by J. L. Weil
Zane’s back was to me, but I saw his fists tighten. He didn’t strike me as a guy who reined in his anger. Kick ass now and who cared about taking names.
After a count of silence, Crash said, “That’s what I thought. Take your bloody hands off me, mate.” He jerked, breaking out of Zane’s hold.
Now that they weren’t in each other’s faces, I got a glimpse of Zane’s profile. Nothing prepared me for what I saw, causing me to suck in a sharp breath. There was a brief moment that I was positive I was sleeping and in the throes of a nightmare, because everything I was seeing was inconceivable.
Zane, too, was sporting some creepy-veiny eyes. Different. But, nonetheless disturbing. I should have been scared, running-for-the-hills-screaming-for-help scared. The sight unnerved me; however, I was also curious.
Averting his face, I swore Zane heard my gasp of surprise. I tried to get a better view, but he cleverly kept himself angled away from me. It was enough confirmation for me. He had secrets. And they weren’t the I’m-cheating-on-my-girlfriend kind of secrets. This place was off-the-grid freaky.
Regardless of what I had seen, Zane’s presence gave me courage. Explain that. I could have blamed it on adrenaline, but really, it was just me. I asked the first thing that popped into my head. “What is wrong with your face?”
As Crash’s smirk grew, the lines began to diminish. “Better ask your guard dog. I’m not dumb enough to risk Zane’s wrath twice in one night.” He rubbed the side of his jaw. “I’ll be seeing you around, little Raven.”
Zane blocked his path, towering at least four inches over Crash. “You come near her again and I promise, you won’t walk away a second time. Hit the road, before I change my mind and smear the sidewalk with your face.”
Crash leisurely lit another smoke before sauntering down the road. As I watched him go, I was riddled with a gazillion questions. So I turned to the only person left to answer them. “What the hell is going on?”
“A thanks would suffice,” he mumbled, facing me as he ran a hand through his midnight hair.
My eyes ate him up like a bag of flaming Cheetos, searching for a shred of evidence, proving I hadn’t been seeing things. Naturally, there were no traces of the unusual ink-like marks. “Thanks for ruining my night,” I replied, giving him a dose of attitude. He didn’t need to know I had been looking for him. I would admit to nothing of the sort, not now that he was right in front of me and after what I’d seen.
“You are something else, Princess,” he said cynically.
To set the record straight, I wasn’t ungrateful that he might have saved me from a very unpleasant experience; it was that he made my palms sweat. He made my nerve endings tingle. He made my brain cells mushy. All of the above put my back up. I rubbed the inside of my slick hands on the pockets of my shorts. “What was up with your eyes?” I knew I was being forward, but he deserved it for calling me princess.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about,” he said, brushing me off.
I snorted. “Don’t play coy with me. I know what I saw. You and astray both had some kind of freaky eye action going on. Different, but similar.”
“I think we better get you home.” He grabbed me under the elbow. “You are suffering some kind of shock. Let’s go.”
I despised being manhandled. “Shock? My ass! Do you make a point of walking all the girls home?” I asked, attempting to wiggle out of his grasp. And failing.
“No.”
His clipped response drove me bonkers. “Why did he call me little raven?” I asked, sincerely curious.
He opened my passenger door. “How would I know?” Then he more or less lifted me off my feet to get me inside. “Don’t think about getting out of the car. I don’t have the patience to chase you right now.”
Biting my lip, I thought about it, before leaning back. “Does everyone on this dreadful island have a bird fetish?” Ravens. Crows. Hawks. What was the deal?
A lethal smile rose on his lips as he hopped into the driver seat. “Do you have a fetish?”
I rolled my eyes. “What is wrong with this place?”
He adjusted his seat belt and held out his hand. “You don’t want to know.”
I knew what he wanted, but I didn’t remember agreeing to let him drive Josie. “So you’re admitting things are weird here?”
“I plead the fifth. Keys?”
“Fine,” I huffed, dropping my keychain into his palm.
