Ink Magic (Ink Sorceress Chronicles) (7 page)

“
I will not allow you to go anywhere with him.”

“
You will not allow me? You haven’t been able to look me in the eye. You refuse to talk to me or even acknowledge my presence half the time, but you think you get to tell me who I do and don’t spend time with?”

“
If you leave here, he stays,” Daniel said.

If I wasn’t sure about going to dinner with Nick before, I was definitely going now. “Give me one reason why I shouldn’t go out with him.” Only one response would change my mind.

“
He’s not good for you.” I sensed he wanted to say more.

“
Oh, and who is right for me? You?” Yes, I did sound a tad wishful.

“
No. Of course not.” He actually looked disgusted.

“
Then it’s none of your business.” I pushed in between them and shoved Daniel out of the way, hoping he wouldn’t try and stop me by force.

When we stepped out into the air, I noticed the color had drained from Nick’s face.

“
So, where are we headed?”

“
I . . . I wanted it to be a surprise,” Nick said, and I got the feeling our destination wasn’t top on the list of his concerns. Daniel had spooked him and I imagine he was considering the wisdom of being alone with me.

“
I feel like something bad,” I said. Comfort food sounded good right now. “I need steak and fries and chocolate pudding. Lots of chocolate pudding.”

There was something about the look in Nick’s eyes that unsettled me as he stared across the dinner table minutes later. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but suddenly the small table for two, nestled in the corner of the restaurant, seemed too intimate.

“
You look pretty.” He almost sounded like he meant it.

Having forgotten about the date, I wore a simple pair of jeans and T-shirt, while he sported dress pants and a stiff collared shirt that must have been hidden under his sweatshirt during his shift in the café. Though he’d removed the tie, he still looked a thousand times more formal than I did. Even the way his normally unruly hair lay perfectly in place made me feel like Cinderella being dined by the prince – after the coach turned into a pumpkin.

“
I wish you’d let me go home and change first.”

“
I didn’t want to risk losing our reservation. It cost me a month’s wages to bribe my waiter friend.”

He grinned at me, but somehow even the dazzle of his smile didn’t shake the growing feeling of discomfort at why he’d gone to so much trouble for me.

“
I feel like everyone’s staring. Are you sure there isn’t a dress code?”

“
It doesn’t matter what you wear. You’re the prettiest girl in the room.”

They were the words every girl dreamed of hearing from a handsome guy. So why did they make my stomach twist?

He continued staring me in an intense way that should have given me butterflies of pleasure. Instead the butterflies in my stomach seemed to be churning with discomfort.

“
I hope you’re hungry,” I said, eyeing the menu that promised enough calories to see me through the entire week.

“
I’m famished.” Somehow I thought he wasn’t talking about food.

Then I saw it; what was wrong with the look in his eyes. It was hunger and the hunger was directed at me.

I moved back in my chair without knowing what I intended to do, but only aware I had to get away from him.

He snatched my hand in his and pulled me roughly toward him. “Where are you going, Lucy?”

I tried to pull away but he only yanked me closer. His big grin, beautiful and menacing at the same time, blinded me.

“
Excuse me, would you like to see the wine list?”

Nick dropped my hand at the waiter’s arrival.

“
Yes,” Nick said. “Please.” And just like that the menace melted away.

When he asked me what I wanted to drink I mumbled a vague answer and when the waiter poured my glass I didn’t even celebrate the fact that I’d actually been served wine in a restaurant. All I could think about was how forceful he’d been.

It took me a while to notice the waiter stopped pouring. He held the bottle above my glass and just stared at me. Maybe he realized his mistake in serving alcohol to a minor, I thought. But his stare continued. He was looking at my face and that’s when I felt the burn of my tattoo. I hastily brought my menu up to my mouth and the waiter scurried away.

I took the opportunity the menu allowed to try and figure out what I had turned into. I expected fangs. What I found was so much worse.

My face was covered in hair. Not just my chin like the three little pigs. My entire face, from my nose and down my neck, was covered in hair. I was officially a bearded lady.

I peeked over my menu to see if Nick noticed anything.

“
I think I’ll have the duck,” Nick said. “What about you?”

In a few minutes I’d probably want a bowl of dog biscuits. I leapt to my feet and raced from the table.

“
Where are you going?” Nick asked, standing.

“
I just need some air.”
Before I grow a tail
.

I raced through the door and bumped straight into something solid. I bounced off a hard, wide chest. The chest was attached to a slender pair of hips and long, sturdy legs that looked suspiciously familiar. My eyes moved back up, taking in the chest again, and further up taking in the wide jaw and aristocratic cheekbones.

“
Daniel! What are you doing here?”

“
Arriving in the nick of time, it seems.”

After the way he snubbed me I thought he hated me, but far from being distant his eyes blazed with concern.

“
I think I should have bought a razor,” he quipped. The total lack of humor in his voice gave me pause.

Oh yes. That. I forgot all about being the hairiest girl in school.

He grasped my shoulders firmly. “Did he try anything?”

“
Did who try anything?”

He rolled his eyes. “Mr. Smiley in there?” If he gripped me any tighter my shoulders would dislocate.

“
Why? Are you jealous?”

Please say yes, please say yes.

“
Of course not.”

“
Then why are you asking?” I said, suddenly angry at the mixed signals.

“
Because . . . nothing I just . . .”

“
Don’t think he’s good for me, I know. That’s not enough.”

“
What will be enough?”

