Wiccan, A Witchy Young Adult Paranormal Romance (10 page)

I wasn’t sure whether he was
talking to me or talking to himself. Either way, I didn’t respond.
I
knew
it was
insane. It was making me
feel
insane. Not so much the dream, but the
perspective
of the dream
had really messed with my head. In a way, I felt like a criminal,
like
I
had done
something wrong.

“
Alright. Tell me exactly
what you saw. Leave nothing out.”

Grayson kept his head relaxed against
the headrest and his eyes closed as I talked. At no time, though,
did I get the impression that he was actually relaxed. The air
around him snapped and crackled with frustrated energy.

He asked a few questions, mainly about
the killer, but I had little to contribute on that front. All I’d
seen was the glove-covered hand, the plastic-wrapped arm and the
knife that was used. Unfortunately that provided nothing useful.
They’d already gotten details about the knife from the coroner’s
report.

“
So you’ve never had a dream
like this before? Or a vision like this?”

“
No. Never.”

A
hmm
was his only response.

Finally, he lifted his head
and turned to pin me with his stare. “You know details about the
crime scene that only a few law enforcement officials know. It
is
imperative
that
you tell no one,
and I mean no one,
about what you’ve seen.” He was glaring at me,
talking to me like I was an unreliable child.

“
Yeah, because I’m gonna
tell everyone that I’m a freak who has dreams about killing
people.”

He shrugged.

“
Also, you know I’m going to
have to get your alibi for Saturday night, right?”

“
What? But no one even knows
that I came to you with this information. Can’t you just- no one
would know if you didn’t talk to my parents. It’s not like I’m in
your file anywhere. As far as anyone else knows, I have nothing to
do with this case.”

He worried the inside of his cheek for
a minute, deep in thought. “I haven’t decided what to do about you
yet. I had to see what you knew first.”

“
Why don’t you just leave me
out of it?”

“
Because you didn’t
stay
out of it,” he
snapped, his eyes flashing with aggravation.

“
I thought maybe I could
help.”

“
How? You didn’t really see
anything.”

He had a point there. I
couldn’t really say
why
I’d called him. Maybe the fact that he knew about
my visions (and actually believed me) made me feel not so alone in
it all.

“
I don’t know. I just
thought I should call you,” I said quietly, picking at my nails
again.

I heard him sigh. “Look, I’m sorry. You
just- it just makes my job harder in some ways, that’s all. I’m
still glad that you came to me, though. Really.”

I was still looking down at my hands.
For some inexplicable reason, my feelings were hurt and I didn’t
want him to see that.

I felt his finger slip beneath my chin
and lift. Grudgingly, I met his eyes. They were warm again, all
traces of anger and frustration gone, replaced by something else.
At first it seemed that he was going to speak, but he stopped. His
gaze dropped to my mouth and I sucked in a breath and held it. My
lips tingled in anticipation.

In that moment, I wanted him to kiss me
more than anything in the world. I felt his thumb lightly brush my
bottom lip and then his eyes were on mine again.

I saw something flicker in them,
something like…awareness maybe. It was strange, like he’d been
confused or disoriented and it had suddenly cleared. He dropped his
hand and looked away and I felt blood rush into my face.

“
Ok, well. Sorry to have
bothered you,” I said hurriedly, reaching for the door
handle.

“
It’s fine. You’re not
bothering me. I’m glad you called and I really do want you to let
me know when something like this happens. You never know when you
might see something useful, something that could bust a case wide
open.”

I felt a little like he was patronizing
me, but I just smiled and let it go. Without another word, I got
out of the car and walked to the house. I heard the engine start as
I closed the front door behind me.

********

I was just finishing up using a flat
iron to straighten my hair when I heard loud feminine voices and a
familiar laugh coming from the kitchen.

Billie was here.

I waited patiently while she greeted my
parents exuberantly. She loved them and they loved her. She always
took a minute to chat with them when she came over and tonight was
no exception. She’d make her way back to me in her own time. She
always did.

I smiled as I thought of my friend.
Billie had the most enviable personality that I’d ever come across.
She was outgoing and friendly without being loud and obnoxious. She
was beautiful without being conceited and she was sweet without
being fake. Oh, and she was smart. She was the type that you’d love
to hate, but just couldn’t manage it.

She’d always been the girl with tons of
friends and she’d always been the girl who gets the guy—whichever
one she wants. And though I’d unfortunately lost a secret crush or
two to her over the years (the operative word being secret), it had
never hurt our friendship. Billie couldn’t help how awesome she
was.

A few minutes after all the commotion
had begun, the pretty round face of my oldest friend appeared in
the mirror behind my reflection.

“
Oh my gosh, look at your
hair! I love it,” I exclaimed, whirling around to get a better look
at it.

Billie’s natural hair color was a
pretty light brown. She’d worn it long and straight for the last
few years. Now, it was layered and wavy with white blonde on top
and darker layers underneath. It was very hip and looked fantastic
on her. She grinned behind her dark red lips and I noticed the
twinkling of a tiny diamond in the curve of her left nostril. She’d
gotten her nose pierced, too.

“
Look at you! New hair, a
pierced nose, red lipstick. What’s next, a tattoo?” I asked with a
smile. “You’ve only been gone a month. What on earth have you been
doing?”