He eyed the anime charm on the ring, a girl with aqua hair and big, black, twinkling eyes. “Cute.” Then he turned over the engine, and my jeep groaned before kicking over.
“She’s finicky,” I stated, feeling my cheeks turn pink.
Reversing the car effortlessly, he raised a brow. “She? Let me guess. She has a name as well.”
“Of course, but that is not the point.” I was seconds away from ripping the keys out of the ignition. “God, getting answers from you is worse than an elephant trying to squeeze through a mouse hole. I’m going to find out one way or the other.”
He stopped fast, and I wasn’t prepared for the sudden jerk. “You listen to me, Piper. Don’t go sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. I won’t always be there to keep you out of trouble.”
I blew the hair out of my face. “What trouble?” I demanded.
Silence.
Glaring, I craned my neck, positive I was going to suffer from whiplash. “Wow. You think of yourself as some kind of hero.”
The car started rolling again. “Damn right,” he replied smugly. “Crash is not someone you toy with. Fact.”
“I kind of figured that out, genius.” I angled myself toward him in the seat. “To set the record straight, I am not a damsel in distress. Got it?”
“Whatever you say, Princess.”
My jaw tightened. “Call me that again and you won’t be able to have kids.”
The wind teased the hair at his neck. “I don’t think I’ve ever had a girl threaten me as many times as you have.”
I smiled. “You haven’t been hanging out with the right girls.”
His blue eyes snapped with a pristine coldness, darkening. “And you think you’re the right kind of girl?”
I squinted, not in the least put off by his frigid change. “Eh, your eyes are doing that thing you say they don’t do. Should I take a picture?” My hand went to my pocket, pulling out my phone.
Knuckles tightened on the steering wheel, his chest heaved in one long exhale, and I watched in awe as the charcoal lines around his eyes faded. “Have you ever seen a shrink?” he asked, envious lashes blinking.
“Of course not,” I lied. “What kind of question is that?”
“I’m just trying to rationalize your foolish behavior.” Strained lines wrinkled his forehead.
“My behavior?” I shrieked. He was joking, right?
Afraid not. “Done anything illegal?” he rattled off.
I thought about it, hanging my hand out the window to surf the wind. “Define illegal.”
His lips twitched as we stopped outside the gate to Raven Manor. Zane put the car in park, and I hopped out, walking around the front of the car. He was still smirking as he stepped out of the jeep.
Finally. An amused emotion. He was capable of having them. I leaned against the side of the car. What I didn’t expect was for him to box me in with his body, his arms placed on either side of me. “Do you have any tattoos?” He continued the most random game of twenty questions.
“Do you?” I countered way calmer than the sparks going off inside me. If he kept looking at me like that, I couldn’t be held accountable for what my body or lips might do.
“No.”
“Liar.” My gaze wavered from the exquisite planes of his face, down his arm, stopping just short of his hand.
He lifted a brow. “So you can see it?” Turning his arm over, he exposed the tattoo on the inside of his wrist. It was in the exact same spot as Crash’s, but Zane’s was a black crow.
My fingers rea
ched out, hypnotized by the shimmering ink. “Why wouldn’t I?” I wanted to trace the lines of the widespread wings. The tattoo seemed to almost move under my gaze, like a shadow.
He swiftly dropped his hand, eyes meeting mine. “Do you sleep naked?”
I swallowed back my disappointment and choked. “I fail to see how that is relevant.”
“It isn’t.” He shot a dark grin. “I just wanted to know.”
Why did he have to mention being naked, because now I couldn’t get rid of the image my mind conjured of him naked. It only got worse and steamier when I joined that image. I tried to pretend my cheeks weren’t beginning to flush, and used my best defense. Sarcasm. “I guess that is one of life’s mysteries you will never know.”
One of his full lips tipped. “Is that doubt I hear in your voice?”
My chin jutted, refusing to let him rattle me. “I warned you.” Then I put my fist into his gut.
His shoulders moved in a silent laugh, not in the least bit shaken by my little outburst. “I shouldn’t be surprised by your spunk.”
