Next, I sprayed him and waited for his own shout at the cold water. I was disappointed when he didn’t. Amused, I wondered if he was holding it back just to look tough. He rubbed his hands over his face as the mud rinsed away, tinting the water that was dripping to the ground a grayish-brown. Then he ran his hands through his hair, scrubbing it to remove the mud. When he put his hands down, I sprayed his shoulders and arms but I couldn’t take my eyes from his face. Water dripped from his nose and chin, and his hair was standing up straight. His skin glittered with the water droplets covering him. He was a sight.
Then he took off his shirt. I tried hard not to move my eyes from his face. I tried really, really hard. The muscles were defined under his tanned skin, and the curly hairs on his chest were the same copper color as his hair. It trailed down the middle of his flat stomach in a little river, disappearing into the waist of his jeans.
I looked at the ground, my face turning red with the direction my thoughts had been taking, and then I felt his hands on my skin. “What’s this?”
His hand moved the strap of my tank top and he ran his thumb over the scar near my collarbone. At the same time that I realized what he was doing, he saw the two scars closer to my heart. I slapped my hand over them, pulling away and shaking my head.
“Nothing,” I said, resting my hand there as if it were the most natural thing in the world, and grabbing my collared shirt with the other hand. “So, who am I meeting?” I asked.
“What? It’s definitely something or you wouldn't be hiding it.” He moved forward and tugged at my hand.
“It’s really nothing,” I repeated. I knew that if I wanted to, I could be stronger than he was, but I was also trying to maintain composure. Then I realized that I was only making it more interesting to him by hiding it. So, I let him move my hand away and get a good look at the scars.
“Are these…” He trailed off as he ran his fingers over them
“Scars from a knife,” I replied, voice lacking emotion.
“Someone stabbed you three times?” He pulled back to look in my face, as if to see whether I were joking. I couldn't speak for a long moment, and when I did, my voice was thick.
“Ten. Someone stabbed me ten times.” I lifted my arm to reveal the three other scars there, then lifted my shirt up to show the others at the top of my stomach and then near my hip. I watched his face as this information registered, and he brushed his hand against the scars. I fought to refrain from dropping my eyes to the ground, to keep from lowering my head in shame. It was better for him to see this. Then he would realize that I wasn’t so exciting, so likable. It was better for this to happen sooner rather than later.
“Who did this?” His voice was barely above a whisper. I dropped my shirt and crossed my arms.
“My mother.” The words came forced from my mouth, and I raised my chin in defiance of all the disgust he too must be feeling. “Lovely, aren’t they? You don’t have to drive me home. I’ll walk.”
I turned without looking him in the face and began to walk toward the jeep to retrieve my phone and the money I’d stashed on the seat. He grabbed my arm from behind.
“Wait, Olivia.” He moved in front of me, blocking my view of the jeep. “I don’t want you to leave.”
His face wasn’t showing any disgust, and his amaretto eyes were on fire with some unexplained feeling. Then, he leaned in and pressed his lips to mine.
Chapter 9
The tingling I’d felt earlier intensified incredibly, and his lips were warm and soft. While they were touching mine, I was blissfully stupid. I could only feel without thinking, and it was amazing. When he pulled back slightly to look at me, I couldn’t find my words. He brushed his fingers against my cheek and then his face was transformed by a brilliant grin.
“So I guess that means you’ll stay,” he murmured. “Come on. You still haven’t met my friend, and I’ll make us something to eat. I’m starving. You probably want to get out of those wet clothes anyway.”
He flicked his eyes down the length of my body and I raised a cautionary eyebrow at him. He chuckled and put his hands up innocently.
“Only to get back into dry ones, I mean,” he said.
He gestured for me to follow him, and together we approached the door of his house. The moment he opened the door, I saw the friend he’d been speaking of. Bounding out of the house was the most massive dog I’d ever seen. He was the color of a sandy beach, his dark face giving the impression that he was wearing a black mask. Wrinkles of skin gathered on his forehead and dripped from the sides of his gigantic head. He jumped up, both paws on Jackson’s chest, and stood just as tall as his master.
A giggle escaped me and I gasped at the sheer size of the animal.
“Olivia, this is Zeus. Get down, Zeus,” Jackson said with a playful smile. The big dog gave Jackson a look as if wondering whether he were serious and then apparently deciding that he had been, dropped back to the earth on his tremendous paws. Then it was my turn for a greeting. He brushed enthusiastically against my legs and nudged my hand with his head. His back easily reached the top of my thigh and before I knew it, I found myself kneeling down so I could get a better angle for adoring him.
“He’s a horse,” I laughed. “He’s bigger than me.”
“That’s not difficult,” Jackson joked, earning a faux glare from me, “but yeah. He’s pretty large. He likes you.”
Zeus nuzzled his gargantuan head into my hair, earning another giggle. We’d never had animals in Eagleton other than the wild rabbits and the occasional coyote or dear we’d run across in the woods. After a few minutes, I reluctantly stopped petting Zeus and followed Jackson inside. His house was cozy and seemed to fit him. The couches were deep brown leather, and a few different guitars stood on stands in the corner of his living room. He disappeared for a moment and came back with an armful of clothing and towels.
