Authors: A Kirk,E
“Calm down, babe.”
Blake pulled me off my frenzy of beating the crap out of Matthias who, at some point, had been magically transported into the trunk of his own car. Still unconscious. And, as far as I was concerned, he could stay that way. Forever.
Blake carried me a few cars away as Jayden, ran up, flip-flops slapping a frantic rhythm, his tropical print shirt unbuttoned and flapping against the tank top underneath. Despite Jayden’s surfer brah-look, his brain worked on a level five hundred IQ points past genius, so I was counting on him to figure out what the heck was going on.
He jerked to a stop in front of us, the shiny curtain of long ebony hair swinging across his shoulders as his hands patted vigorously over my body. “Have you accrued any anatomical irruption?!”
Only trouble was half the time — okay, more than half — I couldn’t understand what the heck Jayden was saying without the
Dumb It Down Dictionary for Idiots
.
“I have no idea. Please stop.” Still in Blake’s grip, I pushed him away best I could.
Jayden looked perturbed. The usual relaxed state of his lean, lanky frame turned rigid, arms folded tight across his chest as he looked at me with expectation, thumbs popping furiously in and out of joint, a sure sign he was nervous.
“He wants to know if you’re hurt,” came a voice behind me.
I yelped.
A ghostly figure front-flipped over a pickup and floated down beside us.
Not some haunting ethereal being, thank goodness. Just a freakishly pale, neon-white haired Hex Boy who liked to use his control of air to drop from the sky. It always spooked me.
Blake held my squirming body with annoyingly little effort and shrugged. “I’m fine, thanks for asking. But babe’s a tad upset.”
“Not you. We were talking to Aurora.” Logan tucked his tie back into his vest and re-adjusted his sport coat. Then, although half Blake’s size, he whacked the big guy’s shoulder. Not that the giant noticed.
“My car!” wailed a woman from somewhere in the lot.
Heels clicked furiously, then we saw her run back inside the restaurant.
I surveyed the damage. Cars were wrinkled like wadded paper. Smoldering and smoking holes in the metal dripped with lava. Windows shattered. Glass twinkled on the ground amongst the mists. A few trucks on their sides, their contents strewn on the ground.
Even this far from the restaurant, I could see figures inside starting to stand, crowding the window. Too many.
“Aw crap,” I said.
“Tristan will contain the bedlam,” Jayden said.
As he spoke, the windows cleared. People sat back down. Creepy.
The alabaster swirling in Logan’s eyes finally returned to the usual dark emerald green, but his hesitant, faltering look had a hard time meeting my gaze. “Are you…alright?”
“I am
not
alright!” I fumed and saw Logan cringe. “Sorry, it’s not you. It’s
him
.” I pointed at Matthias. “That sleazy son of a jackal!”
“She’s fine,” Blake said.
Ayden’s red sports car skidded into the parking lot. He fishtailed to avoid crashing into a pickup truck searching for a parking spot and squealed to a stop in front of us. Subtle. He jumped out without bothering to turn off the engine or lights. Or close the door.
They all groaned.
“He’s gonna freak,” Logan said under his breath.
“Aurora!” Ayden yelled. “Your mom’s on the phone!”
Oh, super.
Blake dropped me on my feet and took off toward the BMW with the other two Hex Boys.
Cowards.
As I watched Ayden approach, cell phone pressed to his ear, I expected to feel cold suspicion radiate through me, but for the first time that night, I felt safe. Must’ve been the hormones.
Ayden’s handsome features still struck me dumb as the first day I’d met him. I’d called him Mr. Exotic because of the stunning mix of ancestry that melded a mutt of Hawaiian and European blood into a purebred of gorgeous.
His cheekbones could cut glass. His skin looked airbrushed over a jawline worthy of Zeus. His short, spikey ebony hair mussed into a perfect, unintentional mess, and silk between my fingers. Those full lips ready to ease into a heart-stopping smile. Eyes of dark chocolate that made promises which brought a blush to my cheeks.