“
You know,” I said, boldly starting into his eyes. His brilliant, exotic eyes.

“
I’ll call you a cab home.”

Call me a cab. Why? Was he too afraid of being in a vehicle alone with me?

“
No. I have a three course meal to get through.” And about half a bottle of wine.

“
Don’t”

“
Why not?”

He didn’t say anything, either because he had no answer or because he wanted to avoid it. I knew he had feelings for me; feelings he seemed determined to fight.

“
Unless you can give me a concrete reason not to go back in there, I want you to leave.”

The silence stretched out until it was a desert between us.

I turned my back on the one guy I wanted to be near, headed toward someone I didn’t fully trust, and almost feared. I should take him up on his offer to call a taxi. But the fact that he didn’t have the guts to drive me home pushed me toward the other male.

“
Lucy.”

I turned back again and he was right there, his body close up against mine, his scent washed over me.

“
What?” I said, surprised my lungs held enough air to speak.

He grabbed me by the shoulders again. Hard. Pinning me.

“
I can’t let you go back in there and I can’t tell you why. You just have to trust me.”

Trust the guy who thought I was some kind of monster?

Suddenly I hated his hot and cold mood swings, one-minute behaving possessively, the next ignoring my waves and pretending I didn’t exist.

“
Let me go.” The anger in my voice made his eyes widen in surprise, as if the notion of a girl denying him was beyond belief.

“
No,” he said finally.

“
No?” Did he think he could just say no and I’d obey? “Give me one good reason.”

“
Fine, here’s one good reason.”

He kissed me, grabbing the back of my head and pulling me in so I couldn’t avoid his lips. Not that I complained, quite the opposite in fact, if the way I opened my mouth to accommodate him was anything to go by. He kissed me roughly, and his need awakened my own.

Okay. That was a pretty good reason not to go anywhere. The complete inability to move my legs was another.

He broke the kiss, just when I was starting to enjoy it and held me at arm’s length, his deep blue eyes almost violet in the darkness.

“
Hey, there you are,” Nick’s voice broke the moment. “Are you feeling better?”

“
Much,” I said, in a ridiculous breathless voice.

“
Good, shall we resume our date?” He directed the comment at Daniel not me, putting emphasis on the last word.

“
You’re not taking her anywhere.”

Daniel stepped between us, practically knocking me out of the way.

“
What’s the matter? Still sore about Sarah?” Nick grinned again, his usually bright smile taking on an evil edge. “She chose me, remember?”

“
That’s not what I’m sore about, and you know it.”

“
Just because she wouldn’t go all the way with you when I found making her give it up easy, so to speak. Popped the cherry you couldn’t get near.”

I cringed at this crass side to Nick.

“
Come on, Lucy. Let’s get out of here. You don’t want anything to do with this . . . this . . .”

“
This what?” Nick said. Stepping right up to Daniel so their chests nearly touched. “Finish that sentence. I dare you.”

“
Lucy!” Daniel shouted my name like an order and I had to stop myself from falling in beside him like a well-trained puppy.

“
I’m not going anywhere with you,” I said even though my legs were itching to follow him.

Nick actually laughed in his face and once more the previously handsome smile revealed his darker nature. “Ha! She wants to be with me. You lose. Again.”

“
Actually, I don’t want to go out with either of you.”

After seeing the way Nick spoke about taking a girl’s virginity, like it was some conquest, I didn’t feel like being alone with him either.

The boys continued their staring contest, chest to chest. I may well not have existed. I walked up to a taxi parked outside the restaurant and got in. The guys were so intent on their staring contest, by the time they noticed my absence, I was half way down the road.

As far as first dates went this had to be one of the worst. I should have been upset about ruining the date with Nick, but the only thing I could think of was Daniel.

I could still feel his lips on mine, the brush of stubble against my chin. I might even have a red mark on my face from it.

The kiss felt so passionate, I could have sworn it meant as much to him. But all along he’d been thinking of another girl, a girl who had been stolen from him by Nick. A girl who obviously meant so much to Daniel he’d actually try and woo someone he thought of as a monster in order to get revenge.

I felt cheap and used. Daniel couldn’t have hurt me more if he’d slapped me. Slapping would have been far kinder than kissing me. It was a kiss filled with passion, fueled by vengeance instead of love. Worst of all. I’d give anything to feel his lips on mine again.

I was so busy feeling sorry for myself that I didn’t even notice the taxi drive straight past the turn to my house.

“
Excuse me, you just went past my street.”

He didn’t answer, just kept on driving. Then the car picked up speed.

“
Hey! Slow down!” I shouted, because at the rate he was going we wouldn’t make it around the corner.

In fact, as the taxi rode up onto the curb, I realized he had no intention of cornering. Instead he carried straight on, driving straight toward a brick wall.

I screamed for him to stop, or swerve. Instead he put his foot down and the car lurched forward, seconds away from impacting with the wall.

With only moments before the collision, I reached for the door handle, figuring I had more chance of surviving a high-speed fall from a moving car than a head on collision with solid bricks.

The front of the vehicle hit. The driver did nothing to shield himself. He just waited for the crunch.

Suddenly a rush of air blasted me from above. A sharp point jabbed toward me. Despite the fact that I was about to become permanently joined to a brick wall, I still ducked. In split seconds Daniel’s sword sliced through the roof, before strong hands gripped me by the armpits, and then I moved up into the air.

As Daniel landed on a nearby roof, I watched the entire front of the taxi crumple into the wall, pulverizing the driver inside.