Jordan got off the bed and began picking bloody bandages and linens off the floor. I inched my hand towards the marble basin he had stupidly left within my reach, praying he wouldn’t notice. The second he turned his back I jumped up, snatched the bowl and flung it at his head. I missed by an inch and it shattered against the wall behind him.
Astonished, he turned towards me. I had never seen his eyes so large. “What are you doing?” he asked.
My response was to pick up another bowl off the table and fling it at his head. My aim was perfect but he ducked out of the way with inhuman speed and was looking at the little bowl as it crashed into the wall.
“Bixby,” he chastised, “what’s the matter?”
“You can move faster than I can,” I accused.
I grabbed for the next thing to throw and he was instantly in my face. “Stop,” he growled.
I reached up to slap him and he grabbed my wrist. I tried to sneak my other hand in for an upper cut to the jaw and he grabbed that one too.
“Get off,” I shrieked, trying to pull away from him. He pulled me in closer and wrapped his arms around me.
“I said stop.” His breath was hot in my ear and caused an unwelcome shiver down my previously injured spine.
Furious, I fought harder but only managed to get sucked tighter into his embrace. Each move I made he used to clamp me tighter to his body. “You stop,” I finally cried. Tears began to run from my eyes as my mind caught up with everything that had happened.
“Bixby,” Jordan said softly. “Tell me what’s wrong.”
He let me push myself away from him. I scrubbed my cheeks roughly and folded my arms over my chest. “Where’s my brother?”
“Lincoln? I don’t know. What—”
“I don’t believe you. Where is he?” I prayed the anger would dry my tears up.
He held his hands up in supplication. “Bixby, I swear, I don’t know where your brother is. I haven’t seen him since … Well, you know. Bixby, who was that boy attacking you?”
Anger filled me to the brim and I could feel my cheeks turning an ugly shade of scarlet. “That,” I snapped, “was the resident rapist of the lovely juvenile detention facility you sent me to.”
Jordan’s face paled. “I didn’t send you there. How could you think that?”
I barked out a sharp, ugly laugh. “Really? After everything you’ve done you really have the nerve to say that to me?”
His face was smoothly apologetic. “Bixby, I love you.” He paused, taking in my expression. He bit his lip and tried again. “I made a mistake when I took your brother. I’ve been tortured this last month trying to think of how I can make it up to you, how I can prove to you how I really feel.”
I shook my head and pulled my arms tighter around my healed ribs. I was grateful for the strength my anger gave me. “I don’t believe it. All you do is lie. Where is my brother?”
He held his hands wide. “I don’t know. I swear, I didn’t touch him. I don’t know where he is.”
He was murdering all the fuzzy yet happy feelings I had felt only moments before. “Jordan,” I said evenly, “you are a liar and a manipulator and have no morals. I have been wrongly imprisoned in a horrible jail for children for the last month, my grandmother has been put in a nursing home and my brother is missing again. You really think I’m going to believe you had nothing to do with anything of that because you say you’re sorry?” My voice was on the verge of betraying me but I met his eyes and they were wild with panic and fear.
“I swear, I promise, I didn’t do any of that. I didn’t know where you were, or that your grandma was … a nurse or that your brother was missing again. I thought you were home, with your family. I thought,” his voice dropped off at that.
“You thought what?” I asked coldly.
“I thought I could make it up to you,” he whispered. “I thought if I could help your grandma and win your brother over you would give me a chance to show you how human I can be for you.”
My anger faltered at that. “You really don’t have Linc?”
“No.” “Really?” I asked again with a broken voice. He shook his head. But that wasn’t what pushed me over. It was the pity on his face and his painfully hunched shoulders.
I squeezed my burning eyes shut but my tears started flowing again because I believed him. I didn’t want to but his selfish truth was right there. He wanted me and would do anything to have me. He would do anything to win me back but now knew stealing my brother wasn’t the way to do it. So that meant—“Then he’s really gone. Just gone.”
“Please, tell me what happened,” Jordan pleaded. I let him lead me back to the edge of the bed and sat down.
I took a steadying breath then said, “After the last time we saw each other, things went so badly. I thought you did it, I thought you were punishing me.” He shook his head violently but I ignored him. “There was … something outside, something that made her remember. She just wanted to keep me safe and so she ran away, knowing I would follow her. When the police came she thought they were one of you trying to trick her again. She fought and they arrested us.” I had to pause to wipe my nose on a rag he kindly placed in my hand. “She was so sick and I didn’t know it. Now she’s stuck in a nursing home and I’m stuck in juvie. And Linc—” my voice broke again. “He knows, he knows about everything. I told him about you and about me and everything.” I squeezed my eyes shut. “He hates me. He left after I told him and didn’t come back. He wasn’t there when it happened and no one has seen him since. I thought you took him, that you were punishing me.”
Jordan shook his head again, his mouth gaping open. “I wouldn’t do that to you.”
I glared at him, my tears momentarily forgotten. “Again? You wouldn’t do that to me again?”