A weathered black leather jacket stretched over broad shoulders, and his T-shirt was just tight enough to be clear about the fine condition of his body. Solid chest, ripping abs, tight waist. And off those hips, his jeans always hung just right.
I caught myself before the sigh went too audible. Which was hard because as he came closer, I got a whiff of that heady mix of leather and sandalwood and…Ayden.
I really had to get a grip. This guy had me a twisted mess. Half merry, half miserable. And completely confused.
It’d been a different story when this started weeks ago. Talk about attentive.
Besides all the workouts and training, Ayden drove me to and from school every day, walked me to class, got my lunch, and carried my books. In the afternoons, he hung out with my family playing games and sports. He’d taken me to movies, dancing at the country club, kayaking on the lake. Horseback riding on Blake’s ranch hadn’t been the disaster I’d expected. And milking the cows was a blast, until evil Bessie let me know with a well-placed hoof that she had an issue with my technique. Still had the bruise.
It was a whirlwind of wonderful as we talked, laughed, and shared. Ayden oozed charm and wit, asked a lot of questions and listened to all my answers. So what was I complaining about?
Lack of…intimate moments.
Sure, in the beginning I was way more comfortable with the crowd. Ayden scared me. Still scared me. But now…
Now, I was smitten. Now I craved time alone with him — a lot of it — and I craved it in spite of being scared. I was willing to take the risk. Big move for me.
Unfortunately, our time together had the opposite effect on Ayden.
He no longer tried to ditch the rest of the Hex Boys. It seemed ages since he stole a quiet moment to hold my hand, nuzzle my neck, or murmur in my ear. I swear, just when the attraction had become too much for me to resist, he’d backed off.
Not the attention so much. Just the physical…stuff.
It was embarrassing. I must have read things terribly wrong. As I watched him now, I still wanted him. Wanted to both kiss him and kick his sorry butt. Although, his butt was anything but sorry. Which added to my problems.
He smiled into the phone. “No, everything’s fine.” He pressed the cell phone to his chest and whispered, “She thinks we’ve been out to dinner together this whole time.” Then he held it out to me.
“Hi, Mom.”
“What took you so long to answer?”
“I was, uh…”
Ayden whispered, “I told her you were in the bathroom.”
Ha ha. No, that was earlier in my would-be kidnapping.
“Needed a few minutes in the bathroom,” I said.
I backed away as Ayden started talking in a low voice with Jayden. It was always a bit odd seeing the two of them side by side. Although they were fraternal twins, not identical, the two shared a strong genetic resemblance. But only one of them sent my heart fluttering into overdrive.
Mom’s rising voice broke through my musings, her words rushed. “Just checking in because there were calls to the police about cars vandalized at the restaurant you’re at.”
“Really?” I ruffled a few shards of glass and dirt out of my hair. “Wait, how do you know?”
“Your aunt’s police scanner. A woman just saw people in ski-masks fleeing the scene!”
Hmmm. Tristan’s creativity needed some work if clichéd criminals were the best new reality he was…
implanting
into the restaurant patrons’ heads.
The society called Tristan a
Hallucinator
, which meant he did a type of mind control. He could create illusions, making people see or think what he wanted them to. And in some cases, erase their memory entirely.
Didn’t work on me though. And if he tried…well, let’s just say it sent me to suburb of a place that rhymed with swell, but definitely wasn’t. Swell, that is. Long story.
“I’m good, Mom. No need to worry.”
“What else does a mother do?” She tried to sound lighthearted but couldn’t pull it off. “And if you were in the bathroom, why did I just hear a car?”
Ah, she was in mega-mom mode.
“Because I’m now in the parking lot.”
Ayden got louder. Smoke even started to trail off his shoulders. Awesome. A few more minutes of rising temper and he could literally
whoosh
into a human torch. Sure, Ayden controlled fire, but at times, it seemed
fire
controlled
him
.
