Alejandro leaned forward and took my hands in his. “Naomi, what you and Kai had was not a normal relationship for a Guardian and one of his girls. I have dozens of women I visit and most I only get to once every six months or so. The system is designed so that they think it is a dream. A good dream, one that leaves them feeling better than they were before, but just a dream. The fact that he came to you every night leads me to believe that he cared for you very much and whatever harem he had before you, they were no longer part of his life during that time. It was a stupid and careless move on his part, but one he would have only made if he felt you were worth it.”
I wanted to believe him. I did. But Kai had still used me.
“There is the fact that Naomi’s kisses are different,” said Puck.
“What’s that supposed to mean?” I asked.
“One kiss from you and I was good to go for a month. Seriously, I’ve done nothing to replenish my energy since that kiss at the party.”
Oh, great, one more reason for me to resent Kai. He just used me because he didn’t need to use anyone else then. Lovely.
Alejandro cocked his head. “This is interesting. Naomi, have you used your magic at all?”
I shrugged. “Yeah, a little.”
“And do you feel like it’s gotten weak?”
“Um, no, but then I don’t know what I’m supposed to feel.”
Puck spoke up. “Look, we can contemplate what all this means later. We’ve got a crisis on our hands, but Naomi’s right. Kai did use her and then he left her completely unprotected. She’s marked as one of ours. If a destroyer discovers that she is marked as ours he’s going to murder her just like they killed the girl from Tulsa. This is absurd.”
Something was bugging me. “Why did they put that girl in your house?”
“Because they think I’m the Master Guardian.”
“Are you?” He grinned.
“No, but I used to be.”
“What…”
“Look,” Alejandro said, cutting me off. “We can talk about that later. And Puck, I can’t help the fact that Kai didn’t show up to the council meeting. I couldn’t very well speak up and say we had one of Kai’s harem with us. That would’ve caused an uproar. Everyone was tense enough as it was. You’re lucky I got you assigned to Ginny, at least there you can keep a closer eye on Naomi.”
I jerked at the mention of Ginny. “You mean Ginny’s a part of someone’s harem?”
Alejandro grinned. “Yes, she is. And I’ve been nearly as careless with her as Kai was with you.”
Red roses are obviously the most loved. I see red every time I go out into my garden. Red Ace, Red Beauty, Red Candy, Red Ember, Red Moon, and Red Wings. For some reason though, they don’t evoke feelings of love and passion for me. I see anger.
MARRY HER. AS IF. Over my dead my body he’ll marry her. Puck and I left about fifteen minutes after I found out that Alejandro had been using my aunt like a common garden slut. But he thought it was all okay, because he was in love with her and planned on marrying her. Yeah right, with his harem and all.
I was still fuming when I got into the car with Puck.
“You know, I’m surprised that smoke isn’t coming out of your ears. You okay?”
“No,” I squealed, surprising even myself. “He’s not going to marry her. I’ll see to that.”
Puck laughed, which made me even angrier. “Why not? He loves her. And believe it or not, she loves him too.”
“And what about his harem?” I spat.
“Once he’s married he won’t need that anymore. She’ll be able to provide him all the energy he needs.”
“Oh, so he’ll just be using her more. That’s real nice.”
Puck hissed, exasperated. “It’s not like that. She gets just as much out of it as he does, if not more. You can’t tell me you didn’t thoroughly enjoy all those times Kai came to you. He didn’t use you. Okay so he did, but he made sure you got what you needed too.”
I squeezed my eyes shut, trying to fight back the emptiness I felt, the deceptiveness of the whole situation. “You can’t understand what it was like for me. My mother and father despised me, kept me locked up and hidden from the world. When Kai started coming around I felt a taste of what freedom might be like. I thought I loved him and that he felt the same way about me. I couldn’t wait to be with him for real instead of those strange late night meetings. And now I find out that it was all part of some sham.”
Puck stayed silent.
