by J. P. Grider
This surprises me. “In danger of what?”
Mom shakes her head. “She never said. I got the feeling I shouldn’t ask, so I didn’t.” Mom gives me this strange look. “I know I should have, Honor. I’m usually very prudent…but one look at your precious face, with those huge violet eyes.” My mother smiles when she sighs. “I fell in love with you, Honor. I couldn’t let you go.”
We sit there in silence for a while, not sure where to go with the conversation from here. I want to tell her I’m an empath, but I don’t believe it myself. Believe it? Heck, I don’t even understand it. But Mom needs to know. Who else could help me through this?
Dad walks in and puts a kibosh on my news.
“Thanks,” I say to Dad when he hands me my tea.
He nods. “Leanne, everything okay?
“Sure, Jack. Honor and I had a nice little chat.”
Dad smiles at me, then at Mom, “Good. Couldn’t live without you two.”
My father states his declaration casually, but a heavy heart is dragging it down. I feel it. Deep within my own heart, I know my dad is scared. He’d never come so close to losing his wife. His world has been shaken. And I feel his torment.
Knowing what I did to not only save my mother from death but my father from heartache, maybe I could embrace this empathy thing and find a way to live with it after all.
Chapter Ten
Pulling into the high school parking lot in my mother’s VW, I spot this awesome looking bright orange Challenger in a front spot. I’m not one for noticing cars much, but this one is crazy cool with its black stripes on the hood and black rims on the tires. I know I would have noticed it before. Either someone got a new car, or someone new has come to school.
But the Challenger conveniently slips my mind when walking into school, I spot, through the glass windows of the main office, the most handsome boy I think I’ve ever laid eyes on. Even better looking than Ethan (though I feel really bad for thinking that). This boy’s hair is a beautiful yellow blonde and his skin, flawlessly pale with a deep dimple that graces his cheek. At the angle I am standing, it’s difficult to see the color of his eyes, but I’m sure they are as exquisite as the rest of him.
The first period bell rings and I’m so caught up in gazing at this wonderful piece of Heaven that I am now late for class, and nowhere near my locker to get my things. This, come to think of it, is now a fortunate coincidence, because now I have to enter the main office to get a late pass. As I’m opening the door, the six foot god slips his sunglasses on and turns to walk out the door. But not before he pauses in front of me and smiles. “Hey, Angel,” he says, than floats away.
I can barely remember my name when the receptionist asks if she can help me. “Oh. Yes. Um…who was that boy?” I ask instead of requesting my pass.
“A new student.” She’s annoyed. “Do you need a pass?”
A new student? Wow. He just seems too…together to be a student.
“Honor. Isn’t it?” The secretary attempts to pull me from my daydreaming. “Do. You. Need. A. Pass?”
“Oh. Yes. Please. Thank you.” I shake my head back to the present.
In my first period class, French, I find myself too distracted to pay attention. Yesterday I was falling so hard for Ethan, and today…I cannot get that newer new guy out of my head. Incidentally, I find it hard to concentrate all morning. Not only am I pining over some beautiful boy I don’t even know, I am still trying to wrap my head around the idea of having the ability to heal people. Such a huge responsibility. One that doesn’t come without huge repercussions.
At lunch, Ethan is in a horrid mood. My own mood makes me aware of this. God bless him, though. He is actually trying to hide it. My emotions inform me of that, as does the plastic smile he’s wearing on his face.
“Hi, Sweetheart,” he says, sending tiny tingles through my body. New guy from the office who? Seeing Ethan sitting across the table from me reminds me of just how hard I was falling for the original new boy. “How’s your mother doing?”
“She’s better. The doctor wants to run a few more tests, but she should be coming home in a couple days.”
“Great,” he says to me, though his mind is elsewhere.
“Ethan. What’s bothering you?” I reach across the table and put my hand on his.
He squeezes my hand. “Nothing, Honor. Nothing I can’t handle.” But I still feel his apprehension. Ethan is brooding over something. “Honor?” I’m asked after several silent seconds – seconds I use to take a bite of my sandwich. “Can we go up to the reservation again…after school?”
