by Amy Sparling
Copyright © 2017 Amy Sparling
All rights reserved.
First Edition March 14, 2017
Cover image from BigStockPhoto
Typography from FontSquirrel.com
All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems -except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles or reviews-without permission in writing from the author at [email protected].
This book is a work of fiction. The characters, events, and places portrayed in this book are products of the author’s imagination and are either fictitious or are used fictitiously. Any similarity to real persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.
Table of Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Also by Amy Sparling
About the Author
Chapter 1
Riley stomps her feet as she follows me through the kitchen and out toward the garage. Her mouse like face is all pinched up and pretend-angry. “I was two seconds away from a delicious peanut butter and jelly sandwich,” she gruffs, twisting her lips down so she can pout like a child.
“Get over it,” I say. But I don’t let go of her arm. She has to see this and it can’t possibly wait until after she’s had her sandwich.
“What’s up with you and PB&Js anyhow?” I say as I pull open the service door to the hallway and let her go first. This is a shortcut to get to the garage instead of walking through the entire house and out the front door and then over to it. The service hallways get to everywhere much faster.
“What do you mean?” she says, her face back to normal and no longer being sarcastic. She’d just opened the jar of peanut butter and had two slices of bread laid on a plate when I burst into the kitchen and demanded that she follow me.
“We have a professional chef who will cook anything you desire,” I say. We’ve been living in this mansion for two weeks and it’s still hard getting used to that fact. “Why stick with the same sandwiches you’ve had your whole life?”
“It’s because I’ve had them my whole life that I want them,” she says. “I know what I like.”
“I guess I can’t argue with that.” I do see where she’s coming from, but my meals have been pretty extravagant lately. I’ve taken Bethany up on her offer to tell me all of her favorite chef-cooked meals, and so far, she’s been right about all of them. Last night I ordered smoked salmon with fettuccine alfredo and it was freaking amazing. Our chef also does something magical with the garlic bread. Forget the pool and the free stuff and the movie theater room—the food alone is almost worth giving up my soul.
A knot forms in my stomach. Ugh, Cara. That was a bad joke. Totally not even funny.
Nothing is worth giving up my soul, and yet I’ve unknowingly traded it anyway. It was just two weeks ago, when my best friend Riley and I happily signed up for an all-expenses paid “job” here in Austin, Texas. All we have to do is live in luxury and wear this beautiful bracelet that has a glowing blue stone in the middle of it.
Seems perfect, right?
Wrong.
The stone is an immortality stone, and whoever wears it gives their lifeblood to the immortal person who has the other half. They get stronger and continue living forever, you get weaker and eventually die.
None of that was mentioned in the job description.
It’s been a weird two weeks. Part of me is continually impressed and awed every day that I’m here because we’re truly living in luxurious splendor that girls from Sterling can’t even imagine. We’re in a mansion with housekeepers and servants and we get anything we want for free. There’s a ninety inch television now mounted on the wall in my bedroom simply because I asked for it. Riley now has a collection of over two dozen combat boots and enough clothes to fill her closet that’s the size of a freaking classroom. We are in want of nothing here, but in exchange, our lives will be cut short. None of the other girls know this, and we aren’t supposed to know it either. Sometimes I can absorb myself in our beautiful surroundings and allow the fear of dying to slip from my mind for an hour or two. But it always comes back. The dread, the fear, the uncertainty of a quick impending death.
It always comes back.
It doesn’t help that Theo has been gone this whole time. He’s the one immortal who knows that Riley and I know the secret of immortality, and he’s vowed to find a way to save us.
“You’re doing it again,” Riley says. We’re just in front of the door that leads to the garage, but she stops and turns around, giving me this look that’s mostly concern and a little bit annoyed.
“I’m not doing anything,” I say. I hold my head high and put on the fakest smile ever.
Riley sighs, her arched eyebrows coming to a point in the middle of her forehead. “You are acting like you’ve been dumped or something.” She smacks my shoulders. “Suck it up! Your loverboy will return in no time.”
She’s my best friend, so she knows these things about me. There’s no reason to deny it, even though the words are on the tip of my tongue. I’m so used to denying it to myself lately.
We’re in a narrow service hallway, and I lean my shoulder against the wall. “It just hurts.”
“Why?” Her voice is bubbly as she stares at me with those big brown eyes of hers. “You’re in love! He’s totally all about you, Cara. So stop being all mopey when he’s gone.”
“Maybe that’s why it hurts so bad,” I say, picking at my cuticles. There’s not much to pick at because Riley and I recently got manicures and now my cuticles are perfection. I heave a sigh. “It’s like…I went my whole life being alone—”
“Ahem,” Riley says, looking offended.
I roll my eyes. “Romantically alone. I’ve been romantically alone all my life and then I meet him—it’s like…like I’ve met my soul mate. And I’m pretty sure he feels the same way.” There’s a little flutter in my chest as I think about Theo’s smile, that cocky little smirk he does. The way his eyes lower when he looks at me, the woodsy scent of his cologne.
