What was I doing? Vivid couldn’t come close to describing this fantasy. No one should have that kind of power over me.
My back stiffened automatically, determination welling up in my heart. He wasn’t going to terrorize me an instant longer.
I stomped the brakes, hard. He was either going around me—or over the car. He was next to me in a nanosecond.
Cassie woke up with a startled yelp. “Rayla, what are you—what the hell?” She jumped away from me as though I were ablaze.
I turned toward bike guy to see what had freaked her out so badly. He should have been six miles ahead of us by now from the speed he’d been going. Maybe she had the same tantalizing snapshots rolling around her mind and wanted to call him back?
The minute my eyes locked with the scene next to me, I screamed. Instinctively I jerked away from the thing, not motorcycle, next to my car. The back end fishtailed, but I managed to correct us before I gunned it. I looked again, sure I had imagined whatever that was. It was still there. I blinked several times to dislodge the image. Nothing changed.
Instead of seeing a motorcycle, flank and sinew of what looked like horseflesh rode beside me, black as midnight, taut as a cord. I shuddered when I recognized the low flap of an enormous, obsidian feathered wing.
The only sound louder than the roar of the motorcycle was Cassie’s chant of “It is not there.” She gave a final scream and covered her eyes. I wished I had that option.
The creature was colossal, bigger than all the horses I had ever seen. He was the stuff of legend.
A pegasus was supposed to be white. This monstrosity was deeper black than a bottomless pit. Smoke billowed forth from his nostrils as though he had a fiery furnace for innards. If his wings weren’t bad enough, a purplish-black glow radiated from him.
After every thrust of his gargantuan wings, my car veered. I had been going nearly a hundred miles-per-hour—the thing kept up as if I were out for a scenic drive.
The rider was a mammoth of a man, suited in what looked like leather armor. His jacket strained under bulging muscles as though the seams would burst. A helmet blocked any view of his face, but his head was turned toward me. Ghostly white knuckles gripped the handlebars.
Wait, what happened to the pegasus? A breath before, a mythical beast rode next to us: one that could have only escaped from the depths of Hades. Now, an ordinary motorcycle flanked my car.
Well, ordinary was not right. The chrome gleamed in the dim light as though it were alive. I tried to hold back the absurd thoughts that once more stole my mind. I ached to settle into the supple black leather while I curled my fingers around the high-set handlebars. Even from here, the rumble of the powerful engine shook my entire frame. Still, it was only a bike.
I refused to analyze the intrusive images of the mysterious stranger, especially because I wouldn’t have minded if he scooted back a bit to give me some room.
I reacted to him on a cellular level, as if he was a new source of gravity and I a wayward comet. An emotion I didn’t want to recognize stirred underneath my overpowering fear. My mind screamed at me to pull a one-eighty to get away from him yet my body craved to get closer to the stranger. I felt as though I were his somehow.
I didn’t like it one bit. I was not the type of girl to lose her brain over a guy. I couldn’t even see his face, but I wanted to. In fact, the curiosity left me feeling cheated.
Cassie kept her gaze locked blindly forward as if nothing abnormal was happening. I wished I could be so calm. The specter of insanity loomed close by me, ready to strike at any moment.
The man cocked his head to the side, saluted me.
Then bike, rider…everything just disappeared into the hot night air.
This time when I hit the brakes, the car skidded wildly to a stop. I craned my neck in all the unnatural angles I could manage: he was gone. What the heck? Had a trap door in the road swallowed him?
I pummeled the steering wheel to ease the tension welling in my heart. “Bum-scum!” My shrill words hung in the air before shattering into silence. I shoved my hands through my hair and squeezed my eyes shut.
Cassie shifted in her seat. The aged leather let out a shadow of the groan I currently had caged. I glanced over at her.
Her gaze locked onto mine before she licked the side of her mouth and sighed. “I wish you’d swear like a normal person, Rayla.” Her tone sounded more irritated than she looked. “That is so disgusting.”