“
Living it up, Mercury, just
like you should be doing. These are the best years of our lives and
I’m determined to make the most of ‘em.” She looked behind her then
leaned in close to me, lowering her voice. “And I don’t know what’s
after the tattoo. I haven’t decided yet, but I guess I’d better
hurry,” she said with a devious grin.

I gasped. “You got a
tattoo?”

Billie shushed me, looking
around nervously. “Obviously, my parents don’t know and I plan to
keep it that way,
capisce
?” When Billie gets really
excited, her Italian roots poke through and she starts using words
that traditionally only her mother uses, words like
capisce
and
marron.

As for the tattoo, Billie has an
ingrained rebellious nature that was bound to rear its ugly head
eventually. No matter how strict her parents were, nothing could’ve
prevented that. I was just surprised that it had taken this long to
manifest itself.

“
Where is it?” I
whispered.

Billie pulled the waistband of her
shorts down about two inches and there, a couple inches below and
to the left of her navel, was a small tattoo of the comedy tragedy
masks. It was tastefully done and very colorful, much like Billie
herself. I instantly approved. With Billie’s bright personality and
her flair for the dramatic, they suited her to a tee.

“
I love it. Just be careful
who you show.” I winked at Billie.

“
The man who gets to see
this will be having the best day of his life,” she teased. At least
I think she was teasing, but knowing Billie...

“
So,” Billie said, hopping
up onto the counter. “Where are we going?”

“
A TKE party.”

“
We-he-hell. Look at you,
Miss Cool and Popular. Attending a frat party two weeks in? What
has gotten into
you
?” Billie frowned and turned her head to look at me from the
corner of her eye. “Who are you and what have you done with my best
friend?”

I simply smiled. Billie’s imaginings
would be far more interesting than anything I could even dream of,
so I left her to it. I didn’t want to burst her bubble with the
truth about my fairly lackluster life.

While I finished getting ready, she
regaled me with tales of wild speculation about all the things she
thought I might’ve been doing in the last month. As usual, she was
way off target, but her guesswork was very entertaining
nonetheless.

When I was finished in the bathroom, I
walked to the closet and pushed my feet into the platforms that I’d
picked out to go with my chocolate mini skirt and creamy camisole.
Billie whistled when I stood in front of the mirror that hung on
the back of my closet door, surveying my reflection.

“
You’ll be killin’
him.”

“
Killing who?” I
asked.

“
Whoever the guy you’re
trying to impress is,” she replied.

I looked away from the knowing gleam in
her eye and muttered, “I sure hope so.”

“
Alright, let’s go,” Billie
said abruptly, taking my wrist in her hand and pulling me out the
door. “You can tell me all about him on the way.”

And I did. Not because it was such an
incredibly exciting or romantic story or because Jake and I were
dating and I had to spill it or choke on it. No, it was because
Billie hounded me relentlessly until I told her—as
usual.

By the time we’d arrived at the TKE
party, Billie was on a mission to find an interesting specimen to
entertain herself with for the night. I just wanted to spend a
little more time with Jake. He could be a nice way to begin my
college experience.

The party was so packed we had to park
along the street almost two blocks away. When we reached the TKE
house, there were dozens and dozens of people littering the lawn
and loud music was spilling out from all the open doors and
windows.

I quickly realized that I
didn’t want to see Jake
this
badly.

I looked skeptically at Billie. This
had never really been my scene, but she was practically vibrating
with excitement. She was an unstoppable force of nature, so I knew
there was no point in trying to get her to reconsider. As I’d done
a thousand times before, I let her drag me into a situation that I
really didn’t want to be in and really didn’t feel comfortable
with.

She bounced to the beat of a Lady Gaga
song as we made our way through the bodies on the lawn, up the
steps and into the white plantation-style house. She weaved and
dodged her way from room to room, tugging me along behind
her.

“
Let me know when you see
him,” she said over her shoulder as we moved into what I guessed
was once a dining room.

When I said nothing, she pushed her way
through the throng of bodies into the kitchen. Just then, a voice
rang above all the noise.

“
Billie!”

Billie and I both turned toward the
voice, coming from just inside the living room. It was Matt
Hastings, one of Billie’s very first boyfriends and my first high
school crush. I’d been invisible to him once he saw Billie, though.
They’d hit it off and dated all throughout our ninth grade year,
parting ways amicably just before summer.

Billie had never really gotten Matt out
of her system, though. She’d hated every girl he had dated after
their split. And by the look on her face, she was still nursing
that tiny flame for him.

“
Matt!” She called. Though
she sounded pleased, it wasn’t until she turned to me and
mouthed
Ohmigod!
that I realized just how well-nurtured that flame actually
was.

With that, she towed me a little ways
back toward the living room then let go of my wrist when I began to
impede her progress. I don’t know how she maneuvered through the
crush of bodies so fast, but before I knew it, she popped up beside
Matt.

I couldn’t help but smile as I watched
her. I knew Billie all too well. What she really wanted to do was
hurl herself into Matt’s arms, but she restrained herself
admirably, settling for a sedate hug instead.

I was watching their reunion when a
familiar swagger caught my attention. It was the
confident-but-not-too-cocky strut of Jake Wheeler. And he was
making his way toward me.

He looked like he belonged on a beach
rather than at a frat party. His hair was attractively mussed and
looked like it might have been styled that way on purpose. He was
casually dressed in a very cool blue and white striped shirt with a
gray design on one shoulder, baggy blue shorts with white piping
and flip flops. He looked great in a surfer kind of way.