I make my hands explode outward. “And poof—he’s gone. And I’m back to being alone.”
“Ahem,” Riley says again. “You have me. Now what did you want to show me?”
Sunlight spills onto our faces as we press through the thick metal door that leads to the garage. It’s not your typical family garage with two car spaces and years of junk piled up on the sides.
This place has a tiled floor, a dozen sports cars, some SUVs, and a fully stocked bar. It’s like a car person’s wet dream in here. I don’t even have to show Riley what we came here to see because it’s so obvious you can’t possibly miss it.
“Oh…my…God…” she says, eyes wide as she rushes up to the hot pink motorcycle sitting at the far right of the garage. “You got one!”
“Yeah,” I say with a chuckle that sounds kind of hy
sterical. “I mean, I remembered saying I wanted one, but I can’t believe Malina actually ordered it for me.”
I’d gotten the call this morning around nine a.m. There was a delivery for me, which is kind of weird because most of the time Malina just drops off the packages at my bedroom door. This one was in the garage. I kind of forgot I’d even requested it a few weeks ago. I was kind of freaking out when I’d realized that Riley and I are now trapped by these immortality bracelets. Since the guys in the Rosewater clan were taking my life in exchange for letting me live in luxury, I’d demanded a few things. I got an iPad, which isn’t really as cool as you think they are when you’re too poor to afford one, and I also got the insanely huge television in my room. Honestly, it’s too big for anyone, especially for a bedroom. But it’s all mine and it cost twenty grand and the guys paid for it.
The hot pink motorcycle? I kind of forgot about that.
Now it’s here, freshly removed from its crate. The delivery guy took it out for me and put it on the kickstand, but he didn’t seem like the friendly sort who would tell me how the thing works. He just handed me a set of keys that were also pink, told me the gas tank was filled, and promptly left.
I reach into my shorts pocket and pull out the keys. “Do you know how to drive this thing?”
“Drive it?” Riley says. “I didn’t even know motorcycles had keys!”
We laugh and I pocket the keys again. “Maybe I’ll just look at it all the time instead of drive it.” I run my hand across the smooth pink gas tank. Not only is the bike pink, it’s been painted with this iridescent pearly type of paint that looks beautiful under the bright garage lights and probably even better in the sunlight. The tires are sharp black and the wheels are a shiny aluminum pink as well. The word Ninja is on the side, so I think that’s the brand or something.
“I would say we should ask for a car,” Riley says while she walks around the bike. “But getting chauffeured around is so much cooler than driving. But with this thing…” She taps the handlebar. “It’s kind of badass. We need helmets.”
“Already taken care of,” I say, nodding toward the wall. There’s a rack of helmets over where two other motorcycles are. One of the bikes, the black one on the left, is Theo’s. He took a car when he left. I avoid looking at it because it only reminds me of him. “The two hot pink ones on the end were delivered with the bike,” I say. “I guess Malina knew you’d want one too.”
“That woman sure knows how to anticipate our needs,” Riley says while she reaches up and takes one of them down. She pulls it over her head, and with her tiny body it makes her look like an alien bobble head toy. She puts her hands on her hips. “How do I look? Like a sexy biker chick?”
“You look like a girl in Hello Kitty pajamas,” I say.
Her big bulbous head wobbles around on her shoulders. “Eh, I can be sexy in Hello Kitty.” I can’t see her eyes under the dark plastic visor, but I’m sure she’s smiling.
I’m smiling too, and it feels good to be happy about something. All the fun of manicures and back massages and lounging by the pool have been muted by my constant missing of Theo. I’m glad he’s trying to find a way for us to take off these stupid bracelets and survive, but I’m having a hard time dealing with him being gone.
Finding your soul mate and then having him leave really kill the happiness of finding your soul mate.
“So, should I get one too?” Riley says, still admiring my new bike. “Or maybe I’ll just let you drive me around all the time?”
I laugh. “I don’t even know how to drive a car, Riley. This thing might just be a shiny decoration. I wonder if I could bring it to my room.”
“Aw, come on!” she says, removing her helmet and holding it in front of her chest. “You totally have to ride it! It’ll be awesome!”
I’m still debating if I’m brave enough to hop on a motorcycle when I hear the soft click of the door shut behind us. I turn around, hoping it’s just one of the guys because I’m not exactly friends with most of the girls here besides Bethany.
Reality is better than I’d hoped. Standing there, just a few feet away, is the man I’ve been missing like crazy for two weeks. Theo’s brown hair is wild on top of his head. He’s wearing a black t-shirt that hugs tightly to his biceps, and jeans that hang low on his hips. He’s all I’ve wanted to see for these last two weeks and yet now I’m frozen in place, suddenly intimidated by how damn sexy he is.
He grins and glances at my new bike. “What do we have here?”
Chapter 2
“Oh my God.”
