by Weil, J. L.
Neck and neck the two vehicles raced down the deserted road. Stupid Spring Valley and its country roads. There was never anybody around when you needed them and really how much more of playing bumper cars could Lexi’s take?
“Hey, you okay?” Lexi asked for what I was certain wasn’t the first time.
“Yeah, I’ll live another day.” At least I thought I would if we managed to get out of this sticky situation.
“Good. ‘Cuz Chase would fry my ass if anything happened to you.” She looked a tad concerned.
We didn’t really have time to chitchat or formulate a plan because the SUV was relentless and coming at us again. To make matters worse, if we hurt Emma, we would directly be hurting Travis and nobody wanted it to come to that. But that didn’t mean we couldn’t play a little dirty.
Oh my God. Chase must be rubbing off on me.
“Hit her!” I yelled.
“Hang on. I have a better idea. I’ve grown tired of these games.” Lexi said in an eerie voice, very unlike her usual tone, and slammed the brakes. The sound of rubber screeching pierced our ears. Smoke burned from the tires and my seatbelt dug into my chest as we came to a harsh stop. My head hit the head rest in a jarring thump.
The SUV went flying by.
“Now what?” I questioned, unsure what the plan was.
“I’m going to go buckwild on her boney butt,” Lexi informed. She had that same crazy pitch to her tone.
It was starting to scare me.
The SUV’s brake lights flashed red, and before I had the chance to object, Lexi vanished in front of my eyes. Her door was wide open, letting in the chilly November air. I jumped from the car just in time to see Emma step out of the SUV. I don’t think she ever saw Lexi coming. Heck, I didn’t even see her until she had Emma pinned against the car with one hand at Emma’s throat.
This was bad.
I stared to jog toward the SUV hoping that we would be able to settle this without any more bloodshed. My head was still throbbing like a snare drum. The cut on the side of my head was sticky and covered in dried up blood, not to mention it was painful. I just wanted to get home.
I rarely see Lexi with her demon eyes, but right now they were set aflame. The hand wrapped around Emma’s neck squeezed as she struggled to breathe. I approached cautiously not sure what I was supposed to do. Did I try to stop Lexi? Or do I sit back and do nothing, potentially letting Lexi do irreversible damage to Emma?
Turned out I didn’t have to decide.
Lexi looked fierce and wicked. She eased her grip, but held Emma in place. “My brother might be blinded by the past and what you used to be, but I’m a realist. I know what you are. I can’t believe we used to be friends.” Her words hung in the air and an emotion I couldn’t identify flickered over Emma’s face before she sealed it behind an expressionless glare. “Is there even a fraction of who you used to be underneath all that hate?” Lexi questioned with the sincerity of a friend trying to reach out.
“That girl is gone. Nothing I can do will bring her back. I can’t turn the hands of time,” Emma wheezed.
“No, I don’t suspect you can. But you aren’t the only one who has changed. My brother’s never been the same since you disappeared. He was crushed, frantic by your sudden departure. I want to ensure that he doesn’t feel that kind of pain again.” Lexi angled her head, trying to get her point across.
“You want to kill me. So, what’s stopping you?” Emma baited like she had a death sentence. This chick wasn’t afraid of death. It made me wonder what kinds of hell she had endured. On second thought, I wasn’t sure I wanted to know.
“My brother. Unlike you, I care about him.”
“You don’t know jack about how I feel,” Emma spat, anger fueling her words.
This was going nowhere. Lexi must have realized it too. “Get in your beastie truck and do my brother a favor. Ride out of Spring Valley and never come back.” She released her viper grip from Emma’s white neck. She’d lost all the color from her usual peachy complexion.
Emma’s eyes were twin blazing cut emeralds. Oh, she had a lot more she wanted to say to Lexi, but also knew this was one battle where she was out numbered. Flinging off the car, she got behind the wheel and spun the gravel under her tires as she revved the engine.
