by Myers, J. L.
In a sudden rush my focus returned, causing my head to swell. Back was the bowling alley with its flashing lights and loud pop music. Surrounding kids were laughing, drinking and having fun. Kendrick was sitting before me, frozen stiff, his face a mask of shock.
Embarrassment burned my cheeks while uncontrollable anger pounded through me. I jerked away from Kendrick, glaring. “How could you do that?” My shrill tone earned me a number of onlookers who had suddenly ceased bowling. I lowered my voice. “Why would you do that?”
Kendrick’s expression remained calm as he crossed his arms over his chest. “You asked me to compel you,” he spoke with an irritated whisper. “That’s all I was doing.”
The next words spat from my lips dripped acid. “I didn’t ask you to do that. You could have made me bark like a dog or cluck like a chicken.”
Kendrick clenched his jaw. A muscle contracted beneath the smooth, pale skin of his cheeks. “You’re so damn blind, Amelia. All this time and you still can’t even see what’s right in front of you.”
“See what?” I demanded. “What are you talking…” my words choked back. A notion that was both crippling and like a physical force pushed me back against the bench. “You wanted to kiss me?”
Kendrick unclenched his jaw and reached out, gently folding my hands in his. His face was suddenly filled with a vulnerability I had never seen in him before. “I’m in love with you, Amelia. I always have been.”
I tried to speak, to say something, anything in response. But my whole body felt shaken to its core. My breath caught in my throat, and my mouth and tongue were paralyzed.
“Amelia,” Kendrick said. His eyes were silver-blue again. They strained, as though what he was about to say caused him deep, physical pain. “I know you feel something for me, too. I see it in your eyes.”
Nothing in this world could make me deny the strong feelings I had for Kendrick. He was my best friend and the one person who kept me grounded, who had always stood by me. But since finding Ty, I knew that anything I had ever felt for Kendrick—or anyone else for that matter—would always be lukewarm in comparison, a gentle flame rather than a raging inferno. Still, knowing the words I had to say to him filled me with sickening dread. There was the option to lie. But I couldn’t lead him on. I wouldn’t.
Kendrick yanked his hands free, his face turning to stone as though he had read my internal thoughts.
“Of course I love you,” I cried, throwing my arms around him. “Kendrick, you’re my best friend. You always will be.” I released him, my eyes pleading for understanding. Please don’t let what I have to say break us. “But I’m not in love with you.”
Rejection contorted Kendrick’s expression. The thought of breaking my best friend’s heart bore into me like tunneling parasites.
“It’s because of him, isn’t it?” The sharp perception in Kendrick’s harsh voice felt like a fisted blow to my chest. “Even after everything that dog’s done to you?” He sighed, seeing the anguish scrawled across my face. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to bring it up. It just makes me sick that he could hurt you like that.” Our eyes met. His were strained and vulnerable. “Amelia, I know you’re still getting over him. But I want you to know that I will always be here. And I would never hurt you like that, not ever.”
My heart sank to the pit of my stomach. There were still so many secrets I was keeping from my best friend. Lies I had allowed him to believe. But how can I explain it to him now? The forlorn look on his face was already more than I could take. I couldn’t hurt him anymore than I already was. I couldn’t tell him that my feelings for Ty were still as strong as ever. No. Not now.
“It’s okay.” Kendrick rose to his feet and collected his bowling ball. “You don’t have to say anything now.” He turned drawing his shoulders back, and began our second game. The comfortable air we had arrived with was long faded. Over the following hour the ease of our relationship didn’t return.
As we left the bowling alley, quiet tension hung between us. Kendrick left to pull the car around and I thought back, remembering the text that had interrupted his attempted compulsion. I retrieved my iPhone from my jeans. The text was from Ty.
‘CU in UR dreams 2nite.’
~
I avoided Kendrick for the rest of the evening. His profession of love had utterly surprised me. But that wasn’t the only reason I was avoiding him. Tonight I would learn the truth, the whole truth. And if Ty was exonerated, I would have no choice. I would have to reveal everything I had kept from Kendrick. The daunting realization kept my stomach in knots and made it almost impossible for me to keep it together around him. It was the real reason I was avoiding him.
