Authors: A Kirk,E
Holding a clipboard and wearing a blue track suit, baseball cap, hightops, a pencil behind one ear, and an orange whistle hanging from a lanyard around his neck, Rose ushered students toward the door that led to the outdoor fields. He gave me a brief glance and winked before returning his attention to the class.
“Yes, I’ll be there shortly, but now everyone, especially you lovely ladies, make sure young Logan gets that dance class started. I hear he’s quite the Fred Astaire.”
“Who’s that?” someone asked.
“Oh, my,” Rose breathed a weary sigh.
After the gym emptied, Rose strode over. I considered running but had a scary thought. I met him halfway and thumped his shoulder with my fist.
“What’d you do with Coach Slader? He better be okay or I will—”
Coach Slader burst out of the boys’ locker room wearing street clothes and slapped Rose on the back as he rushed by.
“Thanks again! What luck you happened to be here visiting when they insisted I bring in the car right now or forfeit the claim. Idiots.”
“Coach,” I said, “you okay?”
“It’s that stupid insurance company demanding another investigator see it for themselves. They never believe me. How would I know how some hoodlums covered my car in lava?” He backed out the door. “I was inside the restaurant enjoying a plate of spaghetti!”
“Oh, boy,” I sighed. “I’m so sorry.”
Coach disappeared without hearing me, but Rose raised a brow. “Something you want to tell me?”
“Get lost.”
“Interesting.” Rose plucked the pencil from his ear and scribbled something on the clipboard. “Now perhaps you’d like to take another crack at the library?”
“How did you know about that?”
“You should hurry. I’m not sure how long I can keep young Logan occupied.”
“If I go, you promise no one gets hurt?”
“Not by my hand today.” He bowed deeply and his expression turned serious. “I swear upon my solemn oath. And in my world, that means something.”
I was halfway out the door when he said, “Although…”
“What now?”
“With all this,” he swept a graceful hand from his head to his toes, “I cannot promise that hearts will not be broken.”
I weaved through the library and toward the back room, taking Rose’s map from my backpack, studying it like I could find answers. Didn’t happen. I almost made it to the Flint section when the girls working the counter said, “Hi Ayden!”
Oh, come on! I skidded a sharp right and hunkered down, peeking through shelves.
Ayden strode past the front desk. “Ladies. Don’t you all look especially radiant today.”
They giggled like toddlers. Pushovers.
“Ayden, could you help us put some books away on the taller shelves?”
“Can’t. Sorry.” He faced them but walked backwards, arms spread wide. “I’m on a mission. Maybe you can help. Did you happen to see a stunning redhead? Tall, leggy. I call her my goddess of a girlfriend.”
More giggles. From me. Pull it together, Aurora.
“She just headed back there,” one of the traitors told him. “Is Matthias with you?”
“Not my day to watch him. Check with Blake.”
They laughed. “We will.”
I jammed the map into my back pocket and took off along the far wall of a remote back aisle at high speed. But not high enough. I felt Ayden’s presence behind me.
“There’s my—”
“Goddess,” I snorted and kept moving. “Yeah, yeah. I heard.”
“Where are you running off to? Although, thanks.” I heard the smile in his voice. “The view is
pleasurable
.”
“Oh, for—” I shoved my backpack over my behind.
“Ahhh, that’s just cruel.”
I whirled around and walked backwards. “Would you please—”
“Full frontal.” His smile broadened. “That works too.”
“Don’t—! Oh, forget it.” I grabbed a book off the shelf and ruffled the pages to hide my smile.
“You know you love it.” He sauntered down the aisle, a mischievous grin on his face. “The chase. The bated breath of anticipation as you wait for me to track you down. It’s the only explanation for why you ducked out of P.E. to hide in the most isolated part of the library
without
your smokin’ hot boyfriend.”
“You need to let that one go.” But I laughed.
As he neared, the scent of sandalwood and leather came with him, the aroma slinking into my subconscious and acting like a drug to ease my tension and chase away doubt.
He stood close. I felt his gaze upon me. I tried to control my breathing but my out-of-control heartbeat wasn’t helping. I stared at the pages of the book, words blurred and shaky. Kind of like my emotions.
His hand stroked my cheek. “Imagine the things we could do.”
I closed my eyes as a few thoughts came to mind. More than a few. Between my lascivious imagination and his gentle touch, heat took no time infiltrating my cheeks.
Suddenly, his mouth was brushing my cheek, trailing kisses over my skin. Then his lips tickled my lobe as he spoke next to my ear, his voice low and smooth, a gentle caress.
“And what a pleasure it would be for us to do more than just imagine.” He nuzzled my neck. “But to generate that kind of heat takes energy and to create energy you need sustenance.” His teeth nipped softly, and I shivered. “So I thought it prudent to provide one of your favorites.”
He leaned away and tossed something at me. After some spastic juggling, I held the yellowish-green pear in my hands.
“Got myself an apple.” Ayden held up a shiny red fruit, his grin wicked. “Because I love a good temptation.”
He took a generous bite and chewed slowly, leaning up against the bookcase. And looking himself to be quite edible. I shuddered my breathing back to normal and did my best to ignore the chill I felt since he backed away. The pear tasted juicy and sweet, although I was sure nowhere near as yummy as the Hex Boy staring me down.
“So,” he said with an all-too-knowing look, “fess up.”
I studied my fruit with great intent. “About what?”
“Oh, come on.” Ayden’s tone took on a frustrated edge as he rested both hands against the shelves just outside my shoulders, standing way too close for me to keep my wits about me. “Enough with the secrets. Give it up on whatever shady, secretive mission you’ve been up to.”
“Don’t know what you’re talking about.”
