by Melissa Haag
“I need to know something,” I said. “Do you want to be with me just because you’re lonely or because you truly like being with me?” Silence answered me. “I know you see me as your last choice, but I know what limited choices feel like and don’t want that for you. If there’s someone else, I’ll do everything in my power to help you get the companion you want.”
There. Two small pools of rage glowed from the nearby darkness. Slowly, I moved toward them and hoped that nothing stood between us.
“But, if you do want me as a companion, I need you to tell me what exactly that means.” I stood right in front of him. He remained focused on me, his eyes glowing with their unnatural light. “Will I still be able to see my family? What happens if you grow tired of me? What will you do when I grow old and die?”
I reached out my hand and gently touched his cheek. His eyes closed briefly, and he covered my hand with his own. I lifted my other hand and set it on his chest, just over his heart.
“I don’t know what you want from me,” I whispered.
“A kiss.” His breath whispered across my skin, telling me how close we stood.
Heart pounding, I leaned forward and closed the gap. Our lips met, and my stomach flipped. Then, a tingle started at the base of my spine, beneath the beltline of my jeans.
He tilted his head and increased the pressure on my lips. His hands slid into my hair and cradled me gently. I didn’t breathe as new sensations swamped me. The smooth, warm texture of his lips. The hot and cold bursts in my chest. The tingle on my spine. I frowned as the tingle grew to an unnatural flare of heat. It scorched my skin until I gasped and pulled away in shock.
“What is it?” he asked, not letting me move too far away.
“Something was burning—”
The door suddenly opened, and before the light from the hallway reached where we stood, Morik disappeared without me. I quickly let my hand drop and looked over my shoulder toward the blinding light.
“There you are. I was looking everywhere for you.” Beatriz stood in the lit hall, her expression suddenly curious. “Since when do you have a tramp stamp?”
In the vanity mirror near the door where she stood, I saw the reflection of myself and caught a glimpse of a mark under my shirt. I tugged the material out of the way for a better look. Sure enough. Right where the tingling had been, two thick lines, one strand black, the other a silvery grey, twined twice on their climb up my spine. It looked slightly tribal. Holy crap.
“Uh, it’s not something I think about,” I said as I turned toward her and tugged my shirt over the new mark.
“I love it! Can we show it to Brad? I want to get one just like it. He’s promised to take me.”
Morik would just love that.
Beatriz kept talking without waiting for my reply, for which I was grateful.
“What are you doing up here anyway?”
“Just needed some quiet time to think,” I said, leaving the room with her. She carefully closed the door behind us. “Hope you don’t mind. Nice sign by the way.”
“Like it? I had Tommy make it.” She grinned cheekily, and I laughed.
After our kiss, I thought Morik might join us again, but he didn’t. Back in the basement where the rowdiness of the drunks intensified by the minute, Beatriz started challenging pairs of Brad’s friends to a pool game. Jay and Tommy accepted, and she pulled me into the game as her partner. We took turns when it was our team’s go.
Jay had too much to drink and kept messing up his shots. After last weekend, Tommy played it cool with the alcohol and presented more of a challenge. That meant Beatriz started to play dirty. She’d stand close to him and talk to him during his shot, pointing out each girl in the room with a short skirt or a low-cut top. For the most part, he ignored her. Then, she talked some of those girls into leaning over the table opposite his shots. He started to lose focus fast.
After we beat Tommy and Jay, she challenged another pair who were too drunk to even hold a cue stick. That game never really got started, so she gave up on them. While she worked the room, looking for another group to challenge, I escaped upstairs again.
Passing the kitchen window, I thought I caught a glimpse of Brian just inside the circle of light on the back lawn. I did a double-take, but he wasn’t there. The moment reminded me of my trip to the mall. But this time, I went outside to look.
After the hot basement, the cold air felt good on my face as I stood on the porch and scanned the darkness. At first, I was alone with the wind. Then, I heard faint, racking sobs from the direction of the woods. Girls who went alone into the woods on a dark creepy night usually died. But those girls didn’t have Morik.