With my brain exhausted from the mental and emotional strain, I fell into a deep sleep. When I awoke, I was on the same bed of ferns from last time. Their fronds scratched through the lace of my black camisole and boxers. Disappointment gripped me as I glanced around. The almost full moon that gleamed through the clearing drew ghostly shadows. Ty was nowhere to be seen.
I called out into the wilderness. “Ty, are you here?” My voice echoed back at me, bouncing off the bordering oak and pine trees. My heart sank.
Then in an instant shift that caused my head to spin, the scenery blurred and reformed. Suddenly, I was no longer sitting at the peak of a mountain. Instead I was in the depths of a lush, bursting-with-life rainforest. The quiet disarray of sleeping mountains layered with ghostly shadows was now gone. Replacing it was the sound of gushing water and the soft darkness of sun-drawn shade. I gaped around, mystified. A sunlit waterfall was materializing beside me. It streamed over a rocky cliff face to plunge into the swirling river below. Still, Ty was nowhere to be seen. I slumped against the trunk of a mossy evergreen. Where are you?
A change in the steady flow of gushing water from behind startled me. I shot to my feet. Ty was emerging from between the fall of water plunging over the cliff. “Sorry I kept you waiting.”
With confident steps, he crossed the surface of the swirling river as though it were solid, mirrored glass. What he wore was minimal, just a pair of soggy jeans. They hung low around his taut waist and stuck to his legs. Golden sunlight defined his sculpted chest and abs. He ruffled his thick hair, and as he did it became instantly dry, along with his jeans.
On the breeze the gentle words of Skillet’s song ‘Don’t wake me’ lifted. The emotion of the song dared me to rush into his arms but I fought back, digging my nails into the dirt.
“I wanted to tell you everything last night. But I needed to build up the energy.” He glanced around at our picturesque surroundings. “Dreamscaping really takes it out of you.”
Unable to quell the intrigue that gripped me at witnessing Ty’s power in manipulating dreams, I asked, “A dreamscape? So that’s what this is?”
I dropped back down against the evergreen. Ty followed, taking up position beside me. Even though he wasn’t quite touching me, his skin sent a flux of heat across my arms and legs. It was so warm I could have been right beside an open fire.
“I’m still learning,” Ty said, as the song changed to ‘Yours to hold’. “So, I’ll get better eventually. But we don’t have much time now.”
Am I yours to hold? I wondered. There was nothing I wanted more than to have his arms around me. But I still needed the rest of his vindication. “I’m ready.”
Ty nodded, eyes lifting to mine for a split second before looking away. His voice was rough and gravelly. “Like I said last time, Marika is a werewolf. But there is more to being a werewolf than you’re aware of.” Ty paused and took a deep breath whilst shaking his head. “Lycanthropes are able to transform their appearance to match another person’s, creating a temporary doppelganger. Marika used Dorian to keep tabs on us. It was her plan all along to force us apart. She had intended to act during the sleepover. When the opportunity presented itself at the auction, she decided to put her plan into action early. She imprinted your essence, taking on your form. And well…you know the rest.” Ty r
eached out as though he were about to touch me. At the last second he froze, hand curling into a fist. “If I even thought for a second it wasn’t with you—.” The desperation rose steadily in his uneven voice and he turned his head away. “Amelia, you have to believe me. I didn’t know.”
Like a fragmented puzzle, all the pieces fused in my mind. Troy and Marika’s argument at the party and her sudden interest in Dorian had been part of the plan. She’d been overly eager at Dorian’s sleepover idea, probably because she’d planted the idea herself. At the auction, she’d disappeared after Ty went inside to make the call to his father. After the fact there had been her guilty pleas for forgiveness from Ty. Then she’d suddenly dumped my unsuspecting brother, no longer needing the ruse. Two things still puzzled me though.
“Then why doesn’t she have the same scent as you and Troy? And her eyes…” I trailed off in thought. Her irises had been deep brown at the start. Only they hadn’t stayed that way. Before Kendrick and Ty faced off yesterday in the cafeteria her eyes had been brighter, almost hazel. “She was wearing contacts?”