One hand dropped to my shoulder, slid down my arm, and snuck into the curve of my waist. He pulled me close. I felt his body, hard and unyielding. Once again, my heart tried to escape from beneath my ribs.
“Perhaps,” he said, breath hot on my cheek, “I could find some way to lower your defenses. Some way to make you divulge your secrets from these very…luscious lips.” His index finger slowly traced the outline of my mouth.
The touch jolted through me. My hand convulsed around the pear so tight that juice trickled between my fingers. “Ah, I don’t have…any…”
His voice deepened. “Or perhaps I’ll simply find that your covert operation has something…”
His knuckle slipped under my chin, tipped it up. Then his warm lips touched softly on mine. Once. Twice. Oh, the delicious taste of him. His breath still sweet from the forbidden fruit.
Sparks lit up my spine, tickled the back of my neck. As I waited for the charm of a third kiss, the hand on my waist slid down, over my hip. Then it dipped lower, slipping through the curve of my back…and lower still. I held my breath, wondering how far he planned to go with this current…exploration. How far I’d let it. Because so far, it was all-systems-go and if—
“Something to do…with this.” Ayden snatched the map out of my back pocket and spun away.
“No!” I lunged, grabbing for it, but he moved easily out of my grasp.
He opened the map and held it high. I hopped vigorously, trying to snatch it, but he kept it just out of reach. He wrapped an arm around me, quelling my jack-rabbit routine, the iron grip holding our bodies together as one.
He said with amusement, “That’s better.”
Not really.
Because as he studied the paper, his expression disintegrated from amused to…seriously
less than
amused. By the time he glanced down at me, one could say it was downright hostile.
He spoke slowly, clearly attempting to control his emotions. “
Where
did you get this?”
Better than “Oh my god, you’re the Divinicus,” but not by much.
“Give it back.”
Ayden grabbed my arms and pinned me up against the wall, the paper crackling as the map crushed in his hand. His gaze held me as much as any vise. Heat was rising, swirls of warm air ruffling my hair, heightening that enticing scent of sandalwood emanating off his skin.
“Where?” Jaw muscles jumbled in knots. His voice hardened. “It was Rose, wasn’t it?” His eyes searched my face.
I cleared my throat. “Yes, but—”
He pushed away.
“You ditched me to do his bidding?” Both hands raked through his hair. “It could be a
trap
. Dangerous. How can you trust some stranger over…over
me
?”
“It’s not like that.”
“That’s exactly what it’s like.” His eyes blazed. “How could you?”
“It’s the kidnapping.” Logan came around the corner. “She’s still freaked. Doesn’t trust us.”
I shook my head. “That’s not true.” …exactly. Man, I wish I could tap dance. “It’s just that you guys have your priorities and—”
“Yes!” Ayden whirled on me. “And
my
priority is
you!
” He paused. Looked away and gripped the back of his neck. “I mean, you’re,” his arm made a wild gesture toward Logan, “
our
priority. Keeping you safe and…”
“Don’t worry,” Logan picked up the book I’d dropped and replaced it on the shelf. “Nissa was on watch.”
“Nissa?” I said.
“My guardian.” Logan offered me his pocket handkerchief so I could clean up from the half-squished pear. “Looks like a firefly.”
As I wiped my fingers, I remembered the flash of light, and wondered how much she’d seen.
Ayden scowled. “We agreed to keep our guardians away from Aurora.”
“Why?” I asked.
“They’re sworn to protect us,” Ayden said reluctantly. “And if they deem you a threat, they could bypass our commands and turn you in to the Mandatum.”
Peachy. Like I didn’t have enough threats over my head.
“Relax,” Logan said as he pulled out another handkerchief from inside his coat and arranged it neatly in the breast pocket of his sport coat. “She only reported Aurora’s whereabouts, then I dismissed her. When the substitute disappeared and I couldn’t find Aurora, I came here.”
I winced in anticipation of my next revelation. “The substitute…that was Rose.”
Ayden gave me a deadeye stare. “So now you’re working with him?”
“No!” Jeez this was a mess.
“She had this.” Ayden handed the map to Logan.
He nodded, and they both almost sprinted for the back of the library. In the Flint section they started checking through the books on the wall.
At the wrong end.
“Ah, screw it,” I muttered. It wasn’t like they weren’t going to find it. I climbed up the shelves and pushed books aside, uncovering the etching. They were too busy to notice. “It’s over here.”
Logan turned.
Ayden kept searching through books. “What is?”
“The drawing.” I looked closely at the spirals. As my fingers moved closer it definitely moved. Kind of pulsed darker and expanded
out
of wall. I waved my hand over it. Felt the heat again, and a pull, like a magnet. “It feels really weird.”
“Aurora, don’t.” Logan stepped toward me, a hand up.
We all heard a click. My palm prickled.
A blast of heat exploded from the wall. Like a zombie bursting to life from a grave, a metal hand burst through the stone.
I screamed, reeled back, and lost my footing. But I didn’t fall because the thin fingers of the skeletal robot hand grasped my wrist and forced my palm down over the spirals. My shoulder nearly pulled out of the socket as I dangled above the ground.
Suddenly there was no wall. Nothing made of stone, anyway, just a web of snaking metal that
click-clacked
and slithered and opened a gaping black hole in the center. My heart constricted. My free hand clawed at the monster fingers around my arm, but the metal held me trapped.
“Aurora!” Ayden sounded far away.
I turned my head. Wind blasted. The roar filled my ears. Ayden flew back. Books tumbled on top of him until he was completely buried.
I tried to go to him, but like the legs of some alien spider robot, shiny cords of metal burst from the black pit in the wall and snapped around me. The wind increased, howling and swirling into a ferocious tornado. My hair whipped across my face. The metal tentacles tightened their bonds and catapulted me into depths of darkness.