With my mouth full of turkey and Swiss on rye, I mumble, “Sure.”
My heart feels heavy for Ethan. I’m not loving being able to feel his emotions. I just hope his anguish is a result of someone else’s…and not his own.
“Everything’ll be fine, Honor.” But it isn’t fine. Ethan is alone with his thoughts the rest of lunch period, while I chat with Tamlin about nothing in particular.
Walking into seventh period Math, my breath catches. The beautiful boy from the main office is talking with the teacher. His back is to the door, but I know it’s him. There is no mistaking the blonde mass of beauty. For a high school kid, he is abnormally tall, having probably three inches over Ethan, who, according to Ethan, already towers at six-feet two-inches tall (even though I thought Eeth was taller than that).
I advance slowly to my desk, not paying too much attention to what I’m doing when I walk into a desk, dropping my books and splaying them across the floor, grabbing hold of everyone’s attention in the meantime – something I am not particularly fond of. Hustling to the floor to pick up my mess, a long pale arm slips around me and reaches for my fallen books. When I turn to see who my Samaritan is, I am staring right into another set of violet eyes. And they burn right. Through. Mine.
Suddenly I don’t know what I am feeling. But I get a funny taste in my mouth, and my chest begins to burn. The intensity of his gaze does not lessen. It heightens. And as it does, the burning in my chest deepens until it feels as if it were burning a hole right in my chest.
The violet eyes holding me in fiery shackles are not Ethan’s.
They are his.
The beautiful god from the main office.
Chapter Eleven
After he tears his gaze away from mine, he stands and hands me my books. “Ya gotta watch where you’re going there, love,” his deep, velvet voice instructs.
Motionless and unable to speak a single word, I nod.
I cannot stop looking at him.
Until Ethan walks in.
And his face turns stone-cold.
“Class. I’d like to introduce to you, our newest classmate,” Mrs. Johnson announces, “Storm Sutherland. Ethan’s brother.”
Ethan’s searing expression, directed at Storm, is unnerving. But the callous smirk on Storm’s face is actually blood-chillingly disturbing. I am suddenly afraid for Ethan.
The rest of the students ooh and aah at the realization that Ethan and Storm are related, while the female gender of our class already begins darting coquettish glances at the new addition to our class. Mrs. Johnson finally demands the class focus on their math assignments, but I notice Ethan doesn’t appear to be paying attention at all. He seems to be stewing over something big. Something so disconcerting that I immediately run to the garbage can and throw up.
I end my day in the nurse’s office, where Ethan shows up to walk me out. He’s still stone-faced.
“You okay, Honor?” he asks, empathy apparent in his voice, but his thoughts are on something entirely different.
“Yes.” He takes my hand and walks us out of the school. I know better than to inquire about Storm. When Ethan is ready, he will talk about it. Maybe that’s why he asked me to go to the reservation today.
“I’ll drive,” he says out in the lot. “I can bring you back to get your car.” He opens my door to let me in, then circles around to his side.
The short ride i
s quiet.
On our rock at Mahlon Dickerson, Ethan nervously taps his fingers on his leg. Covering my hand over his tapping fingers, I take his hand.
“This is bad, Honor,” he laments, now shaking his leg beneath our hands. “He’s bad news.”
I don’t need to ask. Of course I know he is referring to Storm Sutherland. “Is he really your brother?” I really don’t know what else to say.
“We share the same biological father, but that’s where it ends.”
“What’s he done that’s so bad?” I figure he brought it up, it should be okay to ask. Right?
Ethan drops his shoulders and sighs. “He’s evil, Honor.” I watch him shake his head and close his eyes. “He kills…” Okay, I actually feel my eyes reach my hairline. “Just because they make him hurt. They don’t ask him to feel their pain, Honor, no one ever asks. But he hates them so much…he kills them.”
“Who? Who does he hate?”