I quickly stepped back inside to grab my shoes and jacket. No one paid attention to me as I left again. The snow crunched beneath my feet as I stepped off the porch and walked toward the trees, following the distant sound of crying.
I found Brian in the snow at the base of a large oak. There sat the cocky senior who tried to bully me into a date. His knees were drawn to his chest, and his head rested on his crossed arms. Instead of feeling disdain, I felt pity. Without him, I would have never met Morik in time.
Brian lifted his head when he heard me. Enough moonlight filtered through the barren branches to glitter on his tear-streaked cheeks. When he saw me, his tears started falling in earnest.
“Clavin was right. Oh,” he moaned slightly as if in pain. “They put him in a hospital because he was talking about demons.”
Brian sobbed harder, and I took a step toward him, ready to comfort him. I wasn’t sure what to say, but he looked so hopeless.
He saw me move and started to squeal.
“Don’t come near me! They’re here for you. If he has you, he’ll leave me alone.”
I stopped my advance and squatted down to Brian’s level. He watched me closely.
“Who’s here for me?” I asked in a soothing tone, hoping he wouldn’t start to freak out again. Was he talking about Morik? I couldn’t believe Morik had shown himself to Brian. It didn’t make sense.
Brian didn’t answer. Instead, his gaze shifted to a place just behind me. Then he ducked his head and began to talk to himself. “This isn’t real. This is just a dream. It’ll be over soon, and I’ll wake up.”
“Brian,” I said, trying to get his attention. “Who’s here for me?”
“I am,” a voice rasped. A shiver of fear coursed through me at the sound.
I turned as I stood, one fluid motion. There stood the black apparition that had chased me to my front door so many nights ago. A part of me knew it wasn’t Morik, but I still had to be sure.
“Morik?”
It threw its head back and laughed, revealing a mouth illuminated by its burning tongue. Its laughter stopped as quickly as it started. With those glowing, green eyes fixed on me, it glided forward on hazy double columns of shifting smoke.
“No,” it said. “I am Ahgred.”
The name sounded familiar. Then I recalled why. The second deal Belinda had made.
“What do you want?” I asked.
“You, of course. Morik was clever to find a way into this world. I deserve the same chance.”
“Hardly,” Morik said as he appeared beside me.
I jumped, and Brian’s muttering increased in volume and intensity.
Ahgred turned toward Morik. His flaming tongue snaked out of his mouth in agitation. I kept my gaze locked on Ahgred and again remembered the close race down the driveway of our old house. What would have happened if he’d caught me?
“You can’t save both of them,” Ahgred said.
When had this turned into a question of saving either of us? Brian whimpered behind me when he heard he wasn’t as safe as he’d thought.
Morik spoke calmly as if Ahgred’s threat was of no importance.
“I don’t need to. I’ll save her. If you want any chance, ever, you’ll leave the boy alone. She doesn’t like us damaging them.”
Ahgred whipped his head back
and forth angrily.
Morik used his ability to disappear and reappear right behind me. He wrapped his arms around my torso. Ahgred had no time to react before we were gone.
One minute, we stood in the snow under the skeletal oak; the next, we stood in my living room. Gran and Aunt Grace sat on the couch, staring at us with round eyes as their movie played forgotten in the background.
“Chant her to sleep. Now.” Morik disappeared as abruptly as we’d appeared.
Before I could protest, Aunt Danielle flew from her chair, her words howling through the house. There was no time for me to say anything, to beg them to stop. My eyes immediately grew heavy as Gran and Aunt Grace quickly joined in.
I had enough time to think two things: What the hell had just happened, and would Morik be able to save Brian? Then, all thought stopped.
Chapter Fifteen
Like turning on a switch, I woke immediately and sat up in bed, panicked. Eyes wide, my gaze searched the room as I tried to find the source of my emotion. Warm hands gently tugged me back to the chest on which I’d been resting. Morik. My hammering heart started to slow as I willingly lay down. I’d never before woken so disoriented from a chanted sleep.