“You are his brother. Do you think he loves me or not?”
Puck ran his hand through his hair. “Please don’t put me in this position. Honestly, Kai left when he was fifteen. People change a lot in three years. Plus he’s undercover and I’ve no idea what the Destroyers have done to him. I don’t know. It’s possible that he loves you. He didn’t need to visit you every night. That’s for sure. But I hope not.”
Confusion swirled in my head. I couldn’t keep the venom out of my voice. “What’s that supposed to mean?”
“Naomi are you really that blind? I thought you had me figured out a long time ago.”
Like that answered my question. This was so infuriating. Fine, if he wouldn’t answer that question, I’d try another one. I couldn’t help myself.
“So, Puck, do you have a harem?”
He smiled a crooked smile. “Not yet. I’m still a minor Guardian. We party to coerce silly girls into kissing us. But when Alejandro marries Ginny, he’ll become a Head Guardian and I’m going to take over Vegas. But I might not need a harem.”
I shrugged. I didn’t care what he did. I just needed to figure out what to do about Ginny. And somehow get us away from all this Guardian and Destroyer drama.
Puck pulled into Ginny’s parking garage and hesitated before getting out of the car. “Look, I know you’re angry, but there are Destroyers who could hurt Ginny if I’m not there to protect her. You and I need to pretend like we’re happy together so I can get into the apartment.”
Puck followed me up the stairs and when he grabbed my hand, I didn’t pull away. I hated myself for liking it. Ginny was fast asleep on the couch, her phone clutched in her hand. Clothes were strung out around the living room and the TV was tuned to the home shopping network. I shook her and she jumped.
She staggered upright and tripped over a shoe.
“Can I watch a movie with Puck?” I asked.
She nodded, her eyes half closed, and stumbled into her bedroom.
Puck shuffled through the movies while I waited for Ginny’s door to close. In about fifteen minutes I could abandon Puck and go to bed myself. Puck held up a disc.
“This okay?”
“Sure,” I replied without even looking at the title. Puck motioned for me to come sit on the couch with him, but I opted for the chair instead. I waited until the previews were over then I got up.
“Where are you going?”
“Bed.”
I expected him to say something, but the only sound was something exploding on the TV.
For so long, my roses were my only friends. But now, I have many. Puck, Jason, Ricki, Ginny, Alejandro. I take out a catalog and circle several roses that memorialize my recent additions of friends in my life. Faithful Friend, Best Friend, Friend for Life, and Forever Friends. Ruth though, would always be my first. I miss her.
WHEN I WOKE THE NEXT MORNING I didn’t feel like I wanted to drown Puck in the pool so I figured I was getting over my anger. That is until I saw him sitting in a chair in the corner of my room with my computer open in his lap.
“Get out of my room,” I screeched. “And off of my computer.”
“You’ll wake up Ginny,” he whispered. He grinned a crooked smile and my heart began to race. I was super aware that we were alone in the room. And I was in my bed. He was sitting across the room, but still. This was different than the beach. We’d been through too much since then together. I liked him and I had this crazy urge to climb into his lap and kiss him. I took a few deep
breaths.
“She’s already gonna freak when she finds out you spent the night in my room. What are you doing in here anyway? I thought you were supposed to be keeping an eye on her, not me.”
He shrugged and looked back at the computer. His eyelashes were dark and long. I’d never noticed that before. “Alejandro showed up just after midnight and said he’d stay with her. Officially I’m her guard since all the Major Guardians are off on top secret missions fighting the Destroyers,” he said with a scowl. I knew he’d rather be out there fighting than babysitting. “But if Alejandro gets a break he’ll be here with her.”
I remembered that I was supposed to be angry with Alejandro, but I couldn’t remember now why that was. Dang Puck for distracting me.
“How is it that Ginny doesn’t suspect something odd? I mean since I’ve been here Alejandro hasn’t spent the night. At least not that I’ve noticed. You act like she’s not going to flip when she finds out you’ve been here all night.”