He flushed and looked down. “I told you before, I’m not human. I don’t see things the same way you do. But I want to be with you and I don’t ever want you hurt again, so I’ll play by your rules. I didn’t touch your brother but I will help you get him back.”
Faster than I could see, he moved to kneel in front of me and took my hand. “Bixby, I swear to you I will find out what happened and fix everything.”
The beautiful glowing eyes I had once loved so much momentarily distracted me. “Wait, what? No, oh no, you’re not fixing anything. Whether you pulled this latest round of crap or not, this is all still pretty much your fault for interfering in the first place.” He tried to interrupt but I held up the hand he wasn’t holding. “No. No ‘helping’.”
I could see his temper rising. He squared his shoulders and took a deep breath. I was a little impressed. “Bixby, it will be fine. I will just send you and your grandma back home, then find your brother and send him back home as well. Easy.”
I managed to pull my hand out of his and folded my arms over my chest again. “Uh huh. And when the nursing home realizes they have a missing person? When the juvie people realize they have a missing kid? Easy—they call the police and come looking for us and when they find us, I’m in even deeper crap than I am in now.”
Jordan frowned. “Then you can come here instead of going back home.”
“And what about my grandma? She already can’t handle reality. And what about the next time she gets sick? She needs doctors, hospitals, medicine and laboratories. Not to mention I really don’t think Linc would be cool with being roommates with you.”
Jordan gave a tiny smile. “But there doesn’t seem to any problem for you coming here?”
“Not happening,” I snapped, wiping the smile off his face.
“You’re not going back there.” He was having a harder time keeping his temper.
“Yes. I am.”
“No. You’re not. That maniac was going to … he was going to do something awful, besides what he had already done.
And I’m going to guess you didn’t exactly choose that hairstyle yourself.”
Shame flashed white hot over me and my hands flew up to cover my scalp. I slammed my eyes shut in embarrassment as if he hadn’t been looking at me for the last ten minutes. I had forgotten about my horrible haircut, or at least gotten used to it.
Jordan pulled me up and stepped in close. I didn’t open my eyes and so jerked back when he wiped a tear away. “Don’t cry.” His voice was soothing and he ran his hands through my dull, sheared hair. In some places it only stuck up an inch. Over and over he ran his hands over my scalp and through my ugly locks, gently tugging each strand. His hands flowed to the nape of my neck, then to my shoulders, then down my back. Curious, I peeked one eye open to see him totally focused on my hair.
He gently grabbed my shoulders and spun me around. “Pretty good,” he mused. “But I think I made it a little curlier.”
A mirror across from the bed showed a young woman with long, bright curls. I put my hand up to my head and when she did the same I gasped. Soft, silken strands flowed from my scalp. Watching my reflection, I gathered my hair up and pulled it over my shoulder, noting it was just a bit longer and curlier. The color was back to the shiny copper it had been when I was visiting him every night. With a sigh I put it back over my shoulder and looked him in the eyes through the mirror. “It’s beautiful. Now undo it.”
“Undo it?” he repeated, spinning me back to face him.
“I’m pretty sure people would notice. How am I supposed to explain that?”
“You’re not,” he said, rubbing his palm over my cheek.
“What are you doing?” I gasped, trying pull my face back but I couldn’t break from his iron grasp. “I am not going to kiss you.”
A little flare of pain flashed in his eyes. “I know that. I’m just fixing how you look.”
Anger seared through me again and I broke his grasp. “Fixing how I look? Like you did before? Because I’m so ugly you have to touch my face up just to be able to look at me?” Tears sprang up in the corners of my eyes, infuriating me. I was not going to cry again.
“That is not what happened last time,” he said, holding a hand over his heart. “I thought you understood that. I didn’t make those changes, they happened because you were coming over here. We look like this as a way to warn off humans.” I took in his sharp features, his too big luminescent eyes and admitted to myself his good looks were more than attractive, they were alarming. Jordan continued explaining while I drooled over him. “It protects them. How frightened were you when you saw my face in that room? That’s why I’m changing your face to look more like ours now, to scare people away.”
I hesitated at his reasonable explanation. Well, as reasonable as a jinn could give. “Um, having every one run from me screaming would not be helpful.”
He tilted his head, inspecting my cheekbones. “It’s subtle, just to keep the other people from bothering you.”
I looked at him in surprise. “Wait, you’re taking me back?”
He flushed a little. “Well, I’m not, I don’t know how. My uncle forbade me from learning. And ripping holes in reality isn’t exactly the best way to travel between worlds but it just happened when I realized …” He saw my confusion and halted his rambling explanation. “Yes, you are going back.”
“Why?” Where was my hot-tempered Jordan who had to control everything?
He sighed and squared his shoulders. “I told you. I play by your rules now.” His voice cracked just a little. “I know you hate me now but I promise I will make it up to you. We will be together again. The right way this time.”
That broke through my anger and fear but not in a good way. “Jordan,” I said sadly. “I don’t hate you.” His brilliant smile pierced my heart. “But we are not going to be together again.”
His smile didn’t dim. “I’ll change your mind.”