He directed me to the bathroom, and I shut the door, checking twice to make sure it was locked. I’d planned on only changing, but the shower was so tempting that I couldn’t resist jumping in quickly. The hot water felt luxurious, and there was something oddly thrilling about rubbing Jackson’s shampoo into my hair. When I was out and dressed in sweat pants that pooled around my body comfortably, I collected my wet and muddy clothes from the bathroom floor.
Preparing to leave, I caught sight of myself in the mirror and paused, a little shocked. There was a flush in my cheeks and my eyes glittered. The gray color suddenly seeming warmer, more open. My hair fell in shiny, damp black ribbons and for the first time in my life, I appreciated what I saw. I still didn’t look as beautiful as Sylvia or Ivanna, and certainly not as beautiful as Paula, but there was something charming about my appearance. I shook my head at myself and exited, finding Jackson in the kitchen.
He’d made sandwiches, and the moment I saw them I realized how hungry I was. He smiled and gestured for me to sit at the table in the little kitchen. While Jackson took a few moments to shower and change, I polished off the sandwich like a champion. Zeus had been supplied with a humongous bowl of food, which he inhaled, and then hoisted himself up onto the larger of the couches to doze.
“So what do you usually do when you’re not working?” I asked Jackson, after he’d finished eating.
“I spend a lot of time writing; music and thoughts and other things. Sometimes Zeus and I go on hikes. I don’t know. I just kind of do whatever I feel like doing at the moment.” He looked reflective, his thick brows drawing together over his eyes. The copper hair was once again standing straight up, a beautiful messy look. I lowered my eyes when I realized I was gazing at him.
“This is going to sound corny,” he said, “but I have this strange feeling that you and I are a lot alike.”
I immediately looked back up at him. “What do you mean?” Surely, he could at least sense on some deep level that he and I were very different…that we almost didn’t even exist in the same world. My free time was spent learning how to kill.
“I d
on’t know how to explain it. You’re different. I find myself wanting to know every single thing about you, but you seem so…closed. But there are rare moments when it’s like the walls come down. I’m fascinated by it.”
I examined my hands to keep from looking at him. Normally, this would have made me even more guarded. These words would have made me feel more like a science experiment; more like I didn’t belong. But he seemed to genuinely want to know me, and it threw me. To say that I was in uncharted territory was putting it mildly.
“Why did she want to hurt you? Your mother, I mean?” Jackson asked quietly. He reached across the table and took one of my hands in both of his. “You can trust me with your secrets, Slayer.”
I inhaled deeply, not happy with the way our conversation had suddenly turned. “My mother was sick. She thought that I was evil, or that something bad was inside of me.” I had expected to speak confidently, defiantly, but my voice came out low and weak.
“Why would she think that?” Jackson’s voice was nearly as low as mine.
I shrugged halfheartedly. “Because I was different, I guess. I don’t know.”
Jackson looked at me for a long moment, and then I was pulled to my feet and we were kissing again. Something made me want to back up, to think about this and his motive for kissing me, but again I found myself unable to focus. His hand traced a line on the back of my neck, and then his fingers curled into my hair, as if he were holding me to him. This kiss was more demanding, and I rode a wave of thrill and fear.
When Jackson did pull back, he pressed his lips again to mine once and then twice. “I like your kind of different,” he said, gifting me with another of his brilliant grins. Surprisingly, I found myself smiling in return.
A little later, when Jackson took me home, he walked me through the gate and onto the porch. “I want to see you again tomorrow,” he said, putting a hand against my chin. I’d become accustomed to the tingling now, but was still extremely curious about it.
“I don’t know,” I said automatically. My head was spinning from today.
“I’ll take that as a yes,” he replied, and then with a smile, he turned to leave. I watched him pull away from the curb before I went inside with a grin on my face. I was walking on air. As I moved toward the laundry room with the bag of muddy clothes, I felt excited and happy in every cell of my body. Part of me wanted to break out into random song and another part wanted to crawl in bed and relive every single moment of today. I’d never dreamed that my first kiss would come from a human, or that it would be so intense. I spun around the doorway to the kitchen, still grinning.
“Olivia!” The voice was wound with tension and the sudden appearance of someone in the kitchen startled me. My hand shot out involuntarily, and the rug in the kitchen came sliding toward me with a sudden fury. The man standing on it went sprawling backward, arms flung out to try and catch his balance. He wasn’t successful, and at the same time he landed on a heap in the kitchen floor, I realized who it was.
“Max!” I shouted, my heart sprinting like a kicked horse. The bag dropped from my hand and I rushed forward to help him up. “Great Goddess, Max. You scared me!” I made sure he was okay and then I punched him in the arm, probably a little harder than I should have. He was strong, though, and if it really hurt him, he didn’t show it.
“I’m sorry. I’ve been waiting here all day for you. I went to the bar where Everett said you work, but you weren’t there.” He helped me straighten the rug back out and then I sat at the kitchen table, trying to gather myself.
“I was off today,” I said in an irritated voice. “What happened? Why are you here?”