“Shh. It’s okay. You’re safe,” Morik assured me as he gently ran his hand over my back.
The panic felt so real, and it took me a moment to remember why. The trees. The dark. Ahgred.
“Brian. Is he okay?”
Morik hesitated for a moment, and I lifted my head to look at him. He’d set aside the hat and sunglasses so I could see his eyes clearly.
“Yes and no,” he said. “Ahgred didn’t do anything to him after we left, but he’d already done plenty before that. Ahgred’s been using Brian to watch you. And Brian remembered everything. He needed help. I took him to the same hospital that Clavin’s staying at.”
Poor Brian. No wonder he’d freaked out when he saw me. The times that I thought I saw him in a crowd, like at the mall, weren’t just my imagination then. Ahgred must have been using him for a while.
“And Ahgred?”
“Gone for now.”
I rested my head on Morik’s shoulder. He continued to stroke my back, and his touch gradually relaxed me as I thought everything over. So Ahgred, like Morik, was tied to me through the deals made by Belinda and her father. Ahgred had found me first, but I’d narrowly escaped him. Then Morik had come into the picture, and for whatever reason, Ahgred had played it cool and had just watched. Why had he made his move last night, though? If Morik hadn’t whisked me away, I might have more answers. I didn’t doubt that Morik could protect me. So why pop me home like that? And why bark out orders and leave again? He’d left Ahgred behind, after all.
“Why did you have them chant me to sleep?”
“Ahgred is only free at night. He can’t touch you when you are protected by your family’s chant. Mine isn’t as strong.”
The mad race to the house the first time I saw Ahgred made more sense. I wasn’t out after dark. Ever. Well, except now because of the deal with Morik. Maybe that explained why Ahgred made his move. He was running out of time because my deal with Morik was almost up. Then, I wondered how my family was even able to chant me to sleep. The deal I’d made should have prevented it. Not that it really mattered since tonight was the last night of freedom, anyway.
“Doesn’t that break our deal?” I wondered idly.
His hand stilled on my back, and I lifted my head to look at him again. The warm brown that swirled in his eyes abruptly receded, and I idly wondered what colors had dominated his eyes last night when I’d kissed him. Glancing down at his lips, I wondered what he’d do if I kissed him again.
“I’m asking you to release me from our deal.”
The way he said it, so formally, forced my attention back to what he said.
“What does that mean exactly?”
“It means you are no longer bound to spend time with me. It also means you will have no choice but to sleep if your family chooses to continue to use the chant on you.”
The chanting didn’t bother me. I’d gone into the deal with the knowledge my freedom would be short lived. The whole purpose of the deal had been to test whether I could trust Morik. And I did. But to stop spending time with him? He was the reason I’d been able to walk away from the vision with Brad. I needed my time with Morik.
“What if I don’t want that?” I asked.
“I will owe you a blood debt. My life for breaking our deal.”
“Then, of course I release you,” I said, pulling away from him. “I’d rather have you alive and miss you than not have you at all.” Maybe I’d be able to make a different deal to spend time with him.
He frowned for a moment before smiling crookedly at me. “You don’t have to spend time with me, but you can still choose to.”
The sadness that had weighed down on me lifted as he spoke. I wouldn’t have to give him up, just the stars again...for a while. I slid my hand under his shirt to curl my arm around his waist as I contentedly laid my head back on his chest.
“Perfect,” I said, happy with his answer. “What does Ahgred want with me, anyway?”
“He wants a way to interact with humans. If you choose me, we will be connected. You will be my anchor, tying me to your life and giving me purpose. When you choose me, he won’t try to touch you.”
I definitely didn’t want to be Ahgred’s connection to this world.
“Will Ahgred try to use someone else to watch me?” I asked, suddenly worried for my family and Beatriz.
“No. He wants to persuade you to choose him. He won’t do something that will upset you.”