Peeved, I pretended my hand wasn’t throbbing from the impact of his abs of steal. “Are you going to tell me what is going on yet?”
Sighing, he brushed a strand of hair from my face, tucking it behind my ear. “It’s not my place.”
My heart skittered through several beats at his touch. Holy hellfire. “That sounds like such a cop-out.”
He flicked the end of the nose, just brushing my stud, and I felt the zing all the way to my toes. “Hand me your phone.”
I didn’t just hand my phone over to anyone. It was my life.
His fingers tapped on the screen before returning it. “In case you get into any more trouble. I put my number in your favorites.”
“Wonderful,” I said tartly.
He closed the space between us and whispered, “So do you?”
“Do I what?”
“Sleep naked?”
I stood nailed to the spot, digesting what just happened. Was he flirting with me? “You’re a dicknose.”
He shot me a smile that would melt the heart of the Ice Queen as he started walking backward down the driveway. “Do you make up insults in your sleep?”
There was only one answer worthy of such a comment. I let my middle finger do the talking. He laughed. As I watched him saunter away, I was left thirsty for more, my mind burning with questions. So frustrating, like Zane himself.
Did he think one flashy grin would redeem him?
Not a chance.
Chapter 9
In my room, I strolled over to the desk, half in a daze. The last hour’s events didn’t seem real. How could they? None of it made sense. Confused didn’t come close to what I was feeling. I’d managed to keep calm and collective in front of Zane, but alone, my hands were shaking. Steadying them on the back of the chair, my fingers brushed something soft.
There it was, a piece of Zane. Lying on the back of the chair was his hoodie, the one he had so graciously lent me the night of the bonfire. It hadn’t been washed. Gross, but washing it would have been a sin. I picked it up. Unable to resist, I pressed the cotton material to my face and inhaled. Instant nirvana.
Oh boy.
I was in trouble.
Boy trouble. I was falling for a jerk.
A jerk with an unexplainable…I didn’t even know what to call it. An ability? A curse? A mutation? But he wasn’t the only one. Crash. There must be a reasonable explanation for what I’d seen. I was a reasonable person. Well, most days, so I did what anyone in this day in age did when they needed answers. I Googled Zane Hunter.
Wiggling my butt into the plush chair, I booted up the computer, biting my nails as I waited. The Internet speed was surprisingly quick for being so far off the mainland. Typing in his name, I frowned at the search results. Ziltch. No Facebook. No Twitter. No Instagram. No criminal records. In cyber world, he didn’t exist, which meant he wasn’t human.
“Who the heck are you, Zane—or what?” I muttered. Determined to uncover his story, I couldn’t help thinking he knew things, and not just about what I’d seen, but my family as well. Nothing about Raven Hallow added up.
Zane and Crash were something. Their eyes…I’d only seen something similar on TV. Vampires. What I’d learned from Dean and Sam Winchester was about the extent of my supernatural knowledge, except neither Zane nor Crash had pointy fangs or an extra set of razor sharp teeth, which ruled out vampires. Not ready to give up so quickly, I started a new search on paranormal abilities, and then narrowed it down by freakish eyes. Maybe I would find an article, a legend, or a myth that would shed light on what I’d seen. It was a stretch, but what else did I have to go on?
A half-hour later, I’d read several websites to no avail. My eyes were glazing over, and the words blurred on the screen as I scrolled through an online newspaper. Most of what I’d found was completely useless crap.
On a whim, I typed Raven Hallow. A few seconds passed before a name popped out at me. Rose Morain. I scooted my chair closer, tucking my legs underneath me, lured by the possibility of uncovering dirt on Grams. The mouse clicked on the link, and a moment later I was scanning the headline.
RAVEN MANOR UNDER FIRE
“Rose Morain, of Raven Hallow’s founding family, was interrogated by police in the recent deaths of three teenagers who were found on her beachfront property. The names of the eighteen-year-olds are being held at their family’s request. No charges have been filed against the highly respected pillar of Raven Hallow’s community.”
