “Nothing.”
But I didn’t fool Drew and Keith. The two of them and a friend sat at our table during lunch. Cora didn’t seem to care. She was buddies with most of the football players because of her vlog. Eirik wasn’t too pleased, especially when Drew started flirting with Cora. Across the cafeteria, Torin didn’t miss a thing that happened at our table. Keith was the first to notice the way Torin kept staring at me during lunch.
“Nothing?” he teased. I just shrugged.
For the rest of week, Torin kept his distance. He became a distracting presence at the back of my math and history classes. The way he watched me didn’t indicate he was miserable. No, he was plotting something. I saw it in his eyes and in the slow smiles he gave me whenever our eyes met.
Things were definitely not going according to plan. He was supposed to be consumed by jealousy. Instead, I was the one who wanted to gouge out the eyes of the cheerleaders flocking around him like pampered exotic birds. My senses were tuned in to his presence, his voice, his scent. A storm of desire brewed in my soul whenever he was around. When he spoke, his voice resonated through me, sending shivers up my spine, reminding me of what we once had. No matter how hard I tried to harden my heart, it still skipped for him. No matter how often I told myself I didn’t care about the cheerleaders, it still hurt. And no matter how often I caught him watching me, it didn’t ease my frustration. I wished he wasn’t under my skin, in my heart, imbedded deep in my soul. Ignoring him or pretending he didn’t matter was like saying I didn’t need air.
At home, I divided my time between lessons with Lavania and working on my homework packets. When Torin had said he’d stay out of my way when I went to his house, he hadn’t been kidding. He came home after seven even though my lessons ended at six. He no longer came to his window and looked at my house.
And I hated it.
***
Eirik and Cora were by his Jeep when I pulled up outside school on Friday. They looked cute together. Or maybe not. They stood close to each other, but weren’t holding hands or talking. Tension hung thick in the air. Things weren’t going as well between them as I’d hoped.
I hugged Cora then Eirik. He had shadows under his eyes.
“You look like crap,” I said.
“Gee, thanks. Can we go now?” he added in an annoyed voice and started for the school building. Cora and I looked at each other and followed.
Cora sighed. “Ask him what’s wrong. He won’t talk to me.”
The two of them went to swim practice together and no longer butted heads, so I’d just assumed everything was great between them. “You guys have a two-day meet coming up, right?”
“You think he’s worried about that?”
I shrugged. I’d noticed how tired he looked lately. Even in the mornings. “Maybe or maybe it’s something else. He can be stubborn, so just keep pushing until you wear him down.”
“I’ve tried. Short of dancing naked with a big sign that says ‘Talk to me, Eirik,’ he’ll just ignore me.”
“You know I can hear you,” Eirik mumbled.
“Yeah, we know,” Cora said. “Maybe I’ll vlog about it and see what my followers come up with. I’ll bump Torin to next week after the game.”
Eirik stopped and glared. “You vlog about me and I’ll… I’ll…”
“What? Stop talking to me? You haven’t said a word to me in three days. In fact, you’ve made a point of not talking to me or returning my texts. At least Raine has an excuse for not wanting to hang out. She has to finish her homework packets.”
Eirik gripped the strap of his backpack and glowered. “I’m busy, too.”
“Doing what?” she asked. Eirik made a face. “I guess that means you’re not going to the game tonight.”
“You got that right,” Eirik retorted.
He was being a total douche. I wondered what happened. I didn’t dare ask around Cora in case it was deity/Norn related.
“Come with us, Raine. A bunch of us from the swim team are going together, and they won’t mind if you join us,” Cora said.
Yeah, right. None of the swim team members had talked to me since I returned, which meant I was still a persona non-grata. I made a sad face. “I’d love to, but I still have a pile of homework to finish.” I glanced at Eirik. “You should go, Eirik. Think of all the pictures you’ll take for the newspaper.”
“It’s the new QB’s first game, and we’re all dying to see how he performs,” Cora added. “I’ve watched him during practice. He’s amazing.”
“Of course you’d think that.” Eirik took off toward the school’s entrance.
Cora watched him go with a frustrated expression. “What did I say?”
Was I ever this clueless about guys? I took Cora’s arm. “You mentioned Torin.”