Ty nodded and cringed, muttering what sounded like a curse and someone’s name that I didn’t quite catch. “And she’s been marked by an alchemist’s tattoo. It works like the elixir, but is more permanent. It masked her scent and made it indiscernible, even to me. Had I known or even suspected…” Ty broke off again, shaking his head.
In his silence, I remembered the golden filigree of crossed wavy lines backing Marika’s neck. A barely audible whisper escaped my lips. “I believe you.” Relief cascaded across Ty’s face and he blew out a long breath. “How did you find out it was her?”
Ty’s eyes darkened, turning stormy as he stared away. “After you ran from the room, I looked back to the girl in your bed. She leaped up and flew to your bedroom window. But imprinting is extremely draining. As she made her escape, I saw her morph from blond and pale to dark and tan.” Ty reached out with caution, slowly lowering his hand to rest above my own. His pained eyes shifted to meet mine. “I was gutted when I realized what had happened. What I had done and what you must have thought.” He trailed off, looking away and squeezing his vibrant eyes shut.
“Marika and Troy, they were both in on it.” I reached out to graze Ty’s cheek. “They know what I am, don’t they? And they hate the thought of us being together?”
Ty hesitantly curled his arms around my body, pulling me against his hot, sculpted chest. The touch of his naked flesh spiked my beating heart. “It doesn’t matter how they feel.” He pressed his scorching lips to the crown of my head. “They will never interfere again. I’m their alpha and have ordered them to butt out. They cannot disobey me.”
There was no doubt in my mind that everything Ty had told me was the truth. Still, the revelation wasn’t about to make my life any easier. A solid mass had risen up my throat and my stomach turned. I reached for a stray leaf and began tearing small confetti pieces off it. There was nothing I wanted less than to have to ever speak to Marika again. But I needed to confirm the facts before spewing all my secrets out to Dorian and Kendrick. Kendrick. Knowing how much hearing the truth would injure him caused my heart to ache. There was already so much friction between us. I could just imagine the backlash my confession would create. With a mental shake, I swallowed my fear, pushing the solid mass back down. “I need to hear it from Marika.”
Ty’s arms tensed around me, biceps bulging. “Of course. But don’t expect any apologies. She’s adamant in her reason for causing all of this.” Ty’s warmth around me began to fade, and I peered up. “Sorry, I have to go,” he whispered, his body turning transparent and sizzling touch fading. He inclined his head, pressing his lips to mine. Around us the music and surroundings blackened into cold darkness.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Entering the cafeteria after geography the following day, I collected my lunch—a single chocolate bar—then headed for Dorian and Kendrick at our new table. With anxiety making my heart skip, I set the tray down and gave them both a stern frown. “I need to speak with Marika, and I want you both to butt out.” Dorian turned his attention from a blond across the room, his eyebrows raised in question. “I can’t explain now,” I said, waving him off. “So don’t ask.”
“I’ll be watching Ty,” Kendrick mumbled, shoving away his snowboarding magazine. “He’d better not try anything.”
Across the room, Marika sat alongside Troy, her shoulders visibly tense. Guess she knew what was coming.
Ty glanced up at my arrival with a resolute smile, which I returned before looking pointedly at Marika. Her eyes were focused down on the tabletop, unwilling to meet my accusing stare. “Can I have a minute, alone?” Without waiting for a response, I stalked past their table to the glass doors that led outside.
Marika rose, not bothering to tug down her micro-mini, and Troy reared up beside her. She caught his arm. “Don’t. I can take care of myself.”
Troy nodded, face hardening as Marika turned away. She followed after me, through the doors and past the aluminum benches. A set of curved, concrete stairs led to an isolated courtyard of paved squares. The space housed a single picnic bench. Thick shrubbery hedged the space, veiling us from prying eyes. Their branches danced with the force of a flesh-biting breeze.
I perched atop the aluminum bench and waited for the bitch to sit. With slow and obvious reluctance, she lowered onto the edge of the bench. Sitting as far away from me as possible, her body hunched and her head turned.
I placed a rigid had on the table in front of her. “Tell me you did it,” I demanded in a low, raking hiss. “Tell me it was you who imprinted my appearance to seduce Ty.”