Relieved that everyone would be safe, I idly drew circles on Morik’s skin as my mind wandered. We enjoyed a few moments of relaxed silence before Gran knocked on my door.
She didn’t open it, but spoke from the hallway. “Since you two are up, you can shovel your mom’s car out while I make breakfast.”
My eyes rounded in shock. Oh my God...Mom. How would she react when she learned Morik had slept in my room? I almost suggested that we pop to his house but discarded the idea. We’d need to face her eventually. Besides, she seemed to be the only person who had a problem with him.
“Okay,” I called back as I scrambled out of bed. “Be right there.”
Morik grunted when I accidentally elbowed his diaphragm.
“Sorry,” I whispered as I bent to grab the insulated pants from my bag on the floor. Morik must have brought back my things from Beatriz’s place.
I tugged them on over my pajamas then paused. Pajamas? I looked at Morik, who watched me, and struggled to remember anything after Aunt Danielle had started the chant. Coming up blank, I decided not to ask who’d changed my clothes. Some things were best left unknown.
“You going to lie around all day?” I pulled a hoodie over my top and arched a brow at Morik.
He grinned at me and disappeared. Shaking my head, I left the room and took a quick detour to the bathroom before I headed to the kitchen. I’d expected to see Morik there but found Gran at the stove, cooking another big breakfast.
“I thought we were out of bacon.” The heavenly smell filled the room.
“Me, too. You weren’t the only thing that appeared unexpectedly last night,” she said.
She moved to the refrigerator and opened the door. Even after shopping, the shelves never looked as crowded as they did now. I even spotted soda. We never spent money on soda. It was milk or water from the tap.
The faint scrape of metal against the sidewalk pulled my attention from the abundance of groceries.
“I better get out there before Morik finishes the whole thing.”
Gran closed the refrigerator and winked at me. “I’m letting your mom sleep in. She had a rough night after talking to Morik about what happened. We’re all very glad he was with you.”
So Mom knew Morik “saved” me. The day seemed a little brighter even though snow continued to fall outside.
Afte
r I bundled up, I quietly let myself outside. Morik, as I suspected, already had the path to the stoop clear as well as most of the driveway.
I scooped up a handful of heavy snow and lobbed a ball at him. It hit him square on his back. I’d been aiming for the ground in front of him so it would startle him.
He turned, eyeing me with surprise through his yellowed lenses. Without taking his eyes from me, he leaned to the side and grabbed a handful of snow. He took his time shaping it.
Laughing, I held up my hands to ward off the impending missile. He launched it at me with frightening accuracy. As I tried to move to the side, he disappeared only to reappear right in front of me. I heard the ball hit his back.
The meaning behind the gesture wasn’t lost on me.
His eyes met mine, and my smile faded as he lowered his head. My heart leapt in anticipation. Just before his lips met mine, I remembered why I should avoid a second kiss. Too late to pull back, I closed my eyes and braced myself. And nothing happened. Well, not nothing.
His lips brushed lightly against mine, smooth and warm. He gently touched my face, his fingertips tracing my jawline. There was no tingle of pain, only a current of excitement. He tilted his head and pressed closer, distracting me from my concern. Blood rushed to my head. I set my hands on his chest to steady myself, and he moved his lips to my cheek, kissing me there before pulling back.
It took a moment for me to open my eyes. When I did, I saw his satisfied grin. I fought to regain my breath.
“I’ll get the other shovel,” I said but didn’t move. Instead, I stared at his lips.
His grin widened, and he dipped his head again. How was I supposed to think or breathe if he kept doing that? Not that I minded.
A knock on the window near us startled us both apart. I looked over and saw Gran holding up a piece of bacon that she then proceeded to eat with a smile.
“I think that’s our warning. If we want food, we better get shoveling.”
We worked side by side to clear the snow. When we thought we were done, we turned and saw what he’d shoveled first already had an inch of snow on it. I put my shovel away as he quickly scraped that part again.