The two of us sat there in silence staring at the back of the SUV until it was no longer visible. Our ride home was somber. Irritation still radiated off Lexi, and I wasn’t going to be the one to push her over the cliff, figuratively speaking. We pulled into her driveway with half her bumper dragging on the ground. She had to hold her door closed while she drove. Thank God for demon strength. Her pathetic car clanked the whole way home like it was barely holding together. It would have been safer if we had walked home, and we probably should have called a tow truck, but she didn’t want what had gone down reported to the police. It was best to keep the authorities out of Divisa business. The less the authorities knew the safer they all were.
I should have known Chase would be able to feel that something was wrong. What surprised me was that he hadn’t come barreling down the road searching for us. It wasn’t like him to sit back and be idle. Standing in the driveway, he examined Lexi’s car with flames leaping in his eyes. If she noticed her cousin’s battle stance she didn’t show it. With her head held high, she grabbed her mounds of shopping bags from the back and swung her door open, leaving it ajar. There was no point in trying to latch it. The darn thing looked like it was only attached by one tiny bolt. It was hopeless.
“Lexi!” Chase rumbled.
I cringed at his firm and cold voice.
“Why is Angel bleeding? You were supposed to keep her out of trouble.” He accused, being such an insensitive boar. I wanted to throttle him.
“Ahh!” cried Lexi, frustrated to a point of no return.
Here we go, I thought.
The packages in her hands waved wildly as ranted, “I have had a day from hell and I can’t do this with you right now. Angel can explain.”
Travis’s laugh echoed from the porch. “What did you hit with your car? A dinosaur or your fist?”
“Ha. Ha. Ha,” she mocked with her blonde locks flying. “I should have hit your girlfriend with it when I had the chance and if you don’t stop laughing I’ll hit you with my fist.”
Oh boy.
“You saw Emma?” There was a desperate hope in his voice.
She leered at Travis. “Yes dear brother. We had a lovely chat, catching up on old times.”
His eyes flashed.” Lexi,” Travis warned.
“No. I’ve freaking had it,” she dropped her bags and threw her dainty arms out. “I’m done being nice. I’m done doing what I’m told. I’m done taking orders from the two of you,” she raved like a woman fed up, then picked up her stuff off the floor and stormed off.
My friend just flipped her lid. It was the first time I’ve seen her completely frazzled and about to unravel. I’d never seen them fight like this. It was…intense and scary.
Travis intercepted Lexi from walking into the house, lips curled and the muscles on his back flexed. “If you hurt her–”
“You’ll what?” Lexi baited in abandoned rage. “Eliminate me? I’d like to see you try.” Okay, I am pretty sure that was going a little overboard. Travis would never hurt Lexi. Right? Not even to save Emma. But as I thought it, I began to have doubts. As I am sure Lexi did as well. How far was Travis willing to go?
Travis was silent, only further infuriating Lexi, not that I blamed her. She spun on her three-inch heels and gracefully stomped into the house with Travis nipping at her heels.
There was however, an obscene amount of yelling, door slamming in every direction, and in general stuff crashing.
I kept waiting for Chase to intercede, but he never did.
Nada.
Instead, he sauntered over to me and leaned on the car beside me like there wasn’t World War III going on inside his house. A panel on the side of the car thumped to the ground. Neith
er of us so much as twitched.
“Wow. Talk about going out with a bang.” My throat was scratchy from all the excitement. It was too much for one day, so I resorted to sarcasm. It was my crutch.
He shook his head at me. “Let’s get you inside and take a look at that nasty gash. Then you can tell me what in God’s creation happened.”
It was sad, but right now I’d follow him anywhere, even into the fiery pits of hell. I just didn’t want to let him out of my sight. I nodded and let him lead me next door. He carefully cleaned the wound as I grimaced like a baby.
He grinned at me. I scowled at him. “You’re enjoying this,” I stated.
He shook his dark tousled head. “No, not really.”
“Liar.”
His gunmetal eyes sobered. “I don’t like seeing you in pain.”