I gawked at her. “Are you really razzing me about my cursing habits now?”
Her full lips pursed before she gave me a faint smile. “This seems as good of a time as any.”
Wait? Didn’t she see that? “You don’t find anything odd about being run down by a man on a motorcycle that turns into a pegasus and back again just before he disappears?” I frantically searched the sky again. “Where did he go?”
She seemed to be trying for casual indifference, but fear transmuted her normally delicate features into a mousy mask. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
I smirked. “So when did ‘it is not there’ become your new mantra?”
Her fingers worried the bright white seam of her dark designer jeans. She shot a glance at me but barely made eye contact. “Rayla, drop it. We’re fine. He’s gone.” She shrugged. “You should be happy.”
“Happy?” I choked out. “I just had a real hell’s angel chase me down; you’re acting as if he was a dorky date!” A maelstrom of emotions swirled throughout my body. My heart pummeled my ribs. My breath came in halted gasps. Rivulets of sweat trickled down my back as though I had run twenty miles. If that wasn’t bad enough, my right front tire perched precariously on the gravel shoulder. A few more inches would have sent us plummeting onto the endless sea of sagebrush below the highway. I grunted. “Was he a figment of our collective imagination?”
“Maybe he—”
I refused to let her explain this away. “Come on, Cassie. I know you saw the thing so don’t bother denying it.”
She looked out the window, but I still caught her grimace. “Could we just get moving again? We’re going to be late, or would you rather go back to Snow?”
Snow College was in the opposite direction. I was not turning around. She’d already given up her chance to change her mind. “So you’re actually telling me you didn’t see a pegasus?” Why would she have acted like that otherwise?
She slapped her hand against her thigh, startling me. “Mythical creatures are just that. They do not exist!”
I would have agreed with her ten minutes before, but that beast and rider would forever haunt me. I was pretty sure, even with my imagination, I couldn’t have come up with something like that on my own. How had he disappeared?
A tiny part of me had hoped to see the guy fly through the air for affecting me that much—only without the aid of his demon mount. I needed to make it clear to him, and more importantly myself, exactly who had control over my body.
I had never liked the dark. Now I had an actual reason to distrust the inky hours that had always brought a shiver of trepidation to my spine. I had expected my maiden voyage away from home to be full of excitement but nothing like this.
I shoved my fingers under my shirt to scratch the hideous scar between my ribs. I needed to stop, but I couldn’t. It was already raw. What the heck was wrong with me?
I found it odd that the usually—void of any kind of feeling—jagged patch of skin suddenly wouldn’t stop itching. Having the thing erupt with sensitivity for the first time since my horse riding accident seven years ago was more than a little weird.
*****
Lunch was awkward. Cassie was really quiet. We came out of the cheesy restaurant in utter silence. The place had saddles for barstools, wagon wheels for chandeliers, and a mechanical bull in the corner. The only entertainment I’d had for the past hour had been watching complete strangers repeatedly fall off the thing.
Why did the air feel this thick? Every hair on my body tried to take flig
ht. Suppressing a shudder, I glanced around the desolate landscape but didn’t see anything that looked out of the ordinary.
Although my scar had been itchy, tingling almost nonstop since my near-miss with that motorcycle, my terror had vanished with the sunrise: It was back like recurrent heartburn. I snapped my neck around when I heard a throaty rumble close by.
A leather clad rider pulled onto the road from the gas station across the street. Figures I only caught the back of him. It could have been the guy from last night, but there had to be thousands of black motorcycles in America ridden by huge men in leather, right? Cassie’s face dropped three shades paler than vanilla ice cream, her gaze locked to the motorcyclist.
“Do you think that was him?” I asked breathily.
She hadn’t moved a muscle, as if she was frozen where she stood. “Who?”
Why was she acting like this? She’d have to do better than that if she wanted me to drop the subject. “Don’t,” I said.