Ethan turns and stares at me. Violet eyes to violet eyes – for at least a whole minute. Not even a blink on his part; I of course can’t help myself. “He’s an empath too. And he kills the very people whose pain he absorbs.” Ethan drops his head. “It’s all a game to him, Honor.”
I sit horrified at what I’ve just heard.
“It’s not good that he’s here, Honor,” Ethan continues. “Not good at all…,” he trails off into another world.
But I need to understand this. “Ethan,” I nudge, “are you saying he kills…everyone? I mean, wouldn’t he have been caught by now?”
Ethan jumps off the rock and paces the ground beneath me. “No. Not everyone, Honor. And maybe he hasn’t killed a whole heck of a lot of people.” Ethan sits back down on the rock. “But isn’t one or two enough?”
“Yes, of course.” Murder is murder, whether it’s one or twenty, but I need to know what is really on Ethan’s mind.
“She was so special,” he whispers.
“Who?”
“The girl he killed.” Ethan drops his head again. This time a tear falls from his eye. “My sister.”
“Oh my goodness, Ethan, I am so sorry.” I put my hand on his back and rub it up and down, trying to calm him and absorb his pain at the same time.
“She was only eight.” He squeezes the bridge of his nose. I think he’s trying to stop the tears. “Summer was my father’s pride and joy…I think Storm was jealous of her.”
“That’s horrible. He just…killed her? How?” I am trying so hard to absorb his anguish, so I take his hand instead of rubbing his back. I’m new at this. I don’t exactly know what I’m doing.
“With his bare hand.” His eyes closed, Ethan is inhaling what I think is courage to say whatever he’s about to say out loud. “I think he just…crushed her heart…I walked in the room and he was leaning over her. There was an indent of a hand burned on her chest…When he saw me…he fled. Haven’t seen him since. He was only fifteen, yet capable of murder. But we heard he had murdered…others…before Summer. I didn’t know that then.”
“Oh my gosh. Can’t you call the cops now? It’s not too late, is it?”
“It was seven years ago. There was never any case. Our family tended to live under the radar.” Ethan shakes his head. “My parents didn’t want anyone to find out about us. Being empaths and all.”
“That’s terrible.”
“We heard he became really mean and powerful after that. I also found out that once empaths kill…they gain strength. And if we kill another empath, we can live forever.”
“What? So…Storm is immortal?”
“We don’t know. Summer hadn’t shown any signs of being an empath yet, so I’m not sure.”
“And wait…if it was seven years ago and he was fifteen, he’s like...twenty-two years old…in high school?”
“Yeah, he probably made up false records or something.”
A faraway expression shadows Ethan’s face. “You know, it’s funny,” Ethan says, “we thought Summer was the only one Storm was fond of. A tsk escapes his mouth. Then an angry chuckle. “He hated us, Honor. Especially me. I’m what caused his parents’ divorce. My mother got pregnant with me when my dad was still married to his mother.” Ethan takes my hand and gives it a tender tug. “I guess I can’t blame him for that. But…it was such a shock what he did to Summer. We thought he really…loved her. I just don’t understand it.” He shakes his head in devastation. I want so much to hold him, but…I stop thinking and just do it. I take my hand from his and wrap both my arms around his neck. He turns in my direction and lets me.
We hold each other like that for God knows how long when we hear something move behind the trees.
“It’s probably a bear,” Ethan remarks as he steps down from the rock to check things out.
I jump down and follow him.
“Honor, you shoulda stayed where you were. Bears can be dangerous.”
“But I’m with you. I’ll be okay.” And that’s the truth. I really believe that when I’m with Ethan, everything will just be all right. He protects me.
A resigned “all right” forces its way out of Ethan’s mouth.
We follow the noise but find no bear.
What we hear however is the roar of an engine.
And the squeal of spinning tires crunching across the gravel parking lot.
What we see is a bright orange Challenger hightailing it out of the park.
Storm.
Chapter Twelve
“Hi, Honor.” A strong voice calls from behind me in the cafeteria.
