The waitress put her hand to her chest. “Oh, sweetheart, I am so sorry.”
“It’s okay.” Paige picked up her fork and began to poke at her linguine.
“We were always so proud of her,” said the waitress. “She and Kieran were like the king and queen of the world, and here she was, a girl who grew up right in our backyard. I’m so saddened to hear that she’s no longer with us.”
Everyone was quiet.
The waitress smoothed down her apron. “Well, if you all don’t need anything else, then I’ll let you eat.”
“Wait,” I said. “One thing? Do you know if there’s a gazebo in town?”
The waitress gave me a funny look. “What’d you say?”
“I asked about a gazebo.”
“That’s what I thought.” She laughed, uneasy. “This is gonna sound really weird, but I had a dream last night that someone came in here and asked me about a gazebo. And then here you guys are.” She gave us all a hard look. “This is meant to be, don’t you think? This is a moment of power, you all. Something special is about to happen.”
I shrugged. “Um… maybe.”
She broke into a huge grin. “I happen to know exactly where a gazebo is, you all. Exactly where.”
* * *
The gazebo was exactly like the one we’d seen in our dream. It was outside of town, up a back road, tucked next to the woods. The waitress had told us that the owner of the property had built the gazebo there because the spot was a notorious make-out spot for teenagers, and that he encouraged people to hang out in the gazebo to keep kids from parking there.
Paige and I both circled it, walking towards each other, passing each other, continuing around the circle.
“I don’t feel anything,” said Paige.
“Me either,” I said.
It was strange. I’d been so sure that being in this gazebo would trigger something inside me, that I’d understand things better here.
But nothing was happening.
It was only a gazebo. What did this place matter?
We walked around it for a while, but finally Chance said, “It’s getting dark. You guys want to find a hotel?”
He and Kenya were standing awfully close to each other.
Since I couldn’t figure any reason to stay in the gazebo any longer—besides it was kind of chilly outside—we left and got in the car.
The hotel we found was actually a motel. It was a single-level strip, parking lot right in front of the rooms’ entrances. It looked ancient, but there weren’t a lot of other options. We booked two rooms.
We stood outside the lobby, the sun hanging heavy in the sky, cold wind whipping past the motel.
Chance was handing out keys. The motel actually had metal keys, not the swipe cards.
Paige stopped him. “Look, no offense, but why don’t you and Kenya just take one of the rooms? Honestly, I could do without listening to her complain about everything.”
Kenya pursed her lips. “I don’t complain about everything.”
“You really do,” said Chance.
She glared at him.
Chance grinned at her. “I have ideas for shutting you up, though.”
And, seemingly despite herself, Kenya smiled back.
He looked back at Paige and me. “But that leaves the two of you together, and I thought that wasn’t a good thing.”
Paige snatched the keys out of his hand. “We went to that damned gazebo, and nothing happened. I think we were overreacting. Besides, there are two beds in the room. We’ll be fine.”
I rubbed my chin. “You sure?”
“Yeah,” said Paige.
Chance shrugged at me. “Have fun, kids.”
* * *
Paige sat on the other bed, her hands wrapped around her knees. Her feet were bare, sticking out of the bottom of her pajama pants. “You don’t even feel bad about it, do you?”
“Bad about what?” I was still in my clothes. But that was because I usually slept in my boxers. I didn’t know if I was going to be able to do that in front of Paige.
“About killing all those people last night.”
“Oh.” I leaned back against the headboard of my own bed and sighed. “I guess I try not to think about that stuff.”
“They were going to kill us,” she said. “You had it do it. But… you were so good at it.”
I ran a hand through my hair. “Years of practice. What can I say?”
We were both quiet for a little while.
I spoke up. “Is this why you wanted to stay in the same room? So you could talk to me about killing people?”
“It wasn’t about us being in the same room, really. It was actually about being away from Kenya.”
“Oh.” I felt a twinge of disappointment. Not because I wanted to talk about killing people or anything. But more because I guessed I’d sort of hoped she wanted to be alone with me.
“Don’t get me wrong. I like Kenya.”
I snorted. “You do?”
She giggled. “Well, I want to like her, anyway. She seems like she could be cool if she wasn’t always whining about one thing or the other.”
“She is sort of particular,” I said. Man, I didn’t want to talk about Kenya. I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do. Paige made me feel off-balance. And I had to admit that it was kind of almost… creepy the way I was into her. It had come out of nowhere, and it was so overwhelming.
“It’s weird about Kenya and Chance.” Paige stretched. Her pajama shirt rode up a little bit, exposing a line of white skin and her belly button.
My mouth felt dry. “Weird?”
“Yeah, you know, how they’re fighting with each other one second and then all over each other the next. It gives me whiplash.”
“Maybe it’s like that when you’re into someone. Maybe it’s an overwhelming thing that you can’t help from happening.”
She settled down on the bed, lying on her side so that she could look at me. “You’re talking about us, not them.”