I unconsciously rubbed my wrists, wondering if it could be changed after everything he had done.
Jordan’s eyes widened a little as he caught a glance of the delicate scars left around my wrists after he burned off the bracelets. “Let me fix that,” he said, reaching for my hand.
“No,” I said, snatching it back. “I want them to stay.” I needed them to stay, as a reminder.
He seemed to take it as something else and darted in to kiss my cheek. “You’ll see,” he murmured in my ear and then he was out the door.
Confused, I waited in the empty room for a minute. “Hello?” I finally called out. “How am I supposed to get back?”
David strode in the door and my guts turned cold. He somehow seemed even bigger, his scarred face scarier. One crystal bright blue eye flashed next to a dull milky one.
“He’ll take you back now, if that’s still what you want,” Jordan said sadly from the doorway.
I nodded my head and forced myself not shrink away from his imposing uncle.
Jordan wouldn’t look at me. “You won’t change your mind? There’s really nothing I can do to help?” he asked, remembering my harsh words.
I opened my mouth to say no and then paused. His head snapped up hopefully. “There is one thing you can do,” I said, regretting the words as soon as they left my lips.
“Anything,” he swore.
I took a deep breath before speaking. “I have a friend, a new friend, that’s stuck in that awful place and shouldn’t be. Her name is Minnie.” I paused, praying I was doing the right thing and not just bringing more trouble down on her head. “Maybe you could find a way to get her out of there and to somewhere better. Not her home! Her dad is evil. Maybe a foster home with nice people, or—”
“I’ll take care of it,” he interrupted softly.
I stared at his face for a moment, lingering over his dark curls and perfect mouth. Then I turned to David. “I’m ready to go back.”
He nodded and reached for me.
“Wait,” I gasped. “What about Clint? What did he see? Is he just waiting for me to come back so he can kill me?”
David glanced at Jordan. Jordan gave me a carefully bland look. “Clint is gone.”
“Gone where?” I asked, the already familiar unease settling deeper in my stomach.
“Nowhere. Just gone.”
I knew what he meant. “Jordan, you can’t do that,” I said, wishing I didn’t feel a little glad Clint wouldn’t be bothering me or any of the other girls again.
“I did. And I’m not undoing it.” His face was unreadable.
I stepped closer to him and touched his arm. “Jordan, you don’t understand—”
“Bixby,” he breathed in my face. A warm shiver travelled down my body and I fought to control myself. “You don’t understand. We can play by your rules but that doesn’t change the fact that I love you, that you belong with me. And another man raised his fist to you, tried to—” he shook his head in disgust then smoothed his features out again and bent his face to mine. “No one does that to you and lives. And no one will miss him, they won’t even remember him.”
I opened my mouth to argue but the flames in his green eyes told me not to. We stood like that, face to face, gazing for what felt like an eternity. A small, stupid part of me wanted to close the gap and put my lips to his. I closed my eyes to break his hold over me.
“Are you ready?” David rumbled. I nodded my head, still not opening my eyes. I felt his giant hand cover my shoulder and a warm gust almost knocked me over. “Easy,” he said as I stumbled into him. My eyes flew open and I jumped away from him.
We were in the storage room. Neither Jordan nor Clint was there.
“I thought you were going to stay away,” he said, crossing his tree limb arms over his chest.
The empty room and Jordan’s empty promises temporarily fled my mind. “What? You think I did this on purpose?”
I narrowed my eyes in fresh anger. “I did what you said; I broke it off with Jordan and now look where it’s gotten me.”
He glanced around, taking in the dusty, depressing settings. “Have you learned anything more about Gatekeeping?”
“From who?” I snapped. “The only one who maybe could have told me a few years ago when she still remembered is locked up in a nursing home. And her mother died before I was born. So, who would I have learned from?”
“The townies won’t fill you in?” he asked. Was he starting to look nervous? No, not possible.
“Last time I saw them they were pretty angry with me, but I haven’t seen them since I got here.”
“You haven’t been there in a month?” he thundered.
“Shut up,” I hissed, praying no one heard and came to investigate. Not that they could open the door with the metal shelving unit still in front of it.
“Bixby, I told you how serious this was. I can’t believe you haven’t been taking care of things.”
My rage went to a whole new level. “How am I supposed to get to Nightmare Town and figure out what the hell is going on when I’m stuck here? I can’t sleep here! No sleep means no dreams. Nightmare Town is going to have to wait until I can figure out a way to get out of here.”
To my surprise he nodded his agreement. “Then I’ll leave you to your scheming.”
I glared at him and resented having to ask a final favor. “Whatever. But uh, can you move that?” I asked, pointing to the shelving in front of the door.
Without looking he pushed one arm out and shoved the unit from in front of the door almost like Clint had done. But then his face softened slightly and I grew warm under his gaze.
“What?” I mumbled.
He just shook his head, his long knotted hair shaking with it. “I know you think I hate you, but I don’t. I didn’t mean for you to be hurt.”
Winter's Dream (The Hemlock Bay Series) Page 3