She glanced up at me coolly. “I really can’t imagine what you’re talking about, Rayla.”
I steeled my expression, still not getting why she refused to admit what had happened. “You should try harder, like when we were kids.”
She glared at me before stalking away. She stood at the driver-side door, arm outstretched.
I handed her the keys. “Why won’t you talk about it?” I asked, sliding onto my seat. “We both saw the thing.” My mind told me I couldn’t have really seen that pegasus, but something in my heart refused to let it go.
Her hands shook while she fumbled to get the key into the ignition. “You should get some sleep. You look exhausted.” She hadn’t even glanced at me. I had never seen Cassie this freaked out.
I couldn’t blame her. Even though the motorcyclist was gone, his presence clung to me like a second skin. How was I supposed to sleep believing that man was somewhere in this world? I hoped my feelings were wrong—that he wasn’t actually following us, unseen. I tried not to think about it, but the vision of him haunted me every time I closed my eyes.
Chapter Two
The rest of the trip was a blur. Nothing weird happened, so I had turned my mind to more important things…like school.
I pulled into Le Mans Hall’s humungous circular driveway. My mouth fell open. This was going to be my home for the next four years.
The building was amazing—sort of gothic mansion meets military barracks. The square bell-tower loomed above us, nestled between a regal set of flanking wings.
Were the rumors true? Had a student really hung herself up there? I shrugged off the tiny shiver that raced through me and stepped out of the car.
Shielding my eyes from the late morning sun, I found the fourth floor. Which room was ours? A view of the lake was probably out of the question for freshmen, but there was always a chance.
With the ornate moldings that lined every wall and the marble tile that gleamed under the fluorescent light, our dorm had an old-world cool factor. We took our things to our room, which, surprisingly, was pretty great.
A bunk-bed rested tight against an aged ivory wall. Two small closets were nestled in the corner. A couple of dressers and a desk lined the other walls. We even had a small living area and a private bathroom. All we needed now was a comfy sofa and a shower curtain. Speaking of curtains, I peeked out the window and smiled. The lake glittered softly below us.
Too bad I didn’t have time to explore; I still had to call Aunt Grace. I told Cassie I was going to park the car after we unloaded our things.
She didn’t even ask to go with me, but she did wish me luck. She probably didn’t want to be in earshot of my conversation. I didn’t want to hear it either, but I couldn’t put it off any longer. I wasn’t about to make her come along for the torture.
After I shut off the ignition, I reluctantly pulled out my phone. Exhaustion from lack of sleep and my weird trip here washed over me. I had to put that guy out of my mind. Nothing else had happened and I already convinced myself that Cassie had been reacting to the guy not an imaginary pegasus. I’d probably dreamed it up because last night had been the first time in years I had gotten up the courage to even be outside at night. And the motorcyclist? Well, thinking more about him would wait for later.
True to her nature, Aunt Grace had left twenty-four messages. I didn’t feel like getting angry, so I decided to skip them.
I wasn’t surprised at all when she answered on the first ring. “Hi, Aunt Grace,” I said, a little less enthusiastically than I had intended.
To say worry clouded her tone would be the understatement of my life. “Rayla, thank the heavens and the stars! Where are you, girl?”
From her tone I was in the land called Trouble. She had probably figured out I wasn’t at Snow College already. I set into my speech hoping she wouldn’t interrupt me.
“Grace, I made a decision—”
“Where are you?”
“I know you won’t be happy with it, but—”
“Rayla, you have no idea what you’ve done!”
“This is my life, and I feel it’s time—”
“You feel?” she said in a huff. “Where are you?”
She was not going to give up, so I decided to get it over with. “Notre Dame.”
“Indiana!”
No—Paris. “Yes,” I stated calmly, waiting for her to lose it.
Her tone lowered, deflating like a spent balloon. “What have you done?”