A pickup truck pulled in and parked a few spots over and a rowdy group of guys I recognized from school piled out. The Hex Boys were too busy to notice. I turned away and put finger in my free ear to hear Mom better.
“Aurora,” Mom sharpened her tone, “I thought you were having dinner. Why are you in the parking lot?”
A new voice on the phone snorted, “
Parking
, obviously.”
It was my Aunt M, wife of my dad’s brother. She’d been staying with us for a few weeks.
“They are teenagers, after all,” she said.
“M,” Mom said with irritation, “why are you on my phone call?”
“Don’t get snippy.” Aunt M sounded snippy. “I was about to call Ken.”
Mom sighed. “Call your husband on your own time with your own super secret undetectable
cell
phone.”
“Satellite phone. Big difference. But…fine. Sorry.” Aunt M didn’t sound sorry. “This pregnancy is frying my motherboard. And speaking of babies—”
Here it comes.
“—that’s what parking with your boyfriend leads to, Aurora. Save yourself the agony. My bladder will never be the same.”
“I’m not parking with my boyfriend!” I screeched.
The group of guys from school stopped on their way into the restaurant and laughed.
One of them yelled, “You can park with me, hot stuff, and I’ll show some good lovin’.” He pumped his hips a few times just in case I didn’t get his totally subtle sexual innuendo. “Like a real man can.”
“Hey!” Ayden turned a furious glare and raised a hand.
Sparks flew off his fingertips lighting up the night. The bright embers fused into jagged, mini-bolts of orange lightning that torpedoed through the air, straight for the loudmouthed group.
My breath caught. On one hand, I was flattered at the intensity to protect my honor, but on the other…the sharp, glowing ember streaks would boil through anything in their path. Especially little things like flesh, bone, and vital organs.
“Ayden!” Jayden flicked his own hand in a harsh twist.
A flurry of snowflakes came out of nowhere and wrapped themselves around the flying shards of heat like antibodies on a virus. There was a liquid sizzle. Bursts of steam. Then the orange, glowing lightening disappeared into bubbling puddles on the ground. Jayden often used his control of water to counteract Ayden’s fire, but this was something I hadn’t seen before.
Ayden growled, and his arm tensed, started to rise again.
“Don’t engage!” Jayden caught Ayden’s wrist, fighting to lower his brother’s arm, steam rising off the leather as water drenched Ayden’s sleeve.
The guy who offered me the good-lovin’ pointed our way. “Did you see that?”
“Didn’t see a thing!” One of his buddies shoved him toward the restaurant. “Shut up and get inside, you idiot. That’s the Hex Boys. Herman’s still missing, and I don’t want to join him.”
“Herman’s not missing,” my would-be parking buddy said. “He’s at some family counseling thing.”
His friend grumbled, “So they say.” Then with a stiff smile and awkward wave, he hustled the entire group into the restaurant.
Ayden jerked from Jayden’s grip and, arms flying through the air, continued his heated discussion. I couldn’t hear what they were saying because Mom wouldn’t pipe down.
“Honey, I don’t think you should stay if it’s not safe.”
“Mom, we’re with the guys. Checking their cars for damage. So far it’s good.” I put the phone on speaker. “Everyone say hi!”
“Hey, Mom Lahey,” Blake said. “When are you cooking me another delicious dinner?”
“Anytime you want, sweetheart.” I heard the smile in Mom’s voice, the tension gone. “Okay. Well, Ayden, you remember curfew’s in…” Mom waited expectantly. “Ayden?”
I gestured, and Blake thumped Ayden to get his attention.
Ayden stumbled from the blow then recovered. “Thirty minutes. Yes, ma’am.”
“Actually, thirty-two. I’m not
that
strict, but keep up the good work,” Mom said in a cheery voice. “Because otherwise I’ll have to retrieve Dr. Lahey’s syringe of exotic poison that’s untraceable in an autopsy.”
“Mom!”
“Oh, he knows I’m just kidding.”
Ayden shook his head and mouthed, “No, I don’t,” then he and Jayden were back at it.