I fidgeted. “No, not really.” There was an us? I kind of liked the thought of that. “I meant, more like, maybe it’s like that for everybody. Maybe it’s hormones and pheromones and stuff. You meet someone and look at them and smell them and—”
“Smell them?” She giggled again.
“It’s a thing,” I said defensively. “Smell is part of human attraction.”
“I don’t even know what you smell like,” said Paige.
“Really?” I got more comfortable myself, mirroring the way she was lying on the bed. “How could that be? You notice that stuff whenever you get close to people.”
She picked up one of the pillows from behind her head and hugged it. “Okay, maybe, but if I did ever notice that you had a smell, I wouldn’t know how to describe it. You kind of smell like your house smelled.”
“That would make sense, I guess.” I cleared my throat. “Is it a bad smell?”
“No, it’s just a smell,” she said. “What do I smell like?”
“I don’t know.” I rolled over onto my back. “You smell like you.”
“So, you’ve noticed my smell?”
I gazed at the ceiling, my jaw twitching. “Well… yeah. Like the first time we met, when we were in the halls together, I noticed.”
She let out a peal of laughter. “You sniffed me.”
I wanted to sink into the bed. “I did not.”
She was still laughing. “Oh my god, Hunter, loosen up. You are way too serious.”
I closed my eyes. “Stuff is serious right now.”
“Stuff is always serious with you, isn’t it?”
I opened my eyes. The thing about Paige was that I wanted to be around her all the time, but when I was actually around her, I felt twitchy and uneasy. “Not always.”
I could hear her shifting on the other bed.
I turned my head to look at her.
She’d gotten up and was coming over to my bed. She perched on the side. “Like when are you not s
erious?”
I scrambled to sit up. “You know, there are times. Lots of times.”
She grinned at me. “You’re so jumpy.”
I ran my hand through my hair. “You’re always making fun of me.”
She cocked her head to one side, grinning. “Hunter.” She dragged her teeth over her bottom lip. “I’m not making fun of you. I’ve having fun with you.”
“You think I’m weird.”
“So?” She tossed her hair back, and the movement of her shining waves mesmerized me. “I already told you I like weird. Besides, I’m weird too.”
“Not like me.”
“Just like you.”
I raised my gaze to meet hers.
She wasn’t grinning anymore. She was staring at me, and there was an earnest look in her eyes. “Look, everything’s weird when it comes to you and me. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad.”
Impulsively, I closed the distance between us. I threaded my hand into her hair, cupping the back of her head.
I searched her eyes, trying to gauge if what I was doing was okay.
She gazed up at me. She didn’t resist.
I kissed her.
Her lips were warm.
She wrapped her arms around me, pressing her small body against mine.
It felt so, so nice. Good. Right.
She opened her mouth.
Our tongues touched.
Wow. That was even better.
I tentatively ran my hand over her back, tracing her spine with one finger.
She shivered against me, gasping against my mouth.
I thought I might explode with goodness.
We fell back on the bed, still kissing.
Her lips and tongue moved eagerly against me. Her hands roamed over my chest.
I wanted to kiss her harder. I wanted all of her. More of her.
I shifted, rolling over her, onto her.
Now she was trapped under my body, pressed against me, her palms outstretched against my shoulders.
I kissed away from her mouth, exploring her jaw, the curve of her neck. Her skin was so silky, and I could smell her now. It was still indescribable, but it was a positively good smell, a perfect smell. It was like everything about her. Good. Right.
So right.
She was moaning, making these little breathy sounds, and they seemed to crawl inside me somewhere, undoing me, making my soul hurt.
I couldn’t get enough of this. I couldn’t get enough of her.
“Hunter,” she panted.
I raised my mouth from her skin. “Yeah?”
“Should we be…?”
I pushed up on my elbows so that I could look down on her. “Is this bad?”
Her lips were redder than usual. Her face flushed. Her hair was splayed out behind her in disarray. And she was utterly beautiful. “Not bad. Not even close to bad, but…”
“But?”
“It’s only that I thought we weren’t going to… you know… get close.”
I shoved off of her, rolled onto the other side of the bed. All of the good feelings inside me started to decay. This wasn’t good. This was just the weird powers riding our bodies. The powers were tricking us.
She pushed up on one elbow. “I didn’t mean you had to stop.”
“Yes, you did.” I glanced at her. “You’re right. We shouldn’t get close.”
“I’m sorry,” she said. “I started it. I came over to your bed and—”
“I started it,” I said. “It was my fault.”
“No.” And then she got off the bed and went over to her own.
We were quiet.
I lay there, staring up at the ceiling, trying to calm down, even though my body still felt like it was a live wire. I clenched my hands into fists.
“We should go to sleep.” Paige’s voice was tiny.
“Yeah.” I didn’t look at her. I couldn’t look at her.
CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE
~azazel~
The guards had hit Jason hard over the head with something after he’d taken two of them out. Then they’d dragged his lifeless body somewhere. I didn’t know where.
And I’d been helpless to do anything, my hands cuffed behind my back, one guard holding me down on the ground with a gun at the back of my skull.