Marika peered up through a curtain of wavy-black hair, hazel eyes insolent. “It’s true. But I will never regret what I did. And if you’re waiting for an apology, don’t hold your breath.” Her face brightened for a moment and she tapped her lip. “On second thought, please do.”
Her arrogant words boiled my blood, which suddenly felt like liquid lava streaming through my veins. She had disrupted not only my life, but Ty’s, and she didn’t even regret it, could only make snide comments and aggravating jokes? “I can’t believe you,” I spat. “What you did was despicable, and disgusting, and…”
“And what you’re doing isn’t?” Fierceness edged her tone and her eyes rippled gold. “You’re not meant to be with him. It’s wrong and disgusting. After everything his family…” Her sentence cut off and she narrowed her eyes at me. “It doesn’t matter. All that does matter is that Mr. Malau will never accept this. None of us will.”
Rage bubbled inside my chest, and I had to struggle to hold back the urge to roar in anger. A strong part of me felt like ripping her throat out with my fangs. The rest felt like tearing the flesh from her bones with my bare hands. Neither was a good choice. My lips pursed together. I curled my fingers into fists, nails biting into my palms. In seconds, any and all self-control I had would vanish. With my body beginning to tremble with restraint, I forced myself from the bench. “If you ever come between us again, I will…”
I couldn’t bring myself to speak the dark and enticing words, kill you. Instead, I shot back up the concrete stairs and into the cafeteria, before I could change my mind. I could feel the weight of Ty’s eyes bearing down on me along with Troy’s, Vanessa’s, Dorian’s and Kendrick’s. In my state of rage, I couldn’t afford any of them a single glance. She’s wrong.
I glared down at the blue-checked tiles as I passed Ty’s table, making my way into the girl’s bathroom. My hands curled in a vice grip around the edge of the porcelain sink. A crack sounded with the appearance of thin, hairline fractures. With great effort, I pulled back the gripping urge to crush the porcelain to pieces, and peered up.
The mirror spanning the entire blue-tiled wall above a succession of sinks reflected my face. In it my cheeks were tinted with a blood-colored luster and sweat-beads dotted my brow. I splashed cold water up in an attempt to cool the lava still surging through my veins. As I d
id, the door behind me swung open. Someone entered noisily, the sound of high heels clipping tiles with each step. Even without her vibrant, red mane reflected within the mirror, the sound was a dead giveaway. Only one girl in the whole student body loved fashion enough to religiously wear stiletto heels to school.
Vanessa paused then placed a hesitant hand along my shoulder. “Ty wanted to know if you’re okay. Are you?”
I shuddered and turned, swallowing my hate for Marika. “She shouldn’t have done what she did.” I frowned, studying Vanessa’s sapphire eyes. They revealed no surprise and no confusion at my statement. “You knew, all along…”
“That they’re Lycanthropes?” Vanessa smiled, pixie nose scrunching. “Of course I knew. We all grew up together. I’ve always known.”
I couldn’t control the pang of jealousy that invaded my heart. She was closer to Ty than I was, and they all accept her. Why? What else does she know? I leaned my weight against the sink to block the damage I’d caused. “So, I’m guessing you know why they wanted me and Ty separated?”
Vanessa shrugged, seeming almost disinterested. “’Cause…apart from me, they keep to their own. They don’t approve of Ty forging a relationship with a human. I’m the only one they have ever really accepted.”
Trying to hide my surprise, I brushed the streaked-wet hair from my face. Human? She didn’t know what I was? The thought of her being one of them had crossed my mind, but I’d quickly discarded it. She didn’t have their matching honey-glazed eyes, tan complexion, black as night hair, or over-heated flesh. The only similarity, which she seemed to share with Marika, was her lack of scent. For a split second, I remembered a flash of gold. When she’d been hinting at Ty’s hunting expedition during art class, I thought I had imagined it. She’s been marked by an alchemist tattoo. It made sense, I supposed. Though I couldn’t really figure out why she would have been marked when she clearly didn’t seem aware of the monster before her. If any human knew what I was they’d be shit scared. Or running away screaming, I thought. Instead she seemed comfortable and confident. And she had said the word herself. She thought I was just a human.