That I believed. I swallowed, trying not to get lost in his velvet eyes. “It hardly hurts anymore.”
“Liar.”
Our smiles mirrored each other. Tonight was the first night in two weeks that I felt like the barrier he’d been building around himself was gone. Our eyes locked, and something passed between us. My tattoo tingled frenziedly, and I knew he was as captivated as I was in this moment. I wanted to close the space between us, but was too chicken shit. Why didn’t he make the first move? At least then I would know what to expect.
He cleared his throat. “So what did you do this time?” he asked teasingly.
Leave it to Chase to shatter a perfectly good moment. “Emma went mental and tried to run us of the road, then Lexi choke-slammed her. It was awesome.” I was never good with details.
He arched a brow. “Awesome huh?”
I grinned, loving that the jab went to his ego, the desired effect. He could be so predictable. “Well, she is pretty kickass for a girl,” I retorted.
Leaning back on the wall, he crossed his arms smirking like he was hot shit. “Oh yeah. I happen to think I’m pretty awesome.”
I rolled my eyes. “Why am I not surprised?” I made the mistake of blinking, because suddenly he was in front of me and I was staring into a pair of glittering eyes the color of platinum.
“Speaking of awesome, I hear you’ve acquired a new trick,” he said. The low and sexy tone of his voice tickled my belly.
I tilted my head back. “Travis told you huh?”
He brushed my hair back from my head, feathering lightly over the cut on my head. I expected pain, but felt nothing but a dull ache. “It looks like you got more than a tattoo from being soulbond to me. You heal as well. Fast.”
My hand immediately went to my head where the cut should have been. There was nothing but tenderness to the touch. No bumpy raised skin. “Why couldn’t I get anything cool like super speed or inhuman strength?”
He snickered. “Well, on the flipside you aren’t as breakable anymore.”
I punched him in the side which only rewarded me with a chuckle. That was what he got for standing so close.
“Brat,” he uttered under his breath and laced his fingers with mine.
My stomach back flipped.
“I better get you off your feet. Who knows how much blood you’ve lost. I wouldn’t want you fainting on me,” he said, leading me toward the family room.
I snorted. “I’ve never fainted in my life.”
Raising that damn brow with the hoop in it, he called my bluff.
“Fine. Before meeting you,” I added.
He laughed. “Angel Eyes, you just don’t give up graciously.” He collapsed onto the couch.
I stared down at him. “Where would you like me to sit? I’m the patient here and you take up the whole thing with that Viking body.”
Grinning, he tugged me down beside him. “Right here,” he whispered, weaving a secured arm around my waist. Heat grazed over each part his hand touched before settling cozily on my hip.
In his arms the gut-dropping fear from the day dissolved. I rested my hand on his beating heart. “Do you think they will get past this?” I asked, thinking about Travis and Lexi under the same roof with boiling tempers.
It was scary how in tune we were. He didn’t need to ask who I was talking about. We apparently were wired into the same frequency. “Eventually.”
“By eventually, do you mean once we figure out what to do about Emma?”
“Don’t worry about that now. Just rest.”
That meant yes and I’ll handle it. I didn’t press him, but I wanted to. My droopy eyes won over. I guess I was just too worn out to think about all that right now. I just wanted a few stolen moments in his arms while he wasn’t pushing me away. So I took advantage of being in his embrace and snuggled deeper into his chest, closing my eyes in serene peace.
When I awoke sometime in the middle of the night, sprawled out on the couch, I was alone. He had snuck out on me again. Probably best. But my heart didn’t agree and that worried me.
Chapter 19
“I saw Emma last night,” Travis confessed.
He showed up on my doorstep Saturday, soaked to the bone, looking lost. It had started pouring buckets and buckets of rain early in the morning, pelting the roof in a rain dance. I had every light on in the house and it still didn’t chase away the gloominess. What a cruddy day. Thunder rumbled the old wooden floorboards, lightening cracked, casting bursts of light through the windows. It was so dark and depressing outside you would never know it was late afternoon. My mom had just left for her shift when Travis knocked on the door. He was the only Winters who didn’t just let themselves in.