Rose was questioned as part of a murder investigation? It seemed preposterous. She might have been an absent grandmother, but it only took one look to see she didn’t have a murderous bone in her body.
“Are you looking a porn sites again?”
I jumped and whirled around in my seat at the sound of TJ’s voice. He was leaning against the doorjamb. “Hilarious,” I barked. “You’re the horny teenage boy, not me. Sex isn’t on everyone’s mind twenty-four seven, ya know.” I tried to cover the monitor with my body.
TJ pushed off the door, walking into the room. “And that, sis, is your problem. You need to get laid.”
I coughed, fumbling blindly behind me with the mouse. If I could just switch the webpages… “Excuse me. Just what do you know about getting laid?”
“More than you apparently if you’re searching…”
My fingers rapidly tapped over the mouse button. Click. Click. Click.
He laid a hand on the back of the chair, looking over my shoulder. “Mythical creature responsible for killing spree?” TJ read. “Pipe, you need help.”
In a kneejerk reaction, I elbowed him in the gut.
He gave a whoosh. “How did I get stuck with such a lame sister?”
“Funny. I was thinking the same thing. Why are you here again?”
He rocked back on his heels, averting his eyes. “No reason. I was exploring and ended up here.”
Guilt settled in the pit of my belly. Since we had arrived at this plush establishment, I’d been so caught up in my own worries, determined to dislike Rose and recently dissecting Zane, that I’d forgotten TJ was only fifteen. He was still my little brother who missed our mom as much as I did. We had essentially lost both our parents in less than a year. I manufactured a smile. “Have you made any friends yet?”
TJ belly flopped on my disheveled bed. “I haven’t really left the castle.”
The corners of my lips curved as I swiveled the chair to face him. “This place is crazy, isn’t it? I find it hard to believe that you’re already bored of all those video games.”
He gave a one-shoulder shrug. “Nah. Not really. Marco had to go eat dinner with his family. We’re getting back online in a hour for a one-v-one of CoD.”
“Huh? You know I hate it when you speak that gamer geek.”
A small snicker came from his lips. “Never mind. I don’t have time to educate you.”
Marco was TJ’s best friend back in Chicago. “You
should try to get out and meet people. Who knows, you might find another dork like you.”
“What about you?” he pointed out, turning the tables. “You’ve been moping around in your room all week.”
“I have not been moping,” I denied.
His brows lifted.
“Fine. But it’s been a weird week, okay.”
“Weirder than usual? I find that hard to believe.”
Twerp was asking for it. I grabbed the nearest pillow from the floor where I had kicked it many nights ago, and heaved it at his head.
He ducked, laughing as the fluffy missile zoomed right past him, and I realized it was the first time I’d heard TJ’s laugh since we got here. “Your aim still sucks.”
I couldn’t stop the smile. TJ might be a pain in my tush, but we were family. The only family we had really. “You want to raid the kitchen and watch a movie?” I asked, another family tradition that had vanished with Mom.
Lines of consideration ceased his brow. “Sure. Why not?” That was his way of saying he missed me. “Just as long as it is not porn.”
“Hardy, har, har.”
~*~*~
My cell phone buzzed on my dresser, scaring me half to death. Not that I was doing anything important, just laying on my bed, counting ceiling tiles. I lost count after seventy-six and had to start over. Thank God for technology.
Eyes narrowing, I read the number that flashed across the screen. It was a local area code, but one I didn’t recognize. For a painstakingly, heart-stopping moment, I thought it might have been Zane. Then I remembered that he had programmed his number under Dicknose. It made me smile.
I debated whether to let it go to voice mail. It was after nine and like the last few nights, I had just brushed my teeth with the very lame idea of going to bed early. Yep. That was the kind of Saturday night I was having.
Pathetic.
I didn’t recognize myself.
“Hello,” I answered.
“Hey, girl. Get dressed. I’m coming to break you out.”
My mind was slow to place the voice. “Zoe?”
“Duh. Who else do you know on this dreadful island?” Zoe replied.