“Two reasons,” Max said, pulling the other chair around closer to me and straddling it. “I’m breaking my coven bonds by telling you this, but Lillian’s oracle has figured out what the Venator are searching for.”
I sat straight up, a chill running down my spine. “What?” I breathed.
“Everett. Or at least, that’s what we all assume.” Max put a hand on my shoulder as the blood drained from my face.
“What do you mean?” I asked, my head spinning once again.
“The Venator are looking for someone that is of great personal importance to them. At first, Ivanna and everyone else assumed the Venator were looking for you, because of your power. Imagine the tool it would be in the hands of the Venator, against the wise ones. But then they realized that the only Wise Ones being approached were male, Everett was the only logical possibility. It became clear to Margaret that the person they’re looking for has escaped them before but she can’t get a picture of his face. For some reason, they are desperate to find him.”
I swallowed hard and put my hand on the table to steady myself. I knew Everett’s story as well as I knew my own. The abuse he suffered at the hands of his parents was unspeakable. To even think of it horrified me. When he ended up in the foster home, a man came to see him. This man was a hunter, and he planned on taking Everett. He’d made the necessary appointments and had interviewed and met with Everett. The day before the man was scheduled to take Everett, Ivanna rescued him.
Everett was reported missing, but steps were taken to ensure that he’d never be found. The little quiet, abused boy from the orphanage had been given up on long ago, or so we’d thought.
“Why do they want Everett?” I asked, my brain trying to find a reason to say they were all wrong.
“We don’t know. Maybe it’s because his ability would allow them to exercise greater control over their slaves; over the hunters they’re recruiting. It doesn’t really matter why. What matters is keeping him from them.”
I absorbed the information slowly, my hands trembling. Then, something occurred to me. “You said you’re risking your coven bonds to tell me. This means that Ivanna is still not going to let me go home.”
Max brushed the dark hair back from his forehead and lowered his even darker eyes. “No. In fact, she sent me here to disable your car so you wouldn’t be able to return to Eagleton. But I couldn’t not tell you. It’s wrong.”
I looked up at the ceiling as a wave of anger rushed through me. Everett was everything to me. Ivanna knew that. She knew that I would give up my life for him without hesitation, yet she refused to let me help. Max would leave today, and when he did, I would be crippled. I’d be stuck here with no way to help and no communication other than what Ivanna deemed necessary, which evidently was nothing. I brought my fist down on the tabletop angrily, sending porcelain salt and pepper shakers sailing off and onto the floor. At the same time, sobs were building in my chest.
“Why is she doing this to me?” I moaned, my helplessness starkly apparent to me. Max immediately put his arms around me to comfort me. I let him, but I didn’t want it. I didn’t want to be comforted. I wanted to be useful.
“Livvy, you have to know that if they were able to find out where Eagleton was, we wouldn’t let them take Everett. You know that our entire family would die before that happened,” Max said. I know he meant to be reassuring, but it had the opposite effect.
“That’s what scares me, Max! What if that does happen? What if? Then I’ll be here, by myself when I should have been with you all, dying as well. And you know as well as I do that if I were there, our odds would be better. This is bullshit and Ivanna knows it.”
Max shook his head. “Margaret is getting better at tracking the Venator. The more she practices, the better she’s able to see them. We should have fair warning before they attack if they are able to find us. I promise you, Livvy, I will let you know. If it were me here, I wouldn’t be able to live with myself if the scenario you described happened. I know; I get it. I will warn you, I promise.”
I rubbed my eyes with the sleeve of Jackson’s sweatshirt, pushing back tears that threatened to spill. It smelled like him and suddenly, I wished he were here. I knew it was ridiculous. There was nothing he could do to help me, but I felt better when I was around him. I shook my head to clear it and looked at Max.
; “What about Sylvia? How is she?” I knew that my little sister was probably losing it with the very real threat of a Venator attack.
Max shook his head. “She’s not good. She’s terrified, rightfully so. She hasn’t been talking much. She’s been staying in her room or with Margaret trying to develop her own skills so she can help.”
I didn’t know what else to say to Max. I felt numb, and if I couldn’t go home and prepare with the rest of my family, I wanted to crawl in bed and block out the world. He had to leave anyway, as he’d already passed Ivanna’s original time limit waiting for me to return. I hugged him silently and watched him go out the door. Through the window in the living room, I could see him lift the hood on my car and fiddle with whatever was under there. He was carrying something when he got into his own car and pulled away from the curb.
Standing there, I pulled out my cell phone and dialed Everett’s number.
“Livvy?” His voice was dearer to me than my own. He was my closest friend. He was more than family, even though not a drop of our blood was the same. Just by needing me, he’d given me such strength. It hadn’t just been myself that I needed to live for, despite the terrible things that had happened to me. It had been this boy who’d looked at me as if I were his only salvation.
“Livvy. Max told you, didn’t he?” My silence must have given me away. I couldn’t speak. “Don’t worry about me. I promise I’ll be fine,” he added.
I couldn’t stop the tears then. I was nervous and afraid and aggravated and confused, and I just couldn’t keep it all in anymore. He was silent on the other end for a while, and when I finally calmed down some, he spoke.
Amaretto Flame Page 10