I come to a halt. Knowing who it is before I turn. “Storm.”
“That’s me. Trip over any desks lately?” His joke falls flat on my ears. But my face grows hot.
“Just joking, sweetheart.” He places his lunch tray on the table next to mine and slides in on the bench. Smack dab next to me. Arm touching very large arm. I move as indiscreetly as I can without hurting any feelings. Then I think, why should I care if I hurt his feelings? He’s a murderer. “Don’t worry. I put my deodorant on this morning.” Obviously he noticed my sly attempt to distance myself from him.
“I wasn’t worried.” My defensive tone betrays my words.
“Did I do something to offend you, honey?” Though he sounds sarcastic, something in his tone is off.
“No.”
“So, Honor. I like your name.”
He’s waiting for a response from me, but none comes.
“I’ve been asking around about you.”
My lips are sealed shut.
“You’re shy?”
Why does he keep talking to me? I bow my head and break apart my sandwich, unable to actually eat it.
A sharp pain enters my chest. Heartache. But it’s not mine.
“Honor?” Storm’s face drops, as does his mood. “Would you like me to take my tray somewhere else?” He asks, and I literally feel his hurt deep in my heart. Storm is hurting and I don’t want to make it worse, though I cannot explain why.
“No. You can stay,” I answer quietly, forcing myself to look him in the eyes. His beautiful violet eyes which are so intense right now. “I’m sorry.”
“No need to apologize. It’s all good.”
“Yeah.” I smile and then see Ethan walking toward the table. Now I begin to worry.
Jumping from my seat, I go towards Ethan. “Eeth. Hey.” But I feel like he caught me cheating on him (even though I don’t really know where we stand on that issue anyway).
“Ethan.” Storm follows me and holds out his hand. Of course Ethan doesn’t shake it. He just stares at Storm, and I watch his eye twitch and his face contort. And I think, wow, this guy really repulses Ethan.
Storm drops his hand. “Suit yourself, little brother.” Storm sits back down and dives into his lunch.
Picking up my purse and tray, I follow Ethan to another table. Feeling bad for Storm that I did so.
“I don’t like that he was talking to you, Honor. He’s up to something.” Ethan’s hand runs along my lower back whi
le I sit down. He straddles the bench next to me, his hand still warm on my back.
“He seemed okay, Ethan. He was just making small talk.”
With Ethan’s right hand still on my lower back, he lays his left hand on my thigh. “He worries me. I can’t tell you why. I really can’t put a finger on it, aside from the fact that he murdered my baby sister, but...,” he pauses a minute, “I still think he’s bad news.”
My emotions are torn. I feel Ethan’s suspicions, literally. But my own feelings just don’t match up. When in Storm’s presence, the burning in my chest I experienced yesterday is still there, but…so is a sharp pain. Deep down in my soul I can feel the breaking heart of Storm Sutherland.
Nodding my head, I silently agree with Ethan. How could I tell him that I feel sorry for his eight-year old sister’s murderer?
Ethan removes his hand from my leg and instead squeezes the bridge of his nose again.
“Are you all right, Ethan? You shouldn’t let him get to you, really.” I turn and straddle the bench to face him. Taking his hands in both of mine, I close my eyes and try my hardest to remove his hurt.
Unfortunately, he is on to what I’m doing and pulls his hands from my grasp. “Honor. Stop that. I told you what healing people will do to you. Please, Honor. I’d like you to live a while. If that’s all right with you.”
He makes me smile. My face grows warm, and I’m thrilled to know he must like me-like me if he intends for me to be around a while. We never did qualify our relationship, so I’ve been having my doubts as to whether he likes me or is just hanging with me because I’m some sort of legend in the empath world. Because I’m the one that got away. Though thanks to Ethan, I’ve now been found. Not sure if I am happy about that or not.
“What’s the matter, Honor? I didn’t mean to hurt your feelings…”
“No. No,” I jump in.“You didn’t hurt me at all.” In an attempt to hide my smile, I bite the inside of my mouth. Which hurts.