He kept messing with my computer and didn’t look up. “Intellectually she thinks something’s up. Well, I don’t know that for sure, but if I were in her shoes I’d be wondering too. We make her feel good about it all. For future reference if you want to keep someone from suspecting anything unusual use mint and Michael Jackson. That seems to be the best combination. I don’t know why. Anyway, even though her brain is telling her that something is not right, her emotions are saying ‘this is okay’. Then she’ll dismiss the intellectual argument.”
I seethed, remembering now why I was supposed to be angry with the whole lot of them. “That’s not fair. Manipulating her like that. She should have the right to question and to know. About everything. Nearly everyone she cares about is caught up in this mess. You can’t keep her in the dark. And stop trying to make her ‘feel good about everything’. She deserves to have authentic emotions.”
“Shit. Stupid game,” he said and closed the computer. “What were you saying?”
I chucked a pillow at him and got up, thankful I had chosen to wear a t-shirt and shorts to bed instead of the nightgown Ricki bought me from Victoria’s secret.
“I’m telling Ginny. About everything,” I said, scrambling from the bed and heading for the door.
“Whoa, hold on a sec,” he said, dumping my laptop on the floor and making a beeline for the door. “Let’s talk about this first.” He stood in front of the door and I tried to reach around him for the handle, but he grabbed my hand.
I tried to pull it away, but instead he pulled me closer to him so that his face was only inches from mine.
“You’ve got to quit changing how we feel. It’s not fair.” I said, trying to ignore how blue his eyes were.
Puck squeezed his eyes shut and paused for a few minutes. He finally sighed and opened them again. “Either we make her feel good about us being around all the time or we risk her being beheaded or kidnapped by Destroyers. Which would you rather have?”
I looked down, resting my head on his chest. It was distracting being so close to him, but this was better than looking him in the eye. I noticed that each one of my toenails was painted a different color. I certainly didn’t paint them that way.
“Did you?” I asked, pointing down and looking back up at him.
He grinned and nodded. “Told you I was bored.”
I rolled my eyes.
“Look,” he said and released me. He pointed down at his own toes. “We match.” I took a couple of steps back, trying to make sense of my emotions.
I laughed. “Okay, fine. We’ll discuss Ginny later. But can you at least have the courtesy not to mess with my emotions?”
“I haven’t been. Can’t actually. Ever since you found out what you were, I haven’t been able to change the way you feel. Believe me, I’ve tried. Especially last night. No one may have trained you on how to put a shield up, but you’ve done it. Amazing really. It took me weeks to perfect.”
I was pleased that I was able to do something to protect myself. Even if I had no idea how I’d done it.
He walked over to my dresser and picked up a piece of paper.
“I saw this last night and I wondered where you got it.”
I blushed. He was holding the picture I took from my father’s office. The one of him.
“Uh, I took it off of my father’s office wall. The whole goth thing fascinated me. I didn’t actually plan on meeting you.” I looked down at my feet, finding myself too embarrassed to look at him.
“Do you know where this came from?”
I shook my head.
“Someone had to have taken it. I certainly didn’t pose for it. But it feels like it came from a magazine. It bothers me. Can I have it?”
The doorbell rang and I raced to open it, grateful for the distraction. So far Puck was simply worried about what he was doing in a magazine. I didn’t want him to start asking questions about why I kept it.
When I opened the door, two men stood there. Both wore black suits and held badges in their hands. I slammed the door without thinking and bent over, trying not to hyperventilate. The last time I’d seen two men like that, my parents were arrested and I was sent to Dwayne’s. I didn’t want to leave. I loved Las Vegas. And Ginny.
Puck wasted no time. He opened the door cautiously. I cowered behind him.
He relaxed, probably realizing that they were not Destroyers. “Can I help you?”
“We are here to talk to Virginia Shelley and Naomi Aren. Are they here?”