They’d locked me up in a closet, and that was where I was now. Slumped on the floor next to a mop and bucket. Towels and sheets were folded on shelves above me.
It was dark in here, but enough light came under the door that I was able to get a general idea of my surroundings.
I’d managed to get the cuffs from behind my back to in front of my body, using my cuffed arms almost like a jump rope and threading my legs through them.
Not that it mattered much, because even having my arms in front, I couldn’t get out of the cuffs.
There wasn’t anything in the closet that could help me, and the cuffs were too tight for me to slide out of them.
The only way I was going to get out of these cuffs was to get a key.
Which I would get whenever one of the guards came to check on me.
Or whenever Jason got free and found me.
This was a temporary setback. I’d been through much worse before. I could handle this.
As if on cue, the door the closet opened and the guard who’d cuffed me walked in. He shut the door after himself. He switched on the light, and I realized there’d been a light switch that I could have gotten to at any time. No reason to sit here in the dark.
Oh well. Didn’t matter now.
“I figured out why you look familiar,” said the guard.
Oh great. He probably knew who I was, then. Well, that sucked. But I was going to kill this guy, so it didn’t really matter.
“Why’s that?” I gave him a tight smile.
“You look like a girl I used to fuck.”
Oh. That was surprising. “Really? How nice.” Wedging myself against the wall, I pushed myself up so that I was standing. If I moved quick enough, could I get my arms around his neck? Strangle him?
“It wasn’t really,” he guard said. “She wasn’t real inventive in bed, you know. Just wanted it the same way over and over again. You, on the other hand…” He raised his eyebrows, and his voice dropped. “I bet you’re pretty feisty.”
I groaned. Seriously? “You’re not going to try to rape me, are you?”
He smirked. “Oh, don’t worry, sweetheart. You’re going to love every second of it. You’re going to be begging me for more.”
“I’m going to start my own drinking game,” I said. “Every time some asshole tries to rape me, take a shot.”
The man looked confused.
I took a step towards him. “I mean it, it’s becoming tedious. It long ago lost any sense of actual threat to me. I don’t know what it is about me. Do I have a sign that says, ‘Try to rape me,’ on my head?”
The man took a step back. “Look, bitch—”
“Expecting me to be cowering and begging you to stop?” I stretched my neck. “Expect something else.”
“You know,” he said. “On second thought—”
I didn’t let him finish. I looped my cuffed hands over his head. I crossed my hands, pulling tight around his neck.
He choked.
I moved my hands farther apart, tightening the chain surrounding his neck.
His face turned purple. He made gagging noises. His eyes bulged.
He flailed for me, his hands batting at my arms and face.
I kept squeezing.
His tongue began to protrude from his mouth, swollen and blue. His entire face had taken on a very unnatural color. His flailing was less, his impacts light.
I tightened the chain around his neck, keeping it taut until after he’d stopped moving for several minutes.
Then I released him.
I really hoped this guy had a key to my cuffs. I went through his pockets.
And then…
Yes. Jackpot. I unlocked the cuffs and rubbed m
y wrists. There were deep red marks from the force I’d used to strangle the guy.
I found his gun in his shoulder holster and took it. Then I straightened and glared down at him.
I kicked his body. “And don’t call me a bitch.”
Then I opened the door and stepped out into the hallway.
Jason came around the corner. “Hey. I been looking for you. You all right?”
“Oh, fine,” I said. “You know me, strangling attempted rapists is basically my hobby.”
He wrapped his arms around me and kissed me on the forehead. “You okay?”
“I’m great,” I said. “Let’s find Imri now.”
* * *
~hunter~
I awoke to the sound of my phone ringing. I felt around in the darkness for it, confused for a minute because my bed was so big.
Then I remembered that I wasn’t back in the rental house with my single bed and unicorns on the wall. I was in a motel in Bramford.
I located my phone and answered it. “Hello?”
“Hunter?” The voice on the other end was female and a little frightened.
“Paige?” I sat up, looking over at the other bed. It was empty, the covers in a tangle in the center of the bed. “Where are you?”
“I’m at the gazebo,” she said.
“What? How’d you end up there?”
“I don’t know. I woke up here. Can you come get me, please?”
“Um…” I rubbed my face, trying to banish sleep from my brain. “Yeah, I can do that. I’ll be right there.”
“Thank you so much.”
“How do you think you got there?”
“I really don’t know. Just please come get me. It’s dark, and it’s weird, and I think there are animals in the woods.”
“Okay. I’m coming.”
I got out of bed. Luckily, I was still in my clothes, considering I’d been too shy to get undressed in front of Paige. I shoved my feet into my shoes and headed out of the motel.
Also luckily, I had the keys to the car since I’d driven us here after going to the gazebo earlier.
I got in the car, started it up, and drove.
It took about ten minutes of driving to make it back to the spot where the gazebo was.
When I got there, everything seemed quiet and dark.
It was cold outside. I’d forgotten my coat. I shut the door to the car and shivered, rubbing my arms. “Paige?”
Gasp Page 25