That wasn’t the response I had expected. I started again. “Like I was saying, I decided—”
“Did you ever consider I’ve been so strict with you for a reason?”
Of course I had, but I wasn’t buying her excuses anymore. I had finally taken control of my life, whether she liked it or not. “I thought you were just being overprotective because of Mom.”
There. It was out. I hadn’t found the statement as hard to say as I thought I would.
She sighed. It was a lonely sound. “I guess I should’ve just told you, but I was hoping to keep you from ever knowing about what you are.”
I chuckled, picking at the steering-wheel. “You aren’t going to tell me I was actually born a boy, are you?”
She harrumphed. “This is serious, Rayla. I didn’t think you would ever be this foolish.”
In what messed up universe was choosing a great school over a mediocre one foolish? “What are you talking about?”
Her voice held an accusation I didn’t miss. “Why didn’t you tell me you still wanted to go to St. Mary’s? You haven’t mentioned it in over a year.”
“Are you kidding? You would have never let me come!”
“You’re darn right! I can’t protect you now. None of us can.”
Would she always treat me as a child? “From what?” I asked. “I’m not that pathetic. I can take care of myself, you know.” Hadn’t I already proven that last night? Besides, I wasn’t about to make excuses for trying to be an adult.
She didn’t say anything for a while. Her voice was so soft I could barely understand her when she finally spoke. “I’m truly sorry I failed you and your mother.”
“What does this have to do with Mom?” Was she about to tell me I had cancer or something worse? Had my mom passed on a congenital anomaly of some kind? Had she really died a horrible death she refused to let me see?
Would I finally get to name what had stolen my mother from me?
I braced myself for something terrible. I had never known Aunt Grace to exaggerate—ever, but she had to be now. Her tone insinuated I was in real trouble.
Her voice was strained as though it was hard for her to talk. “I can’t tell you. It’s too risky. They’ll only find you sooner.”
They? “Who in the blazes are you talking about?”
She whispered, “You need to be very careful, honey. There’s more to this world than you can see. There are people that want you. Your life is about to change in ways you can’t even imagine.”
Huh? “Aunt Grace, I don’t know wha
t has gotten into you, but what you’re saying doesn’t make any sense. Are you telling me to come home? Because if you are—”
“No, Rayla,” she nearly shouted. “You can’t come home! I have to think about more than you, now.”
I snorted. When had she only thought about me? I had been the last one in her household she even bothered to glance at most days let alone think about. “Would you get to the point?”
Her exaggerated groan was loud and clear. “Oh, to heck with it. They will find you soon enough anyway.” She huffed a couple times as though she was trying to control her temper before continuing. “Fae lords will be coming for you.”
I sat there for a moment, sure I had misheard her. “Uh, would you mind repeating that?”
“Good grief, girl, listen to me. There’s no telling how long we’ll have. Fae. Lords. Will. Be. Coming. For. You.”
I sputtered, “Fae. Like in Faeries?” I laughed until tears formed in my eyes. A vision of thumb-sized men with iridescent wings riding miniature horses galloped through my mind—my favorite childhood fantasy.
Many times, I had imagined being swept off my feet by a fairy prince. He had cast a spell on me to make me fae. My wings had been pink and purple, my hair a silvery light-blue.
Her voice couldn’t have sounded more hysterical. “Yes!”
I laughed uncontrollably. I couldn’t help it—until an image of a lone rider on a tricked-out Harley turned pegasus popped unbidden into my mind. My joviality turned into an elongated, “Ohhhh!”
Her tone kicked up a few decibels. “Have you seen them already?”
I huffed. “How should I know what a real one looks like?” The motorcyclist couldn’t have been fae, could he? Even if they did exist, which I wasn’t saying they did, that man was anything but diminutive.
Any second Aunt Grace was going to yell just kidding then laugh her butt off. I waited. And waited.
What came out of her mouth startled me. “They are stunning, cunning, and can be lethal.”
Five (Elemental Enmity) Page 2