“Funny, so did I,” I replied wryly.
He gave me a dull look. Apparently this was a serious conversation, and I was being my normally flippant self. “I thought if I could talk to her…” He stood up from the couch and started pacing, restlessness vibrating off him. Locks of dark blonde hair were plastered against his face and he was leaking puddles all over my mom’s floor.
My heart went out to Travis. It was impossible not to notice how much he had changed since Emma’s untimely appearance. The string of emotions that crossed his face daily was a yoyo of hope, confusion, determination, and anguish.
I hugged my knees, just listening to him struggle. What could I really say to ease the jumble of emotions he was feeling?
“There are moments when I break through that thick barrier and see the girl I loved behind it,” he continued. “But it’s just glimpses. Nearly as quick, she puts that tough girl chip back in place and I don’t recognize her. How do I break through? Really break through to her?”
A bolt of lightning crackled across the sky. “I don’t know her, not like you.”
“I used to think I knew her better than anyone, better than myself. But now…I’m not sure of anything except that I can’t give up on her.”
Of course not. Travis was not that kind of guy. Well, apparently before Emma he was that kind of guy and much worse, or so the stories go. “I don’t really have any profound words of wisdom that will magically turn her back. I’m not a wizard.” And I royally sucked at trying to cheer him up. It boggled my mind why he trusted me. “Neither of you is the same anymore. I think you both need to somehow rediscover each other.”
He turned away from the cloudy window and looked at me. “And how do you propose we do that? She has suddenly declared herself my enemy. I can hardly get her to talk to me.”
“Every couple has their challenges. Yours is just…different.”
The corner of his lip twitched, exposing one of his dimples. “You really suck at this.”
Duh. I rolled my eyes. “So what happened when you saw her last night?” I couldn’t help but ask, curiosity getting the best of me.
“Not as much as I would have liked.”
“Was she surprised to see you?”
“You could say that. She didn’t see me coming, that’s for sure. After she got over her shock, it felt like old times for a minute. Then she started ranting about her dad, me being at her house and how he would kill me.”
Yeah
, that all sounded about right. And unnerving. Travis was a braver man than I. It helped he was half-demon I guess.
“When she realized I wasn’t budging, she started to threaten me. Said she would kill me herself if I didn’t get off her property.”
If I wasn’t mistaken, it actually sounded like Emma was protecting Travis. Protecting him from her batshit crazy father. “I think she was trying to save you, warn you that her house wasn’t safe, Travis.” I was giving him more hope. I just prayed it wasn’t false hope.
He considered that for a moment before his eyes filled with sorrow. “I miss her so much. There is this giant, gaping hole in my heart that can only be filled by her. I don’t know how to fix it. Fix us.”
Oh lordy. We already established he was definitely coming to the wrong peep for advice on relationships. “I’m no expert here.” I can’t believe what I was about to say. It was no secret that I was no big fan of Emma. I kept thinking if it was Chase, what would I do? What lengths would I go to, to protect him? And the answer was simple. What wouldn’t I do for Chase was more the question. There was nothing I wouldn’t do. Nothing I wouldn’t endure. No price I wasn’t willing to pay to keep him alive. I’d never give up on him.
The scary part was, I just realized the depth of how I truly felt about the jerkwad. “You just can’t give up,” I said softly.
Travis’s eyes clashed with mine and surprise overrode the sorrow. He nodded. “You’re right. Thanks. I knew you we’re the only one who would understand. Black Ops later?”
A round of search and destroy cured everything. “You know it. Hey, can you tell Chase I want to talk to him?”
“Yeah, no prob. He’s lucky to have you. If he hurts you, I’ll pulverize him.”
We stepped onto the porch, the sun was peeking behind a sheet of black clouds. The ground was drenched and smelled of earth and worms. I clung to the damp banister as I watched Travis cross the yard between our houses.