“So?”
“So you’ve always…” Then I remembered Cora couldn’t remember how she’d gushed over Torin’s looks.
“I’ve always what?” she asked.
“Openly drooled over hot guys.”
She made a face. “No crime in that. What’s your point?”
I sighed. She was hopeless. “It bugs Eirik when you do that.”
Her grin broadened. “It does?”
“Oh, you two are so annoying. Did he tell you he and I are officially no longer dating?”
Cora stopped. “No.”
“With everything that went down and my trip, we’ve sort of drifted apart. We discussed it on Monday night. That’s why he was at my place. We agreed we’re better off as friends, honorary sister and brother.”
Cora frowned. “He hasn’t said anything.”
“You know how he clams up sometimes. Now you can go for it.”
Cora glanced at me in confusion. “Go for what?”
“Eirik. Why do you think he took off in a huff just now? You were talking about Torin, and he was jealous.”
“Yeah, right,” she retorted.
“For someone who claims to know guys, you sure are clueless about him.”
A we entered the school, she became quiet and chewed on her lower lip. “I don’t think it’s cool to hook up with your best friend’s ex.”
I rolled my eyes. “Cora, we kissed. We never even made it to second base.”
She made a face. “Spare me the details.” Then she threw me a glance from the corner of her eyes. “Never made it to second base?”
“Nope.” She shot me a skeptical look. “Don’t think I didn’t want to. I wanted plenty, but something always stopped him. I guess he wasn’t feeling me as much as I was feeling him.” Oh, the lies we weave. But the relief in Cora’s eyes said I’d used the magic words.
“You really don’t mind.”
I shook my head. “Nope. Besides, I’ve always suspected he was into you.”
Cora became quiet as we crossed the hall. I met wary glances from the other students in the hall. They no longer gawked, though I still got uneasy smiles whenever I came too close. I made a decision to not let them bother me. Even whoever had defaced our lockers had stopped.
We walked past Lavania, Andris, and Ingrid. Lavania waved and smiled. Ingrid ignored me as usual. Whenever I went to their house for lessons, she stayed in her room. Andris, on the other hand, still gave me looks like I was a slug.
“I can’t stand that guy,” Cora said, staring pointedly at Andris.
“Why?”
“He’s so stuck up and so is his sister.”
I laughed. “Ingrid and Andris are not related. Ingrid is kind
of lost because she misses her sister, and Andris is… Andris.”
Cora frowned. “How do you know so much about them?”
Oops, I’d completely forgotten that to Cora, I’d only known the Valkyries for a week. “We’re neighbors, duh.”
“So what can you tell me about Torin?” she asked, her eyes narrowing. Something in her expression sent heat up my face.
“Nothing. He’s one of them.”
“So how come he stares at you a lot?”
My face grew hotter. “He doesn’t.”
“Even his harem noticed.”
“His harem?”
“The cheerbitches who… Oh my. Look.”
I thought she was talking about Torin at first, until I turned and saw that she meant our lockers. Someone had used a plastic jump rope to create two nooses and looped them around the locks on my locker and Cora’s. I was so looking forward to mastering the powers of runes just so I could trap whoever was doing this.
Students scurried past us pretending not to see the nooses. Others gave us side-glances as though waiting to see what we’d do. I yanked them and threw them down.
“I thought the loser doing this stopped,” Cora said sighing.
“The security around here sucks,” I muttered. “They should have cameras monitoring the halls twenty-four-seven.”
I didn’t notice Eirik had joined us until he picked up the rope from the floor. He lifted it and cocked his brow at someone behind me. When he made a face and shook his head, I followed his gaze to see who he was eye-talking to. Torin stood at the end of the hallway. As soon as he realized they had my attention, he turned and walked away.
“What’s going on?” I asked, my eyes studying Eirik’s face for signs of lying.
“Later,” he mouthed and inclined his head toward Cora, who was still venting. Since Eirik couldn’t talk, that left Torin. I opened my locker, put away my backpack and oboe, selected my books, and took off after him.
“Torin, wait up.”
He kept walking.
“Torin St. James,” I called out.
Immortals (Runes book 2) Page 10