Puck nodded. “But I’ll need to go get Ginny before I let you in. Excuse me.”
He shut the door politely, took my hand, and led me back to my room.
“Stay here. I’m getting Ginny.”
I wrapped my arms around myself and curled into a ball, terrified that they were going to take me away. I shivered.
A few minutes later Puck came back and wrapped his arms around me. He didn’t say anything, just held me. I could hear voices coming from the kitchen, but couldn’t make out the words. Puck massaged the back of my neck, probably thinking it would relax me, but my muscles tensed even tighter. I shook in his arms, comforted only by the fact that it didn’t sound like Ginny was yelling. Surely if they were going to take me away she would put up a fight.
A small hand brushed my hair away from my face. “Naomi,” said Ginny, “the detectives would like to talk to you. Will you do that?”
I shook my head.
“Please. They want to tell you some things about your parents. Things they think you need to know. They are going to ask for your help, but they won’t force you to do anything. I’ll be in there with you.” She paused for a second and I could feel Puck moving. “Puck will come with you as well. Will you come if both of us are there?”
I uncurled myself out of Pucks arms. “Will they take me away from you?”
Ginny shook her head vigorously.
I followed her into the kitchen and in spite of her reassurances, I still had a death grip on Puck’s hand. The detectives eyed Puck suspiciously.
“The boy should leave. This is for you and Naomi. The nature of visit is confidential, concerning an open case that should not be discussed freely with others.”
I got ready to tell them I wouldn’t stay without Puck but Ginny rescued me instead. “Puck is part of our family. He will stay or Naomi won’t hear you out.”
I smiled at her, grateful for the white lie.
The detective grumbled, but proceeded. In the air I smelled mint and I was certain Puck had done some “influencing.”
“You understand your parents were arrested on murder charges?”
“Yes.”
“What else do you know?”
“Not much.”
“We’ve had a gag order on the media not to publish anything. We were lucky no one else found out about it. We didn’t want a media circus. Once the trial starts, all gag orders are void, so the press is going to have a field day. And then there are going to be protesters from each side. What a nightmare.”
<
br /> The second detective cleared his throat. “Get to the point Johnson.”
Johnson fiddled with some papers in front of him.
“Naomi, your parents murdered three people. It wasn’t a random act or an accident. They planned it, for weeks, maybe even months.”
I clenched my hands together. Three people. And they planned it for months. How could I come from two people who would do something so wicked? My whole life they’d preached to me of my evils. Meanwhile, they were plotting murder.
“Who did they kill?” I choked out.
He laid a picture in front of me of a family. The mother and father stood behind a beaming teenage girl. Bile rose in my throat and my head spun. I’d know that wild hair anywhere. Ruth. And her foster parents.
Ruth Alexander Rose = Dead
RUTH DEAD. AND HER FOSTER parents who made her life wonderful. Her eyes would no longer sparkle and her bright orange corkscrew hair would be rotting in the ground by now. All because I chose to be her friend instead of listening to my father.
I hung over the toilet waiting for the rest of last night’s dinner to make its way out, but my stomach settled as someone knocked on the door.
“Go away,” I hollered.
“I brought you some Sprite,” Puck said though the door. “Ginny said it will make you feel better. Let me in.”
“No.” I took a drink of water and surveyed myself in the mirror. My face was pale.
The door handle rattled and the lock turned.
Puck poked his head in the doorway. “You decent?”
“No,” I said staring at the sheen of sweat on my face.
Puck came in anyway. He handed me the glass of Sprite and leaned against the black granite counter. His hair fell into his eyes and he searched mine.
“I take it you knew Ruth.”
“How’d you know her name?”
“Ginny flipped when you ran. The detectives told her who they were.”
“Did they kill her because she was my friend?”
The Thorn Chronicles-Books 1-4: Kissed, Destroyed, Secrets, and Lies Page 18