Something takes over my body—love, or maybe craziness, or just delusion. I run across the garage and throw my arms around Theo. I need the reassurance that he’s really here right now and that I’m not just seeing a mirage because I miss him so much.
Comfort folds over me as Theo holds on tightly, lifting me off the floor. I clamp my arms around his neck, burying my face into his shoulder, inhaling the scent of him that I’ve missed so so so much.
“I’m glad you’re home,” I say against his shirt.
He chuckles and softly puts me back on my feet. “I can tell,” he says. He holds onto my waist, and as much as I don’t want to let him go, I loosen my grip a little so I can look up at him. His eyes are such a gorgeous shade of amber, it’s a little freaky.
I gaze up at him, letting my fingers slide through his hair.
“I missed you more,” he says, his voice low. And then he’s kissing me. And it feels just as wonderful as all the other times he kissed me, only my heart reacts like some kind of drug addict who hasn’t had a fix in a while. It’s almost painful, being this close to him.
Riley clears her throat. “Uh, lovebirds? There’s another person in the room.”
“Sorry,” I say sheepishly as I let go of Theo and force myself to take a step backward.
“What’s up, Riley?” Theo says, giving her a friendly nod. It’s annoying how he can speak all calmly and normally where I’m still trying to catch my breath over here. Theo’s presence is like a magnet, drawing me in so tightly it’s hard to let go. My heart thumps in my chest, excitement and giddiness making me unable to look away from him.
“Just admiring Cara’s new wheels,” Riley says, nodding toward the bike.
“A Kawasaki,” Theo says, sliding his hands in his back pockets. He nods once. “Nice.”
“It’s a Ninja,” I say, pointing to the black writing on the front fender.
Theo’s fingers slide down the back of my arm, leaving a trail of goosebumps in their wake. “It’s a Kawasaki Ninja,” he whispers into my ear. “It’s a great bike. I used to have one.”
“Was it Pepto Bismal pink?” Riley asks with a cheeky grin.
“It is not Pepto Bismal pink!” I say, moving to stand in front of my bike as if to protect its feelings. “It’s badass Kawasaki Ninja pink.”
“Nah,” Theo says, tapping the handlebar with his finger. “They don’t make them in pink. This was a custom job. Malina probably called our motorcycle guy and had him custom paint it.” He tilts his head while he gazes at the pink. “Although it does kind of look like Pepto Bismal…”
I punch him in the stomach and three of my knuckles pop. “Don’t hurt yourself,” Theo says, giving me this cocky freaking grin.
“You are so annoying!” I say, smacking him since my punches do nothing.
He laughs and then grabs me by the arms, pulling me into him. “It’s just so easy with you.”
“Oh my Godddd,” Riley groans, throwing her head back. “You two are so gross it’s going to make me puke myself to death.”
“That’d be a terrible way to go,” I say, curling my nose. I turn back toward Riley, and now Theo is directly behind me. I feel his finger tracing circles on my lower back and it makes it very hard to concentrate. But Riley has turned serious now. She bites on her bottom lip and stares at Theo.
“So, where did you go again? Some business thing?”
“Yeah, just boring business s
tuff,” Theo says with a sigh. I can tell by the look in his eyes that he’s slipped into actor mode. The walls are listening in this mansion and since immortality is strictly forbidden from talking about, we have to be sneaky. Theo shrugs. “Someone has to keep you girls living in luxury.”
“Well, we appreciate that,” Riley says. “So…did you do any new business? Or just the same old stuff?”
Theo glances at me. We’re talking in code here, but we never really invented a code to begin with. What she means to say is, did you find a way to save our lives from being taken by this stupid immortality bracelet? But she can’t exactly say that.
“No new business,” he says, shaking his head. He takes my hand and runs his fingers over the bracelet on my wrist. “I didn’t meet any new clients, or do anything new. Just the same old stuff.”
Disappointment rolls over me. That has to be code for no. No, he didn’t discover anything. No, he can’t save us yet.
Riley looks down at the floor for a long moment. “Maybe next time your trip won’t be as boring.”
“Hopefully,” he says, giving her a small smile. I look up at him, feeling a mixture of emotions that are hard to separate. How can I be so totally in love with someone and at the same time be scared shitless because I’ve been sentenced to die within a year from this bracelet?
Of course, the first part makes me blush when I think it. I’m not in love with Theo. There’s just no way. You don’t love someone after a few days of knowing them. I certainly know better than to tell him something like that so soon into this weird immortal relationship. Every time we’re together and the words feel like tumbling out of my mouth, I remind myself that Theo is ninety seven years old and I am eighteen and when I die he’ll still be here, alive.
So my loving him isn’t something to worry about right now.
Riley’s phone goes off and she pulls it out of the little front pocket of her Hello Kitty pajama pants. “It’s Kyle,” she says, glancing at the screen. “He wants me to go to the mall with him to help him pick out some new shoes.”